Not So Different

Not So Different: Building a Mythology, The Vampire Slayer Way

By Mike Chin on October 1, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

From the late-1990s to the early-2000s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer developed a remarkably devoted collection of fans. But what made the show so appealing to this sizeable, but still niche audience? Was it just the attractive cast of actors? Or the vampire chic? Or Joss Whedon’s clever ear for dialogue? Or the youth television movement that had the show sharing television blocks with the likes of other teen favorites like Dawson’s Creek and Felicity?

Not So Different: Like The Dark Knight, Be the Hero A Cappella Deserves

By Mike Chin on July 16, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us. In honor of its sequel’s much-anticipated release next weekend, in this edition we take a look at what you’re a cappella group can learn from The Dark Knight.

In the iconic closing moments of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Jim Gordon labels Batman “the hero Gotham deserves, but not one it needs right now.” In so doing, the character encapsulates Nolan’s vision of the super hero in an era when society refuses to cheer any one idol, and an era in which rallying against an idea or an entity is a surer route to unity than gathering support in favor of anything will ever be.

And what of Batman? Is he still a hero if people fear him, hunt him, and curse his name?

While interpretations may vary, my read on this imagining of Batman is that he is a hero if for no greater reason than because he perseveres and gives a city what it wants and needs with no regard for what he, himself deserves.

Collegiate a cappella has seen its share of dark knights.

Not So Different: Like Barack Obama, let others be a part of your success story

By Mike Chin on May 7, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

Leading up to the 2008 US presidential election, Barack Obama cultivated a political fervor like few presidential candidates in American history have ever provoked from the general public. Sure, you can attribute some of this to his skillful rhetoric about change and personal responsibility, and sure you can attribute it some of it to the color of the man’s skin, and his background. But I would argue Obama’s greatest tool in gathering popular support was the way in which he made others feel like a part of his success.

Consider what was, perhaps, Obama’s greatest catch slogan: “Yes we can.” Yes, we can—not I can; that’s an important message about the president as not just a leader, but a facilitator for democracy. It’s the kind of philosophy that lent individuals attachment to the Obama campaign, not just as the candidate whose platform best represented their interests, but as a man in whom they felt personal investment.

Not So Different: The Wire made us confront our fears. How is your group doing the same?

By Mike Chin on April 9, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

HBO’s The Wire stood out as one of the great television shows of the 2000s. The show stood in stark contrast to other HBO success stories. It lacked the Mafioso chic or familial core of The Sopranos. It didn’t have the escapist quality of a show like Entourage. It didn’t indulge a particular gender audience like Sex & the City.

What The Wire did deliver was grim, frank reality. The show cast a critical lens on organized crime, law enforcement, the drug trade, the education system, the media and more. All the while it balanced social consciousness with a perspicacious eye for painting unique, individual, and profoundly flawed characters.

Not So Different: Make like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Turn the Volume Up

By Mike Chin on March 29, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

Whether you love professional wrestling or hate it, the odds are you have at least a passing familiarity with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. You know, the bald guy with black t-shirts who ran around beating people up through the late 1990s and early 2000s? The six-time world champion?

The thing that a lot of casual fans don’t realize about Austin, one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, is that he didn’t always play the same character, and wasn’t always a huge success. He had humble beginnings in the dying days of Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling, before moving on the World Championship Wrestling, where “Stunning” Steve Austin was half of the pretty-boy Hollywood Blonds tag team. From there, he got fired via FedEx, as a reflection of what his bosses perceived as limited potential.

Not So Different: Watch Closely; Lessons from Mockingjay

By Mike Chin on March 23, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

In this special, three-part series, we are working through the The Hunger Games trilogy, book by book, to discuss the lessons each book can teach a cappella groups. If you haven’t read the books before, beware—THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES INCLUDES SPOILERS.

In the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, we learn the value of playing by our own rules. In the second book, we learn that there are no happy endings. The third book, Mockingjay teaches us what just might be most important lesson of all: watch closely.

Not So Different: There Are No Happily Ever Afters; Lessons from Catching Fire

By Mike Chin on March 22, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

In this special, three-part series, we are working through the The Hunger Games trilogy, book by book, to discuss the lessons each book can teach a cappella groups. If you haven’t read the books before, beware—THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES INCLUDES SPOILERS.

You would think that surviving The Hunger Games would offer you some time for joyous celebration, or at least quiet reflection before you launch into your next challenge. The end of The Hunger Games, the first book in the trilogy, assures us this won’t be the case for Katniss Everdeen, who, hot on the heels of her experience in the arena, inadvertently opens a huge rift with ally/maybe-love-interest Peeta on the trip back home.

When Catching Fire picks up the story, the stakes are all the higher. President Snow visits our heroine to let her know he doesn’t appreciate her manipulating the end of the Games, and that if she doesn’t quell every doubt he has about her by the end of her victory tour, then there will be severe consequences. Subsequently, Snow cracks down on Katniss’s district with harsh new law enforcement and a re-electrified fence. Then he throws Katniss into her second Hunger Games—a sadistic tournament of champions that leaves her downtrodden enough to not even hope for her own survival, but rather to dedicate herself to protecting Peeta.

Not So Different: Play By Your Own Rules, Lessons from The Hunger Games

By Mike Chin on March 21, 2012 in Not So Different

Life is full of lessons to be learned. When we’re thinking about how to best lead, promote, sing, or otherwise operate within the context of an a cappella group, it’s worth looking beyond the realm of a cappella itself to what other walks of life can teach us.

In this special, three-part series, we are working through the The Hunger Games trilogy, book by book, to discuss the lessons each book can teach a cappella groups. If you haven’t read the books before, beware—THIS SERIES OF ARTICLES INCLUDES SPOILERS.

In The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins introduces readers to a cold, dark world in which districts submit their children to a lottery, out of which the chosen ones will fight to death while their families and friends look on.

The purpose of these “games?” To prove the absolute power of the people who run them.

Indeed the, concept of The Hunger Games may seem alien to plenty of readers, but in an age of progressively more ludicrous reality TV concepts, is it really so far-fetched to imagine a snuff show?

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