Orson Welles and Modern Art

I happened upon this classic 1977 documentary by Herbert Kline, narrated by Orson Welles, covering all the major movements and phases of Modern Art.

Delightfully stodgy and filled with a myriad of accents, ideas, styles and mediums, this in depth film highlights past and contemporary artists with ease and clarity, bringing this multi-faceted art style out from its own self designed obscurity and confusion. Enjoy!

Indo-European Jazz

Lloyd Miller, who specialized in Persian music, teamed up with a Jazz ensemble in the 1960's to make a fine hybrid of the two styles. So relax, and have some brain food to help with the verbosity of the last post. 

And here he is, doing some more traditional Persian music. Enjoy!

Thoughts on "The People"

The idea of "The People," as conceived as a longstanding, aware, self identifying social unit, has been with human society since language first rose to prominence as the dominant tool of human cultural and interpersonal communication. While this subject could, and has, been discussed from an endless multitude of ethical, social, moral, historical, linguistic and cultural standpoints, I wish only to bring up some quotes from my recent reading.

First, Oswald Spengler from Decline of the West:

Concerning "higher and primitive" cultures: 

"In all primitive existence the "it," the Cosmic, is at work with such immediacy of force that all microcosmic utterances...obey only the pressures of the very instant.... But with the type of higher Culture this "it" gives way to a strong and undiffused tendency.Within the primitive Culture, tribes and clans were the only quickened beings....(In higher cultures), the Culture itself is such a being."

Here, the "it" can refer to anything really. The family and society, certain important objects, places or people, and even the cosmos itself. For Spengler, "primitive" culture is hallmarked by a lack of long term, "historical" in his terms, continuity beyond a few generations of related people with their own deities, culture and language. While modern studies raise a number of points of contention here, Spengler's point remains valid when compared with so named "higher" cultures. The institutions, buildings, languages and cultures of Rome, Persia, China and Ethiopia can all still be felt in the modern world, even if they are now ruined, changed or blended with subsequent influences. The deep, multi-layered spirituality of the Hopi, Dani, Sami-Lapps and the Chumash are only remembered because they made contact with historical peoples, who then recorded them as they were found. Before these tribal, clan and perhaps even kingship names were recorded, there exists nothing as far as history can be concerned beyond trash heaps and the remains of material items.

 Concerning "Historical" man: 

"...destiny must lie either in the zoological or in the world-historical field. "Historical" man...is the man of a Culture that is in full march towards self-fulfillment. Before this, after this, outside this, man is historyless."

The idea and concept of cultural fulfillment are a long running theme through out the book, so I will leave the reader to explore that on their own, or perhaps for another entry. I will simply say that, for Spengler, a culture only lives and flourishes so long as it works towards its cultural ultimate expression in ever way possible, and that after this is achieved, it starts to become static and perhaps even die, if over the course of centuries where it still appears to flourish.

And on the "People" themselves: 

"For me, the "people" is a unit of the soul. The great events of history were not really achieved by peoples, they themselves created the peoples. Every act alters the soul of the doer.... People are neither linguistic nor political nor zoological, but spiritual, units. And this leads at once to the futher distinction between peoples before, within and after a culture." 

For Spengler, the souls of some set or group of humanity are altered by the forces of history, landscape and culture that then mold them into a new people, a new entity on the historical stage. Indeed, the idea of history as a force is a major feature of Spengler's thought.

Now let us switch gears from Spengler's wide conservative, continental, far reaching historical, spiritual and metaphysical concepts to that of Walter Lippmann, a far more practical, politically minded American journalist.

Lippmann, writing in The Public Philosophy brings a more political view:

On "the People" as historic or political: "When we speak of popular sovereignty, we must know whether we are talking about The People, as voters, or about The People, as a community of the entire living population, with their predecessors and successors." 

Lippman later goes on to examine how "the men who rise up against freedom" come to be, and how the modern situation of isolation and removal from cultural and historical social sources of identity creates a new type of people, the so called "lonely crowd."

