lucid dream number two!

it finally happened. FINALLY. i've been waiting i think.. a full two months? and then out of absolutely no where, i got it. absolutely crazy, i have to write it down.

okay okay okay. so i was listening to lullatone, their first album which is strictly made for babies. so i was in the dream and it was SO boring. i was walking around sears or something, doing absolutely nothing. i kept telling myself, why are you walking around like this? you should go to sleep so you can have a real dream. i was with some friends and they ditched me because my dream was too boring too. then this happened..

I walked outside looking for something to do and I said to myself 'you know, you can make something happen grant'. nothing happened. so i said 'you can make something happen'. this dude started walking towards me in a red shirt and then that something happened. i don't know what exactly but then it happened again, only this time it was so intense. everything became so vivid, so beautiful.

I was on this street, in the back part of some apartments. it felt like something off the cosby show. my vision just went insane, everything blurred that exact moment that 'something happened' and i opened my eyes (in my dream) to see.. exactly what i saw my last lucid dream. everything was so colorful and alive! i was too amazed and i woke immediately after. nonetheless, that 1 second was easily the best i've felt all day.

so i just talked with colin. not only did he have a really crazy dream as well but we went to sleep and woke up at the exact same time too. he had this lady in his dream that asked him "what does this even mean?"

Story.

In class today we had to read journals. I came late and it made some kind of fuss but i can deal. later when it came time for read to read mine, i had it formatted completely different. i turned a blind date into a secretive spy story. after i finished reading it, i looked up with a smile and everyone had blank stares. including the teacher who added in 'that wasn't was you were suppose to do'. so, enjoy!

Tonight was the night. It was planned but not disclosed. I was convinced it was going to be a simple night but no, I was mistaken.

We met under false pretense. I was undercover as Smith, James Smith. A normal name by any other, but that’s only the start. I also dressed differently as to only show her half of whom I really was. IF she didn’t like me for the clothes than I could know for sure that this wasn’t working out.

She came dress in all white. With a pretty, delicate hat, made from the feathers of a, surely rare, peacock with a white tip, atop a ghost white dressing gown and milk white heels to match. She was stunning.

But there we were. I held the door for her and she walked in like she owned the place. Oh the nerve of her. We sat down. “What do you want.” I asked, serious but polite. “What would you suggest?” she replied back with sincere question mark attached to the end.
What would I suggest? I pondered. I didn’t know, I didn’t care. I wanted to order and get to business. The food was just a distraction for our mouths as it was merely my alarm clock going off letting me know “The meeting will now being.”

We sat. I stared. How could I not? She was gorgeous I tell you. Why else would I have acted so stubbornly earlier? She looked back, with a bright smile and perfect teeth. She looked like she had earlier, when we walked in here. She had the look of “I own you”. The nerve! The nerve!

I came to. I realized to calm down or else someone would get hurt. I settled in. I overreacted I told myself. I thanked myself even, gave my back a pat and asked her to show me the parcel. She reached to her side and brought up a tiny purple box. Reminded me of a box one would put a wedding ring in. Inside was the key and I was convinced. The food, the intoxicating silence and overwhelming thoughts were all for this one key. I had what I came for and I could leave. I left and she smiled again. That big beautiful smile.

new poem.

The subject was given to us by our teacher where we have to pick some memorable past object of ours and write about it dealing with family. I liked mine.



Good Grief Charlie Brown,
When did you get so old?
Stuck in your newly bought snow globe
You’re older than you think

My mother picked you out
Because you reminded her of me
And our time spent watching you
Make popcorn dinners or picking that one special tree

You and I are more similar than you think
Snoopy knows what I’m talking about
To have that one person care for you so much
And know they’ll always be there for you
Through thick and thin, snowstorm or no snowstorm

And if you ever feel trapped or alone
I’ll give you a good shake and you’ll see life isn’t so bad after all
Because that’s what she does for me.

lfe is like a sudoku.

This is a stretch but see if it works.

Yesterday I signed up for my newspaper practicum class. It's not even a class but I get three easy credits. In order to sign up for this class, I had to talk with the teacher and he had to help me out a bunch, including adding me late and overriding the time conflict. Metaphorically I feel like I just succeeded in doing all the single solutions of a sudoku, that is using all the starter numbers (1-9) and simply cross referencing them in chronological order (my first step in solving sudokus).

My teacher than gave me some papers to turn into the editor of the newspaper because I felt like I should help, and said I would be glad to. I just solved all the threes! Satisfaction ensues.

