Letter sent to Maria Aversa -- owner of the building that is home to Marin's historic music club.
Hi Maria:
I’ve lived in Mill Valley for about eight years now. I can easily say that the most important business there – from my perspective – is the Sweetwater.
In order to be a healthy, vibrant place, a community needs culture. One of the most accessible forms of that culture is live music. As you know, Sweetwater is the ONLY venue Mill Valley has that offers live music on a regular basis.
As important as they are, it’s not just the shows themselves, and the wonderful experiences that people have at your club. It’s also all the people that come to our town as a result of the music – including the musicians themselves. They add a spark that, when extinguished, only leaves commerce. And unfortunately, commerce has no soul.
To truly be a community, there has to be art. And music is the art form that people are most passionate about. Sweetwater has been the lifeblood of the music scene in Mill Valley (and probably Marin, too) for as long as it has been around.
I would be forever grateful if you could do anything to help the Sweetwater to stay in existence. I need it. The musicians need it. the people who live in Mill Valley and love music need it. Perhaps, on a larger scale, the world needs it, too.
Thanks very much for your time.
Namaste,
James
Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Making it with music.
Ah, popularity.
Remember when you were in high school, and you used to wonder why the people who were elected to student office were never the smartest or the most adventurous or imaginative? They were simply the best at making friends; because a friend equaled a vote. And in the mind of the candidate that was one more small step on the way to a successful life.
Perhaps not all that surprisingly, real politics turns out to closely mirror the paradigm we all discovered in high school. The people who get elected are never, or at least rarely, the most intelligent or well read or astute. They are merely best at making friends. A certain president immediately springs to mind. So it goes.
And now, let us turn to music. Last night I went out to see (and also to record, but that’s a much more involved and longer story) a band that has been around for a number of years. Every single member of this band is a virtuoso. I kid you not. They play with such finesse and dexterity that it leaves you wondering why other people even consider picking up an instrument. It is a very high expression of the art form we call ‘music’.
The name of this band is Garaj Mahal, and the venue was Sweetwater in Mill Valley. Perhaps fifty people came out for this Wednesday night show, in a venue that can easily hold more than double that amount. The band played ferociously. Superbly. Mercilessly. They have a grasp on music theory that rock ‘n roll bands can only fantasize about. (With the possible exception of band, say, like Frank Zappa’s). They play complex time signatures sideways, backwards and inside out at the drop of a hat. They have a deep understanding of melody, harmony, rhythm and counterpoint. They love to take something that’s very difficult to play, and then speed it up almost to the point of absurdity and play it like that. They are marvelous and inspiring. A bit challenging, too. Hardly anyone comes out to see them.
Now, in the bay area, there are lots of bands to check out on any given weekend. Bands like Tea Leaf Green and New Monsoon and Yonder Mountain. These groups manage to play the Fillmore and typically sell out the venue. None of them are very good. They play mediocre shows with young, stoned, swirling jamband fans spinning around the room and talking with their friends. Their fans know the words to the songs. They have a good time. They smoke some pot and drink some beers and do a lot of chatting and then they go home. God only knows what they listen to there. It ain’t Theolonius Monk. Probably more of the same.
Even though it probably shouldn’t, this situation puzzles me. Perhaps if I spent more time watching ‘American Idol”, I’d have a better understanding. For me, it has always been about talent. The ability to take that talent, and combine it with heart and inspiration to create something meaningful. I don’t find this at a Moe or a New Monsoon or a Sound Tribe Sector Nine show. What I hear there are band members who are adequate (but rarely inspiring) musicians playing essentially the very same thing they have played dozens of times before. There’s something missing. Something vital.
The very best music requires not only exceptional talent, but an ability to channel the particular set and setting of every live event. The music should play the band – and this is influenced by a broad array of factors as simple as the mood of the crowd and as complex as the phase of the moon. When the band is intuitive enough to ‘pick up’ on everything that’s going on around them – that’s when the music truly succeeds. Anything is possible then. Because what is happening causes the music to be the way it is, and then the music changes what’s happening, and it becomes an endless, inexplicable loop that everyone gets to create.
But this is rare these days. And I don’t mean to suggest that this is the sole domain of a band as astonishing as Garaj Mahal. But I do mean to offer that it’s what we should all be looking for. Perhaps even demanding. Live music should not just be popular radio. Or even worse, popular TV. Live music offers the unique opportunity to have a shared, communal, heightened experience. Or sometimes not. The fact is (as the Grateful Dead showed us) there has to be some risk involved. If it’s all just by rote, just the hits, it’s not going to take anyone anywhere. Might as well crank up the cd in the comfort of your own living room. Turn down the lights, fire up the vapo and zone out dude.
