Milan:

I haven�t been to Italy for decades and that�s no exaggeration. I have forgotten how beautiful it is. Even on the train from Malpensa to the city centre, as the sun set and the mist rose off the plain. Plus that strange Italian combination of extreme elegance and insouciant neglect.

This morning I set off towards my goal and in a few moments I was passing a full on Mannerist Gateway. As I paused to take it in I noticed that some smart Italians were going through the gateway and then through a door about 20 yards further in. I followed them through the door and wham I was transported into this astonishing High Rennaissance courtyard � perfectly symmetrical classical restrained but overwhelming. I am a sucker for 15th century Florentine architecture and struggling more with the Baroque � but this place was gloriously between the two. The highest humanist ideals rendered in stone and vision. I think its the Milanese Central Library and maybe its by Palladio � that�s just a guess � I need to do more research.

In one corner was a chapel � which has stained glass from the mid 1960s within this very plain High Rennaissance space, with sparse very dark wood furnishing. On the train I had been reminded of architectural rationalism � this was the European spasm which preceded post modernism. It is Europe�s version of minimalism but with a more platonist spin. There are odd bits in London in unlikely places like Battersea council estates � but its all over the Milanese plane executed with great panache. And there in the chapel you could see how some architects had been able to integrate the rationalist style with its High R predecssor over a space of some 400 years. So right for a bleak November morning.

My destination was a retrospective by the artist who I believe is currently Mrs Lou Reed. I had the place to myself for the first hour. There was a string 4tet on a juke box which had been composed on the basis on a piece of rational Sol Le Wit sculpture � using a look-up table to translate the sculptural elements into notes. Very Cageian. Another piece required you to put your elbows on two studs in the table and cup your ears. The sound went through your bones and played on the manual headphones. There was a large CDROM installation with the VDU projected on a wall which you interacted with via a remote control mouse on the table in front of you. There was film of a sound piece where the dancer was wired with sensors so that when she hit herself synth drums were triggered. How could I not buy the CD and catalogue? I could immediately see the links with the Bill Viola worksheets that I have got � the way that the installations were planned graphically and technically. There was a book in a wooden box where the pages were blown automaticaly first one way and then the other so that the route through the story was influenced by the chaos of turbulence. There was film of the artist dancing with William Burroughs in a performance accompanied by downtown musicians on sax, guitar and bass.

So far so good then.

Lots about the Mandela Concert in Capetown on CNN � made me glad I�d got the Lullabyes CD out. I phoned Peter Chatterton to ask to him to put something about the CNN stuff on the KK site. Check the site - link at the top of the page to see Peter's fantastic cover design for the Lullabyes CD!

Last night I did a bit of shopping and managed to get some live Blue Gene Tyranny for 8 Euros. Some of its recorded live and all dates from 1972 - about the time when the Stooges were hanging out with Miles. Haven�t heard it yet but I can hardly wait.

They have cleaned Milan cathedral which completely alters the ambience and makes all that rippling late Gothic so much more playful.