What I’m Doing; Too Much

I am so tired.

I threw a birthday party for the wife Saturday.  Went from 2 pm to 2 am.  Woke up Sunday to find a burst pipe under my water heater.

My son begins testing next week so no television till the end of tests and reviews every night.

Most of the last week I’ve been trying to pin down Herbie to do more pod casts but LEX is giving him grief.

What’s really been eating up my time is the new Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  I’ve scrapped everything form the last campaign; maps, characters, villains, organizations and most of the magic.  I’m using elements of the previous 26 years as a foundation for the new campaign.  Character classes no seen in almost 20 years are back but none of the players from then would recognize them.   A new and larger city, the third one in the history of the campaign so far, has been built next to the flooded ruins of the old.  New magics that are not as benign as they seem. Races have been wiped from the map and others that were never been prevalent before will come to the fore front in roles never imagined.

This is just mechanics; the hard part is this time most of the player will be ‘tweens.  I’ve never played with anyone under 16, including myself, and I’m very concerned with holding the attention of a generation that grew up with Play Station and Wii.  I’m planning dozens of scenarios for each game session knowing how easily my own son gets bored.  So I’ve set myself the challenge of keeping it intelligent and exciting while trying to instill a desire to actually role-play and not have the player just react.  I’ve always strive to do so but the age of the players means I can not rely on natural curiosity to keep things going.

So pity the poor DM vying to win his sons heart from the silicone game monster.

I wonder if there is a saving trough versus media over load.

-cj

Allen Drinkwater’s Victory Tour

We chose Allen Drinkwater author of “Victory” as our first interview and he was a natural fit with the AVRoom’s brand of podcast.

Intelligent and knowledgeable he tells us in no uncertain terms the reasons for writing his novella.  Herbie and I have found a kinder spirit in this young man from Boston and will be speaking to him again in the future.

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Allen Drinkwater as much as we did.

-CJ

Interdisciplinary Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies

I graduated from college at Cal State University Dominguez Hills in 1999. My major was Interdisciplinary Studies. Really, it was called PACE. Program for Adult College Education. It is, as the college handbook says, “a broad-based, liberal arts and sciences major that focuses on developing exemplary skills in written and oral communication, textual analysis, critical thinking, and problem solving.” We studied the colonization of the Americas, the birth of fascism, the rise of the labor movement, the Faust legend throughout time, comparative mythology, oh, and photography, girls and adult beverages, or as much a commuter school like Dominguez allowed.

My first 6 years there were a slow decline back to the working class rut out of academia. I entered academic probation and disqualification in a haze of failed expectations, experimenting with majors, artistic techniques, and long haired brunettes.

The one constant was David Heifetz. He was my academic advisor, my friend, and my Jiminy Cricket. He was a gnarled little gnome, tufts of gray hair coming out of his ears, bald pate and a surly disposition. I remember glasses, he was always misplacing them, and his academic advisement sessions he was always going long on. He always had time for me.

I disappointed him, I took 6 years off when I should have been listening to him. He saw something in me, in everyone but he saw something in me in particular, that reminded me of himself I guess, that he would not let slide. He knew I was in for trouble with my grades and instead of saying I told you so he gave me a tonic, a plan to get back, to the school, to the program, to the way. He was my master Jedi.

5 years later, after struggling through the junior college system, a mess of trade programs and underwater basket-weaving classes, I returned to University, was accepted to the program, and David Heifetz was back as my advisor. It was like Rocky only really corny. Three years of hard work, and a renewed sense of my ability, plus faith in myself earned from a fall from grace, and a hard-fought rescue, left me with a degree in hand. It opened doors and I was now his colleague in the academic system. I could never be his equal.

Dr. David Heifetz passed away on May 24th 2006. Thankfully I thanked him for what he did for me 7 years earlier. He was my friend and my Obi-Wan-Kenobi. I’m writing this because one of the great things about the Internet is that we can find anyone anywhere, reconnect with others that we have 3, 4, maybe even 5 degrees of separation from. His sister Lila contacted me today, wondering if what she found on my recently changed myspace bio was correct, that he was as much a hero for me as Jackie Robinson or my grandfather. Without a doubt.

