Hong Kong 1997 Musical

I'd like to try and recreate my first webpage project (about 10 years ago) when I tried to get some interest going for a musical project co-written by the late and great Mort Schuman (Viva Las Vegas amongst others) - trouble is I need to contact Richard (White?) - any ideas help would be great

Joys of radio 4

Catching up on a few radio shows I listened to All the way from Memphis and was rather excited to hear And the Native Hipsters mentioned near the start of the show - they had a small Peel promoted hit with there goes Concorde again and amongst the group was my Cousin Tom who's now a big noise with the group Frapp and Artrocker club/magazine.

Finding Cuba

Now Cuba was one of our best holidays (and somewhere I'd suggest you visit if you haven't) - In London there are so many restaurants that you won't be shocked to know that there's more than one of a Cuban version - this week I went one just by Waterloo Station and it was very pleasant. It's called Cubana.

Apple Editing

Just above the Apple store in Regent Street there are a whole load of offices and demo' suites - went to a Final cut pro presentation in the week, it's amazing what can be done and all HD too.
The guy presenting was very capable but to me it was a bit of a blur and the Show reel was even more incredible.

Beatle Paul

Sad to see that Sir Paul might be splitting from his second wife, it does though have a certain synchronicity :
All four Beatles have married twice and all (if the split becomes permanent) will have divorced once, they'll all have had US wives too.

The decline of BT?

I went to a presentation during the week by Roger Lyon CEO of homechoice, Roger was speaking on how IPTV will become a significant player in the home entertainment piece over the next few years. What fascinated me was Roger's analysis of BT's position; declining revenues for traditional phone services being followed by broadband becoming a commodity product- if BT Vison does not hold the current customer base - they'll have problems, they're competing with a revitalised cable offering, Sky with Broadband and services like Homechoice. Have they made a mistake using Philips (home boxes likely to be late and cost around £100 for an advanced Freeview PVR and Microsoft - who have had problems with TV operations so far?

Labour day and more

In a week that has seen Labour have a serious warning shot across its bows by the UK electorate
Another week has gone by at alarming speed and by and large it's not been too bad.

Last Sunday I made the first of two visits to Zizzi's in Charlotte street and met with three friends (and their other halves) from University who I had the good fortune to share a flat with in Cardiff in the 70's- all were on good form and it is always pleasantly surprising to me how we slip back into comfortable conversations and bonhomie. All eight of us seem to be in reasonable health and are as prosperous as we need to be.


This Saturday I met with Graham (who I worked with at Euronews 10 or so years ago) and his friend James who is a teacher in Cambridge, the conversation was great touching on politics, education, the BBC and the price of water- I hope it's less than 3 years before we do it again.

In fact the good thing about the two visits to Zizzi's I’ve made recently is that one can have a leisurely meal without feeling you’re a table blocker so meeting with friends you can actually eat and chat – not possible at all reasonable (price and food) restaurants- I expect I'll be back again soon.

Royal De Luxe

Graham, James and I actually met at Piccadilly Circus at what used to be Tower records and our timing was good in that we became part of the event that is the Invasion of the giant elephant.

There was quite a crowd as you can see and the story continues over the weekend.

Dear John Letter,

so Mr Prescott it really is time you made an exit, at the age of 67 it's a shame that this is the way you'll be thought of but you will at least provide Tony with an excuse for a poor result on Thursday.

On a more serious note for many voters in the UK Thursday will be a chance to give our view on the current gov't and the whiff of sleaze is reminding many of us of the Major years - is Labour due to get the biggest meltdown in local politics since 1968? How will we benefit from voting for David Cameron- interesting times.

And the TV business

I see that there are rumours of a UTV takeover of the Scottish Media Group (SMG) - my hope (as a shareholer in both companies) is that it happens and they then merge with 5 - be quite a combination -another view here, it has some logic but I consider time has moved on.



And BT taking over Dabs- the move masterminded by future BT Boss Ian Livingstone is a bold one - hope the follow it up with something equally exciting in the TV content arena