Koyaanisqatsi: A Life Out of Balance with Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble

WOW!

One word sums up the extraordinary experience of a live performance of Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble performing the score to accompany the Godfrey Reggio film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance.

In hindsight, foolish not to have purchased tickets for the trilogy, but financial caution seemed wise beforehand. Now my response is along the lines of "An opportunity wasted". But a commitment to 3 evenings getting to Melbourne seemed a big ask when I booked. Next time, I'll throw caution to the winds and revel in the visual and auditory feast of the films and music.

I read that this film has become a cult classic, but looking round at the audience I see people of all ages and ethnicity. Students in their school uniforms, older men who would have been called beatniks once upon a time, surfies with dreads, wealthy looking highbrow gentry, people decked out in splendid attire and those in jeans and hoodies, even a few hippies. There's no evident "type", yet there is a common bond - it seems everyone knows and loves the film and music.


There's so much in Koyaanisqatsi; wonder, delight, surprise, and an overwhelming sense of 'What have we done, what have we become?'. To explain the film is difficult at best, and a confusing impossibility at worst.

The simplest description comes from the Arts Centre blurb:

The first in the trilogy caused a sensation when released and is now a cult classic. Reggio's film is a simple but searing vision of an urban society moving at a frenetic pace, detached from the natural environment and overwhelmed by technology, in images at once stark and beautiful, assaulting and hypnotizing.

Striated mountains stretching from horizon to horizon, would take millions upon millions of years to form, layer upon layer representing thousands of years of sediment, silt, dust, life and death. Millions of years of erosion; water, wind, rain and geologic upheaval have presented us with exquisite, almost intricate, achingly beautiful formations. It's easy to be lost in awe.

Acres of impossibly uniform paintbox coloured flowers seem at odds with the natural beauty, yet they're beguiling - how is it possible to have them all the same?

Ghostly stock exchange employees - I smile wryly, not much has changed there! Yet other careers have gone, devoured by technology.

Clouds, clearly showing rain shadows. Brilliant for teaching aspects of geography, weather and climate.

The impossibly deep voice intoning "Koyaanisqatsi" weaves throughout, slow paced, measured, authoritative. A commanding presence. A statement. A question ... asking the audience to confront the images, and not shy from them.

WOW!

Images are still swirling through my brain. Sausages being extruded from chutes, but are they sausages ... or people on escalators ... or frenetically funnelled cars on freeways - (how unutterably wrong that word sounds - 'free' - clearly the single occupants aren't free, no more than the sausages are free). I suffer from vertigo and these speeding scenes don't feel good.

Watching the musicians. Taking delight in their skill and ability to synchronise beautifully with the film. I feel privileged to experience their utter professionalism, and am grateful that there are those who devote their lives to transporting us lesser mortals on an emotional journey of joy, questioning and wonder through their skill.

The pace changes, and whilst this film was created 30 years ago, the fiery tumbling spacecraft reminds me of the more recent shuttle disaster, of suffering, unimaginable pain, fear, death. Slowly, gracefully, arcing through the sky. Transfixed. By golly this is powerful stuff.

Crumbling buildings, cracked glass, decay. Tanks. Explosions. The pointlessness of dominance, of power and might. Spiralling out of control. Destruction. Dust to dust. Oblivion.

Yet ... on stage the musicians create. The singers, one female, two extra males, are poised, attentive, giving of themselves, sharing the power of their gifts. Intense concentration. Beautiful!

The words being sung are Hopi sayings. They weave, rising and falling, meshing with the music, now departing, lone, alone, they whisper, flutter hesitant, but gain momentum and with growing insistence move assertively across the landscape. They command. Demand we listen.

And stop.

I want to stand and cheer ... but that wouldn't be right. There's more.

This feast, both visual and auditory is mesmerising. The music departs from the visuals, meets, meshes, and they depart again. It is wonderful. Nonverbal communication at its best!

How much has changed in the years since this film was released. How much is the same. How much is worse. Our frenetic mindless movement towards self destruction doesn't seem to have changed. Yet, experiences like this give me hope. We can be so utterly, movingly, creatively, powerfully brilliant. It'd be sad to see these aspects of humankind go to waste.

 
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Economic growth at all costs?

How much are we prepared to gamble on continuous economic growth?

