everyman

So weird . . . or perhaps I think I was genuinely OUT-weirded on some level.

Wandering from place to place within the Go Factory yielded hearing completely different sounds, yet you were in the same ROOM, but 3 stages surrounded you, and artists, sculptors, painters, writers, and other musicians who just wanted to sit it out this time. Pete (Gamera) had various films of all of us digitally recorded and began collaging them, layering them, fading them in and out on a big white screen while a man dressed in a shark outfit (John Howitt from Fuzzhead) played a guitar and sung drone-ish lyrics and tones. I saw that screen by wandering from place to place, and heard the vision of the collage, another mind-trip playing with my head. I had no gear with me but a mixing board for Chuck to borrow, and a harmonica in my coat pocket which I put there when I first bought the coat. Didn’t know what to do, but Kyle was playing his Korg keyboard (which he said he wasn’t going to bring this time) so I figured maybe I should do something . . . but not until it feels right.

I was tired and felt energy at the same time, usually the best formula for writing music I’ve found. The more exhausted I get, the better I seem to write, provided there is a level of energy interested enough to complete a project.

I walked over to Kyle’s stage area where he and Nick and J. Scott Franklin had something going on. Kyle had his sampler out and asked me to play something into a microphone he had plugged into it. So I took out my harmonica and jammed for awhile. I soon realized our sound was coming out of the PA of the other stage area! (Another mind trip) I was so confused, but no one seemed to mind this disturbance. I noticed the drummer was playing the same BPM as our stage area, but their melody was totally different from ours, I couldn’t get over that. I don’t believe that was intentional at all, but I find it harder to believe that was a coincidence. Perhaps it was a subconscious connection of the two COLLECTIVE musical minds, which is something I can swallow, but I’m choking as it goes down. It gives credence to those who say the unused parts of our brains are finally getting tapped into, and the human terrestrials of this Earth are slowly learning how to communicate telepathically, when their minds are open enough. We seem to be hitting that vibe, that note, that philosophy preached by Ken Kelsey and Tim Lear, how the drug opens the door to what the mind can achieve, and once we learn what the drug can do, we are able to do it ourselves. It seemed like their dream was coming to fruition right here!

Yet with our stage setup, we couldn’t really SEE the others too well, and they couldn’t see us, only HEAR us. This could prove to be distracting. When you can’t see those you are jamming off of, and if you’re anything like me, you get PARANOID that you are disrupting their flow…even though that’s partly what the GF is all about, learning how to deal with others who are going to play off your jam, it’s easier to handle when you see their faces, smile, and nod, and become one with them. They become one with you, too, and there’s no hard feelings. When you can’t SEE them, you are blinded of one of your important senses, and lead to rely on senses that don’t get nearly as much practice because we rely so much on what we visually perceive. Making matters worse, Kyle had samples and samples of various performers who once were in his stage area, but now in another stage area, and I couldn’t tell if I was playing along with samples or with someone who was on another stage. MAYBE I was making someone upset, or maybe I was just playing along with a sampler so who cares anyway.

I moved as far as I could from Kyle’s sampler, stretching out that mica cord, so I could see the people we were jamming with. That made it easy, and their heads were nodding up and down, and they were smiling, and we were indeed one with each other.

I kept jamming on the harmonica, over and over, playing various keys that seemed to fit what both stage areas were doing, fitting their BPM, and becoming one with them….my legs took off with my brain, my body danced around and flailed, my head was so filled with this subconscious oneness, this meeting of the minds and the souls, and jolted partly by whatever legal psychedelic of choice I ingested hours beforehand, my mind took off, and as I danced the microphone partly pulled out of Kyle’s sampler, at the same time a guy on the *other stage* with a big bongo drum hit the drum as hard as he could, and feedback ensued . . . vicious uncomfortable feedback. We all stared at each other trying to figure it out. Chuck came running my way waving his hand suggesting “stop what you’re doing.” He turned off the PA in question, and we found out it was my microphone that caused the feedback, or rather, my partially unplugging it. We plugged it back in, turned the PA back on, and were relieved to find out it wasn’t blown, and the fuses were fine…they got a little hot but they took it just fine. Chuck said something to the effect of “no worries.” I was feeling okay about it, but then….

Beating Eric gets on the microphone and asks everyone to thank “Mr. Everyman” for his fine artistic contribution to the last song. I got a fine applause, too, lots of cheers and smiles. Of course, they were applauding the distracting feedback noise, not anything else we were doing. PARANOIA sets in. I felt like a loose cannon, I was going to go off any minute and do something else wrong. I asked Chuck to let me know if I was becoming obnoxious, and he smiled and assured me everything was fine, and that this factory was going FURTHUR than it ever has, and I helped it happen. You could get lost in words like that. They were as provocative as they were reassuring.

