“Wheel in the sky”

I can’t help but notice that Journey’s extended farewell tour is coming to Chicago in October. Even though there’s only one original member left, and two members from their most successful lineup.

Seeing the ads reminded me of the only time I saw Journey live. They were performing in Oklahoma City in support of Frontiers, and a friend of mine was able to get tickets for one of the three sold-out shows. The seats were in the nosebleed section off to the side of the stage. Fortunately, there were projection screens and a camera crew that allowed us to see what was going on, if we weren’t fortunate enough to be on the floor.

Looking back, the show was arena rock at its peak. Singer Steve Perry knew how to work the crowd. No one protested whenever he asked the crowd to sing the next verse. Not that he needed the audience to sing along. His voice was in full form that night. The set list was packed with the hits. The band seemed to effortlessly move from high-energy songs to moving ballads. For teenage me, this wasn’t just a concert, it was an event.

Turns out, that was the last tour with the lineup that recorded Escape and Frontiers. The drummer and bassist were fired during the recording of Raised on Radio. Steve Perry left the band after that tour. Since I didn’t go to many shows as a teenager, I was fortunate enough to see them at their commercial peak.

Since then, I’ve diversified my tastes in musical genres. After college, I got drawn into the “Alternative” music scene and wrote about it for a zine and a twice-a-month publication. I would have been called a poser if I’d mentioned enjoying a Journey concert. But now, I can listen to and enjoy any kind of music.

Journey wasn’t innovative as the performers I would hear later in life. But for an arena rock band, they were excellent. I don’t know about the current incarnation, but I don’t need to see them in concert again. I’m happy with the memories I already have.

This performance of “Wheel in the Sky”  is from their Escape tour in 1981. It seemed like an appropriate song while to reminisce about the band.

Jerusalem Day in 2026

Rabbi Adam Chalom of Kol Hadash Humanistic Congregation reflected on Jerusalem Day 2026 and the consequences of the Six Day War. I learned that before the invasion, there was a neighborhood next to the Western Wall. After the invasion, the neighborhood was torn down to make room for a plaza for visitors to the Western Wall. Sadly, tearing down homes in the West Bank is still a recurring pattern after 60 years.

Note: I serve on the board of Kol Hadash.

Bolingbrook PR firm tries to counter Iran’s AI Lego videos (Fiction)

A still from an AI Lego video produced in Iran. In the video, a US pilot shot down in Iran is being chased by Iranian officials.

A still from one of Iran’s AI Lego videos. (From Explosive Media)

Inside Bolingbrook’s Barber’s Corners Media, six Muslims, three men and three women, were in a focus group to judge a proposed social media campaign. The owner of the firm, Charlene Spencer, introduced herself, asked for honest opinions, then started then started playing a video.

The Claymation-style video opened with a woman, wearing an Iranian flag headscarf, standing in the middle of the bombed ruins of Tehran. The woman cries clay tears and says she lost because Iran’s leaders are dead. Suddenly, two female soldiers, US Army and Israeli Defense Forces, parachute from the sky and land next to the woman. The panelists’ jaws drop as the IDF soldier puts her arm around the Iranian woman’s shoulders. The IDF soldier says she’s here to lead Iran towards freedom and points towards a pillar of light. A hip-hop-style song starts, and the Prophet Muhammad appears, wearing gold chains and leather clothes. The hip-hop Muhammad starts rapping his praise for President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The panelists erupted in anger.

“You can’t show an image of the Prophet!” One of the panelists shouts.

“Why?” Spencer asked.

“Koran Chapter 21, verses 52-54! Images of the divine lead to idolatry!”

“We’re not asking you to worship this video,” Spencer responded. “We’re just trying to improve Bibi’s and Trump’s reputations in Iran.” The panelists screamed in disgust. “So rapper Muhammad doesn’t work. What if we replaced the Prophet with the ghost of the Shah? He could perform ‘Guess Who’s Back’?”

The panelists left the conference room in disgust.

