Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Volume 1 Issue 4

What's In a Name?

-What does a name mean to you? There's a lot in a name, but what does it mean to you?
Cheer Up, Knoxlogan

by Morgan Harper, United States

-verse one-
today's the day they tell you
you're never going to see again
all the colors and figures
tomorrow you will forget
no more memories
but mind games and mysteries
the substance of endlessness
and what we thought mattered

-chorus-
but cheer up Knoxlogan
you'll redefine the world again
through your trembling fingertips
there's an ugly world
you no longer have to see

-verse two-
tonight's the night you realize
you're never going to love again
they'll dance around around you
but no one holds your hand
but tomorrow when the morning comes
while they still pretend that they're in love
you'll walk right through them with a
peace they could never have

-chorus-
so cheer up Knoxlogan
you'll redefine the world again
through your trembling fingertips
there's an ugly world
you no longer have to see

-bridge-
please don't envy what you think you lost
have you any idea of the infinite cost
to stand in the light that only shines for the free
to stand in the light that only the blind can see

-chorus-
so cheer up Knoxlogan
you'll redefine the world again
through your trembling fingertips
there's an ugly world
that no longer has to be and
there's a beautiful world
that only you can see
----

About the Artist:

Morgan Harper is a college student from Atlanta, Georgia studying English. According to Harper, "Cheer up Knoxlogan" is the story of a young girl named "Knoxlogan" who has just gone blind. The song/story is stole from the perspective of a friend who is trying to convince her to the beauty of this matter, and there is an "ugly world" she no longer has to see.

----

Contact Morgan Harper: harper.morgan@gmai.com

Monday, September 29, 2008

2008-09-18 - 1.3

Volume 1 Issue 3

Location, Location
-Whether it relates to New Zealand or the street you live in on, show us what you make of a particular place.

"The L"

by Aaron Jones, United States

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About the Artist:

Aaron Jones is a graduate student at NYU studying Musical Theatre Composition. "The L" was created on Sept 11th, 2008 as he was waiting for the train, en route to Ground Zero.

Contact Aaron Jones: aaron@aaronjonesmusic.com
----
Untitled

by Micah Borron, United States

(Verse 1)
Full speed ahead, This ship is out of control
And you're the only the reason that I keep this forward motion
going on and on.

(Pre-Chorus)
Just relax a little bit,
Before the fuse is lit,
to take an eye for an eye
And the corner of your lips
do the same as sinking ships
Coursing through your fingertips.

(Chorus)
It's not that it's for the best,
It's just that you never tried.
You say You're prettier when you're drunk
You've got it all wrong
You say you've got this nailed down
But who's laying on the side of the Highway

(Verse 2)
SO go on ahead accept his offer, you're both drunk
even though your heart is under, fire
He'll take you to a quiet place, you can't escape your own fate
He'll even say this...

(Pre-chorus)

(Chorus)

(Bridge)
So what's got the best of you?
Is your flawless sense of style
really failing you?
A man is only as good as his word is
But I promise you, you'll never be content
in the bottom of a bottle or in his bed

(Chorus)
----

About the Artist:

Micah Borron is a college student from Jefferson, Georgia at the University of Georgia.

----

Contact Micah Borron: mborron@uga.edu
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

2008-09-11 - 1.2

Volume 1 Issue 2

Love and Tragedy
-Love--a beautiful expression no man or woman can deny. However, sometimes it gets a little haywire! Show us through your submission what you make of that..

True Love

by Kayla Denson, United States

----

About the Artist:

Kayla Denson, is a Full-time College Student and Part-Time Nanny from Georgia, United States. According to Denson, "True Love" is "all about the perfect love described in 1 Corinthians 13. The fact that without love, nothing else matters. Without love, there wouldn't be cute old couples or bouncing babies or fairy tale endings. Without love, Christ would not have died for us, and we would all be lost. Without love, this world would be a total and complete disaster. Without love, there is no purpose for existence."

