MystyrMystyry
06-09-2011, 06:59 PM
It's come to my attention recently that some people have no music - that is not to suggest they don't hear and appreciate music, just that they don't hum tunes and don't have favorite songs, they don't search out music new or old - it just doesn't occur to them that it's important
I usually listen to music on a small Sony mp3 player with bass boost and noise reducing earplugs - and my collection is quite vast and encompasses all genres (except Chinese traditional - the most cynical noise I've ever experienced though ymmd) which I listen to fairly religiously, though automatically would be the closer word
For those who have been following that tragedy that is my landlord, I was aware that before his ascent to the rooftop, when he still had one foot in an approximation of reality (though the other in the bin) while he was busy banging and jack hammering and chainsawing and band-sawing and whatever in his shed behind my house, driving the neighbourhood nuts and the birds away - between those moments there was no radio
Nor whistling, nor any kind of emotional expression of internal happiness - he was, in short, a dud
Now some of the things he has created with the callouses on his old gnarled hands I would call works of genius (I say 'some', and advisedly - certainly not all - and yes I would personally prefer there to be a glimmer of social genius instead), but they were created from a mind which appeared to possess no music - not rhythm, not reason, nor rhyme
And I think this is why he started living on my roof (though not 'my' roof apparently) - in the vain hope God would call for to take him away, because down here there was nothing for him
However, I arrived home the other day and decided on a steaming hot bath to ease my overworked muscles (not really a decision actually - more an obvious necessity) and on the roof was the landlord, eating his picnic lunch and walking round aimlessly
So here I was relaxing in the bath and didn't particularly want to be disturbed by the sound of his climbing boots (who can say what mental Everests he was conquering?) nor be reminded of the situation - so I played a cd on nearly maximum volume - with speakers in the loungeroom the sound had had to transgress the kitchen and laundry before entering the bathroom - sufficiently loudly let's say
Anyway, a minute or two later I was disturbed by an excited shouting through the window - it was the landlord who had descended from above for the sole purpose to find out what the music was
Now my guess was that in the process of constructing the roof all those years ago he'd arrived at some sort of epiphany, and had been seeking an update (or that he was just bonkers, but I'll go with the epiphany)
For many weeks now I hadn't actually had verbal discourse with him on any subject, owing to there being nothing much to say - the weather's been bleak and he'd flipped his lid and was living on my roof - and I've had much preferable things to do - like avoiding him at all costs (he is the landlord after all, bonkers or elsewise)
So why now at this most inauspicious moment had he chosen to disrupt my peace?
Simply because he without music had been woken
There is a saying 'music has charms to sooth the savage beast' [Kipling? I'm not sure - I've never Kipled]
Well evidently it also has charms to awaken the savage landlord - from a state of morbid docility. He repaired the hole he'd made in the roof, began packing up his multitudinous ladders, and to this day hasn't stepped foot on the tiles since (touch wood)
So what is to be educed by this observation? Whenever possible play your music at a level others can hear from actual speakers (not earbuds which spell certain deaf) and it will disarm any potential psychotic episodes and roof stompers in their tracks
Incidentally the cd was Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation - Mighty Rearranger (cosmic, no?)
I usually listen to music on a small Sony mp3 player with bass boost and noise reducing earplugs - and my collection is quite vast and encompasses all genres (except Chinese traditional - the most cynical noise I've ever experienced though ymmd) which I listen to fairly religiously, though automatically would be the closer word
For those who have been following that tragedy that is my landlord, I was aware that before his ascent to the rooftop, when he still had one foot in an approximation of reality (though the other in the bin) while he was busy banging and jack hammering and chainsawing and band-sawing and whatever in his shed behind my house, driving the neighbourhood nuts and the birds away - between those moments there was no radio
Nor whistling, nor any kind of emotional expression of internal happiness - he was, in short, a dud
Now some of the things he has created with the callouses on his old gnarled hands I would call works of genius (I say 'some', and advisedly - certainly not all - and yes I would personally prefer there to be a glimmer of social genius instead), but they were created from a mind which appeared to possess no music - not rhythm, not reason, nor rhyme
And I think this is why he started living on my roof (though not 'my' roof apparently) - in the vain hope God would call for to take him away, because down here there was nothing for him
However, I arrived home the other day and decided on a steaming hot bath to ease my overworked muscles (not really a decision actually - more an obvious necessity) and on the roof was the landlord, eating his picnic lunch and walking round aimlessly
So here I was relaxing in the bath and didn't particularly want to be disturbed by the sound of his climbing boots (who can say what mental Everests he was conquering?) nor be reminded of the situation - so I played a cd on nearly maximum volume - with speakers in the loungeroom the sound had had to transgress the kitchen and laundry before entering the bathroom - sufficiently loudly let's say
Anyway, a minute or two later I was disturbed by an excited shouting through the window - it was the landlord who had descended from above for the sole purpose to find out what the music was
Now my guess was that in the process of constructing the roof all those years ago he'd arrived at some sort of epiphany, and had been seeking an update (or that he was just bonkers, but I'll go with the epiphany)
For many weeks now I hadn't actually had verbal discourse with him on any subject, owing to there being nothing much to say - the weather's been bleak and he'd flipped his lid and was living on my roof - and I've had much preferable things to do - like avoiding him at all costs (he is the landlord after all, bonkers or elsewise)
So why now at this most inauspicious moment had he chosen to disrupt my peace?
Simply because he without music had been woken
There is a saying 'music has charms to sooth the savage beast' [Kipling? I'm not sure - I've never Kipled]
Well evidently it also has charms to awaken the savage landlord - from a state of morbid docility. He repaired the hole he'd made in the roof, began packing up his multitudinous ladders, and to this day hasn't stepped foot on the tiles since (touch wood)
So what is to be educed by this observation? Whenever possible play your music at a level others can hear from actual speakers (not earbuds which spell certain deaf) and it will disarm any potential psychotic episodes and roof stompers in their tracks
Incidentally the cd was Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation - Mighty Rearranger (cosmic, no?)