“Don’t forget your coupons for a free meal at Naf Naf Grill!” Spencer yelled down the hallway. One of the panelists shouted an unprintable comment about Zionism as she left. Spencer shook her head. “This is much harder than we anticipated.”

Barber’s Corner Media is one of several covert social media firms attempting to counter Iran’s AI Lego propaganda videos with pro-US and Israel videos. To date, none of their videos have resonated with test audiences. Other firms have tried making their own AI Lego videos, AI-generated vertical dramas, and cartoon animation. While Spencer respected Explosive Media, the group behind the videos, for “making a murderous theocracy look cool to Western progressives,“ she insists BCM is on the right track with their Claymation-style videos.

“If Claymation can make dehydrated grapes cool, it can make Trump’s aggressive ceasefire look cool too!”

In a focus group of progressive influencers, Spencer showed a video of thousands of Claymation protesters being executed by the Iranian government. Spencer then asked if the video would make them more likely to support Trump’s “Not a war war” against Iran and the US’s blockade of the Iranian ports.

User Southernpunk on Substack said, “There’s no truth in your video, while there’s a truth trapped inside the AI Lego video. Just like the truth of (the University of Oklahoma’s) awesome football team is trapped inside Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium, and if you’ve ever read the Daily Oklahoman, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“What?” asked Spencer.

“You should join us on the porch, where we talk about these things without the tomfoolery of the Epstein Class keeping our noses buried in the red dirt. And if you’ve ever put your nose in red dirt, you’ll know what I mean.”

Political influencer Andra Berghoff nodded and pointed at the ceiling.

“What are you pointing at?” Spencer asked.

Berghoff replied, “Oh, I just do that whenever I’m listening to someone I agree with. It’s a habit I developed from inserting myself into other people’s clips.”

Berghoff later said she wasn’t persuaded by Spencer’s video. Specifically, she found fault in the argument that Iran should be bombed because it is a theocracy. “Just because Iran is bad doesn’t give us the right to bomb them. All men on the Internet are bad, but I don’t think we should bomb all of them.”

Reporter/Commentator Aaron Parnas added, “We have breaking news. The problem with your videos is that the producers don’t seem to understand Iranian society. Say what you will about Iran, but Explosive Media understands the fault lines of our US society and knows how to exploit them. What are the fault lines in Iranian society? Do you know who their controversial celebrities are? Do you even know how many political parties Iran has? Until your company does basic research, your videos will just be offensive and unpersuasive. Spread the word and follow along for all the latest news.”

Spencer rolled her eyes. “When did I get old?”

Also in the Bolingbrook Babbler:

Richard Dawkins flirts with Brookie, Bolingbrook’s chatbot
Clow UFO Base ban betting on Starship launches
Editorial: Epstein files a distraction from Trump’s authoritarian takeover of USA
God to smite Bolingbrook on 5/13/26

 

Two of my books are on sale!

Two of my books are on sale for $0.99 each until the end of May: A Fire in the Shadows and The Rift.

They’re both part of my Bolingbrook Babbler Stories series, an Urban Fantasy series with an ensemble of main characters. Think of them as taking place in an alternate universe from the web stories I post here.

Cover of A Fire in the Shadows by William Brinkman

A Fire in the Shadows

Lydia, a vampire who regains her empathy and compassion, is the main character in A Fire in the Shadows. Hunted by traditionalist vampires, ridiculed by her blood family for her feelings, and required to hide from human society, Lydia desperately seeks someone to love and end her loneliness. When she turns her attention to towards Sara, the editor of Babbler, she thinks she’s found the perfect person. But another group of vampires is interested in Sara. Can Lydia protect Sara and overcome a vampire’s greatest enemy: Love?

Action-packed, entertaining, and haunting in its delivery, author William Brinkman’s “A Fire in the Shadows” is a great entry into the Bolingbrook Babbler Story series (Goodreads Reviewer)

The Rift is Elevatorgate with an Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi twist. Tom Larsen is a skeptic blogger who sees himself as a defender of truth against the

The Rift

feminist invasion of the skeptical movement. When he finds out that his rival, Jamie Kyle will be in Bolingbrook to address a gathering of feminist skeptics, Tom forms an unholy alliance with the Bolingbrook Babbler tabloid to infiltrate the gathering.

