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I'm Nick Kelly, one of many Nick Kellys out there in the world wild web, but I'm the only ME that you'll ever know, and most folx are thankful for that. I'm a musician, a writer, an artist, a motorcycle rider, a hockey fanatic, a horror movie lover, a father, a husband, a son, and an overall lunatic. I've got some good stories so far on this wild ride I've called life and more comin' seemingly everyday, so hang out, pour yourself one up to the brim, and buckle up for safety.
It's going to be a fun ride.
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One of my many hats is that of the Chief Technology Officer for CatKlaw, Inc. We're a small company helping normal people understand technology and build their businesses up using technology for organization, marketing and communication. Sounds pretty dull, right? Actually, it's pretty cool when you can enable a small business owner to be successful and not go work for "the man".We held a training session last week about the Code Adam program from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. This program trains employees on how to handle an incident if a child goes missing on the premises. It's pretty straightforward, but the bottom line is that the employees are looking, not just the concerned parent. That's only one way a company can help keep children safe. Other programs include the Amber Alert system, Missing Children web page gadgets, and the Poster Partner Program. Check out the link for some of these programs HERE.CatKlaw's annual charity event this year is Rev Your Engines, to benefit Stop the Silence. The event will be held on September 20th at Parkway Ford in Woodbridge, VA. Drop me a line or stay tuned here for more information. We're also happy to announce that we are in the initial stages of establishing a nonprofit corporation to assist in the protection, education and training of children. Stay tuned for more on that.Ok, it's off to the new Powerhouse Gym for Mind-Body Fusion class tonight. One Love!nKLabels: Catklaw, Code Adam, NCMEC, Powerhouse, Stop the Silence, Sybir
I can't explain it in detail, but let me tell you this...the upcoming artwork for the Catwalk novels is going to blow you away. Michal, one of my selected artists, has decided on a sort of facelift for Cat that makes him perfectly horrific. I can't wait to unleash him on the public!In the interim, it rests on those of us here at CatKlaw, Inc., to solicit some agents for publication, or to simply self-publish. In the growing digital age, literary publishing is so much like musical publishing, it boggles the mind.Division had our photo shoot for our newest CD, Control Issues, due out over the summer. Check out Mike Gong's amazing work, and then hit our MySpace page to let us know what you think!
Division's first show of 2008 is March 15th @ Jaxx. Click anywhere in this paragraph for a link!One love,nKLabels: Arsis, Division, Jaxx, Mike Gong, nK, Shadowflood, Sybir
Ok, the edits continue, including what I think is the most powerful scene in the first book, Catwalk:Messiah. I had to make a few passes at it. I hope it translates well. Poor Cat, I've made him suffer quite a bit. I'm 25 pages away from the first round of edits being finished, but it will take a few more nights. I've hit the end of my editing ways tonight, and tomorrow night...Cloverfield! Sybir has been awesome throughout, completing her massive daily regime and helpin' me with Pupzilla, who has been fun and tiring over the last few weeks. We had a chance to check out Eddie from Ohio on Saturday night which was fun. It was good to hang with bandmates from JWP.
Speaking of JWP, we'll be back at Bogey's on Feb 2nd. Bring yer dancin shoes! Division continues to record, as we go through more revisions of artwork and photography. Standby for updates on that! Ok, time to go shut down the brain for a bit. Best to everyone and Happy MLK Day!
One Love!
