i'm inspired.

last night, after hours, a conversation happened with some people. it was about coney island and english coal mining towns, the nauture of freedom, and the hipness factor of handrolled cigarettes. cooking as a musician's art. the comodification of recreation, of music, of life. have you ever had the seafood in portugal with its hyper resiliant people swarming under a bad ass dictator? do you know about its debt to the EU? society always supports the artists. what if people in nebraska can make more interesting art than people in new york? why live here then with the grit and the grime and the hunger? music is only a vehicle to the revolution - it is not the revolution.

and then today i read this, some words from sqaurepusher that came with my copy of the new CD (which is excellent by the way). this is only the last paragraph.

"the lesson is that no punks have yet been punk enough - rejecting and negating the mainstream just as quickly as it becomes subsumed in its own poisonous cliches (thus often becoming eligable for mass production). it is essential for any creator to want to negate and to reject, but this has to be coupled with a consumate understanding of the phenomena one seeks to reject. otherwise, not understanding the language of negation, the object of the negating will misunderstand what is being shouted at it, and carries on regardless. i have learned to see inside every musicians head because, in order to prevent myself from being fully incorporated into any musical ghetto, i have to incorporate every musical ghetto into myself. i aspire to make music a useless commodity i.e. a prop for the identities and personalities of the midless; and if this is all that music constuitutes in our era, then to maximise every conceivable parameter until it completely destroys itself."

his first point tries to articulate that while we must reject we can't do it blindly. we can't reject what we don't understand. it hints at a devesating problem in resistance movements (both left and right). our reactionary behavior doesn't afford us the understanding of the culture/movement we are reacting against, therefor all our criticisms go to deaf ears. when you yell at someone in a foreign language they can only be concerned that your voice is raised, but they won't understand what they've done to hurt you. rejecting mainstream culture cannot happen without understanding mainstream culture - and cultural change cannot happen without the painstaking time it takes to translate ideas. few things worth doing are quick or easy. and in all this it is very very important to have opinions - stand up and believe them - and either prove or disprove them without resentment or gloating.

his second point is about how he's trying to avoid personal commodoification. he doesn't want himself or his music to be a tool that people use to define themselves - he wants people to define themselves for themselves. this is a central idea to any successful DIY movement. the goal is not to be independent for independent's sake (the current social ghetto we are in now) - the goal is to decide for yourself (or among your clan) how to live freely.

he's in a tough position. brave enough to have opinions, brave enough to share them, and craving dialog when so many people just want to buy someone elses views.

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