Father And Son Comic Book Day

My son turns seven at the end of the month so I thought it was about time to introduce him to the time honored tradition known as the comic book shop. He loves to read (takes after me) and he loves superhero movies like The Avengers and Spiderman so it seemed like a foregone conclusion that I should help to facilitate the connection for him. So off we went to The Comic Empire located here in Tulsa. We found a few cheap Marvel ones and a Sonic The Hedgehog and another whose name escapes me at the moment. We were just looking for something to get him started. I got The Walking Dead volume 19 as well as a few Judge Dredd issues from the 80s.

Truthfully I am out of my depth with comics. I read them a lot when I was a kid but that was a long time ago. A really long time ago. In the last five years or so I have gone to the library and read The Walking Dead volumes 1-18 and whatever they have by Kevin Smith. Tulsa County has a really good library system. I'll have to take my time getting back into this because I need to educate myself. Collecting comics isn't really something I'm interested in doing. I only want to acquire stuff that I'll  to read multiple times, basically I'll just like I do with books.

I did also have an ulterior motive to going to the comic book store. I've had a story idea running around in my head for a while now and at first I thought of writing it as a movie script but lately I've been entertaining the idea of making it a comic book. Problem is, I don't know any artists that have experience and/or interest in doing something like this. I had a good conversation with the owner of the store and found out from him that while there seems to be a lot of writers in this area there is also a dearth of artists. Still, I think it's a good idea and I'm going to try and see where it can take me. At the very least I can gain some knowledge about the whole process. Maybe the next time I get to go to Peru I can find some artists there because that's where this story will take place.

Afterwards we ended up going to the movie theater to see what was showing. As it turns out Captain America: The Winter Soldier just came out yesterday so we ended up spending way too much money to see it in 3D. I will say however that the seats at the AMC theater were pretty awesome even though we were in the front row. Basically it's rows of recliners attached to each other so it's like watching the movie with the comforts of home (and a lot more people). We had a pretty good time to say the least. Then it was off to get something to eat where my son could play and I could use free wi-fi to write this. All in all it was a pretty good time for a father/son hang out day. Every time we have one I try to do something different, the last time was laser tag and with summer coming I foresee more outdoor types of things.

However I also get the idea that going to the comic book store will be something that we'll be sharing fairly regularly. Some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking from the 9th street projects in Ironton, Ohio to the downtown bookstore where I could buy and trade comics. It was a more innocent (some might say ignorant) period in my life. Those days can never come back but I can take every opportunity to make this time in my sons life as good as it can get. Making these trips to the hallowed ground of the local comic book store is one of the best ways to do that that I can think of. Who knows, maybe later in the summer I'll also actually be able to make the pilgrimage to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, NJ. A boy can dream can't he?

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

notmovingpictures Episode 14: End Of The Year But Not The End Of Time

I had time to sneak in one more episode of notmovingpictures so get your podcast listening ears on and give it a whirl! Don and Tommy talk about the status of Tommy's band Alloy, the so called Mayan Prophecy that really wasn't a Mayan Prophecy at all, where we'd like to see Rush play in 2013, Don listening to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier giving props to Rush on SModcast, The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame and Chris' (Tommy's son) band Flotag. I'm assuming I've spelled that right. Take it easy until next year.

www.notmovingpictures.podomatic.com



Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

The Summer Heat Burns My Soul

The other day I did something completely out of character for myself. I took off my shirt while outside. Now it was in my back yard, however I did stay topless as I pushed my lawnmower around to the front of the house and in the garage. What’s the big deal you say? People take their shirts off all the time so what’s my problem? To start let me paint you a picture of what I look like. I’m 6’1” tall and go about 240 pounds on my leaner days. I am light skinned (my Irish, Scottish and English bloodlines win out over everything else for me), have freckles and am hairy. Add to that a lifelong image issue with my body (Americans seems to have this problem more than others) and there you have my reluctance to be seen shirtless even if it’s in my own yard. At least my body issues aren’t as bad as Kevin Smith’s who suffers from a much larger (pun intended) problem than I do. Please note this isn’t a dig on Smith at all, I terribly admire what he has accomplished in life and he has inspired me to start my own creative endeavors at long last. He has stated before that he doesn’t like taking off his shirt at the doctor’s office or even in front of his wife. At least I'm not that bad.

