I really enjoy forgetting. When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is.
Interpretation
Forgetting allows us to rediscover our surroundings and appreciate their beauty anew.
In this quote, David Byrne reflects on the experience of moving to a new place and the initial wonder that comes with noticing its unique details. As familiarity sets in, the magic of those details fades, suggesting that forgetting can be a way to regain that fresh perspective and see the world with renewed appreciation.
In practice
This quote would be great to share in a discussion about mindfulness and appreciating the moment.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices.
Fine #β wine is a living liquid ... Its life comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death.
There are some who, for varying reasons, would appease Red China. They are blind to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.
He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find happiness after his death.
I can show you that the art of calculation has to do with odd and even numbers in their numerical relations to themselves and to each other.
While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.
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