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(11/07/12 11:00pm)
Funk You is a conglomerate monster of raw psychedelic energy and flowing rhythm. The progressive funk fusion act was formed by Gavin Hamilton and guitarist Evan Miller. Both from Augusta, Ga. the two friends built a solid foundation for the group that would later welcome drummer Thomas Reid, bassist Rob Thompson and percussion and keyboardist Palmer Owens and Will Foster. Since its recent birth in early 2011, Funk You has exemplified versatility and unhinged talent on an impressive multitude of stages.
Starting small in local Augusta venues, Funk You has since expanded to play shows in Athens, Atlanta, Tallahassee, Milledgeville and frequently in Macon, where they played downtown for a Halloween-themed set last weekend. Without a hired manager or booking agent, Funk You takes a transcendental approach to performing and recording. Much like their accessible attitude towards their own music, the group always welcomes new ideas without getting too wedded to specifics. Hamilton, Miller, Owens and Foster sat down with me when they were in Macon for their show, and we explored their inventive sound and direction as a band.
“Maybe we’re expanding slowly because our management is internal,” keyboardist Will Foster said. “I guess we could find a hire, but it’s just like, why? We’d still play most of the same places. We feel like we’re doing everything we need without it.”
Funk You released their EP earlier this year without any extra help after recording in an attic, a testament to their self-motivation as a band. Since that release, and many performances later, they’ve noticed how their sound has responded and grown from their own experience.
They started small, as a basic three-piece that guitarist Evan Miller described as “kinda limiting. It was more progressive funk, but now we can do so much more. We’re a little jazzier, and we just have more layers, so we have more room to explore.”
All of the six members bring a lot to the table when it comes to performing, and each has his own diverse talent to contribute. As a result, their music is smoothly infected with concoctions of driven blues, jazz, hip hop and bold electronic rock. Their influences come from everywhere, but they manage to keep a central platform even while they collaborate and experiment.
Singer Gavin Hamilton waxed sentimental, “We all listen to a lot of different types of stuff, but we come together. We collaborate. I mean, we’ll be from here to there, and everyone is so into their own kind of music, but it just comes together and it all sounds good.”
Without attaching themselves to their own contributions, they recognize and welcome the value of constant input. Hamilton explained, “The majority has been written by Evan, him being the lead guitarist. So we’ve had that foundation, you know, since the beginning, but everyone writes and everyone does something since we’re such a variety of talent, even instrument-wise.”
Foster remarked, “We probably have the weirdest writing process.”
The four members explained their holistic approach to writing. Following Miller’s observation that more members allowed them to explore more layers of sound, the band emphasized the importance of an open and flexible dedication to songwriting.
The process is far from formulaic, but the music gets a chance to live and breathe without getting stifled. The songs change, adapt to the environment and get restructured from time to time. The band reminisced about songs they left off for a while and came back to with fresh minds, and about how long the writing process sometimes lasts.
“But because we don’t rush it,” said Foster, “when we finish one after a month or two of working on it and coming back to it, it’s like, ‘Man. I’m glad it took that long.’”
Even their sets are continually changing and constantly incorporating new songs with inventive covers.
“We are constantly switching what we play,” percussionist Palmer Owens explained. “Like, every time you see us, it’s a completely different show. Even with the crowds we see a lot, since we’ve been playing in Augusta since the beginning, we always give them something different. We change everything and it’s never the same show twice.”
With an emphasized attitude about creative inclusion and versatility, Funk You maintains an impressive, instrumentally solid precision. They observe how they’ve gotten a lot “tighter,” and audiences will see that they have a distinct ability to channel their natural chemistry into something sensational.
No matter what songs they choose to play, or what venue, Funk You testifies, “You WILL dance. I don’t care if you don’t dance at any concert; you will dance.”
Funk You will be back in Macon sometime in February. Until then, you can find their EP at funkyoumusic.com and on their Facebook page.
(10/24/12 9:00pm)
The Deep Roots Festival was a panoply of entertainment for the throngs of tipsy college students, classic car enthusiasts and candy-faced kids who packed downtown Milledgeville on Saturday, Oct. 20.
Residents who don’t just go to the festival for the live music could head to the grounds at 10 a.m. and have a great time tasting barbecue, checking out the annual car show, perusing local craft art and watching their children play on inflatable slides.
But while there’s something for the whole family at the festival, its main attraction is the live music. Students and local residents celebrate the viable holiday with early afternoon beers, congregating around the intimate outdoor stage late into the night. Deep Roots, for many, is about the music, and not just for the chance to see a few local acts for only $5.
Now in its ninth year, the festival’s stage has distinguished itself with a talented repertoire. Past years have seen Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Delta Spirit, The Dirty Guv’nahs and Tim Reynolds mixed in with some local festival flavors, making the stage a veritable medley of musical taste and reputation. This year’s concoction followed the same recipe, featuring hometown groups with acclaimed and experienced national talents.
