i wanted to thank george for his observations on
cage - he really was right on the mark.
cage did speak often about the ideal society
where unemployment reigns (and possibly as a
buddhist ideal). again, an "ideal". as for him
getting this idea "from berlin dada"; there is no
written statement that i know of that says
this...maybe he got it from BUDDHISM.
in his earliest days, he DID consider giving up
music, but felt that he made a noble promise to
schoenberg to devote his life to it and found
music to be an alternative to psychoanalysis. he
DID try to have an optimistic grasp on life even
during the times when he was simultaneously
featured in "Life" magazine and washing dishes
for a living - even during the times when i saw
many people constantly misunderstand his
ideas/intentions and kept asking him the same
questions over and over...he had to come up with
the same old stories again and again.
people always made demands on his time, and he
found that he had to raise his
speaking/performing fees just in order to sift.
there are folks who enjoy and would encourage
unemployment (not because of laziness, but either
the ideal of a fixed amount of money going to all
or the riddance of money completely).
anarchist:
cage was an anarchist in a very real sense. an
anarchist (as george said) in the american
individualist tradition - and I may add: the
buddhist tradition, too.
there's this overriding idea of the anarchist as
the stone or bomb throwing thug that spouts
thick-headed jargon and if you're not one of
those, then you're not REALLY an anarchist.
remember also that cage was buddhist in his
thinking and his music and/or art was the
springboard for presenting his ideas on how
anarchism (or if you want: a "gentle" anarchism)
can be realised. even if you're a homeless bum,
you still have a springboard for your ideas.
if you're interested in the "real" anarchism of
politics: cage refused to vote in ANY elections -
hated the idea of "leader" (whether glenn branca
or bill clinton) - his "teaching" duties
consisted of gathering students together and
giving each one a different assignment in order
to encourage everyone to learn from each other
(including his learning from them!) - his living
in a specially planned community in stony
point... I could go on...
the statement:
"...pretentious ("pretentious": means overly
showy or self-important. to BOTH i [and many
others] would say, "huh?") over-the-hill (is this
an ageist statement?) avant-gardist (yes?)
thinking it was OK to preach (?) to a converted
German (of course) (being german, i won't even
ask...)
audience..."
is so full of vitriol that i just don't how one
could straighten all that out!
reed, if you'd like to get rid of that awful
tape, i'll send my address.
as for MY garbageman (and possibly, many others),
i think when he hears what USED to be considered
"dissonance" in music, he doesn't flinch.
Rod
=====
http://rostasi.8m.com
http://members.aol.com/HuntJerry/index.htm
"(oboe) was for opium...A movement was a pound, sixteen bars in a movement...He'd
(call me and) say 'I want six bars of the sonata for oboe'" - John Cale speaking of
how he and LaMonte Young used to execute drug deals ("What's Welsh for Zen")
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