Second AE-NCC Workshop!

The second workshop of Autism Empowerment's Neurodivergent Creators Collective (AE-NCC) is this Sunday!

Program Co-lead and professional actor Gwyn LaRee will be introducing the most common voice over opportunities, and then AE's Executive Director Karen Krejcha will talk about what a podcast is and why you should consider taking part in one.

If you are in the Vancouver/Portland area, please join us at Stephen's Place, 501 SE Ellsworth Rd, Vancouver, WA, from 2:30-3:30pm Pacific Time. It's free, but space is limited, so prior registration is recommended (you can sign up here). If you can't be there in person, it will be simulcast (I've always wanted to use that word) via Zoom; you can get the link via the same registration page. It will also be recorded and available to watch later.

Hope to see you there!

Hanging With The Autograph King

On Monday, I spent an afternoon doing a crawl of some cool retail establishments in Portland with Shamim Dana, aka The Autograph King.

Don't know who Shamim is? Well, you will soon. He's set to be the subject of a documentary called The Autograph King, which profiles his story of having been born with multiple intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy, and going on to live a fun and fulfilling life through the joy of pop culture fandom and helping others.

We met at the Autism Society of Oregon's 23rd Annual Walk in April, and since then, we've become good friends as well as partners in crime trying to get the Hold My Beer franchise produced. Through his passion of collecting autographs from celebrities, he's built an extensive network of show business contacts, some of whom just might be able to help us take the SPS-Verse to the next level.

The documentary, which was directed by Scott Zakarin (whose credits include Comic Book: The Movie, Mind Meld, Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters and Marvels, and the cult classic Creating Rem Lezar), is scheduled to come out in late 2025 or early 2026, but you can learn more about it and Shamim in the upcoming Summer 2025 issue of Spectrum Life Magazine, where he will be featured in an interview conducted by yours truly.

As for the places we visited, they include Video Game Wizards, Variety Records, and Movie Madness (pictured below), a very cool video rental shop and museum that even has its own miniplex theater.

If you're a fan of vintage video games, music, or movies, I recommend checking these places out!

Please also consider checking out:

Joel Suzuki - my young adult sci-fi/fantasy novel series about an autistic teenage guitarist who follows his dreams to a faraway land, only to find himself battling an unexpected enemy in a desperate attempt to save not one, but two worlds from total destruction. The first book is available for just $1.99 in Kindle format on Amazon here!

Hold My Beer - my short film about an autistic young adult who, after receiving a tough-love ultimatum from his parents, discovers a passion for craft beer and embarks on a mission to open his own brewpub. Watch it for free on YouTube here!

Doctor Whaaat??

I know this is late, because the finale of Doctor Who's so-called "Season Two" aired last Saturday, but...what the heck??

(Warning: in case you don't already know what happened - which seems unlikely given that it's all over the internet - major spoilers to follow.)

(photo credit: BBC/Disney)

So yeah, that happened. I have to say, I - and a ton of other folks, apparently; good job in preventing leaks, BBC - was totally caught off guard. When Ncuti Gatwa said "I like this face," I was like, "Wait, um, what? No way!" I was expecting a fake-out regeneration like Peter Capaldi's Doctor did once, but, well, nope. Mr. Gatwa is done with the show after just two seasons, which feel like they went by really quickly.

And then. And then!

We'll see if Billie Piper really is the Sixteenth Doctor (you can find tons of speculation about it elsewhere online). Personally, I'm guessing that she won't be, or she'll be some kind of interim/uncounted Doctor like the War Doctor, or the Fugitive Doctor, etc. Either way, after that happened, I was like - okay, Billie Piper is awesome and all, but if they were going to make a former companion the new Doctor or Doctor-adjacent, they should have gone with Karen Gillan, because not only is she already in Disney's payroll records, but then she could've said, "Finally ginger!" (you fellow Doctor Who nerds know what I'm talking about.)

Oh well...