So, it's next week. September 15th is on a Wednsday, that is when my first novel will debut to the world. A number of family and friends have all ready pre-ordered, and that absolutely coolest thing?
Copies of my book are overseas. Two of my military friends stationed in Iraq and Dubai have pre ordered, received their copies and are happily reading away. I have gotten positive feedback so far, so that is somewhat gratifying..
But how do i feel, really?
Can I really say I'm excited to have gotten this far? Can I say I am vindicated just because a small number of people have told me that they are enjoying what they have read so far?
meh.
I have had the idea for A Distant Battlefield for over a decade and change. It was originally one of the notebook stories i used to circulate to my friends around the way back in the early 1990s. I decided to copywrite it in about 93 i think. (then I had to change the title because it was originally Battleground Earth, and L Ron Hubbard had an issue with that. (of course he finally got his book made into a movie with John Travolta and it turned out to be a terrible damn film.
I never knew exactly what I was attempting back then, my mindset was not very advanced for a guy in his early 20s. I had other obligations and distractions and back then I never truly considered my writing as my ultimate career path.
But no matter what I did, as the 1990s became the 2000s, writing was always the thing i enjoyed more than anything, I never abandoned the Distant Battlefield concept. I hit upon that title, swirled it around my mouth like one of those snooty wine tasters and found that I enjoyed it. I rewrote it as a screenplay, changed people, places and things and then I went out there and tried to sell it like any other respectful screenplay writer.
In my bedroom, I still have all of my rejection letters. Bill Cosby, Spike Lee, Circle of Confusion, Valhalla Productions, all of them said no. (Circle of Confusion actually read the screenplay and stated that they even enjoyed reading it in their postcard response to me..but they still passed on it.
That's ok, I said to myself. I spent a serious amount of time weighing pros and cons and possibilities and scenarios, I knew I had a good property there, I understood (or leastways, I thought I understood) how the Hollywood machine worked, so i wasnt totally infuriated at the studio heads and reps for turning down the guy they didnt know.
I put the screenplay away and moved on with other things. I was not discouraged. I would find a way to get my property out before the people. (and the voice in my head even back then was asking; "well, why not turn it into a book?") I ignored that voice.
In 2000 I shot my first indie music video for an underground hip hop act. I shot for SOD, I shot a video for a dude called Banes, even shot a nice video in 2001 for an R&B chick named Candace Vendetta.
None of the videos went anywhere, and outside of the SOD guys, I have no idea what happened to any of those unsigned artists, either. I met a guy named Richard Hodge who wanted to shoot a series of very low budget horror and urban films around Brooklyn. for a period of time I was all over Brooklyn, on the waterfront, in an alley somewhere, running around train yards and rooftops, filming material for project after project.
I got minor credits for my camera work there, but that is as far as it went.
In 2003 I even tried filming my own urban/horror flick. And outside of having the experience of meeting the people and doing the work, my own film never went anywhere. (it was just good to have under my belt though)
other minor projects and plans came and went between this period, and i was pretty much in a rut until May of 2007 came along. (my lower intestines decided to send me to Woodhull Hospital for a brief vacation and it almost took my life)
Sitting in that hospital bed after the surgery, being told how close i came to shaking hands with the reaper was a pretty sobering experience. As I sat there for that entire month, I had nothing but time to think. (what was i going to do now? I almost died and now i have been given another life so to speak. what do i do with it? Am i just going back to the way it was? Am i going to 9 to 5 for the rest of my life without ever having even attempted to make a grab for something greater?)
And then the voice came back.
All right, let's make the damn thing a novel.
So here we are. September 15th is coming up and my labor of love is available to all. As I stated before many a time, this is more than just Science fiction/ action. there are some things about the human condition that I will discuss briefly, and every character you meet in this book will be yet another aspect of my diverse personality.
So, please read, enjoy, think, discuss..and just be.
I'll meet you within the pages.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Staying focused
So let me tell you what happened to me this week. As you all know I have been on a total mental and spiritual high in regards to my book and its impending release. I have been consistently happy, content and enthusiastic and i have taken that energy wave and applied it to everything i have been doing the last few months.
Last Saturday I got a letter in the mail from the rental management office that oversees our buildings. Grenadier realty was looking for $994 that they claimed we owed and stated that legal proceedings would begin if we did not pay. (legal proceedings, aka eviction)
Some background. After the economic collapse of October 2008, my boss at the time Jerry Mcaward suggested that one of his employees would have to go on unemployment cuz he could not afford to pay both of us. I decided to go off the payroll because my coworker has 3 kids and a mortgage and I am a single dude in an apartment taking care of his mom.
I filed for unemployment in early 2009. I would say resisted doing it until February of that year. I got the letter from the dept of labor in late Feb/Early March. At the time, our rental management company was Wavecrest. I went to the office with my letter from the Department of Labor and notified Aamanda Sanchez or Rivera or whatever the hell her last name was of my unemployment status.
