[NewMusic] Indiana

[Chris Broderick]

That is if music is indeed the opposite of silence, which I'm sure most here would dispute.  Which brings us back to a previous topic.

And of course the tragic irony of the below quote is that Mr. Rothko was a suicide, which is an ultimate act of self-silencing.

Chris Broderick
www.myspace.com/christophermichaelbroderick
 
"Silence is so accurate."
-Mark Rothko


----- Original Message ----
From: Jon Raskin <sopranino at sbcglobal.net>
To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group <newmusic at music.mills.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2007 4:15:00 PM
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] Indiana


JR
Our allusion wasn't for political reality but rather the artistic reality.  It was addressing futility the difficulty of trying to do something different and didn't have a clear path or much support except individual desire.  It is acknowledging the pain of trying.  It started as "Running into a brick wall to start the day" and morphed into "The brick wall that explodes in your face".

I think the terms liberal and conservative are variable terms, just like the two parties and the meanings change and are contested constantly.  The portion of the population that falls outside of the contestation is getting much larger than the ones on the inside, who unfortunately wield to much influence on the direction the general population needs to go address the real issues of the day.  The right wings are different as we found out when W started his fun and games.  The domestic damage he is inflicting barely surfaces against the utterly appalling foreign policy.

As for silience Phillip, that would leave a hole that would need to be filled.  Music fights off despair.


Jon


----- Original Message ----
From: Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net>
To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group <newmusic at music.mills.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2007 10:28:44 AM
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] Indiana


-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Chris Broderick
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] Indiana

Ultimately, conservative and liberal are straw men.  The real political
divide in this day and age is class.

"Silence is so accurate."
-Mark Rothko

PG:
Thanks for the thoughtful posts on this subject. As Slusser mentioned,
the music aspect went away there for a minute. My apologies!  Politics
are forever entwined in our music - we seem to want to keep politics in
its place - fair enough (I'm afraid its "place" is a rather ubiquitous
one, though). Politics shape our living experience and the mere act of
choosing to be a musician in this society is a political act.

I am tagging here on the tails of Chris' post, which reminds me that I
used the word conservative, and that is indeed a rather plastic term.
What did I mean exactly when I used it? I supposed I should have been
more specific. The terms conservative and liberal have very little
meaning today. Those words have been all used up. They've been stretched
and distorted. Political action can no longer be related to these terms.


Conservative? - justify the deficit amassed by the war in Iraq.
Liberal? - justify the racist attitudes among your crew.

No matter how hard I try, I can't help but be disappointed in this human
experiment we are all a part of. We are so far from where we could be as
a species. If someone like Rod Poole can be stabbed to death for
shouting at a driver that almost ran him down in a cross-walk, I think
we can pretty much rule *love your brother*, *do unto others*, and a
plethora of other kind-hearted sentiments as merely that: sentiments.
Sentiment and action seem hopelessly disparate these days.

I believe the fellows in ROVA have a saying, or something, that goes
like this: "start each day by banging your head against the wall". (Jon,
if you're reading this, can you help me out here?).  I think what
they're getting at is that our actions are futile, and you might as well
acknowledge it. I probably got that wrong, but that's how I remember it.

I think I'm going to start living Rothko's remark, listed at the footer
of Broderick's post above. 

Silence is a rare thing.

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_______________________________________________
Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
NewMusic at music.mills.edu
http://music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusic


       
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