The Ballad of Me and my Brain
This week is all about featuring other artists. The pictures in this week’s post are from the Norside Organ Trio’s show at the Thunderbird Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA about a week ago. These guys really know how to bring a groove. I had the pleasure of going around and capturing the energy in the room while these guys rocked the house. They’ve recently begun a small American tour, definitely check them out if ever you get the chance.
Continuing on the theme of sharing others’ voices, I would like to show off a small blurb from a talented writer, a burgeoning philosopher, and a dear friend of mine— Kyle Irish-Gorvin.
Emerging from the vast corn fields of Iowa, Kyle came to Pittsburgh to pursue his interests in theater. After completing his BFA at the height of the pandemic, Kyle has taken his time to grow his strengths in a variety of venues across cultural touchstones of the world. Over the last several years, I’ve had the honor of calling him a peer, a collaborator (co-conspirator may be more accurate), and the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother. Continue reading below to get just a piece of his madness.
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Contrary to popular opinion outside of Iowa, the state isn’t just made up of cornfields (or at least, not all of it).
I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, a small surburban college town that prided itself on education and being one of the key locations during the 2008 elections that helped spearhead then Senator Obama into being president.
We didn’t have much in the way of culture where I came from. In truth I feel as though growing up the general topography of my childhood didn’t mesh right with who I was. I thought a lot growing up. I imagined worlds and characters in my head, thought up questions with no answers, and grappled with the dilemna of not having too many friends at the time. So, unsuprisingly, my hobbies and interests took on a more solitary nature.
I love reading and have since my third grade teacher, Mrs. Vincent, first placed a fantasy fiction book in my hand. It’s a learned skill reading for pleasure. It comes with cultivation and a desire to go to places that can’t be seen and look into the thoughts of others when one can never truly do that in the material world.
That desire, transplanting my consciousness into other places, peoples, and worlds, most likely was the catalyst to creative interests today. I’m a writer (though to be perfectly honest I must admit I write very little as of late) as well as an actor (though I too have acted very little this last year). My interests serve as a spiritual outlet, a means to express myself and relate to my fellow people. To empathize and grow as a person on a intimate level. I view the arts not from a business model but from a cultural perspective, I don’t mean to say this from the perspective that this is the right way to be an artist for the very statement is a fallacy, but merely how I relate to art. I view the role of an artist to be that of a prophet, a guide, a storyteller, and above all else: a dreamer. We need dreamers in this world.
We need people to imagine what can be. Those who take the good with the bad of this silly silly world. During the twenty-three years I’ve been on this planet I have had my share of suffering, most notably the loss of my cancer-stricken mother when I was a child and my Uncle Stan who regretably passed away this year. I have known heartbreak, pain, and a lonliness that felt so deep and consuming that I thought I might be swept away in its’ depths. Through it all, I’ve also felt pure esctasy and joy that is unparalled. I’ve felt euphoria, bliss, and pure contentment. I’ve loved deeper than I’ve ever loved and those peaks make those valleys of despair look like mere potholes in the streets I grew up on. I learned long ago that this world isn’t fair, but despite all the bruises of this life, I have found it to be a life worth living all the same.
-Thank you very much for letting me word regurgitate here Noah. I love you lots man and am proud of all that you do in this life. You mean the world to me.
Kyle Irish-Gorvin
