Ashes to Ashes, Music and Must

           What a joke a human is! A self-denying paradox, filled with ideas of order, loyalty, respect. What a laugh! What a scam! All it takes is a moment—and poof! Our visions fall to dust. Still, there is something to be said for stubbornness. Oh yes, really, the fun people are those who cling long and hard to their little plans, building them up around them; they scurry around with hopes and dreams and rules. Sometimes they’ll even do things that even I would find… strange. All these things to make the world seem just! Silly! Silly, silly, silly. But fun. Where would I be without them? Where is entropy without the little things that just seem to… fall apart?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Here’s an essay file I found that was written by an ex-associate of mine. I hope you found it as interesting as I did.
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           He is Matthew Kilby, born March 22, 1993: Alabama native, 2011 graduate of Wando High School, now enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Like many young middle class Americans, he has followed a relatively set path with his education. Compulsory elementary school lead into compulsory middle school. Middle school fed into high school. At a glance, it appears that he is following a path that many others have taken, but it is in the details that he has made his own adjustments. University life has given him an opportunity for choice, a decision to be made, and his decision is paradoxically unique and typical at once. He has chosen to devote much of his life to music. His move would perhaps be considered bold by past generations, requiring self-direction and artistic ambition. But in the context of today’s youth, Matthew instead reflects an ideal growing in popularity and esteem. He represents a generation that is moving towards choosing occupations based on passion rather than professional prospects.
           Matthew has both a love for music and the will necessary to pursue it. A self-described musician, Matthew plays several instruments, including more notably percussion and guitar. As a member of the UNC Wind Ensemble, the university’s Percussion Ensemble, the marching band (in which he plays the snare drum), and a smaller personal band called The Makeshift, Matthew approaches music in many ways. His ambition in music composition along with performance and the diversity of his studies can attest to the variety with which he challenges himself. Although he considers the core of his attraction to music to be its affective ability and its emotional power, which he describes as going beyond storytelling, he certainly does not limit himself to a single mode of appreciating the phenomenon. His personal listening tastes range from contemporary bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Wilco to classics like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, and he expresses interest in music of many shapes, including experimental rock. This disposition towards exploring different types of sounds alongside his involvement in several successful musical groups (besides the University’s ensembles, The Makeshift is notable for already having released an album) demonstrates Matthew’s commitment to music.
           Beyond his own interest, Matthew is an exemplar of a broader context. Coming from a music-loving family, Matthew was encouraged to make music a meaningful part of his life. His mother, a pediatrician, and his father, the chief of Infectious Disease at MUSC, play piano and guitar respectively. His younger brother plays the drums. Where in the past Matthew might have faced opposition from medical parents, Matthew has been disposed quite favorably to pursuing the sonorous arts as a career, and he is not alone. He says that many of his best friends are musicians like himself and that he is drawn to other musical people. Many other stories echo his, although he has made his progress his own. He is at once an individual following a personal calling and a manifestation of a changing culture.