Battle Ground Film House

For those of you in the Vancouver/Portland area, I will be the featured guest speaker tonight at the bimonthly (every other month) meeting of the Battle Ground Film House group!

I'll be talking about - what else? - Hold My Beer, along with how I went from writing novels and playing music to making films in the first place.

The Battle Ground Film House is a free, open-to-everyone collective of independent filmmakers and anyone else with an interest in the film industry. There's a virtual component of it on Facebook, and also these in-person gatherings where you can meet and connect with others face-to-face. I've attended every one since they first started last May, and I can attest that they are well worth it. I've met a lot of awesome people who have since become great friends.

The meeting goes from 6:30pm until about 8pm, and is at the SixEight Church, 606 NE 1st Street, Battle Ground, WA 98604. Hope to see you there!

4-D, The Card Game: Status Update

You thought I forgot about the 4-D card game, didn't you?

Well, I didn't. The test deck is right there, on the table where I keep my wallet and car keys, reminding me of its existence every time I leave the house.

"Brian! Briiiiiiaaaaan! Produce me! Produce me now! You know you want to!"

Ahem. Anyway, in case YOU forgot about the 4-D card game, let me back up a bit and refresh your memories.

The game is a simple, War- or Hana Fuda-meets-Pokemon-type of game, with a few embellishments, that is meant to be played without having to think too much (the original inspiration for the game came when I once attempted to play a complex card game while drunk, which did not go very well at all).

The last status update about the game, which was designed to accompany the album of the same name, was back in (checks notes, gasps) holy cow, August of 2021. At the time, I said, "If all goes well, the card game will be released simultaneously with the music album in Summer 2022."

Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Obviously, that did not happen.

But, like I said, it's still there, um...patiently awaiting its production.

What's preventing it? Well, the usual suspects: time and money. Or, more accurately, the lack thereof.

The game design itself is ready. And we have all the base concept artwork done. See below for a sample:

Now, we just need to pull it all together.

Maybe, since Hold My Beer is in what is hopefully a short, temporary holding pattern, we can finally give 4-D, the card game, the attention it deserves?

Perhaps. We shall see. Stay tuned!

P.S. I noticed that there seems to be a lot of interest in last week's post about my possibly being neurodivergent. Well, I went for my main assessment yesterday, and I should know the results in around three weeks or so. Rest assured, I'll let you all know what happens!

Um...What If I'M Neurodivergent??

I've begun to wonder recently, "what if I'M autistic/on the spectrum/neurodivergent?"

I mean, it would make sense. Both of my kids have been officially diagnosed. My dad is self-diagnosed and, as detailed in this past blog post, is probably as much of a slam dunk as a self-diagnosed autistic person can be.

I've wondered about this before, but only in passing. But the production of Hold My Beer has really brought it to the forefront.

It kind of started when several of our actors did this interview with The Columbian newspaper back in January. During that interview, Lydia Pearl Pentz, who plays the character Shannon in the film, said (I'm quoting the article), "A lot of people in this industry, especially directors, are people with autism. To be a director you really do have to dive into it so deeply."

I thought, "Wait a minute, does she think I'm autistic?" Because I never said I was. But maybe I presented that way during filming?

I mean, it would make sense. I have sensory issues: I can't stand the feeling of soap between my fingers, so whenever I wash my hands, I have to scrub for two to three minutes until the sensation is gone. I don't like the tags in the collars of T-shirts. Speaking of collars, I can't sleep in a shirt that has a tight collar, or even a "normal" collar, because it makes me feel like I'm choking (my dad is the same way). I don't like the feeling of lotion on my palms, so whenever I apply lotion to my hands (which I have to do during the winter, or my skin will dry out and crack), I put it on the back of my hands and then wipe my palms with tissue.

I have OCD-like tendencies: before I go to bed at night, I have to check the locks on my door by physically touching them several times, even though I can obviously see that they're locked. When I leave the house, I have to stare at the garage door for longer than necessary to be sure that it's closed. I'll double- and triple-check that my car door is closed and locked even though I just set the alarm.

I often repeat things I say out loud back to myself in my head right after I say them, a form of echolalia (a condition in which people repeat vocalizations, sometimes associated with autism) called palilalia.

I get hyper-focused on things that interest me, and I can and will talk about them (very enthusiastically, mind you) for a very long time, even when it's apparent that the listener is getting bored.

