Monday, October 31, 2016

Electronic Music Piece of the Day Give-Away

Happy Samhain 2016. In honor of the roots of the festival season, and a rather inane discussion betwixt my offspring, today's 391 & the Army of Astraea's Electronic Music Piece of the Day Give-Away features a little ditty published on BandCamp entitled "Faerie Bomb". Please do enjoy.



Wednesday, October 26, 2016

My Dictionary; Word of the Day

MISHOMINY

noun (mis-hom-iny) English from the fusion of the Greek misos (hatred) and the Latin homin (man).

The dislike, hatred, contempt or ingrained prejudice against men or boys. The inverse of misogyny.

As in, "When Robert entered his feminist themed short film in a film festival that focused on female-dominant subject matter, he was nevertheless concerned that he might be rejected because of his gender. It was a common type of reverse sexism that many deny exists, but when his film lost in every female-themed film festival he entered, but won in over 60 neutral film festivals, Robert strongly felt that he was the victim of mishominy." 

Monday, October 24, 2016

Electronic Music Piece of the Day Give-Away

Hosted by BANDCAMP, I've decided that the Gauntlet will, from time to time, feature pieces of "give-away" electronic music created by 391 & the Army of Astraea or other tunes produced by Stubborn God Productions.

The title, "Gladiator-at-Law", is taken from the title a 1955 satirical dystopian science-fiction book written by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth, one of my father's favorite reads.


This platform may eventually evolve into multi-genre cross-marketing of Nevekari score albums, experimental music, or 391 Singer-Songwriter driven Folk-Pop, as well as a more mercantile presence at some point, but as for now, it's just a listen and enjoy kind of thing.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Pinhole Photography

Last April 24th was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.

What is Pinhole Photography, you may ask? Well, it's a lens-less technology derived from Camera Obscura, whose product are photographs in their most basic form. To elaborate, an exposure is made through a pin-sized hole cut into a receptacle of some sort, usually a can or box. The length of the exposure, and how bright the surrounding light is, determines the image captured on the photo paper, and unlike modern digital photography, the image is only presented after development.

Thanks for the concise artsy definition, Gauntlet of Balthazar, but why mention it?


As it turns out, I mention it because my Nevekari Enterprises partner, Kevin Lennon, and I, taking a break from our script-righting endeavors, just so happen to have attended Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day on Staten Island at the Alice Austen House Museum.

In light of the diversity of this blog's posts, and our ramping up to get behind the camera and shoot our multi-nominated web-series pilot, "Asymmetric", I decided that the Gauntlet might be a good forum to display a couple of pics we took that day.

Not bad for first attempts, we think.


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

No Fly Zones and Drone Strikes

As I touched upon power, specifically women's power, in an earlier installment of the on-going screenwriting thread of the Gauntlet (From the Writer's Studio), I thought in light of the imminence of election day, now might be a good juncture to elaborate on another facet of power relating to women's issues: the world of politics.

Gender politics have come into hard-play in this election cycle, all the more lurid since voters lack attention span, are not inclined, nor do they understand, the more complex issues relating to the economy, international relations, and our rights as citizens of a republic. Thus, we are forced to endure two sixty-some-odd year old children hashing out school yard rhetoric that isn't really relevant, excluding the slight grains of truth that do occasionally slip by.

Face it, we had a chance for a Cruz-Sanders race where political philosophy, instead of the cult of personality, would have been front and center. But you, America, as usual, chose image over substance. Is Donald Trump a bit of a douche-bag blow-hard, with an egomania gloss-over? Sure. Is Hillary Clinton a Washington insider tethered to a corrupt system by a million points of nepotistic light? Sure.

So, who would be better for the nation? The fact remains that even the most ardent supporters of either candidates would prefer other choices. The numbers don't lie, they are not trusted. Though, admittedly, Clinton does score even more abysmally on that scale than Trump. I imagine that women will continue to be pressured to stand behind their genitalia, and minority groups will be told that the only viable choice is the "liberal" female candidate. Meanwhile, hawkish Hillary has already told us what she wants to do about Syria, and I frankly find her plans terrifying.

Aside from our government recently announcing that they are to endeavor on a slew of cyber-attacks against Russia in the coming months (we can only assume as a reprisal for the DNC incident) we have a "No-Fly-Zone package" on the table. Apparently, the Democrats believe that simply announcing a No-Fly-Zone will magically solve the Syrian Civil War. I personally think that they imagine it's like putting a sign on the lawn, and other nations will just "keep off the grass", but that's not how it works. In order to establish a No-Fly-Zone it must be enforced or it, well, isn't a No-Fly-Zone. So, what is it they think will happen the first time the U.S. military shoots down a Russian airplane over Syria? I don't know, what do you think? This isn't a trick question.

Somehow, we avoided going into a direct war with the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989, and then the Russian Federation from 1989 to 2016, but these amazing dullards in D.C. have been instructed that Russia isn't with them in their vision of U.N. one world globalism, and they've got to be brought on line. This is why Iceland and England's leaving, or in the latter's case, not fully joining the E.U., drives the globalists mad. In fact, the U.N. recently called for U.S. citizens living abroad to vote for Clinton, since they are anti-Trump. They have no right to even propose such, nor to interfere in the domestic policy of any member nation. They should feel shame, but they have moved far past that. Their agenda is all too important. After all, they need to control the entire world. Needless to say, Russia sees no reason to embrace the Euro, or to honor the Petro-Dollar (the real cause of Saddam Hussein's fall), nor to share foreign policy with N.A.T.O., and frankly, who can blame them? They have their own agendas and strategies.