Now for those of you who don't know, our building complex (Magnolia PLaza apts in Bed Stuy Brooklyn) is a section 8 building for low to middle income families. Your rent is based on your income. So if you lose your job, your rent is adjusted to reflect your new income.
I gave Amanda my letter, she tells me she is going to look out for me, and sends a handwritten note to the house telling us we can pay $696 a month. We were to pay that amount until our new lease agreement which took place in April/May of 2009. I was grateful. My mom was grateful. We had the unemployment checks coming in, we got our rent lowered, we could breathe.
What happened?
This absolute fool of a woman Amanda DID NOT MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT ON WAVECRESTS' RECORDS!! so even though we were faithfully paying $696 as we were instructed, their computers were still saying we owed $900 bucks a month in rent. The money began to pile up. We were going to the rent office every week trying to figure out what the hell was happening and we got absolutely no movement or assistance from the people at Wavecrest.
In December of 2009, we were told that Wavecrest was getting the boot from the firm that had hired them to manage the building. (I heard stories of racism and incompetence from the two muppets that were working there.)
No fucking shit.
Grenadier realty came in about January of 2010. they took our records, gave us new leases and promised to look into any nonsense created or left over by the two spastic colons that fucked up our rent in the first place.
Month after month, Grenadier claimed that they were looking into the matter of this past due money and that we would have nothing to worry about. And so we continued to pay our monthly rent on time and in its entirety and we continued to disregard that $994 amount that they kept saying was past due.
that was until last week when they sent that bullshit card.
I wanted to fight it of course, but mom was against it. She was tired, she was happy and she didn't want to jeopardize her apartment or deal with any possible court proceedings.
We did not have to pay this money. This was a pure fuckup from the original rental agency. If we were such deadbeats, how is it that we have managed to pay our rent on time every damn time it was called for? how is it that no one came to me to ask or investigate or even look into the matter? Their only solution was to pass it on to us? Why should we pay for money we did not owe? We did not instruct ourselves to lower our rent, and we damn sure don't work for Wavecrest to update their computers to reflect the new situation.
And so...that sat in my head all damn week. mom was unhappy. my energy level was sapped. It was if though nothing with the book had happened at all. there was no preview copies of the book shipped to my house, no well wishers from my family and friends, no photo shoot with my adorable niece and her cute, perky friends, no planning for a book signing party, no plans to visit the New York Comic Convention in October.
it was as if though i was nothing and going nowhere all over again...and then an amazing thing happened..wow. an amazing, astonishing revelation and reminder that when a person is at their lowest, God puts inspiration and energy in front of you..and yes GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
You wanna know where my inspiration came from?
You wanna know what it is I heard and saw that made me realize that I have the true inner strength within me??
get ready..you wont believe this shit..
HBO'S HARD KNOCKS..(TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NY JETS)
woo..I was so stunned that this was where the reminder came from, but let me explain.
the episode that i saw took place right after the week when the Jets played the Giants in the pre season game. the Jets lost that game and the defensive coordinator is in the room with his second string defensive and rookie players. He was giving them a pep talk, and it was that pep talk which really blew my hair back. It was what he said and how he said it.
He told his rookie players a story and that is how i will close out this week's blog.
The Devil was moving to another location. He was packing up all of his tools and objects of misery and evil and a person walked into his shop. the Devil explained to this person that he was moving and could not take all of his items with him and that they were on sale at very cheap prices. The person then asked Satan what was his most effective yet cheapest tool..
this last part i will capitalize cuz i want it to hit you the way it hit me.
Satan looked at the person and said "OH, THAT'S EASY. MY MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IS DISCOURAGEMENT. BECAUSE WHEN A PERSON IS DISCOURAGED, ALL OF MY OTHER WEAPONS WORK."
read that line over and over again and think about how you have ever felt or sounded in your life when you were discouraged. when you thought you could not achieve something..think about what can possibly happen to a person when they become discouraged..
I will leave it there. love you all.
Last Saturday I got a letter in the mail from the rental management office that oversees our buildings. Grenadier realty was looking for $994 that they claimed we owed and stated that legal proceedings would begin if we did not pay. (legal proceedings, aka eviction)
Some background. After the economic collapse of October 2008, my boss at the time Jerry Mcaward suggested that one of his employees would have to go on unemployment cuz he could not afford to pay both of us. I decided to go off the payroll because my coworker has 3 kids and a mortgage and I am a single dude in an apartment taking care of his mom.
I filed for unemployment in early 2009. I would say resisted doing it until February of that year. I got the letter from the dept of labor in late Feb/Early March. At the time, our rental management company was Wavecrest. I went to the office with my letter from the Department of Labor and notified Aamanda Sanchez or Rivera or whatever the hell her last name was of my unemployment status.
