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about

The emerging study of human play and art, from the perspective of their respective evolutionary and biological origins—and the possible adaptive-ness thereof—strongly suggests that the development of an onboard bullshit detector was and remains crucial to our survival as a highly social species. As children, if we grew up in relatively safe environments, we played, unsupervised every chance we got, instinctively amassing life skills as we went. Though many of us have forgotten conscious memories of much of our childhoods, by the ages of five or six we engaged in making up and acting out full blown crazy theatrical scenarios with our peers, which by default helped us learn how to become social beings, and navigate life as Homo sapiens.

Continuing through adolescence and into adulthood, make-belief and stories full of conflict, trouble, sex, violence, and intrigue as expressed through art—if the tales are told well—continue to grab and hold our attention. In terms of evolution, our species-wide survival abilities (selected for over millennia) include the participation in, and processing of fictions, which inform our own instinctive leanings today to seek out such playful exercise on a daily basis, being as it is every bit as essential for our own developing brains, as food and water is for our bodies. In other words, play, and its more adult elaborations into stories, theatre and art, help sharpen our wits, which in turn serve as the key flexible response tools we need for healthy survival in the very social real world.

—From the introduction to "A Beginners Guide To Play” by Fay Delaflor, Professor of Play at Columbia University (publication date April 2024)

lyrics

WE DON’T REE-MEMBER, RUNNING ‘ROUND LIKE CRAZY DEMONS,
WHEN WE WERE FIVE OR SIX YEARS OLD, WITHOUT A CARE IN THE WORLD
MAKING UP MAKE BELIEF, CRAZY BATSHIT SCENARIOS, WITH OUR PLAYMATES
WITH A FIRE IN OUR SOULS, GOING OUT ON A LIMB

TAPPING INTO AN ENERGY, THAT’S OLDER THAN HISTORY
GIVEN HALF A CHANCE … WE PLAY

WIILIAM SHAKESPEARE DID IT, AS A KID, AT SOME POINT CARRYING ON
DEFYING FORCES, WHO ONLY EVER WANT MORE OBEDIENT WORKERS,
COS A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, WEDDED TO VESTED INTERESTS
CAN’T IMAGINE ANYTHING ELSE, OR ANY OTHER WAY
AND LEAST OF ALL PLAY

SO WE TAP INTO AN ENERGY, THAT’S OLDER THAN HISTORY
GIVEN HALF A CHANCE … WE PLAY

GOING EVEN FURTHER BACK … WAY BACK, INTO THE PALEOLOGICAL RECORD
THE STORY OF EVOLVING PLAYERS, AND OF THE STORY TELLING ANIMAL … THAT’S US
PULLING ALL KINDS OF CRAZY SHIT, FINDING OUT BY DOING IT AND ENJOYING IT
AND SHARING IT AND PUSHING IT, AND LOVING IT, AND ALL THE WHILE LAUGHING AT THE RISK

FOR ITS OWN SAKE, COS IT FEELS GOOD, THE ENDORPHIN RUSH
COS ITS NATURE’S WAY OF SHARPENING OUR WITS

BY TAPPING INTO AN ENERGY, THAT’S OLDER THAN HISTORY
GIVEN HALF A CHANCE … WE PLAY

LOOSENING THE CREATIVE SPARK, THE MOTHER OF THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
PLAY AND ITS ELABORATIONS WE CALL … ART

IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY, SOMEWHERE …. IN NEURO CIRCUIT CITY
CRAZY DEMONS … WIRED, ON ORGANIC ELECTRICITY
COMING UP WITH CRAZY IDEAS, STUMBLING UPON POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
AND TESTING THEM OUT, SOME OF WHICH JUST MIGHT WORK
AND SHARING THE RESULTS
AND IF WE’RE EVER GONNA SAVE THE DAY
WE’LL NEVER EVER, EVER DO IT WITHOUT … PLAY … PLAY … PLAY

credits

from MESMERICA - EXPECT A CIRCUS, released June 19, 2020
KIRA WOOD CRAMER vocals
DANBERT NOBACON piano, vocals, glockenspiel
ANNA DOOLEY violin

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Danbert Nobacon & The Axis of Dissent image

Danbert Nobacon & The Axis of Dissent Twisp, Washington

Danbert Nobacon 'freak music legend,' 'mischievous political goblin,'got an associate degree in the science of children’s play in England in the 1990’s whilst moonlighting in the punk rock band Chumbawamba.
The new album "Kochtopus's Garden—Now That's What I Call Capitalism—The Musical" lands on Mayday 05.01.24. ... more

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