Risen Magazine

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vol 3 • iss 5 – sept - oct 06

Jose Ismael Fernandez Scott Harrison Jamie Sterling The Ladies of The Office Bob Dylan

Sugar Ray Leonard Lupe Fiasco

Name change for DMX

september/october 2006

FEATURES 20 Sugar Ray Leonard :: Knock Out Believe it or not, world-wide boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard used to get beat up by his big brother when they were kids. That was a long time ago—a gold medal and world championship ago. My, how time flies when you’re having fun in the ring.

28 Tom DeLonge :: Life After Blink Tom DeLonge and Blink 182 sold millions of albums to kids who got the creeps living in the suburbs and were looking to live vicariously through rock stars that did exactly what they wanted. That worked for a while. And then DeLonge grew up.

34 Ladies of The Office In reality, corporate life is often as bizarre—but not nearly as funny—as TV’s huge hit, The Office.

Actresses Melora Hardin, Angela Kinsey, and Mindy Kaling explain their show’s success.

42 Jamie Sterling :: Living where things get lost There is only a handful of men on the planet who would be willing to drag their pink surfboards a mile offshore to catch a tidal wave. Jamie Sterling is one of them.

50 Lupe Fiasco :: Street Cred Lupe Fiasco is the pride of Chi-town and the voice of insanely sane hip hop. You’ve heard his smash “Kick, Push” gliding through the airwaves, now find out what keeps him grounded.

photo: Bil Zelman

Departments EXPRESSIONS 60 Jose Ismael Fernandez :: Power Struggle Jose loved molding clay so much when he was a kid that now he does if for a living. You’ve seen this classically influenced sculptor’s work in films such as Batman and X-Men. Now find out what makes him tick

64 Scott Harrison :: Charity Find out how a New York City party planner ended up eating ravioli from a can and sleeping with cockroaches on a medical ship. His photojournalism will stun you.

SCREEN 72 DVD Reviews Jeffrey Overstreet recommends some of the movies that you may have overlooked and shouldn’t have.

SOUND 74 CD Reviews RISEN lays out the low-down on a stack of new musical offerings.

UP TO SPEED 76 Charlotte Martin, Josh Radin, Mia Kirshner Those who have been featured in Risen are on the move. Find out where they are headed.

END NOTE 78 Bob Dylan :: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

september/octoberContributors

EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF :: Steve Beard MANAGING EDITOR :: Regina Goodman FOUNDING EDITOR :: Chris Ahrens CULTURE EDITOR :: Tyler Shields COPY EDITOR :: Dane Wilkins CONTRIBUTING WRITERS :: Owen Leimbach, Nicole Leimbach, Mr. Otis, Andrea Nasfell, Fayola Shakes, Jeffrey Overstreet, Jared Cohen, Jessie Duquette, Thaddeus Christian

ART ART DIRECTOR :: Rob Springer PHOTO EDITOR :: Bob Stevens CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS :: Bil Zelman, Aurelia D'Amore, Aaron Chang, Dave Collyer, Estevan Oriol

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PHOTO STAFF :: David Choo, Jon Davis, Lou Mora, Beth Coller, Lawrence Cassel ILLUSTRATION :: Zela

FASHION FASHION EDITOR :: Mona Van Cleve CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS :: Derek Van Cleve, Arturo D. Chavez

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PUBLISHER :: Michael Sherman ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER :: Dan Alpern ACCOUNTING :: Cynthia Beth CIRCULATION:: Helen Warmath THANK YOU :: Atticus Clothing, Flower Street Lofts RISEN Magazine is a subsidiary of RISEN Media, LLC. The views expressed by the subjects interviewed in RISEN Magazine are not necessarily those shared by the staff or publishers of RISEN Media, LLC.

3 8 6 1 Owen Leimbach - Writer Sugar Ray Leonard (page 20)

4 Aurelia D'Amore - Photographer The Office (page 34)

6 Bil Zelman - Photographer Tom DeLonge (page 28)

Sugar Ray Leonard doesn't look that tough. But like my mom used to said, "It's all fun and games 'till an unassuming guy kicks your butt.

Smiling faces, Grandma Anna and the occasional friendly donkey are just a few of Aurelia's favorite photographic collaborators. Check out her portrait in the book Turning Heads. www.turningheadsthebook.com

Photographer Bil Zelman loves shooting rockstars and commercials, drinking coffee, smoking good cigars, and living with his wife Megan and two dogs in Southern California.

2 Nicole Leimbach - Writer The Office (page 34) If I had my way, we would have filled this entire magazine with the wit and wisdom of the women of the Office.

3 Mr. Otis - Writer Lupe Fiasco (page 50) Me and this baby's mama were chillin' on the beach when Lupe rolled up. He thought my shoes were tight.

5 Andrea Nasfell - Writer Jose Ismael Ferandez (page 60) Jose’s work is beautiful and interesting on the surface, but it’s the metaphorical aspect that sticks with you. The piece where the man strains against the tentacles with one arm and reaches for help with the other... I know exactly how that feels.

7 Estevan Oriol - Photographer Lupe Fiasco (page 50) It's always cool to shoot the guys that are fresh to the game like Lupe Fiasco.

8 Fayola Shakes - Writer Scott Harrison (page 64) CD Reviews (page 72) My dad is a self-taught pianist and guitarist. May I inherit half his talent. Meanwhile, I write. Visit my blog at http://fayolashakes.wordpress.com

All interviews are recorded live and exclusively for use

by RISEN Magazine. Interviews remain the sole property of RISEN Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of RISEN Media, LLC. PRINTED :: USA SUBSCRIPTIONS :: 858.481.5650 - risenmagazine.com $19.99 for a 1 year subscription (6 Issues) • $29.99 for a 2 year subscription. Canada and outside of the US pay $25.99 for a 1 year subscription • $41.99 for a 2 year subscription. Payment must be sent with order. Send all orders to Attn: Subscription Department. For faster service please inquire about credit card payment.

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RISEN Media, LLC 11772 Sorrento Valley Rd., Suite 152 San Diego, CA 92121 Tel. 858.481.5650 • Fax: 858.481.5660 info@risenmagazine.com Copyright © 2005 “RISEN” is a Trademark of RISEN Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Cover Sugar Ray Leonard:: Bob Stevens Cover Tom DeLonge :: Bil Zelman

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september/october:Letter From The Editor

You’ve got to love showbiz stage names. Alice Cooper’s parents originally named him Vincent Damon Furnier. Bono’s birth certificate reads Paul David Hewson. Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers was born Michael Balzary. Robert Allen Zimmerman was going to call himself Robert Allen because it “sounded like a Scottish king and I liked it.” Instead, after discovering the writings of Dylan Thomas, he settled on Bob Dylan.

Sean John Combs has been known as Puffy, Puff Daddy, and P. Diddy. He appeared on The Today Show last year to announce that he would simply be referring to himself as Diddy, mysteriously explaining that “the P was getting between me and my fans.”

Believe it or not, Prince was actually born Prince. Well, technically it was Prince Rogers Nelson. Because of insurmountable frustration with his recording label, he wanted to be known as “The artist formerly known as Prince” and adopted the symbol . “I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was , a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about,” he said in a released statement. “This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.”

As they say, there’s no business like show business.

This train of thought was sparked when I recently read that rapper DMX was thinking about changing his name for “spiritual reasons.” That’s not one you hear every day. In recent memory I can only recall two celebrities who have made such proclamations: Mike Tyson morphed into Malik Abdul Aziz and Cat Stevens (who was born Steven Demetre Georgiou) changed his name to Yusuf Islam, both after converting to Islam.

As for DMX, he has always been transparent about the struggle for his soul. That is the kind of subject we find most intriguing at RISEN. Fame, fortune, and celebrity are sexy elements of life, but 16 :RISEN MAGAZINE

they are the very rewards that often leave men and women spiritually vacuous and unfulfilled. Some celebs are left at the apex of stardom asking, “Is that all there is?” Making a name for yourself in showbiz is one thing, being able to live under the weight of that name often proves to be quite another. Perhaps that’s why Christ asked what good it would do to gain the whole world and lose your soul.

Born as Earl Simmons, DMX (Dark Man X) is well known for his affection for pit bulls, surviving a rough childhood, and countless brushes with the law—including being charged with impersonating an FBI agent. As an actor, DMX has appeared in films such as Belly, Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds, and Cradle 2 the Grave. Over the summer, BET aired a six-part reality biography series entitled DMX: Soul of a Man. A name change for DMX would be a legal mess and a career-shifting decision.

Each of his previous five albums debuted at #1, starting with It’s Dark and Hell is Hot in 1998.

His gravel-voiced hardcore hip hop has sold more than 20 million albums. Year of the Dog Again—his new project—features all of the contradictory themes that have characterized his previous projects: heaven, hell, sex, drugs, revenge, forgiveness, love, hate, God, and the devil. It’s the kind of stuff that usually earns the parental advisory label.

While the name change crisis will startle some fans, it should not be a complete surprise. There has always been a preacher trapped inside DMX waiting for his moment behind the pulpit. Three years ago, he was ready to retire from the hip hop scene. His long-time friend and fellow rapper Ma$e (Rev. Mason Betha) talked him out of the decision.

On the DVD included with Year of the Dog Again, DMX recalls their conversation. “I said, ‘Yo, I know the true calling on my life is to preach the Word.

Where do I go from here?’ He was like, ‘Yo, as long as the Lord gives you the talent to do what you do, do it. He’ll call you when He’s ready.’”

DMX is still waiting for the call. In the meantime, he is becoming more acquainted with the battle between demons and the better angels

of our nature. “It’s a war,” he told Shaheem Reid of MTV News. “It’s always a war going on between good and bad, you know. I’ve said it on one of my songs: “Deep inside I’ve got something that’s working against everything I know is right/ ...That’s when God replies to me, That’s why you got to fight/ Harder than you ever fought before/ That’s what you got going on inside you, that’s a war/ Between good and evil, be careful of those who want to be you/ They smile but they’re not really happy when they see you/ Be careful of the ones that always want to get you high/ Because when the time comes, that one will let you die.”

Despite their graphic and hardcore nature, his albums always include a prayer or some sort of gospel song—yet the name is still nagging him.

“It’s just the whole Dark Man thing,” he said.

“Because if you look at it from a spiritual point of view, the Bible teaches us that we can speak things into existence…And Dark Man, you know, it may not be the best name for me.”

The ancients put lots of stock in a name—far more than we do in our contemporary era. In biblical times, names were often lived up to or lived down. The very act of naming is rooted in an Old World understanding that it expressed a person’s essence, character, and nature. Of course, sometimes a stage name is just a stage name. But in this case, it symbolizes something much more profound. For DMX, it’s a war. And it’s a war I hope he wins.

photo: Kenny Wilson

First Word

Steve Beard Editor in Chief

september/october:Letters To The Editor

I got a good first impression when I read RISEN. You guys are a big influence and inspiration to me. Your pictures, art, opinions, and outlooks on life are freakin' awesome! You guys are the best!

— Tabitha R., Stockton, CA

What I really like about RISEN magazine is learning about those in our culture who have influence, and see if I agree with their belief in God. America is a very spiritual nation.

— Matt M., Shoreline, WA .

I like the way your interesting, accomplished, creative interview guests articulate their personal faith. It emboldens the readers to find their own personal expression.

— Steve B., Santa Clarita, CA

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— puregroove

— Random Eric

— Jill M., Kansas City, Mo

— Michelle L., Calvary Chapel Camarillo

Subscribed and received my first issue not too long ago. You guys are doin' an awesome job. Keep it real and bring the ruckus! You have my support.

I totally love my subscription and promote it to everybody!

Leigh Nash rocks! I still miss Sixpence None The Richer. I think it was pretty clear in the interview that Steve (Beard) is pretty enamored with her as well; I liked his style!

Your interviews promote a "whatever feels good for you is fine" attitude. We are inundated with "world views" and the belief systems of celebrities and athletes already, what makes your magazine any different?

If you want to make a magazine with a positive statement then don't conform to what is already out there and then disguise it as something that it is not.

From our friends on MySpace:

Thanks for the awesome turn on to your page. Killer mag!! I want one. Keep it rockin!

— Kristin

Great interview with Scott Stapp. After all I've heard about with Creed and his "bad boy" rap; it was interesting to see his perspective on everything. I can't believe how open he was; it just goes to show that despite all the crap you hear and read about, there's a story here of someone who struggles just like the rest of us and sometimes screws up. I'm gonna check out his new CD and see what it's about. Thanks for reminding me about this guy.

— Bill H., Baltimore, Md.

I can't believe you actually did an interview with Scott Stapp; I can't stand this guy and I never liked Creed.

Why don't you guys get someone like Chris Martin?

— Alan L., San Jose, Ca.

A special message from the RISEN family: All of us at RISEN magazine wish to send our congratulations to Jennifer and Tom DeLonge on the recent birth of their son (and Ava's little brother), Jonas Rocket.

