My first of two blogs in English. I'm quite fond of it - I wrote rarely, but posts were long and even with some content into them, I believe...
Pierwszy i przedostatni blog po angielsku. Całkiem nieźle wyszło - wpisy były rzadkie, za to długie i chyba nawet o czymś... _______________________________
Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. ~Robert Fripp
It has been a week from the day when the great Progressive Nation show was performed in Bydgoszcz, so it can make some kind of an occasion to write (finally!) a few – or a few more – words about it.
Progressive Nation is a concert project created by Mike Portnoy, the drummer of Dream Theater. Every concert is a performance of four progressive metal bands – first, two not really famous or popular, but usually interesting, then followed by some special guest and, finally, by Dream Theater itself. But, let’s skip all these general facts and focus on that one special evening I could take part in myself.
Me and my friend arrived shortly before the start as we thought, that having seats reserved provides us such a convienience. Unfortunately, someone had decided to open the entrance only to one section, which made us be late for the first show – Unexpect. Their music was wild and so they were on the stage, at least most of them. I didn’t know them before and I don’t remember what they played… yet they did an unexpectedly good show. :)
Unexpect were followed by Bigelf. For me, their performance wasn’t very exciting, but still nice and very good. Their vocalist did a great job, singing and playing on two synthesisers, however the most memorable moment was definitely when some bearded man made the drummer of Bigelf leave and took his place… Yeah, when Mike Portnoy joined for one song, everyone in the hall suddenly seemed to like them more. ;)
When time came for Opeth, it was a great suprise for me, that they started with my favourite of their pieces – Windowpane. I’m none of their fans and the only CD I’ve managed to get to know is Damnation. However, there was something special in this evening, which made me almost like even the heavy growling parts. On the other hand, they had few fans in the hall and they could feel it, so the atmosphere wasn’t really good.
At 9.30 the lights went down and what most of the audience had been waiting for, finally they got. We heared the well-known sound of a storm, soon followed by the rain-imitating synthesisers. The guitars joined, the curtain fell in a cascade of blue light and A Nightmare To Remember opened a dream to remember…
After these 15 minutes, a time for the first setlist-suprise came: The Mirror, followed by Lie. I hadn’t really expected much from Awake on the concert, perhaps because of what I had known from recent DVDs. Another shock was – at least for me – that James LaBrie sang it just great… just like songs from Awake should be sang. Moreover, I do love the way his sounds live – it’s difficult to describe, the only association I’ve come up with is a little bit of a witch-like sound ;) but it was strange, which this time for me meant amazing.
The others, as always, rocked, but they have also proved, that they can still suprise. Mike Portnoy once dropped his drumstick and… it was completely inaudible. John Petrucci played an amazing solo, based on – as far as I could see – simple chords, but doing impossible things with his right hand. Unfortunately, I can’t write a lot of what John Myung did, because for most of the time I couldn’t see him, or at least I was concentrated on the others – well, staying near Petrucci and already having to share my concentration because of the unbelievable show the Wizard did… competiting with his more wizard-like mate in his own little screen. But, of course, Jordan couldn’t give up even at this matter and he also found a wizard hat – an amazing red one – which he wore, unfortunately, just for one but memorable song.
The John’s solo I’ve mentioned, made me hope for Hollow Years. And so it came forth, with another change in the structure – a few new lines before and maybe you’ll understand. As I do love this song live, I was absolutely amazed. Soon, the keyboard solo led the show to The Dance Of Eternity and One Last Time from my favourite album Scenes From A Memory – thanks, guys! :) Extended with a jam session Solitary Shell, except from pieces from the last album, was the only song from the last 10 years – there was also no song from Images And Words, which all made the setlist quite suprising. A Rite Of Passage, that I personally rather dislike, provided some nice and easy fun just before the last one – The Count Of Tuscany. The ending, sang together by James and the whole audience, finally closed the evening, just half an hour before the end of September…
Well, what else can I say? Save the entrance, everything was organised well and unbelievably punctual. The guest bands were good and the main show amazing. The visible elements of DT show where great as well, the main screen really big and animations just perfect. As it usually is, the time was just horrible – 2 hours, 10 pieces… come on! That’s just a starter!
One reason why I don’t drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time. Nancy Witcher Astor
It was a saturday birthday party. About 30 or 40 people, mostly familiar, some dancing, some talking, some playing party games, some drinking and some not. One of them was Mike, a funny guy who claims that no alco can make him even more cheerful – and I actually believe that. Some, however, had decided to check his will-power – they prepared a simple weak drink and made a bet.
Pauline sat on his lap, put the glass under his nose and started to persuade.
‘Mikeee. Why won’t you drink it? Ok, I just won’t to know, tell me.’
‘Eee. I just don’t need it.’
‘Come on! How old are you? Seventeen. You should get to know, where your boundaries are. You go on holiday with Matt, don’t you? You must know, how much you can drink.’
‘Don’t do this – says his friend. – You agree, she will soon return with another glass and it will all go on from the start…’
‘Mike, I believe in you. I have said you won’t take it!’ – screams some girl. Mike blushes and sits quietly, bewildered, widely smiling.
‘Noo, you will tell my mother…’
‘No! I promise, it will all stay between us.’
He takes one draught, frowns, then drinks the rest looking not so disgusted anymore.
‘I feel guilty’ – he says with an embarrassed look on his face.
