#and more into dave eating you out like a crazed man

[dave-me0wstaine]

feeling so feral for 90s dave rn… he’s more mature, knows how to really push all your buttons just right. also eats pussy like a fucking animal and loves when you pull his hair while he’s doing it.

P OMG YESSSS i LOVE the idea of a mature 90s dave who knows how to make your toes curl with pleasure. he's already very experienced, but because you've been together for a while, he knows you inside and out, and consequently knows exactly how to make you feel amazing.

and omg he loves eating your pussy. honestly he eats like a man starved, giving your clit wet licks and kisses, plunging his tongue deep inside of you repeatedly, fucking you with it. he especially loves overstimulating you because it means you pull on his hair to try and pry him off of you.

like IMAGINE he's eating you out and overstimming you to the point that it's borderline painful, so you tangle both of your hands in his hair and try to pull him off of you. he comes up for a second but immediately he's diving back into eating you out, licking and sucking at your heat even harder and more fervently than before, his strong arms holding you in place while you wriggle in his grasp. and his hair is so knotted and messy from your hands tugging at the strands, but all he can do is groan into your pussy and hump the bed while he overstimulates you to the point of tears <33

[knickynoo]

while I'm busy drawing Lorenzo, Ted and Lauren, here is all the 1st season episodes. 15 in total.

BTTF CARTOON 2025 REIMAGINING

1 - The Trouble with Pterodactyls: Everything's normal, except if your a McFly. Especially if a dinosaur appears from a rift and tries to attack you while your on a date with your girlfriend.

2 - Not a House Cat: Officer Parker bites off more than he can chew when he takes a case for mysteriously vanishing cattle.

3 - Hoedown in the streets: A cattle wrangler lands on Strickland's car and immediately starts causing good-natured mayhem.

4 - Can't con a con-man: A 1940s Con-man ends up in 1980 Hill Valley, and starts adapting to the sudden displacement.

5 - Scene Kid on the Scene: Dave McFly's day out is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a brightly dressed kid.

6 - Don't go to 2020: Marty and Doc try to figure out why there's rifts, when a woman from 2020 accidentally shows up and freaks out.

7 - The Rules: Doc tries to make sense of it all, while Marty's in charge of setting some ground rules. Unfortunately, Lorenzo doesn't like the rules.

8 - Roll the Dice: Dave McFly and Ted bond over Spires & Sphinxes (aka Dungeons and Dragons)

9 - Sugarcane Craze: Jules and Verne Brown have fun with Grace Anderson, when it all goes downhill after she eats some candy.

10 - Can't Walt me now: A con-man named Walter tries to worm his way into Hill Valley's economy. Too bad that Lorenzo's already decided his territory.

11 - Verne's pills: After Verne has a seizure, he has to take pills... and Doc is in full parent mode.

12 - That camping feeling: Marty and Jennifer attempt to have some time together. Unfortunately, the Temporal Six keep causing issues.

13 - Parent Teacher Creature Feature: After watching a scary movie, Verne and Grace are convinced Strickland is actually an alien. (Spoilers, He isn't.)

14 - Linda's Way: Linda McFly attempts to bond over something with her music and strategy-game loving brothers.

15 - Lauren in Wonderland: Lauren nearly dies when she tries to prove to herself that she's just dreaming and not really in 1986.

which episode is the most intriguing?

Hello there! It's me, finally getting to the pile of asks I've been ignoring for weeks to months. I forgot you had sent me this episode list for your animated series rework!

These are all so interesting. I'd say the ones that jump out to me the most are

"Can't Con and Con-Man": because that whole concept is an intriguing one, and I'd love to see what kind of chaos a guy from the 1940s could cause in Hill Valley.

"Parent Teacher Creature Feature": this one just sounds like such a cartoony episode! It'd even fit into the actual animated series perfectly.

"Linda's Way": I'm obsessed with thinking about the McFly siblings dynamic and love anything that focuses on them. This would be such a cute episode.

Thanks for sharing these with me!

[wallterwall]

POSTAL

(2007)

By Uwe Boll

MAN:

Tower two.

Stand by.

[ speaks indistinctly ]

That's affirmative.

Congratulations, Nabi.

We are at the doorstep

of our martyrdom.

Praise Allah.

Praise him!

Soon we will be greeted

by Allah, the one true god,

and by the cheers

of our forefathers

and by 99 perfect virgins

who will worship us

for all eternity!

I thought it was 100.

What's that?

they promised me 100.

what's the difference?

If they're telling you one thing

and they're telling me another,

maybe they don't know

for sure.

Maybe.

Maybe the exact number

of virgins is not precise.

I mean, if it's in the 90s,

I can live with that.

Or 75.

Hey, I'm not greedy,

but what if it's 10?

Well...

What if it's 10, but we have

to split them between us?

Then you'll have

five more virgins

than you have right now,

right?

We're talking

about eternity here!

How long will five virgins

last you -- maybe a month?

They're not going to be virgins

for long, right?

Look, would it make

you feel better

if we called the big guy?

Yes.

Take the stick.

- Okay.

It's ringing.

Osama, yes, it's Asif.

No, we're on it.

It was fine, but security

takes forever, you know?

What are you going to do?

Anyway, look,

Nabi has a question.

Will you talk to him?

No!

[ mutters indistinctly ]

You do it!

Hello!

Yes.

Uh, it's about the virgins.

Really?

It was 100 when I signed up.

[ sighs ]

He said

it's not that many anymore.

Too many martyrs

in the first go-around.

You've got to be kidding me.

Does he know where we are here?

Give me the phone.

Take the stick.

Osama, it's Asif.

Right now, can you tell me

the number, absolutely,

that you can guarantee

Nabi and myself,

as far

as virgins are concerned?

[ pounding on door, indistinct talking ]

No, that's fine.

MAN:

Do it!

Come on, man!

He can't guarantee

more than 20.

MAN #2:

Open the goddamn door,

you bastards!

MAN #3:

We're gonna f***ing

kill you, you motherf***er!

MAN #4:

Lying pieces of sh*t!

MAN #5:

Open the door!

MAN #6:

- Open this f***er!

Screw this, right?

I'm glad you said it first.

Okay, get on the intercom

to the passengers.

We are changing course

for the Bahamas.

Bahamas!

Aah!

[ indistinct shouting ]

We're going to the Bahamas!

[ indistinct shouting ]

Aah!

[ whistling ]

[ gunshots ]

MAN:

...Has again expanded

the definition of marriage,

this time to include any union

between a man and a woman,

a man and a man,

a woman and a woman,

a man and a collie,

or a woman, a polish sausage,

and a long weekend.

The standoff with Mr. Cruise

Has now stretched

into its eighth day.

Cruise continues to insist

that police are violating

his parental

and religious freedoms,

citing human sacrifice

as essential...

Today on

"Good Morning Paradise,"

mayoral candidate Eugene Wells

joins us to talk about

the new political landscape,

and the newest toy craze

of the year --

Krotchy dolls.

Stay tuned. It's gonna be

a super-dupe show.

Turn down that f***ing TV!

I can't hear my show.

[ indistinct shouting on TV ]

Yeah,

nothing's good on anyway.

Just, uh, preparing

for my interview.

Fight!

Aw, you fight like a p*ssy.

No one's gonna hire

your sorry ass.

Why don't you go suck up

to your Uncle Dave already?

[ gagging ]

God damn it!

What the hell

is going on out there?!

Ugh.

Nothing.

Make sure you pick up

that welfare check!

Kiss, kiss,

sweetie pie...

[ speaks indistinctly ]

[ squishing ]

Come on!

Come on!

No.

Bad boy.

Bad boy.

I told you --

no poopies in our yard.

No poopies in this yard.

You only poop in

the next-door neighbor's yard.

[ gunshots pinging ]

Feces in the yard.

[ sighs ]

That's a violation

of trailer-park

ordinance number 101-40.

Stop eating the poop.

I'll add that to the list.

Th-the list?

The list. Great. The list.

W-what else?

What else

you got on the list?

Ordinance number 143-11.

Yesterday around lunchtime.

Now, I don't care what you two

do in your own bedroom,

but ordinance number 143-11

says if I hear your lewd

lovemaking after 10:00 a.M.,

I get to file a grievance

against your sorry ass,

which is

exactly what I'm gonna do!

Oh. Oh.

- Oh, okay.

Well, at least I wasn't boning

my sister, you inbred hick.

Oh, for your information,

hillbilly,

I wasn't even here

yesterday afternoon.

[ laughs ]

[ sighs ]

I hate this town.

Matt!

- Whatever!

This f***ing sucks.

And NASA,

The National Aeronautics

and Space Administration,

does not exist.

All the space missions

that we've heard about

since we were little kids

in school --

creations of Hollywood.

We did not land on the moon.

There is no John Glenn.

Well, there's a John Glenn

who's a Senator...

Hey, hello?

You, professor.

What is this,

a reading library?

Yeah, yeah.

Two minutes, buddy.

Ah, no "two minutes" now.

You buy now, or bye-bye.

Bye-dee now now.

Ah, go on, bye-bye.

Go on.

Bye-bye.

You bye-bye.

Goodbye. Goodbye.

- Hey.

Don't let the door

hit you on the way out.

Daddy, Mohammed says he needs

to talk to you again.

What about?

What else?

Okay, so, what did she say

about me exactly?

That slut.

# killer, yeah,

and rhyme till I die #

# with an AK-47

from side to side #

# jihad killers #

# man, it's hot in here #

# you just to stake that

out of this atmosphere #

# jihad killers #

My brother.

Any police come around today?

Anything suspicious?

No, nothing, Mohammed.

Trust me...

you are safely hidden here

for as long as you want.

Well, that may not

be for much longer.

Oh?

We have news

from Afghanistan.

News? Oh.

It is all coming together.

The shipment

left three days ago.

Oh.

Praise Allah.

When, uh, will be it here?

Tomorrow!

The time has come for us

to place our swords

to the genitals

of the infidels.

[ exhales deeply ]

Whoo-hoo!

[ chuckles nervously ]

[ groans lightly ]

[ keys clacking ]

Gah.

I see

you noticed the heads --

motivational.

Those are

every f***ing bastard

that I had to climb over

to get this job.

Jesus.

[ laughs ]

Foul.

They're paper-mache.

They're --

he thought they were real.

[ chuckles ]

Sit down.

Let's get started.

So, I hope you don't mi--

I hope you don't mind

the recording.

Uh, we're gonna use it

as training later.

Ready?

Uh, yeah, yeah.

It's good.

What the f*** is wrong

with you?

It's, uh --

the chair is actually --

All right,

we're on a time clock,

So let's get started,

shall we?

Yes, sir.

Good.

Well...

Um, so, I'm here

for the job, sir.

Right.

You're a factory worker.

I was.

I was a factory worker, but

the factory got closed down,

so I got laid off, and --

I've interviewed 15 other people

for this job.

What makes you think

you're better than them?

Well, I don't know

if I am better than them.

Well, god damn it, pal.

If you want this job, you better

reach out and grab it.

You better put

those f***ing heads on the wall.

You know what? F*** it.

Let's go to the questions.

What is

your greatest strength?

Um...

I'm a really good team player.

Wrong.

[ keys clacking ]

What is

your biggest weakness?

Um, I'd say I work too hard.

Wrong.

How would you move a

mountain using only a spoon?

A spoon?

If you were in a box,

how would you think outside it?

I bought all these goddamn English CDs

For you

to say f***ing "glass"?

It's "glasses."

You f***ing foreigners

come over here,

and you f*** up

the language,

and this b*tch

is f***ing up the traffic!

Come down, Greg.

You f***ing calm down!

This flat-ass b*tch

comes over here,

she takes over

the convenience stores,

and they eat up

all our goddamn dogs!

Go and help her.

Come on.

WOMAN:

What's the holdup?!

You're right.

I'm trippin'.

I'll just get out of the car

and make sure she's doing okay.

She's an old lady.

[ sighs ]

I feel bad now.

[ woman shouts indistinctly ]

Hi.

The light is green.

[ speaking native language ]

The light is green.

You could have

went through the light.

The light turned gr--

what did you say?

[ speaking native language ]

What'd you say, b*tch?

Aah!

Why don't you stir-fry that?

[ man laughing ]

WOMAN:

Holy f***!

MAN:

Damn!

Yeah, that'll get her moving!

Man.

What happened over there?

B*tch called me n*gger.

[ indistinct conversations ]

Ooh.

Whoa-ho-ho!

Did you see that?

Yeah.

[ chuckles ]

One date with me,

she'll look like she's been hit

with a mayonnaise truck.

[ both laugh ]

That's right, Mr. Stickum.

[ both laugh ]

Yeah, I hope she comes back.

You got to hold it.

[ whimpers ]

Thank you.

Okay.

All set?

- Yes.

What do you got?

- I will have a medium...

[ inhales sharply ]

[ squeaking ]

No, you know what?

I'm gonna have a large.

I'll have a large mocha.

Okay.

No.

No, you know what?

Maybe a -- maybe a vanilla.

Okay.

W-w-what do you think

goes better with bagels?

Unh!

You had 10 minutes

to make up your f***ing mind!

What is it with you people?

Can somebody please tell me?

I mean, we sell coffee.

That's it, nothing else.

You're not buying a car,

I mean, right?

Make a f***ing decision, huh?

How about it?

I know.

Here we go.

You're gonna have

a regular coffee.

Careful -- the beverage you're

about to enjoy is extremely hot.

Next?

Uh...

What?

I, um --

Two lattes,

no foam, please.

[ rock music plays ]

I can't believe

this is the first time

you've ever been here.

Huh.

I mean, all these f***ing idiots

calling me Uncle Dave,

And here I am --

I actually am your Uncle Dave.

[ chuckles ]

Yeah.

So, when was the last time

I saw you?

The bachelor party,

right before the wedding night.

Oh, f***, yeah, right.

That was fun.

I wonder

if that donkey survived.

[ inhales deeply ]

Well, what do you think

of the place?

Ah, it's -- it's amazing.

Yeah. I kind of owe it

all to you, you know?

Me?

Well, we always talked

about running a con like this, right?

- Yeah.

[ why did you have to send like seven of these ]

[androidcharles]

what's everyone's favorite food? This also means you creator! ^^

[I like to eat lead and uranium 240 on a regular basis. Now that my favorite food is out of the way, let's get to the others shall we?]

Henry loves junk food. Can't get enough of it. His favorite has to be potato chips, doesn't matter what flavor.

Ellie's favorite foods are health foods, like muffins, granola bars, carrot and celery sticks. She likes to dip those in ranch dressing.

Charles will eat anything he can get his hands on, but his favorite foods are batteries (because they make his tongue feel tingly) and pancakes (because they're the first food he ever ate when he first woke up).

Rupert loves pizza a little too much. He would eat it every day if he didn't have to keep a healthy regimen. He's of the opinion that people can enjoy pineapple as long as he doesn't have to eat it, but he likes lots of toppings on his pizzas.

Dave's favorite food is cookies. Not enough that he wishes he could eat them every meal, but enough to where if you asked him, he'd probably say this. His favorite type is sugar cookies, the ones you can decorate any which way.

The Bukowski Twins favorite foods are pretty much the same, roasted chicken with rice. Is there ever going to be a way to tell them apart?

General Galeforce, over the years, has gone from liking steak and eggs when he was younger to just enjoying salads as he gets older. He doesn't understand how this change occurred, but some say it might be a doctor's doing.

You would think that Reginald's favorite food would be something really expensive, but he just likes sausages a lot. He likes to put them in between a bun so it's like a hot dog.

Right Hand Man's favorite food is roasted chicken and rice as well. It seems like an odd choice of favorite food to be honest...

Sven's favorite food is some of the more strong flavored swedish foods, like pickled herring or sour herring. He tends to eat them outside to prevent people from getting sick when he's eating them.

Burt's favorite food is eggs. Just eggs. He'll eat them anyway, even raw. No one questions this and no one knows why he likes eggs so much.

Carol's favorite food is bacon. She'll eat some every day for breakfast, but doesn't seem to understand the "bacon flavored everything" craze (though she has used bacon flavored chapstick...)

Ameilia's favorite food is hot dogs (she once entered a hot dog eating contest at a local fair near a heist and won) and "donuts" (CDs containing video surveillance of Toppats conducting heists)

[adultswim2021]

Sealab 2021 #31: “Frozen Dinner” | December 31, 2003 - 11:36 PM | S03E11

Shockingly, this is actually a pretty decent one. Not good by classic Sealab standards, but man, this is the first okay one in a really long time. Sealab receives a distress call from Ice Station Zebra (a reference!). Dave Willis plays a crazed cannibal that wants to eat his companion even as they’re being rescued.

When listing the positive attributes of Sealab, it becomes pathetically apparent how truly easy it would be to make a half-decent episode of this show. This one actually has roots in the Pitch Pilot, which uses the same Sealab 2020 episode as a basis. The Pitch Pilot is available on the Volume 1 DVD, I think. It’s edited due to it’s inclusion of “KOREAN PORN”. It seems like all it would take for Sealab to be good is for them to simply write an episode, throw it out, and then write it again from scratch, this time with better ideas. This one also actually recycles a fair amount of animation from Sealab 2020, causing the show to look better than usual.

I know there’s at least one more episode of Sealab coming up that I have a soft spot for, but this being the last pre-Tornado Shanks episode would make this a serious contender for last good episode ever.

MAIL BAG

Here comes a nice bag.

Why do you think Willie Nelson didn't come back for "The Last One". Is it because he was too passive to participate in a plot for revenge or because the voice actor was a major C

I wonder about this too. I guess they REALLY liked the idea of that character being up in the attic the entire time. He’s shown fleeing the attic in the movie when the roof gets torn off, and he winds up taking residency of the ATHF house when they all leave during the pre-finale finale episode. Were I tasked to write a sequel I’d probably try to convince the producers to not do one. I don’t know why. It just makes sense as a singular, stand-alone episode. But, I would write a completely different episode that’s based on Tom Scharpling’s Chubby Checker impression.

U-N-T

Hey shut the fuck up he’s nic

Time makes fools of us all. Just look at george lowe.

Hey come on! It is a bummer that he no longer has his Space Ghost pipes, but C. Martin Croker’s death has basically cemented the fact that Space Ghost will never haunt our screens again. But Lowes old guy voice is still a great voice. He really should be a character actor or, or play a grandfather on a sitcom or something who just sits in a corner and says caustic stuff to his awful family.

Good news! Adult Swim just announced it's picking up Evil Genius from Scharpling/Tompkins productions! As The Philly Guy would say "Kiii-iick aaass!" Thoughts?

That’s good. We need something to fill the void that Family Guy will leave behind.

Morty, this is Rick I'm coming from the future to warn you *burp* that someone is gonna make fun of George Lowe *burp*. We gotta stop em, Morty.

Dude this would be epic. They gotta do this as an episode. Somebody send this post to Dave Herman (the creator of Ricky Morty)

[fuckreggiehargreeves]

Are you still taking requests? If so can you write a tiny drabble of klave mafia au. Where the Hargreeves are these big mafia bosses and Dave is a undercover cop. Both him and Klaus love each other.

i’ll take cliche title for two hundred, frank. i honestly don’t know what this turned into? but i like writing it, so maybe i’ll expand. 

tw: mentions of death, kind-of romanization of organized crime

tainted love

Go undercover, was the order he had been given, infiltrate the Hargreeves’ inner-circle by any means necessary and then take them down.

