The Hazel Project

Now that the ‘da vinci code’ is all around us, I’d like to comment on the movie I watched this weekend called “Hell House”.

‘Hell House’ is a well done documentary with satirical overtones about Trinity Assembly of God in a suburb of Dallas Texas.

Every year at Halloween they do a very elaborate haunted house. Each room depicting a scene of a hot button issue acted out by the youth group.
Each scene ends with the main character given the choice to accept Jesus (go to heaven) or reject Jesus’ forgiveness (go to eternal hell).

The church takes this so seriously they begin auditioning for parts in August.
As the director said on ‘This American Life’, he was struck at how everyone wanted to play the more violent persons, instead of Angels or Jesus.

Apparently the ‘abortion girl’ scene was one of the more coveted roles. In the scene, the girl has taken the pill RU846 and comes into an ER screaming, ‘it wasn’t supposed to happen like this’!
She is wearing white pants with a blood stain all around the groin area.

As she lies on the gurney, she’s mocked by the tour guide who wears a ‘Seventh Seal’ costume.

Death.

I wonder if any of them have seen the “Seventh Seal”?

‘Death’ has few lines if any in Ingmar Bergman’s movie, no mocking needed.

Only pointing.

This movie also documents the real life home situation of the actor’s family.

Her backstory goes like this.

Her mother had an online affair leaving her and 3 siblings with their father.
The family finds solace and support in the community of the Assembly of God denomination.

One of the more dramatic events happens while the father is getting his kids ready for school. His son goes into an epileptic seizure and the family goes into emergency mode. EMS is called and comes to the house. The Father carries his son to his bed, lays his hands on his chest and prays over him.
The seizure stops. The father is exuberant.

Exuberant, not only that the seizure stopped; but also that his faith and fundamentalist religion was real in a moment of crisis while the cameras were rolling.

It was apparent that he was authentic in his beliefs; and as the viewer, I could appreciate that, whether I shared them or not.

The director did a great job inserting this family’s obvious suffering as a shadow to the narcissistic desire to win souls; exemplifed by others in the documentary.

Next, the construction of Hellhouse. I’m surprised at how much construction from scratch actually happens.

Enough for a ‘HUD House’ for sure.

The designers of the ‘occult scene’ for Hellhouse aroused a bit of concern over what color paint to use for the pentagram.

Red? or White?

A heated discussion about a Warlock who attended Hellhouse the year before ensues. The Warlock was upset regarding the scene continuity.

“No symbols are done in white paint at our meetings”, he was quoted saying.

A camera pans to a piece of plywood spray painted black.
Instead of a red pentagram they had painted a red Star of David.
Totally disconnected.

Are they anti semitic?

No, they’re probably Zionist in their theology.

They just don’t know the difference.
Because they believe they’re right, there’s no need to explore comparative religion.

Just go out and save everyone else who is different.
Through ‘Hellhouse.’

After the scenes are presented, the tour guide shows the group ‘hell’ which is made up of a dark room, a pit with red lights and plexiglass over it, and a fog machine. Kids are in the pit banging on the plexiglass. There might even be a strobe light.

Heaven however, is made up of tinfoil, maybe some streamers and a mixture of incandescent, and flourescent light. The participants did get white robes, I believe.

This struck me as odd; because, if they wanted to really get the message across, Heaven would need to look otherworldly. Perfectly pleasing to the earthly senses all at once, since that’s what we have to rely on.
Instead, heaven looked very disappointing, bland even.

Maybe next year.

At the end of the tour, a member of the church talks to each group and asks how they’re relationship with God is going.

Then, they’re asked to either go pray for forgiveness or exit, knowing that if died on the way the way back to the parking lot they’ll go to hell.

A week or so later, the youth group puts on an awards show for the best acting done for ‘Hellhouse’ with formal wear and thank you speeches.

Kinda like their ‘Hellhouse’ prom.

If I were to give ‘Hellhouse’ a review, it would be:

The documentary ‘Hellhouse’ presents its case by letting the people be themselves, completely naturally. It follows their everyday interactions of planning and executing the haunted house for the general public. Some will find this refreshing as a documentary about Evangelical Christians. Miraculous that it was made at all. Others however, will see beyond the surface and realize the documentary gives the players just enough rope…

Stephen A. Thomas

This is to answer Jeff’s question about keys of the drone pieces.
“1 pearl earring” is in G
“Sapphire facet #3″ is in C

As my freind has pointed out, I’ve always loved C and A min.; because they are easy to play with high probabilty of playing right notes!

What I really like about the key of C is it’s underestimated ability to sound contemplative and bittersweet.

It gets pigeon holed into being this really happy & very vanilla key, but it has other sides.

‘Look up’ is more esoteric in that it’s in G mixolydian which is a major key with a flat seventh. Now, I REALLY like these modal keys. Even though it gravitates to G major eventually, it evokes an exotic vibe to me; especially when the chirpy birds are added.

