The Importance of Being an Artist: One listener's virtual interpretation of 'Evening' from 'Slow to Burn

Art is the greatest equalizer. Whether Democrat, Independent, Progressive, Republican or Undecided, Art - music, literature, painting, poetry - serves to communicate our collective ideals, values, and beliefs: our fears, frailties, strengths and desires.

Music is perhaps the most potent and vital art because it pulses, it breathes, it inhabits the spaces in which we gather; it haunts our dreams and awakens our memories. Music ignites our unconscious and fires our imaginations. 

It is that same core of our humanity that is touched by Mozart, Pink Floyd, Billie Holiday, The Knife, Francoise Hardy and Etienne Daho, irrespective of the listener's political leanings.

We live in virtual as well as tangible realm. One feeds the other in multiple and manifold ways. To be an artist is to live in all realms simultaneously, detecting the subtle flickers of existence that would otherwise go unnoticed. To the artist, everything is worth noticing.

The virtual world is a means for connecting but can often be distancing, as well. For me, making music achieves the most direct form of communication of all the arts, as it reaches the listener's ear with no intermediary. This video by CreativeGeniusAtWork illustrates this - virtually and beautifully.

MOONSHINE: Coming soon | Joe Sent Me 'Moonshine' Mixes

"Moonshine (meaning illicit distillation, also called white lightning, mountain dew, hooch" Wikipedia

 "On this day in 1833: Southern state illegalizes hooch on this date, officially names Coltrane new sheriff."

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Music & Revolution: The Political is Personal - aRUDE Magazine

For those of you who missed my Tweets & FB posts on my recent piece 'Music & Revolution: The Political is Personal' for aRUDE Magazine:

Mahatma Gandhi‘s passive resistance was rooted in the idea that the greatest revolutionary act is borne in the quiet of one’s mind. Resistance manifests itself in manifold ways, sometimes with anger and aggression and other times in stillness and silence. What all revolutions have in common is the resolute mindset of each participant: to resist and remain standing. Standing up against tyranny and oppression is  a rebellious act, an irreverent, irrepressible act.

While it has become an accepted Truth that ‘The Personal is Political’, the reverse also holds true; ‘The Political is Personal’, and nothing is more personal than the music one chooses to live by, to be inspired by, and be guided by. Music and revolution walk hand in hand, and while each Revolution aspires to its own unique ideals, music is one thing they all have in common.  Whether RiotGrrl or RudeBoy, singing “We Shall Overcome” or “Occupy D.C.”, all Revolutions are fueled by words that are poetic, raw, and real – whether they’re scrawled on walls or carefully articulated in Mantras and Manifestos. Throughout history, protesters have marched to songs that speak to their individual as well as collective pain, purpose and philosophy.

In today’s virtual landscape of crowd-sourced revolution, we’ve become used to the images of ‘Revolution’, the ones that typically make the headlines: photos of protesters pressing together en masse, compressed in their fury and urgency. Our collective histories tell the visual tales: The French Revolution, The American Revolution, The Industrial Revolution, The Egyptian Revolution, The New Feminist Revolution – Great throngs that have gathered to stand up against tyranny, oppression, ideology, regime.

Read the full post @ aRUDE