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. 

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.

Street Cred Feels Good

So much has happened in the world of Class ProJect in the past week. Like to hear it? Here it go!

First, we submitted our freshman album effort entitled, "The Rough Draft LP" to be mastered on Monday. A finalized version of the music that we have been working on for the past calendar year will be arriving in my mailbox this Saturday. Anybody in the Tucson area who would like to Join us for an album listening party this Saturday night, give me a call. As if that weren't exciting enough, I received a phone call from Ryan Clement, the mastering professional at Mix Makers (our mastering company) today. I was thinking that he was calling me back to confirm the payment that I had over-nighted him earlier this week. I soon found, however, that this was not the case. He had called to inquire as to who had done the mixing of "The Rough Draft LP". This made me understandably nervous as I thought that maybe he had found some maJor flaw in our mixing practices. I reluctantly told him that the mixing was done by myself and my older brother Scott (aka Scotty Green), again expecting him to point out inconsistencies in the album we'd spent countless hours "perfecting" to our taste. He paused. I cringed. "People usually don't send me something mixed so cleanly. They usually try to do some sort of rough mastering before they send it to me. But you guys definitely knew what you were doing with this." I smiled. Trying to disguise my happiness, I informed him that we know nothing of mastering, and that that is why we had sent our proJect off to him. He laughed and reassured me that our mixes were a model of what any mastering company would want from their clients. My smile became grinch-like. I thanked him for his call and told him that he could call me to compliment me anytime. He laughed and hung up. I did the same.

I knew that we had put forth our best effort with mixing our tracks, but these professional kudos gave me a sense of accomplishment beyond words. Actually.....two words might be able to describe it..........street (and) cred. It is one thing for another MC to approach me and tell me that he likes my flow, beats, rhymes, or any other element of our stage show, music, etc. After all, (whether I admit it or not), I am a rapper. It is another thing for a fan to approach me asking how they can get a copy of our album. I do have an album coming out. It is another thing still to be approached by a booking agent with an invitation for Class ProJect to perform at such and such venue on such and such date. I do do shows every chance I get. But all of these experiences can't compare to the feeling that I got after hearing Ryan's kind words on our mixing efforts. The main difference is that people who mix well, usually have a piece of paper that says that they should know how to do so. I do not. This was the first time that I had received any sort of "validation" for my efforts as an audio engineer. It felt good.

Second, Knomad and MC Lee finished the artwork for the album yesterday and sent it to our mass duplication company today. Here's what it looks like:

Here's the what the actual CD will look like. I'll show the rest as soon as I find out how to convert .tiff files to .gif files. Noah'll probably do a whole blog post on them (*hint, *hint, Noah).

Third, we booked our second show for the week that we will be in the Los Angeles area. Now, in addition to our show at the Majestic Ventura Theatre on 7/7/07, we will be opening up for Midnite Theory at the Malibu Inn Bar on July 11th. We'll be going on stage around 10ish. hit me up for tickets to either.

Lastly, Class Project's long-awaited trip on the 2007 Pursue the Passion Tour is only four days away. While it officially begins on July 2nd, we do not actually take off out of Phoenix until the 4th of July. This will be the beginning of a 3 month, 14,000 mile journey to document career stories and rock crowds all around the country. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity that we will never forget.

What may seem like a lot to occur in a small amount of time is actually just our collaborative efforts coming to fruition all at once. I never thought that anything like these things were possible. Looking back on all of the hard work that went into all of it, I now see that we MADE these things happen. I believe that possibilities are only as limited as one allows them to be. All truisms aside, what is truly rewarding about my current situation is that I never really listened to anyone, myself included, that shot down the work that went into accomplishing these feats. I sincerely believe in everything that I am doing with myself right now. that might be the first time that I truly feel that way. And just like hearing Ryan's kind words earlier today, it feels good.

"Class Trip" Tour 2007 and Thank You's

This summer, Class Project will be touring the country working as journalists for www.pursuethepassion.com, a motivational website for aspiring business professionals and people looking to make a career change. During our down time, we will (hopefully) be doing shows in many of the 25 cities that we will find ourselves in over our 90 day journey. The summer showcase entitled "The Class Trip Tour" will take us more than 14,000 miles across the country to promote our freshman album effort entitled, "The Rough Draft LP." Our tour starts off with a show on July 7th (7/7/07) at The Majestic Ventura Theatre in beautiful Ventura, California. From there......uh......I'm not reeeeally sure, but we've got some things in the works and hopefully a lot of things will just fall into position. I'm sure that they will. They have to, right? Guys? GUYS?

Luckily those who support Class Project (or just Noah and I) are amongst the most helpful and proactive people we'll ever meet. A far cry from the apathy which hangs over us with everything not involving recording or performing music (and writing for your website Mr. Farmiloe). That being said, we've got a show in the works with Hey Champ! an electronica fusion group based out of Chicago, Illinois....a hearty thank you to Mr. Hank Weber for that one. Christina Haynes has been working her ass off for us trying to not only get us shows, but also hooking us up with fans, and even a merch dealer who is willing to help us distribute Class Project t-shirts over the internet. For this will we forever be thankful of her. Equally notable are the efforts of my friends and family (and long-time supporters) selling tickets for me out there in Thousand Oaks. JV, Local Legend, Deezy, Momma, Bryan, Brunz Runz.....we couldn't do it without you. Literally. We won't even be getting into Ventura County until a couple of hours before show time and we have 60 pre-sale tickets to get rid of at $10 a piece. A hard sell I know, but its amazing how down you all are to help us out. It is extremely appreciated!!!

As for the rest of the tour, its all kind of up in the air. With all of the stuff that I've been doing to help out with and ensure the success of the Pursue the Passion 2007 Tour, Class Project has unfortunately taken a backseat as of late. With only 3 weeks left until we leave (we take off on July 2nd) we have our work cut out for ourselves. I've jokingly said this before, but "it wouldn't be a Class Project if it wasn't done last minute." I don't doubt that we will be able to pull it all together. We always do.

- J. Foxx