Drawing comics, making movies, crafting mixtapes, merchandising a boutique.
This might look like a random collection of hobbies.
But for me, it’s always been the same thing:
telling stories with the tools I have.
THE COMIC ART
When I was just a wee little child, I immediately put pencil to paper and started drawing weird little characters. These characters were almost always involved in some kind of action scene. My attempts to portray movement on a single page would inevitably turn into a chaotic mess.
Then I discovered something through reading comic books: if I separated the action into separate panels, I could tell a cleaner story.
Drawing comics became an obsession and one that lasted through most of my early life.
Through art, I made up characters and sent them on adventures.
For a long time, I kept this artwork private. But at some point, in high school, I started sharing my comic book drawings. Then I would draw friends and classmates and add them into the stories. That got some attention and some laughs and the support and encouragement I received during that time stuck with me and motivated me to keep going.
THE MIXTAPES
Music, always a crucial ingredient in the creative process. The clichés are true; music can pull you out of tough times. It's been a constant source of inspiration and motivation in my life.
Sometime in my early tweens, I discovered college radio. It was the channels way down at the bottom of the dial of my AM/FM clock radio that would play the most interesting music. This discovery was a turning point. One that sent me on a lifetime musical mission. College radio played uncensored, alternative, indie, art-rock. That's where I found punk, rap, dark wave… all the stuff mainstream radio ignored. The interesting stuff.
My world opened up.
Soon I was riding my bike into the city, heading to Newbury Comics in Harvard Square, buying whatever artist I had just heard on the radio. My best friend and I would usually have just enough money for one cassette tape. We'd split it by copying it onto a blank tape and I'd try and replicate the cover art for the copied cassette.
And that led to mixtape making. A very important part of my life.
Sharing thoughts and feelings through music was, and still is, a big part of my creative process. Friends would occasionally get a mixed tape but every girlfriend I ever had (including my current wife) got at least one or more mixtapes. I was expressing myself through a list of curated songs. And of course, designing the cover art.
I imagine most of these mixtapes were listened to once then forgotten, but making them was the real reward.
These days, it's not quite the same, but playlists are still being crafted, a few of the Minka playlists are public on Spotify.
And now I get to share music with all the fine people that come through the doors of Minka.
THE MOVIES
My love of movies probably started when my parents took me to see the film, Taps ,when I was nine years old. Taps is a tense, and sometimes violent story about young military cadets that seize control of their school when they discover it will soon be shut down and sold to developers. Probably too young to be watching a movie like this, Taps was seared into my developing brain. It was dark and traumatizing and I loved it.
Then came the movie Amadeus when I was eleven. That one blew me away. I didn't fully understand it, but I knew I was watching art. Cinema as art. And I wanted in.
I wanted to watch all the movies and also make the movies.
My first camera was the PXL2000, also known as the Pixelvision. This was a black-and-white Fisher-Price made video camera that recorded sound and video onto cassette tapes.
My first "movie" using the PXL involved pretending to push my friend out of a window, then.. Cut To: a life size stuffed mannequin falling from the second-story bedroom.
Classic childhood movie making.
Later, I inherited a very cool Super 8 camera and projector from my uncle. This felt like the real deal. During this time, I was taking a film class in Boston. One day after screening one of my short films, a classmate (an older woman who was taking the course because her recently deceased husband had been a film director and she wanted to understand more about his craft) approached me, pointed at me, and said:
"You've got what it takes, kid."
This was another moment of encouragement that lasted a lifetime.
I eventually packed up my Super8 and moved to Los Angeles. While in L.A. I attended a Make-Up school to study special-effects makeup. After finishing school, I worked on a few videos and student films but my interest in that field didn't last long. I spent most of my time in L.A. painting and just being young and dumb on the West Coast.
Later, when I returned to the East Coast, I purchased a good ol' fashioned camcorder. The camcorder wasn't a particular interesting camera, but I did use it for a stretch of time to make stop-motion animation movies.
Then came the iPhone. A filmmaking tool that fits in your pocket.
It opened the gates. Everyone could be a filmmaker or a "content" creator. Some choose to make art, with it, most choose to make commercials.
But then... my dear, sweet, wife gifted me with an Insta360. A fisheye-style action camera that immediately clicked for me. It reminded me of the kind of visuals I loved growing up. It gave me a much-needed burst of inspiration.
And at this point, I'll take inspiration wherever I can get it.
AND THEN CAME AI (HERE'S WHERE IT GETS WEIRD)
This is where things get tricky.
A.I.
The younger generation isn't really about i and I respect that.
Kids, go out and get your hands dirty.
Make stuff. Cut paper. Make a collage. Play records. Make a Zine. Watch VHS tapes.
Analog forever.
But as a Gen Xer, I've already lived through and done all that.
So the question becomes: what's next? What is the new tool?
When I first experimented with AI video tools, it was mind-blowing. Writing a script with camera directions, lighting, mood and then seeing a fully formed scene appear out of nowhere? What?
Mind blown.
Would I rather work with a full crew, build sets, and shoot with real actors? Of course.
Do I have the time and resources? Not at all.
So, I created these 10 second clips using AI, edited them together using Capcut, added music and sound effects, and DANG. it's a movie.
And that was fun while it lasted.
But the powers that be discontinued the AI platform I was using,
and it's probably for the best.
I hear that the energy it takes to run AI is devasting the planet.
Hope we can fix that problem.
MERCHANDISING
Now, as an aging hipster, part-time artist, full-time shop owner, I get to tell stories through my store.
I curate art, accessories, and objects. I arrange them by color, texture, and theme. Everything is intentional. The sights, the scents and the sounds.
Every song is specifically chosen for the store and added to a playlist.
This is where my DIY sensibilities live now. Hands-on. Physical. In a real space.
It's like walking through a record store. Or wandering the aisles of a video shop.
It's analog.
Then there's the other side of it, the social media, the marketing.
Time to break out the video camera again. Make some movies. Make a Reel. Get creative!
But It’s hard not to see everything as a commercial now.
That’s just the reality doing business. Make content. Sell something.
Even this blog could be that.
But I don’t know…
Maybe this is just another version of the same thing I’ve always been doing..
telling stories, however I can.