Monday 8/28/23
Woman informed me that among her passions in life is getting "margs." Okay. And then I was done again.
"So, Colin, as you are in this war with thousands of people seeking to hold you back and creating your art each day and fighting and carrying on, what did you do last night?"
"Thanks for asking. I went out with Crystal and loaded up on margs."
I don't really see that.
Is there anyone out there with a speck of intelligence and substance? That's before we get into decency and character, which combined makes for the impossible quaternity. Can anybody go four-for-four?
Someone with MS wrote me today. They are young and having a hard time of it. A number of setbacks and scary things of late that I need not be specific about here. They told me that for the first time, they're questioning their faith in God.
I don't really do a God thing, insofar as a professed belief with bullet points and bylaws. Doctrine locks people in place. It masquerades as a horn book providing answers, but answers only come from perpetually searching, without and within, and the two meeting. To me, spirituality is far past such things, beyond walls and deific legislation as it has been handed down or is put across. I've been clear on this matter in these pages and elsewhere in the past. Through my work, through what I am able to do, I know of something beyond myself. I am a part of something bigger than who I am, which is also a part of who I am, and that is how the work comes to be as what it is. What I said to this individual was thus: "And this isn't a religious thing, but faith is meant to be questioned. Otherwise it's not faith." I think that's true.
I've been thinking about Nick Drake in relation to Vivaldi, Josquin, and Cream.
Listening repeatedly to Henry Purcell's Hear My Prayer, O Lord in a version from the Canterbury Cathedral Girls' Choir and Lay Clerks in relation to something I'm at work on regarding Powell and Pressburger. Their masterful--it's one of the best works of art I know--A Canterbury Tale includes this piece just as Gibbs is about to enter the church. The entire album from this assembled body--simply titled Henry Purcell: Sacred Music--is sublime.
Also listening to the first session the Beatles did for the BBC with Ringo Starr, which occurred October 25, 1962. It had been something of a missing link, and even now it's not easy to find. You have to know where to look.
Saw Jemele Hill was trending today again on account of her rampant racism, which makes her money. I'm shocked. Who would have thought Jemele Hill would be out there for the latest time doing her thing as a piece of trash untalented racist hack whom The Atlantic hooked up with a writing gig despite her inability to write or conduct herself sans blindly raving hate. Super. Should give her a Guggenheim this year. Nothing is real and nothing happens for the right reasons in media and publishing. Other things. It's always other things. But it is going to change. It's all going to come down and be replaced with something better. Have faith.
Ran 5000 stairs again. Worked on "Fall and Spring," which is for The Solution to the World's Problems: Surprising Tales of Relentless Joy, and "Load Up," which is not. Very strong. Getting there.