The Theremin Temple

"this is the only way to be happy ie loose yourself in something in a focused way...and being able to share that." - IJ

Thanks IJ - You are probably right.

Fred.

ij - "with my back to a warm camp fire looking up at the stars and pissing at the same time while thinking how great it would be to explore the universe in a star ship...http://chirb.it/hIdmfI  I lost myself in that..that's the way to be happy.."

Hard to believe that Star Trek is celebrating its 46th birthday this week. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdlQRNYuJw

I think you're right about losing yourself in something (in a focused and concentrated way) being a path to happiness. There is a problem, however, when we share our work, and mistake our love of the activity for the quality of what we're doing. 

Fred said: “I think your (and my) "problem" is that it is probably impossible to get the two "models" (physical / "metaphysical"/"spiritual") to co-exist in a "functional" way..”

These things would seem like contradictions but are in fact a harmony that flows. Life is full of contradiction and the best example for me would be standing on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Something so incredibly awesome our senses are overwhelmed, what is three dimensional our eyes interpret as 2D, as if a photo on a post card. Looking down at the tiny trails, once in a while you might see a speck and realize that is a person hiking. The gentle breeze whispers, you know not where they came or where they are going. How insignificant they seem in my own mind. The air is crisp with an unusual smell of freshness. This is the moment of physical / "metaphysical"/"spiritual". It is so quiet it is loud.

From the surface what appears to be more desert like takes on a whole new reality of civilizations gone by, trees and wild life never to be experienced if you stay on top at the edge and never explore below. Eventually you meet the Colorado River which gives life to all of So. California. I am drinking this life at this very moment, I put it in my coffee.

Life…now where did that come from, engineers don’t seem able to whip any up.

My conclusion is: Fred you need a vacation to someplace that inspired you when you were young, a place to revisit the child within you. You knew him so well and he would often laugh for no reason as if he knew something no one else did.

Where might that special place be?

Christopher

"Life…now where did that come from, engineers don’t seem able to whip any up."  - RS Theremin

Oh give is some time, we'll do it.  Mother nature had a few billion years jump on us.  She eventually gets the job done but she's kind of a hack, all things considered.

I'll second the awe of the Grand Canyon though, it's so big it's hard to take in, no matter how many postcards you've seen of it.  And it also looks exactly like the postcards, which is kind of a conundrum.  Not an original thought with me, but it's a little strange (when you think about it) that we universally find nature beautiful.

Hi all,

I forgot to mention in the temple it is fine if you wear slippers and bring beach towels to sit on. In the temple it is polite to leave ugly at the door and say nothing that does not leave visitors uplifted. We want them to come back.

Some days I may have something informative to say, that is some days!#$%

I noticed in another current thread the thereminist student wished he could divide up his pitch field into more than one range using switches. In my simple thinking this is not possible unless you design the instrument in the first place to do this. The idea may be due to the difficulty of non-linearity which is a symptom of a bigger problem.

In a perfectly linear pitch field all the note are equally spaced right out to the lowest note. If you want to play low then sit farther back but don't compromise the pitch field. I can't play at all as I have no sense of pitch but my hand movements know their place anywhere in the pitch field.

My sample for the day seems to have Native American influence as I do live just outside one of most wealthiest reservations known as Pechanga. I remember when they were just trailers and dirt roads, good for dirt bikes.

At the end of this piece listen to how the low notes respond the same as the high notes. I never get closer than 12" to the antenna.

A Native Flute .mp3  310k

One day, Simba, this will all be yours.

coalport you wrote:"There is a problem, however, when we share our work, and mistake our love of the activity for the quality of what we're doing. "

invisiblejelly says:"In the 'Theremin Temple' it's ok to use the theremin to supplement a philosophical point or two..it wasn't really a performance per say but more of an overflowing spontaneous expression pertaining to the point.The point being that happiness should never be pursued but it is a natural by product of focused effort with the view to sharing the fruits of that focus.So in that sense my focused effort on the theremin alone was a rotten fruit so I made it short.So I hope my love for the instrument and unbridled enthusiasm for my point about the nature of happiness was enough to bring my poor performance even as a kind of supportive contrast to the argument saying that even that performance suffering like it did made a point and at least you recognised the tune which is what I only wanted.

The 'Theremin Temple' is where the theremin is a metaphor for human consciousness with it's basis in bilateral symmetry(like the theremin with it's twin oscillators) being the cause for the numinous.So the theremin itself can therefore evoke the numinous with it's sometimes human like 'voice' which seemingly comes out of the 'aether'.Why do we have bilateral symmetry?The cause of it is (I believe) so obviously in your face that folks do not notice it or even think on this important question let alone attempt to fathom the depths of it.It needs fathoming because it is probably the most important question to ask.Our bilateral symmetry comes from the sun and moon which appear to be the same size from the perspective of this earth.The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun and 400 times closer than the sun..so that is why they appear to be the same size in the sky and this is obvious when there is a total solar eclipse.Now the moon goes around to it's left and the sun goes around to it's right (from the perspective of a viewer on the earth).These two orbs pulling in opposite directions create the bilateral symmetry almost universally in all life forms here on this planet.The question then is was this setup purposefully designed to produce the bilateral symmetry so that the higher life forms (us) might experience the numinous.This is what (attempting LOL)playing the theremin does for me it brings forth the big questions and the big answers...it evokes the intelligent numinousity. 

All I want to do is turn the pitch knob really fast and to a predictable point. I can adjust from there. I am a bass player with the theremin and I want to get into the higher end but having to twist the knob and get it to a point I want it is hard. If I can tune the theremin where I need it and flick the switch (turn the knob) it will bring the highere register to a linearity I know. I'm not looking for linearity across the whole. Im looking to know a linearity and then utilize the octaves there. When I currently tune the theremin the linearity for the high end increases the further from the antennae it becomes. So it is not about getting it exact just something I am accustomed to. I can adjust as long as my hand can move the same and achieve the results desired. 

I just want to put the pich switch where I want it (can adjust to) instantly.

A Native Flute .mp3  310k

nice flutey tone RS Theremin

"Where might that special place be?" - Christopher.

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

From A.E.Housman's wonderful poem -"A Shopshire lad".

On this note I leave the "temple" and put my shoes back on. Thanks to all the monks here giving well-meaning advice like "take a vacation" - and for the more pragmatic suggestion about keeping focus. The real problem with temples is that people try to second guess what others are feeling and use these guesses to help keep the congregation "on the road" - "You look tired brother, take a nap".. As in - "brother, the questions you are asking are disturbing me.."  LOL ;-) .. And visitors reciprocate likewise, speaking polite vanity in tongues. It passes the time, but gets really vaccuous.

IMO, Temples are mostly bloody boring places which, regardless of attempts at "cleaness" through futile gestures like removal of shoes, are mostly filled with bullshit.

Fred.

Those innocent times of long ago that we can't get back where heaven was much easier to grasp. There was this girl with long blond hair. We would walk home from school together hand in hand. I remembered her birthday being a few days before mine. We were ten years old. I would carry the magic of those days for the rest of my life. After high school I had to go away. I was able to make contact with her on my sixtieth birthday (last year) and after a few moments realized the magic had gone.

Maybe I should have asked her if she wanted to play with my theremin?  (-'

Christopher