Arteffect 14

Arteffect 14 is out on the streets of Qingdao and available for download here.

Foreword by Shepherdess from Arteffect 14:

方舟之旅
1995年似乎没有什么特别的记忆，那时候风波已过，秩序井然，这个城市是这个国家最好的城市之一，青岛是个值得称赞的地方，无论企业还是城市形象都代表着开放和突破，而2011年，16年过去，我们真的算不上最好的城市，不知不觉我们依旧停留在原地，孤芳自赏的流连在自己的过去中麻醉，而这个飞一样的年代，逆水行舟不进则退，16年之后的今天我们的优势荡然无存，事实证明，一个城市的崛起不是单纯靠炼油，冰箱,房地产的财富积累，二十一世纪一个有自己生命力和底蕴的城市才能屹立国际，
红瓦绿树早已不是我们的特色，能够让我们骄傲的事情越来越少，奥帆之后的人走茶凉，证明急功近利的方式在文化上基本失灵，这个城市最应该具有的软实力，一个对世界有很大吸引力的文化力量，当我们发现这个被称为中国最具幸福感的城市越来越不具有幸福的本钱，当我们发现连本地的优秀人才都纷纷离开，我们知道沙漠中是很难有参天大树的，没有文化就没有生命力，人类如此，城市如此。这个城市比以往任何时候都需要文化以及一张自己的文化名片。

灰姑娘一个久违的名字，这间音乐工作室是青岛的第一个音乐电台节目制作，音乐制作的工作室，1995年开始推出私人花园等节目，而之后涉足电视以及唱片制作，她的第一张唱片《神的戏剧》入选中国摇滚百大，而十年为这个城市奉献的几十场风格各异的世界艺术大师专场成为岛城音乐爱好者的聚会，而她却退出人们的视线，蛰伏起来，16年，一路走来，太多的事情值得回忆，太多的事情值得总结，更多的是需要思考，始终在质疑和贫瘠中蹒跚前行，带给别人的始终是力量和美好，执着是她唯一的印章，也早已经学会了不再抱怨，无论花开花落，宠辱不惊，在这个城市留下了一步步的脚印，而这些也许并不起眼的脚印，已经是这个城市最连贯的艺术轨迹，重要的是她始终没有忘记自己的责任。
二八年华，灰姑娘长大了，在刚刚过去的两年，她历经了太多洗礼，一次次的巨变让人震惊，而破茧而出的瞬间，她也毫不在意别人的眼神，她知道自己的目标，飞起来是为了更多的采集，为了传播更多的爱，当然也证明了当年的毛毛虫会变得美丽。而飞到空中却发现周围的一切没有任何变化，这个城市似乎在倒退，退到1995，一座被茫茫大海吞没的城市没有文化的落脚之处，城市变的面具化，创造力的缺乏让城市变得死气沉沉，这个城市慢慢的变成一座养老院，只有垂暮之年的人碌碌而生。她别无选择只能站出来宣布我还在，并且 开始打造一艘方舟，希望倾其所有打造出能用来承载这个城市文化希望的巨轮，而打造这艘巨轮，不仅是一场演出，而是立体的全方位的搭建，灰姑娘不再幼稚却依然坚持，不再浮躁却继续幻想，她学会了举重若轻，她更懂她将付出的代价，她此刻的角色更像另一个古老传说中的精卫，她知道她自由飞翔的快乐，但是她似乎命中注定无法享乐，如同她知道浴火重生的痛苦，但却无法停止承担自己的使命，她只能在众人惊悚质疑嘲讽的眼神中继续耕耘，对她来说，美丽和成功早已不是获取而是付出。在人生的路程中她再一次遇上十字路口，是选择舒适安逸还是披荆斩棘，似乎每一次她的选择总是最难的。也许太容易的成功会让她丧失安全。十六年前的选择让她开悟，十六年后的选择又会是怎样 如何结局？没有人可以预言。但她的行为已经让所有人望尘莫及。
这艘方舟的目标绝对不是短期，也绝对不是与国内的大大小小的音乐节比赛，领航者的眼光始终放在国际的舞台上，今后将会有更多的国际乐团登上方舟，而观众则覆盖亚洲和世界各地，也更期待会成为如同西班牙，里约热内卢沙滩节一样享誉全球的节日。
这艘方舟会不会建成，会不会沉没？不得而知，而我们确定的是方舟上承载的一定是希望，活力和梦想的时候，我们也相信无论是参与者，观众，音乐家，都会来支持它的建成，在这点上我们似乎不会失败。同时我们也没有把她办成单纯的音乐会，而是朋友的欢聚，因为我们相信只有真情和好的音乐才能吸引人们的视线，才能让这个城市充满欢笑和激情，才能让我们找到自信和骄傲。

