EastCoast Extraordinaire

A Lover's Prayer

Godspeed to you

May every dream be true to you

May you find a kiss

on which to build

a lover’s bliss

Left fulfilled

by nothing less

than the pain that you would feel

of a lover lost.

Godspeed to you

May every mouth be true to you

May you be kept

by an army of saints

Say you’ve slept

until the haze

of a morning new

says with delight

hello to you.

Godspeed to you

May every gift be true to you

May you be blessed

with struggles of old

Do not repress

But instead be bold

So that you might see

a heart of hearts

that could love

a man like me.

-archives 2006

A Fall Meditation

I sit here, pondering, in silence
Yet frantic for reasons unknown
It seems to be too difficult to simply
remain motionless in utter reflection.
Leaves rustle in the wind overhead.
An innocent squirrel scratches the bark of a tree to my left
staring at me, as if to read my very thoughts.
Noises reverberate off of my eardrums.
Every chuckle, footstep, yell, car, machine, conversation, everything.
I wait in the center of something spectacular.
Amongst oak and maple diverse in color that compliment one another
and intertwine into a watercolor beauty.
Hues of orange, red, burgundy, golden yellow, vibrant green, and brown rest
against the powerful and fearing yet gentle blue horizon.
Rays of sunlight tear past branches
finding their way to the earth, creating a speckled wonder 
and perfect compilation of warmth and cool.
This surrounds me.
Encompasses me.
Embraces me.
Invites me.
Wonderful, spectacular, magnificent, picturesque, breathtaking.
A masterpiece.
Yet I hear every noise.
Would you not conclude I would be consumed with my eyes
tracing the outline of every detail, relaying nothing but wonder
to my imagination?
I am not.
I turn to match voices with faces.
Noises with objects.
What a slow process of transformation.

wrote this guy back in ‘05

Reconstruction of a Soul

I’ll sing you an anthem

Drown out the voice in your head.

Put your best shoes on

And take my hand.

I’ve something in store for you yet.

Discard your hatred

These bones have made you frail.

You’re a shadow in a smoke filled room.

A story with nothing left to tell.

Your passion is tasteless

And your heart is dry.

It’s been locked up.

Cut up.

And been left to die.

Apathy has weakened your soul.

Heartbreak has cracked your frame.

Selfish hands have steered the wheel

In the direction from which you came.

So BREAK open your door

and take in the color.

Listen to the harmony.

Breathe in all its majesty.

Tell me what your eyes have seen.

Listen to the choir sing.

Hear them sing words of rhyme

And feel them make rhythm.

The rhythm I play for you.

I pray that you can see

What I see in you.

I hope you believe in

What you’re able to do

I’ve prepared for you a ceremony.

It’s time we celebrate

What you have had coming.

So let’s raise our glasses

And drink them full.

Here’s to you young man.

A High School Reunion

Homecoming.  Prom.  Hallway passes.  Spring break.  Friday night football.  Study hall.  Inseparable cliques.  Tenderloin Tuesdays.  Pizza Fridays.  Spirit week.  Annoying cheerleaders.  Hallway fights.  Week long relationships.  Swimming in gym.

Oh the joys of high school.  You enter an immature freshman and leave a mature senior only to enter college as the immature freshman once again.  Four years in which you believe you’re so old with an incredible amount of responsibility and pressure only to look back years later and scoff at the ease of it all.  

Let’s think back to those precious four years.  What friends did I have?  What clubs was I in?  (I was in chess club thank you very much).  Was I nice? Was I mean?  How did I dress?  What classes did I take?  Even more importantly, what music did I listen to?

Music has always served as a medium for me.  Perhaps as a tool to connect with emotions or even to connect with another individual.  But in this circumstance, music has provided me with a link to the past.  Some say smell is the strongest form of memory.  I say music.  With almost every song I select on my iPod, a certain memory pops into my mind’s eye.  Perhaps it is the place where I first heard the song or the person who first played it for me.  

In honor of this gift music has given, I have decided to give you all my top 10 high school albums.  Now, these are not my top 10 albums of these four years.  Neither are they the top 10 albums that best describe high school.  These 10 albums are the pieces of music that remind me of high school the most.  If we were to jump in Michael J. Fox’s Delorean, travel back to some time between 2000 and 2004 and take a gander inside my cd player, these are the top 10 albums you would be most likely to find.  

I’ll warn you ahead of time.  I’m not proud of every selection on this list.  Please don’t judge.

