Yesterday, my family and I attended the Memorial Day Services at our local cemetery. We have been at it each year since I was a kid, not counting the Covid lockdown, we have only missed one year. This service has been going for 87 years and has always been an important part of the town.
Being at this service is very special and personal for our family. Many family members are buried at this cemetery, and several have served. A great cousin was in the First World War, and then my two uncles served in the Second World War. Both my uncles would have a son that would serve during the Vietnam War.
Only one of them returned to the family, the other is buried in the family cemetery along with his father and mother (who also served during WWII).
People like them fought and died for the rest of us.
We will always remember the sacrifices of all that served and died.
We know not what the future has instore, but we must live up to their memories.
Today’s blog is going to be brief, because of family issues.
In earlier blog posts I have mentioned a certain hospital. My father worked at this hospital for nearly twenty years. At this hospital, I was born, and so was my sister. My grandfather was taken care of after a heart attack at this hospital. My grandmother passed away at this hospital. My sister worked at this hospital for a short time, and now her husband works with the company that has been doing remodeling at this hospital.
When I was a young kid, elementary school age, as mention in a previous post, I had trouble reading. My parents took me to a special extra-curricular study place called The Reading Game.
It is no longer there. The building torn down and replaced by a multi-use apartment complex for students and others from the nearby University.
Reading their remedial booklets went on for many money, I no longer remember how long I attended there.
Then one day I picked up a comic book (I’ve already written about How I got that first comic), and it all changed. I was enjoying reading.
My parent’s asked the instructor if it was okay for me to be reading comics. The response was simple. If he’s reading, done stop him. Encourage him. And so, I have been reading comic books my entire life.
The next thing that got me further into reading was a series of books called: Choose Your Own Adventure. They were fantastic, especially as you could read it three or four times and get an entirely different story each time. Probably the only regular books I checked out of the school library.
(My relationships with libraries is a story unto itself.)
Comics would remain my mainstay reading content.
The reading material assigned to me in class, continued to be a struggle, hard to remain focused on whether it be elementary, junior high, or high school. It would be these outside sources, especially comics, where I could grow and learn.
If I could read something at my own pace, I could enjoy it. If it was an assigned book or chapter, I’d force my way through it but it was always a struggle, and I didn’t always learn anything from it unless the topic was of great interest to me and brought me enjoyment.
I’d later learn to enjoy doing research, but I had to find something interesting in it, something that was fun, in order to devote that much time to it. Otherwise, it was a real struggled.
The first real novel I thing I read was HG Wells’ The Time Machine.
I eventually discover the short stories and novels of Ray Bradbury. Then I found the essays of Harlan Ellison. So you know my creativity and learning process was growing.
Again, it would take an interest to get me to start and then complete reading of a book.
I remember reading a Shakespeare play in high school and enjoyed it, followed by Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible. Probably reading these in script format was probably easier than a full out novel.
During college and friend introduced me to two book series. Since I enjoyed Watch Doctor Who he thought I would like Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Which resulted in my writing several stories for class in Adam’s voice. I don’t think my teacher appreciated it.
He then introduced me to Steven R Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle. Looking back, I am still surprised by how fast I read through these books. They were heavy novels (figuratively and literally). I greatly enjoyed the books.
Over the years I would become more and more of a reader, but finding the books that appealed to me, that I enjoyed wasn’t always easy. The number of books I have read, per year, has been relatively few.
Sometimes it was the type of book, the type genre.
“So, what’s your favorite fiction genre?” – Here we are back at this question again, remember my last post.
As to Genre, I think the answer is the same as my “Doctor Who” answer previously:
I will admit I don’t like Horror, but when it comes to the rest of the genres.
“I like the one I am currently reading.”
I grew up on super hero comics, which lead into science fiction and fantasy, and especially mystery/detective fiction. Plus, over the last decade or so I’ve discovered a love for romance novels.
The first romance books I read were fantasy romance, about dragons.
Then I discovered a series called Once Upon A Con by Ashley Poston, starting with Geekerella. Telling a story that took place around a Comic Con, you had me, but these were fantastic stories, and I’ve been all of Poston’s books since.
Because of Poston, I’ve discovered other great romance authors.
Since the start of this year, I have read more books than I have in any full year I have ever had, and they were all Romance novels. Sure, they were all light novels, but still, it’s quite different for me.
Will Romance remain my Favorite Genre? Probably not, I’ll shift back to Mystery and Fantasy, Science Fiction, and shift back around again.
Looking back that the little kid I was, I am still so surprised by how much I am currently reading.
