The Dorky Daddy

Not so risky business

Since the little guy was born, our movie viewing has taken a nosedive. The last movie we saw in an actual theatre was Toy Story 3.

To be honest, if it weren’t for Netflix and our own DVD collection, we probably wouldn’t see anything.

But, with Meg and the monkey off at camp this week and me working, it was sort of like being a quasi-bachelor for a bit. Meg told me while they were away I should re-enact Risky Business. (Although she apparently meant dancing in the living room and not so much the Rebecca DeMornay-prostitute part. Who knew?)

My evenings have been spent not so much in that Tom Cruise/Old Time Rock and Roll mode, but more in a ‘take a deep breath, crash on the couch and veg out watching movies’ mode.

So, a few of the movies that I just don’t feel comfortable watching with the little guy around, and I figure Meg probably doesn’t want to see anyway, have all been on the menu this week. From Captain America to the Avengers, I’ve been having a geek-out film fest with me and the cats.

And I have loved them all. I admit that for being the comic book nerd that I am, my knowledge of the Marvel Comics universe is limited. I was a DC guy growing up. Despite that, I have no qualms saying that Marvel is so far ahead of the game when it comes to their live-action movie franchises than DC is right now.

Take Captain America for instance. Set against the backdrop of a propaganda, ‘ra-ra-America! Keep em’ Flying!’ backdrop of World War II, I enjoyed every single moment. I suspended disbelief completely and just sat back and had a terrific trip back in time to fictional 1940s America. I love the explanation of the Captain America persona and outfit as a propaganda piece for the war effort, until alter ego Steve Rogers takes it upon himself to be a real hero. And with a villain as improbable as the Red Skull as the main antagonist (I mean, come on, his head is just that – a red skull), there’s a lot that could have gone wrong. With Hugo Weaving in the villainous role, though, it just fired on all cylinders for me. I should’ve popped up a big bowl of popcorn for it, as it would have been appropriate for this big, explosive, fun piece of comic nostalgia.

As I say, I don’t have a vast knowledge of Cap or many Marvel properties, but I do know how popular he was throughout the war years, with plenty of adventures against the Nazis and the Red Skull. So, I thought it was handled wonderfully in the film when, instead of one adventure/brawl with the skull and that’s it, we instead, through montages, actually see adventure upon adventure of Cap as he takes on the Skull at various points in the war. It never slowed the film down, yet still gave you that sense that Cap was fighting well through the bulk of the war years, just like he did in the comics. And, they even kept things true to the comic history by having him frozen in ice so that he could re-appear in the modern super hero world, just like when creators wanted to bring Captain America back decades after his original run ended in the war years.

I’m so glad I watched Cap before The Avengers, too, as it was the perfect setup for the superhero team extravaganza. I haven’t yet watched Thor, but figured I could get the gist of The Avengers without it. Director Joss Whedon (whose creations of Buffy and Angel, yes, I used to watch week to week when they were on the air) had a pretty monumental task in front of him, as trying to put all these characters (Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Thor and Hawkeye) into one movie just, by any account, does not make sense. There is no logical way for it to work, but Whedon makes it work, again just going for pure fun that lets you leave all cynicism at the door because you’re having such a great time watching it.

I knew I’d love Robert Downey Jr’s performance as Tony Stark/Iron Man, as I had already seen the first Iron Man movie and fell in love with it purely on his performance.

As I say, Chris Evans surprised me as a wonderfully charming and inspiring Captain America in both films, but another pleasant surprise was Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk. Wow, what a performance. His suppressive, introverted, socially awkward performance really made you feel for him as a man hiding a monster and trying his best to keep it in check. The man took what could easily be a one-dimensional comic character and made him real and interesting. Bravo, Mr. Ruffalo.

I enjoyed them both so much that now I can’t wait for the sequels…although I’m sure I’ll be waiting a lot longer for them to turn around on Netflix. 🙂 But when they do, I’ll be ready with a big bowl of popcorn and dorky superhero delight.

For the love of Mo!

