Listening: Ken Wilber + Deepak Chopra conversation (I-N)
Mood: engaged
Last night I came across an old quote by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who said that what was most important in modern art, architecture and design was very often what was left out.
Here is another great quote, by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He said: I don’t want to be interesting. I want to be good.
Those two views can work hand in hand. Leave out what is superficial, leave out what is merely interesting until at last you arrive at the good design/music/architecture etc….
My favorite part of the Wilber-Chopra conversation is where Deepak Chopra talks about the decaying and putrefied body of the caterpillar feeding an entirley new body…. and turning into a butterfly. Could that be metaphor for the struggle the world is going through at present?
Mood: Stoned – just kidding.
What Nagy says about art can certainly apply to Ottmar’s music. One of my favorite quotes from Deepak is “we are human beings, not human doings.” Draw a parallel to the truism of “beauty in simplicity” or appreciating Ottmar’s music for what is – incredible composition and performance which stimulates emotion/imagination, rather than lyrics creating boundaries for the listener.
Transformation, transition, change, etc. are good and optimistic views – I hope that our present times are just a phase to better ones . . .I believe the human race needs transformation in order to get to the next level. This weekend’s events in Russia, Iraq, and other places were hard to understand.
On the other hand, a potential natural disaster turned out to be less of a tragedy in South Florida as Frances became a tropical storm – unfortunately some fellows in North Florida may not agree with me since it caused some destruction up there. The good news is that throughout this threatening situation humans down here actually helped one another! Cheers!