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!
CHORUS
G C G C
Agnieszka,
F G
Darling, I know you don’t want my name anymore
G C G C
But Agnieszka,
F G
I hope it’s okay that your name is the same as a song
C
Called Agnieszka
VERSE 1:
Em Am
Agnieszka, at least we can say
F C
That we were wise in ways the world will never prize
Am
Though you know I’ve
F
Been wondering what you plan to tell the children:
Fm C
Tell them that the fault was no one but mine.
Em Edim
I might have been blind too many times
F Fm G C G C (CHORUS chords)
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
I don’t know how to make do without you in my life
But Agnieszka,
I have to admit all we did was just fussing and fighting
Agnieszka
Musical interlude over verse chords
C
...Tell them that the fault was no one but mine
EM Edim
I might have been blind too many times
F Fm Am
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
BRIDGE:
Am
And time will show us
Em
How a cradle can become a cross
Bm
So carry on
F
But I don’t carry the weight
C
So darling don’t wait too long
Santa must have seen me
Cause I didn’t get what I wished for for Christmas
For so long
But I don’t need to be right
In order to write this song
CHORUS chords
Agnieszka,
I don’t know which is more vicious: this weather tonight
Or, Agnieszka,
The fact that you won’t let them see me leaving for my flight
O Agnieszka
VERSE 2:
Agnieszka, at least we can say
We were better than those who place their hope in human plans
Like building on sand
Though they know not, the coming conflagration
Carries off the life not built upon stone
BRIDGE chords
I know:
I’ve got my whole life in a single suitcase
Far from home
And I can carry this weight
But darling don’t wait too long
Now I’m up on this stage
Don’t know why people’ll pay a day’s wage
To hear my song
I guess it’s some kind of rite
By which I can right this wrong
CHORUS chords
Yeah Agnieszka,
Darling, I know you don’t want my name anymore
But Agnieszka,
I hope it’s okay that your name is the same as a song
Called Agnieszka
Push comes to shove, if they’re puzzled where Daddy has gone
O Agnieszka
Just try to pretend I got lost on my way
G
And wish them a merry Christmas
C Em Gm F (4x)
Please give them my love...
C, Em, Gm, F (2x)
C, Em, F, Fm (2x) vamp between these two
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Basement Songs: Agnieszka's Song (Early Draft #3)
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!
Agnieszka, at least we can say
That we were wise in ways the world will never prize
Though we survived
Nah nah nah nah... to tell the children:
Tell them that the fault was no one but mine.
Agnieszka, at least we can say
That we were wise in ways the world will never prize
Though we survived
Nah nah nah nah... to tell the children:
Tell them that the fault was no one but mine.
I might have been blind too many times
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
Nah nah nah nah...
Darling I don't know if I can nah nah nah nah...
(Solo)
I might have been blind too many times
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
Bah, dah, bah, dah, etc.
I can carry the weight but darling don't wait to long.
Bah, dah, bah, dah, etc...right this wrong.
Bah, nah, dah, and so on...
The fault was no one but mine
I might have been blind too many times
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
Bla bla bla...
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Basement Songs: Agnieszka's Song (Early Draft #2)
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!
Agnieszka, at least we can say
That we were wise in ways the world will never prize
Though we survived, nah nah nah nah...our children
Nah nah nah...
I might have been blind too many times
But at least the memories are still with me, Agnieszka
Monday, January 26, 2015
Basement Songs: Agnieszka's Song (Early Draft #1)
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!
LYRICS:
Agniezsca, at least we can say
That we were wise in ways that we wise
In ways the world will never prize.
...You're not made of gold
LYRICS:
Agniezsca, at least we can say
That we were wise in ways that we wise
In ways the world will never prize.
...You're not made of gold
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Very Biblical and American at the Same Time!
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 1 January 2015. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
"Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851" by Emanuel Leutze - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Bullet points of serendipity suggest rightness.
Absolutely, the Concert has become Arthur's dome in air. This meshes somewhat well with Farthington, although this is not some mythical location in the Far East, but one that is, at least according to our recent exchanges, the essential source and summit of the White American Dream in its inchoate, primordial, inarticulate form.
I agree that this could be a 1976/2016, always/never, show/not-a-show. I do like the Fr. Bernard frame story ("Thank you all for coming in support of Arthur's healing and wholeness," directly addressing the actual audience before the show begins) as our innocent-enough introduction to the larger conceit.
Could we do a series of these concerts leading up to the 40 year anniversary, 2016? Very biblical and American at the same time!
I like the 60's Hamlet idea, but I was, in part, cutting costs with the straightforward approach. I did want reality set up by Fr. Bernard at the beginning to break down in one or more ways, though, so we can go that route.
Other ideas to share:
After Father's explanatory intro, orderlies wheel me in, shaved head, unshaven beard in a straitjacket. As I get closer, I dive onto the stage, roll around, get up, trying to free myself. Orderlies tackle me, lift me up and place me before the microphone à la this iconic moment with David Bowie and Klaus Nomi on Saturday Night Live (by the way, check out some more Klaus Nomi if you haven't). Start undoing the shackles as I sing. They first of all tighten some ridiculously loose pants. I've got some other things that make me a patchwork of mismatched motley particolored patterns (I guess identifying me as high jester or Lord of Misrule). They put a ridiculous winter hat on my head, which I promptly take off and throw at you (hat motif: Will's attempts to comfort, confine Arthur's mind; rationalism in general, etc.).
At some point after that first song, I realize that it's really Rustyy Kryystyylzz over at the other microphone. I edge over there and have a loud, funny, whispered conversation with him into the microphone with an excessive amount of heavy breathing, plosive pops, and saliva. "Where'd they pick you up?" "You look perfect." "Why'd they dress me like this?" "Why are the band members dressed like orderlies?" Until someone says, "We can hear you! You're talking into the microphone!" I want a very West African/postmodern aesthetic that always seeks to make the listener aware of the instrument (as opposed to the European aesthetic, which tries to make as little of it as possible).
With the Farthington encounter, much later in the show, I want whoever that is to wander in and have a conversation with Arthur, either as the band members pretend to play on silently or go into some strange interlude. I would like someone to actually do the live text-to-voice typing and have that conversation be somewhat scripted but improvised. Essentially, we need to communicate some of what has happened to Farthington since the failed Concert for Iceland. Perhaps there is a shifting of text-to-voice personas until Farthington settles on a female voice and reveals herself as Steffi. I think this would be a good time for the obligatory Arthur leaving the building moment, walking out hand in hand with the Sea Demon.
This may be near the end, and as Arthur climbs up on the nearest pillar-type thing. Perhaps this is when Fr. Bernard does his closing prayer. Then, we can all run back in for a smashing finale (a reprise of the end of "Agniezscka's Song" or "The Ladder"?).
