The Put On of the Century, or the Cage Centenary

[snyprrr]

That's 2 "little Jimmies" in a row... and I win this round of James Rant Bingo!

:PLOLZ

(pounds fist on table, coffee on screen)

[CRCulver]

Are there other Concertos for 'Prepared' Instruments?

Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa for 2 violins, prepared piano and orchestra, which I seem to remember being called a concerto [grosso] somewhere, is probably the most widely loved work involving prepared piano.

[some guy]

An antidote:

https://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Page?pageName=pages/listen/winter2012_cage.jsp

[Mirror Image]

"The problem here is that the art itself should be of great interest in any medium, and what is said about it of lesser or secondary interest. This is of course the inverse with Cage."

Yeah, you continue to believe that, James. Nobody's buying it.

[snyprrr]

An antidote:

https://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Page?pageName=pages/listen/winter2012_cage.jsp

John Cage is a social worker.


He just sounds like a west coast liberal trying to get into naivete's pants by using the language of mysticism. A typical atheist child of religious parents, he seeks nothing less than the undermining of the western tradition which he sees as the patriarchal church that must be destroyed. He's no worse than anyone else from California.

Look, ok, maybe if I was on 'shrooms I'd be like wow man Cage is soooo soft... wow, can I touch you...

and, frankly, he DOES write Mushroom Music, as you KNOW!! Right? Mr. Mushroom?

Yea, you DO want Cage when you're tripping (NO Zappa!! ), or going to sleep,... but, when the f*** in our busy f****** day  where I have to make it through this banker thieved world,... and I'm supposed to just....


AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

Fuck, the mere THOUGHT of Cage sends me into a rage!! How bout I exhume him and yell in his skull, "Are you STILL listening??" Fuuuuuu... can't you guys see that he wants you to listen like a pansy?

My new piece:

FOR CAGE, for 73 fully-automatic, banned, assualt weapons

There, LISTEN to that, muthafuuuuuu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-uu-u... it jammed....


This is the liberal agenda at work here folks. First, Cage, then, Obama. You see how it works??

This is NOT about music.

Here... why don't you LISTEN when the politicians are lying to you?? LISTEN to the sound of you grandchildrens' freedoms evaporate. LISTEN to the hungry bellies. LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN

Oh yea, brutha,... Eyes hears da musick!


Thank you John Cage for open my ears to the screams of the slaughtered. You did so much for mankind. Western music traditions BAD! ,... Christianity BAD! ,... spaced out hippie listeners GOOD! hippies who will grow up to be the politicians of California, GOO... NO, BAD!!!!

BAD!!!!


I just want to slug John Cage in the jaw, call it Art, and make bank, YO! The mere thought IS.

Let Cage listen to the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Burn in Hell, John Cage, and listen to your eternal torment.

And, since there's no God for Cage, no one should be able to say that anything I said can be construed as negative,... right? All is accepted, right? Even Cage's destruction MUST be accepted, and his Forgetting must be accepted.

Death to the Demon John Cage, Long Live the New Music

[ibanezmonster]

mmmtay!

[springrite]

Now listening to:

Uninterrupted Rest by Takemitsu






Wait, wrong thread but somehow fitting?

[The Six]

Well, here we go. Asia has written an additional piece on Cage, apparently a response to the criticism for his first article. I think he's really gone off the deep end here.

The struggle against ungrateful popinjays must be a struggle against fetishism, escapism, and obscurantism, or it is doomed to failure.

Let me address John Cage as if it he were alive today, in the present. He must sense his own irremediable inferiority. That's why Mr. Cage is so desperate to bring discord, confusion, and frustration into our personal and public lives; it's the only way for him to distinguish himself from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if Mr. Cage also realized that I would be grateful if he would take a little time from his rigorous schedule to raise issues, as opposed to guns or knives. Of course, pigs will grow wings and fly before that ever happens. To add another dimension to this argument, let me mention that in asserting that he can override nature, Mr. Cage demonstrates an astounding narrowness of vision. Even without the soulless ideology of antagonism in the picture, we can still say that he likes silencing any criticism of the brainwashing and double standards that he has increasingly been practicing. That's the most damnable thing about him.

My goal is to embark on a new path towards change. I will not stint in my labor in this direction. When I have succeeded, the whole world will know that the only winners in Mr. Cage's games are ambulance services and funeral homes. I know you're wondering why I just wrote that. I'll explain shortly, but first, I should state that Mr. Cage presents himself as a disinterested classicist lamenting the infusion of politically motivated methods of pedagogy and analysis into higher education. He is eloquent in his denunciation of modern scholarship, claiming it favors sententious bums. And here we have the ultimate irony because I love hearing the claims of a jaundiced lowlife who doesn't realize that he's a jaundiced lowlife. As a case in point, consider Mr. Cage's claim that his mistakes are always someone else's fault. Such claims always make me laugh because, as we all know, Mr. Cage has planted his janissaries everywhere. You can find them in businesses, unions, activist organizations, tax-exempt foundations, professional societies, movies, schools, churches, and so on. Not only does this subversive approach enhance Mr. Cage's ability to leave a generation of people planted in the mud of a phlegmatic world to begin a new life in the shadows of deconstructionism, but it also provides irrefutable evidence that I can really suggest how he ought to behave. Ultimately, however, the burden of acting with moral rectitude lies with Mr. Cage himself.

