This a bit tasteless but I suppose anecdotally relevant to the "real old thing" thread.
Years ago when I was still at school a friend of mine got a guitar. Needless to say that when he began to teach himself a few chords he was rubbish. Nevertheless as he pointed out he was in fact at that point in time a better guitarist than Jimi Hendrix. His argument went as follows Jimi Hendrix is dead and will never play another note. If you gave a him a guitar he'd just lie dead under it. On the other hand my friend was actively playing the two chords he'd learnt astonishingly badly but he was actually playing something and had the potential to play and learn other things also therefore he was at that point better than Jimi Hendrix. It occurs to me that the same issues are relevant in our "real old thing" debate. If, as many critics claim, Fluxus is indeed dead then anyone can start a group which produces better art than Fluxus but using Fluxus methods by the above argument. I know the above argument is a tad flippant but I think it's pretty funny as it focuses on how important it is that new people come up who draw on old working methods and make something of their own with them. As a footnote I lost touch with this friend some years ago as we moved to different parts of the country, at the time he was thinking of joining the clergy......from the above argument as you can see he'd produce some great sermons :) cheers, Sol.
