01.50
Hotel Modest But Acceptable, Blytheville.
This is the kind of conventional US motel layout & floor plan that early Crim travellers had burnt into their psyches 3.2 – 3.7 decades ago. Today, there are more than the three (appalling) tv channels then on offer, online is mostly available, I can afford to make telephone calls on a calling card, plus I have a cellphone. But then, today I am not managed by EG. EG didn’t include wages for Crim-on-the-road Gigsters between 1969-74: we only received per diems. That situation changed in 1981 when the two American players, Adrian & Tony, had a manager and/or different view of professional life, such as an expectation of being paid for their work.
View From Outside The Room…
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To The Left…
St. Louis: 215 miles in the morning.
10.11 A sunny morning somewhere near Blytheville I…
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Change In Attitude Posted by JL08030 on March 04, 2006
I was wondering what led to Fripp’s change of heart regarding Soundscape audiences. When I attended a Fripp performance at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia in November 1998, Mr. Fripp invited the audience to talk, walk around, socialize, come and go, etc. It’s been several years, therefore the preceding description is a bit of a paraphrase, but not much. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more attentive audience, other than the crying baby, who Fripp managed to sync up with, completely mitigating the annoyance factor. Nowadays, Fripp has stated a preference for an attentive audience for Soundscapes performances. Why the change?
A change of intent. This follows the injunction: act always in accordance with time, place & person. Another brief answer: act rightly. At some Soundscape performances promenading is right action & at others close attention is a better approach. On occasion, both approaches are useful within the same performance. And no single strategy is universally applicable.
The performer can never tell the audience how to behave, but may recommend approaches that support the performer’s intent; request the audience refrain from behaviour that is destructive & harmful to the performance (based on long years of hard experience); and perhaps recommend approaches that experience suggests support the performance.
10.54 E-flurry done. An 11.00 lobby call: Hell Boy Tom is carrying me to St. Louis.
17.06 Hotel Acceptable But Tired, St.Louis.
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Internet access is down throughout the hotel. Nowadays, this is like saying there are no telephones available.
20.24 Duck Room, Blueberry Hill I…
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The ghost of tom Redmond is seen in front of Chuck’s door in the dressing room…
On the wall, above the catering provisions, is a framed poster of Chuck Berry c. 1956 in duck-walk mode. Chuck continues to play this room once a month and this is his door, I was told.
23.34 Hotel Acceptable.
The venue is a smaller room within a larger venue, a bar with seats put out for this evening, and many audients standing behind the seating.
The performance was scheduled for 21.30, doors open at 19.30. I suggested a beginning-time of 21.00, based on the long queues & a sold-out house; and last night in Memphis: two hours of pre-show drinking & several well-tanked audients.
Tonight, probably the best audience of the tour: generous, supportive, attentive. Even, with a noticeable proportion of female women lady persons present.
All Quarters’ Maintainer Tom did a superb job of containing the energy. No idea what the music was like but, as a whole event & a whole performance, there was a resonance. And the venal guitarist was bribed to play the aching guitar theme from Starless. How much to play Fracture?
Now, back to packing.
"The presence of absence is an entry into loss."
