The Momentum of Moonlight

by PC Muñoz

This is the text to a piece I wrote for the first Debussy Times Three concert at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive on November 8, 2022.

The Momentum of Moonlight

there, on the street corner of your consciousness

a dilapidated newsstand

a collection of fallen raindrops

an elderly couple with secret smiles

the drama of dawn

the destiny of dusk

the stillness of silence

the light of the moon comes from the sun:

cosmic neurons firing

a painting in a dream

a face you think you know

slow motion romance;

the momentum of moonlight

“Legacy”

by PC Muñoz

At a recent event for my friends in the Quinteto Latino universe, I performed a completely reimagined, solo version of my piece “Legacy”, a meditation on the mental and spiritual residue of colonialism.

The piece has a long journey. It was first published in the early 90s as a poem in a journal called MoonRabbit Review, and then again in my 1995 chapbook Half-Truths. Later, I recorded a version with Kulintang master/NEA National Heritage Fellow Danny Kalanduyan, and performed a musically modified version of it at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley with percussionist Jason Jong. In the past decade I have been incorporating the text into various iterations of my multi-media performance piece Half-Breed. For this recent performance for Quinteto Latino I arranged it for Slapstick and voice, which brought out some interesting nuances in the recitation. I am currently planning to record this new solo arrangement and release the text as a standalone card and include a QR code to access the audio. Look for that piece of art in early 2023. In the meantime, you can read the current version (it remains in progress) below. I definitely and perhaps obviously was thinking about Guahan and my own family when I wrote it; I had just come back from a trip there when I began writing it. However, over the years I have found that the piece resonates with folks of many backgrounds and instances/experiences of colonialism.

“Legacy”

i am standing on the point where my forefathers fought

and if singular moments live on

the atoms and cells undisturbed through time

psychically tangible with the right will

then there are one million sacred moments in my being this evening

rage and euphoria

disgust and desire

the best kind of love and the worst sort of spite

half and half

conquerors and priests with surnames like mine

look out upon the natives

half-civilized, they say

half-savage

they trade the culture for the cross

as i watch,

clutching a rosary half-heartedly

i am witness to every lost custom and word

helpless as i watch these once mighty remnants

drifting

floating

slipping

into lost caverns

of history and time

to be only possibly

half-remembered

i remain standing

half-bitter

half-moved

exhausted

tears in eyes

pit in stomach

the legacy of this vision

in my name

and on my soul

forever

Illustration of a pre-Spanish Chamoru latte settlement by David Lujan Sablan

The UnWavering poweR of musiC

Prior to every presentation, guest lecture, panel event, or other speaking engagement, the presenting entity will ask for some version of my bio to give audience members unfamiliar with me some idea of my background and experience. The one at the end of this article is condensed yet more thorough than the Wikipedia page about me, but still not as exhaustive (or exhausting) as what’s on my website. No matter which bio people read, it is very clear that I’ve devoted much of my career to music and education in one form or another. Not all of the moves mentioned in my bio were planned or pre-considered; many of them were not. I have tried to stay as open as possible to any adventures the unfolding road in front of me might have in store, and I have done my best to keep my skills sharpened and up-to-date so that I might be ready for new challenges and opportunities.

Along the way, and with the help and support of gifted colleagues, I’ve developed a music-making aesthetic and a set of pedagogical priorities which help guide my activities in these areas. There are so many important things to consider when working with today’s young people on musical skills — not the least of which is the shifting function of music in our lives. Young people these days receive, listen to, learn, and make music differently compared to any previous generation. It is my opinion that educators must adjust to that development, not the other way around. Here are a few key ways I feel music educators can both honor their historical training and embrace the 21st century zeitgeist:

Discard Received Notions about what Constitutes “High Art”
I have this memory. During an intense rehearsal, a middle school teacher told my fellow percussionists and me that “Drummers are a dime a dozen.” She was frustrated with one of my fellow percussionists who was threatening to quit the school band. This teacher was a White woman in her 30s and the percussion section was entirely BIPOC boys. I understood that she was demonstrably devaluing our role and telling us we didn’t really matter, but I didn’t fully understand why. At the time I was unable to associate her assertion with the fact that percussionists primarily work with rhythm. Over time it became obvious to me that in a white supremacist mindset, rhythm-centric and body-centric music and art are often considered less-than. That view directly stems from a dehumanizing view of Black and Brown people and our creations, and draws philosophically tenuous lines in the sand about what can be considered “meaningful art”.

