Quinta Tonantzin Retreat House Tepoztlan
14.33
Quinta Tonantzin Retreat House, Tepoztlan, Cuernavaca, México.
Rising 06.00 to cocks crowing and further unpacking.
Morning Sitting in the Chapel at 07.30.
Breakfast at 08.15 with Child-Of-Chaos Tom on hand. Thirteen seated around the tables.
Kitchen and House tour at 09.30 with Fernando The Happy.
Both these men were on the first Guitar Craft Course in March 1985…
Computing, and the latest step in the non-industry dispute.
E-mail continuing compromised.
Lunch at 13.00 with 22 around the tables.
Returning to the non-industry dispute, between the Estate of JG Bennett & Elizabeth Bennett, and Bennett Books of Santa Fe. I am authorized by the Estate to represent it. The send button has been hit. Extracts below…
RF>Bennett Books 29january2013
II
Contracts
JT as MA Facebook 23january2013
I dispute the veracity of this post and the associated Diary statements relating to Bennett Books publication rights. Bennett Books and the Estate of JG Bennett have contracts which, by their own terms grant Bennett Books broad worldwide and unqualified publication rights that extend to eBooks. Anyone wishing to know more about this matter can request information through the Bennett Books web page using email or by phone.
Be well, JT
"To do good is a privilege that one has to pay for, not something for which one gets a reward." — JG Bennett, Fallen Leaves, First Volume
JT>RF 13 January 2013
…you know there are a number of contracts without a limitation period to the grant and assign of the right to publish, and five contracts whose limitation period, 19 November 2014, has not yet been reached.]
i) I believe the five titles you refer to are Sex, Way to Be Free, Talks On BT, Enneagram Studies and Idiots In Paris.
However, any contract between Bennett Books and the Estate which contains an accounting clause is voided by your failure to promptly account, not only for those agreements subject to foreign rights; ie all contracts between Bennett Books and the JGB & EB Estate have been voided by your delinquent accounting.
For example, clause (4) in the Transformation contract (2002)… accounts are to be made up to December 31st. each year and submitted before the following January 31st.
Accounting at this level of operation is not complex, nor do I understand why your reporting cannot be timely as that of Chalice Verlag (account for 2012 submitted on 03january 2013).
I note:
a) the above (Chalice Verlag) account for 3january2013 is the first instance of royalty reporting for German publishing to the Estate since you licensed rights to Chalice Verlag in 2004;
b) this accounting came direct from CV following enquiries by the Estate, not from you. The initial advance and royalties over eight years and received by you, have never been reported to the Estate.
c) A prima facie assumption, made of a party who does not provide accounts, nor even acknowledge the granting of the rights that give rise to those royalties, is of dishonesty. I do not make that assumption of you, although I am unsure of why you might keep details of these arrangements (and others) to yourself. An explanation would clarify the position, and I would be grateful for it.
ii) Any contract (for example, with clause (6) in the Transformation contract) forbidding the conflation of the movements and books businesses, voids the contract:
No reference to Gurdjieff Movements Seminars or web site shall be made on the bennettbooks.org web site, nor shall any reference to the Gurdjieff Movements Seminars be made on any inserts placed in the book, and all current such references on both web sites shall be (and are now) removed. And should this ever be changed by the publisher then this contract is null and void.
As of January 27th. 2013 I…
II...
I trust you will not cavil at the distinction between Gurdjieff Dance and Gurdjieff Movements Seminars; and I am not commenting in any manner upon your Movements Seminars, merely the contractual provision which refers to such.
Please forgive the redundancy: the relevant words here are null and void.
iii) You claim to have the rights to electronic publishing.
The contracts do not include electronic rights; unsurprisingly, as electronic media were not available when the contracts were originally drafted. Nor do they contain new technology/media clauses, to update the agreements after e-publishing became available.
Your claim is therefore based on two arguments:
a) Since electronic rights are not excluded, they are included.
b) Any developments in publishing technology, subsequent to the print contracts taking effect, are applicable.
Both these positions are a nonsense. The current situation in the media-world is that e-rights cannot be inferred from agreements pre-dating digital forms of publication; ie to be effective, electronic rights have to be specifically indicated and included in any contract.
iv)
JT>RF 13 January 2013
… Bennett Books will notify the Estate of all extant agreements with third parties, eg foreign rights agreements, within two calendar months of this Settlement taking effect; ie February 3rd. 2013.
If you are able to do this by April 3rd. 2013, why have you not done so in the past (at least) eight years, as with Chalice Verlag)?
The German, Italian and Turkish agreements – and what of the Serbian translations? - have only come to light by chance, not from you providing information to the Estate.
