Finally, a decently long weekend - I've been holding on by the tips of my fingers for the past week. Urban ops fieldcamp, getting eaten alive by sandflies, double SOC when we got back - all in a day's work, really but I'm slowly but surely getting tired of everything. I'm a little sick of the cloistered small-mindedness of everyone in the army, not the least the commanders. I want to be back with people who think like me, or at least recognise that they don't.

Kept going by listening to U2 (who as master critic Robert Christgau notes, were an arena rock band that was Actually Good) who are turning out to be surprisingly intelligent. I guess I was too put off by Bono to give them any real credit? I dunno. As far as I'm concerned, musicians should stick to making music. Beauty is our responsibility, not politics. Been humming that Husker Du Beatles cover, Ticket To Ride as well. Man that's catchy, but I'd expect no less from the Mccartney man himself.

I also returned a little to old staples Nirvana and I even tried a bit of jazz again. I never lost any love for the masters : Ellington, Armstrong - and the singers - Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Ella. But bebop needs a certain state of mind, I think, which I've been somehow unable to produce for the last couple of months. Miles and Coltrane still ring true very often, but some of the lesser improvisors strike me as somewhat staid.

adam