The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to the group on 16 November 2016.
Although I like the idea of era-specific concerts, I think the fundraiser for the Joe Lazarus album should feature the songs from the Joe Lazarus album. I'm wondering if these songs would, due to their uniqueness of style and their importance to the project, should have been the ones written just before or right after the turbulent reversals, July 4, 1976.
Bad things happened to make it not come out (Concert for Iceland, ECT, etc.). Could the Eagles' Hotel California be the anti-Joe Lazarus album, an album that came out in the psychic void left by the Arthur White/Joe Lazarus collaboration? Interestingly, that was the album when they brought on Joe Walsh. I don't know, that may be a totally unrelated can of worms.
Another concern about the era-specific shows: they run up the bill pretty fast and involve a lot of extra work. I at least feel the need to track down era-specific instruments, costuming, etc. I'm not sure we would make any money whatsoever. What I like about the washed-up "Return of" shows is that they are extremely cheap and easy to do. If we were trying to do a fundraiser to record the unrecorded Joe Lazarus album, I think it makes sense that we would be in 2016, trying to do this in time for the 40th Anniversary of the Turbulent Reversals, that ambiguous event with an even more ambiguous legacy. Instead of Father interviewing us on All Things New, we could have Joe Lazarus, Jr. interviewing us about the album, about his father, about his father's supposed clone, Joseph Lazarus III, who is actually in the current iteration of the band (so awkward!).
Maybe we could have a telethon aspect of the fundraiser, with operators standing by!
I think this could make for some top-rate theater, with Joe Jr. being torn between his passion to record his father's album and being weirded out by his father's clone being in the band!
That would be so awesome with a bank of volunteer operators sitting at a long table off to the side actually answering the phone and talking with donors during songs, plugging their other ears so they can hear. Every now and again, we could pipe in a voice of someone actually calling in, perhaps real people from Arthur's past who couldn't make it to the show. Liza, I love that moment in The Eraserhead Stories, when David Lynch has a long phone conversation with Catherine Coulson in the middle of the interview. I love the idea of Joe Lazarus, Jr. as a vaguely depressed, increasingly bewildered telethon host!
What an amazing dynamic to have him avoid talking to/about his father's clone, who is sitting right there!
Showing posts with label concert for iceland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concert for iceland. Show all posts
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Friday, June 5, 2015
A Polylogic Epistolary Novel
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to the group on 13 April 2015.
Allison,
I'm looking forward to reading your thesis. Thanks for sharing that!
I concur with Will that you should structure things whatever way you want. One of the preoccupations of the project is a McLuhanish concept of how different modes of communication influence the message ("the medium is the message," but not quite as much of an equation in our case). For me, my communications have included
Like you, I think I "understand it for the most part," and I strive to communicate my understanding inside each of these modes of communication. The effort involved in trying to explain myself to others is salutary, both to the project and to me personally. I choose the one that seems to get me closest to expressing the truth, a collision between the facts of my current situation and the transcendent vision I imagine. Actually for a while there, my main mode of expression was Farthington's voicemail, calling on my way home from work or while walking around with Francis. While that medium might not have made for the most exciting blog posts, it did deepen my understanding of the project.
Of course, we can also take into account all sorts of human considerations: insecurities, perplexity, compulsivity, constraints--all of these influence the mode of communication. There are times when I can't play music, times when I can't sit down at the computer, times when something is broken, times when I don't have time, times when I force the issue. Going along with the Nietzschean concept of the eternal return (The Return of Arthur White, after all!), I've tried to wall myself up in those moments and circumstances and not go out to some transcendent horizon where I will have all the tools at my disposal. I think we try to make whatever utterance we are capable of making, communicating with one another the best we can. Trying to make it as good and coherent as possible, of course, but not waiting for anything like clarity.
And I can't quite wrap my words around what I'm saying here...but with all due reverence...this is how the project can in some way participate in the mystery of the cross.
I'm thinking along the lines of the seven last words of Christ: continuing to speak words of that strive at meaning, recognizing but never acquiescing or capitulating the limits it encounters. Something in the collision of those two antitheticals is the "goal" of the project. I think this is not unlike what you discovered in writing your thesis: "I wrote the piece not unlike the blog as a reflection of my own grappling with my identity and significance, which I eventually concluded is inherently meaningful in its own end."
Another critical aspect of the project is that it is dialogic.
The Principles of Theory was written as a series of emails between me and my friend at U of M, [NAME REDACTED]. It wasn't until I reconnected with Will again that the project came back into existence. It does not exist as a monologue. I say that we're working on a kind of postmodern epistolary novel. And now we're moving from it being a dialogic epistolary novel to it being a polylogic epistolary novel.
As far as your audience, that's just us for the most part. But I think you can imagine other audiences...more in that transcendent dimension that refuses to acquiesce to limits it encounters. For example, my Twitter account is basically where I have been trying to engage the people of Iceland, following them and tweeting at them and using the hashtag #Iceland and #ConcertforIceland. This is still very much in its early stages because I haven't had much time to devote to it. To fully engage that audience serves as a counterfeit of communication, one of several abysses into which our varied characters can fall.
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| Christ on the Cross with Mary, John and Mary Magdalene |
Allison,
I'm looking forward to reading your thesis. Thanks for sharing that!
I concur with Will that you should structure things whatever way you want. One of the preoccupations of the project is a McLuhanish concept of how different modes of communication influence the message ("the medium is the message," but not quite as much of an equation in our case). For me, my communications have included
- Emails with Will
- Voice-to-text transcriptions of messages left on Farthington's voicemail
- Text-to-voice transcriptions of The Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas
- mp3s of song fragments
- YouTube videos of song ideas (one while eating a bowl of cereal)
- Open letters to Philip Glass and Iceland (the latter in Icelandic as rendered by Google Translate)
- Google+ Hangouts with Will
Of course, we can also take into account all sorts of human considerations: insecurities, perplexity, compulsivity, constraints--all of these influence the mode of communication. There are times when I can't play music, times when I can't sit down at the computer, times when something is broken, times when I don't have time, times when I force the issue. Going along with the Nietzschean concept of the eternal return (The Return of Arthur White, after all!), I've tried to wall myself up in those moments and circumstances and not go out to some transcendent horizon where I will have all the tools at my disposal. I think we try to make whatever utterance we are capable of making, communicating with one another the best we can. Trying to make it as good and coherent as possible, of course, but not waiting for anything like clarity.
And I can't quite wrap my words around what I'm saying here...but with all due reverence...this is how the project can in some way participate in the mystery of the cross.
I'm thinking along the lines of the seven last words of Christ: continuing to speak words of that strive at meaning, recognizing but never acquiescing or capitulating the limits it encounters. Something in the collision of those two antitheticals is the "goal" of the project. I think this is not unlike what you discovered in writing your thesis: "I wrote the piece not unlike the blog as a reflection of my own grappling with my identity and significance, which I eventually concluded is inherently meaningful in its own end."
Another critical aspect of the project is that it is dialogic.