Local acts Mayview Road and The Eclective resonated with raw folk, heavy jazz and edgy bluegrass in the afternoon, bringing a homey taste to the table. But in between, the crowd was hit with some authentic blues from Chris Thomas King. You might remember him from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” when his character trades his soul for guitar talent from the devil. Not to say King makes deals with the devil, but his talent Saturday evening was nothing short of supernatural. The man barely moved on stage, but his percussive vocals and escalating blues riffs created an energetic stage presence that halted passing crowds.
As the final headlining support, trio act Dangermuffin brought their own complex energy to the main stage for a touch of organic, calypso-driven bluegrass. They added a welcomed flavor of relaxed, easy festival music to the stage without clumping themselves into the jam band mob. They traded rock for funk and beach music in a tidal pattern that breathed new energy from the stage.
In the end, The Givers took the stage to prove why they were the headlining band at Deep Roots this year. Mixing delectably symphonic flute, saxophone and guitar with raging percussion and vocal harmonies, the five-piece band was musical synergy incarnate. Vocalist and percussionist Tiffany Lamson stood center stage with Taylor Guarisco, vocalist and guitarist. While both projected energetic, interactive vocals for the band’s poppy tunes, Lamson radiated in the spotlight with a wild presence that was shocking and entrancing. Demonstrated by her broken tambourine later in the set, Lamson’s vigor was uncontrollable and contributed to the show’s overall resonance. Their stage chemistry was playful, excited and willful, and the rest of the band displayed enthralling musical passion without sacrificing technical complexity.
Topping off an already eventful night of live music on that stage, The Givers left the crowd with something to look forward to. Metronomic vocals interrupted soulful instruments for a zydeco experience, even while they stepped from their originals to cover a Talking Heads track. They ended the night with an encore performance of their most popular track “Up, Up, Up” to give an exhilarating finish to this year’s Deep Roots festivities.
(10/10/12 4:00pm)
In their second album, “Babel”, Mumford and Sons’ subtle infusion of raw, country bluegrass and traditional British melodies and their well-researched, literary and spiritual lyrics take this style of bluegrass folk music to a higher level. Marcus Mumford’s vocals, backed by Ted Dwayne’s punctuating percussion, make the listener involved in the song’s emotion and desire. The truth of an experience becomes just as important as every philosophical conclusion, and each point resonates through Ben Lovett’s cascading keyboard and Winston Marshall’s piquant banjo. Mumford exposes their message not with bland transparency, but with raw honesty and effective communication.
“Babel” sings with gospel conviction and hymnal reverence as the album penetrates a spirituality that rises and spreads with instrumental delivery. The album is propelled by lyrics explaining a passionate desire to find and venerate truth in experiences. Like many of their bluegrass peers, Mumford explores depths and facets of traditional religion. However, they tend to stay away from any institutional structure, especially as they tear down walls and structures in their opening title track. “Babel” is immediately aware of the biblical elements that help construct the argument of the entire album.
Yet the song dwells in a search for truth through personal exploration separate from any institutional structure. “Babel” jumps headfirst into the core of the album, and its exhilarating energy reassures the return of the rigor that compelled their debut. This energy builds in “Whispers in the Dark”, which becomes an invigorating anthem for fulness of life when the group sings in ending chorus, “Let’s live / while we are young / while we are young.” The anthem continues steadily throughout songs like “Lover’s Eyes.” They emphasize capability with guidance when Mumford sings, “I’ll walk slow / take my hand, help me on my way.”
Even as they explore more somber tracks, Marcus Mumford’s voice still harnesses that raw, gritty determination. Choir harmonies support the album’s strength by adding authentic substance to poetic tracks that offer hope and encouragement, even in hard times. “Holland Road” explores this learning experience through repetitive voices and rhythms reminiscent of a traditional reel, reinforcing the album’s certainty of salvation, singing, “When I’m on my knees / I’ll still believe.” In further determination, “Broken Crown” releases a defiant downpour of willful banjo and mandolin over thundering keyboard. Throughout the album, Mumford and Sons refuse to stray from their convictions, boldly adhering to the spirituality they’ve discovered.
“Babel” soon becomes its own religion, creating a spiritual space where poppy British folk reels combine with gritty electric resonance in “Below My Feet.” Again backed by volumizing vocal harmonies, Mumford gives an ode to the earthly traveler whose every step is a learning experience for the soul. And this learning experience is held with shameless faith, leaving “no time / for a cynic’s mind” in the closing track, “Not With Haste.”
Like other folk musicians, Mumford and Sons sing the blues and discuss religion, but they do it in their own way. Their country ballads are Celtic dirges, and their rock riffs are traditional folk reels. Their blues come from constantly searching for a venerable truth on earth, and their religion is the space where that truth resides within the song. In “Babel,” this truth is communicated through a universal language.
