Musings of a Fanboy: Thank You and Don't Forget to Tip Your Waitress

Hey everyone!

Just a quick little blog here about something that has been on my mind for a long time now.

I am under the firm opinion that everyone, at least once in their life, should work some kind of service job, may that be in a restaurant, office building, or some other company that offers a service of some kind to customers.  I work in a restaurant myself and have so for almost five years and I will be the first to tell you that it has completely changed the way I see other people that work service jobs.  I understand what it is like to be on the other side of the desk or the counter.  However, not everyone does.

These are the people that are rude to waitresses or secretaries when the problem is completely out of their hands and don't understand the concept of a tip.  Please, for the love of God, do not let someone you go out to dinner with refuse to tip because the waitress is "just doing her job."  That is the bull crappiest excuse for being stingy that I have ever heard.  Most waitresses (I say most because not all fall into this category) are willing to go above and beyond the letter of "her job" for her customers.  Restaurant owners could simply have busboys or airheaded high schoolers run plates of food to tables.  It would probably be cheaper that way.  But, instead, they have people that are trained in personal communication that make you feel welcome at the resturant and will wait on you hand and foot for the next hour.  If that isn't worth something a little extra, I don't know what does.

Ok, stepping off the soap box now.  Thanks for reading!

Nostalgia Goggles: Cops and Coppers

Hey everyone!  Sorry about there being no blog yesterday.  Tuesday was the age-old combination of late night/early morning/long day, which ended with me practically falling asleep on the way home from work.  So, anyways, two blogs today I guess is how I'm going to roll with this.  And that's fine!  I'm not tired and have no time!

... did that sound bitter?  That sounded a little bitter...

Anyways, NOSTALGIA GOGGLES

So, I watch a lot of television.  In fact, that might be the most defining fact about myself.  Being a TV fanatic for the last few years meant mostly charting out my night time schedule so that I could watch my shows and get all my homework done.  It was not a simple task.  I mean how am I supposed to do calc homework on Thursday nights when I had new episodes Big Bang Theory, Mentalist, Elementary, and Community to watch?  More recently, however, I've begun to stop watching shows that are currently on television as much and focused by attention on the past: shows that have run their course or had been cut short in their prime.  The switch between the old and new worlds of television programming has opened my eyes to some interesting parallels and curiosities of the medium I'm such a fan of.  Time changes a lot of things but somethings can be set in stone much longer than you can ever believed possible.

Take cop shows for example.  They are a stock television and movie genre that has endured through its "case of the week" formula, engaging premises, and flexibility within the genre that can make cop shows accessible to almost any audience demographic out there.  Cop shows are breeding grounds for both incredibly deep, unique character and painfully cliche ones.  They are shows where good triumphs over evil, but not too much that the suspense of the weekly case is ruined.  Cop shows, both old and new, have gimmicks and hooks in the premises that draw the audience out of the old and expected COPS formula.
Here are a few of my favorites from both before and after I was born.

The Dark and Gritty

The Past: Homicide: Life on the Street

The Present: The Shield

Part of the allure of television is its ability to serve as a window into the lives that we as suburban homesteaders or thrifty city slickers will never get to experience.  Some cop shows, in this vein, try to depict the life of a detective or uniformed officer is a gritty, off the cuff manner.  Now, there are two ways that television shows have portrayed this.  Take 1993's Homicide: Life on the Streets.  Based off a popular non-fiction book about the life of NYPD detectives, Homicide features an impressive and varied cast of police officers that deal with the harsh underworld of New York crime in a realistic fashion.  The show used a handheld camera style that made the view feel like they were part of the action, not separated by the fourth wall.  Homicide went on to be the main influence for what many critics consider the quintessential American television show: The Wire.  The Shield, a more modern TV show, took a different route on the gritty and realistic path.  Like Homicide, The Shield showed the world of police officers in a brutal and unrelenting fashion.  However, the show, like most modern dramas, kicked the intrigue and corruption up to eleven, casting most of their characters in the role of anti-hero instead of heroic.  While this is still a fantastic way to represent the grittiness in cop fiction, the murky world of the officers in The Shield felt separate from the viewer, making it seem more like a feature film than a documentary.  Good or bad, this style catapulted The Shield into a feverish immortality in the world of cop shows while Homicide, a marvel in its time, remains largely unnoticed by the current generation of television viewers.