Sound Off! Letters to the Editor RISEN Magazine 11772 Sorrento Valley Rd. Suite 152 San Diego, CA 92121 letters@risenmagazine.com

Writer: Owen Leimbach Photographer: Bob Stevens

ery few people win Olympic gold medals. Even fewer go on to win world championships. And then there’s the rarest of the rare: the boxer who has done both multiple times and, only days after his 50th birthday, looks at you with a confident grin like he could do it all over again.

According to Sugar Ray Leonard, that comes from keeping your mind applied to life. And nearly a decade after ending his professional boxing career, Sugar Ray’s mind is dancing between his young family, endless speaking engagements, and yes, his ESPN reality show, The Contender, wherein he shepherds a contingent of up-and-coming boxers.

I know a few of you reading this may be younger than me, and you may know Sugar Ray Leonard only by name or from The Contender. If you’re one of those people, put down the magazine, go to your computer, pull up YouTube or your favorite video site, and try to find at least the highlights of Sugar Ray’s second fight with Roberto Duran. It’s sometimes referred to as the “No Mas” fight.

There are moments in life when you see something that changes the way you think about the world; seeing that fight had just such an effect on me. If you think boxing is about beating your opponent into the ground, I’d like you to consider Ray Charles Leonard—exhibit A in boxing’s defense as an art form.

RM: Any favorite superheroes?

SRL: Spiderman, Superman, Thor.

RM: Yeah, Thor was pretty tough.

SRL: He was the best.

RM: Who was the toughest kid in your family?

SRL: The toughest kid in my family had to have been my older brother Kenny. Kenny was a talker and a procrastinator. Kenny was pretty cool.

RM: Did he rough you up?

SRL: No, actually, he would try to help [protect] me from my brother who was a little older than me because he would always try to beat me up... for no reason. I think simply because I was there.

RM: Well, that’s a younger brother’s purpose in life, isn’t it?

SRL: I know. Just for a punching bag. And I was just that. Until one day, [Kenny] taught me how to put ’em up. And the rest is history.

Interviewed exclusively for RISEN Magazine in Los Angeles.

RM: How does one figure out that they’re good enough at fighting to make a living at it?

SRL: When you realize that you hit the other guy more times than he hits you, you kinda get it then. But boxing was kind of a sport that found me. I was such an introverted and quiet kid, and when I started boxing I just felt a surge of power—that this was my sport. As quiet as I was and as shy as I was, this sport kinda energized me.

RISEN Magazine: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Sugar Ray Leonard: You know, as a kid, I was a big dreamer. Wasn’t too sure what I wanted to become other than a superhero. I knew full well that if I was one of the superheroes, I could help people. So I was pretty much in that frame of mind.

RM: Was it boxing that gave you confidence or did your confidence come from some other place?

SRL: That’s a very good question. I think boxing gave me confidence without question. It kinda took me from under the rock. It definitely made me more sociable. It gave me more confidence.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 21

I think that any vocation that you’re involved with and if you’re pretty good at that, it gives you additional confidence. You feel unbeatable.

Like you’re the best.

RM: When you were just getting good at boxing, what was the biggest thing you dreamed of achieving?

SRL: Being the champ. Being a gold medal winner. Winning the Olympic gold and being the world champion. Those were the two ultimate. For an amateur, the Olympic gold medal. And for a professional, to be world champion was the ultimate desire.

RM: How hard was it for you to make the Olympic team? Did it come to you easily?

SRL: Oh no. It was very difficult. It took me six years. I trained very hard. Even at the tender age of 14 I was very dedicated. I was very disciplined. I was very motivated. I was just a kid who loved the sport

so much that I ate, ran, and slept boxing all the time—all the time.

RM: But you retired after you won the Olympic gold.

SRL: I retired a lot of times. [Laughs] Well, I thought about retiring because I had very fragile hands as an amateur boxer. And it was just so tough. You know, making the weight, and there is so much involved in becoming the Olympic champion that I was almost burned out. Just like some of those gymnasts who train so hard all the time.

Or a skater, they train so hard. Or a tennis player, they train so hard that once they reach one of those ultimates, it’s like ‘I’m done.’ And I said the same thing.

But I came back. I re-thought myself because we needed the money. My father was ill and the hospital bills were just crazy. So I had to turn pro to help the family make some money.

RM: Did you have a new ultimate goal when first decided to step down from boxing? Had you moved past boxing in your mind? Were you looking to take on a different challenge?

SRL: No, I enjoyed the competition, I enjoyed the feeling of winning— the high, the psychological warfare. I enjoyed all of those things. They all came with the territory. It was like chess. Pick your shots, pick your shots and then pow, it’s over. It’s done.

RM: How surprised were you at the upside to your boxing career after you had already won the Olympics?

SRL: That was just the start for me. I never thought that life could be so wonderful through participating in a sport like boxing. It’s an amazing high and it’s been an incredible journey and ride, but you just have to maintain perspective and keep things in check. You have to.

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RM: Did you run into some trouble where you had to learn to keep things in check?

SRL: Well yeah, you do, you know. All the sudden now, you’re the favorite guy on the block or the city. You run with your boys and you have your fun. It’s all a growing up process. It’s all about becoming mature and being responsible. We all do our little things. But I think that once you’re able to settle down and realize this is a great life, that’s when it hits you. It really hits you hard. But in a good way.

RM: What’s it like to have to look eye to eye with someone as scary as Roberto Duran and know that nobody is going to stand between you and this man who wants to kill you?

SRL: It is scary, and he is scary, trust me.

RM: His eyes looked crazy.

SRL: Yeah, he is crazy. [Laughs] He was crazy, he’s not crazy now.

But you know, you just hold your own. You accept the fact that either one of you could win, but you favor yourself. And you just tend to believe in yourself. That’s when it all clicks in. [Snaps his fingers] Every fighter believes he’s better than the other guy. Every fighter believes he’s the best. Because to participate in a sport like boxing, you have to be confident—or fake the hell out of it. [Laughs] RM: Did you ever feel like you were faking it in a fight?

SRL: Never. Never ever. When I got into the ring I always knew, I always believed I could and would win.

RM: When you were fighting, you always looked like you were having a good time in the ring.

SRL: I was, I really was.

RM: Folks probably don’t put fighting and a good time together. Put them together for us.

SRL: When I performed, I was an entertainer with boxing. But what I did in the ring—whether it was to stick my chin out or do the bolo punch—I didn’t do those things just for the hell of it. I did them for a reason: yo draw something out of you and to make you frustrated.

And I’ve done it successfully quite often—and it works.

RM: Because [fighters] maybe take things too seriously?

SRL: Yes. They take it too seriously.

RM: Do you find that true outside the ring too?

SRL: It’s true, I mean, life is wonderful, but you can take it light, take it easy. Take it nice and easy.

RM: Do you like pain? What is your philosophy of pain? How do you deal with that as a fighter and someone who likes to have fun while you’re doing it?

SRL: I can’t just accept pain. I endure pain. That may be a contradiction. Because of your adrenaline—especially when you’re 18, 19, 20—you don’t really think about that. As you get older you start to appreciate pain. You start to appreciate being hit. But when

you’re young, you’re gung-ho, you’re confident and noone can beat you as far as you’re concerned.

RM: When you got to be an older fighter, did getting hit and feeling it more teach you to fight any differently?

SRL: I never thought about the fact that I got hit, although that is the nature of the sport. For me, when I realized that it was time to pack it in was when I realized that my priorities had changed. I started having other distractions.

There was no tunnel vision. That’s when I knew that I should get out pretty soon. But I was so stubborn and I wanted to beat the best guy out there. It’s just one of those things that made me who I am. It’s who I was.

RM: Did you ever have a time, either inside the ring or outside of the ring, that you felt you were being pushed past your limits and you might not be able to make it out of the situation?

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SRL: A couple of times. I’ve had those moments, but I thank God that things turned out okay. Well, not okay, but not as bad as it could have. I normally get through it somehow, someway.

RM: Is fame what it looks like on the outside?

SRL: Fame is a luxury because of the perks and all the great things that go along with it. Fame is also a thing that can be somewhat misleading and there are misconceptions. You think that because you’re famous, you’re happy. But everyone’s not always happy.

But for me, fame has brought me this [Motions around himself] and a wonderful family. I’ve taken care of my parents. I retired my mother and father many, many years ago. And now, it’s all about giving back. You know, using that fame to make a difference in someone else’s life because you get to a point where you don’t need as

much as you think you need. And then it’s time to give back—and that’s when it really feels worthwhile.

RM: Do you think it makes relating to people any more difficult?

SRL: Well, you know, fame is also a thing that causes those people to become bigger than life. You see them on the screen, or on TV or whatever. When I first met Muhammad Ali, I looked at him like he was God. When I was young and I met famous people, I think it gave me additional motivation. It makes you want to try harder, work harder. So that’s a good thing.

SRL: Never. Ever! In fact, it’s ironic, because I had said to someone while watching the show one day, “Man, that would never, ever happen to me.”

RM: You once said, “Everybody has a God-given talent and mine just happens to be beating up on people.”

SRL: Yeah, we all have some kind of gift from God and mine just happened to be beating people up. That’s what I do for a living. I still do it. [Laughs] Sometimes. It was funny at the time, but I think it’s true.

RM: Do you have any role models in handling fame?

SRL: The only role models that I have are my parents, my mother and father. They worked hard to make a difference in our lives and others. Thank God they’re still around. I’m going to visit them soon in Florence, South Carolina. Yeah, it’s my parents who are my role models.

RM: Do you have a lesson from your father that sticks with you?

SRL: He always said to just give respect. If you give respect, you get respect.

RM: What in life has given you the most sleepless nights?

SRL: Going to the dentist. Petrified. Back in the day when I had to get my teeth cleaned, I had to get a little bit of ether.

RM: When you knew it was time to get out of boxing, and it had been your ultimate goal up until that point, how did you get a new goal that was able to keep you as stimulated for the second half of your life?

SRL: Nothing can give you the same high as what you’ve done [in the past]…until you face that fact, you’ll never be happy. Nothing that I do will give me the sensation or the exhilaration that I felt in the ring, being the champion. Beating the likes of Tommy Hearns, Duran, and Marvin Hagler is unreal, it’s surreal.

But I enjoy my life and I enjoy working with The Contender. I do motivational speaking around the world and use boxing as a metaphor. This is what I enjoy doing now. Giving back to the Pediatrics AIDS Foundation, juvenile diabetes, just being a dad, being a husband and a father and a person who gives back.

RM: It sounds like you’re saying there is a fine line that separates addiction and joy. Addiction being where you have to have the same pleasure over and over, and joy where you can enjoy something and move on to the next thing.

SRL: Yeah, there has to be a balance somewhere. You know, smell the flowers and move on to the next ones.

RM: What’s it like to get Punk’d [MTV’s prank show where celebrities get set up in elaborate hoaxes]?

SRL: [Laughs] They got me bad. It was so realistic the way they did it and set up the production of that. It was so real when I thought my son had a car accident and then when the [electrical] pole fell on top of the car...

It was...I had to sit down.

RM: Never had anything happen to you like that?

RM: Did you ever make a wager with God when you were starting out, like, if you let me become the champ, I’ll do…

SRL: No, I just see this whole thing as a blessing and move on from there.

RM: If you think God has given a talent to everyone, do you think it falls to people like you, who have figured theirs out, to help others crack their own talents?

SRL: Yeah. You know, you find your niche and then you run with that.

Arnold Schwarzenegger told me that years ago. He said, “Ray, you find your niche and you run with it.” And I found it and I’m running with it. Having a good time with it too.

RM: In your speaking engagements, are you trying to help kids find their niche?

SRL: Yeah, I just tell them to dream the dream. That’s your vision, your dream, it’s gonna take you there. You have to continue to dream, but it’s not going to just happen. You have to make it happen. You have to be focused and dedicated and committed to making something happen in life. And nothing comes easy. Nothing ever comes easy.

RM: You’re 50 now. What do you see yourself doing at 500?

SRL: Probably building a smaller house, [Laughs] one with only one level.

RM: So you can get around with your walker, no doubt.

SRL: No, no, I’ll be using my Segway.

