SpiralTruth

The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

~ Hunter S. Thompson

A friend of mine sent me this link, and I hope he doesn’t mind me posting it. I get a real kick out of reading biographies about people we now see as artistic geniuses because they deflate a rather shallow myth, genius as the divine blessing, and replace it with a much more nuanced myth, genius as both gift and curse, at war with everything including itself, in constant doubt. When someone gets on a real roll, of course, he has to play it up. “I was just sitting there one day, and it clicked! It just clicked, man! And I knew what I had to do!” I call bullshit. Are there those moments? Of course. But they’ll come and go many times in everyone’s life. If we knew how exactly a genius capitalizes on these moments, or if he could somehow explain it, we’d all be astounding each other. But those astonishments are rare. Because genius likes to destroy itself and doubt itself, and at times, it’s just plain lazy. This example… it’s completely unpolished. There’s stumbling over words, beat switch-overs that don’t quite match up most of the time, and there’s some slightly dry subject matter. But I listened to the whole rambling mess, and there were moments where… Morrison was too shy to face the audience during his first few shows. Dr. Thompson finished papers in manic fits, and invented gonzo journalism by failing to do “real” journalism. The poor bastard just didn’t have the attention span and the work ethic to crank out a story on what he was actually supposed to be covering! One of the great American writers… a failure. Dostoyevsky had a gambling problem, and some say he wrote Crime and Punishment in a rush because he was in dire need of an advance from his publisher (see the wikipedia article). Nietzsche never lived to see his words quoted by inspired philosophy undergrads, and even then, it was only after being distorted and defamed by the Nazis (a group that we now know the German philosopher would have abhorred). Yes, there were moments where I heard my friend hitting his stride… doing something that was fresh and new and that no one else could do. Maybe these moments were fleeting and will never become more than they were, but maybe not… Here’s my advice, for what it’s worth… (My friend and I have some profound disagreements about many things in life, and this may only be another one of those)… Check out some of the lesser known tracks that Morrison and The Doors put out… The ones that come to mind are: The Soft Parade (“YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER!!!!!!”), Celebration of the Lizard, and the entire An American Prayer recording. Check out some of the spoken word stuff from William S. Burroughs. Look into psychedelic trance music. I remember being at Shambhala, hearing these dance tracks with random bits of zen, nihilism, you name it jumping out at us, and it was amazing. I mean, it was ridiculous… none of it made any sense, but it fit the scene. It was right for that time and place. Remember your other skills… this is just another one in your arsenal. Let’s catalog them, shall we? Spoken word, recording, remixing, songwriting, computer graphics, programming, web design, short story writing, a wide interest in philosophy, bravery and foolishness, and a tortured spirit looking to make something good from all the struggle… You have all the tools, my friend. Refine them. Chip off some of the rough edges. Keep putting stuff out. Keep experimenting. Start creating stuff that you’re selfish about, that you want to listen to over and over, that you think there’s a shortage of in the world… Throw away the words that just add baggage. Keep the ones that move you. Be ruthless with yourself and your art, always asking, “Am I saying what I want to say in the most direct way I can?” And if you don’t know what you want to say, don’t rest until you figure that out. There you have it. Twenty-eight years of experience struggling with my own ideas. While I still am very dependent on my day job, it’s allowed me to produce a lot of music and a lot of writing. Do what you will with it, and if you figure out the key ingredient that’s keeping me from fame and fortune, drop me a line… I can see the beginnings of something really cool here. Maybe it’s a techno-philosophy radio show or podcast. Maybe it’s a mind blowing underground movie. Maybe it’s the ultimate rave – the entire scene, music and environment, coming from your mind’s eye. Maybe it’s a spoken word album, poetry and beats on a soundscape that only modern technology can provide. And while you’re doing all that, be careful. There’s no shortage of traps along the way, and I expect us to be laughing it up about the good old days when we’re eighty. Take care and goodnight.