Stages...

I was a nerd growing up. No denying it. I loved the idea of space exploration. Neal Armstrong was my hero. And I had posters all over my wall of different NASA rockets and spaceships. I knew I would never be an astronaut but the idea of exploration sparked my imagination. I've always been an explorer or an adventurer. Many people might claim the same titles or lifestyles but I think it is more about an attitude than anything else. There is always some new adventure awaiting me. Mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual challenged. And I'll be damned if some of these adventures don't lead to situations that are stressful or difficult. Exciting but difficult. I don't know about you guys but I have so many stories that stem from the good and the bad times. Life goes in stages they say. My life has always been just like a Saturn V5 rocket. Once one module's fuel is spent it is ejected and a new stage takes over. Five stages that eventually pull the astronauts from the gravity of the earth and launch them to the moon. Recently I've felt like I've been running out of fuel. But over the past week my resolve has been renewed by the wisdom of several of my mentors. I'm ready to eject the past stages of my life and keep launching myself all the way to the moon and back.

barranquistas

barranquistas

Come Around Sunday -KOL has done it again!

Kings of Leon (KOL) has produced a followup album to Only by the Night called Come Around Sunday that came out this past October. The album did quite well in foreign markets but didn't enjoy as much air-time here in the states. Despite breaking the record for digital albums sales in it's first week in iTunes with over 49,000 albums sold. Come Around Sunday sticks to the same aesthetic that KOL used for Only by the Night but has employed richer melodies, thickly layered and ethereal vocals, and more dynamic rhythms. Perhaps with over saturation of the single "Use Somebody" from the previous album the American market wasn't yet ready to hear from KOL again so soon. But the newest record deserved just as much air-time as the latter. If you're in the market for a great summer album to blare on your Toyota Tercel's crappy sound system you've come to the right place. The frontman for KOL, Caleb Followill, will have you singing along on the second spin. His strained powerhouse vocals are just right to put you in the mood to roll down the windows so that jerk in the next car will turn off Soulja Boy. Besides your Tercel doesn't have air-conditioning anyways.

Heading South for the Winter

I got a call from Luke a couple of weeks before Christmas. He had unused sick time. Winter break for me. Three days later we were on our way to Florida. Off on an adventure. I'm a road trip junkie. Any chance I have to hit the road I take it. After a late night drive to Nashville and my dog nearly killing my brother's roommate we made our way through Tennessee, Alabama, and finally Florida. But before we made it to the campsite we stopped at the Gator Café. Lured by the idea of eating wild game we stopped by the diner. I had a patty-melt and a milkshake. We reached Henderson state park which was closed. Quick brainstorming session. We parked Luke's car at a hotel and snuck into the camp site. After we set up camp we ran to the beach where I took the above shot of Luke. Hook was going nuts. He's never been out of the state let alone on a sandy beach. The next day we rented a boat for an hour at Luther's boat rentals and rode out into the bay. A pod of about 40 dolphins were feeding in the shallows. They made several passes by the boat. Luther Jr. Gave us the inside scoop on food and beer. The Marina Café and McGuire's Irish pub. I've never had a more delicious fish sandwich in my life. The jalapeño hush puppies were amazing. A welcome break from Waffle House (my brother's favorite). McGuire's brews their own beer. We got a six pack of the Irish red. The also have over $600,000 in singles stapled to the walls. Interesting place. Back to the camp site to discover my keys had gone missing while searching for fire wood. Panic set in and I might have said a few cure words. The last thing I wanted was to get back to Nashville and not be able to start my car. Luckily my brother with a stroke of genius suggested we take a trip to the local dealership. I was back in business with two copies of my key in half an hour. Lucky break. The rest of the time in Destin we spent laying on the beach or collecting seashells. It reminded me of my childhood and our weekly trips to Corona Del Mar. We had some strangers snap a photo and the next day we were on our way home. I spent the night in Nashville and drove four hours back to Cincinnati and went straight to work. Three days in Florida isn't much. But when you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt on a beach while everyone back home is donning winter gear it makes the whole excursion worth it.

