The Bay Psalm Book ... and Ends of Eras for New First Editions, and More

The End and the Future ...

On Tuesday a copy of the Bay Psalm Book was auctioned for $14.2 million. This is a new world record for any printed book. This little book (it is little) was the first book printed in what was to become the United States. It was published in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts - so soon after the Plymouth colony was established in Massachusetts in 1620. The print run was about 1700 copies. Only 11 copies survive in the world. It's full title is - The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. With a subtitle of - Whereunto is prefixed a discourse declaring not only the lawfullnes, but also the necessity of the heavenly Ordinance of singing Scripture Psalmes in the Churches of God. [all sics apply]

So Many Evolutionary Arcs

And then ... my mind began to 'think'. And so 'I' went along with it. (Why not?) It seems to me that the end of an era has already happened. I doubt that any 'first editions' of fiction published from today onwards will ever be sold at any auction for any price.

Works of fiction, stories, have travelled a long arc in how they are transmitted from the inspired (or not) author to the consciousness of the one being storyTold to. First there was oral transmission (and of course memory) only, to both storytellers and those being Told to ... and then handwritten script given to printers (oh what fun that iterative cycle must have been - just ask James Joyce!) ... and then we story creators had typewriters (hooray!) for both ourselves and those who typed for us ... then word processing (cool and now ubiquitous and taken-for-normal) ... publication outside 'paper' begins with audio and fiction on the early web ... then we have voice recognition on the input side ... and, on the production side digital books (and some digital books are digital-only, so the concept of 'first edition' is truly conceptually gone (going, going, gone, gone, gone)) ... and let's factor in that 'stories' were originally told (only told) ... and then told or read ... and then told, read or watched/viewed (bearing in mind that most of the latter stories have never been available in told or written formats) ...

... so ... what does the future bring? Virtual reality stories? May be. Where the experience will be storyLived as opposed to storyTold to. And then we will have joint creation, between the story receiver in the virtual world and the creators of the virtual world. Games are the joint creation of a story, because they are the creation of an outcome. We already have shared authorship of novels - especially in the SF/Fantasy realm. And, of course, multi-participent games create stories jointly. StorySourcing is bound to come, for some, if it has not already - an interative play on the games I played as a youngster where we would (drink) and write a line and pass it on to the next in the round at the party. Hah! That was fun at the time!

Story, Daydreams, and Culture

And steady state in all of this is Story itself and our 'need' for Story and stories. Just as mammal biology needs breath ... so consciousness (it seems) needs ... stories.

There are billions of stories told by ourselves to ourselves together, collectively, on Mother EAerth every hour. They are often called 'daydreams'. Because they never 'happen'. And the collective of daydreams, growing exponentially, is only one layer in the collective consciousness of thoughts that encircle us. Just as there is an atmosphere that is breathed ... so ... there is an aether (to deliberately choose to use an old-fashioned word for technical reasons) that is 'received' by each of us.

Once upon a time, long gone, stories were planted upon Mother EAerth to serve a purpose. The 'template' of Story was also planted. By Seeders and Caretakers. We do need to be careful of our consumption of Story. For, like all food and drink, we need to be careful of what we consume. Artificial ingredients create bad health. Consuming too much 'bad' food/Story causes ...

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

The Bridge - The Landfill Harmonic and the Irresistability of Creating

Music and the love of music does not necessarily by iteslf change personal issues of poverty or health (acknowledging the many exceptions that are shamanic and miraculous, where it does). But it does change consciousness. Watching people create is inspiring to us all for we are all innately, intrinsically, and Divinely (since we are all of the Divine) creative.

... and so to the Landfill Harmonic. ... once upon a time (in our time) ...

It has a name. Some might fnd that strange. But then, we name everything ... that we need to share or think about. So ... it is named Cateura, this place where creativity and creation bloom in the most unexpected place (on Earth). Cateura is Paraguay's largest landfill.

Luis Szaran, Director of 'Sonidos de la Tierra', was called (inspired) to a mission. He took his love of music and his understanding of what music gives to the children of Cateura.

So Many Children ... So Few Instruments

In the beginning there were only five violins and fifty children ... and so some talented and huge-hearted people began to make instruments from the garbage sent to Cateura. As one lad says ...

"The cello is made from an oil can and wood that was thrown away in the garbage. The pegs are made out of an old tool used to tenderize beef, and this was used to make gnocchi."

And it sounds beautiful ... since it is heartfully played.

These children know (truly know) what they are doing.

"For me, the music is the smile of the soul. ... I love it because you can convey everything with it. You can tell if you're angry, if you're happy, if you're sad, if you're in love. ... As Maestro Szaran says, we need to make intelligence hip, instead of clothes and cell phones."

Landfill Harmonic on Tour

... and here are these young people telling their story through playing orchestral music. And also telling the bigger story of the Bridge - the relationship to 'inspiration' - that we all have as our birthright, regardless of whether we dance with that partner-in-Existence or not.