But when he discovers that the Babbler’s stories about monsters and aliens are real, his world view is shattered. The truth Tom thought he was fighting for is no longer clear. Jamie might not be the enemy after all. The skeptical movement he devoted himself to has a hidden agenda for the future of humanity.

And the rift in the skeptical movement that Tom helped start, could tear Bolingbrook apart. Can Tom face the unbelievable truth and save his hometown?

Four stars. Engaging and well written. (Nonstop Reader)

If you want to catch up before reading my latest book, Revenge of the Phantom Press, this month is a good time to get the eBook editions of The Rift and A Fire in the Shadows.  Plus, Lydia and Tom will get together in the next book.

A reminder there is no arc

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

–Martin Luther King Jr.

On this MLK day, with many people questioning whether Trump will deploy the 11th Airborne Division to Minnesota or Greenland, I’m reminded that the universe has no moral arc, let alone one that bends towards justice. In the United States, progress always faces pushback. Reconstruction was followed by Jim Crow laws. Gay marriage was followed by the demonization of transpeople. DEI was replaced by an unspoken push to prioritize white men, regardless of competency.

Moving towards a society that values justice and equitable outcomes requires constant work, and knowing that any gains can be taken away. If we want an arc bending towards justice, we have to make it ourselves. The universe won’t bend it for us, and there are people working to create an arc bending towards injustice that benefits only a few.

Hopefully, I’ll live to see a day when the United States moves towards the light instead of the darkness. In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to make that happen.

 

DIA? DPA? MiB? GiG? What’s the difference? (Book update)

Less than two weeks to go until the release of Revenge of the Phantom Press: A Bolingbrook Babbler Story. You can place your preorder now at Amazon, Kobo, or most book retailers. (The link will take you to a list of retailer offering the book.)

Revenge of the Phantom Press book cover

Revenge of the Phantom Press

In the setting, Bolingbrook appears to be an ordinary Chicagoland suburb. However, it’s home to the world’s largest urban UFO base, Clow UFO Base, and has an active paranormal population. So how does the village protect the residents and keep all of their paranormal activity a secret?

The three covert departments:

Bolingbrook, in this setting, has three covert departments managing the aliens and paranormal beings within the village.

  • The Department of Interstellar Affairs (DIA): The department manages Clow UFO Base and manages all alien activity within Bolingbrook. From catering VIPs to riot control, the DIA has effortlessly managed alien affairs since its creation in 1965.
  • The Department of Paranormal Affairs (DPA): The DPA is the youngest covert department. Founded in 1986, it replaced the Illuminati knights who used to protect Bolingbrook from paranormal threats. The DPA keeps the peace through its extensive surveillance network and specialized strike teams. Though capable of violence, it also manages the village’s diplomatic relations with the local weredeer, as well as the vampires who claim Bolingbrook as their territory. The department has been run by Steve Petersen since its founding. Being a personal friend of Mayor Robert Clark, his position is secure.
  • The Restoration Department (Clean up Crew): Both the DIA and DPA rely on the Restoration department to clean up any evidence of alien or paranormal activity. For decades, they’ve restored houses and cleaned up after paranormal conflicts. Some would argue that they’re the main reason no one believes the local tabloid, the Bolingbrook Babbler.

The enforcers and the spies(?)