The Comedy

The Past: Police Squad

The Present: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

What's the old phrase?  When you can't make them cry, make 'em laugh?  This is something that television has taken to heart over the years, taking serious subject matter and translating it into something to make the masses stitch their sides over.  The genre of the cop show has not escaped this in the least bit.  Luckily, the transition from dark drama to light-hearted comedy has had many successes in the past and in the present.  From the minds behind the cult classic comedy Airplane came an 80s police comedy simply named Police Squad.  Headed by the incredibly hilarious Leslie Nielsen, Police Squad parodied its gritty, realistic contemporaries from the top down.  Each scene of every episode is full of jokes and gags that take multiple viewings to fully comprehend.  The show only lasted a tragically short six episode seasons, but lived on in the Naked Gun series of films.  Taking a look into modern cop comedy, we find the fledgling workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  Starring many familiar faces, such as Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, and Terry Crews, Brooklyn Nine-Nine stormed the award season, snagging many much coveted comedy awards.  While lacking the heart that made shows like The Office and Parks and Rec such cultural icons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is off to a stunningly good start with a consistent and confident first season.  Samberg off-the-wall antic play perfectly off Braugher's stone-faced comic gold making a show that is both hilarious and genuinely lovable.

The Change of Location

The Past: Miami Vice

The Present: Justified

Most cop shows, including those listed above, are located in the busy, gritty cityscapes of New York, Chicago, or another major metropolis.  This is simply because the setting is filled with ample opportunities for crime, corruption, and overall evil for the cops to combat.  However, this is not the case for all the cop shows that have aired over the years.  Miami Vice is an example that has tremendous success and has invaded pop culture in a tremendous way.  The show takes the tradition buddy cop formula and places their duo in the neon-tinged beaches of South Beach instead of the back alleys of New York City.  The change of scenery catapulted Miami Vice into the mainstream, creating one of the most pervasive and iconic cop shows of all time.  Justified, a show I am quite fond of, took a similar track.  The show takes the big city action and brings to the close knit communities of the Deep South.  Timothy Olyphant plays his role as the main hero as more of a old west sheriff from a John Ford classic, in that his decisions and actions are the only thing that keep the small country towns from erupting into chaos and murder.  It's a show that is instantly engaging and refuses to let go.

The Throwback

The Past: Columbo

The Present: The Good Guys

Everyone throughout all of time has had an obsession with the past.  It is in our nature and nostalgia isn't something that we can just escape.  The producers and writers of television are not different.  Take the detective show Columbo for example.  It aired in a time when, with Magnum and Rockford as contemporaries, the big personality detective was the hit thing.  However, Columbo took a different route, turning the clock back to a time when the crime was the main feature instead of the cop solving it.  The audience of Colombo were shown who committed the crime and how they did it in the opening scenes of every episode.  All there was to do was sit back and watch Columbo find the murderer's fatal flaw in their plan.  It's very entertaining television and has cemented a lifelong love for Peter Falk in me.  A similar show to Colombo, The Good Guys was another quality show that fell victim to the low ratings killer.  Only a season long, The Good Guys took the feel of a classic buddy cop show and applied to a comedy set in modern times, creating one of the most fresh and creative cop shows of the last five years.  While starting on clumsy feet, the show grew in strength and confidence, playing to its strengths such as the strong chemistry between its cast and the out-of-order storytelling.  It's a real example of the magic of television.

The Groundbreaker

The Past: Cagney & Lacey

The Present: True Detective

With how trophic and cliched the cop show genre can be, you an image how hard it can be to break out of the mold that has been set so many years in advance.  However, as most of the shows on this list are proof of, sometimes a cop show can be truly groundbreaking and revolutionary.  The fairly obvious example of this would Cagney and Lacey, the first cop procedural to have two female actors in the leading roles.  Between this fist through the glass ceiling, the show was a killing police drama with a tight cast and memorable writing that has made the names of Cagney and Lacey so recognizable even to people who haven't seen the show.  Similarly, the modern classic of a television show called True Detective has been making waves recently as a moody, atmospheric police drama that places the focus of the show squarely on the dynamic and complex characters of the two lead detectives.  Although only eight episodes long, the first season of True Detective is so well thought out and executed (from the acting to the cinematography to the music choices) that it feels like a truly unique series.  With a totally new cast and setting the next season, True Detective only has room to grow, expand, and become even more of a pop culture phenomenon.  Jump on the train now guys.

