Author: anwaryusef

Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

JetBlue discusses initial findings from book vending machine program part one

Earlier this year I was granted a second interview with JetBlue regarding its book vending machine program.  JetBlue piloted the program and an associated study in southeast Washington DC seeking to determine whether or not making books more readily available to neighborhoods like Anacostia would increase the reading skills of children living there.  The following interview with Dr. Susan Neuman of the University of Michigan was previously unpublished as it was conducted and finalized just before the Examiner shut down its operations.  At the time of the interview, JetBlue was readying the second phase of the vending machine study in addition to expanding it into other cities such as Detroit.

During the summer of 2015, JetBlue and Random House embarked on a study as a part of the airline’s “Soar with Reading” campaign.  The study looked at whether or not increasing the availability of books to residents in “Book Deserts”, could reverse the low reading levels and perceived interest in reading typically associated with lower income neighborhoods.  On June 9, 2016, JetBlue granted interviews to discuss the initial results from its Book Vending Machine Study headed by collaborator, Dr. Susan Neuman, who has conducted extensive research on book deserts across America, and Icema Gibbs, JetBlue’s Director of Corporate Responsibility.  In the first interview Susan Neuman discusses the program’s initial findings.  In the second interview Icema Gibbs also discusses the study findings, in addition to Jet Blue’s plans to expand the Soar with Reading Program into Detroit, MI.

Anwar Dunbar:  Hello Susan.   The last time we spoke, you all had started the book vending machine program in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC.  A year out from starting that program what have you found?

Susan Neuman:  So just to recap last year, we did put book vending machines in high traffic areas based on our previous work.  So we asked, ‘Where do people go and where might they hang out with one another?’  At the same time we picked what we call “Counterfactual” sites; sites where there were a lot of people who would walk back and forth, but just in different areas.  We put the book vending machines at: a Shop Rite, Saint Matthews Memorial Church, and then a Wellness Center/Salvation Army.  Our job as researchers was to do was to examine how these machines were used, how often they were used, and the effects on those who used them versus the people at the counterfactual sites which did not have the vending machines.

There was a tremendous outpouring of interest from people who saw these vending machines.  They know how to use them because vending machines are a part of our society, so it wasn’t hard to do.  We found that people really used them, and in eight weeks’ time, 27,000 books were downloaded, used and selected.  We also noted some very interesting conversations between the parents and their children, or maybe the grandparents and children including, “Which books did you choose?  Why did you choose this particular topic?”  We also overheard lots of other interesting discussions including, “Oh my gosh, this is so needed.  We needed this in our community.”  So the vending machines were really used towards the end of August when school was looming ahead.  We found that there were even waiting lists and waiting lines.  People would stand in long lines in order to get books.  So it was a tremendous success, in terms of participation.

At the same time we found that parents and caregivers recognized the titles of books more frequently, so they were able to identify children’s books.  And that’s really important, because when you go to a library it’s often hard to know which books to get.  They knew titles which are especially important for the counterfactual areas.  And they reported reading more to their children.  So, in short, those were the effects.  We saw no damage and no problem at all with the machines.  They were pristine at the end of the experiment and they showed how much the people cared about books.

AD:  That’s interesting.  Yes, a natural concern would be what would happen to the machines once they’re put into certain areas.  I want to ask you about the counterfactual sites, but first an obvious question would be which books did you all supply at the locations?  Were they the Magic Treehouse?  Harry Potter?  Chronicles of Narnia – something like that?

SN:  There were a wide variety of books that Random House collected and donated.  I’m sure some of them were overstocks.  But JetBlue really made an effort to make sure that there were multicultural titles – titles with lots of African American authors as well as main characters.  Many of these books had African American characters on the cover and that was really important because we wanted children to be able to identify with characters that could be important to them.  The other thing that we found was that it wasn’t just the very early education age groups who were interested.  That was the assumption that we had – that books would be picked out that were solely for babies and toddlers, but that wasn’t the case.  Even the teenagers would use the vending machines and they would download a sizable number of books.  So that was very heartening.

Regarding the counterfactual sites, we picked areas that we thought were high traffic – not terribly close because we didn’t want to see any type of bleeding, if you know what I mean.  One of the sites was a CVS Pharmacy.  One was close to the metro station.  Another, I believe, was a 7-Eleven.

