After Effects

After the concert on that Thursday I was on such a natural high I couldn't sit still or anything. So Chansi came to the rescue and we went out to some resturant. I had so many compliments on my costume I which I was skeptical about in the beginning. Well it was pretty frightfully in getting everything together but it was a success in the end. I believe I was more blessed than anything just to be a part of it. Next semester is going to be a blast and I can't wait.

After the journey, and onward

So, here we are, on the other side of MIGRATIONS.

I want to thank all of the Mechanics, for your hard work, commitment, creativity and energy. This art would not have existed without you. I’m not sure if any other ensemble could make it exist, certainly not as you have. What we do is at times a hard thing, very demanding. It is always a great risk. But it is also a great joy. All of you have made this effort much more joy than work, and an exceptional reward for the risk. I’m very proud of you, and deeply grateful I get to share the stage with you all. Bravo!

Thanks also go to our soul brother and composer, Todd Harper. It has been our privilege to bring your creation to life. As a group, as individuals, as musicians and as people, we have grown. We have moved on from where we were before.

Heartfelt thanks also go to our guest soloist, Garrett Ward. You are a rock, our foundation in this piece, and to me a great friend. Thank you so much for being here with us.

I also want to say “thank you” to any and all audience members who might be reading this. You were very much a part of tonight’s performance; indeed, your presence made it all the more special. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support for our efforts. Hope the food was good.

Many thanks to everyone behind the scenes who made it happen, and to the other artists who joined in the ancillary efforts. You added so much to the event, it is impossible to think of it without you.

So, here we are, after this journey, starting a new one---no, many new journeys, many pathways will radiate out from this event. I can’t wait to see where we go….and we go...

Migrations

I love the idea of migrations, it relates to everyone. I have been wanting to put a name on the cycles of my life and migrations is no longer too limited of a term for me. I have so many parts of my life where, when I was finished I picked up and moved on and took what I felt was important for the future of my life. I have seen myself change in what I take with me and what I leave behind. I no longer leave the useful and take the useless. This migrations piece is something I will take with me after this station.

The idea of migrating has been implemented in such a musical way where it is comprehensive. The traveling instrument that we take, representing the useful tools I take with me to to every station (or setting) of my life. Using the instrument at each station shows how we take our surrounding and put them to use. Just as I move to a new town I go to that grocery store rather than traveling across state to go to the grocery store.

This experience as a whole has been amazing, opening my mind to new ideas. It has inspired me in my poetry and in my music as a whole not to mention my spiritual practices my personal artistic ideas have made leaps and bounds. Exposing myself musically has broadened my horizon so to speak. I have been able get out of the box that society has placed me into I believe that this is just the beginning. This "station" has been my favorite so far. "And we go......."

My migration

I am a native Kansan, and other than conferences and vacations, have always been in Kansas. Thus, physically at least, I've only migrated back and forth over a 400 mile stretch of the plains. Even in that, however, I've been honed and sharpened by every different landscape and their varied inhabitants. From the slow moving west, I've learned to appreciate the wide open space, the sunsets and stars, and a good (long) conversation. From the faster paced north east, I developed an appreciation for all things cultural and was first exposed to the peoples of the rest of the planet (at KSU I volunteered in the international student center). I settled down in a small town, Arkansas City, for over a decade, and there I rooted in community and service.

Then, when my father died, I returned to my native land of SW Kansas, thinking I could thrive anywhere...but finding I was malnourished, I returned to the greater Wichita area. Here, I find it possible to have the best of both worlds: when I want to be anonymous I can easily meld into the metro mix...when I want to stand up, stand out, or take a stand, I can generally find groups, like the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas, roll up my sleeves and get involved.

Another migration I have experienced is one of spirit. I was born into a non-practicing Methodist household. I became a flaming southern Baptist. I found it too strictured. I've visited almost every house of faith, but I have yet to call one home. Some call it waffling, others exploring. I consider matters of the spirit to be paramount, and I resent those who label me as "lukewarm." It seems the more important something is to me, the longer I take to take hold. (It took me over 40 years to warm up to having children, for example.) So, in short, I'm moving all over the place on the topic of faith.

I'll attach my migration in music. It's not terribly interesting, but it's me.

Deep Ancestry: A Migrations Story

This fall, I contributed my DNA to the Genographic Project, a global research project intent on tracing the human journey through time and around the globe. This is accomplished by following markers, such as those found on the Y-chromosome of men and the mitochondrial DNA of all people. Here's the story of my ancestors' travels, as told in my biochemistry:

Some 60,000 years ago or so, a man walked out of eastern Africa with his people. Perhaps they had become too numerous for their home environment to support, perhaps they just followed the herds. This man is the common male ancestor of all non-African people today, and through him and his parents, we are all linked back to the beginning of our kind, in Africa, thousands of years before he was born.

45,000 years ago, a decendant of that African man lived in what we now call the Middle East. The grasslands were expanding, from what is now France to Korea. Vast herds of bison, antelope, wooly mammoth and other game led him and his people across the sea of grass, farther and farther away from the Mother Africa.

5,000 years later, a man lived in Central Asia. He bore in his DNA the signs of his fathers before him, but he carried a new marker as well. He passed this on to his sons, and they to theirs, and on and on. Nearly every man in Europe, East Asia, Inda and the Americas bears his mark today. These people dispersed slowly from Central Asia, moving eastward with the herds across the steppes, halting only when they came upon the massive mountain ranges of south-central Asia. The passage here, through the Hindu Kush, Tian Shan and the Himalayas split the lineage, dividing it into many branches.