But if you’re going to make the effort to go out, to spend your hard-earned dollars, you should at least give them to a band that is worthy. That sincerely wants to take you someplace YOU HAVEN”T BEEN BEFORE. And not just to play what will make you feel comfortable. Art shouldn’t be about comfort. At it’s best, it’s more likely to be the opposite of that. (Feedback anyone?) And music, in case we’ve all forgotten is a very high art form.
In 1890, William James said ‘The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.’ I wonder if there were a lot of boring bands playing back then, too?
Remember when you were in high school, and you used to wonder why the people who were elected to student office were never the smartest or the most adventurous or imaginative? They were simply the best at making friends; because a friend equaled a vote. And in the mind of the candidate that was one more small step on the way to a successful life.
Perhaps not all that surprisingly, real politics turns out to closely mirror the paradigm we all discovered in high school. The people who get elected are never, or at least rarely, the most intelligent or well read or astute. They are merely best at making friends. A certain president immediately springs to mind. So it goes.
And now, let us turn to music. Last night I went out to see (and also to record, but that’s a much more involved and longer story) a band that has been around for a number of years. Every single member of this band is a virtuoso. I kid you not. They play with such finesse and dexterity that it leaves you wondering why other people even consider picking up an instrument. It is a very high expression of the art form we call ‘music’.
The name of this band is Garaj Mahal, and the venue was Sweetwater in Mill Valley. Perhaps fifty people came out for this Wednesday night show, in a venue that can easily hold more than double that amount. The band played ferociously. Superbly. Mercilessly. They have a grasp on music theory that rock ‘n roll bands can only fantasize about. (With the possible exception of band, say, like Frank Zappa’s). They play complex time signatures sideways, backwards and inside out at the drop of a hat. They have a deep understanding of melody, harmony, rhythm and counterpoint. They love to take something that’s very difficult to play, and then speed it up almost to the point of absurdity and play it like that. They are marvelous and inspiring. A bit challenging, too. Hardly anyone comes out to see them.
Now, in the bay area, there are lots of bands to check out on any given weekend. Bands like Tea Leaf Green and New Monsoon and Yonder Mountain. These groups manage to play the Fillmore and typically sell out the venue. None of them are very good. They play mediocre shows with young, stoned, swirling jamband fans spinning around the room and talking with their friends. Their fans know the words to the songs. They have a good time. They smoke some pot and drink some beers and do a lot of chatting and then they go home. God only knows what they listen to there. It ain’t Theolonius Monk. Probably more of the same.
Even though it probably shouldn’t, this situation puzzles me. Perhaps if I spent more time watching ‘American Idol”, I’d have a better understanding. For me, it has always been about talent. The ability to take that talent, and combine it with heart and inspiration to create something meaningful. I don’t find this at a Moe or a New Monsoon or a Sound Tribe Sector Nine show. What I hear there are band members who are adequate (but rarely inspiring) musicians playing essentially the very same thing they have played dozens of times before. There’s something missing. Something vital.
The very best music requires not only exceptional talent, but an ability to channel the particular set and setting of every live event. The music should play the band – and this is influenced by a broad array of factors as simple as the mood of the crowd and as complex as the phase of the moon. When the band is intuitive enough to ‘pick up’ on everything that’s going on around them – that’s when the music truly succeeds. Anything is possible then. Because what is happening causes the music to be the way it is, and then the music changes what’s happening, and it becomes an endless, inexplicable loop that everyone gets to create.
But this is rare these days. And I don’t mean to suggest that this is the sole domain of a band as astonishing as Garaj Mahal. But I do mean to offer that it’s what we should all be looking for. Perhaps even demanding. Live music should not just be popular radio. Or even worse, popular TV. Live music offers the unique opportunity to have a shared, communal, heightened experience. Or sometimes not. The fact is (as the Grateful Dead showed us) there has to be some risk involved. If it’s all just by rote, just the hits, it’s not going to take anyone anywhere. Might as well crank up the cd in the comfort of your own living room. Turn down the lights, fire up the vapo and zone out dude.
But if you’re going to make the effort to go out, to spend your hard-earned dollars, you should at least give them to a band that is worthy. That sincerely wants to take you someplace YOU HAVEN”T BEEN BEFORE. And not just to play what will make you feel comfortable. Art shouldn’t be about comfort. At it’s best, it’s more likely to be the opposite of that. (Feedback anyone?) And music, in case we’ve all forgotten is a very high art form.
