The Master Game

The Master Game
By Robert S. DeRopp

Seek, above all, for a game worth playing. Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found a game, play it with intensity – play as if your life and sanity depended on it. (They do depend on it.) Follow the example of the French existentialists and flourish a banner bearing the word, ‘engagement.’ Though nothing means anything and all roads are marked ‘no exit,’ yet move as if your movements had some purpose. If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one. For it must be clear, even to the most clouded intelligence, that any game is better than no game.

But although it is sage to play the Master Game, this has not served to make it popular. It still remains the most demanding and difficult of games and in our society, there are few who play. Contemporary man, hypnotized by the glitter of his own gadgets, has little contact with his inner world, concerns himself with outer, not inner, space. But the Master Game is played entirely in the inner world, a vast and complex territory about which men know very little. The aim of the game is true awakening, full development of the powers latent in man. The game can be played only by people whose observations of themselves and others have led them to a certain conclusion, namely, that man’s ordinary state of consciousness of which he is capable. In fact, this state is so far from real awakening that it could appropriately be called a form of somnambulism, a condition of ‘waking sleep.’

Once a person has reached this conclusion, he is no longer able to sleep comfortably. A new appetite develops within him, the hunger for real awakening, for full consciousness. He realizes that he sees, hears, and knows only a tiny fraction of what he could see, hear and know, that he lives in the poorest, shabbiest of the rooms in his inner dwelling, and that he could enter other rooms, beautiful and filled with treasures, the windows of which look out on eternity and infinity.

The solitary player lives today in a culture that is more or less totally opposed to the aims he has set himself, that does not recognize the existence of the Master Game, and regards players of the game as queer or slightly mad. The player thus confronts great opposition from the culture in which he lives and must strive with forces which tend to bring his game to a halt before it has even started. Only by finding a teacher and becoming part of the group of pupils that the teacher has collected about him can the player find encouragement and support. Otherwise, he simply forgets his aim, or wanders off down some side road and loses himself.

Here it is sufficient to say that the Master Game can NEVER be made easy to play. It demands all that a man has, all his feeling, all his thought, his entire resources, physical and spiritual. If he tries to play it in a halfhearted way or tries to get results by unlawful mean, he runs the risk of destroying his own potential. For this reason, it is better not to embark on the game at all than to play it halfheartedly.

BK HOUSE PARTY!!!

Back from LA and Denver!!! My trip was amazing.. I met some incredible people, wrote with some amazing songwriters - Ben Peeler and Martyn LeNoble, played with my West Coast Boys - beans, ben and daniel pearson ;) Was really a great trip and I am anxious to head back out in February! Denver was gorgeous. I visited Garden of the Gods and did a seminar called Team management leadership program - which blew my mind.

Saturday was a scorpio bday celebration and mine as well ;) The MF's and I played a lovely set and met a bunch of fantastic brooklynites. Was a killer party - thanks bruno, dennis, katy and everyone who hosted and came out.

Here are a few pix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tetheredtothemoon/sets/72157603113638014/

xo tiff

thinking stuff

Reading this book now and thought i'd share:

"There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created."

-from The Science of Getting Rich

Review of Mo's Pitkins Show

Hey everyone, I just wanted to thank all of you who were there last tuesday.. It was such a fantastic night - we all had such an amazing night. Love you all. Hope to see you Aug 7 at the next one. here's a review of the show last week from Limewire:

"During her sold out show last night at Mo Pitkins, singer songwriter Tiffany Randol introduced a packed audience to songs from her upcoming album, Sammasati. The spunky redhead took the stage of the lower east side lounge at 9 pm, and opened with her powerful piano-based tune, “Kiss Me, Kiss Me.”

Randol bounced around from a grand piano, an acoustic guitar, a decade-old synthesizer and a pair of spoons (which were generously lent to her by a waitress) as she passionately performed her diverse, upbeat set. Her unique blend of sweet and soulful vocals was clearly displayed as she gently flowed through her ten songs. Randol got the crowd involved during her chipper ho-down tune, “One 4 Me,” when she asked them to drum along to the beat by banging beer bottles together - - luckily, there was plenty of beer flowing throughout the night. Her final song, “Half a Second,” overflowed with powerful soul and rhythm melodies that filled the room with tickling goosebumps.