A couple people came charging in who I never saw before. I distinctly remember one of them having the Jesus Christ hair style, long black/brown beard, long black/brown hair. They were running around smoking like crazy, making demands “do you have any TAPE?”, and generally not introducing themselves to anyone, which was particularly odd when they jumped on other people’s gear and didn’t say a word, didn’t even ask. I introduced myself to the Jesus looking guy, who immediately rolled his eyes upon hearing my name…a reaction I don’t even get from people I work with, people who don’t even GET me. He kept banging on Kyle’s keyboard, insisting he changes his instrumentation to something else, making demands here and there, and smoking and smoking. His eyes rolled at me like his head rolled everywhere else…I began to realize this guy is truly living on another plane, and when I told him my name, he probably heard his own head say “you left the door unlocked at home”, and he rolled his eyes in disappointment at himself. That’s a stretch, but the way he was going on, I’d buy it. (I saw him again two days later at the Fuzzhead CD release party. He remembered me and was really friendly. Then he went freaking out on the floor during one of Fuzzhead’s jams, and kicked a chair with his legs….the chair nearly slammed into Chuck who was filming the band by the stage area…if it had hit Chuck, it probably would have broke his arm! Chuck gave a “what the fuck?” look, and the guy just kept freaking out.) Life has risks, yeah.

GF5 ended on some weird note of me and CultJam (Lisa) running around with Ryan’s (Thursday Club Ryan) megaphone, going to any microphone we found, barking and howling like dogs, and Chuck’s real dog “Lou” kept excitedly following us and howling and barking along with us. This seemed to be a huge distraction to Beating Eric, who seemed to want to fly solo on stage with his guitar. While he’s a good friend and a talented artist, I began having thoughts that he is extremely competitive and distracted when the attention isn’t totally on himself. I wasn’t so sure that was the case until he said the line “if there’s anything I learned about myself tonight, it’s that I’m a VERY talented person.” Humorous intentions or honest self-proclamation? PARANOID! Until….right before he left, we hugged, and when I asked “did I do anything tonight to piss you off?” he laughed and hugged me again saying “there’s NEVER anything you could do to piss me off, we all connected and had a great time!” then he just took off. Those two crazy smoking guys left before Eric did….I later realized he was only doing what he was doing to make THEM go away. Or was he really? PARANOID!

Leaving was strange….it wasn’t the usual “hang out and chat until 3 am” scene…as soon as the music stopped, we all just kinda took off and quickly said goodbye. I vocally expressed how weird that was as we departed….CultJam asked me “do you think we were forced out or something? Like they wanted us to leave?” I said “no, it was just an incredibly odd departure…we NEVER leave all as a group like that so quickly, so early….so very odd.” Everyone kind of agreed there was something strange about us all packing up and leaving in such an efficient single-file-line manner, but no one felt any hard feelings were left behind, except for me of course…until I later talked to the whole group again, Chuck, Pete, Jillian, etc., and I learned they never before felt a more positive vibe all night. There was nothing to worry about, Mr. Paranoia. They were right, of course, it was a positive vibe….. but unlike one I’ve ever felt since I was last at Burning Man, a place where everyone’s dreams become reality, and you’re walking in and out of them all day, not sure if this is a good thing or not until it’s gone.

It went furthur than it ever did GO….. and my mind was hell bent capturing that idea until two days later when we all discussed it as a group. I felt out-weirded, but that’s not the way to phrase it, no way certainly not.

I *learned* something, or no, I was *cultured* by this experience. Someone’s art moved me deeply…that someone being the whole GO FACTORY collective, everyone who was there to be a part of this experience, they all understand exactly what I’m talking about, and those who weren’t, are hopefully understanding what’s going on by my words.

And hopefully, I will stop being so paranoid.

Nahhh….SIX!

Maybe seven or eight people on stage at the same time, people who never performed together before, making perfect harmony, with a green wall and a green floor at Go Factory Four. Surreal was the scene to overuse and abuse a word, with cameras on you, projecting you from a helicopter�s point of view, seeing the top of your nose, your ear, and your gear.

It all looked like it could have been a scene in The Ticket That Exploded, and explode it all did, on stage in magical form. Beating Eric rapping & singing, Michael from Volta Sound drumming & yelling and yeah, singing too…went from folk rock, to psych, to noise, to indie pop, all in a 45 minute time span, and all the while, every man couldn�t hear what he was doing…sitting in front of guitar amps and live drums and screaming vocalists who bang big sticks on the floor to further emphasize their points.

Me and Ryan (Mr. Thursday Club here on a Thursday, interestingly) could hear a tiny bit of ourselves coming from another room, another place, and I think on another tape. While we moved our fingers to the beats per minute, we only hoped we were on key.

Funny thing, that irony stuff…in the recording, me and Ryan seemed to be ALL you could hear, no drums, no beating sticks, and barely a bass guitar.

Saying goodbye took hours, everyone is so much in synchronization, on level, on page, and together. I was thirsty and their presence filled my soul with nutritious juice half filled with the creative spirit, half intellectual appreciation, and a squirt of poetry, audibly and visually. Fullfilling and inspiring, as always. Chuck is a great man in need of a great sound board.

Oh, and yes thankfully we WERE on key! Factory!