nKLabels: Catwalk, Division, Eddie From Ohio, JWP, nK, Sybir
As I eagerly await my turn at recording my parts for the new Division CD, I'm still pounding away on the classwork and preparing to edit "Catwalk: Messiah" for consistency and adrenaline. I like what I have, but every time I read J. A. Konrath's blog, I feel like I'm in grade school again. The most recent post had me howling.2008 has entered with a bang, and Sybir and I decided on a new tradition for ringing in the new year. Hopefully we can continue it. If I could say more, I would, but this is a family show.Speaking of, I had a chance to write about schools of crime causation for a paper in class. That was a fun week of researching, drafting, editing and re-writing. I wound up handing in a 2000-word piece on Albert Fish. Read the linked article if you want to read about a gross killer and massive sexual deviant. This week is a team paper week, so I'm limited to mentioning Armin Meiwes, the German cannibal, but I take my shots where I can get them."Dexter in the Dark" was a great follow up to "Dearly Devoted Dexter" on my reading list. Now, if Showtime will get to releasing the Season Two DVD, I can get caught up on the show as well as the books.No real goals or resolutions in this post. I've been far too scattered to have that degree of focus. That changes this week, since I have so much to do!One Love,nKLabels: Albert Fish, Armin Meiwes, Catwalk, Dexter, Division, J.A. Konrath, Jeff Lindsay, nK, Sybir
"Don't waste your breath. Don't waste my time. If I hear one more excuse, I'll lose my mind."- Lowen & NavarroThat's good stuff, isn't it? I love powerful lyrics. Friday night was a marathon night with JWP. Sunday night was an impromptu gig with Division. In all, not bad, and I'm glad work was slow enough Monday that I could recover.I love music that holds a message and just sweeps over you like a wave burying a sandcastle. I got hit with one of those from an unlikely source. I was watching Scrubs, Season Two. There's an amazing episode ending including a musical number and a character named Elaine. Those who are familiar will already know where I'm coming from on this. Those who don't, go buy Scrubs from Season One on DVD and start there. You'll like it.Catwalk is up to his helmet in trouble in the third book, "Catwalk: Mercy Killing". Progress is going better than I'd expected. Prostitutes, Russian assassins, political ambitious, arms dealers and more....stay tuned :)Have a great holiday everyone. If you're traveling, stay safe!One Love!nKLabels: Catwalk, Division, JWP, Nick Kelly, nK, Scrubs, Sybir
When I've described Catwalk in the past, I've sometimes said it's part Spider Man, Blade Runner and Akira in one. This past week, I got to dig a little deeper into one of those ingredients.Fans of Blade Runner know that there are several versions, and several possible endings, but the biggest debate usually comes around the presence of Harrison Ford's voiceover track as he plays Deckard. It's either loved or hated in most cases. Regardless of anyone's stance on what it adds or takes away, it's obvious that the studio wanted to create the Film Noir detective flavor to Deckard's character. It's a throwback to the more famous detectives in the past.This week on Sirius satellite radio, the Radio Classics channel (118) had "Detectives Week". That meant an endless marathon of Dragnet, Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Johnny Dollar, Sam Spade, and more. It was so much fun to immerse myself in the old school suspense around Private Investigators and the like. The timing couldn't have been better as I'm sitting down to edit Catwalk:Lineage before taking part in NaNoWriMo to write the third installment of the Catwalk series. (Messiah was written over the past year but hasn't undergone edits yet.)Among the shows I enjoyed was The Saint, featuring Vincent Price as Simon Templar, aka the title character. Price's off-the-cuff delivery to clients, bartenders, cabbies or even villains made for a great visit to some of Catwalk's own sarcastic traits. Fortunately, I get a chance to listen to more of it, thanks to the online stores that sell that material, and Sybir's aunt carrying a similar love for the detective classics.That's it for now. Back to the scalpel and editing Lineage. Don't forget the Bottles and Throttles Event on Oct. 20th.
