Stage Fright

By Ryan Harrington
I'm standing there alone in the dark. In front of me, the sad excuse for a tree is doing nothing to shield me from the view of speeding vehicles. I try to relax, but there's too much pressure. The cars flying by on the expressway exit ramp know exactly what I'm doing. The other passengers on the bus know what I'm doing, and they just want me to finish so we can get the show on the road. Last of all, the bus driver knows what it is I'm doing, because he's the one who told me to hurry the hell up.

But I just can't do it. There's too much pressure. I try to allow my mind to overcome the physical inability, breathing in and out deeply, trying to let nature do its thing. Seconds have turned into minutes. The others have come and gone already. I can hear them back on the bus, discussing the situation. They're wondering what could possibly be taking me so long. For a split second, I contemplate leaving unfinished, pretending I'm done. Upon reconsideration, I know that is simply not a viable option. There's no way I'm getting back on that bus. I was the one who requested this stop out of dire need, and getting on now would be a disaster. I would piss my pants for sure. So why in God's name can't I pee now!?!?

I recall a conversation with my father back in the day about this issue, commonly known as "stage fright". He said that built into our genetic coding is a mammal instinct that prevents us from urinating whenever we should find ourselves in a situation where we may become threatened. This syndrome is an evolved reflex to ensure we are on our guard while in the vulnerable state of having a nice satisfying slash down by the river when beasties are lurking in the jungle. Fortunately, it's not often that I need to be worried about being attacked from behind by a more dominant male as I take a whiz. Unfortunately however, this little genetic protection device made it extremely difficult for me to discharge the beer from my bladder while under pressure on the side of the freeway. Go figure.

So although I may have experienced my own kind of "stage fright" Saturday night on the side of the freeway, one thing is for sure: The Rising Hedons never experience such a thing. From the moment the The Hedons calmly walked out on the main stage Saturday at Blues Bash, they owned it. They commanded the attention of all in attendance, playing their hearts out and captivating the crowd with their mix of new tunes and old favorites.

The die-hard work ethic of The Rising Hedons is really beginning to pay off this year. Their sound is incredibly tight, and they are gelling together as a band more than ever. The guitars sound great, especially due to Pete's insistence that Bradley lugs a minimum of 3 guitars to every show based on the fact that "Well, they all have different sounds now don't they?" Add that to the boosted bass punch from Phil's new drum microphones, Daren's always rocking bass lines, and Michael's rhythmic tablas, and this all translates into great news for listeners in Taiwan. With a charity CD nearning completion and the follow-up release to Head Full of Rain, they're only going up from here.

Check out the Rising Hedons Live Saturday, November 29th at Light Lounge. After starting their tour on the road this year, The Hedons finally play their first show in Taiching in almost 5 months!

Thankfully, the gig happens to be two blocks from my house, so no more pissing on the side of the freeway for me! At least until the next out of town show anyway....

Ryan Harrington

WWW.RYANHARRINGTONPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Official photographer of the Rising Hedons

Cutting Teeth

By Ryan Harrington

It's 2:30 pm Saturday afternoon. I awaken to the sound of jackhammers powering away at concrete somewhere, possibly on the street below. I'm pretty sure it's the street, but I could be wrong. Maybe they're dismantling the walls of the building next door. It doesn't really matter. It's loud and my head hurts. It's probably been going on since 8am like it has every other day this week, but I don't recall hearing any noise when I went to bed at 7:30am. Then again, I was pretty wasted and I wasn't paying much attention to anything other than finding my bed and passing out.

The splitting headache that has commandeered the space within my skull is pulsating to the beat of the jackhammer, migrating in waves from my forehead down to a nice little space it's found halfway down my spine. I try to sleep, but I can't. The jackhammer/headache tandem has pretty much ruled out any chance of that happening. I guess I'm functioning on 5 hours sleep today.

The headache could have possibly been caused by any one of a number of independent factors. Realistically however, it's the result of a cumulative effort between the Jackhammer, lack of sleep, shitty Taiwan Beer, and the fumes inhaled while hot boxing the bathroom of a Ho-Hsin bus coming home.

Being in a rock band is tough.

For those who know me, you know that I have about as much musical talent as a deaf chimpanzee with no arms. My dreams of busting out a guitar solo in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans were crushed long ago at the age of 6, when my mother told me I should never sing out loud if I wanted to have any friends. Air guitar and singing in the shower are about as far as my musical career will ever go.

Despite the fact that my larynx produces monotone sounds, my ears are incapable of detecting differences in tone and pitch, and my extremities have no rhythm whatsoever, my right eye is fine. So when Bradley Tindall, lead singer and front man of The Rising Hedons, offered me the opportunity to join the band as the official photographer, I saw it as my chance to come as close as I'll ever come to being in a band.

I also saw this as an opportunity and a purpose to write, which, for the most part I've been unmotivated to do recently due to a lack of inspiration. With the band's new tour of Taiwan underway, I've found both the inspiration to write, and something to focus my photography on. It also happens to be a really good opportunity to drink a lot of beer and hot box miniature bathrooms while traveling down the highway at 5am.

That's what rock bands do.

Friday's show at Bliss in Taipei was the band's first live show in over four months. Busting out a number of great new tunes in addition to many old classics, the Hedons rocked out to a small crowd and fine-tuned their sound in preparation for next week's highly anticipated gig at Blues Bash. With their teeth all cut and great new tunes to blast out to the masses, this will be a show you don't want to miss!

Next show:
Blues Bash - November 15th, at the Dream Community in Xizhi.

Check the web site http://www.bsot-bluesbash.info/ for detailed instructions on how to get there and also for additional performer announcements as they come in.

Rock on!

For more information about Ryan Harrington Photography, please visit his site.

WWW.RYANHARRINGTONPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Official photographer of the Rising Hedons

The official Launch of ryanharringtonphotography.com!

Check out the new site!

The Show

Check out the pics from my first exhibition ever!  I should have taken more photos, but I was too busy drinking, mingling, and eaves-dropping on people oohing and aahing over my photos.

Gallery Premier

Ryan's Gallery Debut

This Sunday, I officially become an artist.  Its all been spur of the moment, and super stressful, but I have 2 walls in a big art exhibit all to myself.  I've decided to go with a black and white theme of my recent trip to Malaysia.  Check out the pics that made the cut here:

Malaysia 2007

Beware: Many photos look like crap in the slideshow on a PC.  For best results, get a mac.

More Random Malaysia Photos

Those of you on facebook have probably seen these already, others can enjoy them now through these nice, nifty little links for your own convenience.

Malaysia: Batch 2

Malaysia: Batch 3

Pabuk Sucks

Update:

Typhoon Pabuk missed. Nuts. He took a turn south and further away from Ryan. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next tropical depression (forming now) to turn into a typhoon and head west. Typhoon season in taiwan is gonna be fun!

Meet Typhoon Pabuk

This is Typhoon Pabuk. He is expected to hit Taiwan sometime late Tuesday night/early Wenesday morning. Ryan is excited. He has never experienced a typhoon or hurricane before. Ryan lives where the "M" is in "3AM Wed" on th diagram above. Ryan is hoping the storm moves a little higher, picks up some steam, and hits Taichung dead on. He is up high on the 5th floor, so he should be ok. Perhaps he will not have to work tomorrow because of a "typhoon day". Sure beets the hell out of lame old 'snow days'!