Storytime has pretty much become ritual in our house.

Aside from dinnertime and bath time, it’s the other consistent that’s needed for a complete wrap-up of our day. We started very early reading to the little guy (in utero) and have carried it over practically every night since. In fact, we’re now at a point where, even though he’s not walking just yet, he’s crawling over to his bookshelf in his room and pulling off a book or two when we bring him in for bed. He knows what time it is and what comes with it.

And one of the most frequent authors gracing our bookshelf and storytimes is Mo Willems.

I came across his work by pure accident early on in this adventure of parenthood, when I picked up “We Are in a Book” with Elephant and Piggie. Little did I know what an amazing world of doodles that was going to send us rocketing into for both baby and parents alike.

Sometimes I worry I’m always using the Mo Willems books as a go-to at night, but it’s because I just love reading them so much. And now that the little monkey is one year old, I can say that over that year, no other books have made him giggle and react aloud the way a Mo Willems book does.

That one Elephant and Piggie book has quickly grown this past year into a good portion of our bookshelf, along with several Pigeon books (my personal favorite), along with their stuffed doppelgangers.

I can’t quite put my finger on what makes his work just so darn appealing to all of us. There’s the obvious humor, as the books are all hilarious and relatable in their situations and emotions, whether you be one or one hundred. Is it any wonder he won Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street? Then there’s the art – simple in its doodle-like manner that you’re automatically put at ease and drawn in. With his word-bubble dialogue for some of his books, it becomes more like acting out a play than anything else.

We’re such fans of Mo Willems’ work that several months ago, I jumped at the chance when my job as a TV journalist gave me the opportunity to do storytimes at our local Barnes and Noble. It was usually a once a year event at Christmas reading The Polar Express alongside my good friend and Meteorologist, Bill. When they gave me the chance to do another stortyime, this time a night of Mo Willems, I thought I was going to practically beat down the doors of the store. I couldn’t wait! And when the time came, what a night we had!

I got to break out all of the character voices I’ve accumulated while reading to our little guy over the past year, and the kids who showed up at Barnes and Noble seemed to enjoy it, although I don’t think anyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I had to explain to the kids that we all have our own voices for characters when we read, so mine may not be what they’re used to for Pigeon, or Piggie, etc, but they got it and seemed to laugh along anyway. (For the record, MY Pigeon voice is based on the voice Meg and I give to our cat, Winston. Just the right blend of demanding child and mr. sassypants.) We were having so much fun, I think we ended up reading four books in total instead of the one or two advertised. I even read a new one called “This is Not a Good Idea!” which is set up like an old silent film. I couldn’t resist and we ended up buying it that night.

The whole evening was such a thrill!

Our own little guy even got involved. When I introduced him to the crowd as my son and the one I usually read to at night, he stood up and held out his arms as if to shout ‘my people! my people!’ (yup, that’s him to the left with my wife stifling her laughter at his ridiculousness) What a little ham. 🙂

But I digress. If you haven’t yet picked up a Mo Willems book, give it a try. Your little kids will thank you and you’re likely to love storytime even more. And if you ever make it to the northeast, maybe you can add to your parenthood bucket list a trip to see his work at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA. We haven’t been able to make it yet, but I’ll tell you, we’ve had numerous conversations to figure out just when we can make it happen. It’s like a mecca of Mo. 🙂 We’ll get there…even if I have to find a Pigeon to drive us there in a bus.

What to Expect…Cartoon Edition

Expect the unexpected sometimes.

I was recently contacted by the folks with “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” who had stumbled across this blog and asked me if I would be a guest contributor/blogger for their companion website.

I had a great time and certainly hope it’s the first of many.

The result is this piece reflecting on all of the cartoons from my own youth that I can’t wait to watch with my son when he’s old enough:

http://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/toddler/saturday-mornings-ain-t-what-they-used-to-be.aspx

I hope you get the chance to check it out.

