Maria talks to her friend Andreas at Liberty Brand.

One particular Saturday, Maria and I spoke about many things, and we eventually landed on the subjects of my book and my new gig with Indiegogo. Maria’s fascination by my ability to tell her the weather for tomorrow just by looking at my phone today paled away when I explained to her what I spend my days doing from around 9:30AM to 5:30PM. I told her about my travels over the past five months and how many people and celebrities I’ve met in my short time with Indiegogo, and how I help them make their moviemaking dreams come true by helping them get the funding they need to make films they’ll be proud to show the world.

Maria then looked me in the eye with a certain sense of pride. “Yanni,” she said, saying my name in Greek, “you are a true filotimo.”

Having never heard this particular word before, I asked Maria what it meant. She told me it meant that I was a “friend of honor and integrity,” but then went on to say that filotimo is the most difficult word to translate from Greek into any language, and it’s an even harder concept to fully wrap one’s mind around. When I got home that afternoon, I did a little research. According to Christopher Xenopolous Janus, filotimo is “the most untranslatable and unique Greek virtue.” Composed from two words, filo- (friend) and -timos (honor/respect), filotimo is “a value of personal honor and pride that pivots on empathy and compassion for others as expressed through acts of generosity and sacrifice,” according to an informative blog post on Kafeneio.

Now, being that I’m more American than Greek, I grew up without any knowledge of the concept of filotimo, but it seems its seeds had been planted by my father ever since I was a boy. My Dad certainly embodied the essence of filotimo; he sacrificed so much for my sake, raising me right after my mother died; he stood tall and strong even in the face of the unseen adversary that took his voice and ultimately his life, but not without a near ten-year battle because he felt he still had to look after me. Much like every other story out there, and of course according to Joseph Campbell, we all must “atone with the father” and ultimately succeed him, as is the case with me. And so in that supersession, perhaps I’ve absorbed a subtle fraction of the filotimo he preached and practiced without him ever having to label it or give it a name.

Greeks, in general, have a strong sense of pride and are often accused of being selfish and having a formidable ego to contend with. But within all men and women who walk through life with open minds emerge two most important elements of storytelling and life: compassion and empathy, which each have their roots firmly planted in the ancient soil of the Hellenic world. With age comes growth and understanding. But to get there, we must first work on ourselves; we must be selfish (for a time, not forever) and start working on, as Michael Jackson once sang, “the man in the mirror.” In order to craft an award-winning screenplay, one must lock himself away with only a laptop, like Herman Melville had done with the writing of Moby Dick. And once the story is written, once the film premieres, we suddenly become the most selfless people in the world by having touched all those others around us in profound ways. Inducing tears, bellying up a laugh, moving a passive bystander to act. And once that happens –– or rather once we allow it to happen –– our individuality softly melts away, as it must, before we are allowed to become something truly great and selfless: a filotimo.

Therefore, filotimo is not merely a word, but a way of life; a feeling, not a philosophy. It’s something that grows alongside and within each and every one of us, not something we learn like mathematics or language. And while I’m still working on nurturing myself in mind, body and spirit, tapping out words on the page, I’m also giving back with each poem I publish, each Indiegogo campaign I help make successful, and with this very blog post you’re reading now. Filotimo resides in other people’s perception of you, like Maria and her perception of me. Its roots, though, come from years of growth and prosperity of the self, then sacrificing that self to the greater good by simply bringing out the greater good from within ourselves.

Perhaps the greatest show of filotimo ever.

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Filotimo. Machisimo. Mensch. These are all cultural concepts sometimes difficult to grasp. Are there any others that you know of? Share them below –– I’d love to know them and what they mean to you.

On Saturday, April 6^th, I had my first-ever book signing for Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: The Way to a Successful Film Campaign, published by Michael Wiese Productions this past March.

There I am reading to a captive audience at Tachair Bookshoppe, Jersey City.

The combination reading/signing was held in my favorite city in the country –– Jersey City, which also happens to be where I’ve lived for seven years now –– at a quaint little local bookshoppe called Tachair. The evening was special in many ways, mainly because I was surrounded by those who have been most supportive of me and my creative aspirations over the years. In the house was my lovely Lady Marinell, of course, to whom my book is dedicated; my brother Walter and sister-in-law Patti, who nearly made me well up when they told me how proud they were of me; and James Broderick and Vince D’Onofrio (not the actor, the playwright), two great friends, respected mentors, and former colleagues of mine from my days at New Jersey City University, where I’d taught Civilizations courses over the past ten years before trading in my adjunct status for the more reputable title of manager for film, web and video at Indiegogo.

Also in attendance were some exceptional folks whose friendships and support I’ve cherished over years, including Michael Ferrell and Devin Sanchez, two-thirds of the creative team behind the indie film Twenty Million People, which was successfully crowdfunded on Indiegogo between April and June of 2012, raising $13,515 on a $10,000 goal.

