Rhythmic Symphony

I’ve made good so far of my new commitment to write a chapter/song a week until I’m finished with Book 1. Yesterday I finished Chapter 6, a song that will bare (bear?) the title of something like “Revelations” or “Something or other about truth.” I’m excited to play this one live ’cause it packs a lot of emotion and it’s a fun, upbeat, trancy sort of track… except that it’s in 6/8 time. Trust me though, it’s good fun. Very danceable. I’ve been contemplating writing chapter 7 in 5/4 time, but we’ll see.

I’ve been thinking about time again lately, mainly because a friend of mine (Jake Pawlowski) who brought up a theory of his about it. He also mentioned that he found out that someone already came up with it and called it something like “The Now” theory. It;s kind of the curse of all mankind; If you have a great idea someone probably already thought of it. I think my inter/intra reality theory is great, but I’m sure someone’s already thought of it and published it under another name. Oh well. At least we’re figuring these things out ourselves, right? Anyway, the idea of time has always confused me, or at least as it is always presented. It seems like everyone thinks of it as a physical thing. Like we’re in a car moving down a road and if we could just figure out how to turn around we could go back in time to where we were. But, in my complete uneducatedness, this is what I think. Time is just a handy notion that we’ve created to give order to past, present, and future events. It’s like a measurement, but one that’s easily distorted. I could be wrong, but I think we measure time by the decay rate of atoms, or something like that. The problem is that this rate of decay is significantly altered under certain conditions, like intense gravity sources. I’ve heard it said that in a black hole the gravity is, theoretically, so much stronger that it speeds the passing of time. So if someone could go into a black hole and come back out, we outside of the the black hole might have only experienced a day, while the guy who went in had experienced a year. I may be totally misunderstanding the whole concept, so correct me if I’m way off here, but it seems like this is wrong. I don’t think that the guy inside would have experienced more time as we think of it, but perhaps his body would be more decayed. It’s more like the device for measuring the passing of “time” is becoming distorted. Let’s say you have a plastic cup you are using to measure out flour. If you apply a flame to it will start to warp and maybe stretch, making the cup’s capacity grow. But the flour inside the cup remains the same amount, well… unless it catches fire or something. But the point is that stretching out the cup doesn’t multiply the contents. The way we measure “time” is faulty because it is not a constant. My friends idea, the “Now” idea, is that it’s just always now. The past only exists in our memories. It’s not a physical place that we can go back to, and the future is not a physical place that we can go forward to. All there is is now. Time is just an artificial construct made by movement. Even if we could make things exactly like they were in 1600 B.C. it still would just be a xerox of the original, and it would still be the present. Anyway, that last part was Jacob’s thinking, but it fits in pretty well with my theory.
Was that as long as the last journal post? Sorry if I broke my promise to not make this one so long.

Keeping a blog (a real, true blog. Not just updates on concerts and the like) is a tricky thing for a band. Every release, review, concert and passionate exclamation point is taken into consideration by the fan. I tried keeping a, shall we say intimate, blog for a while, but I decided maybe my opinionated attitude wasn’t in the best interest for RS. Well, in the tradition of throwing past resolutions to the wind, I’m gonna take another whack at it.

I finally finished Chapter 5 of The Envaryan Chronicles; The Epistemological Path. While the lyrics came fluidly enough, the music was viciously uncooperative. It’s funny how there are songs that just kind of materialize within a few hours or so, and there are songs that I labor over for weeks upon weeks. In the end I show off the sum of my labor only to be confronted with “Oh yeah. That one’s okay I guess. But that real popish one with the four-on-the-floor beat; that one’s great!” Oh well. At least it’s hit and miss, instead of miss… miss.
After several false starts I settled on a sort of minimalist/retro feel for the track. The chapter is comprised of the simple dialogue between Cinder and Dorie as they are on their way to the house of the Keeper of the Book of Knowledge, making in the first chapter in book one that is less about building the story line and more about a stray idea.
It’s all based off of a theory that I’ve been bouncing around in my head ever since I took my first philosophy class last Fall. My professor was a proclaimed epistemological relativist. We studied the topic with no lack of debate and raised voices, but while I couldn’t quite grasp what it was; I knew something was amiss with the whole theory. I agree that at some level there is a construct that we build within our minds that dictates how information entering our minds is interpreted, and we can never step outside of our minds 9and this construct) to seek truth in pure, unbiased judgment. But then many proponents of this theory go on to say that this reality within your mind is your only true reality, and that mine is different than yours and so what’s right for me may not be right for you. I think this is partially right, but partially so wrong. Now, before you get angry, listen to why I’ve arrived at this conclusion. To accurately convey my theory I’ve created some new terms; intra-reality and inter-reality, although I’m not entirely sure if they’re punctuated correctly. The realities that exists in all of our minds (the intra-realities) are very real, but they only reach so far and are governed by an Ultimate reality: the Inter-reality. Your intra-reality says Chocolate Ice cream is best, my intra-reality says double fudge brownie ice cream is the best, while the inter-reality says that your favorite is chocolate and my favorite is double fudge brownie. Your intra-reality says that the clock on the wall is to the left, my intra-reality says its to the right, but the inter-reality says its between us. Your intra-reality says that a car serves the purpose of getting you places and making you look good in the process, my intra-reality say that a car serves the purpose of being a get-a-way car in my secret other life, while the inter-reality is that we all use our cars for different things but a car is comprised of these components and it was designed with these purposes in mind. We may experience life from the confinement of our intra-realties, but there is nothing within them that is apart from the basis of the rules and finality of the inter-reality. So, how can I prove this without stepping from the translated confines of my intra-reality? I think the answer is simple, but then again it took me months to finally nail this down, so I could be desperately wrong. Cause and effect is something that we can even prove from the restrictions of our own minds. Whether or not a piece of data is corrupted by our minds construct, it’s makeup still effects us in predictable ways. The smell of food makes you hungry, a frightening thought gives you nightmares, the image of a loved one makes you feel all fuzzy. These patterns would not be possible without cause and effect. Therefore, from the confines of our minds we can prove this law. Now comes the part where I knew there was something wrong but couldn’t put my finger on it. How could there be a totally original mass of artificially constructed worlds? There is no original thought! There is no original dream! Our intra-realties had to be based on something. You can’t have corrupted information without a basis for the information in the first place. So saying there is no absolutes is as absurd as saying there is nothing! From our perspective we can’t really prove what this inter-reality is, but we can prove that there is an ultimate reality with rules and absolutes. Even if our intra-realties are based on another intra-reality, there needs to be a concrete cause somewhere. There has to be something that binds these pseudo worlds. Can you imagine something that you’ve never experienced? And I don’t mean like a 4 headed wolf. You’ve experienced a wolf and a head before. Can you imagine something that isn’t based on anything you’ve ever experienced? The answer is no. Something does not come from nothing.
So, wow. That was a lot longer than I’d anticipated. Here’s the lyrics to Chapter 5 if anyone’s interested. I promise not to make it so long next time.

