Day: 19 September 2007

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

I’ve always loved that quote from The Merchant of Venice, I can almost see the face of Godrej Engineer, my form teacher (and English teacher) from way back in 1973, the first time I heard those lines delivered by someone who knew how to.

Talking about marking the music: a reader, commenting on my Victor Wooten bass post, pointed me at yet another incredible Wooten video, a true slap guitar battle; the way Victor redefines the sounds his instrument makes brought something else to my mind: what John Mayall did in Room to Move many many years ago. And, not surprisingly, there’s a video out there of the Mayall session (though not the studio version, which if I remember right was done without any percussion).

These things, like the proverbial London bus, tend to come in threes. And so it came to pass, that while checking out my Facebook news feed, I noticed that Laurel Papworth had posted something that fit right in with Wooten and Mayall, at least insofar as unusual sounds and instruments were concerned. So take a look at Daft Hands to complete the set. [My thanks to Laurel].

By now regular readers of this blog should have become used to my referring to Doc Searls’ Because Effect; more recently, I essayed a simple definition as well.

Last night I stayed up to read Dov Seidman’s HOW, a fascinating book. While I am still going through it on Pass One, I cannot resist sharing an excerpt from the preface to Dov’s book:

A new vision of HOW requires a new way of embracing why we get up every morning and go to work. I believe the inspiration to do so lives in the thought that there is a difference between doing something so as to succeed and doing something and achieving success. I am in the business of helping companies and their people do the right things in the right way. The mission of my company is to help others and we make a living so doing. We do not help others so as to make a living. The latter speaks to a journey of intermediate gain and the former to a journey of significance, something of long-term value that makes not just money, but a difference. Significance lies in the ability to see one’s endeavours in terms of service to others, to be guided by a desire and ability to connect. In the  vastly different conditions of our hypertransparent and hyperconnected world, I believe success can no longer be pursued directly, that it can best be achieved — and only achieved — through the pursuit of something larger and deeper.

And versus so as.  The Because Effect is all about And. And not at all about So As.