http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8zwnXjIjPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNXDPVyqWu0
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
AMERICAN LOGRES CULTURAL HISTORY PART 1
AMERICAN LOGRES CULTURAL HISTORY
During the 1700’s English, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish culture began to “morph” into a new kind of people; characterized by sharp talkin, yarn spinnin’ story tellers. Everything from nonsense humor, one moment, to pious the next; a new kind of humor, always brimming with optimism, cropped up along the eastern half of young nation. These were people inventing stuff. Yankee ingenuity.
Pioneer families, carving out a new nation.
Logres conquering the “Anti-logres” of an oppressive England, followed by the birthing of the most unlikely, strikingly different new baby into the family of nations.
But we mustn’t point the finger at England for too long. The young America was already harboring its own “infection” of Anti-Logres, right from the very beginning.
The world of the African Slave, with his own culture of distinctive sounds, rhyhms, instruments, and musical forms, pollinated the slave master culture with a richness of Logres that has impacted the music of the entire planet.
This was a Logres that in supreme irony, (perhaps the greatest irony in the history of America) enriched enormously, intermarrying with the British folk and hymn music, combining in a hybrid, destined to nurture the now emerging, distinctive American Logres. The rhythms, the song forms, the instruments, the singing styles; Everything was impacted! African Logres.
Logres, now flourishing over the land, was turning us into “America”, the newest nation on earth, a new kind of nation, exciting to behold, and still very, very young, with much more to come.
Between our new form of government, our national documents, and our about to emerge cultural melding of different cultures, the rest of the world beheld is in wonder and admiration.
Our form of government: it was new in the world.
Over time, our own, distinctive “melting pot” of art forms: they were new in the world.
Truly, it was us. American.
As long as the Logres was welcome, and held in reverence, our richness of national soul deepened.
Where is our country today? Are we enjoying the presence of Logres?
This is my first major blog entry on “Logres”. I’ve tried to introduce some of the themes I’m hoping to explore with you in years to come.
Please contact me, if you “feel” any of this stuff. I’m sure I’m not alone.
Leslie
AMERICAN LOGRES HISTORY PART 1
AMERICAN LOGRES HISTORY
OUR ROOTS
America has had its seasons of Logres.
THE PILGRIMS
The Pilgrims received a vision of “Logres”. but it was for “over there.” Across that ocean. Strangers in a strange land they would be. but the “call” was there. They went. And faithful they were, to the Logres.
THE PURITANS
The Puritans saw the “Logres.” a “City on a Hill.” Logres won’t come unless we “seek” after it.” The Puritans did. But they made the mistake of compelling everyone else to submit to the “vision.” That is not the way of Logres.
You’ve gotta let people come around to things. They may not.
Free will must always be honored. Liberty.
THE FOUNDING FATHERS
The Logres, in a powerful manifestation, blew a vision of liberty into the souls of many in the English controlled colonies over here. It was the passionate and courageous birth of what would become the Logres of an American Nation.
A new nation. Free from tyranny. Self- government. Community. Commitment to one another. Individualism. Ingenuity. (Yankee, at first. But it turned out to be the entire country.)
The young nation followed a “vision” of how democracy in action, under God’s guidance, might work. Equality. Liberty. Community. All three… working together in harmony. creativity.
At first we copied England and the rest of Europe. But after a while, something new emerged; that quality, those characteristics the whole world sees as “American”. In fact, American “Logres.”
All of America’s ideals proceed from the “Logres.”
Whenever America has welcomed the “Gleam” of Logres, peace and creative growth have followed.
Whenever we have bowed to serve the idols of greed for power and devotion to money, the “Gleam” of Logres has receded. Inspiration and goodwill depart, followed by a quickly withering decay of the culture into a “wasteland.”
Anti-Logres pervades the people, the whole way of life. The poor are oppressed. The people become angry, breaking into factions where contempt festers. The arts grow anemic and uninspired. Dark cynicism infects the music and the films. People’s hearts grow cold and self-absorbed.
The prospect of Logres lies before us. Americans have always needed to choose between the two.
John Kay and his band, Steppenwolf, are remembered around the world for their classic 60's anthem, "Born to Be Wild." Far less known is their title song, "Monster", from their third album.
