The Story of Eddie Sing
Two years ago, Brian Mannix had a vision of the future. He was in his apartment in Glen Cove, late at night when he began writing a story. He challenged himself as his thoughts began to drift toward a woman that he loved. It was then he realized that often when being overcome by the beauty of another, most of the time that beauty translated itself into an urge to physically connect. It is a naturally instinct, this thing we call love and lust., but that night, late in the apartment, Brian consciously challenged himself to go a step further and go past his initial desires, to push beyond them and to recognize all that beauty has to offer; all its strength, all of its passion, all of its insight and all of its many manifestations. He challenged himself, to not equate love to sex, but to push past the physical and to find out what was on the other side.
Eddie Sing at Richie Cannata’s All Night Jam at The Bitter End in NYC.
In writing the story, The Memory Hutch, Brian saw a vision as he was writing. He saw a vision. A memory of a former student he had at Great Neck South Middle School. Her name was Katie Tong and she was a remarkably talented and insightful young girl who at one point after class, looked Mr. Mannix deep in the eyes and asked with a great deal of insight and age, "Why do we have war." It stopped him in his tracks, for the question was not a simple one, from a simple young girl, but one that she was clearly deeply troubled with and searching her soul deeplyfor an answer that would make some kind of sense.
For once, Brian was at a loss for words. It was then, in that classroom that, Brian began to recognize that he did not have to be the one to provide the answers. These incredible challenges that have faced humanity since time immortal, were not up to him to solve or provide answers for or take on single handedly. There were others. There were other people, our children, those with a more fresh, unsullied perspective that could challenge the powers that be, the weaknesses inherent in the human spirit and lead us to a place where we evolve past our current form and into a new one. An evolutionary process that cannot be stopped, much like the march of war that she was asking about.
Brian remembered the beauty of this young student and his memory while writing the story turned to her exquisite piano playing. He challenged himself to explore that beauty. The beauty of a young girl with the whole world ahead of her and enough talent and insight to truly make a difference.
Those memories from his past somehow transformed themselves into a vision of a 14 year old translucent girl playing the violin that he could see clearly, looking a bit like Princess Leah being beamed out of R2D2 that he had seen so many times before. After beginning the story at his computer, he got hungry for a late night snack, so naturally, he decided to get some Haagen Dasz chocolate ice cream that was in his freezer. He got up and noticed that under the cap, there was a something written. It looked like some type of come on, but uncharacteristically, he read it. Under the cap, it said the following:
Just as wine needs to breathe, Häagen-Dazs® ice cream needs to soften for a few minutes after you remove your carton from the freezer. This way, you can taste all the rich and creamy flavor of our fresh world-class ingredients.
But it’s hard to wait. We know.
And that’s why we created the Häagen-Dazs Concerto Timer app. Just open the app and point your camera at the lid of any Häagen-Dazs carton, and you will instantly experience a virtual violin concerto perfectly timed to allow your Häagen-Dazs ice cream to soften to the perfect consistency for a taste that’s truly made like no other.®
Not even realizing the coincidence, Brian, decided to take a leap and download the app. A few moments later, pointed his iPhone camera at the now thawing Haagen-Dazs ice cream container that he was looking forward to eating and he was presented with the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. A 3D holograph image arose out of the top of the ice cream container and a young girl began playing Bach's Inventions No. 14. It was absolutely the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and he began to cry tears of joy at the remarkable world that technology had brought offered us.
He put the ice cream away, wiped away his tears, not realizing what had happened. He went back to his computer where the first paragraph of The Memory HutchI lay before him and he re-read what he had written. It was only then that he realized that the very girl who grew from the Haagen Dasz container and played a concerto in his apartment was the same vision that he had had previously when writing the story. She was the "translucent girl."
From there, Brian was a little confused, a lot scared, but was, for the first time able to come to accept that he was no longer in control of his destiny, he was no longer in control of his future, but merely a player, one of many in this great game we call life.
He decided to take this vision and make a story out of it, via the Google Glass which he had purchased with the intent of using it in the classroom after his sabbatical was over and he returned to teaching. He created the video "The Story of Eddie Sing" about a character that was the leader of a "resistance movement" against the "Raybot Spiders," an Artificial Intelligence platform that he imagined would one day grow from the futurist Ray Kurzweil who had written about machines becoming smarter than humans, being able to learn for themselves, and inalterably affecting the evolution of the human species. That man is now the Chief Engineer at Google, a powerful company whose slogan is "Do No Evil."
The educational Alternative Reality Game (ARG) Skabe din fremtid, which Google translator informs us means "Creat your future" in Danish, was born. In the story, Eddie Sing is the leader of The Rez, an organization that is composed of "Humarchivists" who are charged with rescuing the archives of recorded human history from "the corruption" by the Raybot Spiders who have gradually begun to alter the past in an effort to change history and put machines firmly in control. Eddie Sing is leading the movement to prevent this and save humanity.
Eddie started as a piece of fiction, as a creation, as a dream, but over the course of the past two years, Brian slowly began adopting the character in his music. Eventually, he relented and just decided to adopt the stage name of Eddie Sing as a means of separating his personal and private self wigh the person who he hopes can make great changes in this world.
Brian Mannix has not gone away. He remains the same crazy, passionate dreamer that he always was, but Eddie Sing, it seems has just been born. He is who you want him to be. He is not sure what the future holds, but he knows one thing for sure, he is going to try to bring about healing in this world with his music, or die trying.
It is my hope that he succeeds. The question is not whether he will or not.
The question remains as always:
What's your verse?
