Happy Anniversary Atonality! Alex Ross has proclaimed September 27 as the official day. A while back I got a shirt that has a tombstone with Tonality's name on it and some dates (of apparently no significance) on the back, and then "Keep Music Evil" on the front. I proudly wore it today... under my shirt. Which brings me to today's "Things I'll Miss":
I'll miss attending a school where your religion teacher's wife teaches classical flute lessons out of her home. I didn't have the guts to stick my nose to the establishment while playing classical flute... even though it seems to be an atonally friendly household. At
Returning once again to my thought that American's have lost the ability to appreciate/understand more sophisticated forms of music. What I so enjoy about Mahler, Ornette Coleman, Shostakovich and Happy Apple are that there is so much emotion in their music. In "The Abolition of Man" CS Lewis asserts that the youth of his day (1943) were emotionally ignorant, using the impressive analogy, "The youth are not rain forests to be cut down but deserts to be irrigated." The youth haven't been taught to like Beethoven because we don't teach them to have noble feelings. This may sound sentimental but I'll defer the proper explanation of this point to Lewis himself. He'll do a much better job than I can.
Atonality Day
September 27, 2008 | |
Senior Quote
September 25, 2008 | |
Like every long term commitment there is an initial energy that sadly seems to always fade. While that initial energy is there I suppose I'll capitalize on it:
With 143 days left at PA I have realized that I will miss a school where every senior can publish a quote in the year book. I have chosen (with great difficulty) the following (featured in the 4th movement of Mahler's 2nd symphony):
Eternal Light
O red rosebud!
Man lies in deepest need!
Man lies in deepest pain!
Oh how I would rather be in heaven.
There, I came upon a broad path;
There, came a little angel and wanted to send me away.
Ah no! I would not let myself be sent away!
I am from God and will return to God!
The loving God will give me a little light,
Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!
Also seriously considered:
"It was when I learned that I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something" - Ornette Coleman. This idea will be fleshed out in a further "Things I Will Miss". But for now know that I deeply appreciate the complete idiotic immaturity that was my 9th grade year at PA. More than any book I've read or lecture I've listened to I learned to think by making a bunch of really stupid mistakes. And Ornette has been a bit of a role model for me of late. He's the kind of role model that you know is deeply flawed which makes him all the more appealing as a person. But this is all for another post.
"I'd go stupid counting all my money" - Thelonious Sphere Monk
And the lyrics to "Call It Clear".
All four seemed to perfectly describe the most profound ideas I gained at PA, but ultimately, with 100 words as a limit, I thought the idea of complete worthlessness in the reflection of God was most profound. And, inconsequently, one that I think most men need to continually remind themselves of. This may be for another post also. The energy is just building up to have a prolific blog once again.
I'm Back
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I took a long hiatus. And now, just when I am most busy, I'll try to start posting a bit again. I started posting on dooHICKEY (Abecedarius Rex was gracious enough to bring me in on his new creation) with a opening post about the new MacDonald's commercial.
I'd like to add that Micky D's is only endorsing this kind of ignorance. If America knew a little bit about jazz, knew French, or at the very least the location of Paraguay on a map I think it would be a better place. All of which are completely unrelated to coffee consumption by the way. Maybe even more insulting though is that all of this is lumped together with reality TV shows and gossip magazines. At first it seems like a harmless commercial but with the culture being as foolish as it is, and the government being as socialist as it is, it's tough to be really optimistic.
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Go pick up Martin Dosh's new CD "Wolves And Wishes"! He is part of what makes the Minneapolis music scene so incredible.
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And a new (hopefully reoccuring... The Halloween Alaska lyric bit will make a triumphant comeback one day, I promise) segment: I will pubilish one fact about my highschool that I will miss when I leave it in 143 days. Hopefully this will give the reader who has no clue where I attend school a little glimps into the best thing that has ever happened to me, and hopefully it will serve as a supreme thanks to my parents and everybody at my school. Here goes:
With 143 days left in my days at PA I realized that I will miss the great history teacher Dr. C's loud music. It ranges from Bach to Mahler to French popular music of the 1940's. But whatever genre he draws from it is always played at top volume. It is too loud to be able to effectively converse in it's midst, and loud enough to hear through out the halls. And he always waits for the song to end before he begins class. I will miss having teachers like that.