Amid a packed audience captivated by my personal stories of how Crowdfunding for Filmmakers came about and the various chapters I chose to read from, the evening was made even more significant simply because it was hosted by Tachair Bookshoppe. See, back in April, 2012, I wrote an article about Jersey City’s lack of a physical bookstore for Jersey City Independent. At that point in time, Tachair was a “roving” bookstore that would set up their tent at all the different markets and festivals in Downtown Jersey City. But partly because of my article and the spirited reception it received online, Aleta Valleau, her son Paul, and her mother Carol set up shop on Newark Avenue where they now sell used books, best-sellers, and books by local authors like me (and I hear those sell better than those best-sellers!)

A throwback to the Cerise acrostic poem days –– an appropriate thank you to to a bookshoppe dedicated to preserving the written and spoken word.

It has been an amazing journey, and it’s not over yet! From crowdfunding my short film Cerise during the early dawn of crowdfunding for indie filmmakers to writing my first blog post in my “Tao of Crowdfunding” series, which would go on to inspire Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, and onto my current calling as one of two film gurus at Indiegogo helping filmmakers to craft successful campaigns, I’m certain none of this would have been possible without the blessings of the crowd –– Not my initial book deal with MWP, not my book being made available on Amazon, and not this book first book signing.

Make no mistake: It’s because of all of you terrific folks who’ve entered into my life, and who have allowed me to enter into yours, that I continue to receive such humbling triumphs and rewards, and I’ll pay it forward in helping our community make their independent filmmaking dreams come true, one campaign at a time.

That, and making a few more of my own come true, too. Stay tuned for more on that!

One thing I’ve always been skeptical about as a somewhat closed-minded teenager reading comics in between classic works of literature was any superhero from some other universe outside the main solar systems of DC and Marvel. I certainly tried a few titles: Valiant’s Ninjak, Dark Horse’s Hellboy, and Image’s WildC.A.T.s and Cyberforce. They all seemed to center around pale imitations of A-listers and popular superteams, with the exception of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn, of course, which was badass in story, art, and originality.

It wasn’t until many years later that I opened my mind to the idea that cool heroes could exist outside the worlds of DC and Marvel. After joining the Broken Frontier staff, I conducted and wrote up an interview with comics and TV writer Jay Faerber, who was penning a crime series I enjoyed immensely called Near Death, that I found out about two other superhero-oriented series he worked on from 2002 to 2009 –– Noble Causes and Dynamo 5.

Dynamo 5 –– an original superhero team with unique abilities and real world problems.

Even though I’m only two trades into the Noble Causes franchise, I’m already hooked, although not nearly as much as when I started reading Dynamo 5. I’ve read all five trade paperbacks, all in the course of a couple of months. See, after I met Jay at NYCC and had him sign my copy of Near Death #1, I snatched up a copy of Dynamo 5, Volume One: Post-Nuclear Family and turned it over to read the back cover, and I was immediately intrigued by the story’s originality:

He was the world’s greatest hero, but Captain Dynamo was not a faithful husband. Now he’s dead and his family is trying to piece their lives together. As his enemies descend on his unprotected city, Captain Dynamo’s widow rounds up his five illegitimate children, each of whom have inherited one of their father’s super-powers. Can these total strangers come to terms with their powers, their father’s legacy and each other as total chaos erupts?

With Noble Causes, Jay blends the superhero mythos with soap opera sentimentality, which all other action/adventure books of the superhero sort steer clear of. But by embracing it the way he does, Jay allows us into the everyday lives of this highly unlikeable but strangely fascinating family; plus, we see it all through the unbiased eyes of Liz Donnelly, the widow of the late Race Noble, much the way readers view the world of The Great Gatsby though the eyes of Nick Carraway. What Jay does best in Dynamo 5, however, is shift the focus onto five young strangers-turned-family members trying to cope with the knowledge that their father was Captain Dynamo, a Superman with somewhat less of a moral code when it came to extramarital affairs, and that they have now collectively inherited his role as the defenders of Tower City since his death.

When I had picked up this first volume of Dynamo 5, I honestly wasn’t in the mood for another superhero title; I’d been trying to round out my comics knowledge with indie titles, ones funded through crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter, and old crime and horror comics as research for my own upcoming series Siren’s Calling. But when I opened that gorgeous cover by Mahmud A. Asrar, I got through Post-Nuclear Family in a single sitting. As a matter of fact, I made it through each of the other four volumes in the same manner –– one shot, one after another. I was that engrossed in the lives of these teens-turned-teammates in this fresh take on the Teen Titans. This was not your typical superhero story, but rather something fiercely different and very similar to the graphic literature I’d been consuming. It fit right in with my research, and every book gave me tons of enjoyment, too.

And then I reached the end of Dynamo 5, Volume 5: Sins of the Father, and saw that the series had come to an end.

Hector pushes the limits of his newfound strength battling against aliens in Dynamo 5, Volume 5.

But the story wasn’t over.

How could it be over? One of the characters I’d seen mature from a visor-wearing Cyclops to an Incredible Hulk (sans the skin tone and Rob Liefeldian muscles) lies on the ledge of the dark side and I needed to know what was going to happen to him. But there was nothing more to the story except a holiday special. No Volume Six. No closure. Nothing.

