The Return of Arthur White: November 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Basement Songs: This Desert

The purpose of Basement Songs is to allow our fans to play and sing along with Arthur's Concert for Iceland songs. We encourage you to send any recordings of your own renditions to carltonfarthington@gmail.com or share them with us (and the world!) through social media. Who knows, maybe one you could be up on stage with Arthur White!

INTRO (chorus chords):
Bm/G, Em7(b5)/F#, Am/F, A, A7/G
Bm/G, Em7(b5)/F#, Am/F, A, G, F#m, F/G, E/F#-F/G-F#/G#

(verse chords: all slash chords with A in bass) G, A, Bm, A, G-F#-G-F#-Em (2x)

VERSE 1:
G A Bm A
"I hope you feel much better," I wrote you in a letter
G F# G F# Em
Right out here on this desert plain
G A Bm A
Was thinking that this desert goes on and on forever
G F# G F# Em
I struck out on a separate way
F/Bb F#m7/B
But that way didn't guide me aright

CHORUS
Bm/G Em7(b5)/F# Am/F
Babe, we laid it on the line
A A7/G
But I needed some time
Bm/G
Don't blame it on me babe
Em7(b5)/F# Am/F
Just blame it on my blindness
A G F#m F/G E/F#-F/G-F#/G#
Take a good look inside this envelope and see

Rustyy Kryystyylz SOLO (CHORUS chords)

VERSE 2:

And now and then I hesitate to say I'm better
Off when I'm in this awkward state
Looking for oasises in other faces,
These outlines that I tried to trace
But they all disappear in the night

CHORUS
A G F#m F/G FMaj7/G
...take a good look inside this envelope and see
EMaj7/F#-Fmaj7/G-F#Maj7/G# Fmaj7/G-F#Maj7/G#-Gmaj7/A Bm/G
That-------this------ desert, that------this----------desert won't hold on to me

EXTEMPORANEOUS SPOKEN WORD PART (A/G, Bm/G, etc. until B7)

VERSE 3:

And now and then I hesitate to say I'm better
Off when I'm in this awkward state
Looking at this cactus, I won't overreact: this
Is something I've just got to face
Before it all disappears in the night

CHORUS

...take a good look inside this envelope and see

EMaj7/F#-Fmaj7/G-F#Maj7/G# Fmaj7/G-F#Maj7/G#-Gmaj7/A
That-------this------ desert, that------this----------desert

EMaj7/F#-Fmaj7/G-F#Maj7/G# E/A, G#m, B6 (3x); E/A, G#m, B7
That-------this------ desert... won't hold onto me

ENDING
F, C; F, C, D; F, C; F, C, B

F C
This desert's gonna dry my eyes this time
F C D
This letter's gonna buy me time
F C
Instead of losing my own mind
B E
I thought we'd find a brand new life this time (2x)

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Basement Songs: You Took Away My Children

Friday, November 28, 2014

Basement Songs: The Mirror (Part 2 of 2)

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Basement Songs: The Mirror (Part 1 of 2)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Basement Songs: Message of Love

Monday, November 24, 2014

Basement Songs: Arthur White's Basement "Studio"

The purpose of Basement Songs is to allow our fans to play and sing along with Arthur's songs. We encourage you to send any recordings of your own renditions to carltonfarthington@gmail.com or share them with us (and the world!) through social media. Who knows, maybe one you could be up on stage with Arthur White!

TRANSCRIPT
0:03 going down weaker to
0:06 my makeshift studio
0:09 you can see some wealthy
0:12 things that we have down here in this basement
0:15 need to feed known in a second here yepson
0:19 Paterno really come on okay
0:22 I'll be back in a second so here is
0:26 what I've done and you can see
0:31 this used to be some sort of washing room we have are some
0:34 from I'm have
0:38 a on dehumidifier and I get to keep everything sure I and things stay pretty
0:46 pretty darn train here but it's scary cold
0:50 rate now and a half up my keyboard
0:53 which is p.m. a
0:57 p.m. SR 220
1:01 pretty impressive I have a number of things that are used but that her
1:05 quarter-inch to USB India
1:08 me to USB on
1:12 over here a condenser microphone
1:15 usually there would be a lot here if it had not been
1:19 damaged by
1:22 are second to youngest on just recently
1:27 and fixed have
1:30 a some headphones and to
1:34 snow JBC found these is power
1:38 in the team's on $15.99 or something like that
1:42 I have repurposed this slightly broken
1:46 whiteboard to be able to use
1:49 writing down some information about songs baby that I'm working on your
1:53 ID is your projects wanna over here we have fun
1:58 amplifier and are that was loaned to me
2:02 by a my friend Joe and so
2:07 trying to keep that is nice as possible and definitely enjoying that thanks Joe
2:12 and it is so on a guitarist and that was given to me
2:16 I'm by my friend father cordon
2:20 so that was a very nice him a to the May 30th show
2:24 so that was pretty cool on have a picture I
2:27 the keys here as inspiration this was given to me by my
2:33 sister-in-law thank you very much shell into
2:37 that is what I work here much every day no one ever come down here now
2:42 on song can have that inspiration
2:46 cell on gonna go see about no ni
2:50 where she needs some water or something
2:53 I'm also have my friend
2:56 down here the newest member of the family who is
3:00 along for the ride

