Gloria Gloria Gloria

Jimi Hendrix, Patti Smith and the Doors tackle what could be the greatest rock and roll song ever written - Them's 'Gloria'. I feel like I need to write this to figure out for myself what makes each of these so wonderful, because things like these sure aren't happening anymore.

So, the first thing that I should point out is that the songs are about sex. Not in an excited, teenage way at all. These are songs that elevate sex and place it at its rightful place near the centre of human existence. These songs aren't about sex so much as they cause a Copernican re-centering of the human experience around the sexual act. In this new existence. , love, anger and sadness are merely functions of something far more fundamental.

This is all highfalutin talk though. The specific manifestations of this spirit are far more interesting and (from a musical standpoint) far more analysable.

For example, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison of the Doors are both primarily vocal artists : their expression of the sacred sexuality becomes vocal intensity. When Jim screams 'Make me feel alright!' it is a moment of release. His voice suggests drunken rage; his lyric improvisations suggest the worst(best?) forms of crudity. Its justification is intensity and power - and the comparative sedateness of the rest of the Doors allows him to lapse into refractory periods that build into orgasm again and again.

Patti's vocal style is another thing altogether, partly because she's a woman, and partly because her femininity gives her a different perspective on the whole issue of sex. This is not to deny Patti credit for her own brand of wonderful violence, but that violence is refracted through a kind of poetry. Patti's version is much more symbolic - 'I heard those bells ringing in my heart' - 'i wanna tell the world that I made her mine, made her mine, made her mine' etc. Patti's message brings evangelism and religion into the sexual universe.

Give Thanks

1. A man sat across me on the crowded train out of the city, carrying a bouquet of roses. The two college girls sitting with us were eyeing it. 'It's for my wife. We've been married for 25 years.' 'Oh,' I said, 'That's wonderful.' 'It's a long time. Too long. I told her that.' 'Is that why you bought the flowers?' 'Nah. I got them... just cause. We're past all that apologising and stuff.'

2. 'You know, I swear I'm gonna end up playing funk banjo or something. I'll be playing in the park and someone will come up and be all 'You know any Seeger?' and I'll be like 'I don't, but I know Tower of Power'. 'You high? I asked. 'I'm pretty high' said Dylan.

3. Kim came into the room with a bag of M&Ms. Normally she'd buy me a bag for every week I quit smoking, but I'd fallen off the bandwagon recently. 'What's this for? I've been smoking, Kim.' 'I felt bad not bringing you anything.' 'Um, okay. Tell you what, I'll only eat them after I've quit again.' I ate them anyway, feeling a little guilty.

4. '...and in every generation of musicians, there's somebody who's the Ramblin' Man. He does a deal with the devil in exchange for being really good at music. And he always sings the blues. It was B.B for awhile. Then Dylan. and then Hendrix. Are we forgetting anybody?'
'You missed Robert Johnson.'
'Jim Morrison'
'Cobain, man. He was a saint.'
'What about now, who's it now? I think it's gotta be a rapper.'
'Mos Def. Definitely Mos Def.'

5. It's alright, it's alright - you can't be forever blessed. Still, tomorrow's gonna be another working day, and I'm trying to get some rest.

6.oh dear. sato's whining
aw
i go check on him okay
one sec
idk what's wrong with him?
could it be the rash?
i don't think so
he wldn't whine
he'd just scratch
could be something internal
he's a afraid of smthing
maybe he has a stomachache
its not a whine that's sick
its an anxious whine
oh
dunno then :(
and he keeps pacing
idk
i gave him a blanket
to cover with
so he'd feel safer.
:)
well you can't talk to him so there isn't much you can do
i did talk to him
but he's not really listening
do you want to go down to be with him for awhile?

7. Don’t know a soul that’s not been battered,
don’t have a friend who feels at ease
Don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered,
or driven to its knees

8. And now, Let the weak say "I am strong"
Let the poor say "I am rich"
Because of what the Lord has done for us,

Give thanks

9. her lymph node test results are out. all 27 are negative from any signs of the cancer spreading!

10. ‘You know, it’s my first thanksgiving.’
‘Is that so? Prepare to get fat, then’
‘Turkey coma. Watch out.’

Spiritual Dimensions preliminary

So I'm one and a half times through this album, and still deciding what to think.

On the one hand - when they get going (both bands) they are powerful and persuasively energetic. Check out the Golden Quartet version of 'South Central L.A. Kulture' for a great example of the band searing on a post-electric Miles sort of tune, which breaks down, then breaks up for no loss of effect.

For the Organic band, 'Angela Davis' is a driving statement where the 4 guitar format gets to unleash its inherent chaos to great effect.

On the other hand - Vijay Iyer's avant-gardisms sound a little trite to me at times. I don't think he completely lives up to the role. But where he's allowed flashes of tonality he demonstrates the same power heard on his solo albums.

