with Phish coming back and Mercury dropping out of retrograde and the wild new technology of owning an iphone and now the Virgo moon (my opposite) arriving this last week, I have been very inspired. -even enough to actually create a blog!-
The return of Phish, while expected, has had the most interesting effect on me. Somehow, since their recent announcement, I have once again come to terms with what it means to be a part of this kind of magic. It really is something when 30,000 people spend this kind of energy working to be at an event. No other events are like this in so many ways. I remember listing these details to friends before the lights dropped the last time Phish returned from hiatus at the Madison Square Garden show on 12.31.02 of how never before had that many people worked that hard to be somewhere and never before had there been a concentration of devoted fans as that night. The only other night that would compare would be when the Dead returned from their 'breakup' in the 80's.
I always used to say that we don't really know why we go every night when a band like phish tours but that we know we need to. Now, and I think because of watching Zeitgeist Addendum, Ive changed that opinion. I now think we go because we are seeking love. Not just love but universal love of life, reality, chaos, and oneness. What makes every human special or 'divine' is our ability to create and live in the moment. Phish themselves do not matter outside of the Perez Hilton type comedic masochism, but what they are doing is using the highest technology to make something happen that we can taste and touch and grow from. They know exactly what they are doing and it has absolutely nothing to do with the radio, cd player, or ipod.
yesterday morning, Saturday, many of us got up at 6 something AM and witnessed as ticketbastard said 'Sorry No Tickets are available' within the first 5 seconds of ticket release but on the right side of the screen they were available at $235 each through their 'other company' Ticketsnow. and every time you would go back and re-search, that price would go up to where it is today at $541 for one 49.50 ticket. Some people think that is fishy, but it's so much more than that. It's an example of how there is a very deliberate effort to make live music harder to put-on and harder to reach. Deregulation of every ethical management of technology is whats happening and $541 tickets are the result. Just as home mortages have been sold and resold and resold and resold creating millions of digital money, these tickets were sold (in advance contracts) to brokers so that they could resell them at the moment of ticket release to us or worse other brokers because we don't use scalpers until the average ticket cost is closer to $400 than $49.50. And all this money is going to these brokers and agencies and not to the creators, and everytime a transaction happens through one of their other companies, they get another 15%. So, we need to do everything we can to curb that, but thats not what im writing about either.
My point with all this is that what happens in the mothership on 3 678 9 is more than just 'something we must do' in some third-eye type intuition. It's Nature in its finest. What it is, is a place where we can feel that oneness with everyone else who is going through this, and the band, and the creater of the coolest arena in the country, and every one of CK5's lights, and the kid in the lot that drove three thousand miles to be shut out, and even the security guy in the isle. We have been known to compare this to religion and there is a reason for that. Because it is exactly the same as the person who worships a virgin-mom or a sacred cow or an exquisite mountain. We worship the magic of extremely live life in its finest, as we see it.
So, as I think about why Phish themselves want to come back, I find that their reasons are the same reasons why we who feel this way must do what it takes to be there even if it takes an effort equal to a third world salary for a three night gathering. they say Dont hate the player hate the game, and right now, its the game that is making these costs reach the verge of unethical. But for that reason we cannot let the game win, if we believe and also have the ability to make this happen then we must. Just as the members of Phish must risk hearing of good friends and loved ones becoming victims of tour, and feel burdened by the consumption and other negatives of tour, we must risk a little more than normal to show the country that things like this need to exist. Hampton to me is a window into a world where money is secondary to magic. It's that to me out on-the-lot when some stranger buys another stranger a ticket that theyre desperately seeking, when Phish themselves help fans get in for free through gcrew and just sending out crew with tickets, when people pool their money to get a stranger out of jail before the three night run is over, and when we decide to work a month's salary for three nights of it.
Thanks to Phish for keeping a fire alive through a very dark and cold period, because when we know Phish is creating what they do or planning on it, then even the little Tea Leaf Green or Turbine show holds more magic and more meaning because it helps us all understand why we do it.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
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