Don’t worry, I’ll let you know in big bold letters when to stop reading if you don’t want any spoilers
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Well, after waiting my entire life for this, FINALLY a Green Lantern movie came out. In case you didn’t know, your old pal James (whose company is called LANTERN-media.com by the way) has been a HUGE Green Lantern fan since he was a kid.
Sure Superman and Spiderman were cool, but there was just something about having a ring that can construct kick-ass weapons based on the wearers imagination really appealed to this Irish kid from the Bronx – And the fact that he was “green” didn’t hurt LOL And every summer, I’ve watched as a bunch of less-deserving superheroes get their moment on the big screen.
Well not this Summer… Finally Green Lantern hit the theaters today!
I’ll be honest, I was pretty worried about this movie… Waiting an entire lifetime for something only to have it suck was a real concern. I really tried to keep my emotions in check about it – and by its release, I was fully expecting it to be more disappointing than the Green Hornet movie with Seth Rogan last year.
Which was a really good strategy on my part. Having low expectations meant that as long as Jack Black didn’t star as Hal Jordan (an actual possibility from a past script that still frightens me), it was probably NOT going to be a disappointing movie.
So we found a local theater and went to the matinee. Jackie wouldn’t have stayed awake for the car ride to the theater, let alone the whole movie, if we had went to the midnight showing, so we went to the first showing of the next day. We also decided to watch the Non-3D version since it was earlier Read the rest of this entry »
Today is June 17th, 2011 – which is the 7 year anniversary of the passing of Howard “Richard” Tepp – The lead singer of Richard and the Young Lions (also known as RYL). I wasn’t thinking about that milestone intentionally today, but it kinda jumped out at me accidentally, so it seems like the universe really wanted me to make a note out of it. and what better way than a blog?
Other than today being the release of the new Green Lantern movie (just remember, my company name is LANTERN Media Productions), it wasn’t supposed to be an extra-ordinary day. I was just working from home, trying to decide which showing of the movie I will see.
Side Note: Jedi-J (his preferred name, don’t ask LOL) is one of my interview subjects for my new book about costumers, and we’ve become friends over the last few months. He does a killer Obi-Wan Kenobi (the Ewan McGregor one), and has a really interesting story that will come out partially in my new book, but really deserves his own book – If nobody else grabs him by the time I’m done with this book, I’m seriously going to consider writing it myself)
So, I was talking with Jedi-J about my RYL documentary and he asked how the band was doing nowadays, and I told him that Richard Tepp had died back in June 2004 – I forgot the date, but it was 4 days after I had completely finished my documentary on him and the band. And Jedi-J was really shocked that he had died, and started asking questions about the days leading up to his passing, and how he felt the documentary became a lot more poignant knowing that.
Its been a crazy two weeks, so I’m trying to keep up with the individual blogs before I forget to… They’ll be shorter than my longer-winded ones
Casualty at the Saint, Asbury Park, NJ – Friday, June 10th, 2011
I drove down to Asbury Park to see one of my best friends Jeff Hornlien play his first show with his new band “Casualty”.
If you haven’t heard by now, Jeff’s old band “The RiffSurfers” (that I managed – against my will LOL), are no more. <insert huge sad face here> No dramatic fight between the 5 J’s (Jeff Hornlien, Jimmy Diamonde, Jenna D’Onofrio, John Kraemer & James Hannon (umm, that’s me), but things weren’t happening, and we all eventually went different directions. I went on to promote my book “Lost Boys of the Bronx: The Oral History of the Ducky Boys Gang“; John became Johnny Rox and joined the band “Tasting Grace” (see my review of their shows here and here); Jenna joined the successful cover band Decades Invasion and is probably playing somewhere near you this weekend (and next weekend, and the weekend after that); Jimmy became James Giunta, Certified Hypno-Therapist and currently has a thriving practice in Red Bank, NJ. And Jeff started up this new band called “Casualty” with old RiffSurfer drummer Sean O’Connor and bass player Nicky Vitucci. So now that you’re all caught up with the history of the band, lets move on to their first show.