Then my counselor who was helping me get in another class signs me up last minute and says, Oh! that class is happening right now, go go! I say yes'm! and rush off but I choose not to go. It was already 20 minutes into the class and I don't like arriving late so I told a white lie. So right now I'm stumped on the the rest of the numbers. It's getting really hard to break and I'm at that inevitable 'where the heck is the next one' phase i go through.

So I go to the editor, give him the papers and then it happens. He causually asks me if I want the job. The most amazing job in the world just because I did what I wasn't suppose to do (go to class). At that exact moment I find just one number to fill in and it turns into the dominio effect and I finish with flying colors. Rad yeah?

sorry.

Even though today was great, something stood out that really hasn't left me since early this morning.

I'm in class, half asleep, and the teacher is talking about.. something. Creative writing probably, because that's the class. Well, she asks us to write a poem about something we don't know. Sure sure, that's fine. She says, start it off with 'I don't know'. Yeah yeah, let's get this down with.

So she walks over to the girl next to me and says 'I don't know if you heard me but we're suppose to write a poem right now about something you don't know'.

I laugh. I laugh to myself but it is indeed a laugh. Why? Because she started off with 'I don't know' and I thought that was funny because well, come on, you just said that. I chose to steal that line of hers for my own.

I wrote down the sentence and then realized that the teacher then came back with a piece of paper for the girl next to me. It had a bunch of instructions on it. I quickly realized that she was deaf. I sunk deep into my chair.

So here it is, my poem.

I don't know if you can hear me
I'm sorry for laughing, it wasn't personal
I just didn't know

Accidents happen, for instance
I just backed into a lamp post yesterday
You see, I didn't mean to

It was one of those poor cosmic timings that only God knows why they exist

I wanted to say sorry but I,
don't know if you even heard me laugh
But it's better to be safe than sorry

And that's what I am, very sorry.

too funny.

Here's the story. Halloween came around last year and I dressed up as MaryCatherine. I had a bat earring in one year, a pearl necklace on and the lady jacket to boot. Needless to say, I was looking more feminine than usual. I went into Sammys, Carrollton's hot spot for gas stations, to pick up something to drink. Sammy was taking pictures that night so I of course accepted. Flash forward 3 months and I find out this girl has been eying my picture that he put up, among the hundreds already there. Sammy says she wants it so I say sure, that's too funny to not say yes. Another month goes by and I see the picture has been removed, leaving a crumbled spot in it's place where the other pictures had to be taped irreguralty together to replace mine. I chuckle. Then a few days ago I come in and there's a note for me. It reads.

"Dear really cute boy. I think you are beautiful. [picture of a heart] Abigale. Please leave your number with Sammy."

So then I really have a laugh and after a brief conversation with tez and colin, we decide facebook is the best approach. Maybe this is a shallow but realistically there are Quasimodo's out there and the number idea proved to be a bit risky. So I went on facebook and violia, she's there and we're talking. Weirder things have happened..

Post Rock: A Look Into Music Without Lyrics

March 13th, 2008. Explosions in the Sky are set to perform at the Variety Playhouse for an unprecedented two shows, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. The Austin, Texas natives are no stranger to the Atlanta area, as they have been playing here for roughly five years now, presenting their unique instrumental music to larger and larger crowds every time. The evening show has sold out early on in pre-sale but the band has added on another show showing a true sign of love for their fans. Atlanta's two show mayhem is a closing to the bands nearly three month long tour as the group have already moved on to Europe for their next two month tour.
The band emerge onstage shortly after opening act Robert Lowe entranced the audience with his single, half-hour long song consisting of self-made bird chirps playing over ambient guitar loops and his unique aborigine-like singing style. Guitarist Munaf Rayani shares with the crowd that the group is very exhausted from the prior months of shows but they will do their best to entertain us. Later that evening, and one grueling hour long set later, Manaf is down on his hands and knees, grasping the remnants of a once-intact tambourine that has been pulverized into an indistinguishable circle of tiny bent metal cymbals and cracked wood. The guitarist’s passion for the group's music is undeniable leaving an impression on me so profound that I have still yet been able to resolve its answer. What would have happened if they were not tired?

