First off your sig. It's the mechanical view.. as doubtless the quote source confirms - even if that's you. It's the way the computer in Dark Star might parse it but.. that contrivance could never grok Anything.

Nobody can 'tell' anyone else, "how actually it *is* here", y'know? But I'll venture the proposition that.. there are precious few of us amidst the billions, who have the slightest comprehension of er what might be 'Real' VS what our minds start filling up with.. starting with -

You're a little *boy*! See? blue! not pink nighty..

I'd imagine you've read a lot of things that I and others here have read, argued about similar and so on. But still.. notice how attitude so much colors absolutely Everything we see?

There's even a Jesus story, told me by a Sufi friend (he may have hung out with such, during those er sabbatical years):

Seems that Jesus was walking along a country road with companions. They passed a dog that had died, its coat mangy and otherwise not a fine specimen. Jesus stopped.. as the others averted their eyes from this unpleasant sight, saying ~ Look! Look at those magnificent teeth..! Aren't they Beautiful ?!

I can suggest only that you consider the noise level - that which you note daily now and, what you remember as a kid and since. Every 'news'fotainment is filled with sensational versions of the worst; it is absolutely the kernel of all journalism that:

No one ever reports that, citizens in Black Dog MT today experienced a pleasant day, had a large picnic and thoroughly enjoyed selves. There were no trafic accidents or arrests and the local Police Chief quietly paid the hotel bill of a visiting Malawi girl who had lost her wallet.. Samantha Clark found her lost car keys under the seat.

(Nor interview the Jews and Palestinians who have earned each others' trust and friendship (well, a couple times on PBS I've see those stories)-- these have no microphone nor agenda, and are therefore: uninteresting for filling the airtime in between ads.)

All the stuff we BS about here is ~~ about the 'allegory of the caves' :-\ufffd We are dissecting the shadows on the walls and ascribing meaning to these, noting the newsfotainment of the day and 'straightening Them out'.. It's an exercise of course - but we are not discussing anything like, 'The Real'. IMhO.

Apparently the way to take shadows less seriousy, to calm the ever-automatic chattering mind is.. to first reduce the surrounding noise as much as you practically can. If music is a passion and not just a background noise you prefer, to the standard environment - music you love is still about.. well, love. Sometimes silence is better.

Whatever thousands of volumes have been written about psych and dreams - assuredly the same mind-chatter is common to the waking dream er state and the more sleepy one; I'd infer from that - if you can find a way to ignore an unusual percentage of the mind-chatter for awhile - awake (?) there's a good chance that the night-version might also become less strident. Both are surely about 'unresolved'/ iffy? ideas which somehow have come to seem important - whether or not there is any basis for that assigned 'importance'.

Note too that one of heroin's more seductive qualities is that.. none of the daily 'concerns' are seen as currently 'being important' - at all. 'Peace' is perhaps the closest non-chemical synonym for that state, and it is clear that most every homo-sap yet interviewed: relishes that (rare) experience we call 'peace'. (The drugs only give one a glimpse - the more unfortunate addicts are among those who imagine you can 'stay there' by so simplistic a means).


Anyway,

Peace.

Heh..

A friend raved on and on and.. re Chick Corea (sp?).

Let her take me to a concert. Believe string players call it noodling when yer kinda just tryin out sounds and.. lookin' fer loopholes; just lookin fer loopholes (?)

Anyway.. what I guess he calls innovation ;-) er improvisation - soon came to be, for me: the aural version of Aleph-null, endless extravagant sounds signifying *nothing* (well, to me anyway) but worse: a hostile *nothing* :( Enough to want a martini with a cockroach for protein, like Guy Noir's fav.

For ~first time re 'arts' - it evoked in me: anger! That of the student trapped by an autodidact! or by a stranger at the door who might launch into explaining the Universe as it's Spozed to Be.. Smugly, beatifically sing-song. Before asking if I wanted to know that trivial piece of misinformation.

But such events Do have their silver lining! The sky never looked so bright and inviting! when finally I got out of that auditorium and felt..

Freee.. Freee *At Last* !!

And realized too.. never would I have to go through That again, at least while able to move one eyelid and blink twice.. for NO. {sigh}
(But at least.. he didn't have an overblown alto-sax for accompaniment.. too.)


('Course too - says nothing re Mr. C. and his art and those who like it. Just bad chemistry twixt Us-two I guess. Still and all - the feeling of "relief" is its own reward :-)


Ashton Critic

ie it's tough recommendin stuff to Us Cranks\ufffd, y'know?
(Dunno about the one above, but if that rape scenario is as you say (?) it might glaringly bring out a subtle 'conservative' er reactionary idiocy of the culture -- which would be much like that live cockroach in yer martini. No?)

:-\ufffd

Behold! ye mighty and despair!
.
...and all about lay ruins..

My sense is that our culture is somewhat afraid of silence, constantly mistakes solitude for aloneness - fears silence so much that - there is elevator unmusic noise everywhere, everywhen.

The magic within the horror of the JFK asassination was - the (now) memorable *silences* as the camera showed the Rotunda or whatever: people *apologized* for breaking that silence, with some new factoid. The networks Shut Up for more than three days! The talking heads desisted, became minimalists when that seemed appropriate.

Maybe missing in childhood more and more? the quietness of being read to! (via the 24/7 office; the need for two parents to bring home a lesser paycheck than one did, 20 years ago - as Corps further intrude into all of the 24 hrs. as temps are sought, benefits reduced - and no National health care exists, Still. yada yada.)

Makes everone twitchy. (Were I ill, I would be twitchy too: no matter how much you think you saved: Your Money or Your Life.) No one can save as fast as an AMA org can spend!

Fortunately music can heal whatever.. probably the effects of sleep-deprived dreaming also. The solitude will have to be discovered later, if it was missed in the middle.


Cheers,

A.

(It's *All* inside! The 'outside' simply wouldn't exist if it weren't perceived Inside) Basic Dark Star 101
:-\ufffd

Grygus Unfair to Simile Writers!

Strike! Dump his namby-pamby Eunuchs machines for New Professional ones..

Well of course he did - because of the happy accident of Erato, the Muse of Lyric Poetry + Keats and the ephemeral Arts. But not via his er (sorry) paradigm at all!

*Keats* is the immortal - he a mere vehicle, a tiny bauble of failed Ambition - existing as a barnacle on that large Vessel. A mere Butt for future generations' obloquy!

So There. :-\ufffd


er re the 3 weeks: See Science forum. Can we make it to 60 years after Alamogordo / Trinity ?
56 years, one month, 2 days and counting... .. .

Ozymandias as Waggener-Edstrommmm-BC, a plannin his search for Market Share\ufffd..... maybe he even wore a er tie? blue-serge armor.