« Archives in December, 2009

If You Drink…

December 31, 2009 / posted in Music / 1 Comment
Some typical alcoholic beverages.

Image via Wikipedia

“If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.” – Dean Martin

There are certain days out of the year that are made explicitly for the sole purpose of drinking. Saint Patrick’s Day, where everyone is Irish, no matter what, and all the alcohol Ireland has to offer is up for grabs.  Cinco de Mayo, for those of us that feel like donning a sombrero and flexing our high school Spanish knowledge. Not satisfied with just one day, those of the German persuasion get 16 in a row…Oktoberfest. Yet, there is one day out of the year that is universal with most cultures that is practically synonymous with drinking. New Year’s Eve.

With ‘social events’ held throughout the world to witness the passing of the old year into the new, New Year’s Eve is ripe for alcoholic refreshments. Usually champagne is served, especially for that countdown toast, but drinks of all types make the scene on this night. And…with most of the working world having the following day off, it is the perfect night to indulge almost to excess.

Now, I am not sanctioning getting drunk on New Year’s Eve. Personally, I never really saw the point in becoming too inebriated to remember the night before, and therefore never really got drunk. However, let’s be sensible here. About 90% of people out there are going to drink on this night, regardless. So, why not have a soundtrack while doing it? »Read More

Does the Music Matter?

December 30, 2009 / posted in Harmonic Vicissitude / 2 Comments
Fata Morgana, Santa Barbara Island visible eve...

Image via Wikipedia

When relaying a story through song, the actual melody should matter just as much as the lyrics, right?  After all, the lyrics may actually tell you the story in black and white, but it is the music that provides the color, allowing the song itself to have more emotional substance than what simple words may convey.  Many people, myself included, will tell you that the music does indeed hold as much weight as the lyrics, though perhaps in not so many words.  I may even go as far as saying that the music matters even more than the lyrics, since an instrumental composition can tell a tale just as well as any written prose.

But, is it really true?  Does the music make any difference in how we perceive the overall song?  Do we shape our views more on the lyrics or on the harmonics?  In the overall grand story being told, does the music sincerely matter?

I believe that it does.

I am not just going to sit back here and just say that, though.  I am willing to offer some light upon the situation.  I’m here to educate, to attempt to change how you might feel about music in general.  If all that occurs is that you find yourself at least open to the ideas presented, I will call that a success. »Read More

It’s That Time Of Year…

December 29, 2009 / posted in News / No Comments
A youth enjoying his pudding on a firm's Chris...

Image via Wikipedia

Just in case you haven’t noticed, it’s the holiday season and, honestly, if you haven’t really noticed, you must be dead. You can’t swing a cat around here without hitting something festive. Christmas, Hanukkah, Saturnalia, Festivus; Everyone has some holiday around this time.

Since it’s a busy time of year for everyone, we’ll probably be light on the posting, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be resting on our laurels. No, believe me, there is a lot of stuff to do, and there are a lot of good things coming for the new year.  We have original fiction, essays, and our regular contributors, not to mention a serialization or two and some fun surprises.

Stay tuned and, if we don’t see you till January, we hope you enjoy whatever winter holiday you happen celebrate.

Original Fiction: Lure by P.A. “Pat” Humphreys

December 25, 2009 / posted in Fiction / No Comments

Yeah it’s Christmas, and we are running a Christmas story. However, its not your normal one.  Based on a very short flash fiction piece, this is an amalgam of lots of things running through my head, like the season finally of Dexter and a comment that I am not real big on Christmas.

Ok, well, I’m not. It’s very commercial, industrial, and reeks of false cheer. I do enjoy the holiday though. I love making merry with friends and family and that’s what the holiday really is to me.

But I also write really fucked up stuff as a way to deal with the bleakness of winter in Wisconsin, so here is “Lure” by P.A. “Pat” Humphreys.

Remember folks, there is always a bigger fish.

»Read More

bkI’s Favorite Holiday Movies

December 24, 2009 / posted in News / No Comments

christmas holidayAlas, it’s the time of year for holiday specials and movies.  With the possible exception of Halloween, the winter holidays far outclass the rest of the year as far as visual propaganda.

Here are the favorite holiday movies from the bkI staff and contributors.

