James
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"DON'T WAIT TILL THE HEARSE TAKES YOU TO CHURCH!!"
Male
68 years old
FERNDALE, MICHIGAN
United States
Last Login:5/11/2008
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View My:
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http://www.myspace.com/jamessemark |
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James's Interests
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| General | Music, poetry, art: I like anything that sounds good. Special favorites are
Yusef Lateef, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Ravel, Debussy, John Cage,
Jackson Pollock, British choral masters e.g., Tavener, Jackson. My lifelong
obsession is a study of mass consciousness and mass social transformation. | | Music | See above. Actually, there's more world-class jazz pianists in Detroit than
I can count. I'm always meeting new folks, hearing new sounds I haven't
heard before, right here in the Motor City. | | Movies | Movies that turn me on are community flicks with all of us in it. Example:
John Sinclair's 20 To Life. Grass roots movies are my thing -- Hollywood
sucks. | | Heroes | In the 1960s, all my heroes died: JFK, Robert Kennedy, John Coltrane,
Martin Luther King, Malcom X. Then I gave up on having heroes around. |
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Detroit Artists Workshop
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James's Details
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| Status: | Married | | Here for: | Friends | | Orientation: | Straight | | Hometown: | Ferndale, MI (born in Toledo, grew up in Detroit) | | Body type: | 6' 3" / Average | | Ethnicity: | White / Caucasian | | Zodiac Sign: | Aries | | Smoke / Drink: | No / No | | Children: | Love kids, but not for me | | Education: | Some college |
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James's Networking
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Music - Performance - Composer
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I play keyboards (synth and piano), vibraharp, symphony chimes, various percussion, zheng, rabat, accordion
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James is in your extended network
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James's Blurbs |
About me:
I'm a "survivor" of the golden age of Detroit jazz. Here's a quickie timeline:
* Born Toledo Ohio 1940
* Graduated Sacred Heart High School (Dearborn) 1958
* Discovered Yusef Lateef (live) 1959
* Met Harold McKinney 1960, began lifelong relationship
* Studied music theory and composition at Wayne State University 1960 - 68
* Founding member of Detroit Artists Workshop 1964
* Made transcontinental trip counter-clockwise 1972-73
* Married 1974
* Studied South Indian music 1974 - 78
* Somewhere around 1975 I discovered something I eventually named the
"Qualitative Information System," which became the most important work
of my life. I began composing music works & dramas with this approach.
* Moved to Maryland - DC area 1984 -- music, poetry, drama got more
intense -- Baltimore Composers Forum. American Composers Forum
* 1991 John Cage's noon lecture at Strathmore Hall (Bethesda, MD) the most
inspiring moment in the whole 1990s decade
* 1997 vision in Yorkminster Cathedral, Britain, how the Qualitative
Information System works with mass social transformation
* 2003 Moved to Detroit, plugged into the Detroit Artists Workshop reunion
project -- see www.detroitartistsworkshop.org.
In short, in 1964 I thought I had an understanding of where I'm going; in
1974 I thought I had a better understanding; in 1984, still better; in 1994
better yet; in 2004 I don't think I understand a damn thing! I must be "improving."
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Who I'd like to meet:
Anybody with new ideas, extraterrestrials, etc.
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| James's Friend Space (Top 5) |
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