Played tonite with some folks over at Bryan's house--3 cellos a viola 3 guitars and a banjo that was passed around. Mainly it was people who have not played alot of freely improvised music. We maintained a "modal" thing that at first was very reminiscent of the Ole groove on that Coltrane record of the same name. Oddly enough when I asked if that was what the cello player was refering to (he started it mommy!!!) he did not know what I was talking about and said that it was more like a Masada piece...what is post-post-modern??? I got to thinking that everything refers to everything else and with any given series of notes you are, by the very nature of our society and exposure, passing thru time and thru all the layers of information that exist in some tangential way and people (or you) will eventually see every other note in every other context but analysing it reduces what it actually references to your miniscule personal experience of references...like all music is an infinitely sided prism (globe?) that reflects the light/sound in all directions at once but reflects something different when you are actually looking at it....I WANT A QUANTUM GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!

I was listening to the latest Boulez album and thinking about IRCAM ...why is America so far behind?!! What about our culture looks at the pursuance and advancement of the arts and says "Ugh"? Millions upon millions of francs were put into the IRCAM organization. Why? Presumably because they have an understanding that all that will be left in 10,000 years is CULTURAL evidence not how much money you made or what the color of your money is. Instead of spending money on things that are made to disintegrate themselves and other things it seems somewhat more logical to fund creation. Then again the French are still testing nuclear weaponry so I guess the shift is a little more subtle than the previous gross simplification. And oddly enough Boulez disagrees "History as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation but of destruction -- even while cherishing what is being destroyed." I don't think he was referring to destroying the physical however. In any case this particular CD (Boulez-Sur Incises) got me thinking about how the use of computer interaction and more importantly the interuption of normal perception of sound/reconstuction of sound evidence is something so few composers are doing. I guess this may sound a little vague but I think that to really be drawn in you have to have a certain degree of subtelty as in the Anthèmes 2 or the previous albums clarinet piece Dialogue de l’Ombre Double...I think that l'Ombre Double is a little more disconcerting simply because the computer manipulation is more about perception of the clarinet than the Anthèmes 2 where the violin is used more as source for extended computer manipulation. The other piece that got me thinking about this was on by Maryanne Amacher on her album on Tzadilk (Sound Charachters) I can't remember what it is called but basically it created drones that when you sat with a good stereo field your head would create harmonics from the combination of the two sounds thereby making a composition that only existed in your head through the interaction of your physical body with the sound....oh Jesu. What a strange experience!

Mantonal? From Pantonal de Arnold Schoenberg via Bill Dixon into songs in the key of man...this man.

Today is the first day in a long life in front of the master panel.

Many thanks to/praises be the one love.

Today I had a little gathering of the minds at the Mallory Annex to welcome some
friendsto their new house and we played Beyond Balderdash-a game where you
have a word that everyone makes up a meaning for and then everyone votes on
what the correct meaning is. (there are also names and dates etc) what ended
up happening as always seems to is that people made up little poems or funny
oneliners that had nothing to do with the word or only used it as a starting point
for something greater. What amazes me is that given a paltry excuse people are
willing to share stories and humor so freely when in any other context stage fright
overcomes us. I like stories and comedy. I dont think I have laughed so hard in a
donkeys lifetime. Furthermore I was thinking that everyone I know does SOME
kind of art. What does that mean? Its is like there is so much good energy here
that we are all doing our best to tap into it.