Robert Fripp's Diary

DGM HQ The sun is

10.39

DGM HQ.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue.

The mess of the post-Punk invasion continues to litter the halls & rooms of HQ. Entrance hall…

Kitchen…

In SoundWorld I, the Solar Voyager has been shoved against a wall to make room for Punk’s drum kit…

A post-Punk office is as messy as the DGM Composting Zone…

Pigeon on wing over the DGM Park…

… responding to the imperatives of Spring…

Office morning: addressing violations. The infringements folder continues to expand.

12.22  Drawing breath. Off to Bournemouth this afternoon, visiting two musician pals from my teenage years.

18.59  Firstly, Don Hardyman, the extraordinary pianist from the Majestic Hotel. Don’s proper musical life of the time was playing jazz as a member of the Alan Kaye Quintet, along with Majestic guitarist Andy Summers & drummer Colin Allen.

From Don to Tino Licinio, singer & rhythm guitarist in our first two bands: The Ravens & The League Of Gentlemen, both also with Gordon Haskell.

Then back to DGM HQ, past the Holdenhurst Village Hall…

… where Discipline rehearsed in 1981…

… and through Verwood, where school pal & classmate Gordon Haskell lived. On Summer evenings of 1960, perhaps 3 times a week, I would cycle to Gordon’s from Wimborne: 10 miles there & 10 miles back. The year before, 1959, I played at the Verwood Memorial Hall…

… as part of Kathleen Gartell’s Corfe Mullen School of Music: second violin in the Youth Orchestra & guitar solo…

… on Emile Grimshaw’s Spick And Spanish.

Much better that the performer internalizes the music they play, rather than relying on charts. But sometimes, charts are necessary. On this occasion, I was reading the chart to Spick And Spanish so missed a position shift – but only by one fret. You don’t get much closer than that! However, the music sounded as if you couldn’t get much further than that. Afterwards, I mentioned the unfortunate accident to St. Edith, supportive Mother & driver of her young son to early engagements & guitar lessons. Edie’s reply, with all the love & forgiveable lying-through-the-teeth that a Sainted Mother might bestow on a response: you were the only one who noticed it.

Some 12 years after this, Mrs. Gartell invited her then-successful guitar pupil & second-violinist to a performance of the KG CMSofM in a Corfe Mullen hall. Young instrumentalists, with their loving Parents, milled around as students took turns in performing. One of these, a violinist probably about 10 years old, went onstage & played an unaccompanied violin solo. Somewhere within his chosen piece, he found a note unknown to the Western tonal harmonic tradition, and presented it to his audience of the willing. Afterwards, I heard him discussing his performance with his Father, commenting on his wrong note. The Father replied: you were the only one who noticed it.

From Verwood to Cranborne, past the Sheaf of Arrows…

… a favourite with Crafties 1986-89 on their evenings off. Up Salisbury Street…

… past The Old Police Station…

… which functioned as an annexe to the Red Lion House for several months, before its sale to Tony Arnold. Behind & at the side of the Police Station was the former chapel (yes! I once owned a chapel) which became the courthouse, and Tony converted into The Courthouse recording studio. This is where The Great Deceiver was mixed in 1992.

Three buildings on…

… the last house on the left at the top of the street…

… is the Red Lion House, former pub, former home of Lord David Cecil, first and (currently) last Guitar Craft House in England.

Front Door today…

Front Door c. July 1986…

How our lives are connected intimately to the spaces in which we live them.

To Martin, over the Blandford>Salisbury road & up the hill, to views over the Dorset & Wiltshire border at the edge of the Cranborne Chase I…

II…

III…

… and back to DGM HQ.

A business-arising of yesterday, mirrored in my own professional dealings this morning…

Viacom sues ’GooTube’ for $1 billion
Parent of MTV, Comedy Central hits Google with first major copyright infringement suit. Will other media firms follow?

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large

March 13 2007: 4:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Viacom sued Google and its online video subsidiary YouTube for $1 billion Tuesday, the first big lawsuit against the online video site and its parent for copyright infringement.

Experts predict more lawsuits to come.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Viacom (Charts), owner of MTV and Comedy Central, said that "almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom’s programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times."

In addition to damages, Viacom said it wants an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

Google said that it and YouTube had yet to see the lawsuit but added they feel "confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree."…

In which case, I am the only copyright holder whose legal rights have not been respected. This, I am able to state categorically, because I have granted no copyright licenses to Google/YouTube for any of the KC/RF material that can be found there; and neither have I been approached to grant such licenses.

22.30  An evening computing. Although online, unable to get to AOL.