News is getting better

So, after two straight updates of angry political vitriol inspired by coffee and Hunter S. Thompson, I feel it is time for an update of much better news.

The good news is that I´m starting my work with Habitat for Humanity this week. I´m really excited, despite the fact that it will keep me away from my friends and family for just a little bit longer. Sometimes the spirit is moved to stay away and do things I can´t do anywhere else, and it seems that now is that time.

Anyway, outside of that, I recently started working as an English teacher. I started out with one student, but since things are picking up with my work I can´t continue with him. I do, however, have students on the weekends- Today I gave a lesson to a young brother-sister combo, which went better than I ever could have expected, and yesterday I gave a lesson to a man who is, for all intents and purposes, fluent and just needs vocab help- he´s reading The Lost World, by the late Michael Crichton, and just wants some help with some of the words. I like teaching English- it´s a challenge I had yet to experience.

In addition, this week I´m starting work at a local hostel. It sounds pretty easy and I get hooked up in terms of food and drink and laundry and internet, which is pretty awesome. I also get tipped, so that may take my wages a little bit higher. Plus it sounds like a fun job, so w00t to that.

Anyway, my first visits for Habitat start this Wednesday, with a bunch of houses around Xela. In addition, I´m stil volunteering at the weaving collective doing random stuff there.

Things are going well for the most part, and I´m looking forward to whatever fate holds for me next.


Though, I´ll add one more thing, and one more item to the Desert Island Discs (WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!)

I came to this conclusion, that it was necessary to add another disc, the other day. It was a weekday morning on a day I didn´t have to teach English, and I was scrolling through my backup iPod at what we had put on there just in case, and after selecting this particular disc, I was reminded why it was there.

While very verbose in title, Right Now, You´re in the Best of Hands, but if something is Wrong, Your Doctor Will Know in a Hurry by Bear vs. Shark is one of those records that, in my opinion, came out of nowhere and changed everything.

I have a friend, who, when we were seniors in High School discovering all subgenres of hardcore and post hardcore music, would get almost anything that came out on particular labels, such as Victory, Equal Vision, Ferrett, Trustkill, etc. He picked up a CD one day by a band with a weird ass name, and I heard a little bit of it and thought it was cool, but didn´t think much of it.

Fast-forward to freshman year of college when another friend (who unfortunately I haven´t been friends with in a few years) was raving about Bear vs. Shark. So I finally decided to check it out in earnest.

WOW. It starts out with "Ma Jolie," a loud, midtempo, triumphant introduction, that segues into a quiet, melodic verse that supports intelligent, if not off-kilter lyrics and clean guitars. IT builds and builds when the distorted guitar comes in, and explodes into what one expects to be a chorus, that sees the lead singer go from melodic singing to the best post-hardcore scream this side of Hot Water Music, a band that merely suggested at what Bear vs. Shark was capable of.

This album falls somewhere between the meaty, two-guitar punk/post-hardcore and gruff vocals of Hot Water Music and the brainy, no-boundaries but still aggressive rock of the legendary Fugazi. Songs like "Campfire," and "Buses/No Buses" push and pull in that in-between space where hardcore, indie, emo and pop-punk inexplicably intersect. Other songs come off as the unholy spawn of classic 90s emo like The Promise Ring and the harsh, gruff aggression of bands like At the Drive-In, while "Kylie" begins with a jazzy chord progression and a vocal delivery that falls between spoken and sung, yet still giving away that smoky, raspy punk rock edge. And, when you least expect it, the 2nd guitar comes in, merely hinting at its potential fury. when it can no longer be held back, the song explodes into what, thanks to the initial dynamic, seems to be the loudest ending of a song ever written.

There´s a diversity in this album that few punk bands (or hardcore bands) this side of the Clash or Candiria has ever been able to convey. Where Bear vs. Shark succeeds where others fail is that they were able to maintain their undeniably punk rock energy. In addition, there was a forward thinking, progressive mindset that kept them firmly ahead of any other mere "punk" band. This energy, volume, progressive mindset, and ability to write fantastically melodic, almost pop songs, put Bear vs. Shark ahead of the post-hardcore pack at a time where the term came to mean screamy bands who all sounded the same or overly technical bands that lost their energy in trying too hard to be Fugazi. This album is impossible to become boring, and was unfortunately followed by one other album and tour that was ended midway through. Sometimes there is a band that exists for such a short time and puts out such a small catalog, but in terms of quality, puts catalogs 4 times that particularly large to shame.

In closing...

Dear Bear vs. Shark,

Please reunite. Perhaps so called alternative, hardcore or independent rock bands will learn what it truly means to combine such disparate elements and still be undeniably punk, progressive, and independent. Please....the world needs you.