In 1890, William James said ‘The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.’ I wonder if there were a lot of boring bands playing back then, too?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
'April is the crulest month' - T.S. Eliot
As the Internet fills with information related to the killing rampage at Virginia Tech, one can also hear a quiet voice of reason in the background. But only if you listen closely.
In December of 2005 campus police attempted to have Cho Seung Hui involuntarily commited to a mental institution. Let's face it, if you're in college -- where students are given a substantial amount of leeway -- you have to be acting pretty damn strange to have authorities want to put you away. In separate incidents, two female students asked the police to take disciplinary action against Seung Hui. A campus psychologist determined that Mr. Cho was mentally ill, and ordered a regimen of outpatient treatment. But despite all of this, Cho Seung Hui was able to buy not one, but two guns in a period of about five weeks.
This is what you need to purchase a lethal weapon in Virginia: a diver's license, a checkbook with an address that matches your driver's license, and one more form of I.D. In Cho's case, he used his immigration card. The gun shops both performed an instant background check to be sure that he wasn't a felon, or a subject of a restraining order. He wasn't either of those, yet. So they took his money and handed him a Glock 19 and a Walther P22. Today, 32 people are dead as a result of those sales.
So now the voice of reason returns to the stage. It says "Why on earth do we make it so easy for anyone -- and obviously this incident demonstrates just what 'anyone' means -- to obtain a weapon capable of killing dozens of people?" Human beings are notoriously prone to unreasonable emotional acts. A gun can easily make the difference between an argument and a murder. Or in this case, a killing spree. Why do we continue to let people purchase guns as if they were a form of entertainment? How has the gun lobby become so powerful? Why do even reasonable politicians run from this issue as if it were plague?
And of course, the voices rise from the other side. Not the dead, mind you, they can't be heard now. By the other side, I mean the people who think that it's only natural to carry a gun around like a wallet or a purse. John McCain immediately rushed into the fray saying "I do believe in the constituional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon." Mr. Cho was certainly exercising that right.
My favorite comments come from the people who believe that guns are sacred. As much a part of America as war and taxes. The Charlton Heston types. What they're saying now is if only some of the other students and faculty had been armed, Seung-Hui would have been cut down by 'return fire'. I'm not making this stuff up. I guess these folks think the only sure way to level the playing field is to ensure that EVERYONE is packing a piece. Even a bunch of students and faculty members on a big college campus. Kind of like cowboys and indians forever. Does this remind anyone other than me of Sterling Hayden's character in 'Dr. Strangelove'? Hey, this way if anyone steps out of line anywhere, a nearby law-abiding citizen can simply pop a few dozen caps into the hapless fool, then continue with the conversation on their cellphone.
While we're on the subject of guns and ammunition, and since we've all just paid our federal taxes, it might be appropriate to mention the plight of the V-22 Osprey. The V-22 is a hybrid aircraft that can fly straight up and down like a helicopter. Then in-flight the wings rotate, and it flies like a conventional airplane. At least that's what it does on a good day. On a bad day, it kills lots of people who are attempting to fly it. The Pentagon has spent $20 BILLION DOLLARS developing the V-22 to date. The total budget allocation is roughly $55 BILLION.
This intriguing aircraft has taken 30 lives so far -- in test flight crashes. How bad does a plane have to be that even Dick Cheney tries to kill it four times? (This is when he was defense secretary under King George the first.) But thus far congress has kept the V-22 program alive. Perhaps that's because work on this project is spread out across 40 states and 2,000 subcontractors. In other words, just like the firearm industry, there's a lot of money at stake. I found a figure for 'hunting related equipment' sales in 2004 -- it was $2.8 billion. A drop in the bucket compared to the V-22. Military sales are where the real money is I guess. But then again, tell that to the parents of the dead students at Virginia Tech.
As the Internet fills with information related to the killing rampage at Virginia Tech, one can also hear a quiet voice of reason in the background. But only if you listen closely.
In December of 2005 campus police attempted to have Cho Seung Hui involuntarily commited to a mental institution. Let's face it, if you're in college -- where students are given a substantial amount of leeway -- you have to be acting pretty damn strange to have authorities want to put you away. In separate incidents, two female students asked the police to take disciplinary action against Seung Hui. A campus psychologist determined that Mr. Cho was mentally ill, and ordered a regimen of outpatient treatment. But despite all of this, Cho Seung Hui was able to buy not one, but two guns in a period of about five weeks.