As with the CV accounting above, there is nothing complicated in reporting to the Estate. CV’s own reporting to you is exemplary.
v) Taken together, I find it difficult to see how you might seek to substantiate any claim to have an ongoing contractual right in any of the titles.
vi) Why would a person, undertaking a piece of work to honour
the legacy of their teacher, seek to enforce a contract to do so?
v
Conflict of Interest
JT>RF 22january2013
…with no conflict of interest by being an officer of The JG Bennett Foundation?
a) Where is the conflict of interest? I receive no income from supporting the JGB Foundation, neither the Estate.
I am not a “Work Professional”.
I did not offer to involve myself in the breakdown between Bennett Books and the Estate to further a personal agenda, but to find a way forward from a clear impasse. I have repeatedly emphasized that I was not interested in the historic position and what led to the breakdown.
You perhaps do not see me as being even-handed, possibly because my enquiries and concerns regarding the operations of Bennett Books have become increasingly critical. This I accept.
Your recent dealings in respect of the Estate are deplorable IMO. From what I have seen, there seems to have been a divergence of sympathy between Bennett Books and the Estate, perhaps eight-ten years ago. This roughly corresponds to your licensing to CV and non-reporting of such; and during this period you seem to have acted without much concern for the Estate. Most recently, this attitude is reflected in your electronic publication of five JGB titles: which you did not mention to me, nor any members of the Estate. At the very least, this is bad manners and a discourtesy. More seriously, it implies evasion. Taken together with your failure to report any foreign rights’ agreements and your lack of concern for accounting, I find your conduct as a business in respect of your licensor to be indefensible. The reasons for your irresponsibility may be explicable, and I would be grateful to learn your reasoning for such, but your behavior is unprofessional and unacceptable.
The beginning period, when you took on a difficult piece of work – to make the JGB material available to a wider public – was very different. I gratefully acknowledge your work. If you had not discharged that, today the legacy would not be what it is, and my own bookshelves would be the poorer. For this, my sincere thanks to you.
18.33 The cockerels have been crowing.
20.04
Introduction to the Guitar Circle
Cuernavaca, México
January 29 - February 6, 2013
Directed by Robert Fripp
Assisted by experienced members of the North American Federation of Guitar Circles and The Guitar Circle of Europe.
Dinner 15 minutes late at 19.15, but a very tasty dish of two components, and flan for dessert.
Silence visited, was not always accepted, but continued to return.
The House Rules have been provided to everyone attending for the first time, but several were mentioned including the Full Refund offer. Warnings were given, but should anyone attend the Inaugural Meeting at 21.15, they are asked to stay within the boundaries of the House for the duration of the course.
One late arrival at c. 19.55. Guitar Circle World Time was declared at 19.57 and 50 seconds.
22.11 Inaugural Meeting in the Ballroom, although it is unlikely that the space was designed for dancing, or that dancing has ever taken place here.
Fourty-two seats in the Circle. Moving to the left, introducing ourselves saying who, where, what, and our aims for the Course.
RF Aims:
Immediately, I am here as with several of those from the US, to support Leo and the Guitar Circle in Mexico.
Many of those present on the Intro are from Mexico, and would most likely not be on a Course if it were held in Europe, or the United States, even Argentina. We have come to you. Perhaps in two years time, you may come to us, perhaps for a special event in Argentina in 2015.
The first Guitar Craft course (March 25-30th. 1985) was held in the Claymont Mansion, West Virginia. The three aims of Guitar Craft then presented were to develop a relationship with the instrument, music and oneself. An alternative way of putting this: there are different reasons for learning an instrument.
Perhaps, as a hobby, and to be with others: that is, the act of music is primarily a social undertaking, and playing an instrument a way into social life.
Perhaps, there are some who would like to become professional. A developed skill-set will support the professional life, and the Guitar Craft approach to guitar does provide an efficient means of playing the instrument.
But achieving successful social or professional lives are not my primary interest.
Learning to play guitar, in the context of the Guitar Circle, is a way to develop presence: being present, being here in this moment, and knowing for a certainty that we are here, now.
If we are not present, we are not. Life is a fiction.
When we are present, life becomes real.
So, the question is, how to develop presence?
A quick answer: by developing the attention.
Where our attention is, is where we are.
If our attention is volitional, we are present where we Wish to be.
Without this capacity, life sweeps us along: we are unable to resist its power, or find our own way in the world.
Scary.
For the morning: Do Nothing – As Much As You Can! in the Ballroom at 07.30.
For those with an established sitting practice, or who would prefer a longer sitting, the Chapel is available for 07.15.
Breakfast at 08.00.
Participants: those members of the Team contributing At A Distance were spoken for.
A personal comment: when a course begins, something becomes available to help it on its way: readily and recognisably so.