Been working on recording an audio drama for a podcast over the last few days, unfortunately the apartment building just next to ours is going through some remodeling and the noise is constantly interrupting me. That noise is teaching me to be patient, and it is also teaching me to relax in my recording. I pay too much attention to every mistake I make, every breath I take, every noise I create. I stop too often and go back and make corrections.
As mentioned in my last post, I taught Sunday School this past weekend.
For some time now, probably two or three years I have been thinking about a single word in in Matthew 26: 42.
The word that was nagging me was ‘unless’. I knew there was something very important in the use of that, but I couldn’t place what it was beyond just in my own imagination.
Since the new year, my wife and I have been reading the Bible each night, she would read from the Old Testament, and I the New Testament, and from time to time our readings would match thematically or each connected with the stories. It was during one of these reading that I gained my answer, or at least a clue as to what to look for.
When an opportunity arose to teach class again, I volunteered and decided I would take my little question and research it and turn it into a full Bible Study.
Though it fell on Palm Sunday, I brought the class forward to the events happened in the hours just before what we call Good Friday, upon the Mount of Olives and in the Garden known as Gethsemane. A lot happens in that garden scene, but I forced on one particular thing.
However, to stress how important this was, I had to take my class much further back in time. Actually, I took them back somewhere around 66 Million Years Ago. When a massive asteroid struck what we know as the Yucatan Peninsula. This was the asteroid that brought about the death of the dinosaurs. Scientists call this an EXTINCTION EVENT.
Yes, I brought up Dinosaurs in a Sunday School lesson.
I then brought us back to the bible with Noah and the Floor. In Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Genesis, God had decided that all the wickedness of man should be destroyed and brings about the Great Flood. This too could be called an EXTINCTION EVENT.
Now I turned the class attention to an Extinction Event that should have happened, but didn’t.
We then looked to the Gospels and the events in the garden called Gethsemane.
I read the Four Gospel accounts, in a different order than is traditional.
I begin with the Gospel of John, because, well… As John focus on Christ’s spiritual side while on Earth, he doesn’t include the Gethsemane scene even though he was there. Oh, right, he slept through it.
However, as this was Palm Sunday, we looked to a scene from the Triumphal Entry (John 12:27) and Christ sounds a lot like the torment he goes through in the garden nearly a week later.
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’
I then brought us to the Gospel of Luke and read chapter 22, verses 39 to 46.
There are many things in the Gethsemane scene I could break down into several lessons:
Luke is the researcher and documentarian of the facts.
He is a physician and so he is the only one that mentions that Jesus sweated drops of blood.
It think it is interesting that this man who “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3) is the only one to record the appearance of an angel.
Matthew and Mark say that an angel came to Christ’s aid after the Temptation.
Christ starts and ends the scene by saying “Pray. That you will not fall into temptation.” And “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
Luke records online one PRAYER that Christ makes to his Father in Heaven.
We then turned to the Gospel of Mark and read Chapter 14 verses 32-14
“Abba, Father.” Expressing intimacy with his Father. Like a child calling out “Daddy.”
Even before his prayers he is already “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” – Does he feel like he’s dying, or that he wishes he was dead? Both very human feelings in the midst of the stress Christ is going through.
Mark records two Prayers of Christ.
Now turning to the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 26:36-45
I will include the entire section here as it is important to the lesson.
Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter “watch, and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So, he left them there and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
(Matthew 26:36-45- The New International Version Study Bible)
Again, Christ feels overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
He asks the others to keep watch, but they fall asleep, and again he asks them the keep watch, but this time he says “keep watch with me for one hour?” Not keeping watch to protect Him, but to watch with him. He’s including them in the events.
Again “Pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He knows that last one too well, his human body is week, but his spirit keeps going forward to do the work of his Father.
Now let’s focus on the Prayers of Christ in Matthew. Matthew writes that Christ prayed THREE times, but only recorded two of them. Over all the prayers are nearly the same as what Mark and Luke recorded, but there are subtle differences.
• “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
• “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
In the first prayer, Jesus knowing that is to come is asking that this CUP be taken from him. Yet, he is willing to follow God’s Will.
In the second prayer, Jesus’ prayer is not about himself, but about us.
It is this second prayer that I am focusing on.
All three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) mention The Cup in Christ’s prayers. So, it must be something important.
It is not the “The Holy Grail” of legend or the Cup that he drank from in the Last Supper.
Though related, it is something far mor important.
According to the notes in my NIV Study Bible – the CUP represents – is a symbol of deep sorrow and suffering. Here it refers to his Father’s face being turned away from him when he who has no sin was made sin (a sin offering) for us.
The Cup of Sorrow
As much as Christ is going to feel that his Father has turned away from him:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
I don’t see The Cup mentioned in the prayer is about Christ’s own suffering and sorrow. It is far more than that…
My Study Bible calls us to look at two Old Testaments references.
