"God Watches."
 

[regarding Improvisation]  "Art as Prayer. The mood, mind, and focus I enjoy while making a sculpture, for example, is indistinguishable from the mood, mind, and focus I enjoy when praying. As I develop as a spiritual person and read and research the Word of God, I find many signs suggesting that - unlike song - Improvisation is just about as close as a person can get to a real Dialogue with God in real-time. It is through the act of permitting oneself to get out of the way of God that the most powerful stuff gets through. Songs are about something; Improvisation is something whole from start to finish. I am not speaking only of improvisation in the audio arts; but in all manner of personal expression. There are a lot of creative people I've met during my 45 year life; and the greater part of those who have survived their youth are becoming or have become increasingly spiritual and their art has taken on more the nature of Prayer than Product. This is encouraging. It's a shame that public opinion sometimes deems "Modern Art" immoral based upon the confrontational creations of a handful of insulting individuals."  8/2003

"EMPLOYMENT GROWTH 101:
    Thanks to the Enron collapse, Greed has finally begun to be viewed as a bad thing in America.  If not as a bad thing, then at least as an embarrassing thing to get caught fondling in public.
    I suggest America help its disenfranchised and unemployed by offering a tax-deduction for employed persons willing to suffer a voluntary 5% pay-cut, which would be applied to the creation of [an] additional paid position[s] within that employed person's place of employ.
    An alternative could be to apply the money to the creation and maintenance of daycare facilities within companies needing them."
09/02

"FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY 101:
    The myth that all spending benefits a national or state economy is myopic.
    Is living beyond one's means a Right?  A Privilege?  Or merely a stupid and self-destructive behavior that has been dressed to kill by parasites with a taste for dying American flesh?
    It should go without mention that many of those who find themselves bankrupt have travelled a road paved with substance, object, or behavioral addiction to get there.  How many more families must fall under this blade?
    In any nation suffering from fallout owing to rampant backruptcy resulting from the fiscal irresponsibility of its citizens, intervention may be prudent.
    Federal credit lending guidelines should be put into place, limiting borrowing amounts on credit cards to a maximum of 5% of the borrower's annual net income. Clearly, if one cannot stay on top of a (for example) $500 owed balance, they should not be permitted to borrow or charge five times that amount."

"TIME - THE NEW GOLDEN CALF IN AMERICA:
    Consider the possible common origins of road rage...child neglect... divorce...fast food...cellphone addiction...superficiality and mere 'acquaintance' replacing lasting friendship and steadily evolving relationship...the list goes on and on.  Is there a hub around which these embarrassing aspects of our culture jointly revolve?  You bet'cha.
    The 'need for speed' is marketed via every media, from the pulpit on down to television.  At my town's largest church, I routinely see Sunday morning parishoners driving up the 'Do Not Enter' exit lane to beat their fellowship to good parking spots.  I have been the recipient of vicious cutoffs and abbreviated waves ("the Finger") from many vehicles sporting the Fish symbol.  I am growing to believe that "Walking in the Spirit" began its disappearance with the mass producti0on of automobiles.
     For your edification, I present Time - the New Golden Calf; a demon worshipped, by many, more than any available diety in America.  Impatience exerts a force on the average American more powerful than any stated 'creed', and is capable of overwhelming and erasing home, community, State, and (I believe) the fundamental principles upon which this Nation was erected.  It seems that for many folks, God is an accelerator pedal, with a side of fries."
08/02

"You need to get your foot in the right door in order to be able to put it
up the right ass."

    "When, for example, the weather conditions in a swamp promote the profligation of frogs, the feed-insect population will diminish and the frog population will flourish until the food supply no longer meets demand; at which point the scale will tip and the frog population will plateau and then taper.  In any species, Entropy precedes Starvation and Starvation precedes Disease.
    If the Earth's surface can be thought of as an enormous, single ecosystem (and it is) - an interconnected organic relationship with changes measured in centuries, rather than days or years - we are in a cleansing cycle; near center in the segue between Chaos and Hunger.
    This view may also be viewed Biblically, with the many constituent components of Earth's ecosystem - as man - experiencing a charted course. Human Error may be inevitable."
08/02

"HOW TO CATCH DRUG DEALERS - 101:
    The US Drug Enforcment Agency and IRS, in conjunction with state departments of motor vehicles and small town sherriff's departments, would do well to attach 'red flags' to individuals owning and driving 'Phat Cars' [new/in excellent condition, chrome rims, disproportionate stereo system, strange taillight lenses (ie, clear w/ purple), several car deodorizers hanging from rear-view mirror next to feather-roachclip and beads, etc.], with reported annual incomes below the cost of the vehicle. Following drug-busts, unpaid taxes from illegal drug sales could be partially recovered through the easy resale of the 'Phat' vehicles after confiscation. Our communities could be rid of a few more of these dealers."
08/02