Sunday, November 23, 2014

A Sketchbook for the Project (Part 3 of 3)

The following is an excerpt from a 17 October 2014 email exchange between Art and Will.

Clay Shirky

Art:

I've been thinking some more along the open source, JamKazam lines. I did go to the site and was favorably impressed/intimidated with the professionalism and smoothness of the interface.

It sounds like the live component will remain free forever; the more intensive, after-the-fact multitracking option will be available for a small price after the beta period is complete.

On a related topic, I want you to watch this little segment about ePortfolios, which I happen to be getting up and running for my non-AP seniors this year. The section I'm starting you at has to do with the concept intrinsic motivation and its relationship to successful websites.

These are the three keys according to Clay Shirky:

Make people feel good about participating

Give users autonomy

Keep the system as open as possible

I think this is our business plan moving forward: to make the blog as close to this as possible.

What does that look like? I have a few ideas and I'd like to hear some of yours. Perhaps this would be a good time to seek out input from some of the people visiting the blog or one of its social media platforms.

For one, we open up the "sketchbook" and take every opportunity to share what we're working on, warts and all. We already do that with the conceptual underpinnings of the site by posting our emails, but I think we need to start doing that with the music by posting YouTube videos of me playing songs in my basement "studio."

Although this development breaks out of one paradigm--the overemphasis on finished product and the exclusion of process--it remains entrenched in the one-way artist-to-audience orientation of artmaking. The new frontier for us--in addition to opening the door to a more process-oriented approach--is to engender a more symbiotic model of artmaking and to harness the power of the "open source" paradigm. As Helen Barrett points out, it is this paradigm that allowed Wikipedia to utterly destroy Microsoft Encarta (10:45 in the same video). A similar fate may await musicians and artists who cannot find ways of capitalizing on this trend.

So, again, what would that look like?

I think Jamkazam could break this thing wide open for us.

Consider a page on the blog that would host the sharable, editable Jamkazam recordings of our songs. You and/or I would do the initial recording, but we would encourage others to get subscriptions to Jamkazam and start adding to these recordings at their leisure. Other, related materials, such as sheet music, would also be made available. Some of this, too, could be given an open source feel by sharing them as editable Google Docs (rather than read-only pdfs!). Yes, some of this seems risky, but we take on that risk and bend over backwards to (1) make people feel good about participating, (2) give users autonomy, and (3) keep the system as open as possible. This, of course, could create a superabundance of material to post to our various platforms. And, of course, I am not forgetting that this is exactly what we originally were thinking way back when!

Okay, before getting too excited, take a moment to realize that all of this is easier said than done.

But, really, I'm talking about one additional page to set up within the blog. Perhaps also another page where, as mentioned in a recent email, we explain to our audience what we are trying to accomplish.

All of this is a big change in our basic trajectory, but one well worth pursuing.

I say Arthur White is open source or nothing!

You mentioned that the CEO of JamKazam contacted you personally. I wonder if you could somehow explain the above ideas to him and see what he thinks. If nothing else, maybe we could get his endorsement (in the form of a quote that we have permission to post to this page on the site). After all, from what I've just outlined, we may be using this as our main platform and actively sharing it to as wide of an audience as possible.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Sketchbook for the Project (Part 2 of 3)

The following is an excerpt from a 17 October 2014 email exchange between Art and Will.

