Schizophrenics are not the only ones that hear voices, though the voices they hear are more invasive, often more stentorian, and often more detached from reality.  We all hear the voice of reason, and we all hear the voice of temptation.  For a variety of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental reasons, the voice of temptation to drink is much more compelling and persuasive in the alcoholic.  It is, in fact, almost impossible to resist.   It is made strong, not only by generational patterns, but cognitive associations between triggers (such as the loss of a relationship) and the comfort of alcohol as a replacement for the love object that has abandoned and betrayed the "heartbreakee." This most compelling voice is represented in the original Dr BLT song, Halloween with Jim Beam.

Several years have past.  Once again, it is the anniversary of a heartbreak, which happens to coincide with Halloween.  The hauntingly compelling voice in this song is a reminder to the fictional character, in the song's story, of the pain, and the obvious "solution" or remedy, short-lived though it may be. 

Anniversaries such as this, usher in new cognitive sets of associations, built on past memories.   These haunting memories, and the havoc they wreak within his psyche, are complicated by an addiction to alcohol that has been reinforced (and thus rendered resilient to extinction) through repeated mental associations between the traumatic loss (and the concomitant inability to cope), and a "solution" that has led to immediate, but fleeting, and ultimately self-destructive results.  Your mission as a PsychMusicVids production team is to describe through a music video depiction, the cognitive steps that likely led to the song/story character's addiction to Jim Beam.  Is this a simple matter of Pavlov's classical condioning, or is there more going on?  The answer will be revealed in your PsychMusicVid.  Download this, use it with my permission as the sole songwriter and copyright holder, and don't forget to include yourself at the end as PsychMusicVidz Producers:

I hereby grant permission for my students, and Conrad (their PsychMusicVidGuru) to use this song for the purposes noted above.

Halloween with Jim Beam
words and music by Bruce L Thiessen, aka Dr BLT copyright 2010

if October takes over with heartache and pain
if your girl breaks your heart
and it can't be contained
Halloween with Jim Beam
Honky in the dark
and the memories appear
like a ghost from your past
and it can't be contained

chorus:
your house is haunted with memories of
the day she filled it with kisses and hugs
jukebox is playin' some Buck and Jimmy Dean
bar tender pours you another Jim Beam

if October rolls over
it's now been a year
and you still can't contain all your heartache and fear
Halloween with Jim Beam
Halloween with Jim Beam (chorus)