Greetings:
During this holiday season, I’ve decided to share some of the insight and experience I’ve had, as well as lessons learned.
A number of people have asked me some questions, and here is my answer to one of them.
If you have questions CLICK HERE and fill out the short form so you can ask me directly.
I’ll spend all next week answering as many of them as I can in this series of “Thanks-Giving” podcasts.
Okay, sit back, CLICK HERE for Episode #1, and listen in.
Best,
Alex Simmons
Sing like you mean it!
Earlier today I was griping, and a long friend said, “No worries, we’ll just write our way out of all this…”
This simple line reminded me why creative people exist in society. Our super power are 1) Envision Vision, 2) Mind Over What Matters, 3) Passion Power, 4) Determinitus.
We conceive something out of nothing, plot it creation, commit to its validity, and push against the odds of failure.
We dance, sing, paint, write, compose, carve and more.
These powers can be used for good. They can reflect strife, or accomplishment. Illuminate issues to enable resolution. Bring joy and beauty to lift us higher that our day to day routines.
Or, they can be used other ways, but we see so much of that all too often.
So for now, I thank my friend for reminding me why I’m here, so I can get back to where I belong.
I often hear my peers lamenting on how we must give up on the adults and focus on the children.
Can’t say that I blame them. With the way adults have been acting lately (private citizens and leaders), it often looks like someone should power up the Ark.
But the problem with that premise is that we’d be giving up the very place where children look for role models, examples, and guidance.
It’s obvious, they measure themselves against us.
So my choice is to focus 65% of my energy on kids, and 35% on adults … including myself.
See, if I channel “quit,” how do I teach children not to? How do I teach them to rise when they fall; to go around when you can’t go through; to be better than those that set bad examples?
And most of all – how to value others as you learn to value yourself?
If we don’t believe it, how can we teach it to them.
There’s nothing like looking at life through the eyes of another. On Thursday (Oct. 9th), and again on Friday, I was given that opportunity in a very profound way.
It started with an event at the New York Comic Con honoring Irwin Allen. He’s one of the last remaining comic illustrators from the industry’s golden age (the 1940s). Among his many credits, Irwin illustrated the original Green Lantern, as well as the Wonder Woman comics. He was also the artist on the old “Dondi” comic strip for 30 years.
While accepting his award for his decades of service, Irwin related tales from his childhood, his experiences during World War 2, and up to present day. His accounts of the Depression, and the war were extremely vivid and candid. They encompassed delivering newspapers in all kinds of weather, the fight game, mobsters, ladies of the night, and big business deals.
They enable me to truly sense the feel of that era and the mindset of some of its colorful people, good and bad.
Later, as I left the event, I had no idea that the following day would give me an even closer view – one steeped with joy and great pain.
To Be Continued
To you I ask this question, “What is wrong with responding to an inquiry from a business, or potential business, associate?”
I am curious to hear your replies within the next two days. Of course I will give my point of view in that same amount of time.
Thank you.
Today I walked with heroes
Hands clasped in friendship, opened in welcome
With arms outstretched to lift up spirits and small ones
Who could not see above tabletops layered with
Cartoons and colors, and care
Today I walked with heroes
Who I have been blessed to know
Who I have lead and followed
Heroes who answer each call
With mind and thought
With heart and soul
Knowing we do what we do for all the right reasons
And we bask in the warmth of smiles and hugs
And wondrous eyes gazing up at us saying teach me
To be like me, to be like you, to be like them
All the everyday heroes who have gone before and will …
I promise …
Come again.
Simmons, 10/4/14 –
Superhero Day @ Ronald McDonald House NYC — Where volunteers on my KCC Road Show Team spent hours drawing for and with, as well as talking to, some wonderful children!
On Saturday, September 20th, I attended a middle school gift to their neighborhood in what can be considered a challenged community. The gift was a mini comic book convention with plenty of books by various independent artists, as well as some by DC, and Archie Comics.
The artists who attended (myself included) were men and women, ranging in age from about 20 something up to those with snow white hair. We represented several races and cultures, including the US, parts of Latin America, and England. Most of us worked for some of the major comics, TV, film, and video game companies. Quite a smorgasbord.