Recently I found a used synthesizer that will play in alternate tunings. Of course it would be just as well to experiment with how timbre interacts within certain keys and modes.

Now, the duduk music I modeled these drone pieces after may in a ‘Slendro’ tuning. Although I can’t prove it yet, I’ll look into providing some empirical evidence.

Although everything I’ve written is very Western, tonally;
I’m open to these alternate tunings, and modes for future pieces.
It opens a lot of windows for ideas and exploration.
I find this aspect of music very exciting, it’s very refreshing.

There comes a time to quit talking and do it, right?

Stephen A. Thomas

My friend I spoke of in an earlier post passed away this week.

I had known him for about 3 years and he was very encouraging to me.

His family said he had lived a great life and that made me feel better.
I know he would have liked to have had more control of how and when to die.

I’ve tried to talk to people about this and most don’t know how to begin approaching the subject of how we die. We just agree our culture has no dialog on the subject.

I wonder though, what’s the best way to go?

During sleep?

Right after a great meal?

Right after great sex?

Living to a ‘ripe old age’?

I heard about a woman who lived to be 100 years old, ate nothing but ice cream for the last 6 months of her life and then died in her sleep one night.

I thnk that woman had the perfect way to go.

Then I wonder, what kind of things will I want to do when I’m 100 years old if able?

watch movies, listen to music, have a flat screen TV & a nice chair, enjoy a glass of pinot noir? Or will even care about that stuff anymore?

Will I still belong to myself or will part of me be owned by a genetic lab that own the patents on healthy genes that cured an illness?

Our current culture has very little vernacular to discuss these things in a healthy way. We would rather live in fear and grasp on to anything that seems tangible than discuss ‘how we die’. Well, until it happens to us.

I have became quite close to several people over the past 3 years who have passed away within a matter of weeks of each other.
It gets me thinking about these matters; I start feeling around to see how sharp these edges are to me.

I’m off to watch “hell house”; a documentary about a fundamentalist church in Texas. They put together a haunted house for Halloween to scare people towards salvation.

Kinda like democracy at gunpoint.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Stephen A. Thomas

Hello everyone,

My musical endeavors for ‘look up’ have been disappointing.

These are mixing and technical issues as opposed to execution or form issues. Quite frankly a lot of digital distortion makes a jagged utilitarian experience.

Tonight, I’m headed to Larry and Linda’s to get my mind of this for a while; regroup and maybe try again tomorrow night.

I know I said I’d post something, anything.

Truth is I’m not there yet.

I was talking to my friend who composes for a living and I asked him about this aspect of meeting deadlines. He said, “sometimes it’s not exactly like you want it and has to be left as it is to meet a deadline and you try something different for the next time.

It’s about making decisions faster, essentially.

Part of this site is about approaching the part of the path that points to getting ther, and beyond it.

I’m getting closer though and learning how to mix and play this music at the same time in the process.

Stephen A. Thomas

Hello everyone,

My musical endeavors for ‘look up’ have missed the mark in profound ways.

These are mixing and technical issues as opposed to execution or form issues.

Tonight, I’m headed to Larry and Linda’s, get my mind of this for a while. regroup and maybe try again. I know I said I’d post something, anything.

I was talking to my friend who composes for a living and I asked him about this aspect of what he does and meeting deadlines. He said, “sometimes it’s not exactly like you want it but has to be left as it is to meet a deadline.

The truth is I’m not there yet.

Part of this site is about approaching part of the path that points to getting past the tedious screwdriver work, and meet deadlines it.

I’m getting closer, and learning how to mix on the fly in the process.

Stephen A. Thomas

05/14/06
This week was one filled with music and work and little motivation for much else.

The final drone piece is called ‘Look up’. It’s in it’s 3rd revision and title.

The initial recording of it happened in 2002 at Davak’s house, who co-wrote it with me; and, showed me a really cool midi trick with his computer.

I’ve worked on the new version all week.

The first thing I did was change the key from C# to G with a flat 7; giving the impression that the terse tri-tone had been defeated.
Slowly the piece gravitates to G major.

The piece needed more structure to bring it out of formless murkiness.
I also spent a lot of time working out the logistics to perform it live in 1 take.

Lots of button pushing in this one.

What started out to be 7 minutes with 2 1/2 sections now has 4 sections and runs over 14 minutes.

I’m thinking of producing an edited version for this website that has 2 sections and shortened 4th section. Or doing a through composed version of all 4 sections without any repeats. I charted it out last night on staff paper;
so I could remember the sections for later. I need to do that for everything really. It’s cathartic in a way, but gets tedious because it requires practice, like anything, and takes a long time.

I’m glad this is coming together and that people are enjoying it.
It’s very affirming.

I’ll see about getting it up tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for listening.

Stephen A. Thomas

I’m excited because the second drone piece, ’sapphire facet #3′ has been uploaded today.
It has been tested and works.