(09/26/12 9:24pm)
Oliver Sim and Romy Madley-Croft of the xx, an electronic London pop group, give vocal purpose and depth to Jamie Smith’s crisp electronic drum beats and rippling guitar melodies. Their sound is solemnly playful as the two exchange lyrics, taking conversational turns and talking over one another as they discuss the struggles and questions of an intimate relationship.
The xx was well received with their self-titled debut album in 2009. They ranked highly on “best of” lists compiled by The Guardian, Rolling Stone and New Music Express, and have performed at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits. In short, they gained a lot of fame for a band whose sound exemplifies shyness and hesitant humility. But even the most successful groups can’t debut twice, and the xx illustrates the need for future versatility in both sound and subject matter in their second studio album, “Coexist”.
In “Angels”, Madley-Croft’s voice dives beautifully through tidal percussion and comes out clearly and boldly, promising a powerful album to follow. This leads quietly into “Chained,” which fulfills this promise with commanding vocals over pulsating drums and keyboard. The song reaches thematically as both singers question their own faults with a bold vocal execution. This dynamic comes again in “Try” with a desperation that demands awe. The keyboard and guitar melodies come in waves punctuated by clear-cut percussion as they accompany a conversation about wishes and what-ifs.
However, while this subject matter pairs well with the group’s unique sound, it almost depends on the minimalistic and bare use of instruments to maintain effect. And because both sound and subject are so limited, the songs eventually become redundant. The medium soon begins recycling old messages in formulaic lyrics. “Coexist” seems to predict the possibility of this thematic regurgitation and counteracts with desperate pauses in already weak tracks like “Fiction,” “Reunion” and “Unfold.” The songs try to create suspense but never actually deliver. These hesitant vocals and monotonous rhythms interrupt everything the other tracks try to contribute to the conversation. One of the xx’s great talents is their ability to make repetition exciting, and it’s disappointing that they refused us this gift on almost half of their new tracks.
Fortunately, the album’s stronger tracks alone create a compelling discussion. “Missing” comes back with dynamic volume and echoing vocals as Sims proclaims, and repeats, “My heart is beating in a different way.” The electronic rhythms pair with struggling, whispering vocals to literally breathe life back into the whole album. Sims continues to sing louder with Madley-Croft’s subtle support in the background until they switch unexpectedly. Their playful and pleading back-and-forth leads into “Tides,” where the duo’s singing alternates and comes together in throbbing, orchestrated dialogue. The track dips in and out of rhythmic waters as they sing in unison, “You leave with the tides / and I can’t stop you leaving.”
They come back again in “Swept Away,” treading breath-heavy vocals and undulating keyboard with crisp, quick electronic drum beats. The album finishes with the hymnal “Our Song,” synthesizing their conflicting discussion with the confession that “the walls I / hide behind / you walk through.”
The xx have potential for future success, because they have a lot of room to grow. Their instrumental chemistry creates a space with infinite possibility, but their conversation limits itself to the repetition of their first album.
(09/12/12 4:00pm)
The punk-infused bluegrass group from Concord, N.C. is Southern simplicity and frenetic energy all shaken up in a Mason jar. The Avett Brothers’ sixth studio album, “The Carpenter”, illustrates how these musical qualities have developed with the band’s lyrical dedication to progress, hard work and introspection.
Since their first studio album in 2002, original members Seth and Scott Avett and Bob Crawford have learned how to incorporate the more classical sounds of Joe Kwon’s cello and the versatile rhythm of Joe Edwards’ drums without abandoning the intricate banjo and guitar that make their sound unique.
“The Carpenter” tends to focus on a softer piano and a gentler use of electric instruments than their earlier albums, even in their plaintively soulful “Pretty Girl From Michigan”, the newest installment of their “Pretty Girl From (Place)” collection of songs. Vocal harmonies don’t stray from the melody as often as in the earlier, more rebellious tracks of their previous albums. Yet the uplifting and easy vocals still manage to foster that youthful enthusiasm in songs like “Live and Die” and “I Never Knew You.” And while The Avetts include their personal acoustic sadness in songs like “Winter in my Heart” and “Through My Prayers,” they never forget to throw a surprise hook preventing their sadness from settling too comfortably.
Lyrically, “The Carpenter” still deals with the introspection and regret of earlier Avetts’ albums like the 2006 release “Four Thieves Gone” and the 2007 release “Emotionalism”. But they follow each mention of hopelessness with a declaration of purpose in tracks like “Down with the Shine”. And while earlier songs illustrate love and affection, “A Father’s First Spring” matures these emotions in a beautiful reflection of the experience of new life and parenthood. One of the few songs that deal with the promise of life in their newest album, this track brings the Avetts away from introspective worries about shame and regret and into selfless devotion. It is punctuated perfectly by the heavy, grunge rock “Paul Newman vs. the Demons” where the Avetts answer the question “How many times must I / live through the past again?” by screaming “no more.”
