Hello... "Friendo"

Hey readers! (you ARE a reader if you're reading this, yes?)

I would prefer if my blog didn’t become a repository of the afterbirth from impatient, misled, pessimistic thoughts, so I’ll do my best. In his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, Dale Carnegie outlines many different time tested guidelines for the very subject, the number one being “Never Condemn, complain or criticize”. Try NOT complaining about ANYTHING for a week. Try not criticizing anyone for anything. Its damn hard, actually, if you’re a person like me who gets a certain sarcastic sense of pleasure from certain kinds of criticism. But it is sound advice. I notice the strong, powerful people in my life never whine, bitch or complain about anything. I’ve never heard my father complain or criticize ever. But, I suppose that you become the most powerful when you know WHEN to break the laws and rules of life.

So… Without complaint, pessimism, or impatience, my life is fine. Really now, what DO you have to complain about? Are we ever justified in that kind of self-indulgence?

Here are a couple things I’ve been thinking about…
First, on art and the mentality of art making:
• I would much rather believe my art/music is bad, sloppy, inferior and/or substandard and have it be ACTUALLY good, rather then believe that it’s amazing stuff and be one of those people who is the brunt of the joke behind his back that his stuff isn’t actually that good. Keeping your expectations realistic keep you from becoming egocentric and relieve you of the responsibility imposed on you by other people who believe you to be “great” or the art you make “beautiful”. It also takes all the pressure off you when you create something new; because it’s not “important” and you’re just experimenting, none of your demons who judge you when you take something seriously are there, because in your mind, you’ve disregarded it as serious art. Does Radiohead think this way, consciously or not? Can you learn creativity, or is it just another you-got-it-or-you-don’t thing? I’ve been enamored with rock music for some time now… realizing that it has the ability to be a serious artistic expression, and also a mindless catharsis that sets free our primitive passions and instincts. The physicality of a rock concert is an amazing thing. The beauty of music that you cannot play in a dance club is fully realized when you see it performed on stage, at thunderous volumes and accompanied with gaudy imagery and visuals. This is something that I believe is profoundly lacking in classical music. Ok, yes, in the 1800’s they didn’t have lights and lasers and smoke machines and speakers and all that jazz, ok, But keep things in context and perspective… we have all that stuff now. Think about how amazing it would be if an orchestra was mic’ed up, amplified and mixed, with an entire Sigur Rós style light show playing Beethoven’s 5th. THAT would be powerful. But would it be too powerful?
Do older people gravitate towards classical music more because it transcends the physical sex drive that is intertwined with rock music? Because in that part of their life, they’ve already fully experienced that ancient urge in their younger years and are looking for something with a bit more refinement? Hmm. Do people my age and younger hesitate when confronted with the possibility of classical music because it simply does not deliver or allow the release of the beast inside? Yea, yeah, I hear you now… “But I'm young and I like classical music! Wah wah wah” well so do I! Yet the generalization is accurate; don’t kill the messenger. I question this stuff because I question my own gravitation towards classical music and rock music; two years ago, I’d scoff at anything on the radio or that consisted of a 3-4 minute song. The Stravinsky piece, The Rite of Spring is stunning on a fundamental level because in a way, it IS that rock-music side of the human experience brought into the concert hall; loud, ugly, harsh, unrelenting, and again, loud.
And now, my constant harping about my favorite bands continues: Radiohead. Sigur Rós. Radiohead’s breadth of musical style-dabbling creates a great concert, due to the fact that they can play some breezy pop songs, stuff about love and with a hint of “yeah yeah” in the middle, and then play songs like The Bends, Fake Plastic Trees, Paranoid Android and then play Kid A, Morning Bell, or Pyramid Song back to back and cover HUGE emotional ground. One moment, you’re rocking out. The next, you’re pondering all sorts of strange philosophical things or feeling really depressed. Then you come back to the fact that even their breezy pop songs are REALLY good! What the hell? How is that possible? For the bizarre intellectual stuff to be on par with the breezy pop songs. Is it learned or is it another case of “you either got it or you don't”?
Then Sigur Rós. The most beautiful concert I’ve seen. They don’t speak at all in-between their songs. The set has definite emotional pacing, unlike Radiohead. The best way I can describe Sigur Rós live is like going to see an extremely loud opera; the visuals are so beautiful and creative, not effect is used more then once without good reason. Their music is extremely esoteric, unlike any tambres and textures you’ve ever hear, but with a fundamental basis of classical and pop music; musicality that you’ve come to expect and that your ear is used to. Their cake is the same, but their frosting is unlike anything your ear has ever tasted. Melancholic, sweeping music pours over at high volume, so it is just as physical as Radiohead, yet entwined in their style is somber beauty; almost the opposite of pop music. Learned? Or you got it or you don't?

And next, on wisdom, passed down:
• Axioms will only be understood by outcasts who no one listens to anyway, or older people who give out the advice to bewildered young people, who in time become old people who understand those axioms that were told to them by their elders when they were young, only to tell it to another young generation who doesn't understand it, and thus continues the cycle of misunderstanding.

I'm also on jury duty. My mum pointed out that its interesting how much of a test living in the Netherlands was for me, and as soon as I get back to the states, the first thing I have to do is jury duty. PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE. I thought I knew about boredom, or what boredom was. I was wrong. Today I have experienced TRUE boredom. I'm instructed by the judge to not talk about the details of the case, and of course you aren’t privy to all the ~*~*~juicy~*~*~ details, but I can tell you with comfort that I have never been so bored in my life. Hours of testimony about the same questions, and the same tedium that we were subject to last week…
Unbelievable.

I find it hard to understand why Hollywood would want to romanticize such an absolutely mind-numbingly monotonous process and turn it into something like Law and Order, which is a well-done show. Yet isn’t that lying in like the first degree? From what you see on those shows you’re seeing really interesting stuff, and the jury panel ISN’T a bunch of white hicks and consumerists, but a wide array of life, collected in good confidence that they will, faithfully perform their duty as impartial, unsympathetic observers; arbiters of what the facts are. The judge is the arbiter of the law. The lawyers, the projectors of truth, as spun by either plaintiff or defendant. The important thing is that truth is rooted in personal experience, opinion and bias, and fact is confirmable evidence as observed or easily replicated by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd parties. The “truth” then becomes the frosting on the cake after fact… frosting that can either compliment the cake, thus making an argument congruent, or a distasteful, overpowering and convincing counter-cake effect.

To this end or not, on Saturday, I went into Seattle with my dad and saw one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen: Radiohead laser show! It was stunning. One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long, long time. I was tripping out without the help of any outside substances, so I can only imagine how crazy it must have been for all the stoners.

Alright… enough drivel. It’s time to get back “to it”, what ever “it” is.

Love to all.

-e