Jim Pollock – The Philler Interview – Part 2

Jim Pollock is currently using a Washington Iron Hand Press.

It’s the same style of a press that Benjamin Franklin used when he was shaping our country.

It’s a very hands on procedure.  It has a large bed that gets inked up and then it gets slid under a platen. The platen is a flat metal or wooden plate pressed against a medium to cause an impression.   The earlier versions are all made out of wood and newer versions use metal to create this mark.   Jim grapples the lever one by one and pulls the platen down as it crunches the paper onto the inked plate.  It’s slightly contrary from his previous machine that he used called the Crank Wheel Bookbinding Hand Press.   He was printing on this machine and introduced the process to the Phish fan base at The Great Went. He was printing on a little bookbinding press and allowed people to watch as he sculpted blocks of linoleum.  It remains an extremely labor intensive pursuit and Jim explains that he gets more out of it than the commonplace practice of digitizing an image and then printing onto paper.  It’s all about the hands on development of a concept with Jim Pollock.  He has always been positively absorbed with the progression and fundamental process of  print making.  The German Renaissance is especially close to his heart where individuals were experimenting in advanced forms that are now being reproduced by using specific types of plates.  With the print making style you can make multiple types of these works and through this multiplication it becomes something different than just a single piece of art that is revered as a stand alone work.  However, the potential to limit the quantity is what continues to make the pieces by Jim a high demand feature at shows and on the Internet market.

I continued to speak with Jim  and he educated me on the differences between the presses and how he is able to register tighter tolerances on certain machines.  He also explained why he prefers to use linoleum when carving out his blocks for the posters.

http://jasonkaczorowski.com/

Robert – What is it about the linoleum blocks that make it desirable to use for what you are doing?

Jim – It’s a lot easier to use linoleum when you are doing large plate pieces than wood.  It’s nice to be able to carve it quickly.  I’m trying to make tight deadlines that someone like a screen printer would have to make.  I have to be able to do this in a timely fashion.  Linoleum is a really good medium for that.  Plus, I can get a fair amount of prints out of it before the linoleum starts to deteriorate.  I’ve learned how to do that better over the years.

Robert – Do you get more joy out of taking big chunks or little chunks out of that linoleum when you are ripping into it?

Jim – (Laughs) It depends.  I guess the big chunks.  That is usually when I am at the end.  I’m just carving out big chunks and it’s always exciting.  I like the print making medium because you are basically carving and carving.  It could take days or weeks and you don’t really know what you have until the very end and when you get it then it’s fun in terms of other types of art where it is more direct.  You’re carving letters backwards.  At this point I know how it is going to look but there still is a certain amount of excitement to finally see the first proof of what you have toiled with at the time.

Robert – Jim Pollock.  He is a big chunk guy.

Jim – (Laughs) I’m a big chunk guy!

Robert – What is the one thing you love most about making art for Phish?  Is it the long standing relationship?

Jim – Yeah.  It’s something that I kind of fell into.  I did not plan any of it.

Robert – I hope you were laughing the entire time.

Jim – That’s right.  It was a big surprise.  I wanted to do art and I actually ended up getting a computer science degree and did web oriented computer programming and design because I was seeing the end of what I was originally getting into like spot illustration and cartooning.  It was starting to go to the way side.  Once the Internet came along it was all digital.  You lived and died by the web.  My process is old school and it is interesting to practice this ancient or older style of print making in a world that has left it behind.  I started doing linoleum prints after I left the Art Institute.  I had taken one print making course and I wanted to do another then things got busy.  My wife was taking methods of art in education and in one of her classes they had to do a linoleum print.  She carved one of the two blocks and I decided to do one.  Then, I just decided to keep on doing linoleum prints after that and just really liked it and fell into that type of art form.  It’s nice.  It’s in multiples.  I can sell stuff online and by that time I was savvy enough to understand how to do web related stuff and I just continued to do it.  Then, that is when I got the idea to approach Phish with these linoleum posters.

They finally said yes and it blew up from there.  You have ebay and I did some artist proof sets to big collectors.  It was all really amazing.  I had no idea it would turn into what it has become.  I just wanted to continue my art stuff and it blew up in my face.  It’s a wonderful thing as an artist to feel it.

Robert – Here is one question that has stumped more than one person I have interviewed.  Have you ever experienced any cases of synchronicity while being around the Phish culture?

Jim – Right.

Robert – Maybe you’re going to a show.  This is just an auxiliary example.  You go to a show in any such environment and you look up.  You look up at the right moment and it looks like Kuroda is drawing an arrow facing upwards with the lights (Jim laughs).  The show goes on and they play “Fluffhead” or whatever  and you leave the show.  You’re walking out and you look down and someone has fashioned an arrow out of three sticks.  That is an extreme example.  Is there anything off the top of your head were those kind of dots were connected where you thought is that just me or is there something moving me in this direction?

Jim – Right.  It’s mostly the relationship with the crowd.  I see a lot of it in day to day life.  The interesting part about Phish is the long relationship I have with them and with the people that I have met over the years by being at their shows.  I just met some guy last year who was at the UIC shows.  He was in the womb of his mother when she saw me at The Great Went.  She reminded me that I touched her belly at The Great Went and there he was.  It was him.  It was this big kid.  It’s cool.  It’s nice to have this interesting relationship with this large fan base of people for a really long time.  I’m pretty old and I still get out and have contact.  Hopefully, over the Summer I will get to do it and that is my synchronicity with Phish.  They stand on the stage and get the energy and I get this energy from people appreciating my art work.  They live with it and they are always very nice about their compliments to me.  I know these people and feel not like the unpopular dude in high school that I remember.  I know a fair amount of people and it is nice.  They are always very friendly and it is a nice group of fans.  It’s nice to be known and appreciated by such a diverse group.

Robert – Those are the rewards you get when you stay the course.  We get in High School and some of us fit in and some of us don’t and a person goes forward fifteen years later and they are on Facebook and wondering why this person wants to be friends on it.  This person hated me in High School and now they want to friend me on Facebook.  That is such a weird vibe.

Jim – Yeah.  You know there is always someone more famous than you in High School and you can beat yourself up but when I am walking around in the lot…I like walking around in the lot.  It’s fun.  People give me space and I talk to people and meet people again.  It’s like being at a family reunion of sorts.  Like I said, people are always very nice to me.  It’s nothing that I would ever want to avoid or think of avoiding.

Robert – That must have been an amazing feeling knowing the mother of the kid who is also into Phish and is influenced by the music and your work.  It must be amazing to have the luxury of that time span.  It is such a joyous thing to reflect on and the timeline of that has got to be fulfilling.

