Be ONE

Cliché # 1: Sometimes what you are looking for is right in front of your eyes - this is a sad truth that many of us overlook in its triteness. As I stare at this very page, the phrase takes on a special meaning for me.

I write to find purpose - yet I am purposed in my writing. I sometimes feel that creativity is lacking as I drown in indifference. How in the hell am I to stay inspired and determined? Of one thing I am sure: a person with no inspiration or direction would never begin to ask the question.  Many things inspire me: music inspires me, people inspire me, I.... inspire me. How should we maintain our principle values when inspiration dares us into a destructive determination?

How can a determined creativity stifle itself into nothing? Smother it into submission? Drag itself into devolve?  A creative spirit which lasts the tests of time is a spirit which cannot be extinguished. It's strength and potency answer only to its momentum.

Again, how does a determined creativity cease to exist? It allows outside influence to govern its speed, to govern its nature, and to govern its connection to its ORIGIN. The answer is not to try and be someone, not to avoid being no one, but to try and Be ONE. 

Grow from the Soul

A Self-search and seizure, a never-ending show,

Postured and perched, my cards you won't know.

To pay homage to past, flags fly at half-mast...

Being chased at last, truth creeps on me fast...

To distance myself, need a change of pace....

one that lasts, yet no need to race....

steady-goings with forward motion,

rivers flowing and crashing oceans...

I ride the waves, they take me on,

The way is paved, not written in stone,

If time did own, we'd all be gone....

If time did own, we'd all be gone....

Escaping reality has never felt so free..

I'm running from sense - it's coming to me,

A clear light is shining, pointing the way,

Another appears and leads me astray...

Both equally right, with calculated sight,

Two paths laid out... though one man's plight...

How can it be? One man and two paths?

Ends up with none, two he can't have

Must choose a direction and steady-stay course,

Put a strong foot forward... have no remorse.

Take allegiance to self, be part of a whole,

stay true to the ORIGIN and grow from the soul....

grow from the soul...

Let it Be

I'd like to preface the following with an idea that I had.... or so I thought. You see, the plan was that I would come to you with a series of comments that I would promote as Constructive Cynicisms. "Sounds great", I thought to myself.  It's 2011 now, so I figured "someone has surely put these two words together before".   Being the very academic person that I am, I Googled the phrase and came up with the following URL address:  http://moogi-constructivecynicism.blogspot.com/

Yep.  Not only does the phrase exist, but this is the name of a person's blog on this very website. Surprise surprise. I know there may be some skeptics out there who would rather believe it seeped into my subconscious than it was an original thought - I am obligated to tell you I am fairly certain it did not.  It is, however, frustrating to be behind the curve, yet again :\  After having given credit to the closest author I could find, I will move on to the first of many Constructive Cynicisms (CCs):


Commercialization can/will ruin the creative artform. Whether paper, canvas, acoustic, electric, or digital.... If it's controlled by another person - it's suppressed. That is what commercialization does; it suffocates true originality by attaching business goals to creative means. One might argue that the artist is not affected by these forces, but I am arguing at the extreme end of a spectrum (since this is the best way to show what we are heading towards).  Two words: Lady Gaga


Briefly to skeptics of this CC: the digital age of music has come. Yes, it has indeed come, and it does allow artists to more easily get their music to end users.  This very ease-of-access is what has allowed the market to be flooded with more music, making it an issue of quantity over quality.  The average person also prefers tracks to EPs to albums (quality versus quantity?  NO).  Simply put: the digital age of music has made it easy for the artist to cop out on producing an entire album's worth of quality music like we ALL know the greats were able to do.... time and time again!!!  


Calls to action: Industry - Let it Be. Artists - please crank up the efforts, and do it like your predecessors.

BonnaView

A three-year Bonnaroo veteran, I've made it back 

alive again.  I must say that the vibe has changed.  It used to be about intimacy with the music; now, some stages/acts are so packed that you cannot even hear the artist. I sat at Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck, and a number of other acts whose acoustic nature called for a much smaller setting – it sounded like background music at an unsophisticated restaurant.  The music, the fans, and the experience has all been diluted. At the 2005 Bonnaroo, I was able to hear the acts clearly from my campsite in Tent City. It was beautiful. Toomuch money has been paid by Bonnaroo patrons to have such a fate hit them. Of course, everyone is going to be a critic.  

The delicious Food Trucks!!!

What amazes me is that you can go to a music festival, a place where people of kind intentions typically gather, and still have the amount of trash left on the ground by its patrons.  America has fostered a society of externalists. Despite strategically placed trash cans and recycling bins, the crowd still saw the ground as their own personal garbage can. This requires that Bonnaroo employ over one hundred Clean Vibe volunteers every day to clean up the sea of water bottles unnecessarily placed there. Just who exactly is going to these festivals? Not my type of crowd - that is for sure.  Whatever drew these new indiscriminate fans there needs to go away - the mainstream music, the drugs, and the needs driven by greed. Music festivals typically have the most earth-conscious patrons of all industries; its increasing population indicates that it is now a festival of the masses. How can something that was once pure become commercialized to the point that it loses its inherent qualities?  

As for the music, well – most of it was  great. I was able to see many bands I have known and loved for years and others I knew nothing about. It was great to finally see Galactic, The Strokes, and RATATAT. Artists I had just recently learned about whose shows I really enjoyed were The Pimps of Joytime, Junip, and Wiz Khalifa.  The atmosphere is still there, but the fusion of it all could use some tweaking.  I do not know if I was simply disengaged, but I do know one thing – the next festival I attend will be much smaller and more intimate.

The Shuffle

Oh what do we do, what do we dare?

The price has changed - it’s no longer fair.

A means to an end…so far in the distance, 

I’ve long since cared. Beware…

 …of the cold night air, a devil she is… even a nightmare….

One that strikes you senseless, grasping your chair.

All at once, it’s too much to bear.

A single moment passes, yet another to spare.

Unaware... I just awoke and was there....

If the righteous can still do wrong,

Where is the hope, and who does belong?

If you wished not to see, enjoyed to be blind,

The more you could be, the more you might find.

Surrounded by a room, one I am in,

If I want out, will you come in?

Will you come in?

I think we can trade, it’s more of the same,

Just fill me in... I’m done with the games,

…done with the games.  

To what extent is an ego something to relinquish? Overconfidence can be harmful to your health; lack of self-worth can lead to killing sprees. Certainly there is an area in between; surely a psychological space can exist where one person can be indifferent to themselves. Can the malignant narcissist still be aware of his ego?  One wouldn't want a person to think them self-centered. Would a narcissist actually counterbalance his ego in the same way that he expands it to counter his own shortcomings?