I’m not sure why Dynamo 5 ceased its run after its fifth volume. There had been talk of another miniseries called “Certain Death,” but the last anyone heard of that was from Jay’s old blog back in May, 2011 and a few pages illustrated by “Sins of the Father” artist Julio Brilho that’s posted on Jay’s Facebook page. Aside from that, the series seems to have remained “aborted.”

Until now, perhaps?

Recently, some smaller press publishers have reinstated lots of b-side superheroes like X-O Manowar for active duty. I gave some of them the benefit of a read, and none of them resonated with me the way Bridget, Hector, Gage, Olivia, Spencer, and even Maddie, the widow of Captain Dynamo, had. Don’t get me wrong, Valiant’s Harbinger, Dark Horse’s Ghost, and even DC’s Swamp Thing and Animal Man are all great action/adventure stories, but that’s where it stops for each of them. The kind of substance and humanity that Jay penned into every issue of Dynamo 5 is what’s lacking in just about every superhero story today. Now maybe substance and humanity don’t sell many books today, but perhaps what’s more important is having an audience that cares enough to help Bridget here lift Dynamo 5 to new heights and finally resurrect it from “Certain Death”.

It’s kinda funny, but when I left Jay’s setup at the Image Comics booth at NYCC, I handed him a calling card for my book Crowdfunding for Filmmakers and said something along the lines of “if you ever want to crowdfund another few issues of Near Death, let me know and I’ll help you do it through the crowd.” But while his tale of Markham, the hit man who has a near death experience and vows to save a life for every one he’s taken, was compelling from first issue to final, the ending in Near Death #11 felt finished and complete. Markham lives in my head, and I know exactly what he’s doing, and where he’s doing it, too. But the kids from Dynamo 5? They’re in a limbo of my mind, an unfinished chapter that’s perhaps yet to be written that the fans would love to read in a single sitting, and once again become further invested in a superhero story with more substance and humanity than any other currently on the racks.

Or am I the only one who thinks this way?

I can’t be the only one.

Can I?

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C’mon, Dynamo 5 fans, speak up in the Comments below and let me know your thoughts, and whether or not you’d love to see a Volume 6 hit the comic shelves from Image soon.

Master versus Manticore in Bloodpool, Act One.

The most interesting thing about this game released by Square Enix back in 1991 is that it’s both a side-scrolling action/adventure and a city-building simulation. After battling some classic mythological beasts as a statue imbued with the spirit of The Master, you must then successfully rebuild the societies of Fillmore, Bloodpool, Kasandora, Aitos, Marahna, and Northwall by listening to the prayers of your people and answering them by way of miracles before you can start swinging sword and killing hordes of baddies and bosses that remain in a second action-packed act per realm.

Although I loved the action sequences in all their 16-bit awesomeness, it was really the SimCity aspect of ActRaiser I took to most, whereas others might have considered it slow-moving; as a matter of fact, ActRaiser 2 was released in 1993, which was strictly action-oriented and much less successful than its predecessor. Alongside taking and using offerings and working miracles to ensure the prosperity of the people, there is some arrow-shooting action from your Angel, whose main focus is to help each broken culture resurrect itself by unloading his quiver on all the napper bats and blue dragons that try to stump the progress of this brave new world.

The Angel does The Master’s bidding and helps rebuild the society of Fillmore.

So I got to thinking recently how similar ActRaiser is to audience building. The game’s primary theme is belief. According to the user manual (remember when video games came with those?), the people ceased belief in The Master since he had fled a hundred years earlier. Once he reappears and defeats the creatures and the Centaur in Fillmore’s first act, the society’s Adam and Eve are created and show their appreciation for The Master in the form of prayers and offerings.

As artists, entrepreneurs, and creators of various kind, it’s important that we show people we’re worth believing in, that they can take a chance on us and what we’re looking to accomplish with our projects and not be disappointed. This begins with an innovative idea for a film, a product, or business, and from there we build up a core audience around the initial belief that the end result will make their lives better, easier, or more enjoyable. But we also have to evangelize our project, the same way the Angel in ActRaiser flutters two and fro carrying out The Master’s bidding and firing arrows at any agents of darkness that seek to keep our ideas in the dark.

We also have to drop a little miracle or two on our audience from the Sky Palaces where all our work is done. Use our lightning to clear a smooth path between our product and our crowd, then shower them with praise and updates on what’s up and what’s next; shine a little light on ourselves when times are slow or uneventful; strive to constantly blow away any demons of doubt in our crowd and ourselves and shake up the very nature of our respective industries with a well-placed earthquake. In the beginning, we may start with as little as two astute members of our audience, but ultimately, belief will spread, much how it does in each and every realm of ActRaiser’s world –– from the temperate green hills of Fillmore to the scorching Saharan desert of Kasandora. And to your very own living room.

Angry Video Game Nerd James Rolfe knows all about building audience. And being angry.