One last thought re: multiple shows. Were we to have them, I think we should build in some variations that would occur from show to show. Perhaps we could have more than one Rustyy Kryystyylzz (e.g. Russ and your cousin). Perhaps we could play a slightly different list of songs, swapping out 2 or 3 each time from a total of about 15. We could also identify a few other areas that could easily be shifted from show to show. Especially if there are plot elements that we disagree about, would these be opportunities for having multiple story lines?
As for practicing, we'll have to identify the personnel. Maybe the band can plan a big vacation weekend up at your place in early summer!
"Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851" by Emanuel Leutze - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Bullet points of serendipity suggest rightness.
Absolutely, the Concert has become Arthur's dome in air. This meshes somewhat well with Farthington, although this is not some mythical location in the Far East, but one that is, at least according to our recent exchanges, the essential source and summit of the White American Dream in its inchoate, primordial, inarticulate form.
I agree that this could be a 1976/2016, always/never, show/not-a-show. I do like the Fr. Bernard frame story ("Thank you all for coming in support of Arthur's healing and wholeness," directly addressing the actual audience before the show begins) as our innocent-enough introduction to the larger conceit.
Could we do a series of these concerts leading up to the 40 year anniversary, 2016? Very biblical and American at the same time!
I like the 60's Hamlet idea, but I was, in part, cutting costs with the straightforward approach. I did want reality set up by Fr. Bernard at the beginning to break down in one or more ways, though, so we can go that route.
Other ideas to share:
- I want a cheap program made for the show, with various diegetical/exegetical/fake biographical things included in its pages. One that I have clearly visualized is "Fr. Bernard's Corner" or "Chaplain's Corner" (scrawled in horrible with Blackadder font, perhaps with Comic Sans as the body font) where we let Father write a page of whatever he wants about the show. He obviously has some understanding of the show idea that resonates with him religiously. In some way, his is just one interpretation among many, but I do want to give him a couple spots within the overall experience that give him and his viewpoint some primacy (another one that I'm fantasizing is a closing prayer!). Other things would be a page calling for benefactors, guarantors, volunteers, etc. We could even potentially sell some advertising space to defray the cost. And by "sell," I want us to ideally take the approach of "Could you buy my costume, a straitjacket, a set of related props, scrubs for the orderlies, etc?" remembering that people prefer providing things not money.
- I want to enable a social media explosion, especially from members of the band. At the first meeting (after prayer, of course), I want to have everyone get Twitter, Instagram, and Vine on their phones. Whenever there is a spare moment to tweet (Twitter), to take a picture (Twitter or Instagram), or shoot a video (Instagram or Vine), I want us to do that, whether together or alone. Who knows, maybe it may even get built into the payout algorithm. In the show's program, I want to give people the Twitter hashtag #ConcertforIceland to allow them to do the same. Father Bernard can even make mention of this in his opening monologue: "Photographs with a vintage filter, in particular, will go a long way toward convincing Arthur that this actually happened" (Twitter has actually added a bunch of filters to compete with Instagram).
- A good money-making side thing might be a Concert for Iceland t-shirt drive. There are a lot of these sites out there nowadays, and it seems like a much better alternative to your usual Kickstarter. I was thinking black t-shirts with text like "Who is Arthur White?" or "Will is the finisher" or "Carlton Farthington died in the tunnels" or "Tough as Kryystyylzz" with an appropriate stylized photo. On the back, Concert for Iceland tour dates (which would be primarily locations in Iceland, I suppose, maybe kicking off in Tokyo, hitting Rome, Oslo, Detroit--the biggies). Do we have anyone who we could talk to about design? I have a pretty clear idea of the look.
After Father's explanatory intro, orderlies wheel me in, shaved head, unshaven beard in a straitjacket. As I get closer, I dive onto the stage, roll around, get up, trying to free myself. Orderlies tackle me, lift me up and place me before the microphone à la this iconic moment with David Bowie and Klaus Nomi on Saturday Night Live (by the way, check out some more Klaus Nomi if you haven't). Start undoing the shackles as I sing. They first of all tighten some ridiculously loose pants. I've got some other things that make me a patchwork of mismatched motley particolored patterns (I guess identifying me as high jester or Lord of Misrule). They put a ridiculous winter hat on my head, which I promptly take off and throw at you (hat motif: Will's attempts to comfort, confine Arthur's mind; rationalism in general, etc.).
At some point after that first song, I realize that it's really Rustyy Kryystyylzz over at the other microphone. I edge over there and have a loud, funny, whispered conversation with him into the microphone with an excessive amount of heavy breathing, plosive pops, and saliva. "Where'd they pick you up?" "You look perfect." "Why'd they dress me like this?" "Why are the band members dressed like orderlies?" Until someone says, "We can hear you! You're talking into the microphone!" I want a very West African/postmodern aesthetic that always seeks to make the listener aware of the instrument (as opposed to the European aesthetic, which tries to make as little of it as possible).
With the Farthington encounter, much later in the show, I want whoever that is to wander in and have a conversation with Arthur, either as the band members pretend to play on silently or go into some strange interlude. I would like someone to actually do the live text-to-voice typing and have that conversation be somewhat scripted but improvised. Essentially, we need to communicate some of what has happened to Farthington since the failed Concert for Iceland. Perhaps there is a shifting of text-to-voice personas until Farthington settles on a female voice and reveals herself as Steffi. I think this would be a good time for the obligatory Arthur leaving the building moment, walking out hand in hand with the Sea Demon.
This may be near the end, and as Arthur climbs up on the nearest pillar-type thing. Perhaps this is when Fr. Bernard does his closing prayer. Then, we can all run back in for a smashing finale (a reprise of the end of "Agniezscka's Song" or "The Ladder"?).
One last thought re: multiple shows. Were we to have them, I think we should build in some variations that would occur from show to show. Perhaps we could have more than one Rustyy Kryystyylzz (e.g. Russ and your cousin). Perhaps we could play a slightly different list of songs, swapping out 2 or 3 each time from a total of about 15. We could also identify a few other areas that could easily be shifted from show to show. Especially if there are plot elements that we disagree about, would these be opportunities for having multiple story lines?
As for practicing, we'll have to identify the personnel. Maybe the band can plan a big vacation weekend up at your place in early summer!
Friday, January 23, 2015
After the Fall
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 1 January 2015. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
I love all the new show ideas, and July 4th could be doable for me if it would be possible to work out as much as we can virtually and split rehearsals between TC and Lansing or a midpoint.
Here's what the Fourth of July concert evokes for me:
What if the performance is Arthur's attempt to "build that dome in air"?
Maybe the show is Arthur struggling through a lifetime of conflicts in a moment? It could be as authentically 1976 as 2015 and every other year.
I'm reminded of a clip of an avant garde 60's Hamlet in which Hamlet stood in the center of all the characters of the play who danced and moaned and writhed around him. Really, what I'm talking about is a second in a series of Evenings with Arthur White. We can communicate a lot about the character without spelling out much, and it could have the ballet elements you discussed. The mascot could evolve throughout the show, and the scrubs could fade in and out of other costumes. At least Father and I could handle costume shifts.
