More Than Just a Concert

On the evening of June 25, 2008, the Park West Theatre in Chicago was blessed with a one-of-a-kind musical experience that left the capacity crowd in a state of shock and awe. During their first and only tour since 1999, Liquid Tension Experiment took to the stage to play one of only 6 shows on their 10th anniversary reunion tour. Comprised of Mike Portnoy, Jordan Rudess, and John Petrucci from Dream Theater and Tony Levin of King Crimson, this quartet is renowned as one of the best in the progressive rock industry. Usually seeing a concert with your favorite musicians playing your favorite songs is a special enough experience in itself, but this night turned out to be much more than that for those lucky enough to be in attendance.

The band began the night at a fast pace with their song “Acid Rain” and progressed through a wide range of musical flavors including their songs “Kindred Spirits,” “Biaxident,” “Freedom of Speech,” and “State of Grace.” From that point, the band progressed into another of their fast-paced song called “Universal Mind” and things started to get interesting. During the song, Jordan Rudess’ Roland keyboard rig started experiencing some serious technical problems causing every fourth key to play the wrong note.

With the keyboards out of commission and an antsy crowd on hand, it was up to the rest of the band to save the show. As Rudess crept backstage to phone the Roland engineers, drummer Mike Portnoy came over the public address system to deliver a reassuring message. He said, “The great thing about this band is that we love to jam, so when there’s a technical difficulty like the keyboard rig going down, it’s ok! because it just means we get to jam some more.” That having been said, the band began what would turn out to be over an hour of completely improvised music. Portnoy came over the PA periodically throughout the session to give status updates on the keyboard situation, but eventually Rudess emerged from behind the curtain with a frustrated shrug. Just when it seemed like the show would be coming to an end though, Rudess decided to throw in a new twist. He made his way across the stage to where Petrucci was playing and raised a finger in the direction of his guitar. Petrucci passed the guitar over, and Rudess improvised a guitar solo of his own with astounding speed and accuracy that most amateurs would kill for. With the crowd going wild, Petrucci decided to follow Rudess’s lead and picked up Levin’s extra bass from its stand. The band continued to jam in this formation until they were surprised by an unexpected visit from Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante. Benante then took over the drums while Portnoy moved out and took over the bass role thus completing an entire shift change. Each member of the band had switched instruments, but somehow their music still held its cutting-edge complexity. During one of his public address statements during the show, Portnoy said, “I hope someone in the audience is bootlegging this, because this could damn well be our next album.” Sure enough, 8 months later, a new album appeared for sale on the Dream Theater website entitled, “Liquid Trio Experiment 2: When The Keyboard Breaks.”

Featuring the entirety of the improvised jam, this album allows everyone not lucky enough to have been in attendance that evening with a small taste of just how amazing it really was. The album starts with the closing seconds of “Universal Mind” as the keyboard began to experience its problems. After a quick PA announcement, the band kicks off their first jam titled, “Chicago Blues & Noodle Factory.” The beginning is a bit slow-going and takes some patience as the band starts to set the tone, but as soon as the group starts to mesh it becomes a high-energy showcase of musical talent and excellence. Throughout the album, listeners are treated to a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience as the band fades in and out of a series of impressively improvised tunes. The album does have its fair share of low points as many of the transitions between jams are rough, but that is to be expected when all of the music performed is being composed on the spot. Considering the nature of the recording, the mastering on the album is also surprisingly high quality. The frequencies all balance well, and there is little distortion caused by noise from the crowd. Overall, this album will not go down in history being as influential as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” but it is certainly unlike any other that has ever been produced and definitely worth listening to.

Improvised Perfection

What happens when you combine keyboarding phenomenon Jordan Rudess, bass legend Tony Levin, and two college dropouts turned honorary professors Mike Portnoy and John Pertucci on drums and guitar? Liquid Tension Experiment 2. This deep exploration into the world of sound grants listeners with some of the most talented music to ever be recorded in the prog-rock genre. Flawless musicianship is expressed through intricate soloing and complex rhythmic patterns that could leave even the best musicians in the world with their jaws on the floor. Possibly the most impressive part of it all though, most of the songs were created “Biaxident.”

An Explanation for the Universe?

Written in 1999 by physicist Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe offers a complete and thorough yet somehow still easy-to-read explanation of the cutting-edge “superstring theory” which is suggested as the missing link between general relativity and quantum physics. This missing link could be the key in understanding exactly how the universe was formed and the reasons for its behaviors. Theories that were once reserved for science’s elite minds are opened and explored through this book in a way that even an average mind is still able to wrap around the concepts. Grab this book and give it a read, it will change everything you thought you knew.

Saving Private Ryan

Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” could still be described as one of the most accurate World War 2 movies ever created. Released in 1998, this film follows Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) along with his platoon on a mission to search the battle-torn French countryside in search of Private Ryan (Matt Damon,) who is the only survivor of four brothers in the war. The gut wrenching detail starts right from the beginning with an extremely graphic scene recreating the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Through this film, viewers are allowed a first-hand glimpse into the shock and horror that was World War 2.

