[MD] High horse of the metaphysical plain

[Ron Kulp]

 "he should have tasted the green eggs first."

Right on Mike, even a BAD Elvis impersonator is appreciated by SOMEBODY.
Remember the band "Dread Zepplin"? That was bad, but  I loved it.
That's why I like slayer, punk rock and ween...some of the attraction is
the low DQ. ..some of us dig low DQ. Just because it flys in the face of
"percieved" high DQ.
..

-----Original Message-----
From: moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org
[mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at moqtalk.org] On Behalf Of Mike Craghead
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 8:01 PM
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Subject: Re: [MD] High horse of the metaphysical plain

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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