Two pieces from my THE LITTLE CLAVIER, 633 pages black & white photography, with poems, essays, rants, meditations, and miniatures, etc. Available online at: THE LITTLE CLAVIER by Cliff Crego (Paperback) - Lulu http://bit.ly/1gtE62i [PHOTO: A happy Mt. Toad  coupling (Bufo borealis) at 2300 meters, July, the WALLOWA, Oregon]

BUY eBook on iTunes

Retronyms - Notation:  a set of 2 miniatures, w/ Mt. Toad chorus

In five parts:

(1) Here’s the little 32-step poem “walk around,” from as many points of view as possible:
Religion? No book. No authority. Heal the break, the loss of resonance with the ground of truth, the circle of life, the sacred.
[musical interpolation from EPIGRAM…]

(2) I talk about Sir Karl Popper’s work, especially “The Open Society and its Enemies.” https://www.amazon.com/Open-Society-Enemies-Princeton-Classics-ebook/dp/B08G3J27MN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=248MRKGSQLKKW&keywords=karl+popper+the+open+society&qid=1686948316&s=digital-text&sprefix=Karl+popper+the%2Cdigital-text%2C225&sr=1-1 And the saying, “The tolerance of intolerance is the end of tolerance.”
The piece i refer to is NOTHING / NADA https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/nothing-m4a
(3) The Eagle of Freedom….the eagle of freedom only soars when its two wings, freedom TO & freedom FROM, are in perfect balance… I mention Douglas. Here is a link to a free ebook of a classic work of his, “Of Men & Mountains.” http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/topo_douglas-lake.html
[musical interpolation marking the center of the dialogue is from EPIGRAM, the Hannah Arendt “On the Origins of Totalitarianism.” https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Totalitarianism-Harvest-Book-Hb244-ebook/dp/B004Q9TLJW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8L2VGLASD99A&keywords=hannah+arendt+the+origins+of+totalitarianism&qid=1686949656&s=digital-text&sprefix=Hannah+arendt+on+the+origi%2Cdigital-text%2C229&sr=1-1
(4) The essence of conflict? Studying the religions of the world. Questioning the whole of organized religion.
DAO DE JING, ch. 8 “The virtue of language is its honesty. The virtue of government is peaceful order.”
[musical interpolation is from SPICA, the drumkit 5th movement]
(5) Boiling down the best of the BIBLE, and getting rid of the rest.
The BIBLE should be heard, like music. Not read. Here’s a good recording of the classic KING JAMES version https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-James-Version-Testaments/dp/B085LR6DJ9/ref=sr_1_3?crid=R1XXLAYXOZB7&keywords=king+james+version&qid=1686951375&s=audible&sprefix=king+james+version%2Caudible%2C420&sr=1-3
Watch Chris Hitchens in action in the excellent IQ2 debate, “Would the world be better off without religion?” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DIR7_X-ahy4&pp=ygUqd291bGQgdGhlIHdvcmxkIGJlIGJldHRlciB3aXRob3V0IHJlbGlnaW9u
[musical CODA is from the final movement of StarCYCLE DUO, Eltanin, for two timpanists.]

POEMS TO LIVE BY, “Religion?” Freedom of religion, or the freedom to be free of religion…

Sine sole sileo / Without sun I am silent. The main theme in this dialogue circle tape.

SEE my related NEW ENERGY MANIFESTO at http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/poster_new-energy-manifesto.html

NEW DIGITAL AWARENESS, or the failure of education & ethical responsibility. . .

Up. Hold. Fry! Three species of vocal affectation…

We shape the world, and the world shapes us.

Affectation? A genus of  disingenuous vocal sounds designed to impress, coming from our unconscious thought’s inward  sense of insecurity and fear.

Up: when every phrase ascends in pitch, like a glissando, as if asking a question, which is not intended;

Hold: when the last word of a phrase is held artificially, like a fermata, to give emphasis, which is not intended;

Fry: when every last word of a phrase is distorted, like the “fuzz tone” pedal of a rock guitar, which is not intended.

That’s bad.

The www.picture-poems.com webpage I talk about is here: On Love, Learning and the World-wide Tragedy of Public Schools (1999) http://www.picture-poems.com/week4/learning.html

(4) A mistake is a mistake repeated. Even the best of performers can make a habit of practicing, sometimes for years, the wrong notes. Like a famous, world-class pianist, when asked why he never seemed to make mistakes, once  said, "Well, Sir— of course not. I don't practice them!"

MUSIC heard in upbeat and coda is IONIZATION for 13 percussionists, by Edgard Varese, ASKO Ensemble https://soundcloud.com/cliff-crego/ionization-crego-conducts-var

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 12 “Up. Hold. Fry.” Three vocal affectations…

MUSIC heard is from my Star CYCLE DUO projects, alpha PYXIS & ELTANIN, both on Soundcloud…

THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE no. 13 “All at once & one at a time”

IMAGE: Climate Breakdown basecamp, the WALLOWAS, OREGON

Photo / text of poem is at bit.ly/f5czpb

WATCH…“i’m too poor in this world, and yet not poor enough…after RILKE” https://vimeo.com/845195766

I’m too poor in this world, and yet not poor enough…after RILKE, a soundpoem

Special thanks to my good friend, Simone de HAAN, Australian new music trombonist extraordinaire…I couldn’t have done this project without his help.

