“I don’t believe in forgive and forget. We’re not wired to forget, we’re wired to remember. So we’ll always be challenged to keep loving and forgiving, and wired to remember how we’ve been forgiven.” —Bryce Avary
Gloomy weather + gloomy week + gloomy spring so far + chronic lack of sunshine =
And yet somehow he manages to make gloomy look good.
January 1999 Rocket Summer
One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.
And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer’s ancient green lawns.
Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.
Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.
The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land….
— Excerpt from “The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury (1950). Incidentally, I just came across this book when I was going through a pile of old, dusty books in a corner of my loft. What a treasure.
*****
He started performing shows as a teenager in Dallas and Fort Worth Texas. As Bryce’s amount of local fans grew, he made his first EP at the age of 16 in 2000 called ‘The Rocket Summer EP.’ Before he was about to put out the EP, his friend suggested that he name it instead of using his own name. “He was reading a book called ‘Martian Chronicles’ and one of the chapters was called ‘Rocket Summer,’” says Bryce, “so he was like ‘You should name it The Rocket Summer.’ I just thought it was really cool so it doesn’t really have like a super meaningful meaning. It was just kind of a casual thing that I did when I was a kid.”
— Excerpt from Bryce Avary interview
Naming his band may have been the least meaningful thing Bryce ever did. Everything he has touched since has been so supercharged with meaning it’s difficult for me to compare his music to that of any other beautiful music.
Faith, welcome back. It’s been a while since we hung out. Have you come to get me back on track?
This song makes me smile. I’ve been playing it on repeat every morning before starting my day.
I remember when I used to look up his live performances, back in the day before I actually saw him perform in person. Ahh, how times have changed.
Awesome news of the day: Bryce is writing music for a new album. His lyrics have inspired me for so many years now. I can’t wait to see what brilliant words come out of his head.
Can’t go too long without my Bryce fix. Enjoy.
For more silliness, check out this girl’s tumblr page. She created these and is therefore, absolutely awesome.
Update: Sad. WordPress doesn’t seem to host .gif files. Oh well. You can still see them at the mentioned link!
So hug it tight and embrace it. Don’t let the world deface it. Just let it shout with amazement.
Wish I could hug him tight! I'm creepy.
I worked on a story this week that involved speaking to many passionate people (my favorite kind, personally). If you go through life perpetually bored, perpetually cynical, or just plain miserable to those around you for no good reason at all, well, I really want nothing to do with you. I see people like this every day. And it used to be disappointing — going through your day with practically no friendly encounters, no “Good mornings!” or “Have a nice days”. Worse than that are people whose bottom line in everything they do is for their own hubris. Get a grip. For me, what makes the every day special is interacting with people who don’t just want to serve themselves. I’m not saying everyone needs to paste on a happy face just for the hell of it either. I don’t know. I just have come to be bored by how contagious negativity seems to be.
Anyhow, that said, check out some of the passionate people trying to keep the arts alive in Syracuse.
Until next time, stay bright, stay shiny, stay happy people.
xo†
Everyday I wake up late.
Since I quit my day job I have been sane.
But responsibilities sure do remain, but I’ll just let them wait.
Because I don’t know what I am doing now,
and I wont try to act like it cause I sure don’t know how.
And I’ll admit that I don’t know, just where I’m going on this long and winding road
that’s taking me to what will be my home.
So stare and see that this is me,
and I will be just what I need to believe
that something is what I’m gonna be.
And what you do is what you do and what I do needs to be true.
The things I do maybe need to be thought through,
but just remember what’s right for me, might be not right for you.
Staring at this mirror and I’m wondering who you are.
Right now is a time for searching and I just wish I had a car
to drive a long distance and just think about the war,
and now life’s got so much more.
Because I don’t know what I am doing now,
and I wont try to act like it cause I sure don’t know how.
And I’ll admit that I don’t know, just where I’m going on this long and winding road
that’s taking me to what will be my home.
So stare and see that this is me,
and I will be just what I need to believe
that something is what I’m gonna be.
And what you do is what you do,
and what I do needs to be true.
The things I do maybe need to be thought through…
But I know what I want to do and I want it to be true.
And yeah I’d be the first to say that of course I’ll listen to you,
but remember what’s right for me, might be not right for you
**
Sometimes lyrics are applicable to life. Most of the time, Bryce writes stuff that is just so damn honest, so freaking real and honest that I can think about his words for days and days. Today, on the drive home I played this song and felt like he was singing my soul. Jeez, what a perfect man.