I wonder if John and the others had any sense of what they were touching on, when they created their story of American History. I believe they were plotting the very map of the presence of "Logres" in America. That song probes far more deeply than the 60's concerns with the Vietnam War and governement surveillance of radical activists. These hard rockers were observing with insight the very struggle between Logres and Anti-Logres, with both compassion as well as indictment towards America, unusual for those polarized times.
The "Monster" of the Anti-Logres was oppressing American society, splitting us apart in the 1960's. Where are we today?
John Kay, your anthem has been "haunting" me for 39 years. I wonder if my theory of the Logres is connecting for you at all.
If perchance, this blog reaches your attention, please contact me, if you feel I might be on to something.
I strongly recommend everyone reading this blog to purchase the song, "Monster/ Suicide/ America."
Here are the words to the final anthem of the song:
“America, where are you now?
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now?
We can’t fight alone against the Monster.”
And finally, from my heart:
‘O Logres, where art thou?” We need you now.
LOGRES IS...
Logres
is
a spiritual climate that,
when longed for, by an individual,
or by a nation,
rains down upon the earth,
watering the soul of the people with
vision, new ideas,
like saplings, ready to pop up, in the arts.
Inspiration blows through a region.
shared vision binds people together into
working communities.
each individual’s talents
find a place within a mosaic,
a pool of talents that will build the vision.
The “form” is made into “substance”.
The “idea” is crafted into a “work of art”.
The harvest of these new works of art
are the permanent monuments to
this moment, this time and place,
where Logres moved through the land.
inspired people lived and created in
a land, blessed by peace and joy,
much like England’s “Camelot,” of long ago.
Golden. Heavenly. Wondrous.
Logres.
If Logres “descends” upon us again, emerging in pockets across America,
we’ll gain a greater identity awareness.
We’ll find out more of who we are;
We’ll become more of what we were always destined to be:
as individuals, as a community, as a nation.
Identity. Yes indeed.
One of the prime fruits of Logres.
Logres is the glory and splendor of what human beings on earth can attain to;
if only we’ll follow the “Gleam,” the Gleam of Logres.
When Logres “lights” up our land and its culture, our neighbors will behold, up to 202 other nations, each one with a Logres, ready to blossom forth.
We Americans will desire to visit them, thrilled to share in their
“new thing that’s happening.”
Monday, July 2, 2007
A GREEN THUMB - WHAT ENDS UP GROWING
For the past eleven years I have been designing and implementing my own programs and curriculums for the pre-kindergarten right up through sixth grade age groups.
The preceding 11 years ('85-'96) included creating both a guitar program for 260 students a year, (yes, you read that right) and a keyboard program following. (Yep, 260 again.)
Well, in short, it worked. I developed an approach which enabled over 90% of my students to perform a large spectrum of guitar chords, several guitar patterns (riffs), and melodic playing as well. The 10% who did not succeed, failed, I believe, only because they WOULD NOT make the effort.
I developed a similar model for the Keyboard program, but something else began to develop, almost within the first week.
One by one, students from each group of 48 would come up to me before or during class, asking if they could perform a “solo” piece on my teacher’s acoustic piano in the front of the room, which I would instruct from.
From the outset, the students were taking the chords and patterns I had taught them, and they were now COMPOSING piano music that was their own. These "solos" became part of our music period, needing serious blocks of time, especially when there were 9 or 10 hands going up at the same time, all volunteers with something new, ready to go.
Can you imagine my thrill with all of this, and witnessing the same thing in all six groups? A variety of musical styles from all regions of the world, jazz, baroque, classical, impressionistic, Chopin-like romantic styles, ragtime, blues, ethnic folk music suggestive of Asian, Russian, Arabic, Hispanic, and, well, American! It was a potpourri of any and everything.
People didn't know what to compare it to. I would invite school administrators to come in and witness what was happening. Even Rudolph Giuliani. the then Mayor of New York City, possibly heard about it from his wife, Donna Hanover. She was with me, witnessing this phenom in action. It clearly wasn’t your conventional school band or chorus.