Yet they remind us throughout the album of the important task of returning to the past—not abandoning it, but using it to move forward and look to the future. The title track, “The Once and Future Carpenter,” reminisces on past experiences of working and traveling, promising “Forever I will move / like the world that turns beneath me.” It concludes with the conviction that “If I live the life I’m given / I won’t be scared to die.” This emphasis on living with purpose and working with past regrets to grow in the future comes full circle in the final track, “Life,” which opens with the promise that “we’re not on this world for long” and calls the audience to action with the command to “keep it, use it / build it, move it.”
“The Carpenter” draws lyrically on the progress of life and the importance of an active perspective that remembers the past while going towards the future. These themes accommodate The Avett Brothers’ ever-improving musical precision that becomes a clearer, more disciplined vehicle for their invaluable and passionate energy. Their latest album illustrates the simple dedication that has brought them this far, and promises a continual progression as they move into the future.
(09/12/12 4:00pm)
Last Wednesday, Macon’s Hummingbird Stage and Taproom received a humble portion of bluesy, southern authenticity from Water Liars’ frontman Justin Kinkel-Schuster.
Called “Pete” by most people, Kinkel-Schuster and his feather-adorned guitar took the stage with an open and welcoming presence. Even without band member Andrew Bryant, he managed to give a great display of the raw, blunt simplicity that makes Water Liars’ sound so powerful. Their name comes from a Barry Hannah short story, and their music is densely infused with literary references. Like a dark hymn, Kinkel-Schuster’s voice is a cleansing breath that demands reverence.
After leaving Macon, he took some time to visit Flannery O’Connor’s house in Milledgeville before continuing the tour up to Charleston.
A few days later, Kinkel-Schuster took some more time to let me get an interview from the road.
MM: How long have you been writing music?
KS: I’m pretty sure that as soon as I got my first guitar, at around age 12 or 13, I just started writing songs. So I’ve been trying to write things pretty much as long as I’ve been playing—I guess approximately 15 years.
MM: What influences your writing?
KS: Life. I mean, I’m sure a lot of people would say that too, but really, it’s the things that happen to me and what I do and see and hear that make up the lion’s share of what inspires me to write. It’s mostly just living life, and what I soak up from everything that happens.
MM: So how has life been for you lately? When did you start touring?
KS: (laughs) Well, I’ve been touring forever. But with Water Liars, we started the tour at the beginning of March. It’s been going great so far.
MM: You’ve been in other bands before, but Water Liars formed in 2011. What made that happen?
KS: Andrew and I have been friends forever, but we’ve only been playing together as a band for about nine months.
MM: Wow. So you played together for the first time when you made the album?
KS: Yeah, I just went up to his house for a long weekend and that was actually the first time we ever worked or played together. We knocked it out in about three days over a long weekend. We were just planning on recording some songs that I had but we weren’t planning on cranking out a fully formed record. It was kind of accidental. As soon as we started working on it we both felt it. Immediately it just felt really good and felt like something we needed to work on and do whatever we could with.
MM: And the name comes from a short story. Tell me about that.
KS: We chose that because we are both Barry Hannah nerds and love Hannah’s writing. It’s the first story from that book of short stories, and it sounded like a good name for a band, so—two birds, one stone. We needed a band name, and we both like the story. Seemed like a good way to knock ‘em both out.
MM: Andrew wasn’t with you when you came to Macon. Will he be back to join you later?
KS: He did all of the first long tour when the record came out, and most of the spring, but he’s been working a lot during the summer. I don’t know what he’s going to be able to do in the future. I’m planning on just doing, you know, everything, but he’s welcome at any time.
MM: How much longer will you be on tour?
KS: Well I’ll head back to Oxford at the end of November, then I’ll break for a couple weeks before starting again in December and do it again.
MM: What have been some of your favorite places so far?
KS: I don’t know—Durham, North Carolina the other night. Charleston was really good. It’s hard to answer that question when I’m on the road because everything and every day just blurs together. I’m playing in Norfolk, Virginia tonight, but then I head to Baltimore. I’m really excited about playing in Baltimore tomorrow; I have some friends there and it’s always a lot of fun.
MM: Do you have a favorite song to play live?
KS: A favorite song? I’m not going to answer that. (laughs) It’s just funny to me to think of sitting around and picking out favorite things that I wrote. There are definitely things I feel are better or worse than others, but it’s sort of like talking about your kids. You say you love them all the same even though you don’t always, and they’re all a pain in the ass sometimes.
MM: What other music influences you?
KS: I mostly listen to a lot of old music, old soul and R&B and blues. Generally I have an attraction, a love affair, with old things from the past. I guess I like the way the music sounds with old equipment; the way it’s played sounds warmer and more real and live to me. Which doesn’t make sense because it’s old, but that’s just the way it is to me.
MM: ‘Phantom Limb’ came out recently and sounds great. Will you record again soon?
KS: Yes. We are going to record again and make an album, and hopefully it’ll be alright.
