Just Keeping The Rhythm

Episode Forty-Three: Just Keeping The Rhythm.
In which a lot of that is going 'round.

1 comment:

  1. Saving Private Ryan (1998), radar tower scene. "I don't have a good feeling about this." "When was the last time you felt good about anything?" Miller's response is bitter, censuring.

    After the attack, and the loss of their Heart, the squad wants revenge. Upham is put in the position of arguing for compassion and the code of behavior in wartime. As his words fall on deaf ears, he himself is lost in confusion. This breakdown of order is mirrored in the massive, broken rigging of the radar station, which has been defended to the death despite it's own prior demise. It seems that everything is happening without purpose.

    Gross overload; one man. How do we measure our efforts? We need to trust those in authority, but authority is not always deserved. The decisions at the top (in this traditional Hollywood film) are made by men with compassionate vision; lower down, decisions are more haphazard and narcissistic.

    Post election, I've been having to articulate my position on compassionate non-violence to people who are acting from fear, and it's been exhausting. It feels like the world is coming down like a fucking meteor because of the short shortsightedness of one man.

    Like Miller, I have an involuntary tell. My tic began seven years ago with my father's death, and commonly manifests as a head twist to the left. In my being forced to stand for my beliefs, my tic is back in force, and has been painful and taxing. How do I re-frame what seems to me to be an expression of brokenness? Miller: "I'm just keeping the rhythm."

    So what is the Art answer to this crassness, chaos, mismeasure, and stress? I had recently pulled Eno's Before and After Science (1977) to listen on my daily commute. "No One Receiving" feels like a relevant sentiment to the communication issues I've been experiencing, and a review of the album in general described it as a result of the process of "deconstruction and elimination."

    From "No One Receiving," the lyrics, "Back to silence, back to minus" seemed apt in this theme, and also seemed so perfect for my life. "Remove distractions; remove myself." My impulse, when overwhelmed with having to stand my ground, is to take a walk in the woods. Escapism? Survivalism? Whichever, it is a necessity.

    Also, it occurred to me that, even after decades of listening, I had never heard those lyrics and thought about them. I had often misconstrued "back to silence" as "back to science." And "back to minus"? I'm still digesting it.

    Guy manifests his hand tremor.

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