Now for those of you who don't know, our building complex (Magnolia PLaza apts in Bed Stuy Brooklyn) is a section 8 building for low to middle income families. Your rent is based on your income. So if you lose your job, your rent is adjusted to reflect your new income.
I gave Amanda my letter, she tells me she is going to look out for me, and sends a handwritten note to the house telling us we can pay $696 a month. We were to pay that amount until our new lease agreement which took place in April/May of 2009. I was grateful. My mom was grateful. We had the unemployment checks coming in, we got our rent lowered, we could breathe.
What happened?
This absolute fool of a woman Amanda DID NOT MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT ON WAVECRESTS' RECORDS!! so even though we were faithfully paying $696 as we were instructed, their computers were still saying we owed $900 bucks a month in rent. The money began to pile up. We were going to the rent office every week trying to figure out what the hell was happening and we got absolutely no movement or assistance from the people at Wavecrest.
In December of 2009, we were told that Wavecrest was getting the boot from the firm that had hired them to manage the building. (I heard stories of racism and incompetence from the two muppets that were working there.)
No fucking shit.
Grenadier realty came in about January of 2010. they took our records, gave us new leases and promised to look into any nonsense created or left over by the two spastic colons that fucked up our rent in the first place.
Month after month, Grenadier claimed that they were looking into the matter of this past due money and that we would have nothing to worry about. And so we continued to pay our monthly rent on time and in its entirety and we continued to disregard that $994 amount that they kept saying was past due.
that was until last week when they sent that bullshit card.
I wanted to fight it of course, but mom was against it. She was tired, she was happy and she didn't want to jeopardize her apartment or deal with any possible court proceedings.
We did not have to pay this money. This was a pure fuckup from the original rental agency. If we were such deadbeats, how is it that we have managed to pay our rent on time every damn time it was called for? how is it that no one came to me to ask or investigate or even look into the matter? Their only solution was to pass it on to us? Why should we pay for money we did not owe? We did not instruct ourselves to lower our rent, and we damn sure don't work for Wavecrest to update their computers to reflect the new situation.
And so...that sat in my head all damn week. mom was unhappy. my energy level was sapped. It was if though nothing with the book had happened at all. there was no preview copies of the book shipped to my house, no well wishers from my family and friends, no photo shoot with my adorable niece and her cute, perky friends, no planning for a book signing party, no plans to visit the New York Comic Convention in October.
it was as if though i was nothing and going nowhere all over again...and then an amazing thing happened..wow. an amazing, astonishing revelation and reminder that when a person is at their lowest, God puts inspiration and energy in front of you..and yes GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
You wanna know where my inspiration came from?
You wanna know what it is I heard and saw that made me realize that I have the true inner strength within me??
get ready..you wont believe this shit..
HBO'S HARD KNOCKS..(TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NY JETS)
woo..I was so stunned that this was where the reminder came from, but let me explain.
the episode that i saw took place right after the week when the Jets played the Giants in the pre season game. the Jets lost that game and the defensive coordinator is in the room with his second string defensive and rookie players. He was giving them a pep talk, and it was that pep talk which really blew my hair back. It was what he said and how he said it.
He told his rookie players a story and that is how i will close out this week's blog.
The Devil was moving to another location. He was packing up all of his tools and objects of misery and evil and a person walked into his shop. the Devil explained to this person that he was moving and could not take all of his items with him and that they were on sale at very cheap prices. The person then asked Satan what was his most effective yet cheapest tool..
this last part i will capitalize cuz i want it to hit you the way it hit me.
Satan looked at the person and said "OH, THAT'S EASY. MY MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IS DISCOURAGEMENT. BECAUSE WHEN A PERSON IS DISCOURAGED, ALL OF MY OTHER WEAPONS WORK."
read that line over and over again and think about how you have ever felt or sounded in your life when you were discouraged. when you thought you could not achieve something..think about what can possibly happen to a person when they become discouraged..
I will leave it there. love you all.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Step by step
Wow. Havent been on here in about 3 weeks or so. I can't say that I'm much of a blogger. It was suggested by my publisher that I do this and I figured it would be a good way for people to get to know me and to know my product. I also figured i would use it as a diary of sorts to keep you posted as the release date of the book approaches...
But life does get in the way. There are issues and priorities and distractions and before you know it, you have lost the desire to do anything and you say to yourself, "Bah!! (I say bah alot) I'll do it tomorrow. And you know what happens when tomorrow comes, right? "Bah! I'll do it some other time." And so on and so forth.
Luckily, being that a few weeks have passed, I actually have a few things to talk about. Firstly, I have a release date for the book. Amazon.com allready has a pre-order page for A Distant Battlefield It will be available on September 15th.
