Man vs. Man, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Nature
As I have been thinking about Ebenezer Scrooge and how marvelous a fictional creation he is I have also ventured into how we tell stories. I think we have stories that we tell about ourselves. (I’m going to use the word “narrative” because that’s the word that college grads use.) I was thinking as I compared my life to Scrooge’s, that “transformation” is a big idea for me now. Indeed I think transformation is an important narrative for many folks: “I once was lost, but now I’m found,” The Biggest Loser, “Rags to Riches,” “I was so much older then/ I’m younger than that now…”
There are other ones floating out in the ether, though: victim of circumstance, “pulled himself up by his bootstraps,” “quiet life of courage,” victim of systems beyond his/her control, “pride before a fall,” the typical VH1 story of success-excess-fall-redemption. I could go on.
I was thinking that these narratives are a form that we overlay on the experiences of our lives to impose order, meaning, and purpose(?) Are the experiences in our life truly random and we just come up with a good way to talk about them? Or is there really a structure underneath our lives, and we are merely naming the structure? Don’t know. Maybe someone else could enlighten me on that one.
But the other thought that has occurred to me is how powerful these narratives can be. How we choose to describe ourselves and our experiences can also shape our future. For instance I said that the “transformation” narrative is the one huge one I use for myself these days. I like that story. It says I’ve come from some place (bad) and have moved to a different place (better.) It gives my efforts and experiences thus far a meaning and a purpose and imbues future efforts and experiences with
hope. For me, that’s a sustainable story.
But let me tell you about the other possible narratives that I could use to describe the same life and activities and events: 1) “He worked really hard, lost a lot of weight, all to get down to what is really a baseline level of health and attractiveness for some other people, or 2) “He worked really hard every day, to beat his body into submission, only to learn what it will now take to stay at that level,” or 3) “Every day was a physical fight against bad genes…”
All three of these alternate stories describing the same history can be (and are)
true for me. Obviously, the fact that I can recall them shows that they have entered my noggin at various times.
But in an effort to practice responsible, pragmatic story-telling, I’m choosing to ignore them. For I have found one type of story that finally gives me some peace, some happiness. The way I see it, to not rehearse telling that one story to myself and anyone who will listen would be a crime.
Sorry if this all sounds like cheesy, psychobabble, self-help gobbledy-gook. It only sounds like that because it is.
So…what’s your overarching narrative?
An Awesome Quote
There is no better time than now to read Dickens' _A Christmas Carol_ and here is a monster of a quote that I just read that shall give you hope if you, like Ebenezer Scrooge, find yourself on a nasty path in life:
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change."Amen to that! All is not lost! People can change! Hallelujah!
Merry (early) Christmas, my friends!
Whatcha' Listenin' To?
Oh, man! I’ve got so much music floating around in my own personal ether as of late. Would you care to know about it?
Jimi Hendrix
Band of GypsysFor me, this album served a great purpose: as a point of comparison for how bad the Woodstock performance was! Here we have a different rhythm section backing up Jimi and they are much tighter here, arrangement-wise. Unlike with the Woodstock show, it sounds as if these guys actually played together before the concert. The material is bluesy funk rock and lends itself well to improvisation and Jimi is
on. The guitar tones are classic and he spends equal time in “crazy electric noise land” and working with thematic ideas. This album, with fantastic drumming by Buddy Miles, reminded me why Hnedrix is so beloved, and gives a tragic glimpse of what could have been, had he lived and continued experimenting and working with different musicians.
Vince Guaraldi
Charlie Brown ChristmasThis is really the only Christmas music I need. The melancholy of “Christmastime is Here” is the reason I got the album, but the vibe that these guys create on all of the songs just takes you back to simpler times of innocence. Now, I don’t know how a collection of notes and a certain sound of a recording space can really do what I’m saying it does here, (i.e. simultaneously recall your childhood memories and/or vague notions of a “Christmas soul.”) Chances are, I bring a lot of that appreciation with me to the recording, but I’m not the only one. This music is pretty much playing any time I’m at home these days…
Metallica
Death MagneticI’m pretty sure this is the only place on the internet where Charlie Brown and Metallica are mentioned together, but also in the “useful music” vein is this new Metallica record, which is useful for inspiring you to run a long distance. Thanks I’m sure in no small part to Rick Rubin’s guru-ism, this album is what Metallica’s follow-up to
…And Justice for All (should) have sounded like had the 90’s not intervened. I happen to really appreciate the band’s more proggy, compositional tendencies, so this album is just about perfect for what I need Metallica for.
