Act 3. Stardust Facts
Scene 1. In, what looks like a trail through a semi-tropical wet-forest, with colorful orchids and lianas drooping from incredibly tall trees, like festoons or natures living smelling dynamic billboards, sits a young girl, singing and playing her guitar, apparently composing or rather rearranging an already composed song, on stump of a tree, occasionally looking around her and taking in the scene and reassuring herself that it was still there and not gone like in a dream. The early evening sunlight appears to be peeping in through the foliage and dancing at her feet, enticing her to some kind of waltz and sometimes suddenly changing its pattern, as in tune with her chords. She has delightful look in her eyes, as if drunk with the fresh air that she seems to have missed for ages and for which she has hitch-hiked so far away from her home...
Joni
I came upon a child of love
She was walking along the trail
When I asked her, where she was going
This is what she told me
I am going down to Janus’s farm
Think I’ll join the Muses
Live on the land
Set my soul Olympia-, boulevardklatsch-, noise- and ad-Pollution free
We are star dust …
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
[ Probably dissatisfied with it, she kept amending the text , substituting “child of love”, with “fan of music” or with “wandering child” but then shaking her head and laughing ]
Joni
I came upon a child of earth
He was walking along the trail
When I asked him, where he was going
This is what he told me
[ Silence. Laugh. She stands up and dances with Apollo's shaft. Sits down and begins again....]
Joni
I have come here to loose the smog
And I feel just like a cog in something turning
May be it the time of year
Or may be it the time of the Muses
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning
We are star dust...
Enter:Aphrodite, with an just barely audible cough, tip toeing toward a green spot nearby and setting or rather laying herself down, and fully attentive to the tune. Joni almost lays her guitar down and seems at first not believe her eyes, literally rubbing them.
Joni
I am dreaming or this place is enchanted!Aphrodite
Please, please don't stop. It is the reason I am intruding like this, I hope you don't mind! In fact it was your singing that directed my footsteps hither. Your song seems incredibly appropriate expression of the situation I find myself presently in.Joni
You are Venus? I am honored!Aphrodite
You recognize me?Joni
Yes I do! Who wouldn't? Come to think of it there is this old classic rock song, that Eric and Jack recorded with their band, that went something, like this: Her name is Aphrodite and she rides the crimson shell. Tales of brave Ulysses, yes that is the name of the song. Certainly most of the singers and song-writers, I guess would know Venus and I happen to be one. I am Joni. I am just composing a song or better said amending an old song for David's party, the great festival that will be taking place in October, a Global Get-Together of a sort. The first of its kind. And this is a song about the festival itself. David has requested me to write it, of all the persons in the world. There are doubtlessly many other musicians, better equipped for the job than I, and he could have asked any one of them, who would probably be only too glad to oblige, David being one of the easiest-going chaps around. Anyway I am putting the best of me in this song. Actually this is the one they already sang at that big festival, which this song celebrates, I am now trying to amend it to make it suit the times.Aphrodite
I am sure he had a reason for that, choosing you from them all. But what exactly is this festival about, and where is taking place?Joni
Well there was such a festival once on a different continent. Which, you might say, just happened. I don't think anybody ever would have imagined, something like that happening, it was in some ways an organic and spontaneous development, so much in tune with the changing times. Many people have tried to imitate it, but their shows appeared either contrived or they were invariably always associated with a some kind of unpleasant horse trading or usually a show of some public stars and their fans or it was just business as usual. This however was the show of a generation. Actually not a show but a gathering indeed. May be something also for the Muses! It was no doubt a timely appropriate stirring of human souls and a manifestation of an epochal need of men and women, living in a society undergoing a great civil transformation, at the culmination of an age, associated with subjection of weaker foreign nations, peoples and cultures by means of force. The movement, for that is what it was, took place incidentally