Did Cage love noise? Or did he merely make peace with it? Like many creative spirits, he was sensitive to intrusions of sound; years later, when he was living in the West Village next door to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, he asked Lennon to stop using wall-mounted speakers. But he trained himself to find noise interesting rather than distracting.
the excerpt gives me hope in two ways. first, i may not be the only “creative” person who is sensitive to intrusions of sound, and second, there may be a way to train oneself to find noise interesting… i don’t see that latter part yet, but i will have to try and keep looking. the latest challenges i am facing here, a new neighbor downstairs with a grand piano and a penchant to play stupid radio music every second he is home plus a huge roadwork construction site right outside the window.