South America.
How often do you talk about this vast continent, or even think about it? In my case very rarely. Except to-day. Had lunch with Sue who had just returned from spending a year travelling around the world and raved about South America,especially Chile and Argentina.
Along with her partner Wolf they belong to the new breed of Gap year travellers- older people who have downsized and used their money to travel the world. See their web diary at:www.angelfire.com/trek/wolftours.
This evening saw Motorcycle Diaries, Che Guevara's travel diaries up the South American continent. Great film.

Well, the Crowsteps exhibition opening at Blairlogie attracted a good turn out of people including one of the leading "movers and shakers" in the art world , my former Head of Dep. at Glasgow School of Art, David Harding.www.davidharding.org David is the original pioneer of environmental art and the following interview with him is worth reading. www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archive/ca/roth-harding.php .
He made some favourable comments about my video "Matriarch" which deals with three generations of women's hands.

Keeping a blog is bad for your health!
Well, according to psychologists at a conference in Edinburgh yesterday they said that keeping a diary of traumatic events and re-reading them could be bad for your mental health.
But what if you don't have traumatic events to record and you don't re-read your entries every few days? Well, that was not covered . This research strikes me as positively weak, full of loopholes.
See The Herald for full story:www.theherald.co.uk

Have been helping Lys Hansen with setting up the Crowsteps exhibition this week in Blairlogie. See her website:http://www.goartists.co.uk/LysHansen.asp.

Fiona Ross, an artist friend, has just come back from Edinburgh where she delivered some work to the Solo gallery in Dundas St. She's taking part in a group exhibition opening on Friday Sept. 10th.
She specialises in the Fife coast and her paintings of fishing villages are cheerful and colourful, not surprisingly they sell well.www.tartangallery.com

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