When I was at Purchase, Saturdays often found me and my friends wandering around campus, joining drum circles, playing frisbee on what was then The Great Lawn (which I reckon it's still called, but somehow, cutting away about an eighth of ot for that new building made seem much less great), andhaving barbeques at the various barbequepits located around campus-or, at the very least, eating your food outside: taking your lunch from The Hub and eating on the Mall.
People who know me well, know that I speak about my times at Purchase full of love, but not regret. Purchase was changing when I dropped out. If I went back, it wouldn't be the same place I left; it would be bigger, with unfamiliar buildings, full of a new generation of students who like sports.
Still, the times I spent at Purchase, even the drama filled times, were golden. New bands were forming all the time, and playing at The Student Center, which I will never call The Stood. People would take their guitars out to the Quad and jsut jam, and walking through The Music Building and The Visual Arts Building meant that you were going to experience something great: someone composing a new song, an opera singer practicing for the next show; color expreriments, black and whites of inoccuous things which suddenly don't seem that way anymore. One of my greatest joys at this time in my life was, on a sunny day, just lying in the grass outside a window of the Music Building. I'd hear so many beautiful things. A stroll through the Visual Arts at night was also somewhat magical, as the building would mostly empty, and you really got a chance to see the art. Sometimes you met new people, doing new and wonderful things. Once my frineds and I caame across a bunch of people who were doing a noise experiment. Not put-off by our sudden appearance, they welcomed us, and asked us to give them a hand by making noise for 15 minutes with them.
It's times like these, and countless others that made SUNY Purcahse a home for many of us strays.
One of the best times ever had at Purchase was (and probably is) Culture Shock - a weekend, starting with Pre-Shock on Thursdays, where bands from the school would play, and going into the main event Friday, ending Saturday night, full of carnival rides, carnival food, and bands. Lots and lots of bands.
Unless it was raining, the bands would perform on a stage outside in the green, grassy, wonderful Quad. Even people you dind't know were your frineds that weekend. Someone always had something nice to say, and there was such a sense of community, that how could you want to be anywhere else?
This is prettyy much how Rock the Harbor felt for me. Wonderful things like an all day concert of local bands just didn't happen on Staten Island. As much as I love it here, understand that this is a small, quiet suburb, full of painful adolescent memories, and with most of my friends being from Purchase, and not SI, there really hasn't been much of an impetus for me to be enjoying myslef here. Mostly I spent the past two or three years wishing I was living somewhere else - somewhere where I felt I belonged.
My journey to even knowing about Rock the Harbor, something I would have completley missed otherwise, starts with seeing my friend performwith a band. Sentient Machine isn't my type of music; despite that, they're still amazing at the music they do make. Christina has been my friend since high school, and is the sole reason that I'm still friends with Adj, after a bunch of stupidity that happened, so long ago. Hanging out after their show (which I sadly missed due to bad directions, and having my flip-flop fall apart on me somwhere in the Village), she said she was leaving after Julius C - a band from SI (which shocked me) - who had gotten them their gig. So, I, of course, stayed. It's a joy of mine to discover new bands to follow by hearing them live, instead of on myspace. Nothing, my friends, absolutely NOTHING, beats hearing a band play live, and watching the group dynamic.
Julius C had such a different sound than what I was used to hearing. At Purchase, while the bands were all talented, and I walked away following no less than bands, they could still all be put into maybe three categories: Alternative Pop/Rock, Metal, and "Experimental". The sort of metal/funk sound of Julius C was strangely refreshing, and, more than that, infecting. So, I officially became a fan, and it was through them that I had even found out about Rock the Harbor.
And that's where I went yesterday, instead of a surprise 30th birthday for my cousin-in-law. It was the best excuse to not go to a family even ever. There I was, on a Saturday afternoon, walking barefoot thorugh Snug Harbor, on the South Lawn, enjoying music from bands I hadn't heard of. At one point I had a cherry Itialian Ice.
It was an amazing day. Honestly, it was the best Saturday I've ever had on Staten Island. For the first time in years I felt like I had a place I belonged.
It onlygot better when it started to rain. While most people ran for shelter, I ran for the rain. It was like Purchase all over again, all I was missing was a giant statue to run to with my friends and drum on it. Raain, at Purchase, was, for the most part, embraced. People would run out in it, dance in the rain, shout at the thunder, run through the mud. I was one of them.
Yes, I was there by myself, but I know my friends here on SI - they're not so fond of the rain at all. I don't think I Would have been able to convince Adj to come running with me through the rain, or go barefoot for that matter. Sure, it would have been great to have her or any of my friends there, but, I guess a small part of me is also glad they weren't. I was able to experience Purchase again, on my own terms.
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