The Principles of Theory was written as a series of emails between me and my friend at U of M, [NAME REDACTED]. It wasn't until I reconnected with Will again that the project came back into existence. It does not exist as a monologue. I say that we're working on a kind of postmodern epistolary novel. And now we're moving from it being a dialogic epistolary novel to it being a polylogic epistolary novel.
As far as your audience, that's just us for the most part. But I think you can imagine other audiences...more in that transcendent dimension that refuses to acquiesce to limits it encounters. For example, my Twitter account is basically where I have been trying to engage the people of Iceland, following them and tweeting at them and using the hashtag #Iceland and #ConcertforIceland. This is still very much in its early stages because I haven't had much time to devote to it. To fully engage that audience serves as a counterfeit of communication, one of several abysses into which our varied characters can fall.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
The Perils of Supernatural Evil
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 31 March 2015.
Thanks, Art! That solves a lot for me. A few things come to mind. One is that the story is much darker than I thought. I've focused on Arthur's torment in the face of a mankind who has eradicated any context for appreciating a mystic from contemporary life, and I've ignored the perils of supernatural evil, other than to think about Stan in hell and several characters slouching toward it through bad choices.
Secondly, in thinking of Farthington as a scientist, I've imagined him more and more as an eccentric figure from Victorian or Edwardian science fiction, but I suppose he should be more like a Frankenstein, Faustus, or Von Doom--someone who couples his scientific pursuits with an interest in the arcane and occult--he's an alchemist as much as a scientist.
Finally, I don't think we've imagined an Arthur whose soul has become more wholly spiritual well enough yet. We know patients and staff at the hospital turn to him. We know he gets up on pillars. If Will's ex-girlfriend Linda is still in the story, we know she is a nun because of Arthur. We know Will will eventually repent the American Dream and become a monk or something because of Arthur. We know the restaged concert for Iceland has something to do with Arthur's transformation. We know Arthur has a vision of an apocalypse that requires Farthington, a submarine, and a hippie maiden throwing a guitar into a volcano in Iceland. And I think on some level, we know the story doesn't end, but it's also important to our quest to make Catholic art that the beauty and glory of God working through Arthur is cohesive enough to evangelize the audience.
 |
| Pan Twardowski and the Devil by Michał Elwiro Andriolli |
Thanks, Art! That solves a lot for me. A few things come to mind. One is that the story is much darker than I thought. I've focused on Arthur's torment in the face of a mankind who has eradicated any context for appreciating a mystic from contemporary life, and I've ignored the perils of supernatural evil, other than to think about Stan in hell and several characters slouching toward it through bad choices.
Secondly, in thinking of Farthington as a scientist, I've imagined him more and more as an eccentric figure from Victorian or Edwardian science fiction, but I suppose he should be more like a Frankenstein, Faustus, or Von Doom--someone who couples his scientific pursuits with an interest in the arcane and occult--he's an alchemist as much as a scientist.
Finally, I don't think we've imagined an Arthur whose soul has become more wholly spiritual well enough yet. We know patients and staff at the hospital turn to him. We know he gets up on pillars. If Will's ex-girlfriend Linda is still in the story, we know she is a nun because of Arthur. We know Will will eventually repent the American Dream and become a monk or something because of Arthur. We know the restaged concert for Iceland has something to do with Arthur's transformation. We know Arthur has a vision of an apocalypse that requires Farthington, a submarine, and a hippie maiden throwing a guitar into a volcano in Iceland. And I think on some level, we know the story doesn't end, but it's also important to our quest to make Catholic art that the beauty and glory of God working through Arthur is cohesive enough to evangelize the audience.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
This Parade of Appearances
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 7 March 2015.
Most of my recent thinking is the contemporary "Concert for Iceland": the attempt to give Arthur closure on this final chapter in his pre-turbulent reversals life. After that moment, any linear notions like "chapters" are no longer applicable. This is the contemporary Arthur who lives in the psychiatric hospital and is turning into a stylite.
I think Brand New Life is going to be a lot more of your music, like "Selling My Gold," "Helen of Troy," "Retire the Empire," "We Won't Give Up the Fight," and others of yours that I want to start working on after Concert for Iceland is "in the books" (whatever that means). I think I'm going to allow myself to be Billy Pilgrim about the whole thing, because I don't know where one era starts and the other finishes. As you know, I've found some freedom in the idea that this is what post-turbulent reversals life is like.
I also like the idea that, even once we start doing those more chronologically based shows, the project will always have an overriding sense that "time is out of joint." After all, we could be working on a Will and the 5 Wits project 15 years from now as 56 year olds! The actual passing of time plays a critical role in the project's views on time and memory. How potentially poignant to be exploring Arthur's happy early days of marriage in our late 60's! Incidentally, think it might be neat to allow ourselves to age but to continually get young actors and actresses who are not "out of joint." Or is it they that are out of joint? We interact with an "eternal" memory that never grows old, even as we ourselves age.
Of course in our case, it's not memory, it's fantasy. It's that dream of rock 'n' roll stardom that was never real but that hung there in the ether, haunting us. These songs that come from some vaguely earlier era, these young bodies and faces that populate our stages...these are all a shadow's shadow. These dreams, which live on eternally to shame us, have beggared us in this life. And this is a very Death of a Salesman conception of the American Dream in general. We invest everything in our fantasy world--buying it new stockings while the real world grows frayed and threadbare from neglect.
From this standpoint, we could even go one step further than allowing ourselves to age while continuing to have young actors and actresses. Have me (and potentially you) dress "normally" and have everyone else dress era-appropriate. That might help the audience better comprehend this idea of fantasy. In Death of a Salesman, it's the older Willy, dressed as he is in his current life, that interacts with The Woman, who is considerably younger.
The problem becomes what is that "actual" identity? How close does it come to my actual identity? And what is my actual identity?
Because ultimately, the play is about you and I interacting with this Gen-X fantasy, where we collectively lived in this idealized Back to the Future of the 60's and 70's until maybe Nevermind. But even after that point, many of us continued to prefer that culture and music to any of our own generation's offerings. One problem is that there isn't really any uniform that would be recognized as "default" for a person of our generation. I could maybe wear my "casual Friday" attire, but even that has gone from parachute pants to skinny jeans over the span of 10 years.
That's why I think the straitjacket and maybe the thrift-store hodgepodge underneath (nothing cool) might express the idea best.
Instead of being a blank slate, be the parti-colored motley of the Russian Sailor. Maybe I've got on a pair of Bugle Boy jeans, a Cosby Sweater, a basketball jersey, Docksiders. Having one or more of these things not fit well just drives home the point further. Our generation, and perhaps every generation since, has failed or refused to define itself, preferring instead to rehash and remix an idealized past. Even rap, arguably our generation's most novel musical offering, involves the curation and celebration of earlier music through sampling.
It is from this standpoint of not knowing ourselves that we seek answers from an earlier generation's experience, willfully ignorant of the fact that this past led directly to the confused present--that this past was once itself the confused present. And in this we become just another member of the audience. We feel the weight of dramatic irony because we know how it played out, but we still want to replay it all over again rather than live out our own tragedies and comedies, sing our own songs, etc.
Maybe the turbulent reversals began when commercial culture overtook and fully appropriated counterculture.
