Chuck Berry and the End of Time

"I got a chance to write one!
Reelin' and Rockin', Rollin 'til the break of dawn....
Looked at my watch and it was almost one I said 'Come on baby, lets have us some fun!"

Is time speeding up? Or does it just feel like it? Chuck Berry seems to think so. So do scholars of the Mayan Calendar. Two of the most influential sources of information as far as I'm concerned. The theory paints this picture in my head of going to a science museum on a field trip when I was younger. Outside the gift shop us kids with some spare change would drop a penny or two in those big old round spiral things. One penny at one end, one at the other. They would spend a great deal of time at the top of the funnel, circling and barely intersecting, slowly, smooth. Patiently we waited on step stools for the coins to descend to the abyss. When they approached the black hole, they swirled violently as their centrifugal forces increased, sometimes running into each other before the climatic (ping/ching/clang/ding) sounds of coins hitting the others in a place you couldn't see.

"looked at the clock and it was almost 4, you know she turned me 'round - made me do it some more."

Time in the Mayan Calendar is measured in cycles, much like the coin spin-y thing. At the beginning of the Long Count calendar in 2500 BC, stuff moved pretty slow - to dark ages and renaissance thru the industrial revolution where time and the locomotive started picking up steam until today's technology internet and information collision. As we approach the end of the cycle in 2012 it is a thesis of scholars that this phenomenon exist. (if not on a quantum level, then on a conscious level) In other words, as we approach the end date, it will at the very least, seem like time is speeding up.

To me this week feels like a prime example. We are in the midst of a tiny cycle of the calendar, but a cycle non-the less. One that evolves based on a thirteen day period called a trecenna. Today is the 3rd day of thirteen, called 3 Lammat. As we move through this cycle, I'll see an evolutionary cycle. Today being a developmental stage, and harvesting the hard work s the trecenna moves on. Lammat means Star, and more specifically, Venus, and it makes a pretty neat-o crop circle. The great goddes of beauty with movements synchronized with the earth like a ballet that will make you weep.

"looked at my watch and it was quarter past 7, thats when we rolled off and took off to heaven."



Tonight, Midwest beat 5 hour band practice Milwaukee. Working on brand new songs we will record in the studio this week. Songs we have never played before tonight, songs that don't have lyrics, songs that have no arrangement.

"looked at my watch and it was quarter to Ten, she called me back and made me do it again."

Tomorrow Midwest Beat practice in Madison. Working on the fine tuning of vocal harmonies and arrangements that we completed tonight.
Tuesday afternoon, once again, in Madison thinking recording layers and other instruments, pianos, claps, fade ins and outs etc.
Tuesday evening recording Christmas song demos for Rocktopus.

"Looked at my watch and it was straight up Twelve, man we started diggin like old steamed shells."







"looked at my watch and it was almost five, man I felt more dead than alive."

Wednesday - Int'l Datelines practice for recording this week as well. Also, practicing for a show on Sunday, playing only new songs. I'm trying to get a hold of time and master all these songs, but it is a slippery devil.

"We boogied in the kitchen, we boogied in the hall, I got some on my finger and wiped it on the wall."

Thursday- Midwest Beat recording at Howl Studios in Milwaukee with Justin Perkins. 7 - 8 new songs including brand new ones wrote this very week. (Belladona, Ain't It Strange, Bethany, Too Late to Care, Alone Again, Blind Flower Girl, Wondering' and more...whew)
Thursday night Midwest Beat travels to Madison to play for the chance to win more studio time in the final round of Band to Band Combat at The Frequency.
Friday morning head to the studio to finish day two of recording.
Saturday head back to Madison to play 2 shows at Mickeys Saloon for Chopper Fest 2 with The Elephant Walk and Midwest Beat. Oh Shit, I should find some time for Elephant Walk practice this week.

"looked at my watch and it was quater to five, feeling like a Mustang on a four day drive."

Sunday morning the International Datelines will enter Sounds OK studios for an intense 1 -day session. Recording: "Oh Teenager" "Shame Shame Shame" and ummmm a bunch others, I don't even know.
Sunday night International Datelines pack up and head down to Franks Power Plant to play with one of my favorite bands and good friends from Indiana, The Half Rats.
Monday, wake, work, wait for a basic mix (harvest of the hard work in this evolutionary "thirt-night" trecenna. Rest, relax, let the period pass and die, then move on to the next cycle beginning on Thanksgiving day with a prediction that time will continue to feel as if it is accelerating with every 13 day cycle or trecena. Time is speeding up...At least it seems like it.

"Sometimes I do- then again I think I don't."