[NetBehaviour] Pessimist Altar

[Alan Sondheim]

Pessimist Altar

http://www.alansondheim.org/altar.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/altar2010.jpg

Look, I can't always be right can I? But more recently I keep
finding that what I had predicted all the way back and courses I
was teaching in the 1970s - these things are coming true . I
can't express this any other way except through music . This is
a piece I did in which I created a number of obstacles so to
speak things getting in the way barriers and then suddenly
flooding out as if a dam had burst or monsoon had hit or or a
tornado had flattened a house . Or a tornado had flattened a
town . Or a virus had destroyed the earth . Or heat had burned
everything up . There's nothing to do but sit back and watch the
spectacle and publish warnings and talk more and more about
these things and join groups and complain and take action . But
all of these good intentions can't hide the fact that the earth
has enormous inertia . And the inertia of the earth beats down
everything . It takes over everything . It takes over the green
houses for example it takes over the electrical vehicles which
have their own problems . I'm talking this through now . What
else can I do ? It's almost like a documentary the end of the
world . I've been told I'm pessimistic, but what can I think
when everything I have taught has come to pass ? It may be like
JG Ballard . So much of the heat so much of the violence so much
of the isolation all of these things have come true . All of
these things have become postulates . This small music is in
response to that . The picture is of an altar 10 years ago .
Thank you for reading this far . And if you wonder why I'm a
pessimistic, think again . And stop blaming the boomers for
everything that's built into our consciousness from the very
beginning .

Anyway enjoy the music . And stop eating meat .