Maybe at that point it became nearly impossible for the apparel to "proclaim the man." Do we have "that within that passeth show"? Or are we but a "painting of sorrow, a face without a heart?" And maybe it's a good thing that we need to confront these questions.
Maybe the questions were always there and we just didn't know it, distracted by this parade of appearances.
Most of my recent thinking is the contemporary "Concert for Iceland": the attempt to give Arthur closure on this final chapter in his pre-turbulent reversals life. After that moment, any linear notions like "chapters" are no longer applicable. This is the contemporary Arthur who lives in the psychiatric hospital and is turning into a stylite.
I think Brand New Life is going to be a lot more of your music, like "Selling My Gold," "Helen of Troy," "Retire the Empire," "We Won't Give Up the Fight," and others of yours that I want to start working on after Concert for Iceland is "in the books" (whatever that means). I think I'm going to allow myself to be Billy Pilgrim about the whole thing, because I don't know where one era starts and the other finishes. As you know, I've found some freedom in the idea that this is what post-turbulent reversals life is like.
I also like the idea that, even once we start doing those more chronologically based shows, the project will always have an overriding sense that "time is out of joint." After all, we could be working on a Will and the 5 Wits project 15 years from now as 56 year olds! The actual passing of time plays a critical role in the project's views on time and memory. How potentially poignant to be exploring Arthur's happy early days of marriage in our late 60's! Incidentally, think it might be neat to allow ourselves to age but to continually get young actors and actresses who are not "out of joint." Or is it they that are out of joint? We interact with an "eternal" memory that never grows old, even as we ourselves age.
Of course in our case, it's not memory, it's fantasy. It's that dream of rock 'n' roll stardom that was never real but that hung there in the ether, haunting us. These songs that come from some vaguely earlier era, these young bodies and faces that populate our stages...these are all a shadow's shadow. These dreams, which live on eternally to shame us, have beggared us in this life. And this is a very Death of a Salesman conception of the American Dream in general. We invest everything in our fantasy world--buying it new stockings while the real world grows frayed and threadbare from neglect.
From this standpoint, we could even go one step further than allowing ourselves to age while continuing to have young actors and actresses. Have me (and potentially you) dress "normally" and have everyone else dress era-appropriate. That might help the audience better comprehend this idea of fantasy. In Death of a Salesman, it's the older Willy, dressed as he is in his current life, that interacts with The Woman, who is considerably younger.
The problem becomes what is that "actual" identity? How close does it come to my actual identity? And what is my actual identity?
Because ultimately, the play is about you and I interacting with this Gen-X fantasy, where we collectively lived in this idealized Back to the Future of the 60's and 70's until maybe Nevermind. But even after that point, many of us continued to prefer that culture and music to any of our own generation's offerings. One problem is that there isn't really any uniform that would be recognized as "default" for a person of our generation. I could maybe wear my "casual Friday" attire, but even that has gone from parachute pants to skinny jeans over the span of 10 years.
That's why I think the straitjacket and maybe the thrift-store hodgepodge underneath (nothing cool) might express the idea best.
Instead of being a blank slate, be the parti-colored motley of the Russian Sailor. Maybe I've got on a pair of Bugle Boy jeans, a Cosby Sweater, a basketball jersey, Docksiders. Having one or more of these things not fit well just drives home the point further. Our generation, and perhaps every generation since, has failed or refused to define itself, preferring instead to rehash and remix an idealized past. Even rap, arguably our generation's most novel musical offering, involves the curation and celebration of earlier music through sampling.
It is from this standpoint of not knowing ourselves that we seek answers from an earlier generation's experience, willfully ignorant of the fact that this past led directly to the confused present--that this past was once itself the confused present. And in this we become just another member of the audience. We feel the weight of dramatic irony because we know how it played out, but we still want to replay it all over again rather than live out our own tragedies and comedies, sing our own songs, etc.
Maybe the turbulent reversals began when commercial culture overtook and fully appropriated counterculture.
Maybe at that point it became nearly impossible for the apparel to "proclaim the man." Do we have "that within that passeth show"? Or are we but a "painting of sorrow, a face without a heart?" And maybe it's a good thing that we need to confront these questions.
Maybe the questions were always there and we just didn't know it, distracted by this parade of appearances.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
1976
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 26 February 2015.
More thoughts.
What is this "turbulent reversals" thing?
Bear with me. Your idea has sparked an earlier idea in me. At one point we talked about the "universal destination of music." That conversation opened the door to putting our un-copyrighted music out there gratuitously for anyone to listen to or steal.
"Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give" (Mt. 10:8).
What about this idea: "Arthur White says he will play with anyone." I see it as an open letter to our fans (mostly imagined ones, of course). If a group of people down in Akron wants to put together a backing band and learn all the songs, I will travel there and maybe take the kids to a children's museum during the day. Now Akron is probably not going to be happening for a long time, but I can see Detroit, what with my uncle's interest in these songs. Not to mention that you have lots of friends all around the country. Instead of coordinating some kind of grueling cross-country collaboration, why not this? Put a band together, find us a place to crash, and we'll come visit. I've got my cousins in Bradenton, Florida, who I haven't seen in years.
I feel that a backing band needs to be able to practice. So it makes sense that they are close geographically. You, of course, remain co-writer, manager, bandleader, etc. Whatever money is made--even from gigs where you aren't playing--we'd figure out some kind of algorithm to split it. This may be totally crazy, but this is the sketchbook, right?
Is this what happens in 1976?
A concert becomes dislodged in time, in place, in personnel, etc. Music, with its primordial origin, finds its universal destination. Letting music be music. Letting water be water. "Hotel California," the subject of Henley's litigious wrath, came out in February 1977. He probably was recording it in 1976.
If you look at all the philosophical principles we've been hammering out for the last 3 years, this makes total sense. Ultimately, we've said that this music is the property of the community. It still has a long way to go to live up to that declaration.
Could this be a way forward that accords with our philosophical principles?
More thoughts.
What is this "turbulent reversals" thing?
Bear with me. Your idea has sparked an earlier idea in me. At one point we talked about the "universal destination of music." That conversation opened the door to putting our un-copyrighted music out there gratuitously for anyone to listen to or steal.
"Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give" (Mt. 10:8).
What about this idea: "Arthur White says he will play with anyone." I see it as an open letter to our fans (mostly imagined ones, of course). If a group of people down in Akron wants to put together a backing band and learn all the songs, I will travel there and maybe take the kids to a children's museum during the day. Now Akron is probably not going to be happening for a long time, but I can see Detroit, what with my uncle's interest in these songs. Not to mention that you have lots of friends all around the country. Instead of coordinating some kind of grueling cross-country collaboration, why not this? Put a band together, find us a place to crash, and we'll come visit. I've got my cousins in Bradenton, Florida, who I haven't seen in years.
I feel that a backing band needs to be able to practice. So it makes sense that they are close geographically. You, of course, remain co-writer, manager, bandleader, etc. Whatever money is made--even from gigs where you aren't playing--we'd figure out some kind of algorithm to split it. This may be totally crazy, but this is the sketchbook, right?
Is this what happens in 1976?