To hear some tracks off Sammasati, check out Tiffany’s myspace page. She will be performing at Mo Pitkins again on August 7th.

show at Mo Pitkins 7/10 @ 9pm

It is my absolute delight to have an opportunity to celebrate the finishing of my record next Tuesday! It's called "Sammasati" and you can hear a few of the songs on MYSPACE. (link www.myspace.com/tiffanyrandol) I am so excited to be playing these songs life with some of my dearest and most talented friends. Please be there to help us break in the songs! I want you in the front row humming along and banging bottles. ;)

details:
MO PITKINS (34 Ave A. NYC)
July 10, 9pm
(also Aug 7, 9pm)

fyi: This is not a "record release" party - thought the record is complete, its not "officially" out and about (though we may have a few copies available at the show).

Much love,
Tiffany

PS. THE SPACE is very much under way, even though I have not sent an email lately. We are organizing an event launch for August and will be updating you soon. I am looking for a business partner and for additional team members who have the passion and commitment to local songwriters to work with on moving the project forward. Please email me if you've got it.



"An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one." -Charles Horton Cooley

www.tiffanyrandol.com
whoiamisfreedom.blogspot.com
www.valeze.net
www.thespacenyc.org

Songwriters Hall of Fame

Its been quite a week for me. Last week I finished mastering the record with Nathan James at Jigsaw Sound, started rehearsing for my solo stuff, did prepro on a new Valeze song, got a new roommate and began reorganizing my life. I realized this week that I am a "hyper-organized micro manager". self diagnosed ;) Seriously - I am highly OCD about odd little things like alphabetizing all my records, color coding my closets, putting all my adaptors and cables in their special places - I separate everything into little piles and end up with a big mess to clean up at the end of every day b/c I get WAY too detailed. The weird thing is - my piles don't make sense to anyone but me. Really if you tried to figure out the order of piles, you'd never get it. and to be honest, I probably would have a pretty hard time explaining it to you as well. lol. In any case - workin on that ;) So yes, much of my week was spent obsessing over how to get organized, moving shit out of my apartment, throwing things away, & making new piles ;) I think the spring cleaning illness caught me this week.

Aside from that truly exciting piece of news - the rest of my week was amazing. Songwriters Hall of Fame had an event on Tuesday where they acknowledged a bunch of up and coming writers, including myself, Matt Kanelos, Jodi Shaw, Benji from Marwood, Wendy Starland, The Dramas, and a bunch of other writers. Jimmy Webb taught a master class at the event and we all got to ask him questions, so I asked if i could come up and play a song. teehee. i figured - you only get one chance to play a song for Jimmy Webb. Plus he said something along the lines of "nowadays no one writes songs with lots of chords" - so I played "Kiss me Kiss me" - which btw is up on myspace now - check it out.

Thursday was the SHOF Annual awards ceremony. Dolly Parton, Jackson browne, Little Anthony, Mark Cohn, John Legend - all these incredible artists performed on one stage in honor of some of my favorite songwriters of all time - Bobby Weinstein, Michael Masser, Dolly, Don Kirshner and Irving Burgie (who was so unbelievably adorable... he got the entire audience singing Day-O in this campfire like version of it... it was amazing) Seeing Dolly perform was one of the highlights of my life - she's so damn lovable.

Afterwards people were milling around and I got to meet just about everyone except Dolly. The after party was a little tricky to get into, but Mr. Tony Orlando snuck me in! lol. He is seriously the shit... One of the highlights of the night for me was hanging out with Bobby Weinstein, Tony O and Toni Wine and hearing them talk about songs that they had written over the years. These are songs that inspired me to be a songwriter - these are people who changed my life and truly played a part in creating who I am today.. It was incredible to be in the presence of so many inspired individuals... I am so grateful and fortunate to have had that opportunity. Love you all...

Life

Life always throws curve balls: things you don't want to deal with, relationships you want to deny, people you wished you weren't attached to, those who doubt you, plans you made in your head, and expectations never fulfilled... This month I began to experience myself in a new way. I've begun to learn detachment, commitment, clarity and responsibility. It is bizarre - extremely surreal to me. I've kept very hush about my experiences to most because I haven't known how to express the shift I've gone through.. It's been scary, yet its been empowering. I have realized things about myself that aren't pretty, but they are giving me freedom in acknowledging them.

I have really begun to understand who I am and what I am committed to in life. As I've begun to commit to guidelines for my life, I've begun detaching from the things in my life that don't fit under that umbrella. It's been scary because the familiar has taken a backseat. Relationships are shifting from a place of attachment to a new realm based on my commitments. It is unchartered, scary and beautiful...

Life is a declaration and a way of being and I am grateful to know that it is possible to recreate myself and my life anytime I choose. Today, who I am is the possibility of FREEDOM, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, EMPOWERMENT and ACCEPTANCE.

Much Love - Deliriously Tired,

Tiff