There was a meeting in Washington � in Sunderland � which I found pretty interesting � a group of people working on pretty much the same agenda - on a very similar set of issues - to the ones that we have been working on.

On the way back I decided that the Charnwood Forest Hills must be south of the River Trent. This may not sound that important � but I had always thought that they were to the North . By the way did you hear the news about the otters? It was actually about the reappearance of otters in the River Trent system. Right of the start of the system is the River Blythe � flowing through the Forest of Arden � so maybe I drive past an otter every day on the way to work.

There was a very interesting item about Shakespeare on a radio chat programme on Monday � about a new book written from a historical perspective about the Bard. Apparently he came from Catholic background and so his recent family history was enmeshed in the political and religious complexities of the Tudor period. The hypothesis is this made WS especially sensitive to the fact that any event or episode could be seen from more than one point of view. At some point in the discussion the author mentioned that Warwickshire dialect words crop up throughout the plays � for example 6 dialect words for �apple�.

I read a paper with Mihaela gave me � co written with someone from the University of Hertfordshire on �Governance and Co-operative Networks�. It starts with grand systems theory � how most systems are in boring self maintenance mode � in which feedback is used simply to maintain the status quo while at the other extreme positive feedback can cause system collapse. Between these two extremes there are conditions which produce interesting and creative results � which is what the whole chaos theory thing is about. The paper maintains that this near-chaos state characterises organisations in an interesting state of evolution � and that certain individuals or more accurately networks � can facilitate these evolutionary processes. I thought maybe I would write to her with a few thoughts on this � possibly about the processes which take place in a jazz group.

Colin Vallance mailed. He played bass in White Unicorn and went to Kings Wimbledon along with Paul Bell and Jon Cole. He also played on some Paul Wheeler recordings but his highest profile work that I am aware of was with the singersongwriter who came up with The Woman in Red. He went to Marlboro and I can never remember his name.

Colin sent me a very clever piece by Stanley Unwin on the History of Jazz in the UK. Here�s an extract

�Concurry with this resurgey-ho came the blacklaunch sudlode of bepop phenomimakers. Out the window falolloped all most consef of jazzy joy as known-it then. Harmonic, tonefolders, rythmy. F-t! Down the cellar and no takers. Sollagommorra t�you lot and devil takers hindemyth. No thorks or hope of viabilly, but blieve it or not, woof. It was there. From now on it was nukkle dups�n fisticubbers tweel the fundamoles and the latest crabes. O dear. Young whites all passionale were �toenails in the garters� for emulating Armstroder Louis and Jelly Rollers. O joy for the real jazzy McCoydle. Eight in a bardle trumpey part, foot tabbers booflabber keychange, clarinebbers take-over. �

I wrote back with a copy of Slightly All The Time.

Gavin Gribbon from the DTI also mailed with some thoughts about SAATT

particulary the thought that the English have a penchant for tradition. If they see a tradition they will treat it with respect and try and fit themselves into it. So what Leavis does is to articulate a pattern of artistic thought and endeavour � about the novel, This is unwittingly taken up by blues guitarists. I mailed back asking about the Stooges and MC5.

I have just been digging down into those changes again � I wonder whether I shouldn�t write some of this down � in Cubase maybe?