I see a lot of crowdfunding campaigns, more now than ever before since I started working at Indiegogo, and I find the most successful campaigners nurture this sense of belief in their project early on and are more easily able to convert that belief into action in the form of contributions. Campaigners like James Rolfe (Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie) and Hannah Hart (Hello, Harto!) understand this very well and have spent lots of time building up their fan bases on YouTube (968,851 and 476,350 subscribers, respectively, and counting), so it’s no wonder they were able to turn their fan’s dedication into dollars to help yield two of Indiegogo’s biggest film/web campaigns to date.

The most important thing to remember is that as creators, we are not The Masters, but rather the Angels serving the highest power –– our creations. Whether it’s the crowd from which we’re looking to pool funds to make a project happen or those we hope will use our latest gadget, or the ones who’ll be amongst the first to watch our latest film or video or buy our book –– and even those good-hearted folks who help by spreading our word –– we have to always listen to them to better serve their best interests. Less people in any given circle means less belief in our Masters, so that the statues of our ideas may forever remain unmoved and frozen in stone.

After all, what good would even that statue serve if there were no one there to see it?

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What video games, old or new school, have taught you something about everyday life? Share your thoughts below –– I’d love to hear about it!

This is also my first blog post as a former professor. Three weeks ago, I launched out into a brand new career with the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Some of you may remember that back in 2010, I entered the world of online fundraising with a campaign for my short film Cerise. Since then, I’ve gone on to consult on various film, music, and book campaigns, free of charge, because I felt I had some insights to offer. Ultimately, I wrote a series of blog posts, which lead to my first book, Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, which will be published by Michael Wiese Productions this March.

“Go Fund Yourself” –– Most rock ‘n roll tagline ever!

It seems that my keen knowledge on the subject of crowdfunding, and what people have called my “intense generosity toward others” have paved my path to the Indiegogo offices in SoHo, NY, where I’m in charge of helping get film campaigns on the platform and get them funded, as described by my partner Brad Wyman, who produced a little film called Monster, which won Charlize Theron an Oscar back in 2003. And much the way it was a conversation on Twitter that partially lead me to pitch my book to @FocalPress and @MWPFilmBooks, it was #gogofilm that got me and @IndiegogoFilm talking about taking my skills to the next level.

Brad, as well as Indiegogo co-founders Slava Rubin and Danae Ringelmann, whom I’ve known since the days of my Cerise campaign, and Adam Chapnick, who I finally met at the company’s all hands conference in San Francisco last week, have shown me nothing but the utmost respect, even long before I became Indiegogo’s Vertical Manager for Film, Web & Video (“vertical” is just a fancy term for “category”). During my time as an adjunct professor (or what I called “freelance” because it sounded more dignified), however, there was seldom any respect shown.

In ten years of teaching in the higher education coliseum, I always got the thumbs down from my colleagues, all except a few select champions, who remain my heroes –– you they know who they are). I even spent a brief semester serving as secretary of the American Federation of Teachers local at my alma mater, and I saw the worst evils Hydden beneath these Dr. Jekyll’s unleashed before my eyes. And the confrontations always came down to a matter of degree: Unless you had a Ph.D., you were merely an instructor, and they hosed us down with reminders, sicked the dogs at us when we tried to speak up.

The only ones who give adjunct professors the respect they deserve are the students. They’re appreciative of all the knowledge we bestow on them. Many of them have never even heard the term “adjunct.” To them, a professor is a professor. Throughout the crowdfunding community, too, I’ve been given a great amount of respect from every friend, Twitter follower, and campaigner I’ve helped out along the bumpy road of crowdfunding by way of blogs, monthly guest posts at Daily Crowdsource, or my BBC spot in which I speak about crowdfunder etiquette.

And for that, I thank you all for helping steer me towards this bright new path where I can still be a professor.

A Tale of Two Professors
My Dad used to frequent the local Path Mark in Weehawken, NJ. Up and down the aisles he’d traverse, laying in his basket only items that were on sale, and all the while being cordial and talkative to everyone he’d meet in those aisles, even when he ultimately lost his voice to cancer. He always induced a smile from the cashiers and stock clerks, and they would open up to him about things that bothered them, both at work and at home. And my Dad, he’d listen. He’d give advice. And before long, he became known at that Path Mark as “The Professor.” No degree required, but a ton of respect.

Professors come full circle: Father and son, circa 1980(ish).

There were a few movies I really wanted to see in 2012, but I spent the bulk of my time hunched over my writing desk working on everything from Crowdfunding for Filmmakers to the script for my very first comic book, Siren’s Calling; plus there were countless comic book reviews, blog posts, and guest posts for Daily Crowdsource and various online venues that required my attention. The bright side is that I’ve written more in 2012 than in any other year of my entire writing life. The down side? I’ve gotten a bit too far-removed from the best and worst movies of the year; half the time, I didn’t even know what was playing in theaters! (Pretty sad for an indie filmmaker, huh?)

That said, what follows is a trio of (very) short lists of movies that (1) I wanted to see, but didn’t, (2) I saw but didn’t care much for, and (3) I’m looking forward to seeing (and will put in the effort to see) in theaters come 2013. So here goes!

