Revisit tombs, dead leaves, dying wind, failure of kings-- kings overthrown in the rebellion
Insanity writ large-- man w/ big plans, empty hands--
but Prometheus brought fire--
smoke and flames behind prison walls, fences of razor wire surrounded by vast emptiness beneath the crescent, ritual moon
Ancestral leather flesh forms a grimace in sunless bogs,
lips baring teeth in mock smile of agony
--dying breath turns moonlight into drifting snow
Chance, risk, dance
above the abyss
Find your way home through the falling stars.
This is a poem by Jim Morrison, written upon the death of Rolling Stones founder and guitarist Brian Jones.
The recording was suggested by Alan Graham, author of the memoir
I Remember Jim Morrison
and is part of the
Ghost Radio Project
Between The Idea
And The Act
Falls The Shadow
All Content copyright © 1999- 2008 by Scott Graves / Dark Corner Sound Works / Dark Ryders Publishing unless otherwise indicated. All works, intellectual property rights, publishing and performance rights are the sole property of the artists, organizations, and individuals represented or named and are protected by U.S. and International laws, treaties, and agreements.
Mail
Millions of creative thinkers, poets, writers and musicians online-- but where is Art?
Art belongs, as always, to artists. Yet artists are now defined by, and reduced to submision to, mere GENRE on the internet and in popular culture.
This is a transparent device to compartmentalize, weaken, and control the transmission of culture. It is, at its root, a fascist ideal, disguised in populist garb and totalitarian in intent, with implications reaching far beyond music and the creative arts.
The ties to the past which must be cut are those which obstruct us in the present; the rest are forces of history which will not be denied.
The idea that one can not create except in the context of given rules and expectations is a curse. It is unacceptable and of value zero.
Time now to force the issues, drive beyond the generic and mundane, establish beacheads and stand athwart benighted cultural demands of Art and Music and Life subjected to the tyranny of small minds.
Blindness can be cured; it is a reason, not absolution from the demands of freedom. To rebel in the face of pressures to conform to the safe chaos of popular pleasures is to live and to do otherwise is existential suicide, capitulation to powers which manipulate our visions, our very perceptions, most often in ways beyond our well-conditioned knowledge and control.
Read a newspaper, a magazine, see how often the text is contrived to include the consciousness of the reader in a set of beliefs involving ideas and values. Ask yourself if your experience confirms the truth of the text, or most importantly, if it is merely "given" that you will accept it without question because of the way the point of view is framed to require you to participate in what may well be concepts of dubious merit. Is it even necessary to mention the effects of radio, television, films and other media? Why would you be targeted in this way? Motives commercial, social, ideological, applying designs so contrived as to make you walk into a prison, albeit one of self-indulgence and unrestrained hubris, of your own free will. And so the ends of the corrupt-- acquisition and control-- are served.
The fight belongs to those with the will to love, to stand for things greater than ourselves, and to create through Art and Music and Culture of a true spirit of freedom.
Think, be free, and if you share these thoughts, unite to support and realize a new vision. Do it here. Do it anywhere.
The goals of repression and oppression are the same, regardless of the methods used to bring them about. Do we speak and think and create freely, or are we coerced-- or shamed, or cajoled-- into silence and acceptance of beliefs specious, false, and against our best interests?
Nothing, no art, no music, no idea, can equal or go beyond what has gone before until the historical value of tradition is recognized and the force of individuality is brought to bear against the tide of cynical, manufactured mediocrity-- and manipulation of a collective consumer mentality-- that makes a genuinely dynamic, living culture impossible.
Change alone is not enough. It will not happen by itself.