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I wonder what it sounded like in there, back then?
three enormous channels for siphon connections
not far from where I live now
"Folk Process" Legends of Culture Heroes and Giants of Industry Tra - La - La! my post title on this space in February of 2014 begins with the image of a watercolor painting of mine inspired by exhibiting
my art in a space at the public library in Kingston with an awkwardly placed triad quote by Cecil Sharp.
continuity - variation - selection
There is a sharing capacity in all things
some have observed that familiarity breeds contempt and rarity breeds admiration
a tension that presupposes intension
subjects and objects behaving with a shared energetic polarized directional current
within them and surrounding them
how close to anything is anything else? from what perspective? relationships of time and space are personal and passionate places inside and outside of the awareness of individuals and groups of things
containers of story placed in places, the value and worth understood or not, a quantifiable qualifiable
thing amongst things
not far from where I live now
there was no difference between the live event and the recording before the practice of record keeping was taking place, all experience was in person with personal feelings channeled through and between
before the technology was developed copying was in of itself an act of reproducing what was sensed as an impression of something by something else,
memory and mimicry creating expression understanding with interpreted meaning existing conceptually in all of nature before symbol use develops imaginatively in the languages of humans
conducting streams of thought into fountains of knowledge
things leave a record
on this space we share a trail through time within and part of the landscape archived forgetting that the world takes notice
I am in the practice of taking a closer look at things that seem to call to me, so it was on the bookshelves of the Olive Free Library after the holiday craft show this year with a seemingly not related subject and story containing detail and meaning to me in the here and now that would not have had personal significance twenty five or more years ago.
After checking the book out the first unexpected find was the prominence of the grandfather of the person who is the owner of the recording studio at Glen Tonche nearby now as well as references to Rockefeller Center in Manhattan and the British Security Coordination with their rumor factory rules
that I copied into my personal journal sketch book the wartime activity of the 35th and 36th floor of a building in a complex that contained a place occupied once by renters calling the space the
British library of information
currently
hosting the fiftieth anniversary show of Saturday Night Live
at the same time The New Yorker has its 100th anniversary issue
David Ogilvy and Gallop poll are unexpectedly linked with Screwball Unincorporated International
witness before expressor listener before voice admirer before judge
artificial information pipelines into the minds and memories of the masses are conductive directive agencies seeking special influence with promoting goal-oriented thinking and manipulation
for advantage in a competitive life game narrative about the distribution of power among insiders and outsiders with limited territory and resources,
superfluous non players are marginalized unrecognized and considered out of bounds in a hostile action of acquisition and collection reward progressing toward wealth accumulation success sponsorship content created polarized oppositional drama to incentivize participation amplification exaggeration of the vital importance of the newest artificial information stream
medias reflect and foreshadow the wonder of what might be said behind your back, the anxiety of the uninformed. Trust and habit are conditioned for companionship within the boundaries of the space
Yoko Ono had her 92nd B-Day
about the same time
Olivebridge Area Houshold receives,
Nielson," we've produced the radio and TV ratings for over 50 years"
survey shows up in my crooked mailbox on my old winding mountain road.
tradition and novelty
improvisation anticipation
expectation supply and demand adaptation
finding the magic in places
purpose and meaning in effort work and struggle
not far from where I live now
not far from where I live now
crediting others as a practice is energetically and spiritually moving in one direction and the practice of seeking to take credit for self-moves in the opposite direction spiritually and energetically with shared space, environmental surrounding pressure contextual circumstances shaping the envelope of attention
discovering or creating names and categories, classifications or genres for things is a tool of human communication for understanding not a natural truth but the principal of induction of belief.
My copy of Henscratches and Flyspecks was bought used online from some seller from my old hometown, missing its front cover the paperback has this closing from the author at the end.
" Practice doesn't really make perfect, but it sure as hell makes for improvement. (Who wants to be perfect anyway? remember Ambrose Bierce's definition "Ach-ieve-ment the end of endeavor, the beginning of disgust."
yrs, sincerely,
-still not disgustedly
Peter Seeger
Beacon NY 1971"
I haven't gotten out to see the movie 'A Complete Unknown' looks like it will be out of the theatres and available at home soon. I saw somebody's podcast interview with the actor playing Pete describing him as a Merlin-like figure, a Druid to the young folk revival musicians of the time.
I was glad to see someone make that comparison,
I am excited to see the place where I began formal Druid practice with a Grove of ADF a NeoPagan Religion at the end of the eighties with a PO BOX in, Jersey City.
cinematically transformed
This place along with locations nearby Hoboken in time and space for the settings of the film in Greenwich Villiage, New York City of 1961.
there are a number of people and places represented in this work that overlap with legend and truth in life in shaping of story, the making of art, and the spirit of the times with an evolving popular entertainment market and growing media industries expanding beyond local traditional boundaries
Albert Grossman and Newport Folk Festival are unexpectedly linked to me here and now as tomorrow and yesterday bridging romanticized biopic fantasy dream and the space I exist in-from now
authenticity and soul connections with locations
not far from where I live now
paths that have crossed synchronicity and circumstance
unknown currents connecting
" Double Dutch" mixed media polychrome paper, wood and plexiglass, silver leaf
private collection
this image sent to me by the owners is the only record I have of the original work
They purchased it from me at my studio space 83E on the third floor of one eleven first street before we all moved away from Jersey City to live in the country and make families of our own
staying in touch over the distance of time and space, feeling very lucky and blessed by that
shared with communications technology and materials, networks and platforms unimagined by me when I constructed and painted the Art piece in one of two previous apartments on Mercer Street
depicting my simple and uninformed interpretation of an ephemeral moment between people practice and place involving time shared space expression and non-competitive game spirit with jump rope,
something revolving like time and analog recording tape turning or a vinyl LP spinning
disappearing from the action on the block, activity in front of buildings, feeling of the neighborhood
I had just moved into destined to move away from but had the experience to witness before moving on
briefly from a distance live in person an energy that is special and on its own
not dependent on performing to an audience sharing or recording on film or video
free independent action unmanaged unprofessional expertise in individual and group synchronization precision timing skill coordination by girls outside of the pressures of the competitive contemporary urban youth market media mind manipulation, folk tradition-Tra -La- La! who wants to be perfect anyways?
I appreciated the endeavor of the practice because it was authentic sincere and not exploitative
I made what I could from memory with what I had around at the time
something that could not be reproduced, a static object suggesting patterned movement of
what I had witnessed, having no knowledge of what the experience feels like for the participants
our excited attentions, our imaginative process, our focused awareness
in completely different spaces moving in different directions for different reasons
in similar ways, with effort and a sense of up and down,
not the specifics of place or person but the spectacle of suspending in air briefly but regularly
repetitively reconnecting rebounding returning responding
respect reverence relationship
reciprocity
ritual religion
underground the waters flow below us constantly unseen, mostly unknown, mystery magic sincere
there and then and them
language generates thought
not far from where I live now
Heal Learn Grow
" Art cash -the rarest of all cash." my words to my wife after selling work at the Art Fair at Bearsville described on their website as,
" The legacy of Albert Grossman's utopian vision nestled along the Sawkill Creek in Woodstock"
