“Nobody wants to be a rock star”

I went to an interview with Thurston Moore at the Old Town School of Folk One of the first questions asked was “what is the line between poetry and music?” He introduced a concept I had not thought of previously, poetry in lyrics created by artists who join forces with golden, black, metal, wood, sanded keys with the husky gripped vocal chords of dissonance

The idea of poetry being part of lyricism may seem obvious, but at further glance poetry’s rules are not visually or audibly present in every lyric Thurston said rather than a musician singing about what it is they want or don’t want, a poet in music uses instruments and vocals as a medium to bring out the essence Form versus function, it exists anywhere but everywhere in the arts

He spoke of his past and how he had always wanted to be a drummer but guitar seemed more accessible so he learned how to play There is always the theme of accessibility with artists that make it “big” Thurston was in the right place at the right time When asked if he was motivated to be a “rockstar” he said, “Nobody wants to be a rockstar” This got some chuckles from the crowd isn’t that what makes him even more a rockstar, the idea of going against the grain

There would be no allure to him if he didn’t have the strong aura of fuck societal norms People were asking advice; one girl in particular wanted to know what to do because she had skill but couldn’t align it with her passions to create Thurston spoke of a story of a group of musicians back in the Haight and Ashbury days ran by a guy who believed that everyone should participate in producing music From the experienced drummer to someone who had never brushed their finger across the idea of playing a shiny steel guitar in their life, all would still participate in production

What the collective unconscious produced ended up being a stunning piece of work In light of the work produced by collective unconscious the guy directing the collective unconscious had a realization, “We are all in this together, and it hit him as solid as a brick falling from the universe, “wow, we have a lot of work to do” Not everybody is going to be neither the genius, nor the expert, nor the fool or hierophant but they are inextricably part of everything that is created, we are all in this together This is the uncollected information of the collective unconscious

Thurston spoke of walking away from something that gave him anxiety After the interview Thurston was signing copies of his book, which is a volume of all of Sonic Youth’s lyrics In regard to why he wrote it he said that he noticed that their lyrics were sometimes wrong online and he wanted to set the record straight I had to run to the ATM to get money to buy the book so I ended up being nearly last in line to get my book signed The girl in front of me that had asked for her life advice was applying lipstick and so nervous about meeting him that she had not even bought a book yet for fear of not being able to get a place in line equanimity equanimity equanimity

I was standing there contemplating what the hell I would have signed in my book, dedicate it to myself? The idea seemed as odd as the zipped up sack of skin I was wearing that evening The girl in front of me had so much anxiety that I decided the dharma of the moment was to walk away She was giving me anxiety, the idea of idolizing, the idea of waiting in line to meet someone, for what? For why? For a story? I ended up walking away I don’t regret this decision because I think when I look back, it will always be more important to see equanimity in all words on paper, compositions, then to idolize the outdated idea of egos

After the interview with Thurston I saw Patti Smith forgetting songs while playing live and the whole scene of bringing animals together with her down to earth attitude

A few days later, I sat next to a Goddess in a coffee shop where there is no internet and there was a woman sketching in her notebook a beautiful picture of a woman I kept sneaking glances at She asked me what I was reading and writing about and at the time it was Foucault’s idea of sex and power she told me that War is Art, and how you should write no matter what external activities are taking place She was drawing depictions of a sculpture of a goddess who was searching for her immortal love as she was in love with a mortal She also spoke of Sisyphus.