The Diary Idea

So the Brian Eno-inspired entry-per-day hasn't really got off to that great of a start. It'll be better once school starts, and I get into a routine. It occurs to me that I never gave any thought to what I would write about each day. Maybe I had an idea that I would generate random brilliant thoughts each day, even though that seems highly unlikely.

photos of my surroundings
details of new meals that I make up
meanderings on conceptual ideas I'm trying to work out
details of bike rides and walks that I do
thoughts on breathing and slowness

I had a beautiful late evening ride with headphones round to Ambury Farm the other day, when I'd come home vaguely depressed about things. And the ride made it almost entirely better. Listening to this:

And it was entirely magical, and beautiful, and time stood still and everything was OK. It was amazing. And it made me think: Justine absolutely hates this music. It grates with her. It makes her tense. And it has absolutely the opposite effect on me.

I think minimalism works for me because there's no logical, linear flow. It's like ambient music in that any part could be abstracted from the whole and it would still make sense. It's like a return to medieval music, before the onset of functional tonality (musical teleology, where chord and key changes give the music a direction and a sense of momentum and inevitability and - to an extent - tries to determine the listener's response to the music). Minimalism has none of that. No tempo or chordal changes. I think the artistic equivalent is icon painting - before the onset of perspective told you what to look at in a painting and in what order.

So, the other night, the Steve Reich piece was perfect. Divorced from any linear development, it placed me and forced me to stay in the moment, in the beauty and richness of each phase, confronting the moment. I wonder if anyone has called it the music of the eternal now?

Quick answer: no. Someone's used the phrase before, but in the context of a Gogol Bordello show. It sounds worryingly like an Eno-ism.

I'd have taken photos of the ride if I'd remembered the camera, but it was nicer without it.