Jack Flacco

My Snacks

Posted on August 29, 2014May 8, 2017 by Jack Flacco

I love food. I mean, I really love food. By my appearance, you wouldn’t guess it. I stand a lean human whose weight wafts along that of disappearance. Yeah, I’m that thin. But regardless, I really enjoy eating food. That’s why for Freedom Friday I thought I’d give you a rundown of what I love to snack on, not so much to inform you what I think everyone else should be eating, but more to let you know how wonderful an experience it is to find a food worth eating.

Let’s start with the basics. I’m not a processed food kind of guy. I like eating chips now and again, but they don’t provide me with the comfort I crave to keep me going throughout the day. You’ll find, as you peruse the list, my thing is natural snacks. I’ve tried the chips and ice cream route, yet it doesn’t do much for me. If anything, I’m not satisfied.

Which brings me to the snacks I love—walnuts is one of them. There’s nothing quite like eating a handful of nuts to keep the energy going for the day. Nuts, especially, provide me with the protein I need to keep me focused and energized. I also enjoy the incredible taste. Who said you need salted nuts to satisfy a craving?

The energy lift doesn’t last long though, I suppose because I have a fast metabolism.

Next on the list is cheese. I gorge on cheese, particularly mozzarella. If anything is true, cheese makes Jack a happy boy. I’ll have it in chunks. I’ll spread it on a pita with some salsa sauce and away I go. Great snack. Really. I also love feta. I’ll talk about feta later, but it has such a well-rounded flavor, it’s hard to resists its draw.

Cucumbers are so high on my list of snacks that I’m surprised I haven’t placed it at the top of this post. Whenever I get the munchies, cucumbers deliver on the goods. They’re great on their own or simply with a little salt. Typically, I’ll wash the cucumber, cut it in half and eat it plain. Simple, right? If I’m really feeling adventurous, I’ll dice it, add salt, pepper, lemon, oregano, and feta cheese, sit on the couch and stuff my face while watching reruns of Love It or List It.

Next on my list are avocados. I have my wife to thank for introducing this fruit to our family a few years ago. Easiest way to eat this is to cut it lengthwise, add some lemon and salt and off you go. Great, great snack. Not only does it provide a good source of monounsaturated fat that reduces blood pressure, but also contains carotenoids, which protects against eye disease. I eat it because it’s a great snack.

I eat other snacks, but let’s limit the list to what I have here. Suffice it to say, my fridge and pantry are always full of snacks I like.

I know that real chocolate comes to mind, but we’ll not go there.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What are your favorite snacks?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

The Women of Oz

Posted on August 27, 2014August 22, 2014 by Jack Flacco

There is a mystery in the Land of Oz. A wicked witch is wreaking havoc among the people. No one knows who she is, yet if she had her way Oz would become nothing more than a barren wasteland.

Starring James Franco as Oscar Diggs (a.k.a. Oz) and presented by Sam Raimi, director of the original Spider-Man trilogy, the film Oz the Great and Powerful features four Women Who Wow Wednesday characters worth writing about.

Despite lukewarm reviews, this movie is a visual treat. Every frame is gorgeous. Every scene detailed to perfection. Color? Outstanding. But don’t let the eye candy fool you. Woven in its story is an intricate plot between its principles and their ambitions to fulfill their destiny.

Let’s have a look at the women of Oz and the special characteristics that make them unique.

Theodora—Dressed in red, Theodora befriends Oscar believing he is the great and powerful wizard. As a woman preoccupied with her appearance, she delights in the fact she is so beautiful. Somewhat naïve at times, a small scene hints of her untapped potential to harness her unbridled power. Her greatest desire, though, is to bring peace to the Land of Oz.

Evanora—As Theodora’s older sister, Evanora is Emerald City’s protector. When meeting Oscar for the first time, she has her doubts of his authenticity. Her motivation is nothing short of acting as Oz’s guardian, the keeper of the land’s treasure, barring those with intentions to siphon it off for their own selfish desires.

Glinda—Having the power of discernment, Glinda is able to see through Oscar’s craftiness and determine his true nature. She knows he has a good heart. Her calm demeanor suggests of her kindness that radiates in her being. More than anything, she wants justice for all and truth to reign above everything else.