An example of this revolves around sampling. The composer Steve Reich employed proto-sampling techniques via tape loops in the 60s with his pieces “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Come Out”. Reich is absolutely considered to be one of the world’s most important living composers, if not the most important living composer, partially because of his groundbreaking work utilizing pre-existing recordings. It is not a coincidence that 20 years later when Black and Brown kids from the South Bronx started using little loops of records to make new music, no one called them “avant-garde composers”. It was tacitly understood that “high art” was not their place. I believe that no matter one’s background, it is important to release received notions about tiered “value” in artistic expression, and to audit your personal default settings as to what deserves to be elevated or devalued. This is not only because it might preclude you from telling some kid that they are a dime a dozen — but also because it will open you up to a wider array of beauty and creation.

Acknowledge Unexpected Connections
In 2020 the Freight & Salvage Education Department launched an initiative called Hip-Hop is Folk Music. It’s a startling assertion for some, and one that only we seemed to be saying for a while, though it seems to have now entered the public thoughtspace. It’s the central focus of the symposiums we’re doing with Berkeley Unified School District this year. We wanted to illuminate the ways that historical folk traditions and contemporary remix culture are similar — very similar sometimes. We talk about folks using whatever tools they have around to make music — whether it’s a banjo, a jug, or a turntable. We talk about how taking an existing work and making something new with it is an age-old part of the folk tradition, but it’s now called Remix Culture. People ask me if we get a lot of resistance from folkies or hip-hop heads about this. Nope. Zero. People like to be shown the ways they’re connected to others in meaningful ways, and our teachers do a great job of demonstrating those connections. When I was an elementary school teacher, the one quote I kept up on my wall all year round was “We are more alike my friends than we are unlike” — from Maya Angelou. This is as true for adults as it is for 2nd graders, and — especially in these times— it is important to be reminded of that.

Encourage Music Creation — in All Forms
My son is a flautist — he LOVES the fact that I possess no skills on his instrument. He definitely wants to carve out his own path in this area. I insert myself subtly, usually related to practice habits, concert readiness, improvisation, and recording gear. Fortunately, he has had and still has very good teachers and coaches. When he grumbles about his scale and étude work from his classical teacher, I remind him that those exercises will ultimately inform and uplift his soloing with the jazz band, which he really enjoys. I remind him that the thing to do with his skills is to create. One thing that I really appreciate about his main school music teacher is that he requires the students to pursue a self-directed music creation project as a goal for the year. In today’s world, where hit singles can be recorded on phones with music apps and no traditional instruments, it’s important for today’s students to be immersed in contemporary music creation alongside their studies of their traditional instruments. Otherwise, you’re sending them out into a world that was already pretty tough for musicians, and now is even tougher. Encourage collaboration amongst your students and let them know any musical tool they want to use is cool! If this is new to you, you can start by checking out these music-making apps: https://plus.pointblankmusicschool.com/7-essential-free-apps-for-making-music-on-the-go/

Though the business of music is constantly changing, the spiritual and visceral power of music is steady and unwavering. Thank you for keeping it alive with your work — and let me know how and what you’re doing out there!


PC Muñoz is a composer, producer, writer, and education program designer based in San Francisco. An artist with a “deep social conscience…who uses music to connect cultures and communities together” (Anil Prasad, Innerviews), Muñoz’s singular aesthetic bridges the gap between musique concréte, pop songcraft, and the insistent rhythms of funk and hip-hop. His body of work as an artist and producer includes GRAMMY®-nominated contemporary classical music with composer/cellist Joan Jeanrenaud as well as projects with rock legend Jackson Browne, poet/chanteuse Ingrid Chavez, Oakland hip-hop heavyweight Kev Choice, a cappella jazz masters SoVoSo, virtuoso Van-Anh Vo, and more. He is the 2022 Quinteto Latino Composer-in-Residence, a current Mosaic America Fellow, a former Board Governor for the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy, and one of the featured writers in the 2019 award-winning collection from University of Hawai’i Press, Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia (2019). He was a full-time classroom teacher in Bayview-Hunter’s Point (San Francisco) in the 90s, the first Director of Education for the San José Symphony in the early 2000s, and is the first Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. For more info: pcmunoz.com.

