Robert Fripp's Diary

Hotel Quite Acceptable Los Angeles

Hotel Quite Acceptable, Los Angeles.

Rising this morning at 06.30. The drive-to-employment was already well underway outside the hotel.

Better to sit before the world has woken & begun to think. Even better to sit before the world has begun to drive & set-off into its rush hour. When the world goes to work, a massive cloud of negativity is released into the atmosphere.

While reading at the nearby Starbucks, a thirtyish woman accompanied by a woman friend sat at her table nearby & began to shout loudly into the room. Nominally, this was a conversation (actually, it was a monologue) but her friend's ears were only 3 feet from the high-amplitude declamation. There was no ear-trumpet in sight, so why the shouting?

Easy: the human animal recognises this instinctively - she was demanding attention. But demanding attention in an illegitimate fashion, by kicking those within the proximate zone, has an opposite effect. Not for me to suggest that her life will disappoint her, not give her what she knows herself to deserve simply because she draws breath. She has the right to the attention of others. Why do people smile politely and walk away, she wonders?

Also in Starbucks, a few minutes earlier, a fortyish man shouting at a woman, angrily addressing the "bitch", remonstrating with her for the unkind treatment she had meted out to him. He was instructing her as to how she should behave towards him in future. The woman was not visible, although she clearly accompanied him everywhere. Whether or not she talked back, I can't say. The Starbucks employee handing me my cappuccino, exchanged glances & we agreed: "That's what coffee does for you".

11.05 The optimist sees the half-full glass. The pessimist sees the glass half-empty. Better to see the glass as it is, both half-full & half-empty, without judgement.

17.49 Dribble dribble. The Crimson Behemoth is gearing up. An honourable beginning with hilarious moments where various members struggled to remember various parts of a distant repertoire.

The Little Luvvie called me as I was driving back to the hotel with Ade & Martha, back home very late after a day in London.

Now, to more practising.