Jim – Phish fans have been painted with a very broad brush stroke in terms of popular culture.  I know a lot of Phish fans and it is far from the truth.  It runs the gamut.  People of all types are Phish fans.  It makes for a good joke on late night talk shows but it is a vast array of smart people and they have been well connected to the Internet from the very early stages.

Thanks for checking out this latest installment from The Philler and stay tuned for our next cloudcast. We’ll be talking to Jim and Mr. Miner about all sorts of fun Phish related stuff.  Mr. Miner will be choosing his favorite live picks off Junta through the years.  Record Store Day is fast approaching and so is the kick off to Summer Tour.  Keep a look out for The Sloping Companion in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Noblesville and East Troy for the first leg and I am sure we will be making the rounds once a second leg (fingers crossed) is announced.

Also, I would like to let everyone know that I am selling a phish related pin online and at Phish shows this Summer.  It’s entitled Page’s House.  I know there are several similarly themed pins on the market but we tried to produce ours with a simple, cute and to the point design.  Twenty percent of all sales go directly to The Mockingbird Foundation and there are only 100 available.  We are trying to raise $240.00 for this non-profit organization before Summer Tour starts.  The pre-sale is going on right now and you can order your pin by clicking here.   If you preorder the pin then you will also receive a special magnet highlighting the work of Chris Kuroda free from The Sloping Companion.  Also, shipping is free for anyone that orders now so we thought that would be a cool bonus as well for those that purchase early. The pin is only twelve bucks!  Order one today and help fund The Philler and give a little gift to the hardworking people at The Mockingbird Foundation. Here is a little philler for you to tide you over until the next cloudcast.

My wife and I had the pleasure to see Paradise Waits last Friday in the Chicago suburb of Darien. Paradise Waits is a Chicago based outfit that plays Grateful Dead and Jerry tunes.  I took my camera and recording equipment to Q-Sports Bar and Grill to see these guys lay it down for the first time.  If you are in the area then you have got  to check out this room!  It’s like my own miniature Park West in the western burbs.  The acoustics are outstanding and the sound system is something to be experienced.  It was a rare treat for my wife and I to get a night away from the kids and Paradise Waits delivered and made the trip out more than worth it.  I put together a compilation of photographs that I took to their version of “Peggy-O” that I recorded on this evening.  We were lucky to be joined by special guest Eric Lambert on lead guitar.  It was a pretty good turnout and I am excited to have these guys play our Spring celebration at my home this April on the 28th.  Hit me up if you are interested in attending.  Give this delicately alluring version a listen below and let The Sloping Companion know what you think about these guys. Take care of each other.

Peggy-O

As we rode out to fennario, as we rode on to fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove
And called her by a name, pretty peggy-o.

Will you marry me pretty peggy-o, will you marry me pretty peggy-o
If you will marry me, Ill set your cities free
And free all the ladies in the are-o.

I would marry you sweet william-o, I would marry you sweet william-o
I would marry you but your guineas are too few
And I fear my mama would be angry-o.

What would your mama think pretty peggy-o,
What would your mama think pretty peggy-o,
What would your mama think if she heard my guineas clink
Saw me marching at the head of my soldiers.

If ever I return pretty peggy-o, if ever I return pretty peggy-o
If ever I return your cities I will burn
Destroy all the ladies in the area-o.

Come steppin down the stairs pretty peggy-o,
Come steppin down the stairs pretty peggy-o,
Come steppin down the stairs combin back your yellow hair
Bid a last farewell to your william-o.

Sweet william he is dead pretty peggy-o, sweet william he is dead pretty peggy-o,
Sweet william he is dead and he died for a maid
And hes buried in the louisiana country-o.

As we rode out to fennario, as we rode out to fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,
And called her by a name, pretty peggy-o.

Jim Pollock – The Philler Interview – Part 1

Copyright Jason Kaczorowski
http://jasonkaczorowski.net/

Jim Pollock is a busy man these days in the world of concert art. It’s 2012 in this extremely bizarre month of March. The weather is antithetic as Jim and I venture off into Churchill Woods. A crane swoops in and lands on the edge of the water at the exact same moment that we pull into the parking lot. The weather outside is peaking at 80 degrees in the middle of March and the typical Spring transition is not happening on a local level. March is usually a month of constant second guesses with the weather in Chicagoland.  It’s uneasy and uncertain. However, in the case of long time Phish collaborator Jim Pollock, he has never been more sure of himself and his place in this world.

Junta is finally being released on vinyl for Record Store Day this coming April. Pollock explains that when he first developed the cover art for this seminal Phish album that it was sized to actually fit the cover for a vinyl record. Many years have passed since the first release of the work and it is with great excitement and a sense of closure that this classic piece of Phish art has finally made the way onto the medium in which it was originally intended. On Record Store Day, Phish will deliver Junta in it’s own special way as a Limited Edition Deluxe 3-LP vinyl set. The important thing to note is that if Phish is doing something with the word “deluxe” in it then you are most assuredly promised something distinctively Phish.

This is the first time Junta has ever been released on vinyl and myself and the other record collectors out there that are into Phish are eagerly awaiting April 21 so that we can listen in a way that we have never listened since our ears were first exposed to this masterful collection of otherwordly and distinguished compositions.

Junta is the first album that I heard when I was initially exposed to Phish.  Let’s tell the all too common tale one more time.  I was heading into my Junior year of High School when my best friend and I were just starting to figure out what we were into and what made our bells ring.  His older brother Jeff had come home that Summer from his first year of college.  Jeff sat us down and told us to shut the hell up and just listen to what he was about to play.  He wanted silence and he wanted these two greenhorns to pay close attention.  He was very adamant that we not say a word once he hit the play button.  He picked up a CD with this interesting artwork on the front.  We sat there and the two of us inspected it closely like it was some sort of ancient artifact brought back from an unknown universe.  Jeff had already established the importance of what we were about to witness and it was even more amplified by the fact that he had been to college and had been a part of a world that we had been fantasizing about for several years.  We inspected this CD over and over as Jeff made his way to the stereo.  It looked like the soundtrack to Robin Hood.  Was it the soundtrack to Robin Hood?  This was an album called Travelers and Thieves by the band Blues Traveler.  This would be the first step in a series of pivotal impressions that would cultivate my early adult life.

The style of harp being played by John Popper was something that was a completely new sound to me.  I had lived in the Chicago area my whole life and was very familiar with the blues and the way the harp played into this genre.  However, upon listening to this album I had quickly realized that this instrument was capable of sounding like something in a completely different family than the backdrop of an accompanying instrument like it can be in standard 12 bar blues.  This isn’t to say that I had never heard a blues musician solo on a harp.  This is just to say that this was nothing that I was comfortable with or knowledgeable of in the realm of music and I wanted more and I wanted it right away.