China Girl—Although made completely out of porcelain, China Girl is a spirited character with more guts than fear. The threat of breaking into pieces does not scare her when confronted with an enemy greater than herself. Her courage carries her through to overcome all obstacles standing in her way. She remains as one of the greatest inspirations in the film, convincing others that if they believe, all things are possible.

No one can deny the women of Oz are of a determined lot. They each have their moment. They each have specific goals tailored for their part. Whether for good or evil, their power comes from a strong resolve to accomplish much.

However, one thing is clear. No matter how much power someone possesses, if the heart is corrupt, so will that power be. For the same reason, everything around that power will dissolve to nothingness, if no one steps in to quell the desire for omnipotence.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Have you seen Oz the Great and Powerful? What did you think of the female characters?

Monday Mayhem

Why I Like Aliens

Posted on August 25, 2014August 21, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Last week for Monday Mayhem, I wrote Why I Like Zombies. I detailed how I enjoy watching a movie or reading a book where the undead are unrelenting with capturing their prey. I also drew a connection between those dastardly demons and their representation of humanity’s search for everlasting life. Lastly, I wrote about how they are metaphoric depictions of a writer’s overactive imagination—specifically, my overactive imagination.

This week, I want to talk about the reasons I like aliens.

Unlike zombies, who have a distinct set of rules dictating behavior, biological makeup and life expectancy, aliens have none of that. In fact, alien folklore is so open-ended that anyone can make up anything about these characters and still call them aliens. I like that aspect of the extraterrestrials. Spider-Man 3 had an interesting take on aliens. If you haven’t seen it, it had to do with an organism that has the ability to amplify the negative traits in a person, thereby rendering them evil. It’s quite a fascinating twist of the ordinary alien subplot you see in many other films because in this case, the alien does not have a fixed appearance.

On the other hand, I also like aliens because of the exact opposite of what I just wrote. In some circles, aliens have a concrete mythology based on the crash landing of an alleged spacecraft in 1947 Roswell, New Mexico. The UFO supposedly contained aliens the U.S. government, to this day, conspired to suppress detailed information. This incident sparked multiple theories of the government’s involvement with other planetary life forms. These theories created the legends of little green men from mars all the way to Area 51’s complicity to housing alien ships for technological studies.

I like the fact that some of my favorite movies have aliens in them as well. Movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Men in Black, and Paul feature them in prominent roles as visitors from another planet. What’s not to like of cuddly creatures aiming to take over earth?

Much like zombies, aliens also have an allegorical value to them. In the 1950’s, society’s biggest enemy was communism. Naturally, what did Hollywood do? Of course, they produced Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a film about people taken over by aliens. The commentary came when America was in the midst of McCarthyism—a time when anti-communist sentiment was at its height. It’s that allegory that attracts me to aliens the most. Aliens can symbolize any hot-topic issue thinly disguised as entertainment. They can come to embody social non-conformity matters, oppressive governments or even control-centric cults. The possibilities are endless.

But you know what? I also like aliens because they make incredible splatter patterns when shot.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Do you like aliens? What do you like them? What other alien legends haven’t I covered?

Freedom Friday, Other Things

Writing

Posted on August 22, 2014May 10, 2017 by Jack Flacco

As many of you know, and as some have noticed, I don’t talk about writing. There’s a reason for that. I’m sure I’ll get my hands rapped because of this declaration, but I think it’s important to talk about, since this is the rare and possibly only occasion when I will speak freely about this.

Photo credit: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

One of my family members calls me a machine. I’ll take that as a compliment. The other comment I get is I’m a workaholic. Again, I’ll take that as a compliment.

The truth is, before I started this site, I had taken an extended leave of absence from all social networking sites. I know what you’re thinking, “Nothing wrong with taking a couple of weeks off to regain perspective.” In my case, it wasn’t a couple of weeks. It wasn’t even a couple of months. Sit down for this.

I’d taken eight months off from all social networks. That’s eight months off Twitter. Eight months off Facebook. Other than email, eight months off every social network. Months prior, I’d written a three-quarters completed draft of Ranger Martin and the Zombie Apocalypse. Then I stopped. Cold turkey. For eight months, I didn’t write a word. Anywhere.

[This paragraph is intentionally left blank.]

When I came back, I had so many pent-up ideas that I couldn’t stop writing. The format for the site took an afternoon. It was that quick. This includes coming up with the categories Monday Mayhem, Women Who Wow Wednesday and today’s Freedom Friday. I dusted off my old zombie manuscript and completed it. I quickly started Ranger Martin and the Alien Invasion.