A concert becomes dislodged in time, in place, in personnel, etc. Music, with its primordial origin, finds its universal destination. Letting music be music. Letting water be water. "Hotel California," the subject of Henley's litigious wrath, came out in February 1977. He probably was recording it in 1976.
If you look at all the philosophical principles we've been hammering out for the last 3 years, this makes total sense. Ultimately, we've said that this music is the property of the community. It still has a long way to go to live up to that declaration.
Could this be a way forward that accords with our philosophical principles?
Friday, March 27, 2015
An Open Letter to Iceland
Kæru Íslendingar mínir
Í fáfræði mína, takast ég þér, og vona eftir svari. Það er erfitt að lýsa því hvernig þetta byrjaði allt.
Í grundvallaratriðum erum við að búa til goðsögn um 70 er lagasmiður heitir Arthur White, sem var fæddur til að vera dýrlingur en afl með fjölskyldu sinni til að verða Rock Star. Til að gera langa sögu stutta, tónlist feril sinn nam engu. Hann féll undir ráðum Cult leiðtogi, Carlton Farthington, sem sannfærði hann um að leiksvið a endanlega ávinningi tónleika fyrir Ísland, sem á þeim tíma var að gangast undir röð skelfilegar eldgos. Farthington spáðu að þessi gos boðberi komandi "turbulent víxlar", sem myndi þíða risaeðlur og leiða í fullan snúist við inertial lögum. Hann hélt því fram að eina flýja var að fara niður í eldfjöll, framhjá reanimated risaeðlur, niður í innri kjarna jarðar. Tónleikarnir gerðist aldrei. Hvort turbulent umskipti átt sér stað er opin spurning háð mörgum túlkunum.
Þar þá daga, Arthur White hefur tekið Raflostsmeðferð og verið á stofnunum. Á undanförnum dögum, þó hann hafi byrjað að sýna hættulega hegðun, klifra upp á stoðin-eins og hlutir og hvetja aðra til að gera slíkt hið sama. Hann hefur orðið að ólíklegt andlegur leiðtogi, ekki aðeins til að náungi sjúklingum hans, heldur einnig til hjúkrunarfræðinga, orderlies og groundskeepers. Læknar hans hafa komið að trúa því að Arthur æsingur stafar af komandi 40 ára afmæli tónleikunum fyrir Ísland, 4 Júlí 2016, og sem, sviðsetning spotta útgáfa af þessum tónleikum, þeir mega vera fær um að koma Arthur frið.
Í þessari viðleitni, Arthur White fylgir bróður sínum, fyrirtæki framkvæmdastjóri, og trommara, Will Witkowski; andlega ráðgjafi, bassaleikari / organisti og her Detroit Public sjónvarpsþáttur All Things New, faðir Bernard; og niður-og-út gítarleikari upphaflega ákveða að spila tónleika fyrir Ísland, Rustyy Kryystyylz.
Og viljum við bæta við nokkrum Íslendingum í fjölda okkar.
Þó að það er erfitt að útskýra, teljum við að Detroit, Michigan, er bein framlenging á primordial anda eyju þjóð þína. Annaðhvort að Leif Ericsson raun uppgötvaði Detroit eða að það er einhver neðanjarðar vatnaleiðum milli tveggja staða. Eða bæði. Við teljum að Leif Ericsson getur samt lifa á bökkum þess neðanjarðar ána, veitta ódauðlegur með boltann hans dularfulla steini hann hrifsa frá hjarta forn íslensk eldfjall.
Við viljum gjarnan að finna hljóðfæraleikurum og bakgrunnur vocalists sem deila sækni okkar fyrir 70 s R & B og blá-eyed sál.
Hvað væri að niðurstöður þessarar tónlistar skipti? Ég veit ekki, en ég hef nokkrar hugmyndir. Einn viljum við vinna í "fjarlægð" getu, kannski að taka smá tónlist eða jafnvel sviðsetning alvöru tónleika í Michigan eða Íslands.
Með kveðju,
Arthúr
Monday, February 23, 2015
White Guys Playing Black Music (Part 1 of 5)
The following is an excerpt of a 20 January 2015 email sent from Will to Art.
I've been listening to "Hey Rome" a ton and really enjoy it. You really fixed up my lyrics!
Also, I'm into the music. It's a smooth song, but the phrasing is really jagged: the phrases don't stay in predictable patterns of 8 or 12. It has a Sly and the Family Stone funk box-style drone. It's really well-suited to a hypnotic drum part--there isn't really room for many fills, and barely any unison parts to orchestrate other than dudda dun dunnnn, but it's more together than a lot of Sly's mental breakdown stuff was.
I can see Will liking how smooth and funky it is, but being horrified at the content of the lyrics and how long they go on. It's a very cryptic rant, yet very listenable. You have to be a boss to play the groove well, yet, there's never a spot where a boss can show off. I can also hear plenty of room for highly orchestrated "Young Americans"-style vocal interplay.
I've been thinking about the reverse Heart of Darkness concept and the issue of white guys playing black music. It seems like four tropes dominate the field. The first is the all-white guy band, which I'd say is made famous by Ambrosia, early Average White Band, Wild Cherry, Hall and Oates, and Gino Vanelli.
(I included this clip for the glow-crotch intro--the next one is the one I really wanted to show you)
I've been listening to "Hey Rome" a ton and really enjoy it. You really fixed up my lyrics!
Also, I'm into the music. It's a smooth song, but the phrasing is really jagged: the phrases don't stay in predictable patterns of 8 or 12. It has a Sly and the Family Stone funk box-style drone. It's really well-suited to a hypnotic drum part--there isn't really room for many fills, and barely any unison parts to orchestrate other than dudda dun dunnnn, but it's more together than a lot of Sly's mental breakdown stuff was.
I can see Will liking how smooth and funky it is, but being horrified at the content of the lyrics and how long they go on. It's a very cryptic rant, yet very listenable. You have to be a boss to play the groove well, yet, there's never a spot where a boss can show off. I can also hear plenty of room for highly orchestrated "Young Americans"-style vocal interplay.
I've been thinking about the reverse Heart of Darkness concept and the issue of white guys playing black music. It seems like four tropes dominate the field. The first is the all-white guy band, which I'd say is made famous by Ambrosia, early Average White Band, Wild Cherry, Hall and Oates, and Gino Vanelli.
(I included this clip for the glow-crotch intro--the next one is the one I really wanted to show you)
Saturday, February 21, 2015
July 4, 2016
The following is an excerpt of a 23 January 2015 email exchange between Art and Will.
 |
| Moses viewing the Promised Land |
On another subject, I think July 4, 2016 is the critical date.
With the more ambitious lineup of high-end players, highly involved props, costumes, and sets, and long-distance practicing arrangements, it will probably take us that long.
More importantly, that is 40 years after the critical day, the day of the Concert for Iceland, the 200th anniversary of our country's founding. And 40 years is a critical lapse of time due to its biblical associations. Up to this point, we have been wandering in the desert and only now are we going to be allowed to enter into the promised land: Iceland!
July 4, 1976 was about passover, liberation, promise. July 4, 2016 will be about arrival, fulfillment, conquest.