Imagination 101

As years have passed and I’ve moved from high school student to college student, part-time worker to full-time worker, then full-time worker in the news business (which is a 24/7 business), becoming a parent (another 24/7 job), I have found my window of free time shrinking more and more. That has meant less time for family, fr friends, and for bring creative.

When you are drowned in your work from the moment you open your eyes, with emails, texts, calls, etc. until you go to bed at night, there is little time left for bonding, let alone to let your mind travel to that creative place it visited so much in the past.

I think that’s why I get so sad when I see old work or writings by my younger self.

I’ll be so proud at how imaginative it is. Then, I’ll realize how I haven’t been that creative in so long and I wonder if I’m doomed to a day-to-day hamster wheel that leaves my imagination outside of the cage.

That’s why I leapt at the chance to take a workshop with writer J.M. DeMatteis back in May. With my wife’s encouragement, I headed out-of-town for a few days of creativity, writing and a re-awakening of something inside me thought to be long gone.

Called Imagination 101, I was among a small group of very talented individuals, spending our days, brainstorming, creating, encouraging and feeding off of each other’s energy. It was wonderful and it reminded me that if you don’t flex your imagination like a muscle, it will become just as flabby.

Even if it’s a little bit of time each day, it can make all the difference in the world. I admit it’s very hard to do, but I continue to try. I usually write after the little guy has gone to sleep or if I wake up on a weekend before he and my wife do.

What had happened over time was that, due to the lack of time, I would begin to look at a writing project that I once was so excited about as just one more thing on my to-do list. When that happens, it becomes drudgery, it became work.

If there is one thing for me to have walked away from the Imagination 101 workshop with, it’s that writing should be like play. If you can get back in touch with your nine-year old self and make whatever you’re writing the same kind of fun it was then, to make it like play, then your pilot light of creativity will never go out.

I thank J.M. so much for his inspiration and the encouragement of those in the workshop with me – Noah, Raymond, Nicole and David – you all helped me go back to the ‘real world’ with a recharged battery and a rejuvenated sense of confidence in my creativity.

Like Golden Age superhero Johnny Quick and his magical formula for super-speed, J.M. gave us a formula to keep that fire of imagination going:

Imagination + Creativity = Play

Snip snap

In the past week, I have gone through more electronics than I do in years.

I’m not one of those gadget guys who has to rush out and buy new gizmos, trust me. In fact, before buying my most recent computer this winter, I had been using the same one for roughly ten years or so.

It was a little shocking when I tried to log in to my computer last week to find that I couldn’t type. I tried again, and again, and again, to no avail, until I looked and saw that the keyboard was no longer connected to the CPU.

In fact, the cord was severed.

However, even though this computer was brand new, one of my feline sons decided to bite his way through the keyboard cord. So, out I went to visit Best Buy, where I thought I hit the jackpot by finding a keyboard on sale from $21.99 to $4.99. I brought it home, plugged it in, and i was off once again into cyber space.

Until Monday, that is.

I had some things to take care of before work and thought I’d hop on the computer quick before I headed out. How wrong I was as it appeared, once again, that one of my little guys had bitten and severed the cord yet again!

This morning, the mouse was the victim of the latest attack. This last one is fitting, I know.

I’m obviously writing from a computer other than in our household as a result right now.

So, I’ve ordered a wireless keyboard and mouse set (along with batteries to power them) that I’ll be trying once it arrives in the mail. I hear mixed reviews about them, but with three feline sons and one very human son who likes to get into everything, I figure it might be the safest bet to curb these sudden electronics expenses.

Screen Fatigue or ‘Thoreau would be spinning in his grave’

Do you ever have to just push out the chair and leave cyberspace behind?

Lately I’ve been frequently experiencing something that I can only describe as ‘screen fatigue.’ I lose chunks of time on the computer, sometimes feel as though I’ve got nothing done in that time, and I also start to feel almost physically ill.

I need to get away from it. I don’t know exactly how to do that, though in this modern world. Almost my entire day at work is spent in front of a computer. My writing projects (this blog, my comic, most promotion for these projects, etc) are done online.