I’m sad for her and her family, and I’m sad that I can’t call my friend anymore, but I’m sad for those who didn’t get to know David Heifetz, or if you did, never got to know him like I did.

Rest in peace my friend, get some sleep, you look like you’ve been sleeping in the office again. hahaha.

Fallen Heroes

It seems like all we do here on The AV-Room is count down the lives of our heroes who we have passed. I’d like to think that life after 40 is more than that, that we can look at the culture we live in and think that our lives are ongoing, but it just isn’t so. In the past six months since my friend CJ and I started the AV-Room we lost Steve Gerber, Gary Gygax, and also recently a personal idol, I won’t call him a friend even though I met him 15 years ago and bonded with him while he was still drawing his strip for Eclipse Comics: Dave Stevens.

Dave Stevens was the finest illustrator I have ever met personally. He adored the early American illustrators, as much as Steve “The Dude” Rude, or Adam Hughes or even Frank Cho do today, but he was the first. His strip “The Rocketeer” was a fetishistic rite into early airplane culture, a return to the time of the pulps and the serials that it was clearly based on, but also an adaptation and a modern distillation to whatever is modern and nostalgic about the culture that our parents or our grandparents were obsessed with. It was a yesterday filtered, filled with the adolescent yearning of planes, adventure and pretty women.

Oh, and the specter of Betty Page. Dave and Betty, Betty and Dave. Tied together, his pictures captured her and translated her essence to a kid too young to have ever seen her at her best. I talked to one and yearned for the other through my teens. I yearned to draw like Dave though, and in the end that is what we can all aspire to. To have touched someone enough to have driven them to follow in our path. I’m sure the Adam Hughes’s, and Steve Rude’s will cite him as a primogeniture, but me I’ll look at his splash pages and his pinups and wonder what might have been if he had lived.

He was born 10 blocks from where I was raised. Him and Weird-Al Yankovick, just ask me who I’d rather have around right now,  He assisted Russ Manning on Tarzan, helped Doug Wildey in Saturday-morning animation, and kept alive the image and likeness of every pinup model who ever lived, or he had ever loved.

He was an inspiration, as much for him as Jack Kirby was even though I didn’t have half the talent he did. I am thankful for his art and for The Rocketeer, and for Jennifer Connelly as Bettie Page, even if they couldn’t get her likeness for the movie, although we all pictured her in fishnets and chains, and all that we have Dave Stevens to thank for.

I know he had given up on his greatest creation, embittered by his Disney vacation, but I’d like to say that he was an inspiration. Rest in peace Dave. Thanks for the memories. It was a pleasure to have met a true gentleman.

-Herbie P.

Alpha and Omega

Circumstances fluid,
excuses, blind, babbling-on:
just friends, no chemistry,
still looking, open options,
not the type, not the vibe,
coming on too strong, too weak.
it’s me, tisn’t you.

Profiles, compatability,
just lies, games we offer,
to ourselves.
Scared of getting what we want.
I have all I need do you?

Desafinado

Es mi primer idioma, es el idioma de mi familia, es el idioma del amor y de la fantasia. Y con tan poquita de esas dos que tenemos ahorita decidi de comunicarme aqui de esta manera. Yo se que es un cambio de locura y si puede ser que la locura me entro y hay que manejarlo mejor, pero tengo ni ganas ni habilidad de hablar ni escribir en mi idioma adoptivo. Ya he dado bastante de mi corazon en ingles en estos dias, me lo han rechazado y ya no puedo. Estoy desconectado.

Los ritmos de mi idioma natal me llenan. Me recuerdo de mi abuelo, las poesias de Neruda, de Cuba, de Mexico la ultima ves que fui. Eso me da alegria. Paso un gran rato hablandolo. Mis estudiantes se rien y se sienten que hay alguien que le respeta su forma de comunicar.

Sabemos que necesitamos comunicarnos mejor en este pais. Sin barreras como dicen. Pero el idoma de aqui nos regala barreras entre si tambien. Nos quita una gran parte
de nuestro corazon en iluminar la conversacion del negocio, que sabemos que todo, la experencia, el amor, el transcurzo de la vida cotidiana en este paiz esta basado en el movimiento, la economia como una gran relacion y relajo entre personas.