after the emergence of Gandhi and his ingenious method of legitimizing as well as refining the art and methodology of civil disobedience, after the emergence of bands, like the Beatles and their soft implicit protest against hegemonies patriarchic social structures, Puritanism, imperialism and colonialism, that to many living at that time, appeared to be synonymous with war-mongering. Add to it, at that time, many people were full of hope for a new power, quite appropriately associated with mother natures absolutely unambiguous expression of this power, the flower. The relevance becomes more intriguing, as one realizes the fact is, that evolutionary emergence of angiosperms can be associated with the end and demise of archaic forms on this planet. And in a way it was also a song about the brotherhood of man and strangely far ahead of its time, about a planting of a tree and wishing its growth! And lastly I must add, although it had its liberal oriented pioneers, it was not institutionally politicized, biased neither to left nor to right. It was in a space of its own, which some have claimed to have had Christian roots.Aphrodite
With no doubt some elements of the Saturnalias?Joni
Well David's group did give voice to something similar; "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you are with..."Aphrodite
Although one could see here, more of the Christian preaching, love thy neighbor rather than deduce certain hedonistic implications that unfortunately many puritans associate ad hoc with Saturnalias.Joni
Too true. And I believe that is way it was meant. Even the announcements made on stage, tried to bring this home to the people.Aphrodite
Which makes me wonder! With due respects to Christianity, why is that by a gathering of more than a few thousand people, there is always a great need of police. Look at the Saturnalias! And since you don't know them, let us talk about the Ghum Mela of the polytheistic religion of the Hindus, not thousands and hundred thousands but mind-boggling millions, they celebrate it with very few policemen indeed or at least have managed it till the present times, which may be changing fast out there! But that is rather beside the point now. You wanted to tell me about the festival?Joni
Yes indeed. It is the brain child of David. David, who was a major figure at that old big festival and whose group no doubt gave a sublime voice to that epoch, has had ever since a nagging thought. His regret was that it was confined mainly to one nation with a predominantly Anglo-Saxon touch and equally important, stylistically to more or less only one genre of music, that is rock & some folk, though certainly not the pop rock of the regional radio-stations or of the so-called world-charts, music most of us almost never really listen to, nevertheless there was no classic, jazz or music from other cultures to make it truly stand out as the music festival. So his life-long dream, a real global festival that could incorporate all that and more and give voice to a slowly emerging new epoch, where the global transformation have taken a totally unexpected turn, hard to predict at that time.Aphrodite
Being an easy going man and widely respected, he had no trouble in moving things. First of all he wrote a long detailed letter to King Janus, the King of Latins, who are world renowned for their great festivities, the saturnalias and who have the right kind of know-how and the most desirable place on earth for it. Incidentally Saturn too is a guest here and that my mean something to people, who try to read between the lines, for it is now more or less generally acknowledged fact, unanimously by the more sensitive souls of the planet, that the stealing away of time, from ones present for some unknown purpose in the future, thereby leaving less and less time for family life, for kids, friends, neighbors, older generations, the Muses or the gods or the God, and most of all for the un-spoilt communion with ones elating biological paraphernalia, our ecosystem and even less for taking care of it, has brought no inner sense of a really fulfilling life except for some workaholic specialty-freaks, who can be a blessing for mankind, but nevertheless are not to be emulated by the average person, nor the average person to be burdened with the former’s karma. This stealing away of time has been now widely acknowledged to be due to the banishment of Saturn from Olympia and his refusal to leave the haven given to him by Janus. So some people, robbed of his generous gifts, may see it as the promised redemption, when they can make a pilgrimage to Saturn’s Court. However this was not necessarily the primary intention of the festival, since humans have very negative picture of Saturn.