Yeah... I watch too much TV...

Thanks for reading though guys!  I hope this blog gave you the itch to watch some boys in blue bust some baddies.  Say that ten times fast...

Rain Dance in Traffic: Radio Makes You Lonely

Hey everyone!

Here is something interesting about music that I have been trying to track and explain for many years now.  Preference is a hard thing to define, especially in music where genres and styles mix, blend, and form completely knew genres all together.  A person that likes blues music will also like jazz, classical, and the standards of rock 'n' roll because all of them share a similar root musicwise.  Of course, no one person on this Earth is that cut and dry about preferences.  We all have guilty pleasures or surprising favorites that seem to defy any sort of previous preference they we have established for ourselves.

This is why, say, making a playlist for a friend of music that you think they will like is such a demanding and complex.  (Note, this is not an excuse for me taking so long to make a playlist for you if I have indeed promised so.  Just so you know, I'm having a killer time doing it!)  Each and every song that you put on that playlist for a friend is colored by not only your own preferences but your own expectation of what your friend will like. Just because I like a song a lot and it fits into a genre that my friend likes does not mean they will enjoy the song.  A number of other things have to be put into consideration, such as lyrical content, complexity of music, and overall talent of the artist.  For certain friends, I put much more stock in the lyrical content of a song before putting it on a playlist than the quality of the guitar playing or the inclusion of a bagpipe in the background of the song.  For other friends, it is exactly the opposite.

A person's preferences also have a lot to with the music they listened to growing up.  Take me for example, both my mom and my dad love James Taylor, Glenn Miller, Garth Brooks, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.  That collection (along with my dad's fondness for Van Halen, Earth Wind and Fire, and Chicago and my mom's love for Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, and every love theme for an 80's romance movie) made quite an impression on me.  To this day, I can't hear Your Smiling Face, Pride and Joy, or September without a wave of proud nostalgia washing over me.  Now, how exactly this translates in the music from NEEDTOBREATHE, The Wonder Years, and Four Years Strong that I enjoy so much is hard to nail down exactly.  But, due to the high value we put on nostalgia these days, I have no doubt my parents' mixtapes played a huge role in defining my Spotify playlists.

So, why does all this word vomit matter anyways?  Well, in my mind, I think all of this is proof that we can't just write off an artist or genre just because we are not fans of the music we hear coming from them.  I know I certainly took a while to get into music like rap, house electronic, and post-hardcore, but each genre has become an important stepping stone to me trying to define and mature my taste in music.  Now, I know most people don't put as much effort into "maturing their musical taste" as I do.  But, look at all that goes into your specific preferences in the music you listen to.  Is it too hard to imagine that a rap song or a country will hit those same targets just as well as your classic rock and your sugary Top 40 radio pop?  The world of music is large, much large than what can be defined by popularity and the radio.  Finding something completely new to listen to is one of most satisfying feelings that I can experience.  I think it's worth you giving it a shot.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Branches and Roots: A Quick Blog About How Much God Loves You

Hey everyone!

Do you know how much God loves me and you?

It's both an easy and a hard question.  It has a simple enough answer but can be hard to really wrap your head around.  Answer: God's love for me and you is tremendous.  Easy, simple.  But how big and how tremendous is his love?  Is it like Ross and Rachel big?  Is it Amy and Rory big?  Is it Wash and Zoe big?

Here is what God has been telling me this weekend about his love.  It is bigger than the human imagination.  Our brains are wired to make connections.  Connections between images and ideas, colors and sound, motion and stillness.  It is in our very nature to attempt to compare the unknown to the known.  And God's love is a big unknown.  Not in the sense that it is hidden from us, but in a way that we don't fully understand it.  So, we try to make a connection to God's love to something terrestrial that we can grasp.  God's love is a father's love or the love of a shepherd towards his flock.  Both are perfectly good and biblical connection we can make to God's love, but don't think for one second that that is where God's love ends.  God himself is holy, separate, and undefinable, so what makes us think that his love is any different.

