Thursday, April 30, 2015

KARL TUNE - PART 2 - SYNCHRONISTIC BONGWASH

There is one possible reason this synching hobby will never appeal to the main stream society. 

People perceive this as the hobby of psychedelic druggists and lunatics. That's why the “Synchronicity Arkive Primer” listed one of the early experimenters of music with movie montage as William S. Burroughs. The movie “Naked Lunch” is based on part of the book Mr. Burroughs wrote about what he actually thought happened to him while he was under the influence of drugs. Doctors routinely read another book in which Mr. Burroughs details the subjective effects of every drug he takes. Back in the 1960’s, drugs were counter culture hip. Drugs were believed to be an aid to mental exploration and enlightenment. Your voluntary thoughts would give way to the hidden subjective power of your inner mind.


In hindsight, we saw a number of music and movie stars die of drug abuse and addiction (and many other people too). Now we are informed of drug addiction and the toll it takes on the human body. I have never tried any illegal drugs. As a youth, I saw drugs rip apart the fabric of society. This polarized me strongly against illegal drugs. I have had drug addicts witness to me that they wanted to quit but it was very hard. They told me that using marijuana opened up the door to hard core drugs for them.  They said that it may only take one use to get your mind dependant on a drug. I expect to live a long time because I take care of myself. Take care of yourself too.

 I have had people on the street curse at me when I told them about this hobby of synchronicity. Most other people say, “I have heard of the ‘Dark Side of Oz’, so what?” My wife recently gave me the “wake up and see reality” speech about synching. She told me that none of the stuff I try matches. I told her that I still enjoy doing it. I reminded her that instead of synching, I could go out to drink and get in bar fights. Some people watch the television to relax. I just play music I like, while watching muted movies. Playing a movie muted is the hard part for some people to accept.

When I was a kid, I first saw Disney’s “Fantasia” at a Birthday Party outing. I found it amazing that the animation was cut to pre-existing music.  I wanted to animate to music too and would often dream of various action with music.  In elementary school, one of my teachers had a music interpretation activity.  We would listen to music and lyrics to think about what the message was. We would draw pictures of what the music meant to us. We were surprised how nobody had the same interpretation.

One subject that frequently surfaces for synchronicity is brain wiring.  I have read that when the brain is tired, the dominant side loses control. The dominant side tries to regain control by noticing coincidences to get the dominant side stimulated and used again.

I do most of my synching late at night. There has also been frequent discussion on synesthesia and whether it aids in synchronicity art. Synesthesia is the mental crossing of the boundaries for senses. For example; a certain music note makes you see a certain color, or a certain texture makes you taste a certain flavor. When I first hear new types of music, I see colors and lines. It is as if my mind is desperately trying to make sense of the new stimuli. Once I become familiar with the music, I no longer have this sensation. So I do not consider myself to have true synesthesia. Others in synching report that they have synesthesia but not that it aids them in synching. I wonder if somebody with synesthesia is predisposed to matching different aspects of sensory media. This sensory crossing may be an evolutionary adaptation in abstract reasoning. Now a part of the body (region of the brain in this case) is used for an entirely different purpose than it was originally for. Like jaw bones in fish for chewing food evolving into ear bones for hearing for land animals.

We have brains to remember what happened in the past.  This gives us the power to predict the future. With every cause, there is an effect. Our brains are wired to notice patterns. This gives us an advantage over utilizing our environment. Lois Pasteur proposed, “In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”

 I believe that the Gestalt Principles apply to synchronicity of music and movies. You draw on personal experiences, expectations, and cultural cues to gather the information in your mind. Our brains want a straight forward cause and effect. Because of subjectivity and cultural relativism, it is possible that few others will enjoy or “get” your synch.  Also, your brain searches for coincidence and harmony. When two independent actions happen in harmony, it strongly catches our attention. Lastly, your senses can never take in all the myriad of information presented.  So, your mind has learned to connect the dots and add a few dots to make the mental imagery of your synch “complete”. I believe this personal journey in synching is why music movie madness will never appeal to the general public.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