10 being the least played and 1 being the most played with a little memory sidenote for each.

10.   

Counting Crows—Films About Ghosts, The Best of… [2003]

memory:  I liked Counting Crows because my friends like Counting Crows.  I actually only like a few of their songs.  This makes me think of chilling in Zak’s upstairs bonus room over summer.

Favorite track: A Long December

__________________________

9. 

Blink 182—Blink 182 [2003]

memory:  Why? I don’t know.  We all had a little punk phase.  I made my track coach play this over the loud speakers at practice so we could listen to it.  It made it to the second song before it was overwhelmingly vetoed by coaches and team.

Favorite track:  I Miss You

__________________________

8. 

Hoobastank—Hoobastank [2002]

memory:  This was pump up music before meets.  Oh the good ole days of cross and track.

Favorite Track:  Running Away

__________________________

7. 

Dashboard Confessional—The Swiss Army Romance [2003]

memory:  DId you really think this list was going to not have this uber-emo claw my eyes out piece of music?  High school girlfriend gave me this album.  She’s married now. Weird.

Favorite Track:  Screaming Infidelities     ..what else would it be?

__________________________

6. 

Coldplay—Parachutes [2000]

memory:  I remember the first time I saw their video for “Yellow.”  Black and white and walking on the beach if i’m not mistaken.

Favorite Track:  Yellow

__________________________

5. 

Jars of Clay—Jars of Clay [1995]

memory:  I bet this one took you by surprise.  This was my ‘youth group’ album.  During my interview to get into AU, I was asked, “If you could have one cd to listen to the rest of your life, what would it be?”  ….you’re right.  I said Jars of Clay.  I still don’t know why.

Favorite Track:  Worlds Apart

__________________________

4. 

Jason Mraz—Waiting for My Rocket to Come [2002]

memory:  Spring break senior year without a doubt.  Driving in my mom’s trailblazer with the guys and racing hot girls down the highway next to the ocean.  We were cool.

Favorite Track:  Curbside Prophet

__________________________

3. 

John Mayer—Room for Squares [2001]

memory:  Mrs. Pletzer taking Scott and I to cross practice in her minivan.  We were driving down 126th street and she put this cd in.  This was the first time my ears had heard John Mayer.

Favorite Track:  Why Georgia

__________________________

2. 

Third Eye Blind—Third Eye Blind [1997]

memory:  I could associate this album to so many things.  My Jeep Cherokee, specific friends, sports, certain vacations, I could go on and on.  To this day, this remains my all-time favorite album.  WIth hits such as Jumper, Semi-charmed Life, Graduate, Motorcycle Drive-By, this was probably one of the first albums I remember listening to all the way through and enjoying every second of it.  Too bad they never produced an album that came even remotely close to this quality.

Favorite Track:  Motorcycle Drive By

__________________________

1. 

Guster—Lost and Gone Forever [1999]

Lo and behond ladies and gentlemen, my #1 album of my high school career.  I had a habit in high school of not carrying any cd’s in my car except for what was in my cd player.  I’d switch them out when I just got tired of the one that was in there.  That could be hours, days, or even weeks.  I have no idea how long this album remained in my car stereo but I assure you it was in the ‘weeks’ category.  A great album.  As soon as I hear this album I picture myself cruising in my Jeep Cherokee on the way to cross country practice on a Saturday morning. Aah..those were the days.

Favorite Track:  Happier

————————————————

So there you have it, my high school musical career.  I’m sure my list had some cliche pieces as well as shockers and selections we’d just rather forget.  But hey, I believe honesty is the best policy.

So get out those yearbooks, put on those hemp necklaces, grab an Abercrombie shirt and slip on your favorite pair of Doc Martins if you got em.  Sift through your musical past and come up with your top 10 list.  Set those memories free people. 

A Love Manifesto.

a simple idea.
a theory meant to erase confusion.
we have, instead, become 
unsatisfied. thirsty. hungry 
for something more.
no idea, no fraction of reality
can be simplified like this.
no concept can possibly be
controlled. reduced. minimized
into something so
uncomplicated. basic. straightforward.
out of the utter chaos
and selfish absurdity of human
nature and theory,
we have stolen a gift
so pure. so beautiful.
and constructed something
unrecognizable. we have 
taken what is not ours 
and reformed it into something
“better.”
starving for our legalistic
limitations, we’ve left ourselves
with LESS.
laws and limits.
what if we reverse our thinking?
attempt to escape from our
created refuge.
No. reverse that.
allow this irresistable ferver to flow
through and beyond our
locked gates.
adopt hope.
allow hope to saturate
our dusty arid hearts.
drench us with hope.
out of fear, we’ve constructed
limits of containment, identifying it
as a makeshift refuge.
do we not realize we’ve created a
refuge for a refuge?
we cannot control what 
is meant to control us.
let this simple idea
lead us beyond our 
created boundaries to the
unknown boundaries of ourselves.
This simplistic idea of hope.
This simplistic thought of love.