Band Review: Black 47 at the Stone Pony, Memorial Day 2011
As biased as my previous review was, this one will be also. But, unlike the previous review, I became biased towards Black 47, not because of friendships (which came later), but because I was just a super fan going back to their early days (1989-1991) when they were playing in the Norwood/Bainbridge section of the Bronx – which just happened to be my old neighborhood.
I’m kinda embarrassed to admit this, but I never did see the band live when they were playing back in my old neighborhood. They had played in the local Irish bars, and by this time I had already given up drinking at the ripe old age of 16 (more common in my Irish-American neighborhood than you would expect)
I don’t remember who exactly, but “someone” recommended Black 47, and I picked up their CD – probably at Crazy Eddie’s on Fordham Road. I was really surprised that I liked their music. I DID NOT like Irish music at all at that time tho – too many parentally-forced listenings of “Wild Colonial Boy” and “The Unicorn” on WFUV’s Sunday radio program will do that to you.
ANOTHER biased review for Tasting Grace
This time at the Downtown in Red Bank, NJ – May 25th, 2011
Ok, as the title would suggest, I’ve reviewed the band Tasting Grace before. See here for that review.
And like before, it is still going to be partially biased since drummer Johnny Rox and I are good friends, former bandmates (I was the manager of the now-defunct RiffSurfers) and brothers in the charitable Star Wars costuming group the 501st Legion – But I’ll try to keep it as unbiased as I can..
Last night’s show was at the Downtown bar in Red Bank, NJ – They have an upstairs room for shows – I had done a book signing there at another friend’s hypnosis event there back in January 2011. It’s a pretty big place with a good vibe to it.
As mentioned, I’ve been to a Tasting Grace show before back in November, 2010 at the Asbury Park Convention Hall, and they were great back then, albeit with a few lighting problems that made it difficult to see the band on stage (really, read my previous review). But this time, there were no technical problems (at least to me) and I saw the show as the band wanted me to.
Mike Farragher is a fellow Irish-American writer who I met thru Larry Kirwan of Black 47 – He just came out with a book called “This Is Your Brain on Shamrocks” and I just finished reading it… And heres the review:
“This is your Brain on Shamrocks” is an entertaining book. It is a collection of humorous short essays from Mike Farragher about how “growing up Irish” influenced (and still influences) his daily life.
I’ve met Mike twice in person, and oddly enough they were both in pubs. First was at an Irish-American Writers & Artists event, and secondly was at his book signing in a local New Jersey pub. Both times he was one of the nicest & most social people. In reading his book however, I got a scary look into his psyche, and realized that while we were completely different people, we have a lot of the same memories and ideas about things thanks to our similar backgrounds during the same time period on opposite sides of the Hudson River.
Ok, so its been a few months since Lost Boys of the Bronx – The Oral History of the Ducky Boys Gang was published, and the marketing blitz has died down a little bit. There’s still a few outstanding things there that might catch fire again, but the craziness of a book release is over and I can think straight again… Or as much as I could do before the craziness anyway…
Instead of sitting back and enjoying the free time that I’ve been looking forward to, what does your friendly neighborhood author decide to do? Get started on another project of course!!!
FYI: I saw some Senator taking crap this morning on the news for sharing an innocent Halloween costume with his staffers, which kinda inspired the mini-rant at the beginning of this. I’m sure they had something else on him, but I didn’t listen long enough to find out. Before I saw that clip, I was just going to post a simple summary of yesterdays events on the USS Intrepid… Indulge me for a few paragraphs, and I’ll get right into that.
Outside of my home and work life, there are a couple of aspects to my life lately that people who don’t know me well are surprised by:
The biggest thing right now of course is that I’m the author of “Lost Boys of the Bronx: The Oral History of the Bronx“. Other things that I do/have done are that I have an MBA (but who cares right?); I’m also a filmmaker who wrote, shot & directed the documentary “Out of Our Dens: The Richard and the Young Lions Story”; and I’ve done music videos for artists such as The Grip Weeds, The RiffSurfers, and Shelly Riff. If you scroll thru my blog and/or Facebook page, you will find lots of references to those aspects of my life.
But what people who only know me from the aspects of my life above REALLY get shocked about is the aspect that this blog entry will cover.