Some of you will be aware that I've been reading widely and deeply about climate change, global warming and peak oil in preparation for the A-Z blogging challenge in April. It's been a remarkable journey so far; I've met some amazing people, attended scientific lectures and corresponded with scientists, journalists and super switched on people around the globe.

What has been surprising is that far from being the devastating, miserable, depressing experience I anticipated,  I've become more resilient as I've begun to discuss openly and understand the implications of the change we're experiencing. Perhaps it's a bit like the expression: "Know thine enemy", or possibly "Knowledge is power", or as Dr Russ Harris (ACT and mindfulness expert) says: "Make friends with your demons".

With greater knowledge has come a shift in the chasm of fear I'd experienced earlier - intriguing!

That's not to say I'm not pretty spooked at times, particularly with the lack of foresight and action on the part of governments and some major companies, but far less so than 6 months ago. (I'll save my anger at the greed, lies, obfuscation and lack of ethics and integrity for another time.) Hoping that climate change, global warming and energy depletion is all a bad dream that will go away when I wake up isn't, unfortunately, going to work.


The following 6 minute video produced by the Post Carbon Institute is one of the many informative, accessible explanations of looking at the change that we are beginning to experience as cheap plentiful energy begins to decline.

They explain that the Industrial Revolution was possible due to the harvesting and use of cheap energy. We imagined that this energy was inexhaustible, and many of us in the western world have enjoyed the abundance of goodies available as growth and rampant consumerism overtook values of restraint and moderation. Many of us, including governments have borrowed against the future and are not sure how we're going to repay the debt (or even in some cases if it's possible at all).

More and more economists are questioning the wisdom of continual growth, and are expressing their concern that our current measurement of Gross Domestic Product isn't working as well as they'd been taught. It isn't measuring the health our our economies adequately - as any carer or parent knows, their work isn't included even if they're working 24/7, yet the quality of many people's lives depends on their unpaid work.

We know growth can't go on for ever. There are practical limits to our energy sources and disposal of the wastes we're producing.  The earlier we address these and aim for improvements in our lives that don't include increasing consumption of fossil fuels and other resources, and work to build local prospering communities, the easier the transition will be.

How would you measure the health of our economies?

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Q. Qualities we instil in our children. Workplace bullying

This is my post for the letter Q in the A-Z blogging challenge 2011.


Bullying at school
Let's think for a moment about the qualities we aim to instil in our children. The ones we're proud of them for exhibiting - things like honesty, kindness, caring for the underdog and trying to resolve conflict with negotiation. In general, parents, society and schools (with a few exceptions) encourage children not to resort to violence.

As a society we say we value these qualities. And yet conversely when our child is the target of bullying in the playground, many parents demand of the same child "stand up for yourself". It's a very mixed message for any youngster. Equally perplexing to many children is the bullying which seems to be celebrated on the sport field and in business and the political areas.

Often we encourage children to "ignore them, they'll go away if you don't react".  But if the little tacker is being hounded day in, day out with sly and not so sly kicks, pinches and punches as well as verbal abuse,  ignoring the bully, or attempting to defuse the situation simply isn't going to work, particularly if school back up is ineffective. The bully is generally devious and sneaky enough to present a smiling, innocent face to any adult who happens on the event. They manipulate the situation so the target suffers doubly.

As parents we often don't know how to respond anyway, particularly if the school is weak and avoiding their responsibility for providing a safe environment. See CASSE (Creating A Safe Supportive Environment) to receive e-news and information on how schools can help raise awareness to counteract bullying. There are also links to academic papers by Twemlow, Fonagy & Sacco. (Click on the tab "Bullying always happens in a social context" or "Disconnected youth are a high risk to schools".)

Bullying needs to be nipped in the bud at the very first instance. We need to celebrate schools that tackle the issue head on. Schools that excuse, condone or ignore the behaviour need to be encouraged to follow the best examples. Every child has a right to attend school to learn, each child has a right not to be bullied, harassed or assaulted by either students OR staff.

All children should be taught how to identify bullying tactics. We must not accept school yard bullying as an inevitable part of schooling. It doesn't toughen anyone up, has detrimental affects on a child's capacity to learn, they have more days off school which in turn means parents need to take time off work to care for the bullied child. Ignoring thuggish behaviour is in effect condoning it. Children should not be expected to handle these damaging situations alone. They need competent support and reliable mature assistance.