I'm very detail-oriented, and I keep multiple spreadsheets of the projects I'm working on; for example, Hold My Beer has over 30 spreadsheets. I even keep a spreadsheet of the episodes of my band's podcast.

I think in pictures, which came in handy while writing the Joel Suzuki series.

So after wondering and thinking about it some more, I asked Karen and John Krejcha, the founders of Autism Empowerment, what they thought. We've known each other for many years, and they said that they've felt for a long time that I might be neurodivergent, but didn't want to say anything because they weren't sure how I would respond!

After that, Karen sent me some online tests. I started by taking something called the Autism Spectrum Quotient test. I scored a 15, which generally means that I'm likely not autistic. I also took the RAADS test, which is designed to assess autistic traits in adults. I scored a 47, which again means that I'm likely not autistic.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'm neurodivergent, and that I've just adopted scripts for social situations and have learned how to mask so well that I appear neurotypical - even to myself.

I mean, it would make sense.

So I took another test that Karen sent me, the CAT-Q (Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire), which measures how much someone masks their autistic traits. A score over 100 indicates that the test-taker probably camouflages to the point where it can influence other test results.

I got a 108. The average score for confirmed autistic males is 109.64.

Well, then!

Based on that result, I decided that I would take the next step and get a formal assessment. Fortunately, I know someone who performs such assessments: Dr. Anson Service, a fellow Autism Empowerment board member (who is neurodivergent himself). I went for my initial intake appointment this past Tuesday and will be doing the formal assessment tests next week.

So we shall see. Whichever way this turns out, it will have been an interesting and enlightening journey of personal self-discovery. Stay tuned!

Checking In With Joel And Felicity

INT. BRIAN'S LIVING ROOM - DAY

A young man and a young woman are here, sitting on a couch and playing Madden NFL 25 on Xbox. This is JOEL and FELICITY. There is a bowl of popcorn and a can of diet cola on a table in front of them. Felicity, playing as the Las Vegas Raiders, tackles the running back of Joel's team, the Seattle Seahawks.

F: Hah! Booyah!

J: Do people still say "booyah"?

F: I just did.

J: Yeah, but...

F: But what?

J: Never mind.

F: Heh. You're sounding more like me every day.

A middle-aged man enters the room. This is BRIAN.

B: Hey, folks.

F: Whoa! It's...it's...what's your name again?
J: It's Brian. Don't you remember him?

F: Dude, I was just kidding.

B: I know, you haven't seen me in a while. I've been busy.

J: Working on that film project?

B: Yeah.

F: What was it called? Something about beer?

B: "Hold My Beer."

F: That's right.

Felicity pauses the game, puts down her controller, and takes a sip of diet cola.

B: Anyway, how are you two doing? How's retirement?

J: We're not retired.

F: We're not old, like you.

B: Oh? Then what have you been up to?

F: Stuff.

J: Mostly playing video games, writing songs, and watching movies.

B: Umm...that sounds kind of like retirement to me.

F: Hey, we deserve a break, after everything we've been through.

B: You mean, the events of Joel Suzuki, Volume Seven: Vision of Virtuoso?

F: The what of what now?

B: Forget it. I'm just glad you're having fun.

J: Thanks. We are.

Felicity tosses some popcorn into her mouth.

F: (chewing) So why are you here? Is that beer film thingy done?

B: Kind of. We held a screening for it in January, and it just went live on YouTube last week.

J: Congratulations.

B: Thanks. But we're not really done yet. We're trying to get funding to turn it into a series. And also create a real-life pub. And also develop a video game.

F: Geez, ambitious much?

B: Yeah, we really want to turn it into something that will put Vancouver in the spotlight while providing entertainment industry opportunities to people in the autism and neurodivergent communities.

J: That sounds like a good mission.

B: It is. So I just wanted to check in on you two and see if maybe you'd be interested in participating in some fashion.

F: Dude, I'm retired.

B: I thought you said you weren't.

F: Joel said that. I just said that we're not old, like you.

J: She's right.

B: So you're not interested?
F: Eh, check back later.

B: Joel?

J: Um...I'm kind of busy at the moment.

B: Playing Madden?

J: Yeah.

B: Okay, fine.

Felicity picks her controller back up.

F: (to Joel) Ready for more beatdowns?

J: Sure.

Brian starts to leave the room.

B: (under his breath) Maybe I'll have to start working on Joel Suzuki, Volume Eight sooner than I thought.

F: What was that?

B: Nothing.