‘Phantom Limb,’ the Water Liars’ debut album, was released last February. Music and merchandise from the Water Liars can be found at www.waterliarsmusic.com or the website of the band’s producer, Misra Records at www.misrarecords.com.
(08/29/12 4:00pm)
Even before My Morning Jacket took the stage at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta last Friday, lead singer Jim James reinforced the mission of real, raw folk rock.
James made an appearance while Band of Horses carried the crowd through the opening act, adding saxophone to the band’s mellow sound and country-rock rhythm. The jazzy sax tunes seemed to give the band a new energy, and the musicians took from each other as much as they gave in pure jam-session style. James left the stage, and Band of Horses lead singer Benjamin Bridwell handled the awe-inspiring experience with humility and subtle irony as he said, “Tyler Ramsey, everybody!” adding laughter to the already erupting applause. Ramsey, the band’s lead guitarist, humbly shook his head and laughed even louder.
The entire concert was a haven for creative discussion, a true conversation among musicians who want nothing more than to give their talent selflessly and in the most meaningful way. Jim James provided his own expression to the talented Band of Horses, allowing them the opportunity to embrace possibility in their already solidly talented sound. James embodied that same desire for innovative exploration of pure musical energy when he took the stage with his own band that night.
The group from Louisville, Ky. has been performing together since their formation in 1998 and the release of their debut album, ‘The Tennessee Fire,’ in 1999. Since then, the band has released five more studio albums, three live albums, four compilations and one live concert DVD. My Morning Jacket has graced the late night stages of David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and Jimmy Fallon, and the festival stages of Coachella, Bonnaroo, SXSW, Hangout and more. Their many years of onstage experience have allowed them to continuously perfect their sound and dynamic, and the results Saturday were mesmerizing.
MMJ eased into their first set with two of their more poppy tracks, ‘Lay Low’ and ‘First Light’, to lift the crowd into the scintillating title track of their most recent album, ‘Circuital’. James’ powerful and comforting vocals almost tangibly filled the venue as he let the melodic and multi-layered song travel endlessly over the crowd. The subtly piercing repetitions of plucked guitar strings built upon themselves over and over, audibly illustrating the lyrics: “Well anyway you cut it / we’re just spinning round / Out on the circuits / over the hollow grounds”. The music seemed to propel itself from there, slipping seamlessly from haunting, psychedelic tracks like ‘Strangulation’ and ‘Cobra’ to the rhythmic chords of ‘Phone Went West’ and ‘Steam Engine’, delving into the more country tunes of songs like ‘Outta My System’ and ‘Magheetah’.
MMJ’s versatility shone throughout the first set, and their southern rock background blended with their progressive and often hypnotizing melodies. James seemed to surrender any control over the sound with fully outstretched arms whenever drummer Patrick Hallahan or guitarist Carl Broemel offered their own invigorating support.
Both Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket punctuated the session’s heavy emphasis on open collaboration and creative donation when Bridwell returned to the stage to play guitar towards the end of the first set. The entire show was brought full circle, and even when MMJ finished the second set with powerful and progressive country rock anthem ‘One Big Holiday’, the concert never seemed to end.
(04/25/12 7:44pm)
Last Saturday, Mercer’s Quadworks organization hosted its fifth annual free Bearstock music festival at Tatnall Square Park across from Mercer’s campus.
The show featured 14 bands on two stages, beginning at 1 p.m. and closing the festival with headliners Yellowcard and Far East Movement at around 11 p.m. Mercer students and Macon locals occupied the park with lawn chairs, blankets and coolers to listen to the bands and watch the third annual Macon Cycling Classic, whose route circled the park.
The cycling race rescheduled its May date to coincide with Bearstock in efforts to increase attendance at both events and to increase involvement between Mercer and the Macon community.
The festival was open to the public, and included such local and regional acts as Argonauts, Woolfolk, Young Benjamin, The Silver Comet, The Levee, Bottle Up and Explode, Emily Hearn, Josh Foster and Saint Francis. Headlining Cherry Blossom Festival act, Jubee and the Morning After, took the stage before Bearstock veterans the Key and Ocean is Theory finished off the day portion of the festival.
The main stage then welcomed the pop-alternative band Yellowcard and the electro-dance group Far East Movement to close the event.
While this was QuadWork’s fifth year of hosting the festival, it is the second time Bearstock has been held in Tatnall Square Park as an open event.
Mercer Live, the committee that oversees the coordination of Bearstock, found a lot of success with the large, open venue and wanted to continue after getting such positive results.
Annie Biggs, a junior at Mercer and a member of Quadworks, was the co-coordinator of Mercer Live with John Jenkins this year. This was her first year in the position. “I really had a wonderful time planning and executing the event,” Biggs said.
Many Mercer students also enjoyed themselves at the event. Dana Nicolazzi, a junior, said that while last year’s bands were better, she had more fun at the festival this year.