Basically what has led to this change in behavior is that my wife wants us to take a vacation to the beach but the only time available between our schedules and before our son goes back to school is towards the end of July. The closest beach for us to do this is in Galveston, Tx, about a nine hour drive away. So given my natural pale state plopping me into Galveston in late July means I will literally be red, sunburned to a crisp, unless I slaver zinc oxide on and wear long sleeved shirts and pants with a floppy sun hat at all times. Of course that endangers me to overheating myself on the beach and constantly sweating throughout the day so neither of those appear to be ideal working situations. My only other option now seems for me to go into the yard doing whatever work I can without wearing a shirt for about 30 minutes a day. Currently in Tulsa we are having 100 Plus degrees of weather and so far this week each and every day has been an Ozone Alert Day so I have to be very careful that I don’t overdo it. Today I even went over to a friend’s house and sat shirtless while our kids were in the pool. Very abnormal behavior for me but I do seem to be going through some life changes all for the better in the last year.

Perhaps by the time our vacation starts I will have been so sufficiently exposed to the sun that I won’t have many issues as long as I’m smart about what I’m doing. My wife won’t have any troubles at all. She is from Lima, Peru and has darker skin than I do. Thankfully our son is a mix of the two of us and while he’s not very dark skinned he’s not pale like his dear old dad and the more he gets outside the more tanned he seems to get. Being from Lima, my wife grew up going to the beach all through the summer but hasn’t been to one since she visited Atlantic City in the fall of 2002 when she was a freshly arrived vacationer to these shores. She ended up staying in the country but moved to Tulsa the following year where we met. Ten years is long enough and although it will be stretch financially and given my natural aversion to the sun, I’m willing to do it for the sake of our family. A family vacation has been long overdue and besides, I could stand having another go at some crawfish or alligator. That's one of the other changes I’ve undergone in the past year or so, I’m trying and enjoying food that I never would have touched in the past. Let’s just hope I make it back from all of this in one piece without too much burning.
 
Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Give In To The Dark Side And Join My Young Apprentice

The day I've been dreading has come, I finally gave in after much thought and mental anguish and went over to the dark side. No, not that "dark side" you perverts. I'm talking about something entirely different and much more insidious. That's right, last night I joined twitter. For several weeks I've debated about joining and decided I'd wait until I was actually doing something that would warrant me needing twitter such as when I eventually am able to start my podcast(s) or when I'm trying to do something with the scripts I'm working on. Then I saw that a person I admire and respect had joined so I threw away my reservations and decided to jump in.

The first person that I followed was the one responsible for pushing me over the edge, my brother-in-law Gary. My reasoning is that if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me. After that I looked up a short list that I had already compiled in case I did decide to join twitter. After that I filled in the rest of my initial choices from amongst music artists, comedians and podcasters whose work I enjoy. In the days to come I'll start following more people but mainly I want to find some interesting people with interesting and funny things to say.

Here are the people/artists in no particular order that I initially chose and it is indeed a very stellar and unique group:

theslackersband great ska (and more) band
alescovedo amazing musician and songwriter
exenecervanka vocalist from the legendary band X
joerogan comedian/podcaster/voice of the UFC
stuckinthe80s the best 80s podcast I've found
pattonoswalt funny comedian/actor/writer
BryWaltQ the guys from Tell 'Em Steve Dave podcast
ThatKevinSmith writer/director/podcaster/internet radio guru
DougBenson funny comedian
yragarevir my brother-in-law

So that's the inaugural draft class which I'm sure will go down in infamy. Today I noticed that I've already picked up two followers and I haven't even made my first tweet yet so at least I've got that going for me. Time will tell how this goes so I can only hope for the best. My true passion for writing can't be contained in so few characters but at the least maybe I can direct more traffic to this blog. It couldn't hurt. Before I forget, my twitter name is notmovingpics so get over there and follow me. Please and thank you.
Published by Don Leach