Season 2 of The Contender is currently airing on ESPN. Watch the final bout live from Staples Center on Tuesday September 26th. Check your local listings for show time.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 25

es—friends since former band mat d, de fa fe wi y sensed & Airwaves when m moved on, and he d ha — od ho ild ch I first heard Angels Don’t the cycle of life, as initial offering, We g dying. Typical of hin et m so brought home their ly, ed cit s being born, isten,” she said ex something else wa ed di ing th e on Need to Whisper. “L ure,” e boy shed his four, “The Advent infully, slowly, th pa d an skipping to track e th th that of d singing along wi and slipped into in sk od ho ild ch blasting it out an e unless entually thoughts live, I can’t breath d world citizen. Ev ne er nc co chorus, “I cannot up ht ug came songs, ” until I too was ca became lyrics, be , rm fo ok to you do this with me, picturing l childbirth was te, urgent lyrics, recordings. Natura e m ca be in those passiona if as em Longe, shouting th ore difficult. their author, Tom De d . I have never m th tru e gl sin forever young an at th on ere’s something Th his life depended y ich re Co wh e , lik passionate music, Tom DeLonge’s face in us vo hie isc m long believed that ly type ulthood, teetering ide out, is the on The Lost Boys in ad of im Ha comes from the ins d di , tattoos. The . Still, I wondered th one full sleeve of wi ', 2' 6' nd ou ar worth listening to rtance, in, and then takes a rry any lasting impo um launches off pa alb w ne DeLonge’s sound ca th wi living up ’n’ roll, all grown o something worth violent upswing int or was it just rock th a e will tell. voice still rings wi m e Ti ?

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Whisper, a disapp sage and the deliver es m studio to make n gi be to me, waiting for life DeLonge sat at ho hadn’t agazine at nse of purpose he se a al ve re d sively for RISEN M an clu ex again ed iew nd rv ba te e In California. g with Blink 182, th house in Carlsbad, re wa us tic At known since breakin e th d ring ha By then the chee he helped form.

Writer: Chris Ahrens lman Photographer: Bil Ze

RISEN Magazine: Does your music have a broader purpose than entertainment?

Tom DeLonge: It didn’t when we first started. When we started it was like…All I wanted to do was skateboard and play guitar and our first songs had to do with every bad word you can think of and every bad act you can think of. We never really thought people would watch us, so we were just trying to make ourselves laugh. Then people started watching, and we thought, Oh, they must like who we are as people, not the music. So we just let that shine, and the personality got conflicted with the music a lot of the time. The music didn’t have a purpose other than complete and total anarchy with ourselves and with our bodies. When I quit Blink, I found myself really depressed and music was the last thing I wanted to do.

Soon I realized that I could either whine and complain about how cool it was when we weren’t a big band, or create the biggest band in the world. I said, “Why don’t I go for something like that? Why not go out and make my musical career much grander than it ever has been?” In doing that I had to figure out who I was and what I was going for and who I wanted to be. I found that my music needed to have total purpose, and Angels & Airwaves became like a point of therapy for me, where the music itself was going, an autobiographical timeline of the changes in my life during the course of a year. I knew that if this record was going to be a success, it would have the same effect on other people’s lives too. So, the band ended up being the antithesis of Blink, which was the other side of myself. Angels became a crazy desire to make people improve their world by the way they see themselves in it.

RM: There must be a point where you realized that thousands of people are taking you seriously and sometimes basing life decisions on what you say. Is that scary?

TD: Yeah, you know it’s interesting; in Blink we would be playing for ten to twenty thousand people a night. And it seems like us not caring is what people were living off of. They would come to our concerts and feel they could be completely irresponsible and escape from all the stuff that most kids hate. You can’t really escape your four walls, or your parents, so I think Blink stood for all those little windows to look out of at all those types of scenarios that kids feel stuck in. I think Blink is an anomaly, cuz not many bands existed like that, where you could be who you want and have as much fun as you want, be as bad as you possibly can be. [Laughs] And it just kept getting bigger. [Laughs] In the end, we actually became really good musicians.

reflection of myself. I can be as humorous as I want to be and say stupid ----, like I did on our last tour. But I also can go off and say a few things that people need, especially at a time when America has been defined for us rather than by us. I think a lot of kids are growing up and wondering why their friends are going to war and why the economy sucks and their parents can’t afford to buy them a CD or a skateboard. It’s not like the nineties where everything was goin’ kind of good. With Angels & Airwaves, I’m really understanding that there are 10,000 people in front of us and we can make them feel a certain way, as well as laughing.

RM: What are you trying to accomplish?

TD: The most uncool thing I could do is create a band about optimism, futurism, about overcoming struggle and all these different things.

Because it’s so uncool, it will become the coolest thing, cuz I’ll be the only one doing it, you know? And I really think kids want to feel good, they want to feel like they’re going to be all right, they want to make a difference, they want technology and iPods and recycled this and that and organic foods. I think this thing’s going to explode in the next generation of kids here. They’re going to make this place better, because right now, it doesn’t feel very good.

RM: Do you think music can make a difference?

TD: That was part of the reason with Angels & Airwaves, I really believed in reinvesting in the art, and bringing it about in a different way, with short films and the iconography and the music itself, the entire show is really meant to take someone on an emotional journey.

The album itself reflects an emotional event in my life. It’s not just a collection of pop songs. If you listen to it in a dark room, you might feel some of the stuff that I felt. But it’s not about me whining about the breakup of my band; it’s about the creation of the world around me; how I want to see the world.

RM: You guys weren’t bad like an Axl Rose type of bad.

TD: No, no. I think we really created a niche for kids growing up in the suburbs that were pretty bored and their lives aren’t too bad, but they aren’t good either. Keep in mind too that even in Angels & Airwaves there’s a lot of humor; there’s a lot more humor in this band than in the last few years of Blink, cuz things weren’t going so well, the communication wasn’t there. We were going through these identity crises. [Laughs]

RM: What emotions do you feel when you hear the new album?

TD: I became aware that attitude on a daily basis is a personal choice and the way you feel is really a personal choice too. A lot of times people base everything in their lives off fear—fear that bad might happen to them, or something…it’s always fear of tomorrow, but not many people realize that right now everything’s okay. So the record needed to record the fact that right now everything is okay, that there’s no reason why I can’t write the best songs of my life, create the best band of my life, and have the most fun ever in the studio. There’re times when I play this music and I get tears and I get goose bumps, and I wonder what’s happening to other people. This record contains every optimistic emotion I can think of, with a story, this conflict of love and war. I knew people needed to apply it to current events, so, lyrically I placed it in metaphor land.

RM: You guys grew up together, so you knew who you were as kids, but not as adults.

TD: We knew who we were, but we didn’t know who each other were, so with Angels, I look at it as an opportunity to be a pure and total

RM: Do you think there’s anything more dangerous in rock ’n’ roll than unbridled ego?

TD: [Laughs] Probably not, I mean some of the egos that go along with rock ’n’ roll, the most famous people, the legends, got themselves into SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 31

a world of trouble. But that’s what makes it exciting.

RM: How do you control ego?

TD: What happens with any band is that right when you start selling records, you think you’re really hot ----. I think it’s a margin of diminishing returns. The first time people recognize you has a lot more impact than a few years down the road. So right when you start selling records, people start recognizing you, people want to take you on photo shoots, you think you’re everywhere. You start building this ego, but if you’re a true artist, that makes you look at the leaders around you and realize how insignificant you are. You look at U2 and see they’ve sold 100 million records, where we sold a few million. Those guys are the ones that should really own the ego. [Laughs] I got

married when I was 25. I’ve been with my wife since I was 21. I’ve always had the same friends, so I was always grounded. I grew up in a punk rock band and we hated that s—t. There were a few years where I didn’t leave my house, and it became really crazy for a while.

It really changed my life and created a lot of anxiety. I couldn’t go out, that was the biggest issue.

RM: What keeps a band together?

TD: [Laughs] If I knew that, my last band would still be together. It’s the idea of communication and support, respect, no egos, which is impossible.

RM: Do you think creativity is birthed more in joy or in pain?

TD: I think the one thing that contains both of those is love and I think love births more creativity than anything. The best songs I ever wrote were when I fell in love or broke up with my band, things filled with joy and pain. But love gives birth to some of the greatest songs of all times. And love can be extremely painful, even when you’re falling into it and everything’s great.

RM: will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas believes that someday people may discover that certain musical sounds can actually heal disease.

TD: Well, they know that sonic waves can destroy virus crystals, and audio waves can sonically explode. Certain songs make you feel good and how you think and feel has a lot to do with your health. I was reading Maxim magazine one time and this journalist was saying how they captured this terrorist cell, took ’em off to some other country, locked ’em in a room, and blasted Blink 182 to them for like 48 hours straight. [Laughs] I’m reading this and start laughing hysterically, that our music was used for torture. [Hard laughter] RM: What have you done that you never want your kids to do?

TD: Geeze, wake up with blood and puke everywhere because you’ve been drinking, and smoking so much weed and popping pills and all kinds of stupid s—t. I remember telling someone, “What am I doing?

It’s pathetic.” You’re hurting yourself so badly. I would never want my kids to feel like they were stuck. That’s why I left my last band, cuz I felt stuck. That was the biggest lesson, not just to myself, but my

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family, that you can walk away. Walk away from the biggest thing in the world if it’s for the family.

RM: Does the name Angels & Airwaves have any special significance?

TD: It was the blend of our intentions and the platform from which our music was received. We had these ideas of how to make people view themselves differently. Mixing that with the airwaves became the title of the band.

RM: Jimi Hendrix once said he wanted his music to sound like the heavens were opening…

TD: That’s a great description; that’s what I would love this band to be like. I’ve always felt that this band has the architecture to make people feel that they’re lifting off the ground a little bit.

RM: It’s almost considered antiintellectual to do something happy in the arts.

TD: Yeah, that’s why I said it’s gonna be the uncoolest thing to make music about lifting people up, but that’s what will make it the coolest thing. We’ll be the only ones of this generation doing it, besides bands like U2 and a few others. It’s a lot harder to make happy music than something sad. I think it’s a product of your intellect to say, “This is how I want to shape the world.” It’s really easy to be pissed and complain about your life.

RM: What do you think happens after death?

TD: I don’t know. I talked to a guy that died. He was dead for 40 minutes, clinically dead. He was shocked by 40,000 volts of electricity, saw the tunnel, saw the light, and said he couldn’t possibly describe how amazing it felt. He didn’t want to come back and he is no longer scared of dying. And he’s not religious at all, and he didn’t become religious. He said it has nothing to do with religion and that people have no idea what they’re in for.

I don’t think heaven’s a location, I think it’s all around us, but a different dimension. They’re finding out right now that there are 10-15, maybe more dimensions, but they’re here. How do you visualize that?

It’s like an ant that’s walking and you put a circle around it and it can’t figure out how to get out. I don’t know, but I would imagine it’s got something to do with being here.

RM: Where do you see yourself in 10,000 years?

TD: When they built the pyramids, they had those airshafts that pointed to the stars. Some people think that has to do with the soul going out toward those stars. I like to think that if I was able, I could travel the universe somehow, because if it’s out there, there’s got to be a way to get there. I want to live another life.

Angels & Airwaves' We Don't Need to Whisper is available online and in record stores.

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Ladies of

The

Office Writer: Nicole Leimbach Photographer: Aurelia D’Amore Stylist: Arturo Chavez Makeup: Mona Van Cleve for Stila Hair: Derek Van Cleve for Bumble & bumble

Globe for Best When the winner of the 2004 Golden was announced, you Television Series: Musical or Comedy n coming from millions could hear the collective questio : Who are these of television viewers across America s tottled up to people? A party-crashing band of Brit oduced to a broad the podium and The Office was intr star, Ricky Gervais, American audience. Its creator and , with the dry wit apologized for the surprise and said not from around that characterized the show, “I’m ce called England—we these parts. I’m from a little pla ” used to run the world before you. er seeing the But if the Yanks were intrigued aft , they would be in for Gervais show at the Golden Globes d that the BBC had a disappointment when they learne was calling it quits already filmed the final episode and with the fact that after only two seasons. That, along first time a nonThe Office’s Golden Globe was the inated for the award, American series had even been nom work immediately didn’t go unnoticed by NBC. The net sion of the show. set about developing an American ver an Office of By the following spring, Americans had er supply company their own set within a fictitious pap seasons on the air, called Dunder Mifflin Inc. After two ers Guild the series had received three Writ Association Awards, nominations, three Television Critics’ g Comedy Series. and five Emmy’s, including Outstandin k home the Golden Earlier this year, Steve Carell too ies, the same Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Ser rs earlier. prize Gervais was awarded two yea following the The Office is a sort of mockumentary SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 35

Mifflin employees. Michael Scott, day-to-day work lives of a handful of Dunder geable office manager whose goal in played by Carell, is a yes man, a socially crin building. Michael’s antics and blunders life is to be the most liked person in the s associate Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) form the central plot of the series. Sale have a complicated crush on each and receptionist Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) id Denman), a warehouse worker. other because Pam is engaged to Roy (Dav has moved beyond the tenure of Now in its third season, the American version other Dunder Mifflin characters. Jan the Brits with plots expanding to include with an office subordinate last season.

Levinson (Melora Hardin) spent the night y religious and highly moral head of Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), the devoutl orker, Dwight (Rainn Wilson). And don’t accounting, secretly lusts after her co-w a customer service representative and forget about Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), new ladies of The Office. sort of social loose cannon. These are the Melora Hardin dits to her name before finding With thirty years of television and film cre Jan Levinson, Melora Hardin could be herself in the boss’ chair at The Office as e even the James Brown of showbiz. considered the female George Clooney—mayb r television series since the late She has guest starred in nearly every majo ie, Different Strokes, Magnum P.I., Quincy 1970s; Love Boat, Little House on the Prair l you herself that she believes she M.D., Friends—and the list goes on. She’ll tel was put on this earth to perform. sent in the moment of our In person, she is one hundred percent pre e about her world. She is also every conversation, very wise and deeply passionat portrays. bit as complicated as the character—she version of The Office a success?

