There was a discovery I made last year and amazingly, it’s still good this year. It’s called civil 90.
What is civil 90?
Just to fluff it up a bit, it’s a way of expressing yourself in time that automatically allows you to be in the same wavelength as all of the people you’re talking to. And also, amazingly, they all get to participate in this as a group moment, a genuine humming of the soul. When you think maybe the words we are one can exist, I mean the place where you guys are Tibetan throat singing together.
Of course I am overstating this. It’s really so small that it doesn’t even matter to most people. I’m talking about the tempo at which you live your life. Tempo? Tempo? Are we supposed to live our lives in tempo? It’s a good question. As a musician, one would have to say yes. To even give one’s life to music means giving one’s life to tempo and in this you have a gigantic vote. And we’re talking about beautiful people by the way. Think about it.
But then you have the Northern Europeans who just can’t get it right. And of course everyone knows that Jews can’t dance. But if you think about it, what about our dark skin brothers? Do they know how to move their bodies to get their jobs done during the day? Sure, it was 10 millennia of slave labor as the occupation for the breeding stock. But it was a mighty hand this gave them. Did you watch any Mexican League baseball this year?
Nevertheless, the point is one tempo. I remember my life as an American in those moments when I allowed myself to imbibe. I would be with someone and my thought was, yeah buddy, it’s you and me tonight. But my friend was always dubious at this suggestion. Was it me? Did I even really want to buddy up? Alas, I think I was giving people a bureaucratic skill I learned living with Russians. I could drink, it didn’t hurt, and if we toasted our bond forever, I have done that enough times where I am pretty much sure already what we will see about it with everybody. That was then. I don’t drink anymore because I like my life better but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Or maybe it is. Or maybe it is.
There is nothing in world better than howling at the moon when you are drunk and you have a guitar. If you wish to talk of the Russian soul, of course there would be an accordion. Maybe a ballalaika. But for those singers, the ones who want to tell us how in the groove they are, that is the guitar. It’s in the media that Vysotsky was the most beautiful man who ever lived. Think about that.
But what about music aficionados who perhaps are not drunk? What if I’m not really moved by the energy pushed forward but more actually listening to how the notes are played out. You know, drunk music is like drunk speech and it’s not really enjoyable other than as a momentary, quasi sex visceral thing. And this is if and only if you yourself are also drunk. At that point, of course it’s hilarious. If you ask your older friends to speak the absolute truth about the culture, they will tell you this is eventually wrong. It’s not nothing, it matters. Get drunk and eat meat together. It’s all they have. So I understand all anybody wants is vodka and barbecue but at the end of the day, if we just take one step up away from this paradise, we might find something even better. It was fun playing baseball drunk once or twice but I wouldn’t want to look at it. I would watch one of our games when we were all tight and sober. When we were all playing at our best. When any team plays at its best, they are beautiful to look at. For instance, Yokohama!!!
But here again, civil 90 is where we are at. Even if you are shit-faced, you have to be in and around the same beat as everyone else. You yourself can’t really wander off too far if you understand the power of civil 90. When we go civil 90, we all go at the same time.
I play in other tempos. If it’s just me. If I’m just practicing or trying something faster. A little music never hurt me. If not music, open word. Spoken word, that’s what it’s about. Saying things in rhythm. They call it freestyling. Maybe, but it’s not about any of that. It’s not even about saying things specifically in rhythm or fours. It’s just you have to go at this pace to do what you’re doing and you just have to live with it. We don’t need to specifically be looking for eastern or western music. It’s just the tempo and you don’t really need any other lines or divisions. We are here. Want to go faster? Do it at home. Do it quietly with your friends. But in the world, in the courts, in the hospitals, in the games that we play or even in each monetary interaction between people, lest us all be on the same page and we will all understand each other.
So yeah. Basically it’s a click track. Or it’s a drum beat. It’s something that is just the tempo marker at 90bpm. That’s 90 beats per minute. And this is how we divide up the time. It seems there are logical beginnings and endings. People do fours. People do threes. You can organize yourself any way you want around these theories but the thing is, this is the tempo where we are to play this piece of music. Just like any band on any stage trying to let you have some thrilling musical moment with their artistry, thus we can all do the same thing. And we can as long as we are behaving ourselves and doing it at the he same time in the same tempo. I’m talking about the beauty of 90 BPM as a publicly agreed upon tempo for civil conversation. Maybe someone wants to go fast but the other one wants to go slow. It doesn’t matter. Here is the legal limit. Here is where we do all important physics function. That’s what this is for. Civil 90.
How do you get in the groove? I let a click track play and I read some free novel off the service. The one I am reading is supposed to be lurid but is a collection of words mostly for me. Pleasant though to watch this ridiculous story go by. The thing is, I am reading out loud but I am also reading in rhythm. That’s right. I have this thing where I am exactly in tune and all the words always work out right. I scatt a little. Both meanings of this word but I let out some melodies if I feel like it. And there are all the different rhythms inside the tempo. How many words are needed to fit within those spaces? I tell you, it’s a study. I think that’s worth something too.
Anyway, if you find that you are having problems with too many ups or downs, instead of passively listening to music or audiobooks or something like that, go find a metronome program and let the thing click at 90 BPM. Listen, human speech is 120 words a minute. You’re not going to have any problem getting everything squared. But if you’re having problems with too many ups and downs from not being able to hear yourself think, just organize your time and allow yourself to exist in tempo. Now, instead of problems that seem like an endless list that could never be conquered, all our thoughts have places in the beat. No crisis that stops everything. Everything has its own place in the order of things. Everything happens in the music. And of course, if you allow the muscles of your body to interact as well, this is called dancing and dancing is always a healthy thing to do. That’s right. While in tenpo you are consciously making some kind of music from it, words, thoughts or actions, you are now in the groove at civil 90. A good basic steady tempo we can all agree to.
Anyone can learn to use civil 90 easily. It’s not really for rocket people or those who just want to be so fast that no one can see them. This is for your average Joe, not stupid, not slow, just a normal everyday person that does normal everyday things. It’s a good tempo to agree to. Maybe it’s a fair place in an unfair world. At least we can do it together. Civil 90.
