Robert Fripp's Diary

Friday 04 May 2007

DGM HQ A grey day

10.35

DGM HQ.

A grey day in the valley.

This is what I was doing 27 years ago today…

11.24 Stormy Mundy is at the controls of SoundWorld II…

Feet of the Rock God are about to snap like whipcords & dance across the Pedals of Power, Terror & Unfolding Wonder…

Lights flash, programmes load…

Hugh the Fierce is uncaring of our efforts, resplendent in DGM ArtWorld I…

II…

15.48 Contributions to 5 of the 6 tracks on offer from Gavin, who made specific suggestions for two of them. One suggestion included a solo, but nothing arose in response to listening.

Also, when work for Gavin was done, we recorded an ambient album of 3 20-minute tracks for free DGM Live download: Glass & Breath.

16.55 The sun has begun to shine on the DGM Tractor & Composting Lot…

17.54 This has just gone out to various GC Representatives for forwarding to their communities…

To Those Who Know And Who Are Known.

This is a subject I have been giving consideration for several weeks, and my sense is to set act now.

I propose that those of us who feel that Guitar Craft is a necessary undertaking in our lives, community & the larger world, commit to tithe 10% of our disposable income for a period of 3 years, beginning on June 21st. 2007. I am presently looking at the formalities of establishing a dedicated GC Tithing account.

Tithing has little to do with money, although any operation that parts us from our hard-earned pay acts as a pointed stick. Undertaking this commitment to Guitar Craft is an intentional action & provides a “conscious shock”. The aim is to keep the larger Guitar Craft process on course and moving forward.

The external aim, which has its own value & necessity, is to acquire a small Guitar Craft House in my hometown of Bredonborough, Worcestershire. A property with 3 bedrooms & close to the town centre is sufficient at this time. Bredonborough is a small, vibrant market town with a population of c. 6,000, good communications & public transport, shops & activities. I am able to personally oversee the maintenance & operations of a property of this size & position.

The aim of the GC House, as envisaged, is to support the work of small groups & individuals, visiting for shorter & longer periods.

My current sense is that a possible property may present itself within 2 years’, in the region of £330,000.

If at the end of the 3-year period a property has not been acquired, I will re-consider the position.

When I was on the Board of Directors at Claymont in 1984, and sending out good wishes to the community, I had a powerful insight into its future: I saw that the Claymont undertaking, as envisaged by JGB, was in doubt. This was a surprise. Along with many of those involved in the Claymont Society for Continuous Education, I knew the difficulties, but hadn’t doubted that we would be able to meet the challenges. So, it was unexpected to find myself in a place where that future was unsure.

Accompanying this insight came the conviction that, in order to keep the project on course, it was necessary for those who supported JGB’s vision to commit themselves to tithing. This I proposed, not long afterwards, at a board meeting. The moment was remarkable: it was as if a door opened to another world: a world of possibility, and a very different place to the world of constriction, limitation & mortgage payments that were standard items of board discussion & consideration. The board was unable to make this commitment, and the door closed. Another board member in the meeting, sensing the door closing, asked that we reconsider: the door hovered half open, for a short while, and then closed again.

If those persons, nominally responsible for the protection, survival & development of a project, are unable to commit themselves to it, it is likely to fail. Such was the case with Claymont, at least in terms of its defining aims: it became something else, no doubt with its own usefulness & possibilities. Guitar Craft must not become a something else, even if that something else were a successful guitar method.

Robert Fripp

Friday 4th. May, 2007

DGM World HQ, Wiltshire, England.

18.05 Closing the desk & off to Bredonborough.

22.45 Bredonborough.

Leaving DGM HQ, travelling through Wilton & onto Salisbury Plain…