Creemos que es asi, pensamos que asi es la vida y probablemente siempre ha sido asi. Pero yo lo niego. Busco una manera de comunicarme que esta informado por lo que se presenta y no de lo que se esconde, de lo que sentimos y no de lo que pensamos, que refleja mejor la vida surreal y no la realidad tan oscura que vivimos.

Quiero leer Garcia Marquez, Garcia Lorca y Cristina Garcia en su idioma personal. Quiero bailar tangos, merengues y salsas. Quiero escuchar mi musica en la manera en que la descubri. Quiero re-encontrar mi Radio Enciclopedia. Quiero deshacerme de lo negativo, de la vida que vivo y quiero rellenarme de musica, comida y conversacion que me respeta asi tanto como yo respeto.

Playing those Existential Blues

Do you remember that movie by Steve Martin “The Lonely Guy“?  Didn’t think so.  It’s a little know Martin vehicle that tells the tale of a suddenly single man struggling to find love and purpose and in his life.

I saw it when I was eighteen, my soon to be ex-girlfriend had left for college I was months away from active duty and I was killing time till then.  A bunch of us were kicking it at Herbie’s house ’cause he had cable.  We were all big Martin fans and so we started watching “The Lonely Guy“.  We were laughing through the first half of the movie ragging on each other that this or that scene was taken from their life.  It soon dawned on us that we were the character in the movie and the laughter ended.

It is a good movie but it made us think long and hard about our lives; sometimes I think that this is the reason Herbie Married LEX.  We were all single and direction less contemplating college or career.  Mine is the only generation I know that had midlife crisis in our twenties.  In the go go eighties and nineties if you weren’t making piles of cash or starting a family you were pretty much a dead beat or a slacker.

In a similar vain as “The Lonely Guy“ is an on-line comic strip Garfield minus Garfield. Like many people my age I enjoyed the early years of this comic and proudly placed a stuffed replica of the pasta loving feline in my car window. But alas all good things must come to an end and so did Garfield.

What’s that you say; “But Garfield is still running.”, “I read it every day in my paper.”, “They’re working on a third movie.”.  My point is there hasn’t been a good ‘Garfield‘ comic in decades.  The strip has become derivative of it’s self, repeating fat jokes and pasta quips repeatedly, a sure sign it’s past it’s prime. The antithesis would be ‘Get Fuzzy‘ with it’s sharp word play and layered secondary characters that give the even deeper leads plenty to play with.

Into this figurative and literal two dimensional world stumbled a genius able to see past the one note name sake and see the story behind the fluff.  The site says it best:

“Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured  mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.”

When you think about it in real terms; only the mentally disturbed or terminally lonely converse with their pets.  Anthropomorphizing your cat into a person you talk to and answers you back is not the sign of a healthy mind.  In psychobabble terms Jon Arbucle is projecting his need for aformation onto his pets but his subconscious, feeding on his depression, reflects his self loathing off his pets back to himself.  So his cat is just a cat and the snide remarks are Jon’s ego manifesting and berating himself for his lack of initiative.  Yeah he’s that screwed up.

The absolute brilliance of G-G is the removal of the surrogate i.e., the cat, leaving Jon trapped in his own mind.  We see a man stripped of his defenses naked to the world suffering though bouts manic depression, paranoia, worthlessness and some things to disturbing to contemplate.  This is the lonely guy taken the nth degree.  Yes I do see people I know as well as my self reflected in the eerily existential story within this strip.

Jim Davis would do well to consider branching out into edgier fare.  He obviously has a lot of angst buried within himself as the edits on G-G shows.  The problem is that the ironic artistry would probably be lost once it passed though marketing.

-CJ

What I’m Reading: Freak Angels

Wizard Con LA had a number of interesting panels featuring the publishers and distributors in attendance.  Unfortunately I could only break away from the friends I was escorting to see one I’ve already written about.