We've had debates about the setting of the Concert for Iceland. Maybe the Concert has somehow become Arthur's dome in air: a type of metaphysical battleground he must properly order for reasons he doesn't fully comprehend.
Maybe Arthur Miller's After the Fall would work as a template.
I love all the new show ideas, and July 4th could be doable for me if it would be possible to work out as much as we can virtually and split rehearsals between TC and Lansing or a midpoint.
Here's what the Fourth of July concert evokes for me:
A damsel with a dulcimerWhat if is ambiguous whether this show is even a show?
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
What if the performance is Arthur's attempt to "build that dome in air"?
Maybe the show is Arthur struggling through a lifetime of conflicts in a moment? It could be as authentically 1976 as 2015 and every other year.
I'm reminded of a clip of an avant garde 60's Hamlet in which Hamlet stood in the center of all the characters of the play who danced and moaned and writhed around him. Really, what I'm talking about is a second in a series of Evenings with Arthur White. We can communicate a lot about the character without spelling out much, and it could have the ballet elements you discussed. The mascot could evolve throughout the show, and the scrubs could fade in and out of other costumes. At least Father and I could handle costume shifts.
We've had debates about the setting of the Concert for Iceland. Maybe the Concert has somehow become Arthur's dome in air: a type of metaphysical battleground he must properly order for reasons he doesn't fully comprehend.
Maybe Arthur Miller's After the Fall would work as a template.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
This Ongoing Dream of Art-in-Itself
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 1 January 2015. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
Okay, that last one was not something that a Will would like to hear from an Art.
I have this ongoing dream of art-in-itself, and any radiation would be a mere byproduct of ever-increasing inward-looking artness.
You are the finisher! I shouldn't have to do this!
Well, I am just getting over the flu and I should take a quick moment to say Happy New Year! I have been spending the last few days in bed, which is why I am finally coming to at 2 a.m. feeling vaguely queasy but beginning to think about the project (not to mention the planning and pile of papers I still have to finish by Monday).
What about another show?
I really think the one I mapped out where Arthur's doctors have recommended this as a way to bring him closure and hopefully getting him to stop climbing up on pillars was feasible. I think July 4th weekend might make the most sense, since that was when it was originally supposed to be held in 1976. The other option is around Christmas, since many of the songs are thematically tied to that season. I know that is when a lot of students are gone too, so I would be open to another option (May again?).
Why so feasible?
Father already has everything he would need for the show (clerical garb). We would just need each band member to buy scrubs (we could assign a color scheme and tell them where to pick it up; reimburse later?). Russ, as the real Rustyy Kryystyylzz, would be the only one who might need to get some actual duds. I'm thinking along these lines. And you already have some good has-been Will Witkowski duds. I would need a shaved head, maybe a wig, strait jacket, institutional garb, etc.
Beyond that, some cheap props that we could probably find.
Our musicians would not need to look like anyone in particular, since they are just orderlies at the mental institution who happen to play instruments. We don't need vintage equipment. We don't know who the original line up of the Concert for Iceland was supposed to be, but with this story, we wouldn't need to know.
I do have one big-ticket item on the wishlist for that show: a large, life-size mascot costume of Carlton Farthington, but altered in several terrible ways, à la deadmau5, but way more DIY and scary. I'm thinking red, gray, charcoal with x's in place of his eyes--a looming, terrible, demonic mascot that resembles the CFCC one, but does not infringe on copyright (so as to avoid this). I'm going to ask my cousins whether they might be able to do that. Other artists who do that kind of stuff?
If we do this, I'd also like us to set up some version of our payout algorithm mentioned before, to encourage every single band member to play full out in getting every single person they can to attend the show--and to reward the ones who do, at least a little more handsomely.
What do you think? I'm trying. I'm not a finisher!
 |
| Ron Asheton with Niagara |
I have this ongoing dream of art-in-itself, and any radiation would be a mere byproduct of ever-increasing inward-looking artness.
You are the finisher! I shouldn't have to do this!
Well, I am just getting over the flu and I should take a quick moment to say Happy New Year! I have been spending the last few days in bed, which is why I am finally coming to at 2 a.m. feeling vaguely queasy but beginning to think about the project (not to mention the planning and pile of papers I still have to finish by Monday).
What about another show?
I really think the one I mapped out where Arthur's doctors have recommended this as a way to bring him closure and hopefully getting him to stop climbing up on pillars was feasible. I think July 4th weekend might make the most sense, since that was when it was originally supposed to be held in 1976. The other option is around Christmas, since many of the songs are thematically tied to that season. I know that is when a lot of students are gone too, so I would be open to another option (May again?).
Why so feasible?
Father already has everything he would need for the show (clerical garb). We would just need each band member to buy scrubs (we could assign a color scheme and tell them where to pick it up; reimburse later?). Russ, as the real Rustyy Kryystyylzz, would be the only one who might need to get some actual duds. I'm thinking along these lines. And you already have some good has-been Will Witkowski duds. I would need a shaved head, maybe a wig, strait jacket, institutional garb, etc.
Beyond that, some cheap props that we could probably find.
Our musicians would not need to look like anyone in particular, since they are just orderlies at the mental institution who happen to play instruments. We don't need vintage equipment. We don't know who the original line up of the Concert for Iceland was supposed to be, but with this story, we wouldn't need to know.
I do have one big-ticket item on the wishlist for that show: a large, life-size mascot costume of Carlton Farthington, but altered in several terrible ways, à la deadmau5, but way more DIY and scary. I'm thinking red, gray, charcoal with x's in place of his eyes--a looming, terrible, demonic mascot that resembles the CFCC one, but does not infringe on copyright (so as to avoid this). I'm going to ask my cousins whether they might be able to do that. Other artists who do that kind of stuff?
If we do this, I'd also like us to set up some version of our payout algorithm mentioned before, to encourage every single band member to play full out in getting every single person they can to attend the show--and to reward the ones who do, at least a little more handsomely.
What do you think? I'm trying. I'm not a finisher!
Sunday, January 18, 2015
The Benefactor
The following is an excerpt of a 27 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
I am interested in taking this issue head on as I finish work on the remaining songs. I have identified an upper limit of 3 more songs (although your "Hey Rome" threw me off--it is also an Iceland song). I also need to record the acoustic, finger picking version of "Tokyo Nights."
I want to introduce an anonymous "Benefactor" figure to the story. I'm totally unsure who this is or what role he or she would play, but inside the diegetical approach, we will merely start talking about the Benefactor until he or she materializes. Instead of asking for money, I want to create an opening in the narrative for the Benefactor (or should I say, The Benefactor) to step into. Here's the reason: we can't concern ourselves with these matters too much...and the extent to which we would need to concern ourselves in order to be effective in the traditional way IS too much. Eventually, we could add an element to the blog at the top: Are you The Benefactor? with a link to a contact us form. Some shadowy figure who, like dark matter, has provided Arthur White and his universe an endless influence of energy such that we are not only expanding at a constant velocity outward, we are accelerating.