Thanks for your patience everyone.

How to listen:

Click on the MUSIC link under the ‘Categories’ title in the left siderbar.
You will be taken to the May 5th post.
Scroll down and click on the highlighted & underlined title:
‘Sapphire facet #3′ and it should play.

The commentary for the piece is in the May 5th post.

My very good friends Larry & Linda, were asking me what the hold up was.
The answer is the file is too big for my e-mail service to transfer.

Also, the three drone pieces go together and should be uploaded consecutively. You’ll notice a progression of more melodic content as well as timbre for each piece.

So now we’re over this technical glitch, shorter pieces are in the cue.
Even if the next piece needs tweaking, I’ll upload it to keep the pace up; and, let everyone in on how little decisions can make a big difference.

Thanks for listening

Stephen A. Thomas

The Long Answer

Mainly 2 reasons.

First, the word ‘hazel’ in our modern english language is used for eye color or somebody’s great relative.

Regarding the eye color:
Several weeks ago I was talking with a woman about work and I noticed her eyes were a deep hazel. Quite beautiful actually. Then a couple of weeks later I noticed her eyes were really crystal blue, not hazel at all.

Is it possible to change one’s eye color to the person’s you are talking with?Little sublteties like this I find fascinating and will think about for days.

Secondly, this incident and the work of this site coalesced at the same time. I needed to find a .com name that was already availble. My favorite color being green, and the ‘changing eye color’ incident fresh on my mind; I asked Davak, my very good freind as well as web developer to try the availibility of hazelproject.com.

Thankfully it was readily avaible, because who wants an electronic music website named after their great aunt?

I think the name has potential. Even though I don’t have any relative named Hazel, it happens to my eye color, which I inherited from Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom.

…And now, the short answer.

The word hazel in our current english vernacular is another word for green that mostly refers to eye color.

I’m fascinated with eyes:
their physiology,
their fragility,
how we form our perceptions of reality from trusting what we see,
the role our eyes play as part of non-verbal communication.

You know, stuff we use everyday unconciously, yet is a major part of how we interact with each other.

I like green. greenproject.com was taken; and suggests I live in a solar panel house and drive a VW TDI that runs on chinese food.
Hazelproject.com was available for free.

Have a great Mother’s Day weekend everyone

Stephen A. Thomas

…on the path 5/10/06

Hello,

A short installment and explanation.

It has been brought to my attention that people have been trying to download the new piece and there isn’t one.

That’s because the file for the piece “Sapphire Facet #3″ is too big.

My friend has set me up with an email account attched to this site that has the capacity to handle larger files.

Thanks for the patience.

I must go now as my dog is running after the cable guy dragging the brick tied around her leash.

Stephen A. Thomas

Update:  The music file and links to it have been updated.

…on the path 5/5/06

Happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone.

A very accomplished 94 yr old man told me 2 weeks ago,”Steve I need to get out and start doing some things, I need to start living!” Within 72 hours of saying that he began having a lot of trouble breathing, unable to get out of bed.

It made me think how our body is always speaking to us and how long we put off listening to it.

When do we learn to keep separate body, mind and spirit; Letting our MIND dictate everything yet paying little attention to the body and spirit part of ourselves?
Or do we learn it all?
Is it just built in?

Eckhart Tolle writes about this at length, basically saying, given over to the mind is essentially what causes suffering because it doesn’t know how to be in the present moment. He believes The mind makes every decision based on past experiences and future desires.

I wondered when my friend gave himself over to his mind.

Several years ago I wrote a piece on the fly, and remember it was a time of Presence for me. An extended period of time lasting 2 0r 3 weeks in fact. I’ll never forget it.
People respond favorably to this piece partly due to the presence and the intention given to it.

Plus everybody likes parallel 5ths!

The human ear likes parallel 5ths because it grounds the music in a sweet spot. So its all release and little tension. Which is probably why people don’t listen to Stravinsky at bedtime.

Today, I became reaquainted with the piece called ‘Season to Season’. Basically a nice chord progression with an analog synth solo playing over it. I’m planning to upload this in the next several days.

Until then, I have the second drone piece available.
This piece has the working title ’sapphire facet #3′,
which needs to be renamed.

This piece was written a few years ago but this version was made
in the Fall of 2005. It’s done in 1 take with no doctoring, or editing; there are some pitch issues I correct on the fly.

There are 2 main sections to the piece.

The sections are made up of three parts and then it repeats.

drone and melody

the second time through the melody I add a “liquid ensemble” sound to create movement. I like how just 2 chords gently nudges the piece along.

then when the melody phrases are finished there is a light ethereal motif that separates the two main sections.

The second section is different in that the melody is played in cut time; this also creates forward motion.

The piece ends with the ethereal motif and drone.

I hope you enjoy this piece called “sapphire facet #3″

Please feel free to suggest a better name.

Thanks for listening.

Stephen A. Thomas