Guest Post: Go Pirates!

Guest post of the week by Ferdinand Livingston

The Portland Pirates are an amazing hockey team and will forever be the best in my mind! Paul Bvron can tear up the ice like no other man can, he is absolutely stunning. Since I can never make it to an actual game, I watch them on the local channel on my satellite tv. I love the way they work so well together as a team and get the crowd to go wild. Even while sitting on the couch, I will find myself standing up and cheering, or screaming when Enroth messes up a play. My husband promised me that one of these months he will take me to a live game. I have always wanted to go but I either have to work or watch the children. It never works out. Since our anniversary is coming up, I think I am going to ask him to take me to dinner and a game! If he is still like the man I met years ago, he will do it. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best. The best gift that is!

Guest Post: Norwegian Black Metal Unveiled

The article written by Guy Barnes

Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind relays the story of how Norwegian black metal, and black metal in general, came to be. The story begins by describing all the early attempts to record a more satanic sound on an album. Bands like Witchcraft Coven and Black Widow dabbled with satanic imagery and lyrics on their albums, but it never went any further than that. Venom then came onto the scene and released their landmark album Black Metal. From there, bands came out of the woodwork boasting about satanic allegiances. Soon, the craze emerged in Norway. However, the youth of Norway would take their allegiances to much further levels, levels that would end in church arsons, bloodshed, and murder.

The book is essentially the biography of a movement. It features interviews with some of the major players in the Norwegian black metal scene. The book also throws around theories as to why fascism, Nazism, racism, and paganism would end up being such prevalent aspects of the Norwegian black metal scene. All in all, Lords of Chaos is a well researched and well-written account of the early history of black metal. A movie based on the book is in production, and I hope I can see it on satellite television that I got after researching Dish tv vs DIRECTV , my other favorite pastime.

Guest Post: The Stand Is My Favorite Book

Posted by Ambrose Mills

The best book I have ever read is The Stand by Stephen King. This book is one I was not able to put down and that was a problem, because it is a very long book. The country is infected with a nasty virus that kills the majority of the population.

A small percentage is immune to the virus and they cross the country to come together. Some of the people dream about an old woman named Abigail Freemantle that directs them to Boulder, Co. They set up a community where everyone is free and they work together to survive. Others dream about a bad guy named Randall Flagg and this group comes together in Las Vegas, NV. Those that are controlled by Randall Flagg are looking to dominate those in Boulder and he has set Trashcan man, an arsonist to look for weapons in the desert to destroy the good people in Boulder.

Trashcan man locates an atomic bomb that is activated by what appears to be the hand of god, killing everyone including a few good people from Boulder and that is the end of the evil Randall Flagg. Reading this book really made me consider good and evil.


When I'm not reading I watch Directv programming. Many of Stephen King's books have been turned into movies and they are all pretty good.

The Necessity of Music In The Car

I know there was a time when cars were simple. An engine, wheels, seats and a steering wheel used to be all that was needed. Maybe if you wanted the Model T tricked out edition you'd get a couple of windows thrown in. Nowadays, you get everything from GPS and 10 cup holders to seat warmers and auto parallel parking. Cars today are nothing short of homes on wheels. But setting all that crazy new technology aside, one thing that is now an absolute necessity in cars today are car audio receivers, or in layman's terms, the brains of the car stereo.

Really, where would we be today without music in the car? Traffic would be even more agony than it already is. Long road trips would be minus a soundtrack. Behind-the-wheel singers wouldn't even exist. You know those people. Kind of like the ones that pick their nose thinking that no one can see them as they drive down the road knuckle deep in the left nostril but instead, they are belting out every word to "If You Wanna Be My Lover" by the Spice Girls as if they were Posh Spice on speed. (Guilty.)

I know people listen to radio outside of their box on wheels, but radio as we know it would go the way of the VHS or Furby if not for people listening as they drive home from work or on their way to the grocery store. No more request lines, and free prizes for being the 9th caller. No more catchy radio jingles that get stuck in your head all day and no talk radio with outrageous political rants that offend and entice. Without that car stereo, I probably wouldn't find much use for CDs anymore. I wouldn't have that pleasure of driving home from the the local music store and blasting my new purchase with the windows down and the pedal to the floor.

Even though it only takes the simplest of car audio receivers to listen to the necessity that is radio in the car, it's hard not to drool over the new technology that's out there. It is the generation of in-the-dash everything isn't it? Especially when it's getting close to the holidays I can't help but browse sites like become.com which has an endless catalog of car tricking bliss with that all that crazy technology I can't come close to understanding. I even tend to wander from car stereos to iPods and even voice recorders. (I've always wanted something like that to keep by my bed or in my car's glove box so I don't miss those moments of songwriting inspiration.) 

Overall, without music in the car, I feel like driving would be a chore. And the day driving becomes an absolute pain in the butt while stuck in silence, letting the boredom build and the road rage to boil over, is the day I cut my license in half and start taking the bus. No joke.

Guest Post: The Hockey Season

Author: Jonathan Suarez

Hockey fans have a lot to look forward to during the regular season and playoffs. The start of the year has become exciting not only because it is the start of a new season, it is now exciting for many fans to watch their favorite teams spend a week or two in Europe. While in Europe, teams compete against local teams as part of their preseason training, and then face opposing NHL teams to kick off the start of the season celebrations in Europe. These games, both local and NHL games have become popular in Europe as many people do not get the chance to see many NHL hockey teams live.

The season takes a break through the middle of the season for the All Star break. This allows the best players in the NHL to play against one another in a friendly game. The day before the game is the Skills Competition where players compete in a variety of events ranging from fastest skater, hardest shot, most accurate shooter, and recently: most creative break away.

