11.54
This gigster is 98% packed. We're off to Nagoya.
When Trey & I were there in 1994 we had a day off. Not content to accept the restaurant which we could see from the hotel window, we set off walking around the town in search of something "better".
Along the way we found an arcade of shops, one of which was a restaurant. On display in the restaurant's window was a tank of live sea food, waiting to be chosen and surrendered to the kitchen. In the tank a crab was slowly eating a fish alive. The fish appeared to be expressing no objection, even though a significant part of its head was missing. As we watched, the crab began to devour one of the fish's eyes. This was not the restaurant for us.
After 4 hours walking we returned to the hotel and "chose" the restaurant visible form the hotel window.
We ordered by pointing at the plastic food models of our choice in the restaurant window. Our order was taken by the lady of house who returned to the kitchen and brought out her two daughters to look at us. They all collapsed with laughter. Hoots of laughter from the kitchen punctuated our meal. We don't know exactly why these the geijin were so amusing, but they were. We left to more hoots of laughter and undisguised mirth.
18.40 Hilton Nagoya.
We are not properly who we are until we are recognised. This is mysterious: until an external agency, party or community recognises who we are, we are not empowered & enabled to be who we are.
Guitar Craft has now entered its third life cycle. How & why is this?
The first Guitar Craft course began in March 1985. Guitar Craft grew rapidly & unstoppably until 1991. This was the ending of its first life cycle, made more difficult & complicated by the EG debacle and the demands which that placed upon me. This first period was GC being born in the world through courses, instruction, exercises & practises.
It is always very hard to see a beginning: beginnings move "backwards" in linear time whenever we try to find a determining point of origin. One approach is to look for the decision which set a particular process in motion. In this case, the decision for the first GC course was a "yes" from me in response to the person responsible for the seminar program at Claymont Court. They asked if I would hold a guitar seminar. The first time they had asked, I replied "No!" The second time, yes. This was c. November 1984. From this point of view, the first period of GC is 1984-91.
The next period, say 1991-1998, was a period characterised by dying. For those who were touched by Guitar Craft, and set themselves to establish a practice in their "normal" lives, mainly outside courses and Circles, this meant letting go of perceived forms through which GC appeared to act; letting go of what the students believed GC to be (for example, dropping "Guitar Craft Face"). How to be in tune, in tone & in time away from an instrument, commuting to work, accepting personal, familial, professional & social responsibilities?
In my own process, this involved the deaths of EG & the first half of my professional life. It would not have been possible for me to survive those Dark Six and a Half Years of the Soul without Guitar Craft & GC principles to remind and direct me during these worst moments of my life. I was unable to take the initiative within GC. But, had EG not knocked me out of the loop for "real", I would have had to have invented something to get me out of the way. Students had become overly reliant upon my involvement, rather than taking the initiative in their own practice; rather than making Guitar Craft a reality for themselves. My role, then, moved from taking the initiative to responding where possible.
The third period of GC, according to this approach, is 1998-2005. So, what has qualitatively changed? In my view:
Students for whom Guitar Craft has moved from the outside - from being a "method" introduced through a series of courses & meetings & lessons & exercises - to being a part of them (that is, those for whom GC has become a way of living) have become Crafties. Alternatively put, Guitar Craft has "incarnated" through them. This is the "resurrection" which follows the "dying" which follows the "birthing".
21.05
Had dinner with a pal tonight. I tend to avoid empty chatter meals, but real issues are no strain. Rather, the reverse.
"The foundation of learning is play."
