Dimensionally Barrett

There are huge blind spots in my knowledge. I’m perfectly willing to admit this. But when it involves events and artists contemporaneous to me, I am astounded at what I’ve missed. In 1977, Philip Glass came across my radar with North Star . My friends and I were in thrall and decided this was among the most horizon-expanding music we’d yet heard (in a year that boasted Bowie’s Low and “Heroes” , Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True and plenty more). In 1978, I got to see Glass perform the suite (it was marketed and packaged as a collection of pieces, but I tend to think of it as a suite) and I was hooked. It wasn’t long before the name Robert Wilson permeated our brains and Einstein on the Beach became a holy grail of sorts. We heard the “Knee Plays” over time and bits and pieces here and there. I confess that I’ve never seen it staged but I’ve seen much of it in different videos and have heard most of it (I’m not sure I’ve heard all five hours); but it’s a major work of...

I've been a little busy in Nepal, to be sure. But Myanmar hasn't been out of my view. With the latest evidence mounting of genocide against the Rohingya, I'm struck by the silence of world leaders to actually do much about it other than censure the Myanmar government. Buddhist leaders have been vocal about condemning the ongoing atrocities perpetrated with involvement and support from so-called Buddhists (seriously, any monk that aids in torture and killing needs to take the fucking robes off...NOW). Aung San Suu Kyi is likewise complicit in this and I'm not interested in discussing what a hard place she finds herself in. Tell the military to stuff it, resign her position in protest and condemn the execution and displacement of hundreds of thousands. These are people and they were citizens until 1982; the regime that changed that didn't have anyone's best interests at heart, by the way, including non-Rohyingya Burmese citizens. But back to the rest of the w...