Just discovered some videoblogging sites. Must work out how to upload some footage. Trawled through the South American site of the Dutch filmmaker- despite the glowing report given it by The Guardian I found it not as informative as expected, more geeky than travel. See for yourself:www.Rhizome.org Luuk Bouwman

Decided to revisit Craig-y-nos, former home of world famous opera singer Adelina Patti which became a sanatorium. Spent some years there as a child. This was a very emotional trip down memory lane. The castle was more like a prison than a hospital.http://www.opera-singer.co.uk/adelina2.htm.
Today it is used as a hotel.www.craigynoscastle.com

Returning to my home country of Wales is always full of surprises. Just back from a joint wedding anniversary and birthday party of my cousins Ken and Ann Powell. They have a farm near Maescwmmer and the party for 130 people was held in the garden. We were lucky in that it didnt rain because they have had a very wet summer- Wales is notorious for its rain- amongst the food, fireworks and festivities was Gerry Walker, magician. I promised him that I would put a link to his web-site on my blog diary. He didnt believe me. Well, Gerry here it is: www.gerrymagic.co.uk Enjoy!

Some good news! Just heard from Chicago that the meeting to discuss planning regulation changes to the The Three Arts Club has been postponed. Maybe they are having second thoughts now that they see the amount of opposition there is to radically changing this historic building.(www.threearts.org)
Visited Edinburgh Fringe Festival yesterday (www.edfringe.com) usual traffic chaos in the city. Wish had gone in by train.
Went to see Chronicles- Lamentations by the Polish theatre/music/dance group. Fantastic! no wonder it got a Fringe award. Deals with music on the edge between life and death.(www.piesnkozla.pl)
Called in to see a photographic/painting exhibition -21st Century Dream-French based work. Particularly liked Vanessa Franklin's work has a touch of humour about it - she takes famous French paintings and reinterprets them digitally. (www.vanessafranklin.com)

Guess you are wondering what prompted me to resurrect this blog...well I got an e-mail from a friend in Chicago to tell me that the Three Arts Club (www.threearts.org) faces a crisis. It closed for upgrading and now it looks as if the developers have their eyes on it.
I spent a great year there in 2000 while at the School of the Art Institute ..(www.saic.edu)

Can you believe it?....nearly TWO YEARS since last posted!
No, have not been asleep. Millions of problems starting with my beloved AppleMac getting itself all in a twist cause I upgraded ( big mistake) to OSX.
Anyway, this is just checking that the system works again.

An e-mail from a friend asking what has happened to my on-line diary has prompted me to make an entry....too many summer visitors along with a weekend visit to Plockton to attend the opening of a friend, Miriam Drysdale's, new gallery for contemporary art. She has got a very impressive set-up and plans soon to start doing painting holidays.
Bought a Clare Harkness painting .

Just back from Pittenweem Arts Festival on the Fife coast - this goes from strength to strength. Glorious weather difficult to believe this is Scotland. We have had the worst summer on record - at least that is what a neighbour tells me.

Oh yes last Tuesay went to the Artworks in Mental Health openingat the McLellan gallery inGlasgow. My photograph - of Father's hands- was the first one in theexhibition. Must say was impressed with the overall standard. Seems they got over 1,000 entries and accepted120.

Just back from Iceland. It is over 30 years since I visited the country and the first thing that strikes me are the trees. Reykavik is a leafy city now. It used to be totally barren and bleak. The main street is heaving with designer shops. Fortunately next to our hotel is a second hand Red Cross shop and I purchase a bright yellow ski jacket all for equivalent of £8. Had not brought proper outdoor clothing with me for the rain . My memory was of a summer of endless days of bright blue skies....
What has not changed is the high price of goods. On the plus side this is a country of fire and water - yes, yes, a cliche I know but how else can you describe such an extraordinary country where geysirs come bubbling out of the lava fields and you bathe in the newly opened Blue lagoon - something that is worth a visit in itself - set amongst lava fields huge open air swimming pool constructed from the natural lava. And the water really is blue.

Just read a fascinating story from the Guardian onlineabout Blogs. Its the way the future is shaping up as far as journalism goes: from Old Media to New Media and now this: We Media - completely interactive. Great.

Blogger is playing up!...my last entry printed but refused to publish.
This is a test.
OK we have action again. Well, it must have been a glitch in the system.
So much has happened.... Have booked to go to Iceland next week for a few days. This is a nostalgic visit. I used to work there many, many years ago. Will it have changed? will I recognise it? Am spending a lot of my time these days editing old video clips. Most are glorified home movies but there are some which containan element of storytelling which goes beyond the home movie. That's what I am working on.

now everything has disappeared...what glitch is therein the system?

Blogger is refusing to publish!...whats gone wrong? this is just a test.

Yes, I know my on-line diary has lapsed...reason is slow access to the internet. Reckon it takes me nearly five mintues to get fired up and then it has to be before noon - before America wakes up.
There is something wrong with my internet service provider- surprise, surprise- have to log on through e-mail first - outlook express - in order to establish a link.
Went to see Minority Report last night - Tom Cruise and Spielberg- those 2 names alone will ensure Box Office success- but we both found it tedious...yes the special effects were good . But all that fighting set int he future. Just the same old macho cowboys and indians stuff fast forwarded 50 years. The Cafe Flicker at GMAC - open house where all can show their own films in Glasgow once a month is much more (a) entertaining and (b) innovative.www.g-mac.co.uk

Just checked the Art Works in Mental Health www.artworksinmentalhealth.co.uk. site where I have a photo of my Father on exhibition. This is their virtual online gallery . The exhibition opens in London on July 3 then come to Scotland end of the month and will eventually end in Cardiff end of August. The aim is to promote a better understanding of mental health problems. My Father , who died last year aged 98 years, suffered from depression.

