Robert Fripp's Diary

Bredonborough.

14.55

A bad night, mostly sleepless and in pain. Rising at noon.

Much going on. Launch of Music For Quiet Moments…
https://www.dgmlive.com/news/Music%20For%20Quiet%20Moments%201

https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/rf-diary-june3-2007

The Humans live-cast tomorrow…
https://www.dgmlive.com/news/t&cw-live?fbclid=IwAR2Q82Fqkz6nOVgL2ZQMtUC4-AToLI3zqRnPcXRMjZ7QjG2JQwNma72mr8g

A heaving inbox.

Excellent lunch by the back door…

Kicking The Wasps’ Nest…

Francesco Donadio…what it really boils down to is that also here in Italy many public figures have been duly critisised for telling us to stay home, 'cause "staying home is cool" from their beautiful mansions in full sight. Fact is: some lockdowns are different (better) than other lockdowns. And when you are a public figure (I think) you also have a responsibility, you have to be sensitive to how people less lucky (and compared to Robert', less talented) than you might feel. These are difficult times and for some people they are really difficut. We all have to be careful. (There is no PC involved, that was never an issue)

Francesco Donadio…But I think most people in fact share my opinion. The videos are or might be fun / ok / what is off is the cheerfulness that implies that being locked down is also fun. When it’s not / at all / unless you spend it in a pleasurable retreat like they do. It’s just my opinion of course but I wanted to communicate this feeling of mine that something wasn’t right in those videos.

Francesco Donadio Mr. Fripp, sure: you " are blessed to have a wide strip of garden that goes down to the river" and as I stated in my FB post, you also deserve it for your contributions to music and culture in general. (By the way, I personally never mentioned any riches). But I stand by what I said: I find it quite "off" to cheeringly wish us "happy lockdown" when obviously your type of lockdown is so different from the one experienced by millions of people around the world, often in dramatic situations. It is way more comfortable and that's a fact that you can agree on I think. No envy, no spite, no nothing. Great admiration for you as an artist but please accept some critical observations sometimes. My regards to your lovely wife, cheers, Francesco.

RF: I don’t presume that many, if any, have followed my various commentaries and engagements with the public over five decades. But I think it likely, even for recent visitors to Elephant Talk https://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/ETWiki_Home, the DGM Diary https://www.dgmlive.com/word since 1998, and Kicking The Wasps’ Nest for years, that my willingness to accept some critical observations goes way beyond that of most players of modest public prominence.

Sr. Danadio’s comments are not, however, critical observations. To present a criticism requires at the least…

1. An informed acquaintance with the specific material under consideration.
2. A broadly informed view of the context in which the material is presented.
Taken together, these provide a gestalt.
3. An active, engaged and critical, goodwill.

Sr. Donadio’s posts meet none of these criteria.

Conventional approaches to home-ownership would likely agree that five decades of banging around over four continents, mostly in less than ideal conditions, informed by a Protestant work ethic inculcated by my working-class Parents, twenty-one years of Endless Grief to establish ownership rights to my work (and the rights of others), plus mortgages, entitled me to the right to buy a home.

I note: my approach is rarely conventional, I do not feel entitled, and neither do I feel I deserve our home. I experience it as an undeserved blessing, to which I nevertheless owe responsibilities.

I empathise with those in hard positions, not only this present crisis, who deal on a daily basis with ongoing disparity of power structures, indefensible inequity in social and economic positions, often ethnically based. Hey! I’ve been in the music industry for fifty-three years, and screwed over since Day One. Have I ever mentioned EG Management https://dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/bredonborough-the-sun-has-begun-210916?

But Sr. Denadio’s comments are mis-informed, mis-directed and rude. Tut tut.