Robert Fripp's Diary

DGM HQ A sunny day

09.30

DGM HQ.

A sunny day in the Chalke Valley & broad accents of the Landlord variety are drifting through the wall.

11.19  A discussion in the kitchen over Estonia’s flat rate tax band (yesterday’s Diary). How wonderful an idea! But it won’t happen here: vested interests would militate against it. Tax reduction & avoidance is an established industry, and unlikely to downsize in the immediate future. Now there’s a good idea for a new reforming Prime Minister, or one about to leave who desired a legacy of office.

Robert has left his own office…

… for SoundWorld II with David…

David is at the upload-for-download computer, checking to see whether The Cotswold Gnomes are in active mode. Then, a short step to the mastering computer with Sadie…

Under consideration: Day Three at Haapsalu Lossikirik on August 24th. The church is within the castle…

http://www.castles.info/estonia/haapsalu/

http://www.silentwall.com/HaapsaluCastleI.html

http://flickr.com/photos/75878210@N00/tags/haapsalu

http://www.post.ee/?id=1946&prod_id=795

http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Europe/Estonia/photo146190.htm

Status Quo played an open air gig in the castle grounds on August 6th. 2006…

… but I lucked out & got the church.

Anyone formerly unfamiliar with Haapsalu should now be up to speed.

12.15  The Third Day is quietly wonderful.

In the moment of these performances, I rarely have any sense of the Musical Event, although often I have a sense of the Performance Event. David’s first response: unsettling, as opposed to unsettled & the ambiguity of Queer Space: Symmetrical is definitely ambiguous. David is now addressing a technical concern that is contributing to his unsettlement: a translation of the acoustics of a church & recording directly to hard disk.

15.04 David & Robert are back in SoundWorld II with The Third Day.

And from an e-correspondent…

… Something very strange happened to me musically yesterday. which I will
try to recount.

Attempting to keep my ’hand in’, I play at a weekly open microphone
event where anyone and everyone is welcome to get up an inflict
themselves on an audience. I usually sing and play two or three acoustic
covers and sometimes duet with various musicians. This is a pub
environment and at every previous night, I have always experienced
talking during my performances, no matter what sort of song I’m playing.
I fully expect this in a pub. Some come to listen, some to drink or to
socialise.

Last night, I played two songs that I had not previously played live -
/Beeswing /by Richard Thompson and /St. Swithin’s Day/ by Billy Bragg.
I’d been through a major emotional trauma earlier in the day and was
pretty wound up, and was aware that when playing I was/ physically
shaking/, but the strangest thing was that there was /total /silence
from the 30 odd people watching and this unnerved me further. I got
through the songs in one piece and was flattened by applause and kind
comments after - when I thought the performance must have been awful.

What was going on? Was my emotional state allowing me to communicate
more effectively with an audience, even though I’m convinced my playing must have been negatively affected. Or was my perception of my own
playing distorted so much by the emotion that I didn’t realise I was
playing well? Was the fact that I was playing these pieces for the first
time a factor - allowing some dynamic quality to come through? This was
the strangest  night of my short (about 160 gigs, some solo, many with
bands) perfoming life!

Yours sincerely, "Confused"

From the reply…

dear confused,

long experience suggests that the performer is only able to judge their own personal state - how they felt about what they were doing, whether they had a good time, etc. generally, whenever a player i know has had a good time the performance sucks: their own demands on the event is placed above their responsibility to the event.

so, you may have felt like shit but the songs were great & maybe all you had to do was stand onstage & deliver them!

Another e-pal has criticised my grasp of Yiddish in a recent Diary entry…

It’s "shtupped", not "stupped".  The latter may have many thinking it’s a misspelling of stumped due to their lack of familiarity with Yiddish.

In return…

many thanks for the correction and, it’s true, i’m a putz.

15.47 The Third Day is tickled, vibrated & playing in & back at my desk in The Chamber of Venality…

16.34  The Vicar came by at 16.00 for a short guitaristic contribution to Songbook No. 1. Actually, just 2 notes. Both glissandied a whole tone, so perhaps that counts as 4 notes.

17.54  Returning from a visit to Mr. Romain, antique dealer of ace items, in Wilton to find this on the Guestbook…

GGF liner notes:: Posted by JeffTruzzi on September 06, 2006
Those who do not possess “Cheerful Insanity” may get a kick from this ‘liner note’…provided it’s not violating any copyright! From the Deram vinyl back cover:

“Giles, Giles & Fripp stand poised to grasp the pinnacle of success – yea, the acme of achievement – to bask in the sunshine of mass adulation and thrill to the ecstasy of millions.  Or else to plummet into unplumbed depths of ignominy, unloved, unheeded and poor.  Giles, Giles & Fripp stand poised.”

Peter Giles wrote the blurb for the press release, and a Young Fripp wrote the notes quoted above for the sleeve.

19.31  The arising problem seems to be moving towards resolution.

19.54  My Sister has called. My Wife has called. Yippee! And now to an inbox of 237.

20.36  My travel agent has called. My American agent has called. At The End Of Time from St. Paul’s is playing, part of a Churchscapes compilation under consideration for CD. I love this music & can claim no authentic ownership of it, although I assert the moral rights of the artist. But that’s an operation of the conditioned world. The inbox is down to 239.

22.50  Down to 217. Dribble.

23.12  Listening to the Churchscapes draft compilation and one of three At The End Of Time pieces. When we slip through: what a world is waiting on the other side! This is life as possible, with hope, with reality, with – it simply is what it is.

23.30  Well. That’s what it is.

23.36  The floor.