Then, it was almost like the entire mood of the room had changed.  I remember listening to “Ivory Tusk” and “Optimistic Thought” on the first spin and being completely intoxicated by the way the harp was able to sound like an electric guitar as in the role of a lead instrument that is able to drive the momentum of melody and theme.  We were listening.  Jason and I were listening and Jeff did not have to ask us a second time to shut up and pay attention.  It was his role as mentor and new found man of the world to bring back the relics of this uncontaminated essence of college life.  We were being let in on the secret and we were eavesdropping on a brave new world.  Reflecting on it is truly a sweet pain.  Rest easy Jason.  We all miss and love you.

Again, the mood had changed.  We listened to the songs and Jeff began to take on the presence of a priest or some wise shaman from Peru.  His entire face changed and he began to talk about another band.  The mood became very serious.  He had planted the seed and gained our respect that day.  Then, he pulled out another CD and the cover art was totally different on this one.  In fact, it made me very uncomfortable.

The CD was Junta and I remember looking at this jewel case like I was somehow looking at a lost version of a Shel Silverstein book.  It was weird and it didn’t make any sense to me.  Then again, I didn’t make much sense to me at the time.  Moreover, I didn’t make much sense to my social circles in school.  I easily migrated between the jocks,book worms, music geeks, creative kids, academics and the muslim student body that was beginning to grow in numbers in my hometown.  I fit in everywhere but I did not fit in anywhere inside and completely if that makes any sense to the reader.  I was comfortable with being uncomfortable.  This separated me from any one clique in school.  In fact, it was the driving force at that time.  The cover art of Junta made me uncomfortable but it was this feeling of discomfort that made me want to learn more.  I was comfortable with being uncomfortable.  I couldn’t really say that about most of my friends. There were a few exceptions.  Jason was one of those exceptions who has since passed in death and is no longer with us.  However, that bedroom where we sat and listened relives itself inside of me each day I get up to explore music.  That day relives itself each and every time I hear a “Fluffhead” or a “You Enjoy Myself” through my speakers or at a show.  That day was the day when I realized the potential of something far greater than what was playing on the radio or what I was playing in my Orchestra and Symphonic Band in high school.  This was something unsettling, vibratory and narrative in a brand new way for me.  This was exactly what I had been waiting for as a young musician.

I remember that Jeff first played us “Esther” and that it reaffirmed the weirdness that I had felt when I initially looked at the jewel case.  I didn’t know it at the time but Jeff was setting us up for the hook.  He started off with the accessible story of “Esther” and then followed it up with the more complicated compositions throughout the work.  The house of cards came crumbling down on that afternoon and in that bedroom that Jason and Jeff shared their entire life.  Everything that I  knew about listening and performing music had completely inverted within itself.  The rules that I had followed as a musician growing up suddenly became standard and commonplace.  I didn’t begin to hate that music or look down upon it in any way.  In fact, I began to revere and understand it even more through the years as important templates to a much larger concept of what it means to get a musical idea across.  The rules, regulations and math of music suddenly presented problems and situations that became uncharted territory and were completely life altering and not native.  Jeff was a shaman even if he had no clue as to what was happening inside of me on a cellular level.  Jeff was teaching me more about my spiritual road when it came to being an artist.  Many will laugh and disregard it on the periphery.  However,  it was one of the most metaphysically devotional moments of my 35 years on this planet. I type it all out now and the affinity for the ability to expose someone to something so new and in such an intimate way only rings stronger as I get the chance to teach other young people about this music.  Our bells had been rung on that day.  It was Junta.  It changed things.

This now Platinum studio effort will include a brand new Limited Edition hand carved and printed linoleum block poster by Jim, created specifically for this release. Not every edition will have this included so those that actually get their hands on one will certainly rejoice when they enter into the record store and see these marked copies waiting for them on the racks. 5,000 albums are set to hit the shelves on Record Store Day and only half will include this special installment from the man who has been there since the beginning as a creative collaborator with the band and as roommates with Page McConnell back in the college days of Goddard. I sat down with Jim and we talked about his process, his motivation and most importantly, the kind of underwear Page wore while lounging around the dorms at Goddard in Plainfield, Vermont.

Robert – What was it like going to Goddard all those years ago?

Jim – It was a very small campus. People lived in these small huts that were actually designed for the military. There were about ten rooms in each of these pre fab-huts and we all had our run of the place. My wife Esme was there and it was close quarters.

Robert – Tell us how you met your wife Esme. She is a well known author in her own right and is very active in the literary world. How did you get together?

Jim – We met at Goddard.

Robert – Was she originally from Vermont?

Jim – She was from Chicago. She actually just picked Goddard out of a hat and just wanted out of Chicago.

Robert – That’s a big switch. It was during this time when you were paired up as roommates with Page McConnell.

Jim – At one point we were living together in these huts. There were a bunch of us. Basically I was doing art work and had a lot of space for art work in a very precarious building called The Glass Building. They used to have a big glass studio there but it had long since become decrepit and there wasn’t too much there at Goddard. It had gone through the hey day in the early 70′s.

Robert – You had all your stuff spread out in that living environment. Did Page have a massive amount of gear laid out in the dorm or just a few things collected at the time?

Jim – Yeah. Usually he had a couple amps and a few keyboards. He had a Harmonium. We did this little act where he would play Harmonium and I would play the guitar. Everyone was very comfortable with each other. There was a radio station and we all had radio shows. It was fun.

Robert – What kind of stuff did you play on your show?

Jim – We played Rock. We played Lou Reed and odd punk. I was just finding this stuff and it was all new.

Robert – The artist melds well with the broadcaster. Both types of people are longing to get it out there and college radio stations offer that to people like you.

Jim – Yes. It was a very open format. I’m sure we crossed some FCC boundaries.

Robert – So what is your wife working on right now?

Jim – She actually became a school Librarian. She is working on her certification. Publishing is in this transitional phase. It’s a very difficult time for publishing with e-books coming out. There is a lot of price fixing and public cases that are holding up a lot of things.

Robert – Is she conjuring up any idea right now about the next big thing?

Jim – She actually just had one book come out called Fairly Fairy Tales. She has a Johnny Appleseed book coming out. She loses track because it takes so long. She worked on these years ago and then they come out and because of the way it’s done now there is less fanfare. They used to have her go out and speak on tours and stuff like that but now it is very bare bones so whatever she can do around here she does. It doesn’t disrupt her life like it did back then so now she can be back in a school setting which she really likes and it gives her a lot more motivation to talk about things. It’s hard when you are not in contact with an educational setting after being apart from it for so long.

Robert – Have the two of you ever collaborated on anything?