Photo:

It meant a lot to me to perform a drum and dance duet with turf-dancer Dopeyfresh in 2016. Dopey was one of my 2nd grade students in the 90s.

My UnSettling but positive clairvoyant experience

by PC Muñoz

I saw the celebrity clairvoyant Tyler Henry on TV the other night and it reminded me that in 2005 I had a session with a spiritual healer/clairvoyant. This person had healed a physical ailment of a friend. My friend, a generous person, was so transformed by this experience that he contracted the healer to conduct readings/sessions for his family and friends for a few days. Curious, I signed up for a session. 

The reading took place in a small cottage. This is what I remember: I was lying down on some kind of padded table, like a massage table. The healer, who I’ll call Dorothy, stood behind me and (from how it felt, I couldn’t see) cupped her hands near the top of my head. I immediately felt an intense warmth, followed by an encompassing sense of being cared for and loved. I understood that Dorothy was facilitating this feeling but was not responsible for it. It was surprising and emotionally overwhelming. My cynical side wondered if she had an exceedingly quiet blow dryer or a small heater back there to generate the warmth. I dismissed this thought.

Without touching me, Dorothy moved her hands over me to “read my aura”, which she described as “open” and “ready to receive messages.” She told me that my people in the spirit world had messages for me and asked me if I wanted to hear them. I said yes. She then shared a piece of advice startlingly specific to my interior life at the time. Though I was flabbergasted, I attempted to speak and behave like I wasn’t. I consciously downplayed my response to the content of the message. She mentioned another phrase or name that I felt had no relevance to me; I don’t remember what it was now.

At one point she paused and asked me how my little boy was. I smiled smugly and replied that my wife and I didn’t have any kids. This part I’ll always remember:

“Oh yes you do,” she said. “You definitely have a boy. He is just waiting for you to bring him here. He really wants to be with you.”

Miguel’s birth was about two years away at that time. When he became a teen I shared this story and told him that some people believe that babies “pick their parents” in a “before-life”. He said “Hmm I wonder why I picked you guys.”

That was my experience. I did not meet or speak with Dorothy or give any information to her beforehand. She did not ask me about music or writing or teaching or refer to anything on my website or in any published press articles. There was not yet a Wikipedia page about me at that point. I did wonder what other personal things she “found out” about me but didn’t mention.

I’ve since read about “cold readings” and “hot readings” and 100% believe that these methods are used a lot of the time in these sorts of sessions. I am still not convinced that this is the core of what happened with me that day.

The experience was a little unsettling but definitely positive. I was grateful for the opportunity and would consider doing it again.

I suppose my aura is still open.

RADICAL FLUidITY

by PC Muñoz

"Be water, my friend.”
-Bruce Lee

Thanks to the antagonism-generating mechanisms of social media, I recently came across a video of a man ranting about the abject evils of pronoun plenitude in the workplace, colorful hair dye, and gender ambiguity.

I got the feeling from his voice and body language that he intended to project a sense of impassioned righteousness, maybe even prophetic fury.

What I observed was fear. Anguished, desperate, whimpering fear.

Clearly, this man (who appeared to be in his late 40s) is aware that there is a new world out there, and it is strange to him. A world with people who have preferences regarding which pronouns they prefer for themselves. A world with people who occasionally dye their hair bright pink. A world with people who identify outside of a strict gender binary. 

For people who perceive their world as fixed, static, and forever familiar, these blurred lines must be supremely foundation-shaking. But younger people aren't shook by this at all. They know that human existence is creative, dynamic, and always on the move. They might even know that some of their own most cherished practices may soon be seen as unnecessary or even flat-out wrong. From their carefully chosen vocabulary choices to their hair color decisions to their ideas around identity, young folks are demonstrating that things once thought to be clearly defined…may not be, or perhaps needn’t be.

