Guardianship

So long as that strange sad cry rings out over the world, the birth pangs of an artist - all cannot be lost.

Lawrence Durrell
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Hello Jon
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I went to the market yesterday to get a few things. As I was leaving I passed a display of wind chimes. I stopped to try them out, There was one very fancy one made of shells, another of little bells, some traditional metal strips and pipes, and some wooden tubes. I tested them all out, listening to each of them ring and tinkle.

As I did that I noted that I was not listening for the prettiest sounding one or the one that would be most pleasing for my neighbors. I was listening for the sound that I thought best described my own character and personality as an artist. As it turned out I didn't buy one. I was on my crutches with several other items to maneuver. But I vowed to go back today or tomorrow a get one of the wooden ones, with a gentle, natural sound.

Most people would probably not think of it that way. But the world of an artist is an immediate one. As I write this I'm hearing a symphony by Franz Joseph Haydn. That music was composed in the 18th Century. The reason it is still relevant today is because the composer wasn't trying to mimic anyone. He wrote originally and immediately. He took the risk, based on his knowledge and experience as a master artist to say something new, fresh and prophetic. We thank him by still playing and listening to these creations from the true and trusted heart of that original man.

To be a serious artist is not always a joyous experience. It's an obligation. It has uncertainty and anguish built in to the process. There is great sadness over lost and discarded ideas. There is the intense struggle against an empty mind, a vanished imagination., temporary madness There is throwing yourself into the work when it is the last thing you feel you can do (every performing artist know that feeling). And, yes, there are regrets.

Every work of art has a conception, a gestation and a birth. Sometimes it's painless. Often it is not. But when it happens it is, like the birth of a human being, a reaffirmation of life. There are many forces in this world that would silence the artists, make them conform to rigid recidivism and codes of complacent inanity. The struggle is always against neglect, starvation, financial and spiritual, and ignorant disrespect and disregard. We are society's orphans.

So why would anyone be an artist? Because today's artist is the guardian of the world.
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DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Wind Music

I believe that music is a force in itself. It is there and it needs an outlet, a medium.

Maynard Keenan
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Make no mistake about it. In spite of what others may claim, New York is the City of Wind. If it weren't people would suffocate. The straight streets and long avenues create wind tunnels that stretch form the Hudson River to the East River.

One year I had a radio station job on 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. On my way to work one day I walked down 6th Avenue to 45th Street and the wind was so strong I couldn't turn the corner. I grabbed the side of the building to pull myself around but still couldn't do it. I had to go back up to 46th Street where the wind wasn't so strong and walk around to 45th on 5th Avenue.

I had some friends visiting me from northern New England one winter. I told them to make sure to dress warmly because New York could get very cold because of the wind. They didn't quite believe me until we turned on to 5th Avenue at Central Park East. We had to lean over in order to walk. When we reached our destination one of them said he had never felt wind like that.

There is music everywhere in the universe and most of it can't be heard. Music is a thing in itself and is content to be silent to the human ear. We can hear some of nature's music: the crashing of the waves, the rustling of the leaves, the thunder in the sky and the song of birds. But to bring out the hidden sounds we need to become a channel for them.

Some people like to hang up wind chimes on the porch and listen to the tinkling of the various tones as the breeze flows through them.
Wind chimes can be made of glass, wood or metal, they each have their distinctive sound. If you were to hang such a wind chime almost anywhere in New York City the wind would probably blow it away.

But there was one place in the city where wind chimes actually worked, on a grand scale. Some one had built a collection of large metal tubes joined together into a cluster. The collection was stabilized to the ground The tubes were tuned to various tones and as the strong winds of New York blew through them they made the most wonderful music. Nature's pipe organ.

DB - The Vagabond
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far. Spring is coming.

I await your answer.
DB
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