Man on Wire [2008] directed by James Marsh

“To me its so simple. life should be lived on the edge. you have to exercise rebellion. to refuse to taper yourself to rules. To refuse your own success. to refuse to repeat yourself. to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge and then you are going to live your life on the tightrope” —Phillipe 

Top 5 Post Rock Discovery: My immersion into a new genre

Ok, so Post Rock may not be a new genre.  Although Post Rock does not celebrate a yearly birthday of origin, the genre is believed to be around for nearly twenty years  Despite it not being brand new, this form of music remains relatively new to my ears.  My first introduction to this movement came through the world renowned Sigur Ros approximately four to five years ago.  However, my love for the genre would not generate into full force until a few years later.

So what exactly is post rock?  Post rock is the creation of a musical journey using musical instruments but instead, using various looping melodies, timbre, chord progressions, and harmonies not usually found in rock music.  (You can tack on a thank you to my beloved Wikipedia for help with that definition).  The most common trait of post rock is most likely the minimal use of lyrics.  However, lyrics are still found among post rock music in bands such as Sigur Ros.  Songs tend to be longer in duration and stray from using the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus guideline found in the majority of songs.  ”As Simon Reynolds’ “Audio Culture” states, “A band’s journey through rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music.”^[33] Reynolds’ conclusion defines the sporadic progression from rock, with its field of sound and lyrics to post-rock, where samplings are stretched and looped.”  

Here is an example list of bands displaying the characteristics of ‘post rock.’

Vessels, 65daysofstatic, Youthmovies, Yndi Halda, Caspian, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, MONO, Pelican, God is an Astronaut, Sunlight Ascending, This Will Destroy You, Everlasting/Praise: Spring Fist Order, Sigur Ros, Lymbyc System, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor

There are definable differences between post rock and traditional rock but what lies within the undefinable differences is the reason I love this music:  open interpretation and musical journeys.  A song riddled with words can only be interpreted by the listener so many ways.  Of course, each artist maintains some motivation and reason for composing each song whether lyrics are involved or not.  But when the listener is struck with looping melodies and various build ups along with the absence of words, there is no telling which emotional, spiritual, or mental chord is struck within them.  It could emulate joy, grief, rejoicing, love, sadness, determination, enlightenment, none of the above or all of the above.  A song which may represent happiness and hope to one person may represent sadness and despair to another.  There in lies some sort of meditative freedom within each track, providing the listener to be some sort of artist themselves and that my friends, is beauty.

Despite my somewhat novice status in this movement of music, I have comprised for you my top 5 songs in the post rock genre.  Mind you, I have barely scratched the surface of these bands so this list is subject to change.  However, I do love these 5 songs and I encourage you to check them out.

5.  This Will Destroy You—A Three-Legged Workhorse                                           -from their self titled album This Will Destroy You [2008]

The looping and buildups in this song is phenomenal and I love the ongoing melody that sets the mood for the track.  

Rating:  4.5/5

4.  Sigur Rós—Hoppípolla                                                                                         -from their critically acclaimed album Takk… [2005]

This track is an example of one with lyrics.  But let’s be honest, the speak in a different language so I can’t understand them anyway so it might as well be another musical instrument to my ears!  Sigur Rós is in a league of their own in my opinion.  Amazing song after amazing song.

Rating: 5/5

3.  Sigur Rós—Sæglópur                                                                                         -another winner from Takk… [2005]

I actually used this track to create a video a while back of my trip to India.  Check it out!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UagZYqqqc3s

Rating: 5/5

2.  Caspian—Moksha                                                                                                 -from the album The Four Trees [2007]

To my benefit, I just discovered this band in recent weeks.  I absolutely love the electric guitar loop in this track, especially in the remaining minute of the song.

Rating: 5/5

1. Explosions in the Sky—The Birth And Death Of The Day             -from the album All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone [2006]

Rating:  an obvious 5/5

The number one spot has to go to the song which got me hooked on the music in the first place.  To his credit, I have to thank one of my closest friends for introducing me to this album.  The variety and dramatic sections in this track blow my mind.

