Jacob Herringman has returned to London following the completion of very succesful recording. A very interesting development to report: a DGM conservatory / classical domain appears to be appearing & developing on its own initiative. The players involved share an interest in a very broad church of music; as if recognising that there are boundary lines between different traditions, disciplines, historical periods and repertoires, but choosing to take no notice of them. We have different dialects, but we speak the same language.
David & Chris have moved next door to remix a P4 track, one on which Pat thought the drums should inhabit the background. First mistake. Second mistake: going home, and leaving us unsupervised to correct his grievous error. The Beast Mastelotto is being returned to the foreground.
21.24
The heartless Fripp has left an armed mousetrap, baited with a wodge of tasty Stilton cheese, in our bedroom fireplace.
The House Mouse has been waking me, and keeping me awake, with constant munching of walnuts and horse chestnuts, aka conkers. Yesterday in the attic, and then in the landing library, constant running & banging sounds above my head reminded me of the fat, (almost) friendly creature which looked out at me from the fireplace two days ago. This after it had hurtled passed the bedroom sofa into the fireplace, returning from the bathroom. Two conkers, both well nibbled, were stashed under the bath for a loud nocturnal / early morning feasting at the House Mouse's Finger Buffet.
Toyah and I surmise that the creature has discovered a squirrel's horde in the roof space, somehow carrying choice delicacies down the chimney to the bedroom fireplace en route to the buffet under our (dual reclining) bath. One night when I was recently soundscaping on the East Coast it ran over Toyah's foot, whether to or from the "eat as much as you like" dining area I'm not sure.
The walnuts probably originate from the top of the bank behind our home where an old walnut tree (probably 250-300 years old) radiates beneficial emanations to all those within vibrating range.
When Beaton the Wonder Bun spends his nights in the fireplace the House Mouse seems to focus on the bathroom, probably a wise choice given the territorial nature of Bun and the excessively damp technique he employs to delineate his princely domain. But Mouse has a highway to Bun's nesting porch: we see Mouse peeking out from behind an air brick opposite Bun's hutch. If we leave any plastic or straw near the brick, the materials are snaffled and recycled to provide quality accomodation for this fat rodent. It secretly crept into a scullery cupboard and consumed the entire third tier of our wedding cake. Toyah had been hoping to keep this last part of the cake for posterity and our post-mature years. Our only hope now is to capture and embalm the Mouse, and display it on a cake stand.
The preceding owner, Ursula, Dowager Marchioness of Chichester, used to feed the Mouse (or more likely its forebear) with chocolates. This encouraged a semi-tame condition. The present Mouse, and it is a a cross-breed or semi-gerbil, looks exactly the same beautiful animal my wife and I saw eating Ferrara Roches from an open box on our second Christmas here.
But my sympathy is at an end. If Mouse's sweet tongue moves to take an interest in tasty cheeses, the finger buffet will be no more. My sleep shall be restored.
Chris, David & Robert are discussing how good a drummer Pat Mastelotto is, while running in new P4 mixes with Pat foregrounded, a symphony of crashing, whirring, driving things. New mixes are being run into the SADiE for editing and listening.
A joke e-posted to Chris from Pat...
from the Drummers' Dictionary:
accelerando: n. drum fill; solo.
Guestbook Responses:
1. Does it help DGM to buy directly from DGM mail order rather than from in-store or Amazon?
Yes. Hugely and significantly. DGM as a record company would fold without DGM's function as a mail-order record shop. We make five times as much through mail order as selling through a record shop (on or off-line). DGM's only possibility of long-term viability is the success of our mail order.
2. David V.'s comments on William Patrick Patterson's dissing of Boris Mouravieff / Robin Amis: perhaps David might engage WPP directly in discussion / debate? Perhaps through / within Mr. Patterson's magazine?
The difficulties of establishing authority, authenticity, and legitimacy of transmission are concerns not only in traditions of spiritual practice. And, within these traditions, how may we account for revelation?
Omar Ali-Sha, brother of Idries Shah, said of Mr. Gurdjieff: "I hate Gurdjieff! He had no conscience!" (talk, transcribed and published) arguing that Mr. Gurdjieff had no mandate to teach, leaving his students in a mess ("in galoshes").