The bully may appear to have friends; sadly others often tag along due to fear of being targeted themselves. The bully may be envious of your child and their very good qualities, their humanity, their compassion, their academic achievements, envious of their loving home and caring environment which may be sorely lacking in their own life.

Children shouldn't be expected to cope with bullying alone.

The damage from childhood bullying can affect people for life.  As an adult, children who have been targets of serial bullying may be uncertain and apologetic, they often question their abilities and competence and fail to achieve without intensive support. (Ricky is an example of someone who struggled academically after years of serial bullying at home and school.)

Some adults who have been bullied as children lack a sense of security and trust in others. They haven't been taught appropriate strategies to counteract the unwanted, unasked for attention, and go on to be bullied in the workplace as adults. In addition, schoolyard bullies who haven't been held accountable for their unacceptable, thuggish behaviour as children, often (but not always) go on to be adult bullies, often rising to positions of considerable power at work. In these instances, the damaging effects can undermine reasonable requests for corporations to take responsibility for their actions, affecting health, families and the lives of people far beyond the immediate work environment.

Depending on the cause of the bullying, some adults bullies can be mentored in better, more mature management techniques, and discover the new skills create a happier more productive workforce.

Qualities of the schoolyard bully

For the qualities that childhood bullies display see Bullying (April 2, 2011).

Further information on bullying at school here. For schools, teachers and other interested parties: CASSE has an inexpensive conference in May 2011 in Melbourne, link here. Further programmes here


Here tomorrow: R - Responsibility


There are many outstanding resources on line. A couple I find useful are Bullying. No way! an Australian resource for teachers and students, and a UK site Bully On Line. The Facebook group eBossWatch regularly posts links to articles and discussions about workplace bullying. This is in no way an exhaustive list, and each country will no doubt have equally good or more relevant websites. If you're being bullied please seek advice from a professional health care practitioner experienced in this area.


Over at jumpingaground I'm spending the month Drabbling using alliteration, often with an environmental theme.
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CDAA Workshop: 13. Working locally

(This post forms part of a series of powerpoint slides from a presentation I gave at the Career Development Association of Australia Conference 2010 entitled: The Roller-coaster Ride from Permanent Part-time Employee to Private Practitioner.)


I live in a beautiful part of Victoria, and showed these pictures to emphasize the contrast between the heavy peak hour traffic, and the roads near my home town.

And yes, there is a car down there!

In my ideal world, I wanted to work locally, in a generally relaxing environment, smell the sea and meet and work with locals. 


This goal fits in with my belief that it's not helpful for ourselves or the environment if we spend hours and hours driving to and fro to a stressful job. I'd often think of how much petrol I used each week, and found it challenging to rationalise. there was a marked disconnect between my stated values and how I was living.


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CDAA Workshop: 12. Values

Change for the sake of change can lead to deep disappointment if your underpinning values haven't been explored as fully as possible.

The desire to live by my personal values, beliefs and principles including the desire to have a smaller carbon footprint was integral to my decision to resign from permanent part time work.

In my first foray into solo work some years ago, my decision was based on the value of family time over employer, and in the importance of being at home when my children got home from school.

Participants were again asked to explore their core values, and jot them down.

CDAA Workshop: 6-8. The tyranny of 'ungreen' traffic

(This post forms part of a series of powerpoint slides from a presentation I gave at the Career Development Association of Australia Conference 2010 entitled: The Roller-coaster Ride from Permanent Part-time Employee to Private Practitioner.)


The theme of the 2010 conference is "Greening Career Development". I'd been getting more concerned about the environment, and wanted to have a smaller fuel consumption 'footprint' . Driving 100 km per day, an hour each way to and from work in heavy peak hour traffic wasn't sitting well with my philosophy of "living green".

My issues with traffic began to get the better of me. Too many accidents, constant road works, driving home in the dark on wet, miserable roads in winter with kamikaze trucks looming beside and behind me were a constant stress.

It was time for a major change in my life.

Alongside what I believed was a crazy amount of time driving, was the frustration of working across 4 campuses over 3 days.

I was heartily sick of living out of the boot of my car. Never able to confidently know that the paperwork or files I would need were on hand. But also knowing that it was considered inappropriate to carry confidential client files in a private vehicle. It did seem a bit of a double bind. Added to this was the seemingly insignificant issue of never being able to leave personal things, such as my tea mug, at the office. Anyone who has worked like this will understand.

It was time to move on.