My seven years that followed on the elementary level found me desiring to shift towards Drama and Musical Theatre. For one thing, I had no music room, and the children had no access to instruments. So I encouraged the playwriting and skit development which opened up a new genre for me to cultivate more of that “creative fruit” I was applying the "green thumb" towards.
Producing and Directing Summer Theater camps were another part of my professional work right until Karen and I heeded an unanticipated call to relocate up to Vermont. Spurred on by a long range vision for a Creative oriented Theater Arts center one day in the future, we moved in August of 2004, commencing this new chapter in our lives with the commitment to build new programs, with all we had to give, within the Castleton Hubbardton area of central Vermont.
A great surprise to me was a flood of inspiration, since moving to Vermont, that is “driving” me to pursue my OWN creative projects, in addition to my development of student work that I have described in my “Out of the closet” blog of June 29, 2007. (Is there something "special" in the air or the water, here in Vermont?
What I haven’t discussed until now is the fact that 4 and 5 year olds, volunteer to come up to the piano, standing, not sitting, and proceed to “make” music. Yeah, pretty much like what I've been talking about up until now. There are children that only need encouragement and a little bit of guidance. Then they improvise a story, on the spot. They sing the story while accompanying themselves. They might be matching their melodic creativity to the accompaniment, finding the same key. Or they are expressing in the accompaniment the theatrical mood of the story they are singing. Others who are not quite ready to sing are telling stories through their fingers.
You’ve got to see it to believe it.
And if my guess is right, based on what I witnessed in New York City, the children will absorb what their more adventurous classmates are doing, and they will follow, doing the same. I can pretty safely predict that most of them will be singing and playing their own improvised musical stories.
At ALT we will rely on that same “green thumb” that has brought success in the schools we have given ourselves to over the years. And what time constraints I've always had to work under. But not here at ALT. We'll have plenty of time. Finally! Time! Wow! Now, as long as the thumb stays "green". So hopeth Karen and yours truly.
Until next time. Leslie
The preceding 11 years ('85-'96) included creating both a guitar program for 260 students a year, (yes, you read that right) and a keyboard program following. (Yep, 260 again.)
Well, in short, it worked. I developed an approach which enabled over 90% of my students to perform a large spectrum of guitar chords, several guitar patterns (riffs), and melodic playing as well. The 10% who did not succeed, failed, I believe, only because they WOULD NOT make the effort.
I developed a similar model for the Keyboard program, but something else began to develop, almost within the first week.
One by one, students from each group of 48 would come up to me before or during class, asking if they could perform a “solo” piece on my teacher’s acoustic piano in the front of the room, which I would instruct from.
From the outset, the students were taking the chords and patterns I had taught them, and they were now COMPOSING piano music that was their own. These "solos" became part of our music period, needing serious blocks of time, especially when there were 9 or 10 hands going up at the same time, all volunteers with something new, ready to go.
Can you imagine my thrill with all of this, and witnessing the same thing in all six groups? A variety of musical styles from all regions of the world, jazz, baroque, classical, impressionistic, Chopin-like romantic styles, ragtime, blues, ethnic folk music suggestive of Asian, Russian, Arabic, Hispanic, and, well, American! It was a potpourri of any and everything.
People didn't know what to compare it to. I would invite school administrators to come in and witness what was happening. Even Rudolph Giuliani. the then Mayor of New York City, possibly heard about it from his wife, Donna Hanover. She was with me, witnessing this phenom in action. It clearly wasn’t your conventional school band or chorus.
My seven years that followed on the elementary level found me desiring to shift towards Drama and Musical Theatre. For one thing, I had no music room, and the children had no access to instruments. So I encouraged the playwriting and skit development which opened up a new genre for me to cultivate more of that “creative fruit” I was applying the "green thumb" towards.
Producing and Directing Summer Theater camps were another part of my professional work right until Karen and I heeded an unanticipated call to relocate up to Vermont. Spurred on by a long range vision for a Creative oriented Theater Arts center one day in the future, we moved in August of 2004, commencing this new chapter in our lives with the commitment to build new programs, with all we had to give, within the Castleton Hubbardton area of central Vermont.
A great surprise to me was a flood of inspiration, since moving to Vermont, that is “driving” me to pursue my OWN creative projects, in addition to my development of student work that I have described in my “Out of the closet” blog of June 29, 2007. (Is there something "special" in the air or the water, here in Vermont?
