"Caesar's Mushroom forms fairly large fruiting bodies with a cap and a stalk. When first formed (the "button" stage), the young mushroom is completely enclosed in a thick layer of white fungal tissue. The whole structure is round and resembles a small ball. As the mushroom begins to elongate, the covering tissue splits to reveal a bright red cap. The young cap is strongly convex, but as the stalk elongates it expands to become nearly flat. The mature cap is red to reddish-orange in the center, shading to bright yellow along the margin. The cap surface is smooth and may have fine lines radiating outward on the margin."
That's exactly how the mushrooms in my yard are growing, but rather than fungus, I've been thinking more lately about Brian Eno's highly inspirational words to Daniel Lanois, specifically, "If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted that they have these wonderful things in their head, but you're not one of them - you're just sort of a normal person, that you can never do anything like that - then you live a different kind of a life. You can have another kind of life where you can say 'Well, I know that things come from nothing very much, start from unpromising beginnings, and I'm an unpromising beginning, and I can start something.'" I've never heard a more inspiring explanation of the do-it-yourself ethos, and I take enormous comfort and reassurance in that idea.
Synchronicity: last Friday, I wrote about Eno and the impact that he has had on me, and later in the week, on Tuesday, I go to see musician David Bazan, who plays in an entirely different genre than Eno, but he starts talking about the inspiration he's received from Eno as well. Bazan mentions the Eno-Lanois dialog, and I find it on line, and it moves me profoundly.
As one point during his performance, Bazan deadpans between songs, "Well, does anybody have any questions up to this point?" and someone in the audience asks what he's been listening to while on the road. Bazan replies that he's been listening to the new Gillian Welch album a lot, another artist far from his genre, but he still gave it a very enthusiastic referral, twice during his set no less.
Now, I was aware of Gillian Welch and knew of her reputation as a gifted songwriter, but wasn't all that familiar with her music. But after hearing Bazan's endorsement, I heard her featured on NPR's All Songs Considered podcast, where they term her new album a "brilliant, brilliant record," and then NPR Music takes it one step further and streams her album in its entirety on their web site.
Now, nothing's too significant about this so far. The acclaimed Welch has released her first album in eight years, so her label is promoting it fairly aggressively. Therefore, it's not surprising that NPR has picked up on it or that David Bazan's been listening to it on the road. I've succumbed to the hype myself and have downloaded the album, and it is a truly beautiful recording. I'm listening to it right now. Isn't it funny how something can go from outside of your consciousness to such a prominent place so quickly?
Which beings us to the late comedian Bill Hicks. Last weekend, after writing about Eno, I posted a short video clip of Hicks, a clip that I selected out of dozens currently available on YouTube. Then last night, I find a picture of Hicks on line with the exact same words, even the "brightly colored and very loud," as the ones that I had selected for the video clip.
No comments:
Post a Comment