I am considering the next steps in hopping gently over the major tectonic shifts presently underway. More soon on this for Diary readers.
Several posters to the Guestbook have, generously, implied they miss my (almost daily) contributions. The level of concerns, on many levels, which I am presently centering has kept my attention closely focussed on necessity. And the Guitar Craft aphorism springs effortlessly to mind:
When you have nothing to say, better to say nothing.
When you have nothing to say, it is very hard to say nothing.
11.30
A major difficulty for DGM has been that we have, since our inception, been pushed towards being what we are not. Like, from our artists, being a small replica of a large record company. Like, from our mail order customers, being a King Crimson Fan Club.
That is, we are not being seen as we are, but as we are expected to be, or imagined as being.
Similarly with Emory's "Is Fripp a nice guy?" thread: Fripp is / is not a nice guy, depending upon our subjective assesment / criteria / expectations of what constitutes "a nice guy". Many (most) of the pleasant, charming, attractive "nice guys" I have known were also devious, vain, narcissistic, used flattery as a control mechanism, & reliably unreliable. To quote David Niven on Errol Flynn: "You knew where you stood with Errol. He'd let you down". How many "nice guys" in the industry would be "nice" if they honestly answered questions put to them, I wonder.
Examples:
"What did you think of my tape?".
"Altough you don't know me, & have no personal or professional responsibilities towards me, will you listen to my demo (cassette tape) for 30-60 minutes & then spend another hour to send me a detailed critique & analysis? (I will give you nothing in return except a stream of hostile letters if your advice isn't to my liking)".
"Why does no-one seem able to find time to listen to my tape?".
"May I share my life as a struggling musician with you? It'll only take long enough to suck the life out of you & leave you a dry, empty husk!".
"Do you mind if I interrupt you while you're having a coffee & reading? What Bill Bruford / Jamie Muir / etc. / etc. doing now?".
One of my personal criteria for a "nice guy" (read "person of any gender who acts with exactitude & precision") is that they are true both to themselves & in their interractions with others. Simply, "nice guys" of proper formation act in accordance with who & what they are. This implies that they are able to maintain their state, & sense of themselves, regardless of the opinions of others.
If I am unable to handle a "true" comment from someone whose opinion I trust, which I sense is likely to demolish my fantasies & pretensions, better I refrain from asking a question of them.
The "nice guy" encounter thread seems to be: Mr. Nice Guy gives us what we want, however unreasonable or onerous that demand might be, and however much it undermines who and what they "really" are. If Mr. Sweetness Breath & Shining Light Of Benevolence declines to humour our demands - utterly reasonable without possibility of demur that they are, & besides, I give him money - in an instant Sweetness Breath becomes Mr. Creepo Face. This loathsome brute is heartless, raging, venal. And he owes me an apology for upsetting me, in return for my apology for taking a photo under the sign which asked me not to, because I was so very upset at being held publicly accountable for my public behaviour.
In other words, whether a guy is "nice" or not, our judgement has nothing to do with the person & their individuality, & everything to do with us.
Similarly, Fripp as "leader" of King Crimson, is cast in the role / image of what a leader is seen as being from a basement perspective of what leadership is. The basement has no capacity for impartial judgement. What appears to be choice is the "choice" to salivate when a bell rings. Principles, universal guiding points of conduct, fall from the higher floors to become instructions, & then inviolable, unbending laws. A basement understanding of leadership knows nothing of the nature of leadership.
A "real" leader enters into the necessities of living & dying, is servant to the group of which they are the nominal "leader", & in service to its aim (or raison d'etre). This is how we recognise leadership in others. I know one leader who would disappear for a period of time, and invisibly return when they had anonymously undertaken a piece of work which supported the group.
If we know what to look for, we may recognise it when it happens. Otherwise, we see what we expect to see. That is, what we know in ourselves.
Which is not to say that Fripp is a "leader" in any sense, but is to say that most every bit of public commentary (on almost any subject at all) is terrifyingly basement, punctuated by occasional shards of light piercing from above to disturb the dark, damp, smelly & utterly inappriopriate place in which we choose to dwell. Or not.
16.17 The Music Room is vibrating today to the sounds of Matt Seattle's Border pipes. "Thank you, God, for Matt Seattle & Border pipes" is my immediate response. David & I have been listening through to vibrate small details (such as low rumble) & master "Out Of The Flames". Hugh has presented me with choices of cover art: a stone piper from Broad Chalke Church gets my vote.
DGM's second label - Present Moment - formally presents itself to the listening community on 17th. May with the release of Mr. McFall's Chamber. Matt Seattle (and pipes of wonderment, joy & bliss arising) & Jacob Heringman are both released on 14th. June.
The Present Moment is where tradition & innovation meet.
Diane has passed to me my defining thoughts recorded at this morning's meeting of The Big Three:
"Our future is in who we are,
not in who we are not.
So, who are we?
Discipline Global Mobile is a network
with several centers.
The record company is one of them".
16.35 Mark Prendergast, the music writer & biographer of U2, has approached Richard Chadwick with a view to writing a biog of The Raging Heartless One. My telephonic comment on this to Richard, just ended, was this:
"Mark is far too intelligent a man to write a biography of me. I have so little interest in this as to describe my position as active antagonism. There is only one writer I know who has the perception to write a biography of RF / King Crimson, & they are too perceptive & too intelligent to bother".
Mark must have had a bad day, a day when his sense of presence & prescience faltered. In this weak & feeble condition an idea, clearly idiotic & foolish on any other day, when the sun shone & life appeared worthwhile, took a seeming hold of Mark's otherwise experienced powers of critical judgement. Fortunately, we have recognised this in time & steered Mark back from the brink of folly.
"Music changes when people hear it."