“We got some blankets and a cooler full of drinks, and we had an awesome time just hanging out,” said Nicolazzi. “It’s hard to compete with 3oh!3, but these headliners did a good job.”
Jay Bayless, a sophomore at Mercer, liked the diversity of the event.
“The bands were all pretty different, and it was a really open environment, not like most campus events,” said Bayless. “And it was awesome to see Yellowcard play.”
Many students, faculty members, and Macon locals enjoyed the event and nearly filled the park. Attendance estimates may have increased since last year.
“Last year, estimates were around 3,000 to 3,500 people, and I believe numbers were around the same, if not more, this year,” said Biggs. “It’s difficult to estimate numbers since it’s a free event and in a large, open area.”
Quadworks sold t-shirts and sunglasses at the event, and passed out glowsticks during the evening portion of the festival.
The equipment for the bands was time-consuming to take down, but overall, the only problem Quadworks faced was clearing and containing the trash that accumulated in the park, but they will formulate a plan regarding this issue for the next event. Biggs remarked that other than that, everything ran smoothly and Quadworks is excited to plan the event for next year.
For more Bearstock photos, visit www.mercercluster.com
(03/28/12 8:34pm)
The Mercer English Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta, will host a book drive on campus lasting until the end of the semester to fund family literacy programs across the nation. The initiative is headed by Amanda Rountree, a junior at Mercer University and member of Sigma Tau Delta since last year.
Rountree has placed donation bins in the Connell Student Center, Willingham Chapel and on the second floor lounge of Ryals Hall. The bins will remain in place until the end of finals week so students can donate their used textbooks, workbooks and any other books no longer needed after fall and spring classes. Any type of book can be donated, except books that are dirty, moldy, water-damaged, or have missing covers or pages.
The books will go directly to Better World Books, a for-profit organization that works through college campuses, libraries, student groups and bookstores to recycle unwanted books and fund over 85 literacy programs across the world. Better World will choose the most suitable action for each book. If the books are unusable, they will be recycled. If books meet the donation requirements for charity programs, the books will be donated, and if Better World is able to resell the used books, a small portion of profits will go to Mercer’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter.
The majority of the profits, however, will be directly donated to fund one of Better World’s partnered literacy programs. For this book drive, Rountree has chosen to send profits to the National Center for Family Literacy. This organization takes a family-focused approach to promoting literacy in America by partnering initiatives for parent education and involvement in child learning. The organization’s stated mission is to inspire and engage families in pursuit of education and learning together, a goal based on studies that show family, home and community are the true drivers of a child’s education. NCFL has helped over 1 million families make educational and economic progress since its beginning in 1989. To date, the organization has received a total of $330,000 from Better World Books-funded book drives across more than 888 college campuses and libraries across the country.
Rountree chose to head up a book drive to fund this initiative in order to provide Sigma Tau Delta members with unique internship opportunities and to promote literacy to underprivileged families and children.
“I saw the opportunity of the book drive as an easy way for our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and the rest of the students at Mercer to contribute to national literacy in the easiest and simplest manner possible,” said Rountree.
This is the chapter’s first project contributing to this cause, but many members hope to run the book drive annually. “We’re definitely trying to keep this going as an annual thing, and I’ll run it again next year for sure,” said Rountree.
The incentive behind the book drive aligns with Sigma Tau Delta’s own mission of creating a resource for students interested in making the study of literature their vocation and/or profession. Mercer’s Tau Epsilon chapter has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. For the past several years, student members have presented papers at Sigma Tau Delta’s national conference and have had scholarly and creative work published in The Rectangle and The Review, the honor society’s two national journals.
Dr. Anya Silver, the chapter’s faculty adviser, believes the book drive will be a benefit to the students involved and to the problem of illiteracy in general.
“Studies upon studies have shown that students who are read to as children and who have books in their home do much better in school than students who do not...Amanda is spearheading a book drive that will put books in the hands of children and young adults who need them most, hopefully sparking a life-long love of reading in their young minds. I hope that the Mercer community will support Amanda’s important project by donating books that they no longer need and that another reader will treasure,” urged Silver.
(03/28/12 8:29pm)
Sometimes we need to be reminded that, yes, profundity can be endlessly procured from simple things, but sometimes things are profound because they are so, so simple.
Sharon Creech’s “novel” collection of poetry is one of these blessed reminders, appropriately brought to us from the mouth of a child. Jack, the narrator, tediously and at first, unwillingly, steps into poetry writing at the request of his English teacher, Miss Stretchberry. His stubbornness melts away as he writes more and more, discovering the intimate, rhythmic junction of words and sounds that create each delicate line of each poem. This discovery builds on itself until the end of the book, and Jack removes his self-doubt as he ultimately discovers what it means not only to be a poet, but a person.