"Who is The Benefactor?" we wonder aloud to ourselves.
Of course, we have already been talking about The Benefactor all along. It is the "moss-covered fountain of Pan," through which water from the wilderness is brought in to irrigate the well trimmed rows and patterns of the garden." Actually it is the water that flows through Pan...and we know very little about whence that water originates or what lies outside the walled-in universe of this garden. Is The Benefactor an individual person or Person? Is The Benefactor a body of persons? And what is his or her motive in supporting us so completely? What does he or she want? What does he or she expect in return? In other words, what's the story there? Is this a nefarious or benevolent entity? Can this entity be connected in any way to characters or elements that have already been introduced, like Steffi Humboldt or the lodestone?
These are pressing questions...any ideas? Bottom line, I refuse to engage in any un-artistic discussions.
I want to summon The Benefactor.
 |
| Grotto with Statue of Pan, Villa Corsi-Salviati, Sesto Fiorentino |
I want to introduce an anonymous "Benefactor" figure to the story. I'm totally unsure who this is or what role he or she would play, but inside the diegetical approach, we will merely start talking about the Benefactor until he or she materializes. Instead of asking for money, I want to create an opening in the narrative for the Benefactor (or should I say, The Benefactor) to step into. Here's the reason: we can't concern ourselves with these matters too much...and the extent to which we would need to concern ourselves in order to be effective in the traditional way IS too much. Eventually, we could add an element to the blog at the top: Are you The Benefactor? with a link to a contact us form. Some shadowy figure who, like dark matter, has provided Arthur White and his universe an endless influence of energy such that we are not only expanding at a constant velocity outward, we are accelerating.
"Who is The Benefactor?" we wonder aloud to ourselves.
Of course, we have already been talking about The Benefactor all along. It is the "moss-covered fountain of Pan," through which water from the wilderness is brought in to irrigate the well trimmed rows and patterns of the garden." Actually it is the water that flows through Pan...and we know very little about whence that water originates or what lies outside the walled-in universe of this garden. Is The Benefactor an individual person or Person? Is The Benefactor a body of persons? And what is his or her motive in supporting us so completely? What does he or she want? What does he or she expect in return? In other words, what's the story there? Is this a nefarious or benevolent entity? Can this entity be connected in any way to characters or elements that have already been introduced, like Steffi Humboldt or the lodestone?
These are pressing questions...any ideas? Bottom line, I refuse to engage in any un-artistic discussions.
I want to summon The Benefactor.
Monday, January 12, 2015
The Eternal Return of Arthur White
The following is an excerpt of a 14 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
More thoughts after a prolonged absence:
I want to be creative when it comes to the first incarnation of the Arthur White Concert for Iceland material. Of course, he did burst onto the scene already with the May 30th show.
I recently heard an interview with some entrepreneur saying that you want to look around for whatever resources are close at hand. What skills can the members of your various circles bring to the table. Ideally, you're not launching something that requires casting around for strangers who have the necessary expertise.
One thing that has popped into my mind recently is Arthur White, the ballet. My wife is looking for opportunities to choreograph some modern. I'm not sure that the mostly 4/4 time signature will be all that interesting. And then, we are friends with the owners of that ballet studio. It could start with just one song.
The point is that I want to really get creative, thinking inside the box, that is the resources that are closest at hand, and eschewing those that are beyond our scope: The words of Psalm 131:1-2:
This hits on what is at once a Christian and existential principle. On the Christian side, there is the affirmation, purification, and elevation of the raw materials of humanity. God does not seek another vehicle for his splendor, a new creation. He limits himself: "Him whom the heavens cannot contain the womb of one woman bore" (St. Augustine).
Similarly, there is Nietzsche's notion of the eternal return:
So the bottom line in the Return of Arthur White (dare I say the eternal return of Arthur White?) is an utter renunciation of all things beyond its scope and an total affirmation of all things within its scope. I realize, of course, that both Nietzsche and Camus saw God and Heaven as the main problematic horizons to which humanity flowed. I revise that idea without any difficulty in that God is immanent, that it is a false idea of God to place him on the horizon of our lives. Instead, our "search" for God must follow the very formula laid out by these atheistic philosophers, namely, we find him only in the moment and not in any idols, aspirations, or imagined accomplishments looming in the distance. Those horizons can be anything from waiting for the weekend, or the next performance, or Summer Break, or retirement, or Heaven. In a certain sense, Heaven is now--or never.
Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger) grasped this idea when he wrote on the "duration" of Purgatory:
More thoughts after a prolonged absence:
I want to be creative when it comes to the first incarnation of the Arthur White Concert for Iceland material. Of course, he did burst onto the scene already with the May 30th show.
I recently heard an interview with some entrepreneur saying that you want to look around for whatever resources are close at hand. What skills can the members of your various circles bring to the table. Ideally, you're not launching something that requires casting around for strangers who have the necessary expertise.
One thing that has popped into my mind recently is Arthur White, the ballet. My wife is looking for opportunities to choreograph some modern. I'm not sure that the mostly 4/4 time signature will be all that interesting. And then, we are friends with the owners of that ballet studio. It could start with just one song.
The point is that I want to really get creative, thinking inside the box, that is the resources that are closest at hand, and eschewing those that are beyond our scope: The words of Psalm 131:1-2:
I do not busy myself with great matters, with things too sublime for me. Rather, I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, so is my soul within me.Could it be done in the style of a children's book? A program or press packet for a show that never occurs? A coffee table book?
This hits on what is at once a Christian and existential principle. On the Christian side, there is the affirmation, purification, and elevation of the raw materials of humanity. God does not seek another vehicle for his splendor, a new creation. He limits himself: "Him whom the heavens cannot contain the womb of one woman bore" (St. Augustine).
Similarly, there is Nietzsche's notion of the eternal return:
There is a lake which one day refused to flow away, and threw up a dam at the place where it had hitherto discharged: since then this lake has always risen higher and higher.This is probably not the best quote, but the concept is summed up in countless other places, both by Nietzsche and others like Kierkegaard and Camus: the idea that the main source of our unhappiness is a constant flowing out toward some reality other than the present one. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus went as far as to call this tendency suicidal: the mental act of leaping from life into some other imagined world.
So the bottom line in the Return of Arthur White (dare I say the eternal return of Arthur White?) is an utter renunciation of all things beyond its scope and an total affirmation of all things within its scope. I realize, of course, that both Nietzsche and Camus saw God and Heaven as the main problematic horizons to which humanity flowed. I revise that idea without any difficulty in that God is immanent, that it is a false idea of God to place him on the horizon of our lives. Instead, our "search" for God must follow the very formula laid out by these atheistic philosophers, namely, we find him only in the moment and not in any idols, aspirations, or imagined accomplishments looming in the distance. Those horizons can be anything from waiting for the weekend, or the next performance, or Summer Break, or retirement, or Heaven. In a certain sense, Heaven is now--or never.