I believe Gen-Z’s predilections — even the ostensibly superficial ones — will ultimately help us evolve into human beings who are capable of deftly managing and adapting to the paradigm (and behavioral) shifts in the coming years. The first few years of the 2020s will eventually be seen as lightweight fluff compared to all of the biological, philosophical, and technological changes coming our way. If we take a cue from this youngest generation about fluidity, we will be that much more prepared for those changes when they come.

Call it radical fluidity: an awareness of constant change as an existential fact, and the ability to adapt at a moment’s notice. Also — the willingness and humility to learn from those younger than you.

Try flowing with radical fluidity this weekend; see how it feels. I’d love to hear from you about any breakthroughs!

There is only going forward, there is nEver going back

by PC Muñoz

“This country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can, even if it's only as far as last week.
Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards.”

-Gil Scott-Heron

If you are reading this, you are in possession of an intricate array of gifts, skills, and privileges.

You have access to the internet and the know-how to navigate to a specific site. You likely have functioning eyes or the ability to decipher text without them. You are able to read, comprehend, and learn in at least one language. And you have excellent, unimpeachable taste in reading material. You are, in many ways, exceedingly fortunate.

After negotiating the literally biohazardous years of 2020 and 2021 and now preparing for the ongoing disease minefield of 2022, it’s easy to forget that we are living in amazing times. And it’s even easier to forget that much about our own lives is amazing, albeit never perfect.

It’s especially easy to long for the “before times” — before COVID-19 changed all of our lives permanently. Before the hospitalizations, the deaths, the closures of all kinds, the Zoom meetings, the constant sanitizing, the mask wearing, the vaccine drama, the booster drama, the rapid antigen tests, the PCR tests...before all of that. Those times are never coming back. We’re headed somewhere else.

The titular line above — “There is only going forward, there is never going back” — is from an adventurous recording of mine called “Rugged Individual”, which takes a critical look at the complicated myths of the American West over a bubbling free-jazz/electronica undercurrent. I wrote it while staying near the Donner Summit in the Sierra Mountains and thinking about my maternal-side relatives who made the wagon train journey to California in the 19th century. It’s comforting to indulge in romantic notions about the experiences of our ancestors; to feel nostalgia for times we ourselves have never experienced (there’s a proposed word for that phenomenon: anemoia). The truth is, I don’t want to be on a wagon train journey in the 19th century. I also don’t want to go back to the 20th century. I definitely don’t want to be in 2019, and I absolutely don’t want to be back in the middle of last week. I want to be right here, right now — with you and everyone else, building the future ahead of us. This is the journey of our time, and we are uniquely well-equipped to handle this.

But we’ve got to get excited about the task ahead of us. What will you do to contribute to the future that is just around the corner? How will you use your proven gifts, skills, and privileges?

You might want to start by saying “There is only going forward, there is never going back” out loud every morning when you wake up on this first week of 2022. Call it an attitude-hack.

Let me know how that works out for you. I’d love to hear your stories!

Happy New Year!

3 KEY WAYS TO NEGOTIATE THE NEW REALITY

by PC Muñoz

Everybody’s frontin’.

You know that, right?

During this pandemic, everybody — you, your boss, your roommate, your best friend, your cherished mentor, your barista, and maybe even God Almighty — is frontin’, either full-time or part-time. Pretending to have the answers or even one answer. Acting as if everything will be just fine. Planning and waiting on some future that will eventually resemble the past.

It's not going to work that way. Human behavior today is profoundly different from what it was two years ago. Different priorities. Different values. Different perspectives. Different tolerance levels. Different.

The sooner we accept this reality, the sooner we can work together to create substantive strategies to negotiate and shape this new existential terrain.

We all consciously “pivoted” to a new reality during the initial COVID-19 shelter-in-place era and we have been attempting to pivot back ever since — with our eyes on some kind of post-pandemic, post-climate crisis, post-civil unrest future which is not going to materialize anytime soon.

Instead of a true “pivot back”, real life is pushing us towards a “ghost pivot” —a slow but decisive turn towards a wildly uncharted future where our day-to-day lives are significantly altered from how they used to be.

