And a nice relevant one for us:
To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening
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Richard who?
Windowlicker Richard.
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Be the passive observer, sit back and look
At the world they destroyed and the peace that they took.
Ask no questions, hear no lies
And you’ll be living in the comfort of a synthesizer free paradise.
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Ah. Gosh do I feel not in the gang!
I thought you meant Richard Stilgoe.
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I haven’t been in Kool and the Gang since they signed to Dee-Lite records.
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I’d love to hear more about your vision of the art life as you originally projected it…I certainly have mine and I think there is a bit of crossover.
I think the idea of bucking/trasncending the status quo in any way AND having the life where one can frequent the local artists’ hangout / salon / cafe is tough to do on the level that we read about, like a Chopin or an Yves Saint Laurent. I think those were certain people existing at certain intersections of time, culture, and technology which allowed them to have that impact. I mean, it’s always a Paris or a Vienna at a key turning point isn’t it?
Am I gathering correctly what you’re saying, though, that the kind of conversations and interactions you want were not happening in the locations/environments you had expected them too?
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I don’t think I ever had a specific vision or went around looking to drink absinth with someone who looked like Lord Byron. Probably more has to do with personality issues than anything. On most of the occasions I met some really interesting person and had some intense conversation that occupied my thoughts long after, they were gone before I got back from the bathroom and before the time came when we started to become mundane to each other. It all makes sense now.
But please feel free to indulge me in yours as it might joggle my own.
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Love it.
My dream for coming up on 20 years is to have a lofty art and music studio space in the Harajuku/Omotesando area of Tokyo (or maybe Koenji now that Harajuku has so few rough, edgy, underground creators working there). Every day around lunch I head over to the same little cafe and run into the same people. We don’t need to have conversations about deep questions, maybe just about art, business management, design, and the direction culture is headed only in those regards, not sociopolitically or economically, cause then I’ll get pessimistic, obsessive, hopeless, and focused on things I can’t affect very much.
Then in the afternoon, back to the studio. And at night, either a VJ gig or relaxed live gig.
Hahah it’s so easy to use the other side of the world as a canvass for the imagination!
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Yea, I guess not many people when young sit around thinking about having some dynamic life in the dullard town they grew up in surrounded by the people that just don’t understand them. I’m not sure what’s worse feeling not “understood” where you grew up or in that secret garden of your imagination somewhere in Tangiers when your mind starts turning against you (edit: don’t mean you as in you).
Anyway, I’m pretty certain that Byron, Helmut Lang and Dick Van Dyke sat around mostly bitching to each other about the soupe à l’oignon being too salty or something like that…
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Oh, many of us have put energies into setting up a freak flag to varying ends.
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No one is really that freaky in a big city it’s mostly people competing to be seen holding some boutique bought freak flag.
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Aesthetic and subculture can be part of it, but I’m talking about how we engage and send out signifiers of interest/interesting.
And sure, most of the best weirdos I know can’t afford to live “in the city”. But do live proximal within reach (beyond those who’ve left for even cheaper rent, which I understand.)
Ignoring obvious interrelated housing concerns, cities would definitely be better for artists if companies actually gave money towards the arts, or paid local taxes that could go towards people who aren’t FAANG or whatever.
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I think a lot of the best American punk / hardcore were very much a product of the suburbs. I will always identify with growing up in a small town surrounded with highways and strip malls and lawns more than any city I’ve lived in.
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I think this is kinda neat too:
“To really hear what you understand you must listen to what you’re not thinking, unless it’s the sound of silence, not the song or actual silence for that matter.”
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There’s probably something in this. Not with synths, but 15-16 years ago I was doing a creative writing class. I wasn’t all that into it so I was watching tv while I was writing.
It did absolutely nothing for the quality of my work, but I’ll be buggered if it didn’t help me finally nail touch typing.