Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

>"The Negro Problem" is one of the best band names of all time

It's certainly attention-getting.  Attention is the name of the game,
after all, and I gotta agree; ten out of ten for style!
  

    
Today's the day a new discussion starts in inkwell.vue, and we want to extend
thanks to Stew and Ed for this rousing conversation about Stew's life and
work. It's a great party we're having, and it doesn't have to end, as we
always take pains to note: please feel free to continue this discussion as
long as you want! We know there's lots more to be said....
  

    
I have one last question, Stew: your publishing company is
Geworfenheit Music, and I've been trying to figure that word out. Best
I can do is "the state of having been thrown out." Is that it?
  

    
>Hey, Stew, is you as CRAZY as Charles Mingus?

not yet. but practice makes perfect.
  

    
++ Do you
know, or are you aware of Mr. Dogg?++

no but now i'm incredibly interested in learning about him.
throw some album titles my way.
  

    
+++he did, after all, slug one of his sidemen, trombonist Jimmy
Knepper, in the chops. On the bandstand. In the middle of a set.+++

geez, if i had a dollar for every time i felt like doing that...
not that my musicians arent just the dandiest. but when yer in the
moment and something beautiful is happening and then something utterly
STUPID happens on stage to destroy that beauty i could see how you
wouldnt have to necessarily be "crazy" to act on such an impulse. 
  

    
Geworfenheit is one of Heidegger's terms. I guess its translated as
"throwness." It sorta describes the existential situation of having
been "thrown into the world" without really having had any say in the
matter...and the existential confusion that results from being in this
state. 

I'll never forget a story i was told about a little 5 year old girl
watching a calf being born. All the adults around her were telling her
how wonderful and miraculous and beautiful the whole thing was. But
this girl was very saddened by the whole affair. And when asked why she
was so sad the girl said "Its sad because now the calf is alive and it
has to live." I'm sure there are better more accurate explanations for
Geworfenheit (i aint no philo major - i just dig tripping on
heidegger) but I think the 5 year old kid kinda nailed it. 
  

    
Throwness.   You're first pop musician I've ever heard reference Heidegger
at all, but to "get" Geworfenheit?    Man, I owe you a beer.   Just for
starters.
  

    

I wanted to ask you about "Heidegger in Harlem," which is a beautiful 
song... but I'd be content to settle for that post.
  

    
"I am Charles Mingus, the famed jazz musician--but not famed enough to
make a living in America."

i guess we can all shut the hell up about record companies and thank
god for our cd burners, email lists and online stores. Charlie didnt
have it so easy. Who are we to complain? 

Sorry for falling outta touch for a few days. When i did check in last
wednesday -- while unable to post -- it was nice to see all y'all
firing away.

To be honest, its been alot more fun checking in here than in my
personal inbox! Many things that await me there are not fun. This has
been fun. I'm cool with stopping by here in the future. 

Gimme more swamp dogg info and hey, who puts out that Mingus dvd that
was referred to here?

oh yeah, if yer in LA The Negro Problem plays Spaceland tomorrow night
(saturday).

chow,
/stew
  

    
   >I'm cool with stopping by here in the future. 

Glad to hear this.
  

    
++You're first pop musician I've ever heard reference Heidegger
at all++

hey, the guy in Scritti Politti (remember them?) is a big Derrida
freak, i once read. And he understood him too!

Maybe I can answer the "Heidegger in Harlem" question here. But i
probably cant since at any moment a car will honk and I'll be on my
way.

All the songs around the PMS time can best be described as fever dream
lyrics. They contain flashes of scenes and snippets of dialogue that
dont really add up to any clear narrative however they are about
specific shit. Its just sometimes hard to articulate what the hell they
are about. I do not consider those lyrics to be all that great but I
"threw" them into the world and they probably hate me for it.