What I haven’t discussed until now is the fact that 4 and 5 year olds, volunteer to come up to the piano, standing, not sitting, and proceed to “make” music. Yeah, pretty much like what I've been talking about up until now. There are children that only need encouragement and a little bit of guidance. Then they improvise a story, on the spot. They sing the story while accompanying themselves. They might be matching their melodic creativity to the accompaniment, finding the same key. Or they are expressing in the accompaniment the theatrical mood of the story they are singing. Others who are not quite ready to sing are telling stories through their fingers.
You’ve got to see it to believe it.
And if my guess is right, based on what I witnessed in New York City, the children will absorb what their more adventurous classmates are doing, and they will follow, doing the same. I can pretty safely predict that most of them will be singing and playing their own improvised musical stories.
At ALT we will rely on that same “green thumb” that has brought success in the schools we have given ourselves to over the years. And what time constraints I've always had to work under. But not here at ALT. We'll have plenty of time. Finally! Time! Wow! Now, as long as the thumb stays "green". So hopeth Karen and yours truly.
Until next time. Leslie
Sunday, July 1, 2007
"OH, I COULD NEVER DO THAT"
When I was ten years old I woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake. I felt a curious compulsion to retrieve from my school bag a notebook and pencil, set myself up at the dining room table, and begin to write. Deep thoughts, poetic, a flow of words that were the embodiment of my mood at that 3:00 a.m. moment. I wrote a page or page and a half, looked it over, feeling pretty emotional about it. I thought to myself, "This is really different. Then I went back to bed and fell asleep.
A similar thing happened two years later. This time it was a two hundred word piece about fear of nuclear war . Because I had two much older brothers who talked about current events, I was probably the only 11 year old in America who was worried about war in this tiny country around the world that most people hadn't even heard of, Vietnam. My boy's heart blurted out a mix of of anger, worry, and sadness.
From age 13 on into adulthood, whenever that same“urge” came, I would respond in either of two ways:
1. Ignore it (This is going to be junk, so why bother?
Or 2. Write something. Then cut it to pieces. "This is junk. This is stupid. Why did I bother?"
Now where did this notion of JUNK AND WORTHLESSNESS come from? At ten and twelve I still had enough sense of wonder and, can we say, FAITH in the worth of these feelings, that I had enough courage to "get it out".
What changed? What was it about the years that ended in "-teen" that made "getting it out" like the worst thing in the world? What was there at ten, and gone at fourteen?
Faith in what I was doing. The Belief that my creative impulses were true, exciting, and would resonate with some of the folks in my world.
FAITH - ie: Belief. a Strength of Conviction. The Vision is True.
NO FAITH- ie: Unbelief, the Inability to grasp the hope. "It's too Good to be true."
I propose to you, gentle reader, that when I entered into adolescence and adulthood, I withdrew from my talents, knowingly and with some sense of guilt. I let them become “quenched”, “cauterized” by a malignant mood or atmosphere that "cast" itself over my creative "oomph". "Cast" like in an evil spell. In other words: I LET IT ALL SLIP AWAY.
I want to know who can identify with this phenomena. Did you experience a transition in your life where you found yourself believing that anything you tried to create would end up being “stupid, cornball, wimpy, trite, already been done, dumb, sissyish, second or third rate, not making any sense, boring?” You have no idea how easy it was for me to create the list of these 11 items just now. Obviously, I had been thoroughly contaminated.
Why does this judgment and self-condemnation of our creative flow strike so quickly? Who has done this "number" on our head?
Most of us feel confident enough in our skills at finding bargains, waiting for the best price, improving our financial situation, strategizing through how to handle the money, even complicated issues.
Why do we have such confidence when it come to money matters, yet leave "personal creativity" to those "special", slightly "oddball" people?
I do believe that there is an ENEMY of our soul that wants you and me to submit to a “law of talent" that proclaims with authority that “only a few special people can create anything truly worth while. They are the geniuses, the super talented. You are not the one in a million, or one in ten million, one in 300 million, or 600 million, or only one in the whole world who can do that".
