Sometimes I lose my way. I can tell when I am lost in the woods because my thoughts are outwardly critical and not of the spirit.
I've been working on a personal, archival project for the last few weeks. I hope to present my efforts next month, but it may take longer. On the surface, the project is about music and memories. At the core, the work is about repetition and meditation.
I have been collecting and listening to music all my life. This musical journey started with vinyl and today it continues digitally. My latest digital acquisition is a collaboration by Jon Hopkins, East Forest and Ram Dass entitled "Sit Around the Fire" which I'd like to share with you.
So yeah, music, memories, repetition and meditation. I've determined that the archival project will require at least 5,000 repetitious actions. With each action, a musician, a lyric, an image or a phrase will evoke a memory which ignites a feeling. One such song for me is the opening track on the Cocteau Twins album Treasure. Not long ago, I couldn't listen to the song, which is titled "Ivo." It hurt too much. I first heard the music in 1986, my last year of college at UCSD. I was instantly in love with the moody, ethereal voice of Elizabeth Fraser. I was a cocky 22 year old full of dreamy, badass attitude. Cigarettes, leather and being stoned. But hearing the song decades later filled me with breathtaking claustrophobia and heartache. As David Byrne would say, “My God! What have I done?” Then I remembered the healing power of meditation.
We are not our thoughts. Quiet the mind, open the heart.
For the last 35 weeks, Dee and I have been playing one vintage album every Saturday night to jump-start our dance parties. We alternate who picks the record each week. After we spin and groove to the vinyl, I make a digital scan of the album and then I give the record back to Dee so she can create illustrations inspired by the cover art. Since we both love rituals, we dug the idea of continuing our Saturday tradition for the next 12 years because that's how long it would take since we have about 600 records. I kinda did the math. But then I thought it would be cool to see all the albums together in one far out, massive collage, which got me thinking. So basically, I’ve decided to accelerate the scanning, the remembering and all the meditative repetitions—for the sake of art! Rest assured, we'll continue to ease into our Saturday nights. No hurries, no worries.
And by the way, last week we listened to the Cocteau Twins album, Treasure. We danced like wild banshee children. I had feelings, for sure, but they were embers of the spirit, y'all. No crushing thoughts of existential dread. Just good vibes.
As Ram Dass said, "Let the judgements and opinions of the mind be judgements and opinions of the mind. And you exist behind that. Ah so. Ah so."
In other words—get down, boogie oogie oogie—music by A Taste of Honey, 1978.
We have it on vinyl.
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