The season begins to wind down when the playoff's begin. Other than playoff hockey, the playoffs are some of the most exciting hockey games a fan can watch all year. Last year the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup on an unbelievable goal by Patrick Kane. Watching hockey in High Definition on satellite tv is a great way for hockey fans to stay up to date on the season.

Guest Post: Breaking Into a New Writing Genre

Guest post written by Shannon Piper

I've been a journalist since I was in high school when I was an editor for the school newspaper. I continued writing in college when I started writing for the student paper and even though I work in the corporate world now, I still write an occasional piece as a freelance journalist for a web site or newspaper here or there. But I really want to start writing fiction more.

I got a few of my fiction pieces published in my college's literary magazine. I was thinking about that the other day and actually found the link on the magazine's website when I ran across some info about DIRECTV internet bundle prices and showed it to my roommates. I think I may switch our internet over to it once I get some more details.

What I'm really excited about doing is breaking into horror writing though because that's the thing that I love reading the most. I also think that it's probably the most challenging thing to write, so that's another reason why I'm drawn to it.

Guest Post: Nothing Like a Scary Book

Guest post written by Walter Greene

I'm not sure how horror writers come up with all the crazy things that they write in their books, but I'm kind of in awe of it. I just wish that I could come up with half of the stuff that they create. I realize some of the stuff they write about is inspired by real life things, but I'm still amazed.

I like to read reviews and blogs about new horror books that are coming out with my Direct TV Internet. That keeps me pretty busy, especially now with all the vampire books that are popular now. Although most of those are aimed at the romantic preteen crowd and I just prefer the scary stuff.

One of my friends made a joke the other day that I never read anything that isn't a scary book. I told him that that was probably true, but I have read other books before. I am a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, so every now and then I'll reread The Great Gatsby.

Never Going "Away"

As much as I'm trying to work on new tunes (quite unsuccessfully I might add), I can't help but turn back the clock and get hooked on some of my old tunes. I guess I get a little sucked in by the feeling of accomplishment that I felt back then when I was satisfied with what I was doing at the time. Every once in a while I just sit here and listen to nothing but my "FryeTunes" playlist.

It feels a little weird in some ways. I'm not sure why. But overall it's just nice to sit back and think about what I've created. On a good day it motivates me to work harder thinking, "If I could do that then, why not something even better now?"

You know one of the best things about music? Once it's there, it's never gone. You can't uncreate something. You can change it, you can try to forget about it, you can even delete the files off your computer. But it will always be there in the back of your head somewhere just waiting to come out again.

Personally, whether I like some of my songs or not, I like to keep them around to show where I've been, feel good about where I am now and strive to kick so much more musical ass in the future.

The song below is an old one that tends to get stuck in my head. Not in a bad, Katy Perry kinda way either. Getting a band together and revamping this one would be a treat. If only I could get the hang of playing it and singing it at the same time. As old as it is in my book (we're talking almost 6 years now), I've never played it live and I still can't quite get the vocals and the rhythm to match up without tweaking myself out. The fingers do what they want sometimes.

Guest Post: Special Showings At The Movie Theater

My theater here in town has some great events throughout the year that draw a pretty good crowd. About once every month they will hold some sort of throwback movie marathon night. One of the best events that they had was a throwback to the popular 1980s teen movies. They did a marathon where they showed "The Goonies", "Pretty in Pink", and "The Breakfast Club." It was so much fun seeing movies that I loved as a teen on the big screen again!

The really neat thing about it was that I got to bring my daughter who shockingly had never even heard of those movies! She turned her nose up to the idea at first but ended up having a great time. Another favorite event that stands out in my mind was when my theater hosted a tribute to the Beatles. They had an entire night of showings including rare music videos and some live performances by great Beatles cover bands. Tonight they are doing a midnight viewing of the original "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies. I plan on setting my home security alarm (check it out) for peace of mind since I'll be gone all night and getting there early to get a front row seat! My daughter is coming along tonight too, I can't wait to see her reaction to the movies!

A Career In Music Production?

Ever since I started playing guitar, joined a band, and made music an everyday passion that I can't live without, I've thought about what it would be like to make music my career. Who doesn't think about turning their love into something that could make them money and become their livelihood? It's almost like living in a dream world to imagine a life in music production, whether it be writing songs, performing them, dabbling in video production, or even in the broad scope of things, taking a try at voice acting. (I'd say that would be kind of a stretch for me but it still sounds interesting.)


All those thoughts multiply after I stumble on sites like that of production company Studio Center. Their services cover everything from audio production, video production, and voice over work to jingle writing. Basically everything you would need to make your company stand out in the world of broadcast advertising. Really, the whole idea behind Studio Center's business falls pretty close to what I spent 4 years of my life learning about; marketing.

I attended college for business and a lot of the curriculum focused on advertising and overall marketing of everyday businesses. We even had the opportunity to take a stab at tv commercial production in the process of creating a product's complete advertising campaign. Around the same time I was truly discovering how important music was to me and I wrote a song about the issue of price-fixing in the airline industry which I performed in front of class in a crazy get up. I even wrote a jingle for my parents' business. (With moderate success.)

It is nice to think about working for a company like Studio Center, turning music into money for not only myself but other people, and actually using some of that knowledge I gained from college that I currently seem to be wasting printing t-shirts and being super uncreative. Not that it couldn't be possible someday, but unfortunately, the important thing now is making the dough. Writing jingles and making music videos can be a creative way to pass the time and keep my brain working but for now I'll leave the media production to the pros.

Rock on!