Bredonborough.
The sky is grey, with a little blue, and there is dampness.
I dribble pitifully as I hobble about the house. The first hour of my day is an accommodation to pain, sufficient only to enable me to function at a basic level. Walking is too much; stabs of intensity are sufficient to disrupt a sitting. But e-mail is possible; sitting on a cushioned stool & practising guitar is possible; drinking cappuccino & reading is mostly possible. This afternoon I am to present my wilting body to one of Bredonborough's two physiotherapists & plead for their help.
One of the morning's e-mails adds to my sense of Eurotour dread. Two weeks before the tour begins we have been informed that, in many of our venues, there is a compulsory intermission. The function of this is to allow time for the venue to sell alcohol; and if there is no intermission, KC pay a fine. So, unless we split the set into two, we have to compensate the venue for its loss of revenue from booze. There is something here that I find offensive. But we are given an alternative: have a local support act.
In principle, I am happy to play two sets; probably, happier than anyone else in the band. But a setlist is not arbitrary, and to devise a performance in two parts requires consideration. And why have we just been given this information? The alternative, of a local act, is also unacceptable: we wouldn't know if they were Crimson-compatible until they were onstage.
The planning for this tour continues its messy movement forwards. Did I mention, I am dreading this tour? Why should I dread my professional work?
Moving associationally along, to the subject of performance-satisfaction & the contribution of audients to my quality-of-life as performer, this post in the Krimson News Guestbook from yesterday --
It occurs to me that the clear implication of RF's view is that anytime someone such as myself (a skeptic, an unbeliever) attends a gig then just my presence causes an inherent violation of the proceedings. Since I admire his music so very much and wish RF nothing but artistic success perhaps I have a moral obligation to absent myself from these occasions.
Not quite. The recommendation is to engage a healthy and engaged scepticism, a "critical loyalty", held with goodwill. This recommendation is part of the conventional beginning of a Guitar Craft course, for example. True Believers are encouraged to develop their discriminatory faculties; alternatively to transfer their allegiance to a more deserving subject/object.
The point is this: our presence, in any context, has affect. In any activity, simply being present & being who-we-are, changes the character of the activity. If the poster brings a camera to a Crimson performance intending to use it, then the intention to commit a non-consensual act is itself a violation, even if the camera is not used: the key is intention. If this poster comes with critical goodwill & open ears, "wishing nothing but artistic success", then we all benefit from their presence.
It is probably impossible for us to know the repercussions set in motion by anything we do. How much more difficult, then, to begin to know the repercussions from what we think or feel? And if this is so, how may we ever know the repercussions of us simplybeing? The pain in my left leg has caused me to decline the interview for Channel Five's Are You Telepathic? But even if I were able to take part, it would not be possible to persuade any healthy agnostic of "special powers". My feeble powers are in any case not special. But even if they were, "supernatural" skills are not as functionally available to inspection/verification as the effects of, for example, hitting a nail with a hammer. "Experiential proof" of relatively subtle acts (such as thinking, feeling, intending) is available in the world where (for example) thought is material; but we have to have access to that particular world to be able to make the "inspection". The results of carpentry are (mostly) available to the naked eye, and through functional application.
Were I to have invested, in an alternative field, the same amount of time, energy, practising & training that have characterised my guitar playing, and were that field the development of "supernatural capacities", the situation might be different. If a young lad from Dorset, tone-deaf & with no sense of rhythm, can get to play with the quality of players I am fortunate enough to work/have worked with, then I might be typing this while levitating by the back door.
In the absence of specialist training, probably the best access we have to "prescience" is through the feelings. And I note, en passant, that Western education does little to educate the feelings.
Moving along to other online commentators --
A recent commentator offered the suggestion (close paraphrase) that Fripp moves on, but on the same spot. This is a valuable insight. The tone of the post suggests to me that the poster didn't see their insight, which is into the nature of mastery (a station I do not claim for myself but recognise in others).
Similarly, the recent poster who noted that Fripp looked like a backing musician also failed to see their insight. In the context they were witnessing, Fripp was a backing musician. Perhaps the poster did not expect/believe/want that Fripp was/is/should-be a backing player. Did I read in this the assumption that to be a backing player is not quite as good as it gets?
A good actor is able to move to the front of the stage when required, return to the ensemble, and to walk offstage when necessary. Some actors hog upstage and constantly demand the audience's attention. To quote pal & actor Tim Faulkner, who I have witnessed suffering from an onstage hog, this is a matter of courtesy. It is also, I might add, a matter of capacity & talent.
Very good, broadly-based musicians are able to solo, to accompany and to be silent, in response to the demands of the music (I do not claim this capacity & talent). But, within a Crimson context, if Ade is functioning as The Front Man, I have no problem in accepting the role of Crimson backing musician: the difficulty lies not in accepting the role, but honourably discharging it. If, upon eventual retirement, all that I might claim for my professional life were Crimson Backing Musician, this would itself be sufficient validation for a professional life well lived.
Both online posters share the same characteristic - having an insight, which is then undermined by an act of interpretation. The insight not-in-accordance-with-what-was-expected or should-have-been is, as a consequence, missed and/or dismissed. These are both good examples of cluelessness, but are quietly tragic: heaven is pulled to earth and then kicked into the basement.
19.24
The cause of my discomfort seems to have been found: a swollen disk that has put pressure on the sciatic nerve. The long haul flight to Australia most likely set things going, and then they got going.
"Suffer cheerfully."