What have we resigned ourselves to believe? Have we been duped? What kind of things do we say, from this perspective? Things like:
“Oh, I could never do that. I could never be like ………………......... ( Fill in the name of your artistic hero from your favored genre .
In American Logres Theatre we are going to fight and conquer this Intimidator of our faith in what we can do. Arnold may be the Terminator, but the Intimidator is far more dangerous because He is quite real and has done great damage to everyone I have ever known, and worse yet, he is even more powerful because very few of us ever attempt to overrule his defeatest attitude.
Now is the time to fight. I've begun. I want to help you fight. Both Karen and I, and the rest of the ALT community are united in this.
When you enter into the atmosphere of American Logres Theatre, you will hopefully find your mind and soul feeling invigorated, encouraged, ready to breathe in the air of “inspiration”. Then the creative "stuff" can begin to come out. Do you know that’s what the word inspiration means? Well...
EXPIRE is the opposite. It means to exhale, breathe out, to die. Finis. All done. All gone. Kaput.
INSPIRE is to breathe in. Receive the breath of the gods, or God. The fruit of inspiration is the Experience of vision, the dreaming of possibilities. Get ready to give birth, to dreams and visions. And together, we'll turn them into something.
A similar thing happened two years later. This time it was a two hundred word piece about fear of nuclear war . Because I had two much older brothers who talked about current events, I was probably the only 11 year old in America who was worried about war in this tiny country around the world that most people hadn't even heard of, Vietnam. My boy's heart blurted out a mix of of anger, worry, and sadness.
From age 13 on into adulthood, whenever that same“urge” came, I would respond in either of two ways:
1. Ignore it (This is going to be junk, so why bother?
Or 2. Write something. Then cut it to pieces. "This is junk. This is stupid. Why did I bother?"
Now where did this notion of JUNK AND WORTHLESSNESS come from? At ten and twelve I still had enough sense of wonder and, can we say, FAITH in the worth of these feelings, that I had enough courage to "get it out".
What changed? What was it about the years that ended in "-teen" that made "getting it out" like the worst thing in the world? What was there at ten, and gone at fourteen?
Faith in what I was doing. The Belief that my creative impulses were true, exciting, and would resonate with some of the folks in my world.
FAITH - ie: Belief. a Strength of Conviction. The Vision is True.
NO FAITH- ie: Unbelief, the Inability to grasp the hope. "It's too Good to be true."
I propose to you, gentle reader, that when I entered into adolescence and adulthood, I withdrew from my talents, knowingly and with some sense of guilt. I let them become “quenched”, “cauterized” by a malignant mood or atmosphere that "cast" itself over my creative "oomph". "Cast" like in an evil spell. In other words: I LET IT ALL SLIP AWAY.
I want to know who can identify with this phenomena. Did you experience a transition in your life where you found yourself believing that anything you tried to create would end up being “stupid, cornball, wimpy, trite, already been done, dumb, sissyish, second or third rate, not making any sense, boring?” You have no idea how easy it was for me to create the list of these 11 items just now. Obviously, I had been thoroughly contaminated.
Why does this judgment and self-condemnation of our creative flow strike so quickly? Who has done this "number" on our head?
Most of us feel confident enough in our skills at finding bargains, waiting for the best price, improving our financial situation, strategizing through how to handle the money, even complicated issues.
Why do we have such confidence when it come to money matters, yet leave "personal creativity" to those "special", slightly "oddball" people?
I do believe that there is an ENEMY of our soul that wants you and me to submit to a “law of talent" that proclaims with authority that “only a few special people can create anything truly worth while. They are the geniuses, the super talented. You are not the one in a million, or one in ten million, one in 300 million, or 600 million, or only one in the whole world who can do that".
What have we resigned ourselves to believe? Have we been duped? What kind of things do we say, from this perspective? Things like:
“Oh, I could never do that. I could never be like ………………......... ( Fill in the name of your artistic hero from your favored genre .
In American Logres Theatre we are going to fight and conquer this Intimidator of our faith in what we can do. Arnold may be the Terminator, but the Intimidator is far more dangerous because He is quite real and has done great damage to everyone I have ever known, and worse yet, he is even more powerful because very few of us ever attempt to overrule his defeatest attitude.