One Love!nKLabels: Bottles and Throttles, Catwalk, JWP, Sirius, Sybir, Vincent Price
What's the right adjective here....blessed? honored? excited? I don't think there is one, so I'll defer to my usual - revved up. (Thanks to Jim Steinman and Meatloaf)Today was a very interesting day. While dodging the contagious chaos running amok at work, I managed to track down and discover a great number of very cool resources. Some were literally dropped in my lap (thanks Sybir and Lin). Others took a little phenaga....fennnaga....(sigh) others took a little effort.Courtesy of author J.T. Bock, we learned of a search engine where you send a penny to your charity of choice with every search. It's titled GoodSearch. check it out here.Courtesy of the radiant Lin, we learned of several places to virtually volunteer your time! Check out DoSomething.org for info.We also solidified Adopt-a-Highway efforts for both my day job and our own company, CatKlaw. I can't wait.Off to write. One Love!nKLabels: Catklaw, dosomething, goodsearch, jt bock, nK, Sybir
This weekend was awesome. It was an educational mix of good and bad, with plenty of lessons filed inside my spinning skull. First of all, Mike and I stayed after rehearsal on Thursday night to record vocals for Division's upcoming demo. I haven't recorded anything with Division in a few years (despite doing some of my solo stuff). It was fun to see how different things are when you're trying to do it all yourself, rather than have a dedicated engineer. The demo is being mixed now (poor Mike!) and we'll have a few songs on hand in Chicago next weekend at Midwest Metal Anthem. Friday night, Division performed for a sold-out crowd at Jaxx Nightclub (opening for Kamelot). Before we played, Jaxx owner and long-time friend, Jay Nedry, announced the band's induction into the club's Hall of Fame. It was really breathtaking, having been on that stage dozens of times and watching the club stand firm and prosper for the last thirteen years.Sore from the festivities, I wound up knocking about twenty things off of my "take care of the house" list on Saturday. It also meant contacting a potential staging partner for October's Caring for Kids Charity Event for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Much more on that in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.Saturday night, Sybir and I had the night to ourselves and elected to write and research instead of go out. Too bad neither of us is writing an erotica novel at the moment...that research is always so much fun. haha.Sunday was mostly a recovery day, other than the website updates, the networking, chores and another rehearsal. It's back to the work week tomorrow morning, so it's time to get the next piece written to Catwalk:Messiah.Be good out there. One Love!nKLabels: Caring for Kids, Catwalk, Division, Jaxx, nK, Sybir
This afternoon and evening, Sybir, Pup and I trekked up to Hunt Valley, MD to check in on the semi-annual HorrorFind Weekend. This was not the first time Sybir and I have been to that location, having attended a few sci-fi conventions in the past to help sell some of our old works. Thi was, however, Pup's first time at a horror con.For the adults wondering why anyone would take a toddler to a horror convention, save it. He was prepped with a few week's guidance that skulls and brains and fake blood were all just rubber and latex. They weren't any scarier than the punching dummy at Karate class. How did he do? The only time he even looked twice at a "scary" person was when he questioned the Toxic Avenger for wearing a tutu.I got a chance to meet a number of people and drop some Division CD's in the hands of folks who I think we'll partner with in the future. As for the talent there, Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Congo, The Crow, Oz) was absolutely drawn to Pup and embraced him like they'd know one another forever. The local crew filming Women's Studies was very kind. The guys behind the upcoming film, Hatchet, were very engaging, and there were several other actors and actresses who were very sweet to Pup as well.There was a ton of stuff there to help promote the film I've been raving about, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.In the near future, the results will be engaging a lot of these folks either with Division or through Horrorview.com so keep your eyes peeled on results!After that, we hung with my buds Andrew and MB and attended an art exhibition opening down at the Ottobar in Baltimore. The artist is a talented young lady named Erin. If you get a chance to hit Ottobar this week, head upstairs for a sneak peek.One Love!nKLabels: Division, horrorfind, Horrorview, hyperplex, nK, pup, Sybir