So there you have it.  If you have yet to experiment with this type of music I encourage you to take a break from choruses and verses and give your ears a new flavor of sound.  Here are five good songs to get you started.  Enjoy.

Jesus Camp [2006]--Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady

“A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of religious movement.  JESUS CAMP follows a group of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s “Kids on Fire Summer Camp,” where kids are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God’s army and are schooled on how to take back America for Christ.  The film is a first ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future”

I was first told about this film a few years back by a good friend of mine.  Unfortunately, I did not act upon his advice to watch it until now.  This ninety minute documentary struck me in so many different ways I’ve been having a difficult time processing my reactions.

The film mainly follows three young midwestern children between the ages of 11 and 13, capturing their extreme right wing ideals under which they have been raised.  Rachael is a young girl who appears to look at the world with solely an evangelical motive.  It is almost as if she assumes everyone around her is lost and she has something no one else has.  Levi, a confident young man, appears to be the second coming of Joel Olsteen besides the fact he missed the memo that mullets and rat tails went out of style when I was a child, some 15 years ago.

Pardon my negativity and somewhat hostility towards these children and this film but this specific documentary has struck such a distinct discordance with me I have a hard time looking past it.  I tend to partner with the mindset spoken by Mike Papantonio, a talkshow host and professed Christian who appears in the film.  He states, “Do you think you know your own country? I gotta tell you, you don’t. There’s a religious-political army of foot soldiers out there that are being directed by a political right.”  He of course is referring to the evangelical radical Pastor Becky Fischer who is apparently the general of a children-only army.  

Perhaps the reason I disagree so strongly with this film is because these people claim the same name as their Lord and savior as I do, Jesus Christ.  These people profess to be Christians just as I do.  In a sense, these people claim to be exactly what I am and I believe I am exactly what they’re not.  

It is hard to watch this movie and not consider it to be somewhat of a ‘brainwashing’ form.  Pastor Fischer compares her practices to those of Muslim religious leaders who apparently stick grenades in children’s hands and come from the womb bearing AK-47s.  Perhaps this contains a hint of sarcasm but it is hard to ignore her utter frantic actions and words.  I then discovered utter hilarity in the fact that at her summer camp we are shown a clip of her, along with the rest of the attending children and adults, praising and shouting at a cardboard cut-out of former president George W. himself claiming him as a divinely appointed man and praising his openness of being a Christian.

As I watched this film, I made sure to write down each quote or scene which I viewed as surprising or just warranted being noted.  Here is what I have gathered:

1.  Levi (Joel Olsteen’s protege) claims at the beginning of the film he became a Christian at age 5.  Do not get me wrong, I think this is great.  I fully support this decision and rejoice with him.  However, when we proceeds to explain his reasoning I can not help but start to wonder.  He goes on to explain, “At 5 years old I wanted more out of life.  Nothing was fun.”   Nothing was fun at 5 years old?  And pardon my pessimism, but what 5 year old has the wisdom and discernment to determine they want more from life?  Were the flinstones and snackpacks just not doing it?

2.  Levi’s mom claims that ‘science doesn’t prove anything.’  Excuse me miss but I happen to believe that science proves the very reality of a creator.  ReadCase for Faith for further discussion about this.

3.  Rachael is at a bowling alley with friends and in between turns continues to read some type of salvation pamphlet.  She then proceeds to confront a young woman who Rachael has determined to be ‘lost’ and tells her that God told her to give her the pamphlet.  Rachael’s dad praises his daughter for being obedient while the young woman looks around the bowling alley in somewhat embarrasment.

4.  Before a meal, Tory and her family said the pledge of allegiance to the Christian flag and the pledge of allegiance to the bible.  I did not know such things existed.

5. During the summer camp, General or um, Pastor Fischer lashes out at Harry Potter supporters saying, “and lemme say something about harry potter.  Warlocks are enemies of god! And had it been in the old testament, harry potter would have been put to death!”   I believe Harry Potter to be a fascinating piece of literature and an incredible work of the human imagination.  Go Rowling!

6.  Between sessions at the camp, Rachael explains that God is not in the presence of every church. Certain churches are called dead churches. These churches are ones where people do not sing loudly or speak in tongues but prefer to worship in a more conservative style.  Shame on them. According to Rachael, churches that God likes to go to are shouting out, dancing, and speaking in tongues.  Whatever happened to “wherever two or more of you are gathered in my name, I will be there with you.”  (not a direct quote but you know the verse)  I guess I failed to learn that God played favorites.