Not without a reason. they have been influenced by the our Olympian reinterpretations of the old legends after the defeat of the Titans and the final establishment of Jovian Order, when the old canons were burned. He my appear to you only as a child-eating monster. He was more than that once, as Hera told me and even Jove more than once regretted his father's disappearance and is quite aware of the increasing need of his subjects for Saturn’s true essence, which has become bit elusive at Olympia.Joni
No less on earth but as with many things associated with human gatherings, the festival has acquired many secondary implications, not evident at the beginning and that were probably only vaguely felt but never uttered at the time, which nevertheless have gained ascendance in the awareness of the people since then.Aphrodite
When was that?Joni
Some three months ago. Janus replied almost the same day, if not a day earlier, since he is double headed, as you know. He gave David, an area almost as big as the island of Crete for nine months at no cost!Aphrodite
Nine the Muses?Joni
Thought the same as I heard it! And average time for the human embryo to develop.Aphrodite
Which means he still has six months left, how far is he?Joni
In full swing. The place, the studio and the administrative sections are hammering at full speed. The infrastructure is more or less completed. The lodges, toilets and whatever else we humans need, sewage and contraptions for recycling, since David wants to leave the place as it was, before he came here, with minimum amount of environmental degradation, for which he has voluntary experts from all corners of the world. There is only one condition for entering here, minimum amount of goods, no explosives, prefered imports are organic products over synthetic materials, no synthetic or addictive organic drugs. Janus has forbidden, weapons of all sort, police and army or bodyguards with weapons, Saturn has forbidden watches, during the two weeks of festivities, except for those available at the administrative offices. And no batteries! Electricity however is available all around the main circle at the headquarters and occasionally at other places. Pyrotechnic meant for the first and last day, will be offered by the subjects of Janus. But he still has a lot to do. This months he is allocating sleeping lodges for the bands and the actors and deciding who is appearing where. There are around 900 stages scattered amidst the hills and valleys, some of them reminiscent of Greek amphitheatres.Aphrodite
Janus left his hunting lodge, very near to the beach for David's personal use. David has converted the first floor to administrative offices, which are maintained by an open source community of experts in digital communications, as well as some experts sent by many big corporations, hard- and software firms, stage-lighting manufacturers and architecture firms and of course people from NGO's and WWF and Red-Cross, and even from government municipalities helping in construction of the sewage system, direly needed for hosting so many human beings for two full weeks. The ground floor is for reception, billboards, news-bulletins, messages, telephone calls, enquiry, time-table of the events and map of the area, as well as handouts, like guides or maps of the surroundings and a very helpful staff helping the visitor to feel at home, some people and a few bands have already arrived and some of them composing new tunes for the occasion, letting themselves be inspired by the surroundings. The whole cellar has been converted to a huge modern music and recording studio.
Two full weeks?Joni
Yes. the first one starting on first October, will be dedicated to music, the second week is for drama, plays, prose and rhyme and art-work with workshops and also for some more engrossing discussions, which David hopes may lead to some interesting team work amongst people from different spheres of life, who otherwise would probably never get to know each other nor be able to participate in this informal musial manner in meetings and get-togethers, that will no doubt take place.Aphrodite
It is a gathering no doubt, yet you did call it David’s party! And who is financing it? It so happens, that we often hear at Olympia, that one can not move much on the planet nowadays, without some financial clout or financial assistance of some sort. Are you charging the public for entrance?Joni
Certainly not, all is free, food, lodging, entrance! You name it! Nevertheless it is David’s show, which means everybody’s, since David is such kind hearted soul, empathetic for even the smell voiceless creatures of the jungle, he is. As lodgings and food are a present from King Janus and Saturn, he does not have to worry about that. Most of the artist are appearing free. However he has to cover the costs of transportation, since he does not expect the artists to pay their own fares. Although many of them, who could afford it have politely declined his offer but there are many more who can't afford it, the place being so far away. Add to it he has to pay for the all the equipment he is using, that he had to import from various places around the globe. Communications items from Americas, Japan and Europe. he has paid for building probably the biggest music studio on this planet. Big co-operations, both in Japan, USA and Europe, have supplied hard ware and software and even trained his personal or quite often supplied their own top-experts in their fields for free. And from the open source community there are many hundreds of experts working full time for nothing at his ranch, and fully dedicated to the problems at hand. You may however say it is a gathering albeit for some few visitors it may be a show, to gain publicity, attention or material gain and to some it may appear to be just another big spectacle, in case they are here only for curiosity or because their peers and friends are all coming here or because they feel everybody is going and therefore they too should or because they fear, they might be missing something. Anyway the recordings that will be made, and the copyrights on these have been sold in advance to a few companies. That is the money, that will be covering all the rest of the expenses. So it is a gathering with just a bit of necessary consideration of the economical aspect of the situation, that requires planning, administration and certain executive powers being delegated to certain volunteers. and it is sponsored by many big corporations. It goes without saying that all the sponsors had to pass through the rigorous appraisals and green signal from a jury, chosen especially for this purpose, from the open source community, where the sponsors records, concerning their use of natural resources and human labor have been subject of open scrutiny by the community.
