08.29
Minxie Pad, Chiswick.
Waiting for the British Gas engineer to arrive. Hopefully, heat will follow shortly after his arrival.
11.55 Bollo Gastro-Pub, Bollo Lane I…
II...
E-flurrying while waiting for Pal Adam to arrive, traveling across London by Tube. From a Virgin past-employee…
I noticed in your diary this morning that you mention it's 23 years since the E'G concert week at the QEH (at least it was when the diary was written a short while back), which means it's also 23 years since we first met (briefly at that gig with the E'G people trying to keep any meeting I had with 'their musicians' brief as they were paranoid about Virgin staff having direct contact with musicians)…
12.47 From a Crafty…
Yesterday's Guitar Circle and NST Day in Paris was an intense and positive experience. Something happened in the Circle that made a deep impression on me…
At the end of the second guitar meeting before lunch we gradually moved from practicing the Primaries to something more musical. Something has clearly changed in the room and in the Circle (one of my two aims for the day was to pay the attention to the Circle) It's always difficult to describe such experiences, but at this moment it felt as if Music made us more open towards each other. There was more eye contact between us, more accepting and closer to each other I believe. Two points arose from this:
When the Music came I became joyous and grateful. Can it be said that we connect more truly with each other through feelings?
I had the sense that the Music came as the reconciling force. It brought us together and suddenly all the efforts, strivings and resistance present in the circle have been put in the context that made sense. We were more of a Circle, a whole, at this point.
I hope this makes sense.
From the reply…
When the Music came I became joyous and grateful. Can it be said that we connect more truly with each other through feelings?
Yes!
At a certain point, we are the same person.
We may know this & entertain various concepts & ideas that open us toward the experience. This changes & directs our behaviour towards & with other people. We assume the virtue in our actions – courtesy, consideration, acceptance, mutual respect - and act as if this were true, knowing that it is true!
We may also undertake various practices & exercises (for example, in the Morning Sitting) to bring us closer to the direct experiencing. Working in the Circle is one of our most valuable practices we have for this. The intensity & focus of Circle work makes the experiencing more available & more likely.
And then: we find we are not apart from others. We are the same Person. I agree: this connection is primarily through the feelings.
I had the sense that the Music came as the reconciling force. It brought us together and suddenly all the efforts, strivings and resistance present in the circle have been put in the context that made sense. We were more of a Circle, a whole, at this point.
Music is a benevolent presence, constantly & readily available to all.
It is not possible, I think, to understand how & why a Creative Benevolence would wish to act through music & give itself away to the ungrateful & the deaf. This is utterly beyond my capacity to grasp. But, I accept that it is so. Accepting that this is so, something becomes possible.
And if all we can do is offer gratitude in return, gratitude is good!
12.55 The Sistery Person has replied to an enquiry from the Grand-Daughter of Fay Schneider, the proprietor of The Majestic Hotel on the East Cliff in Bournemouth where I followed Andy Summers onto the guitar chair in the hotel dance band; in respect of a memoir of Fay & her hotel. Patricia sent the following, a story told at a Jewish service in San Francisco when F&F were speaking...
In 1966-68, when I was 18-21, I paid my way through Bournemouth College, where I was studying economics, economic history, and political history with a special paper on social conditions 1850-1900, by playing at the Majestic Hotel in Bournemouth. The Majestic was a well-known Jewish hotel, run by Fay Schneider.
The Majestic Dance Orchestra (a quintet) played 3 nights a week during the winter and 4 nights in the summer, accompanying visiting cabaret acts on Sundays. In addition to foxtrots, quicksteps, tangos, Jolsons fast and slow, from time to time we also played for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
At one particular Bar Mitzvah, the Chief Rabbi addressed the congregation, and the directness of his advice and delivery continues resonating to this day. The Chief Rabbi spoke very little English, so he got to the point quickly. He rose and spoke: "When you go into your shop, say Hello God! and you will have good business." The Chief Rabbi might have said...
"May we open ourselves to the Unconditioned world, that our wishing for what is real and true and moves from conscience, hope and faith, acceptance and love, moves into and permeates a world governed by fashion, advertising, taste, habit, inventions, prices of near substitutes, expectations of trends and changes in price, changes in the distribution of income and the quantity and quality of the money supply, that our professional lives might be mediated by the imperatives of necessity and sufficiency."
But he didn't say this: firstly, because his English wasn't very good; and, secondly, because he wasn't taking a course in economics at Bournemouth College.
What the Chief Rabbi did do was to convey a complex and difficult notion – the impossibility of an endless and benevolent Grace entering our ungrateful and uncaring world – in 15 words: 12 words of one syllable, 3 words of 2 syllables, and one word of three syllables but pronounced as if having two (business): "When you go into your shop, say Hello God! and you will have good business."
The story is also reported here.
Adam has texted: he is in motion.
17.55 DGM HQ.
A fabbo lunch with Adam covering a wide range of common interests & experiencing, among which: the possibilities of continuing our album, begun in Los Angeles some 5-6 years ago; and go out speaking together.
We approached a friendly-looking patron at the bar to snap fab pix of two guitarists, one English & one American I…
II...
To DGM HQ arriving c. 17.20 with Bookkeeper Nicky & David in attendance.
19.45 David has left for a meeting of the local School Governors.
An evening computing ahead.
Night street…
Not much light pollution here.