By total coincidence one week in 199? i was fooling with 3 or 4 books
and in those books i kept running into the word "essence." And the
funny thing for me was that one was a Negritude Anthology and the other
was a book about Heidegger. The other was a book on Baraka's Black
Nationalist phase. So i thought it was trippy that blacks got to talk
about their "essence" and it was ok (empowering) but when germans
talked about it it was scary. I then got to thinking about how
Heidegger fucked up by thinking Hitler was somehow gonna wake the Volk
up to what their essence was all about. And then I thought about how
thats exactly what a "strong black leader" in the 60's was sposed to
do.

Then, in the middle of a load of depressing thoughts about the dubious
nature of man/womankind, i thought it would simply be funny if Martin
Heidegger, in the middle of one of his lectures at Freiburg,
accidentally time travelled into early 60's Harlem and found himself,
in full-on lederhosen, on a corner soap box talking about essence. 

I dont think the song is anywhere as good as the daydream that
inspired it. But thats it.

For the record, I'm not a philo-freak. I'm much more interested in
characters and Heidegger was a total character. I'm also interested in
poetry and even though he was an extremely dangerous person for a time,
maybe the spell he was able to cast says alot about the power of words
and how stupid it is to confuse poetry with rules to live by i.e.
philosphy. And isnt it hip now anyway to say philosophy is merely a
kind of writing rather than a set of rules? Thats certainly a safer
approach.
  

    

> I dont think the song is anywhere as good as the daydream that
> inspired it

Alas, the sad reality of all artists in all time everywhere.



Stew, playing Man-Machine on my show tonight got me thinking about your
Kraut-Konnektion, all the years in Berlin, amid the neon lights.

Does Kraftwerk have any relevance to you today?
  

    <scribbled by brian Wed 20 Mar 13 18:15>
  

    
> You're first pop musician I've ever heard reference Heidegger
> at all

I suppose Monty Python doesn't count...
  

    

Thank you, Stew, that clarifies the song for me!
  

    
>Does Kraftwerk have any relevance to you today?

well, yeah. like James Brown, Sly, P-Funk and the Meters, they hover
mightily over their own personal genre of groove. and seem to still be
waiting for someone to snatch the pebble out of their funky, cold
robotic hands. nobody has. no one in techno oriented music has managed
to blend the inventiveness AND the songwriting chops. Some time ago TNP
did a night of Kraftwerk covers and we were reminded of how amazingly
beautiful and just down right rockin' the songs were.

Also, i think there is something really interesting about how a bunch
of german experimental music nerds could end up making sounds that
would deeply influence black american pop music. On the surface that
would seem like a MAJOR cultural stretch. But i've always thought that
, despite its reputation as being loose party music, funk was eeally
all about musical discipline. I can finish this thought tomorrow. 
  

    
>any story behind your choice of "imbiss"? 

naw, i was just trying to think of an e-address that i wouldnt have to
put a number behind. 
  

    
> You're first pop musician I've ever heard reference Heidegger
> at all

++I suppose Monty Python doesn't count...

Good time to mention Python. Cuz i forgot one other point about the
Heidegger song. It really appeals to my sense of humor -- the mere IDEA
of having Heidegger in a pop song. In the exact same way that its
really funny to mention him in a comedy sketch. He doesnt belong there
-- and that makes it funny. 
  

    
I just learned today that Interpol says Bin Laden is still alive...
AND AT THE SAME TIME - ON THE SAME DAY I learn that Axl Rose missed his
first Guns N Roses concert.... 

hmmmmm.
  

    

Bin Laden is *pissed* about that.
  

    

Yeah, I saw his ass rioting with all the other headbangers in the newspaper
photo this morning.
  

    
timid?
no, but a little awed by stew's being here.
the more i listen to your stuff, stew, the more i believe that clockradios
all across the land should be stuffed with your tunes for wakeup music.
my whole family (a sondheim/G&S type, a They Might be Giants/rugrats type
and a reel big fish/sublime type) smiles and sings along.

you should be the new top fourty.

when do we get the rodewald record? will it resemble NDP in any way?
  

    

TNP at the Fillmore tonight, opening for Blondie!  See you there.
  

    

And the Wiltern in LA Monday night!
/