Sometimes it feels as though you just can’t escape it. I wonder if, maybe more than just days off from work, I should be taking days off from technology as well, return for a few days to a simpler time without being plugged in.

I mean, when I think about it, how many times do I check my Facebook page? Check project pages? Check Twitter, email, this blog? All things I would never have done with such ferocity as I do now that I have a smartphone.

Thoreau would be spinning in his grave.

It makes me question what type of constantly-wired world my son will be growing up in. It’s no wonder no one has attention spans anymore.

Is there anyway to stop this feeling, save for picking up the family and living in a cabin in the woods?

No use crying over spilled…juice?

Going out to eat can sometimes be a three-ring circus with a nearly one year old in tow.

We especially learned that this last weekend when we tried to do dinner at a restaurant we had gone to a few times in the past with the little one. While he has often been great while we go out to eat, complete with flirting it up with the waitress, lately he has wanted nothing to do with it.

He kicks, he groans, he wiggles like a worm to get out of your grasp, and will strain every muscle in his body trying to get out of a high chair.

This morning, Meg and I went to breakfast with the monkey while we waited for my car to get its annual inspection. No sooner had the little guy been given his bottle did he decide to throw it on the ground – a hard, tile floor – causing it to shatter and glass to go everywhere.

So there we were, Meg with paper towels, on the floor of the cafe, cleaning up apple juice while I asked for a broom and dust pan to clean up the shards of glass.

And this was all before we ordered.

We thought we were in for one heck of a ride, but then, one packet of food later, and a whole lot of ‘ooing’ and ‘awing’ from passersby in the cafe, and he went from fit-to-be-tied to hamming it up for the public, with a head tilt and a smile, as if nothing had ever been wrong in the first place.

So, yup, back to normal, although we think we’ve narrowed down his sudden change of attitude while out and about – all signs point to us teething again.

Look out world, more chompers are coming!

Versatile Blogger Award

I received a great message a few weeks back from CJ Nigh of the blog Undead Dad letting me know that he had nominated me for the “Versatile Blogger Award.” I thank CJ very much for that and for finding enough things interesting here to warrant it.

One of the things I find myself constantly amazed by is the sense of community in this vast cyberspace of blogs. It’s such a new realm to me still that I have been overwhelmed and incredibly grateful for the kind comments, likes and responses to my blog posts here over the past twelve months. Honestly, when I decided to start this blog, I never in a million years would have thought anyone other than my family and friends would have paid attention or cared, but so many of you have been so kind, attentive and caring that I just can’t help but say ‘thank you’ for making me feel welcome.

You all have such wonderful stories to tell, and through many of you liking my posts here, it’s made me go out and start following and reading many of your own blogs, and I absolutely love it.

With that said, I’d like to pass along some blogs that I’ve been following and enjoying as well:

Say Noodle – Kids Stuff. Crafts. Fun.

Dad, it’s ok! – 29 year old, newly married, and on the way to fatherhood. Stories of preparation, arrival and thereafter to be expect.

mariqia – A Mommy’s Life. baby. photography. food. love. style.

Scene Stealer – Taking a Shot at Life…Aiming to Inspire

Let it come from your heart – a beautiful photo blog

dorkdaddy – one dad’s misadventures in raising well adjusted kids while passing on a love of all things geek

Hickersonia – contemplative thoughts

The Adventures of Miss Fanny P – …because life is just one big adventure…

megactsout – my wife’s blog on life, kids and dreams

Rikdad’s Comic Thoughts – just some great analysis and observations on comics

Last of the Famous International Fanboys – A blog about comics n’ stuff!

Lotus Flower – Spreading the wonders and joy of Nichiran Buddhism through articles, experiences, art, music, film, comedy and pop culture, plus the author’s own thoughts.

Holy Karpe! – Sketch blog of my artist friend, Tom Karpe, who was kind enough to provide me with the Dorky Daddy illustration on this blog.

Brandon Dawley’s Sketchblog – another artist friend and his phenomenal work.

The Victorianchronists – a place where history, culture, and silliness meet.