Philip Glass "20.IX Book of Longing" by MITO SettembreMusica - originally posted to Flickr as 20.IX Book of Longing. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Art:

"Sketchbook for the project" is exactly right. And yes, it may very well be the project, full stop.

The difference is that we open that sketchbook for everyone to see. This is nothing new; a seed of this has been present from the very beginning of the project and perhaps from much earlier.

It's only now that we're beginning to understand it.

We're letting everyone have a glimpse at the formlessness that is, in some sense, a precondition for creation. The sculptural aspects of the blog provide the requisite Apollonian stage through which we can gaze into the abyss and not be destroyed in the process. And Nietzsche asserts that the Apollonian will be "energized and raised aloft" by this encounter--another explanation for why generosity of this type generates something!

Paradoxically, the best way to get the plastic project up and running is keep "going back to the well," that is, highlighting that moment at which form comes out of formlessness.

There's always the fear that we might devolve into what my college housemates dubbed a "Mind Party," where we end up wandering the streets with an untuned, 2-string guitar singing snatches of Christmas carols to bewildered neighbors until someone offers us Rice Krispy Treats.

Or, even worse, "The Whitewater Tapes." Not even going to go into that one.

Of course, this story originates from those days, when I was getting down to some artistically entropic states that only now, nearly 20 years later, am I "capitalizing on" in any appreciable way. That is the exact moment at which the first Arthur White songs came into being. That's when I built the cardboard tunnels, snaking along the sandy floor of our Michigan basement. That's when my friend and I wrote The Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas.

And none of that material ever saw the light of day, except for The Principles of Theory, which was unceremoniously presented to Philip Glass (without any contact information or way for him to follow up, of course).

I think the difference between then and now is the persistently Apollonian intentionality of the current project. We need to keep on approaching this formless state with the goal of containing it, of framing it, of shaping it into something, of getting it to annunciate itself more clearly...not letting it languish in its formless, inarticulate fecundity.

I like the idea of explaining the project somewhere on the site. Maybe we can start working on the wording for that. That said, there's also much damage to be done by following up Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with 2010: The Year We Make Contact. As usual, we'll have to affect the usual Dickinsonian tack of "tell the truth but tell it slant."

I like the idea of JamKazam too and I think it's a good fit for this current impulse. Keep me updated on that!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A Sketchbook for the Project (Part 1 of 3)

The following is an excerpt from a 17 October 2014 email exchange between Art and Will.

Daedalus and Icarus by Charles Le Brun

Art:

I'm tired of holding things back just because perfection is out of reach.

I want to be generous with this pittance of loaves and fishes. And I think it's not just etymological coincidence that generosity generates something. Once I get the camera on my Macbook fixed, I'm going to start performing, posting and embedding YouTube videos of those performances. "Basement Songs" or something of the like. Usually, I will have Francis strapped to my chest with a baby carrier. Usually, I will make several mistakes, but I will do my best to put my best foot forward. I'd love it if some musicians would take those videos and record their own guitar solo over the top--nothing fancy, an impromptu audition--and send it back for me to post: to potentially bring that dynamic to what is currently an esoteric, elitist, one-way proposition. Not saying anyone will bite, but at least we'll be exuding a little more openness.

And if someone takes something and becomes a millionaire (that's not arrogance, just a thought experiment), all the better...

It means that things are moving: the once-stagnant waters rush, the once-imprisoned Daedelus and Icarus fly, and the once-involuted labyrinth evolves into a journey.

Will:

I really like the blog.

It took me a while, but I get it now. I'm wondering if in this new spirit of generosity it might make sense to have a spot on it, maybe under Farthington's profile, that briefly explains what the project is so that we can make it slightly more accessible. Video and music will definitely help in that regard, too.

I'm working on setting up JamKazam on my computer. It could open up a lot of options for me and for us. For one, we could have virtual Arthur White concerts: no video, just sound. We could perform with anyone who can use the free program. We could host Arthur White jam nights (they frequently host jam nights with tons of random strangers playing together).

It's a very approachable company--the owner has contacted me a few times! It's an option that didn't exist when we started. It also makes multi-track recordings, so we or other people could tweak, add, or subtract whatever we like. It would allow for the sketching of a lot of concepts, and right now, that's the beauty of the blog: it's basically the sketchbook for the project, if it isn't more or less the project itself these days.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

This Strange, Impractical, Unpracticed Gift

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 10 October 2014.

