March 9th, 2009
Excerpts from “When Fish Talk: A Retrospective” by Pancho Vera Lapuz (in NU107 Rock Awards X Mag):
“… The only thing that doesn’t change is change. Less than a month ago, scientists discovered a black hole in space that emits a tone in the key of B flat. In the key of C, that is the minor 7th note, which could make the C scale Dominant, or Blues, or it could be a chromatic passing tone, Jazz, on its way up to the Major, down to the diminished, or through to the melodic minor. It could even be in its own scale of B flat, indifferent, arrhythmic. No mention of rhythm, just tone. It takes both tone and rhythm to make music, in the standard sense. Maybe tone is all it provides, and it’s up to us to provide beat, time, signature, and meter, up to us to offer the pulse to the eternal dance. Why do we hear it? Why does it move us? Contemporaneous to that, in our lifetime, the planet Mars is the closest it will ever be in orbit to the planet Earth, not in another multibillion million ice ages will it ever be that close again. Furthermore, scientists have also recently spotted an asteroid headed directly toward us, how big is it? How big does it have to be? … That’s the trident visible on our horizon: the black hole in B flat, that’s 1, Mars as close as it will ever get, that’s 2, and the asteroid, headed in our direction makes 3. Self-preservation is the main idea, you’ve got to pick up every stitch, pickle our planet and save it, save ourselves, for the eternal quest ahead, peace on earth, goodwill towards men, survival of the fittest, in search of the dominant gene, the eternal treadmill, the journey, the groove, and the run of things.
“The universe is endlessly expanding, infinitely outward, effortlessly and effervescently, and at the most in a relative sense our solar system vast and at the same time miniscule and mysterious as it is, would out of necessity, end up mute, mobile, microscopic, even telepathic, just to create space and make way for the great equation, if it hasn’t already, as the cosmic spiral reaches invisibility and the trek for intelligence achieves attains and contains the wisdom for the dream, with naught but a handful of tenets to guide this mortal coil; it’s the getting there.
“It’s up to man to keep up with the cosmic jazz and jam, the harmony of the spheres that directs the stars, spins the planets, rocks our world, and steers the sails of our global village Starship Earth. The demography of fluid ounces, nautical miles, feet, liters, meters, millimeters, and centuries of light years and irreversible moments by which we map and measure the immeasurable depths, distances, and darkness of the universe, could very well correspond exactly to the note of the emotional reach and grasp of the indomitable spirit of mankind and man, the spirit that keeps producing from chaos and conflict an eternal electropositronic super spiral flame of appetite,
yearning, and creative desire. There are lessons to be learned.
“B flat, that’s just technical, but then technology, how things run, go, and get there; technology, techniques is what put us here, you listening to me, we listening to each other, eardrum plus stirrup plus tympanic membrane equals the inner ear; technology is what I’m getting at, technology follows music like smoke follows beauty, like day follows night. One hand washes the other. It’s always there. The moment. What time is it? Double time, and keeping the beat is the all
too mortal human heart.”
—
“… if you yourself seek more, if greed is your creed, if your follow is greater than your lead, in that respect you are the enemy. Save the whales. When in doubt, syncopate.”