Robert Fripp's Diary

Los Molinos

07.54

This is the most settled first morning sitting with Level One that I have known. Usually, it has taken three, perhaps four, mornings to settle. I attribute this to the large proportion of more experienced Crafties and the Introduction To Guitar Craft courses.

My first night's sleep. Warmth arrived yesterday in the form of a radiator borrowed from the sister of an Argentinian Crafty.

11.31

The Staff & Mentor Buddies Meeting addressed mainly practical concerns; the Kitchen Team meeting addressed mainly practical concerns, with the emphasis on organizational arrangements.

This Level One is the best prepared Level One of all time. There is only one player who has not been on an Introduction To Guitar Craft.

13.55

Many good comments over lunch, and soup served with dual processors.

At the beginning of lunch, the Kitchen Co-ordinator asked for the nasty, horrid fluorescent lights in the dining room to be switched on. I asked that they be immediately switched off. They were not necessary: daylight with blue sky & sunshine provided more than a sufficiency of light; and they cast a nasty, horrid shine onto everyone & everything.

This is an example of where rules & regulations, if strictly adhered to, may be inappropriate. The application of the creative intelligence is necessary in novel situations. In Mutiny On The Bounty Marlon takes over the ship & sets Trevor Howard, the captain, adrift. When Trevor gets back to England & the Royal Navy have a Committee to investigate the mutiny, they find for Trevor. He is, after all, captain.

But the Committee notes that the Rules & Regulations of the Royal Navy were written in the expectation that an English gentlemen would be appointed captain of a Royal Navy vessel. An English gentlemen was expected to provide this element, of creative adaption, to rigid & proscriptive rules, in order to fairly meet the variety of situations that life unfailingly presents. The Royal Navy knew, when writing the Rules & Regulations, they could not cover all possible arising situations. The English Gentlemen, in this context, represents the creative element. The Committee noted that, in this respect, the Royal Navy failed; ie Trevor is not a gentleman.

How, then, to know right conduct in a situation, even a situation in which we have never found ourselves before? For the first time, I presented this as "the aim of Guitar Craft". There may be different ways of formulating this, but it stands. So, here a formal presentation:

The aim of Guitar Craft is to know right conduct in all situations, even situations where we find ourselves for the first time.

This is one of several possible formulations of the prime Guitar Craft aim: the development of conscience.

Lunchtime also offered comments:

on this morning's work;
a version of Japanese whispers, where multiple translations are made between several different languages of Crafties present;
a report on cleaning by Lifers;
statements of cleaning preferences by several.

I presented a noticing from the morning: where there was careless playing of Eye of the Needle by one student outside the ballroom. This relates to Steve's comment yesterday at lunch - where has the energy gone? This was a good example: the playing was unintentional. In addition to this, Eye Of The Needle is, for me, sacred. It cannot be played without intention. So to see & hear this happening carelessly outside the ballroom made me really pissed. And it is rare that I get really pissed. And then there was the waste.

But, there is no mistake save one - the failure to learn from a mistake. So that careless moment is available for redemption.

16.46

A wonderful performance by The Big Time Trio at tea. Their tango is superb and authentic.

A guitar meeting with the Kitchen Team at 15.00. Circulations, thrakking circulations, & thrakking.

A valuable conversation with Tom Hellboy on the subject of acquiring a Guitar Craft House in England for the projected one-year 2006/7 course.

17.51

Some insights & bright ideas flying by while shaving & showering. The bathroom is a good place for me to reflect on arising matters that hold value for me.

18.55

Level One meeting, circulations & polyrhythms.

20.20 About to be printed and put on the board --

Guitar Craft

Villa Mercedes / Padres Claretianos
Calle San Pascual 3
28460 Los Molinos
Madrid
España

Saturday 25th. January, 2003

The standard of cleanliness and order asked of a Guitar Craft House is that it is fit to welcome a valued and respected guest, should they arrive unexpectedly and unannounced.

This Guitar Craft House, clean and ordered, is metaphorically and analogically more than a building within which Guitar Craft activities are conducted: it is a metaphor for the Crafty Lifer.

A lifer is one whose commitment is persistent and ongoing; that is, persistent and ongoing in the good times, the bad times - most difficult of all - the experientially long times when nothing seems to be happening at all; and which commitment is available to be tested and verified, also on an ongoing basis.
 

20.24

A very good dinner with new radical serving situation.