Now is the time to fight. I've begun. I want to help you fight. Both Karen and I, and the rest of the ALT community are united in this.
When you enter into the atmosphere of American Logres Theatre, you will hopefully find your mind and soul feeling invigorated, encouraged, ready to breathe in the air of “inspiration”. Then the creative "stuff" can begin to come out. Do you know that’s what the word inspiration means? Well...
EXPIRE is the opposite. It means to exhale, breathe out, to die. Finis. All done. All gone. Kaput.
INSPIRE is to breathe in. Receive the breath of the gods, or God. The fruit of inspiration is the Experience of vision, the dreaming of possibilities. Get ready to give birth, to dreams and visions. And together, we'll turn them into something.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
INSPIRATION
INSPIRATION.
The ancient Greeks believed the origins of "inspiration" flowed forth from the nine sisters, all daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the "goddess" of memory. These daughters seem to have inherited power and authority from their father, Zeus. The power to inspire mortals with creative ideas in the arts and the science, seems to have been coupled with the arousal and excitement of creativity, inspired perhaps by their mother.
We all know the emotional power of both nostalgic memories on one hand and the passionate or romantic stirrings which move the human heart when an “inspired” work of art "moves" us. Both nostalgia and passion seem to be inherited from Mnemosyne.
The Greek name for magnetized iron was Heraclitus, a word related to Hercules. The Socratic dialogue from Plato’s “Ion” uses this word in describing the “magnetizing” transfer of power that begins with the POET, who Plato equates with a PROPHET, or ORACLE. This “holy” forthteller touches (magnetizes) the ORATOR, who, like the modern day actor, public or motivational speaker, or singer, or solo instrumentalist, or entire rock band, for that matter, is able to “move” people. These are the people we spend a lot of money to go and see, even when it's overpriced tickets in oversized venues. It has always amazed me that people will fill arenas and stadiums to see their "celebrity", even when they are about the size of fleas from where they are seated in the audience. What a testimony to the power and influence of charisma.
Socrates questions Ion as to where he derives his “power”, this electricity that moves the people to tears when he performs (orates) the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer. Ion confesses his relative ignorance of the subject matter of history or warfare. Yet he is able to enrapture his audience as if he is living out these experiences at that very moment.
Socrates enlightens Ion with the awareness of this “Hericlaten”, “magnetic” power which empowers him, speaks through him, spreading the “fragrance” (my word) of his theme throughout the room. This is as good an illustration of inspiration as I have ever come across.
When I was 17 (“it was a very good year”. I had to say that for some of you fellow old timers.) my 13 year old cocker spaniel that I had grown up (o.k., I'm serious, again.) with needed to be put to sleep. I went out after dinner, said a quick goodbye, in denial that Taffy probably wasn't going to come home from the vet. Instead, I proceeded to waste a few meaningless, miserable hours standing around outside a local diner, doing nothing, feeling guilty, with an emotionally constipated heart, full of grief and guilt feelings.
I wore my brave face as I returned home, entered the house, tried not to notice the empty bed, still coated in spots with Taffy’s blond dog hairs, soon to be vacuumed away forever. I proceeded downstairs, feeling compelled to sit at the upright piano, and proceeded to “spill out” a pretty sophisticated piece of original music, not rock, not classical, but coming from a place that I could only describe as "Leslie", a "Leslie place'.
No tears, No wailing… nothing on the outside. No. BUT…the music told the truth. Feelings poured out through this things we call "inspiration." It was like some kind of grace, “helping” me to grieve, to mourn Taffy’s loss. I felt a bit redeemed from my guilt.
And finally, there is one more link in Socrates’ "magnetic" chain: The AUDIENCE.
If we who are “experiencing” the “prophet’s” message are sending supportive “vibrations” to our artist, we empower him/her/them at the same moment we are being touched by their performance. Everyone who performs a lot, who has gotten over stage fright and nervousness, testifies to the energy exchange of love and appreciation from the audience which empowers the performer to give a more "powerful" performance. Isn't it interesting that we use that very word?
So…We, the audience, complete Socrates" “magnetized chain” that follows from Prophet (Poet) -> Orator -> Audience. There’s the sequence.
