Showing posts with label Pursue the Passion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pursue the Passion. Show all posts

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Fork in the Road

I wrote this for our newsletter. It's a bit more serious than normal, but I feel it deserves a look...

xoxo

            Although our journey across the nation comes to an end, in Tucson in 5 days, our most difficult journey has only just begun. In collecting the information we have collected, in experiencing what we have experienced, we learned to take things for what they are. In examining the trees throughout the forest, and minding not the forest itself, we learned to leave over-analysis behind.

            It was not always so. Pursue the Passion set out to find what makes people passionate. Perhaps youthful arrogance led us to believe ourselves capable of distilling conversations to their passionate roots. The first leg of the trip, through mid-August, we faithfully executed our original plan. As we continued, our insecurity in the project's simplicity grew. In retrospect, to believe that we could meet someone for an hour, cut their passion into a two-minute video, then progress to our next meeting, was a serious overestimation of our own abilities.   

            Dreaming big is always an overestimation. As feelings of doubt in the project mounted, we surveyed more honestly both the task before us, and our own abilities. It was difficult to come to grips with, watching our initial ideal exposed as somewhat frivolous, but we found comfort in several things. We found camaraderie, on the trip, with each other and those we met along the way. We received emails from readers who found genuine inspiration in what we offered. We found an incredible life experience being lived everyday. 

            What we have found is broken monotony. We departed as overly serious, business minded adventurers, and return humbled by our experiences. As a group, we have grown to support and nurture each other in a way none of us have ever known. What we have to offer is an honest interpretation of our travels, without presumptions of conclusions, which can help to avoid, or break, the mundane working existence. There is no singular, universal passion. Rather, there is an open-mindedness, fortitude and confidence shared among all we have found that is passionate. 

Monday, October 15, 2007

Where Does the Time Go?

 

            As I write, we drive from Memphis to Mobile, AL. Memphis was an interesting stop. After leaving the comfort of my old friend Daniel Roberts' home in St. Louis, we found ourselves our first city without any friends. It took all of 12 hours to make some, and we gladly used their shower. Thanks goes out to Kelli Gross and Carley Wright, who do great things for my personal opinion of Christian Brothers University in Memphis.

 

            Jay's father was kind enough to fund a night out on Beale Street, which after Katrina became the busiest street in the southern US. The place was a mess. Needless to say we had a good night. Zach rode a bull. It was really all that could be asked for.

 

            Working backwards, St. Louis was extremely kind to the PTP crew. We frequented a piano bar called Jive N' Wail, and also hit up some local college haunts. Daniel Roberts, who stayed with me some years ago as a member of the St. Louis Macabi contingent, was kind enough to allow us to extend our stay an extra day, which we used as another opportunity to go out. The Arch, by the way, is one of very few national landmarks that truly live up to whatever you may expect of it. It's huge. And shiny.

 

            So off to Mobile we go, down I-55 on an overcast day. We're not sure what to do in Mobile. We met a guy from there and even he couldn't give us more than two suggestions, and one was a coffee shop and the other a pub. If anyone has any advice, let me/us know. 

Where Does the Time Go?

 

            As I write, we drive from Memphis to Mobile, AL. Memphis was an interesting stop. After leaving the comfort of my old friend Daniel Roberts' home in St. Louis, we found ourselves our first city without any friends. It took all of 12 hours to make some, and we gladly used their shower. Thanks goes out to Kelli Gross and Carley Wright, who do great things for my personal opinion of Christian Brothers University in Memphis.

 

            Jay's father was kind enough to fund a night out on Beale Street, which after Katrina became the busiest street in the southern US. The place was a mess. Needless to say we had a good night. Zach rode a bull. It was really all that could be asked for.

 

            Working backwards, St. Louis was extremely kind to the PTP crew. We frequented a piano bar called Jive N' Wail, and also hit up some local college haunts. Daniel Roberts, who stayed with me some years ago as a member of the St. Louis Macabi contingent, was kind enough to allow us to extend our stay an extra day, which we used as another opportunity to go out. The Arch, by the way, is one of very few national landmarks that truly live up to whatever you may expect of it. It's huge. And shiny.

 

            So off to Mobile we go, down I-55 on an overcast day. We're not sure what to do in Mobile. We met a guy from there and even he couldn't give us more than two suggestions, and one was a coffee shop and the other a pub. If anyone has any advice, let me/us know. 

Saturday, July 7, 2007

See Below.

The following is a list of possible titles for this BLOG entry:

Passion Aggressive

The Heat of Passion

Passion Flailing

Captain Sprinklepant's Funboat to Hell

RV There Yet?

119 Degrees and Climbing

We Got Ants

We're Lost

10 Reasons to Love Google Maps

Please Sir, May I Have Another

 

            I have hesitated to write a BLOG as the first few days of the trip were somewhere between miserable and disastrous. I have, however, pegged my personal definition of the word passion: Passion (n):Fickle emotional mistress lying somewhere between lust and rage; i.e. Hercules killed his entire family in a fit of passion. How do you define passion?

