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ONE TREE HILL

A virtual celebration of "The Joshua Tree"

on its 30th Anniversary

"I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside." If those words are familiar to you, then you already know a lot about what this blog is about. Early in the spring, I applied for and was awarded a land grant from the Linden Endowment for the Arts. My project is an attempt to virtually represent, the songs, the lyrics and the meaning of a record that is 30 years old.

What was I thinking?

Well for one, it struck me how this particular album, U2's "The Joshua Tree" is as relevant to these modern times we are in today, as it was when it took the world by storm 30 years ago. Then it was Reagan and Thatcher, today it is Trump and May. Then it was El Salvador and the Falklands, today it is Syria and Northern Africa.Then it was coal miners in England fighting for survival, to day it is American coal worker's trying to survive in a fast changing world. The similarities of then and now are fascinating which might be one the reasons the band is currently performing the album in its entirety on the new Joshua Tree Tour currently underway.

I vowed this would not be a political project though. No. For me, this was about taking a set of amazing lyrics and using them as a blueprint. 30 years ago, an Irish band wrote an album with a set of song's about an American Dream. It is a fictional place, but what if you could step inside the lyrics and walk around? What is you could gather a group of virtual artist and performers and bring this fictional place alive inside the virtual world of Second Life? That is to be the goal of this three month project.

This site will present some images and information from "One Tree Hill". It is here to keep your informed about the events going on at the location, and it is also where we will be sharing some of the creations that will pop up at the project. The project was made possible through a Core Land Grant form the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) and will run through 8/31/17.

If this sounds interesting, you can visit The One Tree Hill Project here in Second Life. It is VR goggle friendly and there are signs to help you out, but feel free to take your own path as you walk the "streets that have no name".

Exit

"He went deeper into black Deeper into white. He could see the stars shine Like nails in the night."

"Exit" by U2

This was one of the trickier songs to interpret for the One Tree Hill Project. It is also apparently one of the more difficult songs for Bono to perform. On May, 30, Bono told Rolling Stone, "I had a lot of self-harm over the years playing that song. I was very glad not to play it for many years. I broke my shoulder. I got into some very dark places on the stage." How the band approaches the song on the current Joshua Tree Tour, is pretty amazing.

At the time he wrote the song, Bono had been reading books like Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. It was the singer's an attempt to get in the mind of a serial killer. I did not want to do anything to "Freddy Kruger" or gory for this, and thought about just leaving the song alone. Eventually I came up with a pretty simple idea that I think certainly fits the song.

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