Some thoughts on music.
Music is one of the easiest ways to raise oneself above the simple, existence level. The Hasidim thought that dancing had curing powers as well:
A rabbi, whose grandfather had been a disciple of theMy journey started in Princeton, where I used to listen to WPRB. But it was only when I was in Pittsburgh that I summoned enough courage to try out for a radio show at WRCT. It was easier than I had thought, in that the actual physical activities required to run a show: cuing up records/cd's/cassettes, keeping a log of the music played, announcing the songs, the required station id.'s, the public announcements, could be done relatively easily. What proved harder was to maintain my interests - and probably that of the listeners- and that of learning that doing a radio show is more than stringing together some songs. I started to put together shows with themes like a country/punk show, an Easter/Passover show, a Hanukkha/Christmas show. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it did not. I also started to mix words with music, trying to create sound collages also along certain themes, like the anniversary of the beginning of WWII in 1990 (Ok, I missed it in 1989).
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the Ba'al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name),was asked to tell a story. "A story," he said, "must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself." And he told:"My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how the holy Ba'al Shem used to hop and danced while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke and he was so swept away by his story that he himself began to hop and, dance to show how the master had done. From that hour on he was cured of his lameness. " -- Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim Masters, Early Masters
I continued this when I came to California, at KZSU, at Stanford. This is where I met Jonathan Steuer and Giamma Clerici. Also, my interests broadened from reggae sounds to other genres: industrial, punk, hip-hop, dance. Most recently, many of these genres have been mixed up, so that we get rave music, though it is itself quite splintered in sub-genres:house, tekno, ambient, jungle, etc. Raves are also great places to meet people. This is how I met several of the folx I know from cyborganic: Jon Druckman, Anne Francis, Michael Gold, Susie Kameny, Laura LaGassa, Mara, Niels Mayer, Sonic. Here are recent listings raves in the Bay Area. Plus, recently, I was in Chicago, IL - Batavia, IL, to be exact - visiting FermiLab. While there, I had the chance to go to couple of parties. Recently I was able to catch Psychic TV playing live. A new sound, mixing their olde acid-house/pagan sound scapes with rok.
Though this might not be obvious, my interest in music has had a strong impact on my physics research. Also, it proved to be door for my interest in psychoalchemy and the hidden mysteries as well as giving me a way to change my consciousness.