Earlier, I said my family considers me a machine. Well, that’s not too far from the truth. I write every day except Saturday, even when I don’t feel like it. I don’t wait for inspiration because, I suppose, it’s now a habit.

If you’re curious, this is how I do it. I sit. I write.

Pretty simple, huh?

There’s a bit more to it than that, but I write whatever comes to mind. I’ll edit after it’s down on paper. And because I’ve established a two-to-three week buffer before publishing anything, I have a lot of time to think and play with ideas. If I don’t like an idea, I chuck it. In a year, I must have thrown away a dozen posts.

But I must say, hadn’t I taken eight months off before creating this site, I’m sure I would’ve convinced myself I needed inspiration to write. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The bottom line? I don’t talk about writing because I’m too busy writing.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What about you writers out there—what is it that compels you to write?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Gwen Stacy

Posted on August 20, 2014August 19, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Everyone knows Mary Jane Watson. She’s Spidey’s girl in the original Spider-Man trilogy of the early 2000’s. She’s also the redhead who set Peter Parker’s heart aflutter. A decade later the web slinger’s at it again, but this time he has Gwen Stacy on his mind. Unlike Mary Jane, who Peter fell for in an emotional whirlwind, Gwen’s intellect far supersedes even that of Spider-Man’s for her to become Peter’s one-and-only.

For today’s Women Who Wow Wednesday, let’s have a look at this gorgeous blonde, and her talent for helping Spider-Man, spoiler-free.

In the two The Amazing Spider-Man movies, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) grabs Peter’s attention from the first time the audience sees them together. The daughter of George Stacy, the city’s police chief, she doesn’t give bullies a choice when she defuses a situation. As opposed to threatening or cajoling, she uses psychology. The crowd disperses and she becomes a quiet hero.

Her strong ability to use her mind and remain focused makes her the perfect girl for Spider-Man. His wild lifestyle, staying up all hours of the night, coming home smelling like something the cat dragged in dictates his need for someone to match his extrovert existence. Gwen’s cool demeanor calms the superhero.

That’s not to say their conversations lean toward boredom. On the contrary, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) loses himself around the heart-stopping beauty. They want to communicate, but most of the time, he jams up his tongue so bad against the roof of his mouth that he rattles off nonsense. Gwen understands him, though. In his incoherent babble, she still knows what he’s saying.

During defeats, Gwen comforts him, tends to his wounds, and provides him moral support when everyone else seems to have left him. And why not? What drives her is her outlook. She’s hopeful, always looking to the future. In a speech to the graduating body, she says:

“It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us too. There will be days where you feel all alone, and that’s when hope is needed most. No matter how buried it gets, or how lost you feel, you must promise me that you will hold on to hope. Keep it alive. We have to be greater than what we suffer. My wish for you is to become hope; people need that. And even if we fail, what better way is there to live? As we look around here today, at all of the people who helped make us who we are, I know it feels like we’re saying goodbye, but we will carry a piece of each other into everything that we do next, to remind us of who we are, and of who we’re meant to be.” ~Gwen Stacy

Like she said, it’s easy to be happy during sunny days. It’s during those dark days that hope tends to flee. Gwen figured that out early in life. If only everyone else could, too.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What do you find compelling about Gwen Stacy? How does she differ from Mary Jane Watson?

Monday Mayhem

Why I Like Zombies

Posted on August 18, 2014August 18, 2014 by Jack Flacco

Have I ever told you why I like zombies? I mean, I write my Monday Mayhem posts, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned the reason why I’m drawn to these ill-fated, putrid-smelling, bile-seeping maggot bags the media affectionately calls zombies. I have a number of reasons for liking them, and today, you’re going to find out.

Asbury Park Zombie Walk 2010 (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)

As many of my regular readers know, I have an affinity for 80’s movies. Because of that love for all things retro, Terminator has always been at the top of my list of sci-fi/action flicks for a cold Friday night. Why? You see, terminators keep coming after you. No matter how many bullets you pump into them, two-by-fours you break over their head, and knives you use to gut them, they still keep coming after you. I like that idea. Zombies are like that, too. If a zombie does not sustain a bullet to the head, it will drag, pull and follow its way to you until you are dead. They don’t know pain. They don’t know exhaustion. They don’t even have a clue they are undead. But one thing’s for sure, they will not give up until they see you screaming in absolute terror, awaiting your fate under their feet.