Joanna Roter, Fiction Contributor:

My favorite Holiday movie is Edward Scissorhands, directed by Tim Burton. This movie is smart, funny, beautiful, and tragic all at the same time. It really capture the “magic” of the season more than most of your traditional Christmas movies. The cast of this movie is wonderful and really worked well together. The music by composer Danny Elfman is sublime and really add the whimsy to this film. It’s framed as a story of a grandmother telling her granddaughter the origin of snow in their town and deals with themes of love, adversity, and acceptance.  The theme of the family is the most meaningful to me. Edward is on his own living an undisturbed life when he is taken in by a family and forced to endure their traditions and criticism. They try to mold him into a what they consider normal or acceptable, when really it is what makes him different that makes him special. However, for all the trials the family may put Edward through they still love him and understand that he has to do his own thing. Isn’t that what the Holidays are about nowadays?

Tony Smith, newly minted Music Writer:

For a classic holiday movie/special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! leaps to mind. Not the 2007 live-action film with Jim Carrey. No, we’re talking about the original 1966 animated special directed by Chuck Jones. I had the Dr Seuss book when I was a child, and seeing the illustrations walking and talking on my television screen amazed me to no end. The sheer fact that I could sit there, book in hand, and practically have it read to me by Boris freaking Karloff was awe inspiring. Also, the holidays just are not the holidays without at least one rendition of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” played over the stereo.

The second selection might be considered a bit of a reach, but is still technically a Christmas movie. Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, is full of biting remarks over the use of consumerism as a tool to distract people from society’s inhumanity. I find that rather amusing, myself, to denounce consumerism during the season where the concept of consumerism is at its highest. The fact that the protagonist’s nemesis is not some classic villain, but really the established social order being complacent, reminds me that free thought is still the most useful and dangerous tool the human race has. After all, if a worker managed to have the foresight to catch the typo that caused the string of events in the film, then the whole giant misunderstanding could have been avoided. It’s good to have a little dark satire over the holidays. It keeps the world in perspective without going into sugar shock from all the usual feel-good Christmas specials.

Christopher A. Helton, Fiction Contributor:

Okay, my favorite all time Christmas movie is Die Hard. It came out when I was in the 6th grade and that along with Lethal Weapon were the first R rated movies my dad let me see. It is no coincidence that I started writing in the 6th grade. My first book have you was basically a GI:Joe movie which I had Bruce Willis pegged for the lead role. That early book, Rising Storm, sent me on a 10 year odyssey of reworking the original into a full length novel and later a feature length script. All along, my goal was to the write the perfect Bruce Willis movie. It became an obsession (Pat will confirm this). This man crush on Bruce Willis (Ed: Yes, Chris is totally gay for him — Pat) lasted all through my teen years but dwindled down in the middle of the decade until Bruce came out with the new Die Hard movie, which in itself is not a good Bruce Willis movie, but it tried. Bruce, if you are out there, you have enough juice left in you for one last action movie. You need this as much as I do.

Ben Kenneally, Staff Columnist and overachiever due to his awesome grades this semester:

The Ref-

What could be more filled with holiday cheer than Denis Leary? A great black comedy with an incredibly dysfunctional family whose marriage can only be held together by the intercession of Denis Leary, crappy professional thief. Wait, what?

We’re No Angels-

A Christmas caper starring Humphrey Bogart in a rare comedic role. Peter Ustinov and Basil Rathbone co-star. A movie in which a bunch of escaped convicts learn the joy of family. “We’ll slit their throats for a Christmas present,” says Bogie at one point in time.

The Nightmare Before Christmas-

Halloweentown learns about the spirit of Christmas thanks to Jack Skellington’s overly inquisitive wanderings. Watching the ghosts and goblins attempt to do things christmasy is awesome, and the songs (All by Danny Elfman) are delightfully good.

Scrooged-

A cruel and callous TV executive has the Christmas spirit explained to him, beaten into him, and finally scared into him in this Christmas classic. Starring Bill Murray, Carol Kane, David Johansen, and about 10 million pop culture references, this is not one to miss.

P.A. “Pat” Humphreys, Head Content Wrangler:

Ok, this may seem a little out of character, but my fave is A Christmas Story.

For all the Santa’s and holiday magic, I think this is the one movie that truly captures the meaning of Christmas.  I can’t watch it without being transported back to when I was myself a nine-year-old plotting and planning for whatever gift I obsessed over at the time that I completely lost interest in after acquisition.  Writer Jean Shepherd is one of those rare people that either creepily familiar with children’s’ minds, or is deep down in side still that nine-year-old. Either way, he distilled the magic that is Christmas to a child. One day, I’m going to watch all 24 hours of it.