DaVinci on Drugs

What would Leonardo DaVinci’s art look like if he did drugs? Exploring the visionary art by Alex Grey at alexgrey.com may just provide an example of what that might look like. The site features Grey’s works ranging from early drawings and self-portraits to his more recent psychedelic and visionary style paintings. Under the paintings tab, viewers are free to explore several of Grey’s series including his early works, progress of the soul, and his most recent project titled “The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.” The paintings in the progress of the soul section combine aspects of the physical world with symbolic representations of the spiritual and metaphysical worlds clearly influenced by a strong dose of LSD. Human bodies are portrayed in a strange style centered heavily around interior anatomy and feature skeletal structures and elements of the circulatory and nervous systems much like the scientific works of Leonardo DaVinci. Multiple levels of the spiritual chakra including the third-eye and the aura are also explored and represented through vivid coloring and mystical lines surrounding the beings. The backgrounds and settings of the paintings are also brightly colored and are based on complex geometric patterning. This series of Grey’s work includes several different events in the journey of human life including pregnancy, birth, nursing, copulating, healing, and death and are all painted using this same combination of the physical and the spiritual. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors features all of the human physical and spiritual systems as well, but in this section there is a separate painting devoted to each of them. Grey’s physical and spiritual vision and understanding are astounding and the deep detail and symbolism that he has been able to incorporate into his art can easily keep a viewer engaged for hours.

Mental Institution or Prison?

Currently on exhibit at Roosevelt University’s “Gage Gallery” in Chicago, photographer Eugene Richards’ exhibit entitled “A Procession of Them: The Plight of the Mentally Disabled” is sure to draw emotion out of even the most callous of souls. According to Roosevelt University’s website, Richards began his career as a journalist and then later became a volunteer for the human rights organization Mental Disability Rights International. During this time, he toured mental institutions across the countries of Mexico, Argentina, Armenia, Hungary, Paraguay, and Kosovo he compiled a gallery of images that are not only extremely artistic in their quality, but are also very powerful in their message.

The overall mood of the images is very dark as they convey views of mentally ill patients in their prison-like environment conjuring images in the mind that will easily remind viewers of the dark days of World War 2 and the Holocaust. The photos are all presented in a black and white color scheme adding to the tension and lending an old-world quality to the images being portrayed. One of the major themes of the gallery is imprisonment as many of the photos illustrate patients being held behind bars with their glassy eyes holding just a small glimmer of hope that they might be able to span beyond the gap of mental illness and one day connect with the rest of humanity. Another theme revolves around the heavy drugging of these patients through the gut-wrenching images of patients being held down and injected with various psychiatric pharmaceuticals. The power contained within these images is very astounding and one cannot help but feel the temptation to be magnanimous and humane towards these people. Through this gallery we are allowed a glimpse into the horrid lives to which these patients have been contained, but we can also see that they too are human and deserve better treatment than they are being granted.

To view the gallery visit: http://www.roosevelt.edu/gagegallery/

Addicted to Parenting

With the launch of the fourth season of The Learning Channel’s reality TV series “19 Kids and Counting” eventually one must beg the question, “How many children is too many?” The series, formerly known as “17 Kids and Counting” and later, “18 Kids and Counting,” follows Arkansas couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar along with their massive herd of children through their activities in everyday life. Jim Bob, a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, is a hard-core right-wing conservative Christian who believes strongly in a foundation of good morals and values accompanied by an extreme faith in God. Michelle, who met Jim Bob during her conversion to Christianity, has also become a devout believer in God, which she credits with her decision to discontinue the use of birth control. After suffering a miscarriage in the 1980’s, Jim Bob and Michelle decided to allow God to take over in deciding how many children they would ultimately have.

Unfortunately for the Duggars, the decision to allow God to make this choice on their behalf has led them to the staggering number of 19… and counting. Some might call this a blessing, but in today’s society the family appears instead more like a real-life representation of what we would expect from “The Simpsons” favorite redneck “Cletus the Slack Jaw Yokel.” The family’s eldest child, Josh (age 22), has also begun conceiving his own family with his wife Anna who comes from a similar background of a family of 10. Josh and Anna’s first child, Mackynzie, is now 6 months in age and with Jim Bob and Michelle’s most recent child Josie being 4 months in age, Mackynzie now has an aunt who is actually younger than she is. With this startling fact, the Duggar family has now succeeded in completely destroying the lines of generation.

While choosing not to use birth control is a decision that should warrant respect, the Duggar family taken it so far into the realm of the extreme that it has become questionable at best. While they have chosen to share the gift of life with their children, they are also taking away from what a quality life should entail. While Jim Bob and Michelle focus their attention on the youngest of their children, the older ones are then forced to give up the joy and fun of the youth experience because of their inherited responsibility to take care of the middle children who are left seemingly neglected by the situation. We can all hope that Jim Bob and Michelle will eventually see the negativity that their constant child bearing is bringing upon their other children and hopefully they will come to the decision to halt the process so that instead of bringing more meaningless lives into the world they can begin to enrich the ones that are already here.