Jan 28, 2008 15:59
Realized i should tell you a story in a picture book page by page description. I realized you never knew who I’ve been. once i realized i was waiting for my funeral to a particular degree, i came to an open eyed idea that I’ve never written an epitaph for all that i once was, and who i am now, and won't be again. So a dip in the lowercase personality if i may.....
I would assume it all started when i was young; a desire to pretend who i am in accord to the inspiration of a movie, cartoon, life misinterpretation, life itself, comic book, adapting to personalities, song on the radio or in my sister's room, and most importantly dreams. I had created so many characters to play as in games with the neighbors or solo that i was there, much like all children. Though as they grew older, i remained there.... in theme to what my imagination displayed most accurate to my perspective. in due time i had ignorantly detached myself by continuing my way, perhaps out of stubbornness or irresponsibility I’ll never know, yet it left me clueless to the reality of many people of my age. This be as it may, i was merely 10 or 11, i was pronounced a title to which i would rather not mention to relieve any pretentious tension i could portray myself as by utilizing references from an outsider's view as well as avoiding a present one- thus "why am i writing this presently?" we'll just call it self-discovery vs. comfort-
When time came, around i was about 16, i had decided to use myself (or perhaps waste) as a canvas. I lied, it was less of a decision and more of a random act of attending my attentions with the most of everyone surrounding. On that note i had began a great mythology i would unknowingly attend to for the rest of my years till this day. That day i had created a character to subtly write, draw, sing (in ye ole shower), and act as (in the presence of strangers, not friends).
Let my long winded words drive the point to where i belong, i.e. where i am.
his name was Dylan Lachesis with his companions Lance Clothos and Blake Atropos. During my high school years many people had their idols, their influences, etc. During those years we may find ourselves lost and attach ourselves strongly to an icon, almost as a support to the great child and adult transition, which can be rather extreme in transition due to the mass entertainment and speed of times as well as the issues with our government and the persistence of conservations of tradition. I would pretend to be them because of my (ironic) disgust for the kids in my class, older, and younger for their sports, music, and movie idols. I decided that the three, especially Dylan, would be the idol of my own creation. The last names of the three referred to Greek mythology as the Moirae (Moerae), the personifications of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, "sparing ones") Lachesis measured the length of life, Clothos spun the thread of life, and Atropos ("inexorable" or "inevitable", literally "unturning", sometimes called Aisa) was the cutter of the thread of life. Dylan was who I wanted to be in the present, Lance was the disgust with my issues in the past as an ignorant playful kid, and Blake was the animosity I had with a precognitive whim that I’d be one of those adults to lose my childhood with a responsible neglect of desirable “simple living”. As that spanned on I developed a band called “Child Digestion”. Child Digestion had a myth to it that
-the transition from childhood to adultism was merely being digested through old man society, broken down to fit and shat out the poisons thereafter. All those who didn’t disagree with old man societies stomach was the vomit of society-
A bit drastic, yes, but that was my view… I saw it quite accurate from my stance’s being. In time a band grew out of it and it was grown off of sporadic ideas such as hip hop, punk, industrial, and goth music. The freedom, let it be, was enlightening……………………………………………
Once I had gotten out of high school though my idea was disemboweled to reconstruct…. Thus!
I’m going to let forth the continuance of personal journeys that I had become:
Next was Draqen Somnus:
The Roman name Somnus, the Greek equivalent Hypnos, was the personification of sleep, and was my interpretation of my sleeping scenario. At the period of time I wrote about everything; from dreams, to coffee, to the weed I smoked, the acid I tried, the nervousness I had in communicating with someone, to the air I regret not breathing, the writing I never wrote, etc. Draqen was the poet in my eyes.. in fact I wrote a poetic book on his life called “The Gravitational Legend of a Draqen Somnus” documenting the period of time there and then. At that time I felt free in creativity with no drugs or alcohol in the beginning, and a mediocre endulgance in the end (seems most people have taken FAR more drugs than I have by their description.. mine?
Marijuana: multiple between 23 and 26
Alcohol: many much between 24 and 27
Acid: twice at age 22
Ecstacy: 1 and a half.. horrible wonderful love drown
Mushrooms: once. Neat.. where is it? And I’m not interested anymore
Coke: smoked it twice without knowing.. I call those two times an uncalled laughingly good time. Ritalin in highschool was my cocaine, especially when I was ignorantly taking a prescribed something I did not know would produce a euphoria. It reevaluates life when you are taking something that is going to create a moment you wouldn’t expect. Suddenly you are confident in doing anything proudly printed on the white paper hand of gate way drug prescriptions. The beinging, again.