WooHoo!! (I say Woohoo alot)
I was told by my wonderful indie publisher Wheatmark, that it will also be availalbe on the Books-A-Million page as well as physical copies for Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. (that rules) I have a bit of a marketing strategy in place, and there are many spots in the 5 boroughs of NYC that I plan on approaching to promote in person.
The last 3 weeks have seen alot of interesting activity. My sunburned family came back from Puerto Rico all happy and healthy. (did I mentioned sunburned?)
I received my first shipment of sample books. A box with 10 wonderful copies of my novel were awaiting my pleasure when I came home from work. (and of course my family members descended on said box like a plague of unwashed locust and lifted a number of copies.) I still have one copy for myself though.
My wonderful niece Amy Mendez rounded up a handful of her friends and this last Saturday we shot a number of photos with the lovely ladies modeling the Distant Battlefield Tees as well as a number of the books.
The intelligent and quite capable Darius Vick blessed me with his photography skills and the irrascable Phillip Shung provided the remaining resources. It was a fun 2 hour shoot with lots of laughs and good times.
All of it in an effort to get the world ready for A DISTANT BATTLEFIELD!! my first novel and part 1 of an amazing trilogy. It is full of sci-fi action but also has tons of cool characters as well as drama, intrigue, comedy and a dash of romance.
In the Fall there is more to do. I am arranging for a book signing event in Lower Manhattan, I plan on doing some marketing at the New York Comic Con in October and in between there will be some more tidbits and appearances.
A big thank you for all of you who have been reading and following, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have assisted me either physically, mentally or spiritually.
I love you all.
But life does get in the way. There are issues and priorities and distractions and before you know it, you have lost the desire to do anything and you say to yourself, "Bah!! (I say bah alot) I'll do it tomorrow. And you know what happens when tomorrow comes, right? "Bah! I'll do it some other time." And so on and so forth.
Luckily, being that a few weeks have passed, I actually have a few things to talk about. Firstly, I have a release date for the book. Amazon.com allready has a pre-order page for A Distant Battlefield It will be available on September 15th.
WooHoo!! (I say Woohoo alot)
I was told by my wonderful indie publisher Wheatmark, that it will also be availalbe on the Books-A-Million page as well as physical copies for Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. (that rules) I have a bit of a marketing strategy in place, and there are many spots in the 5 boroughs of NYC that I plan on approaching to promote in person.
The last 3 weeks have seen alot of interesting activity. My sunburned family came back from Puerto Rico all happy and healthy. (did I mentioned sunburned?)
I received my first shipment of sample books. A box with 10 wonderful copies of my novel were awaiting my pleasure when I came home from work. (and of course my family members descended on said box like a plague of unwashed locust and lifted a number of copies.) I still have one copy for myself though.
My wonderful niece Amy Mendez rounded up a handful of her friends and this last Saturday we shot a number of photos with the lovely ladies modeling the Distant Battlefield Tees as well as a number of the books.
The intelligent and quite capable Darius Vick blessed me with his photography skills and the irrascable Phillip Shung provided the remaining resources. It was a fun 2 hour shoot with lots of laughs and good times.
All of it in an effort to get the world ready for A DISTANT BATTLEFIELD!! my first novel and part 1 of an amazing trilogy. It is full of sci-fi action but also has tons of cool characters as well as drama, intrigue, comedy and a dash of romance.
In the Fall there is more to do. I am arranging for a book signing event in Lower Manhattan, I plan on doing some marketing at the New York Comic Con in October and in between there will be some more tidbits and appearances.
A big thank you for all of you who have been reading and following, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have assisted me either physically, mentally or spiritually.
I love you all.
Monday, July 26, 2010
All It Has To Be
So, let me tell you about what I have been doing lately that has been bringing me much joy.
Many, many years ago, I was a foot messenger. That was back in the mid 1990s when I was young and ripe and moist and was still making my way through the world, blissfully unaware of the greatness within me. Being a foot messenger was really cool, I got to go to tons of places taht I would never have thought of visiting otherwise. It was totally cool to walk through these new neighborhoods and coming across places I never would have spotted.
My favorite street is still ST.Mark's place in the East Village right next to Tompkins Square Park. It was there that I came across Kim's Video.
I have allready stated my film preferences in an earlier blog, and I even discussed very briefly the types of films that i enjoyed. But there was another genre of film that I truly enjoyed as a kid, and those were the campy, weird b movies that played in Grindhouse theaters in Times Square (the real Times Square, not that sanitized crap that the tourists have infested now) Kim's Video was and still is the place where you go to find these amazing B movie treasures (or should i say Z movies considering some of the titles I was exposed to)
oh, what a joy. Even when I didnt have the money to buy anything, It was still a pleasure to walk into Kim's Video, go up to the second floor and lose myself within a universe of films that did not take themselves seriously, or where to graphic and mind blowing insane to be released by any mainstream studio.
