By The Landlord
"The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before." – Neil Gaiman
"Music was a way out of poverty. It was a way to success. It was a way to education. And it was a way to a brighter day." – Little Richard
"The brighter you are, the more you have to learn." – Don Herold
“And when the dawn comes creeping in,
Cautiously I shall raise
Myself to watch the daylight win.” – D.H. Lawrence
"We think we receive all that we perceive, but in fact, we actually give the sky its colour. … Light knows when you're looking at it." – James Turrell
Brighter days, brighter ways. We certainly need them, especially now. Last week's topic welcomed in, rather wonderfully in nominations and then results, the gradual or full entrance of evening. Now inverting that, this week we're less about the dying of the light, but the increase of it, though using the word brighter not merely in terms of literal lumens, such as with the dawn of a new day, or the shining lights of the city, but also in more metaphorical brighter things – thoughts, feelings, or ideas, and brighter places, ones that can become so either gradually, or, because of how our we may see them, in an instant.
But what is key here is this topic is not about the things that are always shining, such stars or sparkling metal objects (at least when light is shone upon them) but far more all about transition, contrast, and comparison. It is all about things becoming brighter, either by themselves changing or by discovery or perception. So what can, and does, become brighter? The changeable things in our lives, perhaps the very uncertain, but potent stuff that inspires creativity and here in particular, through the illuminating prism of song – from places to people, seasons, atmosphere, moods and emotions.
It's particularly apt for this, our lovely Song Bar, a constantly illuminating warm-window glow of joy in a darkening world, where every week there are hundreds of bright ideas offered, and in a convivial atmosphere of sharing and comparison and a sense of very positive competition and appreciation, bright ideas are followed by even brighter ones to form a twinkling constellation of connections that enrich us all. How very happy that makes me, making every day feel brighter.
What else makes for a brighter day? For me, coffee, then going for a walk certainly helps my brain click into place initially, then discovering something new, especially music, creating something whether in writing or other forms, talking to a friend or somebody new, getting things done, eating, drinking, communicating, and doing something kind. I try to drink less and little these days, but as is common with lots of people who like to create, it is often when a hangover begins to subside that the brain can be at its best – feeling a sense of recovery, improvement – becoming brighter.
David Bowie famously had unusual eyes, as is well documented, each appearing to be different colours, caused during a teenage fight over a girl with his school friend George Underwood in 1962, but the disparity was not actually of colour, but because one pupil, his left, became permanently dilated due to a condition called anisocoria. The one thing I have in common with him is not any damage, but weirdly, both of my pupils are mostly always dilated. It leads to some strange experiences – I do look a little excited by things and people, even when I'm not, and at music events and festivals it's not uncommon for strangers to ask where I got my stimulants from, or whether I can supply any, even though I'm more likely not under the influence at all. My standard response is to say that I fell into a bath of drugs as a baby.
I have constantly dilated pupils
But where then to start? Perhaps to begin with the word 'brighter', one that itself illuminates many song titles and lyrics, and so this already fills a sparkling cave of possibilities. And then, if that aren't already enough, there are many synonyms to describe things as being more lustrous, luminous, blazing, brilliant, dazzling, glistening, glittering, golden, radiant, shimmering, shiny, silvery, sparkling or sunny than something else or than it was before, literally or metaphorically.
As this topic is all about transition and comparison, there can be no finer figure on the idea of becoming brighter than the American artist James Turrell, who creates aurora-inspiringly surreal installations that play with our perceptions of changing light. He's an interesting figure, brought up in a strict Quaker background where art and music were regarded as unwelcome, trivial materialism, but where spirituality and meditation are central. "We're made for the light of a cave and for twilight. Twilight is the time we see best. When we dim the light down, and the pupil opens, feeling comes out of the eye like touch. Then you really can feel colour, and experience it," he says. But in terms of art experience of his work, here are two short films about his installations, first at the Guggenheim, and then his permanent creation from inside the Roden Crater northeast of the city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona, where from below, visitors can experience the changing of sky's light in extraordinary ways.
What does Turrell say about his work? Many illuminating remarks. He is at once profound and also self-effacing about his work. "My art has no object, no image, no point of focus. In an age of consumerism and materialism, I traffic in blue sky and colored air.
But is this all about becoming more positive? Not necessarily. "If you're not an optimist, forget being an artist," he says, mischievously. But what about our perception of light?
"Each day is a different length of time and that gives a different length to the cusp between light and darkness or darkness and light."
"I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions."
"Light is a powerful substance. We have a primal connection to it. But, for something so powerful, situations for its felt presence are fragile."
"The sky always seems to be out there, away from us. I like to bring it down in close contact with us, so you feel you are in it. We feel we are at the bottom of this ocean of air; we are actually on a planet."
“This wonderful elixir of light is the thing that actually connects the immaterial with the material - that connects the cosmic to the plain everyday existence that we try to live in."
But now some other artists are in the Bar. Here's Wassily Kandinsky: "The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural... The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."
Kandinsky’s ‘In Blue’ 1925
The Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama, meanwhile, famous for her dots, and self-confessed mental health problems, talks about the light getting brighter as she thinks about getting older and approaching death, perhaps approaching the metaphorical brightness.
"When I was a child, I used to paint intently. The older I become, and the closer death approaches, the brighter my life gets day by day."
Step inside Yayoi Kusama’s Love Is Calling
More prosaically, the financial, travel and space entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is now undertaking a massive project to place multiple satellites in the sky, chips in with his approach on this topic: "If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not. “
But more poetically, let's turn to some authors who tell us how they see the beginning of each day:
“Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n,
and strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.” – Omar Khayyám, The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam
“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.” – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey
“You are the trembling of time, that passes
between vertical light and darkened sky” – Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
And so, to finish, here are a couple of songs to sets things in brightening mode. First up the band Brighter Later:
And the ever poetic Ron Sexsmith:
So then, I'm delighted to welcome this week's ever enlightening guest who is a regular source of his own bright and brighter ideas, DiscoMonster! Please place your getting brighter songs in the metaphorical lightbox below, for deadline 11pm UK time on Monday and playlists published on Wednesday. Change is coming. Shine on …
Brighter still, in the Roden Crater …
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