The Bridge is Always Open

'Bridge' is the core concept, the core understanding. The Bridge is not especially/particularly an 'archetype'. Rather, and simply, it is a basic fact of life. The Bridge is a way, from 'Inspiration' (whatever you may want to call it, and define it to yourself) to each of us. The Bridge is always open. It is our end of the Bridge that is often not. Locally closed, one might say. There are a million ways for us to open to our end of the bridge. But the way of ways is simply to surrender to our desire to 'create'. Yes, there may be quieting down needed from us, and a learning to 'listen' to the choir that sings to us, unceasingly, from the other side of the Bridge.

What is true about music, as above, is also true of writing. This is the way it is and there is no other way.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Musicians Who Paint - Herb Alpert

Once upon a lo-ong time ago I was a musician. Once upon a time yet to come ... I will be an abstract painter. (As for "why abstract painting" ... it's a lo-ong story ... all to do with acknowledging that the universe that we 'see' is painted by biological perceptive organs and in its 'isness' it bears no relation to what we 'see' ... 'abstract' painting is one way to honor this Divine fact.)

This weekend just past there was a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal on Herb Alpert, who started painting in 1970, and his art.

Just fascinating ... and there was a gorgeous photo of his studio, by Annie Tritt, showing some of his paintings using organic coffee on gesso. You can read more on Herb Alpert's website here.

The Artist At Work - Honesty

Albert talks about his work on this video featured on Vimeo. (permissions don't let me embed it here - you will have to click to Vimeo to view.)

"There's a running thread to all good artists and it's 'honesty'. ... I don't have a goal in mind apart from form. I'm looking for that form that touches me. It's a real mystical art form. There's someting that feeds me internally. ... This sounds a little mysterious. There's a voice in me that tells me what to do. It definitely tells me when to stop and when to keep going."

For those who love watching artists actually at work there is a wonderful scene of him making one of his organic coffee on gesso paintings, pouring coffee on the canvas (beginning 5.23).

Oneness vs. Poverty Consciousness

Creation is a oneness thing. Music ... painting ... writing. All art forms aim and intend to manifest into our world something that was not manifest before. And the only thing worth creating is that which is from your own truth. Forcing yourself to copy or emulate - "otherwise I won't make it!" - is poverty consciousness. Honesty ... to the life that life that we have been Given.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

What Did It Sound Like? - To Play the Oldest Known Music Notation in the World

As a writer of stories, long and short, in the genre of historical fantasy I am fascinated by all the facets I need to create a world for my characters which seduces my readers. And more ... which bedazzles and successfully invites them inside. One of these facets is music. Music is integral to the world in my novel Alba - not only is it integral, it is a 'shamanic' doorway. Thus essential.

The oldest currently-known notated music in the world (or, this set of civilizations upon the breast of Mother EAerth) comes from Ugarit, on the coast of present-day Syria, and is dated around 1400 BCE. Acknowledging that there may well be older music currently played, today and even tomorrow, that was transmitted by lineage of teacher/pupil learning ... This music, known today as the Hurrian songs, was inscribed onto clay tablets. What has so far been discovered is incomplete - clay is a fragle material.

What did it sound like?

Well ... here would be no elements of today. No technobeats ... no sampling ... no overdubbing and multi-tracking ... no electronic instruments. The 'true' tones of Western music not at all necessary. Voices and ... handsonics ... and ... reeds, strings, skins and metals, No recordings. No greatest hits. No accompanying twerking (I strongly intuit/suspect, but cannot be certain). Optional hotpants very unlikely.

What did it sound like?

Well ... we will never know. But that does not stop us from enjoying the joyful wonder of the fact that way back then, in that tribe, musicians composed and notated their music so that is could be shared and so that it could endure, at least for as long as the culture did endure.

Malek Jandali

There are some inspirational extrapolations from these Hurrian songs. The Syrian-born Malek Jandali has an album called Echoes from Ugarit released a couple of years ago written for piano and Western orchestra.

Why is this important to writers?

Why is this important?

Well ... It is important to be able to access a state of 'personal' wonder about this creation upon this planet and these experiences that 'we' have. It is right and natural to have wonder about these ancient civilizations - that in the galactic scheme of time are just the last heartbeat away. A sense of wonder is natural. A lack of a sense of wonder is not.

Why is this important to writers?

Music is a huge part of every culture, down through all of 'history'. Sure, we can all write stories that don't need the facet of music to create the world in which the story takes place. However, for myself, the more I want to incorporate the essence of a culture in a story setting the more likely I will introduce music into that world. Of course, if I want to introduce any facet that is the slightest 'shamanic' then I likely need music.

For writers of historical fantasy and historical fiction it depends how far back in time you are setting your story. If you have gone back as far as the Baroque Period - 1600-1750, or so - then you are in reasonably well-documented territory. Though bear in mind that there are periodic huge controversies in the early music communities about what early music actually sounded like.

Once we are in historical settings that are way back, like the Dark Ages and before in Europe, and their equivalent periods in other parts of this world, then where are we going to find inspiration to be able to write and create the musical backdrops in our stories?

Over the next few months I will share some of the music I have listened to, and become drunk upon, in the quest to meet inspiration for the musical facets of my ancient worlds.