First, you can buy a personalized copy of the book at: http://Lantern-Media.com/signedbooks It may even cost less than the online bookstores too since their prices fluctuate based on the market. Paperback costs $15, while the hardcover costs $20.
Most, if not all the online bookstores carry it:
Amazon.com carries the paperback, hardcover, and Kindle versions
Barnes and Noble Onlinealso carries the paperback, hardcover and Nook versions
Borders carries the paperback and hardcover versions
Authorhouse (my publisher) carries the paperback, hardcover, and e-book version
I am also finding that more and more physical Barnes and Noble bookstores are carrying versions of the book. The next time you go into one, please ask your local B&N to carry Lost Boys of the Bronx: The Oral History of the Ducky Boys Gang (ISBN: 9781452020549 for the paperback which is more likely to be carried)
Current Barnes and Nobles who have carried Lost Boys of the Bronx are:
call before going to check current availability
Barnes & Noble – Central Plaza (paperback)
2614 Central Park Avenue,Yonkers, NY 10710,914-771-6400
Note: This article was written for Back in the Bronx magazine in Winter 2006. New information came in and some of the details in the story have changed in the years between this article and the publishing of Lost Boys of the Bronx: The Oral History of the Ducky Boys Gang. I chose to leave it the way it was originally published.
A Bronx Tribute to “The Wanderers”
By James Hannon of Lantern-Media.com
A native Bronxite’s tale of how Hollywood came to the Bronx, and how the resulting movie influenced his life.
Published in Back in the Bronx Magazine, Winter 2006 issue, Vol XIV, Issue L1
In 1979, a movie by the name of The Wanderers came out. It was based off the book by Richard Price and starred a then-unknown actor named Ken Wahl. It also had a tremendous supporting cast that is too big to list here.
My sister’s boyfriend Louie really sold me on this movie a year or so earlier by telling me they were filming it near the Dollar Savings Bank on the Grand Concourse & Fordham Road, and that they had a bunch of old cars lining the surrounding streets and they were filming. This was a big deal to me, so I was definitely looking forward to it coming out.So, when it finally came out, I was horrified to find out that it had a rating of “R”. I was only 12 years old and five long years away from being eligible to see this movie. Ratings actually meant something back then, and I couldn’t imagine any kid’s parents letting them see “R” movies. I was crushed that I couldn’t see it.
My 19 yr old sister and Louie went to see it and told me that it was great, and that it opened with a shot of the RKO Fordham movie theatre and Alexander’s Department Store, and had aLOT of other Bronx locations! I thought my neighborhood was about as far from Hollywood as you could get, but this movie was filmed in my neighborhood — And I couldn’t see it!
Originally this was going to be a blog entry on this cool review I got on the Irish Voice newspaper website today, but I realized that the Scotch Plains Christmas Blizzard of 2010 is just as worthy to talk about…
I’ll talk about the book stuff first since I think its pretty major – AND it will let me end the blog with the blizzard videos and pictures… So here goes…
After shoveling out from the Christmas Blizzard (see later on), I sat down to surf the net a bit, and I got a Google Alert email telling me that
“James Hannon” and “Lost Boys of the Bronx” was mentioned in a news story entitled “Don’t Bet Against Spider man“.. Didn’t know what connection I had to Spiderman, but news is news right?
Popping the article up on my screen, I realized it was from the Irish Voice newspaper and was written by “Off the Record” columnist Mike Farragher – Now things made sense…. A few weeks ago, I had went to the Irish-Mexican Alliance benefit (see my blog from then for what that was all about) and I met Mike in person there. We’ve been “virtual” colleagues for a while since both of us were part of the Irish-American Writers & Artists group and had a lot of the same friends (most notably god-amongst-men Larry Kirwan – who somehow is getting mentioned in every blog lately LOL) – We finally met in person, and I passed my book to him hoping he would find the time to check it out…
Well, he did and he wrote a wonderful review of it… Check it out at:
Everyone knew this was coming – kinda… In the days prior, there were reports of it being anywhere from a dusting to 2 feet of snow… Would it come on Christmas Day or the day after – or not at all??? Details were sketchy, but “something” was gonna happen… Eventually reports started remaining consistent and we were gonna have a Nor’Easter the day after Christmas…
I was kinda hesitant to do it because I wouldn’t really call the Ducky Boy “gangsters” since they were like 13-16 years old at the time. They were tough kids for sure, but there really wasn’t any connection to organized crime. I expressed my concerns to Lorcan Otway, the awesome curator of the Museum, and he understood my concerns, but told me not to worry.. While his museum has an element of organized crime, its full mission is to show “American Gangs” not just the Mafia. He also includes the Underground Railroad as an exhibit in his museum, so he is serious about that distinction. Well, the Ducky Boys are an American gang, so I agreed to doing the reading at the Museum of the American Gangster, and we set the date for Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 6pm.
