Chicken Skratches 9

Craft Technology Group Skratches

It's about the Rhythm...Going with the Flow...FLUX

It starts with Subliminal Kid's intention...through its design of Rhythm Science. How many of you readers of Rhythm Science listened to C-side, the musica that accompanies the textual A-side and B-side, while reading? I can't imagine not listening to DJ Spooky and reading his writings. The only other time I had a book that came with a CD was when I read Energy Flash since I was writing a paper about the imaginative geographies of the rave culture for my Geographies of Resistance course at University of Sussex.

My initial reaction for engaging with this book was to sample it first, as it suggests in the Designers' Notes. I didn't want to read it from start to finish, as I knew that would take a certain kind of effort and intention...and as Paul starts off "The beginning. That's always the hard part." So I flipped through the book allowing my eyes and fingers draw my attention randomly to certain texts and and images. It was a tasty appetizer... a good tease before I devoured the text in its sequential totality. But I knew when I would start the book that I had to play the C-side CD.

The first track "Yoshio Machida/AFTERIMAGE mixed w/ Sussan Deyhim/THE FIRST READING/Tibetan Evening Music" synchronized with the beginning of "The Idiot - A Freestyle".
Take one step outside yourself...the whole path lasts no longer than one step...
And once I took this step...
I got into the flow, I went with the flow, I felt the flow...
Miller's words were much more alive to me as I heard his DJing and musicking. Phenomena like music cannot just be illustrated with just text; it's dehumanizing and degrading in its very form. I had a similar feeling when I read Energy Flash. I understood the music, the making of the music, and the culture that created the music because I could hear and feel what I was reading. And it was particularly convenient that my friend Oliver, a transient that lived at the Asylum over winter break, shared his collection of musicka, which included DJ Spooky's Optometry and Songs Of A Dead Dreamer albums, which were mentioned in Rhythm Science. This made my read/listen-ing a little more eclectic and less predictable...as that's what it is all about...
Going with the flow ~ improvising ~ freestyling ~ serendipity...
It felt good when what I read was what I could hear...it was fun...
It felt like serendipity!

And when I read Spooky's words, my body became activated and engaged emulating the ethos of my dance. I am not much of a musician...though I collect an eclectic mix of percussive and small-hand instruments....but I am much more of a dancer. It is through my dance that reminds me about going with the flow ~

AKA Bliu

Chicken Skratches 8