PART ONE
A friend recently reminded me of MINDTRAIN by Yoko Ono, so I listened again with the instantly accessible internet, the intelligent, electronic encyclopaediac tool most of us have at our fingertips...
I have always liked Yoko's weird avant-garde music! I don't need to be on drugs or alcohol to understand it! It is artistic and creative whatever one's likes or dislikes might be!
Mindtrain is a series of rhythmic, vocal, melodic ostinati, which are simply described as 'repetitive phrases'! I love the driving rhythm ... one feels as if one is sitting on the train... just listen to the percussive elements and trumpet vocals that create a mind meditation beneath and behind Yoko's screeches and wailings, which, in my opinion, are exactly like a steam train (onomatopoeia) or how the old electric trains would have sounded as they creaked and groaned on the rails! Such talent and madness are essential!
I have thought the following for a long time: that chatterbox thoughts come into the station of the mind and we let the thoughts get off the train at the station or we don't want to acknowledge the thoughts so we put them back on again and tell them to leave us alone and send them packing!! Often when I have suffered from acute anxiety or depression that is how it has been! I don't have it so much anymore. Got loads sorted!
Looking at dates in history, hearing her few lyrics, those words seem to have a premonition of her possible feelings after Lennon's death! Mind Train was released in 1972 and John Lennon died 08-12-1980
Not everyone's cup of tea! I found myself feeling happy as I listened.
Pachelbel's Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo also makes me feel content and at peace! Pachelbel's Canon combines techniques of canon and groundbass. Canon is where several voices (polyphony) play the same music, entering in sequence. Three voices are in canon, whilst the fourth voice, basso continuo, plays an independent part.
Violins play a three-voice canon over the ground bass to provide harmonic structure.
PART TWO
Yesterday, though not for the first time, I had a realisation that being in my own peace and quietness is very healing.
That I really need to accept the days like that when I can and indeed do need to regenerate energies.
I know I need to be mindful of the pleasure I gain when I am lazy and stop to wander in my garden and house and see the fruits of my life and the fruits of four years living at this house!
- look at the radish seeds that have appeared in less than a week!
- look at the rows where the old haricot seeds have had a chance to germinate or not - maybe they are too old and dead or just slow to appear... I shall give them a little more time!
- look at the shallots soon to keel over and be ready to eat
- look at the different heights of the three potato varieties
- look at the empty vole hole from where CAT hunted her food. Naughty cat!
- look at my floral courtyard and grey shutters
- look out... look in....be at peace... know i shall soon be on the move again!!!
I am just going with the flow ... enjoying life, though those spells of rolling thunder in the early hours of this morning and lunchtime today with heavy rain and sheet lightning approaching from the west were very challenging to the MIND!
I've had haricot trouble too. I planted a load and not one came up, even after 4 weeks. I think it's a race between the mould spores on the outside and the germ on the inside. If the seed grows fast enough, it ougrows the moulds, if not the whole thing goes mouldy. My solution was to use some even older seed that had proved in the past that it was viable, and plant it in pots in a heated propagator (i.e. somewhere warm). I'm supposed to be a seed guardian for Black Canterbury - I'm glad I haven't lost them! Pauline
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