VOLUME = ACHIEVEMENT? It shouldn’t, though it is a decisive marker for the subconscious expectations many carry around with them regularly. Much of what is needed to be expressed most can remain bottled up to some extent and in the attempts to fulfill a soul’s need to untie these knots, actions may tend to progress into a greater volume, projecting forcefully. In these brief, awaited moments of opportunity to fulfill the Self, it becomes increasingly difficult to step outside of ones framework and really see what is taking place, and recognize the inequality at hand. This can be seen in scenarios of Crowd vs. Music, i.e. unfortunately “Foreground” vs. “Background”—where each relies on the other, yet at times in two completely opposite ways. The jabbering masses uncontrollably seek a subconscious, labyrinthian sense of achievement through ignorant two-dimensional environments, unaware for the most part of the rising accomplishments around them, whereas, the music, per se—the Performer/Event—becomes a background to which they’ve (the masses) superimposed themselves, thinking their “lifestyle” belongs above this undercurrent of city life, or “scenery,” have you. For the Musician, it can be like performing for a walking wall, looking for a door into which one can communicate. In moments where it can seem as if the record scrapes to a halt, these masses are suddenly snapped to uncomfortable attention as they immediately become out of place, having had become so suited to the much-accustomed plateau of how they want to exist. People have so much trouble at times facing themselves, and seek distraction as soon as they can, where Volume = Achievement, or if you look at it deep down, Distraction = Success. This is a truly difficult issue to resolve, as we, the creative Artist, shall continue to seek that ideal venue, where they wait and want to absorb us, reusing what inspirations we have just thrown to them— “them” being the source from which it all came: the landscape of abstract living from which we’ve traveled and taken from at will to gradually form the products of our work. October 18, 2005