Five Films I Wanted to See in 2012 (and Why), But Didn’t:
Argo –– Because everyone’s saying how awesome a director Ben Affleck is in this one.

*Les Miserables –– Because Marinell really wants to see this.

Lincoln –– Because I want to see why Daniel Day Lewis will receive the Oscar for Best Actor.

Looper –– Because it’s about time travel, and I’m all about time travel tales.

*On the Road –– Because I’ll always be a beatnik at heart.

* I may still be able to see these films before the end of 2012 –– wish me luck!

Three Films I Did See in 2012 And Was Disappointed With (and Why):
The Dark Knight Rises –– Because it felt like the first draft of a story that could’ve been as amazing as both The Dark Knight and Batman Begins.

Prometheus –– Because it was nothing like Alien.

Taken 2 –– Because it was just a sequel to a phenomenal first film.

Two Films I’ll Be Sure to See at a Theater in 2013 (and Why):
The Great Gatsby –– Because (1) the trailer looks amazing, and (2) I’ll always love the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Man of Steel –– Because it looks like the darkest take on Superman yet.

So my 2013 Resolution is, appropriately, to watch more indie and short films on a much more regular basis. What’s YOUR resolution?

Ma Yuan’s “Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring.” Song Dynasty, c.1160.

Everything we do is intrinsically linked to everything we’ve done and will do. Yet too often we take up arms against this natural Way of life, causing ourselves needless stress and anxiety. The sooner we accept what it is we are, the sooner we’ll be able to embrace the success and contentment we truly deserve. I certainly have, and I can only hope it’s the beginning of greater things to come.

In my brief 34 years, I’ve been afforded many wondrous opportunities to be myself. From the moment I received my first acceptance letter from Enigma for my poem “Paradise Lost” (much shorter than that other John’s poem) and turned my first 30-page script into an hour-and-a-half feature-length film to landing my first book deal, I’ve counted myself among the lucky ones who’ve been fortunate enough to share their stories with the world. Attending New York Comic Con this year further whetted a long dormant desire in me to write a comic book after I drafted the first issue of an original graphic horror story. And most recently, I’ve been offered a tremendous new opportunity to work with a team of dedicated individuals whom I greatly respect to lend a hand to crowdfunders and help get their projects noticed and funded, all because someone took notice of the advice I’ve been sharing on Twitter over the past three months under my #CF4Filmmakers hashtag.

Regardless of how it all turns out, none of this could have ever happened without connections. I’m not talking about the people we connect with, but rather the distinct vibrations of the universe that lead us to particular points in the time and space of our lives. For instance, I crowdfunded my short film Cerise on Indiegogo, something I could not have done had I not joined Twitter first and met a couple hundred awesome people who shared my interest in filmmaking. People like Gregory Bayne, who helped pique my interest in crowdfunding when I saw he was raising money online for his documentary Jens Pulver: Driven. Because of this, I launched my own campaign and raised $1,300 over my $5,000 goal from folks like you. My campaign ultimately led me to write a trio of blog posts, and those posts paved a direct path to Michael Wiese Productions, where I pitched the premise for what would become Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: The Way to a Successful Film Campaign.

That’s a proud me holding up a proof copy of Crowdfunding for Filmmakers.

One event connects to the next, and it’s this culmination of events that helps shape what I call “The Pu of You” (hmm…sounds like another book title…) Pu is the ancient Taoist concept of the “Uncarved Block.” The majority of us spend a lifetime trying to make ourselves what we want to be, and this can be a very positive thing, of course. But if the obstacles presented before us are too great to overcome, or if our skills necessary to make us thrive remain uncultivated, we carve ourselves in vain. If we let go, however, and allow the universe to create what it wants of us, then we become something else entirely. I’d always known I was a writer, but prior to my completing Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, I never thought it possible for me to focus on a long-term writing project and see it through to the end. That’s why I’ve billed myself as a poet for the past twenty years –– poems are short and can be finished (contrary to Paul Valéry’s old adage that a poem is never finished, only abandoned). But finishing a 253-page book, including three rewrites and a number of additional revisions? That gave me the confidence I needed to embrace the writer with a capital “W,” which the universe was trying to lure out of me despite my own uncertainty and doubt in my abilities.

And what if the universe has something different in store for me for the future? If that’s the case, it’s just fine by me. I know it’ll be all for the best. The connections that push us in the directions we’re headed have only our best interests in mind. If an obstacle thwarts our way, we need only find a new path around it. And we do this all the time. Some of us just over-think it, is all, and hold tight to things like regret and that heart-gnawing question: “What if?” But the truth is there is no “what if?” There’s only “what now?” We need to leave that kind of mental baggage on the side of the path ahead and never dwell too long on the detour sign that’s occasionally placed before us. After all, a detour is simply a new direction to the same destination. Enjoy the ride.

What advice, philosophies, and/or beliefs do YOU subscribe to on your journey towards greater things ahead? Share them in the comments section below. I’d love to read them!