Not to say we won't make forays, foretastes, foreshadowings--blips on the radar.
But, if we do nothing else, we must be ready for July 4, 2016!
People get ready for July 4, 2016!Will:
Everything you've said about July 4th, 2016 makes sense. Two thoughts:
- It will be nearly impossible to get an audience. A solution here could be that we broadcast the performance then and release it for download. Another would be that we find a rich person who supports the arts and perform it at his or her barbecue.
- I'm geeked about doing something this summer. That doesn't have to be Iceland, though. I'm fine with doing something very stripped down, maybe as a 3-piece if Father is up for it. If we can add a guitar player, that's cool, too. There are a ton of venues that would work out here, and unlike Lansing, Traverse City's population quadruples in the summer instead of shrinking.
Friday, February 20, 2015
A Few Scattered Thoughts
A few scattered thoughts:
- I love your ideas for the show.
- I get the low budget thing, and I'm seeing low budget as well. A slight clue that the show is happening in Arthur's present-day mind would be the low-budget presentation. A ballet, if it happens, could be done with video, but I'm fine with it not happening.
- I taught some kids whose mom owned a costume shop in Lansing. They might have something mascoty for us. Did you ever see the Viking mascot on Freaks and Geeks?
- It occurs to me that Farthington, Steffi, and Rusty all ascend in this story as the Joe Lazarus figure descends. They are the strange fruits that have overtaken the garden in the absence of a gardener figure.
- I like The Benefactor figure.
- I read Kubla Khan as the greatest of all Romantic poems about the beauty that can result from the unattainability of the unattainable. That is one reason I like thinking of this performance in light of Coleridge. Really, we've got a metanarrative--glimpses of what we'd really like to share with the world. It's the story of our impossible attempt to give the world Arthur White as much as it is about Arthur White's struggles to save Iceland, whatever Iceland represents to him.
- My love of morality plays reemerges as well, although in a postmodern way. All of the formal features of the Iceland struggle have some sort of symbolic significance to Arthur that he attempts to solve by assembling versions of the concert in his mind, but we can't quite call any of the figures allegorical because who knows what they mean. In my mind, I feel an intuitive connection between 70's cults and contemporary digital culture and it informs my understanding if Farthington v. Humboldt, but I can't spell it out enough to cry allegory. Still, even just something that teases an audience toward allegorical thought carried in a frame of amateur public performance satisfies the part of me that wants to carry the torch of Catholic performance art by nodding toward morality plays.
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.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Art is an Unalloyed Good, Right?
The following is an excerpt of a 5 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.
"Norsemen Landing in Iceland" by Oscar Wergeland - Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline) (1909). Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas. London : Harrap. This illustration is the frontispiece. Digitized by the Internet Archive and available from http://www.archive.org/details/mythsofthenorsem00gueruoft Some simple image processing by User:Haukurth.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Art:
I like the lyrics of your song! Let me know if you finish it. It goes along with the Nativity-type elements in "Why Would I Bow to His Majesty?"
I probably will want to move on from this topic soon, for Yeatsian reasons, but I do think we need to remain as conscious as possible of racial elements that we ourselves have built into this saga. Rock 'n' roll itself--and especially Detroit rock 'n' roll--is fraught with race-related issues by its very DNA.
I really like the idea ("like" might be the wrong word) of Iceland as a kind of "Heart of Whiteness," a photo negative of Heart of Darkness, but raising similar issues.
I appreciate the Mad Men approach to race as well. Too many shows set in that time period have tried to sanitize the way characters would have acted. So awkward. Maybe I allowed myself to get too topical. Broke character. Did what I wrote derail things too much? (And were we ever on anything as straight and parallel as rails?)
But then again, in one sense, it's just another interpretation, another layer of sediment. Certainly got a lot of page views. Maybe our artistic endeavors aren't quite as complicit as I made them out to be. I don't think I'll ever know. As usual, yours seems like the more balanced view.
Plus, art is an unalloyed good, right?Will:
With the photo negative idea, is the idea that Carlton Farthington is Kurtz, and that he uses the superstition of the Icelandic natives (they believe in elves and fairies, apparently) to stage the concert on some Icelandic island and is worshiped as a pagan god despite the fact or because of the fact that his methods have become unsound?
Are Arthur White and Will Witkowski then Marlowes?
Achebe's No Longer at Ease is my favorite of his books, and it deals with the generation of Nigerians who were Oxford educated so that they could assist the white oppressors in modernizing Nigeria. The irony, historically speaking, is that the Nigerians who were educated ended up getting multiple PhD's while their white employers were usually mediocre students who couldn't make it in England and rarely even had bachelor's degrees, so England abandoned that policy. So there is something Achebean in the notion of Farthington using his Oxford education to hoodwink white people, and something Conradian in that notion of all of Europe going into the formation of Kurtz, or in this case, all of European colonialism fueling Farthington's cult leader status.
At the same time, I don't think Farthington is motivated by revenge or personal insecurity, as we see with most cult leaders, especially white male American cult leaders. He seems a little more like an Elegba figure: he enjoys messing with people, which I think makes him a little elven or spritely, too.
Also, I still see the concert, or at least the original concert, as being set in the 70's, à la the Concert for Bangladesh. We're just not living in an era of mega fundraiser concerts.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Output-Oriented Endeavors
The following is an excerpt of a 27 November 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 getting ready to do the Basement Songs bit and here's the italicized note I have in mind for the top:
This, of course, is in the new spirit of (1) making people feel good about participating, (2) giving users autonomy, and (3) keeping the system as open as possible (Shirky). After the note, there's the embedded video of me playing the song, and then after that, there's the lyrics and chords. This is also in the spirit of Matthew 10:8: "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give."
I'd like to prime the pump if possible, by requesting that a more inner orbit of friends send in some of these initial videos. That's kind of like the "play within a play" idea, wherein we script ideal audience members to model the desired participatory behavior for the rest. At some point, that wall between the scripted participants and the passive audience begins to break down as the passive audience members become active. And, if their content is posted on the blog, they become the performers as well, completing that circle.
It might be a final goal from the project to be able to walk away from it having created some kind of feedback loop!
So who do you think you could approach about doing this? And what do you think the goal is? Honestly, I don't have a clear goal in mind. I just want to put it out there and invite people. I want to be more inviting and see what happens. So this first step is good in the sense that I'm not just sitting on the songs anymore.
But it hasn't come to fruition until other people get involved.
So I want to get Father involved if possible. I want to get as many people into my basement as possible. And honestly becoming passive in the whole process may be the ultimate goal. I'm open to letting the songs go their own way if someone feels strongly about them. I don't know if that is in the cards but I want to entertain any possibility when it comes to the songs. I think opening up this output when it feels right will improve things on the input side of the equation.
I'm thinking that my resistance to output-oriented endeavors has stifled my creativity to the point where I am willing to consider anything.
 |
| Clay Shirky |
The purpose of Basement Songs is to allow our fans to play and sing along with Arthur's Concert for Iceland songs. We would like to encourage you to send us any recordings of your own renditions to carltonfarthington@gmail.com. Who knows, maybe one day you could be up on stage with Arthur White!Please revise the wording for that if you can think of anything better.