Though I missed the AVATAR Press panel I did manage the next best thing.  I had a pleasant conversation with Marketing Director  David Marks about the heavy weight talent the represent like Allen Moore, Frank Miller and Jamie Delano just to name a few.  I have read a number of their titles with Warren Ellis’ Crecy being the one  I’d most recently read.  David let me know that Warren Ellis had a special project under way for AVATAR; FREAKANGELS

FREAKANGELS is a free, weekly, ongoing comic written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield there are five installments which chronicle the lives of young hip psychics who live in the Whitechapel district of London after the end of the world.  Seemingly indefferant to the state of the world they’ve carved out fiefdom for themselves.

This group of tragically beautiful pettygods who can’t help but bicker among themselves wake one day to find their bohemian psyocracy is being threatened by a shotgun toting Manc slag out to avenge her brothers.  The problem isn’t the girl, it’s what she represents.  Some time ago one of the group of twelve left on poor terms and has hatched a plot to send brainwashed drones to eliminate his former compatriots.

The story is just starting to take form.  We’ve been introduced to five of the twelve, one an installment so far.  Each has their own quirks so it will be interesting how Ellis will develop twelve individual characters that are similar in looks but different in personality.

What I must give kudos to is the practical use of a tinfoil hat in a comic.  Read it and you’ll see what I mean.

http://www.freakangels.com/

-CJ

And how was your holiday?

This was one of those weekends that if your not an observant Christian you were wondering why all the stores were closed.  The bowling alleys were open though; got in three games before going home to make Easter Dinner.  I’m not a big fan of holidays especially when you don’t get a day off.  Things are about to get real busy now.  I have to get final prep done for the costumes I have to make.  Should be getting to our interview next week.  I still have a lot to say about Wizard World LA ‘08.

Additionally there are a slew fandom related films coming up; Hell Boy 2, Batman 2, Hulk 2, Iron Man, Punisher: WarZone and WANTED.  There are even more sci-fi/fantasy movies; Speed Racer, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I have to sleep now evil supervisor make me work Over Time.

-CJ

What I’m Reading: ‘Victory’

Rabid Star Wars fans from Boston

Once I was so upset with my wife that I said to my friends we should just get away for a while.  We started making plans for a road trip to Vegas getting more excited by the moment contemplating what we’d do.  But as we got closer to the county line reality came crashing down on us.  We all had work the next day and we’d spent the day helping a friend get his house ready for his new born child.  So we didn’t take the trip and since one member has past and another has moved away.

Most people have similar stories of risks not taken desires unfulfilled.  The novella ‘Victory’ by Allen Drinkwater of grabbing desire by the balls and ridding it over the edge.  The narrator, a verbose slacker nerd who over analyzes every situation, convinces his friend Willams, an ego maniacal philosophy professor (what other kind is there) to slip the leash of convention after a night of literally taking life by the balls.

Two more unlikely heroes you’d be hard pressed to find.  The narrator mind is obviously set on hyper drive causing him to continuously pprocess the data around him.  Williams on the  other hand  has fits of brilliance that he must keep track of in a journal to organize his convoluted thoughts.  Thou seemingly unsympathetic it becomes apparent they are archetypes of the overly intelligent and under stimulated masses the pervade fandom.

As an editor there were times I would have said to cut down the dialog and tighten up the story but When I focus on just reading I can see that this is the narrators personality coming through.  He only has the one friend because He uses big words and over analyzes everything just like many fan boys and sudo intellectuals.  Williams speaks in a more concise manner because he arrives at conclusions before he speaks and thinks himself in charge of any situation, which is not always the case.  Further more their life affirming missions are to embarrass and old flame and get a movie icon to admit hes a money grubbing hack.  The third member of this expedition introduced about 2/3rds into the story Jamie, an Afro-American Vietnam Vet. who found salvation in sci-fi, is much more plane spoken and is a enjoyable contras to the more intellectual members of the trio translating much of the other pompous bullshit into layman terms.

This is not the fluffy piece of escapism found on the shelves of your local mega book dealer.  This is a story written by a fan about a fan for fans.  Breaking with convention each character we meet speaks with his own voice without regard of commercial norms.    Though well rooted in fantasy we are always reminded that everything has a consequence though sometimes far fetched are always satisfying.

If your not scared by words you should go to www.victoryisyours.net and enter a fantasy world were if your answer to who’s Nietzsche is “He’s de guy who said God’s Dead” will earn you a well deserved nut shot.

-CJ