I am unable to comment on this. But I am able to know what is right for me: this is a necessity. Without the capacity to find what we need, each of us, the Creation would be too cruel. In some cases what we find is a way to our Way; in other cases, we are already at home, and with family. Probably, most of our first encounters are signposts: at the least, this helps us to practice discrimination.
Before coming over to the DGM Music Room my Job For The Day was to progress archive / paper ordering. This involved a lot of "Work" papers and materials, including notes of a meeting in Paris with Mr. Gurdjieff (1946); the so-called "Loomis" version of the Third Series & Mr. Bennett's introduction to it (not published in the book, but later published separately); plus many lectures of JGB and Q. & A. from the 1950s & 1960s.
Mr. Bennett was distrusted, even disliked, in some cases persona non grata, with / by Ouspensky people and power-possessors in the Gurdjieff Foundation. Lord Pentland, Mr. Patterson's teacher and Mr. Gurdjieff's "Representative In America", was not generally supportive of Mr. Bennett's projects (this understates the case). And yet clearly (if only from reading the published materials) whatever JGB's later unpopularity with / in the Foundation, Mr. Gurdjieff put effort into preparing and directing Bennett. (A lot of offence seems to have been caused by Mr. Bennett's claim to be the oldest / longest of Mr. Gurdjieff's pupils).
Today, various members of the Foundation in London listen discreetly to the Bennett tapes (ironically perhaps, edited by myself) because JGB continues to be viewed with suspicion by authority figures. (Personal communication). Perhaps some Web visitors have seen pictures of the elderly Mr. Gurdjieff, in the 1940s, wearing a fez. Upon his death, the fez (I do not know if there was more than one) passed to Mr. Bennett (personal communication from the person to whom the fez passed upon Mr. Bennett's death).
I accept that Mr. Bennett was probably too much his own person to remain within the Foundation; I accept that some of his pronouncements were too speculative, even wild, to be considered as authoritative from an orthodox Foundation viewpoint. And what do I, how can I, know of authority and transmission?
Reasonable debate may prepare the ground for direct and creative insight, but it doesn't get us into the heart of the matter. When I found Bennett, the top of my head blew off (July 1974). I knew that I had to go to The IACE at Sherborne, and abandoned my career (as Crimson was about to be hugely successful in Europe) to do so. This was not a product of considered reflection: it was an immediate and instantaneous recognition of personal necessity. How could I know this? But how could I not know this?
Yesterday I spoke to Ben Bennett, one of JGB's two sons. Ben was my first Movements teacher in 1974. I am sending him transcriptions of the talks given by Mr. Bennett at Sherborne House. Also yesterday I spoke with Anthony Blake, returned the day before from America. Anthony was one of Mr. Bennett's bright young men of the 1950s and 1960s, and on the staff of the IACE at Sherborne. The Duversity is Anthony's current main undertaking. Anthony is one of the most qualified people to pass a considered opinion of Mr. Bennett's work, but (my sense) is that this "opinion" of what Mr. Bennett was about continues to shift / deepen / change. Ben & Anthony were / are instructors of mine. Neither would claim authority; both have helped & continue to help me.
Orthodox Christianity has the figure of the staretz: a holy man, often a simple monk, whose particular qualities are recognised by the people - the community of the faithful - ahead of the Church (e.g. Staretz Silouan, who is now canonised). Where does the authority of the staretz come from? How is this authority recognised?
3. If any audient, as did the correspondent from the second night of P4 in Boulder, sees a person violating the sacred sonic space of any musical performance of which I am a part, thieving from the atmosphere whether by microphone or camera, please feel sufficiently authorised to approach a security person.
Alternatively, make a citizen's arrest and spit upon either of the creep's feet while presenting the question: "Why do you feel the need to fetishise & reify the inherent and delineated meanings of music, toe-nail breath?".
23.46
The Little Horse has telephoned from London. The opening night of "Jack & The Beanstalk" at the Richmond Theatre has been honourably discharged and received. The bouquet of flowers which Wonder Bun instructed me to send to "Squeezy Pieces" Willcox were delivered to "Squeezy Peasies" Willcox. Not quite the poetry Bun intended, perhaps.
ProjecKt Four have begun a through run following David's glueing and an instant remix by Chris. Beast! Beast! I say. This is the most radical of all the ProjeKcts to date.
00.52
Stomping.
"Perfection is impossible.
But I may choose to serve perfection."
