Author: jbaz

I had heard of Joe Satriani throughout my childhood because my dad is a fan, deeming Joe his favorite artist of all time. I had absent-mindedly heard Joe Satriani’s music in the car on long drives or on his kitchen stereo after dinner, but not until this summer did I ask my dad about Joe’s music and actively listen to it.

Joe Satriani began a musical career because he had a “desire to make noise” which he platformed with the drums. Three and half years later, he says to Steve Vai in an interview, he figured out how to channel these noises into something beautiful on the guitar. Before succeeding in his solo career, he worked as a guitar instructor, his former students including Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, and Andy Timmons. Now, he is a renowned American instrumental rock guitarist (and multi-instrumentalist) with 15 nominations for a Grammy Award and 10 million albums sold, making him the biggest-selling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.

So my interest sparked one night when he explained to me one of his favorite Joe song called “Out of the Sunrise”.  Basically, Joe Satriani coined sound for the time from when the sun rises to when it sets and then rises again. His song captures that feeling when you first wake up, the feeling when you have just barely open your eyes and the day is a blank slate. You realize this day is yours. For a few moments, you have nothing on your mind. The morning carries on, that stretch of the spine from when you got out of bed starting to lose its length. The song then elevates to the intensity in the day into the climatic hours of the evening. Joe shreds on a eclectic journey with the guitar to show the spontaneity that happens during the night hours, the mystery of it maybe. Then the world settles, and the song unwinds back to the moment the sun rises again.

Do you think this song captures the fullness of a day? All the feelings that cycle in a day? No matter where you are? Whether that’s at vacation to the tropics or an internship in Hong Kong or a typical day in classes? I would argue yes because while the stimuli may differ from day to day, the emotions harbored by each day are more or less the same, right? Sure we have bad days, not every day will be a good day, but there is good in every day.

Reflect on this as you listen.

Listen here:

P.S. I know my dad will be the first one reading this like he does all of my articles. Thanks Dad 🙂

Digits….Can I get yo’ digits; How many digits are significant; Composing digital screen play; We recognize digital in this context, but do you know the original meaning of “digital”?

Latin: “digiti” means “fingers”.

Spanish: “dedos” means “digits” which indicate “fingers”

Cartoonist Lynda Barry has a saying that “In the digital age, don’t forget to use your digits!” In the 2000s, digital has adopted a new meaning of being a projection through a device, but the truest, most organic form of digital comes from your own mind through your fingertips. This is where you access the purest form of creativity.

Author Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist capitalizes on this concept of losing yourself to a computer. He says that it robs us of the feeling that we are making things, and in addition to stealing this feeling, it also robs us of many of our ideas as the delete button is so easily accessible we don’t give ourselves a chance to give potential what initially seems like a useless idea. Oh but honey, every idea is worth something. It won’t be complete when it first strikes you. Follow me in this analogy:

Idea is to seed.

Thinking is to water.

Elaboration is to growth.

Product is to fruit. An idea seed isn’t a substantial diet for your entire creative capacity, but it is the core to a satisfying creative feast.

The artist Stanley Dogwood, who has designed every album artwork for Radiohead, believes that computers are alienating because they put a sheet of glass between you and whatever is happening;  it’s hard to feel connected to something when there is a screen between you and the product of the creativity.

A couple weekends ago, the Power Center hosted the Cadence Dance Co. put on an incredible demonstration of the original digital: a pure exhibition of the channeling of inner creativity through their own digital devices: their bodies. Activating every part of their body with  astounding strength yet notable grace, the dancers moved to twelve songs, each with its own story.

Encore, Rhythm, the Friars, and Funktion performed between songs by the Flux crew, also exhibiting their own digital creativity. The human body is a reservoir of digital potential. Very cool to see.

 

You ever hear a song, have heard it many times, and the words stream in one ear and out the other? Then one day, for the 100th listen, instead of passing through your head, you listen to the words. The words are gripped by emotions, and there’s newness in a sound you once thought you knew because suddenly the words register, and the song becomes of its power?
Months ago, my friend sent me a song to give a listen: “Maybe IDK” by Jon Bellion. She said “you’ll love it.” A different friend of mine wanted me to go the Jon Bellion concert with her this past fall specifically for this one song called “Maybe IDK”. She said “you’ll love it.” I’d listened to his music, but again it slipped through my mind. I wanted to like it, but it wasn’t resonating, and I would skip the song out of boredom. Perhaps I was too preoccupied with Sufjan Stevens with whom I was crazy about at the time to diverge my attention to another artist. It wasn’t until this morning during what was going to be another absent-minded listen of the Jon Bellion song that the words were validated not by my friends, but finally in my own mind. Sitting in Amer’s on Church Street in the back corner booth, I plugged in my headphones and put on a playlist of encouragement. Haha. I call it “world: 0; universe: 1”. It means a loss on a small scale might actually in turn be a benefit to your future in the grand scheme of things, like a win for the universe that you have yet to discover.

The verses capitalize on common insecurities, wondering why he behaves a certain way, wondering why certain things don’t work out. The chorus of the song says “Maybe I don’t know…and maybe that’s okay”.