How about the rest of you?

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Harmonic Vicissitude: Holiday Randomness

December 23, 2009 / posted in Harmonic Vicissitude / No Comments

December, especially as it starts to wind down and the new year looms overhead, starts to get busy.  There are at least ten separate ‘holiday’ days in and around the month of December.   It’s easy to identify the start of the holiday season.  It is when the stores start running sales to pull consumers in.   It is when people start caring for others more, with an increase in volunteer work or simply donating to a worthy charity.   It is when every musician totes out his or her own version of holiday songs and the airwaves becomes saturated with good cheer.

With an entire month of holiday classic carols, modern pop and country covers, irreverent novelty songs and familiar instrumentals, people could lose their minds trying to find something original.   Well, that’s where we here at bkI come in.  It is time to instill a little harmonic vicissitude.

What is harmonic vicissitude?  Well, glad you asked.   It is the concept that music is ever changing and that it is good to break out of the same old rut once in a while.  It is the idea that, if you keep your mind and eyes open, you might find enjoyment in some musical variants you may not have considered before.   During a season where the same old thing is toted out time and time again, it certainly doesn’t hurt to tweak the programming a bit.

What sort of musical mutations do we have for you?  Submitted for your approval below is a list of ten random holiday songs, given in no particular order.  Some you may identify as classics while others you might not recognize…but all are unique in its own fashion.  So, get comfortable and get a cup of your favorite holiday drink while listening to the following offerings. »Read More

Gifts for the Geek

December 22, 2009 / posted in Art, Fiction, Film, News, Tech / 1 Comment

Geeks tend to buy themselves things they want, which always makes us a pain in the rump to shop for. Sure, you could just get them a gift certificate to Newegg or Amazon, but everyone knows that’s the cheap way out. Instead, I present to you these 10 fabulous gift ideas:

1. Amazon’s Kindle DX – Wow, is this thing incredible. A nice big screen, whispernet for book downloads, the ability to play Audible audiobooks. The crazy thing can hold up to 3500 books! It even has native PDF support. I know the Nook is hot right now, because it’s new, but I’ve gotten my hands on both of these (for a few minutes each) and I definitely prefer the DX.

2. Neuhaus Labs T-2 Tube Amp – A push/pull tube amp, for my computer? It sounds crazy, but this thing makes MP3′s hum. One of the college kids I go to school with has one, and I gave it a listen. While it won’t quite make FLAC files sounds vinyl quality, it sure makes them sound good. MP3′s (with a decent bitrate) were so far superior to even CD’s in sound quality, I was amazed. If you like music and have a bunch of it stored on your PC, and you happen to have a thing for sound quality, this is for you.

3. Zendrum – The geekiest instrument in the world. It’s a full range midi controller, handmade with the care normally put into a nice guitar. I’ll let JoCo show it off. »Read More

The only journey is the one within. – Rainer Maria Rilke

December 21, 2009 / posted in Broadcast Domain / No Comments

People often say that the journey is more important than the destination, and I generally agree. I’m not one to flip to the back of the book to see how it all turns out, or pay no attention to the drive out of a simple desire to ‘be where I’m going, already!’

However, how much of the journey of a story lies in taking the time to get to know the story as it progresses? What if we could simply KNOW the story, immediately, without having sat and read the book over a dozen sunny afternoons? How much would that change our experience of the story itself?

Our experience of the story itself has changed miraculously over the past century. The ready availability of books and the education of the world’s young to a common point of literacy changed stories from an oral pursuit shared by large groups, to one of the solitary reader and their book. We then switched back with the advent of radio drama, with families sitting around the radio to find what happened to The Shadow or Fibber McGee and Molly. From there, we moved to the silver screen, and then the small screen, and have wavered between the two ever since.

How much does how we are told the story matter in the long run? I don’t mean in the sense that things are often removed from the story to transpose it to another medium. This is often done for movie adaptations, and is the reason many prefer the book, even if they saw the movie first. Movies (and to a much lesser extent, radio) shape concepts of the story for us in our minds, rather than allowing us the freedom to imagine it ourselves. Does this truly detract from the story itself?

