10.15
#730, Loew’s Midtown Motor Inn, 8th. Avenue between 48th. & 49th.,NYC.
Pneumatic drills were working on the street below throughout most of the night.
This small event has just taken place in the hotel lobby, as I stood by the elevator with coffee in hand, returning here for morning reading... A man, late forties, came in from the street & walked up to me: I just wanted to say I think you’re a genius!
An instinctive response: I shrunk into the corner of the space & winced. What do you say to that?
I disagree.
Thank you.
What do you understand by genius?
Three brief example of my genius, please?
Morning reading…
Reflecting on King Crimson…
This is King Crimson. I know the presence. In 1969 we called this presence our Good Fairy. It was not a / the particular contribution of any of its members, notwithstanding personal beliefs, declarations & claims to the contrary. This became clear to me again in 1981, while driving to Bill Bruford’s house for rehearsals of Discipline. And on this tour, twice clearly, on LTIA II & Red.
Each Whole Performance contains within it many performances, some more limited & partial than others. So, each review of any show is true to the extent of the reviewer’s participation within & contribution to the overall event. A partial-participation permits a review of the reviewer’s part of the whole performance. If my participation & contribution goes as far as the ability to take a photograph, or record the show, or get an autograph on my cardboard CD sleeve of LTIA, my review will fail to represent or describe the Whole Performance. If my aim is to get a photograph / autograph & I have been thwarted or failed, my rights will have been abused and/or the show will have been a failure. The Whole Performance might be “successful” but I won’t have been there to know.
At a certain point, the Whole Performance can be undermined by the commitment of individual participants to their own partial performances. If the Whole Performance is not supported / affirmed to a necessary degree, it won’t reach critical mass. On the outside, notes are played; on the inside, Music finds no ears, no friends to welcome its entry into the world. This is pretty much an everyday tragedy in my professional life, one I could no longer bear after 2003.
How King Crimson, one particular concentration & expression of the Muse, can enter into the notes is mysterious; yet quite real & available to experiencing, if we allow it. There is hope in this. If we don’t allow it, a whole range of possibilities, our entrance to a world where riches lie just below the surface of our everyday perception & where the Good resides, close down. In the larger scheme of things, the possibilities remain available but are not actualised.
For those of us touched in some way by what we know as King Crimson, and I am one of those, better to seize the opportunity now; but to seize it gently, as if through the eye of a needle.
In the smaller scheme of things, in the particular form of available riches called King Crimson, the potential remains available but has a time limit. The internal fragilities are considerable & particularly sensitive to external conditions; only one example of which is the behaviour of audients.
11.50 A call from Hellboy Tom. How to redeem a situation from last night? Tom was placed in a difficult position & acted in accordance with his role. Tom acted rightly, but could he have acted better?
Who picks up the tab? Those of us, who have looked into ourselves & seen the poverty of our nature, find it hard to judge others: we are the same person, breathing the same air, sharing the same frailties. For myself, despair is a constant companion. Nevertheless, in looking at our own failings, we also accept that where we can’t pick up the whole tab, we pick up as much of the tab as we can bear.
So, a strategy for future action is decided.
16.05 Practising & computing. Lobby call for 16.15.
23.19 Outside the venue I…
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An opening Soundscape prior to the Crim performance. Developing a sense of the room & further tweaking of the sound.
A strong evening which had an integrity to it. I give the performance 7.5 out of 10: better than professional, but not one where angels descend on chariots of fire blowing golden trumpets in your ear. Overall, superb.
Much millage & liggage backstage. Hellboy Tom helped me flee the venue back to the hotel I…
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… where all-night construction work is underway I…
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"There are few things as convincing as death to remind us of the quality with which we live our life."