RISEN Magazine: What makes the American the writers have done an amazing job of Melora Hardin: Well, first of all, I think injecting American humor into it. [giving] the show an American sensibility and and sarcastic, Steve is like a Whereas Ricky Gervais was much more dry ratty. If you look at sitcoms today, quintessential boy next door, petulant…b are bratty boys and ball-buster women. I they’re basically populated with men who ulant child role. fill that role and Steve fulfills the pet RM: Is Jan similar to you?

I’m a lot more nurturing and a lot MH: She’s very different from me. I think ] in my sexuality than she is. She tries softer than Jan. I’m a lot more [comfortable this furnace down there burning. She to be removed from it even though there’s moved by desire and all that. So I wants to be this corporate person who isn’t think we’re very, very different. got into a personal relationship with a RM: In the last season of The Office, Jan relationship believable because he’s so subordinate. Do you think people find that geeky and Jan is so attractive and strong? it because there’s nothing more MH: I think ultimately that people get and desired in the way he wants and desirable or seductive than being wanted I love about her character—she thinks desires her. And that’s one of the things ath her, but her guts and her crotch he’s a complete idiot and that he’s way bene 36 :RISEN MAGAZINE

38 :RISEN MAGAZINE

are pulling her towards this desire that he sends out to her. There are so many inexplicable attractions that we have to peop le.

RM: What gives your life meaning?

MH: Learning. I just want to learn as much as I can about myself and human nature and other people and the ways in which we, as emotional, human, energetic, spiritual, intellectual beings, exist and co-exist.

RM: Do you think you could ever have a corporate job?

MH: If I was the boss. [Laughs] Angela Kinsey Even though she’s been in L.A. for some time now, Angel a Kinsey still has that small town feeling about her. And her Archer City, Texa s, roots play a big part in her comedy as well. She lights up the room just by being in it. Although she’s on a hit TV series and just bagged two film roles this year, she is low key enough to be interviewed in the bathroom of the loft where we are shooting her photos.

Although a graduate of the largest Baptist college in the world (Baylor), Angela appears to be the exact opposite of her uptig ht and moralistic character, Angela Martin, who is the head of accounting for Dunder Mifflin.

Risen Magazine: Is your character, Angela, a religious person or just a moralizer?

Angela Kinsey: What you have to understand is that Angela Martin is just this type A personality. She also happens to be religious.

But she takes work seriously and takes life seriously. Everything has a rule and a system and things are black and white. So I think she’s not so much this judgmental religious person as she is just a very “by the book” person. So if she thinks you’re living outside the rules, she questions you. I think her religion is just a part of that.

RISEN Magazine: Why do you think people identify with the character of Angela?

AK: I think everybody has worked with an Angela. I worked in corporate America and I certainly had my person. I was helping decorate for the Christmas party and I was fussed at because I did the bows wrong. So she’s very relatable to me.

RM: Is Angela Martin anything like you?

AK: Oh yeah, sure. Wherever I worked, I was an exce llent employee. I’m on time, I go above and beyond, and I stay late. But I’m a little too sassy and creative and I’d go nuts in a real office.

RM: How did Angela’s MySpace page come about?

AK: When we were on the set, I was sitting in the background of a shot for maybe three hours straight with little breaks to go to the restroom. So they made all of our computers active. When you are in the background for awhile, you think, Okay, what else can I do? Oh, I’ll do MySpace for awhile. My husband cracks me up because [when I get home] he says, “How was your day at the office?” and I’ll say, Well I got some e-mails done, updated MySpa ce, paid some bills…

RM: You’re a beautiful girl. How hard is it to be on nation al television dressed down?

AK: My background is improv and sketch and I’ve neve r had a problem playing a character that wasn’t attractive. In a way, you have more freedom, you get to do more. This character is just so juicy and fun that I don’t care about any of that.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 39

Mindy Kaling n Indian-American and a Mindy Kaling is a first generation lady. First generatio s-writer on The Office first generation actress who doubles as a sometime character, Kelly Kapoor, and dreams of maybe one day settling down. Kaling’s esentative. She is a chatty twenty-something customer service repr artists, pop music, and shares with Kaling an “obsession for pink, lame hip-hop . Mindy herself is quick guys.” That, though, may be where the similarity ends missing in America, she witted and thought provoking. When I ask her what is herself “the least quips “A chain of drive-through drycleaners” and calls rsation reveals in truth spiritual person she knows,” but later in the conve yet. that she just hasn’t figured that part of life out upcoming movie With a hit series in her pocket and a small role in the card.

Unaccompanied Minors, Mindy Kaling has a lot on her dance accepted?

RISEN Magazine: What makes The Office so loved and the writing are Mindy Kaling: I think that uniformly, the casting and integrity of what an equally of high quality. They both try to keep to the typical stable of NBCoffice would be like. So it isn’t an office full of the clothes. It’s very true style, perfectly coiffed people wearing designer

to what is real.

RM: How similar are you to your character Kelly? gh the school of hard MK: Kelly has zero filter. I think I’ve gone throu close to your chest, knocks enough to know that you have to play your cards I think she’s two parts but Kelly is showing her cards to the whole world. ied thirty-eight year 14-year-old girl, one part crazed wanting-to-get-marr old. go about writing a script RM: I think of comedy writing as difficult. How do you for five characters? need to overwrite a MK: One thing I learned is that less is more. You don’t essive that they scene because the actors are so good. They’re so expr e or a pause. At first I can get out so much comedy through a look or a glanc long and I realized, you was turning in these scripts that were forty pages s can be really know what, these actors are really good. So my joke that length. Knowing streamlined and simple. And now my scripts are half e and imagining situations the characters really well and then sitting ther transcribing them. in your head of them talking to each other and then Sometimes I just feel like I’m transcribing things.

RM: What is your greatest achievement thus far? uraged. When I think MK: Moving to L.A. and not flying home when I was disco y I was out here— but I about how difficult it was in the beginning—how lonel didn’t give up and go home.

40 :RISEN MAGAZINE

uch of the appeal of surfing lies in the nearly free and relatively easy ride, where peace floods the soul and all is right with the world. However, tow-in surfing—where the rider is whipped into a 30-foot plus wave at 30-plus miles per hour by a jet ski—is not free, considering the price of gas and personal watercraft, nor is it that easy. As for peace, that comes later, after that entire city block of water has quit chasing you, and you have survived the full impact of something equal in force to a natural disaster. While most people seek cover during a storm at sea, tow-in surfers harness the energy of the heaviest conditions on earth.

Oahu’s Jamie Sterling is more than one of the world’s top tow-in surfers; he is an excellent tube rider at his home break, Pipeline, and more than competent in any conditions. But the quest to ride the world’s largest wave dominates the surf press these days, and Sterling has ridden his share of them.

Physically fit, with predatory focus, he looks the part of an athlete, while apparently lacking the daredevil quality that one would think propels the world of extreme sports. If anything Sterling displays the opposite characteristics of a daredevil, with his calculated, methodical demeanor apparent in the way he unzips his board bag to unveil a high tech pink surfboard, with his name and phone number handwritten on it in indelible ink. Since pink is hardly the color one expects from someone making their living on the world’s largest surf, and nobody but a tourist would write their name and phone number on a surfboard, I chuckle at the paradox, before Sterling explains. “Believe it or not, you sometimes can’t find your board when you go looking for it in the ocean when it’s big,” he says. “A pink surfboard is easier to spot. I put my name and phone number on it, because sometimes fishermen will find boards floating far out to sea, and they cost $1,600 each to replace.”

Sterling belongs to an elite class of wave riders who write their phone numbers on their brightly colored surfboards as they scour the world for waves powerful enough to light major cities.

Before tow-in surfing, 30 feet was the outer limit of size, but now the goal is set at the 100-foot mark, which Maui’s Pete Cabrina has come closest to by riding a 70-foot wave in 2004. A mere 30 feet to go before the three-digit barrier is broken. Look out your window, add five feet to the nearest telephone pole, and imagine it’s a breaking wave— you get the picture.

At this point there are maybe only thirty other surfers in the world who are in the race to ride such a wave. To that end, 24-year-old Jamie Sterling is in constant training, while surfing waves a mile or so off shore, near his home in Oahu all winter. Most other times, he is on 24-hour alert, tracking big storms that could produce the wave of a lifetime in regions as far apart as Cortez Bank, 100 miles off the coast in Southern California, Patagonia in Argentina, South Africa, West Australia, or deep in the Tasman Sea. It’s a tough job and nobody has to do it.

Interviewed exclusively for RISEN Magazine in San Clemente, California.

RISEN Magazine: How did you go from a little kid in the shore break to charging the world’s largest waves?

Jamie Sterling: Growing up in Hawaii, going to the beach is a daily activity. You’re surrounded by that energy all year long, and after a while you kind of get used to it. When we were 6 or 7 years old, it was terrifying looking at those waves. I would be playing on the beach after school and see all these dudes come down with their big boards.

We’d just play in the shore break, having fun as the best surfers in the world walked past us, into huge, behemoth waves, and stroked out to SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 43

the horizon. One day, kind of joking, someone said, “Would you go out there?” and we all said, “No, of course not.” As we got older we got cockier, a little wiser, a little more confident in the water, and all of a sudden we’re surfing the little left reform on the inside at Sunset.

The spot is right where the guys paddle out, so it’s perfect. The guys would acknowledge us and we would think, Wow, maybe someday we can be out there. Next, we’d paddle into the channel and then gradually paddle into the takeoff zone. Before you know it, guys are paddling up to you going, “How old are you? Does your Mom know you’re out here?” They’re looking at a 10- or 11-year-old 70-pound little tyke out there.

The next year you’d slowly progress and paddle into the lineup, and the older guys would kind of take you under their wing, like you were in their club. They didn’t want us to get hurt and would look out for us as if we were one of their sons. All of a sudden you have worldclass surfers pushing you into waves and telling you to go. That was more inspiration to keep pushing the envelope and get better. As a young kid I would up the ante by about 2 or 3 feet each winter. I first paddled out to Pipeline when I was about 10 years old, but it was just little Pipe. But when I was about 13, I caught my first legitimate wave, where my “uncle” [Hawaiian term of respect for an elder] Derek Ho [the 1993 world surfing champion] called me into my first wave at Pipe.

In high school I was a straight A student. I’d come home, do my homework, and go straight out to the surf, so I could surf from three o’clock until dark. That enabled me to mature quickly. All the other kids would be going home when I was getting there. A friend—Mark Healy—and I surfed together from a young age. The older people set such a high standard, that’s what I strived for.

RM: Unlike the past, there currently seems to be a lot more attention to diet and training in surfing.

JS: Definitely. The sport’s changing for the better. As soon as you can see what I see in the barrel, we’ll be able to take it to the next level, where we can sell it on primetime NBC. A lot of sports filling up stadiums won’t be as big in the future. I’m not going to take my kids to the baseball game, cuz more kids will be doing individual sports.

They want to see things that are new and stimulating.

RM: Can you look at a kid and tell he’s going to be a big-wave rider, or not?

JS: There’s a fire lit under you at a certain age. You can’t just be a good surfer, and then at 19 decide you’re going to start riding 50-foot waves.

It’s a progression you slowly work into. Anybody nowadays can buy a jet ski and ride a big wave, but that puts someone in the most dangerous part of the ocean, without the experience. The ocean doesn’t care how much money you have or who your friends are. It comes down to how mentally and physically fit you are as a surfer.

RM: Are we going to see people die doing tow-ins?

JS: Yep. You’re going to see people die that are unqualified. With paddle-in surfing, it’s a lot harder to get in that position right off the bat. When I was surfing on a big paddle day on a big 9-foot board, you can get in trouble, but not as fast. Tow-in surfing, you don’t have a chance to feel the rhythm of the ocean. In 30-seconds, you’re out there in the thick of the fire. You have to really want a 30 foot wave when you’re paddling, whereas when you’re towing, I can pick you 44 :RISEN MAGAZINE

photo:Dave Collyer

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 45

up off the beach and sling you right into a 30-foot wave, but you’re not going to be ready for that.

RM: When you first start surfing, you get held down for a few seconds, and feel you’re about to drown. Then you reach the next level.

JS: Yeah, you hit levels. When I was 17 I had a really bad wipeout at Waimea Bay, and I hadn’t taken off on waves that big before. I almost died. I was seeing stars under water and I could taste bile in my mouth.

My whole body was cramped up. When I came up, I then realized I could survive it. Then I paddled back out, got back on the horse, and the light went on. It keeps you guessing; what am I capable of?