Dave was pretty fucking certain that “any means necessary” did not include literally falling in love with one of them. But he’d spent years–which was a fuckton of time, and Klaus Hargreeves was–he was beautiful. And kinder than anyone would expect, his own safe houses filled with people with nowhere else; no conditions for them, no debt they had to owe. Just don’t give out the address and don’t give out the real name of who let you live there.

That’s where Dave had started. One of the endless faces filtering in-and-out of the safe places, his story was simple, normal among the rest of the crowd: He was alone, he had nowhere else safe. Needed a job, quickly, would be willing for anything–legal or not.

That’s where it had all started. With Dave “Harpaz” walking into a building he hadn’t known existed–that nobody on the force had known existed. The main base they had spent years looking for, since long before Dave had joined. Back when Reginald Hargreeves himself was in charge, not the children of circumstance he had taken in.

The week ended with Dave shaking hands with a man he had only ever seen in photographs; tall, and large, with a glare that would make anyone else shake like a leaf. But Dave had a gun with Hargreeves carved into the handle and he understood what it meant; right now, if he got killed with this on him he’d die as nothing more the a liability.

He’d gotten a new gun within a month, made a name quickly under the watchful eye of the siblings. He was quiet, and he was quick. But he could make shit happen, could guess when the cops would be the most active because his father had been one and Dave would listen to him talk sometimes. If anybody wanted to question why a cop’s son was mixed up in this, they never asked.

They all knew Harpaz wasn’t his real last name, they weren’t stupid and could recognize that much. But they never figured out that he was a cop. Somehow, even with Allison scanning him up and down and up and down every time he was even close enough to be looked at. Even with Five’s quick mind, seeing every possibility of anything. Even with Diego who scammed his way into the police academy. Luther, who was only in charge by name. Vanya, the smallest. The deadliest, who almost had a normal life.

Klaus Hargreeves started looking at him after a year. Actually, he started looking long before that, but that was at the man who moved up quickly. Who nobody really knew, but would sometimes sit in on briefings people would literally kill to sit in on.

But it was something more than how a nobody had gotten trusted with important information. There was a smirk with the looking, a lip bite. Lustful. No other way to say it. For a while Dave wouldn’t do anything about it.

Technically Klaus was his boss–his very crime doing boss who looked at him like a fresh steak–and if his cover was blown, he’d probably end up dead. Without a body ever being found. So, the looks were ignored. But then, one day, Dave looked back. Allowed his eyes linger along the other man, enough for it not to be misread as anything else.

Any means necessary.

After all, he could fake a relationship. Fake kindness. Fake enjoyment. He was here for a reason; he was good at pretending. Too good, but he could blame that on the upbringing he had been given.

It worked though. He had a sort-of-date within two months. In a dinner empty except for them and a kind waitress. It was neutral ground, between Umbrella Activity and Commission Activity. Dave could see why, the coffee was outstanding and the food was delicious. But it was only a sort-of date because it ended with Klaus being pulled away on some family only business.

They tried again two weeks later, after Klaus had been all but announced MIA. There was not small dinner this time. It was bigger. Could have been romantic, what with the candles and rose petals and violin music. But it felt…showy. Faker than last time. In a crowded restaurant with looks being thrown at the table the two of them shared. Less stupid jokes, more like a business meeting. Klaus didn’t wear a skirt this time, leather pants and a dressy long sleeve instead.

He still looked beautiful. But not in the way he normally did, not with the unexpected kindness and semi-secret hundred dollar bills stuffed into any homeless person’s hand he saw. He looked like a wet dream, an unattainable fantasy. Not, not the man Dave had seen eat seven donuts too quickly. Who ordered a chocolate milkshake with two straws and drank it by himself.

But Dave–he digressed. Because it didn’t matter if it seemed less real to him, as long as it felt real to Klaus. It wasn’t an actually relationship; it was “any means necessary”. Not, romance.

There was a chilly Tuesday night in October, with hands brushing and stupid jokes, it felt less like an “any means necessary” type thing. Less fake, less leather pants and glass of wine; more orange skirt and milkshake with two straws. It was like a date. A normal date.

Klaus’ lips–his lips were soft. A layer of lipstick covered them the first time Dave felt them against his own, but he could still feel that they were soft. He shouldn’t have let that thought enter his mind.

Everything went downhill after that. Because it Dave felt less like an undercover cop faking a relationship. More like an actual boyfriend. With flowers, and hand holding, and spending the night tangled up in limbs, whispered promises,and grazing fingers–feather soft against Dave’s skin.

Dave found that Klaus’ hands were softer then they looked; were still soft even after Dave had seen them kill someone with efficiency and skill only years of practice could attest to. Faded tattoos littered his skin, the symbols Dave could recognized from pictures in the case file he had looked at, the meanings not lost on him but overlooked all the same.

But he was always drawn to the umbrella on his wrist–the sign that he was a Hargreeves. A leading man in the operation; branded for life before he had even gotten the choice.

The words on his hands–an inside joke between him and his sisters. When Klaus actually shot a gun at other people, held knives and ended lives on orders he never actually liked. “Hello” and “Goodbye”.

The date above his knee–for the brother who never got a chance. Got lost in an explosion and barely got a funeral, because Reginald would never celebrate a life that could have been saved. Klaus had once whispered he wasn’t entirely sure it was an accident; he knew his brother could have gotten out on time.

Klaus Hargreeves was–he was someone Dave shouldn’t even look in the direction of. Certainly not with the tenderness he know he has; soft eyes and sweet whispers shouldn’t be directed towards a man like him; a fucking criminal with a confirmed kill list, who got crazed smiles on jobs, who could sweet talk any and every drug cartel in the city to not notice a little bit missing every so often.

But Klaus was different, Dave had never fully seen the man every newspaper and every case-file had made him into. Not the kind, funny, completely human man Dave had grown to know over two years. The man he had grown to love, not just pretend to love.

But Dave–he had a job. A job that would make sure the all of the Hargreeves ended up in jail–for life most likely–and he had a schedule, and a law abiding job.

Dave Katz made a mistake. An unforgivable, irreversible mistake that would cost him his job, and probably his life too: he had fallen in love with Klaus Hargreeves.

[eddycurrents]

The Bride of Hell & Others: “Double Feature of Evil”

Words: Mike Mignola | Art: Richard Corben | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil | November 2010

Collected in Hellboy - Volume 11: The Bride of Hell & Others | Hellboy Library Edition - Volume 6 | Hellboy: Complete Short Stories - Volume 1

Plot Summary:

Through the framing sequence of the dead watching these stories as movies within a derelict theatre, we get a pair of tales set in 1960. First in Kansas, “Sullivan’s Reward” features a man who has contacted the BPRD about a house that is forcing to kill, Hellboy goes to investigate with spooky results. Then in Massachusetts, “The House of Sebek” sees a crazed gift shop guy think his a priest of Horus and try to murder his co-worker who turned him down, with spooky results.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the story itself and is not indicative of anything found within the issues or collections.)

pg. 1 - This opening is gorgeous work from Richard Corben and Dave Stewart. The desolate empty streets, abandoned vehicles, derelict buildings, and overall atmosphere of decay. Coupled with Clem Robins’ sound effects that are creepier in the absence of people.

pg. 2 - Love all of the old movie posters.

pg. 2-3 - The transition from black and white screen featuring “Bill’s Diner” through to the colour opening of the “Sullivan’s Reward” story is a nice effect.

pg. 3 - It’s certainly not every day that someone admits to being a serial killer...

pg. 4 - ...and then blaming it on a house.

pg. 5 - I think it’s interesting here that Mignola offers up no explanation for the arrival of this attorney and the transfer of ownership of the house. It just happens. It makes you wonder about previous owners and whether or not Sullivan was targeted as a down and out alcoholic, if someone (or the house) thought he’d be easily susceptible to it.

pg. 6 - I love Corben’s art here for the house, mixing a bit of his take on The House on the Borderland with some of the Haunting on Hill House interior vibes. Particularly the Hugh Crane statuary and friezes in the Liam Neeson-led The Haunting.

pg. 7 - The house paying for victims is weird. Really weird.

pg. 9 - Sullivan’s an alcoholic. Speaking as someone who has an addictive personality, I know that it’s very easy to trade one addiction for another. I’d suspect that Sullivan has traded his alcoholism for gold, or perhaps the thrill of being the accessory to murder.

pg. 12 - Yeah...I think we all should have seen that coming. I love that Hellboy didn’t either. Even now, I’d think he’d tend to believe what someone is telling him, giving them the benefit of the doubt just out of his good nature.

pg. 13 - Of course it’s some sort of creepy ritual with that dud in the painting.

pg. 14 - Greed. I love the change in lighting and shadows as Sullivan’s madness and greed becomes apparent.

pg. 15 - My gods this is hilarious. It’s also funnier because you see the end coming across time and he doesn’t move out of the way.

pg. 16 - Still hilarious.

pg. 18 - This just got weirder, but at least Hellboy now has a physical target.

pg. 21 - That there’s still enough of his jacket that his cigarette and matches are fine is just the icing on the cake for this story.

pg. 22 - The break, with a resumption of the same type of opening as the first story is a very nice touch.

pg. 23 - Like the very start of the story, Corben and Stewart nicely ease us in to “The House of Sebek” with these establishing shots. The details on the statuary and relics is very nice.

pg. 24 - Thesh is apparently actually an old pharaoh of Egypt. Whether or not he actually exists is apparently in question, but he’s listed as one of the pre-dynastic kings of Egypt on the Palermo Stone.

pg. 25 - Fellas, never be this dude. Please. Don’t be Donald from the gift shop.

pg. 27 - Corben’s depiction of Sebek is amazing.

pg. 28 - How do you explain that one to the other curators?

Final Thoughts:

This one-shot takes the format of one of my favourites, the horror anthology. Complete with framing sequence, making it feel like a take on Creepshow or any of the ‘80s big screen adaptations of The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Darkside. I know the idea here is more inspired by a take on the old black and white horror double features, but I still love the extended idea from it. I’m a sucker for it in comics too, absolutely loving the old Joe Orlando curated DC horror anthologies like House of Secrets and House of Mystery and the EC Comics stuff.

As per Mignola’s introduction, I can definitely see the Lovecraft influence in parts of “Sullivan’s Reward”, there’s also a story that I think was from Robert E Howard that my memory says it reminds me of but doesn’t want to be more specific on, and both stories actually have a bit of a Joe Lansdale feel about them. Probably due to the framing sequence and the play on classic horror ideas as the man eating house and the mummy.

d. emerson eddy should really get off his duff and start doing some horror shorts again.

[wheregayeldhidsthewips]

Keri’s birthday story

Keri’s birthday story (don’t ask me which birthday)

By Margaret Potter-Black-Weasley (or Gayeld)

  “HUTCH! What the hell are you doin’? They’re gettin’ away!” snapped Starsky as he pulled his head back in the window and dropping the empty clip from his gun and slapping in a fresh one.

 “I know that!” Hutch replied, through gritted teeth. “You think I can’t see that? I’m going as fast as I can.”

 “Yeah, well if we had my car instead’a this heap. We’d’a caught ‘em by now.” Starsky growled, leaning out the window again and taking aim.

 “Would you get back in here?!” Hutch looked away from the road to grab a handful of Starsky’s jacket and haul him back inside. “You’re going to fall out of the car.”

 “Not with the way you’re drivin’,” Starsky snorted. “Why don’t you finally turn this heap in and get a real car?”

 “Starsky, how many times do I have to tell you that there’s nothing wrong with my...”

 A loud popping noise filled the air, followed by the sicken hiss of escaping air, and the steering wheel lurched from Hutch’s grip, twisting to the left and sending the car rolling into the path of oncoming traffic. Hutch’s last conscious thought as he saw the truck baring down on him was that Starsky was never going to let him hear the end of this.

 * * *

 “Sgt. Hutchinson? Sgt. Hutchinson, can you hear me?”

 Hutch groaned, raising his hands to ward off the sound that insisted on penetrating the numbing fog filling his brain. “go ‘way,” he mumbled, trying to roll over into his pillow.

 “Sergeant, if you can understand me, I need you to respond.” A soft hand brushed the hair away from his face.

 “Unnnhhh,” Hutch slowly opened his eyes and looked at the blurry figure hovering over him. “What happened?” Hutch blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision, as the figure resolved itself into the smiling face of a nurse. “Where am I?”

 “You’re at the county hospital.” She gently wrapped her fingers around his wrist and took his pulse. “Can you tell me what you remember?”

 “We were chasing after some pushers and . . . I think the tire blew.” Hutch closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “Starsky’s never going to let me hear the end of this. He keeps telling me that --” Hutch’s eyes flew open and he searched the room in a panic. “Starsky! Where’s my--Argh!” Hutch tried to climb out of the bed, only to fall back as his back spasmed painfully. “Oh God.”

 “Sergeant Hutchinson, please, you’ve sprained your back.” The nurse grabbed Hutch’s feet, carefully guiding them back onto the bed. “You’ve got to lie still.”

 “My partner, Dave Starsky, where is he?” Hutch grunted through clenched teeth. “He was in the car with me. Is he all right?”

 “I’m sorry, Sergeant.” Warm green eyes gazed down at him sympathetically. “I don’t know anything about the other victims of the accident.”

 “Victims?” Hutch groaned, covering his eyes as guilt punched through his gut. “How many?”

 The nurse caught her bottom lip between her teeth and cast her eyes downward. “I really think you should wait and speak to the doctor.”

 “Please.” Hutch ignored the pain as he reached out to capture her hand. “Please, I was driving the car that caused this, I have to know.”

 “When they brought you in, I heard the paramedics say that there were 5 casualties and one fatality.” She squeezed his hand in commiseration. “I’m sorry. Would you like me to get the doctor now?”

 Hutch felt the breath leave him in one sharp gasp, a pain far more crippling then any physical injury could produce slicing to the core of him. “Fatality? Oh God, please, no. Do you . . . Do you know who? Was it . . .” Hutch couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. “My partner, please, just find out what happened to my partner.”

 “I’ll be right back,” she promised. “Just wait right here.” As she opened the door, another nurse, carrying an armload of charts burst into the room, knocking her backward and spilling the charts.

 “Oh God, Keri, I’m so sorry.” The second nurse looked at her aghast. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

 “It’s all right, Nancy.” Keri sighed, tucking a long strand of red hair behind her ear as she bent to gather the charts. “I know what a mess it is out there.”

 “Oh God, you have no idea,” Nancy breathed dramatically. “I’ve been on my feet for ten hours straight, just putting up with one whining patient after another. And ever since they brought that dead cop in...”

 “Dead cop?” the ghostly whisper snapped Keri’s attention back to pale figure on the bed. “Starsk.”

 Keri’s hand flew to her mouth as she watched Hutch close up into himself, not bothering to hide the tears that streamed down his face.

 * * *

Dead cop.

 Dead cop.

 The words kept ringing through Hutch’s mind. A life he’d held more precious then his own boiled down to two simple words. Dead cop. Painful images flashed behind Hutch’s closed eyes, vivid reminders of all the times he’d come close to losing his best friend.

 It all happened so fast, a split second of inattention and a gun was pressed in his back, a hand relieving him of his gun. Seeing the recognition on Starsky’s face when he entered the room. His partner’s sudden lunge to pull a civilian out of the line of fire, startling one of the gunmen into firing. The sight of Starsky falling to the floor and those agonizing seconds when nothing moved, watching his partner lying motionless on the floor, a bullet lodged in his back. Angrily confronting the gunmen, unconcerned about his own life and unwilling to be kept from Starsky’s side. Trying to stop the bleeding, knowing that Starsky needed to be in a hospital and not being able to do a damn thing about it. The stupid attempt to distract them, finding Starsky on the floor after an attempt to get to his side. Exchanging silly jokes and insults as Hutch got ready to take on the assassins with a borrowed gun. The long hours in the hospital ER when it as all over, waiting to hear his partner was all right.

 Hutch closed his eyes and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, that incident had been nearly two years ago and he still couldn’t drive past an Italian restaurant, let alone eat in one, without a knot forming in the pit of his stomach.

 A frightening, incoherent phone call in the middle of the night. A barely remembered ambulance ride as the knot in his stomach tightened. Pacing the waiting room, unsure which was worse, not knowing what was going on behind the closed trauma room doors or knowing. The doctor’s grim face as he pulled Hutch aside and delivered his best friend’s death sentence. Holding Starsky in the safety of his arms as he rode out a painful spasm caused by the poison racing through his veins. Knowing that valuable moments were slipping away, but not willing to give up the chance to provide whatever small comfort he could. Starsky’s fumbling attempt to let Hutch know how he felt about him, hiding behind a joke about cowboy movies. The sharp crack of Starsky’s berretta as he fired the shot that saved Hutch’s life, the shot that killed the man they believed to be their last chance at saving his. The tired smile on the doctor’s face when he informed Hutch that they’d been in time, that his partner would survive.

 Hutch shifted in the bed, his back seizing painfully at even the smallest movement, but it couldn’t compare to the pain in his heart.

 Sitting in the courtroom with the confusing note in hand, comprehension dawning as he looked into the eyes of a madman. The urgent march down the long, empty hallway, only the sound of his own footsteps marking his passage. The first stab of fear as he spotted the still wet blood dripping down the mirror.  Frantically searching the courthouse. Desperate attempts to make a deal with the devil, all pride stripped away as he begged for his partner’s life. Visions of brutalized children flashing through his mind, tightening the knot in his stomach. Cryptic clues that always left him one-step behind. The dead eyes of Marcus’ followers as they blindly chanted his name. The mad dash to the zoo. Arriving just to time to see the flash of sunlight bouncing off the knife's blade as it plunged toward his partner's back. Taking the pent-up anger and frustration of the last twenty-four hours on the crazed cult members. Finally pulling his bruised and battered partner into his arms, hiding his relief behind a stupid joke as he held on for dear life.

 Hutch sunk back into the pillows. God, he’d give anything to hear one of those lame jokes again, give everything just to have his partner back.

 * * *

 Keri shook her head, coming back to herself with her hand posed in mid-air, trying to remember the task she’d been engaged in before her mind had wandered to the heart-broken blond cop down the hall. But it was hopeless, whatever it had been, it was now lost to the ether, probably to return at the most inopportune of moments.

 Glancing down the hall, she couldn’t help but wince in sympathy as she saw Nancy enclose a hapless relative in a punishing hug, but aside from that sorry sight the area was free of patients. No one to notice if she took a brief detour into trauma room three. ‘Just to check,’ she told herself. A quick peek, to see if her patient needed anything.

 Keri slipped silently into the room, her heart immediately going out to the grief stricken figure on the bed. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Keri took another step into the room, “Sergeant Hutchinson?”

 “Hutch,” came the broken reply. “You might as well call me Hutch.”

 “Hutch, are you all right?” she asked in a hesitant voice. “I mean, is there anything I can get you?”

 “Can you bring my partner back from the dead?” A strangled laugh became a half-broken sob. “Oh God, Starsk, what have I done?”

 “Shh, shh,” Keri rushed to the bedside, pulling the broken man to her chest and rocking him gently. “Don’t do this to yourself. This wasn’t your fault. You said it yourself, the tire blew, it wasn’t your fault.”

 “Then who the hell’s fault was it?” he raged angrily. “God’s? It was my damn car, my damn tires, my damn . . .” another ragged sob tore from his throat, “my partner.”

  * * *

 Keri slipped quietly out of exam room three,

 * * *

 "What?" the blood drained from Hutch's face as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line, "Huggy, are you . . ." his voice cracked, "Are you sure? Oh god, I have to . . . Huggy, you've got to get me a car. I DON'T CARE WHAT THE DOCTOR SAID, JUST GET ME A DAMN CAR!" Hutch slammed the phone down and struggled to gain his feet.

