Saturday 10/2/2010
thoughts on the roadside world
driving across the midwest, en route to chicago & listening to strange new music.
There are huge weather fronts moving against us, we have been driving in rain all day from detroit, and it is now beginning to break. I can see brilliant rays of sun streaming through rolling grays and pale gold. But its all pale, there is no sharp high-contrast coastal color, the saturation of 5:30pm is very low, almost grayscale.
We pass a dead raccoon on the road. A church, depots, rural commerce.

I think about the intense social experience of the city, our godless intellectual dense webs of people and jobs and interactions. Out here there is god, liquor, tradition, autumnal swaths of land, duty, distance, mindless violence, beautiful human talents and graces twisted into a sparse landscape that might echo the dawn of human time.

You can go a whole day without seeing another person, even if you desperately want to see someone.

All of the food on the road is filled with sugar and chemicals. Progress is slow, a blind eye meets corporate exploitation, and enthusiasm for innovation is a flea pulling an oxcart.

Last night we played at the trumbleplex, which is a beautiful wooden warehouse with dangling Christmas lights and a big stage… felt like a giant barn in a good way. I videotaped the set, hopefully by the time I post this I'll have a link to some songs!
P.S. Billowing LIVE at the trumbleplex 10.1.2010 !!!!!

Job Hunting, Teaching, Charter Schools

I haven't posted in a while, so there's a lot to catch up on.

First, my dreaded and fruitless job search '09 ended thankfully at the end of March, when I was given the opportunity to work at Renaissance Charter School in Queens.
My good friend (with whom I attended high school) is an English teacher and administrator at the school. Every year, the students participate in Rensizzle, a week-long intensive group project where students form focus groups and present their work at school assembly.

I was called upon to assist the music teacher, Everett Boyd, and his students, who had elected to write, produce, and perform their own music - all culminating in a full-length album engineered and mastered by the group! The school actually uses the two music sequencing and recording programs i am most familiar with - Reason and Nuendo by Steinberg, so i felt at home teaching students the programs and giving pointers to others on music composition, recording, mixing, and producing. I had a blast... and these kids can really play!

The music lab really blows me away. Imagine attending a high school where you learn Reason and Nuendo in music class, and are free to write, sequence and record your own music! This would be a dream for me back in the day, and it's a pleasure and a privledge to be able to teach kids this stuff today.

Which brings me to my next point... Charter Schools! This is what makes a program like this possible - small public schools started by teachers and activists and parents who simply want more for their kids - smaller class sizes, more creative academic curriculums, and the freedom to exist "off the grid" in relation to zoned public schools who must answer strictly to Department of Education guidlines as far as how to run a school. I'll be posting more on this in the near future, as it is a very charged issue which has brought about a lot of interesting debate... all of which i find myself deeply rooted in and concerned about since I started working at Renaissance.

Since that week, I have been on board helping Renaissance in the beginning stages of opening up their sister school, the Renaissance Charter High School for Innovation.
I am the resident graphic designer, creating logos, branding, business cards, brochures, postcards, newsprint, letterhead, and web design! Been pretty busy.
I usually work at the school, but I don't have an office, so I just float around with my laptop, in the cafeteria, library, classrooms, etc. I even have a locker.
I just recently finished all of the visual propoganda for this meeting.

We're trying to dispell the myths about charter schools that have been circulating amongst city council members and parents of traditional zoned public schools here in NYC... and there is definately a lot of myth.

More to come soon!

Brian Eno...

...On Gaza!

perhaps that will get done

can't sleep tonight. my mind is just racing around too fast, for no particular reason. sometimes when i'm just lying there i feel as though i can see thousands of paintings into the future, and i know i'll never live that long. i can make tiny drawings and sketches to fill every page of every book on every shelf in this room, but you can only make a finite amount of well-thought out fully-realized finished projects that speak clearly for you before your body dies.
i get ideas a lot, ideas come to me very easily. when my creativity is at peak level i can dream up lots of things. i usually think to myself "someday perhaps that will get done." but there are so many of these thoughts, even if one pushes hard and is privledged enough to be able to work at realizing them, they will not all come to fruition.
the daily struggle is getting these things to pop out from under the soil. the soil is rich, but growing things is not at all easy. the dream is an endless forest, thick and thriving, bursting at its boundaries. the reality is a rich bed of soil filled with seeds, patches of a three-inch tall canopy of sprouts turn black to green.

Touring! Part 1

I recently returned from a two-week tour with the band I'm in , Ghastly City Sleep.
We took a ton of photos and video, but most of it was lost, swallowed by the computer-crash deities.

I have some stories to tell, and images to post, but for now, take a look at all the polaroids i snapped! Thanks to Leila for buying me tons of film before the trip!♥
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/25069116@N02/sets/72157604271882036/

enjoy!