Tag Archives: stolarz

Earth Jam Festival at Plymouth State University

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Over the weekend my friends and I roadtripped to central New Hampshire for Plymouth State University’s Earth Jam Festival.

We lucked out with a sunny Saturday with temperatures in the 50s-60s. (It was snowing when we drove up.)

PSU is wedged between one of the most beautiful parts of the East Coast: the White Mountains and NH’s lake region.

From campus you can see the White Mountains.

Plymouth is a quaint college town with a down home New England feel. Boutiques, a bookstore, an artisans’ co-op, a few pizzerias and bakeries dotted Main Street, which stretched for maybe a mile or two.

One of my favorite paintings at Artistic Roots. Artist: Fred Nold

The artisans’ co-op, Artistic Roots, was my favorite shop. Local artists display and sell their work there and split working time.

I love the feeling of exploring a town for the first time, of aimlessly wandering into shops and learning the character of a place and its people. I love talking to locals about the city they live in and what the place means to them.

After exploring town we went to campus for the festival. With an undergrad population of 4,3000, PSU has a comfortable small town feel. Aesthetically, it’s the kind of place with that distinctive classic New England look. But what made PSU special was the lack of pristineness. It was aged and beautiful but not so kept up that it appeared stiff. The grass was played on and lived in; some buildings were washed out and faded; vines clung to some walls.

Earth Jam is an annual free event hosted by Common Ground, a student environmental and social justice organization.

Hula hooping, slack lining, face painting, tie-dying, live music playing– that’s what sunny days are made of. Earth Jam consisted of those activities and more from noon till 11 p.m.

It felt so good to be a part of a festival again even if it was a small one day event. As I hula hooped barefoot, I grinned, knowing that festival season and happy days are just around the corner.

The stage ran on solar energy.

NJ band Indian Princess

While I was at the artisans’ co-op, I had a conversation with one of the artists about appreciation and priorities. We talked about her proximity to the White Mountains and how often she actually hikes. We agreed that nature nourishes us and spending time outside feeds our souls, yet we often get so caught up in other things that we forget what’s most important. We forget to take the time to really look around us and realize our surroundings. Why do we do this? Do we get so used to our realities that we forget to take a breath and look around?

Our conversation sparked some questions that I wanted to share with you all and think about myself:

What are your priorities? Where does nature and appreciating the Earth stand on this list?

What natural surroundings (forests, mountains, lakes, etc.) are around your home? How often do you take time to explore these places and appreciate them?

What makes you feel the most nourished, happy, whole?

How can you incorporate these activities (the nourishing, happy ones) more into your everyday life? Is there anything you can cut out of your world/spend less time on so you can spend more time doing what you love?

Feel free to share your responses in the comments section. I’ll be thinking about the questions as well and possibly posting another post with my answers.

Cheers to a continuous blooming and awakening into a nourished, happy, and whole life…for all of us.

Review: Apache Lake Music Festival

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When I found out a music festival including my favorite Arizona bands was occurring on my birthday, I knew I had to go.

Apache Lake Music Festival was Friday, October 1st and Saturday, October 2nd, but I only went on Saturday.

This won’t be much of a review of the show because I didn’t catch all of the bands, but I’ll share bits of my experience from what I did see.

(This was our breath-taking view for a majority of the ride.)

After driving through an hour of soaring canyons and jagged rock formations at elevations of 1,900 feet along a cliff’s edge, we made it to Apache Lake around 4 p.m.

We were able to catch the very end of the Sugar Thieves’ soulful set. (Good thing they play in Tempe frequently so I can catch them again soon.) As the set was ending, the light drizzle turned into thick raindrops and everyone frantically moved the equipment inside. Thankfully the bands were able to continue playing inside. Inside they were also able to play longer sets. So even though the outside stage was set against a beautiful backdrop, being inside wasn’t too bad at all.

Black Carl, the first band to play inside, broke it down with Emma Pew’s raspy powerful voice. They finished their set with a badass beat boxing rap about all kinds of fabulous gangsta activities.

I was too busy enjoying myself to even remember where I placed my camera. I retrieved it for What Laura Says and snapped these pictures:

What Laura Says

What Laura Says

What Laura Says

What Laura Says

What Laura Says

Once again What Laura Says captured my body into a dancing frenzy. (If you couldn’t tell by the movement in the pictures.) They opened with two songs from Bloom Cheek, “Training” and “On the Fence” (Same as when I saw them a week before. Check out that review on my other blog here.) played an upbeat whirl of psychedelic rock songs throughout and then finished with two covers.

I almost lost it when they played my favorite Beatles song, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” This was definitely my favorite part of the night.

As they closed out with a rock-induced version of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” everyone couldn’t help but belt along. I definitely was able to be myself so thank you What Laura Says.

After that I only caught bits of Dry River Yacht Club’s set and Strange Young Things’ set. I’ll admit– I was too busy celebrating my birthday at the bar and meeting people outside.

But overall it was a really great festival filled with a great atmosphere, great energy, good vibes and good people. Wherever you went people were waving, smiling and saying hello. A festival with the sound of laughter, feet stomping and tunes vibrating is a good one to me.

Incoming: Apache Lake Music Festival

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Attention Arizona residents or anyone able to make it here, there’s a wonderful little festie coming up this weekend (Friday, October 1st and Saturday, October 2nd) at Apache Lake. For $20 delight in delightful tunes by all local Arizona musicians, a refreshing lake, a campsite, indoor bathrooms and more.

