Zenos, Zeno, Zen,Ze,Z

Sad to report that I was at a funeral yesterday though the minister’s address was most uplifting and I will never be nasty about Cliff Richard again. Subconsciously, I seem to have been going through a morbid accounting process which has tallied that I have now been to more funerals than I have weddings. I suppose there are family reasons for this imbalance at what I would consider an early point in my life but it is sobering.

Listening to Music in 12 Parts by Philip Glass

That last review of this piece of music is spot on – If you have guts then you will find this the most satisfying piece you have ever heard. I rarely get to listen to it all in one go- three discs – four hours – each 12th barely varying but isn’t your life like that anyway? You get up every day, do the same things but never ever do you feel like you do after listening to all of this.

MITP has just transitioned from Part 5 to Part 6 and though I can just about detect a key change and there is no change in the overall meta-rhythm, the switch over gives me a thrill that is quite unique. To be honest all of the changes are like this, small and yet shiver-inducing. One of the reviews mentioned that the writer got into Glass through North Star, a collection of shorter pieces in similar style, which may be a useful starting point for Glass Virgins. It was indeed my first Glass work and rocky in the extreme. I suspect I might have been put of minimalism for good had I bought a longer piece straight off. Like listening to Balinese music, start off with something short for the discordance with western scales in grating at first but soon becomes as thrilling as any powerful rock song. Indeed, the fast and most familiar style of Balinese music, Gamelan Gong Kebyar, is not entirely Balinese in influence being a mash-up of traditional stuff and bits introduced by Dutch and other visitors to the islands in the early 20th century. We like to think of our ethno-music as being pure and unaffected by our more materialistic influences but why should the rest of the world stick to our views of what is correct? Our world changes, though our music seems to go in great circles, guitar band, prog-rock, punk guitar-band, synth-band and back to guitar-band again. Indonesia for all its conservative outlook seems to have a great ability to mix up styles of music. Get Balinese Gamelan if you want to – the Javanese style is maybe too subtle as an introduction.

I actually have one of these. I was briefly a cash millionaire in Indonesia when I took out the money to buy it. Currently it is under the bed and needs re-stringing but I can’t find anywhere which will supply me with the thin bits of leather to hang the bars. I daren’t search the internet for “leather straps” and Madam Foner’s Surgical Appliance shop in Liverpool has been no help. It was an honest enquiry! There was no need to be so nasty. I suppose I have been ignoring the oblique strategy of using something else to string it; flat electrical flex might work but it wouldn’t seem right – the person who built the instrument probably invested it with some sort of spirit, an animist deity to look after it and all I can do with it is leave it under the bed, broken and unplayed. My standard mantra of “I will dig the photos out” is now in effect for this.

A final observation - the site that this building is on is part of an old factory complex, and while our bit is modern and kempt, the approach road is marked by occasional pieces of discarded and broken equipment. Most of it is probably old air-conditioning units but it struck me this morning that all this detritus looks like the artistically placed pieces of the plane that crashed in Lost. Not that I watch Lost – I might have been interested had I started it but now it just seems to be another show pushed beyond its original idea. I look forward to it “Jumping the shark”. Of course with Lost, this could be done literally though I suspect Henry Winkler might not be available for a reprise of his original stunt, having already done it in Arrested Development. It would be a nice touch if he did. Maybe they could end it there. The signalling of various possible solutions to the mysteries involved by the brief reference to The Third Policeman may have blown the cover though like the X-files, it maybe that the writers have no idea how to end it. I do hope that Life on Mars does not go the same way.