It's an interesting thing about language that it's possible to come up with an arrangement of words that has never been heard before and yet does make sense.
I think that's what I've been looking for with these absurd blog titles.
Of course, English is particularly appropriate for this kind of word play because of the huge vocabulary available...and many other factors...and this makes substitution of inappropriate words for comic effect quite easy. The title of this blog is really just such a substitution. "....and then I got off the bus....". It raises a smile, but it's not got funny bones. I think it's difficult to invent something totally new, something totally originally absurd, and I have great admiration for those that can. The language...the form...hasn't really got anything to do with it. Surely watching Basil Fawlty beating a car with a broken tree branch is funny even without understanding the language or the cultural context? I think so. I think the same of music. If music is truly original it somehow transcends cultural barriers. Ironic, really, that powerful artistic movements often began with idiosyncratic or even revolutionary individuals on the fringe of their disciplines.
Something to think about there, then.
Creatively, it's been an interesting time for me. I've not got much juice for the radio show. It suits me to take a few months off. I'm playing live a couple of times this month. Brighton, as usual. Drop me a line if you're interested.
What is choice? That has been on my mind.
Who is choosing? There's more than one me, and not all of them experience choosing.
As children, most of us seem to have little choice about the physical circumstances of our lives. Until we leave school, even the hours of the day are controlled by others. Many people carry this helplessness into adulthood, and end up doing all the crappy underpaid jobs that just serve to keep them busy, while making a few people they've never met rich from their sweat. But really, which one of us is free to act totally as we please without regard for anything? Thankfully, none, although sometimes it seems to be the goal of modern thinking...to replace the perfect balance of nature with a version of the world as simply a thing for us to use as we please?
So what do we choose?
There is the chocolate or vanilla question. What do I have for breakfast? Questions for which the desired answer is no answer....it doesn't matter, and we usually end up in distress if we pursue the meaningless as if it were real. Religions have been built upon such trivia (i.e. the con/tran-substantiation debacle, if you know your theology). I would say that this is the choice we face most commonly. Almost all human affairs are no more important than chocolate or vanilla. Why do I say it's so
trivial? Because any experience or thought based upon perceptual evidence is defined entirely by the point of view, and not just how issues are answered, but more importantly what contexts are chosen. Essentially, everybody is right from their point of view, and the quality of an experience is determined not by rightness or wrongness, but by a pre-existing desire to prove a point.
That's as far as my reasoning takes me right now. The only meaningful choice I perceive is "do I choose to see the world through the eyes of fear or the eyes of love", and what the fck does that mean in practice?
At the moment, I see no middle ground between the formless realm, where choice is irrelevant 'cos all is one, or the organised, rigid world of individuality where choice is an illusion, 'cos we are always overwhelmingly effected by other forces (where born, what parents, what school, what weather today, what Govt etc, etc).
So, as has become my custom, I've tried to explore this huge issue musically, in the classic form of the mixtape. In the hope of deeper understanding, I give you:
Coseyhead Presents - Choice DOWNLOAD MP3 (75mins,173MB)
See Krishna explaining to Arjuna how to act without judgement.
Only the truth can set us free. (But I would say that 'cos I've got Stn/Mrc in Aq square Nep in Scorp. My self perception is pretty accurate, it's my cosmology that's delusional.) Ah, Krishna, only your true form can open my eyes!
This mix follows on from Mythunderstanding. It was mostly complete last year, but finished off recently. I hope to have part 3 ready before the end of the summer.
It will be a lament for Pan, who is not dead, so it becomes a celebration. Goatboy is the ultimate idiosyncratic, revolutionary artist.
There may be a Dandelion Roots Reggae show over at Dandelion Radio next month...remains to be seen whether I'll have the time 'cos of the aforementioned gigs.
This month I have been mostly listening to
Goran Bregovic-Karmen (With A Happy Ending)
which I highly recommend.
tarra a bit
Peter