I'm very afraid that Public Enemy #1 of a Clinton regime will be Vladimir Putin. If only she can tear herself away from ordering drone strikes on Wikileaks Julian Assange long enough, which, by the way she has mentioned casually in passing, and with a smile, then we have our hands full. Even though these actions are fully hawkish, I'm sure that, like her predecessor, if elected the globalists will expedite her Nobel Peace Prize, in this case awarded by virtue of her possessing a vagina. But that's okay, because the mutual admiration society gave one to Barak Obama for "peace" when he was conducting three wars.

Perhaps the women of America should vote for Clinton, so they can learn the hard way that just because a woman is the "right" candidate doesn't mean she is the best candidate. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

My Dictionary; Word of the Day

 

DISTRAV


Verb, Adv. (from the fusion of the Latin prefix dis - >  Old Fr. Des > M. English - APART, and the Latin > Med. Latin > Trepalium > O. French > M. Eng. > Travail (noun), Travailler (verb) - WORK)

The act of voluntarily engaging in the cessation of labor with the possibility or expectation of amicable return. Simply put, to cease work in contrast to being fired, laid off, or being dismissed, as well as, quitting (to permanently vacate), resigning (to give up) or retiring (to end one's employment, usually at a specific age).

As in, "Phoebe left her job." "Was she fired?" "Oh, heavens no, she distraved. She's welcome to come back whenever she likes. Her employer and she are cool with that arrangement." 

Saturday, October 8, 2016

From the Writer's Studio: Bionn An Fhirinne Searbh

On the occasion of Nevekari Enterprises receiving its 19th & 20th Screenwriting awards, I thought it might be a good opportunity to launch a new feature on the Gauntlet - one about our writing, entitled "From the Writer's Studio". So, in the future, all analysis or critical commentary about writing in general, and our writing, etc., etc., will be searchable under this tag.

As the post name says - Bionn An Fhirinne Searbh (it's Gaelic and it's pronounced something like bean-ah-nerain-yeh-sharoo), and it translates as "The Truth is Often Bitter". This is not to say that this feature is a complainatorium, but rather, that the writer's struggle, as well as the manipulation of the reader, or viewer's emotions, comes at a cost. One could say that writing is simply about delivering entertaining catharsis. But, we must always remember that there are those who prefer fantasy to unpleasant truth in life and not being in touch with their emotions. So, it's like pulling teeth, but in a nice way. In my opinion to be successful story-tellers we must break the delusion with an illusion, in order to reveal the actuality of life, the actual truth.

So, onto the first topic...

What both of the scripts that received these most recent awards share in common is that they feature strong female protagonists. I personally prefer writing women over men. The nuances of how they wield their power, or lack thereof, can be fascinating, and surely their interactions between one another are generally much more layered. Simply put, men are simple, while female characters require a deeper commitment to understanding who they are. This is not to say male protagonists should reset to basic archetypes, just that the cause-and-effect of the male psyche is a little more predictable.

The lead of our tech-crime web-series, "Asymmetric", Yua Katayama, and our science-fiction feature, "Classical Ideal", Lily Goslicki, have literally almost nothing in common. Yet, they are both leads with a substantial presence. Yua is plucky, puts up a hard exterior, and has issues with patriarchy, fighting herself as much as the powers that be. Lily, on the other hand, is demure and reticent to embrace the new self she is evolving into, not grasping that she possessed that power all along. She treads lightly where Yua storms. If the two were to meet, it is doubtful that they would truly like one another, then again...that just gave me new idea. Clearly, they couldn't really meet because they live in different realities, but even if they couldn't meet it's the idea that counts, and pretty much, that is what writing is all about, isn't it?

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

My Dictionary; Word of the Day

From time to time there comes, well a time, when a new word occurs that fills the gap where a word "should be". In today's case that word is...


BACK-JACKING

 

Adj. Adv.  from the fusion of the noun: \ˈbak\ and the colloquial \ˈjak\ (Ger. > O. Nor > O. Eng. > Eng. + Celt. poss. Welsh > Mid. Eng. > Eng.)

Back-Jacking is the act of intentionally, or unintentionally, retro-actively appropriating an established concept, style, or work created by another, and claiming it as original. 

As in, "That was a good film, but half the sequences were back-jacked from Hitchcock.", or, "He sounds just like that old school rapper, but he said in an interview that they grew up together, and that he came up with the sound first. What a total back-jacker! Yeah, back-jacking at its finest."  


Monday, October 3, 2016

Otis Rediohead - Creep on the Dock in the Bay (Stubborn God Productions)

So, two posts on the same day...it must be a Monday, and a new blog. Anyway, let's get started with some lite fare, shall we.

A recent brainstorm, or was it a headache, led to this little piece of audio and video wizardry that I'm calling Otis Rediohead - Creep on the Dock in the Bay.

To be honest, as simple as it sounds, syncing Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock in the Bay" with Radiohead's "Creep" was no easy matter. Sure, there are musical similarites, and certainly others have noted the shared chord structure, however there are issues in parsing these two songs. Firstly, there is no video footage of Otis performing the track, live or otherwise. Secondly, the beats have to be in time. Lastly, Creep is almost twice the length of Sittin'. Saying that, I think it came out swell, not that it has received the massive views of Nirvana meets Rick Astley, but I have faith that it will, someday.

Greetings

Welcome to the Gauntlet of Balthazar, a blog designed to chronicle the artistry, achievements, successes, setbacks, and overall musings of Nevekari Enterprises and Stubborn God Productions. Articles, press excerpts, video clips, media files, photographs, music, and graphic art in all their manifestations, will in some way make their way to this space for, well, mostly our edification, but hopefully also for your entertainment. Please do enjoy. We look forward to seeing you return, to visiting our other sites and pages, and we hope that you will support us in our upcoming projects. Thanks.