TamlinMediaco

Haven’t been on line for a shakes so I’ll just blab a bit to keep the juices flowing.

By no means have we been inactive – in fact it’s the opposite – I’ve been so busy that it borders on manic songwriting – which means that I have begun to fall far behind in the extent of production that I’ve always liked - then again most like – if I do ever get any action on this stuff – a demo is as good as anything else –

There are two schools of thought – one is that talent will strike anyone over the head – and I can dig this because obviously one difference is that mostly everyone likes the major talents – the other school says that the mob reflex pays a large part in that especially music, is a social thing.

Of course we know that it is integral to the human mating rituals and that once the job is done and the sexual bond has been achieved most humans lose all interest in music and in deed many of them find it disruptive to their nervous system. Charles Darwin for instance found he lost interest in both music and poetry as he aged.

For myself I can only say a few things. When I was seventeen I went to NYU and there by odd chance met Jerry Garcia pertaining to visual light shows. It was very odd for him because this was early seventies and the Dead Crew was already basically formed. The Hippie thing was over and yet he knew that any organization should keep growing.

(I had been into Hans Richter and specifically the psychological effects of visual/auditory interactions. Garcia was both a leader and a follower which kinda fudged things up.  He led the way but he did not want to be the cat with the whip and I think - you know thank god for Lesh and Weir - but then garcia would tend to test the patience  of almost anyone. )

The reason I mention this though is because by the middle eighties the trip had gone kerbluey. I know there’s a lot of people with tie die shirts and nostalgia and all that - but it was Reagan time. There’s a tune by Don Henley = Boys of summer with a line about seeing a dead head sticker on a Cadillac which is fine but the point was well taken. You can’t have it both ways. Jerry was a bohemian not an insurance salesman and when there are too man salesmen in the crowd it’s okay but it ain’t rock and roll – sorry.

I’ve changed my attitude towards Reagan as well. I used to think of him as evil incarnate – now, actually he’s more of a trickster then we like to admit. As Hendrix said “and the Gods make love” which is to say that in the electrostate as always with leadership you are who you are perceived to be.

Strindberg was crazy – but all northerners are crazy because their thoughts have certain patterns we reject – but what he said was like Neitsche for boy scouts which was that stronger minds will overpower the weaker ones. Strength here has nothing to do with intelligence – in fact intelligence gets in the way – Stalin killed intellectuals by the thousands.

Reagan was formerly president of the Screen Actors guild – he was originally a Democrat, but as we well know became a conservative Republican. And the people in the screen actors guild certainly knew what they were dealing – in a way. If Reagan is labeled insincere the actors and actresses who voted for him could tell, if anyone could, that was so – but they could not with stand the power of his will – they were zombified.

It’s a subject that interests me more and more – that we give leadership to people and then act surprised that they are no smarter or more capable then we are.

In any case what you wind up with is a sort of a clash of the titans- which, I hasten to add, means objectified forces - In other words people who see themselves as the embodiment of this idea or that. That sounds nice, perhaps, but I wish to add that in the academic study of myth one of the difficulties facing scholars is that the modern era is notoriously deficient in such things. God is dead , after all.

What is essential here is an understanding of just what myth is. It is a shared objectification. An awareness of supernatural beings, held by one person, is madness, held by more then one person, is religion.

This leads to two final observations – not particularly brilliant but pertinent. One is that evolution tends to proceed more in leaps and bounds, precipitated by changes in environment, then by tiny increments.

Innovations nearly always take place in special environments which allow them to reach a critical strength. I think of Bing Crosby, “the crooner”. He played in NYC several times with Paul Whiteman’s band and flopped, whereas in the rest of the country he was accepted – and in Hollywood California they thought he was excellent.

Crosby explained the problem himself as a matter of technique. He sang primarily though the microphone whereas NYC audiences from stage and nightclub were used to big voices – loud voices, like Ethel Merman And AL Jolson. Had he not lived on the west coast home of cool jazz and filmmaking , he’d never had gotten the chance – but someone else would have become the voice of radio sophistication

I just finished a biography of Sam Goldwyn. A film producer who did some good work – he was very disciplined, but his style was very argumentative and hence people tended to work with him once and then – “finis”. Reagan’s style was the exact opposite – he managed to win over a huge percentage of people simply by his sweet Irish Charm. But nevertheless he was the antichrist and there’s little doubt the next tyrant is somewhat over due.

An associate of mine is from central Africa. He moved to the states ten years ago in his thirties . You don’t make a leap like that by putting other people’s needs first. His style is just to shout and remain impervious to any sort of logic or reason. It’s pure, barely sublimated violence – but it works- in his case because he’s a very strong person, on the Idi Amin mold - but we see the same characteristic management style in board rooms all the time.

Le Iacocca apparently was something of a pompous self promoter but when Henry Ford fired he needed no more rational the “The man wore his pants too tight.” That’s power and the more power you have the less needed justification.

The point I am making is simple – on one hand try to avoid conflict but if you can’t , like Krishna said to Arjuna “Better get your ass out there and fight – because these guys are not your friends.”

Secondly we can thank the paranoid for at least helping us consider the unfashionable. Like Sherlock Holmes speaking of the seemingly odd solution – there’s a very simple reason why the national economy is deadlocked – which is the Republican party sees any damage it can do to economic recovery as a positive thing.

To paraphrase Hamlet

“And the rest are ..lies “

Tamlin

 We hope to get something happening more - It's weird because at this point the usual rewards,  sex drugs and cash don't work for me any more  and it's a mean old world which means I don't really feel the need to justify my existence.

And like,  you get what you want - right baby?  you get what you want and if you don't want it or don't even know what the F*ck it is then you won't get it

huzza 

hallelujah