This, of course, is in the new spirit of (1) making people feel good about participating, (2) giving users autonomy, and (3) keeping the system as open as possible (Shirky). After the note, there's the embedded video of me playing the song, and then after that, there's the lyrics and chords. This is also in the spirit of Matthew 10:8: "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give."
I'd like to prime the pump if possible, by requesting that a more inner orbit of friends send in some of these initial videos. That's kind of like the "play within a play" idea, wherein we script ideal audience members to model the desired participatory behavior for the rest. At some point, that wall between the scripted participants and the passive audience begins to break down as the passive audience members become active. And, if their content is posted on the blog, they become the performers as well, completing that circle.
It might be a final goal from the project to be able to walk away from it having created some kind of feedback loop!
So who do you think you could approach about doing this? And what do you think the goal is? Honestly, I don't have a clear goal in mind. I just want to put it out there and invite people. I want to be more inviting and see what happens. So this first step is good in the sense that I'm not just sitting on the songs anymore.
But it hasn't come to fruition until other people get involved.
So I want to get Father involved if possible. I want to get as many people into my basement as possible. And honestly becoming passive in the whole process may be the ultimate goal. I'm open to letting the songs go their own way if someone feels strongly about them. I don't know if that is in the cards but I want to entertain any possibility when it comes to the songs. I think opening up this output when it feels right will improve things on the input side of the equation.
I'm thinking that my resistance to output-oriented endeavors has stifled my creativity to the point where I am willing to consider anything.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Basement Songs: Hey Rome
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!
VERSE 1:
F/G E/F# F/G F#/G# F/G F#Maj7/G#
Hey Rome, you wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty, but you and me, we know well
That wise men still can find me and angry mobs can bind me
But no one can confine me entirely (2x)
Hey Rome, you wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty but you and me, we know well
'Cause here's the Colosseum and here's the Circus Maximus
We die in the arena so tell me why they taxing us?
G#
Hey Rome, one day I'll make you my home sweet home
CHORUS
F#Maj7 AMaj7 Am7
Hey Rome, I would have a moment with you
GMaj7
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the poor, and you slammed the door upon me
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the mourners; you heaped this scorn upon me
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the meek, and you made a monster of me
And all that's left to do, friend I know that you
Gm7 F/G (verse chords)
Need to keep the peace
VERSE 2:
Stranger in a strange land, I grew up in exile
Like my forefathers before me
We're raising up a new roof in the promised desert
Wasteland that you set aside for me
Hey Rome, wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty but you and me we know well
That I hung out with the fallen and wrong kind of company
But hearts this made of love are a danger to society
Hey Rome, one day I'll make you my home sweet home
Hey Rome, I would have a moment with you
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was hungry, you gave me your government cheese
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was a stranger, you turned me out in the street
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was in prison, you sent me some company
(How do you react when I tell you that)
And all that's left to do, friend I know that you
Gm7 D
Threw away the key
D F#m Am G
Your cobbled roads are turning to gold in this my northern home
I can see into your soul, the clutter of mopeds under the colonnade
And a golden haired Croatian girl's my only hope for another day
And I met her at a sidewalk café.
I'd pay to see the look on your face
Gm7 DMaj7
When you discover that I hold the key
CODA:
DMaj7, Dm7, Cm7
Dm9/11, Cm7 (vamp and fade)
VERSE 1:
F/G E/F# F/G F#/G# F/G F#Maj7/G#
Hey Rome, you wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty, but you and me, we know well
That wise men still can find me and angry mobs can bind me
But no one can confine me entirely (2x)
Hey Rome, you wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty but you and me, we know well
'Cause here's the Colosseum and here's the Circus Maximus
We die in the arena so tell me why they taxing us?
G#
Hey Rome, one day I'll make you my home sweet home
CHORUS
F#Maj7 AMaj7 Am7
Hey Rome, I would have a moment with you
GMaj7
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the poor, and you slammed the door upon me
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the mourners; you heaped this scorn upon me
(How do you react when I tell you that)
Blessed are the meek, and you made a monster of me
And all that's left to do, friend I know that you
Gm7 F/G (verse chords)
Need to keep the peace
VERSE 2:
Stranger in a strange land, I grew up in exile
Like my forefathers before me
We're raising up a new roof in the promised desert
Wasteland that you set aside for me
Hey Rome, wouldn't let my parents stay in luxury hotels
Hey Rome, so I came in poverty but you and me we know well
That I hung out with the fallen and wrong kind of company
But hearts this made of love are a danger to society
Hey Rome, one day I'll make you my home sweet home
Hey Rome, I would have a moment with you
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was hungry, you gave me your government cheese
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was a stranger, you turned me out in the street
(How do you react when I tell you that)
When I was in prison, you sent me some company
(How do you react when I tell you that)
And all that's left to do, friend I know that you
Gm7 D
Threw away the key
D F#m Am G
Your cobbled roads are turning to gold in this my northern home
I can see into your soul, the clutter of mopeds under the colonnade
And a golden haired Croatian girl's my only hope for another day
And I met her at a sidewalk café.
I'd pay to see the look on your face
Gm7 DMaj7
When you discover that I hold the key
CODA:
DMaj7, Dm7, Cm7
Dm9/11, Cm7 (vamp and fade)
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
I See the Unreal World More Clearly Than the Real One
The following is an excerpt of a 18 November 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.
"Fimmvorduhals second fissure 2010 04 02" by Boaworm - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Will:
"Fimmvorduhals second fissure 2010 04 02" by Boaworm - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Will:
I'm definitely feeling the Garageband approach right now. Send me more Garageband files whenever you like! I feel like we've got the story in pretty good shape and we're generating lots of nice cultural, artistic, and spiritual criticism for the blog. I'd like to bury myself in the music at least as much as I'm toying with ideas.Art:
I did some reorganizing in the Dropbox and what a mess! I put some more material in the Concert for Iceland folder--some you've already worked on, other things you haven't even heard. One disclaimer: I play around with way too many harmonies and extra parts...just to, you know, try things out. All the songs are pretty stripped down in my mind at this point, so don't hesitate to mute and drag them down to the nether regions of the multitracking.
Let me know if you are still able to get in. Garage Band is pretty hard to get around to here. I have been pursuing the "Basement Songs" idea, recording and uploading video with my new phone--just to give some ideas about flow. But I think the new approach is just to keep on giving--whatever is available. I say that's the only thing that will generate anything different. There are also plenty of song fragments that I've done on Garage Band...not sure if any of that is worth anything. Letting people see the "sketchbook," as they say (as you say!).
Gosh, I'm all snarled up inside. I see the unreal world more clearly than the real one.
Maybe I'll be able to swing a couple more sessions of Garage Band during the upcoming breaks. I will try to put as much of that material in your hands as possible, as soon as possible.
As far as the blog goes, I want us to start thinking about this "direct appeal" thing we've been talking about. Answering questions like What does the project mean to us? Who are we? What are our hopes for the project? Where does it come from? Why is it important or meaningful? What are some future forms that it might take? How can people help? What are we asking for, if anything?
