Very interesting to see Michael Ventura quoting from his own predictions as set forth in his 1985 book Shadow Dancing in the USA. It was that book, which I came across as a book reviewer for the Norfolk (Va) Virginian-Pilot, that introduced me to Ventura. I recognized his importance then, an importance that has been confirmed by everything of his that I have seen since. From the Austin Chronicle. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A1130109
Letters at 3AM: Improvising the Coming World
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
The recording is The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse. The year is 1971. Before the music begins, a voice speaks: “[T]he title was inspired by a statement made by Mr. Marshall McLuhan. … Mr. McLuhan says that the whole world is going Oriental and that no one will be able to retain his or her identity, not even the Orientals. … And, from that point of view, it’s most improbable that anyone will ever know exactly who is enjoying the shadow of whom.”
That’s Duke Ellington speaking. The phrase “New World Order” had not yet entered popular usage, but it might have amused Ellington. Jazz artists cultivate an acute sense of interplay between order and improvisation. They know how improvisation relies on an underlying sense of order, and they know how pliable order can become in the hands of a gifted improviser.
Continue reading Happy New (World)