I have nothing to sell you.Alright, well, that's a load of chit since I'm a performer and therefore I'm always selling myself out to anyone who will listen, but for this post, I'm putting that on hold. Yes, there are shows coming up. Yes, there is a contest going on. Yes, we're busier than ever with both bands, but tonight isn't about that.Most of you know I'm the father of a positively amazing toddler. Tonight, we decided we would try to expand his knowledge by watching The Safe Side's video titled "Stranger Safety". This film was put together by John Walsh (America's Most Wanted) and Julie Clark (Little Einsteins). It's intended to teach children of dangerous situations and how to react to them. The film includes safety tips, scenarios and a host called the Safe Side Super Chick.My son enjoyed it so much, we watched it twice.What was astounding was not that he found it entertaining. He found it important. At a toddler's age, to differentiate between a Transformer or Lightning McQueen or Dora the Explorer to something that means a great deal outside of simple entertainment on a screen, I found that positively breathtaking.I give all the credit to his mom. ;)Stay safe out there. Plenty more to discuss soon...One Love!nKLabels: John Walsh, nK, Sybir, The Safe Side
That sound like enough stuff to handle at once, well, you know how The Cat likes to roll by now, I hope.First up: Dead Girls. The "Die to Be in a Division Song" contest is rolling along nicely with several very very convincing entries, including a few drownings and a damn convincing corpse. Details are here:
Entries now in for the "Dying To Be In A Division Song?" Contest! Click for Details!After that, let's go to New Songs. The Band is recording demo tracks now for two of our brand new songs, and we'll play 'em for the crowd at Midwest Metal Anthem in Lansing, IL in August. Don't miss out. First new Division chit in THREE YEARS!Aliens? Well, that's a guilty pleasure. As a writer, I love drawing resource material by playing my characters in RPG's. This week, City of Heroes launched Issue 10 (read: expansion pack) where the aliens come back and assault the city. Very cool stuff.Movies? Too funny not to share. My pup and I watched the 1959 debacle, "The Giant Gila Monster" yesterday, invoking fits of laughter from us both. Look for a review at Horrorview.com!Finally, a nod to history. It goes without saying that I respect Bruce Lee, not only as the baddest MF ever to walk the earth, but as a very inspiring philosopher. Sybir and Pup have both recently returned to the Dojo, and with that, I felt a need to open their eyes to the work of the Dragon. Last weekend, "Fists of Fury" was the feature film. This weekend, Jim Kelly, John Saxon and Master Bruce himself will be on display when we sit down to enjoy "Enter the Dragon".Take care out there. See you all soon!One Love,nKLabels: Bruce Lee, Die to be in a Division Song, Division, nK, Sybir
So, this past weekend, we played two shows. One in which everything went horribly wrong, and the other where everything went so amazingly well, it was hard to believe. Special thanks to everyone who came out to Rocks in Richmond on Saturday night and Jaxx in Springfield on Saturday night.There's plenty of talk about it over on the Division official site.While we were in Richmond, some of the Divisionettes got together and took pics for the "Dying to be in a Division song" contest we're running.
Division Announces the "Dying To Be In A Division Song?" Contest! Click for Details!They'll be posted to the gallery soon. Since then, work has been a whirlwind, but I got to the gym today and Sybir walked me through an arm workout developed by the late, legendary Bruce Lee. I'm already feeling it so it's time for some bourbon and the hot tub!One Love!nKLabels: Die to be in a Division Song, Division, Jaxx, nK, Sybir
Not like that kind of "get busy", get yer head outta the gutter!
With my day job in a sales organization, it's end of the quarter which means a huge exhale and maybe a chance to lay low for a bit. We'll see.
JWP is jammin downtown at Asylum tomorrow night at the After Party for the DC Roller Girls. Hit the site for details.
As for Division, well, we're live twice in July, and like I mentioned, our contest launched this week, as well as our virtual street teams. gonna be a blast!Much gratitude to everyone who's responded so quickly, and thanks to DJ Angel on The Cape Radio for helpin us out in the virtual world!
one love!
nK
Labels: Division contest, DJ Angel, JWP, nK, Sybir, The Cape
How do you celebrate the end of an overworked week with way too little sleep? You do something completely off the wall!In this case, Sybir and I designed a contest for Division's summer tour, in one of the oddest twists ever to cross our minds.Short version - We have a song where a guy kills a bunch of women. We're asking Division fans to snap shots of themselves and post them to our gallery in order to become the victims and be immortalized in song.Sybir went so far as to goth out tonight, lay down on our garage floor and go with black hair. In all, we had so much fun branching off from the day to day routine crap. I hope it's a huge success.Details are available at THIS LINK.one lovenKLabels: Division, Hunt, nK, Sybir
