I am HARDCORE . . . and I will windmill kick you in the FACE!

Don't be offended by the title . . . I won't actually windmill kick you in the face. Nor am I actually hardcore. But that was a line from a poem-ish thing by Brad Hathaway whom I was introduced to this past week at Cornerstone in Bushnell, Illinois. I'll go back to Cornerstone in a minute, but for now I'ma head back to Brad Hathaway. He's some Christian poet/rapper-esque artist guy whom I've never actually heard live but I have heard his CD. It's not really the kind of stuff I usually listen to but this one poem that I've quoted I found kind of amusing. Basically this guy is telling a poem through the eyes of some hardcore kid, talking about his life, activities, pastimes, etc. It goes through the way this kid likes to dance at hardcore concerts and the way he wants to take out his frustration on the emo punk in the mosh pit, about how he will windmill kick him in the face and give his little T-shirt to his little sister, about how he's mad because his X-box is broken. Goes through the whole thing about wearing tight girl pants and eating emo pansies for breakfast and that actually under the facade he's actually insecure about lots of things. And at the end he realizes that, actually - he's an emo kid. Which was funny to me because all week I'd been thinking that all the hardcore scene kids were pretty much just another brand of emo (but you can never EVER tell them that). It was amusing to me that some outside source would come to the same conclusion. Perhaps this isn't funny to you but it cracked me right up. Maybe you had to be there. As soon as I get a recording of this poem I'll let you know. You should all hear it, even if it's just to hear the dude say I am HARDCORE!!

Anyway. Cornerstone. This was my second time at this event which is basically a Christian festival mostly to do with music but with some movies, seminars, artwork and other such things thrown in the mix. Deathly hot (we're talking like 40-ish degrees in Canadian plus humidity) but super fun. It is held in the small town of Bushnell on what is rumoured to be a very large old pig farm but I suspect it was just a field (don't pig feces, even those mixed in with the soil for many years, smell horrid?). People basically come in varied groups and camp in this big hot field with port-a-potties (puke) and loud music for a few days. Someone once described it as 'Woodstock for Jesus Freaks'. I've never been at Woodstock so I can't really say for sure but it sounds like an alright comparison. Apparently hardcore music (and kids) is the ticket right now so it was largely hardcore bands like Haste the Day (whom, surprising to even me, I really liked), As I Lay Dying, mewithoutYou, As Cities Burn, Dead Poetic, Bloodlined Calligraphy, Blood of the Martyr, and Underoath (btw, not all these bands were at Cornerstone, and not all of them would be considered 100% hardcore, but you get the gist). By the way, it is impossible to have a hardcore band with a pleasant, uplifting name. Besides the screamers with heavy drums, I also got to see Relient K, Switchfoot, Anberlin, and some others. Props to Chris and his crew for the ever-popular Meltingpoint Stage - it was very well planned and organized and it went pretty smoothly. Most of the bands that played there were very good and I especially loved rocking out to Pretty Big Plunger, 100 Year Storm and of course Skylight Drama. Good times were had by all, met some awesome people who were camping in the group I was with, and it all went pretty much without a hitch (besides some reported . . . shall we say, minor hold ups at the border, haha the band). I spent a bit too much money but not more than I could afford, got down with my hardcore self and grew a little as a person and a child of God. Plus picked up some wicked sweet merch. What more can a girl want? Except maybe one of those attractively intense scr/emo lead singers, maybe even clad in some 'girl-pants' and a pink T-shirt . . . haha.