Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Chris Sienko: totally shocking, perplexing, and wonderful

I didn't know Tim as well as many of you, but I liked and respected him a great deal. He engaged in every activity with complete dedication and passion. He loved the things he loved - music, art, politics, culture, metal - wholeheartedly. He organized the Festival of Marginalized Subgenres, a precedent-shattering day-long festival, without really any fear or worry about how monumental the task would be - people still speak in awed tones about it to this day. Everything I know about him involves him jumping head-long into the things he loves the most - starting bands, making albums, organizing festivals, studying, engaging in causes near to his heart - without the usual dissipation of enthusiasm that comes to so many others after the first wave of novelty has worn off. He engaged in these pursuits not in a pedantic or militant way, but in the voice of a person perpetually discovering new beauty in the world, each event totally shocking, perplexing, and wonderful. Those are the things I think about…

I was home sick the other day, and was channel surfing in bed, when I came upon this public access show in which this enthusiastic blonde woman was interviewing a member of operating black metal group OPETH, a band that I believe was close to Tim's heart. My first thought was not "I wish Tim was here to see this," but "I can't wait to tell Tim about this." Because we didn't spend a lot of face-to-face time together, I still think of things in terms of having to store up things that happened to tell him about later. I'm still holding out hope that there will be a later.

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