The 4 guitar band works on the loud songs where chaos is rewarded, but every slow section quickly loses its erection and turns to mush. It seems like they're avoiding each other so much that no music happens - and the prog-rock-y sections just annoy me to no end because they're devoid of the dirtiness and grit that's the saving characteristic of Miles-ean funk, just like much of modern jazz (and indeed most of prog-rock. I mean you, Thom Yorke.)

Commentary on Harris vs Sullivan

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Secular-Philosophies/Is-Religion-Built-Upon-Lies.aspx

This is a really good debate on the issues of religion. And Sullivan makes probably the most convincing argument about religion that I've ever seen, and he's greatly increased my understanding of people of faith.

On the other hand, Sam Harris pretty much demolishes him in the reason department, and Sullivan basically concedes the debate in his last post, saying that he is unequal to the arguments presented (or somesuch). I shan't make this another self-righteous atheist post crowing about some victory or other, though. I'm more interested in Sullivan than I am in Harris, although Harris is making clearer and better arguments.

Sullivan's argument cuts to the chase of a religious person's faith. He writes of the serenity of knowing that a benign power guides our lives, and that the keystone of that belief is that such a power demonstrated its concern by becoming human. If nothing, that is a beautiful, comforting belief. I can and do admit that much.

Let me offer my alternative though: I believe in the fundamental goodness of human beings. I believe that that goodness reveals itself when we submit ourselves with humility to the truth that we discern with our reason. We have never experienced a better way to do things. Sullivan argues that the point of our existence cannot be reduced to a quest for truth: ultimately, in the moment of death, we must have made peace with existence. Or, to put it another way, that the need for happiness, not the need for truth, is the most fundamental human need. Sullivan uses that to justify religion, which I don't agree with, but I agree with the principle. However, I think, as does Harris, that you can't untangle happiness from the truth. I have lived by this principle and it has never failed me.

Adam

everything is broken.

reassembling

I've had a pretty bad week. Still, when you pick the pieces up off the floor sometimes you find things you've never known were there.

I wish things could have been different. And I demand the right to could've and should've myself into whatever corner pleases me, leave me that much.

The quality of affection is not strained, however. I guess I can say that things will be alright, and that there will be smiles to come.

That is all.

I woke up sobbing again. I am running out of patience.

You can't be forever blessed.

Many's the time I've been mistaken, and many times confused
And I've often felt forsaken, and certainly misused.
But it's all right, it's all right, I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be bright and Bon Vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home.
I don't know a soul who's not been battered
Don't have a friend who feels at ease
Don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
But it's all right, all right, We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on,
I wonder what went wrong, I can't help it
I wonder what went wrong.
And I dreamed I was flying. I dreamed my soul rose
unexpectedly, and looking back down on me, smiled
reassuringly, and I dreamed I was dying.

And far above, my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty, drifting away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying.
We come on a ship we call the Mayflower,
We come on a ship that sailed the moon
We come at the age's most uncertain hour
And sing an American tune

But it's all right, its all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's gonna be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest,
That's all, I'm trying to get some rest.

The Good News

is that there is no judgement other than our own

that we are free, as we have always been,

to love and be loved

to create and be created

and in every second that goes by

rings the joyous tumble of fears.

A statement of purpose

So a very very good friend of mind exhorted me recently to re-consider my religious beliefs. I felt it would be doing her and myself a dishonour not to do so sincerely and honestly.

I read the Bible (parts of it anyway - I AM in college.) I familiarised myself with apologetics. I revisited philosophy. Mostly, I spent a good amount of time thinking.

So I'm happy to report that no conclusion has been reached other than the current affirmation of my previously-unproclaimed atheism. I wish to put this out for the world to see today - I am coming out of the closet, so to speak. I am an atheist. I believe in no God, no creator, and I do not accept Jesus as my lord and saviour. This is not a fully-considered belief. I have not familiarised myself with all the arguments at hand; I have not read all the books on the subjects or spoken to all the experts. However, I have reflected and found that no observation of mine or knowledge that I claim to have in any way supports the doctrines of any religion.

I believe in the supremacy of reason. I believe that it will be mankind's salvation. I believe that life has a purpose and a meaning, and that every human being deserves to be treated with love, compassion and respect. I have not lived up to this always, but I believe in it. I believe that science is the highest discipline man can aspire to, and that logical reasoning is the key to a life well-lived. These beliefs have borne me through the most difficult of times.

I believe in the intrinsic value of all human beings, which derives from no God and no external power other than the happiness we are miraculously able to experience and the principles we derive for ourselves, through the exercise of our intellect.

This is by no means the end of any discussion - I look forward to a life fraught with doubt, the daily challenge, and the soaring joy of finding my own way.

Adam

My heart has broken many times for the plight of humanity, but perhaps never as badly as for the Christians, who suffer and only become weaker. If there is one thing mankind deserves it is the fruit of his suffering.

am being punished by millions of years of evolution right now. FML.