This is what you need to purchase a lethal weapon in Virginia: a diver's license, a checkbook with an address that matches your driver's license, and one more form of I.D. In Cho's case, he used his immigration card. The gun shops both performed an instant background check to be sure that he wasn't a felon, or a subject of a restraining order. He wasn't either of those, yet. So they took his money and handed him a Glock 19 and a Walther P22. Today, 32 people are dead as a result of those sales.
So now the voice of reason returns to the stage. It says "Why on earth do we make it so easy for anyone -- and obviously this incident demonstrates just what 'anyone' means -- to obtain a weapon capable of killing dozens of people?" Human beings are notoriously prone to unreasonable emotional acts. A gun can easily make the difference between an argument and a murder. Or in this case, a killing spree. Why do we continue to let people purchase guns as if they were a form of entertainment? How has the gun lobby become so powerful? Why do even reasonable politicians run from this issue as if it were plague?
And of course, the voices rise from the other side. Not the dead, mind you, they can't be heard now. By the other side, I mean the people who think that it's only natural to carry a gun around like a wallet or a purse. John McCain immediately rushed into the fray saying "I do believe in the constituional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon." Mr. Cho was certainly exercising that right.
My favorite comments come from the people who believe that guns are sacred. As much a part of America as war and taxes. The Charlton Heston types. What they're saying now is if only some of the other students and faculty had been armed, Seung-Hui would have been cut down by 'return fire'. I'm not making this stuff up. I guess these folks think the only sure way to level the playing field is to ensure that EVERYONE is packing a piece. Even a bunch of students and faculty members on a big college campus. Kind of like cowboys and indians forever. Does this remind anyone other than me of Sterling Hayden's character in 'Dr. Strangelove'? Hey, this way if anyone steps out of line anywhere, a nearby law-abiding citizen can simply pop a few dozen caps into the hapless fool, then continue with the conversation on their cellphone.
While we're on the subject of guns and ammunition, and since we've all just paid our federal taxes, it might be appropriate to mention the plight of the V-22 Osprey. The V-22 is a hybrid aircraft that can fly straight up and down like a helicopter. Then in-flight the wings rotate, and it flies like a conventional airplane. At least that's what it does on a good day. On a bad day, it kills lots of people who are attempting to fly it. The Pentagon has spent $20 BILLION DOLLARS developing the V-22 to date. The total budget allocation is roughly $55 BILLION.
This intriguing aircraft has taken 30 lives so far -- in test flight crashes. How bad does a plane have to be that even Dick Cheney tries to kill it four times? (This is when he was defense secretary under King George the first.) But thus far congress has kept the V-22 program alive. Perhaps that's because work on this project is spread out across 40 states and 2,000 subcontractors. In other words, just like the firearm industry, there's a lot of money at stake. I found a figure for 'hunting related equipment' sales in 2004 -- it was $2.8 billion. A drop in the bucket compared to the V-22. Military sales are where the real money is I guess. But then again, tell that to the parents of the dead students at Virginia Tech.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Next Poem
I’ve thought about it a lot
and here’s what I’ve come up with
unless you embrace everyone
all various facets of existence
all poverty
all disease and despair
as well as your own exalted state
of privilege
then you are nothing
merely a repetition of so many countless
before you
glass raised to the heavens
a tad confused
pure joy
elusive
no matter how much therapy
or searching
or trips to the wine bar
you are merely another
child
of the moneyed
the journey filled with dreams unfulfilled
wrinkled sheets in the morning
and the wrong face in the mirror
among all those you’ve known
your strongest fear
is that you may be
the least
unique
you admit it to no one
least of all yourself
but you smile nevertheless
then get on the train
with so many others
who feel just like you
then you realize
you’re thinking of that drink
at the end of the day.
and here’s what I’ve come up with
unless you embrace everyone
all various facets of existence
all poverty
all disease and despair
as well as your own exalted state
of privilege
then you are nothing
merely a repetition of so many countless
before you
glass raised to the heavens
a tad confused
pure joy
elusive
no matter how much therapy
or searching
or trips to the wine bar
you are merely another
child
of the moneyed
the journey filled with dreams unfulfilled
wrinkled sheets in the morning
and the wrong face in the mirror
among all those you’ve known
your strongest fear
is that you may be
the least
unique
you admit it to no one
least of all yourself
but you smile nevertheless
then get on the train
with so many others
who feel just like you
then you realize
you’re thinking of that drink
at the end of the day.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Diversity is.