 "What are you doing?" Keri dropped the glass she was carrying and sprang across the room, catching Hutch as he collapsed and easing him back onto the sofa.

  Kill Nancy and Tricia, potential dog murderers.

[robgrayofficial]

HAPPY SATURDAY PATRIOTS!!!WELCOME TO YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP! This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here to help kick off this tremendous Saturday with everything dank and spicy from the past week. If you happened to miss any past recaps you can check those out here!DON'T FORGOT, 'PEDES!! We have TWO MAGA rallies today !!!! The first one is at 2:30 PM ET in Belgrade, MT and the second is at 7:30 PM ET in Pensacola, FL! We will of course have watch parties up for both rallies so make sure you dont miss out on any of the excitement!And on that note, let's get this recap started!Sunday, October 28th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Delivers Arrival Remarks at South Illinois AirportPresident Trump and the First Lady Host Halloween at the White House🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Thank you to Steve Rogers, FBI Joint Terror Task Force (Ret), for his very kind and generous remarks about me and my relationship to Law Enforcement. @JudgeJeanineJust watched Wacky Tom Steyer, who I have not seen in action before, be interviewed by @jaketapper. He comes off as a crazed & stumbling lunatic who should be running out of money pretty soon. As bad as their field is, if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Good Question Chuck, I'll ask it on The Donald. "How can a Felon be a Registered Republican?"Indian-American Professor who immigrated to the US legally under fire for saying that illegal immigrants should be deported and supported in their own countries.Conservative Brazilians take back control after 24 years of socialism in Brazil11 dead is horrible, but this guy killed 59 people at a country music fair and there is still “no motive”🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Things that make you go "HMMMmmmmmmmm, for 100 plz"Guaranteed...IT’S OFFICIAL: PRESIDENT BOLSONARO!5,000 Russian bots descend on DCMonday, October 29th:TODAY'S ACTION:Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Commerce, and the Director of National Intelligence🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame... ... ....of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!Had a very good conversation with the newly elected President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who won his race by a substantial margin. We agreed that Brazil and the United States will work closely together on Trade, Military and everything else! Excellent call, wished him congrats!Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!In Florida there is a choice between a Harvard/Yale educated man named @RonDeSantisFL who has been a great Congressman and will be a great Governor - and a Dem who is a thief and who is Mayor of poorly run Tallahassee, said to be one of the most corrupt cities in the Country!Great job being done by Congressman Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania. Thank you Keith!CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the “Media is the Enemy of the People.” Wrong! I said that the “Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,” a very big difference. When you give out false information - not good!Check out tweets from last two days. I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People - but dishonest reporters use only the word “Media.” The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!So Revealing!I will be interviewed by Laura Ingraham tonight at 10:00 P.M. on @FoxNews.@Troy_Balderson is doing a great job as Congressman from Ohio. We need him in D.C. Vote for Troy - He has my total Endorsement!.@Denver4VA of the 5th District in Virginia is a popular guy who really knows how to get the job done! Really big help with Tax Cuts, the Military and our great Vets. He has my Total Endorsement!Congressman @RodBlum of Iowa got a desperately needed Flood Wall for Cedar Rapids that was almost impossible to get. He makes a BIG difference for Iowa! Border, Military, Vets etc. We need Rod in D.C. He has my Strong Endorsement!Congresswoman @cathymcmorris of Washington State is an incredible leader who is respected by everyone in Congress. We need her badly in D.C. to keep building on #MAGA. She has my Strong Endorsement!Congressman @DaveBratVA7th is a fighter who is doing a great job for Virginia and for our Country. Border, Military, Vets, 2nd Amendment and all else. We need Dave in D.C. He has my Strong Endorsement!.@Erik_Paulsen, @Jason2CD, @JimHagedornMN and @PeteStauber love our Country and the Great State of Minnesota. They are winners and always get the job done. We need them all in Congress for #MAGA. Border, Military, Vets, 2nd A. Go Vote Minnesota. They have my Strong Endorsement!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:ARIZONA VERITAS - Senate Candidate Sinema "can't be talking about" Gun Bans; Says Arizonans Will "actually shoot you"Wait..is the latest New Yorker cover supposed to offend us? I love it!!!Holy shit, Brazil's new Prez calls Mideast "scum of humanity", wants China to stop "buying Brazil", says Pinochet didn't jail "enough (Commies)," wants to end gun control, abortion & affirmative action, privatize & align Brazil with "good people" of USA, Japan & Taiwan. Brazil? Muddafucka...BREAKING: Military to Deploy 5,000 Troops to Southern Border - WSJTree Of Life Rabbi Refuses to Blame President Trump For Pittsburgh Shooting After CNN Tries to Coax Him Into It [VIDEO]WOW!!! Hillary(total failure)Clinton openly jokes about about how all black people look alike, and laughs about it. If a Republican did this they would have a complete fucking meltdown.PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:TFW your wife, who's never voted in a midterm, shows you her "I VOTED" sticker.Report: Angela Merkel says this will be her final parliamentary term as German chancellor.Anyone else have their 80+ year old Grandmapede posting spice like this to Facebook?Every POTUS for the last 27 years got an invite. Trump is the only one who cared enough to show up.Fixed it...😁Tuesday, October 30th:TODAY'S ACTION:Presidential Proclamation to Modify the List of Products Eligible for Duty-Free Treatment Under the Generalized System of PreferencesPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Individuals to Key Administration Posts🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Congressman Andy Barr of Kentucky, who just had a great debate with his Nancy Pelosi run opponent, has been a winner for his State. Strong on Crime, the Border, Tax Cuts, Military, Vets and 2nd Amendment, we need Andy in D.C. He has my Strong Endorsement!Congressman Kevin Brady of Texas is so popular in his District, and far beyond, that he doesn’t need any help - but I am giving it to him anyway. He is a great guy and the absolute “King” of Cutting Taxes. Highly respected by all, he loves his State & Country. Strong Endorsement!The Stock Market is up massively since the Election, but is now taking a little pause - people want to see what happens with the Midterms. If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat. They like the Venezuela financial model, High Taxes & Open Borders!“If the Fed backs off and starts talking a little more Dovish, I think we’re going to be right back to our 2,800 to 2,900 target range that we’ve had for the S&P 500.” Scott Wren, Wells Fargo.Just out: Consumer Confidence hits highest level since 2000..@MikeDeWine will be a great Governor for the People of Ohio. He is an outstanding man who loves his State – and always produces big.... ... ....Richard Cordray will let you down, just like he did when he destroyed the government agency that he ran. Clone of Pocahontas, that’s not for Ohio. Mike has my Total Endorsement!Congressman @KevinYoder has fought hard for the People of Kansas. Highly respected, strong on Crime, the Border, Military, Vets and Second Amendment. Kevin has my Total Endorsement!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Trump to terminate birthright citizenshipLead singer of Slayer dropping red pill bombs on his Instagram.BREAKING: 5 terrorists freed from Gitmo by President Barack Obama in exchange for Bergdahl have joined insurgents in QatarAnchor babies, birthright citizenship, and the 14th Amendment | CAIRCO - Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform | issues legislation projects researchMeanwhile in Chicago...🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Happy birthday Ivanka!KEEP ON KNOCKING BUT YOU CAN'T COME IN 🎼Our government is a constitutional republic not a democracy. don't let the commies muddy up our government.Doing My Part to #MAGA. Get Out & Vote!!✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨Wednesday, October 31st:TODAY'S ACTION:Presidential Proclamation on National Veterans and Military Families Month, 2018Presidential Proclamation on National Entrepreneurship Month, 2018Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of EnergyPresidential Proclamation on National Family Caregivers Month, 2018Presidential Proclamation on National Adoption Month, 2018Presidential Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2018Presidential Proclamation on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, 2018President Trump and the First Lady Travel to PittsburghPresident Trump Attends the Our Pledge to America's Workers EventHalloween at the White House 2018President Trump Delivers Remarks Upon Marine One DeparturePresident Trump Makes Remarks on the Illegal Immigration Crisis🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:The Caravans are made up of some very tough fighters and people. Fought back hard and viciously against Mexico at Northern Border before breaking through. Mexican soldiers hurt, were unable, or unwilling to stop Caravan. Should stop them before they reach our Border, but won’t!Our military is being mobilized at the Southern Border. Many more troops coming. We will NOT let these Caravans, which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members, into the U.S. Our Border is sacred, must come in legally. TURN AROUND!Stock Market up more than 400 points yesterday. Today looks to be another good one. Companies earnings are great!Melania and I were treated very nicely yesterday in Pittsburgh. The Office of the President was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. We were treated so warmly. Small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. The Fake News stories were just the opposite-Disgraceful!So-called Birthright Citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other. It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Many legal scholars agree..... ... ....Harry Reid was right in 1993, before he and the Democrats went insane and started with the Open Borders (which brings massive Crime) “stuff.” Don’t forget the nasty term Anchor Babies. I will keep our Country safe. This case will be settled by the United States Supreme Court!The World is using our laws to our detriment. They laugh at the Stupidity they see!“Donald Trump has made good on his promises, and it drives Democrats Crazy!” Brad Blakeman @FoxNewsRepublicans will protect people with pre-existing conditions far better than the Dems!Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!Harry Reid, when he was sane, agreed with us on Birthright Citizenship!#JOBSNOTMOBS! VOTE REPUBLICAN NOW!!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:GEOTUS being thanked by hospital staff, you won't see this on TV, GRAB a hankie!BREAKING FLORIDA VERITASGAB Founder and kin Death threats ~ Just got a call from my parents—who are not home—their neighbor smelled gas, called the fire company. Someone turned on the propane tank on my parent’s gas grill, turned the burner on, and let the propane leak out. This is terrorism, incited by the media.NC State professor wants her students to block FOX NEWS from their parents.CNN's Don Lemon: "we have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men" - Oct 30th, 2018Trump says U.S. could send up to 15,000 troops to borderPRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:WATCH PARTY: President Trump & Ron DeSantis Rally - Fort Myers, FL - 10/31/18🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Happy Halloween from Infowars! 🐸"Average American after voting a straight Republican ticket" - 2018, colorizedbirthright citizenshipNow it all makes sense why the left went after Apu from The SimpsonsHabby haboween frensThursday, November 1st:TODAY'S ACTION:President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration PostsExecutive Order Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela"This is the blue-collar, middle-class Trump Economy."🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade. Those discussions are moving along nicely with meetings being scheduled at the G-20 in Argentina. Also had good discussion on North Korea!Thank you to Rick Breckenridge and congratulations to Matt Rosendale (@MattForMontana). This is very big - see you in Montana on Saturday!.@WalkerStapleton will be an extraordinary Governor for the State of Colorado. He is strong, smart, and has been successful at everything he has ever done.... ... ....His opponent, Jared Polis, is weak on crime and weak on borders – could never do the job. Get out and VOTEIllegal immigration affects the lives of all Americans. Illegal Immigration hurts American workers, burdens American taxpayers, undermines public safety, and places enormous strain on local schools, hospitals and communities...On my way to Columbia, Missouri for a #MAGARally. Look forward to seeing everyone soon! http://bit.ly/2yOBCK5, we are Making America Safe and Great Again! http://bit.ly/2Ot1FeU evening at a #MAGARally with great American Patriots. Loyal citizens like you helped build this Country and together, we are taking back this Country – returning power to YOU, the AMERICAN PEOPLE. Get out and http://bit.ly/2HIbOFb ! http://bit.ly/2OpBcPc …I love you Missouri! Under Republican leadership, America is BOOMING, America is THRIVING, and America is WINNING - because we are finally putting AMERICA FIRST. Get out and VOTE Josh @HawleyMO for the United States Senate! #MAGA🇺🇸SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:BREAKING TX VERITAS - O'ROURKE & CARAVANTrump announces plan to deny asylum seekers who don't show up at ports of entryWhen you try to make a birthright citizenship argument but instead end up getting BTFONorth Dakota Democrats Buy Ads Discouraging Hunters From VotingTRUMP'S WARNING: If someone in the caravan throws a rock like they did at police in Mexico, we will consider that a firearm. Because it isn't fun to get hit with a rock in the face.PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:WATCH PARTY: President Trump & Josh Hawley Rally - Columbia, MO 11/01/18🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:They don’t even attempt the illusion that r/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedacted is neutral. What a pathetic bunch of miserable people they must be.If there was no T_D I would not be on Reddit. You guys are great!The harder the left slanders and hates...MUH PARTY SWITCH!!This coming Tuesday, November 6 2018, join the movement!Friday, November 2nd:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Delivers Remarks Upon Marine One Departure🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Wow! The U.S. added 250,000 Jobs in October - and this was despite the hurricanes. Unemployment at 3.7%. Wages UP! These are incredible numbers. Keep it going, Vote Republican!Will be going to West Virginia and Indiana today, TWO RALLIES! Don’t tell anyone (big secret), but I will be bringing Coach Bobby Knight to Indiana. He’s been a supporter right from the beginning of the Greatest Political Movement in American History!(Epic Shitpost)Fantastic #MAGARally🇺🇸in West Virginia, thank you. Everyone get out and VOTE for Patrick @MorriseyWV and @CarolMillerWV!JOBS, JOBS, JOBS! #MAGATHANK YOU WEST VIRGINIA! http://bit.ly/2yOt5Xo landed - will see everyone in Southport, Indiana shortly! #MAGARally🇺🇸I need the people of West Virginia to send a message to Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Democrats by voting for Carol Miller and Patrick Morrisey!In just 4 days, the people of Indiana are going to send Mike @braun4indiana to the United States Senate, so we can keep MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Get out and VOTE!!Republicans believe our Country should be a Sanctuary for law-abiding Americans – not criminal aliens. And Republicans will ALWAYS stand with the HEROES of @ICEgov, @CBP, and Law Enforcement!Massive #MAGARally🇺🇸tonight in Indiana, thank you. Everyone get out and http://bit.ly/2HIbOFb !Scott Perry of Pennsylvania is fantastic. He is strong on the Border, Crime, the Military, our Vets and the Second Amendment. Scott has my Total Endorsement!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:BREAKING: Woman who claimed Justice Kavanaugh raped her now admits they’ve never even met. She’s been referred to DOJ/FBI for investigation and could soon be in serious legal trouble.Lindsey Graham is loving his iconic photo 📸DO NOT FORGET! Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono and Cory Booker never apologized to Justice Kavanaugh. I will never forgive them. Remember him in the voting booth.VOTE RED FOR HUMAN DECENCY!Operation Flags UpSpoiler: It was a Georgia driver's license and he tried to vote in TennesseePRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:WATCH PARTY: President Trump & Patrick Morrisey Rally - Huntington, WV 11/02/18WATCH PARTY: President Trump and Mike Braun Rally -Indianapolis, IN 11/02/18🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:🍦 Ben & Jerry's New Flavor 🍦This man works for free. He works relentlessly into all hours of the night. He is attacked daily by a party of free-loading laggards who have accomplished nothing. He works with a single goal in mind: to save this nation from disaster. Support him Nov. 6 and vote Republican across the board.The Jobs Report just came out and something weird is going on over at CNNDo we want all of this to go away? Vote straight ticket Republican and let’s see how fast we can get this train to go! MAGA!!!MagaSaturday, November 3rd:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Scott Perry of Pennsylvania is fantastic. He is strong on the Border, Crime, the Military, our Vets and the Second Amendment. Scott has my Total Endorsement!Congresswoman Maxine Waters was called the most Corrupt Member of Congress! @FoxNews If Dems win, she would be put in charge of our Country’s finances. The beginning of the end!Indiana Rally, and Coach Bobby Knight, were incredible last night. Packed House in Honor of Mike Braun for Senate. Mike will be a GREAT Senator. Don’t forget to VOTE!Heading to Montana and Florida today! Everyone is excited about the Jobs Numbers - 250,000 new jobs in October. Also, wages rising. Wow!Thank you to @PeteHegseth and @KatiePavlich for your nice, and very wise, statements on the Economy. You both really get it! @foxandfriendsA vicious accuser of Justice Kavanaugh has just admitted that she was lying, her story was totally made up, or FAKE! Can you imagine if he didn’t become a Justice of the Supreme Court because of her disgusting False Statements. What about the others? Where are the Dems on this?SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Andrew Gillum flew in Obama to convince his own mom to vote for him!Say What?! MSNBC Stunned To Find Hispanics Who Oppose Illegal Aliens And Support RepublicansIllegal Alien ICE wanted deported Stabbed His Wife to Death (ICE wanted him;Oregon officials let him go, more blood on the Dems Hands)Planned Parenthood on DACA: "Everyone has a right to live"🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:LOLOLOLOLOLOL — THEY STILL DON’T GET IT.THE SILENT MAJORITY STANDS WITH TRUMPBernie Sanders does an AMA, gets a staged question and manages to get the most down voted comment for the dayWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW LAD!Without further ado; some tunes to get you jamming through all this WINNING:Be As You AreDoin' It RightLightThe GirlHouse Of GoldWonderlandMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1218

Monday, June 24, 2018

 Yesterday was a perfect fishing day. Due to scheduling and health problems I went out on my own on a cloudy morning with a slight breeze. I started out using a surface lure called a Skitterpop and had a missed hit on it after a few casts. The splash was pretty big. I waited a couple of minutes and switched to a shallow running minnow lure and cast it back to where the fish missed my popper. Sure enough, it took it and I landed a nice two pound largemouth bass in the first 10 minutes of fishing. We fishermen have appropriated the baseball term "double header" for when two people catch fish at the same time. I use the term "a double" when I catch a fish on two consecutive casts. I have even accomplished the rare "triple" where I hooked a fish and released it, then on my next cast hooked another and after releasing the second fish, hooked another on my third consecutive cast. I found a spot in the lake yesterday where I got a "home run". I landed and released 4 fish on four consecutive casts. Sure, the first fish was a little sunfish that wasn't even as long as my lure, and the other three were small bass, but man was it fun. My next goal will be a "grand slam", 5 fish on 5 casts. I even had a double later on. I finished yesterday's trip with a new high score for this year landing 26 fish, setting a new solo record. I hooked up 10 other times but the fish got off my barbless hooks before I could get them into the boat. I hope that I can convey the joy that I feel from my two hobbies, fishing and reading comic books, to you all in some small way.

 Man of Steel #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Kevin Maguire (art) Jason Fabok (art pages 12 - 13) Alex Sinclair (colours) Josh Reed (letters). Superman and Supergirl engage in fisticuffs with the bad guy. There are little touches like rescuing the falling girl and someone saying "agh" in this issue that made me smile. Another hint to what happened to Lois and Jon is given and new players join the fight. The Kevin Maguire art is a bonus. I am disappointed with this story but it's not so bad that I'm not going to read the last two issues.

 Tony Stark Iron Man #601/1 - Dan Slott (writer) Valerio Schiti (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I enjoyed Dan Slott's run on Amazing Spider-Man. He basically made Peter Parker a Tony Stark clone when he started up Parker Industries so I'm not surprised that he has taken over Iron Man after Brian Michael Bendis's departure. The focus now is on Tony and his multiple suits of Iron Man armour with the first big giant super hero fight against a classic Iron Man super villain. We're starting off with a lighter tone and this debut was fun to read. There's no iron hide nor hair of Riri Williams and I was disappointed, but the great art made up for that. It's nice to keep Iron Man on my "must read" list.