  • The Men in Blue: Since the 1970s, the men in blue have supported the covert departments. The clones’ superhuman strength makes them invaluable against violent monsters. Their ability to alter memories has contributed to countless successful coverup operations. As the name suggests, they wear blue clothing and blue-tinted sunglasses. They only speak when altering someone’s memory. They communicate through a telepathic link with each other. High-level officials and the mayor have special implants that allow them to communicate with the MiB. Like the original Men in Black, they are not as cool as Hollywood would have you believe.
  • If the men in blue stand out like the blue sky, the girls in green blend into the background like stalks of corn or blades of grass. Other than providing information to the covert departments, very little is known about them. Are they clones, like the men in blue? Are they fae who have lived in the area for centuries? Something else? Many reporters at the Babbler have tried and failed to uncover their secrets. Their ability to blend into the background has thwarted efforts to photograph them. Those who have seen them say they wear green clothing, but they can never recall their faces. If anyone knows the truth about the girls in green, they aren’t talking.

This is how things stand at the beginning of Revenge of the Phantom Press. Does anything change? Preorder the novel so can you find out January 31.

(I know this set up of covert departments wouldn’t work in real life, but it’s fun to imagine.)

“It doesn’t have to be…”

“But, be careful out there. It’s a dark world out there.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Lydia replied.

“But it is.”

— From my work in progress, A Fire to Heal

Bébé Mélange has a fun post about a mechanic from the old Vampire: The Masquerade game and assigns ratings to the members of FtB. As a former contributor to White Wolf Studios and former LARP player, I got a laugh out of it.

The post also reminded me of one of the reasons I created the vampire character Lydia (currently featured in A Fire in the Shadows). In V:TM, characters are fighting a losing battle to hold on to their humanity before giving into the “ beast.” Once unthinkable acts, like drinking someone’s blood or even murder, are rationalized because they’re trying to hold back the vicious , mindless beast within that’s fighting for control. The Riddle, as these vampires call it, is, “Monsters we are, lest monsters we become.” It’s an understandable theme for the World of Darkness setting.

But what if the descent wasn’t inevitable? What if it was a rationalization of the growing immoral behavior? If there were vampires that regained their humanity, how would the traditionalist vampires react? 

In my setting, the metaphor for this descent is fire. Becoming a vampire is like setting your soul on fire. The flames release a vampire’s power, but the flames also consume their humanity. A vampire regaining their humanity is like a fire with blood flowing through it. It’s not possible. 

Lydia is one of the vampires with blood in their fire. She’s regained her ability to feel love and has empathy for others. Even to the point of risking her existence to save someone. The traditionalists consider her an abomination, like a fire with blood. And traditionalists don’t let abominations exist.

As a result, Lydia doesn’t fit in.  Despite her inner humanity, she’s still a vampire. She exists on the fringes of vampiric society, but even her blood family doesn’t understand what she’s going through.

A Fire in the Shadows introduces vampires into the world of the Bolingbrook Babbler books. There will be two more books with Lydia which provide more details into vampiric society and how Lydia deals with her outsider status.

Getting back to V:TM, when I was a member of White Wolf’s official LARP, I tried playing a character who was part of the inhumane faction of vampires called the Sabbat. Sometimes the storytelling staff would remind us that we’re roleplaying the World of Darkness, not the World of Insufficient Light. Today, I’m happy to say that the Babbler books are set in the World of Insufficient Light. Because there’s still hope in this world, and even monsters can rediscover their humanity.

I don’t recall a declaration of war…(Non-fiction)

Nothing like waking up to discover that the US staged a coup in Venezuela, and it didn’t even install María Corina Machado as the new President. Instead, The US will be running the country for now, and the oil companies will take control of Venezuela’s oil.

This was done without a declaration of war, let alone a vote authorizing the use of force. It’s illegal, but I doubt that any impeachment resolution will make it to the floor of the House, assuming one is ever drafted. If Trump can get away from this, who knows what else he’ll try both here and abroad.

What happened today was one corrupt leader seizing resources from another corrupt leader. A select few will profit from this. Most Venezuelans may get a few crumbs, at the cost of their independence. This is not a victory for them.

Nicolás Maduro and Trump are both corrupt men. The only difference between them is that Trump has a better military than Maduro’s. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Update: 13:57 Central. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez addressed the country and said Venezuela would be, “nobody’s slave and nobody’s colony.”  She hasn’t surrendered.