Minxie Pad, Chiswick.
Waiting for the British Gas engineer to arrive. Hopefully, heat will follow shortly after his arrival.
11.55 Bollo Gastro-Pub, Bollo Lane I…
II...
E-flurrying while waiting for Pal Adam to arrive, traveling across London by Tube. From a Virgin past-employee…
I noticed in your diary this morning that you mention it's 23 years since the E'G concert week at the QEH (at least it was when the diary was written a short while back), which means it's also 23 years since we first met (briefly at that gig with the E'G people trying to keep any meeting I had with 'their musicians' brief as they were paranoid about Virgin staff having direct contact with musicians)…
12.47 From a Crafty…
Yesterday's Guitar Circle and NST Day in Paris was an intense and positive experience. Something happened in the Circle that made a deep impression on me…
At the end of the second guitar meeting before lunch we gradually moved from practicing the Primaries to something more musical. Something has clearly changed in the room and in the Circle (one of my two aims for the day was to pay the attention to the Circle) It's always difficult to describe such experiences, but at this moment it felt as if Music made us more open towards each other. There was more eye contact between us, more accepting and closer to each other I believe. Two points arose from this:
When the Music came I became joyous and grateful. Can it be said that we connect more truly with each other through feelings?
I had the sense that the Music came as the reconciling force. It brought us together and suddenly all the efforts, strivings and resistance present in the circle have been put in the context that made sense. We were more of a Circle, a whole, at this point.
I hope this makes sense.
From the reply…
When the Music came I became joyous and grateful. Can it be said that we connect more truly with each other through feelings?
Yes!
At a certain point, we are the same person.
We may know this & entertain various concepts & ideas that open us toward the experience. This changes & directs our behaviour towards & with other people. We assume the virtue in our actions – courtesy, consideration, acceptance, mutual respect - and act as if this were true, knowing that it is true!
We may also undertake various practices & exercises (for example, in the Morning Sitting) to bring us closer to the direct experiencing. Working in the Circle is one of our most valuable practices we have for this. The intensity & focus of Circle work makes the experiencing more available & more likely.
And then: we find we are not apart from others. We are the same Person. I agree: this connection is primarily through the feelings.
I had the sense that the Music came as the reconciling force. It brought us together and suddenly all the efforts, strivings and resistance present in the circle have been put in the context that made sense. We were more of a Circle, a whole, at this point.
Music is a benevolent presence, constantly & readily available to all.
It is not possible, I think, to understand how & why a Creative Benevolence would wish to act through music & give itself away to the ungrateful & the deaf. This is utterly beyond my capacity to grasp. But, I accept that it is so. Accepting that this is so, something becomes possible.
And if all we can do is offer gratitude in return, gratitude is good!
12.55 The Sistery Person has replied to an enquiry from the Grand-Daughter of Fay Schneider, the proprietor of The Majestic Hotel on the East Cliff in Bournemouth where I followed Andy Summers onto the guitar chair in the hotel dance band; in respect of a memoir of Fay & her hotel. Patricia sent the following, a story told at a Jewish service in San Francisco when F&F were speaking...
In 1966-68, when I was 18-21, I paid my way through Bournemouth College, where I was studying economics, economic history, and political history with a special paper on social conditions 1850-1900, by playing at the Majestic Hotel in Bournemouth. The Majestic was a well-known Jewish hotel, run by Fay Schneider.
The Majestic Dance Orchestra (a quintet) played 3 nights a week during the winter and 4 nights in the summer, accompanying visiting cabaret acts on Sundays. In addition to foxtrots, quicksteps, tangos, Jolsons fast and slow, from time to time we also played for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
At one particular Bar Mitzvah, the Chief Rabbi addressed the congregation, and the directness of his advice and delivery continues resonating to this day. The Chief Rabbi spoke very little English, so he got to the point quickly. He rose and spoke: "When you go into your shop, say Hello God! and you will have good business." The Chief Rabbi might have said...
"May we open ourselves to the Unconditioned world, that our wishing for what is real and true and moves from conscience, hope and faith, acceptance and love, moves into and permeates a world governed by fashion, advertising, taste, habit, inventions, prices of near substitutes, expectations of trends and changes in price, changes in the distribution of income and the quantity and quality of the money supply, that our professional lives might be mediated by the imperatives of necessity and sufficiency."
But he didn't say this: firstly, because his English wasn't very good; and, secondly, because he wasn't taking a course in economics at Bournemouth College.
What the Chief Rabbi did do was to convey a complex and difficult notion – the impossibility of an endless and benevolent Grace entering our ungrateful and uncaring world – in 15 words: 12 words of one syllable, 3 words of 2 syllables, and one word of three syllables but pronounced as if having two (business): "When you go into your shop, say Hello God! and you will have good business."
The story is also reported here.
Adam has texted: he is in motion.
17.55 DGM HQ.
A fabbo lunch with Adam covering a wide range of common interests & experiencing, among which: the possibilities of continuing our album, begun in Los Angeles some 5-6 years ago; and go out speaking together.
We approached a friendly-looking patron at the bar to snap fab pix of two guitarists, one English & one American I…
II...
To DGM HQ arriving c. 17.20 with Bookkeeper Nicky & David in attendance.
19.45 David has left for a meeting of the local School Governors.
An evening computing ahead.
Night street…
Not much light pollution here.
