nothing to say...

...

just kidding. Or maybe I'm not...

Maybe I have said more in my blank paper than I ever will in one of these blogs. Hmmm... Alright, so enough of the Cage experiment. I'm backtracking here, but there was a passage in Silence that we didn't mention in class, and I felt it really exemplified some of cage's theories that I can relate to. It's on page 12 at the bottom, but in it Cage mentions his dad being an inventor, and how he got his best ideas when sleeping. Cage also mentions that he used this idea to tell students that in order to create something or write music, you have to do something boring. This sounds ridiculous, but there is so much truth to it. Our world is very distracting, and too often I find myself filling the void with my ipod or some other source to block out those distractions. the only problem is, that my ipod becomes a distraction as well. I want to be an author, so I have a lot of experience trying to block out distractions and try and write from "inside". In writing songs it's the same way. If I'm in an environment where I am amused or entertained in any way, or even bothered or irritated by something continual, then it's impossible to "hear myself think". I think Cage really had a point, that you have to just be, in order to do anything. You can't be taking things in and really experiencing them if you are also trying to put out something as well. It just doesn't work, though we all try it. What I mean is, I can't really listen and speak at the same time and do both efficiently. It's the same with trying to write music or even books. I can't be expressive while simultaneously be accepting new information from the world around me. I need to be in a, what normally would be considered, boring environment. But I think Cage makes the other point, that by using this environment as it was meant, by utilizing it's potential, it is no longer boring. Therefore, there is no boring sounds or experiences unless you allow them to be so. Previously when Cage had made the statement about if something is boring, then do it longer, I thought he was just insane (or maybe he held a grudge against fun-ness) Now I can see that It isn't being bored that is the goal, but rather to embrace the wonderful experience of creation or thought, that comes out of those experiences.