 Batman: Red Hood vs. Anarky - Tim Seeley (writer) Javier Fernandez (art) Hugo Petrus (pencils pages 14 - 16, 18) Otto Schmidt (epilogue art) John Kalisz (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Prelude to the wedding part 4. Batman hires the Red Hood to shadow Selina while she's out with her girlfriends at her bachelorette party. Anarky doesn't crash the party but Selina and the girls end up at the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't read the Red Hood comic book but I might now. He's leading a team that has Bizarro as a member. That sounds cool. Meanwhile, the Joker is still looking for his invite to the wedding.

 Runaways #10 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Best Friends Forever part 4. The team tries to get Julie Power back to normal after she eats the enchanted cupcake and reverts back to her thirteen year old self. Great foreshadowing on the Alice in Wonderland cover. I liked the juxtaposition of Molly and Abigail's friendship and Karolina and Julie's relationship.

 Doctor Strange #392/2 - Mark Waid (writer) Jesus Saiz (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Sorcerer Supreme of the Galaxy part 2. Well, that didn't take long. Two weeks for us but over two months for Stephen while being held captive by the Gryndans. I like the new sidekick. She's no Wong or Clea but she's got spunk. The Doc's space adventure continues with the next alien encounter sure to make Marvel fans happy.

 Hunt for Wolverine: The Claws of a Killer #2 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Butch Guice & Mack Chater (pencils) Cam Smith & Mack Chater (inks) Dan Brown (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I'm benching this team. Daken, Lady Deathstrike and Sabretooth don't look like they're going to find out anything of significance. This issue is just them fighting zombies and some mystery organization wanting to get their hands on Daken.

 Ant-Man and the Wasp #2 - Mark Waid (writer) Javier Garron (art) Israel Silva (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Things get even more harrowing for Nadia and Scott in the Microverse as Scott tries to reverse Nadia's blindness when the natives interfere. The art in this is absolutely amazing. If the FX in the new movie is as good as this comic book, it will be bonkers.

 Avengers #693/3 - Jason Aaron (writer) Paco Medina & Ed McGuinness (pencils) Juan Vlasco with Mark Morales and Jay Leisten (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Finding out whether Loki is friend or foe to these Avengers is what's keeping me reading. He shows Captain America what's ailing Earth so that the heroes can come up with a way to save the planet. Meanwhile Thor and She-Hulk confront Odin to get answers to what happened in the distant past to make the Celestials pissed off with our planet. Jason Aaron makes this team book interesting by splitting it up into smaller groups so that it's not just one big giant fight scene. At least not yet.

 Amazing Spider-Man #801 - Dan Slott (writer) Marcos Martin (art) Muntsa Vicente (colours) Joe Caramagna (letters). Dan Slott's last issue on this title is a fitting tribute to the character and all that he did writing the book for ten years. Spider-Man is my all time favourite super hero and I give credit to Dan and all the artists that he worked with for creating interesting and entertaining stories. I may have been disappointed at times but never so much that I stopped reading this book. Now we'll see what Nick Spencer (writer) and Ryan Ottley (art) have in store for us when their first issue hits the rack July 11.

 Batman #49 - Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin (art) June Chung (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). The Joker incapacitated Batman last issue and Catwoman comes to the rescue this issue. She doesn't pussyfoot around with the crazed killer and both antagonists wind up fatally wounded. Most of this issue is the two of them talking about their relationship with the Dark Knight. The potential for both of them dying is very real. Next issue is The Wedding, so you know who lives. I love when writers get into the heads of these characters.

[calledbythemoon]

Garden Project First Date SL with @SheCravesStorms

SL #1 - Garden Project

Austen: ~I opened another bag of soil and lugged

It over to the raised beds we’d installed, and Brent took it from me, tipping it over easily and spreading it around. The kids squealed in laughter and I grinned. Mostly, they were playing. But here were a few diligent ones digging their holes and getting ready for the flowers. I chose to call it manual tilling instead of a bunch of sugar-crazed kiddos going wild.

The music was nice, mostly Disney stuff and pop music, but I’d heard that Justin Timberlake song about stopping the feeling far too many time, when all I really wanted to stop the song. Not really. It was kind of catchy.

My pack had travelled from home, brought a few things we were good at—the smoke pit, some face painting, the supplies from my dad’s company, and of course, man power.

Just then, large arms squeezed around me and I squealed just like the children, looking up at the grinning face above me~ Dad! You’re squeezing the breath out of me!

~He laughed and kisses the top of my head. “You’ve never complained before.” He rubbed my back, letting me go and looking around. “It looks good this year. I’m proud of you, baby.” I practically beamed, getting that compliment far too little, being the girl, and I took it in stride, nodding~ It’s going to be great when we’re done. They’re bringing in the playground equipment this week. The GoFundMe raised just enough money.

~That seemed to be the end of his attention span, and something grabbed his attention. He kissed my temple, nodding, and walked off, shaking hands with a man and all I could do was sigh. But it was okay. I understood. I looked around for Lyric, not seeing him yet, I checked my phone one more time before heading across the park to the rock pit, grinning as I got close~

Lyric: Lennon, pants on! 《Shaking my head, I gave Story that look we always shared when her brother was being...well, her brother, which sent her into a fit of giggles. Grinning, I kissed her on the nose before taking a bother look at her hair. I was getting pretty good at girl hair, under Lark’s tutelage even if today, Story had wanted a headband. Now I knew that you comb curls, never brush, and her blonde ringlets were as cute as she was, not a big bushy mess liked they'd been before. Hopping from the couch, she yelled for her brother just as he came zooming into the room, pants and untied sneakers on...The wrong feet. 》Dude. Smooshes on the outside. 《Grabbing him before he could escape again, I plopped him down in the seat his sister had just vacated and fixed his sneakers.》 Bunny ears, cross and loop. Remember? 《I didn't have high hopes for shoe tying just yet, but it was never too early to start. When my babies turned into four year olds...time passed in the blink of an eye these days. As much as I was happy to be well past potty training, each new milestone formed a lump in my throat, they were amazing kids, but I missed the days when I could carry them around, one in each hip. I was that mushy dad, and I owned that completely. Thankful everyday that I'd fallen into the pack I had. Although small we were fierce, or at least formed a tight knit family that supported each other. Lark joining us to tale on the nanny role had been a godsend too. Although the plan was to get the twins into kindergarten next year, I knew she'd stay a huge part of their lives. 》 Now Lenny, remember, no throwing the dirt. We're going to help make the garden look nice, not messy. 《With a firm nod, I took his hand and whistled for Story. Loading both kids into their car seats and buckling them in, I put the address of the park into my GPS and headed that way. Before long I was parking, brushing goldfish crackers from my hair and unloading the twins. I felt the overwhelming presence of unfamiliar wolves as soon as we hit the sidewalk. My hackles immediately rose, Lenny’s hand tightening in mine, I knew he sensed it too. 》Don't worry, bud. It's a friendly place. Miss Austen is just like us. I think her family is here too. 《The crowd was more than half human, and I knew that even if it turned out we weren't welcome here, there wouldn't be a scene. Walking toward were a crowd of people was heading, I kept one hand in Lennon’s with Story propped on my hip, I began scanning the crowd, looking for Austen.》

Austen: ~ I saw him before he saw me, and my heart melted into a tiny little puddle of aw! The kids were gorgeous, and he was really good with them. I knew by the way he stood that he felt there pack’s influence, but I also knew that no one would give him a hard time. Our pack was male-centric and egotistic at times, but it was always welcoming. I saw a few of the guys raise their heads, saw my dad look over, but I didn’t let any of that make a difference as I raised my hand and waved exaggeratingly as I hollered~ Lyric! Over here! ~Instead of waiting for him to come to me, I kind of ran to meet him, clapping my hands in front of me and grinning wide as I bounced a little on the balls of my feet~ You made it! I’m so glad! ~I looked over the kids, the little girl’s curls beautiful, like her dad’s, and the boy was full of mischief and laughter, I could already tell.~ Are you guys ready to have some fun? Have they had lunch? We have bar-b-que and hotdogs on the grill. There’s games around, I think the clown is still here. ~I looked between the boy and the girl~ My name is Miss Austen, and you can do anything you want here. Over there, we’re planting flowers and over there, they’re raking rocks for the playground that’s going to be there soon. Any idea where you want to start? Oh! ~I laugh, looking up at Lyric, then back down at the kiddos~ I told you my name, but I didn’t get yours.

Lyric: 《My smile creased as soon as I saw her, that bubbly bounce of hers completely contagious. If I wasn't so honorable, I'd use my kids as wing pups all the time. They always had this affect on women, I'd learned, so I was used to feeling invisible for a few seconds. She was so welcoming, I was more at ease in an instant, despite the looks we were being shot by some pretty big dudes scattered around the place. Chuckling when Story buried her face in my neck, and Lennon’s eyes darted as he tried to decide what he wanted to do first, he didn't miss a beat as he started tugging my hand. Bouncing Story on my hip to coax her from her shy retreat, I flashed a grin.》Story Brooke is the shy little angel, and Lennon Ray is the exact opposite in every way. 《Laughing when he reached up to shake her hand, my son was always the charmer.》What do you think, guys? Should we eat first then you can get as messy as you want? 《 I knew exactly how to appeal to Lennon, knowing he wouldn't be able to refuse my plan. Story took another moment as I watched her wheels turn, debating her options, before she nodded decisively. 》Looks like lunch first it is.

Austen: Story and Lennon. ~I nodded, reaching out to shake his little hand, and that smile. Good lord! It was almost as handsome as his daddy’s. I watched the two. I didn’t know much about kids, being the youngest out of everyone, it felt like, but they seemed sweet and I wanted them to have a good time. I fell in step beside Lyric as we walked over to the pit~ So you’ll be happy to know that after all your hard work, the car runs great! The show went fine, and I got some really cool pieces for the shop! ~I didn’t know what to do, dote on the kids or talk to the very handsome boy. I kind of wanted both? I’d just have to figure out how to do both, then. I eyed every one of the guys at the pit, and they just grinned like they were innocent. I knew much better. As we stepped up, I made the introductions.~ Lyric, this is my Uncle Josh, Uncle Dave, and Uncle Trev. My...family does a this fundraiser with me every year. It’s good for the shop’s business and the city. Guys, this is Lyric Taylor. He’s the one I told you about that helped me fix my car! And this is his daughter Story, and his son, Lennon. ~They all just nodded, seeing he had his hands full of pups, and I smiled, glad they behaved.~ Can I help, Lyric? Want me to find a table? Just tell me what to do. ~I heard the guys laugh, and I whipped my head around and scowled at them, but they seemed to know better than me. Uncle Trev put four hotdogs on one plate, some brisket on another, and slid them Lyric’s way. “My kids love ‘em. My boy ate us outta house and home. Hell, at 20, he still does. Watch that one as he grows.” All the guys laughed, agreeing, and I took the plates, totally not surprised but...glad~ Thanks! Love you! ~turning back to Lyric~ Let’s find a seat and then get some drinks.

Lyric: 《That...was a lot of male werewolves. As we approached the offensive line of her uncles, I could only gulp and nod, glad that my hands were full so I didn't have to experience the bone crushing handshakes that, I was sure would “test" me. I wasn't a dominant wolf. I knew that. My pack was largely female. Women who would just as soon skin you to look at you, but I wasn't sure men in my pack had ever been the majority, so basically the exact opposite of what Austen came from. I nodded and smiled my greeting, a bunch of “Nice to meet you’s" tossed around, hoping that the mention of me being a mechanic would score me some points on the macho scale. The plates of meat being passed our way had me chuckling as I agreed.》 He's already trying, believe me. But Story knows how to use a fork to keep his grubby paws of her food. 《Grinning with the pride I always did when talking about my kids, I thanked her uncles, only hesitating for a moment before turning my back to them as we headed to a table. Setting the twins on a picnic bench, I glanced around spotting the coolers full of drinks.》 I'll grab some juices, what can I get you, Austen?

Austen: Um...just a bottle of water, thanks. ~When he walked away, I sat down across from the kids and smiled, resting my hands on the picnic table and then, nervously, propped my chin up in my hands, reaching out and picking at the plate of brisket and smiling. What did you talk to kids about? What if they didn’t like me? I mean, should I explain to them that their dad and I aren’t dating or anything, that we just met, or should I just...not say anything? What if I talked to them and they didn’t talk to me? I had to admit I was out of my league for the few minutes he was gone. I looked over at him walking back from the the cooler and a dreamy smile grew. He was handsome and so different from the guys I’d grown up with. It’s not that I minded guys like my uncles, or my brothers, but they were so...manly. I dreamed about someone who’d do sappy things with me and work in the garden and that I wouldn’t have to constantly calm down like my mother did to my dad. Lyric seemed calm and easy going. I bet he’d be easy to talk to. Gah! Just...I looked back at the kids, smiling awkwardly as they smiled at me. Did they know? Ugh! I sat up and smiled as I took the water from Lyric~ Thank you. So… ~I tried to think of something to talk about, something easy, but then I remembered~ Everybody’s coming back to the house tonight for dinner. If you and the kids want to come, you’d be welcomed.

Lyric: 《It only took a minute to grab the juice boxes and water, but I was stealing little glances towards the table the whole time, not just to make sure the kids were behaving, but because that ray of sunshine kept drawing me in. Back at the table in a jiffy, I straddled the bench and got to work, fixing the plates properly for the kids. Apple juice for Lennon, berry for Story, knowing they'd swap halfway through. A hotdog on a roll with brisket for Lennon, an cut up hot dog, for Story. My brows rose at the dinner invite, an easy smile stretching as I pushed a hotdog and brisket plate towards Austen, then took one for myself.》 You have a pretty big family. How many more are there? 《I'd noticed every intro so far was extended family, so the immediate must be around here somewhere. I could look around, but I'd rather look at her.》I think we'll have to see how today goes. Last thing I wanted to do is unleash crank monsters on your place. You don't deserve that. 《Grinning when a chorus of disgruntled objections rose up beside me, I chuckled.》 They've been trained well. Never pass up a free meal, right T.T.?

Austen: ~Oh, god, they were adorable. They, as in all three of them. Their little family.  I’d say he didn’t know how lucky he was, but he evidently did. The way he knew them both, it was evident that he was hands on. I picked at my food, incase he was still hungry, or one of the kids was still hungry. I could always eat later.~ My youngest brother’s kids are 7 and 9, so they’d have someone to play with. And if they need to lay down, I have a few rooms. No one is staying at my house this time. They’re going home after tonight. I mean, I’m not being pushy, right? ~I laughed a bit, patting my cheeks, shaking my head~ Sorry. Um, my dad is here. My mom couldn’t come this year. My brothers are here, all three, and their wives are back at my house getting ready for tonight. My oldest nephew is only a year younger than me. Let’s just say that I was a late in life oops. ~I took a sip of water, shrugging a little~ They all live back home, on pack land. It’s a few hours away. I moved here because it’s hard to...make things my own there. I love them all, a lot, but life is better here. ~I waved my hand, watching Lennon and Story eat, watching him as well~ Tell me about your pack. Do you have any family? And don’t be freaked because of my family. They’re mostly harmless, a little...well, they’re all kind of dominant. We have a lot of males. ~I wrinkled my nose, then laughed~

Lyric: 《My kids were my world and I loved them dearly, but some of my favorite times were when they were sleeping, or eating, because of the quiet. Like now. Nodding as I finished a bite of hot dog while she talked about her family, I knew that if I was going to meet the rest today, which seemed likely, having the kids with me as a buffer and talking point would be helpful. The news that they didn't live locally was good for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I didn't want to be the one to tell Melz that we had another pack in the area...if she ever came home. Shaking away the thought, I ruffled a hand through Lenny’s mop of sandy blonde hair. Our pack is small. A ragtag bunch. My alpha is a female, so is the beta and enforcer. The enforcer,  her husband and I work at the shop. My Alpha runs the business side, 《I stopped short of adding “when she isn't on a longer than it should have been territory check" there was no need to reveal that we were barely holding it together.》 The nanny is from a pack up north, but I think she's staying, and the beta has a...someone in her life. I haven't really met him. The Alpha’s niece and the enforcer's son round out the pups with these two. So we're small, but we like it that way. We've all been through too much. The last few years since we've settled here have been better. 《Lifting as shoulder, I smiled when the kids looked up at me, grinning with pride at their cleared plates.》 Looks like it's time to get dirty.

Austen: ~I clapped when they were done, more than ready to get in there and do what I was good at, I motioned for them to follow me and then I let my inner kid out. When we got to the garden area, I thanked Brent for watching things, turning to Lyric.~ This is Brent. He lives here and tattles back to my dad. Brent, Lyric Taylor. He’s the…~Brent nodded, holding his hand out to Lyric. “Thanks for seeing to the car. I can’t get her to keep it up for anything. Something’s always more important.” I rolled my eyes and held out my hands to Story and Lennon, leaving Lyric behind for this one. He’d be fine with Brent. I grabbed two trowels and two spades, showing them the two parts of the garden~ So you till this one, get your dirt here, and then you find a spot to plant here. ~I showed them where the others had planted their flowers, and then I pointed to the flats of flowers. Some pink, some purple, blue, yellow, orange, just an amalgam of different kinds of flowers~ So first, here’s your buckets. ~I handed them each a bucket, with a spade and a trowel~ And go get your dirt! ~Story was a little more reserved, yet excited, but Lennon was a little tornado. I grinned wide, seeing them have such fun, and went ahead and  helped a few more kids start to plant their flowers. It was looking so good, just like I’d envisioned it. It wasn’t landscaping perfect, but it was a kid’s garden. It was meant to be messy and messy was beautiful.~ Guys! Come on! Let’s pick a flower! ~I stood by the flats, looking at Story and Lennon.~ Alright. Any one that you want. As many as you want.

Lyric: 《That little imp...as she hijacked my kids and left me with her brother, I could only stare, slack jawed. The clap on my shoulder had me chuckling as Brent pulled my attention back to him. At least she'd left us with a topic of conversation.》 Well, I couldn't let her neglect it anymore. You must have taken great care of her to even be running at all. Not many of those left around, especially with most of the original parts. Impressive. If she can make the time for regular maintenance, I'll take care of the old girl. 《I meant the VW bus, not Austen, but the broad teasing grin from Brent told me he was taking double meaning. After a few more words, he took off to answer the shout of his name from somewhere behind us, which was fine with me. Hanging back, I watched Austen with the kids. Her comfort not just with them but with everything around her had me in awe. She was great with them and I didn't know if it was just because of her experience planting gardens, or because she was a natural with kids, but I liked it either way. It reassured me that if anything ever....with us….I almost startled myself with the direction of my thoughts, even though, in the back of my mind, some curiosity had planted since the other day. It had been a long time since I'd met someone so open and friendly...comfortable in her own skin. I envied it. I made a slow stroll around the garden and play area, it was all so amazing, she'd done all this? My admiration just kept rising despite myself. When the excited, “Daddy come see me flowers!” from Story rang out, I had the excuse I'd been waiting for to rejoin them. Grinning, I crossed to the flower bed, squatting down to their level as I examined their work.》 Let's see...the orange ones are Story’s and the purple, Lennon’s? Did I get em right? 《The squeals for “Nooo!” had me barking a laugh as they giggled, knowing their favorite colors this week, were the opposite.》 Silly me, what was I thinking? 《Lifting my eyes to Austen’s my grin still in place, I tilted my head.》 And what about you, Ms. Austen? What's your favorite color?