FLASHBACK: OCTOBER, 1993. I was a freshman at Weehawken High School, writing poems during homeroom, skipping out on gym class after stretches, and listening to Meat Loaf’s recently released Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell album 24/7. I had also just reconnected with some friends I’d known since kindergarten. Now they wore leather motorcycle jackets, Levis jeans, and Steel Toe boots. They’d grown out their hair. They hung out in back of the school and never spoke with the baggy-pantsed hip hoppers from the Heights. On their chests they bull-horned album covers of their favorite bands like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, and Slayer, and to top it off, chains carrying pewter logos of those bands dangled round their necks. In short, these guys looked like trouble, and these troublemakers wanted me to hang out with them.

So I did.

Back Into Hell: Still a bad-arse album cover.

On that first October night of many more to come, I put on my best attire: chinos, my best (and only) pair of Payless sneakers, and my Bat out of Hell II T-shirt. I was so afraid these guys would poke fun at me for proudly displaying my well-seasoned Meat Loaf pride in the midst of what I deemed would be a night of Satanic music tartare. Surprisingly, they didn’t so much as chuckle. They accepted me for who I was. Then Brian, the eldest and thus the crew’s leader, pulled me aside and showed me a spellbinding sight: one of his dad’s motorcycles, and on its fuel tank a beautiful rendition of the original Bat Out of Hell album cover. Immediately I was put at ease and felt like one of the boys.

That night, we sat in that basement and listened to music. That’s all we did, and it seems that was all they ever did. Brian and the crew introduced me to all sorts of heavy metal music. No Death or Deicide, but what I heard was definitely harder core than the Meat and potatoes I’d immersed myself in. They played Danzig’s self-titled album, and his iconic “Mother” stuck in my head all through the night. Then Type O Negative’s debut album Bloody Kisses queued up and I was hooked. They changed up the pace with some more Brooklyn natives –– the boys behind Biohazard, and I can’t recall how many times I listened to “Punishment” with Dolph Lundgren speaking a line as the Punisher from that terrible 1989 movie.

This was such a mistake of a movie, but I remember enjoying it back in the ’90s.

After a few hours, we ascended from the basement and went out for some quarter juices and chips at the corner store, then sat on Brian’s steps while we ate and drank. Then we went back down into the basement and listened as Brian rocked out some riffs on his B.C. Rich Warlock before calling it a night. After all, tomorrow was a school day.

NOVEMBER, 1993 – SEPTEMBER, 1996. It wasn’t long after that first night before I started listening to Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and other (slightly) more heavy metal bands, though it wouldn’t be until college when I’d finally be able to appreciate death and black metal bands like Sepultura and Cradle of Filth. I bought a $100 leather motorcycle jacket, stocked up on T-shirts of all my new favorite bands, though I never discarded my Meat Loaf Tees. I picked up a Guns N’ Roses chain to wear around my neck. I hung out at the back of the school. My hair grew past my shoulders. I wore Steel Toe boots (Doc Martens were too expensive), and I started learning the electric guitar.

In 1998, my hair was still long (as was my best friend’s Alain Aguilar, pictured on the left) and I was still proudly sporting my leather motorcycle jacket.

One thing I noticed even then was that these guys I was spending my time with were good kids. Yes, we had long hair and blocked off the B-side steps of our high school, but in those years between 1993 – 1996, there was never an altercation with a crew of hip hoppers (we carried knives, just in case), no issues with drugs, and only an occasional night of passing a 40oz bottle of Bud between us in the yard of the grammar school we all went to or tagging up trailers in North Bergen. Maybe there were a couple mischief nights egging houses and TPing the trees, too, but most of our time was spent listening to music and eventually learning to play it as well. Many a night we would stand on a corner when the steps grew weary of our chatter and the autumn breeze would try to freeze out our discussions about everything from songwriters to science fiction, or our marveling over photos of our favorite musical personalities in the latest issue of Hit Parader Magazine. Seattle Grunge was riding the waves out East, too, and by the time Kurt Cobain had shot himself, we were all mixing a little Pearl Jam and Nirvana into our daily repertoire of head-banging goodness; teen angst seemed a natural progression.

BACK TO BLOG: OCTOBER, 2012. October always conjures up those critical days in my youth when I discovered a little smidgen of the person I wanted to be, a taste of my identity to come, because despite my black leather appearance and Alice in Chains outlook on life, I was never much of a man in the box. Even then I knew I’d never keep myself cornered, listening to only one kind of music, reading just one book genre. October has always been the time of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicket This Way Comes or The Halloween Tree, Stephen King’s Pet Cemetery and Salem’s Lot, Dean R. Koontz’s The Voice of the Night and Shattered; the time of year to populate my Netflix queue with classic horror films for 30 days of blood and gore; the time to drink obscure German beers and like it. And why? The trees are decked in a mélange of color and become more beautiful due to the diversity of their leaves. The older they get, the more gorgeous they become, if only for a brief moment in time before they crisp and fall. And shouldn’t it be similar with us? With every story we endure, shouldn’t we become something more beautiful with each passing October?