There’s your statistics of judgement…. Use them like you would any confidence building drug.
Do I regret those days? Only enough because they did the exact opposite that I yearned for. I was living a playful childhood while murdering one with a dull intruding knife, only to wake up daily and noticed it has entered further into my body. This character, that I so claimed to be, was merely no different than an excuse for the romantisizing art life to live up to and eventually disgusted by. Poets are factories of taking the whole and making it smaller and outlined, small enough to take with a glass of water after eating and waiting for the effects to kick in. I suppose that is what makes it so important in the literary community. Prescription Poetry.
Through those experiments I created Sevren Zephyrus who decided to take things to a different degree. That different degree invented “The Vertebrae Institute”.
Sevren is the mystery in me that I had to leave behind and pretend I never desired to meet. Sevren was this side to me that wanted to purely speak, honestly, without me, but like you… all of you, out there.
As poetic as Somnus, Sevren spoke words as,
“I am not you.
I am who I explain
If I do not explain who I am
Then it is said
Nothing more besides honesty” and,
“The perfect actor is presented as every person,
once you can imitate all voices
then you can speak as one.”
In transition to the idea and the previous excessiveness of the immediate new born character that would come, and little did I know, and leave was the Vertebrae Institute experiment.
In the summer of 2001 I was fairly young and watched myself closely in the experimentation of dream documentation. I had spent the entire summer breaking away from social aspects and locking myself into sleep and thin sheets of paper documenting my dreams from either what I could remember or what I had recorded on the mini-cassette recorder beside my bed. After a while though, I had decided to push it from an opposite spectrum.
The Goal: stay awake for 14 days straight and document my mental stability and creativity through art, writing, and music. In the long run, music seemed the most distracting activity from sleep, thus I made 5 albums in the term of those two weeks.
I had kept my goal quiet amongst those who I was socially acquainted with, considering I had a job, and technically remained awake for 13 days and created the Vertebrae Institute's 5 part series.....
Five Albums: 1. Cloud Conglumary: the more lucid era of thought. The mere realization of delirium blooming. Pointing fingers at the sun and expecting everyone to look.
This album, made within the first 4 days, is the most accessible of the five focusing on more of the craft of the album and less intuition while remaining in a test of stamina to get past my body rejecting my mind's decision.
2. Cyclolithic Comas: I have hit home and it stood proud. Blink and you will no longer chance sleeping. Pointing fingers at anything will make me look.
This album had drifted a bit from its previous. This is within the 6th and 10th days I had turned to the instruments as an endurance architect to keep me standing. Considering the case, this album is bolder than Cloud Conglumary and yet more experimented on. During this time my thoughts were mostly in fragments and my hallucinations had developed to a noticeable degree. After I had regained myself in the months later I had found a passion that I fell in love with and decided to use that to create music more intuitive with a projector behind my imagination. Little did I know that this specific process would grow into an entity known as Cyclolith (www.myspace.com/cyclolith)and develop from there on for the next 5 years.
3. Soetic Plang: seppuku would help me stay awake. Persistent thoughts that rely on forgetfulness. It’s hard to see what you're pointing at without looking through your eyes.
And now I had flipped my drift. Hallucinations have developed clear and the only way I can stay awake is if I repeat this rhythm: start drinking coffee, smoke more cigarettes.... call off of work, don't leave the house... only cold water, drinking and shower.... speak only in humor, seriousness is not easy to believe.
A lot of this album had repeated rhythms and mind wrenching bends that had sent me to focus only it, not on my lack of sleep. This is where I began to give in to my insanity and allow my weakness sing. I had given up a couple times and tried to sleep, but couldn't what so ever. This is the process between day 11 and day 13.
4. Midnight Sun: blur
Day 13. I had tried to express my mind through music accurately considering I had felt dead. The death of all time and poise. I was a moment of clarity that had lost all relevance, I had become indigenous and that is that. It was over..... I made 4 songs and would lie down with valerian root and find myself awake 6 hours later. 6 hours later to create..........................
5. The Breast of Vertebrae Institute
All of the moments that seemed significant in the entirety of my experiment that were shaped into song I had put into a conscious order for memory pleasure. Cut the segway... the silver screen was slightly cleaned and I could see my reflection in it.