So let's stop trying to write a seminar in our heads whenever we start thinking about why God loves us.  Isn't it enough that he does?  Can't we rest for twenty minutes in the confidence and peace that being in the loving arms of God provides?  You see, God showed me this week that he doesn't want me to prove that I understand him or his commandments or his love.  He wants he to love him and devote myself to him for what I know about him and have my faith take care of unknowns and the indefinables.  And what I do know about God is simple: he loves you and me more than anything in creation.

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone!

Top Ten: Superhero Sidekicks

Hey everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic Friday.  Here is today's Top Ten list.  To anyone that has ever gotten paper cuts flipping through dozens of comic books, this one is for you!

No one likes to get second best.  Especially someone with powers so incredible that they can be considered, by all accounts, superhuman.  However, the title of sidekick is certainly nothing to scoff at.  The role of sidekick is a doorway that has lead many superpowered teens to becoming vibrant and unique characters that define the comic genre as we know it.  Here are my top ten favorite pint-sized heroes that have have big spandex to fill.

10. Aqualad

I recently watched the Cartoon Network Young Justice television show and was actually quite excited by the show's writing, action, and character development.  I was especially impressed by their treatment of the character of Aqualad.  In the comics, Aqualad was a victim of the "sidekick bandwagon" and became an unimaginative carbon copy of his heroic mentor, Aquaman.  Later on, Aqualad became Tempest and joined the ranks of the Outsiders with fellow former sidekicks Nightwing and Arsenal.  In the show, however, is a prince of Atlantis that forgoes his underwater allegiances in order to serve as the protector of all of the Earth with his fellow Young Justice team members.  He is a dynamic character, powerful leader, and an overall crazy cool hero to watch in action, reminiscent of Cyborg from the Teen Titans television show.

9. Franklin Richards

Sometimes, genetics suck.  Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Susan Richards (that's Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman for you non-geek elite) and, due to his parents' genetic mutations, Franklin was born with incredible psychic powers.  Powers that are beyond anyone's, including his own control.  Under the tutelage of his parents and the entire Fantastic Four, Franklin has honed his dangerous powers and has managed to save the universe on many occasions, including the time he transported the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men into a pocket dimension in order to save them all from the all-powerful Onslaught.  Unstable and constantly time jumping, Franklin is a surprisingly unique character that demonstrates how being a hero means sometimes losing your innocence.

8. Rick Jones

Rick Jones gets some bonus points for being a sidekick to multiple superheroes.  He got his start as one of the Hulk's only friend, who kept Bruce Banner's animalistic side from getting the better of him.  He later joined the Teen Brigade, a group of teenagers that report major crimes to Earth's heroes, and became largely responsible for the formation of the Avengers.  As time went on, Rick became a close confidant of the entire Avengers and eventually partner with Captain America.  He later becomes the hero Captain Mar-Vell and is singlehandedly responsible for ending the Kree-Skrull War and defeating the Supreme Intelligence with his godly powers.  Not bad for a sidekick.

7. Bucky Barnes

Bucky Barnes has been getting a lot of press lately due to the Captain America movie so I feel alright about relaying some of the spoilers that are attached to Bucky's story.  Bucky started his career as Captain America's sidekick during World War II and Bucky's apparent death is what caused Cap to fall into the ocean where he would stay in suspended animation until he was found and joined the Avengers.  Bucky, however, was not death and was instead saved and brainwashed by HYDRA to kill Captain America as the Winter Soldier.  Cap manages to save his former sidekick and Bucky later finds himself having to take up the role of Captain America after Steve Rodgers' death.  Bucky's story is one of redemption that is trademark amongst the Marvel canon.

6. Speedy

Roy Harper, aka Speedy, Red Arrow, and Arsenal, is an unique sidekick not only due to his equal footing with his mentor, Green Arrow, but also because he lived up to his name in more than one sense.  In a ground-breaking comic book arc, Green Arrow discovers that Speedy has become addicted to heroin and begins a long quest to get Roy clean once more.  The story marked a loss of innocence for all the DC teenage sidekicks who were no longer treated as clones of their respective heroes, but as individual and unique characters of their own.  Speedy has also made appearances on the Young Justice and Batman Brave and the Bold television shows, where he holds his own as an awesome sidekick characters.