Pope Benedict (then Cardinal Ratzinger) grasped this idea when he wrote on the "duration" of Purgatory:
The transforming "moment" of this encounter cannot be quantified by the measurements of earthly time. It is, indeed, not eternal but a transition, and yet trying to qualify it as of "short" or "long" duration on the basis of temporal measurements derived from physics would be naive and unproductive. The "temporal measure" of this encounter lies in the unsoundable depths of existence, in a passing-over where we are burned ere we are transformed. To measure such Existenzzeit, such an "existential time," in terms of the time of this world would be to ignore the specificity of the human spirit in its simultaneous relationship with, and differentation from, the world.
Encounter with the Lord is this transformation....
Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, p. 230-231
Thursday, January 8, 2015
The Eternal Loop of One's Own Rationalism
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 13 December 2014. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to try to make sense of one another's notes. There is an ongoing motif of communication and miscommunication in this story, both electronic communication and earlier forms of communication. Messages get distorted, misunderstood, and/or appropriated for dubious purposes.
Intended meanings get buried under frames of interpretation.
If you ever get time, I think it would be interesting to see what sense you make of my scribblings. I would be happy to do the same for you.
I think it could uncover unseen connections for us and perhaps engender some new creative leads. I don't know how much you actually write in journals anymore, but I still do that quite a bit. I occasionally use word processing to help me get out of writer's block, but usually I'm only typing things up as an absolute last step. Whenever I have a thought and I'm near one of my journals I jot it down with the hope that I'll notice it at some later point when I need some "serendipitous" connection.
I need all the help I can get.
I know the picture isn't the greatest, but is there a part of it that you think you understand? What sentences or paragraphs can you write that bring any concepts or connections into focus? If that's too much to ask, can you articulate any questions?
I have students do an exercise where they take another poet's poem (they can also use poems they wrote themselves) and type it up on a computer, double space it, and fill in the spaces with new words, such that those words work with the preceding and subsequent lines. Then, they delete the original lines, single spacing the remaining text (the new words) and hammering it out until it becomes an entirely new poem.
I think an exercise like this one is entirely appropriate given our motif of framing, embedding, reposting, retweeting, etc. As you interpret the original primordial wildness of my scribbles, trying to impose your own rationality on it, the original disappears, like the skittish deer in the clearing who flees at the slightest footfall.
Or better, Diana bathing naked with her nymphs when Actaeon stumbles on the scene.
What's left is your own text, which is, in turn, transformed into the wild stag to be torn apart by hounds, the eternal loop of one's own rationalism.
 |
| Actaeon by Titian |
Intended meanings get buried under frames of interpretation.
If you ever get time, I think it would be interesting to see what sense you make of my scribblings. I would be happy to do the same for you.
I think it could uncover unseen connections for us and perhaps engender some new creative leads. I don't know how much you actually write in journals anymore, but I still do that quite a bit. I occasionally use word processing to help me get out of writer's block, but usually I'm only typing things up as an absolute last step. Whenever I have a thought and I'm near one of my journals I jot it down with the hope that I'll notice it at some later point when I need some "serendipitous" connection.
I need all the help I can get.
I know the picture isn't the greatest, but is there a part of it that you think you understand? What sentences or paragraphs can you write that bring any concepts or connections into focus? If that's too much to ask, can you articulate any questions?
I have students do an exercise where they take another poet's poem (they can also use poems they wrote themselves) and type it up on a computer, double space it, and fill in the spaces with new words, such that those words work with the preceding and subsequent lines. Then, they delete the original lines, single spacing the remaining text (the new words) and hammering it out until it becomes an entirely new poem.
I think an exercise like this one is entirely appropriate given our motif of framing, embedding, reposting, retweeting, etc. As you interpret the original primordial wildness of my scribbles, trying to impose your own rationality on it, the original disappears, like the skittish deer in the clearing who flees at the slightest footfall.
Or better, Diana bathing naked with her nymphs when Actaeon stumbles on the scene.
What's left is your own text, which is, in turn, transformed into the wild stag to be torn apart by hounds, the eternal loop of one's own rationalism.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Forcing People to Listen to U2
The following is an excerpt of a 12 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
I'm hoping our recent exchange didn't turn you off. Let me know if it did or if you're still just busy.
At any rate, we lost electricity district wide and had no school today.
I've been thinking about moving forward with tracks that people can work on.
I now have Chromebooks through a grant and have been loving them for school purposes. Of course, I already use so many Google products anyway. Chromebooks are super fast because they never bring any software down onto them; all the apps run online. This fact has caused me to fall precipitously out of love with all things Mac and even more head over heels in love with Google.
Long story short: Mac and iTunes is so turn of the millennium. And now they are getting even more elitist with more expensive, cost-prohibitive gear and forcing people to listen to U2. Although I still have an iMac and a Macbook, I'm ready to move on.
Where am I going with this? Well, I'd like to move away from Garageband. It's not in keeping with the open-source ethos of the project. It's got some nice features, but it's surprisingly clunky for what comes out of it. I usually need to take the resulting MP3s into the open-source program Audacity to get them loud enough. Maybe this is an extreme analogy, but is Garageband going the way of Microsoft Encarta?
What we want is to create the lowest threshold possible for collaboration.
Okay, so what should we use?
Two possibilities that I've researched somewhat are TwistedWave or Soundation, both free, browser-based programs. You can read a quick paragraph about each of them in this article, "Best Free Audio Editing Websites." I don't mention JamKazam at this point for two reasons: one, we've already discussed it, and, two, I'm not sure it's positioned well in terms of becoming the next big thing (thereby getting lots of R&D money to make continual improvements and/or getting snatched up by Google to integrate into its ever-growing suite of awesome tools).
TwistedWave is designed to work seamlessly with Google Drive and SoundCloud. If you sign in with your Google account, you can use it for free (ignore the idiots who think you only get 30 minutes before you have to pay--they haven't signed in to their Google accounts).
Soundation is also friends with Google, but this one feature might make it even cooler than TwistedWave: you can make real-time recordings with friends using Google+ Hangouts!!! Last time I checked, that means up to 10 people recording at the same time with the added benefit of being able to see them on the screen. Soundation also supports MIDI, which means my crappy keyboard can be reincarnated as something better in the future. Finally, it seems much more of a community affair in general, with something like SoundCloud where people can post those waveform-style finished products and receive embedded comments from other Soundation members.
Neither of these, from what I can tell, has as many bells and whistles as Garageband. But bells and whistles can distract from the task at hand, from the architecture of the songs themselves. If we ever desperately want some fancy effect, we can go get it from other sources and import it as an MP3 track.
And both of these would create a much lower threshold than Garageband, which--either in perception or reality--is now part of that elitist suite of hardware and software that only rich, liberal Obama supporters like Joaquin Phoenix can access. I have it and you have it (because we fit all of the aforementioned descriptions), but there are potentially a lot of disenfranchised kiddos who won't be able to come to the party with Joaquin Phoenix.