Diversity is
the stuff you think the most holy
in the world
whether it’s Jesus
or Coltrane
or Keith Jarrett or
Naomi Watts
or Phil Spector
or silence
or towering redwoods
or the blanket of stars above
it doesn’t really matter
because
there are many people who will live their entire lives
and never have one moment of appreciation
much less revelation
regarding the particular aspect of creation
you find so meaningful
I tend to forget this
because I want everyone to share
in what I think makes the world beautiful
and bearable
and also because it moves me
so deeply
I want others to be moved, too
I want that moment where it all simply
is
to be recognized
if only right then
and there
but it doesn’t work that way
everyone
every one
has their very own concept of what is transcendent
and you won’t find a lot of overlap there
there are birdwatchers
and Deadheads
and surfers
and Sufis
and hula hoopers
who all get together
because they are like-minded
and like each other
but even there
I have a feeling that
everyone
is experiencing something
entirely different
same time and place
but
still unique
it’s one of the great mysteries
isn’t it?
and the truth is
when you read this
it will be nothing like what
I felt
when I sat down to write.
March 31st, 2007
the stuff you think the most holy
in the world
whether it’s Jesus
or Coltrane
or Keith Jarrett or
Naomi Watts
or Phil Spector
or silence
or towering redwoods
or the blanket of stars above
it doesn’t really matter
because
there are many people who will live their entire lives
and never have one moment of appreciation
much less revelation
regarding the particular aspect of creation
you find so meaningful
I tend to forget this
because I want everyone to share
in what I think makes the world beautiful
and bearable
and also because it moves me
so deeply
I want others to be moved, too
I want that moment where it all simply
is
to be recognized
if only right then
and there
but it doesn’t work that way
everyone
every one
has their very own concept of what is transcendent
and you won’t find a lot of overlap there
there are birdwatchers
and Deadheads
and surfers
and Sufis
and hula hoopers
who all get together
because they are like-minded
and like each other
but even there
I have a feeling that
everyone
is experiencing something
entirely different
same time and place
but
still unique
it’s one of the great mysteries
isn’t it?
and the truth is
when you read this
it will be nothing like what
I felt
when I sat down to write.
March 31st, 2007
Monday, March 05, 2007
May you live in interesting times...
"The world is collapsing around our ears. I turn on the radio. I can't hear it." - Michael Stipe
The Chinese proverb says ‘May you live in interesting times.’ But what’s the aphorism when ‘interesting’ just doesn’t seem to cover it?
Did you read the recent story about bees vanishing? It appears that all over America (and perhaps around the world, too?) bee hives are substantially depleted. Millions of bees are missing. They’re not dying. They’re leaving the hive, and not coming back. No one knows why. But farmers are worried because without bees, you don’t get fruit. Are the bees just fed up? Have they found a sweeter existence someplace else? Maybe they’re migrating north where it’s a little cooler.
Speaking of north, in New England, there’s a battle going on between people who fish for a living and lobstermen. Evidently, the fish harvest has been in gradual but constant decline. So the guys who run the fishing boats want to be able to sell the lobsters they inadvertently haul in with their nets. But right now the law says they have to toss them back because they aren’t ‘lobstermen’. And naturally, the guys with the lobster traps (there are a few lobsterwomen, but not many) want to keep things the way they are.
Now the only reason this is happening is because there aren’t enough fish left in the ocean for people who used to make a living catching them. It seems pretty obvious that we’ve simply begun to eat more fish than mother nature can replenish. It’s the fish taco stand with no more tacos, except on a global scale. Want fries with that fish sandwich?
Also in the news, a number of travel sites have begun to suggest visiting the world’s big glaciers ‘while they’re still around’. Just in case anyone thought global warming was going to be something that only had an impact on our children, or their children, this really makes you think twice. Come see the big trees before they’re gone. In places like southern Alaska, where it’s getting warmer year after year, which lets beetles expand their territory, this is also something that’s happening right now.
As the earth begins a slow fade, movies are getting better. Strange, I know. Have you seen ‘Children of Men’ or ‘Babel’? Remarkable, beautiful, poignant stories that take on the destiny of the human race as a topic. As you may know, that’s not an easy task. Especially without getting up on a creaky soapbox and shouting out your frustration. But these films don’t do that. They look at the lives of individuals around the world in the here and now.