2013 - THE DARK SIDE OF OZ RECLAIMED - PART 6


As the story goes from the previous year in... 2012

The Professor was last seen on the out skirts of Bwangtown in search of rare reclusive syncs!
As it turns out, Oz Osborn who was disguised in the audience the night that we all heard The Professor say himself that this may be his last "Dark Side of Oz," began his plan for Dark Side domination that very moment and carried on his mission of Occupy Oz in the
"2012 DSoOZ - Oz Fest" while The Professor was well out of the country.

Once again, that was not The Professor... 
he was not me... and I am not him! 

 
When The Professor returned from his synchronistic travels he immediately noticed that there was something wrong, something had changed. Someone had trifled with his belongings and although he had just about considered to take his own DSoOZ words of departure as fact he found, just like in years past... a new focus, a focus of reclamation and retribution. He would find this man, lure him out in public and bring him to justice in front of the same audience that he had hi-jacked the very year before. Occupy Oz... preposterous!

"2013 - THE DARK SIDE OF OZ - RECLAIMED"

Indeed the Professor could of walked away from this urban legend a number of times in his past, but to have it ridiculed, made a mockery of was more than he could bare. 

A well laid trap was devised for our Mr. Oz Osborn and his enormous ego, it was easily his weakest point of attack and It was also a given that Oz would be in the audience that night much in the same way a criminal returns to the scene of the crime. It wasn't until the 30 minute "Introduction to Oz" segment at the beginning of the show that Oz choose to make his presence known by jamming my theater broadcast and replacing it with his own image and some rambling incoherent demands and threats to get his point across. This is exactly what I wanted however, I knew that the Oz ego was far to large to just sit back in a chair and take it, evidential he'd have to come forward and when he did, The Professor would be ready!




 Things must be settled and made right. It was decided that there would be a trial, a trial of grand proportions, if fact there was only really one trial that would do, and that would be the last segment from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" appropriately entitled "The Trial." I projected the animation  on to the theater screen while below I lip-synced the dialog and we supplied the action on stage.



 THE VERDICT
 
The verdict was reached and the perpetrator revealed... Paul Riley once again, this explains his boisterous stick pony ride through the 2011 "Dub Side of the Moonshine" and his renown  theatrical sense for costumes and characters! What you don't see in the photo evidence here is the great escape by Oz/Paul after the verdict was delivered... while leading Oz/Paul off of  the stage in a disgrace of conviction, he bolted from my control and fled back across the stage where I had no choice but to try to chase and recapture him.
 
The video that I had playing during this crazy final scene of the opening act of this 2013 "Introduction To Oz' was the "Punk Rock Snack Bar", This was an wild animation piece that we used to create a pit on stage. After a frantic 3 minute conclusion, Oz/Paul and myself were dizzy enough that he evidentially allowed me to grab on to him and hold him down. However (as planned) he in turn grabbed me in a wrestlers "Spin Lock," wielded me around in circles until he dropped me
on the floor where we both collapsed in the results that you now see before you.
 
THE RESULTS
THE END

 
I have now reclaimed the event and it is well under control as we head further down that Red Brick Road of discovery. As I proved the following year, sometimes the class just needs a good field trip!
 

These stories consist of rough drafts that will be proof read and finalized
before being included in "Another Day Another Decibel"
www.ViralMediaArt.com

Thursday, April 23, 2015

THE SYNCHRONICITY ARKIVE - Founder Michael Johnston

The Synchronicity Arkive was created by Mike Johnston, and first went online in 1995. 
This is the story of how the site came to be, and what led to the present incarnation.

Early History

When I was in college, several friends and I had experimented with watching films while playing different music. A common choice for the music played were the albums of Pink Floyd. The very first match-up that I ever saw was the end of the movie 2001 with Pink Floyd's song "Echoes" (from the album Meddle). Actually films and music were both a big part of my college experience, along with philosophy, psychology, and communications theory. My adviser, Derek Bousé, was a big believer in getting involved in technology and connecting to the world.

