Robert Fripp's Diary

You know the time you

Today has been another significant and busy day, with Diane returned to the whirring maelstrom which is currently DGM.

Dan the Helpful Encourager e-mailed yesterday for input to his suggestions for the about-to-be-becoming new DGM website. Dan has been concentrating on the navigational, mechanical & functional parts; and today David, VHRV Leader & Hugh the Newly Rehoused addressed the character, appearance & identity of the site.

One of its new features comes from an initial idea by Dan yesterday: to invite other DGM artists to contribute their diaries. I telephoned several - Bill Nelson, Jacob Herringman, Mr. McFall & Matt Seattle - and all of them agreed. The aim is to engage the listening community in the process of music-making at an earlier stage than performance. Hopefully, this will extend DGM's dialogue / n-logue with our audience. Bill Nelson faxed his handwritten diary through today - Bill doesn't have a computer yet - and Hugh will begin to collate these new contributions for when the site is reborn.

My experience of keeping journals over many years (I have diaries going back to 1957) suggests the process is very powerful. There are several aspects to this, and here are only four of them:

1. Recapitulation: we "digest" our experience;

2. Detachment: an impartial observer stands just behind us, watching how, what & why we do what we do;

3. A moment of presence is extended;

4. A pointed stick to encourage alertness.

A recent visitor to the Guestbook refers to our "partnership" with Microsoft. Microsoft have been very explicit that we are not in a "partnership" with them: we have a "strategic relationship". In practice, this means we are using Media 4.0.

Why doesn't DGM Live adopt other download systems in addition to Media 4.0? In time we may adopt a number of download systems. These are very early days. Right now, I believe 4.0 is the best system generally available and, I know for several reasons, that it's the best system for DGM Live right now.

Probably net-friendly visitors already know that David Bowie is releasing his new album, prior to shop distribution, on the net via Media 4.0 & Liquid Audio. Media 4.0 is, as we all know by now, owned by The Great Beast of Seattle, and Liquid Audio is owned by EMI, who own Virgin, David's record label. I wonder how much angst will be vented over his download choices.

Today Hugh took two photos to be soonly presented on the site:

1. "The Big Two Weighed Down By Angst On The Guestbook";

2. "Venal Leader Weighed Down By Paper".

Now ProjeKct One is storming out of P4. The nature of P3 was defined by Pat, the nature of P1 was defined by Bill, and the nature of P2 was, unsurprisingly, determined by Adrian. What does this suggest?

Apropos of nothing in particular: one interesting point I've noticed recently is that when my name is mentioned in the press nowadays, it rarely carries the word (as was once automatically the case) "eccentric". It used to be synonymous with "Fripp". Now its use is mainly discontinued. Why?

23.34 David is continuing to contrast tasty dishes of ProjeKcts into a coherent sequence.

Part of my paperwork this work has been to address the detailed questions of an Inland Revenue tax inspector who specialises in "celebrities". When he came to visit us two months ag he told me that he had been taken to see The League of Gentlemen at Leeds Polytechnic (1980). He didn't like us: we were "too avant garde". The inspector's main concerns coincide with the period surrounding the collapse of EG.

This is, I trust, the final event to be settled in the extended aftermath of confusion generated by Messrs. Alder & Fenwick's ventures into property & the Lloyd's insurance market. And then may we move forward to fully embrace the available future.

00.20 "I am already happier" says David as The Laft Shift comes to its end.