Apart from my enjoyment of seeing the zombie inclination to persevere, I have fun with the idea that their walk, in a subtle sort of way, embodies the afterlife. Who doesn’t want to know what happens to them when they die? For years, vampires have shown themselves as Horror’s answer to everlasting life. In all truth, though, all things have to end. Enter the zombie. Not much different from vampires, the zombie life depends entirely on the consumption of human victims. The difference being, zombies hunt as part of hordes. Humanity’s fascination with the afterlife has created these creatures as a way to understand what it means to die. What will happen to us? What is the purpose of this life? Why are we here? I don’t know about you, but if I die, I’d rather not imagine a life befitting a zombie. Sounds like a messy affair to me.

The biggest reason I love zombies, and this is purely from a writer’s perspective, is that they can represent anything a writer wants to convey by way of metaphor. In other words, if I want to talk about how oppressive a society is of its people, I can simply write the zombies as a depiction of that society and of its willingness to destroy its victims, eating them to the bone. Same goes for cults that have a way of controlling their brethren. You know the kind, where the members can’t do anything without church consent or recommendation. The zombies in that story become despicable demons bent on absolute destruction of its family members.

The possibility of using metaphors is endless.

So much of what goes on in the media becomes fodder for zombie stories. I can’t dispute the fact that the undead have a way of bringing people together. One day, I’m sure I’ll find out what it all means. Until that day, I’ll keep enjoying movies featuring zombies in thrilling chases, stories about the undead living forever, and of life’s little metaphors.

Now do you see why I like zombies?

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

Why do you like zombies?

Freedom Friday

Robin Williams

Posted on August 15, 2014August 15, 2014 by Jack Flacco

The passing of Robin Williams has had a dramatic effect on my life. I grew up knowing his comedy, his poignant drama and his manic interviews. I’d even recorded a Jay Leno appearance about a decade ago anticipating he would totally rock during his segment. I’m thankful I still have that interview as my own memory of the man who brought so much laugher in my life.

Robin Williams comedy album Weapons of Self Destruction promo shot

I postponed today’s scheduled Freedom Friday post until next week because I wanted to capture my feelings about an artist who will forever remain in my heart.

The first time I saw Robin Williams was when he starred in a bit part on Happy Days back in the 70’s. Gosh, it seems so long ago. You probably know the story, since many of the news organizations have already reported his life in the media. To me, though, the first time I saw him on the show, playing a visiting alien from Ork, I never had forgotten how much I’d laughed. How can I push his antics from my memory? It’s an impossible task. Henry Winkler who played The Fonz once said Williams could take a line, a word, whatever, process and spit it out different every time. And in each instance, the line, word, whatever was funnier than the last. He attributed Williams’ talent to greatness.

He eventually got his own show with actress Pam Dawber as the latter half of Mork and Mindy. Two things I remember of that era. First, I had such a massive crush on Pam Dawber. Seriously. Massive. I won’t go into the details. Second, the day after every episode, the kids in the schoolyard would greet each other with “nanoo nanoo”. That was how aliens from Ork said hello. I know, strange. But it’s true. We did that.

Into high school, I loved seeing him in movies such as The World According to Garp and The Survivors. Williams’ impression of a Russian immigrant in Moscow on the Hudson blew me away. If I didn’t know better, he had spent the better part of his life in Russia. What I remember about those three movies was not so much the plots, but his portrayal of the characters. They were all different, with their own quirks and temperaments. He certainly had a way with delivering his lines. I’ll miss that the most.

Robin Williams at River Rock Show Theatre

You know, I can sit here writing about all his other movies like Dead Poets Society, Cadillac Man and Awakenings. But that would sound like I’m prattling on without substance. The joy I received from Williams’ roles was his ability to touch me in a way no other actor/performer has. I will fondly remember his sentimental roles the most, such as Patch Adams where he played a doctor who treats his patients with humor.

As I memorialize my thoughts of him, I can’t help to think of his gracious heart.

Mr. Williams, I will always miss you.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ALIEN INVASION, on sale October 21.

What do you remember of Robin Williams’ work? When did you find out about his passing?

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