"...the modern man who find in freedom from the constraints of the ancestral order an intolerable loss of guidance and of support. They are the men who rise up against freedom, unable to cope with the insoluble difficulties and unable to endure the denial of communion in public and common truths."

For Lippman, the establishment or renewal of the "Public Philosophy," a subject that is itself beyond the scope of this article, and the means of its transmission, acculturation and permeation of public and private life are the hall marks of "the People" via his political outlook.


So here we have two differing, but not exactly opposed, conceptions of what "the People" means from two very different viewpoints. Lippmann would argue, from his modern, democratic, liberal view, that a people is made, maintained and served by their adherence to a public philosophy that serves to drive social participation, responsibility and consciousness. This is a very active, participatory conception as opposed to Spengler's notion of an identity and form imposed by outside events. For him, the spiritual aspects of the people and the culture determine all other facets, from language to art to science.

While both take diverging stances and approach the problem of the public, culture and "the People" from alternate stances, both., upon further reading, are essentially conservative in their response. The people must be exclusive, defined and limited both socially, historically and spiritually, and there is always a risk of cultural degradation, dissolution and reformation. For Spengler, it is the result of outside influence, divergence from the culture's true spiritual aim, or from an invisible cultural death in the form of civilization, fixed forms and decadence. For Lippmann, on the other hand, it is the weakening of public notion, awareness and action concerning itself, possible only in the liberal democracies of the West, that leads towards social apathy, isolation and then ultimately reactionary backlash in the form of "counter-revolution," Fascism and Totalitarianism.

Thank you for reading, and sorry for the great delay in posting! More pretty pictures and videos to follow.

From the High Plateaus

While navigating through a few documentaries on Youtube, I found this little gem about Tibetan Buddhism. It's lengthy, but well done and very informative about the topic, with a number of great interviews, including with The Dalai Lama!

I'll just let this one speak for itself, but do expect some commentary on various facets of so called "Eastern Religion" as compared to other belief and spiritual systems. Tantra, Meditation, Seidhr and Utsitr will soon follow!

Hael Walpurgis!

I want to wish my readers a mighty and glorious Walpurgisnacht! May your flight to the Sabbath be a fantastical and swift one!

More music!

Building on the last post, here are a few projects, bands or tracks that I've been greatly enjoying of late and have some connection to Stockhausen's music. Well, maybe only some of these tracks are relevant to Stockhausen, but they rock none the less! 

First up, a relatively recent discovery of mine: Æthenor

With members or Ulver, Sunn O))) and others, I knew this was going to be great from the moment I saw the vibrant blue cover of their album En Form For Blå. Though, I really didn't know what to expect at all. I was pleased from the moment the needle hit the white vinyl. Here, enjoy some live footage and hear for yourself!

Up next, a longstanding favorite: Ulver

I've been a fan of this band and their many evolutions since hearing their first album, Bergtatt. From Black Metal to Electronica and Jazz to Experimental Industrial and finally to whatever you would call them now, this band has kept its fans guessing, and pleasantly surprised. Enjoy a few tracks from their corpus!

Finally, I'll leave you with something from one of my favorite Soviet composers: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich

Whether conjuring scenes of Cossacks riding over the Steppe or writing music for more formal occasion, Shostakovich is a powerful and gifted composer. I'll just let the music speak for him on this one!

Stockhausen on sound

One of the great names in experimental music, Karlheinz Stockhausen's influence on today's music culture is both deep and far reaching. My introduction to Stockhausen actually came in the form of some old Ulver and Arcturus tracks where samples were taken from Stockhausen's Kontakte. Years later, on my travels around Germany, I got to catch a short film about the composer and his work in Leipzig. Since then, I've come to hear more and more of Stockhausen's, along with others, influence in popular genres such as Industrial, Rock, Electronic and Experimental music.

While his works certainly aren't for everyone, his influence is undeniable. So, enjoy the words of the man himself!