I'm imagining creating an additional page to host our reflections on these topics, an "About Us" of sorts. This would necessitate a basic navigation bar, probably located just above the blog stream.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
An Open Letter to Philip Glass
Years ago, on Friday, October 2, 1998, I saw you perform at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor at the Allen Ginsberg Memorial Concert.
My poem had won first place in the poetry contest associated with the concert and I sat up front with my good friend, James. Although I don't remember much about the concert, I do remember enjoying the music. Your music, with its endless, cascading arpeggios (blog friends, leave this playing as you read!), was definitely the high point. That night, you shared the stage with Michael Stipe, Patti Smith, and Ziggy Marley. And with the person who had won the grand prize in the poetry contest, who got to read her poem, an homage to some other famous poet. Mine was about hanging out around town on a Sunday.
I think she was trying to evoke her punk roots.
The concert also featured REM's Michael Stipe in a rare acoustic performance. A lot of women cried out when, halfway through his show, he took off his V-neck sweater revealing a simple white T. He was totally bald at that point, but baldness really suits certain people. Jeans, t-shirt, and a bald head. And if the audience reaction was any indication, this is a look that really suits Michael Stipe.
Very casual but owning every moment of it.
Very casual but owning every moment of it.
Later, I saw Ziggy Marley and his dreadlocked entourage wandering the streets looking a little bewildered. I'm not sure where they ended up. Didn't see him again.
Ziggy Marley also has an excellent head of hair. He wears his in dreads and had it up inside a knit cap much larger than the ones usually found in stores.
And I think James and I had had this planned from the beginning.
We approached you and handed you a copy of our slim book: The Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas. Really it was just a bunch of emails we had written each other, telling the story of the former professor and infamous cult leader, Carlton Farthington. As we explained it, you listened to us like we were the only people in the world. Thanks for that.
We approached you and handed you a copy of our slim book: The Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas. Really it was just a bunch of emails we had written each other, telling the story of the former professor and infamous cult leader, Carlton Farthington. As we explained it, you listened to us like we were the only people in the world. Thanks for that.
You took the manuscript, which had absolutely no contact information on it. When we saw you later that night, striding down the sidewalk flanked by two female companions, I have to confess, we ran.
We booked.
We booked.
I'm not sure if you saw us then, but I've never seen you again since. And I'm pretty sure you've never seen us.
So, I want to cut to the chase, because I know you're a busy man.
I want to know what you thought about The Principles of Theory. And if you liked it or even dimly remember that night, I thought we might strike up some kind of creative relationship. I would be content with a mentor-mentee type relationship, but I'd prefer to involve you more substantively in the project we are working on right now, The Concert for Iceland.
It's really a long story and I don't want to get into it, but we'll have plenty of time to Skype or talk on the phone at some later point if you decide this is an opportunity you just can't pass up.
Sincerely,
Arthur
Monday, December 8, 2014
All Saints
The following is an email sent to Will on 1 November 2014. It should be noted that, after this point, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.
"Allen ginsberg 675" by Michiel Hendryckx - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Hi Will!
On the Solemnity of All Saints, I wanted to contact you and make a ever-so-slight change in our communications.
From now on, I'd like to try communicating with you via Carlton Farthington's address. I think it will streamline things from the standpoint of opening up the single account that I use to blog, upload videos, etc., hopefully consolidating my electronic "identity" in the process.
Of course, I realize that this sudden move may cause some to wonder whether it really is Arthur or Art who is writing these electronic missives or Carlton Farthington.
Some may point out the malproportionisms Farthington is known for using.
Others may spot the presence of a glaring hapax legomenon not found in Art or Arthur's larger oeuvre.
Any sudden change in direction causes anxiety, controversy, and upheaval.
Maybe even you are feeling some of these things. Allow your eyes to turn inward: what do you see? Many people describe colors, usually green and purple shapes.
Not the rectangular one: that's the computer screen!
Now, open them. I hope you read ahead because otherwise your eyes are still closed! I'm screaming at the computer screen, laughing of course because you cannot hear me. Will! Will! I'm "willing" you to hear me, Will! Ha ha, whew! Whoops!
Whew!
Rest assured, everything will go back to normal and fans will continue to find the sure source of inspiration and edification they have come to expect from "The Return of Arthur White."
Gotta run, but one last thought. The Concert for Iceland "tour" will likely occur in Summer 2017, 20 years after Carlton Farthington's ill-fated pilot program ran at the University of Michigan. If not then, Summer 2022 at the 25th anniversary. If not then, Summer 2047 at the 50th anniversary. So on and so forth...75th, 100th, etc. depending on how healthy we all are.
More details to come.
Cheers,
Art
P.S. If nothing else, I'd like to hold a 24-hour film festival of all those great movies that came out in 1997: The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Event Horizon, The Apocalypse, Men in Black, Cube, Volcano, Flubber, Spice World, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Gozilla (okay, that one was 1998!), and, of course, Cool Runnings (okay, that was 1993!), etc., etc. Gotta go!
P.S.S.What is the meaning of these so-called "gauzy green and purple scarves drawn across the backdrop of eternity"? Why is black synonymous with nothingness? Why not white? Why not drinking-water color sans background of trees or someone's circus-mirror face? Right now, my ice water has a bright yellow lemon stranded in its arctic ice. And its backdrop is the blacktop of driveway paved with asphalt, faultlines fissuring its surface from an overexcess of winters. How inadequate are these words when confronted with fathomless wonder!
P.P.P.S. Whoops on the last P.S.S.--what's that stand for?
P.P.P.P.S. Note to self: Will need letters both to Philip Glass and to the reincarnated Allen Ginsberg, whoever he is...would be about 20 years old by now.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Thinking he would not have made it into Nirvana because he was a latecomer to Buddhism and I don't think any self-respecting Buddha would be a member of NAMBLA. So he would actually be a teenager now having died in 1997.
"Allen ginsberg 675" by Michiel Hendryckx - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Hi Will!
On the Solemnity of All Saints, I wanted to contact you and make a ever-so-slight change in our communications.
From now on, I'd like to try communicating with you via Carlton Farthington's address. I think it will streamline things from the standpoint of opening up the single account that I use to blog, upload videos, etc., hopefully consolidating my electronic "identity" in the process.
Of course, I realize that this sudden move may cause some to wonder whether it really is Arthur or Art who is writing these electronic missives or Carlton Farthington.
Some may point out the malproportionisms Farthington is known for using.
Others may spot the presence of a glaring hapax legomenon not found in Art or Arthur's larger oeuvre.
Any sudden change in direction causes anxiety, controversy, and upheaval.
Maybe even you are feeling some of these things. Allow your eyes to turn inward: what do you see? Many people describe colors, usually green and purple shapes.
Not the rectangular one: that's the computer screen!
Now, open them. I hope you read ahead because otherwise your eyes are still closed! I'm screaming at the computer screen, laughing of course because you cannot hear me. Will! Will! I'm "willing" you to hear me, Will! Ha ha, whew! Whoops!
Whew!