Contact Kayla Denson: kayla.denson@students.acc.edu
----
Je Ne Suis Pas

by Morgan Harper, United States

verse one
in your head there is a beautiful girl by the ocean side
in your mind she parallels to your dreams (with)
flowers in her hair and a smile that never dies
in your eyes she is pure, she is perfection
but where does that leave me?

chorus
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je pourrais jamais être

verse two
hallelujah to you for finding all you want and more
but if you find it don't exist what was it all for?
you look through all the people saying they could never be
you walk through people you walk through me repeatedly
but where does that leave me?

chorus
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je pourrais jamais être

verse three
is it true that is a love only few men ever reach
is it intertwined in words we never fully understand
is it only revealing when you have to keep moving
or is it only an escape from harsh realities

chorus
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je ne suis pas, non
je ne suis pas
je pourrais jamais être

----

About the Artist:

Morgan Harper is a college student from Georgia, United States. According to Harper, "Je Ne Suis Pas" is nothing more than an observation of unrequited love. It is about the uncertainty of love and not knowing if it is reliable or not. Though this is not a personal experience, Harper says she has seen these played out before her on numerous occasions.

Contact Morgan Harper: harper.morgan@gmail.com
Backwards Waltz

by Rucker Manley, United States

The tears trail up my face, around my lips and into my eyes as I remember all the times I’ve sighed: the first touch, the wedding, and the funeral. Such sweet memories sing forever. Forever.

She looks so pretty in her black lace dress, her arms crossed across her chest, across her breast, and I slowly but strongly fight back the tears as the four pallbearers carry the casket and drop it gently into the whole. Forty two inches, it falls, and I will always remember, never forget. Forever.

So stunning, so stunning in that white gown and the translucent veil that falls softly across her hair and face. I remember it like yesterday: her father led her up the chapel aisle into my arms, two ‘I do’s’ and one magic kiss, one magic kiss that sealed the deal. I will always remember, never forget. Forever!

The black dress and the white gown! The contrast of a life lost, love lost, bled out on the floor. The tears trail up my face, around my lips and into my eyes as I remember all the times I’ve sighed: the first touch, the wedding, and the funeral. Such sweet memories sing forever. As I drag the blade I understand that I cannot live without you, but in the afterlife we will be together forever. In a twisted way, the pain makes everything okay. Everything is okay, and will be forever.

I will always remember, never forget: Always. Never. Forever.

----

About the Artist:

Rucker Manley is a college student from Thomasville, Georgia. "Backwards Waltz" was written in March 2008.

Contact Morgan Harper: rucker.manley@gmail.com

Monday, September 15, 2008

2008-09-04 - 1.1

Volume 1 Issue 1

The Color Wheel
Almost anything in the world can be identified and traced back to color. We asked you what you thought to color and here are some of the best entries we came across.
R0013702
by Lasse Langset, Norway
----
About the Artist:
Lasse Langset is a photographer from Oslo, Norway. 'R0013702' was taken Saturday, August the 23rd at a multicultural festival in Oslo called the Mela festival.
Contact Lasse Langset: lasselangset@hotmail.com
----
Green Room
by Joshua Shabani, USA
As your sitting in your green room, surrounded by green walls
Close your eyes, imagine where I was
I'm right beside you, though I won't linger long
I hold my breath, and watch you as I fall

Your sweetest silence, runs as honey through my veins
Flows through me, injecting in my brain
Elusive pictures, of things that keep me sane
Until I wake up, within these walls again

Watch as colors fade, and spiral into one
Then change their shapes in shadows of the sun
All the games we play, I chase and you must run
At the finish, we'll end up when it's done

I can't remember all the things, I thought that you had said
When I wake up where you started once again
Back in the green room, the walls are closing in
Consumed by all the thoughts inside my head

Back in the green room
----
About the Artist:
Joshua Shabani is a college student at Cal State Northridge. 'The Green Room' was written in August of 2008. According to Shabani, "'The Green Room' is a place where illusions take over our realities. It is a place where we escape into when looking for those things that we desire most, but cannot get. Somewhat of an oasis, we have all been in the green room before, and will most definitely be there again."
Contact Joshua Shabani: JoShabani@gmail.com
----
Light Blue Clouds
by Raul Chimelir, Uruguay
Light blue clouds, bright white skies
stars that shine, when it's not their time.
Rolling mountains, fish that fly,
watercolor photos from an oil painted life.

