A Meeting of Men.

So I get an invitation to ‘A Meeting of Men’, to ‘become a warrior of the 5th world in power and beauty’, £395, fully catered, an ‘investment in myself and the planets future.’ Quite cheap then. It’s to be lead by Johannes Star Light Carrier Schroeder who I’ve met and observed several times, a nice guy but rather anal. I too easily imagine him in an Austrian house where all things are scrupo clean and arranged parallel or perpendicular to appropriate room boundaries. Being an ex covered-in-mud-and-bruises moto-cross racer and free jazz player this 5th World doesn’t appeal. Where Johannes appears to want to be prepared for our impending social chaos with power and beauty I’ve spent my life welcoming it in. I’ve just watched a doc on the jazz greats where each one searched on the shoulders of their forbears for a greater chaotic connection with some source of being that one player perfectly described as, “This is.” Ornette Coleman for example made a giant chaotic leap into no time, no fixed key or chord structure. To some it’s cacophony but to me it carries the source of some exquisite precarious exploration and energy, quite the opposite of power and beauty. These terms sound nice but I can’t relate to them. Those I admire as holy or wise human beings don’t strive for power and creative artists don’t fundamentally strive for beauty. Both are concerned with something far more exquisite. I find those who strive for power and beauty more prosaic, more fearful of the adventure of chaos. To me all this defines the difference between risk and containment. I played in a Coleman-esc trio a while back and found myself ‘in’ the complete sound, connected with the whole rather than playing my individual part in it. It wasn’t power or beauty; it was connection. So thanks Johannes but you lost me at ‘A Meeting of Men’, I’d far rather go to gay pride where I can be fabulous.


And then along comes Steven Tyler to save me from my mouldy thoughts and who I would gladly pay £395, fully catered, for ‘A Meeting of Men.’ This is his 90-minute interview talking to Opra Winfry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwTTf6B6C8w
He is the best selling US rock star of all time with Aerosmith, a performing monkey, a survivor of eight spells in re-hab, and at 63 still has the open chaotic curiosity of a child. He radiates amazing sexual energy and for me a lightening rod to the divine. I guess it seems plebeian to revere a rock idol as a spiritual guide over someone like Johannes who is dedicated to that role. One on the panel of American Idol with a mouth big enough to take a leg of lamb and the other a quietly spoke Austrian, one who wants to teach and the other who has no intention to. It reminds me of a Rumi saying, “Yesterday I was clever and wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I’m changing myself.” One would think that is a move towards introspection but I believe it’s not that simple. Every moment’s introspection must be preceded by a thousand moments of outro-spection. But it seems totally topsy-turvy to think that too much introspection makes one want to change the world and outro-spection suggests one change oneself. I mean what has doing back flips on stage whilst pitch perfect screaming got to do with wisdom and spirituality? Well every moment of introspection engenders feelings of cleverness that take a thousand moments of harsh reality to eradicate. Too many and you feel fit to teach others in order to change the world. I’m sure Johannes knows what he knows; I just don’t want to be a part of the world he wants to change.