Just as the leaves were starting to change (Well not so much in AZ) and the summertime festival memories were starting to float into your mind between lectures, you ached to be outside (Again not so much in AZ) listening to live music at a festival. Welp, here’s your chance.

Check out the flier:

For more information check out these websites:

http://www.myspace.com/jeromeatherapy

http://www.lastexitlive.com 

Quote of the Week

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Here’s the fourth and last quote from the short story “Sonny’s Blues.”

“Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others…Then he began to make it his. It was very beautiful because it wasn’t hurried and it was no longer a lament. I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did…And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.”

Sometimes it seems as if the world’s always trying to strangle you, to push you, to test your strength. The world’s always rumbling on, waiting to swallow you whole. But if you allow yourself to close your eyes and really listen, everything else can truly melt away. Even if only for a moment.

The Power of Drumming

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Yesterday in my Indigenous Poetry class two Native American men taught us about how traditional native music has inspired rock and roll. After the very interesting discussion involving lots of chatter about Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Dylan, the men knelt on blankets on the floor and sang traditional native songs while playing a water drum and gourd. Both of them had their eyes closed as the music transported them elsewhere. It was absolutely beautiful and soul-refreshing.

Interesting things we learned in class:

-The oldest form of American song is Native drumming.

-While playing the drum one of the speakers, Henry Quintero said, “This is what it sounds like when you’re in your mother’s womb.”

-Back in the day when tribes battled, instead of fighting physically they would solve problems through dance.

-The water drum is alive; it’s combined with all the elements of Earth; it’s the heartbeat.

Lyrics sung during a ceremony of a young girl that I hurriedly copied in my notebook:

“Baby girl, baby girl, baby girl, you can learn, you can learn, you can learn. Bless your mind, bless your mind, bless your heart, bless your heart. Let your heart grow, let your heart grow. Let your mind grow, let your mind grow.”

All class period I was transfixed on the drumming, on the singing, on the chanting, on the power in sound.

Listening and watching reminded me that there are so many beautiful things in this world, in this life. So often our lives become clouded with to-do lists, assignments, appointments, toothaches, heart aches, all kinds of aches and all kinds of pressures. So often we forget that life is beautiful and we need to be reminded. Sometimes only music can do that for me. It goes beyond the pitch in voice, beyond the rhythm of the drum; it’s the something else speaking through the musician. I don’t understand how people can hear drumming and not be moved.

How can you hear that beat and not open your mouth to call to the wild?

How can you hear that and not tap your toes to the Earth?

How can you not be compelled to rise out of your skin and spin, arms out to the Universe?

How can you listen to that drumming, that internal rhythm and not become what we’re meant to become?

Quote of the Week

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This is the 3rd installment (out of 4) of quotes from James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues.”

“He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened, apprehension began to beat the air. Creole began to tell us what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”

Everyone suffers; everyone is happy at some point or another; everyone goes through periods of light and darkness. These are all inevitable conditions to humans. Regardless of how many times you go through ups and downs, or know someone who does, it’s a tale that must always be heard. Sometimes a person, a song, a moment or a band can give you new ways to open your mind, open your heart, and truly listen, truly understand.

Quote of the Week

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This week’s quote is also from “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin:

“All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours.“

The 16th Annual Nocturnal Festival

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So yesterday I was just about to book my flight to San Francisco for Lovevolution (which would be on my 22nd birthday), when I found out that the parade was cancelled. Cancelled as in not happening?! This can’t be possible, I thought as I re-read the story over and over and then preceded to check other sources.

Before hearing the cancellation news all I could think of was people twirling in tutus, spinning in sequins, and grooving with all sorts of crazy costumes throughout the city’s streets. And most importantly, with smiles on their faces. (Definitely not a bad thought to keep floating in my brain cells.)

So needless to say I was heartbroken. Until, I heard about The Nocturnal Festival. The festival statement reads:

“Gather one and all from all walks and points upon the globe, feast your eyes upon the sounds, hear the colors come alive. Explore the mysteries within the music, experience the wonder that is this life, this time, this moment. Gather together your deepest of energies. Let this night scream into the universe and shake the foundations of all creation. The time is now!”

And that’s just the first paragraph. The life came back to my eyes, the excitement to my blood, and I kept reading.

The Nocturnal Festival is a one-day festival- Saturday, September 25 in Southern California. The festival takes place inside and outside with five stages. No matter how I try to explain it in words, they’ll do no justice. Check out the festival’s homepage here.

But first, watch the trailer.

Quote of the Week

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Even though summertime is over and festivals are fewer, I still want to add a slice of music into blog posts as much as I can. So welcome to the first real supplement of “Quote of the Week.” Usually the quote will have something to do with music. Please feel free to comment on the quotes, add your own quotes, or just start up a conversation.

In one of my English classes we just read, “Sonny’s Blues” the beautiful short story written by James Baldwin in 1957. It was a very powerful read, which I highly recommend. Although I want to splurge and include all of my favorite quotes from the story, I’ll spread them throughout to keep the weeks interesting. Here’s the first one:

“As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last.”

Regardless of how broken we are, music can soothe us and bring us to another place. Even if it is for a moment, that moment helps us breathe and live through the suffering. I love that line about music soothing a poison out of us.

Inspiring Quote

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At festivals, I have moments like these all the time:

“At that elusive moment when we transcend our ordinary performance and feel in harmony with something else—whether it’s a glorious sunset, inspiring music or another human being—our studies have shown that what we are really coming in sync with is ourselves. Not only do we feel more relaxed and at peace, but this entrained state increases our ability to perform well and offers numerous health benefits.”

–Doc Childre and Howard Martin