Jim – We did and we sent it around. Nothing ever came of it as of yet. Actually, we were thinking about publishing some limited stuff ourselves.

Robert – Did they decline it because it had too many creepy insect illustrations?

Jim – Right. It was scaring the children.

Stay tuned for more of my interview with Jim Pollock right here on The Philler.  I will be posting more excerpts from our talk and the next episode of my cloudcast will feature the entire interview.  We will also sit down and talk with Mr. Miner about his favorite live picks from Junta.  April is an exciting month for vinyl audiophiles.  We will be listening.  We will ring those bells.  Don’t forget to click follow on this blog to get all the updates,future interviews and cloudcasts of The Philler.  Take care of each other and we will see you next time.

The Primary Themes & Some Useful Terms

Before we move any further with The Sloping Companion it is important to note that I created this forum because I have never found a place entirely comfortable for me to share my ideas about Phish, other music, art and my invention without receiving ridicule and general mockery from those that have fragmented what I was trying to get across on the Internet.  Some of my friends that are into Phish have also felt as if some of the message boards have not provided the proper environment for us to flourish as fans of this band.  Some available forums are extremely helpful like Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughts and Phish.net.  However, most of the message boards that have to do with Phish are extremely unpolished and vulgar.  I will admit that I have been sucked in a time or two.  Then, I left it all behind and it has proven to be extremely beneficial.  I have met some of the most passionate people in this community through branching out away from the sad state that is the Phish message board culture. It’s been a good thing and I am glad to say that I have adapted with the technology.

Other forums dwell on an overpowering message and philosophy that is so obviously far removed from the actual interests of fans; still others seemed to be just about making women feel uncomfortable by any means necessary.  Most importantly, these negative forums rarely ever have the music of the band at the forefront.  We all know the ratios and we all know how some of the guys out there can use it to their twisted momentary advantage in order to further perpetuate their pathology.  I was looking to build a team that was concise and set with a promising and well maintained intention of positive encouragement as we move through this life together.  I’ve begun to build that team and it has been extremely rewarding on a number of levels.  You know who you are and I thank you for reaching out with me. I wanted to begin a blog and website that was clearly written; that was as comprehensive as any other forum that existed on the Internet, covering my thoughts and emotions about Phish and the ideas that have sprung up through me because of a direct attention to the music that has been and continues to be created by Trey, Mike, Page & Jon.  I wanted this place to be an environment that would introduce new concepts commonly shortchanged in currently available Internet forums (such as the deep emotional and spiritual connection that can be had by travelling with the band on the search of One, being a musician and a fan, and other related topics as a person goes on a spiritual pursuit through the backdrop of music) and that this would then create a stronger base within the culture in terms of connecting the dots in a way that made everyone comfortable with each other at shows and in the larger arena of life.  We’ll see what happens. Reputation and rumors about me swirl in and out each day.  I certainly have my work cut out for myself.

I am writing The Sloping Companion to address what I believe are important issues for myself and for a section of fans that may not have the time or energy to dedicate to a collected work.  I have been, and continue to be, guided by the compass of multiple relations and premises: that fans of this music do possess a genuine interest in their own experience with Phish and how this may translate into their larger lives, and that the act of comparing and contrasting their experience will result in a deeper and more meaningful appreciation of it and the other cultures that surround us on a daily basis.  The Sloping Companion focuses on aspects of all of the things that tie this into an acquisition of One.  We will find similarities with other cultures that we may think are totally far removed from our own.  It is this intention that I believe will cultivate the readers’ awareness of, and tolerance for, the diversity that exists within the Phish community and within the all encompassing environment that exists as we leave the parking lot and enter into the larger arena of everyday life.  Again, this is not for everyone and many will disregard these words.  However, this is about One and everyone has in them the potential for the acquisition of it.

The Sloping Companion is structured around a multitude of themes.  There are four distinctive themes that I regard as fundamentally important and these elements will be brought up constantly as I blog and add content to my portal.  Some of these terms actually have scientific names and I will try my best to explain these components as I write about them on this site.

The Fanbase & Cultural Relativism - Most concepts of how we view ourselves and how the outside paradigm views us promotes the sometimes devalued notion that some magical dividing line separates what we call “Wooks” and the rest of the fanbase.  I am embarrassed to use the term “Wook” but it is meant as a clarification and not how I personally view these individuals.  The term has taken on such a loose definition that it certainly does not mean what it used to mean when it was first coined and then was led to proliferate in Phish fan culture years ago.  The Sloping Companion rejects what most people consider the formal distinction between “us” and “them,” and following from this militantly unified stance, I will try to consistently act as an advocate in terms of what I believe to be the most important lesson I have learned as a fan of improvisational music.  This lesson is the search and acquisition of One.

One of the main themes of my collected work on the Internet involves an attempt to better understand cultural relativism and I will spend various blog entries explaining these concepts.  I have created characters with specific traits in order to foster any number of responses from people as a research tool over the years.  This practice dates back all the way to 1994 when I first began to write on a usenet group called rec.music.phish.  I have cultivated various characters and this process has led me to assemble a wealth of data about fan culture and the micro community of Internet Phish fan culture.  Much of this has been done to collect information about  the culture of Phish and how it relates to cultural relativism.  This is essentially the desire and willingness to evaluate a culture or a subset of a culture in terms of its own set of values rather than those of another (dominant or otherwise) culture. Throughout The Sloping Companion, I will try my best to illustrate how this is significantly different from the counter ideal of ethnocentrism when dealing with the parking lot, the show and beyond the three hour production that many of us pine over each and every year.

Holism - Despite the long standing and poor fragmentation from other parties of my methods and practices on the Internet, my goal in 2012 remains with the intention of what can be considered a holistic practice.  I credit this research and training in this field to One.  When we are trained in the discipline of One, we still are affected by the things that happen outside of this pursuit.  This is our gauge.  It is my pursuit to acknowledge and revere the powerful reality of holism as it continues into 2012 and into my soul as this most coveted truth.  It is also my intention to convey the idea that the myriad aspects of any fan based culture are more closely related than some people might believe, even as the different but interconnected parts of our body work both independently and as a unified force to keep propelling us forward as we live as third dimensional beings on this planet.  I promote holism because the synchronicity has convinced me to do this thing and in this way.  It is this accelerated practice of synchronicity within our community that helps develop a deeper meaning to this thing that we clutch at different intervals but with a common and developing passion.  I will attempt to continue this practice in my marriage, as a father and as a storyteller for Phish nation.