Jack’s discoveries, like those of any child, take small steps. He begins with no ability to recognize a poem and travels through disbelief, uncertainty, recognition, and finally a full development of understanding and preference for poetry. His words and thoughts are simple, much like we would expect from a child, and his poems reflect this simplicity. However, as his poems begin to reflect the maturation of his questions and thoughts, they never stray from their simplistic style. Jack experiments with different styles of poems, but finds himself able to convey his growing, multi-faceted, more inclusive emotions and questions through a simple, straightforward, accessible method of adolescent poetry.
Through Jack’s character, Creech includes commentary on poems by William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Walter Dean Myers. She presents the most primitive questions asked when confronting these poems for the first time, struggling with their meaning and especially wondering what makes them so important.
Jack never answers this question explicitly, but he definitely learns the answers. And when Creech brings us through to the end of this diary of poems, we learn the answer right along with him. The importance of each poem becomes, for Jack, the impact of his experience, specifically his experience with the death of his dog. Jack is able to bring out the memories of his dog through the inspiration he gets from other poets and channel these memories into the poems he writes. He stops wondering what makes the poems important, or what makes them “real poems,” and revels in their creation instead. He stops doubting himself, and his poems contain less uneasy questions and more of the profound observations that give poems such meaning and authority.
Creech provides this illustration of a life-changing, and life-creating, process through the view of a very small window. In fact, everything about this book is small. The words, the lines, and even the pages were made to fit in the palm of a child. This seems to contrast the deeply profound and great ideas that the novel uncovers, only to remind us that these ideas are the simplest in the world.
This book allows us to join Jack in taking a step back, to stop wondering and exploring and uncovering what makes everything so important. It gives us that little bit of help we need to revel in a simple voice within poetry, literature, and life itself.
(03/28/12 8:02pm)
NewTown Macon continues to refine and finalize plans for the redevelopment of downtown Macon as it launches into its 2012 campaign. One of the project’s primary focuses this year will be responding to the increase in downtown occupancy rates, which will continue NewTown’s campaign from 2007 to “increase residency” and “create a sense of place” downtown. The organization is also focused on projects involving the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and Central City Park.
The non-profit organization will work to increase the number of people living in downtown Macon as it enters into the third phase of its revitalization project, which began in 1999. Their main focus for the next five years is getting people to live downtown and providing residency units to meet that demand.
NewTown Macon was founded in 1996 by the Payton Anderson Foundation and other community leaders through public and private partnerships focused on reinvesting in historic downtown Macon. The organization began with three main goals of growing residency, increasing jobs, and creating a sense of place downtown. Since then, NewTown has elevated a fourth focus in becoming an advocate for broader public concerns that impact the future of downtown and the entire Macon area.
“Our scope is downtown, but some of what we do is much broader than that, and has a much broader impact,” said Laura Schofield, NewTown’s Executive Vice President.
One of these broader projects completed by the organization in the last campaign was extensions to the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, which runs alongside the Ocmulgee River with currently 11 miles of trail. Other projects include the construction of pavilions, trails and a handicap-accessible playground at Amerson Waterworks Park. Both the Trail and Park will remain focal points for NewTown’s 2012 campaign, as the organization has secured a $5.5 million federal grant to add eight miles of trails, additional pavilions, a public boat ramp and other amenities. The Park project is set to launch this summer, said Schofield.
While the specifics of the campaign have not yet been officially finalized, the NewTown committee is in the process of creating a plan that will hopefully give projects more success and impact in the downtown area. The committee will continue to address concerns throughout the community, but will focus renovations systematically using a block-by-block plan. Schofield says that this plan will help concentrate NewTown’s efforts in a way that will increase project efficiency and public awareness of completed projects.
Renovations will mainly consist of the addition of apartments to address downtown’s current 95% occupancy. Plans for 2012 will be based off of recently updated studies showing that the residency market can bear the addition of 235 new housing units in each of the next five years without saturation. NewTown only added 26 apartments during the 2007 campaign, failing to reach its goal of adding 1,000 residency units. The organization is working on plans to make up for that in the upcoming five years.
“NewTown will dedicate itself to helping investors and property owners qualify for historical tax credits in order to make these projects possible,” said Director of Business and Real Estate Development, Hal Baskin. NewTown is also studying the feasability of having a central leasing agent for downtown, said Baskin. NewTown hopes to add a significant number of residency units in the next five years through projects like the Dannenburg Building at the corner of Poplar and Third streets, one of the campaign’s block focuses.
“Residencies will also be publicized through the Live Downtown Macon website, which will undergo major changes in the next six months to update it and make it more user friendly,” said Kris Hattaway, the Director of Place. Hattaway also said that NewTown’s campaigns can be found on their website, and their events and progress can be tracked by following their page on Facebook.
In the next few weeks, the NewTown Macon committee will work to create a more concrete set of specific goals for the 2012 campaign. Before finalizing the plans, NewTown will hold open meetings to invite public feedback. “We really want to hear from the people in our community, and encourage everyone to come with ideas and concerns,” said Schofield.
