Giovedì sera --19.08.04 ––Intorno a pane ed acqua: Allan Kaprow & John Cage by chance

Tematica:
1. Su questo giovedì
2. Sugli ingredienti
3. Su John Cage
4. Su Allan Kaprow

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1. Su questo giovedì

Cosa: Intorno a pane ed acqua: Allan Kaprow e John Cage by chance
Quando: 7 pm, Giovedì 19 Agosto, 2004
Dove: Calle del Forno 296/b Giudecca,
(prendere il vaporetto numero 82, fermata Palanca,
girare a sinistra subito scesi dal vaporetto -
dopo il ponte a destra)
Chi: tutti sono invitati

Allan Kaprow e John Cage si incontreranno per caso in una serata a pane e acqua, con musiche portate da Cage. Cercando il senso della vita…o dell’arte?

Allan Kaprow and John Cage will meet by chance for an evening having bread and water, Cage will take care of soundtrack. Searching for the meaning of life....or art?

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2. Sugli ingredienti

Tibetan Barley Bread/Pane Tibetano all’orzo

2 C barley flour
4 C whole wheat flour
½ C sesam seeds (roasted)
1-1/2 t salt
2 T sesam oil
2 T corn oil

2 Tazze di farina d’orzo
4 Tazze di Farina di grano tenero
½ Tazza di semi di sesamo tostato
1-1/2 cucchiaino di sale
2 cucchiaio di olio di sesamo
2 cucchiaio d’olio di mais

Bagels

1 package dried yeast
pinch of sugar
¼ C of warm water
2 t salt
2/3 C peanut oil
3 C unbleached white flour
1 egg

1 confezione di lievito in polvere
pizzico di zucchero
2 cucchiaino di sale
2/3 Tazza di olio di arachidi
3 Tazze di farina
1 uovo
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3. Su John Cage

Excerpt from Composition in Retrospect (1992)

nonintention (the acceptance of silence) leading to nature; renunciation of control; let sounds be sounds.

each activity is centered in itself, i.e., composition, performance, and listening are different activities.

(music is) instantaneous and unpredictable; nothing is accomplished by writing, hearing, or playing a piece of music; our ears are now in excellent condition.

a need for poetry.

joyce: comedy is the greatest of arts because the joy of comedy is freest from desire and loathing.

affirmation of life.

purposeful purposelessness.

art = imitation of nature in her manner of operation.

coexistence of dissimilars; multiplicity; plurality of centers; “split the stick, and there is jesus.”

anonymity or selflessness of work (i.e., not self-expression).

a work should include its environment, is always experimental (unknown in advance).

fluent, pregnant, related, obscure (nature of sound).

empty mind.

no ideas of order.

no beginning, middle, or end (process, not object).

unimpededness and interpenetration; no cause and effect.

indeterminacy.

opposites = parts of oneness.

to thicken the plot (ramakrishna); his answer to the question: why, if god is good, is there evil in the world?

aventure (newness) necessary to creative action.

the mind is disciplined (body too), the heart turns quickly from fear towards love (eckhart).

anything can follow anything else (providing nothing is taken as the basis).

influence derives from one s own work (not from outside it).

chance operations are a useful means; moksha.

being led by a person, not a book; artha.

love.

right and wrong.

non-measured time.

process instead of object.

america has a climate for experimentation.

world is one world.

history is the story of original actions.

move from zero.

all audible phenomena = material for music.

impossibility of errorless work.

spring, summer, fall, winter (creation, preservation, destruction, quiescence).

possibility of helping by doing nothing.

music is not music until it is heard.

music and dance together (and then other togethers).

men are men; mountains are mountains before studying zen. while studying zen, things become confused. after studying zen, men are men; mountains are mountains.

what is the difference between before and after? no difference. just the feet are a little off the ground (suzuki).

if structure, rhythmic structure.

boredom plus attention = becoming interested.

principle underlying all of the 50lutions = question we ask.

activity, not communication.

the nine permanent emotions (the heroic, the mirthful, the wondrous, the erotic; tranquillity; sorrow, fear, anger, the odious).

the practicality of changing society derives from the possibility of changing the mind.

the giver of gifts (returning to the village having experienced no-mindedness).

studying being interrupted.

nothing-in-between.

object is fact not symbol (no ideas).

poetry is having nothing to say and saying it; we possess nothing.

uncertainty of future.

noises (underdog); changing music and society.

not working = knowing. working = not knowing.

distrust of effectiveness of education.

hce

it is, is cause for joy.

earth has no escape from heaven (eckhart).

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4. Su Allan Kaprow

From The Meaning of life (1990)

Harry deals in California real estate and has a good life. One day at lunch he looks around him at the quiet patio and the flowering bougainvillea, then at his partner, Mike. “Mike,” he says, “do you know what the meaning of life is?” Mike says no and changes the subject.
For the next few months Harry worries about the meaning of life. Finally he tells Mike he’s going to quit real estate to search until he finds the answer. Mike tries to talk him out of it, but Harry has made up his mind. He puts his affairs in order and disappears from the face of the earth.
Years later Mike is eating lunch at the same restaurant and a bum puts a hand on his shoulder and says in a wheezy voice, “Mike, it’s me, Harry!” Harry is a scarecrow, one eye missing, teeth gone, a filthy mess. Mike wants to shake him off, but Harry sticks to it like glue. Harry says, “It’s been a long trip, I did time in jail, I got all kinds of diseases, I almost died in Tibet, I was robbed and beaten up…but I found the meaning of life!”
Mike looks him over and figures he has to play along to get rid of him. So he says, “Okay, what’s the meaning of life?” Harry stares deep into Mike’s eyes and says, “It’s the hole in a bagel.”
Mike doesn’t appreciate the answer, so he tells Harry that the meaning of life can’t be the hole in a abagel.
Harry slowly takes his hand off Mike’s shoulder and gets an amazed look on his face. He says to Mike, “Aha! So life is not the hole in a bagel!”…and he walks out of the patio.