5. Wonder Girl

Female superheroes are tricky business.  The sex appeal is a major and distracting factor that many comic book fans are unfortunately obsessed with.  So, when crafting a female sidekick for an already strong female superhero, the DC writer went the best route with Wonder Girl, creating a deep, fascinating, and spunky character in Cassie Sandsmark aka Wonder Girl.  Cassie's birth as a hero came out of tragedy as the death of the original Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, destroys the current Young Justice and leaves the door open for the next generation of sidekicks to rise to the occasion.  Cassie stands out from the pack due to a strong and resilient personality and will always stand strong for what she believes in.

4. Kid Flash

The Flash family tree is fairly confusing, and Bart Allen, the son of former Flash Barry Allen from another timeline, is no exception.  Not used to the slow way of life that other humans live, Bart lives life at a hundred miles per hour, earning him the nickname Impulse.  However, after being kneecapped by the mercenary Deathstroke, Impulse decides to mature and reads the entire San Francisco Library in twenty minutes, rechristening himself as Kid Flash.  Bart is one of my favorite sidekicks because of his outlook on life.  He knows that challenges of being an outsider but never lets it interfere with his sense of innocence and wonder at the world of superhuman in which he lives.  He never forgets what it means to be a hero and the proud legacy that he has to live up to.  I have no doubt that Bart will make a great Flash one day.

3. Beast Boy

While known primarily for his comedic antics on the Teen Titans, Gar Logan, aka Beast Boy began his career as a pint-sized sidekick to the Doom Patrol, a ragtag group of misfit heroes.  However, as he has grown and matured, Beast Boy has found his own as a hero in his own right on teams like the Titans and the Ravagers.  That being said, Gar will always be remembered for his animated antics and his multiple green animal forms.  He is an iconic character that is instantly recognizable by many people outside the comic community and for good reason.  Beast Boy will go down in history as one of the best heroes that DC Comics has to offer.

2. Superboy

Genetics still suck.  In a brave departure from the classic Superman tone, Superboy, who goes by the name Kor-El or Conner Kent, was revealed to be not only a clone of Superman but also a clone of Lex Luthor.  So, within Superboy, there is a battle between the most heroic superhero of all time and the most evil supervillain of all time.  This makes for a super interesting dynamic in a comic book character as Conner fights his darker urges and tries to find a way to embrace his heroic heritage.  Luckily, he has some dedicated help from Superman, the Kents, and Robin.  Conner eventually travels to the 31st century where he joins and leads the Legion of Superheroes, becoming the hero that he has always wanted to be.

1. Robin

My choice for my Number One spot is not a surprising, considering that Robin is the most recognizable superhero sidekick of all time.  And that's for several good reasons.  Over the course of Batman's career, he has had several young wards that have taken up the role of Robin.  Dick Grayson grew to become the hero Nightwing, Jason Todd was voted by Batman fans to be brutally killed by the Joker, and Damian Wayne, Bruce's own son, died as well in the role of Robin.  However, my favorite Robin, and the reason why Robin is my favorite sidekick, is Tim Drake.  Tim was able to deduce, at an incredibly young age, the true identities of Batman and Robin, and, after Jason's death, he approached Bruce and asked to become the new Robin in order to prevent Bruce from falling into depression.  For the first time, Tim's Robin became the first version of the character that refused to live in Batman's shadow.  Always trying to be his own hero, Tim is a fantastic character to follow through his days as Robin, all the way to his rechristening as Red Robin, a role he chose to become instead of the next Nightwing.  Even in his appearances in the Teen Titans and Young Justice television shows, Tim retains his status as the best superhero sidekick of all times.

Thanks for letting me indulge by superhero geek side today guys!  It needs to be let out every once in a while or else it gets angry.  And you won't like it when it gets... nevermind...

Screen Time: Leverage

Hey everyone!  Today is Friday so that means it's time for me to talk about a TV show or movie that I believe deserves a little Screen Time.  This week's subject is the TV show Leverage.

Movies and TV shows about heists are very interesting creatures.  They appeal to both sides our nature as viewers and audience members.  On one hand, we are "in the know."  We are on the the side of the team of thieves or con artists that are pulling the heist and know their plans.  We feel smarter than the dim-witted enemies of the team and we become invested in the outcome of the heist.  On the other hand, there is always something we don't know.  The heist team drops hints and things are shown that aren't fully explained at the time.  As an audience, we crave to be fooled and we always wait for the twist at the end that allows the thieves to get away scot free.  It's the reason why we love movies like the Ocean's Eleven trilogy and the reason why the Italian Job has been remade not once but twice in the last ten years.  It is also the reason I can't stop watching Leverage, even after its five season run has come to an end.

