Another post on music, this one inspired by a great essay on the etiquette of improvisation, by Howard Becker: Collective improvisation–not like Keith Jarrett, where one man plays alone, but like the more typical small jazz group–requires that everyone pay close attention to the other players and be prepared to alter what they are doing in response to tiny cues that suggest a new direction that might be interesting to take. The etiquette here is more subtle than I have so far suggested, because everyone understands that at every moment everyone (or almost everyone) involved in the improvisation is offering …
Every couple of weeks I sing with an evensong chorale, singing Gregorian chant and other liturgical music for a meditation service at one of our local churches. The whole experience is deeply spiritual for everyone who comes, including (and especially) the singers. Over the past few years we have focused on how to collaborate on a level that befits the experience we are trying to generate for the congregation. And it really comes down to sustaining flow. Our director Alison Nixon, who thinks a lot about these things, usually has some wisdom to impart to us each week. On Sunday …
Got this great little piece from Killing the Buddha by way of wood s lot: “I got a job pushing monks into the ocean. The monks don’t seem to mind, and the abbot says that my threat promotes awareness. So I’m sitting here on my observation chair, watching the mainland recede, working on my peripheral vision. Not that the monks are fast. They are at peace in walking meditation, so I don’t want to interrupt the cadence so much as divert it, shuffle out into the hot sand, barefoot and cringing, and see if the monk notices my presence. If …
For a while in the mid nineties, CBC ran a satire called “The Great Eastern” which billed itself as “Newfoundland’s Cultural Magazine,” aired by arrangement with the fictitious Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland. While looking for something else, I stumbled over their website, featuring a bunch of episodes: “The Great Eastern–Newfoundland’s Cultural Magazine, started as an hour-long summer replacement on CBC Radio in 1994 and since 1996 was a half-hour program on the regular Saturday morning schedule. Despite critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base, the CBC effectively cancelled the show after the 1998-99 season, further alienating the thousands of listeners …
Another installment of linkage for your perusal: A Guide to Formal Consensus decisionmaking Peter Denning on Building a Culture of Innovation via EMERGIC.org Entomology: Invasion of the brood. “The 17-year cicadas are about to emerge in force” Watch out! Full text of DESCHOOLING SOCIETY by Ivan Illich Creating a Culture of Gift (.pdf) via Wealth Bondage Krishnamurti Information Network – Krishnamurti Biography via Whiskey River Anne Cameron on the bears of Tahsis and the morons that hunt them for fun, with a great discussion in the comments. Movement As Network(.pdf) via GiftHub You Can Choose To Be Happy, an online …