RM: What scares you?

JS: I’m definitely at a place in life where I’m not afraid of death. What scares me is not being able to surf tomorrow, losing one of my friends or family members. I’m scared when the waves are huge and I’m not mentally ready.

RM: How do you prepare for big surf?

JS: Eating right, working out, but there’s a lot of mental preparation also, a lot of visualization in getting the feeling of what it’s going to feel like to ride a 100-foot wave. Am I going to fly to Jaws, or stay on Oahu and surf the outer reefs? I constantly see myself riding waves and making turns. I also keep playing wipeouts [mentally] under water.

When it comes down to it, surfing’s the easiest part; everything else, all the preparation, everything else that comes with this life is the hard part. Riding waves to me is like riding a bike.

RM: Are you ready for a 100-foot wave?

JS: I’m ready for a bigger wave.

RM: What’s your workout consist of?

JS: Like I said, there’s a lot of visualization and meditation. I do a lot of yoga to stay limber and flexible, and a lot of deep-breathing exercises.

Lifting light weights, hitting the heavy bag, running the soft sand on the beaches of Hawaii. I love running the beaches in Hawaii, and that comes down to another mental preparation. When I run past Waimea or Sunset or Pipe, I visualize myself dropping into a huge barrel. When I’m training, doing stuff like that, I focus my energy on why I’m doing it. Right now I’m in some of the best shape I’ve ever been in my life and it’s hard to find someone to push me. There are only a few guys, like Mark Healy pushes me; he’s really in shape. It’s about consistency too. You’re better off working out 30 to 45 minutes each day, rather than hitting the gym three hours a day, twice a week. It’s not how many sit-ups you do; it’s how strong you flex your stomach while you do those sit-ups.

RM: In the past surfing was extremely individualistic. With tow surfing, it’s, for the first time, become more of a team sport.

JS: The driver is definitely the brain of the operation. Without a good driver, you’re not going to have fun. You need to work well with each other. That’s what’s fun about it; all of a sudden it’s a team sport; you owe a lot to your driver and the shaper who shaped that board you’re riding.

RM: If you were in a situation you knew you weren’t going to make it out of, say a 200-foot wave broke in front of you, what would your final thoughts be?

JS: First of all, I wouldn’t think these were my final thoughts. I would go into complete relaxation, like I do on any type of wave, whether it’s 4-foot Rockies [Rocky Point on Oahu] or a 200-foot wave, I’d take a few deep breaths, like hyperventilating, go under water and wait to come up, the whole time thinking positively. The thought that I’m going to drown never crosses my mind. If I was about to drown, I wouldn’t be thinking of much, I’d suddenly drift off into heaven.

RM: Do you have any spiritual beliefs?

JS: Yeah, I believe in God and am thankful He’s been on my shoulder since day one. When my time comes, He’ll put me in the place I belong.

RM: Anything else?

JS: I’d like to thank my mom and dad for raising me on the North Shore, and thank all my friends who pushed me to be who I am, and I’d like to thank all the guys older than me that I look up to. Of course I want to thank my sponsors for helping me live the dreams of chasing the biggest waves the world has to offer. I’m stoked to be on the frontline of the sport at such a young age.

RM: Do you think getting Saddam Hussein and George Bush towed in on a big wave would help bring peace?

JS: I’d tow ’em into a big closeout without a lifevest, on my worst board, ever. [Laughter] Those guys are crooks. But if I could open a door into the political world, I’d show them a feeling their money can’t buy. Surfing changes your brain chemistry and makes you a humble human being. I’ve been surfing so long; I don’t really know what it feels like to be a college student or a doctor or anything like that.

There’re so many different ways of thinking in the world, but I think if a lot of the people in power did surf, it would be a lot more earth-friendly environment, and we’d get serious about alternative fuels and think about what we’re actually doing to the ocean and the earth and how to control it, and give planet Earth a better chance of survival. I have a friend who’s working on burning rubbish as fuel, in a way pollutants don’t get into the ozone. They’re working with Yamaha on an alternative fuel jet ski. We’re already getting ourselves into this huge rut in pollution, in this whole Babylon system, but people are now starting to think outside the box. It’s never too late, but it’s sad to say, we should have been on to this about twenty or thirty years ago. If so, we’d be a lot better off today.

RM: Do you feel riding a big wave fulfills your ultimate purpose?

JS: No, I want to be known as a Pipeline specialist and an ambassador of surfing. I want to be known as the guy who loves surfing. Surfing brings a feeling you can’t grasp anywhere else in the world, you can’t buy it; you can’t go to Disneyland and take that ride.

Jamie Sterling continues to travel the world in search of a 100-foot wave.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 47

Writer: Mr. Otis Photographer: Estevan Oriol enice Beach, California, isn’t the first place you usually go to find out what’s next in hip-hop. But when the summer airwaves are crackling with “Kick, Push”—a laid-back rap ode to skateboarding—what better place is there to investigate than Dogtown?

It’s here that we’re going to meet the man behind that song, a young Chicago rapper named Lupe Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco). “Kick, Push” is the first single from Lupe’s rookie release, Food & Liquor—so named as a nod to the ubiquitous corner stores that are the staple of Chicago’s inner-city neighborhoods.

Like all skeptical skateboarders, I was curious to see if “Kick, Push” was borne from true skate cred or just an attempt to capitalize on a niche market. The answer came as soon as we wrap the interview; Lupe stands up, grabs my board, and pulls off a nice little kick flip. Rodney Mullen he’s not, but pretty impressive for a guy who gets paid to rhyme.

The fact that he can actually ride a skateboard isn’t something he’s going to spend too much time on though; he’s got bigger fish to fry. Lupe’s been doing some thinking; he’s got things to say and a bucket-load of creative ways to say them. And people are listening.

While Lupe may be a new name to most, he’s a known quantity to the rap cognoscenti. Following in the footsteps

of 50 Cent and fellow Chi-town rhymesmith Kanye West, among others, Lupe has already sent reams of rhymes directly to the streets via mixtapes, MySpace, and various other viral and underground channels. He’s also got a Grammy under his belt and his own record label, 1st & 15th/Atlantic.

“If I had to name one person,” said Jay-Z when recently asked who would take the reigns of hip-hop for the next generation, “I would have to say Lupe. He is making the most creative, different new music. It’s fresh.” That’s big praise for someone who hasn’t even released a proper album. But if you get your hands on his new album, you may be a believer too.

Interviewed exclusively for RISEN Magazine in Los Angeles.

RISEN Magazine: How many kids were in your family?

Lupe Fiasco: Nine—five girls and four boys. I’m the youngest boy and the fourth youngest overall.

RM: How did growing up in such a big family treat you?

LF: A lot of it was satellite. A lot of it is half-brothers and halfsisters. We all didn’t live in the same household, so we had space. And the ages ranged from 32 all the way down to 4.

So it was different households, different marriages, so we all

had our space and we all had our time. It wasn’t like nine of us like the Brady Bunch—running around, lagging, committing suicide in the shower. It wasn’t like that. We all got our attention and everything.

RM: What was your neighborhood like?

LF: The neighborhood was bad. There were a lot of gangs, a lot of shooting and stuff like that. But that was juxtaposed with a lot of culture. My mother’s household, as well as my father’s household, were full of a lot of different culture. There was National Geographic, as simple as that may seem, we had like a hundred and fifty of them. We had a vast record collection. There was a lot of positive reinforcement from my family and my parents. They pushed us and kept us from being completely sucked down into it all. All of my siblings are still here.

It was a good experience even though it was so bad. It taught us that there was a reality to the world.

It also taught us how to survive. We came from poor. Even though we had, we were still poor. Once you experience that, you have no place to go but up. So if you come back down, you know how to survive. But if you start up and then come down, you don’t know what to do. Then you go crazy and you’re living homeless on Venice Beach.

the problem. Rappers don’t ever want to point the finger at themselves. Hip-hop never boycotts itself; other people are always boycotting hip-hop. You have to ask yourself why that is.

[A lot of] rappers don’t take responsibility for what they’re saying.

Some rappers do. They take responsibility for those negative and degrading lyrics and they know what they’re doing. They’re like, “I’m just trying to get paid, man.” But you’re getting paid at the expense of the minds of hundreds of thousands of little kids that listen to your records and recite them and walk around trying to live like that. And it might eventually lead to their demise because they don’t have security guards. And that is what I think is wrong with hip-hop.

But for me, the problem with hip-hop is a lack of honesty and a lack of responsibility.

RM: Was your family into community activism?

LF: My father was a real activist. He had karate schools that were non-profits and he would open them up in the worst neighborhoods on purpose. So he would go find an [abandoned] building and open it up. And there would be different crack spots in that area. And before he would open the doors to the karate school, he would go around and shut down all the crack spots and all the little gang hideouts and that kind of stuff on that entire block.

RM: How would he shut them down?

LF: With a 9mm. He was a martial arts expert. I remember this vividly…when I moved with my father to the suburbs from the west side—it wasn’t the “good” suburbs, it was the “bad” suburbs—so instead of the crack spot being in the same building, it was next door. It was a house. And I remember he went to the house with his gun in his hand and he was like [motioning a gun at eye level] “Yo, you all got to go.” And they left. So he was real proactive.

RM: We spoke with Afeni Shakur a few issues ago and she thought that hip-hop’s main problem was a fear of learning.

Would you agree with that?

LF: No, I think it’s a lack of honesty as opposed to a fear of learning. A lot of rappers are smart; a lot of people are learned.

People, even the general consumer, are not as dumb as people think they are. I had to learn that.

But for me, the problem with hip-hop is a lack of honesty and a lack of responsibility.

RM: What do you mean by honesty?

LF: People [in the hip-hop industry] don’t want to say that we’re

RM: I think lack of self-criticism is a human trait; many groups do the same things. Christians have someone like Joseph Kony in Uganda who steals children in the name of God. That is a difficult reality for them to deal with.

You’re a Muslim. How do you deal with people who point at your larger spiritual family and label them as violent?

LF: It gets to a point where you have to take religion off and you have to look at it as just straight up raw human nature. There is a human want to succeed and to capitalize; to be above, to not want to be oppressed. And people are going to react [to achieve that success]. A lot of clashes don’t really meet along religious lines. You have all these [everyday] factors that keep building up and nobody does anything. [And then it gets to the point where] they say it’s your right, God has given you the right to attack these people. That’s the spark that sets it off.

My religion is more individual. I don’t ever try to put my religion on anybody. I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve because I don’t feel that I’m a spokesperson for Islam. I don’t feel I’m the shining example of Islam. I have my flaws because I’m human and I don’t want to be out there like, “this is Islam.”

There are enemies of Islam [and other religions] and I don’t want to give those people anything to work with. Because then I won’t be doing anything but perpetuating the cycle and the ignorance and pushing people away from [religion].

There’s Joseph Kony, Zionists, Jewish Defense Leagues, al Qaedas, the Ku Klux Klan—a notorious Christian organization— and Nazis. So you have all these different terrorist groups all riding under the crescent moon, the Star of David, or the cross.

RM: And then you have the regular people who are just trying to figure out life.

LF: Yeah, they’re trying to get out there and really look at it like it’s not meant to push a political agenda. It’s meant to bring you closer to God. It’s meant to bring you closer to the brotherhood of man.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Feature 53

RM: Who taught you how to learn and ask questions?

LF: God. I was always inquisitive as a little kid, always wanted to learn, and always wanted to know. One thing that was constantly on my mind was trees. I was like, the trees can move yo, and I wonder how they communicate and how far their roots go down. Does this tree have a sister tree on the other side of the planet? So I always wanted to learn and experience and understand things. I always wanted to be ahead. I always strive to be ahead of the curve. Like, I wanted to be out of school when I was 14 because I hated school and did my best to get out of school. I just wanted to get outta the hood too.

RM: Do you have any obsessions right now?

LF: Robots are my obsession right now. All robots. Robot art, real robots and actual automatons, robot buttons, robot toys, robot shoes, robot suits, robot cartoons, robot movies, robot music.

hop will find new leadership from this type of rapper?

LF: Well, it’s already here. That’s why you can see Talib Kweli walking around with no security. That’s because you get what you put out. If you talk about violence, guns, drugs, and all this negative stuff, that’s what you’re going to attract. It’s gonna come to you. You’re calling to it: “Guns come here!”

I did a record about skateboarding and now there’s a skateboard right there. And there’s kids over there skateboarding. That’s what came back to me. To me it’s all about what you put out.

Talib Kweli puts out positive messages and so that’s what comes to him. He’s around a group of intellectuals; he’s around a group of positive people. Nobody is carrying guns. He’s walking through the airport by himself with his manager and going off somewhere to perform and keep it moving.

I think people are just getting tired of being shot at. Maybe since the world is becoming more globalized and people are getting closer, I think people are starting to feel ashamed when they see a little kid [all thugged out] throwing up gang signs. People feel embarrassed deep down inside when they know they’re doing that.

