Wednesday 24 November 2010

I'm just back home from a session on cultural policy with Simon Frith and Martin Cloonan (a research colloquium, to give it its Sunday name): how should the state engage with the world of music? 'As an enabler' was the short answer, but both also had very instructive tales of their previous experience of encounters between cultural policy and politics. Back here, we've chosen the day that the temperature has dropped to -3˚C to get our boiler replaced, so until the job gets finished tomorrow and we have the central heating and hot water back, the house is full of borrowed fan heaters and all the fires are on.

It feels like I'm finally approaching the home straight with preparations for Aldeburgh, when I can begin to see past the mountain of administrative tasks, to what could be some intriguing music-making on the horizon. However, there are signs that I've just been a bit too busy recently: I'm spending most of each day with my right wrist strapped up, as holding a phone to my ear, or a cup of tea, can be unexpectedly painful.Perhaps I should stop typing this and lie on the floor instead.