New track available @ name-your-price

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my musical endeavors have met with a number of formidable obstacles over the years, partly owing to precarious health and financial circumstances, and partly due to an overweening conventionalism of musical taste within the United States and consequent lack of institutional support for authentic artistic activity. 

There have been other problems as well. 

It was extremely fortuitous that I took the liberty of uploading this track to my BC page a 'day early', on Thursday. I had actually intended to release yet more new music the following day. Instead, I was arrested and spent the next 24 hours languishing in the county jail. Needless to say I was subseqently released, and lest anyone start to worry let me reassure you that the charges are so totally ridiculous they have little hope of impressing any judge. They are not at all serious, and will likely be thrown out without too much deliberation (this is one of the positive benefits of 'cashless bail' which Republicans would rather people not consider). Nevertheless the experience has left me somewhat shaken and underscores the continuing problem facing the United States regarding unjust co-optations of the legal system in the service of petty or corrupt interests. It would appear that certain neighborhood residents, possibly with the assistance of the police department of North Chicago, have been strategically harassing me ever since I moved here because they believe, perhaps incorrectly, that it will benefit them financially. In fact I am about to send a couple of complaints to the State AG over the incident. Fortunately in the mean time I'm considered an extremely low risk by the state, so few restrictions have been placed on my freedom. I will say nothing further on the matter until the case is resolved, save that I have retained the services of an attorney. Wish me luck! 

Many calls are made to restore tolerance and respect in public discourse, but who will champion respect and toleration of themselves, by themselves (that is to say, self-respect), without which there is no chance of the former having any effect, or even any meaning?

Honorifics (aka They Can't All Be Right)

The Wary Reverend 

The Scary Reverend

The Hairy Reverend

The Fairy Reverend 

The Berry Reverend

The Sherry Reverend

The Dairy Reverend 

The Very, Very Reverend

Is A Very Reverendindeed

Without Any Revendation

New track out now, FREE DOWNLOAD

Sorry it's taken me so long to release any new music. 

Suffice to say there are various logical reasons for this, but none are of course satisfactory to me. I had this idea sitting around for over ten years (yes, really!) before finally finishing a version I was happy enough with to share, but for reasons somewhat unrelated to taking a long time to release new material in general, if that's at all clear.. 

Of course it isn't, but it doesn't matter. I'll explain later.

The important thing is: Get ready for more dope shit to drop!  

...They're here!!!

 

What is "mysticism", apart from taking pleasure in that which is unknown? 

It is simultaneously the rationalization and the ritualization of uncertainty; the conversion of fear into comfort through the substitution of an ordered but necessarily emprically unfaithful cosmology for the chaotic, yet intricately structured, world we actually find ourselves living in.

And yet it is not the only philosophical system that derives pleasure from the obscure, the hidden or the unknowable. Skepticism in its own way also delights in the unknown, but seldom goes on to subsequently erect an ordered ontologocial edifice or pattern of belief in the absence of persuasive tangible evidence... or even in the presence of the same.   

The best way to travel...

This monster fusion album features in Bradley's Billboard book, along with a few other Passport releases. I was grateful for the introduction at the time, and still am. This spring saw the ten-year anniversary of Mr. Smith's unfortunate passing. I still miss his friendship a great deal and will always admire his achievement, despite our occasional differences. After all, I am primarily a musician, not a critic. Brad had a great ear and a keen sense of aesthetic coherence, but was never trained on an instrument and never attempted to produce music himself. He did compose at least a few poems and produce what I thought were actually some pretty good abstract paintings. The latter's an area I've dabbled in also, but not for quite some time.

Perhaps I'll share a couple of examples in an upcoming post :)

Different day, different Donald

This one's got an autoharp and is on a secret quest for joy.

Ruin this

65,000 Palestinians murdered in Gaza, and we're supposed to care deeply about one divisive, hateful and very stupid man?

