Wooden Bodies and Electric Strings

Hello again! I'm curled up in a warm corner in one of the villas, laptop in hand, listening to my roommate strum the guitar as I write. Anna and Laura huddle under a blanket on the couch, fending off sickness and working on a project for Mrs. Bortins, Samuel fills out a self-assessment form in the rocking chair, and Gracsyn cooks in the corner. We create a warm bubble of fellowship and light in contrast to the driving wind and icy snow outside. It's been a good week.

Last Wednesday's discussion of the film Gravity went very well. We spent about an hour learning about earth's satellites and talking about the things we noticed in the movie. It had plenty of symbolism and theology which prompted plenty of conversation. Mrs. Bortins told us what we were supposed to do the next day and we left for the villas.

We met at villas the next morning, consolidated into a few cars, and drove an hour and a half to the Moorhead Planetarium at Chapel Hill. We had a little time to kill before our first show at eleven o'clock, so we spread out over the city a little bit. A few of us tried to get into the local catholic church, but the doors were locked. We returned, dejected, and explored the museum with the rest of the fellows. After looking at all of the exhibits and reading about the exploits of the astronauts who actually trained at the planetarium, we were really excited to visit the dome itself. We lined up outside the door and other school groups started crowding around. The doors opened and a charismatic man welcomed us all inside. We had a great time. Our tour guide cracked horribly cheesy jokes and told stories, keeping everyone engaged and in good spirits. He showed us all what the sky would look like if we didn't have light pollution. I turned to my fellows and saw them looking back at me. We knew the sky at two in the morning was just as beautiful. Then again, the spinning stars, illuminated constellations, and soaring music made it a wonderful new experience.

After the first show, we went back into town for an hour. I love college towns. They're beautiful, at least all the ones I've been to. I chased squirrels, climbed walls, gallivanted through fallen leaves, and spoke to passing students. After a half hour, I found myself leaning on a street light listening to an animated old man playing a unique guitar by the roadside. He told me it was a 1961 resonating guitar. It had an odd metal construction and didn't look like anything I'd seen before. In the end, what mattered wasn't what he was playing but how well he was playing it. I stayed for a few more songs, and loved every one. Eventually, I shook his hand, exchanged names, and reluctantly left, my heart and pockets lighter. I won't forget Papa D any time soon. His clothes pointed out that he didn't need to play for money, and he told me that he just wanted to spread the joy. He had a great feel for the blues, and I watched a half dozen people tip him before I finally had to move on.

We hung around the Planetarium after lunch until the whole group arrived. We were ushered into the dome again and found good seats. In fact, because we'd heard the instructions once before, we were allowed in early and enjoyed having the place to ourselves. This next presentation was on the mysteries of black holes. Most of us had heard enough about them before, but the visuals were incredible, especially the optical illusion which turned the small dome into a much larger cube. We had a great time and finally left, reluctantly, when it was all over. Our day wasn't completely finished, however, because Caleb had a rehearsal for us. We got in place and ran through our pieces, once again. We'll definitely know the concert by next week.

Well, the rest of the day was free. A lot of us went outside to be as active as we could be, and still more of us went to Mrs. Bortins' for a private lesson on the English language. Some of the fellows are planning to take the SAT again, looking for better scores.

Friday let us sleep in an extra hour, but most of us left earlier than we had to. When we got to the house, Mr. John Yopp (our guest speaker) and his family were waiting for us. We flooded him with introductions and helped make him feel welcome. Pastor Skogen's wife came to lead us in devotions that morning and the next. She wanted to talk to us about the biblical view of love and marriage. I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it quite so authoritatively before. It was quite refreshing, actually. We all benefited from hearing it.

Friday and Saturday were the best part of the week. Mr. Yopp shared so much with us, teaching us about acoustics, electronics, and the inner workings of guitars. He showed us a bunch of unfinished pieces from his workshop, from a body that he had already played on, (which simply needed replacement electronics and a good polish) to the rough wood which he made everything out of. He showed us videos of the original Gibson plant and compared his work with both it and the modern plants. On Saturday, he let us lacquer and buff a few guitar bodies. We loved being able to get our hands dirty and work on something so physical, especially as it contrasted with the very mental exercise of our last guest.