Soon Pauline returns with another drink.
‘Go on Mike, just one more.’
‘You see, here it is. You drink that one and you will get the third’ – I say.
‘Mike, it’s so weak! I have drunk three yet, so did Alex. You also can…’
‘Come. On. Leave me alone, the bet is over, yep?’
‘Yeah, now it’s just, you know. Just like that. One more. I won’t bring any more, I promise.’
‘No, she won’t, she will make Pete do it…’ – says someone.
‘Or she will bring vodka or something similar, heh.’
‘Oh, stop it. Mike. Be a man. Girls drink three and you can’t just the second one?…’
‘Mike, I will sit here too, ok? – says Susie – Well, when will you ever have such a chance – holding two girls, just for one drink…’
‘Let’s take a photo!’
His is cheerful and embarrassed, because of both as red as a beet. He drinks, all people, both the happy and disappointed, laugh friendly.
- I feel like a person of no principle…
- Do you feel like a man?
- No.
You know… I don’t drink till I’m eighteen. Anyway, that wasn’t that much, it wasn’t so horrible or that. But I can’t understand, why they wanted to force him. Were they just curious, jealous… drunk? Anyway, I hate the fact, that having some principles so strange is. And I generally hate this kind of sharing views. After fighting so much for liberty.
Actually, soon Pauline tried to tell Mike to drink the third one. And so did Pete. I hate such promises either.
*******
Time Makes Memories Beautiful November 11, 2009 The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don’t come to mind when we want them. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
I’ve been looking for an alternative for WordPress – I like here everything except the fact, that I can’t edit HTML and as I’m going to create a page with blog layouts for NORMAL, HTML editable blogs that’s ridiculous.
I’ve found only one acceptable choice – returning to blog.pl where I used to write a Harry Potter fanfiction with my friends (it was five years ago and it’ve passed so quickly – I’m always terrified and I feel like I’ve got little time left when I realise such things) and so I generally got to know not only blogging, but also the net, as it was the time when I got connected, my friends created a mail account for me etc… Anyway, that was a good time in my life, so please forgive me recalling it now. I don’t want to say, that now I’m unhappy and, to tell you the truth, I think that it is somehow better now, but the memories are always more beautiful than reality.
It’s strange, that I’ve just started this topic. I was going to write about yesterday polowinki of my school (I don’t know, how it is called in English, but it’s ‘a party organized to celebrate the completion of half a period of one’s university studies [here it is highscool]‘ as this site claims) which have also reminded me about my primary school. Well, in fact there were only about fifteen of my class mates, but I saw at least seven people from my ex-class. It was so nice to see them after this time. And I felt so unhappy, that I’m such an unsociable person and I don’t really know how to keep in touch with all of them. As you can see, everything today leads me to recall the past…
I was a kind of little nerd at the end of primary school – you know, wearing glasses, totally unaware of appearance, the best at almost any subject. But I had a pack of friends, then a bigger pack of friends. Not for long, because we made friends in the very last months of the very last year and we didn’t really manage to stay in such a big (seven girls) group, but anyway, they were there. We were all crazy about books, we were speculating about what is going to happen, writing fanfiction, lending them to each other. They were also good students, but most of them more crazy than me and I was often called a nerd. I did hurt – now I think they didn’t know that, and I think I’m not so sensitive anymore, but it doesn’t change the fact, that I was really unhappy when they laughed. Now I have a pack of close friends and a few less close friends, the ones that accept me – or at least I think they do. But I miss those days when the world was so small.
After the party two the girls from the dormitory, who couldn’t return there at night, came to my house. And we didn’t really know what to talk about – we still know so little about each other. They are from different towns, the already have different friends, hobbies, you know… different everything. It was fun to tell each other about it, to get to know something new. But I couldn’t feel the connection, similarity. I couldn’t talk to them about one book, CD, memory or person for hours. I still feel now, when half of my time in highschool have already passed, that my bounds with all these people are accidental, that everyone there – including me – has some different friends, who will always be on the top of their list. And that we are just school mates, who must tolerate each other, who like each other, but probably never will be real friends. I know, I’m not sociable and that it’s my fault a little bit – but at the same time, this trait makes me look for long-lasting bounds, not for loads of ‘friends’ who I don’t really know. And I don’t think I will find them in highschool… At least not until we graduate and we will keep in touch only when we want it and knowing, that we want it. And that’s quite unpredictable – out of people from my primary school, I have the best contact not with my best friend at that time, but with another girl, who was then just one out of a few others. So, maybe, I won’t recall my highschool mates as a group of really nice strangers.
But the most possible thing is, that I really am an alien. I used to feel lonely, having so many friends around me, because they didn’t understand me. Now I feel lonely, because my friends are not around me all the time.
I wanted to write something more, but maybe another day. I don’t want to share so much melancholy.
Edit: I’ve written a little about my unsociable personality, which was also recently proved by an Enneagram test. As far as I know, Nietzsche had the same type of personality – 5w4. So it’s quite interesting, that his words can comment on my trying to see my memories and feelings from a distance (another trait characteristic for this type) and on finally deciding, that how I feel about past doesn’t necessarily means I should feel like that. Anyway, I think that in fact this quote doesn’t suit here – I pretend to try to recall my bad feelings from the past to see, that it is better now, but in fact I don’t want to succeed. But let’s leave it.