The Not Radical Agenda

The following things are Not Radical:

• Freedom from discrimination, threats and intimidation in the public sphere, regardless of gender, sexual preference, political orientation, age, shape, color, size or creed.
• Equal and unfettered access to the ballot.
• Free and equal access to education and healthcare.
• Unrestricted access to timely, accurate and unbiased information from the government.
• Complete freedom of the press
• Freedom of political expression, regardless of content.
• Freedom of artistic expression untouched by censorship
• Adequate protection of the public from financial exploitation, fraud and abuse of power

 

Why settle for anything less?

Sunday in the studio

 

News flash

Of course the Republicans won't lift a finger to prevent anyone from accessing deadly weapons, after all. Why miss out on a fantastic opportunity to slander, demonize and demean an entirely fictional opposition before pressing for further restrictions on free expression and political speech in order to cement their own power? 

Surely the AI gold rush is about much more than just quirky digital pets or the odd deepfake video. What the tech companies and captains of industry, along with their allies in Washington, seem to be envisioning is a "safe", sanitized world where the children of tomorrow "create" endless cratefuls of vacuous digital goo from pre-approved, pre-digested or revisionist content that is not only factually inaccurate but has been systematically scrubbed of any reference to real human pain or suffering or the inconvenient facts of history, especially if inflicted by governing bodies on historically marginalized or disadvantaged groups - if they are even mentioned at all. The 'if's, appearing here in a kind of lurid inversion of the 1968 film directed by Lindsay Anderson, lay bare the rotten common thread running through the entire warp of far-right politics and much of "conservative" thought in general: The truth is just anything the chap a few rungs up some imaginary ladder to nowhere says it is.  

Meanwhile, the corporate governance strategy is quite clear: Continue to design, manufacture and distribute dangerous, harmful and/or deadly products, including invasive digital surveillance tools and weapons designed for mass murder, in the global marketplace, over the objections of any state regulatory apparatus, effectively enabling and empowering any sufficiently well-financed group, even authoritarian regimes, to wield absolute power in defiance of humanitarian and international law. When inevitably destabilizing effects become too obvious, a different range of products is touted; thus, the problem becomes the solution, and the solution is ultimately further alienation from ourselves amid the breakdown of social institutions and sound governance.

"...The military manipulation of civilian opinion and the military invasion of the civilian mind are now important ways in which the power of the warlords is steadily exerted. The extent of the military publicity, and the absence of opposition to it, also means that it is not merely this proposal or that point of view that is being pushed. In the absence of contrasting views, the very highest form of propaganda warfare can be fought: the propaganda for a definition of reality within which only certain limited viewpoints are possible. What is being promulgated and reinforced is the military metaphysics - the cast of mind that defines international reality as basically military. The publicists of the military ascendancy need not really work to indoctrinate with this metaphysics those who count: they have already accepted it."

          - C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, OUP Galaxy Book edition (1959), p. 221-222

"Is there anything at all that the conventional world calls 'wisdom' that is not really just piling up loot for the great thieves? ... If you create ideals of humankindness and responsible conduct to regulate them with, why, they'll just steal humankindness and responsible conduct and use them to rob you more. How do I know this is so? He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord. Humankindness and resposible conduct are always among the properties found in the homes of feudal lords. Have they not also stolen humankindness and responsible conduct? So as long as the great robbers continue to go scot-free -- as long as these feudal lords continue to be exalted -- they will keep stealing humankindness and responsible conduct, together with the weights, measures, scales, balances, tallies, and seals that ensure their advantage, even if you reward them with high rank for refraining or threaten them with execution for persisting..." 

                - Zhuangzi (Ziporyn translation, Hackett, 2020)

"We ought to regard the interests of the state as of far greater moment than all else, in order that they be administered well; and we ought not to engage in eager rivalry in despite of equity, nor arrogate to ourselves any power contrary to the common welfare. For a state well administered is our greatest safeguard. In this all is summed up: When the state is in a healthy condition, all things prosper; when it is corrupt, all things go to ruin."

                - Democritus (translation taken from Bakewell's 1907 Source Book in Ancient Philosophy, reference plundered from Thilly's A History of Philosophy, Third Edition, p. 51)

Great little set to share with you from the archive... From one 'CON to another! 

The Human Question

A machine is a device that cannot understand its purpose, in any sense of the word.