Aphrodite
Well thanks Joni, I guess I should be not hold you back from working for such a pleasant cause, and guess I should be leaving, unless of course you consent to my listening, while you rehearse. I am afraid I am not much good at music, although I have lately been spending quite some time with Calliope, who has been invited by Janus, I presume for the same occasion, you are talking about. She asked me if I would come along, I did. In fact she must be somewhere around here. She wanted to look inside a grotto, not far from here, and I just kept almost walking involuntarily in your direction, feeling as if someone was singing a song for me! Strange though! Hmm, some gods may be more akin to humans than to other gods! Anyway I am discovering a whole new world for myself, thanks to Calliope, but I am afraid, I am still a green horn, when it comes to structural complexities of music, but for that I am more receptive of the colors and feelings that it can visibly evoke in my soul as well as make my fantasy break into dimensions, yet unknown to me. I have had rather a smoggy life so far, you may say. You song does reflect my situation in some way, although I doubt if I could express it so succinctly. Although your fumbling with the, “child of love” made me wonder? Apparently you are still not satisfied with it!Joni
No absolutely not! Have you a suggestion?Aphrodite
A child of god? But I guess I am thinking about myself only!Joni
Everything seems to be enchanted here. I just feel blessed. May I tell you, that my original song says exactly the same thing!Aphrodite
No Joni! You are kidding?Joni
No! Besides I would not dare do that with a goddess, although I must admit, you have so gained my trust, I might. Heavens! You appear to me to be just too familiar, Venus! Can we really have something in common?Aphrodite
Well, the Greek gods, freely consorted with humans, don't forget that. We had moreover the same idiosyncrasies, like the humans. You too appear to me to be familiar in a way. But you really mean it? Your song really said that?Joni
Yes it did. May be it was Calliope, who inspired me!
Enter: Calliope
CalliopeHello Joni! I am Calliope. You need not introduce yourself. I certainly did not, or I have forgotten it. Sometimes I do forget things. But you also wrote, to loose the smog. You could may be change it to "stinking oil of Vulcan’s torch" or better "chemicals smells from Vulcan’s kitchen!", that would reflect Venus's state, but I would request you not to change even a bit of your song. Leave it as its is! Sing it, the way it was meant to be sung at Yasgur's farm. Janus is a farmer too. He will love it.Joni
But it is no more relevant today?Calliope
Are you sure!Joni
Not fully. Guess what, Venus recommended without knowing the old song, the same thing, concerning the beginning line. Enchanting! Enchanted! Great! Muse Calliope, I say thank you!Calliope
Well it has a price! How about singing two songs of yours for us, that I am sure Aphrodite will like?Joni
You know my songs? How foolish of me. I have this eerie feeling Calliope, they may be yours.Calliope
No or I have forgotten! Why are you girls laughing? What a beautiful evening. this is enchanting. Now Venus let us clap!Joni
But you still did not mention which songs?Calliope
Did I not?Joni
Strange, yes you did without uttering it though! Strange! Enchanted! Am I already dead and in heaven? Who cares! This is fantastic! Which one first, the Taxi or Both Sides Now?Calliope
Taxi first and then Both Sides Now.
[ Venus and Calliope clap their divine hands. Joni is full concentration, as she sings her two songs, without a break. There is silence. A butterfly alights on Venus knees, circles Joni's guitar and disappears to remerge at Calliope's feet. The fading voice of Joni at the end of her last song, seems to drift down the trail and comes back as a distant echo rising like the butterfly up over the canopy and strangely all heads turn up toward the sky. There are no claps. Just as they appeared, the two divinities disappear, without saying a word, but not without coming a kissing Joni goodbye on her blushing cheek and she hears Calliope in her mind saying to her, be seeing you soon at the ranch! ]
Exist: All