The Sphinx - Why I Decided to Join the Gamezilla Team
Hello everyone! I hope you have been enjoying the Last Action Podcast's first few episodes. LPJ and I have some great ones coming up; in fact, the next two are my favorite ones so far (we have recorded about 8 so far).
When LPJ asked me about co-hosting a podcast back during the winter, I had known very little of what Gamezilla was all about and how far they had come (wait, weren’t they Bit by 8 Bit?) from their humble beginnings. They liked the idea to branch out from the video gaming world and offer something different, as Noobs and Dragons has done with their playing of D&D.
But then my wife asked me - “why do you want to do this?”, and I’ve gone back and forth on different answers. First off, it sounded like a lot of fun. I already talk for a living (I’m a high school teacher), and this would certainly be different from standing in front of 35 students each day 5 times a day lecturing economics. But then I listened to the Legend of Retro episode Chops and LPJ did with their father on Father’s Day and I thought to myself, “my love of action movies is based solely on my father”.
As we have already mentioned on the show, my dad wasn’t one to listen to the movie ratings for his children. One of my earliest memories of going to the movies was with my dad and my older brother seeing Beverly Hills Cop 3 at The Terrace in Livonia, Michigan. I was 8 years old, it’s rated R. My dad loved action movies, as could be shown by the large VHS collection he had in a cabinet in our hallway closet, right below the 4 or 5 hunting rifles he had. Whenever I went to grab a movie and watch it while a friend of mine was over (obviously we would watch it at my house, no way would OTHER parents allow their children to see these movies) at the house, they would always just sort of stare at those guns. My dad was very safe with them, they were never loaded, and he would always let us look at them up close and personal if we wanted so that we would never be scared of them. Not a traditional way to parenting, but hey, I turned out ok.
All in all, I’ve been watching action movies my entire life, regardless of the rating. While some kids were loving on their Disney movies (I mean I did too) only, I also got to experience Axel Foley riding around in a Ferrari, John McClain yippie kai-yaying his way at Nakatomi Plaza, and Arnold trying to destroy a T-1000. I turned out as normal as normal can be, I was never an overly physical person, I don’t even like guns in real life. I mean sure I swore a lot more than the average 3rd grader (I formed the swearing club behind the bushes at Hayes Elementary), but it was my older brother who quoted Beverly Hills Cop 1 to my grandfather while playing with his toy cars, at 5 years old, saying “Beep! Beep! Get the fuck out of the way!”... Either way, my dad trusted me and let me explore the awesome and fun world of action movies, and now I get to share my love to each of you every Monday.
So, a post-Father’s Day shout out to my dad, Dino (The Pirate as many here know him as), thank you for letting me share some time with you in watching some terrific movies.
The Sphinx