I started worrying shortly afterward that doing a book reading on my book might be a little difficult. If you don’t know already, it is in an “Oral History” format, so it reads almost like a movie script as the interviewees tell the story in their own words – sometimes alone but more often interacting with other interviewees. Basically my problem was that I would have to read stories with multiple characters speaking. And I’m not Rich Little – who can do great character impressions…
At one point, I came up with a great idea (to me anyway) – Being that I originally planned this to be a documentary film (see my books introduction for how that fell apart), I had the original interviews filmed and digitized on my computer… So all I had to do was show the clips to the audience and I would kill two birds with one stone. Not only would it be an interesting take on a book reading, but it would also mean that all the video I shot/digitized/edited wasn’t going to go to waste. It was win-win all around. I called Lorcan to see if that was ok with him (and technically feasible), and he thought it was a great idea too, so we were off to the races!
Hanging with a Ducky Boys and the Irish-American Writers and Artists again!
Last night, I took advantage of another networking event thanks to the fine folks of the Irish-American Writer and Artists group that I belong to, and had a great time and helped do some good in the world.
If you know me, you know I’m not the biggest fan of networking events – especially ones that do double-time as a benefit, but theres something special about the IAMW&A group where I actually look forward to these events. See my first interaction with the group in my blog entitled “WIDOMV 2010 – Part 4 – Irish American Writers and Artists”
Last night’s event was called the Irish-Mexican Alliance and it was to benefit the Committee to Protect Journalists. Rather than interpret it, I’ll just grab the description right from the IAMWA website
“A group known as the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has been seeking to draw attention to the issue of journalists in Mexico being murdered, intimidated and forced to seek political asylum in the U.S. for doing their job, i.e. reporting on the Narco War in Mexico (click here to view the incredible CPJ report on the subject).
As an organization devoted to freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of expression for all artist, we at IAW&A wholeheartedly support the efforts of CPJ.
We have formed THE IRISH-MEXICAN ALLIANCE, a group of writers, artists and their supporters, who are in the process of organizing a night of Celtic and Mexican music, Chicano and Irish poetry, etc., all to raise money for CPJ.
Among other things, we are hoping to summon the spirit of the San Patricio Brigade, a group of Irish Americans who fought on behalf of Mexico in the mid-19th Century.”
The organizer and emcee of the event T.J. English – who is on the board of directors of the IAMWA and the author of The Westies and Paddy Whacked. He’s also a helluva nice guy.
Thanks to Loretta Parete-Gonnella for putting up with us and the cold and being our sexy reader actress. Also thanks to Mike Hepponstall and Leon Leybs for co-writing and co-filming… And as always thanks to Jackie Hannon for helping out!
I know I just posted a long-winded blog about the Brandon Flowers show, so you may be sick of me by now, but I just had to post this quick blog about something awesome that came out of something bad…
First, the bad…Last Sunday Night/Monday morning, my old Bronx Catholic Grammar school Our Lady of Refuge was broken into during a rash of burglaries against Catholic schools in the neighborhood. Rather than interpret it, let me just share the words directly from the pastor and neighborhood guardian and personal hero of mine – Monsignor (but to me, he will always be Father) John Jenik.
Today was not one of OLR’s best days. Burglars gained entrance to the school by breaking one of the south gym windows late Sunday night or in the early hours of Monday morning.
Well not this Summer… Finally Green Lantern hit the theaters today!
