Author: CaptainJaq

I am a father as well as a world traveling, dog loving, scuba diving, book collecting, writer - currently residing somewhere in Eastern Europe. His words have been spoken by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Robin Hood, been read by David Copperfield, and criticized by his 7th grade English teacher. He'd like to thank the members of the Academy, although he doesn't know why. In his spare time, he's a university professor and a kick-ass uncle.

A True Titan: Six of Marv Wolfman’s Best Tales | DC

“Fifty years ago, an up-and-coming creator named Marv Wolfman turned in his first script, and though no one knew it at the time, the DC Universe was about to be changed forever.”

I first met Marv Wolfman in 1983, when he was a relative newcomer, having only been in the biz for about 15 years, and I was a 16 year old punk.

Since then, we’ve been friendly, we’ve broken bread and hung out and shared a number of laughs.

And he is defintely one of the formative writing voices of my own work.

Evidently, I’m not the only one who feels that way.

“So there was this girl…”

IMG_2003

Recently, I was asked by the Baltic Summer University to give a lecture about how I ended up in Lithuania. I titled the lecture Stranger in a Strange Land: How I went from All-American to part-time Lithuanian. That picture to the left is from the talk.

This was all well and good until it came time to actually start to put the lecture together and I realized I didn’t really know what I was going to talk about for 90 minutes. I mean come on, even if you had Neil Armstrong come in for a lecture, he probably didn’t talk more than 60, and he actually did something important (although, if you ask him, it weren’t no big thing).  Continue reading ““So there was this girl…”” →

Baltic Summer University and the birth of documentarians…

IMG_1990.JPG
Filming an interview

So for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been teaching an intensive filmmaking class for the Baltic Summer University. The class itself had gone through various permutations, since this was the first time it was being offered (and so, it stands to reason, my first time teaching it). Originally, the plan was to have the students break into two groups, with half making a scripted film and the other half doing a documentary. With only 5 students, however, that wasn’t going to work. Add in that four of the five were really interested in documentary work and we changed plans on the fly, eventually deciding that each of them would make their own 5 minute documentary.  Continue reading “Baltic Summer University and the birth of documentarians…” →

How YouTube Became the World’s Best Film School | WIRED

man holding clapper board
Photo by Martin Lopez on Pexels.com

Earlier this year, in a post called Two Side of Teaching, I talked about a student who wanted to know what I could teach her that she couldn’t learn from a video. I responded “not much” and then went on to explain my answer.  Continue reading “How YouTube Became the World’s Best Film School | WIRED” →

Incredible Video Flawlessly Edits Dozens Of Famous Characters Into One Coherent Scene – Airows

notebook macbook pro designer technology
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

There’s something incredibly cool about the art of editing. It can transport you from one time and place to another in a fraction of a second. Kuleshov developed the idea of “creative geography” when it came to film editing and now, here’s an extreme example of how it can be put to an extremely effective use. While this might be a tad long, it nevertheless is worth watching.

Elfquest and Comics without Superheroes

When I was a kid, and I started getting into comic books, naturally, my first inspirations were the superheroes. AAron and I would pull whatever was on the rack at the local Safeway, stopping for an hour or more on our way home from Kenny Guinn Middle School to sit and read. Continue reading “Elfquest and Comics without Superheroes” →

On Superman’s Symbol

18qliape9yl2vjpgOver at Kotaku.com, they have a great piece about the changing emblem on Superman’s chest. As they point out, “the big costume changes over the decades tend to stick out—the mullet and all-black bodysuit after he died and came back—but the smaller changes that happen over time tend to be more fascinating. Now you can see them all in one place.”

SaveSave

On Speaking English as a Second Language

Smart in Russian
A friend on Facebook posted this picture, which then sparked a discussion about speaking English when it isn’t your native language.

So here’s the thing: It’s hard. What this illustration points out is incredibly true. When I moved to Lithuania, I had no idea how to speak the language. Eventually, a few years after I arrived, I had the opportunity to take a basic, entry-level class.

It was hell.

Being a teacher myself, I would talk with my teacher who told me, after that fact, that when she saw she had an American coming in to her class, she was a little nervous. “I hate teaching Americans – any native English speakers, really.”

Now, mind you, the class itself was taught in English as that was the common lingua franca amongst the students, so the idea of speaking English wasn’t the problem.  Continue reading “On Speaking English as a Second Language” →

Dinosaurs and Technology – July 8, 2018

IMG_1734.jpgSunday was our last day in town and we had decided to try for the Natural History Museum. It fit our requirement of being free and had the added benefit of being one of my favorite places (plus, I’m working on a story set there, so, yay, research!). But first…breakfast and then a walk to the park.

Back at Valentines Park the day before, we had seen a small play area for kids but didn’t get a chance to stop by, so we figured we could do that this morning. Monki loved it. She only recently discovered the joy of slides and swings back at home, and was getting pretty good at climbing the stairs and waiting her turn, so this seemed tailor made for her. Continue reading “Dinosaurs and Technology – July 8, 2018” →

Park Life – July 7, 2018

IMG_1795.jpgSo…Remember those clothes we took to the cleaner back on Wednesday when Monki got sick in the car? It wasn’t just a wash and fold, it was actually a dry-cleaner and they said they could get them back for us Friday night or Saturday morning. Since way back then we didn’t know what was going to be happening, I opted for the Saturday morning option. Now, here we were on Saturday morning, up and ready to go out for the day, except we had to wait until at least 9am so we could make sure to get our clothes. Continue reading “Park Life – July 7, 2018” →

Into London Town – July 6, 2018

IMG_1678.jpgNew day, new adventure. Once again, a jet-lagged baby was up early so we had breakfast and headed out to figure out how to get into the city. We found the Ilford station and a very nice and helpful station agent explained the advantage of Oyster Cards to us as a cost saving measure and with the help of Citymapper, an app Lin had recommended, we quickly and easily made our way to Westminster Underground station. The great thing about this app is it it not only tells you what time and platform your train/bus/subway is on, but also which exit to take in order to leave the station as efficiently as possible as well as GPS enable walking routes to get you to and from the stations themselves. Truly a great app for London (and I understand they have it for other cities as well). Continue reading “Into London Town – July 6, 2018” →

Brick by Brick – July 5, 2018

IMG_1584.jpgLegoland is located over near Windsor Castle, where the recent royal wedding had been held, and about 50 miles from us. Thankfully, due to jet lag, Monki was up early, which meant we were as well, and after a brief English breakfast at the hotel, we were off on the day’s adventure. Continue reading “Brick by Brick – July 5, 2018” →