The show revolves around former insurance investigator Nate Ford, who, after the insurance company he worked for refused to pay for an experimental procedure that would've saved the life of his son, decides to form a team of thieves to target other greedy corporate tycoons and take them for all they've got.  His team includes Sophie Devereaux, a silver tongued grifter with a long history with Nate, Alec Hardison, a hacker extraordinaire who is in every way the modern geek, Eliot Spencer, a hard-nosed hitter with a heart the size of his fists, and Parker, a quirky thief who is equal parts crazy and lovable.  Together, the Leverage team either search for targets or are hired by client who somehow find out about the services the team offers.  Each episode consists of a drawn out confidence scam that, more likely than not, is spun out of control, forcing the team to use their individual skills and teamwork to pull off the job.

Now, the show itself works with a kind of "case of the week" format in which the team pulls a con or series of cons each episode.  Each season has some sort of loose overarching story arc which become more defined towards the end seasons.  The writing of a TV show is always something I pay particular attention and appreciate.  Leverage's writing ranges from very intelligent to insulting to your intelligent.  Leverage is meant to be a fun summer show, so they take a lot of liberties in the department of suspension of disbelief.  However, if you play along with some of the show's zanier bits (it's not much worse than some of the heist movies that you see coming out theses days), the Leverage team will surprise you with some sharp, fast-paced, and absolutely heart-warming television.  Each of the actors on the show have immense talent and incredible acting range that allows them to pull of a variety of personas during the heists.  The talent of the cast becomes a draw for a regular host of fantastic guest stars including Wil Wheaton, Saul Rubinek, Jeri Ryan, Richard Chamberlain, Tom Skerritt, Mark A. Sheppard, and freaking Adam Baldwin!

However, the one of the best things about the show's concept  is that, while these characters are fighting the Goliaths of the world, none of them are heroes.  Each has flaws that are just as important to their character as their strengths.  Nate used to be working on the side of the law and is called "an honest man" by his team at the beginning of the show.  As the show progresses, the team discovers that, due to alcoholism and a hefty God complex, Nate's role as the Mastermind behind Leverage is a short road to self-destruction.  The formation of a sort of pseudo-family amongst the team is the only thing that keeps Nate from going over the edge.  Both Parker and Eliot are haunted by their pasts.  Parker, an orphan raised by a series of foster parents, is used to working alone and has a hard time connecting with the rest of the team.  Her budding relationship with Hardison is one of the show's sweetest elements.  Eliot has an extensive history as both a solider and a mercenary and keeps many of the deep dark things he has done away from the team.  His past does have a way of catching up with him.  Hardison, under his thick layer of geeky cockiness, has all sorts of confidence issues and develops a sort of master-apprentice relationship with Nate as the show goes on.  Sophie, as an actress and grifter, has had to put on a lot of identities over time and often finds herself lost in her part, even with her friends.  As she opens herself to Nate, she finds that she discovers more of herself.

But, bar none, the thing that always brings me back to Leverage is the cast's absolutely incredible chemistry.  Even without the slick sheen of the heists and the special effects, the dynamic nature of the five principal actors with have you glued to the screen with cheerful enthusiasm for the full 45 minutes of an episode.  Each member of the Leverage team is an iconic and memorable character that will stick with you longer after you stop watching the show.  If anyone has a little time and are willing to do a little internet digging, I employ you to watch the pilot of Leverage and see if anything sticks.  I am obviously a huge fan so you can bet that there will be something that you can enjoy.

Notable Episodes: The Nigerian Job, The Two-Horse Job, The Mile High Job, The 12 Step Job, The First David Job, The Second David Job, The Tap Out Job, The Three Days of the Hunter Job, The Two Live Crew Job, The Bottle Job, The Jailhouse Job, The Studio Job, The Three-Card Monte Job, The Rashomon Job, The Big Bang Job, The Cross My Heart Job, The French Connection Job, The D.B. Cooper Job, The Broken Wing Job, The Rundown Job, The Frame Up Job, The Long Goodbye Job

Thanks for reading!

