I have no idea how to proceed

I'm stuck again in Inferno. Canto 28 actually. In it Dante and Virgil decend yet another tier to the ditch of the schismatics: people who broke apart nations, church, and families for selfish reasons. I'm having problems with how to write it because I have issue with Dante on something I can't ignore or gloss over. Dante had a strong anti-Islam thing going on in Inferno. In Canto 8, the City of Dis is described as a city of burning mosques the Dorothy Sayers translation explains it this way

"mosques: Mohammedanism was looked on - Correctly enough - by the Middle Ages as being a Christian heresy (see Canto XVIII), and immediately inside the walls of Dis we shall, in fact, find the Circle of the Heretics. More generally the 'mosques' indicate that the City is devoted to a perverse and infidel cult." --(Inferno, Sayers Trans: pg.121 commentary on l.70 of Canto VIII).

I have been trying in some ways to make mine a revisionist paraphrase instead of adhereing to a strict interpretation of the translations I have access to. I've chosen in this respect to highlight the fact that all religions are equal in sin. Islam ought not to be so roundly condemned, and can't be by me. The fact that Dante chose to do so makes me very uncomfortable.

For another thing I disagree with both Dorothy Sayers and the Mideival Poet that Islam is a "Christian heresy". Yes it's true that Mohammed came after Christ and that Muslims recognise that Jesus Christ existed though they regard him as yet another prophet, the religion of Islam was influenced more by Judaism than by Christianity. The resemblance between the Kosher and Halaal regulations on food and the Shariah and Old Testament laws on conduct are quite simmilar, also it's my understanding that before Mecca was declaired the centre of Muslim religious life that honour was given to Jerusalem and it was after the Muslims were driven out of the Holy City that they established Mecca as their main place of worship and pilgrimage.

I could be wrong in these respects I am not very well versed in Muslim history or Jewish Talmud and Midrash, but none the less I believe that Islam was more an offshoot of Judaism than Christianity, and that (in purely technical terms) both are actually "heretical" breakaway sects of Judaism. How would Dante have written Inferno had he been Jewish?

Anyway this is proving to be very difficult to write. In Canto 28 Dante first encounters Mohammed split from his ass to his mouth and Mohammed's Son-in-law Ali, also mutilated, Leaving no doubt of what the poet thought of Muslims. I can't write that and I refuse to perpetuate this imagery. I tried re-writing it to replace them with the Pope and Patriarch who's conduct split the church into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox but the punishment is so vile I have a hard time doing that as well and I don't much relish placing people in hell to begin with. I do it occasionally, as did Dante but I can't bring anyone to suffer in this way.

I'm not sure what to do to move forward.

Blogging about Dante.

So it was pointed out to me recently that though I send this blog to people to give them an idea of what I'm doing with Dante I actually spend more time doing just about anything else and up-loading youtube videos.

Here's where things are presently with the Dante Project:

I've stalled. I hate to admit it but I've stalled and I havn't been working on it as dilligently or as consistently as I was. To be totally honest I havn't picked it up in weeks. This bothers me. A lot.

I'm six cantos away from finishing my first draft of Inferno and I've only got five cantos into the second draft. I've started to procrastinate and I could spend time making excuses here for why I've stalled but in the end they'd just be excuses and I don't want to excuse this I want to get back into it and see this whole project through. I never thought that this was going to be such a mammoth undertaking when I agreed to it. It is a source of unending amazement to me that this has become such an elaborate project.

I need to get back into writing and stop slacking off because I really think that once it's finished you will like it.

Also, I'd like to play more gigs.

Watch me eat my words...

This isn't me I just found this when I looked for video of someone eating their words.

In a previous post on this blog I was talking smack about Buchla owners and their instruments of choice. Making value judgements on Buchla versus Serge synths (I had never even been in the same room as either of these instruments at the time I was shooting my mouth off). I recently had an opportunity to go to the University of Victoria to play their Buchla 200 modular synth. In the past few months I've been able to make the aquaintance of a number of Buchla owners and talked with Don a couple of times with regard to his synths and I have had an important realization: I let my mouth run on without actually using my brain and when I let my mouth do the thinking it never works out well because my mouth has no brains.

Anyway I want to take back some stupid shit I said on here about Don Buchla and all Buchla owners being pretentious. It's just not that black and white. Yes I've preferred the hand full of phone conversations I've had with Rex Probe at Serge to the equally small number of calls I've had with Don Buchla but that previous post was a pretty dumb one to make. I'm writing this here because I think it's worth saying, particularly since I'll be building my own Buchla 200e very soon. As for the people I've encountered who play the Buchla they've all been marvellously supportive, encouraging and friendly people.

I am an Idiot.

In my next post I'll tell you all about my trip to UVic and playing their Buchla 200, and how awsome it was.

I have photos!

Live Crime!

Here's the recording we made of our first performance it was recorded straight from the mixer so no audience sounds or bad accoustics.

The Empire of Crime Presents: Cantos 1-4 by Desolation Sound

hope you enjoy it. Please post with your feedback, this was our first gig, if you live in Vancouver BC you'd like us to perform let me know through this blog.

Thanks!