I've used the open-source software Audacity a lot in the past, but it's a download, which means you work alone on your own computer and then have to share the file in some kind of clunky way.
Clunkiness still exists with the TwistedWave and Soundation options in that you cannot share a song file among collaborators (like a Google Doc, for instance). The commonsense solution to this seems that we could just give my password to trustworthy people and allow them to login and add their tracks. No need to have a Mac or PC or Chromebook, just get online and access the file. I know that Jamkazam allows for this free during the beta period, but it sounds like that will be a paid subscription thing later--again raising the threshold for participation and collaboration.
If we were worried about collaborators messing with things or we wanted to invite less trustworthy people to collaborate (for instance, if we just wanted to put the login information out on Facebook!), I think you can archive your work and save it somewhere. So, for example, were we to post the login information on Facebook encouraging people to add to a given song, we could download a copy of the current file in case people mess it up really bad.
That said, I think we would start with the former option first, that is, only giving the password out to select trustworthy people. But I do like bringing a wikipedia approach to collaboration. Of course, someone could get in, change the password, and destroy everything in Carlton Farthington's Google account.
I'm hoping our recent exchange didn't turn you off. Let me know if it did or if you're still just busy.
At any rate, we lost electricity district wide and had no school today.
I've been thinking about moving forward with tracks that people can work on.
I now have Chromebooks through a grant and have been loving them for school purposes. Of course, I already use so many Google products anyway. Chromebooks are super fast because they never bring any software down onto them; all the apps run online. This fact has caused me to fall precipitously out of love with all things Mac and even more head over heels in love with Google.
Long story short: Mac and iTunes is so turn of the millennium. And now they are getting even more elitist with more expensive, cost-prohibitive gear and forcing people to listen to U2. Although I still have an iMac and a Macbook, I'm ready to move on.
Where am I going with this? Well, I'd like to move away from Garageband. It's not in keeping with the open-source ethos of the project. It's got some nice features, but it's surprisingly clunky for what comes out of it. I usually need to take the resulting MP3s into the open-source program Audacity to get them loud enough. Maybe this is an extreme analogy, but is Garageband going the way of Microsoft Encarta?
What we want is to create the lowest threshold possible for collaboration.
Okay, so what should we use?
Two possibilities that I've researched somewhat are TwistedWave or Soundation, both free, browser-based programs. You can read a quick paragraph about each of them in this article, "Best Free Audio Editing Websites." I don't mention JamKazam at this point for two reasons: one, we've already discussed it, and, two, I'm not sure it's positioned well in terms of becoming the next big thing (thereby getting lots of R&D money to make continual improvements and/or getting snatched up by Google to integrate into its ever-growing suite of awesome tools).
TwistedWave is designed to work seamlessly with Google Drive and SoundCloud. If you sign in with your Google account, you can use it for free (ignore the idiots who think you only get 30 minutes before you have to pay--they haven't signed in to their Google accounts).
Soundation is also friends with Google, but this one feature might make it even cooler than TwistedWave: you can make real-time recordings with friends using Google+ Hangouts!!! Last time I checked, that means up to 10 people recording at the same time with the added benefit of being able to see them on the screen. Soundation also supports MIDI, which means my crappy keyboard can be reincarnated as something better in the future. Finally, it seems much more of a community affair in general, with something like SoundCloud where people can post those waveform-style finished products and receive embedded comments from other Soundation members.
Neither of these, from what I can tell, has as many bells and whistles as Garageband. But bells and whistles can distract from the task at hand, from the architecture of the songs themselves. If we ever desperately want some fancy effect, we can go get it from other sources and import it as an MP3 track.
And both of these would create a much lower threshold than Garageband, which--either in perception or reality--is now part of that elitist suite of hardware and software that only rich, liberal Obama supporters like Joaquin Phoenix can access. I have it and you have it (because we fit all of the aforementioned descriptions), but there are potentially a lot of disenfranchised kiddos who won't be able to come to the party with Joaquin Phoenix.
I've used the open-source software Audacity a lot in the past, but it's a download, which means you work alone on your own computer and then have to share the file in some kind of clunky way.
Clunkiness still exists with the TwistedWave and Soundation options in that you cannot share a song file among collaborators (like a Google Doc, for instance). The commonsense solution to this seems that we could just give my password to trustworthy people and allow them to login and add their tracks. No need to have a Mac or PC or Chromebook, just get online and access the file. I know that Jamkazam allows for this free during the beta period, but it sounds like that will be a paid subscription thing later--again raising the threshold for participation and collaboration.
If we were worried about collaborators messing with things or we wanted to invite less trustworthy people to collaborate (for instance, if we just wanted to put the login information out on Facebook!), I think you can archive your work and save it somewhere. So, for example, were we to post the login information on Facebook encouraging people to add to a given song, we could download a copy of the current file in case people mess it up really bad.
That said, I think we would start with the former option first, that is, only giving the password out to select trustworthy people. But I do like bringing a wikipedia approach to collaboration. Of course, someone could get in, change the password, and destroy everything in Carlton Farthington's Google account.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Hemmed in by Ungodly Forces
The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
I like your statement that the challenge of human dignity being that so little of it is dignified.
Isn't that the same question we have for God: Why did you give us freedom if this is what we were going to do with it? And yet, our Creator didn't see it that way...apparently, he saw our potential, a mirror of his own character. But what we do with that freedom does not diminish God's rightness about us. And I think in postmodern times we've set out to find out just how right God was. Not with foregone or inherited conclusions, but by suspending all that temporarily in order to find out for ourselves. Is God who he says he is? Are we who God says we are?
There are, as you say, benefits of being oppressed. For example, the Cubans are apparently in excellent health because they undereat and need to walk everywhere, which is due to their poverty, which is due to the regime. But just because oppression has some side benefits for the oppressed does not mean we would wish oppression on ourselves or others. On the contrary, full human maturity and dignity can only be considered in the context of the radical freedom God has so gratuitously given us.
I agree that some nobility can be seen in situations of oppression, but that is against the backdrop of oppression, not stemming from it. But too often we allow ourselves to be hemmed in by ungodly forces because we doubt our willingness to respond to the Gospel and the radical freedom it proclaims.
And examples of its misuse abound. Still God continues to call us to live according to his image of us.
I like your statement that the challenge of human dignity being that so little of it is dignified.
Isn't that the same question we have for God: Why did you give us freedom if this is what we were going to do with it? And yet, our Creator didn't see it that way...apparently, he saw our potential, a mirror of his own character. But what we do with that freedom does not diminish God's rightness about us. And I think in postmodern times we've set out to find out just how right God was. Not with foregone or inherited conclusions, but by suspending all that temporarily in order to find out for ourselves. Is God who he says he is? Are we who God says we are?