打造方舟，一起搞吧！

牧羊女

Excerpt from Arteffect 14 by Clay Army: Two By Two We All Clamor For Life

Two By Two, We All Clamor For Life

“Happiness runs in a circular motion, thought is like a little boat upon the sea.
Everybody is a part of everything, anyway.
You can have everything if you let yourself be.”
- Donovan

Large rock concert gatherings have been “happening” since about forever, it’s just that the singers have changed, that’s all. Long live everything, long live rock. The terra cotta soldiers were the original fans of rock, and the show marches on. Kings and queens will be in force, Cao Yu and Cui Jin will speak to their generations and say, here’s the prayer, say it loud, say it proud. And amen, hallelujah, Long Shen Dao punctuates with extra jah.

We stand in unison, individuals en masse, grains like sand, sand like dots, gritty and nifty, soaking up sun and water – sing it with me, higher on the mountain, standing on the shoulders of Sisyphus, straining so hard not to be the son Glaucus. Give us horses, let us ride, cure us of those who keep us restrained, who saw the grass mud horse in the bushes of Taipingjiao? Aunty Freaky, what have you been drinking? The kool aid here is clean.

The mortal man behind the curtain, or maybe just a wizard, we can’t be sure if the music doesn’t kill the myth of silence. XTX kicks back and wails like the yeti, and someone says the Pet Conspiracy has spoken to the mob and heard what they said, they said the mob rules. Black as night, knights of might, rabbits drinking blood from the necks of those who don’t know the pass words. Happy girls rule the world, the vise around the crown.

Seeking ale in the fragilistic grail, we want to know when enough’s enough and danger calls us back from the tipping time of no return to ashes, rising from the bonfire on the beach. Yuguo sears with darkest flame, London burns while they play, leather suits and birthday boots, it’s all a stolen glance. The Ghost Spardac flits by the candle and leaves a shadow on the wall of the cave, if they couldn’t know, they wouldn’t know. It’s only for the living who flail to flee the flood. Climb aboard, first and second mates.

Speaking in tongues of further lands, Toy Captain sings of distant times. The savage beast is soothed by mellow dromes and magic tones, the mind wanders to when things will be the surface with deep currents asunder, surf’s up for serfs, us. When pop up bubbles are popped, when monsters within dissolve like mushrooms in the rain, heavy rain, gotta be heavy man. Shin gets popped, for they sell, like, a million records man. And a million popsicles. It’s all about the rapper man, the pretty bells and telephone rings, the maker of kings.

The royalty of truth, the mole from the ministry, listen closely to Pipedream Princess, holding a shell up to a shell, hearing an echo of an echo, we’re lost in the loop and though it’s all an empty shell, but sounds ok to me, just let me go, relax in the undertow. The dollops and reams of cream, there’s bags of milk and beer to boot, when head becomes toe, when boat becomes row, when fish become roe, and people progress to an imaginative state where it all could happen instead of having happened.

Perdel, running from something, headlong, headstrong, family planning never planned on this. Single kids, nothing depends on the one who is independent, connected to the grid by a loose wire stretched across a neck. Sissy Chao shows the disapproval for approval, nothing overrated likes being underrated, nothing underground is above us, you can’t get coconuts from a banana tree, but music makes you dance, music makes you dance, music makes you dance.

DJs make music sway to the beat, swing in the heat, undress and undulate, one and all, sand in the cracks. Bands will stick together, people come and go. Things will happen, it’s been that way since about forever. It’s just the names have changed, that’s all. Let there be a festivus for the rest of us, two by two, we all clamor for life.