           

            Phoenix is not the worst city in the world, as to be the worst city in the world it would have to be in Texas, but it's pretty close. We interviewed the owner of a company called Fairytale Brownies. Seriously, that was the highlight of 72 hours in Phoenix. The brownies were delicious.

 

            We thought we had left the heat in Phoenix but it caught up with us just before San Diego. Jay's car, which we are returning to Thousand Oaks/his mother, said it was 119 degrees whilst overheating. Close your eyes for a moment and imaging 119 outside and the heat blasting inside. Hell on wheels.

 

            Mission Beach 4th of July was tame. Poverty is an incredible motivator for clean and sober living. We met some college buddies for dinner, watched some fireworks, and went to sleep in the back of the RV. We awoke with ants. Everywhere. One Sea World trip and a few cans of Raid later, the ants appear to have ceded the back of the RV, but are mounting a counter-attack/insurgency in the pantry zone. I will update this a dispatches from the front line reach me at HQ.

 

            The group dynamic is interesting. Lots of passive aggressive behavior and use of the "royal we," a favorite of a certain (grand)maternal Arizona Inn alumni. I spend a lot of time with headphones on. Zach and Brett have been great about driving. We almost got hit by a train, but otherwise, we've been golden. The lock on the RV door ceased to function thirty minutes into the trip, which we saw as an issue, but was outdone by the door refusing to open outside of an interview. Imagine four boys piling out of a RV through the window ten feet up the side. With all of my mechanical expertise both problems were resolved, plus I created the evidence for some future insurance fraud. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

 

            Zach, Jay and I saw the Padres get shellacked by the Braves last night. Jay's father's good friend Rick took us out before, during, and after the game. It was a long night. We stayed at dan's uncle's beach house/mansion in La Jolla. Note the double possessives in the last few sentences. Sleeping in a bed was amazing, and furthermore the lack of ant really iced the cake.

 

            Jay and I are currently driving on the 5N to LA on the way to Ventura for a show tonight. 77 degrees and overcast on the way to a high of 83. Besides the nauseous attitude of the southern Californian, this place is like heaven. All due respect to the Rosenberg family, but you really picked a hot place for all of us to live. Besides the heat, I miss Tucson and all of its people I love.

 

xoxo.

Friday, June 29, 2007

5 Things About Which I am Excited

1. Cold. I heard today, from a man well traveled across these our lands, that there still exists a place where the high is 75 in May. I laughed in his face and told him no international squad will ever take down the Dream Team. Not in a million years. We got A.I. meng.

 

2. Passion. One are in which I have lacked severely for the past few weeks. I am excited to be near Brett, Jay and Zach, and I say that without a trace of sarcasm (any you might have interpreted comes from your own prejudicial nature). These three, even more so Brett, have taken a fledgling idea and made it a reality. That is the kind of inspiration I need to be around. I am looking to Mr. Farmiloe to bring out the best in me, and maximize my potential in a way that will support the trip as a whole.

 

3. THE Rough Draft LP. I spent the first 12 years of my life tap-dancing and playing tennis, hardly the hardened Curriculum Vitae of a rapper. Well get over it. We got a CD, and it's coming soon. Oh, you're from the streets? You're a rapper? Cool. Do you have a CD? No? Huh.

 

4. Atlas. I bought a huge Rand McNally Road Atlas with a graduation gift from my aunt and uncle. It's sweet on its own, but will be sweetified when I add whatever I will. Writing, pictures, map outlines, notes. It should be some kind of extravaganza. I'm not sure what the point is. When I figure it out I'll let you know.

 

5. ?. I'm excited about a million things, but really this is the true inspiration. ?. Who knows. What is so amazing about this trip is that there is literally infinite possibility and zero guarantees. I am excited to find out what this trip brings. I am excited to be surprised. Basically I'm excited, and you should be too. 

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Thusly It Begins.

One month ago I was stressing a paper titled "El Uso de las Formas de Tratamiento en la Telenovela Mexicana Marina" for my Spanish sociolinguistics class. Two weeks ago I was stressing the LSAT. Today, I find myself a professional musician. Oh the difference a month can make.

As Class Project prepares to embark on the 2007 Pursue the Passion tour I find myself reflecting upon exactly what has brought me to this point. Five years ago I'd never written a song. 12 months ago I'd never performed live. In two weeks I leave on a nation-wide tour. Of all the things that have passed between I can say only that they fundamentally shaped the person I am today, and who I will be in the future.

Goodbye is rough. D-Web left, after a half-decade under the Tucson sun, and the place is not the same. The dynamic nature of a place is never fully realized until the dynamic pieces start going instead of coming. It is one thing to deal with an influx of new people, but to watch their exodus is an entirely different beast altogether.

As I prepare to leave my home, my friends, my family and the city I have known for 23 years, I find solace in nos vemos. When I left Argentina after a six-month stay I was a wreck. Through mutual tears at the Ezeiza International Airport, my friend Julian said:
No hay adios ni hasta luego. Solo nos vemos. Nos vemos pronto.

There is no goodbye. Only we will see each other. We will see each other soon.
There are no goodbyes, only new hellos inspired by the greatness of every one that came before.

We'll see each other soon…