--- Herb Rodriguez <Herb.Rodriguez@colorado.edu>
wrote:
>
>
> Is it too much for this group to be nice to people?
> Is it too much for this
> group to not take offense at every comment made? Is
> it too much for this
> group to hold their tongue and make comments that
> are on track with the
> topic and ignore the rest?
>
>
Hi.
I was called "malicious" and no one spoke up in my
behalf. So this list has tacitly endorsed name
calling. The name caller received forgiveness from
the list members. Jason Castner was advised to throw
his computer out the window. The writer spoke of the
relief the whole list would feel if Jason followed the
advice. I say, let the devil take the hindmost. No
one has clean hands. We all play in the dirt. Life
is rough but I choose life over farewell whenever I
can. But sometimes I say farewell. Not just now,
however.
There is an inherent contradiction in playing
shakuhachi. The instrument was not mainstream. Ronin
and Komuso were outsiders. Then the voracious
insiders co-opted the instrument and integrated it
into elite culture.
When the zen master, before the emperor, pulled out
his flute, blew one note, bowed and left - he was
proclaiming his outsider status. Ikkyu was not
mainstream and he played shakuhachi (whatever that
meant at the time.)
So now shakuhachi is treated as a part of the formal
culture of Japan. That means that a natural product,
bamboo, is part of courtly, artificial life. And in
the US we do not have an emperor, nobles or a court.
Even western music has folk roots -- in Mahler you can
see the dirt clinging to the roots of some of the
material he uses.
I try to see and hear origins even in high culture.
Bach's dance suites can benefit from a little "swing".
Music was part of life before it became part of high
culture.
Every one of us is an animal with training. I am a
complete package, full of contradictions, light and
shadow, and you either take me or leave me. You don't
get to select part of me.
I detest manners when they are used to power one's way
into imposing the polite person's will upon others. I
say thank you and please, and I rebel sometimes.
And I don't do what other people think I should.
Euphemism: moderation within the list seems to mean,
please do exactly as I wish. Peace comes after
conquest.
Regards,
John Baker
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