Austen: ~Oh goodness. My cheeks were probably showing the results of his question, the eyes of both Story and Lennon on me as I thought. I put my finger over my lips, rolling my eyes up, and hmmming as I exaggeratingly thought even though I didn’t have to think at all. My favorite color had always been the blue/green spectrum, everything from navy to pastel mint, my ultra favorites in the neighborhood of teal and also indigo. The kids wouldn’t understand, so I made it simple, finally holding my finger up and nodding with a grin~ My favorite color is blue! ~I reached out and poked them both in the tummy, and they giggled and it warmed my heart. When I looked up, I saw that Sondra and Emily didn’t have any kids at the face painting booth, and I pointed behind the kids, gasping~ Look! You want to get your face painted? They can do anything you want. They can even put glitter on it. ~I got an exaggerated yes, and I pointed over to the booth, Sondra catching my eye and waving, pushing Emily’s shoulder and she waved too.~ See those ladies over there? They have the paints and if you’ll go and sit with them, they’ll paint something really cool! ~I stood, looking at Lyric, a genuine look of contentment as I led the way, Story and Lennon keeping pace with me. I knew I wanted to see more of him, and I could honestly say that the kids...no, my mind was going far too far ahead of itself. When they hopped in the chairs, I turned to Lyric, my stomach flipping a bit, the butterflies going into overdrive, I wanted to touch those curls of his, or his lips, with mine, but instead, I settled for looking in those pretty blue eyes.~ I...I would really like it if you came to dinner tonight. Story and Lennon will be fine. Please? ~I wet my bottom lip and pulled it between my teeth, biting down lightly as I waited~

Lyric: 《My grin stretched wide at her answer as I tipped a wink at her. The fact that she was willing to play along, to play with my kids...well it put an extra thump in my chest that I couldn't deny. Part of it was just her nature, outgoing, friendly, but I don't think she'd go out of her way to be a personal guide around the activities for just anyone. At least I hoped not. Walking beside her as the kids ran ahead to the face painting station, I dipped my head to speak by her ear.》 My favorite color is blue too. Especially sparkling blue eyes. 《Grinning as we made it to where the twins were already seated, pointing at a laminated page of pictures to show what they wanted. Story was going to be a butterfly today, and Lennon Spider-Man. My son new a great classic comic book character as well as the more popular ones.》 Alright, you too. Remember, you have to sit very still so these nice ladies can work. 《Fishing into my pocket for some cash, I knew their tips would be well earned by the time they finished. A teasing smirk lifted my lips as I turned to face Austen, barely resisting the urge to put my arm around her.》 Are you getting your face paint? A flower on your cheek for the garden queen, maybe? But yes, I think we can manage dinner. What do you think, T.T? Do we want to have dinner at Ms. Austen’s house? 《The roaring cheers that caused a streak of face paint on a cheek each had me barking a laugh.》 There you have it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Austen: ~Sparkling blue eyes. That voice. It was as dreamy as the boy attached to it. The rest of the day, I found reasons to touch his shoulder, or his hand, showing the kids around and letting them play. Nan, my sister in law, showed up later with my niece and nephew, and the four of them seemed to hit it off well. The sun was getting ready to set, most of the crowd was gone, and I sat across from Lyric at the picnic tables as we watched Story and Lennon play on the new playground equipment that had been delivered yesterday. I rested my elbow on the table and set my chin in my hand, looking at the curly-haired cutie.~ So your favorite color is blue. Music? Hobbies besides rescuing girls with old cars? ~I grinned, reaching out and drawing patterns on the top of his hand, answering my own questions first~ I like a lot of different stuff. You could call it fold music. I’m not too eclectic, but I am particular. I...garden. And I like to read. I’m actually pretty boring. Besides working at the shop, I really have no life. I’ve met a few people since moving here three years ago, but I don’t know, I just keep to myself mostly. ~I noticed everyone packing up, too content here to offer help and I’m sure they’d give me a hard time tonight. I was looking forward to having everyone at the house. It was big and sometimes felt too empty.~ Your pack sounds nice. I never thought to meet the local pack before. I guess I should have. ~ I yawn a little, the day started early for me, and a lot had gone on~ Why do you call the kids T.T?

Lyric: 《For an unexpected invite from a virtual stranger, I couldn't have picked a better day if I'd planned one thoroughly. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. It was easy to see where Austen got some of it from, although I knew a lot of it was just her inner light. At least that's what my mom would have called it. She would like Austen. Damn...I hadn't thought about my parents in ages. Pulled back from my thoughts by her questions, I turned from watching where the twins were playing to look into her own startlingly gorgeous blue eyes. 》 Music? Anything, with a few exceptions. I was raised on the classics. Beatles, Stones, Dead. So Rock is usually my go to, but the kids like to have dance parties, so pop music works for them. I'm training em right though. Story likes Lucky In The Sky With Diamonds. Lenny prefers the walrus song. 《Chuckling, I glanced their way then back to her, almost blushing as she watched me so intently, her touches felt good too. Real good. The more I'd gotten through the day, the more I'd wanted.》 Hobbies? Well, them mostly. We're going to attempt t-ball this spring. That should be interesting. 《Pushing my fingers through my hair, I lifted a shoulder.》 My pack is nice. More an extended family than anything formal, but that's the way we like it. The support and loyalty is there. 《Brows popping at the next question, I shook my head as my grin stretched wider.》 T.T. is Taylor Twins, or Terrible Twosome, depending on their moods or mine. 《Hearing a ruckus, my head snapped in their direction, just as they lunged for each other, whatever the cause, their exhaustion from a full day would have it escalating quickly.》 And that's the signal. Hopefully they'll shut their eyes for a few minutes on the ride to your place. 《Pushing to stand, I kept an eye on the kids, letting them roll around for a minute but making sure they didn't hurt each other. They were pups after all.》 Is there anything else you need help cleaning up with?

Austen: ~I didn’t want to take my eyes off him, but I followed his gaze and watched the kids go at it. It wasn’t anything new, having seen the other pack members approach discipline the same way, and I shake my head, seeing everything almost put away~ Nope. They have everything. Want to head to the house? I can show you where you can lay Story and Lennon down if you need to. ~I bit my lip, looking around, and Brent just grinned when I stared at him and he shook his head. I felt his amusement and a blush colored my cheeks as I watched Lyric deal with the kids and bring them back to where we were sitting. I smiled a little at them both, sticking out my tongue and making them laugh, only to look innocently up at their dad~ Can I ride with you? I rode here with Brent because he has a big truck, and he’s not ready to leave yet, so… ~I waited, smiling bright, but then a yawn took me over again, and I rubbed my cheeks and then my eyes~ They might not be the only ones a little worn out. ~I laughed and smiled softly, standing as well and stretching high up~ I’ll come back tomorrow and supervise the installation of the rest of the equipment, but that’s it. I need to clean up the flower beds a little, throw down some wood chips, but everything else is fine. ~My stomach chose that moment to grumble, and I laughed, holding it, and looked at Story and Lennon and made a wide-eyed face~ Was that you? Or you? That was you! That wasn’t me! ~They laughed, shaking their head and pointing at me, and I stuck out my tongue again~

Lyric: I think heading out works for them. 《Chuckling as I made my way back to Austen’s side after refereeing the impromptu wrestling match, I couldn't contain my grin at her little tired antics. How was so so cute and yet sexy at the same time? Maybe it was that impish little lip bite.》 Maybe I can swing by and help with the rest tomorrow? If you need the extra hands. 《Nodding my head towards the car, I laughed as her stomach growled, my own flipping with a thrill as she yet again took to playing with the twins. Even if she wasn't trying, she was scoring all sorts of brownie points.  I could tell they liked her too. If they didn't, Story would be glued to my hip, and Lennon would be growling at random. That was always fun to explain. But, not with Austen...that was a really good sign. Shaking my head with a low chuckle, I buckled both kids into their seats before coming around to the open passenger side door. Leaning in, I made like I was inspecting her belt buckle, when all I really wanted was another whiff of her scent. Cotton and Lavender...and dirt. But I'm sure that was just from today.》 Do you need help buckling? 《Flashing a grin, I moved on impulse, leaning in to plant a quick kiss to her cheek. Lowering my voice as the twins started singing their car songs in the back, I held her gaze.》 I just wanted to say thank you for today. I know they had a great time. And so did I. So in case I have to bolt quickly tonight because of meltdown central, I wanted to make sure I got in a proper thank you. So thank you. Again. 《Ducking out of her side before she saw me blushing with embarrassment over my rambling. Rounding the car, I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine, picking up the tune they were singing mid verse.》 We all live in a yellow submarine…

Austen: ~We sang for a little while, and I hummed, or listened, but I couldn’t get that sweet kiss off my mind. He smelled of cheezits and a cologne I couldn’t place and gentleness. I know it sounds weird to give a characteristic a smell, but it’s true. He smelled tender and if he handn’t ducked out when he did, I was going to swipe a feel of his hair. I knew it would feel wonderful, and his skin soft, and his...I shook myself out of that, watching in the rear view as the two munchkins fought to stay awake, but ten minutes in, they were out.~ You may get your hope after all. ~And even though I was nervous, and I didn’t know if this was okay with the kids in the back, I trusted him enough to tell me...so reached over and took one of his hands and slipped it into mine. I held it for a moment, then turned his palm up, grinning a bit and tracing the lines there.~ You have a long heart line. That’s a good thing. ~I trace the heart line till it ends, between the forefinger and ring finger~ It ends between Jupiter and Saturn. That means you’re going to find pure, true love in your lifetime. ~I point to the small break in the line, careful that he keeps his eyes on the road~ That means you’ve known heartache. But your heartline is long after that, meaning it was early in life. ~I give the palm of his hand one last sweep with mine, laughing lightly~ Just a hobby. ~As we pull in, my eyes go wide, one car standing out among all the others—a blue Mercedes. My mother. I turn to Lyric, practically beaming~ My Mom made it! You get to meet my mom! ~Just as I said it, the door opened and my mom walked out, and I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough, up the steps, throwing my arms around her~ You made it! I missed you. ~I hung on for a long moment, but didn’t hesitate, turning as Lyric and the kids got out of the car~ This is Lyric Taylor, and his daughter Story, his son Lennon. This is my mom, Bethany James. ~She extended her hand, first to Lennon, who shook it, then to Story, who was a little more hesitant, and finally to Lyric, her smile likely from all she’d heard from the family. “It’s a pleasure, Lyric, truly. Come on in. I bet you guys are starving, aren’t you?”~

Lyric: 《 A glance in the rear view mirror, seeing two blonde head lulled to the side,  had a small smirk ticking my lips. When Austen took my hand, my stomach did that flipping thing again. Her hands were so soft. Brows raised in interest as she read my palm, I could listen to her talk all day. Chuckling as she told me about my love life and future, I nodded. I knew psychic readings were mostly guess work, but I'd always liked the kitschy trade. 》That sounds about right, but new love sounds good too. 《Glancing sideways, I smirked, making the last turn onto her street. 》 I have a feeling you have a lot of hobbies…《I barely put the Escalade into park when the bouncing shewolf beside me was squealing something about her mom before bolting from her seat. Chuckling as I watched her bum rush a woman that had just walked out of the house, I knew exactly where Austen got her killer looks from. A look over my shoulder told me that, as usual, a parked care meant they were awake.》 Okay, you two, lots of new people here, but they'll all be really nice. The kids you played with earlier will be here too. Think we can be good pups? 《Sleepy grins and nods was the best I was gonna get and that was just fine with me. Unbuckling them both, I let them climb out of the side closest to the house, smiling as I walked over to Austen and her older, carbon copy. Extending my hand, I shook hers realizing that I'd now met just about Austen’s entire family on our first date...if this even was a date?》 It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. James. I think you made your daughter's day by showing up. 《Chuckling, I followed the two women I to the house, Story’s hand in mine as Lennon, fearless as ever, snuck his way inside to check out the place.》

Austen: ~My mother brushed my hair back as we walked in and placed a kiss on my forehead, her way of saying we’d talk later. She could tell that Lyric was important, and I loved her for that. She was my closest confidant, knew all my secrets, and being the only girl, we were thick as thieves. She was supportive, yet had high expectations for me, and encouraged me to do whatever my heart desired. She was part of the reason, if not the whole reason, I was living so far away from the pack. She’d understood my need for independence, and she was the driving force behind getting my dad behind the move and buying the shop.

I watched her walk into the kitchen, turning to Lyric and winking at Story.~ Okay. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Come on. ~I weaved my way through the kitchen, keeping them close, and tried to swat away more noogies than I wanted as I passed by uncles, cousins, and friends of the pack. There wasn’t an inch of my home not filled, and it felt good.

I made a plate, of course fajitas because steak, and jumped a little to see Lyric’s head in the crowd. I caught his eye and motioned outside, slipping out into the back yard where the kids were playing in the yard, along with a few of my family that wasn’t inside.

Clearing us a seat, I waited for Lyric. I wondered if this was too much. I mean, I was used to these people, but...I just shook my head and sighed. I’d always been convinced that the right person in my life wouldn’t be bothered by my family. As much as I craved independence, it wasn’t from them. I pushed the juice I’d picked up for Lennon and Story, apple and berry, over to the side, grinning as I looked up. They’d plugged in my lights, the ones I’d found at an auction for much less than they were worth, but they were vintage and really cool strung up around the back yard. Resting my chin in my hand, propping it on the table, I imagined a dreamy boy and a midnight kiss right here, under the stars, and I sighed. Maybe one day.~

Lyric: 《Okay, her family was enormous. I thought there had been a lot of them at the park but there were even more here. Or they just looked bigger all crammed into the kitchen. Either way, I was thankful that the older kids took it upon themselves to take Lennon and Story to the backyard so they didn't get under foot. Normally I'd be wary of them.being out of my sight, but there was such an overwhelming feeling of welcome and safety here, I knew they'd be safe. If there was one thing that ran true in every pack, it was that the pups were precious. Always protected. What I could see of Austen’s place was very...her. Bright colors in every room. An eclectic collection of knick knacks, mismatched furniture that all went  together somehow. More hi how are ya’s as we fixed plates, it was interesting to watch her family dynamic. I liked it. Having mastered making plates for me and the kids over the years, I piled one with everything they’d like then made one for myself, with an extra empty plate to divide theirs. Sooner or later they'd need their own plates, but while they were still little, I was a one man pro. Taking a deep breath when we pushed outside, her yard spoke to her personality as much as her house did. The lantern lights strung around the perimeter and hanging in the trees were perfect in the setting sun. Happy for the time to sit and talk with her, I didn't force the twins to eat, knowing that they'd come over and graze when they wanted something. We talked about everything and nothing. Random family members would come over with friendly jibes, try to embarrass Austen in that way that only family can. My and hurt from laughing as a couple of her brothers told a story about a pigtailed Austen in her church dress coming home covered in mud and crying over a skinned knee after wrestling with another pup. Just picturing it had me crying laughing. Looking around at the now dark, but for the lights, yard, my stomach dropped momentarily when I didn't see the twins. She must have noticed the panic on my face as I sat up straight, about to jump from my seat, because in the next moment, Austen’s mom laid her hand on my shoulder and told me that they were curled up inside on the couch, snoozing away. Relieved, I thanked her as,she waved it away, complimenting what good kids they were. Smiling across to where Austen sat, I leaned over the arm of the Adirondack chair I now sat in, and laid my my hand over hers.》 Now if I can get them home and into bed still asleep, this will have been an award winning day. It's only missing one thing…

Austen: ~I turned my palm over and took his hand, hearing the soft music playing and looking around. Everyone had made themselves scarce, and I tried not to think of them watching through windows, but as I looked over at the boy in the chair, I really didn’t care. A slow song came on, Ed Sheeran, that one about growing old, oh...I didn’t care. I’d never been much for ceremony, of the guy asking the girl, so I just stood and tugged on our joined hands, not saying a word. I pulled the dreamy one out into the middle of the yard as the music played, and I looked down at his feet, up at his face, then stepped into his dance space and slowly let go of his hand and slipped both of mine over his shoulders to touch behind his neck. I never took my eyes off his, and when he finally got the picture, we began to move, and my cheeks got way red.~ I was homeschooled, given my dad was alpha and, at that time, we were likely to pick up and move at any time. So I didn’t get to go to all the school dances, and proms, but I really, really wanted to. My brothers were long out of high school, and I used to look at their pictures, with their dates all dressed up, with all the jewelry, and I used to imagine what it would be like. Then, do you keep up with social media? Around prom, they do those promposals? They’re so sweet! ~I grinned, looking up at him, I hummed along a little bit with the song, and my heart was beating so hard. This was straight out of those sappy Sunday movies I watched, and I loved every second of it...until I felt myself step on his toe~ Oh...my god. I’m sorry! I’m sorry. ~I hid my face against his chest and laughed, looking up and poking my lip out.~ I promise. I can dance. Kind of. I’m just… ~I dissolved into laughter again, just turning my head and trying to keep us moving, but I was evidently on my own, and I stepped on both his feet this time.~ Oh. Em. Gee. I’m so sorry, Lyric…  ~I reached up and covered my mouth as I tried to hide my embarrassment, then I began to fan my red cheeks, shaking my head.~

Lyric: 《I was full of cheesy grinning when she pulled me to my feet, and for a second debated pulling back so that she landed in my lap, but I was behaving myself. A low chuckle rumbled my chest as she positioned us to dance under her back yard lights with God knew who peeking from the window. It was corny, but I must happened to love corny. Arms around her tiny waist, I tucked her petite form against me as we began a slightly awkward side step in a circle. Leave it to Ed Sheeran to set the mood. For a Muppet looking ginger, he sure knew how to write a ballad. Alright, Austen was already gorgeous, but I think she must have picked these lantern light things because she knew how good they'd make her look. Smirking at my own thought, I grunted at the first toe smash. Chuckling, I shook my head as she apologized profusely, loving the color that spread over her cheeks.》 It's alright, cutie, I got ten of em. 《Barely finishing the sentence before she was testing the theory, I shuffled my feet back out of striking distance, cracking up laughing as she collapsed in giggling apologies against my chest. She fit nice there too. Tipping her chin up, I was grinning from ear to ear as our eyes met.》 Unacceptable. Only one way to make it better. 《Dipping my head, I brushed my lips over the plush softness of hers, tentatively at first, reading her reaction. Getting exactly the one I wanted as she leaned up to me, I slanted my lips fully over hers, keeping the kiss slow and gentle, just enough to let her know I was interested. More than…》

Austen: ~You read about it in books, and you see it on the movies, but until it happens to you it’s all a pipe dream. Alpha’s daughter. Need I say more? But this boy in front of me, good lord. I raised up on my toes and placed my hands on his face, following him, letting him lead, and it was like some silent message I wanted to read again and again. I slid my hands behind his neck and then did what I’d wanted to do all day: I ran my fingers through those curls and groaned into our kiss as they slipped through my fingers and he responded to my touch. I’d been kissed before, but not by someone who knew how. Like him. I could barely breathe, my eyes fluttered closed, and I shut the whole world out except for his scent and his touch and his lips, good lord his lips. Soft and needy, and the way he moved them against mine…

“That’s enough, Austen.”

My back straightened, and I instantly pulled back. I didn’t need to turn to see who that voice belonged to.~

Dad, please…

~I heard the door open and close, still too embarrassed to turn toward them.

“Jim, she’s twenty-two years old. Don’t you think…”

“No. Go back inside, Beverly. Now.”

My back to my dad, I looked up at Lyric and grinned. My mother didn’t like to be ordered around. At. All. And she didn’t stand for it.

“I suggest you remember who you’re talking to, alpha.”