BANNED IN 30 C0UNTRIES!! THE FILM TOO VIOLENT TO BE RATED!! DR BUTCHER MD!! (HE MAKES HOUSECALLS) The cover blurbs exploded across the dvd and vhs covers in a parade of capital letters and garish colors!! Films of every genre were represented, Blackexplotation, horror, action, western, sex, films from every corner of the globe sat side by side with the main stream stuff you could have picked up at Blockbuster or Best Buy, but here it was so much cooler..
How could you be in the vicinity of a movie called Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and not pick up the damn box just to see what the hell it was??
Sadommania
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
The Flesh Eaters
I Spit on Your Grave
Make Them Die Slowly
Cop Killers
Class of 1984
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!!
Thousands upon thousands of Grindhouse treasures just sitting there awaiting to be ingested by that part of my mental universe that could easily accomodate such madness, depravity (and really terrible acting)
Flying Guillotine
Grizzly
The Car
Maniac
New York Ripper
Slaughter's Big Rip Off
Zombie2
I Drink your Blood, I Eat your Skin
How the hell can you say no to films like that??
Now granted, these were not academy award winners by any means. these are not the films you sit your family down with a bucket of popcorn and say "We're gonna have a warm, wholesome family film night tonight!!"
No, sir, these films are for those of us who understood that not every film had to be art, or to tell a message. these films were for when you wanted to violently slaughter a few million brain cells (that sounds like a Grindhouse title by itself, doesnt it?)
the actor's knew what they were getting into when the participated in them, the writers knew what they were doing when they wrote it, and the directors knew what they were creating when they directed it. And I know what I am getting into whenever I wanna see something called The Bronx Warriors 1999.
I know where to go when I want to see something that has emotional weight. I know where to go when I want to be mentally stimulated. When I walk into Kim's video I am looking for something fun and cheesy.
I have been to Kim's video twice in the last three weeks. I have purchased (in no particular order) Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, The Copkillers, Don't Go in the House, Tenement (aka, Slaughter in the South Bronx) and for no reason, The Candy Tangerine Man (which features some of the worst camera work and lighting I have ever seen in a film) And you know what? I knew these movies were crap when I brought them, and I knew what I was going to be exposed to everytime I popped one of them in there.
and that's really the bottom line when I buy them. They dont all have to be epic achivements in cinema, Any film that i pop into the dvd player doesnt have to be a award winner. All it has to be is fun.
Many, many years ago, I was a foot messenger. That was back in the mid 1990s when I was young and ripe and moist and was still making my way through the world, blissfully unaware of the greatness within me. Being a foot messenger was really cool, I got to go to tons of places taht I would never have thought of visiting otherwise. It was totally cool to walk through these new neighborhoods and coming across places I never would have spotted.
My favorite street is still ST.Mark's place in the East Village right next to Tompkins Square Park. It was there that I came across Kim's Video.
I have allready stated my film preferences in an earlier blog, and I even discussed very briefly the types of films that i enjoyed. But there was another genre of film that I truly enjoyed as a kid, and those were the campy, weird b movies that played in Grindhouse theaters in Times Square (the real Times Square, not that sanitized crap that the tourists have infested now) Kim's Video was and still is the place where you go to find these amazing B movie treasures (or should i say Z movies considering some of the titles I was exposed to)
oh, what a joy. Even when I didnt have the money to buy anything, It was still a pleasure to walk into Kim's Video, go up to the second floor and lose myself within a universe of films that did not take themselves seriously, or where to graphic and mind blowing insane to be released by any mainstream studio.
BANNED IN 30 C0UNTRIES!! THE FILM TOO VIOLENT TO BE RATED!! DR BUTCHER MD!! (HE MAKES HOUSECALLS) The cover blurbs exploded across the dvd and vhs covers in a parade of capital letters and garish colors!! Films of every genre were represented, Blackexplotation, horror, action, western, sex, films from every corner of the globe sat side by side with the main stream stuff you could have picked up at Blockbuster or Best Buy, but here it was so much cooler..
How could you be in the vicinity of a movie called Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and not pick up the damn box just to see what the hell it was??
Sadommania
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
The Flesh Eaters
I Spit on Your Grave
Make Them Die Slowly
Cop Killers
Class of 1984
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!!
Thousands upon thousands of Grindhouse treasures just sitting there awaiting to be ingested by that part of my mental universe that could easily accomodate such madness, depravity (and really terrible acting)
Flying Guillotine
Grizzly
The Car
Maniac
New York Ripper
Slaughter's Big Rip Off
Zombie2
I Drink your Blood, I Eat your Skin
How the hell can you say no to films like that??
