For those of you who've crashed into the misfits at the Black Squirrel Cafe and wondered if they ever do anything besides pester each other.....welp, here's some concert and band info for you:
Shows:
Qaos AscendingWhen: 1st Friday of every month from 7:00-whenever
Where: @ All Saints Church (University District)
Finding Zemo
When: Whenever Zemo "finds the time" (code for: has his act together)
Where: Usually at The Basement (Brnik Building, 2nd floor) in the Warehouse District
The Inklings
When Very impromptu (Boolean likes the warm, casual atmosphere of well-behaved flash mobs)
Where: Whenever the university janitors forget to lock up the auditorium...or any large area for that matter.
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The Bands:
I. Qaos AscendingBegun on a random Thursday night in late 2023 when Dmitri distracted Benj and Alyss from studying, Qaos Ascending quickly expanded to include Benj's sisters Jena & Ellie, and whomever else Dmitri was able to divert from something more important.
Name: Dmitri Zhurovski
Alias:
Occupation: Machinist
Instrument: Guitar
Side Projects: Book of Days, Finding Zemo (both the band and the person)
Hobbies: Motorcross, building things, cleaning up after his roommate (that would be Dante)
Goals: Ride a bull in Texas and run from one in Spain
Fav Bands: Outback Camel, Book o' Daniel, Slug Bug White, Glasslands (my brother says they're big in Russia)
Fav Quotes:
- "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner"
- "Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit" (Tyler Joseph)
Name: Benjamin Kirchner
Alias: Benj
Occupation: Pre-med student, Qaos University
Instrument: Bass guitar, vocals
Side Projects: Church praise band
Hobbies: Metalwork, chess, volunteer rescue squad
Goals: Ph.D.
Fav Bands: Casting Crowns, JoC, Cui Jian, Switchfoot
Fav Quote: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)
Name: Alyss Ducati
Alias: None that she likes
Occupation: Art student @ QU...also works at Blue Heron Bookstore
Instrument: Drums, sign language
Side Projects: Book of Days (w/ Dmitri & Boolean)
Hobbies: Reading, writing, painting, drawing, photography etc etc
Goals: Having her own gallery...or perhaps convincing Theo to share his :-)
Fav Bands: Too many to count
Fav Quote: "When you pray, move your feet"
Name: Ellie Kirchner
Alias: El
Occupation:
Instrument: Vocals, piano, acoustic guitar
Side Projects:
Hobbies: Pottery, other
Goals:
Fav Bands: Kye Kye
Fav Quote: "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." (Mark Twain)
Name: Zepp Loomis Molokin
Alias: Zemo
Occupation: Construction
Instrument: Guitar, synth (if Jaz ever has enough patience to teach him)
Side Projects: Finding Zemo (lead singer)
Hobbies: Woodworking, metalwork, poetry, mission trips to Africa, driving Jena and Boolean crazy crazy
Goals: Drive everyone crazy crazy, not just J & B
Fav Bands: Theocracy A.D., The Pain of Flowers, K is for Korpus, Project 86, The Devil Reads Pravda (TDWP), Demon Hunter, & Dashboard Monkeys
Fav Quote: "By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher....and that is a good thing for any man (Socrates)"
Just kidding, Jena!!
Name: Jena Kirchner
Alias: Punk rock squirrel (coined by Ai-Mei)
Occupation: Student: biology & computer science...also works at the QU tech support desk
Instrument: Guitar, violin
Side Projects: Taking care of Zemo
Hobbies: Drawing animals, bird watching, upcycling furniture & vid games w/ Zemo, calligraphy w/ Izzy, herbs w/ mom, painting combat boots w/ Jaz...also braiding Z's chin tail.
Goals: Marrying Zemo & destroying all the computer viruses in the world!!
Fav Bands:
- Finding Zemo (or is it Screamo?...can't understand a word of it)
-
Fav Quote:
- "Call on God, but row away from the rocks"
- "An object in motion stays in motion" (Len V.)
- "The world belongs to the energetic"
- "Beef Jerky - we are not a gas station"
- "Pigs may fly, but it's not likely"
- "Talk does not cook rice"
- "You're on earth for a purpose...find it!"
- "Shuo Cao Cao, Cao Cao jiu dao" (Boolean taught her that...it's their secret passcode)
- "Not every problem in the world can be solved with a pen...sometimes you need a pencil."
- "Gustatus Similus Pullus" (I forget what that means)
- "I can apply brute force and ignorance just like you"
- "Drink coffee - do stupid things faster and with more energy"
- "The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet" (Frederick Buechner)
...I should probably stop now, huh?
Name: Bu Mo-Li
Alias: Jaz, Jasmine, QQ, Molly (for school administrators who think she's Irish)
Occupation: Incoming QU music student (Class of 2028!! Whoop! Whoop!)