Red State Kevin Smith

I'd intended to write something about this movie some time ago but like with a lot of things, time got away from me. Kevin Smith is best known for his series of movies featuring the View Askew universe but on this new (and it appears his second to last movie) he has gone in a darker direction. Basically it's the story of three youths who go looking for sex in the wrong place and are set up by an extremely right wing church who believe it's okay to lure people in and presumably torture and/or kill them because they are sinners. To him this is a horror film although it's not a slasher type of film but more about what the people are doing is horrifying.



Just a few days after wrapping the film Smith already had finished editing it and showed it at the cast and crew party and then readied it for Sundance. While there he created a furor when he announced that instead of doing a tour of his normal Q&A he would instead tour the film and then do a Q&A after the viewing. Later he will release the film domestically under his own banner. The fact is that Kevin Smith is attempted to do something new instead of following the Hollywood formula of selling the film and then having the studio that buys it throw millions of dollars into an ad campaign that Smith does not believe will bring any new eyes to the screens. Instead he would rather preach to his audience and base his success or failure on that. I commend him for this attempt and can't wait to see the film. He has been an inspiration to me as I try to get my old butt off the couch and finally start writing some of my ideas down. It doesn't matter if nothing happens with them right now, getting them on paper is the first and most important step. After that, it's all gravy.

Clerks II and Soul Asylum

Back in November I was able to buy some DVDs for my birthday but have been slow to watch them. Some of it is just timing with my soon to be three year old who commands the tv far too much. Some of it is because I get quite a few DVDs from the library and don't always get to watch them because I just don't have enough time.



So anyway, I finally got around to watching the Clerks II DVD that I purchased. True to form I couldn't watch it straight through but I was able to watch it in two parts on consecutive nights. I like Kevin Smith's work (in spite of the foul language) basically because I think I somewhat get what he's trying to say (Dogma for instance). That doesn't mean I always agree completely with him but I try not to have any expectations and approach a movie on it's own merits. Clerks II was a fun romp with some of his characters (and friends appearing in bit parts) that I think he has now put away, at least for the time being. Maybe in another ten years he'll dust off the mothballs and we'll see what has become of Dante, Randall, Jay and Silent Bob as they move into their forties.

During the final credits there was a song playing that I liked a lot. It was "Misery" by Soul Asylum and it is a slow builder that the band knows how to do well. It just kind of struck me at the time as being really good so I thought why not throw it up here as well? Doesn't hurt anything plus I just like to listen to it.

Cop Out Trailer and mini review

Last Thursday I decided to take a night off from work (and the family) and went to see Cop Out, the latest movie directed by Kevin Smith that stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as not just cops but partners. This is the first movie that he has directed that he has not written so it's basically a test to see if he could do a regular Hollywood movie. When I got to the theater it was empty since it was an early showing on a weekday so I was extremely lucky. I'm sure Kevin would disagree with me since he'd want the theater to be packed full of crazed fans spending all of their cash but what do expect in Tulsa? How often can you say you had the place to yourself right? Anyway, I didn't expect an Oscar worthy movie, just a funny cop buddy flick with some action and Cop Out did not disappoint me. This was about unwinding, not thinking about work or about what my soon to be three year old was doing while I tried to watch something. I laughed out loud and enjoyed the movie and my time away from home. Well, at least for a little while. Sometimes you need a break and this was mine. It was $8.50 well spent and just maybe (okay probably) I'll get it when it comes out on dvd.



I've sort of been on a Kevin Smith kick lately. I've watched one of his Evening With dvds, listened to all of the SModcasts, read his books and even buckled down to see Jersey Girl which was not a bad movie and didn't deserve the grief it was given. For me it was nice to see him succeed directing this film which will be his highest grossing film to date. Hopefully it will fuel him and he'll be able to go forward with some of the projects that he's been wanting to bring forth.