I agree with all these sentiments and was thrilled
to see anyone spraypainting 1400's graffitti on the wall.
Unfortunately, the end result is that Eryk Salvaggio was
fluxus way before Eric Andersen or Ken Friedman were
fluxus. :)
David Baptiste Chirot wrote:
>
> This ongoing discussion re who is the more flux, the real flux,
> the true flux, the public, the private--
>
> after a while becomes very sad.
>
> There is too much to be done to be lost in personal quarrels,
> which are presented to others as though every one is to take sides in a
> battle which is not theirs. It reminds me of the military draft, political
> speeches, campaign mudslinging, negative advertising and the lot.
>
> It also reminds me of a period in which I was living in an
> abandoned house in Cambridge, MA. At first it was just myself and one
> other fellow--I have written to fluxlist a bit about it in a letter re AM
> Fine.
>
> What I but briefly mentioned in the letter is that after a period
> of time
> the place was full of runaways, punk rockers, skin heads, hardcore kids,
> various comers and goers dropping by for a party.
>
> Often the discussion would turn to such topics as--"I was a punk
> before you were a punk", "I was going to shows before you were". "you
> didn't meet so and so man, and I did", "I forgot more than you'll ever
> know
> about being a punk", "I've been part of more scenes than you have" and the
> like. "rich suburban kids are punk and hardcore is the people's music".
>
> Often nasty fights would break out, first verbal, then physical.
> These were always followed by prolonged rumour assaults, the making
> public of private grievances and "secrets" and so on. In moments of anger
> or drunkness or desperation, friend sold out friend and made matters
> worse. The spiral of division made for the break up of a community
> spirit, the breakup of several bands and the eventual arrival of the
> police, summoned it was often thought by some punks who had the money to
> just move out to an apartment and let the others take the punishment they
> deserved.
>
> Since I was the oldest person living there, one night I was asked
> what I thought was a kind of historical figure for punk.
>
> I said they had always been around.
> Someone asked for an historical example--the first person that
> came into my head was Francois Villon--I noted he was from the 1400s and
> so not one of the earliest punks, but a good fellow for some punk rock
> lyrics--and proceeded to spray paint some on the wall, and give an
> impromptu lecture re maitre Francois.
>
> Happily, within days there were borrowed, stolen and second hand
> copies of Villon floating around. A bunch of us started composing some
> ballads in the Villon style & subject matter to be performed as hard core
> songs--and making xerox collages again--making use of the life we were
> leading there instead of worrying about who is more this than someone
> else, or more that than someone.
>
> One of the best parts of fluxlist is that there are so many
> projects going on--Roger brought out a book, there's the timepiece
> projects, the alterations of the Josh story, the cookbook, the box,
> the stationary bicycle event, the Boulez and other projects--
>
> There have also been many good historical postings and much
> research and documentation done by many--I think of Owen and Reed
> especially for example--and many
> others--Alan Bowman's projects, ideas from Alex, Devon, Patricia, Allen
> Bukoff, Carol, Melissa, Heiko, Erik S.--everyone ones comes across--
>
> It's more constructive to focus on this than on personal quarrels
> which will only lead to divisions and name calling and decisions on what
> is
> more or less "flux", on anger colored opinions, and a Rashoman drama of
> what really
> happened according to whom. All this does is involve people in disputes
> which lead away from work being done, ideas exchanged and a sense of
> coummunity.
>
> Is better to focus on and exchange ideas and information
> re the historical development of flux, or the actual
> fluxus works, documentations, events and so on--the scholarly work & the
> constructive work to be done, and the new work to be done building
> from/with that--
>
> of course it will not be the historical fluxus, it is now
> something other--yet that is as it is--there is no need to quarrel over
> the relation of one to the other in the sense of who owns what proportion
> of the property, as though fighting over the interpretations of a will--
>
> as the saying goes: "Two maggots were fighting in dead
> ernest/Ernest".
>
> It is better to recall the idea of Robert Filliou: "the Eternal
> Network"--
>
> --dbc
>