Now granted, these were not academy award winners by any means. these are not the films you sit your family down with a bucket of popcorn and say "We're gonna have a warm, wholesome family film night tonight!!"
No, sir, these films are for those of us who understood that not every film had to be art, or to tell a message. these films were for when you wanted to violently slaughter a few million brain cells (that sounds like a Grindhouse title by itself, doesnt it?)
the actor's knew what they were getting into when the participated in them, the writers knew what they were doing when they wrote it, and the directors knew what they were creating when they directed it. And I know what I am getting into whenever I wanna see something called The Bronx Warriors 1999.
I know where to go when I want to see something that has emotional weight. I know where to go when I want to be mentally stimulated. When I walk into Kim's video I am looking for something fun and cheesy.
I have been to Kim's video twice in the last three weeks. I have purchased (in no particular order) Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, The Copkillers, Don't Go in the House, Tenement (aka, Slaughter in the South Bronx) and for no reason, The Candy Tangerine Man (which features some of the worst camera work and lighting I have ever seen in a film) And you know what? I knew these movies were crap when I brought them, and I knew what I was going to be exposed to everytime I popped one of them in there.
and that's really the bottom line when I buy them. They dont all have to be epic achivements in cinema, Any film that i pop into the dvd player doesnt have to be a award winner. All it has to be is fun.
Friday, July 16, 2010
It's not just a book, It's also a social study!!!
I hated the term Social Studies. I didn't even hear it till I got into junior high school. I don't know what the hell that was!! I don't wanna study social things!! I don't even like to study!! but it was part of the school curriculum so I had to take it. I don't know about what Social Studies class you guys had to take in any of the schools you went to, but mine turned out to be more history than anything else. I never recalled having a class where we discussed relations between races or ethnic or religious groups. Satellite East JHS? their social studies class was global history. Same thing with Bushwick High School.
Now, history, that was something I enjoyed. Learning about other places, countries, peoples and cultures, now that was cool. I don't recall whether or not I had any real compassionate adults that taught the subject, (I do remember Mr.Stern, my junior high Social Studies/global history teacher who popped a mental gasket one day when he realized not every kid in the class had written down the homework assignment from the chalkboard one day..) Outside of that, I had no adults teach me anything about relating to other human beings in any setting.
And I wonder if that is one of our problems.
If our educational system does not feel obligated to teach our youth about how to relate to people of other cultures, religions or sexual orientations, then how exactly are they to be expected to be tolerant and understanding as adults?
I was watching the movie Mississippi Burning last weekend, (a film which has always resonated with me no matter how many times i watch it) and one of the characters, a female who was married to one of the racist police said what i have always believed about racism. (no one is born a racist. It is taught and it is acquired)
I love the Sci Fi fantasy genre. I always have. anything that gets a person's imagination to soaring and expanding beyond its boundaries is a wonderful thing. One half of my mental universe is always in that realm and will never leave. But as a Latino male who has heard and experienced his share of racial perception, hostility and indifference, the other half of my mental universe is always comprised of tales of intolerance, defiance, understanding and racial harmony.
all of those facets and factors combined to make A Distant Battlefield, my own little Social Study.
Yes, the novel is Sci fi on its surface, full of action, and drama and all the things needed to make a story experience that you will not be able to put down or dismiss quickly. I guarantee that these will be the fastest 440 pages you have ever read in your life.
But underneath that surface, I feed the other side of your brain as well with a Social lesson. A question really. Can a group of strangers from diverse backgrounds put their suspicions and hostilities and preconceived notions of certain people aside long enough to deal with a situation together as human beings?
I'm hoping you bring both sides of your brain with you when you read my words. I'm hoping you enjoy the characters, concepts, action sequences as well as the comedy relief,drama and intrigue that my tale will provide.
Hope you are ready for an interesting Social Study..
Now, history, that was something I enjoyed. Learning about other places, countries, peoples and cultures, now that was cool. I don't recall whether or not I had any real compassionate adults that taught the subject, (I do remember Mr.Stern, my junior high Social Studies/global history teacher who popped a mental gasket one day when he realized not every kid in the class had written down the homework assignment from the chalkboard one day..) Outside of that, I had no adults teach me anything about relating to other human beings in any setting.
And I wonder if that is one of our problems.
If our educational system does not feel obligated to teach our youth about how to relate to people of other cultures, religions or sexual orientations, then how exactly are they to be expected to be tolerant and understanding as adults?
I was watching the movie Mississippi Burning last weekend, (a film which has always resonated with me no matter how many times i watch it) and one of the characters, a female who was married to one of the racist police said what i have always believed about racism. (no one is born a racist. It is taught and it is acquired)
I love the Sci Fi fantasy genre. I always have. anything that gets a person's imagination to soaring and expanding beyond its boundaries is a wonderful thing. One half of my mental universe is always in that realm and will never leave. But as a Latino male who has heard and experienced his share of racial perception, hostility and indifference, the other half of my mental universe is always comprised of tales of intolerance, defiance, understanding and racial harmony.
all of those facets and factors combined to make A Distant Battlefield, my own little Social Study.