Women & The Sloping Companion - A major theme of The Sloping Companion is that the way we live, the beliefs that encapsulate and protect, and the sometimes fragile/sometimes very strong institutions by which these convictions are brought into play at shows and in the larger culture that exists belong not to one gender but to all genders.  The unrealistic and antiquated stance that Phish is something better understood by males is embarrassing on many levels.  This is not one hundred percent true for every male into Phish but the numbers do not lie and if I have obtained anything after these years of research then it is a pile of numbers.  It is the goal of The Sloping Companion to continue to replace the male dominated and predatory philosophy on the Phish Internet culture with one that emphasizes the mutually complimentary influences of both male, female and trans-gendered fans.  It is up to us as a unified force to fashion such a foundation within the communal structures that we inhabit.   This isn’t really an issue of feminism in the popular and aggressive sense of the word.  It’s an issue of civility.  Female Phish fans are important and they are needed more and more each and every year to balance this imbalance out for the better of our community.

Civility & The Theoretical Side – The Value – My characters lacked refinement and civility in the first half of my experience as a person observing and changing with a musical group in my own way.  These characters would throw out racial slurs and push all the right buttons knowing almost exactly how the outcome would play itself out.  The whole thing was a big ass test.  It was all about the reaction.  I was testing boundaries, myself, other people and anything that would get in the way of my drawn out posts.  I was looking for One but did not really understand this truth at the time.  The frequency of how much I applied my research to this overall observation was small at the time and has since grown into something that I continue to try to understand within my own balance.  The importance of civility must ring true even though we all have failed in this respect.

There are times when a civil conversation can challenge the people invested in all of this stuff.  However, both parties have to be civil in order for there to be a civil conversation.  Challenges will be regarded as attacks by certain parties.  However, when both parties are civil and open to each other then the attack all of a sudden changes the agreed upon definition of the word.  In fact, it becomes a completely different word that was previously called something negative.  This is my challenge as an individual with high functioning autism.  Moreover, something may sound like an insult when it is questioned on this blog.  I feel the need to tell my side in a network that rarely ever speaks on my behalf.  Therefore, I have built this forum with my series of opinions and my philosophy on my own personal observations of what I have witnessed.  My goal is to remain civil with anyone that would like to interact with me on this blog and larger project www.theslopingcompanion.com.

I will talk about structure, function, culture, materialism, economics, psychology, subsistence, and a host of other topics that I think tell the complete story of my general philosophy.  I will also talk about music in how I understand it.  I will try to remain civil but will challenge things and will emotionally speak on these concepts in an attempt to better understand why they exist and how they can be made to move forward as a unified force.  This blog is not for everyone.  I am writing this initial post because I would like to set the tone of what is about to be written in the coming months in my own way and without interference from a moderator that might have a personal issue within themselves that manifests itself in my being banned from any such forum.  I have made many mistakes in my life and hope to tell the complete story from my own perspective as this blog continues.  I have also learned many things from these mistakes.

I have learned to be civil with those who choose to return the courtesy.  My intention is to offer a service that will collect a group of like minded thinkers that exist in an equally promoted environment.  Also, I want to see the best band in America.  I want to see Phish.  These are the primary themes that I hope to cover on this blog.  I envision that the list of themes will also grow with time.  Thank you for your time. Listen.  Read.  Rage.

Summer Tour 2012 – The Thin Veil

Are the members of Phish or their management Gods?  Hardly.  They are men and women who are trying to chip away to find their place in this world through the business of the music industry just like other people in different fields and just like the people who eagerly linger in the lull for an announcement of another string of shows to make Summer…well…Summer.  The most professional crew is at it again with an announcement that is sure to make plenty of people feel blessed (hometown or otherrwise) in any of the venues that Phish will be doing their thing in for this upcoming expedition.  There has been the ever so common and obnoxious rumor mill and speculation machine.  Aren’t we tired of all of this non factual stuff getting in the way of the actual factual?  I don’t see how shitting on the venues that Phish chooses to play makes anyone more of an authority on what is and isn’t good Phish but people seem to do it day in and day out.  Then again, Alpine Valley does pose a rough go of it if you hold in your hands a lawn ticket. Maybe so maybe not.

Maybe it is exactly where you want to be. I want to badly remain positive as Summer brings with it the hope of personal cultivation and the persuance for One.  This doesn’t mean I don’t take issue with what people say about one of my favorite bands.  In fact, I will nourish my ideas and if the reader calls me negative then I say that I call myself a challenger.  Respectfully, I am embarrassed.  Respectfully, I will be challenging if only for the hope that this exposure will lead to the end goal of us all getting on the same ship and foraging off into the ether as a unified force.  It doesn’t matter if it is some prefabricated shed or some illustrious mountain view.  You are almost certainly promised that something life changing for the good is going to happen if you keep your shit together and launch those receptors.  The end goal in this militancy is always to get to the positive place that we all know is a million times more beautiful than anything anyone could ever spend their Phish downtime shitting on day in and day out on the Internet.

We have some of those in our ranks and some of them have learned the rudimentary tasks of creating a web presence.  We also have some people out there doing the extreme disservice of trying to convince people that they somehow know exactly what is going on in the minds of the band and how this plays into their decision making on and off the stage.  This kind of stuff is actually pretty revolting and I want to address it now with the sole intention of getting to a positive end as my blog progresses.

The music being played on stage is not better or worse depending on the venue or town where the play is playing.  That isn’t how I think it works with Phish.  Then again, I am not and never have claimed to be their spokesperson.  There are enough people playing that game on the Internet.  The music doesn’t become bad or good because Phish decided to play that song in the Midwest at Toyota Park.  People actually attribute shit like that to the venue.  My sentiment is that the fans give it that spin based on their own biased assumptions.  Then again, a Red Rocks announcement would settle my soul a bit but only for the vacation aspect and not because I think the best ever version of “Fluffhead” is going to be played there once they announce it.  My point is that the band doesn’t walk onto the All State Arena stage and decide beforehand that the A song or B song is going to deliver or fall apart.  That isn’t how it happens from my research and personal on stage experience.  That is what a lot of fans push when the show is over and I am convinced that it gets in the way of really squeezing all the possible joy out of the spectacle that is live Phish.

These individuals meander out into the lot and start to establish stories which are mostly hyper dramatic interpretations of their own experience at the moment.  Let’s be fair.  A lot of it is also supplemented by any number of chemicals that can easily be used to frame thoughts and create the unreal romantic notion that you hear when people are talking after a gig.  It can be heart warming and it can be really sad to hear at certain times but at the end of the day it has nothing to do with what Trey was thinking or what Mike might have wanted to do during a “Possum” or a “Tweezer” on that night.  It’s about the fan having the arrogant balls to pretend like they know what the band is thinking.  Welcome to the rumor mill.  It’s a place full of stories and projections.  It’s a place where we think we are all right about everything.  It’s the guy telling you that Kuroda and Trey had a fight about windmills last week and that is why Trey went flat when he should have gone sharp.  It’s that girl that tells you “The Squirming Coil” was written because Page woke up one morning after having a dream about Richard Nixon and told Trey that he actually wasn’t such a bad guy at all and that they need to buy more flashlights for the next experiment.  This is the rumor mill. This is the shit that takes up the time of fans when they are waiting for the band to be a band.  Sadly, this is the stuff that a lot of people pay more attention to than the actual performance.