My Morning Jacket
Evil UrgesThis is another album serving as the soundtrack for My Morning Jog as of late. Stylistically, it’s all over the map: white boy funk, alt-rock, jam band, some folkie and electronic elements…with a production philosophy sounding at times like The Flaming Lips and other times like the latest Radiohead. It’s pretty melodic stuff and rocks just hard enough to keep you awake.
Prince
1999It has two giant hits: the title track and “Little Red Corvette.” But what is more interesting to me is the stuff I’ve never heard before.
Let us talk seriously for a moment. Prince is obviously a sexual creature. If I were to say some of the things that he says on this album to a girl I don’t know, (or even most of the girls that I
do know) I would probably get arrested. The only reason he gets away with it is because he is Prince. And I am Mike.
“International Lover,” with its hilarious speech towards the end, is the best and only “pilot-of-the-plane-as-loverman” metaphor I’ve ever heard. This album also makes for an interesting document of the synth sounds that were available at the time.
Booker T and the MGs
The Best Of“Green Onions” is of course an instrumental classic. As I listened to this organ-driven R&B Soul I wondered what would have happened if these guys had collaborated with new Orleans funk outfit The Meters. Probably the entire planet would have been wobbled off-center from simultaneous dance exhaustion.
Stevie Wonder
Fulfillingness’ First FinaleI have no idea what that title means but man! This is such a great album! It’s like a comfortable T-shirt. Even after listening to this album over and over I never got tired of it. In particular, the harmonic writing is pretty sophisticated, (
Steven, take note, if you haven’t heard this!) yet still entirely functional. The sentiments are direct and apparently heart-felt, but I just can’t get over how interesting the purely instrumental component of this record is. There is a steel guitar part on “Too Shy to Say,” (that I’m pretty sure is playing whole tone scales), that on anybody else’s song would sound out of place. But Stevie had a vision and somehow made it work. I recommend this one in addition to the Charlie Brown stuff, as a Christmas gift to yourself. I promise it will be a laid-back holiday season.
Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker
Carnegie Hall ConcertWho knew? Who knew that these two purveyors of West Coast jazz would have flirted with fusion in the 70s? I certainly didn’t. With the Fender Rhodes electric piano sound and some excellent electric guitar from John Scofield (apparently before he decided to do the “elevator jazz” thing), these guys come
this close to being among the “next big thing” in jazz, ca. 1974.
OK, hopefully that’s enough to tide you over for awhile. I’m off to the library to pick up a bunch more, including
Cara’s recommendation of John Mayer live. We shall see…
On Stravinsky and Context
It was a little under 100 years ago that Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” first debuted to a famous riot and all kinds of subsequent hubbub about the future of orchestral music and a bevy of challenges to the basic assumptions of what “music” is and what “art” is. The world of “serious” music has never been the same.
Having never heard this piece played live before, last night’s concert at OCU was a wonderful experience. Going with a few friends who had never heard this music before, I thought it was a great opportunity to do a little research. I went into last night’s experiment with one hunch- namely that what was shocking and perverse and evil and troubling and “weird” to an orchestra-goer 95 years ago is now humdrum.
Here was my reasoning: in 95 years, a lot has happened in the worlds of music. Art music went waaaaaaaay further out than Stravinsky with regard to dissonance and rhythm. Tonality died an official death. “Found sounds” and electronic noise became fashionable in some circles. Composers employed chance in their pieces. Absolutely nothing became off-limits. In the popular music world sounds became rough too, thanks largely to the electric guitar, the Marshall amp and a healthy dose of teen angst. And in the middle brow world of soundtrack music, your average action or horror movie doesn’t sound all that different than the stuff we heard last night.
But I forgot one important thing—context. When I sit down in a concert hall, facing the stage, there are only two things demanding my attention: the music and the music makers. I am especially attuned to “experience art” in that situation. For me, “The Rite of Spring” is still barbaric and affecting. There is no Arnold Schwarzenegger on a giant screen to distract my mind. I see the physicality of a kid sawing away at his viola, bow hair flying about as he tries to achieve the volume levels demanded by the score. I see the weird gestures the conductor has to make to keep the odd meters stilting along. I see the faces. Oh, my Lord! The faces! So intense and determined to pull off this unnatural monstrosity.
Sitting on the front row while a large orchestra plays at
that volume and with
that degree of dissonance…that is something else, my friends. The general consensus among the tabula rasa folks was that it was an intense, scary piece. Riot-worthy? Who knows.
But it is still “art” that demands your attention.
(Thanks to my friends Lisa Hollowell and Josh Lester for being so talented!)