Wow, ever have one of those stretches where you felt like you were behind the wheel but not controllin' the car? That's me right now.With Division playing a ton of gigs and recording, and Just Wanna Play really taking off in our gig schedule, the hours I have outside of work are disappearing. Work has picked up considerably too, with a new product set and an expanded territory. I really dig what I do, and I think the company is moving towards a landscape-changing time with the upcoming Endpoint Protection product.Our son is still the same full-throttle little dude he always is, and he's so much fun. Tonight was Spongebob, baseball, Thomas the Tank Engine, Freak Kitchen and Tim Easton. Whew! After what Sybir had me doin' at the gym (not THAT!), it's hot tub time. God bless the Ghost of Jack Daniel.Anyway, Saturday, JWP hits the stage at the Big Boy Toy Show in Fredericksburg. Come on down if you wanna check out cars, boats, chicken wings and good music.One Love!nKLabels: Big Boy Toy Show, Division, JWP, Sybir
Danny, Cheyanne, Ray and I just wrapped up a great gig at the Family Festival at Chevy Chase Elementary School. We played nice radio edits of a number of our tunes we crank out in Just Wanna Play. Obviously, stuff like "I Touch Myself", "Crazy Bitch" and "Suck My Kiss" were withheld from the set list!Three more gigs this month...Division cranks it out with Doro Pesch, Chris Caffery and Joey Belladonna on Sunday, June 10th. JWP is out on the 16th at Happy Endings in Fredericksburg, and then the 30th at Asylum in DC with our babies, the DC Roller Girls!Saturday night, the Cat is loose! Join me with Sybir and Mijo at the DC Sportbike Riders' 5th Anniversary Party in Oxen Hill, MD. It's gonna be reeeeeeeediculous!One love!nKLabels: dc roller girls, DCSR, Doro, JWP, Sybir
Tonight involved so much developmental training, it's absurd. I took a broader view of the latest Catwalk writing project and decided I needed more structure. As a result, I went and wrote out a more defined outline of Catwalk:Messiah.In addition, I watched a film regarding demons and the supernatural. "Fallen Angels" by Jeff Thomas was pretty good! I was surprised by how many industy vets showed up in that film.Anyway, back to work after a great weekend in the company of Sybir. See you this week!One Love!nKLabels: Catwalk, fallen angels, Sybir
Sometimes, timing is everything.I finally listened to Mike and Malena and agreed to go see an act I've long put off seeing, for the stupid, selfish and readily available excuses most people put off things. Daily routine, tiredness, business, blah blah blah-ness, whatever. Tonight, I am very glad I didn't let one of those little things get in the way of leaving the house.Sybir and I joined M&M to watch Lowen & Navarro perform a captivating set live at The Birchmere in Shirlington, VA. For those who don't know, this duo wrote the Pat Benatar hit, "We Belong", which has recently resurfaced in The Office, Talladega Nights, and other places. The other amazing thing to understand about the band is that Eric Lowen suffers...no, not quite...has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).We watched a wheelchair-stricken man and his writing partner perform uplifting and heart-touching material for one of the rawest emotional concerts I've ever attended. I think we all, honestly, were grateful for the chance to see this show.The ALS Association's Advocacy Day and public press conference this year take place on May 14-16th in Washington, DC.Next time you let something little get in your way from accomplishing a big thing, don't.One Love,nKLabels: ALS, Lowen and Navarro, Malena, Sybir
Ok, day three of being sick and hobbling. Let's see, for all those folks who marvel at the pace at which Sybir and I manage to keep going. Yesterday: Up at 6 am, Cardio. Showered, Shaved, got all my stuff together, went to work (which was just more getting accustomed to the new role), drove home. Pup and I switched out the solar lights for eight new ones, mulched some of the front yard, ran the sprinkler. Got him in, gave him a bath, he sacked out in the truck during a little drive intended to do just that. Got back home, hit the hot tub, drank some Jack, wrote just about another thousand words in Catwalk:Messiah, imaged a desktop to do a restore, watched a 38 minute training video, rapped at a few friends, and set up everything for work today.Can't wait till I'm healthy again.Don't forget - June 10th: Division @ Jaxx with Doro and Belladonna
August 17th: Division @ Jaxx with Kamelotget yer tix from us by hitting the link above.One Love!nKLabels: Division, Doro, Kamelot, Sybir
