A Lady and Gentlemen of Extraordinary Sound

Greeting, Fair Followers of the electronic pen! Allow me to welcome you to the leather-bound world of Steampunk. If you haven't learned by now what it consists of, you will have to make the venture to learn of such on your own. Until then, let me introduce you to an extraordinary new sound that I've come to find quite exhilarating.



The Extraordinary Contraptions have put the "punk" back into steampunk. They are not the typical straight-lace, bow ties, and clockwork. They are the striking metallic smudge on the crisp, boring collar of the antiquated steampunk style. Their sound combines the electric spark of ska and punk music with the whimsical persona of a picnic in an industrial park. All in all, not a bad sound in the least! Harmonic vocals and sophisticated lyrics backed by strong bass are fun to listen and to dance to.

Aelus, Dmitri, Sephora, and Corbin are time-traveling to a Terminus station near you! Check put their MySpace page for upcoming concerts, events, music downloads, and all sorts of glittering contraptions. While you are at it, explore the photographs I've collected for them from their Masquerade concert.

Become a friend, and even a fan, of The Extraordinary Contraptions have a taste of past and punk.

Ten Years to the Day

For all of you oh-so-cool kids still taking advantage of the "4-20" hysteria, here's something to process with those remaining few brain cells:

Exactly 10 years ago, 2 boys armed themselves with an arsenal of weapons and changed the lives of every student, teacher, parent, friend, brother, and sister at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. Twelve students and one teacher lost their lives at the merciless hands of unstable, mistreated, and vengeful cohorts. Twenty-three others are lucky to be alive after the shots they took, and countless others will never be able to forget the horrors they faced today.

Now, in a day when childlike innocents seems like an oxymoron, we find ourselves no further from these savage situations. A school hallway is not just a social hub for young minds, it's a walk of shame, an overexposure, and a friendless tunnel of ridicule for some. Bullying is real, and not every child is strong enough to handle such premature abuse on their own. If it goes to far, the results can be the massacre that occurred in Colorado, or the fatality that darkened hearts in Dekalb, Georgia today.

Eleven years old is not even old enough to experience the best parts of life, but when you are daily put down, picked on, and beaten physically and emotionally, I'm sure it's hard to see into a promising future. As the sister of someone who was once bullied, I have no tolerance for anyone of any age abusing their self-proclaimed power over someone else. Thankfully, my family's situation came to a head and was exposed before anything tragic happened, but years of damage had already been done.

The poor little boy in today's story did not find the help he needed in time and many are feeling a terrible sorrow tonight. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Jaheem and to the families of Columbine victims. It hurts me to know that so many lives could be taken for reasons so petty and minds so disturbed. May God bless us tonight and always, and give us the insight and wisdom to do what it right for every soul on the planet. We are all we are ever going to have, and life is far too short to ruin if for ourselves or anyone else.

Rest in Peace.

It matters if you're Black or White

I keep starting and stopping posts. I'm going to finish this one! This is why I will never be famous: because I cannot follow through with a simple idea until its published!

On to business. Over the last few months I've been thinking of topics for my BGVTA entries. This one began to take shape while discussing the cliche and rather distressful role of the black women in sci-fi/fantasy movies. I noticed that all but 2 of the women featured on my site were in an interracial relationship, and that of those who were, about half of the time, their significant other dies. Yes, dies. I can prove it.

Now, I want to put a SPOILER WARNING into affect now so that no one can blame me for ruining a movie that have not, but are yet to see! Referring to my previous statistics on the latter paragraph, you probably want to make sure you've either seen or don't want to see all of the movies/shows on BGVTA. I'll also throw in the movie "Wind Commander" since presently it is not up on the site.

All right, all eyes ready? Here's the breakdown:

Aside from "Independence Day" and "The Matrix," I guess it is assumed that in if there is one black chick around, she is associating with the surrounding white people enough to find herself in a relationship. Most of these women are scientists, which I guess in not an occupation to find a vast majority of black people? Then again, given the situations these scientists find themselves in--sub-zero temperatures ("AvP," "Ice Spiders", middle-of-the-ocean abandoned oil rigs "The Thing Beneath"--I cannot imagine why black people would want to take that job. We sort of hate the cold. . . and oil rigs. We also get vengeful when insects and aliens pull and oh-no-you-didn't against our boyfriends. Then, the true warrior woman comes out and kicks butt all the way to the ending credits.

In terms of the space-aged romances, I guess I'm not too surprised. There are no nations, no real borders or boundaries to distinguish a people outside of what cultural or spiritual beliefs they might share. Looking at movies like "The Chronicles of Riddick" where the Necromongers went planet-jumping to recruit all of mankind into their cult, it's not hard to see how Lord and Lady Vaako found each other. They're both crazy. Need I allude to "Diaries of a Mad Black Woman" to further push my point about how a sister's going to act to get what she wants? I didn't think so.

Let's take it to the skies now. The Washburnes seemed the most unlikely couple to sail the skies together, and not because of their skin color. The Chinese New Years Dragon and Dog do the best to explain this misleading match-up. Zoe, herself, said, "I don't like him, sir," before she even knew what was going to happen. In the tragic coupling of Maniac and Rosie in "Wing Commander," I find the first of hopefully very few instances where the black girl takes the fall. However, they could not even kill her off at the hands of an actual enemy. It had to be her own fault for being a show-off and losing control of her ship. She zapped that last alien tail, but could not make it back on board for seconds with her blond boy-toy.

I cannot forget to mention the "Cloverfield" madness that doesn't fit into science or space. It's just downright unfortunate. Poor Lily just wants to throw a good party in New York. After all, she was fortunate enough to have the brother who was not moving across the ocean the next day. Nope! Cannot have that. Chaos, sea monster, and a broken bridge, and now she's single. At least the directors did giver her a break by letting her escape the city before the monster and a bad helicopter pilot could do her in.

Lastly, I thought I'd mention the strange love affair going on between Calypso and Davey Jones. Now that I think about it, there is a chance Calypso wasn't always black since they apparently trapped her in a human form to keep her from messing up the sea for hardworking pirates. But what we know of her outside of her human form is just a bunch of gray crabs. . . . Not nearly as alluring as a swamp witch with rotten teeth and face tattoos. Regardless, Davey Jones loved her enough to help put her in that body, but what did I say earlier about making a black woman do what she don't wanna? SNAPPED!

So I think that about covers it, although I don't think it's really fair. I think we deserve a happy ending once in a while without all the death and separation. Is the media trying to portray that interracial relationships are dangerous or can only end in heartache? I really do hope not. Perhaps there's some assumption that black ladies are strong enough to survive after such a loss? If so, why is it always the white guy who dies, not someone her own race? Something for future filmmakers and directors to think about. People do read into these things,so just be careful of the message you're sending out, even if you have the best intentions.