Wherever I'm With You

            Making our way to the Osheaga Music Festival in Montreal, we attempted to learn the native language. French. Mostly we learned “Je ne comprends pas! Parlez-vous anglais?” (I do not understand! Do you speak English?), which was sufficient enough in most situations. But we had to pull out the big guns when we ventured into a French restaurant, Accords. Probably one of the best meals I ever had in my life, but we definitely had to work for it. Our poor waiter, too!

            Finally getting some much needed rest at a bed and breakfast in B&B Maison Saint Louis, we woke up to an amazing breakfast of figs and mascarpone cheese with French toast. Délicieux!

With heavy bellies, we grabbed the train and headed to the island of Parc Jean-Drapeau. There was quite a line-up for Osheaga. Many of which included Weezer, The National, The Black Keys, and the Gaslight Anthem. But Arcade Fire was the grand finale!

            Until then, we strolled through the maze of stages, stopping to listen to various bands while lying in the grass and discussing where we would call home when the summer ended. By society standards, a home means a shelter. And shelters come in a range of different shapes. At the dawn of time, trees were shelter. But it could also be a tent made up of a flimsy layer of canvas or polyester, perfect for the nomadic. And as ships were invented, they too served as shelter when society braved travel to far distances and unknown lands. To some, travel is considered a rite of passage or pilgrimage; a very long journey or search of great moral significance.

So together, lying there in the grass, our journey evolved into more or less a ‘great moral significance’. It doesn’t matter the type of home we have, or the city in which it resides. It doesn’t matter how many times we have packed boxes, or lived out of them. The only foundation or distance we need to worry about is how close our two pair of feet are planted next to each other.     

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Not the way that I do love you

Holy roly, me, oh my, you’re the apple of my eye
Girl, I’ve never loved one like you

Man, oh man, you’re my best friend, I scream it to the nothingness
There ain’t nothin’ that I need

Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
There ain’t nothin’ please me more than you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you

La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I’m coming Home

I’ll follow you into the park, through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I’ve never loved one like you

Moats & boats & waterfalls, alley ways & pay phone calls
I’ve been everywhere with you

That’s true

We laugh until we think we’ll die, barefoot on a summer night
Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

And in the sticks we’re running free like it’s only you and me
Geez, you’re something to see.

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Moats & boats & waterfalls & pay phone calls

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I’m alone with you

The night was spectacular! Fireworks sparkled in the horizon to the side of the stage as Arcade Fire performed. By the end of the night, the trip was nearly over and reality was too eager to wake us up. In the beginning, we just needed to clear our heads of responsibilities and the looming presence of the need to, as some call it, ‘grow up’. So running away gave us our best ticket to escape. Inevitably, summer turned to dust and we had to adjust, but at least now we could see where we were going. 

Somethin' filled up

my heart with nothin',

someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below

 

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you

Home is the Reason for Running

Running with the wolves.
It's time for us to go.
Left all our clothes.
With the car left by the road.

And we were running.
For a reason.
For the burning, in our veins.
And we were running.
For a reason.
We just need to get away.

Running with the wolves.
We're screaming at the stars.
Left all we own.
In a hole in our backyard.

And we were running.
For a reason.
Left our cubicles in little flaming piles.
And we were running.
For a reason.

I need to feel something different for just a little while.

I'm not coming home.
I'm staying with the wolves.
They can burn all my mail.
And disconnect my phone.

Tell my mom I'm sorry, sorry for leaving.
But I'm staying.

Now we're running to find meaning.
We're gone, and we're never coming back.

     Leaving Detroit with a bit of a heavy heart, we traveled to northern Michigan where we were surrounded by water. Our next concert was the main reason we were in Michigan at all. After finding out about this band and listening to their work, we were hooked. We had to see them in concert, only problem was that they never came our way toward the east coast. Cloud Cult is a very unique gathering of musicians, and artists. They are also very green conscience, and work under the label Earthology. I’ll spare the details, but learn more here http://www.cloudcult.com/about.cfm. With every concert they perform, two artists are hard at work painting a canvas in the background. At the end of each show, they hold an auction to sell the artworks for charity.

     Fortunately enough, our concert venue was within walking distance to a nearby campground, Interlochen State Park. We decided to rent a teepee, which seemed ignorantly fun at the time. When we arrived, it was great not to worry about setting up our tent. We just set up the Eno hammock, the cots in the teepee, made dinner and we were set for the night.

We had a few days to kill, so one day we traveled toward Traverse City and the vineyards and coastal towns of the Grand Traverse Bay area. We stopped to enjoy a vineyard or two and met very friendly locals. At one point, a nice sommelier about our age had told us her story about how her and her husband left Detroit with the energy they still had left, and had just moved to the area. Later, we also passed a quaint fishing village called Leland, where we managed to snag some cheese from this amazing shop called, what else? The Village Cheese Shanty!

We went back to the camp, attempted to go swimming, except there were signs everywhere to beware of “swimmers itch”. Sounds scary, but come to find out it really only affected small children with I guess, more delicate skin. As long as you wipe off after being in the lake for a while, you were fine. So no swimmer’s itch for us! Yay!

      That evening we walked into the Interlochen Arts Academy where the performance was taking place. The venue had immaculate sound equipment, or so Dave observed. The house was mostly filled by students from the academy, and I guess at one point it was past their curfew because they all left, leaving only a handful of people. Cloud Cult was more than worth the trip! We enjoyed the concert and walked back to the campsite by moonlight.

      In the middle of a sound sleep that night, a storm rushed in. In theory, the outer-edge poles of the teepee would have a cord wrapped around them to catch the rain at the top and absorb the water. Unfortunately for us, this was not the case. We woke up to rain dripping on our heads and frantically moved our gear unto higher ground. After finding a dry corner of the teepee, we tried to fall asleep to the sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning outside. 

     We woke up to a muddy mess outside, packed our gear up and headed north toward the Canadian border for the last time for one grand finale concert. We were thrilled about our last leg of the journey, but after leaving this beautiful region and its down-to-earth people, we felt so very close to a place we could call home. But to some, there is a different definition of “home”. It just takes a little more energy to find it.  

A million years it's been, since the search began.
Still can't find it. Still can't find it.
The fuel is nearly spent. Check the maps again.
Can't let go of it. Can't let go of it.
Now the crew is cold and drunk on chemicals.
Can't believe in it. Can't believe in it.
And I heard the captain say, I heard the captain say,
"We' re so close to it, so very close to it.
We still have energy in us."

We feel our hearts break as the engines fade.
Still need to find it. Still need to find it.
So we took the written words of our philosophers,
and built a fire from it. Let's get those engines lit.
We took the church's veil and built a mighty sail.
to carry forth this ship. but we're still losing it.
And I heard the captain say, I heard the captain say,
"We' re so close to it, so very close to it.
We still have energy in us."

The mission's over now, and my breath is running out.
Can't let go of it, can't let go of it.
I didn't mean what I said, I didn't mean what I said.
I love you more than this. I love you more than this.
Then lights they fill the air, or were they always there?
I finally see it. I finally see it.
And I heard the captain say, I heard the captain say,
"You're always close to it, so very close to it."
There's so much energy in us.