For now I'll call this image:
Another Dream - Pencil drawing and Photo combined
I had a very musical weekend. I do tech (set-up the stage and control the audio) for a local music venue. Saturday night was Christine Lavin and Sunday was David Roth. These are two wonderful folk style acts and I recommend anyone to check them out when they come to your town.
Now let's get to holding the applause. During the concert with Christine Lavin I had an experience that reminded me of a dream I had several years back. Okay, yes I dream and have had very vivid dreams most of my life. Sometimes while asleep and sometimes while awake. So here we go! First the reality. The other night during Christine's performance she asked us to hold our applause at the end of her song "More Than One Million Americans". She asked us to not applaud at all and to just sit in silence and think about the song. So as a polite folk concert audience that is what we did.
Now the dream; in this dream I find myself sitting in an ancient Greek theater watching a classic Greek tragedy, something by Sophocles. As the play comes to and end I raise my hand to prepare to applaud. A voice from behind me says, " I wouldn't do that if I were you." I turn around to find a man dressed like a classic gangster with a pinstripe suit and the hat tipped down covering his face. He tips the hat up and begins to explain in that classic Hollywood gangster style voice (Bogart or Cagney) that we are at one of the earliest Greek performances and that at this point clapping to show appreciation of a good performance has not yet been established. He goes on to say that when the formal Greek theater began the audience did not focus on the actor’s performance. The story itself was the focus and the audience would sit in silence from a few minutes to as much as an hour before drifting back into their real lives. It was a form of collective meditation. The thought was that the play drew upon the spirit, the gangster explained. The spirit came out from the actors and from the audience and also from the past (the dead). It was all there at once and in the beginning the people would hold that spirit-filled moment as long as they could. I then asked him why this had stopped. He shrugged His shoulders and in a questioning voice said “fear”. At some point things changed and the presence of the spirit became frightening. The audience began making noises, shouting, wailing and then hand strikes or claps. He said at first you would clap in all directions moving your hands up and down in front of you and behind. As time went on denial took over and people said that they were not afraid of spirits but were just showing appreciation for the actors' work.
At this point I turned back to the play to join the silence. When I looked again the gangster was gone and my dream moved in another direction and lost focus. Remember that every thing I’ve said in this paragraph is a dream and I have not found any conscious research to prove any of this. Although in Tibet they do clap their hands to drive away “evil” spirits.
Back in reality at the Christine Lavin concert, her song that speaks of how many people have died from gun violence since 1968 came to an end, and there we sat in silence. Now there is always a split second when a song ends before the applause begins (not always in pop concerts) but when that time passed, the silence hit me like a shock wave. I had to work to hold the emotion at bay. It felt like the spirits of one million people landing on me. It came from Christine, from the audience and from within me and beyond, just like my gangster spirit guide had said. Christine let it hang for a good long time before quietly picking up her book and reading from it to move on. Thank you Christine for bringing the dream back to me. So now if anyone wants to, you can join my campaign to wipe out hand noise. Hang in the silence you frightened fellow Pagans, for we are one in the spirit!
Oh this is bad now I am sharing dreams. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen and I’m just talking about the stuff in my head. Here we go it’s all shaking loose.
Now let's get to holding the applause. During the concert with Christine Lavin I had an experience that reminded me of a dream I had several years back. Okay, yes I dream and have had very vivid dreams most of my life. Sometimes while asleep and sometimes while awake. So here we go! First the reality. The other night during Christine's performance she asked us to hold our applause at the end of her song "More Than One Million Americans". She asked us to not applaud at all and to just sit in silence and think about the song. So as a polite folk concert audience that is what we did.
Now the dream; in this dream I find myself sitting in an ancient Greek theater watching a classic Greek tragedy, something by Sophocles. As the play comes to and end I raise my hand to prepare to applaud. A voice from behind me says, " I wouldn't do that if I were you." I turn around to find a man dressed like a classic gangster with a pinstripe suit and the hat tipped down covering his face. He tips the hat up and begins to explain in that classic Hollywood gangster style voice (Bogart or Cagney) that we are at one of the earliest Greek performances and that at this point clapping to show appreciation of a good performance has not yet been established. He goes on to say that when the formal Greek theater began the audience did not focus on the actor’s performance. The story itself was the focus and the audience would sit in silence from a few minutes to as much as an hour before drifting back into their real lives. It was a form of collective meditation. The thought was that the play drew upon the spirit, the gangster explained. The spirit came out from the actors and from the audience and also from the past (the dead). It was all there at once and in the beginning the people would hold that spirit-filled moment as long as they could. I then asked him why this had stopped. He shrugged His shoulders and in a questioning voice said “fear”. At some point things changed and the presence of the spirit became frightening. The audience began making noises, shouting, wailing and then hand strikes or claps. He said at first you would clap in all directions moving your hands up and down in front of you and behind. As time went on denial took over and people said that they were not afraid of spirits but were just showing appreciation for the actors' work.
At this point I turned back to the play to join the silence. When I looked again the gangster was gone and my dream moved in another direction and lost focus. Remember that every thing I’ve said in this paragraph is a dream and I have not found any conscious research to prove any of this. Although in Tibet they do clap their hands to drive away “evil” spirits.
Back in reality at the Christine Lavin concert, her song that speaks of how many people have died from gun violence since 1968 came to an end, and there we sat in silence. Now there is always a split second when a song ends before the applause begins (not always in pop concerts) but when that time passed, the silence hit me like a shock wave. I had to work to hold the emotion at bay. It felt like the spirits of one million people landing on me. It came from Christine, from the audience and from within me and beyond, just like my gangster spirit guide had said. Christine let it hang for a good long time before quietly picking up her book and reading from it to move on. Thank you Christine for bringing the dream back to me. So now if anyone wants to, you can join my campaign to wipe out hand noise. Hang in the silence you frightened fellow Pagans, for we are one in the spirit!
Oh this is bad now I am sharing dreams. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen and I’m just talking about the stuff in my head. Here we go it’s all shaking loose.
Here's a link to a youtube clip from the Christine Lavin concert It's not the song I was talking about so we are back to applauding - Wayne Central Concerts 2/28/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39KPnV3Vn-0&feature=youtube_gdata
Jeff wait for it!
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