These days, October breeds an appreciation of all the ghosts of Octobers come and gone, pulling out the Misfits and mixing in a pinch of Tom Waits while enjoying a chill breeze that’s kind of cold, yet helps keep in my mind all the stories that continue to push me onwards and upwards toward new heights without boundaries of boxes, days, or decades. So this Halloween, treat those little Avengers and tiny Dark Knights with chocolate, but every day, give yourself a treat and remember all those moments that have brought about change, but never stop haunting who you were, are, and will one day become.

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And because I just couldn’t not include it, here’s the music video for Danzig’s “Mother,” which I remember being fascinated with and must have watched over a hundred times.

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What months have helped make YOU  the person you are today? And if there are any specific stories you can share, please do so in the Comments section. I’d love to read ‘em!

As many of you know, I’m a bit of a Renaissance man when it comes to the arts. I’m a published poet who plays a decent hand at DIY filmmaker, with one solid feature-length screenplay written and ready to shoot, plus another in 1^st draft mode, and who’s now trying to squeeze an original graphic story into the comic book arena. Oh, and I’m also the author of an upcoming book Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, and that ushers in a whole slew of new titles, from guest blogger to crowdfunding consultant. And I also try to maintain a solid standing as a loving boyfriend and responsible kitty daddy who occasionally enjoys some time at the café or bar with my closest friends, actors, writers, and acquaintances from Facebook, the real world, and beyond.

Sheesh! Now that I wrote all that, I actually do quite a bit, don’t I? So how do I manage to do it all? Well, here are six steps that I live by, which may ensure a rich journey onto a more productive path in life:

Land yourself a job that doesn’t get in the way I’ve been very fortunate (at least for the past ten years) to have an occupation that doesn’t interfere with my writing and filmmaking endeavors –– freelance professor. I teach at an average of three universities across as many counties in my home state of New Jersey, putting in a max of fifteen hours a week and raking in enough coin to cover rent, car insurance, student loans, and cell phone expenses, plus a little extra for food shopping and an occasional dinner with my girlfriend Marinell. The more responsibilities we have at the office, the more money we’ll receive, but it’ll be at the expense of our free time.

Don’t follow what’s on TV When I was a kid, I followed a lot of TV, as outlined in a prior blog post. That was enough to last a lifetime. Today, you won’t catch me waiting with uncurbed enthusiasm for the next season of Mad Men the way I’d once hurry through my homework to stake it up with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These days, if I catch any shows at all, it’s usually a quick rerun of Big Bang Theory, an episode of Toy Hunter, or the occasional webisode of The Booth at the End on Hulu. Anything else, like The Walking Dead, I’ll catch up with on Netflix a few months later. How can I live without TV, you ask? Easy: I can’t afford it. And when we can’t afford TV, the only station we can tune to is the Productivity Network, Channel 247.

This was before the “Rabbit Ear” revolution, so my signal-less 23″ tube TV isn’t so outdated.

Use guilt to your advantage Like yin and yang, pleasure and guilt coexist in everyone’s lives. Whenever I have too much of a good time, guilt starts to creep up my spine, and I’m immediately pulled back into my realm of intense productivity. That’s really the secret of how I’m able to do so much in the course of a single day –– I’ll feel guilty if I don’t, and I don’t like the feeling guilt produces. If I sit around looking at LOLCats for longer than five minutes in the course of a week, I feel like I’ve wasted much more than that in the course of my life. We’ve only got so much time to do all the things we want to do in this life, so we should spend the bulk of our time doing them.

Plan your day everyday, and never deviate I plan out each day the night before on small sheets of paper or an occasional napkin from my neighborhood café. Once I get up the next morning, and after I stretch, work out, eat breakfast, and shower, I turn on my computer and start red penning each item on the day’s “To Do” list. If I get to the bottom and they’re not all Xed out, guilt sets in. But if I do (and I always do), I’m free to enjoy whatever else I want to do with the remainder of my day. Notes like this can keep us organized enough to get through the things we need to do so we can do some of the things we want to do. (More on needs and wants shortly.)

Red Xed and ready for the evening ahead.

Choose your significant other wisely Have I mentioned how fortunate I am? One of the most wonderful things that’s ever happened to me was meeting Marinell. She understands my writer’s needs and has been super-humanly supportive of me for the past seven years. That said, and since healthy relationships are a necessity to almost everyone, if you want to remain productive, you should choose your significant other wisely. And while it’s true that we can’t help who we fall in love with, if we love ourselves enough to see whether or not he or she is a help or a hindrance to our creative or productive lives, we can make the proper choice to stay in or opt out of a particular relationship if it gets in the way of that productivity.

Understand the difference between need and want I tend to do only what’s necessary in all things, from my eating habits to my writing regimen. I only travel when I need to. For me, writing and telling stories are as essential as food, shelter, and clothing. What I need is time to write, submit pitches, revise screenplays, and create new ideas. Everything else is want, and while it’s nice to get the things we want, it’s more important to focus on the things we need; and when we get what we need, we can more fully appreciate all those things we want when we finally get them and see them for what they are: gravy on our meat loaf instead of honey on already frosted cake.