The migration of my deep ancestors, as told in my Y-chromosome markers

After another 5,000 years or so, a son of the Central Asian lineage was moving north with his people onto the game-rich steppes of what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and southern Siberia. While the hunting was good, the climate was becoming harsh, and bitterly cold. To survive the Ice Age, this man and his people built hide tents, and sewed weatherproof clothes. Their stone tools became more and more refined. They gathered around the fires by day and night. They thrived in a region where no others are known to have survived.

In time, the sons of the Ice Age hunters turned west, moving into the forests and meadows of Europe. Some of these went down into the caves, painting the beasts they hunted and the visions they had upon the stone walls. Occasionally, they would outline their hands on the rock with red ochre, leaving another kind of marker, to say perhaps, "I was here."

35,000 years ago, a man and his people moved into Europe, carrying exquisite tools and weapons of bone, stone and ivory. He lived in a hut with his family, and wore clothing woven by members of his community. Perhaps he wore a little amulet around his neck, or carved lithe animal forms into his spear-thrower. Perhaps he himself went into the darkness and put his hand-print upon the rough wall. Today, we call this man and his people Cro-Magnon; we shall never know what they called themselves. The long winter of the final Ice Age may have driven them south for a time, as far south as Spain, but no longer than 8000 years ago, they moved into Great Britain for good.

My deep ancestry...Out of Africa, to roam the grasslands of Eurasia for thousands and thousands of years. Then for thousands of years more, to dwell in a corner of Europe. And now I live upon a new sea of grass, stretching from horizon to horizon. Such is the nature of migration: you leave, return, leave again only to come back, though it may be a journey of generations. How many countless people have made this same journey, and have it recorded in their DNA? Dear Reader, some part or all of your deep ancestry follows the same lines; we are related, you and I, all the way back to the beginning.

Migrations I

Migrations I

reverberations oscillations fluxations
reliving revisiting revising rewriting

revelation:

realist/dreamer
zealot/agnostic
bigot/lover
child/self/parent/self/child
rebel/conformist
ir/responsible
idsuper-ego (with nothing in-between)

performer…
always a performer
planning spontaneity

almost off-beat

Shameless Promotion

So, even though it's over a month out, I'm thinking we should stop at nothing to promote the upcoming performance.

I think Migrations merits a mighty crowd.

In a former life, as SLC director, I had extensive press release connections, an entire PR machine. Shouldn't we fire it up? So far, I write for a newspaper in Valley Center, and I put in a plug for the show in my November article. I'm priming my students to attend. If the ensemble thinks it's a good idea, I could fire up the ol' PR machine (radio, television, newspaper press releases, etc) for the good of the cause. What does everyone else think could/should be done for promotions?

da solo

In her reply to the Down Beat, chansi wrote:

"How about our solos? What is everyone doing? I'm considering doing a poem to the drums. I'm going to try to use it as an opportunity to express the internal to the audience. I'm hesitant because I don't want to A.) piss anyone off B.) have to edit my thoughts to please, C.) Be misunderstood."

Mechanics who hesitate are lost! Don't hold back, because A.) who cares if you piss anyone off, and they might need pissing off B.)you don't have to "please" anybody but yourself as creator, because C.) those who dig, will.

If we as musicians truly want to express the internal to the audience, we can't be limited by their external demands and expectations. Art (in the biggest sense) can certainly please, and be entertaining, and have wide appeal, and register with the masses. But if these are one's artistic goals, then one's art runs the risk of being safe. Music as art can't ever play it safe. Therefore, the musicians can't play it safe. Sometimes the audience needs to be challenged because they have grown dull and complacent, and sometimes the audience wants to be challenged, because they are tired with the safe and seek the real.

Make your expression, Mechanics, and don't hold back. Take a risk, do your thing, make it real and real fun, and all else be damned. Let the drummer drum!

Migrations: Human in the Maze

In searching for a graphic to adorn the advertizing and programs for the Migrations debut, I quite by accident came across this symbol. It is generally called the "Man in the Maze," and is common to many of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest, including the Hopi, Pima, Zuni and Navajo. The human figure can bespeak the First Ancestor, but it can also speak to each of us. Life is about twists and turns, about making your way through the sometimes difficult, often obscure world we live in. But just around the next corner, there's an amazing discovery or insight to be had. Of course, the whole thing's a great adventure. And we do seem to go back whence we came, even when we don't mean to.

And indeed this symbol takes me back to a beginning in my own personal migration. My aunt is a Dominican nun, and years ago was sent by the Church to Arizona, of all places. Her best friend in the convent taught school on the Pima reservation, and one of the children there made pendants of this design for her. I remember Sister Caroline, on a visit home, presenting the gift and explaining the symbolism and culture to me as a young boy. It was my first encounter with Native America. When I came across it searching the web for images of migration, I knew I had come around a corner in the maze.

Down Beat: a statement of purpose

Welcome all Mechanics, friends, and casual browsers to the on-line open journal of the Temporal Mechanics Union. TMU is a percussion ensemble that combines the rhythmic traditions of many cultures with bold experimentation in new music. The ensemble is community-based, welcoming all comers regardless of experience. TMU is resident at Cowley College.

This journal is a place for TMU members to express themselves, work out new ideas, comment upon the musical experience, and share insights. All Mechanics can post to this blog, as can our friends and collaborators. We welcome any comments from the public.

Many of the entries will focus on MIGRATIONS, our current project, in collaboration with composer Todd Harper and soloist Garrett Ward. This venue will give eveyone involved a way to carry on the work between rehearsals, relate their experiences, and expand the concept of the piece. It will also give the public an on-going inside view into the process and experience of bringing music to life, and life to music.