Alan Moore certainly feels that the changes made to his work to move it to another medium is a horrid thing. Although I’ve enjoyed most of the adaptations of his work for what they are, I feel they never quite live up to the original source. Something about the layout of a comic book, and the way your eye tracks across the images and dialog, simply cannot be recaptured, no matter what medium it is moved to.

So, what will this mean when new mediums are made available for the telling of stories? We already know from the reaction of traditional media outlets that they become incredibly afraid whenever a new medium for telling stories becomes available. Publishers are still claiming they will be ruined by Ebooks, despite the fact that people with Ebook readers buy almost ten times as many books as those without. More importantly, what will this mean for those of us who consume the stories? How will changing the journey affect the audience?

Science has slowly come to know more and more about the functioning of the human brain as time passes. At some point in the future, I can only imagine that nanomachines of some type will be able to change things in our brain so that we simply know things. Direct manipulation of human physiology will alow stories to be downloaded directly into your consciousness. No interaction with the medium will be required. At that point in time, the journey of consuming the story will itself be gone. Only the story will remain.

Will that be a good thing, or a bad one, in the overall telling of our tales?

I’d love to find out.

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Original Fiction: The Road to Matanzas by Christopher A. Helton.

December 18, 2009 / posted in News / No Comments

Hey, today we present another original story by Christopher A. Helton.

Chris is a father, husband, coach, Social Studies teacher, and writer, unfortunately in that order, but we’re working on getting “writer” further up on the list.  In fact, over the Christmas break Chris is planning on working on a couple of scripts, one of which is based on a project that he an I have been working on for a little over a decade. Should be some good stuff.

Now, remember, wrong turns rarely turn out well.

»Read More

Life in Song

December 16, 2009 / posted in Music / No Comments
Harry Chapin at Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever noticed that life has a funny way of bringing your thoughts into focus when you least expect it?

In light of recent events in my personal life, I have had the concept of fatherhood in my mind.   A lot.   Sometimes, it is welcomed.  Other times, it could be considered a nuisance.  When I sat down at the laptop, fully intent on writing an article on music, I simply could not get the thought becoming a potential father out of my head.  Then, my playlist came to my rescue.   While browsing through it, trying to find a song to clear my mind, I came across Cat’s in the Cradle by Harry Chapin.  I know a little divine intervention when I see it, and I wasn’t about to pass on the opportunity.

There are occasions where all the stars align, the world grows still and you hear that one song that strikes a chord deep within your psyche.  The song that mirrors your thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams you have at that exact moment in time.  It is rare, but it is a powerful thing when it happens.  It is something that stays with you.

I have had the pleasure, or regret, depending on my life at the time, of experiencing this type of resonance with certain songs.   When I first left my original hometown of Pardeeville, the radio was playing I Will Remember You, by Sarah McLachlan.  The sensation of nostalgia for a home that I didn’t know I would see again became encapsulated within that song.  To this day, when I hear it, I see the young man that I was, looking out the back window of the car as we pulled away, the bittersweet memories of childhood almost overwhelming me.  It was my first real heartbreak…not over some girl, but for a life I knew I would never have again.  Oh, trust me, the heartbreak over a woman came later, and there’s a song for that, too.

Tonight, it was the hope that I would be as good of a role model for my future child as my father was to me.  If you read the lyrics to Cat’s in the Cradle, it tells of a father’s love for his son and of his regret for missing out on his son’s life.  First and foremost, though, is the love for his child that shines through.   As his son grows, the son asks for time to spend with his father.  The father always seems busy, but for all the good reasons, to provide for his family as well as he can.   As his son matures and starts a family of his own, the roles are reversed, with the father asking to see more of his son, who is busy working hard for his own child.  As I read through the lyrics, I am reminded of my father.  I remember how he would work long hours, either as a mechanic or as an over-the-road semi truck driver, to provide a roof over our heads and food for the table.  He was always busy, yet he would find some time for me, whether it was to come to one of my basketball games when possible, or letting me help him work on the car in the garage.  I also realize that I am just like him.   It is more than the genetic legacy that we share.  I have the same morals, the same ethics.  We both are hopeless romantics, though he may never admit to that publicly.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.   I hope that I can be there to care for my children, and hope they will forgive me if it means long hours to ensure everything can be provided for them.

Is there a song that moves you?  What is it?  Is it the lyrics that inspire you, the soft gentle refrain of the chorus, or is it a combination of emotion and melody that speaks to you?

Each song has a story.   What’s yours?

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