There are lots more tips that I have, from avoiding Words with Friends to doing one’s laundry once every three months, but perhaps those can be divulged in a later post or in an ebook I’m tossing around in my head, tentatively titled The Martlet’s Guide to a More Productive Life. Let’s see if these tips prove helpful (and if I can find the time to write it!)

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What are some tips YOU can offer that might help keep people on the path to a more productive lifestyle? Share them in the Comments section.

Since I’ve been spending much of my time penning blogs, comic book reviews, and my own creative writing, I currently have no time to read actual books (Fitzgerald’s Beautiful and Damned and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises have been sitting in the same spot for a month). My reading list is thus comprised of comics and graphic novels, so I decided to put together this list of “Nine Tomorrows” –– my favorite graphic tales that tell of future days, time travel, and parallel universes.

9. Robin 3000 by Brian Preiss and P. Craig Russell

This two-issue prestige format book under DC Comics’ Elseworlds trademark, did not seem to do very well with audience despite its interesting sci-fi premise: 31st Century Thomas Wayne fights off a threatening alien race as the Boy Wonder after the Batman of his era is killed. Definitely worth a read if you can get your hands on some cheap copies (I wouldn’t spend more than $5 for the pair).

8. Mystery in Space by Jim Starlin and Shane Davis

Jim Starlin and Shane Davis put together a very exciting storyline in 2006 with Mystery in Space, starring Captain Comet (whom I also mention in my post “The Five Most Underrated DC Comics Superheroes Who Deserve Their Own Blockbuster“), who’s essentially a cross between Flash Gordon and Adam Strange. This is a near perfect book for anyone who enjoys a solid science fiction story that spans galaxies, though I could have done without The Weird stories that come with this trade paperback edition.)

7. RASL by Jeff Smith

I was introduced to this series by my good friend Ed, being that he knows I have a penchant for stories dealing with time travel and/or parallel universes, and after reading the first of two collections, I have only great things to say about Jeff Smith’s story about a world-jumping art thief who finds himself at the mercy of a killer who shares his ability for leaping from world to world. My kind of noir story for sure!

6. The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley

Not much really needs to be said about Frank Miller’s classic Bat-story The Dark Knight Returns, in which an older Bruce Wayne dons the cape and cowl once more to battle back the mutants of Gotham City. This is the paradigm of great stories about the future, and a must read for any comic book fans.

5. Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross

Another exciting story of superheroes in future times, where Superman, Batman, and all the world’s greatest heroes engage in an all out super powers war. Beautifully panted by master illustrator Alex Ross, this story also pits many of our favorite superheroes against one another in a battle to save the world.

4. Batman & Dracula: Red Rain by Doug Moench and Kelly Jones

It’s Batman versus the King of the Undead in Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, which is a solid example of Elseworlds storytelling from Moench and Jones, with an ending that will blow your mind (and also bring into existence two terrible sequels –– Bloodstorm and Crimson Mist –– worth mentioning only because of the coolness of their titles and the fact that they all have something to do with the color red and rain.)

3. Revolver by Matt Kindt

I only recently discovered Matt Kindt through his most recent series Mind MGMT, and when I saw this at the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan, I just had to have it. From illustrations to Kindt’s story of a man who goes to sleep in one world and wakes up in another, Revolver is a subconscious journey through the wormhole of imagination, psychology, and human choice.

2. Metal Men by Duncan Rouleau

I’ve heard from a few people that this series wasn’t very good due to the simple fact that it’s dense and text-heavy, but as a writer myself, I wasn’t bothered by this retelling of the origin of Doctor Will Magnus and his band of merry Metal Men. Half the time, however, I was confused by some of the more chemistry-based elements of the story (the “How Stuff Works” aspects, if you will). But looking at it as the story of a man, his wicked, time traveling brother, and the woman they love, it is quite a ride through the wormholes of thought, keeping the camp-factor in tact while honoring the cosmological elements we’ve grown accustomed to questioning these days (thanks to Michio Kaku!)

1. Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson

There’s not much I can say about this story except that is the most awesome story DC has probably ever put out as part of its Elseworlds collection. The story of a Superman born and raised in the Soviet Union with an ending that to this day still twists the corners of my mind into the loop that it encompasses. Brilliant writing and brilliant artwork make for a brilliant capstone on a series dedicated to parallel worlds and alternate realities. This is a must have for every science fiction aficionado.

HONORABLE MENTION: Teen Titans, Volume 4: The Future is Now by Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Mike McKone, Ivan Reis, and Tom Grummett

And because I’m a huge Teen Titans fan, I just had to include this truly wonderful trade paperback collection of Teen Titans (volume three) #s 17 – 19, a story arc aptly titled “Titans Tomorrow” about a possible future where our beloved young heroes Superboy, Robin, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, and Raven blur the line between hero and villain and run the risk of becoming no better than those they try to protect the world against.

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What are some science fiction stories (graphic or otherwise) that explore time travel, parallel universes, and/or alternate realities that have impacted YOU and expanded your knowledge of the universe?