(03/14/12 8:22pm)
Thanks to its ingenuity and irrepressible complexity, I have no idea how to identify best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer’s most recent project. For the sake of clarity, I suppose we can call it a book. But many would justifiably argue that Tree of Codes is much more than a book, or not a book at all, and I would agree.
The young author has been impressing readers for years now, with both of his novels, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, being developed into film adaptations. His style is compelling, vivid and personal. Foer tentatively stretches past barriers of literature and into other artistic realms in both of these novels with experimental type and images; Extremely Loud even includes an illustrative flip-book at the end. However, neither hold a candle to his third novel, which almost destroys the limitations of medium Foer had previously only brushed up against.
The book is composed of pages of text from Polish author Bruno Schulz’s collection of stories, The Street of Crocodiles. To create a completely new story out of these pages, Foer cut and moved the words using a die-cutting machine. The whole task was so tedious and time consuming that the American novelist and short story writer had to implore several publishers before Visual Editions in London finally agreed to publish it.
The result of this effort is a book with clean, yet fragmentary pages. Some of the words in the pages beyond are visible through the holes, and the reader has a whole lot more to focus on. There are irregular spaces in between, above, and below each sentence and sometimes each word, as some pages are close to full, while others are barely more than a paper scrap. The reader’s eyes have to work. Reading the book becomes a journey in a really physical sense, and the words themselves become literal objects of art.
While there’s something unique, groundbreaking, and impressive about Foer’s medium, the art itself is still nothing more than a fragmented piece of text. Tree of Codes is holes. It’s empty spaces. I mentioned the difficulty of classifying the book, but the problem of summarizing the story within the book surpasses any issues of identification. I think I can say that the story is more of a poem than a novel. I’m not a poet by any means, so I can say very little else about the plot, except that it takes a really short time (30 minutes, 45 tops) to finish.
However, I don’t think that Foer’s method and medium can possibly be the whole reason this book ends up seeming incomplete as it details the last living days of the main character, Father. I also don’t think this incomplete feeling is necessarily bad. The author has always had a distinctly post-modern style – one that leaves out just as much as it gives. Tree of Codes is no exception, as the sentences comprise a combination of sensations and images to follow Father through his delicate and powerful interactions and into a dreamlike conclusion. The confusion of reality, the sensational images, and the emotions evoked by this poem/story are the genuine Foer many readers, especially this one, already know and love.
But the sculptural art created by his unique die-cutting method create an interaction with the reader more profound than Foer’s other novels ever could. As a book, Tree of Codes is slightly incohesive, which is why Foer created more than a book. It becomes a work of art, both tangible and ethereal, and it’s definitely a rewarding experience.
(02/22/12 9:07pm)
If you thought The Hunger Games was a children’s book, you’re absolutely right.
But if you found yourself being a full-grown adult and still connecting with its intricate commentary on politics, social media, and pop culture, you’re one of the millions of fans propelling the series towards its amazing success and upcoming adaptation into a film for all ages.
Set in post-apocalyptic America, Suzanne Collins creates a dystopian nation, Panem, divided into 12 specialized districts and intimately controlled and suppressed by its manipulative, strategically located government district, the Capitol. The back story tells us that an earlier uprising of the districts against the Capitol ended in the destruction of District 13 and resulted in the Capitol’s invention of the annual Hunger Games. The Games help the Capitol maintain control over Panem by requiring two tributes, chosen at random from among the children in each district.
The tributes, which can be as young as 12 or as old as 18, are thrown into an arena meticulously and artistically designed by game makers, and forced to kill each other until only one tribute remains. Each district is forced to watch the Games as the whole thing is televised as if it is a glorified reality show. The winner of each Hunger Games goes home as a celebrity.
While this series joins the genre of dystopian literature along with Brave New World and 1984, Collins wittingly gives her world its own voice through the narration by Katniss Everdeen, who tells us the story in first person.
The cold, cunning, and strong-willed 16-year-old from District 12 volunteers herself as a tribute to the Games when her younger sister, Primrose, is chosen in the drawing. Through Katniss’ eyes, we engage her desperation and determination not only to survive the brutal Games and return to her family, but to endure and conquer the Capitol’s merciless publicity and media attention that projects her and the other tributes as mock celebrities.
But Katniss is not the only character bringing us into this alternate new world. The rest of Collins’ characters draw in a broad audience with equal vigor. This, along with the underlying critique of popular media and television that we all recognize, is what makes Collins’ world so outreaching to all age groups.
At times, the advanced reader is reminded of the book’s lower reading level whenever Collins slips into a loose, somewhat choppy style. Her lazy sentence composition and word choice escape the notice of young readers more readily than advanced readers, but this is how we remember that it’s a children’s book after all. The message, the story, and the emotions contained and projected in the books connect with kids and adults alike.
My 12 year-old sister highly recommends it, and so do I.
The Hunger Games is set to be released in its film adaptation on March 23.