Location: Florence, Italy
Listening: Welcome Red, by The Benevento/Russo Duo
I hope that you are all still out there. Keeping up with my blog has been particularly difficult for me as of late because of the overwhelming workload that I've been dealing with. Now that classes have begun I'm responsible for approximately 800-1000 pages of reading each week.
There are weekly papers, presentations, and discussions that I must also prepare for. This is definitely the challenge that I was looking for.
The subject matter for the first semester is primarily background material to familiarize us with all things EU--grand theories of integration, profiles on member states, explanations of policy-making procedures, and a formal introduction to the bureaucratic structure of the European Union. It's a lot of information. I look forward to getting beyond this "stuff" so that I can begin to deal with the larger questions facing the EU and its validity and purpose. I've always preferred subjectivity to objectivity.
The Real World: Florence
Having done this study abroad thing before (London 2003), I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. When you pack 16 twenty-somethings into a beautiful palazzo in the heart of Florence, Italy you can be certain that there will be a certain level of drama. As I mentioned in my last post, there are 12 girls and only 4 males living in this house. I don't think the pheromones have kicked in yet but there have certainly been moments of tension between some of the girls. We four males have done a good job so far of avoiding these.
We've managed to go out on the town a handful of evenings since we've been here and I've been relieved to discover that there is a core group that shares my passion for "having a big time." Life is lived much more fully if we adhere to the work hard/ play hard attitude.
Next Thursday I'm traveling with the group to Ireland for 4 days and then with a smaller group to London for 3. I feel a bit ambivalent about returning to Ireland after having spent a large part of my summer there, but I'll be going to Dublin and points further north/northeast far away from the coastal places that I hit earlier. I haven't been to London since 2004 so I don't mind returning to my old stomping grounds for a visit. I love that city.
Phish:
The band Phish announced that they will be reuniting in March of 2009 to do three shows at Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. Those of you who know me and are aware of the absurd distances (Miami to Vermont and many many places in between) I have traveled to see these guys play can imagine how happy this makes me.
Phish has a bad rap in the mainstream because of associations with drugs, do-nothingness on the part of fans, and a refusal to respond to the demands and expectations of major record labels. Truly, this was something that started purely from the ground up with no expectations of stardom, fame, or widespread commercial success. In fact, the realization of some of these things (yes, including drug addiction) was exactly what led to the first and second disbandments in 2000 (hiatus) and 2004, respectively. Essentially, Phish fell victim to the classic Rock and Roll cliches of fame and excess that has destroyed so many other Rock bands in the past.
But while Rock and Roll is a bunch of bullshit-- music is not. And if you've been lucky enough to catch these guys live when they're "on" when there is an almost visible energy exchange between the band and the audience, you know that there is something special and unique about the music being created. And as long as this revamping is coming from the same pure, honest (and sober) place it originated from (a college dorm in at University of Vermont in 1983) then I could not be happier that the music will begin again.
For many people including myself, music is faith. In fact, at this point in my life I believe that in many ways music is safer than many of the other avenues people take to discover a connection with a higher power. Organized religion today is more often about politics and power than it is about people and what makes them feel alive. Music is the purest faith--an unambiguous and indiscriminating energy that soothes and strengthens all souls willing to surrender to its seductive nature.
I'm reminded of Nathaniel Hawthorne's story The May-Pole of Merry Mount (1837). The story is centered around a pagan-esque celebration that follows a wedding of two young kids in Puritan New England at the beginning of the 19th century. The wedding party dancing around the May-pole is interrupted by an elder who is appalled at the scene who then orders for the group to be whipped and clothed in more conservative garb. Hawthorne's use of satire here is intransient--it hearkens back to issues related to The Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden and also says much about contemporary societal forces that that repress the sort of unconventional behavior symbolized by the may-pole dance. But as I said in my last post, none of the repressive efforts of any of the institutions that are the matter of our zeitgeist will get us back "into the garden." So really, both social reactionism and conservatism are futile attempts to repress those things about the human condition that hint at our fallibility, mortality, and ironically even our humanity. The good news is that we don't have to get back into The Garden, but that's another controversial theological debate that I'll deal with later.
Today in America there are too many forces telling us that we're not good enough, or that we don't look the right way or that we don't have enough money, talent, or ambition. But for me and many others, Music (and especially the music of Phish) is a well that we draw from that reminds us of what we do have, who we truly are, and what is pure, honest and sacred in the one life that we are given. With the music there is no room for hatred, fear, or sadness--only joy. Today, we've got our may-pole back.
"The trick is to surrender to the flow."
from The Lizards, Gamehenge Narrative by Phish
PS--If you want to know exactly what I'm talking about, click this link and watch carefully at what happens between the 4 minute mark and the 7 minute mark, paying careful attention to what happens at the 6 minute mark.