At American Logres Theatre we need you to come to us with DESIRE. We can’t help with that. But if you've got desire, then we CAN encourage you to allow the inspiration to move through you.” If the power of LOGRES meets you, you'll find you have a story to tell. It'll be real. It'll be yours. And we'll all be pretty enthused about it. Here's to Heraclitus!
Tomorrow’s Topic: “OH, I COULD NEVER DO THAT!”
The ancient Greeks believed the origins of "inspiration" flowed forth from the nine sisters, all daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the "goddess" of memory. These daughters seem to have inherited power and authority from their father, Zeus. The power to inspire mortals with creative ideas in the arts and the science, seems to have been coupled with the arousal and excitement of creativity, inspired perhaps by their mother.
We all know the emotional power of both nostalgic memories on one hand and the passionate or romantic stirrings which move the human heart when an “inspired” work of art "moves" us. Both nostalgia and passion seem to be inherited from Mnemosyne.
The Greek name for magnetized iron was Heraclitus, a word related to Hercules. The Socratic dialogue from Plato’s “Ion” uses this word in describing the “magnetizing” transfer of power that begins with the POET, who Plato equates with a PROPHET, or ORACLE. This “holy” forthteller touches (magnetizes) the ORATOR, who, like the modern day actor, public or motivational speaker, or singer, or solo instrumentalist, or entire rock band, for that matter, is able to “move” people. These are the people we spend a lot of money to go and see, even when it's overpriced tickets in oversized venues. It has always amazed me that people will fill arenas and stadiums to see their "celebrity", even when they are about the size of fleas from where they are seated in the audience. What a testimony to the power and influence of charisma.
Socrates questions Ion as to where he derives his “power”, this electricity that moves the people to tears when he performs (orates) the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer. Ion confesses his relative ignorance of the subject matter of history or warfare. Yet he is able to enrapture his audience as if he is living out these experiences at that very moment.
Socrates enlightens Ion with the awareness of this “Hericlaten”, “magnetic” power which empowers him, speaks through him, spreading the “fragrance” (my word) of his theme throughout the room. This is as good an illustration of inspiration as I have ever come across.
When I was 17 (“it was a very good year”. I had to say that for some of you fellow old timers.) my 13 year old cocker spaniel that I had grown up (o.k., I'm serious, again.) with needed to be put to sleep. I went out after dinner, said a quick goodbye, in denial that Taffy probably wasn't going to come home from the vet. Instead, I proceeded to waste a few meaningless, miserable hours standing around outside a local diner, doing nothing, feeling guilty, with an emotionally constipated heart, full of grief and guilt feelings.
I wore my brave face as I returned home, entered the house, tried not to notice the empty bed, still coated in spots with Taffy’s blond dog hairs, soon to be vacuumed away forever. I proceeded downstairs, feeling compelled to sit at the upright piano, and proceeded to “spill out” a pretty sophisticated piece of original music, not rock, not classical, but coming from a place that I could only describe as "Leslie", a "Leslie place'.
No tears, No wailing… nothing on the outside. No. BUT…the music told the truth. Feelings poured out through this things we call "inspiration." It was like some kind of grace, “helping” me to grieve, to mourn Taffy’s loss. I felt a bit redeemed from my guilt.
And finally, there is one more link in Socrates’ "magnetic" chain: The AUDIENCE.
If we who are “experiencing” the “prophet’s” message are sending supportive “vibrations” to our artist, we empower him/her/them at the same moment we are being touched by their performance. Everyone who performs a lot, who has gotten over stage fright and nervousness, testifies to the energy exchange of love and appreciation from the audience which empowers the performer to give a more "powerful" performance. Isn't it interesting that we use that very word?
So…We, the audience, complete Socrates" “magnetized chain” that follows from Prophet (Poet) -> Orator -> Audience. There’s the sequence.
At American Logres Theatre we need you to come to us with DESIRE. We can’t help with that. But if you've got desire, then we CAN encourage you to allow the inspiration to move through you.” If the power of LOGRES meets you, you'll find you have a story to tell. It'll be real. It'll be yours. And we'll all be pretty enthused about it. Here's to Heraclitus!
Tomorrow’s Topic: “OH, I COULD NEVER DO THAT!”
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