Wu-Tang Clan will release one copy of its secret album

I have a few moments now and I wanted to try to articulate some of my thoughts about the project vis-à-vis Matthew 10, comedy, etc.

Long story short, I think this has consequences for how we do things.

The best way to be a Christian hero is to be a comic hero, not a tragic or epic hero. Christ is a one-of-a-kind hero, not a comic hero, but a Christian should strive to be a comic hero. And by comic hero, I'm thinking about everything from The Lives of the Saints to La Divina Commedia to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give" (Mt. 10:8).

I agree with Wu-Tang Clan's RZA when he laments music's devaluation--that great works of visual art, owned by museums and private collectors, receive greater reverence. At the same time, music is a different art form. It is right that the more plastic arts would demand and evoke those kinds of reverence and respect. These, as well as the more classical forms of music, are the more Olympian/Apollonian genres, whereas the kind of music we make stems from the Chthonic/Dionysian tradition. The former commands reverence, individuation, and rationality; the latter evokes ecstasy, union, and chaos.

In former days, people ascribed this enthusiasm or frenzy to the influence of chthonic gods. In our own day, it is the joy that comes from knowing that Christ has embraced us in our lowliness, that we can trust in his ongoing presence so long as we "do not grieve the holy Spirit of God" (Eph. 4:30), mostly through our own misguided attempts to save ourselves.

I think many young musicians have intuited the message of Matthew 10:8.

If you want to partake in that ecstatic union, you cannot hold onto attitudes of individuation and ownership. Don Henley cannot simultaneously sue younger musicians and write great music. Halvard Solness cannot simultaneously stifle young architects and build "castles in the sky."

So what implications am I drawing from these observations?

In short, I think we need to let go of everything, more and more, until God lets us know what He wants to do with us. This gift that we've been given...this strange, impractical, unpracticed gift...this gift that we've tried to rationalize, monetize, capitalize on...we need to give it back, in whatever ways we can.

And then some wind of the Spirit may come to the aid of our weakness and intercede for us with inexpressible groanings (Rm. 8:26). And maybe the Spirit will take it from us so that it is no longer ours. But at least at that point we are no longer living in this labyrinth, this counterfeit of the hero's journey, having imprisoned our creative spirit.

Let it go to some distant land and benefit someone else.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Take It Easy

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 8 October 2014.

Don Henley

One thing that sticks out to me that you said was the Beowulfian element, which is another archetype that the project takes up. Carlton descends into the volcanic caverns where dinosaurs, unfrozen by volcanic activity, traipse through tunnels lit by streams of flowing lava. Carlton or Steffi, in sea monster form, terrorizes the Atlantic; maybe he or she has a cave down at the bottom. Heck, maybe in Atlantis for all I know...

Christ showed us how to enter the cave and emerge victorious in an unprecedented way. Yes, he put Death in chains, but not like Beowulf or Sisyphus.

The Christian artist needs to follow his example.

Another thing that I hear in your "reminder that life is good and beautiful" is the spirit of comedy. This is the same spirit we were talking about a few months ago. As I've mentioned before, I see this spirit most clearly in the genres of Country and EDM.

I'm sure I've painted with too broad a brush due to my never having personally associated with either of these scenes. But one thing I've noticed is the sense of inclusion. The artist up on stage just wants to party with the fans. To some degree, the EDM artist of today is just a leader of listeners, a first among equals. Concepts of private ownership, intellectual property, creative rights, artist and audience...all these blur within this milieu. The fundamental doctrine is the universal destination of music: everyone gets to join in the fun. Music isn't anyone's property; it's for the good of the community. You can add to it as much as you want, but you can't hoard it for your own selfish purposes (e.g. Don Henley).

As a person with a greater affinity for rock 'n' roll and rap, there are a few things that make it difficult for me to get into this mindset. I still believe the story that there's something really very special about me (cf. Don Henley). And yes, in a certain sense, that's true...just probably not in the sense that I believe it. The rock 'n' roll/rap artist imagines himself on a pedestal, a throne, perhaps even a cross. He may have a sense of his music as providing some kind of service, but it's usually pretty unconvincing. The rock 'n' roller's ethics and values are the furthest thing from those of the larger community. He doesn't, as the country artist does, sing about being a "meat-and-potatoes" (or t-shirts-and-blue-jeans or cowboy-boots-and-pickup-trucks) kind of guy. He experiences rarefied thoughts and emotions that place him well above his fellows. And yes, there is something of the stylite in him: the emaciated, wild-eyed prophet who stands aloof.