This is something that fans need to learn not to do.

I am working on the next big thing. First, let me tell you about the kind of underwear Trey wears & why he wears it.

Making empty excuses and blaming a physical structure or a geographic location for a poorly performed “Rift” is something that many do and I am surprised to see people who have attended many shows do it as well.  Fans will do what they do and it will probably never be reconciled with One.  Then again, not everyone is buying tickets and stepping out onto the playa for a spiritual pursuit.  This is why their speculation is more important than the actual announcement of actual music happening.  I moved out of that phase when I decided to surrender to the flow.  It’s certainly not for everybody.

The first batch of dates were released on leap day.  We really should be expecting stuff like this by now but the cerebral juggernaut that we know and love is always thinking.  That is part of why there is so much love for the group.  Their ability to tie things into one another is their ability to enhance the fan experience.  It’s more than just music.  It’s an inside joke that every last person should get in on as soon as humanly possible.

Phish is playing Bonnaroo.  That is a really smart business decision but is not in the cards for me this time around.  They announced 19 more shows for the first shake and each stop has the potential to be something magical, uplifting and thought provoking depending on your mindset going into it and the people that you surround yourself with at shows.

I am going to do my best to attend the shows at Alpine Valley and in Noblesville.  Can we please stop calling it Deer Creek?  I get that there were some great things that happened when the venue was named Deer Creek.  However, like environment and structure, the name of a venue does not make the previous concert any less magical and does not make the next one potentially better by living in the past with nostalgic buzz phrases that somehow give us a false sense of lot cred.  Is this some sort of rebellion mechanism created to act like we know more about Phishtory than someone that would call it by a newer name or would not know it as Deer Creek?  Is it about weird alpha posturing or are we here for the actual music?  Can we all just fucking let go for a minute for the sake of the music?

I read on the Internet that another Phish blogger thinks the Atlantic City shows are going to be a weird mix of the AC Halloween shows and Superball.  How is it fortuitous to predict what improvisational music is going to sound like before it is even played?  It seems like this is just filler typing to fill up some empty space inside of oneself.  It has to be filler typing.  I have yet to meet someone that can predict a concert for me before the concert event even happens.  It’s this kind of stuff that embarrasses me as a fan sometimes because I said earlier that certain things do not determine how a show is going to sound before the freaking show even happens.  Atlantic City is going to be a show in close proximity to other shows but it in no way means that the show is going to sound exactly like those near location events just because they were a few miles down the way.  To proclaim this and throw it out there is incredible to me and makes me seriously question the credibility of the author.  Then again, anyone can start a website.  I could put up a home page about Asian ladyboy basket weavers.  I don’t know shit about Asian ladyboy basket weavers no matter what Phantasy Tour has told you.

The same author quoted Phish as having a lack of vision.  It’s important to keep in mind that the author is not a musician so he doesn’t actually know anything about any “vision” that the band may or may not have as musicians.  It’s this lack of knowledge that allows no cornerstone in the way of what kind of ideas may or may not be firing inside an artist.  It’s disrespectful.  Moreover, there are many musicians who can’t get their head wrapped around the vision that the band might have when they step out on stage.  The thing that aggravates me so much are the assumptions and strangely blatant attempts at pseudo-psychic writing that takes place with this author.  The person writes like he is literally thinking for the band and translating to the listeners the intimate details of what is going on within their minds at any given time.

It’s arrogant writing on a number of levels and is even more incredible when you consider that the person writing and telling the reader why the band played a certain way or did a certain thing is trying to get you to simultaneously believe that he is speaking on behalf of four musicians.  You cannot tell a reader that a group of artists lack vision when you cannot even define what the vision is in the first place. It’s disrespectful to the musicians and the author then loses credibility even more in those pesky post-show-parking-lot conversations.  However, the slow down while an accident happens in me continues to read this nonsense each and every week.  I can only imagine what any of the band members think when they hear or read an article that has the author telling them what they were thinking at any given moment and why they were wrong to think that way.  I certainly know what I would do.  Does anyone else find it disrespectful?  I myself am more attracted to a partial or a universal veil but sometimes it’s just plain thin.

A veil, in mycology, is one of several structures in fungi, especially the thin membrane that covers the cap and stalk of an immature mushroom. They can be both partial and universal.

It’s important to note that at the end of the day the need to criticize simply belies a longing for recognition, appreciation,validation and a few other things. None of which, however, can be obtained through criticism. Let’s find a better way together as a unified base and just let the band be a band this Summer. Who is with me?

In a previous blog entry I brought up the musical term adagio and we will continue to discuss it further as we move through this blog together.  Here is one of the best examples of an entire movement of music that begins adagio and remains this way throughout the entirety of the piece of music.  What songs can you think of by Phish that are at this tempo?  Next time you can reference the song or the portion of a song that is adagio and you will also be speaking one of the romantic languages at the same time. Impress your friends.  Remain silent.  Have fun with this piece of music.

I am also still reflecting on last Summer.

Second set of Tahoe night two opened strong with “Disease” Stop Stop Stop…No Phish…Keep on going. It might sound cliche but it was a tour of second sets for me and I don’t say that about every tour. The jam at the end of “Disease” was strong and to the point. Trey’s sustain then broke into a short stated series of 16th notes that was reminscient of machine gun Trey of old but let’s not get bogged down in technicalities. Let’s talk about the feelings that those technicalities create in any number of people with any number of backgrounds….Shit…Machine gun Trey. It’s one of his elder tricks and he has learned to apply it tastefully over the tours instead of banging you over the head with it to the brink of almost having an anxiety attack 1.0 style. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy that brink in my youth..Hell…I chased it… but I am in a much more relaxed anti manic stage in my life and have learned to embrace the whole that present day Phish creates and when he brings out the machine gun then I stand ready to be shot by it.

It’s these same tasteful applications of their entire tool box that has marked the maturity of this band into present day American venue icons and I don’t use the word casually. “Disease” went on until it melted into an abrupt rest and then back up again into “Runaway Jim.” Plinko Jam became the theme of this meandering “Runaway” for the intro into the second verse. They used it tastefully this time around and I actually am embarrassed to even use the term publicly but there you go.