There are, as you say, benefits of being oppressed. For example, the Cubans are apparently in excellent health because they undereat and need to walk everywhere, which is due to their poverty, which is due to the regime. But just because oppression has some side benefits for the oppressed does not mean we would wish oppression on ourselves or others. On the contrary, full human maturity and dignity can only be considered in the context of the radical freedom God has so gratuitously given us.
I agree that some nobility can be seen in situations of oppression, but that is against the backdrop of oppression, not stemming from it. But too often we allow ourselves to be hemmed in by ungodly forces because we doubt our willingness to respond to the Gospel and the radical freedom it proclaims.
And examples of its misuse abound. Still God continues to call us to live according to his image of us.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
The Überfrau
The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
Art:
Art:
I think you've got a point about modern deconstructivist feminism, but also, that's a sign of maturity in a movement, wherein you can bestow full human dignity (in the form of complexities, contradictions, shortcomings, etc.) on a group that is owed that kind of attention. White men and white male characters have always been allowed to be a bundle of contradictions, not just something limited, like a stand-in for some idea or cause.Will:
I see the point. At the same time, that then makes me wonder about Steffi as a female O'Brien from 1984. I don't think Orwell could have thought of O'Brien as female. But yeah, if the most extreme form of white male entitlement is the doctrine that power is making somebody else suffer or that the picture of the future is a boot stamping a human face forever, it would make sense to play with a nightmarish version of feminism that completely reflects the worst of chauvinism: unlimited, self-appointed license to torture for sport with the full weight of a gigantic institution's backing.
I guess the challenge of full human dignity is that so little of it is dignified! There's a nobility that comes with oppression and a moral slovenliness that comes with empowerment, at least from the Christian point of view. Of course, Nietzsche calls that a slave mentality. So maybe Steffi is the übermensch...or überfrau.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Moby Dick!
The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
"Moby Dick p510 illustration" by A. Burnham Shute - Moby-Dick edition - C. H. Simonds Co. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Art:
"Moby Dick p510 illustration" by A. Burnham Shute - Moby-Dick edition - C. H. Simonds Co. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Art:
By the way, some other things on my Arthur White reading list: lots of Achebe, Robinson Crusoe, De Beauvoir's book (not sure which one) in which she argues that existentialism would result in engagement not quietism (I want to use her as a model for Steffi). Also Wilson Harris, also Claude McKay.
Also dust off some Yeats. Also dust off some of my knowledge of the regionalist movement in modernism: one of the ways we address the utter fragmentation of modern and post-modern times.
Also I want Steffi to be totally uninterested in anything that Carlton or Arthur are interested in. I want her to have totally separate interests and to discuss them with people, preferably women, who are up to something entirely different. Unlike Father Yod's wife and follower I want her to use her ascendancy to move in an entirely different direction. Of course, that won't necessarily work out so well either but it's important that she is allowed to tell her own story and to aspire to her own tragic set of goals.
Any other suggestions that you would make? It seems like we need to read up on a few things, me especially.
Also all of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne!
Moby Dick!Will:
I'm wondering if I should go for some William Burroughs or David Foster Wallace...something strange. Frank O'Hara?
Probably some more Toni Morrison, too. It's been a while.
I like your ideas about Steffi. There are a few interesting things to me in feminism that I never talk about because I don't want to start a fight, but they might be interesting to examine. One is that feminism seems to have fallen so completely into the deconstructionist camp that it no longer stands for anything, or put another way, it stands for multiple mutually exclusive things simultaneously without any sort of irony.
The feminism of the suffragettes had a type of discipline to it. I'd even say the feminism of the 60's and 70's did.
Now it seems to be about if a woman has an impulse or instinct of any sort, even if it is to do something that to older feminists would have been completely against the cause, it is valid. We get a postmodern system of tunnels within tunnels, arches with arches, that resonates with Farthington's structures while being a different beast.
The other thing is the idea of power through murder. If power is about making people dead, the patriarchy seems to accumulate lots of power by killing innocent bystanders through war or terrible economic policies. The matriarchy seems to assert its power through abortion, although the patriarchy certainly backs it.
So many billionaires fund population control as one of their top charities. I think the devils in charge of granting unjust power don't care about the specifics of our politics as long as politicians kill lots of people and get members of the more-or-less virtuous populace to foam at the mouth about the virtue of killing lots of people.
From the politician's end, you get human sacrifice to the demons who grant them power. From the public's end, you get people calling good evil and evil good.
In either case, we all crawl closer to hell and call it progress.
Friday, January 2, 2015
My Mind Detaches From My Ass and Floats Away (Part 2 of 2)
The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
"George Clinton Nighttown" by Janisorlando - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Will's family has been able to live the American dream, so he and Arthur have a safety net to fall back on. The musicians don't. Will doesn't dip into the capital of the family business to support the band, only to protect family. So when the project is broke, he and Arthur may go without pay--which to Will seems noble--but they are still protected by the cement empire while the band gets even shares of pocket lint and chewing gum wrappers.
By the American code of business, Will has done more than is required of him, even though by moral law, he has treated the band terribly, ultimately stranding them in Japan with no money, nowhere to live, no connections. Similarly, the officer in Ferguson probably does not believe himself to be a racist and didn't violate the American code of law, but he sure as hell violated moral law. And in both cases of American law, the codes have been set up to protect the enfranchised against the disenfranchised.
I think there are bigger questions you are worried about: is the project racist, or worse, are we racist? I don't think any good comes from letting ourselves off the hook for either of these questions. When people like us who love black people and love black culture and who hate racism go around thinking that we're not part of the problem when we still benefit from the problem in ways we can't realize, we help protect a cultural code that protects white people who murder black people, and we both want that cultural code to die.
One of the greatest problems, I think, is this paradox that when you feel like your heart is in the right place, it's less likely that you'll still have skin in the game. George Clinton says free your mind and your ass will follow, but I frequently feel that as I free my mind, it detaches from my ass and floats away.
It's very fortunate for us that we are both teachers and husbands and that you are a father, as we are both introverts who live in a world of ideas more easily than in a world of people. If we weren't working with kids every day, we'd have very little skin in the game; we'd just find some nice caves to hide in and think all the time. But the thought matters, too.
The Arthur White project really has turned into our assessment of 20th- and 21st-century humanity and its relationship with God.
It is the intellectual skin we put into the game...into all the games that matter.
"George Clinton Nighttown" by Janisorlando - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Will's family has been able to live the American dream, so he and Arthur have a safety net to fall back on. The musicians don't. Will doesn't dip into the capital of the family business to support the band, only to protect family. So when the project is broke, he and Arthur may go without pay--which to Will seems noble--but they are still protected by the cement empire while the band gets even shares of pocket lint and chewing gum wrappers.
By the American code of business, Will has done more than is required of him, even though by moral law, he has treated the band terribly, ultimately stranding them in Japan with no money, nowhere to live, no connections. Similarly, the officer in Ferguson probably does not believe himself to be a racist and didn't violate the American code of law, but he sure as hell violated moral law. And in both cases of American law, the codes have been set up to protect the enfranchised against the disenfranchised.
