A “Hail Barry” and the Traveling Top Hat

Some things in life are a "non-zero chance." As an engineer, I live in the world of probabilities, but lately, the math of this journey is starting to look less like a series of accidents and more like a deliberate design.

The Ghost in the Machine

I recently ordered a shirt to commemorate the midnight Guinness Toast in St. Augustine on March 14th. When I saw the commemorative art, I did a double-take. There, in the back center of a comic-style crowd, peeking over the shoulder of a guy in a suit, is a figure in a black top hat. Right above Barry.

Now, I can’t verify the artist’s intent. But I was there. I was wearing the Top Hat. And in a sea of green, the guy in the Top Hat tends to stand out. Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe the Top Hat is becoming an artifact of this movement that the world is starting to recognize—even when it doesn't know why. It’s a "Where’s Waldo" for a mission that refuses to stay in the background. DD2 told me to sit down, but it turns out the hat is a lot harder to erase than they thought.

The "Hail Barry"

This brings us to the Hail Mary, with Barry Kerch.  That amazingly genuine guy from Shinedown who happens to do a thing with some friends in Florida and I had an opportunity for a meet & greet, but the working kind.  No, it’s not great that when I get to meet awesome musicians that I can’t just enjoy the moment but I need to share Julian’s story.  This is some weird type of outreach I’ve never wanted to do, and I don’t enjoy it much.  But I digress, as I like to relate to current things and then there’s the reason for the cheeky “Hail Barry” title of this writing

There’s a movie in theaters right now called Project Hail Mary. It’s about a science teacher who wakes up light-years from home and realizes he’s on a "suicide mission" to save the world because the sun is literally dying. He’s the only one left to do the math.

I feel that. I’m an engineer who woke up in a reality where the "sun" of my world was extinguished, and I realized I was on a mission to save other kids from that same darkness because the people in charge were just watching the light fade.  I had no idea that it would be our own, at least not near the end and that’s the worst part of it.  So here I am, essentially starting over as well with PTSD rather than amnesia, but still needing to figure all of this out because the entire system seems to be set against this mission.  This is where the music comes in, because if you listen to the sum total of messages put out by musicians in the recent decade+ then it’s clear artists get it.  Why don’t the rest of us?

We are currently in the Hail Mary window for our May 30th "Speak Up Loud & Clear!" event at the Exchange Park Fairgrounds. We have the venue, the drive, and the message. Now, we are throwing the long bomb for a headliner—a "Hail Barry," if you will. I'm reaching out to voices who can shout Love Above All louder than the administrative silence we’ve been fighting. It’s a reach, but after seeing myself potentially manifest on a record-breaking t-shirt, I’m not betting against the improbable anymore. My genuine request, knowing that Shinedown is already busy on our date, was to help us get through the gatekeepers.  We’ve got until Monday for a miracle to pull this off, though even without the miracle we’re still going to make this happen. There’s still the “Hail Barry” that I threw on Friday the 13th, being a “Jason,” I figured it couldn’t hurt. I’m not sure if that pass is still in the air or if it was incomplete, but I lost it while rushing to catch it myself.

That Friday the 13th where Jason met Barry

One Last Note

I’ve got one more chance to pull a rabbit out of the hat this Sunday night when I cross paths with Sebastian Bach at the Music Farm.

Will he hear the message? Will he join the noise? I don’t know yet. But as we head into the final countdown for May 30th, the momentum is shifting. The "Traveling Top Hat" is moving, the lawsuit is progressing, and the engine is humming.

Stay tuned. The record hasn't been fully written yet, but the ink is starting to dry.