On music, some thoughts inspired by The Guardian

The Guardian, article on music

This, i think, is a fairly pseudo-intellectual and one-sided view
of music, not diving into the roots but staying at pseudo-scientific
levels and mingling perception of music more with social communication
and development from childhood.
.
There are various kinds of music, and there are various kinds of articles.
This one sounds as if someone looked just for something to write.

Aldous Huxley, 'The Rest is Silence':

"From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death — all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence.

After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

In The Guardian Adam Ockelford states:

"Music conveys meaning since all its constituent sounds – notes – elicit tiny emotional responses, and these are locked together in a coherent narrative through imitation. In this sense, rushing water or pattering rain fail the “musical” test."

This-to me-sounds mere nonsense.

Listening to rain drumming , drops falling, changing rhythm and intensity and filling with silences,

birds calling or singing, the wind in the trees, the leaves rustling, all again and again

with pauses in which we listen, really listen:

in which way could i define that this is not the music of our earth, life and universe?

In which way is there no meaning, no communication? no narrative?

I wouldn't understand.

Why would the imitation of sounds from nature be "more" music than the original?

The imitation just adds the pleasure of art-of the ability to create-alchemy: it cannot define music.

All life and death everybody is in some way music. and this music does not happen in art, art reminds

us of the roots of life and through transformation, mutation and metamorphosis

can unblock our stuck gates of perception.

There are various kinds of music, music as a means of communication,

of togetherness in a presence with grace or as a vibration for erotic arousal

or for transporting and lifting the soul out of the ego to come near flying.

And i am always sad when this latter kind of music stops, ends..i am still flying,

but know i must 'land' again, it is still there, there is no real end,

but it does not embrace and hold me anymore in the moment.

And i can be sad when the rain stops falling...best to fall asleep.

Stephen Fry on God , The Meaning Of Life , RTÉ One+ George Carlin

Stephen fry, blasphemy, The Guardian

Frankie Boyle,The Guardian, on Donald Trump

Now when i was reading this today i don't know how often i giggled and
how often my mouth just stood open, speechless-

read it:

Frankie Boyle, The Guardian


"You look into Trump’s eyes and you see the fear and confusion of a man who has just been told he’s got stage-four cervical cancer. He is a super-villain in a world without heroes, a man so obnoxious and unhappy that karma may see him reincarnated as himself. You kind of wish he’d get therapy, but at this stage it’s like hiring a window cleaner for a burning building. It’s still difficult to classify him exactly: he’s not a classic Nazi, but would burn books if his supporters knew how to read."

......

"I’m equally baffled that so much Democratic criticism focuses on his incompetence and instability. Competent, focused Nazis are absolutely the worst kind."

Donald Trump: a man so obnoxious that karma may see him reincarnated as himself, Frankie Boyle The Guuardian

Saydnaya prison, Syria, The Guardian, hangings, Amnesty International

Syria, hangings, 13000,The Guardian,Amnesty International


There is no comment i can give.
But I couldn't close my eyes, so why should you.

Americanism, The Guardian, associations

On Americanism, The Guardian


Read this excellent article.

Yes, this is not far anymore from Totalitarianism.
A government sacking at will a supreme court judge,
threatening china with war, treating other countries with
disrespect, arresting journalists,such a government is at least
dangerous to the freedom and welfare of its citizens
if not to the world.

As soon as we see the school children stand at attention
in front of huge Trump posters shouting unisono
"America first",  we know democracy will have lost.

When this new wave of nationalism will successfully take over indoctrination
at school, America will not belong to the "free" world anymore.

Can it happen?
Unfortunately everything can happen.
It is too early to know.

Will the intelligence and security agencies fish for anti-government individuals
and groups, anti-Trump-ists, call them anti-American, threaten them,
sort them out for removal?

Apart from a wall along the mexican border, will there be places to dispose
of critical individuals or will they just lose their jobs, get their bank accounts frozen
and be publicly slandered and privately threatened?

After the hunt for booze smugglers the agencies in question had taken over hunting
communists, now will it be hunting Anti-Americanists? and, clearly enough,
they will not be anti-America, but anti-totalitarian, anti-Trump, anti-government.

It is not fun to deal with the perverse elasticity of "alternative facts"
which turns real lies into a new kind of real truth, the truth of real power.

It is not only that journalists may be greedy for sensationalism,
no, there are too many parallels to see with Trump, Erdogan and Hitler.

I wonder, if Trump stays in power, do the Americans deserve him?

My only best conclusion is that clear enemies are better than friends
killing behind the lines and better than anonymous grey men never to be found,
a better stimulus to grow awareness and sharpen intelligence.

Unfortunately so: the grey men don't disappear, we cannot get at them.
They will still be there running business once we will be dead.
Alongside with discussing Mr. Trump in public,
a good press must be busy finding and exposing these grey men
running banks, weapon sales, wars and keeping up poverty and oppression.