Each week The West Georgian paper comes out and as if on queue, a good many of you keep coming back and picking it up. Thank you. It wasn't till last Sunday that I realized my movie reviews just weren’t.. enough. And although I'm very enthused to be writing these reviews for you, I want my words to have more impact, more significance, more life. My review of the March 13th show is a paint-by-numbers example of a traditional movie review of mine turned-concert-review. The expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" is only so true. It's as to say a song without lyrics can never be fully understood. It's an enigma. A thousands words is merely a hundredth of what I could write to explain this. Pure irony. And to think, this my second time seeing them too.
Explosions in the Sky started in '99 when the post rock genre was just getting underway. European groups like Mogwai and Sigur Ros had already been in the game for a good few years prior, and Canadians Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think were well on their way as well, leaving the states with just one band (respectively). Even to this day, Explosions can be credited with starting this genre of the instrumental rock music that has come to be. To clarify, bands like Rush and The Allman Brothers Band already proved that instrumentation was around, followed up by more independently-centered bands like Tortoise and The Appleseed Cast, and then finally brought on to a fully new kind of instrumentalization by way of Explosions in the Sky. Explosions redeveloped the minimalism genre, utilizing every instrument (guitar, bass, drums) to coincide perfectly with one another at whatever volume. Their epic six to ten minute songs can only be described as ethereal, using repetition and crescendos in a whole new manner, making everything sound organic and beautiful at the same time.
Explosions are truly the best at what they do, from the members to the production of the albums, it can never be taken for granted. A single song may have three different time signatures or ten different pedal effects (for one guitar). Bassist Michael James opts out on the bass in select songs adding on a third guitarist to the quadruplet. Despite the overwhelming amount, each guitar has it's own distinct sound and purpose, providing a different timbre for each song. As to be expected, the immensity can only be fully experienced via live show. The magnitude of this holy guitar trinity is only fully implemented in Explosions loudest songs, going one step louder each time you think it can't happen anymore. Different from rock's normal distortion and reverb, Explosions manage to develop it into the most cathartic style of music they make. It’s funny to think that they can achieve such grandeur with the most traditional instruments out there. Guitar, bass and drums; the basic three.
But I digress. Despite being the most influential in the contemporary states, there is a plethora of other bands waiting for their turn to get some press as well. Fellow Texans This Will Destroy You has been around for a few years, having released two albums in the exact vain of Explosions. Massachusetts's Caspian have been around since '03 with two albums under the belt, choosing to shorten the lengthy songs into a much more concise and compacted instrumentals. California’s Tristeza (pronounced Triz-Tea-Za) have been in the hull longer than Explosions but with far less success. Despite the setbacks, the group remains together after ten years, mixing different genres of electronica and ambience, keeping the traditional four-member crew. James LaValle left in 2003 to pursue a more electronically influenced outlet with The Album Leaf, which has since then garnered much more notoriety.
I had the great pleasure of seeing Philly's Saxon Shore perform last year, a five member instrumental band that has been playing strong since 2001. Japan's Mono is label-mates with Explosions (Temporary Residence), becoming almost a carbon copy of the group, utilizing long songs with plenty of ambience and crescendos. A post-metal genre has also started to sprout up with bands like Chicago's Pelican and Russian Circles who have mixed the beauty and sincerity of ambience with a harder feel. Europe's 65daysofstatic and God Is An Astronaut offer their own type of style, adding on to the never-ending list of weird band names in a painstakingly unknown genre.
Yet when all is said and I done, I always can come back to one band to make me feel alive again. Explosions in the Sky's third full length, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, will forever stay a favorite of mine. The beauty behind this is that nothing can be said or done that could ever take this away. It's the most reliable possession I own. There's just something about the juxtaposition between tranquility and power that can't be found in anything else. The pure unadulterated sound of music without lyrics makes me appreciate the finer qualities of life that much more. And it’s funny to think that even after hundreds of listens, witnessing certain tracks live first hand, I found new things in their music that I have never heard prior. I feel like I'm coming off too subjective so, as my closing statement, if nothing else, I at least want you to find that something in your lives that means this much to you. Have a great summer.

Global Warming: Fact or Fiction

Global Warming exists. Whether you think it is due to natural or human-based reasoning, it is a fact that our earth is getting warmer. I will attempt to make this article as unbiased as possible but to deny that the blunt evidence that the Earth hasn’t increased in temperature would be blasphemy.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the average temperature on earth has risen .8 degrees fahrenheit (the earth is actually suppose to be going through it’s normal cooling cycle right now). Most of this warming has happened in the last few decades, which isn’t a surprise at all considering how different life is compared to back then.

To prevent being wrongfully quoted on something, I will openly admit that everything I am about to say has come from my own sources that are of course, subject to criticism. Almost everything revolving around the ideas of human-made global warming has a rebuttal but I could care less about that.