To say it's been an eventful night would be the equivalent of saying the Jim Jones mass suicide was "kinda upsetting". In the past ten days, I've had my day job change 180 degreees, my wife really dive deeply into her new role, our Motorcycle Club potentially double in size, my favorite team bounced from the playoffs, and my son prepare for pre-shcool. That's quite a deep-dish pizza, my devoted friends.Sybir swapped my schedule, leading to some cardio at 6:30 this morning, which should set the tone for this post. She's awesome, and the camo pants are just a tempting little finger drawing me to go to bed early. JWP finished another gig at Happy Endings this weekend, having an absolute blast while eating the fact that we played on the first gorgeous day of summer.Meanwhile, Division continues to work on selling tix to our next gig, June 10th with Doro. Old school metal heads will not want to miss out on this gig with the former vocalist from Warlock!Other than that, the edits continue for Catwalk: Messiah. Stand by for more free samples on the writing page!one love!nKLabels: Catwalk, Division, Doro, JWP, Lou-Evil Psycles, Sybir
Ok, on the briefest of breaks from workin on Catwalk:Messiah. I'm over 18000 words already, and that's after hacking...or as Joe Konrath or Sybir would say...editing...a few scenes.I'm solidifying a few scenes and the techniques that come into building them. I'm excited about how much the story is writing itself as well as guiding me to put some cohensiveness to what I have so far.On the music front, a three-plus hour rehearsal tonight puts Just Wanna Play in a prime position for our gig Saturday night at Happy Endings! Come on out and support us.Other than that, Vegas was a blast, including clubbing with David Hasselhoff, meeting Penn and Teller, and drinking more than a normal human's share. Now that I'm home, it's back to focus on education and safety for the kids, and community work while JWP works up to more regular gigs and Division finishes the touches on the next CD.I also had the chance to meet author Chris Gardiner, whose book, The Pursuit of Happyness, was recently adapted to movie form, starring Will Smith. It's an amazing story, worth a long, hard look from anyone who grew up without a parent.One Love!nKLabels: Division, Happy Endings, Happyness, JWP, Sybir
Okay, where to begin? Let's start with Saturday. Once Comcast decided it was okay for us to have internet connectivity again, I managed to get a few things done. Just Wanna Play had a gig at our little hole in the wall, guaranteed good time of a place, Happy Endings, in Fredericksburg. We had some technical difficulties, breaking a power amp, a tuner, a guitar string, a door handle and a light fixture within two hours. Happy St. Patty's Day!Sybir is now a Doctor, having her dissertation approved. Wow. I'm as proud as it gets!Horrorview is chugging along. If you haven't checked it out, Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon had it's theatrical release this weekend. Totally worth checkin out!Division rehearsed tonight after another two hour JWP rehearsal. Division's hitting the stage again in June. JWP is in downtown DC in two weeks at the RNR. Don't miss it!Ok, back to the day job bright and early tomorrow, so sweet dreams all! Lata!One Love!nKLabels: Division, Horrorview, JWP, Sybir
Sybir and I decided that we had to go to the movies. We simply haven't gone but once since Pup blessed our lives with his presence, so we got a new babysitter, explained it to him a week ago and off we went. The plan was just to see something that had some buzz, suspend disbelief for two hours, and just enjoy the night out.We hit our local Hard Times (try the Inferno Chicken Samich, btw) and ran into Division guitarist Mike Blevins and his lovely wife Malena and their cool chicklet daughter. That makes four or five nights a week Mike and I have seen each other in the past three weeks...ugh.Anyway, we decided on Eragon, but when we hit the theaters...no such luck. Sold Out. So we went with plan B....Rocky Balboa.I know Sybir liked the film. She's a big big fan of the original. I really enjoyed it. Being a Philly kid, there was enough nostalgia in the flick that I spent half of it remembering my own childhood in the City of Brotherly Love. The casting was perfect; both Marie and Robert could come right from the Irish side of my family. Paulie is Paulie, and there are some great flashback shots. What's a Rocky flick without a little Mick, right?Anyway, it was better than expected; no self-congratulatory Hollywood crap a la Ocean's Twelve, and no overblown effects or supernatural junk. It was much simpler and more personable than the Rocky franchise got with the third, fourth and fifth movies. Stallone portrays (and writes) Rocky as the same awkward hero he was when he first hit the screen in the 70's. I'd recommend it.That's it for now. Off to play a little Drunken City of Soft Core Heroes. Ok, it's really City of Heroes, but the characters can't be ugly and by midnight on a Friday 80% of the player base is hammered. Should be fun. Go Bolts!One Love!nKLabels: Division, Rocky, Sybir
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