"I enjoy bottled water, but it warms too quickly, particularly when driving.  I suggest that bottled water be marketed frozen.   It will remain refreshing longer."
06/02

[regarding Teaching]  "Teaching is really important to me. There's such a collapse of the family these days. I know that for many of the kids I teach I'm about as much of a dad as they're ever going to have. So I really feel that despite a lot of the flak that some schools get (and probably some schools deserve), my classroom is a sanctuary, and it is a place where you can learn something that'll help you to not be a jackass for the rest of your life."
01/02

[regarding the D.I.Y. Music Movement of the 1980's]  "...as Robin James called it, it was the "Cassette Mythos".  He published a book by that name.  I was very involved in that back then.  I've got photocopies of the reviews I had written up...I've probably got 70 different releases that were reviewed in all those different places and I have reviewed several hundred music releases over the years myself.  It was fun.  It was really fertile.  A lot of things were happening.  People were getting along and being supportive of one another. I try to keep going with the inclusivity thing, but I don't find a lot of allies anymore."
01/02

[regarding Electronic Communication]  "Well I think the ability for people to shoot their ideas back and forth on the internet is a wonderful thing.  I used to do it all by telephone and mail and it was very time consuming.  Of course those media provide longer periods of reflection about what you're doing, which is something that may be lost on the Internet because it's so instantaneous.  Everybody's really concerned about their time.  So I think some of the time for reflection upon what people are doing perhaps is lost...so the Internet is a mixed bag...a crutch that could very easily be kicked out from under one."
01/02

[regarding Christian Living]  "I imagine a brave and multicultural brotherhood of men dedicated to preserving the sanctity of Christianity as a method for living.  Such a brotherhood would actively live according to the teachings of Jesus and The U.S. Constitution; by intervening when necessary to balance, legally correct, and to expose to the public any local heresies perpetrated by evil ones claiming to be Christian. Followers of Christ ought not fear scrutiny. Nor should a man claiming to be "Christian" bear false witness to his community by living in a fashion antithetical to the Lord God's Ten Commandments."

"I like sound. I try to be painterly with it and do things that the market doesn't necessarily dictate as wise choices. It's the stuff that cracks the mold that you remember."
01/02

[regarding Improvisation] "Since 1988, I have increasingly inserted obstacles into my work. In so doing, playing and performing music has remained enjoyable and sporting. I think of interactions with other improvisors and 'style' players as tennis matches, some time on the links or on a pinball machine. Sometimes, I get my butt whipped."
01/02

"It sucks when you rag on a volunteer."
01/02

[regarding Improvisation] "I trust my body. I am aware of its slowness and insufficient articulation in certain environments. I sometimes lapse into generalized trance-states, possibly induced by the music I am making, which limit variation and cause my playing to become horizontal and patterned. These periods are analogous to 'cleansing breaths', allowing other strategies a moment to ferment before I execute them."
01/02

"Music, performed well, feels wonderful. You have that opportunity to do it 'right'. Music, performed sloppily/drunkenly/without enjoyment, is a waste of Life-time. Music, recorded well, sounds wonderful. You have a lifetime to tweak things into submission. Fortunately for my family, I am more interested in capturing something pure, autobiographical, and of-that-time; which can be done much more quickly. This paradigm allows me to keep real-bills paid via a full-time job, interact with my wife and kids a bunch, have friends, and perform often. I prefer both, in reasonable quantities."
01/02

"Music was not often consistently enjoyable until I began improvising. It has become the cornerstone of everything I make - musical and non-musical. I have found parenting to be the most satisfying arena for improvisation. My very best friends are improvisors. Improvisation is a return to the wonder of childhood, but with the wisdom and restraint of one's years...when it's happening smoothly in an imporvising group, it is quite like when your spouse finishes a sentence you've started; and you say "Yeah", instead of "Hush"."
01/02

[regarding commercialized Jazz]  "Music, I think, is unimpressed by the Cult of the Soulless Hand, the Church of Nepotic Alliances, and does not kneel at the Broken Obelisk of The Haughty Misanthrope."
01/02

[regarding homemade instruments]  "New instruments destroy habit and memory. New instruments develop and strengthen intuitive gesture and archetype. New instruments remove Ego and deepen listening. New instruments develop kinetic intelligence and teach hands techniques often applicable on other instruments. New instruments cement original melodies into my memory, and infer possible orchestration and future arrangement in other contexts. I am not necessarily speaking exclusively of musical instruments."
01/02

"EVERYTHING is a percussion instrument."
01/84

"Why aren't our telephone and power lines underground - like in civilized nations - so that they don't interfere with NPR radio reception and the view of the sky?"
06/77