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Digital musicians O.lamm, Domotic, Davide Balula, and Minifer are bussing around Japan playing music from laptops diffused from giant ghetto blasters strapped to their bodies. And it's being blogged here. This reminds me of when Robert and I, as Tog, would busk our music out in Yoyogi park back in 2000 with our laptops and portable battery powered speakers.
Arthur Japin, a Dutch writer, has written a new book about the Dutch and their relationship to the concept of tolerance. In it, the main character makes observations such as
"Tolerance is not the same as acceptance. It is actually closer to the opposite: tolerance like this is a clever means of repression. If you accept others as equals, you embrace them unconditionally, now and forever. But if you let them know that you tolerate them, you suggest in the same breath that they are actually an inconvenience, like a nagging pain or an unpleasant odour you are willing to disregard."
I've had similar thoughts as this, especially while living in Japan wherein complete acceptance really isn't a goal to strive for as it is de facto an impossibility. But the Japanese are tolerant, no question about that, but the tolerance is as described above, a way of delineating the outsider from the insider, of reminding them how different they are from the norm. But maybe the Japanese (and the Dutch) are only being realistic, maybe tolerance is the best we have on this planet. Total acceptance of the outsider might be beyond the realm of our potential as a species.
Americans tend to espouse the idea of acceptance every other breath, but I can't help but notice that acceptance, in the American sense, means that one should adapt completely to American culture. And then I do think a kind of acceptance does occur, the stranger is now one of us. But it's of a type that comes with such a high price tag that it's startling to notice how so many people buy into it. (Dogville brutally made this point quite well). But in defense of this country, I do think the only way we'll ever get anywhere is by doing something I've seen here more than in other parts of the world. It happens especially in cities like Oakland or New York, everybody just gets mixed up with everybody else in a small little space then we're all forced to get to know one another, we learn both the nice and the and the not so pretty.
Bruce, a designer in Kyoto, makes the world's cutest and most fashionable pen cases. And now he has been kind enough to send me one to San Francisco. It's his first time to pack one of his little Bruce people overseas so he had to document the ceremony at the Kyoto Post Office. I can't wait for it to arrive, will be checking my mailbox twice a day.
Here's a rundown on the most interesting and good stuff i've heard recently:
Nathan Michel - The Beast
Acoustic music with computer as meta-editor and ornamentation device.
Lullatone - Small Songs for Raindrops
Sweet, smart, and open.
Yuichiro Fujimoto - Kinoe
Faux-faux-naivité.
Sora - Re.Sort
Sample happy and proud of it.
BBC NEWS | Europe | Cocaine traces at EU parliament
Now if they were to find the same results in the White House bathroom, American policy would finally be explained.
I had a rather odd experience today. I've been reviewing CD's for a magazine and I found myself listening to Lullatone's Little Songs About Raindrops back to back next to Trios by Tom Erbe, Chris Mann, Larry Polansky, Douglas Repetto, and Christian Wolff. I love the music of Christian Wolff but in this recording his piano playing was smothered by the academic nonsense of the other musicians. And by academic nonsense I think what I mean is a kind of insecurity in one's own instincts that forces the musician to rely on pedantic and empty gestures that communicate nothing, really. And the academic flutterings of the group on Trios sounded more empty than ever after listening to the sincere, childish, and beautifully open music of Lullatone.
...and then the Mobile Academy ran into the Mobium (link via r).
In New York this weekend it was so nice to see Erin and Randy. Sunday was the perfect day to walk around the city, drinking beer at outdoor cafes and checking out galleries.
I was able to hang out with Nick for a little bit, not long enough though, there's never enough time to catch up with him and the stimulating ideas he brings. He's in town doing a show with Mai Ueda (of Neen) at Zach Feuer Gallery.
And now, San Francisco, it's where I'm at. And it's not a bad place to be, really. But it certainly feels like a different planet after three weeks in weighty Europe and a few days in neurotic New York. But it's still San Francisco, home to events like this party to celebrate Röyksopp's new CD release at a gay leather bar. OK, whatever, sure. And then tomorrow there's an opening for this show, Boy's Club. It's all carefree, colorful, sunny, and oh-so-California. Yeah, OK, it's good to be back. At least for a little while.