Down this mossy path
So familiar and yet never the same
The moss under foot turns to ash
As the trees burn down and grow up again
Tell me what is knowledge, Cinder
Can it’s purest form be obtained
Or is truth tainted by minds
That can never ever interpret the same

Whatever I may hear
I wanted to, I want to hear
whatever I may see
I wanted to, I want to see
Whatever I may believe
I wanted to, I want to believe
Did we ever want to be free?
To be free

Minds build realities
Twisting facts to fit the frame
Believing in normalities
So familiar and yet never the same
I must take my leave now, Cinder
Down towards the city and my cottage
And you up through the trees to your father
The Keeper of the Book of Knowledge

There’s no original thought
No dream without an experience
All intra-realties are wrought
On the inter-reality basis

Hey all.
So RS will be playing live in Denver for the first time in quite a while, with Tristraum and DJ Dave Vendetta. The show is in honor of Randall’s (Tristraum) 40th, so everyone through the door is going to receive a copy of Tristraum’s “Gray” album, free!
See everyone Friday!

04/13/2007 09:30 PM - The City Beat Club
4040 E. Evans
Denver, Colorado 80014
Cost: $5

I finally got over my tech block (kind of an ironic problem…) and got Beauty in Dissonance uploaded to the RS myspace profile… by getting someone else to do it.
So it’s up, and available for free downloading!

It’s been a looong time since I last posted, but peole have been telling me that I have this music project called Rhythmic Symphony, so I guess I’ll just have to take their word for it… er, words I guess, and do something about it.

I’m VERY psyched to finally get started on the new material for the next release. Although I dare not give away the thrill of the suprise too soon, the album will follow a mythical story format, with each chapter in the form of a song and each book in the form of an album. I’m currently planning on making it a 3 album series, since it seems you can’t go wrong with the old trilogy approach, but you never know.

Though the distinct Rhythmic Symphony flow of the music will reamin intact (I dont think I could change it if I wanted) the feel of these new songs will be much more epic and otherworldly, like the sounds I produced in my early teen years.
Although the project in it’s entirety will not be finished for some time, I will mix some of the new songs into the live performances in the months to come. Hope all of you are having a great 2007!

Here’s an album review I stumbled across while surfing the wired.

Poke this

“The Mechanism Fulfilled” is now available at all Independent Records stores in Colorado Springs and Denver!

RS will be performing (along with Summer Justice) this Saturday at The Element @ 7pm.
Come check out the killer new venue in Colorado Springs!

10/14/2006 07:00 PM - The Element
1626 S. Tejon
Colorado Springs, CO 80906
Cost: $5.00000000001

Although the Black Sheep show in Colorado Springs was cancelled, there’s still 2 RS shows in Denver this weekend!

09/29/2006 08:00 PM (Friday) - JCSGround
1531 Champa st. , Denver, CO 80201
Downtown Denver show with Situation and The White Noise. All ages!

10/02/2006 (Monday) 07:00 PM - The Bluebird Theater
3317 E. Colfax Ave, Denver, CO 80206
$5
Black Monday Showcase - Datacode Division, Tristraum, Platoon 13 and RS! All ages show!
Venue phone… (303) 322-2308

I’ll be giving away a bunch of the Section44/ADD compilations, as well as my first born child.
See you guys there!

There’s two shows coming up. One in Colorado Springs and one in Denver.
RS will be playing Sept. 29 @ JCSGround in downtown Denver with Situation and The White Noise.
Oct. 1 RS will teaching a class on how to knit with catgut and playing @ The Black Sheep in Colorado Springs along with Rustcycle. As soon as I hgave more details I’ll post ‘em… whatever hgave is….