When I first graduated college, one of the very first things I did was get an Internet account. Back in 1995, the Internet was still new to most people. In college, we'd had Bit Net (an early computer network) and by my senior year (1994-1995) got the full Internet. But I was still new to these technologies. With my first Internet account, I had access to a bit of space to create a web site, So the question became, what to use that space for?

One of the first things I did on the Internet actually was to check out User Net (the old newsgroup functionality). I joined a group, alt.music.pink-floyd and proceeded to jump into the conversations there. One of the topics that caught my eye was the discussion of the match between The Wizard Of Oz and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon (or as it was also known DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW). So, the pieces were in place. I had run across an idea that I was actually interested in doing a web site on. And the Arkive was born. The first version was incredibly primitive. I actually wrote it on an Apple IIGS and was only able to see it in TEXT via browser lynx. But I kept revising it and after getting a "real" job and buying a PC, I was able to put out a version 2.0.

 

Discovery!


RB Savage - 1st printed story on DSOTR
Originally published August 1, 1995
Copyright 1995, The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

By 1997, I'd heard from a couple folks out on the internet about other matches. And there had been some other ideas put forward in alt.music.pink-floyd as well. So I expanded the Synchronicity Arkive to include those in a version 3.0.

About that same time, a Boston DJ named George Taylor Morris of WZLX-FM began talking about this strange match between The Wizard Of Oz and The Dark Side Of The Moon. That kicked off a firestorm of media attention to the phenomenon. I remember being at work and checking the Synchronicity Arkive during lunch. The hit counter I'd set up jumped by about 5000 during a page reload. At the time I seriously thought it was broken. And then I got an email from USA Today, wanting to me about Dark Side Of The Rainbow. They were the first but they weren't the last... I also heard from MTV. Since they had a crew that was going to be in Chicago for a concert (I think it was Lollapalooza), they wanted to swing by and shoot an interview.

On May 30, 1997, that interview ran on MTV News. "The Dark Side Of The Rainbow" was also featured in Entertainment Weekly, but although they ran the web address for the Synchronicity Arkive, they never did contact me.

As the traffic to the site grew, and it seemed that more people wanted to talk about this crazy synchronicity, I added a basic message board to the Arkive. And that was really the start of the larger synching community, beyond those of us who had sites devoted to this stuff.

Monday, April 6, 2015

SKY DANIAL O'BANION - His name was Mr. Humble


I got kicked out of every school I ever went to. I got kicked out of so many schools that my mom had to use friends addresses so I could go to schools in other districts. I finally had to have a tutor come to my house because I was out of schools to go to.



The man in this picture was my school principal. He was the new principal and I was kicked out of this school for the second time after they let me come back after attending other schools. He knew I was troubled but he also knew I had a love and obsession for a newly found instrument, the harmonica. He wanted to boost my self esteem and help me.

  
SKY DANIAL O'BANION
 His name was Mr. Humble

Even though I was getting kicked out again, he wanted me to play the school talent show with him. I was finally excited to go to the principals office. He wanted me to develop some structure and discipline in my playing. He had a black Les Paul and a black face Fender Twin. I think he had kind of hung it up as a musician in trade for a career in education but I think I inspired him to dust off the Les Paul and Fender Twin. 


I felt like I could fly when we performed together at that talent show. He really helped me. I never felt like I fit in or was good enough. I hated school with every inch of my soul. His name was Mr. Humble and I am forever grateful to him. He gave me one of the very few positive memories of school. I think I was 11 or 12.
 
P.s. I played through the original school auditorium tube p.a. System. The ceiling was lined with old 8" speakers.

 SKY WITH CHRIS MARVIN

THE TRADE WINDS - COTATI CA.

These stories consist of rough drafts that will be proof read and finalized
before being included in "Another Day Another Decibel"
www.ViralMediaArt.com