April 27, 2015: Weekend Recap

Dia 27, KY1

I had a truly enjoyable experience this weekend.  I was given the opportunity to judge the Utah PTA State Battle of the Bands at American Fork Jr. High on Saturday 4/25.  In addition Lord Darksteel, Kalenar and myself brainstormed some crowd funding ideas and we watched some wonderfully good and bad movies.


To start off, Friday night we decided to get some chicken, come home, watch Netflix and smoke Huka.  This can be a truly normal Friday night at Kalehalla so we just chilled and watched.  Kalenar chose the movie which was a Swedish film with English subtitles name Ragnarok.  We were impressed with the film on several aspects and I would recommend the movie.  The cool thing about this film though was what it inspired us to talk about.  The concept of the film is that a Swedish archaeologist was finding the origins of the Viking myth Ragnarok The Twilight of the Gods, end of the world.  Kalenar stated that he would love to do that for a living (discover how myths came into being and finding the primal origin) but how would you make money?  I said we could crowd source it as a hobbyist entertainment web project and we started throwing around ideas.  Now this concept of the origins of myths has been intriguing to me since I started this blog because I want to use this as the creation of my own mythology.  People in the world are interested in who they are and history does a fine job stating what has happened before.  These are not enough which is why man has turned to a metaphysical, community or spiritual need.  I find this concept solidified by a 2011 Ted talk by Alain de Botton, an atheist who describes how not to be dismissive of this need but instead how to embrace it and make it your own.  Now back to this conversation about the origins of myths.  Neither Lord Darksteel, Kalenar or myself are scholars.  We are individuals who have diverse interests and knowledge, we are everymen which allows in my opinion this concept to be truly unique.  Scholars have a tendency to sit in their ivory towers and state that only they are correct and are not willing to give credence to how the masses interpret the world.  I argue that the primal world where myths started, did not have scholars, and even if you accept the cynical views that religion was organized to make money or justify morality or create a distraction for the masses (all of which have truth), the mythologies came from men trying to explain something that the nature of man needed explained.  That is why we love the myths we love, the myths speak to us in an almost magical way.  We don't believe them as truth, we like the stories because they are universal.  The concept of this project is basic, find the origin of the myth whatever it may be.  Will we find it?  Probably not but the entertainment is in the journey and that journey is what the project is.  More on this later.

Fired Pilots at The Loading Dock

The Battle of the Bands happened on Saturday, Dia 25.  This is a fun event and my friend Victor and his wife have been the PTA reps over this the last 2 years.  I enjoy listening to the new bands and I hope to find talent.  Two bands in particular held my attention this year.  The 3rd place band Life on Edge and the 1st place band Fired Pilots.  Life on Edge is a truly musical group of students out Hillcrest High School,  very innovative song writing and all are technically proficient.  I hope to hear more of them.  Fired Pilots have a truly unique approach to the angsty, melancholy alt band.  The sound is cleaner in a lot of ways than the grunge where this genre developed, in addition the youthfulness of the group adds a unique perspective.  I hope to hear more of them as well and I will be having a free consulting session with the band in 2 weeks. 

So a basic weekend no fuss.  Last note Les Morgan showed up on Saturday night and hung with us which was cool.