RUDIMENTS

RUDIMENTS, pt. 271 - Maple Tree, pt. 10 - And then one day it was gone. I can't remember the actual day of closing, or of demolition either. It would have been sad, had I been there. But (here my  own story takes a turn) I was done. By the year 2002 I'd faced a breakdown of my own. My  wife kept going, Friday nights, Saturdays, on her own. I could no longer bear it. I stayed home, usually listening to Sibelius CD's (Scandinavian/Finnish classical composer, who earned himself a  lot  of trouble over his 'Patriotic' Finnish-national, music). His 2nd symphony seemed it was about my while, life back then It  carried me along. My nerves  were shot,  I'd had real problems  coping, people bothered me, I'd  closed up ABATE and had to  discontinue everything, plus the eight thousand dollar personal  loan I'd taken out to try and  continue was a long-lasting marker dogging me, to which...

RUDIMENTS, pt. 270 -Maple Tree, pt. 9- I was never one for just having music as entertainment. Having a fair amount of advanced musical education behind me, it was more an example of theory and process at work. Funny how it goes, but it takes a long and laborious study of music to begin to appreciate what otherwise sounds as hateful music. Dissonance, abstracted tonal leaps, disharmonious transitions, and the rest  - yes, including pauses and silences. By this context, the usual bar music, juke box or live, was mostly laughable. The processes of an eager third grade level overflow into an advancement of noise and tempo on a three-chord grid. In addition, putting it with couplets and rhymes only made things worse. But, that's what bars and cover bands brought out. A kind of music for people who don't particularly want music around. Background redundancy, and something familiar and hummable. We had one guest, a female w...

RUDIMENTS, pt. 269 - Maple Tree, pt. 8 - Sometimes, when the task ahead seems overwhelming, or too daunting, I've found that the best way, or most effective, or satisfying, is to go forward, doing just what must be done  -  getting the necessary out of the way and leaving the frills and extras alone. Most of all the pressure is in your head anyway, and self-imposed. Like Franklin Roosevelt meant, when he said, 'All we have to fear is fear itself.' He may not have known it in exactly the same way as I'm putting it here, but that's the essence. You begin reacting to the horrors that MIGHT be, and not to the situation presenting itself. The Depression and WWII wasn't a party for anyone; no. But two parts of the same machinery, once faced off, solved each other's problem. The War ended the Depression (goes to show the engrained power of the Military); and the Depression, in turn, had empowered the War, by we...

RUDIMENTS, pt. 268 Maple Tree, pt. 7 When you study the old art of mosaics, you learn how they ancients used to arrange their cut tiles or stones, or colored cubes. They first had to discover the various useful means of putting the dye and the color into the mix, what to make the tiles from, how to glaze, etc. Then they had to get to work on the best means of mortar; adhesion, longevity, etc. Most things faced the elements, exposures to wind and rain, airborne grime and abrasives. Small industries, organized in the most primitive manner, arose for all these workings  -  the earliest means of organizational work. Hours, personnel, etc. In the same way as the Romans, making later all those roads and ways and Via this and Appian Ways that, got everything ordered and organized and made remarkably good roads, lasting into today, so the early efforts  of Mankind too prospered. The skill moved from 'Artist', working s...