I expect a lot of backlash politically from some of the statements that are made on the album.

I’ve got a song on my album called “Daydreaming” that I did with Jill Scott that is actually about a giant robot.

I always take concepts, wild concepts—like skateboarding and robots—and I try to bring them back to the hood. I bring it back to the street level. I take that giant robot concept and I make it relate to the streets and what’s going on.

RM: When the film Gleaming the Cube came out back in the 80s, it had Tony Hawk and Natas Kaupus, but somehow it didn’t ring true.

Then “Kick, Push” comes out and becomes one of the few pop culture creations outside of the skateboard community that gets a bit of respect. How were you able to tell a better story of skateboarding?

LF: I’ve been telling stories since I was a little kid. It actually came up prior to when I made “Kick, Push.” I was in a record company and I told them I liked to skateboard and they said, “Yo, you should do a record about skateboarding.” But I was like, I really don’t know that much about it.

If I would have done “Kick, Push” two years ago it would have been false. Because I used to skate when I was younger and then I left it alone. I knew who Christian Hosoi was, I knew who Tony Hawk was, but I didn’t really know the culture that deep. So I didn’t feel like I had the right to actually make a song for skaters or talk about skateboarding because I really didn’t know what it was…deeply. I knew kick, push, coast, kick flip, but I didn’t know actually what these kids did.

But I actually went and I sat down with some skaters and talked to some of my skate friends. And I went to get a skateboard and my man was putting it together for me and he just told me what skateboarding meant to him. And I was like, OK, now I can go tell this story.

B

RM: Jay-Z told Time magazine that Kanye West was a different breed of rapper in that he didn’t come from the thug life. Do you think hip54 :RISEN MAGAZINE

RM: When your album comes out, what sort of messages are you going to be putting out and what is going to come back to you?

LF: Well, I hope I get a giant robot. I want a giant, life-sized controlled robot that I can hide underneath the water and call it with my watch and it will come to me. [Laughs] No, there’s a lot of social commentary on the album. I expect a lot of backlash politically from some of the statements that are made on the album.

RM: If you could program one thing into human nature, what would it be?

LF: The ability to freeze time. The ability to stop time would be so fresh. Right before something happens you could be like, “Stop! Now kids, look at what led to this situation.” And you could show ’em. Then you let it go. I wouldn’t want to change anything because the world has to go on. But just so people could stop and think about it. Like, damn, I’m fixing to punch this man in the face for no reason at all.

RM: That’s a nice promo for Adam Sandler’s new movie Click.

LF: Click! In theaters now!

RM: What do you see yourself doing when you’re 85?

LF: I don’t know man, that’s so far. Hopefully I’m gonna be someplace like this, doing tai chi.

RM: What are you going to be doing in 500 years?

LF: I’ll be dead. Hopefully I’ll be in the afterlife; probably being judged by God for my sins. Either being punished or being lavishly rewarded.

Lupe Fiasco's debut release, Food & Liquor, is available online and in record stores September 19th.

dept:Expressions

Jose Ismael Fernandez Writer: Andrea Nasfell

If there is a pervasive struggle in sculptor Jose Ismael Fernandez’s life, it’s against the powers that be—the unseen powers that whisper lies about your potential and make you practical and safe.

As the fifth of eight kids raised by a single mom, Fernandez was often left to his own devices. He sculpted his first bust at age 5, out of mud from the backyard of his Los Angeles-area home. The encouragement he got from his mother upon bringing it into the house made him embrace his future—he would be an artist. When his stepfather, a mathematician, urged him to find a more practical career, Fernandez dug in his heels to prove he could do it. The power struggle had begun.

Bad grades and a penchant for getting in trouble kept him in high school for an extra year and out of the college scholarship race, so he missed his opportunity for a formal art education. But by age 22, he scrapped his way into a job sculpting dinosaurs for museums.

“That’s where I learned and trained,” he says, “and by looking through books of the Renaissance, training my eye and hand to the things that inspired me.”

Fernandez worked commercially as he developed his own artistic voice, “but I didn’t have a style, and I didn’t have anything to say,” he admits. Like a comedian he would “go blue”—cater to the lowest common denominator. “I would have called it sensual, but it was vulgar. It was nonsense.” It took about ten years to develop his style, but it took an encounter with God before he found something to say, or at least a place to turn to find it. “At that point I knew I wasn’t on this planet to pursue money and the things I wanted.

There was something else.”

Fernandez claims Michelangelo, Rodin, and Stanislov Skukalski as influences, but admits that he’s just as influenced by things he doesn’t like. Again, the powers fight to find the balance that shapes his work. “I like to push, idealize, stylize so nothing is hyper-real, but it feels real when you look at it.” He gets his inspiration from a dream, a whim, a song by Jane’s Addiction. One piece began as a power { Struggle} 60 :RISEN MAGAZINE

{ Michael}

{ Michael}

struggle between himself and an uncooperative model in a class he was substitute teaching. He attempts to create not only life in the piece, but emotion. “I always wanted to convey some kind of life in my work. But emotion was the next level.”

Though fans admire his gallery pieces, people across the country enjoy Fernandez’s bigger works: his statue of master builder Robert Moses in Babylon Village (New York), his 13-foot mermaid relief at Treasure Island in Las Vegas, his larger-than-life film crew fountain at the entrance of Universal Studios Hollywood.

But worldwide millions have seen Fernandez’s work in another medium—film. In addition to working with clay, Fernandez also molds living beings, turning actors into Batman, X-Men, and other comic book stars. His current challenge is interpreting the Silver Surfer for the Fantastic Four sequel. Interestingly, it was his classical style that pushed him ahead in the superhero world. His lifelike designs and attention to human detail set him apart from designers who grew up in the special effects/creature arena. “I’m an artist that happens to work in the film world by trade,” for now.

For the viewer the medium isn’t important. Whether it’s The Thing facing off with Dr. Doom or a metaphorical chair trapping and consuming its unsuspecting prey, it’s the power struggle that brings the art to life, and brings the life and passion to the artist.

You can learn more about Jose’s art at joseismeal.com { Jane} 62 :RISEN MAGAZINE

{ Discipline}

{ Facade}

{ Absence of Christ}

{Innocence} SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 63

dept:Expressions

Charity Scott Harrison I do not believe one can settle on how much we ought to give.

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we Writer: Fayola Shakes Photographer: Scott Harrison

As I wind my way through New York City’s Soho neighborhood toward photojournalist Scott Harrison’s apartment, my thoughts turn inward as I replay the disconcerting scene from the night before.

A private screening of Harrison’s work at the Holasek Weir Projects art space, included heartbreaking video footage of a 34 yearold man named Harris with a basketball-sized tumor protruding from his face. A stunned crowd of over 300 watched in awe as he demonstrated how he eats with the pinkish mass that is slowly suffocating him. Harris is one of the one billion people—over 15 percent of the world’s population—that lives on less than $1 per day.

Soho is a long, long way from Harris’ home of Liberia, where Harrison just finished a second tour of duty with Mercy Ships, a floating hospital fleet serving Africa and the Americas. Harrison is on a spiritual journey from the top of New York’s nightclub scene, where he was paid to get people drunk, to forming a non-profit with the goal of getting others high off another drug—charity.

Before Mercy Ships, Harrison, 31, was a New York City party planner and promoter whose “workday” began at 11 p.m. and found him sometimes stumbling home at 5 a.m. MTV, VH-l, and Cosmo were clients. The fringe benefits were appealing: supermodels on his speed dial and exotic vacations. While his life appeared enviable from the outside, Harrison says he was unhappy and fought a drug habit to boot.

A series of events he calls “as dramatic as Lot’s exit from Sodom” led to a period of self-imposed exile from the city, a period of soulsearching and spiritual reawakening. Embracing the Christian faith of his childhood, Harrison decided to spend a year as a volunteer photographer with Mercy Ships as a tithe of penance for the last selfish decade of his life. He boarded the ship in Tenerife and set sail for Benin, a country he’d never heard of.

The next seven months would prove life-changing as Harrison snapped over 15,000 photographs of patients, documenting his experience on his Web site, www.onamercyship.com. The experience affected him so much that upon returning to New York, he turned his

Harris, a 33 year old fisherman with a 7 pound tumor.

64 :RISEN MAGAZINE

Benin. More than 5000 sick turn up to see ship surgeons.

Post-war Liberia. Barbed wire is found almost everywhere.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 65

Liberia. My armed escort to the Leper Colony in the north. More than 15,000 peacekeepers usher in a new peace and democratic elections. work into a mixed media exhibition simply titled “mercy” at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

“Very little poise, finesse, or skill goes into it,” Harrison said. “I take pictures that will communicate what’s going on. I look at it as a tool to try and bring the worlds closer together. My camera was always in program mode in the beginning but now I’m picky about my settings.

With my subjects, I always try to establish a rapport. Even if it’s just a greeting to connect with whoever I’m shooting.”

The photographs moved Pavilion owner Alan Boss to the point of donating gallery space. A subsequent gala raised $96,000 for Mercy Ships, a surprising sum considering the gala was just days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast.

Feeling there were more stories to tell, Harrison signed on for a second tour during which he met Harris and decided to start his own non-profit, Charity.

“There’s no medical treatment for Harris in [Liberia]. To think of Mercy Ships as an answer to Harris’ prayer and that for the first time in the history of his country, a hospital ship that specializes in removing huge tumors comes…you just see how much can be done to alleviate the suffering.”

Motivated by the daily successes he saw with Mercy Ships, Harrison embarked on a 10-city European tour to promote his work and secure venues for future exhibits. Charity’s innovative multimedia exhibitions educate donors about global concerns and directly connect them with small non-profits struggling for awareness and funding.

“It’s going to succeed based on a bunch of volunteers thinking outside the box,” said Harrison. “I’m not interested in working with the Red Cross. They’ve got millions of dollars. They don’t need any PR. We’re looking to tip the needle, find [a charity] that’s doing excellent 66 :RISEN MAGAZINE

Many come to see Mercy Ships doctors with cleft lips, tumors, cataracts...

Beatrice and I pose with her family. Her story at http://www.mercyglobal.com:

Hawa, a 7 year girl with a huge benign tumor traveled with her father to the Mercy Ship from Neighboring Sierra Leone. Surgeons removed her tumor in a few hours. Her story at http://www.mercyglobal.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 67

A sunken vessel in Monrovia’s port. work, and enable them to do more.”

The first exhibit, charity: water, kicks off in September in New York’s popular flea markets. Benefiting Healing Hands International, Living Water, Concern Worldwide U.S., and Water for People, it features a 360 square-foot display containing dirty water, simulating the condition of water sources in the developing world. The purchase of a $20 bottle of spring water integrated into the display goes directly to the costs of digging freshwater wells for those without access to clean water. Charity has already secured several European venues and plans to take the exhibit on tour nationally, Harrison said.

And though he’s also organizing high-profile events to benefit Charity, he says he has no plans to return to his old job.

“I was completely selfish and living fully for me,” he said. “I’ve found that in unselfishness, there’s a power and a freedom. I guess I have a peace that I’ve never had before, and a fulfillment. I screw up just like anybody else. I’m certainly not holier-than-thou or judgmental.

I feel people really want to make a difference; they just don’t know how. I’m just saying look, let’s make giving fun, interactive, involved, and redeem people in that process. Let’s take people out of poverty, out of desperation and get people addicted to giving. The word ‘charity’ simply means the voluntary giving of help to those in need. I love that. And that’s not what I think charity’s become in this day and age. I hope to bring it back to that.”

Mercy Ships has been operating hospital ships for 28 years, supported by donations. To volunteer or donate, visit www.mercyships.org.

Readers can see more of Scott’s work at www.charityis.com 68 :RISEN MAGAZINE

Harris celebrates his health..

UN Tanks roll up and down Monrovia’s main streets.

Mercy Ships Chief Surgeon Dr. Gary Parker examines, Brutus, a boy with a cleft lip.

Dr. Gary has served for 19 years on the ship.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 69

dept:Screen

Out Of Sight (1998, available on DVD)

The year 2005 was big for George Clooney: a Best Supporting Actor Oscar (Syriana), a Best Director nomination (Good Night, and Good Luck), and a box office hit (Ocean’s Twelve). New Clooney fans would do well to look up Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, which features one of Clooney’s best performances.

Like Get Shorty and Jackie Brown, Out of Sight proves that Elmore Leonard’s novels make entertaining movies. It is a character-driven crime story about charismatic losers who, through foolish choices and criminal acts, land themselves in deep trouble and have to cleverly maneuver themselves to safety.

Jack Foley[per imdb.com] (Clooney) is a thief with 200 robberies to his name. Seeking quick cash, he executes what may be the most nonthreatening bank robbery ever filmed. Smiling smugly at his success, he stumbles straight into trouble—the getaway car won’t start. In jail, he designs a clever escape…right into the sights of an FBI marshall.

Things get especially complicated when that marshall, Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), falls for him.