“What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy.”

TEXT of Bertrand Russell’s Last letter used here is at http://www.picture-poems.com/pdfs/russells-last-letter.pdf

Feel free to make your own, I am sure, much better performance of the text. The track for the orchestral background (minus voice) is here:  http://picture-poems.com/mp3/russell_no-voice.wav

IMAGE: Bertrand RUSSELL, 1957

RUSSELL’S 1970 LAST LETTER, a call for peace in the Middle East

A set of FIVE METAPHYSICAL MINIATURES...soundscape includes a found gong, walking on crusty snow with snowshoes, powerful snowmachines that circle my winter camp, and most especially, a February love duo of two owls, counter-singing in the middle of the night. Recordings...made in the Wallowas, just outside the Eagle Cap Wilderness, Northeast Oregon.

VIEW a set of 100 MINIATURES at: www.picture-poems.com/100

Freedom - Limit - Right Action - Money - Economy: a set of 5 miniatures

PHOTO: YUM CHENMO--"Great Wisdom Mother" at EWAM, Garden of 1000 Buddhas, Jocko Valley, Arlee, Montana

SEE TEXT at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/1000-buddhas_9-29-10_8bw.html

RETWEET #buddhism A QUESTION OF #NONVIOLENCE, OR NON-EXISTENCE—a meditation pdf [140k] http://bit.ly/1nkSlvg mp3 [3.7Mb] http://bit.ly/1nkSjDB

A QUESTION OF NON-VIOLENCE, OR NON-EXISTENCE,  a meditation . . .

THIS IS A set of metaphysical MINIATURES from the picture-poems.com 2014/2015 CALENDAR. All b & w photography, pdf [22.9Mb] is at: http://bit.ly/1F9R54K

MUSICAL header & coda is from the STONEPINE SONATA, violin & piano, for the young performer, on Soundcloud at: http://bit.ly/1D7Ni1S score pdf http://bit.ly/1D7NrT9 This is the piece I hope to have played on a fiddle made of whitebark -- or stonepine --wood. [SEE BELOW....]

PHOTO: Old-growth Whitebark pine, or Stonepine, on solid rock, at 2500 m., Eagle Cap #Wilderness, OREGON. I'm working on a photobook project, WHITEBARKS OF THE WALLOWAS. Whitebarks of the polar bears of trees, both the oldest and most important keystone species of the high alpine zone, and also the most endangered of species, threatened on all sides by beetles, and, most especially, a hotter, drier climate. SEE MORE AT: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/whitebark_on-rock.html



Natural Justice - Freedom & Limit - Dialogue - Religion - Square of False Rationality, 6 MINIATURES

This is the sound track for: Watch “THINK OF A RIVER, a flowform meditation” on #Vimeo https://vimeo.com/841380035 

MAGE: Rolling Thunder Falls, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Northeast #OREGON

I'VE BEEN MEDITATING a lot recently on Thoreau's little 7-beat aphorism, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." We are, after all, marking the 50th anniversary of APOLLO 8 & the great EARTH RISE photograph. Yes, "When we went to Moon, but discovered the Earth." And yet, reactionary forces everywhere continue their mindless attack on our planet home.

"THINK OF A RIVER (as something powerful)" was first composed in preparation of a 56-day double circumambulation of the WALLOWAS I do every year. This is a vast and rugged wilderness area where I work in the US, about 1/6th the size of Switzerland, running from alpine peaks above 3000 m. all the way to the great Hells Canyon and the Snake River at 600 m., where we can almost smell the Pacific Ocean. I do the outer circle on Mt. bike, and the inner circle--all the way round what I sense as the neutral, motionless "hub of the wheel" of the living mandala of Eagle Caps--running all the many rivers on foot.

The idea is simple: If you want to understand a watershed, walk it. And always running parallel, "If you want to understand, to "strike at the root of evil," observe as an intense form of meditation in Nature your own thought and thinking.

The two streams, that of the river, and that of consciousness, are for me one, inseparable. To understand one is to understand both. A revolution of consciousness IS a revolution in the nature of our relationship to water. And a revolution in our relationship with water IS a revolution of consciousness.

The rhythm of the piece is measured i what I call "flowform time." I prefer not to write this down in western musical notation. If you'd like to perform the piece, feel free to simply learn the movement of the text by heart, and play it by ear, from there.

TEXT, in a slightly different version, is at: bit.ly/1JARAEs Another recording, made a few years back, is on Soundcloud at: Cliff-crego – Think-of-a-river-as-something

THINK OF A RIVER, a flowform meditation...

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on X

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

TALKING HANDS / TALKING FEET no. 12 “Up. Hold. Fry.” Three vocal affectations…

Cliff Crego

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