7.  Levi states, “Whenever I run into a non Christian there’s always something that makes my spirit feel yucky.”  There’s that loving attitude that us Christians profess.

8. “Animal rights people, eat your heart out.”  —Pastor Becky Fischer

9.  75% of homeschooled kids in the US are evangelical Christians.  43% of evangelical Christians are born-again before the age of 13.

10.  I was disappointed by this scene more than any other.  At the end of the film, Rachael and Levi are scampering around city streets witnessing to people.  Rachael approaches a group of three older black men and asks, “If you were to die today where would you go?”  One man responds, “Heaven.”  After a moment of hesitation as if she failed to realize that other people in the world knew Christ she responds, “are you sure?”  The man says “yes.”  Another moment of hesitation…”k.”  As she walked away from the three men, Rachael says, “I think they were muslim.”         my reaction: anger.

I don’t think you’ll have a hard time figuring out how I feel about this film.  I find it upsetting and disappointing.  But the thing that I find most upsetting is the untold story of the parents behind the scenes who have without a doubt indoctrinated their children with apparent force.  

Sean Chavel describes my emotions of this film to a T.  He states:

“Not for an instant did I believe Fischer herself had ever been blessed by the Holy Spirit. As a practicing Christian myself, none of what happens in this film is similar to anything I’ve ever seen or experienced at Church. It was confounding, troubling, upsetting and disturbing. There were times if I wondered if I hated the film. Not that filmmakers Ewing and Grady were at all to blame, there method is to simply record what they saw. They got special access to the “Kids on Fire” camp and approval from Fischer herself (she reportedly likes the film and felt it was progressive for their movement). I felt great disagreement with what was happening at the camp, feeling that no adult should have the right to indoctrinate a child in the way they had chosen. But at the same time I was fascinated by the film as an exposé. This is a film that will sharply inflict troubling reactions.”

Sean’s critique of the film is exceptional and I encourage you to read it.  You can find it at http://cinecon.com/review.php?id=jesuscamp   

RATINGS

film:  3.5 out of 5

experience as a whole:  5/5

people in the film: .5 / 5

Success.

Allow me to entertain this thought

For a moment.

Allow me to babble about notions

And dabble amongst philosophies

So my conscience can be appeased.

Motion. I am encompassed by

An astonishing motion.

I stand in the eye of this storm

Slowly rotating and attempting to

Gather some sense of this ever-revolving

Blur in my orbit.

Hands extend through the hazy edges

Inviting me to add my energy to the masses.

Pleading with me to become a fraction .

A miniscule proportion of this cyclone

Of madness.

But my feet remain motionless and my

Arms at my side almost as if

I was catatonic.

Instead I focus my vision and peer

Through the seemingly impenetrable

Wall expecting to discover, well, something.

Something of significance.

Something must be there.

Surely my eyes will land upon a power

Previously unknown to my mind’s eye.

Yes! I will locate with my heart and my

Eyes an extraordinary enticement

That will snatch these immobile bones

From their rigid foundation and be swept

Into this swirling tower of energy!

I will feel the electric pulse pounding

In my chest and the rhythmic thunder

Against my eardrums!

Yes, this is what I will find.

But wait, the persistence of my imagination

And ramblings of my tongue

Preoccupy my senses from knowing

My true discovery.

No, surely this isn’t it. 

The entirety of my discovery

Consists of….faces?

Not just faces but

Vacant facades.  Transparent masks.

These ghostly abysmal excuses

Of expression pay me no notice.

Each struggles against its neighbor

To push onward towards what

Appears to be the apex, although

Despite my efforts I am unsuccessful

In locating the conclusion of their

Never-ending civil war.

As eager as I was to enter I am now

As eager to exit. 

Luckily I have

Something anchoring my feet in

Place so that this frail body

Remains steadfast.

I take a moment to regain my

Composure and calm my adrenaline

And as I do so I notice my lips

Begin to curl into a smile.

For this dominating

Tempest which allegedly has all

Has not.  For my feet are anchored

By a vigorous and unrelenting

Stronghold of compassion.

By an adamant standard of passion.

By an uncompromising concept of love.

So success, you have had your chance.

Power, wealth, you have given me hell.

But move along, your storm is headed east

And I’m looking west.

The sun is painting a sensational picture

and I am going nowhere.