Sex, Screaming and STEM: The Screaming

Part Three: The Screaming
And by screaming, I don't only mean the banal, guttural noises proceeding out of the mouths of one singer at a time, and concurrently hundreds in the audience. I mean the screaming by of the days, the screaming feeling inside when you woke up (or when the attendees finally went to bed) (joke), the screaming of the Word in your hearts as it pinpointed one person in the spotlight (and that person was you), and, well, the screaming of Big Mike as seven of us threw him into the pool.

Big Mike is an appropriately named 300 pounds of pure muscle and brawn. He has a quick smile and a huge love for the teens... that and a lot of mischief.
Late one night he snuck up behind a poor, innocent-looking Steve (STEM, yes), and threw him into the pool with no compunction. Well, we weren't going to let something like that go so easily, were we? Plus, who wouldn't want to use this perfectly good excuse for a bit of playful vengeance, right?

Fortunately, there were no less than seven of us with the same idea. Fortunately, Kenji and Jer were amongst the crowd, not to mention Jason Wells (who had the idea). Fortunately, Big Mike was only a few feet away from the edge of the pool.

Unfortunately, however, I reached him first.

Foolish.

Also unfortunately, my hair got tangled up in his fingers.

We wrestled with everything inside of us, nudging him inch by inch closer to the dark water. Men went flying in every direction, but still we persisted. Finally with one final heave, the ground disappeared beneath us and a writhing, heaving ball of half-naked men plunged into the deep.

And it was all caught on camera. Stay tuned for the Wordstock 4 DVD!

That was fun. If only Mike hadn't been wearing his cell phone.

***

Anyway, screaming does also have to do with the actual voices. Not that many of us actually had voices by the second day. Truth is though, it wasn't the screaming that knocked our voices out this time. It was the dreaded Wordstock flu. I caught it the day before the event, and, thank You, Jesus, lost it halfway through. Others were not so lucky. I pray for them.

The band members fared well though. Many of them have actual healing miracles to testify to, and no performance was directy affected by the dreaded flu. In fact, they did splendidly. Screaming on stage WAS one of the highlights of this Wordstock. And I found their secret!

The Zen Of Screaming.

This is an instructional video by a certain Melissa Cross on how to perfect your scream, without losing your voice. Not to throw names around here, but most of the screaming bands at Wordstock have used this at one time or another, as well as the famed PaperClassFire from Mexico City. I haven't personally seen it, but it comes highly recommended as far as any non-Family reference material would. If YOU too are interested in screaming YOUR guts out, while leaving your throat intact, try it.

Love, Joe.