the stars will align, the fates will consent

So a large part of my day has been an enormous waste of time. Wanna know why? Of course you do or else you would've stopped reading already. Before LiveJournal, before Myspace, before blogs, before Facebook -- yes, there was such a time -- there was this.

Most of you probably heard of the Manhattan Project in history class referring to the US's atomic bomb project during WWII. Or maybe you heard it in reference to the Ninja Turtles movie/video game. Well, that's partly why we -- Jeff, Trev, Dev and I -- chose it as our band name in high school; since people were already familiar with the name they would be curiously drawn to our shows in effort to remember where they first heard of the Manhattan Project.

To quote Lando Calrissian, I was the "administrator of this facility" (though I would hardly call a message board a facility; I just really wanted to quote Lando). In other words, I basically maintained the message board... and at times, if things got out of hand, I did so with an iron fist (I often referred to myself as the Supreme Dictator). Anyway, this message board was hardly band related, or at least, hardly related to our band. It was essentially a gathering place for friends (and enemies) of TMP, where we discussed everything from music to movies to, well, everything else. For example, the lengthiest topic, weighing at 133 replies, was a sarcastic debate of pop vs. soda (speaking of sarcasm, I'm surprised we were still friends after some of the things we said on here; jeez!).

Feel free to peruse at your own risk; I can't guarantee that everything on this is board is G rated, though for the most part we tried to keep it clean -- as clean as immature high schoolers can keep it. I just stumbled upon this topic Indie Rock Memories... that was fun to read -- and one of the few unoffensive posts; it would be a fun topic of discussion today.

Since moving to Colorado and being far away from friends and family, my moods have often been nostalgic and reminiscent. I'm a pretty sentimental guy as it is, so this is saying a lot. You'll notice that recent blog posts have been dedicated to old friends and/or the good times we've shared. Upon rediscovering this old message board today I feel my reminiscence coming to a climax; while I've enjoyed the postings and ramblings of yesteryear, I've realized that I'm glad that this period is over and behind me. I'm grateful for the experiences I've had since then and I'm happy to be where I am today.

But, I'm also happy to say that this bout of nostalgia is hardly over. What I'm about to write has been somewhat classified for a while, and I'll probably be labeled a hypocrite for blogging about it, but so be it, I don't feel like waiting anymore. A couple months ago while talking with my brother Matt he told me that he would be playing keyboards with our friends Steve and Tyson's band, The Headline Is Dead. Impressed with the idea of a reunion show, I jokingly suggested that I come home that weekend and play an acoustic set of TMP songs.


This is Tyson's list of top ten local bands and top 20 songs. Notice TMP is three and xyzebra is ten. Two TMP songs appear on the list as does one xy song. Rock!

Matt passed the idea on to Steve and Tyson -- avid TMP fans -- I'm flattered that there is such a thing -- and they loved it. So I told them I'd figure out how to do a couple TMP jams acoustic style and come down and play them, maybe with Trev and/or Devyn (bass and drums, respectively). The date of the show was set for Saturday August 8th. A few weeks later I was on the phone with Jeff (vocals and guitar and principle songwriter). He casually mentioned that he and his wife and childrens (they have two now, crazy!) would be flying home in August. Thinking it would be a funny coincidence that they would be coming the weekend of this show, it was my natural response to ask their date of departure. Turns out he would be flying home on the 7th of August. Thinking this was too good to be true, and almost expecting to be shot down, I suggested to Jeff the possibility of a full band TMP reunion. To my joy he responded positively, as did the other fellas when I told them of Jeff's visit to AZ.

Anyway, we've wanted to keep this on the DL till we have the details ironed out, but, as Cat Stevens puts it, "I can't keep it in!" To add to my excitement, my post-high school band xyzebra will be playing, as will Whit's classic band Felix. That and the date, August 8th, are all I can mention right now since the venue and other bands (except for The Headline Is Dead who is confirmed, of course) are still in flux, though we are very close to nailing them down. Expect a flyer soon.