an Insomniacathonian
letter to the KING of AWAKENESS, MR. RON WHITEHEAD HIS OWN DANG SELF,
(and
to all your readers and brother and sister INSOMNIACATHONIANS)
Dear
Ron:
Great to know that
for the first time, this NEW 2004 EDITION of the Insomniacathon will allow me
to get my customary five hours of sleep a night during the days and nights you
have it scheduled to run, rather than five minutes of sleep every few hours...per
Ron WHITEHEAD style.
I
am often asked when I ever get a chance to sleep and I always answer, "Whenever
possible, as long as it doesn't interfere with whatever else I have to do."
a
few years ago, during one of the many memorable nights I spent with Carolyn Cassady
in Orlando after we had done a series of events for the Kerouac Writers Residence
there, she was asked at around 4 a.m. if she and I were getting tired."I
hadn't thought about it" she said. "I'm having such a marvelous time,
I just want to make sure I don't miss anything. We seem to always stay up. It
is so much fun."
After
being asked countless times why I don't sleep that much either, I finally have
an answer.
Since i will
be 74 this Nov 17 2004, I have already had a lot of practice sleeping, just as
i have had playing and improvising music, conducting and composing symphonic music,
backing up poets, writing books, and scatting (a.k.a. free-styling)
As
a result of years of sleeping from time to time, I HAVE ALREADY DONE IT, so I
am now concentrating on....STAYING AWAKE AND PAYING ATTENTION to all the other
things I do.!!!
I suggest
that your army of devoted friends, followers and fans (of which I am certainly
one) do the same. Stay awake, stay inspired, and when given unsolicited advice
by self appointed experts. (especially if they lay a non-stop negative trip on
you, telling you to give up pursuing your dreams, because of what you should and
never will be) tell your detractors, in a loving and compassionate way "You
seem to be tired. GO BACK TO SLEEP!"
The
old expression, "let sleeping dogs lie" also means that we should stay
awake, and build a more compassionate and energy-filled humanistic America, by
all adding our particular spices and nutrients to the Great Gumbo. Each of us
was born to contribute something special.
The
Insomniacathon is a celebration of creativity, an affirmation of life and always
bursting with energy, twenty-four hours a day.
Every
Insomniacathon I have participated in, since 1994 , has been a living example
of the joy we can all experience together, in a festival designed to honor the
work of all-ages, the special rewards of sharing and the sanctity of self-expression.
The entire Day-night-Day-night
non-stop festival of music of all genres, the live performances of poetry and
literature of all varieties and meetings of the minds and hearts when hanging
out at these events, provide vitamins for the soul.
Every
Insomniacathon i have ever attended has always been so much more fulfilling than
dreary grim uptight rip-offs, presented by instant trash merchants, who are themselves
unwitting victims of the fashion-entertainment industry Enron-style Death Culture
Landfill-bound avalanche of brilliantly merchandised garbage, designed by grownups,
(who obviously must not cherish or ever even hang out with their own kids), forced
on children by irresponsible adults to perpetuate their own low self-esteem and
jam it down the throats of America's and the World's children.
Like
carcinogenic fast foods and toxic toys, we use our own children and the world's
youth as a dumpster and CHARGE THEN FOR DUMPING OUR TRASH ON THEM!!!
With
the magic of the Internet, we can fly above the walls of the Entertainment Industry
Penitentiary and seek out the countless beauties of the many millions of creative
people around the world who each have something precious to offer.
Therefore,
Insomniacathon fills the endless wide-open spaces of the Soul and our collective
quest for redemption by providing the space and the place for sharing of beauty
in its endless and infinite variety.
Thirty
years before the Internet was created, my old friend Sun Ra used to say "Space
is the Place"
Now,
the new Insomniacathon provides us with that space.
No
one needs a security guard, a career councilor, a lawyer, a drug dealer, a guru
with a limo, or an abusive narcissist telling us all that we are about to be fired
for our own life, because we are following our hearts and working for endless
hours in what we believe in, after we have already worked that day to pay our
rent.
I think that if Insomniacathon
had a mantra for the participants and the audience, it would be.........you're
HIRED!!!!
At your events,
we are all part of the band, and everyone is welcome to be there.
Because
it is FREE, it is not worthless.
Because
it is free, it is PRICELESS!!
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