Here are three key ways you can stop frontin’ and successfully make the most of your ghost pivot:

1. BE NIMBLE

The new reality requires flexibility — work on yours! Stay nimble, ready to move and ready to shake things up. Be prepared (and unafraid) to swap out, combine, and/or discard ideas at a moment’s notice.

2. STAY OPEN

This applies to both your work life and personal life. On the work side of things, what better time to launch new initiatives and investigate new avenues than right now, when so much is up-in-the-air, in disarray, or about to implode? On the personal side of things: try reading a book about a subject you think you don’t like, or check out a movie with a performer you think you can’t stand. Try giving away or throwing out one possession that you thought you would keep forever. Open up—you’ll reap untold rewards in hard times and your ghost pivot will be that much more of a cinch.

3. CUSTOMIZE

A great deal of cooperation and hard work will be required by as many people as possible to get everyone to this new reality, and customization is looking like a huge part of that. Online tools and digital content are customized at granular levels. Work schedules are now much more customized than ever. In your own work and personal world, how is the fact that people are becoming extremely accustomed to calling the shots on their day-to-day experiences, from the micro to the macro, going to affect you? Get creative with ways you can customize your life, your work, your offerings to the world, and your own personal innovations. This will help you set some personal and work target goals which will help you stay at the top of your game as the world continues to change second to second.

Be nimble, stay open, and customize. No more frontin’.

See you in the future!

Unidad panaamericana / mid panel, by Diego Rivera.

Currently at SFMOMA in San Francisco, on loan from City College of San Francisco.

Might as weLl dance: the Top ten funkiest van Halen traCks

by PC Muñoz

Eddie Van Halen captivated the world and transformed rock music with his guitar playing. He didn’t sound like any guitar player who came before him, and virtually all guitar players after him owe him a debt. Some owe him their entire careers.

Eddie’s namesake band was a unique brand of rock juggernaut, especially in its original incarnation with freewheeling beat poet-turned-sexpot-frontman David Lee Roth (DLR) at the mic. The way Ed and his big brother Alex (Dutch/Indonesian immigrants who came to the LA area as non-English speaking youngsters) mind-melded eerily complementary drum and guitar parts was nothing short of staggering, along with the crystalline backing vocals from original bassist Michael Anthony and Ed himself. From those beginnings to the Hagar years, the Cherone experiment, the DLR comeback with Wolfgang Van Halen on bass — I was a fan through all of it. 

With his passing today, much will continue to be written about Edward’s dynamic and exhilarating guitar solos— and rightly so. As a funkateer, I always appreciated his propulsive rhythm playing, which drove so many of their songs and helped make Van Halen the most danceable hard rock band of all time. Here is my list of the Top Ten Funkiest Van Halen Tracks — click the song title to listen/watch.

1. “Black and Blue” from OU812 (1987)

   Chunky sludge-funk with a slight nod to “Fire” by the Ohio Players - a song Eddie said the band reportedly played all the time in their cover band days.

2. “Drop Dead Legs” from 1984 (1984) Head-bobber with a sledgehammer riff.

3. “Push Comes to Shove”, from Fair Warning (1981)

   Sleeper track from the band’s slinkiest album. 

4. “Dancing in the Street”, Diver Down (1982)

   This inventive Motown cover features a gurgly synth (foreshadowing “Jump”) and an irrepressible groove.

5. “Why Can’t This Be Love?” - from 5150 (1986)

   Their #1 single breakthrough with Hagar features electronic drums and a slithery riff that lightly recalls “Superstition”.

6. “Dance the Night Away” from Van Halen II (1979)

   Really more joyous pop than funk — but dig that guitar and percussion breakdown.

7. “Dirty Movies” from Fair Warning (1981)
   Brother Alex throws down serious boom-bap on this deep cut.

8. “Jamie’s Cryin’” from Van Halen I (1978)

   Funky enough to be sampled by rapper Tone Loc for his megahit “Wild Thing”.

9. “Finish What Ya Started” from OU812 (1988)

   The funk is in the syncopation on this unexpected hit from the Hagar era.

10. “Tattoo” - from A Different Kind of Truth (2012)

    Pulled from the vault of early demos and featuring Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, this thumper showcases why DLR was always ready-made for spoken-word while the revitalized band crackles beneath the shenanigans.