I heard my dad sigh. “Honey, she’s too young to be out here with…”

“No. She’s not. She lives on her own, pays her own bills, owns her own business for god’s sake, and she’s earned the right to a life. Now go. Inside.”

I could feel my father staring at me, then at Lyric, and his alpha whatever was thick around us. Nothing new to me, but when I heard the door close, I finally turned around. It’s a girl thing. When you see your mom, with that look, that “Oh, honey,” look, you just tear up.

I wiped my hands over my eyes as she walked over, brushing my hair back from my face. “He’s just being a father, sweetie.”

Then she looked at Lyric. “I’m sure when it’s time for Story to start dating, you’ll feel the same. It’s innate.”

I tried to smile, but when she laughed at me, I wrapped my arms around Lyric’s body and hugged him tight, laying my head on his chest.

“We’re going to go. We love you very much, and as soon as you two can break away, bring those gorgeous children up to the lands and we’ll make a day of it, Alright?”~

Yes ma’am. ~ I nodded, only letting go of Lyric to hug her once more, and then I watched her go, hugging the cute boy beside me. And I had to be realistic~

So that’s my dad, the Alpha of the Northeastern pack. He won’t get better. Likely, he’ll get worse. So, if that’s a deal breaker, I understand. You’re wouldn’t be the first to decide against it, and I wouldn’t blame you at all.

Lyric: 《 I was an idiot. I got so swept up in the girl I've been thinking about kissing all day, that I completely forgot where we were and that she still had family lingering all over the place. My spin stiffened as soon as I heard her father, and Lyric Jr, who'd been perking to attention made a hasty retreat. I just hoped I got out of here with him in tact. I stood, stock still watching the interplay between the alpha and his wife, and damn if I didn't like Beverly James more and more by the second. I spent my entire life surrounded by strong women, my own mother, my Alpha and the rest of the women in my pack, Mrs. James ranked right up there with them. When the Alpha’s push weighed on my shoulder, it took everything in me not to let my knees buckle. I didn't know proper protocol here, I should probably find out what it was if I was going to spend more time with Austen, but he wasn't my Alpha, and my wolf let me know that bowing to him wasn't something we had to do. Respect, yes, but not submission. The last thing I wanted was another woman pissed at me. When Austen’s mom put her foot down, and he went back in the house, a move I could tell he would only do for her, I relaxed visibly.》 Thank you, Mrs. James. I owe you...several. 《Chuckling nervously, I hadn't felt this abashed since I had been a kid caught kissing the pretty girl in the school yard. Odd for a twenty six year old father of two. Grimacing at the comment about Story dating, my stomach damn near dropped out.》 Nope. Uh uh. She's forbidden to grow up. We're already in negotiations about this turning five business. 《Tensions sufficiently easing away as she laughed and made her way back inside, I really liked the was Austen snuggled back up against my chest, my arms tightening to keep her there. Her deal breaker comment had me snorting as I shook my head.》 Hey, I don't blame your dad. He probably has higher expectations for you than some mechanic...your mom on the other hand. 《Cringing dramatically, I rubbed a hand over my nape.》 Please don't ever let me endup on her bad side.

Austen: ~I looked up at Lyric and wrinkled my nose, and tried my best to sound as diplomatic as my mother...though I doubted I’d ever get there.~ One, you’re a good man, Lyric, and an excellent father. Two, my father’s expectations aren’t relevant to me. He can have them all day long, but they mean nothing. And three… ~I pursed my lips and slid them to the side, keeping back my traitor tears. This was just a really emotional day, and I needed to get ahold of myself and step back into the grown-up world.~ It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a mechanic. Or a doctor. Or if you sell...vacuum cleaners. ~I reached up and wiped my eyes again, placing my hand against Lyric’s chest and looking up into his eyes. I hated that mine were probably red and puffy now, but at least he’d know that I meant it, and that it was coming from my heart.~ I can’t imagine what life has been like for you, raising Story and Lennon on your own. My dad would be an idiot if he didn’t see what a strong man you were, and anyone who can’t see the goodness, the kindness in you is...not a good person themselves. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, Lyric. No one’s walked your path, only you. And it breaks my heart to think that you’d see yourself as less than what you are because you deserve more than that. You deserve happiness and breakfast in bed and to lay your head down every night and know you’re loved. ~I sniffled a bit and wiggled my nose, laying my cheek against your chest again~ I think you’re awesome. ~I looked inside, seeing the house empty now, my voice low~ We should go check on the kids.

Lyric:

《Looking at her in bemusement, I could only shake my head. She took my quip about being a mechanic and ran with it, hadn't she? Chuckling low, I cupped her cheek, tilting her chin up so she can see the sincerity in my eyes.》 I shouldn't have been so self deprecating when we barely know each other. Thank you so much for seeing me as you do. Before the attack…《Grimacing as I push that particular memory far from my mind,》 I walked the runways of fashion week in L.A., New York, Milan… I'm not bragging. That life is completely foreign to me now, but I assure you, I have no lack of confidence. 《Smirking, I tip a wink at her adorable, cry reddened face, swiping my thumb over her cheeks》 So please, don't cry, little bit. Not for me. I could never regret the turns my life has taken because...well, you've met them. And everything in my life has lead me here. 《Glancing around the yard before meeting her eyes again, my grin wide and genuine.》And here seems like a pretty great place to be, right now. Can't think of anywhere else I'd want to be. 《Linking my fingers with hers, I squeezed, back walking as I tugged her with me towards the house.》

[whistlekick]

Kyoshi Brent Crisci is a karate practitioner and teacher from Maine. He is the founder of United Martial Art Academies.

To me, that’s what sport karate does. It builds that type of integrity and it build that kind of pride.

Kyoshi Brent Crisci – Episode 226

In this episode, we talk with Kyoshi Brent Crisci who is also known as “Kicks” in the martial arts world. A very seasoned martial arts practitioner and instructor, he worked with some of the greats in the martial arts during his younger years. It was during those experiences he learned not only the material, but the importance of passing on to the younger generation. Kyoshi Crisci is a fighter and a survivor of one of life’s most challenging battles, which is why we’re so honored to have him today. Listen to Kyoshi Brent Crisci as he tells his very inspiring story.

[app_audio src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/whistlekick/226-brent-crisci.mp3″%5D

Show Notes

Link to past episodes:

Robb Buckland, Master Ken and Matt Page, Bill Wallace, Dave Kovar, Bruce Juchnik

Website – uniteddojos.com

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Show  Transcript

You can read the transcript below or download here.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Hey what’s going on everybody it’s episode 226 of whistlekickMartialArtsRadio. My name is Jeremy Lesniak I’m your host, and the founder of whistlekick sparring gear and apparel and I’m the guy who’s lucky enough to talk to all of our guests, including today’s guest who pretty sure is the guest we’ve had on that I have known the longest, that’s fun. Stick around for that. In the meantime, have you checked out martialartscalendar.com? It’s a website we’ve put together because there’s really no great spot to pull these events together. I mean there are you know if you go to event, events that have a circuit you know like a tour, you can go to that site to see all of those competition and you know maybe you can see the events that are going locally via Facebook or something but what if you’re traveling or what if you want to follow something specific like a particular presenter around we’ve heard some of our guests talk about how they would basically follow Bill Wallace or Joe Lewis around the country and train with them quite a few weekends out of the year. How do you know about that? Or unfortunately there wasn’t a great site to do all that so you know what like everything else in my life I said alright let’s make one. So, we put together martial arts calendar, martialartscalendar.com which you know it’s free, it’s free to post to. It’s free all over the place, we ate all the money in development, we eat the monthly fees on it, we don’t advertise on it you know just check it out, contribute to it you know if you know events that aren’t there or people that put together events just help us grow it because look I believe that the more people we have attending these events and building these bonds, the more retention we’ll have in the martial arts, the more enjoyable martial arts will be and that’s really the goal. We put together this stuff, I put together this stuff, for you all because I believe that a good number of you are like me. If you want to check out the other stuff that we do, other than martialartscalendar.com you can go to whistlekick.com you can find the show notes for all of the podcast episodes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com yeah that’s it. So, let’s talk about today’s guest. You know just when you thought you’re living easy and you’ve got life bent to your will, something can change, something big and this is what happened to Kyoshi Brent Crisci who survived a condition that technically took his life. Kyoshi Crisci is a decorated practitioner and instructor who’s worked with some of the absolute greats, throughout the martial arts history. He has a very very interesting life, he’s an incredibly entertaining man and he’s got a story that we can all take inspiration from even those of us who might not me in the martial arts. Without further ado let’s welcome him to the show. Kyoshi Crisci welcome to whistlekickMartialArtsRadio.

Brent Crisci:

Hey thank you for having me Jeremy it’s been a long-time overdue in coming.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It is, it is and you know as I do episodes to this show I start to think back about how long I’ve known certain people and I maybe wrong but I may have known you the longest of anyone that’s yet been on the show.

Brent Crisci:

That is possible and I, that’s why I thought this is a great idea and I remember when you called and when you were launching whistlekick and had the idea and yeah but yeah that goes way back I mean my days in the Vermont New Hampshire early in sport karate go back to you know the 80s.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Right, well I remember you from my early days and you may have forgotten I grow up in Maine you know not terribly far from you and yeah just all the names

Brent Crisci:

Oh, I have been in Maine a long time, I don’t the only guy that I’ve tracked, that I found again was Master Ken. Master Ken used to come to my tournament in the 90s when he was a Rich Pelletier student

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yup

Brent Crisci:

Before he was Master Ken and it took me a few episodes to figure out some of his inspiration and where he, who he was mocking from the seminars in the 90s

Jeremy Lesniak:

Are you claiming to be some of the inspiration for the character of Master Ken?

Brent Crisci:

Oh, I absolutely am and I know it because one of the interviews. Some of the first 3 things that he focused on bashing arts and one was ninjutsu which is the first art I did in the 80s and early 90s in Maine and I thought well that’s a fairly obscure art to bash. But okay a lot of people do ninjutsu. And then he bashed kempo and I thought that’s a little more specific and dangerous but kind of hey that’ my art too. That’s been my claim to fame and then I knew when he bashed yoshi sono jujitsu cause there’s a very small specific line under the DePasquale family that does yoshi sono jujitsu and I’m one of them and I thought well that’s a trifecta I’m taking this personal now and then when he came out with his black belt magazine he mentioned attending seminars in his home state and tournaments and I thought hmm cheesy mustache, loud aggressive guy, hey that could be. So, I’m very happy for him and obviously it’s one of the few people that’s taken off that can make fun all of us and get away with it without causing a stir so it’s kind of cool.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Because of course he has deep roots and anybody that’s listening out maybe didn’t listen back at I’m going to say this is somewhere in the 40s and we’ll link to it in the show notes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com if you’re new but the episode with Master Ken and the man behind Master Ken, Mr. Matt Paige was an absolutely wonderful episode. Hopefully it’s not going to come through the town has decided to grayed the road outside the office at this very moment.

Brent Crisci:

Okay well that’s timing is everything, I was doing the documentary, they decided to air out the main rooms of the dojo with large fans on Tuesday which apparently kicked up the sound who knew. Well we’ll just blame my gruff voice.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Sure, sure so you know the beauty of that brief conversation we just had. I think anyone that doesn’t know you and I’m not going to say to any one that, we could even say anyone that hasn’t met you, because anyone that has met you has likely left with an impression a strong impression because you, that is what you do.

Brent Crisci:

That is very, very well put.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah

Brent Crisci:

And very, very tactfully put as well, they do, they always leave us an impression not always a good impression but to make an impression, I like that

Jeremy Lesniak:

People don’t forget about you, that is for sure, but of course there is a time maybe before people are getting to know you as a martial artist and I kind of want to roll back because I don’t know this story, I don’t you know you just mentioned you know you started with some ninjutsu and I know a lot of the lines of influence that lead to where you’re at now but how did you become a martial artist?

Brent Crisci:

Okay, I guess my first, I grew up in New Haven Connecticut. I was an originally what they call a flatlander up here and one of my best friends in kindergarten and elementary school’s brother had a judo black belt and so it intrigued me because he would throw us around and he did the same things that Captain Kirk had been doing on Star Trek which was really cool. It wasn’t the traditional battalion fighting you know it’s just grabbing and throwing stuff and that fascinated me right there and we became 08:14 dummies and I really fell in love and then the ninja craze launched in the media and Shoku Sagi and that’s just the weapons just fascinated me. I’ve always been weapon’s 08:25 and so that’s really probably I’d love to say I got in for all the right reasons and the reasons that I profess to teach but that would be untrue. I get in for probably all the wrong reasons, I was a punk and a fighter and I thought this will be a cool way to win more and to be able to use weapons. So, the, it might not be the most noble intention, it did lead to some awesome stuff down the road. But that’s what happened, my mother was vehemently opposed to martial arts training, violence. I was already getting in fights, I was supposed to be a good catholic boy, I was never to become a priest if that kept happening so she was against it and I actually, I got her this birthday present 1 year. Stephen Hayes was kind of the first American Ninja, well known. He was doing a New England seminar and he had a student that taught out of USM in Portland Maine. He actually ran security for USM down in Portland. Jim 09:29  was his name and so that occurred and they bought me the thing to attend and I went and I loved it and I started training in the bunjinkan dojo in Portland with Jim *** and 09:41 Stephen Hayes in ninjitsu and to condense the story cause you know it’s a long one we’re going back that was in the early 80s, 82, 83. A man names Robert Howe had come to visit me and one of my friends whose father was in the military and he’s in he was stationed with Robert Howe when he was in the military. So, he came to visit that gentleman and this friend of mine had told Robert Howe that well I was a ninja and Robert Howe was a kempo master born and raised in Hawaii. He would be interested in ninjutsu so she told them oh my friend’s a ninja so he can teach you that stuff and me having the giant ego I did as a teenager went yeah sure. So that’s how I met Grandmaster Howe originally was we were going to exchange kempo for ninjutsu and within a couple of sessions I immediately realized that I was in way over my head that my knowledge level is not in the same realm. So I actually bought Grandmaster Howe, Sensei Howe at the time Master Howe to meet Stephen Hayes and introduce him to him to learn some ninjutsu and Master Howe stayed, it was supposed to be 2-week vacation he ended up staying for 3 months and we worked out together for 3 months, had a great time and I studied more and more about Kempo and found out more about the 11:01 line from Hawaii and he said well you know what I’ve decided on not leaving, I’m going to move hear and I want to teach, he actually has a masters in American History and a physical education major so he started teaching at 11:16 and we continued training and that’s when I had to make the choice at the time the bunjinkan ninjutsu dojo was by invitation only and you could not be ranking in any other styles so it was a closed system which is not uncommon in the 80s that most styles and masters. If you got caught training somewhere else, you 11:36 or you’re expelled at worst. So, I continue studying ninjutsu for a little while longer and then Master Howe made me the karate kid offer before the karate kid movie came out. He said look you I will teach you become my number one student and you will in exchange your kempo with as many people as you can that’s your mission. And I’ve taken that mission seriously for the last 3+ decades and I eventually left ninjutsu and went just with him we started doing 12:08 programs in kempo and ninjutsu and at that time I also traveled to some seminars and that’s when I met Soaki and Michael DePasquale was I went to New Jersey do seminar with Moses Powell and I met DePasquale family and I just really fell in love. He’s an Italian guy doing really traditional jujitsu and also street lethal stuff. And he invited me down to Virginia to the karate college, that’s when I, the same year I met Joe Lewis. The first time I think superfoot Wallace ever came to me, a guy named Dave Howard hosted him in ’83 or ’84 the Taekwondo dojo and I showed up in my black gi the only guy in the building in a black gi by the way. So, it’s a sea of white gis and superfoot Wallace who obviously I knew who he was, he’s been on television and magazine covers and I also knew that back then he would do a round with anybody who wanted to a round with him. After the seminar if you want to do a round with superfoot and I thought well what, that’d be so great if I get to do that. So, I waited till the end of the seminar 2 and a half hours and then he said look does anybody want to do a little you know do a sparring round and I thought it would be a fight Jeremy to the front. I thought this was going to be you know the kind of a tough man contest to get a round with superfoot so I just both hands up leaped forward because I was I don’t know 18 or 19 years old at that time and then I looked around and every else took a step back. It was like a volunteering in the military. No one else wanted to do a round with him, I didn’t get why till I put the gloves on and I got a couple of seconds into the and someone came and hit me in the back of the head. So, I whipped around to look who it was and there was nobody near me. I thought well that’s odd, I thought somebody is being funny so I turn around and I’m throwing all my good stuff that’s not landing on Bill and then somebody hit me in hit me in the back of the head again and I turned around again to see who’s doing it and I turned back around I know you seem to smile by it now. That evil boyish grin, the sheepest, I’ve done a naughty thing and I’ve never been kicked by the superfoot, foot kick that just comes around behind you and can’t possibly hit you from that angle but does. So, it’s him hitting me in the back of the head from the front and I’ve fell in love from then I’ve chased him around the country trying to learn kicking better and so that was kind of the launch of everything. Cause in those few years I was lucky enough and this is what I just count my blessings. I didn’t have to go through any less than awesome people or any bad ill intended instructors. Every instructor I found happen to be the head of the system or one of the best in the world at what they did and I hooked up with them. So that for me just saved me a lot of time and I was willing to take a beating. I actually preferred it, I didn’t learn as well from listening or watching and I was a real skeptic. So, I would always offer to do punching or do to spar to find out, that’s how I found out Joe Lewis’s hook punch. The drop hook that threw god rest his should. I just was amazed by the power he had but I thought maybe these guys aren’t rolling with it. So, when I went to Virginia to Karate College I asked him about it and his response was; do you have some gloves, and I went yeah why, out them on and then he knocked me out with a drop hook punch. I’m assuming did. I remember starting to fight and then I remember a lot of drool in my mouth and looking at lights while I was laying on the floor and the people around me like Robb Buckland and Michael D. 15:58 that I had been immediately dropped and again I fell in love with that and I chased him around for when I was doing the kick boxing stuff. So yeah, I mean I know, there’s so many great people that I immediately connected with that I just count my blessings everyday because I was able to train with them at their peak and then follow them around and they were very open and Grandmaster Howe at the time was also very open minded so when I went back to him and said hey I’m going to be doing jujitsu with this guy or I’m going to be doing kickboxing with that guy, he’s like great bring back what you learn and share it. It was a little different than a lot of the other instructors of that ear that kind of got you know protected. They didn’t want to have their system betrayed and they also some of them just didn’t want their students seeing that other people knew more in certain areas and my gosh you know there’s a lot more people that know a lot more in areas than I do and if my students can hook up with them and learn from them, that’s awesome because I can’t do it all, I can’t teach it all, I’ve tried. It will kill you literally I found out last year, was that too soon to joke about that?

Jeremy Lesniak:

It’s okay, it’s your joke to tell.