Yes, the novel is Sci fi on its surface, full of action, and drama and all the things needed to make a story experience that you will not be able to put down or dismiss quickly. I guarantee that these will be the fastest 440 pages you have ever read in your life.
But underneath that surface, I feed the other side of your brain as well with a Social lesson. A question really. Can a group of strangers from diverse backgrounds put their suspicions and hostilities and preconceived notions of certain people aside long enough to deal with a situation together as human beings?
I'm hoping you bring both sides of your brain with you when you read my words. I'm hoping you enjoy the characters, concepts, action sequences as well as the comedy relief,drama and intrigue that my tale will provide.
Hope you are ready for an interesting Social Study..
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Damn Shame
About a week or so ago, I sat down to watch a two hour documentary about the making of the original Jaws film. (It was on the Biography Channel I think) anyway, it was a fun program. It discussed all of the problems that a young Steven Speilberg and his crew had with getting the mechanical shark to work. It was tested in fresh water and it worked fine, but upon putting Bruce (the name the shark was given.) into salt water, it began to go haywire. (and someone on that crew should have figured that out or at least questioned..)
But anyway the most interesting part of the documentary was toward the end. The cast and crew were all being interviewed, Steven Speilberg, Richard Dryfuss and a number of production members, and Dryfuss said something that really stood out to me. It was in regard to the movie's staying power. During the year the movie made its debut it remained in theaters from June to December of 1975.
Toward the end of the program they showed a picture of a Times Square theater with a monstrous line of people waiting to get inside. I smiled at the end of the documentary, I was so very thankful to have seen this movie in a film theater, so thankful to have experienced everything this documentary talked about. Then i thought about my neices and nephews and their generation.
Damn shame.
This young generation wont get to experience true tentpole films. They walk instead into a massive mega theater (which is of course part of a monsterous chain of hollow classless establishments which are scattered across the country), they will pay an obscene $15 dollars to walk into a small shoeboxed shaped room and sit through a bland 20 minute program which has...COMMERCIALS!! To finally get to the trailers, and maybe, just maybe the movie that they paid to see will have some sort of substance to it and will resonate within their heads for more than a week or so, before finally being supplanted by the next piece of fluff that hollywood swears will be the next big thing.
The films of my youth played to packed houses, did repeat business, stayed in theaters for months and created legacies and lasting impacts. There are so many films from the 70s and 80s that created the foundation for my own universe..so many of them to list here (that would be a fun project though)
sigh..so this is progress. (how long was Iron Man 2 at the top of the box office this May? Is it even still in theatres?)
Damn shame.
But anyway the most interesting part of the documentary was toward the end. The cast and crew were all being interviewed, Steven Speilberg, Richard Dryfuss and a number of production members, and Dryfuss said something that really stood out to me. It was in regard to the movie's staying power. During the year the movie made its debut it remained in theaters from June to December of 1975.
Toward the end of the program they showed a picture of a Times Square theater with a monstrous line of people waiting to get inside. I smiled at the end of the documentary, I was so very thankful to have seen this movie in a film theater, so thankful to have experienced everything this documentary talked about. Then i thought about my neices and nephews and their generation.
Damn shame.
This young generation wont get to experience true tentpole films. They walk instead into a massive mega theater (which is of course part of a monsterous chain of hollow classless establishments which are scattered across the country), they will pay an obscene $15 dollars to walk into a small shoeboxed shaped room and sit through a bland 20 minute program which has...COMMERCIALS!! To finally get to the trailers, and maybe, just maybe the movie that they paid to see will have some sort of substance to it and will resonate within their heads for more than a week or so, before finally being supplanted by the next piece of fluff that hollywood swears will be the next big thing.
The films of my youth played to packed houses, did repeat business, stayed in theaters for months and created legacies and lasting impacts. There are so many films from the 70s and 80s that created the foundation for my own universe..so many of them to list here (that would be a fun project though)
sigh..so this is progress. (how long was Iron Man 2 at the top of the box office this May? Is it even still in theatres?)
Damn shame.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
When Do You Know?
When exactly do you know or come to realize that you are doing exactly what you were meant to be doing in life? Is it an instantaneous thing or is it a slow process that we don't even take notice of until the watershed moment occurs and leaps out at us?
I've always fancied myself as a writer and creator. (and that's another good question, are you a writer when you write, or are you a writer when you are recognized for your writing?)