Holiest of holys, but only at church.
Unopened packages waiting for birth.
Gregory Peck in Brando's used shoes,
don't ever expect, and everything's new.

Happiness in holes you'd never think to dig,
six feet in the ground, and it feels like you did.

Night's open window, the blacklight of the moon,
a thousand lost postcards will arrive soon.
Everywhere to hide but no wish to run,
your joker's crazy stories only half the fun.

Using your mind to clear up a path,
you don't want to go but you'll never come back.
----
About the Artist:
Raul Chimelir is a viticulturist from Uruguay. Here's what he said about this piece: "It's when I realize that the season is changing that I start to pay more attention to the clouds and the sky. What if the sky was white, and the clouds blue? I didn't think this was so far-fetched compared to a lot of other everyday contradictions, both in nature and people's experiences. So I wrote about them, late Summer 2007, in Uruguay."
Contact Raul Chimelir: raulchim@gmail.com
----
Yellow
by Justin Friello, USA
----
About the Artist:

Justin Friello is a student at SUNY Purchase pursuing a B.M. Classical Composition. "Yellow" was written in 2006, but the YouTube video was filmed in 2008. In the words of Friello, it "began as a simple chord progression with no lyrics. Scanning my bedroom for some inspiration I spotted a calendar whose monthly picture was Charlie Brown and Snoopy over a solid yellow background. Using the color as the theme for the song, I began to write about the sun, the outdoors, and living without boundaries. Looking back on the song, I can see a subtext of environmental consciousness. The lyric "I'm seeing yellow and I would say it's bright as the sun/Cover your face it hurts my eyes" now seems to hint at global warming, although such social relevance was not on my mind at the time of the song's creation. Aside from any other message one might draw from the song, I really only wanted to show the benefits of friends, family, and having a good time."

Contact Justin Friello: justin.friello@purchase.edu

Website: myspace.com/filmingohio, youtube.com/earlebrown, justinfriellolyrics.blogspot.com

Red Letter Day

by Tim Kirman, Scotland

----

About the Artist:

Tim Kirman is a Trainer from Gasgow, Scotland. "Red Letter Day" was taken on the 7th of June in 2008 with a Holga on 120 film in Glasgow.

Contact Tim Kirman: imkirman@googlemail.com
----
Red Honey
by Gadi Cohen
In ecru tanks they travel through the lands

of roaring flax

in arsenic search of machines

that pump through crust hungrily.



The thunder echoes:

there is no rush of rain;

a soft reverberation at first,

brushing through the sand,

and then the massive machines yield

in the face of those Americas.



Clay-creased faces look up

to the tanks, turn the sky lime.



They stare with pixel eyes

and yell sepia words full of fear:

like a disease, it
spreads.



The second rumble

ejaculated from the tick of a rifle

in the brown hands, almost black

repeats itself until the tanks raise their own fire

and death onto the machines.



The shots ring through the air

until a first man dies in obsidian,

collapsing from the tank

crimson jetting out in all directions--

a scarlet stream through buff sands.



Screaming—

it ain’t over yet—

tanks hacking into metal,

bullets tearing white skin:

the Arabs are fearless!—

but they are full of black, black

Fear.



While the families in soft Florida villas cross their pale fingers

over their 60 blaring inches of azure
Mediterranean conflict.



They don’t know their men are off in the golden desert

in their little ecru tanks

still pink from the fight,

red-turning-scarlet-turning-puce,

dead like the 8-year-old girl

the Egyptians or Pakistanis raped and killed.



But still all the Arab men are dead,

and all the American men are dead,

and the cars continue to roll

down Manhattan streets

the oil boiling in engines, smoke swirling to the sky.

All dead under sallow sun

because of our hunger.


The children and wives in puke-green huts,

still thinking their giver is pushing honey

from the ground.
----
About the Artist:
Gadi Cohen is currently a student. "Red Honey" was written in September of 2008. According to Cohen, this is "a colorful yet bleak poem about America's struggle with foreign oil."
Contact Gadi Cohen: cohen_gadi@yahoo.com

Monday, September 1, 2008

Welcome to the Archives!

Hi! Welcome to the archives of The Role. Currently, there are no issues created to be archived as of yet. Continue to check back!

-Morgan H