There’s always going to be that one person who has credibility and can convince people to believe what they believe. And with a hugely political concept like massive climate change, there is obvious speculation about. And this is where I interject.

Regardless of how it’s happening, change is in order. Not to prove the skeptics wrong but for our own satisfaction and well-being. Take everything I have to say with a grain of salt but realize my main purpose of this article is to convince you to help yourself by helping our environment.

Dr. James Mayer, a Geosciences professor on campus, also acknowledges that the earth is indeed warming. “My personal opinion, based on reading the findings of climate scientists, is that we are probably justified in concluding that the warming observed over the last several decades is at least partially human-induced. But this is by no means a certainty.”

Dr. Mayer also comments on probably of irreversibility. “For significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require immediate economic sacrifices for the sake of uncertain results far in the future. Based on my knowledge of world events, such large-scale sacrifice for the common good seems unlikely.”

Unfortunately, I completely agree with Dr. Mayer as I believe a massively significant disaster is going to be our fatal call to arms.

Like I said earlier, the purpose of this is to simply make you more aware of whats happening in our world. If you see a connection to global warming, fantastic. If not, then you’re completely missing the point of me writing this.

From an exert in Time Magazine, “One especially sobering study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that hurricane wind speeds have increased about 50% in the past 50 years.” With the warming waters, not only are hurricanes an issue but many other factors as well.

Melting ice bergs are posing an enormous threat to low lying areas. To bring this reality more to home, imagine this if you will. Florida’s coasts are almost at sea level, so even if the ocean just rose a few feet, millions of people would be put out of their homes, thus being out of jobs, leaving crime and theft to ensue (flashback to Katrina).

Melting icebergs are also directly linked to increased polar bear death (many swim out to see in search of food but can never find a place to rest later on). Maybe this isn’t considered important to a lot of you but I happen to like polar bears.

I will put this in perspective. A year ago, there were over five thousand species alive that are not alive today, and the same for the year prior.

Warming oceans have also killed off many coral reefs which, in recent years, have found to be incredibly useful for medical purposes including prolonging the life of AIDS victims, acting as a highly powerful pain killer and much more potential that has yet to be discovered. It also turns out I happen to like Nemo.

In 2003, a heat wave in Europe killed an estimated 35,000 people. Deaths have dramatically risen in South America due to mosquitoes migrating north (due to warmer weather), directly responsible for malaria outbreaks, specifically loggers whose deforestation areas make for great larvae homes (it should also be noted that the silt from deforestation centers travel down rivers and into the oceans which then blocks any light from reaching the coral reefs thus killing them).

As I noted earlier, droughts and heat waves will continue to increase, which means Africa will give a whole new meaning to third world country. War could then ensue as resources would become limited and judging by our current war situation, even with unlimited fossil fuels right now, we’re having enough problems as it is.

Americanprogress.org issued a report titled ‘The Top 100 Effects of Global Warming’ which gives a realistically gruesome look at the specifics of how devastating some of these effects could be. Eradication of wine, koala bears, lobsters, and french fries are just a few of the lesser effects that made the list with various credible citations for each. Abundances of poison ivy, jellyfish, and heart attacks are the plus factors here.

Here’s my favorite statistic of them all. Due to the heating of permafrost (namely Alaska, Canada, Siberia), methane from dead plant matter (a very flammable gas) is being released (as well as methane gas bubbles from the ocean floors), and if enough of these gases become concentrated in a particular area, a single lightening strike could make an atomic explosion.

However even with this Armageddon ridden theory, I honestly don’t believe humans can ever become extinct. The last ice age wiped out 95% of all species, except humans. It’s a scary thought but in the event massive genocide did occur, the decrease of humans would then start to make our Earth more sustainable for life again.

Obviously, a lot of these ideas are all predictions but the fact that these are even brought up scares me to death. It’s not even us that will experience any of these horrendous encounters as our kin and their children will face the brunt of this if left unchanged.

Dr. Mayer comments, “Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, for example, could provide immediate environmental and economic advantages while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Rightfully so, and to refrain from any hypocrisy, I ride my bike as much as possible with this thought in mind. Doing simple things such as turning my thermostat off, keeping my tires properly inflated and eating less meat all make me feel like I’m being a better person (it’s literally that easy). There’s hundreds of small things that you can do that will without-a-doubt have a huge effect on the future (global warming aside).

Ask yourself what’s it going to hurt if you don’t? Exactly. Google is your friend, please brief up on what you can do to help even if you don’t agree that global warming exists.

Grant Wallace