Patterns

I have to write and work quickly. I'm not going anywhere and i don't have anything more pressing to do, save for maybe putting fresh strings on my SG, but I have to write quickly to get all the ideas straining at the tethers inside my head into some fixed form.

Because i've been thinking about patterns.

Patterns fascinate me. I like things being in a form, no matter how disparate or intangible it may at first seem. I'm preoccupied with our own place within patterns and how we fit into systems that are not of our own design. Although i'm not exactly a devoutly religious person, whenever i've considered the notion of creation, my favourite theory (though not one i staunchly believe in) its that of a creator with a design. Its my favourite because we're then able to marry the notion of the big bang with the religious idea of God being the impetus behind said bang of bigness which then led to a PATTERN for the genesis of all that came beyond. That's pretty cool. As i've said before, there are wiser men than I who can ruminate upon the human condition and how we behave as a species, but there's something captivating about our behaviour being taken out of our plans by some broader force, some guiding ideal that only creates for us the illusion that we are acting of our own volition. I guess to some degree we'd all like to hand over the reigns to the intangible to guarantee that for 5 minutes we could be absolved for our behaviours.

Even in the mundane world I'm starting to observe patterns. Its obvious that music is made up of patterns, but i've discovered a newfound superstition surrounding numbers this week. I've never had a lucky number, because despite my occasional belief that I'm sometimes part of somebody else's scheme, i believe i have some control over my destiny and ultimately my actions and therefore superstition has no place in my jurisdiction. However, the numbers pointed out to me as relevant were 2 and 3, obviously fairly common in their occurance and subsequent multitude BUT, the more you look the more you see them. I mean, there's ascending tricolons and triumverates and of course the double entendres and 2's company...

But even little things like my band, Fifty Caliber Smile's newest song..The Cycle (obviously, cycles being patterns in and of themselves) but the guitar parts are arranged in places in Triplets...groups of THREE notes crammed into the space of TWO.

Me? I was born on the 21st of the THIRD month...which i realised when mulling this issue over on the number THREE bus home.

Late 60s blues rock powerhouse Cream perform a cover of a song entitled Born Under A Bad Sign...which due to the array of threes arranged against me seems to be the case.

Its like sesame street...this blog was brought to you by the letter F and the numbers 2 and 3. The source of this numerically based superstition claims 2 to be a harmonious number and 3 to be dischordant...i'd hate to think that some association with 3 has tainted my very essence and i must forever be a black sheep...

Its weird that the band my colleague and friend Antonio introduced me today base their whole musical approach on numbers (Math-rock band Battles) as well as the irony found in the fact that the person who validated my decision to continue blogging my way is a subscriber to the axiom "life is long and things happen" : a topic which she and I have discussed at length, also in terms of cycles and circles and people passing in and out of one anothers' lives and re-instating each other in different capacities. I guess that's just part of my enjoyment of the notion of patterns, the inherent harmony that they breed. Its like monopoly, you must inevitably pass Go and find yourself in a familiar square. More than once i've looked around and felt i was back at square one...but new patterns are always forming and existing ones tend to shift. Kaleidoscopes, y'know?

Despite my pseudo-cod-philosophising on how things fit together, people should look around at the people they surround themselves with, the way their own behaviour makes their life go in circles, the situations they find themselves in. There's patterns in what we do, whether we chose to see or accept them. Personally, I accept them for what they are and sometimes take comfort in sometimes letting a cycle come back round again.

Its good to hand over the reigns from time to time.

Its good to pass go and collect £200...