I think there are bigger questions you are worried about: is the project racist, or worse, are we racist? I don't think any good comes from letting ourselves off the hook for either of these questions. When people like us who love black people and love black culture and who hate racism go around thinking that we're not part of the problem when we still benefit from the problem in ways we can't realize, we help protect a cultural code that protects white people who murder black people, and we both want that cultural code to die.
One of the greatest problems, I think, is this paradox that when you feel like your heart is in the right place, it's less likely that you'll still have skin in the game. George Clinton says free your mind and your ass will follow, but I frequently feel that as I free my mind, it detaches from my ass and floats away.
It's very fortunate for us that we are both teachers and husbands and that you are a father, as we are both introverts who live in a world of ideas more easily than in a world of people. If we weren't working with kids every day, we'd have very little skin in the game; we'd just find some nice caves to hide in and think all the time. But the thought matters, too.
The Arthur White project really has turned into our assessment of 20th- and 21st-century humanity and its relationship with God.
It is the intellectual skin we put into the game...into all the games that matter.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
My Mind Detaches From My Ass and Floats Away (Part 1 of 2)
The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
"Lafayette Park Detroit redevelopment over Black Bottom" by Mike Russell - I (Mike Russell) created this work entirely by myself. Transferred from en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
The way I see it, it's not like we haven't addressed the topic of the Witkowski family's treatment of racial issues...maybe just that we haven't addressed them enough. I think these two incredible miscarriages of moral justice (which are made even worse by the fact that, at least in Ferguson, no laws were broken by the policeman: all a policeman has to do is say he felt his life was in danger to justify lethal force and he can kill anyone he wants) are important reminders not to drop the ball on portraying the casual racism of the Witkowskis.
I think what is especially relevant about the Witkowskis is that they are guilty of the same obstacle to a just society that so many contemporary white Americans are. Their problem isn't that they harbor any sort of hatred toward African Americans. Stan and Will see themselves as sympathetic, I'm sure, coming from a disenfranchised background. I was watching a documentary on James Brown that touched on his support of Nixon, and as an immigrant family, they would probably be on board with that: the idea of economic self-determinism. They would probably help people pull themselves up by their bootstraps here and there, and probably be a little impatient with anybody who doesn't fight against the odds. I don't think they'd fall prey to that paternalistic racism of the loving slave master, really.
And Arthur obviously loves black culture and doesn't tend to see reality the way most people do; he'd be largely oblivious to the politics of race. Who knows what he even sees. I imagine he sees angels and demons, he probably sees auras and the ultraviolet spectrum, too. It's not that he's color blind, it's that he sees very different colors. He'd probably see people by their proximity to hell and heaven or something like that.
Anyway, I think the problem the Witkowskis reflect about white America is that institutionalized racism doesn't show up on their radar. It's so easy for white Americans to believe that, since they don't bear any racist sentiments, their little corner of the world has moved past racism and all that is left is for the remaining racist hearts of the world to change. This sense that the world has improved blinds them to the fact that most of the economic and political and a significant chunk of the social structures of racism are still intact and functioning very well to benefit white people and disenfranchise black people.
The problem isn't just a matter of hearts.
The problem with Stan and Will is that their eyes are on money. They view earning money as something that helps everybody: their employees, their musicians, the women in their lives who handle the charity, the promotion of black culture through music, the elevation of the disenfranchised, etc. Paving over Detroit makes money for people and protects the family. Stan doesn't see what paving over Black Bottom or cutting neighborhoods in half like the Chrysler Freeway did, or if he does, he only sees the issues on a very superficial level: people will adapt and the economic improvement will more than make up for the inconvenience.
We have similar issues with Will. If everything goes according to plan, he will help turn all of the musicians who work with Arthur into famous millionaires. How could anyone challenge his treatment of black musicians, and how could it be bad for white musicians to help build markets for black musicians? The problem is not his vision, according to Will. It's that Arthur keeps on screwing everything up, which means the tours are never supported by new records, the recording costs are never recouped, the corporation is always broke, and the band rarely gets paid and ends up being severely exploited.
"Lafayette Park Detroit redevelopment over Black Bottom" by Mike Russell - I (Mike Russell) created this work entirely by myself. Transferred from en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
The way I see it, it's not like we haven't addressed the topic of the Witkowski family's treatment of racial issues...maybe just that we haven't addressed them enough. I think these two incredible miscarriages of moral justice (which are made even worse by the fact that, at least in Ferguson, no laws were broken by the policeman: all a policeman has to do is say he felt his life was in danger to justify lethal force and he can kill anyone he wants) are important reminders not to drop the ball on portraying the casual racism of the Witkowskis.
I think what is especially relevant about the Witkowskis is that they are guilty of the same obstacle to a just society that so many contemporary white Americans are. Their problem isn't that they harbor any sort of hatred toward African Americans. Stan and Will see themselves as sympathetic, I'm sure, coming from a disenfranchised background. I was watching a documentary on James Brown that touched on his support of Nixon, and as an immigrant family, they would probably be on board with that: the idea of economic self-determinism. They would probably help people pull themselves up by their bootstraps here and there, and probably be a little impatient with anybody who doesn't fight against the odds. I don't think they'd fall prey to that paternalistic racism of the loving slave master, really.
And Arthur obviously loves black culture and doesn't tend to see reality the way most people do; he'd be largely oblivious to the politics of race. Who knows what he even sees. I imagine he sees angels and demons, he probably sees auras and the ultraviolet spectrum, too. It's not that he's color blind, it's that he sees very different colors. He'd probably see people by their proximity to hell and heaven or something like that.
Anyway, I think the problem the Witkowskis reflect about white America is that institutionalized racism doesn't show up on their radar. It's so easy for white Americans to believe that, since they don't bear any racist sentiments, their little corner of the world has moved past racism and all that is left is for the remaining racist hearts of the world to change. This sense that the world has improved blinds them to the fact that most of the economic and political and a significant chunk of the social structures of racism are still intact and functioning very well to benefit white people and disenfranchise black people.
The problem isn't just a matter of hearts.
The problem with Stan and Will is that their eyes are on money. They view earning money as something that helps everybody: their employees, their musicians, the women in their lives who handle the charity, the promotion of black culture through music, the elevation of the disenfranchised, etc. Paving over Detroit makes money for people and protects the family. Stan doesn't see what paving over Black Bottom or cutting neighborhoods in half like the Chrysler Freeway did, or if he does, he only sees the issues on a very superficial level: people will adapt and the economic improvement will more than make up for the inconvenience.
We have similar issues with Will. If everything goes according to plan, he will help turn all of the musicians who work with Arthur into famous millionaires. How could anyone challenge his treatment of black musicians, and how could it be bad for white musicians to help build markets for black musicians? The problem is not his vision, according to Will. It's that Arthur keeps on screwing everything up, which means the tours are never supported by new records, the recording costs are never recouped, the corporation is always broke, and the band rarely gets paid and ends up being severely exploited.
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