Malek Jandali is currently giving great Service to the world through activist work on behalf of all children caught up in the current conflict in Syria. You can read more about his work here

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light with you!

Learning from the Underrated Masterpieces of Sci-fi

On a personal note I consider myself a very technical writer (as in practicing scales on the piano ... endlessly) as well as an 'inspirational' (improvisational music and absract painting) writer. I love watching movies from the point of view of being a story writer (and not, most certainly not, a script writer.). As a writer I enjoy movies that not only please me but also give me food for thought in regards to my writing 'techniques' and writing craft. I enjoy honing the techniques I have and discovering new-to-me ones.

'Underrated masterpieces' for me are special. I just have that kind of personality. The underrated and forgotten is a great realm to travel to - to enjoy inspiration and, maybe, be inspired.

Steven James Snyder of techland recently released a list, with commentary, of "The Five Most Underrated Sci-Fi Masterpieces".

Two of them I have seen ... a very long time ago - Silent Running and Dark City. I'm not sure that I have even heard of the other three - Gottaca, Serentiy, Primer. But now I am very inspired to have a Watching Underrated Masterpieces weekend - with some of my favorite wines. And to see what I can learn as a writer.

Anyway, I commend the list to writers of fantasy and magical realism. And, maybe even more, the short list of twenty from which the five were distilled.

Interestingly, another list i found by 'serendipity' also had Dark City in the top five.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Enjoying Robert Graves (Again): On 'Being' a 'Poet'

I cannot say that Robert Graves influenced or inspired by writing, both stories and poems. I can say, with complete knowingness, that reading this kind of knowledge of his inspired me to trust and then follow my own inspiration - the touchCallingWhisperTug of the Source - in my writing.

This interview with Leslie Norris, also a great 'British' poet (acknowledging that poetry is universal), was published in The Listener 28 May 1970.

Here are a couple of questions from Norris and Graves' response.

Dharma

Do you consider yourself fortunate inhaving been a poet?

There's no alternative. If you're born that way, that's your fate - and you've got to do your best. It's a way of life. You have to be in the world, but not of the world, as the Sufis say. You can't cheat and you must only say what you have to say and not what people would like you to say.

I love this! No 'cheating'. Be true to 'you'. And ... Thy will be Done.

And ... a Poet is ...?

You've written that you write poems for poets. Do you mean you write poems exclusively for poets, or for people who live as poets do?

A poet is a person who lives and thinks in a certain way. A poet doesn't necessarily write poems. It is simply an attitude, and there are a great many more poets around than meet the eve. I think about one person in 20 is perhaps a poet. The ones who are not poets expect something of what they think is poetry, which I don't propose to give them. What I write is for people to understand who are on the same, as they say, wavelength as myself. I don't write for an audience at all really: I write for myself. But the audience is presumably there.

The Source (of 'Inspiration')

The Bridge is always open from meYouMe to the Source. The Source that touchesCallsWhispersTugs at us to write this ... paint this ... dance this.

Tending to our side of the Bridge is our Duty, our Dharma. The other side of the Bridge and what lies there takes care of Itself quite perfectly, thank you. Once we do our work on our side of the Bridge then Inspiration is AlwaysOn.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!

Soundless Music and Storyless Story: Yves Klein's Symphony and Idries Shah's The Book of the Book

Nothing quite says something as much as nothing does, sometimes.

There was a performance of Yves Klein’s Monotone Symphony in New York last month. Klein is a fascinating and disruptive artist. His Symphony is in two movements. The first movement is a sustained D major chord that lasts 20 minutes. The second movement is a 20 minute period of 'silence' - i.e. no musicians playing but just ambient sound.

The Beginning of the NY Concert

And ... In France they Kiss on Main Street

And here is a video of a 'Happening' with Yves Klein, the musicians, blue paint, the artist's models and audience. Quite different from 2013 ... hmm ...

You can also listen to the performance of March 9, 1960 here.

The Book of the Book by Idries Shah

Stories without story? Now THAT is hard to do!

I bought The Book of the Book in the late seventies (I was buying all of Idries Shah's books available at that time in my life). It was 'controversial'. The first 16 pages of the book has text - story within story without story about story - and the rest of the book was blank paper. Not even page numbers. Interestingly, and as an artist I am so grateful for this, you can read the complete The Book of the Book on googlebooks. It will take you about five minutes. Hah! Five minutes to read. But ... how long to digest?

I recommend The Book of the Book to all writers in the genres of magical realism and speculative fiction. In fact, I wholeheartedly recommend all of Shah's books to writers of magical realism and SF. For ... there is much there about 'causality', in both its hidden and obvious elements. For ... there is much in his books about building worlds. For ... there is much there about how observers (unknowing) create worlds and hide worlds from themselves purely by deciding what their perceptions 'mean'. For ... there is much there about the 'real' and the 'really real'. And, on a personal note, I take inspiration from his work to write to 'change the cultural world' by inviting my readers to think about what kind of life they really want to live in the really real world.

Stories are healing. This is the way it is. Stories are also, manifestly, the opposite. Readers are there for stories that heal. Something different this way comes.

Namaste! I bow to and honor the light within you!