2018.06.06 - Day 84

Hard to sleep last night. Outside electrically operated main door to apartments was opening and closing all night and making a squeak every time it did so. I told Alexa to play music from my Amazon library but she started playing an old Eckhart Tolle talk I had bought years ago. Funny but it was just what I needed – about not resisting what happens, which only causes more suffering. Repetitious sounds like that can seem annoying, but then again if it was the lapping of waves that would be fine. It’s all in the stories, the interpretations we make, isn’t it?

Oh, I watched a little video about Jethro Tull 'We Used to Know' and Hotel California similarities (that we we were discussing in dream session last night) this morning. Yep, same chord sequence, but watch the short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xny0Uj4--tk

Thank you for the video reference Zen! Yes it was never really in Ian Anderson's character to take this further anyway. He's characteristically humorous and gracious (and probably realistic), and no lawsuit ever ensued.

His point on the ubiquity of certain chord sequences hasn't always washed in court though, and there have been several high profile lawsuits where graciousness has not featured! "My Sweet Lord" and "He's So Fine" was the first I heard of. That shocked me. Others like "Down Under" and "Kookaburra" surprised me, though "Taurus" and "Stairway to Heaven" was a long shot.

And there's a whole industry surrounding copyright infringement. I went to school with a very fine pianist. We played in rock bands together and we hitchhiked to rock festivals together. He went on to have a very successful stage and recording career. (Every time my local diner plays "Relax!" from 1983, which unfathomably they do every week, I enjoy listening to his keyboards.) He left showbiz and became a "forensic musicologist" (there really is such an occupation!), acting as an expert witness in these lawsuits. It's nearly ten years since we were in contact; I must write...

A couple of days ago, you talked about the music industry. It's a treacherous and risky career. I'm thankful my daughter made it, eventually. She started as a singer-songwriter, then a manager, and now she's VP for one of the two biggest music publishing companies in the world (and living in Australia). As a dad I still worry, of course, but I don't think it's as precarious for her as I once thought. :) edited 14:32, 6 Jun 2018

I have been so busy. Work, Babysitting, Selling a house(not quite done), Singing. I do love reading here:)
I see it is going to be a beautiful day here.

on this day: 50 years ago. Robert Kennedy died.

The fifth political event and tipping point to radicalize the young Riddle.
68 and 69 through 72+ were crazy years.

Much to do. I can feel books-to-read calling, but on the go, can only do books-to-listen-to.

So today's was Steven Greenblatt's work on Shakespeare's tyrants. He accomplishes what he sets out to I think, which is to convey how thin the lines are between some of these notorious villains and the characters on the world stage in our time. Maybe he accomplishes this too well.

I appreciate that he is able to give context - where Shakespeare was coming from, and how tricky it was to show themes and characteristics without stepping on toes in a way that might get one's hands chopped off, but it is discouraging that the patterns 'remain the same', so obvious and disgusting, and that itself being a tool for tyrannical power.

What an enormous loss Robert Kennedy was.

A synchronicity with Zen, since I had a similar auto-play situation with Eckhart Tolle yesterday. It was a clip about dealing with unconscious people, and felt very timely. He really can be so funny, although I noticed conflicted feelings when he specifically cited a family member with mental illness. On the one hand, such an exact story lets more of his humanity show - in context, with others, not just always on stage with twinkling eyes. He wasn't speaking from on high, which makes the wisdom tangible. Is that one way pedestals are made? Sharing partial stories? A lot goes on between question and answer. Anyway one can't tell it all, and the story also felt just a bit exposing of that person.

I've always wrestled with those lines. I think we've wrestled with them as PaB too (recording/not recording - how much is useful to share - how much can one not share without being too vague and flightly, etc.), and I think we've mostly found the right balances, omitting when necessary, each finding their own limits. On an individual level though, it is still a question. I see this even with dream session, that maybe it would be more helpful to draw out situations I related yesterday more explicitly, but I don't wish to take people into uncomfortable personal territory.

There is a famous Anne Lammot quote - a quote writing friends years ago loved and repeated a lot. It goes, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” I was the baby of the group, and really worshiped a few of these women, so I never spoke up to say, "I would die."

This seems what Shakespeare accomplished. He wrote and didn't die. ;-)

Oh, Eckhart Tolle! After the shorter clip, I let the longer one play while folding laundry and such. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyUG5KnutTo

Skip to minute 37:55 for a cute part. :)



PS - I keep thinking about Storm's hour and a half nap. Must be a comfortable bath tub! Also it must be a great comfort to see one's child come fully into their own. edited 01:07, 7 Jun 2018

Okay, being a bit indulgent but we've been talking about music. Watched another film with my son over the weekend, "Annihilation", which featured a song that reignited my love for a band that I remember Storm going to see some years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyquqw6GeXk

Sparked nostalgia about running around in the mountains with a certain guitarist. So I sent him the photo I'm attaching above. :-) Although this one was our favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9EKqXDl68 edited 00:46, 7 Jun 2018

Woke up this morning feeling out of sorts and unhappy. I sat with that for a bit, and got back in touch with what has been a long-term, recurring theme in my life: the feeling that there is something wrong (with me), and that there is something I must do to fix it. This narrative all too easily insinuates its way into whatever spiritual or psychological practice I am trying to do. Tart would call it a "superego attack". I must be wary that my attempts at practicing mindfulness or lucidity don't turn into just another way of proving to myself my own inadequacy.