Rest assured, everything will go back to normal and fans will continue to find the sure source of inspiration and edification they have come to expect from "The Return of Arthur White."
Gotta run, but one last thought. The Concert for Iceland "tour" will likely occur in Summer 2017, 20 years after Carlton Farthington's ill-fated pilot program ran at the University of Michigan. If not then, Summer 2022 at the 25th anniversary. If not then, Summer 2047 at the 50th anniversary. So on and so forth...75th, 100th, etc. depending on how healthy we all are.
More details to come.
Cheers,
Art
P.S. If nothing else, I'd like to hold a 24-hour film festival of all those great movies that came out in 1997: The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Event Horizon, The Apocalypse, Men in Black, Cube, Volcano, Flubber, Spice World, Free Willy 3: The Rescue, Gozilla (okay, that one was 1998!), and, of course, Cool Runnings (okay, that was 1993!), etc., etc. Gotta go!
P.S.S.What is the meaning of these so-called "gauzy green and purple scarves drawn across the backdrop of eternity"? Why is black synonymous with nothingness? Why not white? Why not drinking-water color sans background of trees or someone's circus-mirror face? Right now, my ice water has a bright yellow lemon stranded in its arctic ice. And its backdrop is the blacktop of driveway paved with asphalt, faultlines fissuring its surface from an overexcess of winters. How inadequate are these words when confronted with fathomless wonder!
P.P.P.S. Whoops on the last P.S.S.--what's that stand for?
P.P.P.P.S. Note to self: Will need letters both to Philip Glass and to the reincarnated Allen Ginsberg, whoever he is...would be about 20 years old by now.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Thinking he would not have made it into Nirvana because he was a latecomer to Buddhism and I don't think any self-respecting Buddha would be a member of NAMBLA. So he would actually be a teenager now having died in 1997.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Of Course!
The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 4 December 2014.
"Eric Garner Protest Chicago Dec 4 2014" by Samantha Lotti - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Probably going to lay off a little with everything happening in the news lately.
I was honestly confused about the whole Ferguson thing, but this Eric Garner thing has got me messed up. Seems pretty tone deaf to be a couple white guys singing about Iceland. This stuff is turning me into a prolife liberal, two things that belong on the same side of the ideological spectrum (#blacklivesmatter). With all due respect to our police, our country still can't help but show its true character. Maybe the more educated among us are better at covering it up. But collectively are we still channeling the spirit of the slave owner, the klansman, etc? At the very least we are living inside some powerful narratives.
And here we are: a couple white guys singing about Iceland. But is our message at all relevant to any of these particulars happening in the world today? I'm not doing this out of a sense of guilt so much as a desire to engage a conversation of consequence. Like Marvin Gaye sang, What's going on? What's happening brother? What's been shaking up and down the line?
Like Yeats' "Easter 1916," I'm not interested in writing rallying cries for some movement, however valid that movement may be.
Does it matter that Arthur White's name is White? Does it matter that he's attempting to play black music? Does it matter that we invoke the history of Detroit, its industries, its white flight, its riots? Does it matter that Stan paved over Blackbottom?
And do any of these things reflect on the current state of America today?
Like Heart of Darkness pre-Chinua Achebe, we've primarily interpreted this story through an archetypal/psychoanalytic lens (Nietzschean, Jungian, Campbellian, etc.). Our non-white, non-male characters have been underdeveloped at best. I'm honestly not sure what they are at worst--I'm sure Chinua Achebe could tell us.
But is the Iceland fantasy some kind of definitive white flight?
Is Arthur White postcolonial literature?!
As a country, we see ourselves bringing human rights to the people of the world. But how can we do that on the foundation we've built, paving over people and cultures in the process?
As Claudius prays in Hamlet:
We are still "possessed of those effects."
I think I have a pretty good idea about what Chinua Achebe would say about Carlton Farthington, the Burmese-born, Oxford-educated, Dionysian figure! He's Arthur's encounter with that inarticulate wildness, of course! He helps Arthur get in touch with his own inarticulate wildness, of course! And break free from the whitewashed, Apollonian tomb represented by Will Witkowski, Western Civilization, the American Dream, Manifest Destiny, of course!
And helps him see the fiery heart of that iced-over reality, of course! And descend into the primordial abyss past prehistoric monsters, of course!
It's the only way Arthur can face up to these realities, of course!
And meanwhile, people are dying in the streets of America, of course.
Of course!
"Eric Garner Protest Chicago Dec 4 2014" by Samantha Lotti - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Probably going to lay off a little with everything happening in the news lately.
I was honestly confused about the whole Ferguson thing, but this Eric Garner thing has got me messed up. Seems pretty tone deaf to be a couple white guys singing about Iceland. This stuff is turning me into a prolife liberal, two things that belong on the same side of the ideological spectrum (#blacklivesmatter). With all due respect to our police, our country still can't help but show its true character. Maybe the more educated among us are better at covering it up. But collectively are we still channeling the spirit of the slave owner, the klansman, etc? At the very least we are living inside some powerful narratives.
And here we are: a couple white guys singing about Iceland. But is our message at all relevant to any of these particulars happening in the world today? I'm not doing this out of a sense of guilt so much as a desire to engage a conversation of consequence. Like Marvin Gaye sang, What's going on? What's happening brother? What's been shaking up and down the line?
Like Yeats' "Easter 1916," I'm not interested in writing rallying cries for some movement, however valid that movement may be.
Hearts with one purpose aloneI want life in all its richness and complexity. But the project can become involuted.
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
Does it matter that Arthur White's name is White? Does it matter that he's attempting to play black music? Does it matter that we invoke the history of Detroit, its industries, its white flight, its riots? Does it matter that Stan paved over Blackbottom?
And do any of these things reflect on the current state of America today?
Like Heart of Darkness pre-Chinua Achebe, we've primarily interpreted this story through an archetypal/psychoanalytic lens (Nietzschean, Jungian, Campbellian, etc.). Our non-white, non-male characters have been underdeveloped at best. I'm honestly not sure what they are at worst--I'm sure Chinua Achebe could tell us.
But is the Iceland fantasy some kind of definitive white flight?
Is Arthur White postcolonial literature?!
As a country, we see ourselves bringing human rights to the people of the world. But how can we do that on the foundation we've built, paving over people and cultures in the process?
As Claudius prays in Hamlet:
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayerCan we be pardoned when we are still the beneficiaries of our crime? Of course we'll stop doing it once we've accomplished the goal--taking over the land and becoming the world's superpower.
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder...
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
We are still "possessed of those effects."
I think I have a pretty good idea about what Chinua Achebe would say about Carlton Farthington, the Burmese-born, Oxford-educated, Dionysian figure! He's Arthur's encounter with that inarticulate wildness, of course! He helps Arthur get in touch with his own inarticulate wildness, of course! And break free from the whitewashed, Apollonian tomb represented by Will Witkowski, Western Civilization, the American Dream, Manifest Destiny, of course!
And helps him see the fiery heart of that iced-over reality, of course! And descend into the primordial abyss past prehistoric monsters, of course!
It's the only way Arthur can face up to these realities, of course!
And meanwhile, people are dying in the streets of America, of course.
Of course!
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