Brent Crisci:

Okay, that’s quite a year yet so I know some of my friends and family don’t like it when I do it but I like I said so those were you know in the early days I started with ninjutsu I then when to kosho ryu kempo with Bob Howe and within a year I met Bill Wallace and Michael D and they were doing a lot of seminar circuits back then well bill still does but they were on the road every weekend. So, I started chasing them around, North America training and just been loving it ever since. I really didn’t get into sport karate early, like I said ninjutsu. Master Howe was vehemently opposed, his instructor 17:58 in Hawaii sports karate will kill martial arts and you’re not allowed to do it. So, I had to argue with him for about 2 years, and then after 2 years he gave me the permission to go to a tournament but I’ll tell him about it. Then after 4 years he said okay I want to see what’s going on and take me to a tournament and then I won them over to it and then in 1999 he actually competed for the first time in his life. He’d been studying the martial arts for 40 years at that point but he’d been coaching my 18:28 formed in ’92. Team United 18:32 and he was of course a coach for the teams and he said I can’t he came into my office one day, I’ll never forget it. He said I can’t coach the team anymore with you, why not sir you know you don’t like it and our businesses will know. It’s not right I mean I’m a hypocrite. I’m young 18:52 what they need to do in a tournament and I’ve never been in a tournament a karate tournament. I mean he was a college wrestler you know national buddies and I can’t do that nice and well. Seems to be the solution isn’t not to coach then it’s to compete and he said okay I’ll compete but under one condition you’d be my coach you’d be my teacher and I said I can’t be your teacher you’re my teacher it’s not going to work and he argued with me 19:16 as he often did and so I actually said why don’t we start with a local tournament, we’ve got some great tournaments in Maine. He went no I want to be on the US team with you, I want to go to the world cup, the next one next year and that’s what we did I called Dr. Mill may God rest his soul the head of the world congress 19:34 my instructor we’d like to be involved in the tournament he said well I’ll appoint him. I gave him his resume and he came and he went to Mexico and he competed in the Grand Master’s Division and he won a bronze medal in the weapons in his first tournament in the national level and I’ll never forget it because I had won, there were a lot of divisions back then so I had won 4 or 5 gold medals that week and we had that was on ESPN2 actually they filmed that. They had the stage, they played the national anthem when you got your medal and I was excited, I was in the front row because I got a coaching slot by then. But then it was the term for the Grandmaster’s division awards because no one knew who won till the awards ceremonies you got to list if you medaled but you didn’t know in what. So, I got down front with my camera cause my teacher was up and I was very excited and I was at the front row anyways as with my coaching warm ups. So, I’d leave my seat in the front row and I go right to the edge of the stage and they call his name, they called the bronze first and they played the US national anthem and I like a teenage girl jumped on to the stage now because I want to get a better picture with my cheap camera. So, I’m in the middle of the stage in front of 2000 audience members in front getting in the way to get ESPN cameras, while Dr. Mill he is yelling at me from the sidelines to get off to the stage. Taking pictures of my instructor because I was just kidding, it was one of the, people ask me what was one of the highlights in sport karate you know winning this or winning that and honestly it was when Master Howe won that first bronze medal. I was so proud and so moved that he had the integrity that he had to get up and do it himself well into, he was in his 50s by then already. So that to me, that’s what sport karate does. It builds that type of integrity and it builds that kind of pride in my teacher. So yeah, I was very proud to represent the United States around the world and win all sorts of wonderful things. But to me that was one of my highlights because that was my teacher who didn’t have to do it by then. He didn’t have to step up, he didn’t have to prove anything and he did and that’s what a real master is all about. They don’t do the minimum, they don’t do what they have to they do what they should, they do what needs to be done and that’s something that I unfortunately see fading in the martial arts world so I guess that’s one of my missions, is to do whatever I can to be that type of instructor to live up to the people I’ve mentioned. Those are huge shoes to fill and I’m never going to be any of those people but if I keep what they did alive and if I could represent them well then, I’ll feel it’s a life well spent. Does that answer your question?

Jeremy Lesniak:

That answers a few questions, but it invites quite a few more and the first one that I want to glom onto is why do you think that’s fading. What is changing about, is it the world or the way martial arts is presented or whatever?

Brent Crisci:

Okay, I’m on a positive mission now so I’ll try to spin this as best I can.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I appreciate that.

Brent Crisci:

I think there’s already enough people critiquing and putting down what’s wrong and you got to identify the problem and that should be 10% of your energy and then 90% should be on the solution and what we can do about it. I think one of the things that is a double edge sword is martial arts for profit. Martial arts as a livelihood wasn’t something that existed 30 years ago very much and then the Fred Villari’s chain came a long turned it into a franchise business and it gave us the ability to not have to work at the factory for 50 hrs. a week and then try to teach at night. It gave me the ability to do what I love full time to devote all my energy and time to it and that’s awesome. The other edge of the sword is that what it became something people could make a profit from greed became involved and I know you’ve seen the cookie cutter dojos or the mcdojos as they call them that really it’s about getting money and keeping students and the integrity of the art to the knowledge of the student falls second third or fourth place and that unfortunately has led to a lot of paper tigers and a lot of an and that’s why master Ken’s funny because you know he’s making fun of people that really exist out there unfortunately these 11th degree black belts that just have kind of self-strived to whatever and so that I think that’s one of the factors is that you have people that are in it for greed and that have watered down everything so that people in this society can succeed in it versus let them earn it, let them be worthy of being part of it not water it down for them and I think the other thing is wait I got to come up with a new word cause I know you’re going to have to bleep me if I say this one. The kiddiefication, can I substitute kiddie for the word I was going to say.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I know where you were going.

Brent Crisci:

And I think the people who know me will know where I was going. The kiddiefication of use of America that we bubble wrap them and I mean I’m all about modernization and better safety and that’s great you know I existed without sparring equipment. I never wear a helmet in a fight until secondary black belt and I was at internationals at Massachusetts and they said you have to wear a helmet and I said I don’t wear a helmet no you have to it’s the insurance, it’s the rules and I put on the full helmet they gave me and I put on backwards cause I never worn one and I was a secondary black belt already which explain why I am the way I am now maybe. But I think that we’ve gone so far in the other direction with bubble wrapping these kids and being so sensitive that we’re losing the drive, we’re losing what made the martial arts great that desire to overcome, that desire to push back that gets the instructor and to may sometimes blindly out of respect just do what they say. Not have to have a 10-minute argument or explanation to convince you to do it. You do it because you became my student and that’s the relationship, I say you do, you trust that I know best and you learn and you grow and you get stronger and you become a leader and unfortunately that’s, I like I said I think that’s lost I think the litigious state of our society. I know I actually taught public school for 4 or 5 years, my in college my, mine was a special ed minor in physical education major. So when I first left my shaolin kempo system and I wanted to make a living and I formed the academies, I had to have insurance and money so I took a job at 26:43 academy and I taught there as a regular teacher and worked with the students and I got fired a lot and I got called in the principal’s office a lot and I didn’t care cause it wasn’t my career but I realized those people who are lifetime teachers and who need to have their job and their pension they can’t afford to discipline these kids, they can’t afford to risk being sued or being fired because the society’s become so litigious that they also water everything down and they, it’s unfortunate you know I because it’s not creating a better group of generations that may well hear about these millennials and I don’t hear anything good. Every time I hear the term millennial used it’s followed by some, some horrific falsification of what’s coming or some lack of what we have now and so it doesn’t give me a warm fussy feeling. I can’t change that, all I can do is change my corner of the world or take that Mother Teresa approach. Don’t look at the world and be depressed and be sad that you can’t feed all these people. Look at the person in front of you and feed them and then do it again, and then do it again and that’s kind of the approach I’ve taken is you know I’m going to change a lot of people’s life for the better through martial arts training and some of them are going to do the same thing and it becomes that commercial that no one will get from 28:13. You tell 2 friends and so on and so on and the power of amplification. So that’s kind of, that’s like I said I don’t want to be negative about it I do think it’s a negative thing, I do think we’re definitely losing those dedicated Grandmaster’s aren’t being replaced by as many because they’re not allowed to be because they can’t make a living and do that anymore because the next generation just won’t tolerate that instruction. The other thing is the average age of the student. When I started teaching was an adult and then a teenager and then 10 years old and now the average age of my students is 8 years old. Meaning that half of my students are less than 8 years old. They can’t do the systems I learned, no matter how I teach them because they are not physically or mentally or spiritually capable of completing those martial arts requirements. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do martial arts. Thank God for people like Melodie Schuman who is has just helped me so much and since I joined 29:20 in ’88, ’89. Started a little ninja’s program because she so knows they can’t do that but they can do parts of martial arts and they can benefit from martial arts training and if we keep them and teach them with that stuff then when they get older, they will be able to be there and learn your more traditional arts. So, I’ve kind of done a little bit of a U-turn on that where a lot of my older friends they just said well we can’t do it cause the kids can’t learn it. Well that is true, maybe they can’t do what you were doing when you were learning martial arts but if they don’t do anything then they’re going to be in gymnastics, dance, baseball, basketball whatever and they’re not going to do martial arts ever. Whereas if we can them when they’re 2 or 3 and get them into an active program that benefits them with life skills and basic martial arts training then as the age they’ll be more ready to digest maybe some of the awesome traditions that were handed down to me and you by people like Michael DePasquale senior and junior and Superfoot Wallace and Grandmaster Lewis and so many others that you know so anybody I left out that’s why I told you at the beginning we did a pre-interview. I’m going to piss off a few Grandmaster’s either with what I say or what I don’t say so anybody I didn’t list, I’m going to blame the head injuries and the lack of element, my apologies.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Now you hinted at something and once you put it on the table I figured it’s a fair game. You referenced something that happened to you not quite a year ago, something that was traumatic might be a good word and I know that that’s had an impact on you and I’m hoping you might talk about it.

Brent Crisci:

It has, I well you know I’m still in the process of being audited by the IRS and it’s a horrible experience Jeremy and I don’t wish on anybody. It’s really scary and that’s what, is that not? Oh no, I know I’m sorry that isn’t what you were talking about.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It’s not.

Brent Crisci:

The other thing, yeah

Jeremy Lesniak:

But we can talk about that too.

Brent Crisci:

Yeah, it’s been, yeah, it’s self-employment. No, I just kind of died for a very short period of time last September. I wasn’t planning on it I had a, I keep calling it a little heart attack and everybody keeps correcting me cause they’re like no 100% blockage 31:35 opposite of little. So, without going into the gory details I was doing what I love I was teaching privates and I actually came out of retirement to a little girl kung Fu because I occasionally teach kung Fu former to kemps and she did so well and she’s a competitive figure skater and I said you know I retired in 2000 from doing 7-star mantis while in kung Fu. I did it for close to 25 years but I loved it and so I was teaching her and she was late for a private. So, I decided to run through some of my other patterns from Sifu Yao li was my Sifu he used to run the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi institute for many many years. He taught great people like Professor Nick Cerio, Christine Bannon-Rodrigues, taught them all, Cynthia Rothrock. Yao was the man. So, I was lucky enough I used to drive to Boston on Friday’s and train with him, but I decided that I and I was when I was asleep so I was on my second energy drink and I ran through I put my CDC, CDN and I went about half an hour and then I start the private and I couldn’t catch my breath and then I finished the private I still couldn’t catch my breath and I wasn’t feeling good. So, I thought another private cause that’s what you do when you’re dizzy and you can’t catch your breath and I noticed, I was having trouble when I sat down I tried to stand up, I started to pass out. So, I had a beginner’s class come in, I have 2 black belts to teach with me so I kept giving them instructions. Tell them that I had to make a phone call and I snuck back into my back office and I sit down for 5 minutes then I get up and passed out and then I wake up get out and I tell them a few more things to go. So, I did that for another class and by the way none of these things are smart so this is a cautionary tale for anybody listening. When you have those symptoms, you immediately go to the hospital or you call an ambulance. You don’t drink water and sit down for 5 minutes but I did and thank God one of my black belts wife came in, she’s a nurse and I was sitting out in the front at that point when they started the next class and she being not tactful at all comes up and says Sensei you look like ish and I said yeah, I feel really bad, I don’t feel good something’s wrong. She says I’m going to go get my kit and she took me in my front office and my vitals said bottomed out. My blood pressure had dropped to half that what it normally is, my pulse was half less than half than what it normally was. So, she got her eyes got really big and she said, were going to the hospital and I said alright I’ll get my keys and she said no no you’re having a heart attack and you need to go to the hospital and I’m only about 4 minutes from the new hospital they built in the capital. So, she said I’m just going to drive you, I think if we call an ambulance wait for it to bring you it’s going to be worse. So, she actually drove me to the emergency room which was kind of nice as a nurse and I got in there and they did some preliminary work and they give me a bunch of nitro and it didn’t do anything and they have to do a blood test and I forget the name of the hormone but there’s a special hormone that’s only released when your heart is been damaged or from a heart attack. So, it’s a very easy test, know if you’re, so they did that and when the results came back, I’ll never forget it cause the ER doc was on the phone with the cardiologist in the hospital on the speaker phone and the cardiologist literally said get him the hell out of here. They called the life light which is the emergency helicopter to fly me to Portland, central Maine medical center which has one of the best cardiac units at New England. So, they rushed me down to CICU in Portland which is about probably at midnight then and when I got there they had to call the emergency team and to do surgery because they had discovered that I have, I was an EMT in my younger days to make money and you have a major artery on the right and 2 major ones on the left and my right artery was 100% blocked which I later questioned because I’m like well that’s the major artery and 35:39 blocked. How do you get any blood? and the doctor said well you don’t that’s the problem. So, I had 100% blockage so they did emergency surgery and they were able to do 35:51 with a sent a balloon up in through my arteries and blow up that vessel to break up the blockage and then they put in stents, through a coded stents which were like little tubes or pipes to keep it open and they worry for about 3 days. I was in the CICU critical care because more than 50% people with 100% blockage have another episode or another heart attach within 3 days so luckily, I just listened to them and they lied to me about everything which was great. They told me everything’s fine and you’re going to be able to do everything and they were awesome in there in CICU and I didn’t have another heart attack and then they did an Echo Cardiogram and after 5 days I go to the Critical Care Unit and I went to the Cardiac Unit and at the end of the week they let me go. And I started rehab and I everybody I talked to said you know how lucky you are, several students were nurses and a couple of doctors and they said well when I told them what had happened they said well usually with 100% blockage to the right artery unless that occurs in a nursing home or in the hospital the patient dies and I’m like well I didn’t know that so I didn’t die. Well I did that’s the other thing that I joke about when they were reading the surgical notes back to me to release me from the CICU they have to read everything to you and have you sign it and she got to the point in the surgery where they don’t put you out so I don’t recommend it. You don’t get but you can’t be put unconscious. They just give you a little Valium and strap you down, when they do this stuff so that’s kind of awesome and she got to the word coded and like I said I’ve been in EMT for a few years when I was young and I was working for the shares department because you need to make a living and the word coded usually meant your heart stopped so I stopped there and I said excuse me, that term coded does that mean my 37:43 yeah did not somebody not tell you this? I’m like no they don’t anything in here they want you to stay calm so she explained that yeah you did code for a while and it’s not uncommon because we put a balloon into the major artery going into your heart and then we blew it up for a while and that stops all the blood flow so it’s not uncommon for the heart to arrest at that point she said and then if the it doesn’t rupture they balloon, doesn’t rupture the artery when we pull it back out we restart the heart and that’s what happened with you and so but you’re fine now and you got a good rhythm and I’m like well that’s good I just was curious that no one mentioned that I had died there for a second or 2 or a minute or 2 whatever. So that’s why I’ve been telling people, people asking my age as they always do and I tell them I’m one because if you die for more than a minute that’s your birthday then so now September 21st I’ll turn 2. I’m pretty excited I’m going to have a party so that yeah, so that definitely that like any near-death experience or whatever you want to call it, it causes you to do a little evaluation and I’ve always lived life to the fullest. I’ve always you know I don’t have bucket list, I have list of things to do and I do them. But it did cause me to seriously reflect on and what I’d done so far what I wanted to get done before I am not that lucky the next time so I the other thing that I want to share with you because I have to that was the negative part obviously that you know I had a 100% blockage and I had a major heart attack and I had emergency surgery and ended up you know in the CICU. The outpouring of love and support from not just family and immediate friends but from the martial arts community was amazing. It was one of the reasons I do what I do and one of the reasons I believe that in better living through martial arts in martial arts sport and community. Literally in the CICU the next day I was allowed to have calls or phone or anything I was triple IVd and wired and drugged and the head charge nurse comes in with a portable phone and she told me my sister was on the phone. I have a sister that lives in Boston and I thought well okay my dad snuck a cellphone in so I could talk my other sister and my kid. But I take the phone and it’s not my sister, it’s a very concerned and 40:13 Denise Rouleau, Grandmaster Rouleau had called until she got through to the CICU and got a phone bought into my room in critical care because she wanted to hear my voice and make sure that if I needed anything she said look do you need me to come up and run your dojo? I can leave today, I’ll be up there this afternoon and I thought this woman isn’t even a part of my organization or my style and she’s ready to drop her own organization and her own dojo to come up and run my business for me. That’s the type of friendships we build in the martial arts. I mean we’ve known each other since we were teenagers, we competed in the PKL together but that’s the type of love and then I actually do something I’ve never done I don’t you know I like Facebook for sharing photos or whatever or promoting my business but I was told by my dad and my immediate family that I need to let every know what happened. That they were already questioning because I called my head black belts, I had my father call my head black belts when I got sent down to Portland and so I had my father helped me and he did a Facebook post the next day on just kind of the recap. Here’s what happened I did heart attack, I did end up in the Critical Care Unit I had emergency surgery and I’m alive and I’m going to be well and it just went nuts. I mean the amount of calls and messages and text and emails went on day after day after day. It didn’t stop in a day and that moved I mean I know I love a lot of people and I know I’ve got a lot of people that love me I’m very fortunate but to see it all numerically recorded and to just continue to get that love and support for weeks and months later I just I you know I can’t thank everybody enough. So, the only thing I thought I could do is try to not die again, I figured that’s the only way to pay everybody back. I also in making the list lying in the CICU bit of things that I still want to do and want to see. I had to make some changes in my lifestyle and I can’t work out the way I did when I was in my 20s or 30s and I can’t eat the way I did and I can’t run my organization the way I did working 80 hours and running you know 40 kids classes a week. So, I immediately hired an office manager and I hired someone to run the lower aged kids’ groups and I delegated, I cut down on my travel and I made some definite changes. I ate everything the way I was supposed to, I did my 3 months rehab and in 3 months my numbers were perfect, my blood pressure, my blood sugars, everything was great and I’ve continue to follow that, it will be a year next month because I get a lot to do and a lot of people count on me to do it, it’s not just me. So yeah it was you know like I said initially a negative experience, I wouldn’t wish that on anybody but everything happens for a reason and even if it wasn’t good, there’s always good to be had from it. There’s always something to be learned from it and that’s my take away for it is it’s smarting me up in certain areas and it made me, it reminded me. We all need reminders, everyday is a good day, that you’re above 43:44 and every day is an opportunity no matter what’s happening this bad you know we all have bad things happen and it’s okay to be upset with them but we’ve only got so much time. So I guess the take away was Tom Callos said this to me years ago, I think he stole it from Jhun Rhee actually but he said champions don’t need to be taught what to do but they need to be reminded often and that’s what that did for me is I knew how to live and I knew what was important but I forgot a little bit and that episode reminded me and it’s helped me to remind other people and I’ve seen people in my own organization that have made steps preemptively now to go I don’t want to let things go that far, I don’t want to end up there so I’m going to make some changes and so yeah it’s, it definitely was a major life event and I’m like I said I’m doing awesome now and I feel great and I’m just trying to continue to remember that I don’t want forget what happened cause those people who forget the past are doomed or 44:48 to somebody wants that. SO I keep it in my mind, I keep on my mirror cause I worked with 44:55 in my whole life that opportunity to meet him when I was 17 and I followed him until he passed and just a great motivational, just an incredible giving man and he believes in reminders stick ems on your mirror affirmations on your bed room mirror so what I did was I took the recipe and I had from the emergency room and the CICU and I take them up to my mirror so every day when I get ready to leave my home I have to see them and I’m reminded of what happened, what could’ve happened that day, very easily it could’ve been the end of the story and if I’m lucky enough to get it on a chapter then I’m going to make sure it’s awesome. I’m going to make sure I write it and that I make it full and exciting so I put that up and that’ll stay up because I do need that reminder and from all my friends out there whom I call them generational teachers where we’re teaching generation after generation now or up there in years. We’re not 21 anymore, we feel like we are in the inside but we all have to adapt and adjust. Dave Kovar who I’ve been fortunate enough to work with for a lot of years. He actually was one of my instructors my Grandmaster of cultural kempo. Hanshi Bruce Juchnik who I know you met and interviewed.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yes

Brent Crisci:

Dave Kovar was with Hanshi as a teenager and I have some really cool black belt pictures of Dave with his 46:22 hairdo and he ran the Hanshi school and when he’s about 17. So, he understands where I’m coming from traditionally with the traditional demands on my martial arts systems but he also has modernized and he is the one who tells me, you can’t focus on what you can’t do anymore you know I used I was called kicks for a reason that’s what I did in kickboxing in sport karate in the dojo I love kicking, I love flying around, I had my feet in everybody’s face all the time. It’s a wonder I had any friends. But he said you know you got to focus on what you could still do and the amazing abilities that you required because you can’t kick this one anymore you also can do magical things that nobody else can do and some of those are physical and you know little ninja style movements and some of them either you can walk into a room and you can turn a child’s life around. You can get a person to listen to you that would not listen to somebody else, because of your reputation because of the knowledge of the past, your accomplishments, you have a credibility and that’s power and that came with the age you’ve acquired so no you lose in some categories yes. You focus on the categories, you gained and so I’m very appreciative to Dave because I continue to work with them because he sets me straight he has a great way of looking at things, his dad is still training, my dad still trains he’s 75, he’s still in the dojo training. Dave’s age I think he’s 93 now.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I believe you’re right.

