Mind over Matter

In horror movies, an effective tool is used to make the audience jump. This is to have the main antagonist appear in an object where, just seconds ago, they were not. A common set up would include a person in front of a medicine cabinet in the bathroom. You see them alone in the room, they open the cabinet to get something, and when they close the cabinet again you see the villain right behind them. There is usually a hard, loud jangle of music which provokes hysterical screams and bowel loosening from the audience. Another popular version of this tactic involves a person innocently looking out the window for danger, scornfully berating their companions for their cowardice, turning back to the window as a flash of lightening illuminates the zombie seconds before it crashes through the window and feasts on the overly confident jerk’s brains. This technique has done wonders for the horror movie industry. However, there have been some side effects. Most notably, to me at least, a couple of years ago while trying to work in my parent’s basement.

As some of you may know, over the years, my parents have graciously allowed me to build a small recording studio in their basement. It is divided up into two rooms. There is the sound room, where the live instruments are played while recording. And the control room where the recording equipment is. The rooms are separated by a wall to help control the sound. In this wall, I installed a window so I can communicate with the musicians performing. I will often spend hours down there writing, recording, or editing songs. A couple of years ago I was attempting to work on an idea that had formed for a song. My parents were out of town at the time, visiting family in Michigan. I had recently watched a brilliant independent movie entitled “28 Days Later” a couple of night previously. This is a different take on the classic “zombie” movie. In this film we join the main character as he regains consciousness after a bicycle accident to find that society has fallen to a virus that has turned nearly everyone in raging, mindlessly violent, blood thirsty animals. There is a particularly spectacular example of the technique mentioned above used in one of the scenes.

So there I was, all alone in the basement of an older house that is surrounded by corn fields; little creaks and groans from the house settling after the sun has gone down. I have, over the years, worked to develop my imagination so that I might write interesting songs and stories or create unusual pieces of art in one form or another. There are, on the other hand, some draw backs to this. When you find yourself all alone in the basement of an older house that is surrounded by cornfields and has a propensity to creak and groan, you may not have the control over your imagination you might have hoped for. I know I didn’t. I sat in the control room; bent over my guitar, trying desperately to work on a song that I knew was going to turn out pretty cool if I could just focus on it. But there was going to be no focus. How could I concentrate on this song when I – just – knew if I looked up, there would be a zombie staring at me through the sound room window? I could not do it. Every creak was the foot step of impending doom heading down the stairs toward me and every groan was the last thing I heard before the brains would be chewed from my skull.

I finally succumbed. I put down my guitar, shut off my computer, and headed for the door. I was pretty cool walking across the basement but as I mounted the steps my pace increased until I blasted out the garage door and practically dove through the window into the front seat of my car. Spraying gravel, I tore away from the house I grew up in with much reproach for my lack of intestinal fortitude. As I was careening out onto the main road my cell phone rang and after a small amount of incontinence, I answered. It turned out to be a good friend of mine asking if I would be interested in; YES! YES! YES! I answered before he finished. The last thing I wanted was to be alone at that moment He said some friends were meeting at a local bar for some drinks. I beat them all there.