Isaiah 51: 17
Awake, awake!
Rise up, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
The cup of his wrath
You who have drained to its dregs
The goblet that makes men stagger.
Ezekiel 23: 32-34
“You will drink your sister’s cup,
a cup large and deep;
It will bring scorn and derision,
For it holds so much.
You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
The cup of ruin and desolation,
The cup of your sister Samaria.
You will drink it and drain it dry;
You will dash it to pieces
And tear your breasts.
And then referees to the Psalms
Psalm 74:7-8
But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.
Isaiah calls it the CUP OF HIS WRATH
Ezekiel calls it the CUP OF RUIN AND DESOLATION
Psalms says all the wicked of the world will drink of it.
It was while my wife and I were doing our nightly reading that we came across something else. She was reading from the book of Jeremiah:
Jer 25: 15-30
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”
So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it: Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today, Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people, and all the foreign kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); Edom, Moab and Ammon; all the kings of Tyre and Sidon, the kings of the coastlands across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who live in the desert; all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other – all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.
Then tell them, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you. But if they refuse to drink, tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: You must drink it! See, I am beginning to bring disaster the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth declares the Lord Almighty.’
Here is is clear that EVERONE must drink of the CUP – every nation of the world, starting with God’s own people first. – For all have fallen short of the Glory of God. We are all sinners, all wicked, and must take the CUP of our punishment. It will bring about the end of all the wicked on the earth. – We must all drink of it, unless…
Here we return to Christ’s second prayer from Matthew:
“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
That word UNLESS is caring a lot of weight here. This isn’t about that Christ is going to take up the Cup and drink, but that we were all the one destined to drink of it. This cup is intended destruction of all that is Wicked, it is meant to wipe of all out.
Another way of writing this prayer is:
“I know that it is your will, Father, that I must drink of this Cup so that they will not have to.”
Where the asteroid struck the earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, this Cup was meant to punish us. However, Christ drank of the Cup of God’s Wrath instead of us, and we are saved from the Extinction of all who are wicked.
Instead of an Extinction Event, we had the Crucifixion.
After the lesson, as always, the entire class added their own thoughts, building upon what I brought forward.
As always, everything I teach even if it’s a bit odd, like including dinosaurs, always begins with the scripts and ends with the scriptures.
I had a Twitch account for several years, and watched a few streamed from time to time, especially Critical Role and comedian Hal Sparks. Had no concept of doing any streaming of my own, I certainly didn’t know what I would stream if I did. Then this happened:
My career in comic has been a long and slow journey, but from the very beginning as a child I was creating my own super hero characters.
My first character I created was called… Captain Combo <cringe, I know> – I tried to draw a character that was partially every character I knew in the DC Universe – The Superman Shield, the bat symbol, Flash’s lightning bolt, the Dr. Fate’s helmet with Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles, and so forth. It was really silly, and long before I discovered the android Amazo which was basically the same thing.
Been a while since I regularly posted a blog entry. Am hoping that will change soon. I have plan for some up coming blog posts. Will let you know when that will start.
In the meantime, as a Voice Actor, I wanted to let you know that I have just completed a second Voice Over Demo Reel. The first one I had produced was for Animation and Character voices. This new reel focuses on Commercials.
Am posting both of them here for you to listen to:
Commercial Demo Reel
Character/Animation Demo Reel
If you’re a Producer, Casting Director, or Agent my contact information is in the videos.
During my recent Voice Over Workshop/Class with actor Richard Horvitz I was determined to have my own Home Studio Recording Booth. Working with other students and Mr. Horvitz, I researched a lot of potential booth concepts. From the far too expensive (and would never fit in the apartment) down to seeing if I could rearrange my closet (not possible). All the research finally lead to VocalBoothsToGo.com where they have numerous types of booths from large to small, permanent to portable, and I found what I wanted and could afford.
They have a DYI booth made of PVC pipes and sound dampening moving blankets. I chose to have them pre-cut the pipes to the size I needed and a couple of weeks later I began to assemble the booth. Have a look.
Here is my Home Studio Recording Booth – Inside is my AT2035 Condenser Microphone with shock mount and pop-filter, Scarlet 2i2 Interface, and my current DAW is Audacity.
I have to really learn to to commit to writing a blog a week or more, especially when it’s the continuation go a topic from earlier posts. Sorry about that, you’ve been patiently waiting to hear what I have to say… Sure you do.
I completed the six week Voice Over Acting Class in North Hollywood. Though the final four were done on Zoom several weeks late.
Won’t go into detail, but I will say that I had a fabulous time, and the teacher really complimented me on my work and how I sounded at the mike. Took direction well. He even said I had a similar voice to another actor he’s worked with.