Instrument: Keys and back-up for whoever forgets to show up (mostly Zemo); also willing and capable roadie
Side Projects: Finding Zemo
Hobbies: Chatting with friends
Goals: What's that?
Fav Bands: SBW, GFM, FF5, EBB, XXI, TFK, LSL, and RRN (oddly enough)
Fav Quote: "I don’t wanna be like all the other non-conformists!"
Name: Bu Le-An
Alias: Boolean (also "Cousin"...oh wait, that's what he calls everyone else)
Occupation: Perpetual student, teaching assistant at the Kandinsky Conservatory of Music
Instrument: Dabbler of all instruments, master of five or eight
Side Projects:
- Book of Days (Dmitri's sidekick & Alyss's kickstand)
- Qaos Ascending (sound engineer)
- Finding Zemo (sound engineer, manager, roadie)
- The Inklings (rap vocals, various instruments)
- Heavy Metal Banjo (freestyle collaborator extraordinaire)
- Dashboard Monkeys (patron)
- Royal Hiccup (perpetual fan)
- Outback Camel (fan club president)
Hobbies: Singing in the shower...and ruining Benj's chess games. Also, practicing his exquisite rudimentary English skills by changing song lyrics. Samples include the donut song (There's only
Goals: Stay in school forever & never grow up
Fav Bands: DC Talk, Talking Heads, Talk Talk Talk, No Talking, Stop Talking, You're Still Talking, as well as 崔健, 窦唯, 張懸, 記號士, 王榆鈞 and 馬克白. Oh yeah, can't forget 唐朝队, now can we?
Fav Quote:
- "Aikamakashaya"...I think it's Swedish. Not sure what it means, but it sounds significant.
- "Creative achievements depend on single-minded immersion" (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
Name: Thelonious "Theo" Antoine
Alias:
Occupation: Owner, Red Zebra Art Gallery
Instrument: Back-up drummer
Side Projects: Church praise band, Qaos Ascending, Heavy Metal Banjo, & keeping his beard longer than Zemo's "chin tail"
Hobbies: Supporting starving artists (aka: Patron of the Arts)
Goals: Glorify God through art
Fav Bands: All things jazz
Fav Quote: "I started out with nothing and still have most of it."
Honorary members:
Dante (aka Cowboy, but no one calls him that): reluctant but capable sound engineer and roadie
Pastor Vos & Jia Ai-Mei: spiritual mentors
Theo's wife Isabelle: food!!!!!!!!
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II. Finding Zemo
Side project for Dmitri (clean vox), Zemo (ear-shattering vox), and Jaz (glass-shattering vox). Jaz also translates for their new drummer Ming the Merciless, who's hero is this world-renowned drummer boy:
III. Book of Days
Just Aylss's voice, Dmitri's acoustic guitar, and Boolean's ukulele, mandolin, guqin, guzheng, mbira, or hurdy-gurdy.
IV. The Inklings
Picture between 3-20 music majors and a vanload of synthesizers, instruments from around the world, and anything else they can make noise with. Quite the mashup. Based at the Kandinsky Conservatory of Music, Boolean leads this ragamuffin band and claims that the resulting mayhem is a well-orchestrated form of global "skafolktronica" music. Fortunately, Peruvian twins Trumpet 1 & Trumpet 2 and a crazy Spaniard named El Gordo keep Boolean from getting carried away. The highlight of their shows (or more commonly, the final song they play when the local authorities shut them down) is the American protest hymn: "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back."
V. All Saints praise band
Benj, Ellie, Alyss, Jena and Theo all take turns playing in the church praise band with a dozen other church members.
VI. Heavy Metal Banjo
The simple smooth sounds of jazzy hip hop: A Theo-Boolean Production of freestyle rappers with the nationally renowned Qaotic Jazz Ensemble. Shows at the University Club on the fifth Tuesday of any month blessed enough to have that many.
VII. Fake Monk
Founded by Dante and the dependably undependable lead singer Saul, this band has been kicked out of venues in Goshen, Silomar, Governor's Island, and Petrozagorsk. The band's only consistent members are Saul and Edgar. It has gone through four name changes and
VIII. Outback Camel
Based in the Embassy District, over the years this group of alternative rock enthusiasts has included university students and embassy staff from Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Nordonia, Serbia, and the U.S....a very intriguing group indeed. Former Inkling and American expat Charlie Kalani currently plays with them (his dad is a QU English prof)
IX. Royal Hiccup
Indie rock band popular on the Med Coast music festival circuit (Greece-Croatia-Nordonia-Italy-France). Once called The Dashboard Monkeys, they changed their name after the lead singer eloped to England with the bassist and a recording contract, so they're looking for some new members.
X. Slug Bug White
An all-girl punk rock band based in Petrozagorsk, but that's not important right now.
XI. The Simple Life of Finches
A band that doesn't exist yet.
XII. Question Everything
A 5-member industrial metal band that no longer exists.