And it’s different now. It’s hard to put your finger on why that is – why after tens of thousands of years of human existence things should have suddenly accelerated into the current malaise. Kind of like one of those spin paintings at the carnival where you squirt out your paint on the clean white surface, flip the switch, and then watch all the colors explode before your eyes.
And still, amidst all the speeding up, all the acceleration in the world, all the text messaging and automatic weapons fire and suicide bombers, there is a rising female force that is urging us to all – simply --- slow -- down. It’s coming from women because men are too busy trying to get points up on the scoreboard. The points that come from having a beautiful wife and family. A luxurious home and maybe a second one in the mountains. A big, gleaming automobile to take out to four star restaurants and spas. The very latest cellphone to lay on the bar. Men are too busy keeping score to slow down.
So women are doing it for us. They’re trying to remind us that while we are busy, busy, busy with plans to make money and plans to travel and plans to get that new 72” widescreen television, that the beauty of life… is not in the planning. Simple as it may seem, it’s in the living. Most men have somehow forgotten how to live. And probably most women, too. But somehow, if anything is going to save us, or at least make the end more conscious (good birth, good death), it’s going to be the women who know that everything is better when you take the time to breathe. Altogether now. Slowly. And don't forget to be kind to the bees.
The Chinese proverb says ‘May you live in interesting times.’ But what’s the aphorism when ‘interesting’ just doesn’t seem to cover it?
Did you read the recent story about bees vanishing? It appears that all over America (and perhaps around the world, too?) bee hives are substantially depleted. Millions of bees are missing. They’re not dying. They’re leaving the hive, and not coming back. No one knows why. But farmers are worried because without bees, you don’t get fruit. Are the bees just fed up? Have they found a sweeter existence someplace else? Maybe they’re migrating north where it’s a little cooler.
Speaking of north, in New England, there’s a battle going on between people who fish for a living and lobstermen. Evidently, the fish harvest has been in gradual but constant decline. So the guys who run the fishing boats want to be able to sell the lobsters they inadvertently haul in with their nets. But right now the law says they have to toss them back because they aren’t ‘lobstermen’. And naturally, the guys with the lobster traps (there are a few lobsterwomen, but not many) want to keep things the way they are.
Now the only reason this is happening is because there aren’t enough fish left in the ocean for people who used to make a living catching them. It seems pretty obvious that we’ve simply begun to eat more fish than mother nature can replenish. It’s the fish taco stand with no more tacos, except on a global scale. Want fries with that fish sandwich?
Also in the news, a number of travel sites have begun to suggest visiting the world’s big glaciers ‘while they’re still around’. Just in case anyone thought global warming was going to be something that only had an impact on our children, or their children, this really makes you think twice. Come see the big trees before they’re gone. In places like southern Alaska, where it’s getting warmer year after year, which lets beetles expand their territory, this is also something that’s happening right now.
As the earth begins a slow fade, movies are getting better. Strange, I know. Have you seen ‘Children of Men’ or ‘Babel’? Remarkable, beautiful, poignant stories that take on the destiny of the human race as a topic. As you may know, that’s not an easy task. Especially without getting up on a creaky soapbox and shouting out your frustration. But these films don’t do that. They look at the lives of individuals around the world in the here and now.
And it’s different now. It’s hard to put your finger on why that is – why after tens of thousands of years of human existence things should have suddenly accelerated into the current malaise. Kind of like one of those spin paintings at the carnival where you squirt out your paint on the clean white surface, flip the switch, and then watch all the colors explode before your eyes.
And still, amidst all the speeding up, all the acceleration in the world, all the text messaging and automatic weapons fire and suicide bombers, there is a rising female force that is urging us to all – simply --- slow -- down. It’s coming from women because men are too busy trying to get points up on the scoreboard. The points that come from having a beautiful wife and family. A luxurious home and maybe a second one in the mountains. A big, gleaming automobile to take out to four star restaurants and spas. The very latest cellphone to lay on the bar. Men are too busy keeping score to slow down.
So women are doing it for us. They’re trying to remind us that while we are busy, busy, busy with plans to make money and plans to travel and plans to get that new 72” widescreen television, that the beauty of life… is not in the planning. Simple as it may seem, it’s in the living. Most men have somehow forgotten how to live. And probably most women, too. But somehow, if anything is going to save us, or at least make the end more conscious (good birth, good death), it’s going to be the women who know that everything is better when you take the time to breathe. Altogether now. Slowly. And don't forget to be kind to the bees.
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