Mr. Yopp shared his life-story and his ambitions, his ideas and his accomplishments. He played the guitar for us and listened to us rehearse. On our last rehearsal, we clamored and shouted and managed to get him on stage, taking Austin's place on the guitar. It sounded amazing. We were reluctant to let him go and took him up on his offer to examine all of our instruments. We pressed guitar after guitar into his hands and sat at his feet, listening to his stories, his technical expertise, and his absent-minded plucking. It was great. He finally left, and we returned to our lives.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday have been packed with activity. We're doing a full rehearsal a day  and spending the mornings in physics. All of our remaining time has been taken up by a series of projects which Mrs. Bortins assigned to us. We're working on N2K, advertising it and finding sponsors. Besides that, we have college applications and the extensive self-assessment to work on. It's all due tomorrow, and we're all going back to the classroom tonight to test the math competition. So with that in mind, I have to put my laptop to rest and get ready for tomorrow.

Until next week,
Barnabas Holleran

An Update

Hello all, and welcome back to this week's journal! We just got out of music practice with Caleb. Our concert is coming up in just two weeks, and we're all really excited about it. That being said, we have a lot we have to do to prepare for it. We know all our songs, and now it's time to play them to perfection. We started practicing with amplification this week for our first time on Monday, and it was pretty horrible. It took some getting used to, but by today we had something worth listening to. We ran through almost all of our songs today. A few small groups or individual fellows are playing their own pieces, and each of them was absolutely delightful to hear. When Austin played his classical guitar, we were all held spellbound. He thought it was terrible, but we all loved it.

There have been a few hiccups with the concert, but we've managed to get them sorted out. The biggest one happened about a week ago when the Sunrise Theater called us to let us know that we were double booked and that we'd lost our time to perform. We looked at several other venues around the area and finally settled on the steadfast Sandhills Presbyterian Church. We changed the fliers to reflect the new information and spread them around the area. That's what we were doing last afternoon, after music. Three cars left for three different locations: one to Carthage, one to Aberdeen, and I'm not sure where the third went, only that we ran into them at the end of the day. Anyway, I had a great time in Carthage with Chris, Austin, and Jake. Most everyone we talked to was only too happy to hang the fliers in their shops. We covered everything from the local barber's shop to a photographer's studio and even to a sketchy pawn shop at the edge of town. I hope people come from everywhere we advertised, if only because the final audience would be so diverse.

One of our final stops was the Carthage Shooting Sports gun store. The man behind the counter had a lot of questions to ask about the concert, unlike most of the others who hung it up almost immediately. However, his questions were good, and we have a few ideas for our next one because of it. After five minutes of discussing Bob Dylan, guns, Presbyterianism, his singing voice, and modern music, he shook hands with us and agreed to put it up. If he's the only person who comes to the concert, I won't be disappointed.

A few other noteworthy things happened this week. First, Laura finished recording The Core, Leigh's new audiobook. It'll take a few months for the recording to be fully finished, but the rough base is done. We're all pretty excited. Next is our math game. We settled on a final name for it: N2K or more correctly, N²K: the National Number Knockout. The business plan is done, and Leigh and some of the others have been testing it on the local community. Finally, when we were in physics on Monday, David came running into the room and in his no-nonsense manner yelled, "THERE IS A DOG CHASING A DEER IN THE LAKE." Mrs. Bortins was the first one out the door, and we all followed right behind. We ended up taking the boat out to herd it towards land. It escaped the dog and we all cheered; it was quite a nice break from the usual class period. Mrs. Bortins is going to test us on what we've learned next Monday. It'll be good to see whether the last few weeks have been productive.

All in all, while lots is happening, we're taking it in stride as the usual for a week here. I think Mandala is starting to wear most of us down. Everyone is really looking forward to the respite afforded by Thanksgiving break. I hope the excitement for the concert will carry us through until we go home. In any case, we'll push through and go home in just a little while.

Last week, Mrs. Bortins told us to go watch Gravity for our astronomy class. We're going back to discuss it this evening. I have a feeling this is going to be a good class.

Until next week,
Barnabas Holleran