i’ve been working on helastechne.com but it’s far from ready. i plan to use that page for updating anything related to my music. whereas feelingness will be more personal and connected to the outside world (of the internets). just thought i’d announce everything prematurely.
while the home page is being conceptualized, i would like to shed some light on hélas techne – the meaning and purpose — because it just occurred to me nobody but a select few have been given a proper explanation. it’s no secret, just that since the ideas have been externalized more than once, i’ve begun to feel like the word is out. but silly me, the job’s not finished. quite the contrary actually. i cannot foresee anything causing the termination of this work, hence “endeavor and ever” (a new working song title).
so i’ll begin with a literal translation and the origins of the words’ usage. hélas. only after unintentionally adopting this much adored little moniker did i realize it was an actual word, the french equivalent of the english alas. this in itself is not crucial, but it did lead me to an existing work of art, a poem by Oscar Wilde, that surprisingly had me intrigued. i’m not one with an affinity for poetry, but Hélas! actually resonated. it was like i had unearthed musings from a past life that are just as pertinent in this one. so it stuck, the sight and sound of it’s syllables embodying a very unique belonging feeling.
techne on the other hand did not appear to me until late last summer, after years of using hélas mostly as an alias online. while engrossed in a book by Daniel Pinchbeck, the term came up, quoting philosopher Martin Heidegger –
Once there was a time when the bringing-forth of the true into the beautiful was also called techne. 
this, much like reading Hélas! the first time, immediately resonated. i read on to find techne, derived by the Greeks and elaborated on by Heidegger, translates as craftsmanship, craft, or art. it is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective, with the means of this method being through art. it also serves, etymologically, as the basis for technique and technology. and so a dichotomy in my mind resolved, unifying rationality and artistry, discovering harmony where dissonance once abstracted their relationship.
what i’ve learned about the synthesis of hélas and techne is not what i would’ve expected. its place wasn’t immediately apparent, not as the alter-ego, the band name, or even the title of my future 10 disc anthology. i didn’t feel the light bulb above my head illuminate like “this is it!” no, it was more like the light bulb popping in, unlit. strange feeling. but i find the thing slowly coming aglow. i see hélas techne encompassing a larger body of work and information, almost like a general reference for my personal chronicle. yet, its scope is broader than my current field of vision. which is good! it seems to have defied the expendable, volatile nature of pseudonyms in the modern age with a keen temperance, becoming something quite sacred and a little beyond me. it will be the thing i seek while also being the thing i am.
today i am reminded that “i cannot do this alone” — which is a difficult thing for me personally to accept. nearly everything i’ve done with my life during the past few years has been marked by a self-sufficiency and do-it-myself (
) pattern, with a sensitive, introverted tone (
). this has served well to help me develop necessary abilities that i will always be able to utilize, but i am quickly approaching a period where the exact opposite behavior is the only path for progress.
right now “performing hélas techne” is the dominant mental priority. but it’s not seeing much progress because doing it alone is not how it’s supposed to be done. i feel like a mad scientist who has locked himself up in the laboratory, experimenting with every possible combination of chemicals and solutions, keeping it all secret from those who might want to steal his discoveries! as an artist it’s easy to struggle with the concept of originality. we all have unique perspectives on life, and unique expressions to compliment, but i’m forced to argue that “originality” is mostly an illusion, that believing too extremely in “I, me, mine” can ultimately sequester one to an insular feedback loop island, alienated and exclusory.
so i’m moving away from that. i’ve realized the more i share the greater the momentum will build. and that there’s no perfect golden moment when it’ll be the right time to unleash a finished product to unsuspecting masses. i think we’re moving into an era where people want to know everything that’s happening, as it’s happening. no more behind-the-curtains celebrity mysteriousness. this is truly the Aquarian Age.
(image credit 
loveform.com)
