Contact: due to the volume of messages I receive here, I can no longer reply to them all. I read as many as I can. But please don't be offended if I don't get back to you, even if you know me personally (oddly, I don't get near as much email thru my website; so if you have something to say that you think warrants a reply, try me there).
************************************************************
****************
Lets get one thing straight: I have never taken much interest in the scholarly analysis of rock or other modern musics; the messages, the poses, the reactions are easily recognized as extensions and attributes of human psychology that our species has been displaying for all of observable history. There's the fight for dominance in the pursuit of attracting the best mates; there's the hysteria that manifests as the pressure cooker of fear and societal repression loses its lid; and so on. I don't find modern musicians any more fascinating than, say, Mesopotamian farmers, and in reality, I would much rather read about the latter. So, let it be stated for the record that Im feeling a slight sense of shame for contributing more words to a vastly oversized blatherverse. I hope that I can contribute something beneficial to our society in the future by thoughtful abstinence when next asked to opine or theorize. Sadly, its a consequence of Wikipedia and its ilk that non-facts are compiled by non-scholars and avidly referenced by non-critical thinkers.
I am a performer. A songwriter, yes; this work is done in places you don't see: at home, in hotel rooms, or in studios. A recording artist, as wellmaking the most believable-sounding, completely idealized version of me, to project my abject sensitivity from the most unassailable illusory precipice of Olympian perfection that technology can create for me. Its all in good fun: I will point out that art in my view is a game to create the possible that could, should, shouldn't or even might be in our future, or lost in a forgotten past.
So, what do I hope to achieve when I perform? Is it the Snake Oil Sales Division of Ken Stringfellow corp.? You dont have to believe me, but I'm not just trying to take your money and survive unscathed. I would like to create conditions for elevating the spirit, for suspending the loathing that humans naturally have for one another, and I would like to show that being a performer is no great shakes: teach a man to fish, as they say. We can conjure this apparent miracle with simple elements and the power of temporarily shared belief. Those that are in the miracle business would hate me if I in fact had any impact on said miracle sales. I offer an alternative, and, proving that the Catholic Church is more evil than Clear Channel, (CC and CC? Coincidence? Is it ever?) no one has ever tried to crush my nascent movement. I am not preaching revolution. When archaeologists dig up the 21st century, they will find lots of Christina Aguilera rubbish; they will be extremely unlikely to discover any Ken Stringfellow-oriented shards. They will conclude that Ms. Aguilera was one of the most important, provocative artists of the 21st century, and they'll be right. By the same token we can conclude that Homer was the John Grisham of his day, and that the really interesting stuff that intellectuals were debating has long been lost, forever. I know, I know--the only intellectual debating my merits happens to be me.
When I perform, I am trying to join the audience--my position as focal point of the evening makes this an impossible task, but thats my goal. And to do this, I must coax the audience to envelop me. One of the most isolating devices in music is the PA system. I mean, come on we use essentially the same device that called us down to the principals office to deliver our messages to our listenersI find that incredibly twisted. Theres nothing more pure than air you move yourself, customizing each oscillation and presenting it as a handcrafted item for each listener.
I admit I have a few showbiz parlor tricks I use to make each show go in the direction thats most comfortable for me. Occasionally it doesn't work, and that's OK. I hope that even as I approach my autumn--and I'm hovering around Labor Day weekend right now, hoping that theres a generous Indian summer ahead--I can be more explorer than performer. Performance implies replay: the car performs as it was designed to do. Exploration means that each mountain needs to be named, each cliff face needs some iron spikes driven in it to hold the next guy's ropes, and that there will be cannibals and flat topped Venezuelan mesas covered with orchids. There's every chance that I'll slip on some mud and starve to death in a ravine. I'll write my last journal entries in blood, and share my secrets with whoever finds the artful arrangement of my shredded clothes and mossy bones. Now that's a performance.
..[if !IE]
..[endif]