After all the albums I vowed to never regret that experience and to never experience it again. My musical focus is more dedicated and has a promising frame.
On the 15th day I slept 17hrs. All the music consisted of a Kawai K1 keyboard, DR-660 Drum Machine, an imitation Fender guitar, Flute, samples of random friends who decided to stop by in the progress of the project was recorded with an internal monitor mic into a cheap 1998 Compaq computer, Radioshack mic, Acid Pro, and everything was manipulated in some way or another with Goldwave.
What a quick way to kill yourself. I had a personal funeral for Sevren and Draqen in many ways. Some days these funerals seem to continue, but the attendance seems to lessen every time besides three vital characters I soon developed.
Somalyxx, Cylyxx, and Devalyxx, the quiet private criminals
What is achieved by ruining yourself? Let’s answer that softly with another question. What, in our society, relies off of your procrastinations and addictions to tradition and fulfillment? Fast food? Alcohol? Cigarettes? Money? Status? Television? Convenience? Strength? Possessions? Size? Weight? Competition? Fame? More?
Not singularly……….yet we the people.
I found every commercial fabric of the outside-self knocking at my door offering the solution to the yearning desire to make inner peace, telling me they have the better way to smile. My education has been merely observation and imaginative resource to a somewhat degenerate degree, but the eyes that fit in my head will not fit anyone else besides the three Somalyxx, Cylyxx, and Devalyxx.
Somalyxx, the prefix derived off of Soma, is a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures which contains many energizing or intoxicating qualities describing well my step in purifying myself with inebriation. Under the psuedonymn Somalyxx I took on the musical title Cyclolith and developed many bedroom experiments on recording. Cyclolith, meaning “stone circle”. Cyclolith was the personal route to speak as myself taking my personal questions that have been brewing inside from neglecting my sober living and leading to honest writing. Though the process had neglected my visual arts that Devalyxx had raised, and the actor arts that Cylyxx I had developed from, it had developed into a medium of documenting my thoughts accurately.
Devalyxx, the prefix derived off of Deva, is the Sanskrit word for "god, deity". It can be variously interpreted as a spirit, demi-god, celestial being, angel, deity or any supernatural being of high excellence. In Hindu text and tradition, the devas are opposed to the demonic asuras. Devalyxx was my face or god in mental collapse. The role of this imaginary personality was to create freely like any god would. Though this character was not dominently mentioned as much as Somalyxx in most of my works he made a great role in allowing me to think that no matter what I do it is art while also allowing the simple concept of adding words to pictures that hold a thousand words.. Many visual arts derived from this notion while confidently ignoring the the aspect opinion of the world who speaks in judgment of how creativity is intended to be. Suddenly the arts, writing, and music were a form of communicating while my every day use of verbalizing became another form. That is where Cylyxx came in.
Cylyxx was metioned as the fatherly character of Somalyxx and Devalyxx who had developed from his sons creating the “Lyxxology” or “Lyxxolyt(e)”. He was also mentioned less then the two due to his role. Cylyxx was a character for my social scenarios to use my common day tongue as a paintbrush and my ears with an audio misinterpretation filter (considering I am a misselected listener). A short but an inspiring role in the mythology I have been creating for my personal life especially considering Cylyxx played a strong lead in drowning out the suffering artist romanticism and turning my creativity into impulses like your common day conversation. Thus, any conversation is a strong piece of art. Once you frame it it becomes a focus point.
These three characters helped my focus away from some of the conditional values of everyday life and lead me to enjoying my life in an impulsive and undisiplined way. After a while they had slowly taken a hold on my perspective, almost to a negetive degree leading me to depression from the cryptic abstractions that came from their personas. I thought it was about time to make someone who is me. Like renaming yourself catharsis.
Lunaquinn (Lunakkin)
This character is in development, but mainly because it is me wearing a mask of myself over my mug. We people are always in development from birth to death and Lunaquinn is a kind name for that true self I had neglected by experimenting who I am as other people. I am working towards simple and honest directions, much like this spit of an autobiography, and yet honing my skills more towards where I left off prior to my first character creation. Things are evolving for me in a significant way where disipline and consciousness crash to defeat the dispositions of the doctor no longer being the patient. The Good Doctor Lunakkin is in. (to be cont.)