The second chance for the band to improvise was again straight ahead Phish and created a second story beyond the plinko….beyond the jam….beyond any competition. Then, we went there again…Phish took us there again as the song concluded. Where did they take us? They took us to that place that we still haven’t been able to universally define or put our finger on exactly because it keeps wobbling off every time we get closer to the One. We wobbled for quite some time before they busted out the arguable song of the Summer for me on another personal level. We are truly living in a golden age. Sell now!!!

The impromptu vocal jam out of “Sallie” made the song unique and obviously had the crowd shaking their collective asses.

I am still pining over Tahoe really hard. I have often said that I could hear “Guyute” at every Phish show and never complain. I can explain but it would be a long ass entry.  The short answer is that this song rang through my head almost every time I lined up to the assassination range while I performed in The Dupage Symphony Orchestra. We were playing Brahms or some god awful rehashed Christmas spectacular…but in my head…everytime I picked up a stick or a mallet….I was playing “Guyute.” That’s the short answer. The long answer? Let’s not go there.

Trey grinning before going into the final verse left me fleeing all cares and worries of the day while we were getting ever closer to that one thing. Mike also was grinning ear to ear during the final musical phrase and it’s always good to see him lose the poker face and smile like he probably smiled when he figured out his first scale.  Phish.  Summer.  2012.  It’s not coming.  It’s already here.

Keep All The Home Fires Burning

I’m still thinking about Tahoe.  Wasn’t the “Horn” beautifully sad?  Rift is my favorite album to listen to regularly and “Horn” is an integral turning point in the full recording.  It also has one of the most subtly gigantic guitar solos that Trey has ever performed both in the studio and on stage.  How can you listen to that guitar solo and not be moved?  I would and will pay good money to see it performed any day on stage.

The notion of bouncing was touched upon twice during the show in “Bouncing Around The Room” in the first set and “Free” in the second half of the gig.  ”Rocket Man” allowed the band to be less distant with the audience if only for a moment.  It was a real blessing to sit back and acknowledge the impressiveness of a band that can get to where Phish is in sheer size and still have the opportunity to be intimate and interactive with their dedicated audience in 2012.  It doesn’t happen often these days and probably for good reason.  It was a nice departure from the new wall that is around the band for what I can only assume is there for reasons of longevity.

We also have to give a nod to “The Squirming Coil” because it became the perfect falling action for the first evening in Tahoe and concluded another crystal clear success for Phish as they embraced technology for their not-so-isolated-as-much-anymore fans,  I personally got lost in a wombat eating a beetle during the “Coil” but it was that “Coil” that allowed me to get lost in the first place and for that I am grateful to One.  I found myself using more of my brain.  If that feeling makes sense to anyone else out there then thank you.  I found myself working hard for my survival while getting lost in that lost/found moment.  Then, lost again.  Then, found.  Lost.  Then, I am completely found without question because I was allowed to get lost.  I found myself using more of my brain at that perfect lost/found moment.  It honestly felt that way and if pheeling is believing then I have my bank card ready.  Is there anything better during that perfect moment when Page concludes a musical idea for us?  It makes all the other nonsense that goes on in life seem all the more worth it.

The second night of Tahoe started out fair and we got “Stash” to ramp things up for me on a personal level.  This is the song that gave birth to my poetry series during 9-11 and then evolved into an ever changing web presence.  This version was well played.  It was stretched out the way I like it and could not come at a better time to get me even more interested in the set and even more interested in the chase.

The Sloping Companion -Three Words That Mean Many Things

Stash

 I’m pulling the pavement from under my nails
I brush past a garden, dependent on whales
The sloping companion I cast down the ash
Yanked on my tunic and dangled my stash

Zipping through the forest with the curdling fleas
To grow with them spindles, the mutant I seize
I capture the dread beast who falls to his knees
And cries to his cohorts, asleep in the trees

Smegma, dogmatagram, fishmarket stew
Police in a corner, gunnin’ for you
Appletoast, bedheated, furblanket rat
Laugh when they shoot you, say
“Please don’t do that”

Control for smilers can’t be bought
The solar garlic starts to rot
Was it for this my life I sought?
Maybe so and maybe not (Maybe so and maybe not) [4x]
Was it for this my life I sought? (Maybe so and maybe not)
Control for smilers can’t be bought (Maybe so and maybe not)
The solar garlic starts to rot (Maybe so and maybe not)
Was it for this my life I sought? (Maybe so and maybe not) [4x]

The next program I would like to share with you is called The Extranjero Hour.  Each episode starts out with a different version of “SOAM” and explores how I believe music can tell a specific message when stringed together in the mind of a high functioning person with autism.  We would all like to stop the lazer games in some way.  Again, this phrase can mean different things to different people and I probably have my own unhealthy number of analogies to share in the future on this blog.  The bagatelle that happens within “SOAM” is something to be closely observed at shows and the whole mood of the room changes into what I only imagine can be sheer unity between everyone when we collectively know to shut the fuck up and listen.  It doesn’t take a trained musician to know that this is the moment to pay extra attention.  It’s that unity that we all share when it comes to respecting the band.  Most of us get this or eventually learn it on the path and it is unity.  We are unified at that moment.  Then, the show is over and you have to walk out of the sacred space and into the parking lot where all that unity that was supposedly shining through during our previous attention to detail suddenly gives way to a looser and more unrefined set of rules.  This grey area also gives way to the complete antithesis of what is happening during a mule duel with the exact same people in the audience who were previously unified.  Let me know what you think.

The Extranjero Hour sets out to do what The Mothership program does in the way that I try to tie in songs that might have to do with extra terrestrial culture.  If The Mothership is our planet then The Extranjero Hour is everything else in the Universe.  Then again, we have had our hand in some of that shit as well.

You’ll hear Journey, Men At Work, Talking Heads and more on this first installment.  I give up to the moon pretty hard on a regular basis.  It is because of this reverence that I take this topic seriously.  I began putting together the ideas of this portal during the NYE shows in the everglades when I first felt the wobble that now wobbles on inside of me and throughout space and time.  I could have sworn that other people had felt it as well but I immediately compartmentalized the experience in order to protect myself.

Then, I began inventing and building in my workshop until everything came together perfectly within the context of my initial invention.  I didn’t really know how to talk about it without getting freakish stares from people so I began recording these cloudcasts in an attempt to get at least a portion of the energy out in a manageable form.  Sometimes it seems like a long time ago.  At other times, especially as I refine these ideas in 2012 it seems like only last night I was watching the stars talk to each other as they were when the sun was waiting for the chance to come up in Florida.