Clooney and Lopez have the kind of chemistry that turns movies into classics. Their encounters are hypnotizing scenes of smoke, style, subtlety, eloquence, humor, and surprise.

They get admirable backup work from talented crime-caper veterans: Dennis Farina (Midnight Run, TV’s Law and Order), Ving Rhames, Steve Zahn (in his funniest role), Don Cheadle, and Albert Brooks.

Does the film glorify a life of crime? Not exactly. Sure, Foley and Sisco are smooth operators, acting on bad impulses as well as good ones. Like real people. But the story is ultimately about a crook’s reluctant steps in the right direction—toward compassion and conscience.

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The Best Of Youth (2003, available on

Yi yi (2000, available on

DVD)

DVD)

If you’ve ever survived a marathon of the Star Wars movies, The Lord of the Rings, or the television epic Pride and Prejudice, surely you have the stamina for this!

The Best of Youth is six hours long…but you’d be hard pressed to find six better hours among recent DVD releases. Nobody expected this long, Italian television drama to end up among the highest-rated films to play in the U.S. last year—but that’s exactly what happened, and deservingly so. The Best of Youth won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes in 2003, and other major awards at the Denver and Seattle International Film Festivals. It’s an enthralling journey through four decades of Italian history focused on the lives of two brothers whose lives take dramatically different paths through ethical challenges, romance, and politics.

The film begins in the mid-60s, as the sincere, conscientious Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and the soft-spoken, troubled Matteo (Alessio Boni) prepare for a cross-country journey after finishing with their classes in 1966. But just as they set out, Matteo discovers Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca), an arrestingly beautiful but troubled woman who has been mistreated in a psychiatric hospital. They decide to rescue her, a choice that will change the course of their lives.

The distance between surges of reckless conscience and acts of mature discernment can be a long journey indeed. And for Nicola and Matteo, that journey will lead them to opposite sides of cultural conflicts. Nicola will campaign for peace and fall in love with a woman who will become the source of his life’s heaviest burdens.

Matteo will move into law enforcement. Struggling with a sense of alienation and righteous anger, he’ll blow his chances for intimacy. Watching over them with worry and sadness, their mother will make a journey of her own.

Suspense, assassins, love affairs, shocking twists, laughs, tragedy, breathtaking scenery— this should be treasured among the best of cinema’s epic dramas.

Once in a while, a film comes along that invites us into a net of crisscrossing, tangled-up stories—a net that catches meaning and revelation. Edward Yang’s film Yi-Yi (A One and a Two), now available in a fantastic Criterion Collection DVD, is one of the best of them. It has been said that movies often concentrate life to such a potency that we walk away having lived life more than once. Yi-Yi proves it.

It’s a painstakingly observant film about a couple of weeks in the life of a Taiwanese family.

A wedding is on. But the groom's elderly mother (called simply "Grandmother") is distraught. The bride is pregnant. The groom has an angry ex-girlfriend determined to spoil the party. And the family is nervous.

When Grandmother collapses into a coma, the family is told they must take turns watching and talking to her until she wakes up. During their vigils, her bedroom becomes a confessional.

Each character shares troubling secrets. And Grandmother just lies there, perhaps listening, perhaps absent, provoking the same doubts that every honest person encounters at some point during prayer.

Dashing about in the background with a beginner’s camera, little Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang) takes photographs of unlikely moments to show people what they would otherwise miss. An artist is born. Yang-Yang's watchfulness, timidity, and wonder frame the whole film for us.

Another critic has noted that these characters are remarkably ordinary, lacking the sensational dysfunctions that make up most bigscreen dramas. Perhaps moviegoers have become so accustomed to watching people with sensational disorders that an ordinary person now seems mysterious, striking, and strange again. Whatever the case, these ordinary people put on a mesmerizing dance.

dept:Screen

Watership Down (1978, available on

Russian Ark (2002, available on

DVD)

DVD)

“The field…it’s covered in blood,” moans Fiver, the little rabbit with big visions. He’s just seen the future. Men are coming to tear up the field that the rabbits call home. Time is short for those who believe him and value their lives.

In the adaptation of Richard Adams’s beloved novel Watership Down, director Martin Rosen has crafted one of the most beautiful animated films ever made. These images are hand painted, and the environments are stunningly lifelike. The creatures too have a remarkable realism to them—they can be both graceful and savage.

Hazel is a troubled, reluctant leader, drawn to a desperate quest by his timid and prophetic friend Fiver. With the help of a brusque and burly soldier rabbit named Bigwig, they round up a group who are willing to trust and follow them. On the road, they encounter rats, dogs, owls, hawks—even other rabbits whose customs prove deadly. And that’s just the first half of the epic. In the second, they endeavor to rescue some persecuted females from a warren governed by the cruel General Woundwort.

Watership Down may be about animals, but it’s a gripping, suspenseful, compelling story of war and survival, fully intended for adults. Rosen’s adaptation is exceptional in its faithfulness to the strengths of the novel. Accompanied by a lush, evocative soundtrack by Angela Morley, actors like John Hurt and Zero Mostel contribute voices that suit the characters perfectly. It’s a violent, intense fantasy adventure along the lines of The Lord of the Rings, and shouldn’t be misinterpreted as another Madagascar for kids.

These are not Disney-style cartoon bunnies, sentimentalized furballs cavorting about and singing songs. They’re part of a complex culture, with their own mythology, superstitions, rituals and traditions, and desires.

If you have any interest in history, or if you like the idea of a stroll through a museum, Russian Ark is a must-see. It’s a rich, complex, and mysteryfilled journey through Russian art and history.

Or, if you like to see artists attempt to do what has never been done before, check this out: The entire 90-minute film was filmed in one continuous shot by cinematographer Tilman Buttner, without a single edit or cut, thanks to a portable and powerful hard drive for his digital video camera. Director Aleksandr Sokurov coordinated a cast of more than two thousand people to move through the museum, portraying events both significant and incidental from Russia’s past.

The museum on display is St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum. Our tour guides are ghostly figures who seem lost, temporarily suspended in some dimension of non-chronological time where they stumble into and out of chambers of this magnificent, labyrinthine museum. One guide is Sokurov himself, acting as a sort of narrator who has suffered a mysterious accident and fallen into this twilight zone. His only companion is a gruff intellectual, the Marquis (Sergei Dreiden), a French diplomat from the nineteenth century.

You’ll catch glimpses of several significant figures, including Tsar Peter the Great and the Princess Anastasia. A wide array of famous paintings are featured, many of them depicting Biblical scenes. One moment we find ourselves in the midst of a masquerade party, and the next we’re in a gallery where modern folks are musing over ancient paintings. The film’s breathtaking final act carries you right into the middle of a spectacular formal state ball, the camera weaving its way through a dizzying mazurka.

The reverent tone of this journey will instill in viewers that we are slowly losing our grip on a world of stories and extravagant lives. It asks us to appreciate what we still can.

The Son (2002, available on DVD)

Olivier Gourmet won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 (winning over Adrien Brody for The Pianist) for his role in The Son, a film by the Dardenne brothers. He plays Olivier, a carpentry teacher in the Belgian city of Liège, and his performance is so convincing that the film has the feel of a documentary.

Olivier is teaching young boys how to measure, cut, and construct simple but solid things. He’s trying to make something meaningful out of his life, which is a mess. He has painful back trouble. His wife has left him. And he’s carrying a deep, personal wound.

On the day that we find Olivier working in his shop, he’s behaving suspiciously. Blinking behind thick glasses, his expression opaque and unrevealing, he’s watching one boy in particular, a newcomer named Francis (Morgan Marinne) and becoming increasingly agitated. Viewers may well begin to suspect that Olivier is a sexual predator, or perhaps a criminal in hiding.

But no, the truth is more interesting. To say more would be to rob you of the reward of investigating for yourself. Suffice it to say that there is a connection between the man and the boy. Our questions draw us into a mysterious story of unconditional love and the hard work of reconciliation.

But don’t assume that the story will end with tears and hugs and Happily Ever After. Instead, we arrive at a deeper understanding of the difficulty involved with real love. We learn precisely because the film refuses to satisfy our desire for unrealistic emotional closure. We come away unsure if whether the outcome of Olivier’s choices will cause him further difficulty, or if he will be rewarded with peace and joy. “The truth must dazzle gradually,” said Emily Dickenson. That’s how this story works. Just like real life.

Jeffrey Overstreet’s reviews and interviews have appeared in Paste and other publications. His book about finding meaning at the movies, Through a Screen Darkly, will be out next year; the first novel in his fantasy series, Auralia’s Colors, is due in 2007.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 73

dept:Sound

Artist: Oxford Collapse Album: Remember the Night Parties Label: Sub Pop Records Release: October 10, 2006 Remember the Night Parties by Oxford Collapse is not a bad record. That being said, I have trouble calling this a good record. The songs are good and the band is definitely comprised of talented musicians, but the record lacks originality and excitement. Think early punk crossed with the current mish-mash of British bands (à la Maximo Park). The songs all sound similar and they all fail to catch the listener’s interest. The band does a poor job of creating something you’d actually want to listen to. The record is decent, but it’s not the sort of thing you would crave. Hope lies in the obvious talent of the band members; over time the band may be able to use their skill to create sounds that are not only original but also captivate listeners. Don’t count Oxford Collapse out; it just seems like the band needs some more time to find their sound.

—Jared Cohen

that the hole left by the moody and droning cello of Cursive past has been filled to overflowing by a riotous and honking horn section, bringing new fire and energy to the band, and pushing the album to near combustion. Tim Kasher’s lyrics are just as angry and cynical as ever, but instead of screaming his agonies about failed relationships, he’s moved on to bigger issues: stifling small-town living, the death of the American Dream, and, overwhelmingly, the absence of God. Not exactly cheerful stuff, but so, so good.

—Jessie Duquette

Artist: Eric Bachmann Album: To the Races Label: Saddle Creek Release: August 22, 2006 Don’t get me wrong. I like Crooked Fingers, I really do. But sometimes they sway too close to the middle of the road, or worse, trip and fall flat into adult contemporary. So here comes Crooked Fingers front-man Eric Bachmann now with To the Races, essentially on his own, bringing sparse and beautiful singer/songwriter utopia, homesteading in Springstein territory. There are occasional visits from piano, whirling violin and harmonica, and glowing vocal harmonies, but for the most past it’s just Bachmann’s warm and scruffy baritone and gently-picked guitar. It’s Crooked Fingers with the fat (and the pop) trimmed. Bachmann should always go it alone.

—Jessie Duquette

Artist: Cursive Album: Happy Hollow Label: Saddle Creek Release: August 22, 2006 When you don’t hear from a band for three years, save for a “lost songs” EP, and when the band’s side projects get nearly as much attention as the main outfit, and then they lose a band member, it kinda makes you nervous. You’re not holding out hope for an album that blows the rest of their work out of the water. But Cursive is back, and they’ve done just that. Happy Hollow is dissonant and expansive indie rock, with flintlock guitar, ballistic bass, and punches of piano, accordion, and church bells. What truly makes Happy Hollow is

74 :RISEN MAGAZINE

Artist: The Matches Album: Decomposer Label: Epitaph Release: September 12, 2006 I’m 25 years old. I still borrow money from my dad on a regular basis. I still totally get sucked in by

MySpace and iPods. I still say “totally.” And until listening to the Matches’ new release, Decomposer, I still considered myself one of “the kids.” But apparently I’ve entered a new musical age bracket. As far as the Matches are concerned, I’ve gone over the proverbial hill. I mean, I still sorta get it. It’s fun. It’s pony-tailed head bopping, hand claps, and just enough angst to get the “we like bad boys” juices flowing. I’ll admit, the first track, “Salty Eyes,” roped me in. It’s nearly pop-waltz perfection with sexy vocals that swing back and forth over a playground of bouncy chamber strings. Then comes “Drive,” a standard dancepop-punk number, which despite its juvenile lyrics is still irritatingly catchy. But from there it’s just more of the same. So while I can appreciate the schoolboy charm, it really takes more than this to please me these days. What I don’t get is why girls just a couple years younger than me are gonna lose it over this low-grade rehash of Hot Hot Heat and Ok Go. Because they will. They’re gonna eat this up like bubblegum ice cream, then blow “come hither” bubbles to the Matches boys from the audience. And the boys are gonna love it.

—Jessie Duquette

Artist: Giant Sqiud Album: Metridium Fields Label: The End Records Release: August 22, 2006 Clearly, Metridium Fields is the best record title of the year. Metridium are a genus of the anemone family, found from Alaska to the Mediterranean.

So, the Metridium Fields are where you go when your boat has come apart beneath your feet and the sharks are circling, which seems to be the prominent theme of Giant Squid’s new album.

Aaron Gregory’s voice—sometimes approaching System of a Down-style wailings—fits perfectly with the image of a wretched, starved stowaway, simmering in a creaking bilge, while Aurielle Gregory fills in the voice of the ocean and the rising storm. Guitar riffs range from rain drop quiet to category 5. The haunting epic “Ampullae of Lorenzini” takes its name from the electroreceptors that give sharks their acute sensitivity to motion.

