Mrs C is in Naples and Vita is on the way to NYC (allegedly for educational purposes with 40 fellow students of fine art textiles graphics and photography.) They are staying on 5th Avenue and 30th I think � do I envy them? A great deal.

I drove to Balham yesterday to let Peter get me going on the KM software. This drive always takes longer than I think it will � even though I adjust the route for the delays that I suffered on the previous journey. Anyway I learned something of the software and have managed to put a raft of material in it in a folder marked Research trying as far as I can to signpost the way through. One of the benefits of doing this is that I found some research reports from about 3 years ago which are particularly relevant to the survey we did last weekend and I have included this stuff in my postings. Tomorrow�s job will be to design the questionnaire for next weekend�s event � I have quite a bit of material for this now. Although I say it myself this stuff is pretty on the money all things considered � it incorporates relevant global, European, national and regional research pretty succinctly and is really up to date � eg linking the stuff we did last week to the agenda the EC Commissioner explained in Brussels last month.

I have found a very early copy of Making Waves here on the desktop at Guildford. I can remember trying to get somewhere with it and failing. I had better luck today and I have made about 30 seconds of a little groove piece � bass percussion and organ � which I quite like. It has a liveliness that isn�t always evident in software driven music and its quite fun to jam to.

Talking of NYC, last night I watched the DVD of a version of Hamlet set there � released in 2000. Sam Sheppard is the ghost, Kyle Maclachlan is Claudius, Polonius is Bill Murray and Julia Stiles is Ophelia. The first half of the film is extremely good � esp the parts featuring Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia � which, although the original words are used for the most part, all seems to gel as the story unfolds in luxurious high rise apartments in mid-town Manhattan. The tragedy of Ophelia seems very real indeed � how she is a duped and dumped on by all and sundry in a manner that seems totally consitent with the transplanted location. She goes mad at an art opening in the Guggenheim museum. Hamlet makes a video to test out Claudius and it is screened in a small art-house cinema.

My guess is that they ran out of time and couldn�t devote to the last half of the film as much as they put into the first half. In particular they don�t really bring up-to-date Hamlet�s trip to England and his return.. Also they skip the bit about Fortinbras which takes away some of the breadth of the ending � in particular the cynical nihilism where Fortinbras bones on about nobility where he is little more than a brigand. Anyway it deserves at least 7 out of 10 for trying .

BBC4 had a rather splendid hour where they had a feature about Powell and Prestburger, esp the Red Shoes with Roeg and Scorcese chipping in, followed by clips from the 60s including the famous Lulu event with J Hendrix and a massively on form Fleetwood Mac doing Oh Well.

Since I have the house to myself I have invested in a new external soundbox for my portable. It links to the computer via USB and handles both MIDI and audio � it even has an optical output which I thought was a good package for under a hundred pounds. Digital audio is full of (unpleasant) surprises so I�d better not count my chickens esp with all this flu around.