eclectika

I've enjoyed becoming a member of  The Writer's Community on Google+. There, I've found a wonderful group of people in various stages of writing careers. One of them ( Gabriela Gotay ) shared a great post about the playlist she used for inspiration when writing her book, " The Forever Maybe ." This got me thinking about the influence of sound and music on one's writing and I thought I'd begin a series of posts titled, " Sound Advice " that essentially aims to make musical recommendations around a subject or genre of writing. The posts will provide links to the music on Amazon and brief commentary on what imagery or concepts the music conjures in my mind. Hopefully there's something that sparks the imagination along the way. Today's Sound Advice  is going to tackle "The Future." Whether this is a utopian, dystopian, near, far, alternate or projected future may influence certain aspects of the following list but all tracks e...

I saw this cheerful image (courtesy of the RIAA ) and found myself smiling. "When you pirate MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM"—the very thing erroding our fine society today. The U.S.S.R. didn't dissolve, they simply became hackers and have secretly been uploading 'communism' to the internet. What began as a 'hippie' open-source mentality was really communism striking back at our capitalist way of life. Linux was really developed in Siberia as guards with AK-47s paced above the programmer's cubicles. Use FireFox and take a bite out of that big anti-big-business pie with all yer other red friends. Remember that each time you download that pirated copy of Gigli we're one step closer to having our own 'Checkpoint Charlies' between states. Seriously though, the various industries out to protect their gifts to the world (music, film, software, etc.) are kind of going about things the wrong way aren't they? If you look at the lit...

I remember looking at old photographs of my father and laughing at how silly he looked. His response always began with, "well back then..." or "in those days..." And I'd laugh some more as he'd patiently explain that it was once considered 'cool' to look that way. I can clearly recall lecturing my dad on the perils of black socks and tennis shoes as I made swishing sounds pacing in my parachute pants—nothing says 'cool' like a million zippers to nowhere. My son may laugh at my 'Miami Vice' look or scratch his head when trying to figure out why his father wore 18 outfits at the same time to achieve the ultimate 'layered look,' but he will not laugh at my music! That's right. We're talking about Debarge ! Just look at them. These guys are cool. The curly mullet, the shoe-string ties and up-turned collars. Is the guy on the right wearing a karate outfit or a band uniform? I don't know and I don't care—Debarg...