Future of Forestry: Twilight

Sitting in my dad's "home" office. Exactly how you would picture it. Corner configured, tri-tiered, plywood executive desk. Complete with cantilevered roll out keyboard platform. Trash-picked office chair, believe it or not, that is still in almost flawless condition. When I grabbed it from the trash the bolts on the chair had snapped. I just removed the old bolts and installed new ones. Bam. Gently used leather office chair. I think I cleaned it with leather cleaner to bring out that near mirror shine in the leather. It's cheap leather. But it's leather. His office is an odd wonderland of old bookcases, a rollout folder cabinet, and stacked boxes. I feel oddly comforted here. Almost like this is a small part of the earth that my dad can have complete control over. Sometimes I think he feels like the earth is closing in on him and can't control anything. But an engineer is born an engineer. He's like a character from the old t.v. series Star Trek called Mr. Spock. His brain is completely logical. Extremely analytical even when he jokes. That's why most don't get his dry, dry sense of humor. This place I sit reminds me of simpler times. It reminds me of why my parents moved to Ohio. They had seen an utterly liberal society and wanted to raise their children in a conservative one. I'm not sure why the decision was made to move to a place in between the rust and the bible belt. I like to call it the 'rusty-bible'. Where people don't change their opinions unless they're forced too. We learned how to be good baptists. We went to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Sometimes my parents held bible study every morning. Expecting their children to absorb such ubiquitous amounts of philosophical material at a young age. Of course during this time my parents called on abolition of misbehavior, poor etiquette, alcohol or addicting substances whatsoever. It wasn't a complete prison. We were allowed at the time to listen to any christian rock music we desired. Terribly exciting stuff. But through that I fell in love with music. I wanted to get my hands on it as much as possible. And it wasn't until I hit puberty that I decided to listen to musicians that weren't christian. I remember the first album I bought with my own money was 'nevermind' by 'nirvana'. The album cover of a naked baby swimming after a dollar bill on a string. It wasn't exactly what fit into my parents ideal of what an evangelical child should do. But I listened anyways. I listened to whatever I could get my hands on. But the bands of my post-pubesant days were not as endearing as the bands that I listened to when I was 13. Future of Forestry reminds me of when I was 13 years old. The smooth melodies and solid bass grooves reek of classic rock. Throw in a bit of atmosphere and space and you've built a band like Future of Forestry. Thick and spacey vocals soaked in reverb. The vocals match the guitar riffs rolling over each other. The riffs are eighth notes while the vocals are fourth notes. The production of this album is focused on the riding bass and the in-tune vocals. Forestry wants 360 degrees of sound so when the main bass line returns you get gently pulled back to why you like their songs in the first place. Catchy tunes that would be great on a road trip or in a place where you want to relax your mind. Endearing to say the least. On my third spin I knew I would be listening to this band again. In spite of the fact it reminds me of a childhood without a sense indulgence. Check 'em out. John Daniels seems to like them.

JG

Head Space: "6.5 billion gains of sand"