CUT TO BLACK

Hold My Beer - Worldwide Premiere!

Hold My Beer is now available to watch on YouTube!

It comes in three flavors:

ORIGINAL

ENGLISH CAPTIONED

and

JAPANESE SUBTITLED

Please check it out and, if you enjoy it, consider liking, subscribing, and telling your friends and family! Doing so will show that Hold My Beer has an established audience of viewers who are interested in seeing more, helping our chances of getting it developed into a series.

Mahalo!

Second Player Score: Official Mission

Special announcement! Like a Pokemon, Second Player Score has evolved.

Having started out as a punk rock band, we are now as of this week a holistic arts and entertainment team, and our official mission has become to provide career opportunities within the entertainment and hospitality industries to people from the autism and neurodivergent communities. Same logo, new purpose.

Actually, not so new, when you think about it. We've already been doing it, like with Hold My Beer and our use of neurodivergent talent both in front of and behind the camera. But now, it's codified, and enhanced: not only will we have autistic and neurodivergent people working on our in-house projects (e.g., the SPS-Verse), but eventually we want to provide support to neurodivergent creators who have their OWN projects; i.e., serving as their record label ("Second Player Sounds"), publishing imprint ("Second Player Stories"), film and TV production house ("Second Player Scenes"), video game studio ("Second Player Software"), etc. Related to this will be a new, forthcoming program from Autism Empowerment that I'll be writing more about in a future post.

Exciting times! Stay tuned for updates...

Anime Roundup

We interrupt our wall-to-wall coverage of Hold My Beer-related posts with another Anime Roundup! (warning: mild spoilers)

Chainsaw Man

One part horror, ten parts action, this one is about...well, basically a devil-human hybrid who can turn into a dude with chainsaws for a head and arms. There's a lot more to it than that, but you'll just have to watch it yourself. It does a masterful job of balancing the raucous and gory action sequences with quiet, contemplative moments (like a character silently lighting up and smoking a cigarette for almost two whole minutes of runtime) that, thanks to the juxtaposition, are filled with a sense of dread and foreboding. It reminds me a little of Jujutsu Kaisen (which is produced by the same studio, MAPPA), and even employs a similar "magic trio"-of-protagonists formula (eventually, anyway). It was on my radar for a long time, so I was surprised when I finally got around to watching it only to discover that there's only one 12-episode season out so far. MAPPA, isoide (hurry up) and make more! P.S. - I love, love, love that each episode has a different ending song and visuals, which is what we've planned to do with Glorified when it finally gets made into a show.

Blue Box

A gentle, slice-of-life romantic dramedy about a high school badminton player who has a crush on his slightly older, basketball-playing schoolmate that mostly goes unrequited even as they're living under the same roof (for reasons too complicated to explain here) while, in a classic love-triangle-type of plot, his childhood friend has a mostly unrequited crush on him, Netflix has been slow drip-feeing this to me one episode per week, so I've been watching it for the past nineteen weeks now and there's still a ways to go ("mada mada desu").

I'm Quitting Heroing

This story starts off right after the "usual" ending, with the overpowered hero having triumphed over the evil Demon Queen. But when he finds his efforts unappreciated by the people he's saved, he decides to switch sides and applies for a job with the now-rebuilding demon army. At first, it's a goofball workplace comedy that makes you wonder where, exactly, this is going. But it eventually takes some - spoiler alert - surprising twists and turns that, frankly, become a little dark, before wrapping things up in an ultimately satisfying ending. Or does it? Yes, it does. Or does it??

Murai in Love

A rom-com about a high school student who is in love with his homeroom teacher and cuts/dyes his hair so that he looks exactly like said teacher's favorite video game character in an effort to win her heart (trust me, this is not as creepy as it sounds), this one was a lot of fun, with very Japanese-style deadpan humor and a lot of great voice acting (I lost count of how many times I said to my TV, "this voice actor who plays the homeroom teacher is THE BEST.")

Dandadan

Two high school students! Aliens! Ghosts! Psychic powers! Spiritual possession! A love triangle! A second love triangle! The most unique MacGuffins* I've ever come across! Combine these ingredients with a - spoiler alert - major cliffhanger ending to Season One, and you have the recipe for a show that, like a lot of anime, takes some getting used to, but gets more and more fun as you go along.

* An object, or objects, that the characters are trying to get/find/recover, thus driving the plot. Like the Songshell from Joel Suzuki, Volume One.