So I came away from that class feeling really great, and wanting to continue further into Voice Over work.
I’m awaiting to sign up for his second workshop, in the meantime I took a one day voice acting class through a studio that I have longed to visit, and taught by an actor I had listened to in my childhood. It was a great introductory experience to the work they do there, even though like all the other classes right now it was on Zoom. Am really looking forward to taking more courses and getting a chance to audition for voices in animation and commercials.
Will see where the Lord leads me and where I will speak up next.
We know that in the CW’s Arrowverse of shows at some point in the future THE FLASH will go missing in the CRISIS
Next season’s crossover story will be CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTH…
I’m thinking that during that ‘missing’ period The Flash should visit EARTH PRIME and go past the DC Comics offices, to pay homage to when the Flash used to visit Julius Schwartz.
The rain was fierce today. It was so bad this morning that I chose not to drive the freeways to my part-time job.
After I took my wife to her job I headed straight home. Figured I could get some writing done.
That was not meant to be.
I lucked out and got a parking space right out front the apartment. However, my lucked failed when I discovered that someone had broken their key off in the gate’s lock. With the rain pouring down on me I attempted to get the piece of the key out, but to no avail. So I headed back to the car where I waited in vain for someone to come out the gate but no one arrived.
After talking with my wife on the phone, and attempting to reach the apartment manager, I planned to go spend the day at a local shopping mall before someone could get the door repaired. But before doing so I wanted to check one more time to see if anyone was around that might let me. But by then the rain was coming down so hard that the street was a flood and when I opened the car door I stepped out into ankle deep cold water soaking my shoes and socks.
So for the next few hours I spent in the mall with ice cold soaking wet feet until the manager finally got back to me with the code that would let me in without a key.
So don’t anyone ever tell me it doesn’t rain in California.
At least I didn’t come down with a cold.
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden Four Names of Professional Creativity
On Halloween of that year he left for America where he would run in both the New York and Boston marathons. Eventually traveling across country with his family to settle in Fullerton, California. Yet, our family has never been far from Ireland, having visited many times. We call it ‘Heaven on Earth.’
I have been thinking a lot about how far my grandfather traveled and ran through out his long life and how it relates to my own race of a job search.
Life is a marathon. Everything you do is part of that race, there are no sprints, and hundred yard dashes. Marathons are long races in which you have to pace yourself, there will be long straightaways, up hill climbs, and sharp hairpin turns that take you in unexpected directions or make it feel like you are running in circles and heading back the way you came. You have to be willing to keep at it for the entire run, ever focused on the goal even if you can’t see the finish line.
My marathon began when I was young and fell in love with comic books and television animation. I wanted to be a part of that! Run that race. After all the run to Hollywood from my home was relatively short, but I didn’t realize just how far that run would actually be. The slow jog through school was a struggle until I stumbled upon a university professor in art who understood what I was running for.
My first real milestone came when I was hired as a background artist on the pages of the first issue of SUPREME for Image Comics. I thought that would lead me on a long straight away working in the comic book industry, but a turn too soon had me going in another direction.
Miles would pass and I kept on running. Along the way I would meet another running nearly the same race as I. She became the love of my life. Together Shannon I would run and create the webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY which has become a major part of our race for many years and miles. Though Shannon’s race had already lead her to work in television animation production, we soon found a mile stone together writing episodes of an animated series in Japan called MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL, though very few people have ever seen it in the U.S. Along the road we have both written short stories and novels, and I have been hired to do book illustrations. After running our race for what seemed like forever Shannon and I were finally married.
Last year my marathon lead me to working as an Associate Producer on an animated feature film. Again I thought I was on a straight away towards my goal. Unfortunately, it was a short run when the project got canceled. I learned a lot from the experience and hope to use my skills as I race for another production job.
I just passed my latest milestone having a comic book published in which I both wrote and illustrated the story. All-Star Pulp Comics #4, from Airship 27 Productions, contains my story “The DA’s Dilemma,” staring the Veiled Avenger, a heroine out of the Golden Age of comics.
Many times I have run long distances with nothing around and feeling very alone, no one to hand me a cup of refreshing water when I need it or provide needed encouragement and direction, and yet I refuse to give up. This race is too important to me.
Now, with thoughts of my grandfather, I have begun to wonder if my marathon race may lead me back to Ireland. I have discovered there are many great animation production houses in Ireland and if I got a chance to work with them my race would bring together two of my great joys; Ireland and Animation.
Marathons are, as I have said, long races and I am nowhere near being able to see the Finish Line. For all I know it hasn’t been installed yet. Just know that my shoes are tied and I’m still on the road. It’s time to run!