Now, comes the boring part. I’m told that with this award, I’m supposed to share seven factoids about myself with you, as though you don’t learn more than you’d ever want to know about me from this blog. So, here we go:

1) I like to write with a blue pen whenever possible, feeling more creative when I do.

2) My favorite comic book super-villain is The Riddler.

3) I think that the smell of coffee grinding in a cafe smells so much better than any coffee ever actually tastes.

4) Before I became a journalist, I wrote and directed some low budget films.

5) The first comic book I ever read was an old Uncle Scrooge left at my grandmother’s house.

6) I often get accused of liking animals more than people. I won’t disagree, but my reasoning is because when animals are mean it’s usually out of instinct or protection, whereas humans CHOOSE to be mean to one another.

7) I am fascinated with the work and viewpoints of Orson Welles

Ales of the Revolution

Some may choose to celebrate the Fourth of July with hot dogs and hamburgers, but as I write this, I have just sampled a taste of the American Revolution.

For quite a few years, I had been on the hunt for a beer called “Ales of the Revolution” from Yards Brewing Company in Pennsylvania. I can’t quite remember how I learned about them originally, but once I discovered their existence, it became a mission to try them.

Ales of the Revolution are recreations of the original recipes of Founding Fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

The concept intrigues me to no end! To have a (as close to it as possible) taste of the American Revolution era? Sign me up!

I’ve always had an affinity for history, but that has certainly grown since meeting my wife. It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to break out HBO’s John Adams on Independence Day and I can’t tell you the number of times during any season that we’ve sat down to watch a movie only to end up popping in our DVDs of the History Channel’s “The Presidents” narrated by the always superb Edward Hermann. My appreciation for the past extends far beyond the 60s, 40s, 30s, etc and the chance to know what a beer tasted like as sipped by these men of legend is fascinating.

However, for a long time I thought it just wasn’t meant to be. I had tried online, I had tried beverage distributors in the hopes of a special order, but to no avail. I had all but given up hope.

Then, recently while out to dinner with my family, I was surprised with two large cases of this otherwise unattainable nectar. It seems that my brother, looking for a belated birthday gift for me, had contacted a friend living in Philly and asked them to pick up a few cases.

Now, after this long search, it was right here in my hands.

So, tonight, I cracked open one of George Washington’s Tavern Porter, described by the Brewing Company as “…smooth, rich, and warming with chocolate and coffee flavors. It’s inspired by Washington’s original recipe, and reflects his admiration of Philadelphia-style porters…”

And with an ABV of 7%, it’s no wonder these guys staged a revolution against the biggest super power at the time. They were probably buzzed to no end as they plotted and planned and philosophized over pints at some dimly lit tavern.

Also in the mix is Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern Ale (a golden ale with dried fruits and toffee aromas inspired by Jefferson’s original recipe that called for wheat, honey, and rye from his Virginia estate) and Benjamin Franklin’s Tavern Spruce Ale (based on Franklin’s original recipe. It uses spruce tips and molasses as barley and hops were not readily available at the time).

Needless to say, it’s a win as a beverage and a definite win for the history buff in me.

Now if I could only figure out what John Adams would have drank…

Now the story of a street named Sesame, and the one magician…

Now that fatherhood has me watching more Sesame Street than ever before, I occasionally come across unexpected moments like this.

Fellow “Arrested Development” fans might have been as surprised as I was to see Will Arnett pop up in an episode as Max the Magician, essentially just playing Gob Bluth, complete with a Sesame-type version of Final Countdown for his entrance. 🙂

I admire how the creators are using actors and references that the parents can enjoy and get them as engaged as the kids. It really makes for a wonderful bonding-viewing experience. Not that it’s anything truly new. Even the early episodes of Sesame Street had appearances from celebrities like Bill Cosby, Lena Horne, John Denver and many, many more. And heck, every episode of the Muppet Show had a celebrity host of the time taking part in skits. Still, it’s nice to see the tradition continuing.

If I’m any indication, it’s working, Children’s Television Workshop. Nice job.

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