Psychedelic professionals have sometimes gotten a little bogged down in creating trivial and alien language to translate their own experiences so that they can try to make sense of it for themselves and explain it to people who did not directly experience the process.  However, this alien language is something that the uninitiated treats as naturally foreign.  It is this treatment that causes a rift between individuals when weighing the positive and negative aspects of opening oneself up to the experience of mind altering substances.  The debate rages on but at the end of the day you have to know how to reign your shit in tight so that good neighbor Ken and good neighbor Melinda don’t start to talk that talk that we all know happens when rumors are more important than the actual legitimate story.

If I’ve learned anything of any worth in my years of travelling around and seeing Phish, it’s that we are each there for unique reasons and that because of that unique quality there are few hard and reliable rules for living within the context of why we travel and prepare so hard for three hours of what may come.

This whole experience is alien to so many people that I have begun this blog to try to translate some of it into a multimedia presentation with the pulsing beat of music as the backdrop.  I have found One in music.  I have found One in the stars.  I have found One in a ton of places.

In conclusion, though I regularly wear my autism on my sleeve in blunt and what some have said is an insulting tone, my intention was never to be mean or disrespectful.  I am compelled to type this in the same way that I am compelled to revere the cosmos and in that I find the truth that works for me.

Ultimately, you must make your own conclusions about who is and isn’t Robert Champion.  My only hope at this stage is that you are entertained along the way.  Let’s get this thing started.

Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

Hey there! My name is Robert Champion and welcome to my first post on The Sloping Companion’s Blog via WordPress. I am excited to add this element to my website and hope that you join me as I blog about this and that and hopefully make a few friends along the way. I have begun to use this forum as a way to get my ideas across and to share with you my programs that I create. All of my programs can also be found via our cloudcasts at the top of this page.  There is also a phone app available for Mixcloud so feel free to listen on the go!

Feel free to check out our programs. We currently have several different ideas that we are trying out. The episode below is a test program entitled The Mothership. This show is where I play a string of songs together that have to do with our planet. The goal is to turn you onto some new songs and to help you think about our role on this planet and in this world as a community. We play some songs that you may know and some that you may not be familiar with upon listening for the first time. On this episode you will hear from artists like Neko Case, Railroad Earth, Pearl Jam, Phish and several other artists. My music collection is large, always growing and is constantly providing me with music related to this topic.

One of the songs that we play on this episode is  ”Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth.” It is  performed by Neko Case.  Check out the lyrics to this moving song.

When she’s on her best behaviour

Dont be tempted by her favours
Never turn your back on mother earth
Towns are hurled from A to B
By hands that looked so smooth to me
Never turn your back on mother earth
Grasp at straws that dont want grasping
Gaze at clouds that come down crashing
Never turn your back on mother earth
Three days and two nights away from my friends
Amen to anything that brings a quick return to my friends
To my friends
Never turn your back on mother earth
I’ll admit I was unfaithful
But from now I’ll be more faithful
Never turn your back on mother
Never turn your back on mother
Never turn your back on mother earth

I try to tell myself every day not to turn my back on mother earth.  It’s not always the easiest thing to do here living in the western suburbs of Chicago.  However, once in a while you will see other people on the same path around these parts and they even get together here and there to discuss these issues.  My wife and I are eagerly trying to meet other like minded people that share in our passion for art and general awareness of the world around us.  Where I live is kind of a dead zone and it actually boggles the mind because we are only twenty minutes away from the heart of Chicago.

What else?  I’ve been thinking a lot about musical terms these days.  One of the words I have been thinking about lately is the word that defines when a movement or a section of music slows down from the tempo in which it started.  This word is -Adagio- and is Italian for the word slow.  Is there anyone out there reading this blog that has a favorite Phish song that starts out at a certain tempo and then drastically or slowly diminishes to a slower tempo?  I can think of a ton of examples both Phish and other that have moved me time and time again.  What are some good examples of this technique where it creates a mood or an ebb and flow that literally makes the song the emotional thing that moves you? The first person to give me an example will win a prize courtesy of The Sloping Companion.  I cannot mail you a time machine through the postal service but bear with me…I am working on it.  We are working on it.

I cannot stop thinking about Phish Tahoe night one.  The “Light” that eventually goes into the Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter must get played on my show at some time.  it took the band a few moments to synch up while at the same time losing themselves in the cliche flow that is rarely cliche on any other stage.  Moreover, this cliche wasn’t bad in any way and should not be taken negatively in this post about the performance. A Phish cliche is actually not a real cliche.  It’s just the closest word that tries to describe the One thing they are doing up there.  Perhaps we should make up a new phrase for what Phish is doing in that moment.  Perhaps calling it a cliche is actually a disservice to what musicians like this do.  Let’s call it something else.  Let’s call it  搞清楚狗屎了.   It happened and it happened hard.  ”Light” is something that the listener needs even if they think they don’t need it at a show.  One of the key tools that a listener needs to have with them when they go on a journey like this with the band is that they need to allow some slack in order to allow the band to reach the moment when they are truly tapping into the One.

I agree that the first few moments were a winding road to get where it eventually arrived and when it got there it was…magical.  I like to equate the moment leading up to the One instrument as Phish having a singular conversation within the larger conversation of the concert.  The moments where their instruments are talking to reach other and trying to reach One.  The instruments are trying to figure out where to go next to find it and they are uncertain.  It is this uncertainty that allows things like the eventual part that came after to flourish on stage, in our minds, in our hearts and within One.

A lot of people will complain about those moments.  I will use the following word many times on this blog. This is a warning.  Get ready.  The word is -however-.  A lot of people will complain about those moments of uncertainty.  However, I am here to tell you right now that it is their ability to communicate on a real life psychic level that allows the music to wash over us in any number of ways.  It’s those uncertain moments that allows certain musicians to take a plunge when so many are playing it safe.  I actually feel honored to have the chance to witness those uncertain moments because you know after a little bit of leveling up during that singular conversation within the larger one that something completely new and out of control awesome is about to happen.  It’s a set up and it’s Phish having the courage and trust in their audience to be vulnerable in front of all of us.  Totally.  Completely.  The payoff in that “Light” is something to be measured.  Then again, you might just be in line to urinate.  Give it a listen some time.  Some songs are written because they are meant to be heard.  Ignoring this one from the library would be a disservice to yourself as a fan.  Let me know what you think.  In other news…My town is ass backwards.

You would think that people around these parts would be more dialed into what was going on around them but all it takes is just one viewing of the local village hall meeting to see that the village is living in some archaic times. Our town needs a cultural retooling like you would not believe.  It’s a bit embarrassing but I feel encouraged knowing that I am trying to do my part to push this community forward a little bit and maybe that is why we find ourselves here…in this time…in this town…on this computer screen.  We hope you stick around for future installments and thanks for paying attention.  Take care of each other and enjoy this episode of The Mothership below!

The Mothership – Episode One by The Sloping Companion on Mixcloud