Woke up this morning and decided that I would be environmentally conscious. i would leave the car at the station and take the train to Dundee for the Degree Show. Checked the train timetable using www.railtrack.co.uk. Impressed with the site. Will use it again in preference to trying to make a phone call. The day has long gone when we could ring up the station in Stirling and ask for the time for the next train.
Then I remembered. There's nowhere to park in Dunblane. That was one of the gripes at last weeks public meeting. True you can park in the local supermarket but how do you negotiate your way around the towns one way system unless you know the place? dont have time to experiment. so I jump in the car and drive to Dundee.
Here's a city that's picked itself up and is a pleasure to visit. No problem parking even though I dont know the city. And the new Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, of which I have heard so much but never visited,, turned out to be a real joy to visit. Whats more its a working studio as well as a gallery for cutting edge art, unlike the CCA in Glasgow which suffers from pretentiousness.
The Degree show is well up to standard. Pity they have abolished cermaics. This was their swansong and what a show! Seems young people no longer want to do ceramics.
found the animation the strongest also some of the painting. No real surprises. Reading the artists statements am aware how academically driven the work is. it is as if the students have buried their heads in the library, found an idea they like, then constructed some art work around it. Hence most of the installations were weak. Only the work that had a heavy input of craft or technical skill did it stand up to close scrutiny.

Rats!....diary is getting put to the bottom of the "to do" pile every day.
Well the Golden Jubilee has been and gone...what a relief! we can stop pretending that we believe in the Royal Family, just another British anarchronism that is stopping us moving forward into the 21st century. Fast.
Showed my short video Waverley at Cafe Flicker the other night. though I say it myself it worked in a funny kind of way. The rest of the time have been struggling with a more ambitious project and it is going wrong, wrong wrong...showed it to Carol the other night - after we had been to see the Cuban band, "Sierra Maestra" in Stirling, (great show in the Tolbooth, pity about the seats, designed for midgets, even I was terribly cramped. Spoilt enjoyment of the performance. And did they have to have the full blast of their amplifiers on in such a small intimate theatre?
Carol says the problem is the work is unresolved. Got to think more about what I am trying to achieve.

It is good to get back to drawing. I was reminded of the words of Tanya Brugera, the Cuban performance artist who works with sheep, ( I met her in Chicago) that I should consider working with sheep too . After all I was brought up on a farm in Wales. Within minutes of my house I pass fields of sheep every morning and have taken to drawing, photographing them. Am influenced by Henry Moore's sheep drawings. Tayna used some of my video, mainly sound, during her video /performance in the Korean Biennale in 2000.
Meanwhile we are all desperately trying to avoid Golden Jubilee celberations. Some neighbours have even got flags out!....

Just back from Paris.It has changed. No longer the ultra chic place it used to be. General dumbing down. Asked my French cousin if this was her impression too.
"Yes. Everyone wants to dress like teenagers."
And that means casual grungewear.

Did the usual cultural circuit- Louvre -Musee d' Orsay, Musee Rodin and,of course, the Pompidou Centre.
Some surprises. First sculpture I see when I walk into the sculpture court of the Lourve is the original bronze of a lion with a serpent by Antoine-Louis Barye (1795 . Paris). Spent one week of my first year at Glasgow School of Art drawing a plaster cast of that sculpture -life size in pastel .
As for the Pompei Centre there were so many works there that were clearly the inspiration for so many well known artists in England and Scotland that I dont know where to start... at least I will be charitable and say inspiration though some may say they were a straight pinch of ideas.
Oh well ,as Picasso said:minor artists borrow great artists steal"

Even works from last year's Degree Show....surely it was not a coincidence?

Got robbed on the Metro. It was so innocently down that I never suspected until the three little girls aged around 10-12, who asked me the time, rushed off the train just as the doors were closing. I looked down. Yes, my bag previouslsy closed , even turned towards me, was open and my purse gone.
Fortuantely there was little in it but the purse was of sentimental value, given to me many years ago as a present by a former student in Hong Kong.
Now I saw another side of modern French life. Reported it to the metro police. They shook their heads :"Czechosloviakn...a group of 15 we know them well..there's nothing we can do."
It is the wave of immigrants flooding France . The children are too young to be charged and even if they were what happens? they get a small fine and are back on the streets again.
Noticvs everywhere warn you of pickpockets. Somehow I had envisaged these minor criminals as streetwise young men. It never occurred to me that today they would be children - and girls at that.

On a lighter note we get taken to the Lido, one of Paris most famous nightclubs and a tourist honeypot on the Champs Elysees, by my French cousins who are somewhat horrified that we want to go there.
Those who expect titallating nude dancing are in for a shock. iIts so squeaky clean that you could take your great grandmother there. In fact at the table next to us a 90 year old woman was celebrating her birthday! We know because they brought in lighted candles.with the age written in large letters. She was proud to be 90. The woman behind me had a similar birthday. She looked less pleased to have her age - 56 -emblazed on a cardboard cake in front of her.