So back to my ramblings..I always considered myself a writer. Even as I made my own comic books as a kid and my artwork wasn't all that great, I looked forward to the writing aspect and felt that would save whatever story I was trying to tell at the time. I went the screenplay route at first, but after years of receiving one paragraph responses thanking me for my submission (or even worse, no replies at all), I began to lose hope. In 2000 I turned my creative energies to producing a number of indie films and projects, none of which got any further than the shooting stage, (something I attribute to the minds and desires of the people I was around at the time, and turned away from writing at that point.
I think I still have outlines for about 20 projects of all genres somewhere in my home, and when the Distant Battlefield franchise becomes successful, I plan on introducing these to the world as well.
Anyway, I was still spinning my wheels mentally around 2007 or so when my lower intestines sent me to Woodhull Hospital for a two month vacation from the world. As I lay in the hospital bed after the initial surgery, I took the time to do a quick reassessment. I was still alive, still on this planet, and when I get out of the hospital I will eventually have to return to the world...as what?
Am I to be a 9 to 5 humanoid for the rest of my life? is that all my life is?
Will I spend another few years of my existence shooting music videos for wanna be rappers and putting in hour after empty hour on someone else's indie project, making phone calls, dealing with actors and manning lights?
what exactly am I going to do now?
The only thing in my life that ever spoke to me was writing and creating. Stories, short stories, screenplays. If i remember the old saying, a person is what they do, not what they say. If all I ever did was talk about writing but never wrote anything, then I'm not a damn writer. Very simple.
I saw no labor in writing A Distant Battlefield. It was a love. It was spending time with a host of characters and having them play off each other. It was creating a universe which comprised 440 pages, and I enjoyed every single page.
Even months after the first installment was written, I think about the characters and the story every damn day. My mental editor is still going over pages and phrases and sequences, wholly satisfied with what we have done, but still believing we could say and do it better.
Part two is in outline form, and is more an array of thoughts and sequences than an actual order of events. But that's OK. That rough outline is the clay from which the second book will be sculpted, and I'm ready to get in there even now.
I'm about a good month away from introducing you guys to what I have created. Hope you like what I have presented to you, hope you understand what message I am trying to convey.
I truly look forward to the conversations I will have with all of you in regards to what I wrote and what my thought process was like. Hope to meet alot of you in person. If not, drop me a line or send an email. I will gladly write you back.
After all, I am a writer.
I've always fancied myself as a writer and creator. (and that's another good question, are you a writer when you write, or are you a writer when you are recognized for your writing?)
So back to my ramblings..I always considered myself a writer. Even as I made my own comic books as a kid and my artwork wasn't all that great, I looked forward to the writing aspect and felt that would save whatever story I was trying to tell at the time. I went the screenplay route at first, but after years of receiving one paragraph responses thanking me for my submission (or even worse, no replies at all), I began to lose hope. In 2000 I turned my creative energies to producing a number of indie films and projects, none of which got any further than the shooting stage, (something I attribute to the minds and desires of the people I was around at the time, and turned away from writing at that point.
I think I still have outlines for about 20 projects of all genres somewhere in my home, and when the Distant Battlefield franchise becomes successful, I plan on introducing these to the world as well.
Anyway, I was still spinning my wheels mentally around 2007 or so when my lower intestines sent me to Woodhull Hospital for a two month vacation from the world. As I lay in the hospital bed after the initial surgery, I took the time to do a quick reassessment. I was still alive, still on this planet, and when I get out of the hospital I will eventually have to return to the world...as what?
Am I to be a 9 to 5 humanoid for the rest of my life? is that all my life is?
Will I spend another few years of my existence shooting music videos for wanna be rappers and putting in hour after empty hour on someone else's indie project, making phone calls, dealing with actors and manning lights?
what exactly am I going to do now?
The only thing in my life that ever spoke to me was writing and creating. Stories, short stories, screenplays. If i remember the old saying, a person is what they do, not what they say. If all I ever did was talk about writing but never wrote anything, then I'm not a damn writer. Very simple.
I saw no labor in writing A Distant Battlefield. It was a love. It was spending time with a host of characters and having them play off each other. It was creating a universe which comprised 440 pages, and I enjoyed every single page.
Even months after the first installment was written, I think about the characters and the story every damn day. My mental editor is still going over pages and phrases and sequences, wholly satisfied with what we have done, but still believing we could say and do it better.
Part two is in outline form, and is more an array of thoughts and sequences than an actual order of events. But that's OK. That rough outline is the clay from which the second book will be sculpted, and I'm ready to get in there even now.
I'm about a good month away from introducing you guys to what I have created. Hope you like what I have presented to you, hope you understand what message I am trying to convey.
I truly look forward to the conversations I will have with all of you in regards to what I wrote and what my thought process was like. Hope to meet alot of you in person. If not, drop me a line or send an email. I will gladly write you back.
After all, I am a writer.
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