[MD] High horse of the metaphysical plain

[Mike Craghead]

Bravo Ron!

I too had a big problem with Phaedrus' reaction to Lila's treasured 
memory, both as a musician and as someone who aspires to give everyone a 
respectful benefit-of-the-doubt before I squelch their silly beliefs 
with my own far superior ones ;)

First of all, it's ludicrous to criticize any performance sight-unseen. 
Phaedrus has written off the performer based on a verbal description, 
which is like saying "I do not like Green Eggs and Ham" before your 
first bite. Sure, a performance of "oldies" is not as likely to 
challenge one's artistic sensibilities and make one feel all DQ-ish up 
one's spine, but you know what? It still happens. A good performer, "in 
the zone," (Mark's "Sweet Spot"), can deliver Dynamic Quality on a 
silver platter, whether they are singing Cole Porter or Ani DiFranco or 
a sea chanty or an original jazz improvisation or anything else. 
Phaedrus writes off the experience with such vehemence and with such a 
self-important chip on his shoulder, that I was almost as pissed off at 
him as Lila was.

Lila's performer was delivering high-SQ material; that's what most 
"oldies" are: good lyrics, good melody, good arrangement; all 
time-tested. Low DQ of course, because we've all heard them before, but 
high SQ, or they wouldn't have survived the test of time. And based on 
Lila's account, it sounds like the performer was reaching the audience. 
Of course this can be done in a low-DQ way, by "sawing the air thusly;"  
over-acting/over-singing, working solely in cliche... like a BAD Elvis 
Inpersonator (I allow for the possibility that there are good ones). And 
presumably that is the phenomenon Pirsig was really railing against. But 
his reaction was a slap in Lila's face; she was trying to share with him 
an event that she felt strongly about (so much so that she carried a 
memento!), and he squelched. I'd call that immoral: he should have 
tasted the green eggs first.

Mike Craghead
humboldtmusic.com
humboldtmusic.com/mc
humboldtmusic.com/sarimike




Ron Kulp wrote:
> I certainly have to say  I have difficulty understanding the method here
> sometimes. . I'm re-reading Lila and I have to tend to agree with
> Pirsig, Natives do not relate well, all this does seem pretty silly to
> me .. like a lot of mental masturbation. I subscribed to have questions
> I have answered or explored in a hope of furthering my understanding or
> looking at them from a differing perspective. People tend to romantasize
> native americans and I never get a straight answer from anyone. we're
> not more special than anyone else nor are we some Nobel savage, some
> holistic insight "in touch"..look, it all boils down to "respect"  a
> dimishing comodity, it's no mystery. 
> One of the things that angered me was how Pirsig treated Lila when she
> was showing him the "jungle queen" he may as well have crumpled up That
> picture and thrown it overboard and said what do you know you dumb
> slut,he had a perception of her of being a whore, which somehow devalued
> her as a human being I think it's not allways about proving a point.
> It's about becoming a human being, We are all buying into an illusion of
> one kind or another what makes yours better? Opinion? I think a few of
> you need to get down off your metaphysical high horses and check out
> whats going on under your own feet. You're missing an awful lot. Case
> said the smartest thing all week, it is all a pile of shit, Dynamic
> shit.The static shit is in your head. Nothing in nature is static only
> your perception of it. 
> _later
> -Ron       
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