There are two layers to this anecdote. Peeling the first layer, you reveal Jon’s Bellion’s purpose in writing the song. He explains that a lot will happen, and it’s okay not to understand why. There’s courage in accepting the things you can control and accepting the things you cannot control…and wisdom in knowing the difference. The second layer is the story surrounding my negligence of Jon Bellion’s music when two people who are close to me recommended it. Sometimes you aren’t ready to experience something yet just like I wasn’t in the place to hear the song yet because I couldn’t appreciate it to its fullest potential. No matter what your friends say, there are some values that you have to realize on your own. On a larger scale, there will be instances where you want something, but despite your will, you won’t achieve it to the fullest. (I say to the fullest because realistically you could do anything in the world you wanted, however, the destination you are aiming to reach may appear different up close. Some food for thought.)

Jon intended their to be a religious association with this song. He says that omniscient higher being is in control of what happens to us. Whether you believe that a divine figure writes out our fate, or if it’s the mysterious ways of the universe, or if it’s our own determination that dictates the way that life goes, it’s okay not to know and it’s also okay to search for answers…because though you might not find what you set out to find, you’ll be surprised by the encounters you have on the way ;).

Even when it’s 3 degrees out, Detroit cranks up the AC. On New Years Eve, the Magic Stick hosted one heck of a 2018 welcoming party, featuring Sonya Alvarez, Golf Clap, and AC Slater. At 9pm, the wooks begin flooding through the doors of the club, dressed in their pashminas and their grunge tees, greeted by the intoxicating juggles of the young Sonya Alvarez. She has zoned into her own space of mind on stage, totally cool and comfortable. Accompanying her and her opening music is the early signs of an evolving electro concert: a women distributing glow bands, a smoke break on the deck, and a slow head bob. It starts with a slow bob from the crowd. Soon after the ring of new year, AC Slater meanders on stage as if he is not the main act when in fact he is, but rather another guest of the party. With the groups of VIPs on stage, he makes conversation with smiles and suave while Sonya closes out with her last track. Then, the AC steps in front of the booth.

So, it starts with the slow head bob when the beat of the music syncs with the beat of your heart. Then slowly, your entire system accelerates at the rate of the noise seeping from the speakers until the sound of imminent explosion has you on edge so much that you must contain the urge to break out in crazy motion…

and then,

the tempo rises more and more when

the bass drops.

I look around, and what was once just a dark empty room has become an illuminated oasis for music lovers. Everyone is engaged. Everyone is dancing. Every single person. Even at the doors and behind the bar, the bouncers and bartenders have the head bob. That’s the thing about this genre: everyone is there for the music. Maybe at a pop concert, people go to the venue for a social experience (not always the case, but from observation), but here, it’s about the bass. It charges the crowd with unmatched electricity. Amongst these people, anything goes. When Golf Clap comes on at 1 in the morning, he is another one of us, just plunges right into the break. He too intoxicated by the beat. At one point, I jumped on stage and danced next to AC Slater and Golf Clap’s booth without any insecurity of how I may look. There is no such thing as not fitting in because there is no mold for whom can attend or what you should wear or how you should dance. It’s about the bass.

I went to the Michigan theater at 4 this afternoon to see Loving Vincent which had sold out moments before I arrived, so I stood alone looking at a list of other showings. I turned around to see a good friend of mine also standing alone looking at a list of showings.

Turns out, my other friend likes to see movies by himself, too. He intended to see the Vincent Van Gogh movie today, but faced the same fate as I did. Both wanting to make use of our time at the beloved theater unfortunately without Vincent today, we bought two tickets to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

And the two of us went to the movies alone together.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is dark comedy crime film written, produced and directed by Martin McDonagh. After months go by without investigation of her daughter’s rape and murder, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) purchases three billboards, each painted with a bold messages that challenge the Ebbing police department in hopes of capturing their attention to find the culprit of the crime. Not only do the police notice the billboards, but news casts turn their attention to the billboards. Soon, everyone hears about the Mildred Hayes billboards.

Without spoiling the ending, I will say that this provoked real emotions. There isn’t a perfect character or predictable plot line. There isn’t a happy ending. In fact, there is no evident conclusion at all. In a story like this, however, the conclusion is irrelevant. Too often I think we focus on the actual outcome of an obstacle that we forget the process that is involved to reach that ending. You hear it all the time: “it’s about the journey not the destination”. In the midst of frustration, it can be difficult to remember this, especially something as disturbing as the Angela Hayes case. The only thing on the mind is to solve the crime. Life does not provide instant solutions to these issues. This film teaches viewers that without the battling and boldness, vulnerability and doubts, the story would never develop how it does. Without subjecting herself to hatred from some people, Mildred Hayes would have not made progress in her daughter’s case. Despite the seemingly endless setbacks, she stays determined. This is perhaps the loudest message to be taken from the film. To relate this to a more common instance we may face, let’s say you are having a debate with someone. Initially, you may state your opinion, but it is unlikely that they will immediately adapt to your way of thinking. Everyone has their own feelings and opinions, and to permeate through these feelings is not an easy feat. Before entering the discussion with the other person, have a purpose for your words. Why do you want them to see from your perspective? Why is it important to you? Why is it important to them? You must follow reasonable points along the way to guide them to understanding your end goal. Likewise, Mildred Hayes has a purpose to find the culprit, but she does not directly to the police for the answer because, clearly, that had not worked in the past. Instead, she follows a process to engage them. Now, I don’t know if the other person will ultimately see from your vantage point. However, if this is conversation, you may have learned a thing or two from his or her vantage point. Though you may not see complete results right away, odds are you have made progress. Keep going.