How even street poets can enhance your life
Tushar Samant
raining like it would never stop, and since the dude on the next seat was in
fact an umbrella salesman, there was absolutely nothing to do but give in to
fate. Fate, because he also turned out to be a "poet and artist". AAAGH...!
Weathered by tens of these characters, I breathed deep and prepared myself
for listening without the rolling of eyes, or glazing thereof. And what do
you know--man had quite a bit of *accurate* information of the college boy
variety. Factually speaking, he was not at all dishing out any mumbo jumbo.
How many amateur "poet and musician" types do you know who correctly explain
aleph-null versus aleph-one to you? I am not talking about proof. It is just
that the conceptual thing indicates a certain level of understanding. Need-
less to say I gradually got interested, and we exchanged a truly enormous
amount of utter college-boy BS including astronomy, medieval history, bio-
graphies of scientists (which this guy knows tons of), indignation at the
situation in the nation (you know), and on and on...
And before I knew it, this guy--who falsely claims to have played with Miles
Davis--which is a brazen LIE--started giving me shit about celestial harmony,
music of the planets, quantum dynamics, guts of stars, rhythmicality, fusion,
fission, freakin' out of control until I got a word in edgewise and implored
him to take it easy. Jeezus...! I asked him if he actually believed this Sun
Ra shit, upon which he was first indignant that I should confuse theoretical
originality with the mere repetition of "Sun Ra", and then said that he was
only communicating on a metaphorical level of discourse--if I knew what he
was saying.
Which I had to admit I did, and thinking on those lines, I began feeling like
a bit of an asshole; after all I myself claim to write poetry, and you should
see the kind of crap that's metaphor fodder for us folks. I mean I am like
"I cut myself while shaving--aaah, isn't this exactly how I handle every-
thing". Why not give some respect to someone who at least sticks to a
nobler family of figures.
That last thought was in fact the beginning of something for me, because it
turned my attention to the very book I was reading around then, which, for
reference, happens to be "Gombrich on the Renaissance" (Vol 2). Let me add
here that Ernst H Gombrich is a BAD ASS and everyone should check him out.
I was of course surprised that I didn't make the connection earlier, but
more than that, I was stunned by the realization that this bullshitter
talking to me sounded *almost exactly like Marsilio Ficino*.
Ficino, the Renaissance philosopher and platonist, was, among other things,
instrumental in getting Botticelli to paint for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco's
mansion, and drawing up the "programs" (plans) for those paintings, including
Primavera, which certainly could be said to have started something. The whole
story is quite involved and interesting, but what struck me during that bus
ride was that this man Ficino was given to dishing out reams and reams of
exactly the kind of stuff I was hearing--interplanetary harmonies, what not.
I fished the book out and asked this man if he had seen it. He said no, and
lapsed into some kind of extended BS about how the persecution of Galileo
is a symbol of something or the other and the fact that they put Cantor in
the loony bin also struck him as very significant. I let him talk. I was,
frankly, excited. For this is how you find clues in the city.
I opened the book the moment I got home, and I only had to read a page when
I found it staring at me. Gombrich writes: "The 'second Plato' [i.e. Ficino]
was no original mind; he was not even a consistent thinker. [...] the murky
profundity with which he advocated superstitious practices [led him to be
dubbed] 'Ficino the Philosophaster'."
"Was it a mere freak of fashion which made his 'Platonism' the dominating
ideal of the century and inspired so many great works? [...] his ideas,
through which art and the visual image could attain a new function and a
new dignity [...] this mode of thought which allows every experience to
be turned into a symbol of something higher than itself [...] the apology
for art which his philosophy made possible fulfilled a more vital need."
*** "It provided the spiritual tools for the artists in their struggle
for emancipation from the status of 'menial' craftsmen." ***
Well. There it was. Prof Sir Ernst Gombrich of the Warburg Institute was
indeed saying that it was all about respect.
Forget the street poet if you want. But it won't stop you from thinking--
isn't this basically at the root of the Sun Ra "bullshit"? I suddenly saw
it in a new light. And I felt pleased that I did, for being able to extend
your sympathy sincerely to something which you had resolved only to indulge
and ignore--that's progress. And it tells how few the ways are in which
people think, and how slowly they change--that the irascible creative
spirit sensing the need for assertion still brings out planetary and
interstellar fantasies.
Except--now I realized--where do we get off calling them fantasies.
That was the difference this "poet and musician" made.
sycamore
> isn't this basically at the root of the Sun Ra "bullshit"?
As tripped out as Sun Ra was, I thought he did some wild stuff...like Miles did
in the late 70s/early 80s
*finishes reading Tushar's post....tries to comprehend*
That had to be one of the longest postings I have ever seen on a news group. =)
Allow me to pass along my page Tushar...perhaps you will dig some of my poems,
opinions, etc.
syc (Rahsaan)
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/6962/
Greg Whitman
[...]
> And it tells how few the ways are in which
>people think, and how slowly they change--that the irascible creative
>spirit sensing the need for assertion still brings out planetary and
>interstellar fantasies.
>
>Except--now I realized--where do we get off calling them fantasies.
What's wrong with that?
>That was the difference this "poet and musician" made.
Congratulations!
--
FALSTAFF -- THE SHOW -- funny scenarios --> 7. PBS Special: Collaborative
Concert of Phillip Glass,
Tautologic, and the Legendary
[an historic minute] Pink Dots.
Tushar Samant
>> Forget the street poet if you want. But it won't stop you from thinking--
>> isn't this basically at the root of the Sun Ra "bullshit"?
>
>did in the late 70s/early 80s
What ARE you talking about? I am talking about the neutronic interstellar
venusian harmony or whatever it is...not about the music.
>*finishes reading Tushar's post....tries to comprehend*
Roughly--talking about ultraviolet galactic spheres etc is an old tradition
among artists trying to assert themselves.
BTW are you ever in Chicago? There are about 20,000 places where you can
speak--I mean poetry etc.
I have decided to get back into it for some time...
Tushar Samant
>Tushar Samant <Tb...@pimpdaddy.com> wrote:
>
>>Except--now I realized--where do we get off calling them fantasies.
>
Very true, Br Tert... that's exactly what my Reader's Digest says--
in "21 ways to improve your marriage even if you are an old fart".
sycamore
> What ARE you talking about? I am talking about the neutronic interstellar
> venusian harmony or whatever it is...not about the music.
That's what I'm saying....the whole thing involved in Sun Ra....
> Roughly--talking about ultraviolet galactic spheres etc is an old tradition
> among artists trying to assert themselves.
I'll just stick to modern day psychobabble
> BTW are you ever in Chicago? There are about 20,000 places where you can
> speak--I mean poetry etc.
I might actually be up there in August...can't decide yet...haven't been up
since March.
syc
Greg Whitman
>te...@enteract.com writes:
>>Tushar Samant <Tb...@pimpdaddy.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>
>Very true, Br Tert... that's exactly what my Reader's Digest says--
>in "21 ways to improve your marriage even if you are an old fart".
Fine. I am trying to be serious here. FIne.
--
"OK yeah got it... You mean? no, OH ok, I got it now. I think..." --Br T