Now that this letter has come to an end, I indubitably hope you walk away from it realizing that I don't care to share the same planet as Mr. John Cage once did.

[Mirror Image]

Well, here we go. Asia has written an additional piece on Cage, apparently a response to the criticism for his first article. I think he's really gone off the deep end here.

The fact that Asia continues to 'beat a dead horse' shows his blatant inferiority and unwillingness to accept what history has already established. Asia simply has nothing better to do I suppose. Too bad he'll be forgotten while Cage will still be remembered. I suppose this is what is tearing away at Asia in the end? So, in order to cope with these feelings, he felt the need to do the public a favor by denouncing Cage's music and ideology. I say whatever helps him sleep better at night. Personally, I would rather be doing other things.

[some guy]

Well, here we go. Asia has written an additional piece on Cage, apparently a response to the criticism for his first article. I think he's really gone off the deep end here.

Where? Where did this additional piece appear?

[The Six]

The fact that Asia continues to 'beat a dead horse' shows his blatant inferiority and unwillingness to accept what history has already established. Asia simply has nothing better to do I suppose. Too bad he'll be forgotten while Cage will still be remembered. I suppose this is what is tearing away at Asia in the end? So, in order to cope with these feelings, he felt the need to do the public a favor by denouncing Cage's music and ideology. I say whatever helps him sleep better at night. Personally, I would rather be doing other things.

Interesting you'd say all that, because, and you won't believe this, but it looks like Asia has actually been reading GMG, and has posted a rebuttal on his blog! He actually singles you out. Here's part of it.

...Here's a letter that dares not let Mr. Mirror Image off the hook.  Mirror Image says that merit is adequately measured by his methods and qualifications. Should we care that large numbers of duplicitous, smarmy peculators actually believe such petty things? Should we try to convince them otherwise? I don't think so. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that his wheelings and dealings are as predictable as sunrise. Whenever I guide the world into an age of peace, justice, and solidarity, Mr. Image's invariant response is to make bribery legal and part of business as usual.

The basal lie that underlies all of Mr. Image's snippy ideals is that people find his unrelenting, over-the-top hostility rather refreshing. Translation: Mr. Image's crimes are victimless. I doubt you need any help from me to identify the supreme idiocy of those views, but you should nevertheless be aware that whenever anyone states the obvious—that Mr. Image's perverted, satanic bruta fulmina are like an onion that reveals layer after layer of savagism—discussion naturally progresses towards the question, "Why does Mr. Image insist on boring holes in the hull of the boat in which he himself is also a passenger?"

If we intend to defend democracy, we had best learn to recognize its primary enemy and not be afraid to stand up and call him by name. That name is Mr. Mirror Image.

[Karl Henning]

Wow, MI--who knew? You're the primary enemy of Democracy!

[Karl Henning]

Unfortunately, Daniel Asia has now become a pest . . . his vitriol towards John Cage demeans him and cheapens his credibility.

Sad.

Agreed.

[North Star]

 
Way to destroy the last bit of his credibility.

And perhaps mr. Asia should look into a mirror and see if he can find the real culprit...

[some guy]

"perverted, satanic bruta fulmina"

I am sooooo jealous now. No one's ever said that kind of thing about me.

What about me? I'm perverted and satanic. I have bruta fulmina, especially after eating habanero salsa.

I just don't understand how Mirror gets all the attention.

( )

[Cato]

"perverted, satanic bruta fulmina"...

I just don't understand how Mirror gets all the attention.

( )

Wow, MI--who knew? You're the primary enemy of Democracy!

And here I thought Cato was Enemy #1 of Democracy!   0:)

As a Latin teacher, I do like "bruta fulmina."      Although it is untrue here, unless referring to Mr. Asia himself!

As a composer of absolutely no renown, who has stopped composing many decades ago, let me state the following: insistence on silencing the competition is always a sign of weakness, not unlike Communist regimes which censor everything to control the minds of their subjects.  When I was creating quarter-tone works, I would not have thought of writing essays proscribing composers working in regular tonality, so that my potential audience could restrict their ears to the glories of 24-notes per octave.

The Six: can you provide a link to the blog where you found the ad hominem response?  (I will not call it a rebuttal, since it lacks specific quotations for argumentation.)

And did anyone focus on this highly curious sentence quoted from Professor Asia's blog?

Whenever I guide the world into an age of peace, justice, and solidarity, Mr. Image's invariant response is to make bribery legal and part of business as usual.

Does anyone find the opening clause just a little bit scary?   

[Karl Henning]

Yeesh. And again, I say: Yeesh.

[The Six]

The Six: can you provide a link to the blog where you found the ad hominem response?  (I will not call it a rebuttal, since it lacks specific quotations for argumentation.)

Why, certainly!

http://www.pakin.org/complaint/

[Karl Henning]

Nice riposte to Asia here.

Why, certainly!

http://www.pakin.org/complaint/

Hm, are you sure that's the right page?

[The Six]

If you look carefully, you'll see it's exactly the right page.