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Why Street Performing Is Essential
It’s simple: street-performers act as a sort of bellwether culturally to find and to set the tone of life within a community of people, to challenge and explore the rhythms and patterns of people living life.
A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.
The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) in order that this animal might lead its flock of sheep.
In sociology, the term is applied in the active sense to a person or group of people who tend to create, influence or set trends.
Street performers are at sort of a peculiar edge of the Freedom of Assembly which most people simply take for granted in their daily lives, congregating only to go to work, or to buy something.
I’d be curious to see in-depth historical information connecting street performer traditions to Free Speech and Free Assembly struggles on a cross-cultural basis. Treatment of “street people” of all types often changes unfairly before people have a chance to realize what’s happening or mobilize to prevent it because of lack of meaningful inter-class and inter-demographic communication. People out & active in the streets, bringing others together prevents that and keeps communities vibrant and strong. More thoughts on this on-going.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Y0u need m0re 0f the devil in y0u. Y0u d0n’t want t0 be a castrated Ram leading the sheep t0 slaughter. Bad mental picture. What w0uld a sheep with balls d0? Pr0baly fuck all the sheep. Maybe n0t the right mental picture either.
I think hip h0p and break dancing street perf0rming as elements 0f what y0u are after. N0w its a capitalist industry th0. They were a bellwether. Big business has learned h0w t0 capitalize 0n the di0nysian impulses 0f the p0pulace. But hip h0p is very Di0nysian.
That is what y0u need t0 d0 th0ugh. Release the Di0nysian impulse. Becuse there is n0 0ther type 0f energy really. Y0u need it. But give it f0rm. its a balance. Ap0ll0 (reasd0n 0rder etc,)gives f0rm t0 Di0nysus (revely, lust etc.).
Maybe y0u are kind 0f like a member 0f the Beat generati0n, laying the gr0undw0rk f0r what became the 60’s. A l0t 0f di0nysian energy was released in the 60’s but n0t given en0ugh f0rm.
L00k int0 Abby H0ffman. He was a street perf0rmer. Perf0rmance artist.
Dy0nisian energy with0ut f0rm bec0mes dissipati0n.
But t kick the wh0le thing 0ff y0u first need t0 j0in f0rces with the devil.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
No hip-hop unless it’s old school. The new stuff is outdated but the old stuff is good music. I was wondering myself about the implications of “bellwether” but I don’t think a deal with the devil is the answer. That’s for people who are trying to take the easy way out.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Stupid, forgot to change that name part… Tim, could you delete that last comment if you have chance?
Anyway, I’ll post again:
Ted, those are some good comments. I’ve been thinking lately that the idealism of the 60’s was lost mainly because of people’s inability to embody the truths behind those great ideas. Yeah, peace and love are great things, but not if all you do is sit around, smoke pot, and fuck each other all day long.
Not that there is anything wrong with those things.
Just that it’s better to give them form, give them a vehicle for continuity. You have to open the gate for the energies, and then find something to keep the gate from closing. Or a pipe to let the sap flow freely from the tree without clotting.
Right on about old school hip hop, that was the true breakthrough of energy for that movement. New school took that energy and applied it to new forms, but as with everything, that also moves it farther from the source. But no matter the school, freestyle rapping is the personal expression of that uprising of energy.
As for devil or no devil, there’s a big difference between Dionysus and the devil. Dionysus was another example of the sacrificed god, ala Christ. I blame the Catholic church for muddying the lines of the two in their quest for a more Appolonian perfection.
Anyway, sorry for the long comment. But I think this would benefit your music too Tim. I liked the new IP (particularly Talking Baltimore Blues). But I kind of find the singing a little too cerebral. A little more emotion would be helpful, but perhaps this is what you’re exploring with your Dogpaw voice?
June 19th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
the pure thrill of music is in it`s dionysian state. the rush of listening to an old johnny winter performance ragged with it
June 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
the pure thrill of music is in it`s dionysian state. the rush of listening to an old johnny winter performance ragged with it`s drug-induced fury or led zeppelin tearing up madison square garden. otherwise we are left with pro-tools sterilized pop.
make the deal with the devil……..paganinni would smile.