Once Upon a Blog: Chessmate

Prompt from here: http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/23wc73/wp_the_backstory_of_chess/

(r/WritingPrompts is a great place for some typical and not so typical story ideas if anyone is looking for some.  It is updated all the time and loads of writers are uploading, responding, and commenting all the time, so you can get some nice feedback if comment on popular posts.)

The Backstory of Chess

Abigail tapped the head of the black bishop against the top of the table at a nerve-wrecking pace, and Vince began to wince at every hollow, wooden tap.  He spun the white rook around in his fingers as he narrowed his vision so he could only see the chessboard in front of him.  Only the board.  Not the slowly ticking clock across from him.  Not the worried flicker of Abigail's eye.  And especially not the tiny chess piece that was being repeatedly slammed on the lacquered surface of the table.  He tried to focus on his own pieces on the board instead.  His pawns were mostly useless.  Both his bishop and his knight were, at this point, hopelessly trapped.  Vince had his queen tucked neatly and safely over on the corner of the board where a set of pawns were standing guard in front of it.  The tapping of the bishop bit through Vince's focus once more.

"Abby," said Vince, "Do you have to keep doing that?  You are going to snap that thing in half eventually."

Abigail rolled her eyes.  "I'm just anxious to move, Vince.  You take five minutes to make a decision and we only have until the end of the class period to play."  She dropped the bishop back onto the table and it rolled off to the side of the board.  Watching it roll, Vince was reminded of the move Abigail had made to take the piece from him.  It was a risk on her part and a sacrifice on his.

"Well, you are just going to have to be a little more patience," he replied, "This isn't speed chess and I'm not a grandmaster."

Abigail slumped back in her chair and her eyes stared vaguely in the direction of Vince and the board.

"Has anyone ever told you the backstory of chess?" she asked.

The question struck Vince as odd, especially since he was trying to decide on a move to make.  However, he had lashed out a little bit at Abigail earl[er and, after all, he was losing.  Anything to make her take her mind off the game in front of them.

"No," he said, sighing a little, "No one has."

Abigail straightened a little in her chair.  "Really?  It's kind of interesting."

"Are talking about the origins of chess?  Like the guy who invented it?"

"No, no.  That's dull history lecture stuff.  I'm talking about the story that inspired the guy that invented chess."

Vince reached forward suddenly, picked up a pawn, and moved it a space forward.  Abigail took a moment to analyze his move, her eye darting methodically around the board.  Quickly, as if the prospect of telling her story suddenly animated her every move, Abigail moved her bishop to block the path of Vince's knight which the movement of the pawn had opened up.

Vince furrowed his brow.  Abigail was a smart and patience player, so her quick decision and her sudden silence were particular unnerving.  He reached his hand for his knight, but, after a moment's thought, brought it slowly back to his lap.

"So, what's your story, Abby?" he asked.

Abigail perked up.  "Well, as you might guess, it started out with a king and a queen."

"No kidding," said Vince, picking up his rook and moving it to the right.

"Well, you see," said Abigail, "The king and the queen had a problem.  Their army was not strong enough or large enough to fend of the armies of their enemies.  So they went to a local bishop for help."  She moved her own bishop on the board and slowly slid one of Vince's pawns off of the board.

"Did someone tell you this story or are you making it up as you go along?" asked Vince, moving another pawn to block the approaching bishop.

Abigail shrugged.  "Does it really matter?"

"I guess not."

Abigail paused for a moment to look at the board as it stood.  "The bishop heard the king and queen's request and prayed about it for a day.  The king and queen realized that enemy forces had mobilized during the night and rushed back to the bishop for his advice.  What the bishop told them shock them both."

Vince looked up from the chess board for the first time in a while and saw a certain glow had replaced the boredom in Abigail's eyes.  "What did the bishop say?"

"The bishop said for the king to bring his queen to the frontline of the next battle and she shall win the war for you."  Abigail moved her queen straight from its position of the edge of the board to a square a few spaces away.  After her move, she leaned back once more in her chair and, as she did, Vince leaned forward towards the board.

"I think that's checkmate, Vince."

Tapping the white, wooden piece with a flick of his index finger, Vince watched his king fall off the edge of the board and land near to where his fallen pawn and the tapping bishop lay on their sides.

"I think that's enough chess for today," he said.