And yes, he is a hackneyed type. But so, for that matter, is the comic type expressed in the Country and EDM genres. The question is not which is less hackneyed but which is better.

You convinced me a few months back that comedy is the superior genre and the more Christian disposition. But this begins to touch on a topic that has concerned both of us: the issue of intellectual property and creative rights. I have a strong sense that you can't be comic unless you're ready to give freely. We are not exempt from the Christ's words: "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give" (Mt. 10:8). While I love ideas like Wu Tang Clan's "private" record, I don't like how Don Henley is spending his twilight years tracking down and suing young artists.

Jesus follows his earlier statement with "The laborer deserves his keep," but that seems different than what Henley is asserting through his lawsuits.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

An Endless but Flavorless Buffet

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 5 October 2014.

Saint Wolfgang and the Devil "Michael Pacher 004" by Michael Pacher - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

I've pondered your insights and questions, and here's the best I've got: Art is a ministry.

I think this when my wife makes art, when I listen to your music, and even when I play in all my goofball bands. There's a little bit of the Will Witkowski shaper in me, but mainly my role as a drummer is to help other musicians sound their best and meet their visions for their music and to help the audience have a powerful experience that in some way draws them toward God, even if it's just through a reminder that life is good and joyful.

Praise Him with drums and dancing! Praise Him with loud cymbals!

The Arthur White project aims to give more to God and man than any of my other projects and it's hard to feel significant feelings of accomplishment because the scope is so large and we're so small. But my faith here has a German angle to it. We keep going, not out of a hope of reward or success, but because it's the right thing for a story and body of songs so powerful to exist. We keep dedicating everything that comes from the project--whether it's joy, recognition, wealth, or suffering--back to God. And if we fail, we either screwed up, weren't really doing God's will, were being taught our limits, or something else.

But to go full-out Beowulfian, we've all got to enter the cave. If Arthur White doesn't make much impact, we haven't failed. If we and other people called to make art cease to be the sort of people who enter the cave, a fallen mankind falls some more.

The Swedes of mediocrity conquer us, and Screwtape and his minions get an endless but flavorless buffet.

Friday, November 14, 2014

I'm CEO

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 4 October 2014.

"If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is the my father who glorifies me"

(John 8:54).

Bob Lefsetz celebrates the amoral acumen of the "professional," contrasting him with the sorry-ass amateur.

The Social Network (and the true-life story it depicts) shows how only one person wins, only one person gets to say "I'm CEO, bitch."

The latter of these two stories has all the classic raw material needed for tragedy.

What will our success story look like as Christians, and not just in the afterlife, but here? We have willingly and consciously embraced our constraints, or at least considered the fact that they might be expressions of God's will, which is "love and mercy itself." But they do put us at a distinct disadvantage at least from the worldly viewpoint, don't they?

We didn't go to Harvard. We're not the next Bill Gates. Doesn't look like we're going to be the next Mother Teresa either.

The saint finds refuge in the shadow of God's wings, in obscurity, in the hidden life. But how does that intersect with rock 'n' roll stardom?

Job was prospered after his trials, after he acknowledged the greatness of God's power, the inscrutability of God's wisdom. His intercession on the part of his friends (some friends!) is the last step in his definitive surrender. He is similar to Nietzsche's Dionysiac man in that his former freedom and prosperity are eclipsed by the blessings won by his present passivity.

The frequent mention of the Leviathan in Job suggests that our existence finds its foundation at the bottom of these dark, primordial waters. Yes, we are to build our lives on the rock, but we also need to be drowned in Baptism.

The greatest mystery is God's mastery of chaos.

Not mastery in the sense of vanquishing chaos: there is no analogous "captive led captivity" for chaos. Rather, God's mastery takes the form of transforming that element into something holy: the waters of Baptism, the waters of the womb. I just marvel at the thought that when the angels "came to present themselves before the LORD, the satan also came among them" (Job 1:6). And so God gives satan his "blessing" in a certain sense, and in so doing, transforms satan's trial of Job into a blessing.

And this is the miracle: when those whose lives have been touched by evil or chaos or tragedy are somehow blessed by that encounter. Yes, in some cases that happens through reparation after the fact, or even after death. But also it happens in life.

And so, with faith do we go down to defeat and failure, knowing that somewhere in those depths we find our foundation.