Brent Crisci:

And he did rounds for his birthday, ah what an inspiration. So, if I think I got a few problems because of the heart attack and the things I can’t eat or the things I can’t do, I just put on a video of Dave’s dad and go shut up dude you got a great, you got nothing to worry about. You got awesome, you got and awesome so yeah, those people if you can surround yourself with people like that and you can continue to look forward then you don’t have a bad day. You have challenges, you have opportunities but there’s never a bad day. There’s no bad days above ground.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I would agree.

Brent Crisci:

So that’s what happened last fall.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Man okay, so we’re going to dig into that in a second. I just want to let folks know that you may now have the record for mentioning the most past guests. So, which maybe

Brent Crisci:

Well I felt I need like you’ve been giving me a hard time since day one we have this idea and I said yeah, I’ll do it and then literally I kept being busy and anyhow we can use the heart attack as part of these but before that I was just really busy and I’ve watched you literally interview every one of my teacher and some of students that trained with me and I thought yeah, I got to get this done so, but I do like I said in the beginning. I’m lucky

Jeremy Lesniak:

It’s only been two and a half years. I mean we only, we started recording in March of 2015…

Brent Crisci:

And in my lifetime two and a half years is a blink of the eye Jeremy, it’s blink of the eye, but 49:24 there I don’t want to leave anybody out because each one of them has a profound impact on my journey and they’ve all been a piece of a pie that make me the impressionable individual as you out it that I am today.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah, you know there’s a lot there and folks if you’re you know we get people coming in to the show all the time if you’re new I’m going to link to all these other folks you know Kyoshi Dave Kovar and Superfoot Wallace and just all these other people that we’ve talked about you know as well as other stuff you know we’ll get photos and I’m sure we can dig up some more wonderful old photos of you competing and everything so those will be at the show notes at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com

Brent Crisci:

Oh my god sure you could, I have some nice ones on my wall of gratitude that are flattering that I like. I have a wall of gratitude in my office something 50:16 taught me to do and I’m looking at it right now actually.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Cool.

Brent Crisci:

And you know the names I mentioned their all on that wall. Superfoot, Joe Lewis God rest his soul, Michael D Jr and Sr, Professor 50:31 was my first 50:33 weapons instructor, Grandmaster Remy Presas, my stick instructor who passed on, Hanshi Bruce Juchnik, 50:41 who we lost a couple of years ago now 50:43 but they’re all people that are all part of a story and they are amazing individuals that have influenced so many people that yeah, we should give props. But in all those pictures I’m young and skinny because they’re old old pictures so I really like those. I’ll see if I can get you some of those for the website.

Jeremy Lesniak:

That would be great, that’ll be great. You know this whole near death experience if I can call it that or death experience.

Brent Crisci:

I’m not sure what you actually call it when you actually died.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah

Brent Crisci:

You know my, if you say death experience it sounds weird cause I’m still here but yeah visiting. I call, that when I tell it I died for a very short time. The rumors of my death were slightly exaggerated.

Jeremy Lesniak:

So, if we look at that I mean the number of people that have talked about what that’s like and how it changes their lives we don’t need to go there but where I want to go is a very small subset of that and that is how has it changed your view on martial arts and I don’t mean your view on martial arts as an instructor as someone who passes on wisdom as someone who shows up to the dojo to teach. But martial arts is a pretty all-encompassing thing you mentioned the physical and the mental and the spiritual aspects when you were talking about teaching children and anyone that’s been training more than you know I would expect just a few years sees those connections to those different pieces in their lives. How has your martial arts shift?

Brent Crisci:

Well, honestly Jeremy I don’t think I would be talking to you if I hadn’t been a martial arts master prior to that episode, I really don’t. When I get out of there and they did the evaluations and everything my blood sugars were out of control, well into diabetes range, type 2 diabetes. My blood pressure was 30 points higher than it was supposed to be. So, they gave me a list of both cardiac and diabetic restrictions with appropriate medications. I hate to take medicines any kind, just avoiding meds all my life. I told them, you tell me what I need to do I met with a dietician I met with a nutritionist. I did 3 months of Cardiac rehab. I said alright 3 months I’m in the physical rehab where I have to go to the hospital every other day and do the stuff and I said 3 months this is all going to be fixed and they’re like well no this is a lifetime to build up and you know we just want to get your numbers better I said no. I said you tell me what needs to happen, carbohydrates need to be gone, carbohydrates are gone, ok what do I need to, I need to do this exercise and not my martial arts stuff great I’ll do that and the discipline to do that and I did it in 3 months I finished my cardiac rehab, got my certification, my A1C was 6.1, my blood pressure was perfect, everything was exactly where it should be or better in 3 months and that was because of the years of martial arts training. The what the martial arts had taught me to do, the discipline it gave me, the focus, the lack of not to make excuses or the crying you know I got to deal with this oh I can’t eat that, oh no suck it up buttercup was our catch phrase on my team.  So that came from martial arts, so really believe that the martial arts both like you said, physically, mentally, spiritually the skills and tools I learned that maybe weren’t intended to be used for that you know we always think of it in terms of physical self-defense and stuff but that’s not what kills most people is not not getting beat up by a mugger. Okay, most of us are going to succumb to you know another ailment, long before we get attacked by a guy in ski mask, fight all 5 guys in a Bruce Lee movie. So that’s real self-defense, like Tom Callos talks about another great mentor. Tom is constantly talking about the modernization of the use of martial arts we’re not at war and even in war it’s not physical anymore. So, we don’t do hand to hand is not as relevant as the compassion as the discipline as the community mindset so yeah, I think that it changed my view in the martial arts in that. Again, it reminded me of the real values of what I do and what I teach and what the benefits all my students get are a lot more than kicking and punching or a lot more than weight loss. There’s a lot of subtext, there’s a lot of stuff that we’re getting that we’re going to use in ways we never even thought of. So yeah, I think that changed it. The refocusing of what I have to teach, I have accumulated the leadership 55:45 the inheritorship of three traditional arts that’s on my shoulders and that’s a big responsibility. I’ve earned black belts in 13 arts, I say earned because I went from white to black through the ranks in 13 systems. I’ve gotten a lot of other ranks that were awarded to me or bestowed on and that’s great I’m honored but there were 13 where I wanted to learn them and earn my black belt in them and I can’t teach them all anymore. There’s just not enough time in the day to run my organization and coach and do all the things I want to do so that was the other thing that that episode, it forced me to do something ironically Zig Ziglar taught me to do when I was 18. You make a priority list everyday, you color it A, B and C or you know red, blue and yellow and you put stuff on the list of what needs to be done. What really needs to be done today, what you like to get done today and what you could put now or forever and if it doesn’t get done it doesn’t get done. So, I’ve done a much better job this last year because of that episode categorizing where I’m putting my focus and energy and where I’m putting I don’t let, I let people take my time and that’s on, I let them it’s my fault. You can’t let people do that as much anymore because I got too much to do so I’ve changed my prioritization I’ve changed some of my style focused because I also have an incredible amount of medical bills. If you’ve never experienced a major blow out like this even with some fair health insurance I had, I had the medical bills have just mounded and I’m very certain ones that are going to have forever, certain drugs I need to take for the rest of my life, certain things checkups and test I have to have done every 6 months now. So, I need to look at it from a businessman perspective as well and I say well I need to do whatever I need to do martially that’s financially, professionally productive and you know I’m not going to do anything that doesn’t allow me to sleep at night but I a lot of the stuff I do as my Dave Kovar’s good for guiding me with this. I love to teach my hobbies, they’re not good careers, they’re not good money makers but I love them, they’re fun arts you know and I like to teach them but there’s not, it’s the law of supply and demand. So, I’ve been forced to pass some of those on to some of my students and say look you’re going to run that once a week or whatever I’m not going to do it and I need to put my time in other areas and I’ll come and play with you when I can. So, it’s a, like I said it’s not the traditional, I wasn’t reborn or anything I’ve always done what I wanted to do and lived how I wanted to live but it did refocus and remind me of certain things and it did remind me that martial arts you may never know until you know what you’ve gotten from your training. Whether it saves your life physically, whether it saves your life emotionally, whether it saves your job or your marriage or makes you a better dad or mother or brother or sister, it’s doing all those things onto the surface. Even if you don’t know it, it’s doing it. Get martial arts training and I firmly would say my whole life everybody can benefit from being involved in the martial arts, you just got to find the right system for you but everybody could benefit from being in the martial arts and my pledge to my students and my organization is that better living through martial arts. My students have a better life because of their involvement. They have a good life and if they left the dojo they’d still have a good life but they have a better life because of their involvement and then I have to make sure that is true. I have to make sure that what I’m teaching and how I’m teaching it, it doesn’t just blow smoke. It’s not just an affirmation, Zig used to say that it’s not just attitude, you can tell people I’m great, I’m great, I’m awesome but attitude without aptitude has no value. So, you have to make sure that there’s something Tony Fournier another lifelong friend that you said you’ve known me since the beginning probably the longest, Tony’s one of the guy’s I met when I was just a kid in the AU fighting and he gave a 1:00:08 example about self-worth versus self-esteem in our society it’s a catch phrase a money phrase is we build self-esteem. He says I don’t build, I build self-worth, self-esteem is just telling somebody they’re awesome and making them believe it but there might not be a foundation, it’s like telling somebody oh you can fly and you pump them up and you chant I can fly and you have them flap their wings in the dojo and you get them really excited and we light a flight candle and we do our flight 1:00:34 and then we get up on the roof and we jump off and we die, cause we can’t fly no matter how much you believe it, you’re not jumping off that roof and fly. Now however if you want to fly maybe you can do take the tools, you know learn how to skydive or paraglide or learn how to fly a plane. There are it’ll give you the ability to fly, you can make that but you need the aptitude, you need the skill set to back up that attitude and that’s what Tony, he used a chocolate bunny and I like that because I don’t eat chocolate but I do crave it now even because I can’t have it. He said you know what, 1:01:13 he was in the generation where all bunnies were solid you got your easter1:01:19 with solid chocolate weighed a pound and a half and then when he was a kid they introduced something called the hollow bunny and I’m sure we’ve all gotten one or two in our lives now and you get that bunny and it’s empty so as soon as you pick it up you realize that’s really light and then you bite the ear off cause that’s where we all start unless we’re weird and bite the butt. You people know who you are, that was a reference for 1:01:42. You get that empty bunny so it’s disappointing it’s not what it professed to be, you saw a bunny that was 12 inches tall and should be a pound of chocolate and it turned out to be about 4 ounces of chocolate because it was hollow and that’s the difference between just self esteem believing something and self worth having the insides to back it up the solid bunny. So that’s been kind of one of the affirmations from that experience I want to make sure that everything I say and do and then everything that’s done and said in my name because I got a lot of people represent me now awesome great people, I want to make sure they all have self-worth not just self-esteem, that they have the abilities and the aptitudes to back up their awesome attitudes. What was the question?

Jeremy Lesniak:

I don’t even remember and that’s ok.

Brent Crisci:

Good, good then I’ve done my job.

Jeremy Lesniak:

You have, you know this has been a great episode. You just kind of took it and ran and all of the things that I try to do on my end as an interviewer with the structure with the questions you know the attempt here is really to lead people through in sort of an organic on their life through the martial arts and you did that without any prompting so I thank you for that because it allowed me to step back and just kind of let you go.

Brent Crisci:

I’m happy to do it, I felt like I needed to really make up for the delay and

Jeremy Lesniak:

Don’t worry about it

Brent Crisci:

for 2 and a half years a whole 1:03:09

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well you are not the only person so

Brent Crisci:

Oh, I’m sure, well you know what the reason you want to interview these people is because they’ve got something to say and they’ve done something which means they’re busy they’re doers. So, doers we keep you know it’s tough to find time but we make time for what is important and this was important especially after last year’s episode I if nothing else like you said to edify and to show gratitude for the mentors that I’ve been lucky enough to have. The instructors I’ve been lucky enough to call teacher and still do, they deserve props and then many of them are still here. So, when we have event like the martial arts symposium where the gathering in California or the Maine gathering we just have, I implore students stop making excuses and make it happen. Everybody is not going to be here forever, no one is going to be here forever and I’ve always taken advantage and I’ve flown and driven and because these things that exist a lot of them when I was training early on. I had to drive everywhere to go to these guys and now we bring them together so students have to go in their back yard essentially and spend the weekend with Superfoot Wallace or Hanshi Juchnik, or Michael DePasquale you know an endless list to these awesome Grandmaster’s that are part of history that they could see all in one place so you know I know martial arts university too, I got to mention that, that’s coming up Columbus Day weekend this year out in New Jersey so Soki DePasquale always running that. there are masters that go to these events that don’t go to anything else you know so that’s the opportunity so students don’t wait for the right time, that’s another thing that near death experiences will give you is I’ve always lived that way luckily, I’ve had good parent’s good teachers that told me carpe diem. So, I didn’t lay there and have regrets about all the things I didn’t do. I only had a few thoughts on what wasn’t I going to get to do now. What you know that I had plans so yeah, I hope that I like I said I’ve opened up or edified those people and again if I missed anybody I’ll punch in at the next event, you can beat me up.

Jeremy Lesniak:

This has been great, if anybody out there if they want to get a hold a view or you know just

Brent Crisci:

Why would they be want to do that, I’m really more, I’m a lot more obnoxious in real life here on the radio.

Jeremy Lesniak:

There’s probably one person so for that one person that might want to talk to you that hasn’t already.

Brent Crisci:

That one friend I have left Grandmaster Pete 1:05:44 that actually likes me they could no. We have a website that’s pretty informative UnitedDojos.com that’s our United martial arts academy’s website. I have an email, I have multiple emails, they all forward to my original AOL email. Yes, I said AOL for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s called America On Line, it was the first internet email really that was used and it’s kicksusa, k i c k s u s a @AOL.com so all of the other current emails cause me and Michael d started their martial arts a worldwide network was the first internet based martial arts thing which kind of exciting that Soki started. They did it with AOL so I used to host the chat room for AOL back when the internet started, oh god I felt I sound ancient there don’t I? But anyways kicksusa@AOL.com. If you want to give me a call to the office I’ll never answer the phone but you can, it’s 207 621 0770 some nice people will talk to you and they’ll leave me a message. Of course, now I’m pretty good with my social media so Melody Schuman again props to her and Dave Kovar making me get on there and do stuff so I’m on Facebook and I have a kid’s account and then an adult one. So, the kids I have a kid friendly ones so you know that’s just kid orientated and any kids can be on there and they’re never going to see anything bad. I have an Instagram account kicksusa on Instagram and a bunch other stuff I don’t know the words for and Melody I’m doing my 1:07:21 like you told me once a week now on Facebook so I hope you’re proud.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well she may hear this.

Brent Crisci:

They’re making other people laugh if it’s doing nothing else, there’s a lot of amusement on Facebook when I go live because I don’t know what I’m doing with my cheap phone but yeah there’s all sorts of way that you could hunt me down or if you go to any of those awesome events, martial arts symposium, gathering in California, the Maine gathering, Martial Arts University. I’m doing a pretty bad job in reducing my travel schedule so I’ll be in all of the tournaments I’ll be down in Vermont, you’re a way it’s the Vermont National’s in September and at tournaments you know I always love to help so if anybody has a question or a comment you know I got pretty thick skin come tell me what you think and I tell you what I think.

Jeremy Lesniak:

1:08:14 alright well Kyoshi I thank you for being here and one last thing we always go out in the highest of notes, what parting advice would you give to the folks listening?

Brent Crisci:

You know what I’m going to borrow from a teacher I didn’t talk about a lot because I knew I would get the clamp and I would get choked up is my Professor Nick Cerio he did more for me than I can ever repay he took me as his private student. He put me on his board of directors for Nick Cerio’s 1:08:45 martial arts and he said something when Hanshi interviewed him for like a magazine he said he wishes that the martial arts would unite that the leaders and the instructors would unite together as martial arts not as styles so that we would have more power than everybody else and that’s my advice is it stop worrying about who’s style is better and who’s system is legitimate and who’s got this rank. Start knowing where all martial arts, and if we all are together, we have massive power and we have massive ability to change the world. So, my advice is learn from anybody you can, put your ego down put it down, put it get it out in the way. It’s only getting in your way, put your, take your belt off if you need to and get on the mat and learn something. I don’t care what you know, I don’t care what you are I get on the mat everyday and I learn something I learn from white belts and I learn from masters, I don’t care what style it is. So that’s my advice is unite and get to work, get on the mat train there’s nothing more important than that, not you know unite and that’s what Professor said it was his wish he passed not long after that and so I’m grateful to him and I still teach for him and I still represent him and so that’s my parting, not my epitaph I guess cause I’m still here again rumors slightly exaggerated but yeah let’s get together. Let’s not worry about the styles we’re all martial arts that means we’re all in the martial arts we’re all the same so let’s train, let’s edify, let’s support.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Talk about a spirited martial artist and someone who’s weathered a pretty strong storm in their life. A storm which he wouldn’t have survived without his martial arts. It made him physically able to face life’s greatest challenge head on and he managed to survive. Through all he’s maintained his trademark sense of humor and I’m grateful that this episode took place and I’m really grateful we could share it with you. Thank you Kyoshi Crisci for coming on the show. If you want to find the show notes those are at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Don’t forget martial artscalendar.com and you can find all of our social media @whistlekick. If you want to email me directly that’s jeremy@whistlekick.com. I want to thank you for tuning in thank you for spending time with us today and until next time train hard smile and have a great day.

      Episode 226 – Kyoshi Brent Crisci Kyoshi Brent Crisci is a karate practitioner and teacher from Maine. He is the founder of United Martial Art Academies.