Striving for the Impossible

I thought Roumain’s little music manifesto was interesting, because it came from such an affective place. And while that is not usually desirable in (somewhat) academic writing, music is one of the fields where it seems almost impossible not to be subjective and slightly emotional. Of course, he is only giving concrete examples for something he most likely considers the overarching truth.
“you have to play your cello like a bass drum.” One of DJ Spooky’s observations comes to mind: there are no new sounds. If you cannot create something completely and truly original (and I believe you can’t), you have to make old things sound new. Later on, though, Roumain questions the reader: “are you original? Where does originality exist? Is there anyone in the world like you? No? prove it!” For Roumain, the potential for originality still seems to exist. Or is it the aspiration for originality that he finds desirable? Is he saying: there are no new sounds, but do your best to make your stuff sound original? You will never get there, but the act of trying is what will produce desirable music? I would like to think that this is (part of) what he means, because it makes a lot of sense to me. The impossibility of true creativity and originality may seem depressing and demotivating to a lot of people, but when you accept that this is how it is, it stops being a negative thing, and you (the hypothetical artist, musician, creator of anything) can strive to use all the existing things in the world to make something that looks or sounds or feels as new as possible. It’s a lot like Lacanian lack: once you know it’s there, you can stop being disappointed by life. And I certainly think that’s a good thing. =)
Another question: “ Composers are historians, documentarians, ethnomusicologists, and pathological liars.” Liars? Really? Why? Is he referring to the fact that they “steal” sources and inspirations and claim originality for their work? Is it because they deny the three classifications prior to pathological liars? I would have liked to hear more about this.
Also, I just had to bring this in: it connects more to Rhythm Science, in my opinion, or the first half of Sound Unbound, but it fits into the general discussion of copyright, ownership, and authorship. This video has been circulating on the internet recently, and has apparently been recorded and mixed by a guy on his laptop, and performed by various street musicians all over the world. So, who actually created this? The guy who recorded and mixed it? All of the performers? Or Ben E. King? All of them? I love that this is a sort of “remix” of live performances, you don’t see too many of those.

(Also, note the under-representation of women. Are we only good for harmony and backup?)