We heard a lot of, “thanks,” and “this is fun,” and the kids enjoyed asking questions, drawing with us, and learning how comics are made. Near the end of the day one parent said, “We don’t usually have anything like this come to this neighborhood…” The obvious reason being that it’s a poor section of the city.
I could have said, underprivileged, or ghetto, but that isn’t 
considered PC. Or, perhaps I’m not using those terms because they instantly trigger images that might cause some individuals to shut down, or come to a conclusion about the populace before hearing the facts.
Whatever else might be in areas like this all over the country, there are also hearts and minds and souls yearning to discover, and grow, and perhaps even contribute to a better society. The creative arts is one path to lifting spirits, teaching life lessons, and expanding the human capacity to manifest what did not exist before. Or, sometimes, it is simply a way to maintain a little light and fresh air in our days.
If art is a meal on which we need to feast from time to time … than we have surely left far too many to starve – especially the children.
That is a condition that can be changed, simply by creating events like this, where a few good people can congregate and share and feel good about themselves and others.
Salutations.
It’s been over a year since I posted thoughts, ideas, or press in this particular digital storefront window.
I haven’t been creatively dry during that time – more like adrift, periodically bobbing into project shores, and then floating back out to sea.
I blame a heavy storm of negativity for my limited activity. Negative thoughts, people, and actions on a global scale.
It’s hard to create joy and laughter when you see an almost endless stream of tears around the world. And for me, constantly using ANGER and OUTRAGE as inspirational fuel is much like powering a family camper with nitro, or playing handball with C4.
So I step back a bit, float, contemplate, or … sometimes for too long … close the shutters.
Not productive. Not self-sustaining. Not the way I wish to meet each day.
So, I’m back.
True I will not post on a daily basis because – as I said in a post some time ago – I enjoy the doing of things. And when you’re busy participating in life, you don’t always have time to comment on same.
Still, I’ll do my best.
The late actor, Jeremy Britt once told me that at certain times in his life he’d “felt like an empty vessel.” And in order to both portray a certain role, and to just live, he had to “fill it up” with elements of life.
I believe that may be true for all of us. Certainly it is for me.
To create art, one must live life. So as I am fond of saying to friends, family, and students … go forth and be brilliant.
Part 3
The following day we were able to reunite with our other child and the family felt whole again. And trust me, I remember feeling blessed to be able to feel that, fore I knew thousands more had been denied it, here and abroad. And thousands more would soon know that pain and fury.
I remember that in the days to follow there was a quiet that draped over parts of the city I traveled. Someone remarked, “What would you expect when 3000 souls were transitioning on?”
At DC Comics, a long time exec and friend walked the offices, floor by floor, offering kind words to many – sending some of them home, when home was truly a better place to be. Like some other professional comics artists and companies, he launched a graphic novel anthology project to honor those who died, those who risked their lives to save others, and those who must now deal with overwhelming loss.
I was proud to be part of that collection. I hope the story I wrote was of some help to someone. It certainly helped me to write it.
I remember street peddlers hawking “I survived 9-11” t-shirts not 48 hours after that tragedy. And I remember wanting – for one of the few times in my life – to smash someone’s face in. How dare they monetize and cheapen those deaths, and the families’ pain.
“Just tryin’ to make a living,” one hawker said.
So were they.
— End of Part 3 —
Part 2
That evening, to ease some of the tension, we took an stroll in our neighborhood and stopped at the local candy store to buy the children some ice cream. We’d done this many times before.
It was so quiet on the street, and more so in that store. The owners were a Middle East family who had been there for at least 2 or 3 years. We’d talked to the men and sons many times in the past.
That night there was an oppressive silence. The shopkeepers were as fear-filled as the rest of us, perhaps more. They told me how almost no one had entered the shop all day. No one. They knew that now some of their neighbors viewed them as the enemy.
We talked to them for a bit. My wife and I had been raised to judge people, not races, religions, or cultures. We were teaching our children the same lesson. That day was testing us all. I could feel it. We all could.
Finally we went home, two of our children with ice cream goodies in their hands, wishing the third had been there too. At the house we put some absolute nonsense on the TV to relieve the tension even more, and give some laughter to the children. You can’t beat a marathon of Get Smart episodes for a welcomed blanket of absurdity.
— End of Part 2 —
SimmonsHereAndNow 