Friday, April 29, 2011

The Most Incredible Trip Ever: Part 1: "Smoke and Mirrors"

Let me begin by saying that every college student should have one amazing story to tell from their undergraduate career. And, let me tell you, this one tops about 87% of those stories. That might sound cocky, but please, bear with me as I unfold to you the most incredible series of events that could only be dreamed of. 


So, ever since high school, Brandon Kelly, Joshua Henderson and I have loved this band called The Receiving End of Sirens. They are a post-hardcore, ambient, progressive rock band from Boston Massachusetts. Their lyrics center around themes of relationships and the brokenness of humanity, while still remaining upbeat and hopeful. The last album "The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi" takes its title from Johannes Kepler's book Harmonicus Mundi (translated: The Harmony of the World). Here is their take on it from Absolutepunk.net 


"The title, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi was taken from a book written by a late 16th century astronomical theorist by the name of Johannes Kepler [Harmonices Mundi] and the publication just fascinated the band. Kepler’s theory suggested that each of the 9 planets in our solar system produced tones as they orbited the sun. Throughout the orbit, Venus would stay a consistent note that was considered the 6th in relation to the rest of the planets. As Earth would shift its tonality, it would create the effect of the notes moving from the major 6th to the minor 6th and back and forth. This is where the “Mi Fa Mi” comes into action, symbolizing the corresponding syllables when singing a scale in relation to the notes of the earth {Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do}. Kepler further concurred that the Earth “singing” Mi Fa Mi could truly stand for Misery, Famine, Misery and ultimately, that is the song the Earth and Venus continued to sing. Misery, referring to an empty place and Famine, referring to the appetite or thirst for things."

Suffice to say, there are many reasons for me to like them other than the sound of their music. 

Sadly, TREOS (The Receiving End of Sirens) broke up in May of 2008, which came as quite a sad surprise and shock to Brandon, Josh and I. Luckily enough, Brandon was surfing the web one day in November 2009 and came across some exciting news: TREOS would be playing a single reunion show in May of 2010 at a yearly concert festival called Skatefest. That, to us was incredible news, but there was only 1 problem...


It was in Worcester, MA, which was a 12.5 hour car ride. 700 miles away. 


However, that didn't deter the three of us. In spite of our tight budgets and limited resources, we decided to buy tickets that December and nabbed a cheap $100 plane ticket to Boston out of RDU the Friday before the concert, which was on that Saturday. 


Closer and closer the day came for us to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Josh, the ever eager, would periodically text Brandon and I a countdown. 


70 days


30 days


24 days


10 days

2 days


At about this time, Brandon came across some EVEN MORE AWESOME NEWS. Before the concert Saturday, some bands whom were to be playing at Skatefest were playing a show in Providence, RI on that Friday which was called "The Real Eve Of Skatefest." Their headlining band was called only "special guest appearance," and upon further investigation, Brandon discovered the acronym for the concert was TREOS. Brandon, the sleuthful, deducted from purely circumstantial evidence that TREOS was playing. 


(side note: congratulations on being so awesome at looking up stuff, BK)

 So Brandon calls me, and it goes something like this:

*ring ring*

Cameron: Hello?
Brandon: Hey, what's up?
C: Nothing, just readi---
B: I just found out TREOS is playing another show before Skatefest - a secret show!
(He proceeds to explain)
B: So should we go? It's all the way in Providence.
C: (thinks momentarily) Yes. I'll buy and print tickets for us now.


So that was it, we were going to be seeing TREOS twice, but there was 1 problem, we had nowhere to stay in Providence, RI, and I had already booked us 2 nights in Worcester at a place 1 block from the Palladium (the concert hall they were playing). So I called the Crowne Plaza Hotel and cancelled our Friday Night stay in Worcester. We had no where to stay, but I figure we'd just handle that later.


The Day of Departure:
To Be Continued....



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

On Poetry Writing written late at night

I think the temptation of a lot of people, including myself, is to perceive poetry itself as an amalgamation of general thoughts and feelings regurgitated into terse, jumpy sentences on a page. Usually incorporated with the ever-tired image of blue wispy cigarette smoke (seriously blue is not original anymore) or stars and probably a sexual encounter mixed with alcohol.

But poetry is much much more than simple lines about life experiences written vaguely on a page. It should mean something to you and about you. It should open up experiences of the soul, rather than experiences of the flesh or lusts of the heart. If the phrase “What we think about God is the most important thing about us” (Tozer) has any meaning whatsoever, then why aren’t there more Christian poets out there delivering the Truth of the Gospel? Why aren’t we packing lines, stanzas, pages, books with images of hope and resurrection, or of the Joy of our Risen Savior? Why is the Christian poet so silent?

Why am I so silent? I am a Christian, for sure. I love Jesus. But does poetry tend towards the secular and the melancholic? Of course, because the flesh delivers us to misery and despair. We write to much from the heart muscle than the heart spirit. What drives us? What motivates us? What is the primum mobile of our being? What gives the poet meaning?

Even if you aren’t a Christian and are reading this, and don’t agree with me about Jesus, some of this must resonate with you. Is the goal of your line to ejaculate some experience that has been shared by 6 billion other people or to reveal some gear of your heart, to formulate an idea of your beliefs and identity. Even if it is the amoral selfishness of Nietzsche, he wrote lines I envy. He beautifully portrays selfishness and freedom many times. Or if it’s the theosophy of Yeats’s gyres of “The Second Coming” it points to something they believe in that is transcendent to their person. Even their identity is transcendent to their person. Truths about the self can even speak volumes about the identities of every man who walks this planet.

So, I implore anyone who wishes to be a poet, write from the heart of the heart before you write about your experiences in a pub or watching a sunset while smoking a blue cigarette. 

Monday, April 18, 2011

Production Begins on The Hobbit

Last Wednesday, April the 13th, Peter Jackson posted on thehobbitblog.com, the first of the production movies on the creation of The Hobbit: Part 1. The film itself is about 11 minutes long, and features a lot of exciting details about the movie.

URL: http://www.thehobbitblog.com/

I'm really happy about the fact that Peter Jackson is set to be the director of the films, as he was in the previous ones. I feel that he did justice to the books, and preserved the longevity of them as he should have. As you could probably tell by the title, this is one of two parts to The Hobbit films. I'd definitely recommend watching the clip. It just drags you back into that magical realm of Middle Earth and gets you really warm and excited for the next film.

The clip follows Mr. Jackson through several production sets, including Rivendell, Bag End and Gollum's Cave, and through some of the wardrobe and art production departments. Everyone who works there is busy, and they seem happy to begin on this monumental project. The actors themselves seem happy and cordial to one another as well, judging by their actions in the background and with Peter as he guides them through a "rough draft" of the shooting order for their particular scene. 

At the end of the clip, we see the crew on a sound stage for the first day of shooting, everyone gathered there seems excited, and the energy in the room is summed up well by Andy Serkis (Smeagol/Gollum):
"On behalf of the returning crew and cast who have come gathered here to go onto the journey and we're just very, very grateful to your incredible hospitality to have this opportunity to share the passion for telling such an amazing amazing story in such an amazing country with such beautiful people."

Good luck to you guys! I'm sure no one will be disappointed!