What's New?
Why Jazz Musicians Need to Enter the “Flow State”:
I will let a jazz musician answer this: the late, great Steve Lacy.
Lacy was asked if he could explain the difference between composition and improvisation in just thirty seconds.
He replied: ‘In thirty seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time in the world to decide what you want to do in thirty seconds, while in improvisation you have just thirty seconds.’
It took him exactly thirty seconds to reply.
Some Methods to Bring Our L/R Brain Hemispheres Back Into Balance
Western Societies have clearly lost the crucial balance between its left and right brain hemispheres. The Collective West has become dangerously left-brain dominant leading to its self-destructive obsession with war, money and power. Here are some methods to address this problem:
- Engage in Meditative Practices
- Restructure the Education System
- Use new technological tools such as neurofeedback and the Adagio visual device.
Funding Needed
Funding is needed to help us build a new, improved version of the Adagio Peace Machine. We call it “Adagio 2.0”.
NOTE: traditional funding sources are no longer
available, since, as the primary researcher
and grant applicant is a straight white male,
that category of people are no longer considered
to be viable applicants in today's "woke"
grant world. The goal is to build a larger more flexible version of the original Adagio 1.0, and will be roughly 2x2x3 feet in size. It will be used to introduce people to the concept of “flow” as well as to educate folks on the disastrous effects of our left-brain dominant society. We need hemispheric balance to realign our country with sane thinking and policies. Ideally Adagio 2.0 will be displayed in art museums and other public spaces across the U.S. and abroad to help build public awareness. Once we have the new Adagio 2.0 built, an educational “tour” is envisioned using the Adagio 2.0 as the center piece.
PROJECT OVERVIEW – THE BIG PICTURE
MORE DETAIL ON THE BUILD COMPONENT
Contact jimdubyah@gmail.com with questions and/or budget proposal.
Do Anglo-Saxons Have a Genetic Defect?
War, destruction, self-directed genocide – Anglo-Saxon countries have a mental problem.
What in the world is wrong with the United States, United Kingdom, and other anglo dominated countries? We seem to have a death wish. Perpetual war for decades, now on the verge of a head-to-head battle with a powerful nuclear armed country. We also are aware of, but doing nothing about global climate ecocide. What gives?
The underlying paradigm of our “group think” is that of a population that has lost left/right brain hemispheric balance. All the symptoms are there. We have lost our moral compass, our spiritual base and connection with nature and one another. Chris Hedges says the following bout the U.S., referring to what he calls “junk politics”. However I believe this can be extrapolated to “junk culture”, “junk society”, and “junk think” in general. Here is his description:
“But the second result of junk politics is more insidious. It solidifies the cult of the self, the amoral belief that we have the right to do anything, to betray and destroy anyone, to get what we want. The cult of the self fosters a psychopathic cruelty, a culture built not on empathy, the common good and self-sacrifice but on unbridled narcissism and vengeance. It celebrates, as mass media does, superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and an inability to feel guilt or remorse. This is the dark ethic of corporate culture, celebrated by the entertainment industry, academia and social media.”
Sounds like something right out of the writings of Iain McGilchrist, i.e., the symptoms of left brain dominance. Those with Anglo-Saxon genetic material just may have a built-in biased towards allowing the left brain to gain dominance over the right. It will be fatal unless we can orchestrate a systemic shift in our cognitive paradigm.
Chris Hedges: America’s Theater of the Absurd
Adagio “Flow Machine” byline has been changed to “The Peace Machine”.
From the nation that gave us the U.S. “War Machine” gives birth to its opposite, “The Peace Machine”. Aggressive nations throughout history know that to manufacture consent of its citizenry for war, it must first ID the “enemy”, then the targeted “enemy” is dehumanized as something “other”, sub-human, horrible and evil. The Right Brain Hemisphere (RH) only knows connection and commonality, not separation, so of course cannot even fathom the idea of war. The U.S. has managed to almost totally make the LH dominant in our country, which allows it to manipulate us into accepting its many wars without question. Recent events suggest that congresspersons in government can’t even mention the idea of peace without considerable blowback. See the “Peace Machine” menu selection for more information. A New Music Cinema Piece, by JR Wilson
” New Music Cinema” – a new genre
Virtual Performance
The COVID pandemic has altered the way artists and performers reach their audience. Large gatherings like concerts, art shows, and stage performances were not only discouraged, but more often than not, illegal! Although we can expect some return to normalcy as the infection rate drops, we are most likely faced with a “new normal” in the arts. Many opera companies, for example, especially those that maintained expensive brick-and-mortar offices and stage, went under. Venues have been forced to close their doors, many permanently. Virtual performance, such as virtual opera, may be the answer!
Dr. McGilchrist Applies his L/R Brain Theory Directly to Today's Chaotic World
Dr. McGilchrist raises the alarm – we are in trouble. The world, in particular the Western world, has become too left-brain dominant and become dangerously imbalanced.
Iain McGilchrist has a New Book Out!
Jonathan Gaisman provides a REVIEW of “The Matter With Things”
EXCERPT:
“The world only exists for us inasmuch as we perceive it. We do so as embodied human beings, in particular through our minds. But clinical evidence shows that our divided brains offer two completely different ways of experiencing the world. The left hemisphere analyses lifeless parts; the right synthesises the living Gestalt whole. The right perceives the real landscape; the left constructs an artificial map. The right encounters the new, and is the hemisphere of music, poetry, humour and irony. The left is comfortable with categories, labels, the literal and the familiar. The two hemispheres constantly intercommunicate; however, since many aspects of language preferentially engage the left hemisphere, our modern, overwhelmingly verbalised existence promotes left-brain dominance. Yet countless studies demonstrate that in many areas the left hemisphere is obtuse, overconfident, fantastical and wrong. The right hemisphere, once misnamed the silent hemisphere, is better at understanding the world, whereas the left seeks to manipulate it. Self-validating left-brain modes of thought continually push us in the wrong direction, towards the hall of mirrors in which we now exist.”