This was a show of instillation that I did in October. The idea for the instillation started while I was in Denver this past summer. I was laying on a hammock in my aunt's backyard soaking in the sun. For some strange reason while I was drifting in and out of lucidity I felt very isolated. I felt very small in the world. I wondered if it had to do with my surroundings. The massive expanse of blue sky in Colorado or the front range of the Rockies which loomed over head. Perhaps the space in-between these objects is what made me feel so little in such a big place. The relation of and size of these objects is what is so indescribable. This consciousness lead me to another line of thinking. I realized I was anything but alone. I thought about the massive amount of humanity that exists on the face of the earth. 6.5 billion was the last number I had been quoted. And even though I couldn't hear or see another person I still felt an overwhelming weight of presence. It was an odd dicotomy. Completely alone yet completely surround at the same time. This duality is what led to the creation of my piece in "headspace". The show of instillation took place in October of this year. Through many iterations of what the piece could look like I decided to use sand. The first idea was to use dots of ink on paper but the shear amount of ink and paper needed to produce 6.5 billion dots would cost somewhere near $25,000. I should have guessed even before I did the calculation seeing that printer ink is the most expensive liquid in the world. It was great to have chemical engineer with 30 years of experience making calculations and a Doctor of physics at my disposal at the time to brainstorm ideas. Most of the time I was told the ideas were too impractical or expensive. My sister was the one to suggest sand as my medium. And as I had help making the calculation I came to the conclusion that I would only need around 3/4 of a ton of sand to produce an approximation of 6.5 billion grains. And fortunately for me the cost of "playground sand" is quite cheap. It was however another story trying to put that much sand in a room that was about 20'x20' three floors up. But as I brainstormed with my classmates they suggested that putting sand in a room wasn't enough. I needed to explain the dichotomy. I decided that casting myself in plaster representing the loneliness might capture the concept. I used dental alginate to make finely detailed molds and traditional plaster to cast the molds. I made casts of my face, hands, feet, and belly. And I placed these molds in the sand in such a way that it appeared as though I was floating in the sea of sand. Each grain representing a person on earth and the casts representing myself. In the end people attending the show entered the room and moved the casts. This was an element that I had no control over. I was fairly indifferent to this happening because it meant that there was an element of interaction with the instillation. Originally I intended that no one enter the which is why I place a piece of clear plexi-glass in front of the instillation in the door jam. When all was said and done I felt that I had executed my concept to its fullest potential with the limitations that I had. Of course I would change things if I had to do all over again. But in life nothing is perfect and I try to embrace imperfection as much as I can. Because imperfection can be quite beautiful. And it is after-all part of the human condition. And I was happy because I had some kind of visualization of what humanity.

JG

Credits for the photos go to Mr. Mark Byron photographer extraordinaire. Check out his website and for goodness sake contact him if you need some photo work done. Apparently it's in his blood. http://www.byronphoto.com/

Credit for the creation of the flyer for the show goes to Mr. Matt Lynch professor extraordinaire. Read about some of the connections Matt has here http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/0406collectives.aspx. And google him for goodness sake.

MGMT: ocular spectacular

Just finally downloaded this album. If you're not into this group then you're not into modern music. Or should I say the "age of the digital" (which is what I like to call it). Post-post Modern if you will. The age where music just keeps regurgitating itself over and over. It's some kind of evolution. Something about mashing everything together and then trying to separate out the good sounds in your head. You have to work harder than ever to hear something to thing to latch onto. Some musical rhythm to ride on. Music in 2010 is much more complicated than the music of yesteryear. But somehow it seems oversimplified. Maybe its the way that pop music no longer feels the need to adhear to the accepted rules of structure and composition. Perhaps the fact where the "hook" is king (or queen depending on who you are...). I always feel like I am indulging when I listen to groups like MGMT. Like it's a guilty pleasure that is accepted by the masses. Don't get me wrong the album is fantastc but my roots are Elvis, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash. Unadulterated pop music. Music that was so easy to listen to that by the next spin you had all the lyrics and the melody memorized. Things have changed and I think for the better despite the nostalgia I have for clean pop. Vocals are much more un-assuming than before. Down and dirty. You just simply don't have to sing as well as you used to. It's not a prerequisite. You just have to have a message and be melodic at the same time. I would say that Dylan was the first to do so but his music follows the rules of folk. There are now a new set of rules for pop music. It's much more about a feeling than an intellectual mind teaser. Music is now meant for mass consumption no matter at what level you create. If you are conscious of your purpose than the music you create will be essentially good. And consumers prize quality and intellectual foreplay before anything else in this day and age.
J.G.