11.26
Hotel Quite Acceptable, Mendoza.
Wifi outside the bar-area is very iffy. That is, in my room, it is mostly not iffy at all: it is simply not. So, computer-relocation to the breakfasting chamber where a power socket & online are accessible.
A member of the GC community has e-written expressing some concern that the proposed not-for-profit Guitar Craft Institute of Research & Practice may follow the fate of a number of other comparable bodies into becoming a rigid, arid & fixed orthodoxy of GC true believers, a distant echo of living Guitar Craft.
From the reply…
It is a requirement that any not-for-profit body presents itself as a formal institution, which is why the RLH was run as "a business" - distrust altruism, but you can trust people who want to make a buck! For practical reasons, it seems the best current approach is for the Guitar Craft Institute of Research & Practice.
Any institution is an external structure, created that an internal grace may have a form through which to enter the world. Any institution will seek to perpetuate itself, rather than continue to exist as a vehicle for grace. This is a contradiction, but a necessary one. The danger is that the institution persists when its time has gone…
Much of my professional life has been directed towards creating an appropriate structure for music not-professional-in-its-intent to enter the world. An inevitable struggle results & is ongoing. The various structures only work when they are hands-on and accepted as part of the work. We would not be touring Argentina now were it not for Hernan promoting & arranging it himself: the professional characters have all said that our approach "is not possible!". Well, they’re right: it wouldn’t work for good professionals.
The quick overview: formal structures are a necessary limitation and tend to work for as long as the founders are actively engaged. Left to their own devices, they will inevitably go off course.
The original GC Services was a disaster, and cost a lot of money. It’s driving force was a man who went mad... Nevertheless, it facilitated early GC developments, which were necessary. NB the GCS office was geographically a long way from where I lived.
GC: when various Crafties talk about GC, it’s mostly Level Two cluelessness - commentaries of witlessness based on misunderstanding. Even from very good people.
This particular (proposed) GC institute is well-named, a particular concern for me. The name states the aim nad, with a clear aim, the direction is set. For as long as I am geographically & personally close to its centre of operations, it is a goer (as with RLH). If it goes off course, it will cease to exist.
Q. How should GC be best represented in the world?
A. By the quality of our work. Good work is tangible. It emanates. It has a flavour we grow to recognise, and use as a benchmark against which to set our own efforts.
FYI: there are currently 8 people who have committed to tithing.
A wave from Mendoza! Life is so much better with a good hotel, in the centre of a good town, 2 blocks from the venue.
12.43 Substantial e-flurrying related to the Ideal House is complicated by the signal dropping out constantly. Visits from the room to the bar are mandatory.
It’s a sign! My pals, who live next door to the Ideal House, gave us a Christmas Cake of Wonder, Delight & Bliss Arising. I have been carrying the last parts of this on my travelling, for those moments stuck in airports with long delays for flights & food is not an option. This is the very last part of that Wonder Cake, accompanying me as info on the House appeared…
And even if it were not a sign (and it is!), it’s very very tasty indeed.
15.03 There are now 9 committed to tithing.
16.12 A late lunch 2 blocks away, where the Team suppered last night I...
II…
A feature of Mendoza is the irrigation system built by the indigenous Indians…
This water is melting snow from the Andes, falling towards the city…
Some of the gulleys also function as rubbish tips & require a team of rubbish removers…
A walk around the block or two. Transport car of wonder…
Bus of wonder…
Our venue I…
Opposite the stage door…
… a urological clinic, usefully sited for the older player.
Back to the hotel in time to see Biff Securidad leaving for FOH soundboard…
18.15 Practising done. Off to the venue.
00.27 The foyer I…
Catering…
Dressing room of the English Kabusacki…
Dressing room of The LCG…
The stage…
The LCG starring Kabusacki I…
Security does FOH…
… and karaoke.
A full house, supportive & generous, although the incomprehension for Soundscapes was tangible. Hernan confirmed my sense of this, noticing fidgeting in chairs & restlessness. Good incremental additions by The LCG to two of their pieces, following on from last evening’s rehearsals, and they rocked out.
An announcement was made, prior to the performance, re: photography & recording. This was written by RF just before doors opening. The usual announcement by a venue-person tends to be along the lines of:
This is forbidden! If you do this you are bad people! This is wrongness! Obey this edict! Or your fallen natures will be shown before men & karmic retribution will fall upon you immediately if not shortly afterwards!
Just about the kind of announcement that would have any decent person heaving in their seat while puling out a mobile phone with camera that they had no intention of using. Our announcement was translated by Kabusacki.
Wonderful post-show catering by the Govinda Vegetarian Restaurant I...
II...
Our two shows are sold out & an additional performance has been added for Sunday as part of the NST presentation.
Dribble dribble.
"A discipline that does not lead to a compassionate practice may be said to have failed."
