-ek: fahey week begins (john cassavetes)

 

'man perishes entire and leaves no trace except a spark of beauty,  provided he can trap it.' - czesław miłosz in the land of ulro.

on the significance of fahey week 2023  (begins 22/02/23 ends 28/02/23).

on february 22nd fahey dies.

on february the 28th he is born again.(mind you on february the 28th his acolyte robbie basho dies)

for this week (of the year as microcosm of a life) fahey is under the ground and his work is not available to us as a living presence 

in the ceremonial year. we must therefore celebrate him and his works.

fahey was a difficult grumpy old man for the last years of his life (and beset by health problems, homelessness). nonetheless he had a career renaissance (a second wind). in his 'career' as a musician (he would sometimes deny having one) he was incredibly lucky. you have heard of him and you can buy/ download/ stream his music. he got to leave the spark of his genius behind.

and finally there is young fahey in takoma park, maryland, the washington suburbs, digging himself out of suburban conformity and up into the light with the least likely implement possible - the country blues.

fahey is the founder of a style. the founder of a school. he is a guitarist, but a writer also, an anthropologist, and a custodian of the culture.  

horsemouth was headache-y most of the day. it took a walk and cooking diner to clear it. 

in the evening he watched john cassavetes' film gloria (tough old bird takes on the mob in a gloriously grimey 70ies NY). in some ways there are parallels with fahey, cassavetes creates a situation where he can make his own movies the way he wants to make them. to do this requires some dalliance with the studio system to make the money necessary to get it going (never really an option for fahey). but then the capital costs of recording an album can be so much lower than those of making a movie. 

today is interstellar space day - the anniversary of the recording of interstellar space  by john coltrane and rashied ali. 

this evening a meeting of the communal endeavour.