Giant Squid sing songs of love and devourment

dept:Sound with a lot more salt than the sea of Isis clones could muster; Metridium Fields is a landmark album in the Folk-Metal-Nautical-Rock genre.

—Thaddeus Christian

Artist: Comets On Fire Album: Avatar Label: Sub Pop Release: August 8, 2006 From the honky-tonk blues to fuzz-tone encounters of the third kind, from Little Hiawatha themes to Motown keys, the Comets have gone into deep orbit with their latest studio release, Avatar. Hailing from acid-rock breeding ground Santa Cruz, Comets On Fire orchestrate long jams drawing on classic rock forms, but saturated with distorted textures and modern feedback blasts.

Moody and dense, the songs are clear as bog water. Creating structure with dynamic shifts, the Comets explore every angle of their subject, like analytic cubism. They unfold lines and chords, taking the scenic route on their path to sonic meltdown. Like any jam band, indulgence is implicit, and these boys do go on. By knocking two minutes off any one of their jams, they could start manufacturing radio gems, but for the Comets, it’s definitely about the trip, not the destination. Giant, goofy headphones required.

—Thaddeus Christian

Artist: Micah P. Hinson Album: Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit Label: Jade Tree Release: October 10. 2006 Micah Hinson’s latest release is somewhat of a departure from what fans may be used to. The songs are still acoustic and somber for the most part, but it has a level of intricate instrumentation missing from previous records. Many songs on

Micah P. Hinson and the Opera Circuit feature prominent strings that complement Hinson’s voice so well that one has to wonder why they’re not a staple in his music. While Hinson’s voice is still monotonous for the most part, the upbeat tempo of many of the songs seems to breathe new life into a voice that can easily become lackluster. With this album, coming just months after his last release, Micah seems to have matured immensely both lyrically and musically. This being Micah’s best release to date, its encouraging to see an artist willing to push his own boundaries rather than releasing carbon-copies of the same record.

—Jared Cohen

Artist: T Bone Burnett Album: The True False Identity Label: DMZ/COLUMBIA Release: May 16, 2006 It's so good to hear T Bone Burnett singing again…even if these new songs are as dark as nightmares. The True False Identity is an album voicing the despair of five minutes to midnight. At the first listen, you might think you've stumbled into a Tom Waits record, and you wouldn't be far from the truth: with Marc Ribot's clamoring guitars and Jim Keltner's smart drums giving framework for the itchy, edgy noise of the record, this is a producer's album. And this time, the producer is also at the microphone. Many of the lyrics are delivered in Burnett's unmistakably witty, sardonic voice. The wisdom, the acidic humor, the blistering commentary, the satirical, Dylan-esque storytelling is still there. But there's something more—a weight, a weariness, echoes of violence still resonating in the hollows of a broken heart. If we have to note any weaknesses in this extraordinary work, it is to acknowledge that Burnett sometimes goes from pained poetry into belligerent ranting. But I suspect that, like the murky water from a faucet that hasn't been turned on in years, this first muddy blast from Burnett is a sort of "cleaning out" process, and that if he continues to write, record, and perform, the hope and humor and light will return.

—Jeffrey Overstreet

Artist: Now It’s Overhead Album: Dark Light Daybreak Label: Saddle Creek Release: September 12, 2006 Now It’s Overhead is about to amaze you. While it can be hard work sifting through the plethora of discs released by Saddle Creek every year, Dark Light Daybreak is well worth the effort. Straying from the standard Saddle Creek formula of desperate melodrama, Now It’s Overhead has managed to create a beautifully crafted record with a wide range of sounds. Their sound is difficult to label because each song is distinct. The record is like a rollercoaster picking you up with violent vocals and loud guitars and gently dropping you back down onto a bed of keyboards and soft singing. The record, as a whole, is a perfect display of instrumentation complementing a bold vocal presence and of all the instruments working seamlessly with one another. This is a fantastic and highly impressive record for this relatively young band.

—Jared Cohen

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006 - Department 75

dept:Up to Speed Charlotte Martin RISEN Magazine, Nov/Dec 04: Sometimes the word God becomes just a word; have you ever gone into prayer thinking that you’re talking to the one who dreamed up the universe?

Charlotte Martin: Yes, and it makes me want to quit. My little peon brain can’t even begin to understand. It’s hard; it kind of blows my mind. I find it interesting that all of the real religions are based upon love. The thing that sort of bothers me about the organized Christian church is that they segregate people out of their scene. As soon as it becomes about rules and not love, then it’s not faith to me. At least the God that I believe in accepts everybody where they’re at.

RM: Why do you think faith is rarely discussed in music magazine interviews?

CM: Maybe people think that readers want to know what your bra size is; I don't really know.

RM: Do you find that most artists have a faith in something?

CM: Yeah, whether it's a god or just the music.

Up to Speed: : Shortly after releasing her debut On Your Shore on RCA Records, Charlotte left the label to pursue one of her own. Partnering with her husband and longtime collaborator, Ken Andrews, the pair formed Dinosaur Fight Records. Charlotte’s newest release, Stromata, is steeped in synthesizers and digital percussion—straying a bit from Shore’s acoustic feel—all the while retaining her ethereal vocals. Her chance to experiment with new sounds and new lyrics is finally realized. Stromata is available September 12th.

Josh Radin RISEN Magazine, May/Jun 06:

Radin released his new album exclusively to iTunes on February 7, 2006. It was self-financed and selfreleased. There was no Grammy-winning producer, no promotional campaign. When it reached number 24 on the album chart, outselling Coldplay, the labels started calling. “You never know what’s gonna happen, you know? It’s a fickle business,” says Radin. “But my biggest fear is picturing myself on my deathbed, an old, old man, not having tried to do the things I really wanted to do. I’d be totally fine just being able to pay my bills, write music, touch a few people here and there. And hopefully when I’m gone maybe there will be a song or two people remember.”

Up to Speed: : In July, it was announced Josh Radin would be accompanying his Columbia Records

labelmate Anna Nalick on a cross-country tour through August and parts of September. A video for “Closer,” the first single from his debut release, We Were Here, will be directed by good friend Zach Braff.

Braff played a major role in the success of We Were Here, airing tracks during his NBC show, Scrubs. For more information and tour dates, visit www.joshradin.com or www.columbiarecords.com.

Mia Kirshner RISEN Magazine, Jan/Feb 06 (Mia Kirshner on her book, I Live Here):

“I traveled to all these places and got women and children to write about their lives because, after a certain point, the experience of a survivor somehow gets lost, with all due respect, in media. Their experience is reduced to tears or an explosion or a sound bite, so I felt like it was better that they do it themselves. It’s really been my life for the past five years, this book. I’ve put everything that I have—physically, mentally, spiritually; my heart, my soul—because this subject means so much to me.”

Up to Speed: The mystery surrounding the death of Elizabeth Short, dubbed the Black Dahlia, is still thick

with questions today, just as it was almost sixty years ago. The 1947 investigation involved hundreds of officers borrowed from diverse law enforcement agencies, and anyone who knew Short was considered a suspect. On September 15th, director Brian De Palma brings his adaptation of James Ellroy’s best-selling novel, The Black Dahlia, to theaters nationwide. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson, Josh Hartnett, Hilary Swank, and Mia Kirshner as the young Elizabeth Short, who meets her grim end on a winter’s day in Los Angeles. For more information and to watch the trailer, visit www.theblackdahliamovie.net.

Back issues of RISEN magazine are available for purchase while supplies last at risenmagazine.com.

76 :RISEN MAGAZINE

Writer: Steve Beard Illustration: Zela

Shooting just began in Montreal for I’m Not There, the new biopic of Bob Dylan. In the wake of successful films about musicians, this one promises to definitely be different from Ray or Walk the Line. Six different actors will play various incarnations of Dylan’s personality: Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, and Marcus Carl Franklin. As you may know, Blanchett is female and Franklin is black.

That kind of Dylanesque maneuver has got to have the nasally folk icon smirking.

For more than forty years, Dylan has energized the anti-war and civil rights movements, excited poets and songwriters, and exasperated those who have attempted to neatly pinpoint his philosophy on love, life, death, and the Almighty.

With I’m Not There, director Todd Haynes will get his shot at defining Dylan.

There seems to be no end to the fascination with the man who is arguably America’s most significant and mysterious troubadour. Fans snatched up his autobiographical Chronicles, Vol. 1. PBS recently aired No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese’s four-hour documentary on Dylan’s life from 1961 to 1966. The Dylan musical, “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” will open on Broadway in October. All the while, he keeps doing his thing.

The recently released Modern Times is Dylan’s 44th album.

Yet even with the flood of content from and about Dylan, fans and observers still find themselves thirsting to know more; to unwrap the enigma and comprehend the reluctant prophet.

“All I’d ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities,” he writes in Chronicles. “I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.”

Dylan has a nagging habit of pointing observers to his songs for answers about his beliefs. As illustrated in the new 440-page Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews, however, there have been times when he has been more forthright. “I’ve always thought there was a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there’s a world to come,” he told Kurt Loder in a 1984 Rolling Stone interview. “That no soul has died, every soul is alive, either in 78 :RISEN MAGAZINE

holiness or in flames. And there’s probably a lot of middle ground.”

Of course, that response was given in the wake of his trilogy of gospel-related albums he produced after becoming a Christian in 1978—one of the most controversial conversions of the modern era. But his philosophy about life, death, and the immortality of the soul were not new subjects for him. When he was interviewed by Nat Hentoff for Playboy in 1966, it was noted that Dylan had said that he had done “everything I ever wanted to do.” If that was the case, Hentoff asked, what did he have to look forward to? Dylan deadpanned, “Salvation. Just plain salvation.”

Anything else? Dylan continued, “Praying. I’d also like to start a cookbook magazine…I want to referee a heavyweight championship fight.”

Dylan was not being flippant, he was just being honest.

His public proclamations about Jesus brought far more controversy to his career than when he was booed for playing an electric guitar instead of an acoustic at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. His spiritual quest was exceedingly more countercultural than a mere shift of musical instruments. Dylan’s gospel albums dumbfounded critics and aggravated a segment of his fan base when the “spokesman for a generation” had become a preacher.

Yet plenty of people heard the art that Dylan was creating. Songwriter Leonard Cohen once referred to Dylan as “the Picasso of song.” He recalls, “People came to me when he put out [Slow Train Coming] and said, ‘This guy’s finished. He can’t speak to us anymore.’ I thought those were some of the most beautiful gospel songs that have ever entered the whole landscape of gospel music.”

Bono agrees. “This album was such a breakthrough,” the U2 singer recalls. “I was always annoyed that rock could cover any taboo—sexual, cultural, political—but nobody could be upfront about their spiritual life. Before Bob Dylan, no white people could sing about God. He opened me to these possibilities.”

Dylanologists on the Internet will continue to debate the state of his theological orientation.

Dylan, however, will point them right back to his

art. “Those old songs are my lexicon and my prayer book,” he told The New York Times in 1997.

“All my beliefs come out of those old songs, literally, anything from ‘Let Me Rest on That Peaceful Mountain’ to ‘Keep on the Sunny Side.’

You can find all my philosophy in those old songs.

I believe in a God of time and space, but if people ask me about that, my impulse is to point them back toward those songs. I believe in Hank Williams singing ‘I Saw the Light.’ I’ve seen the light, too.”

A few years ago, Dylan was making a habit of opening his concerts with the song “I Am the Man, Thomas.” Out of the more than 500 songs he wrote, it would not have been unreasonable to ask why he was opening with a cover tune from the old Stanley Brothers.

The song is about a conversation between Jesus Christ and the man that all Sunday school alumni know as Doubting Thomas. “Look at these nail scars here in my hands/ They pierced me in the side, Thomas, I am the Man/ They made me bear the cross, Thomas, I am the Man/ They laid me in the tomb, Thomas, I am the Man/ In three days I arose, Thomas, I am the Man.” It would only be offering mere speculation to discuss why Dylan includes his gospel-centric songs such as “Man of Peace,” “In the Garden,” or “I Believe in You” on his playlist. Perhaps we should be content to conclude that he has always been an intriguing wordsmith on a quest to find God and is merely continuing that journey.

Bob Dylan never liked being a prophet or a preacher. His is a more artistic disposition. Once, while being interviewed in London, he began to talk about the kind of people he admired. He spoke of a doctor or surgeon—someone who “can save somebody’s life on the highway. I mean, that’s a man I’m gonna look up to, as being somebody with some talent.” Dylan went on to say, “Not to say, though, that art is valueless. I think art can lead you to God.” Asked if that was art’s purpose, he remarked, “I think so.

I think that’s everything’s purpose. I mean, if it’s not doing that, it’s leading you the other way. It’s certainly not leading you nowhere.”

If anyone would know something like that about art, it would definitely be Bob Dylan.