AD:  Did you say bleeding?  What’s the context for that in this instance?

SN:  Well, what I mean by bleeding is that the same people could go to counterfactual sites and the vending machine sites and we didn’t want that to happen, especially in a place like Anacostia.  What you find is that people traffic around a particular area – they lived around Main Street, for example, and that was a key traffic area.  We tried to pick a place that wouldn’t be a key traffic area – somewhat removed so that we wouldn’t get responses from the same person in different areas.

AD:  So the significance of the counterfactual site is that it was your control site?  What’s the significance of that name?

SN:  It was.  It was like our control group.  We don’t call it a control group because control indicates more control.  We basically call it counterfactual – similar to a neighborhood, but did not have vending machines there.

AD:  And so did you all test a certain number of weeks or did this go on throughout the school year as well?

SN:  Just the summer.  We were interested and concerned about the “Summer Slide”.  You’ve probably heard about that, but generally kids who live in poor areas – their scores go precipitously down because there’s just a lack of resources.  What we had noted in our previous year was that Anacostia is a little bit like a book desert – there aren’t resources for children when libraries are closed.  Interestingly we found that this particular population did not use the library a lot.  We suspected that was because libraries have fines and that patrons are worried about paying those fines.  That was another real benefit of providing books and giving them a great deal of choice.  The book titles would change every two weeks so we got lots of repeaters.  A lot of people who would come back and use the vending machines over time.

AD:  So you said that you had a questionnaire.  Was it designed to gauge how the experience was or were you looking to measure something?

SN:  We were looking to measure a couple of things.  Number one was: who they were, their reading habits, and how many books they had in their home.  By in large the population is very predictable.  They don’t have very many books in their home – less than 25 books typically.  It’s a small number and so our questionnaire was basically interested in finding out more about them.  They wanted to read and they just did not have books.  There was a separate questionnaire that was designed to determine whether or not they recognized book titles.  Recognizing book titles is an indicator that they are paying attention more to children’s books and children’s literature.  And that is likely to enable them to select a book for their kids.

AD:  So what’s the conclusion for this work thus far?

SN:  I think the conclusion is that if you put books in they will come.  We want to convince proprietors that if they begin to stock books, people will buy them.  We can’t make that presumption because we gave books to them in this instance, but our preliminary findings indicate to us that people really do care about reading, and it debunks the notion that parents don’t care about this for their child, and they don’t want to read to their children.

What we’re arguing is that there are structural inequalities in certain areas and neighborhoods preventing parents from doing what they really want to do, which is to help their child, and I think that’s a very important message.  There’s a lot of blaming of parents that, “They don’t do this, they don’t do that.  They don’t talk to their children.”  All of this very deficit language and we’re trying to convince people that it’s not true.  How can you read a book to child if you don’t have one?  So what we’re saying is that if they have books, they will read them.  That should provide proprietors with an indication that maybe they should stock some books for a change and see if parents will buy them.  I predict that they will because they care deeply about their children and they want their children to succeed.

It was very interesting, Anwar, just an anecdote.  We did a lot of interviewing and we asked parents, “What would you like to see if we were to do this again?  What would you like to see more of?”  They said, “We’d like to see more workbooks in these vending machines.”  I thought that was fascinating because many of us say, ‘Well, workbooks aren’t terribly great for children,’ but it shows us how much parents care.  They want workbooks because they want their child to be ready for school.  And if you can highlight that, I would really appreciate that because there’s a lot of blame going on which I think is very detrimental to these families and it’s unfair.

The other thing is that this year we’re now looking at child outcomes.  We are now going to be back in Anacostia in the coming year and we’re doing a study to compare children’s vocabulary over the summer to see whether we can stall the summer slide.  If they have books will their vocabularies at least stay stable or will it grow over the summer when it generally goes down?  That’s what we’re specifically looking at this year.

AD:  In this last set you asked them how using the machines went, but you didn’t do any scoring in terms of rating their reading level or their ability to spell.  Is that correct?

SN: No, we didn’t do that last year.  Last year we focused on the parent.  This year we really want to focus on the child.  It’s a three step process.  First we documented that there’s a Book Desert.  We then said, ‘Okay if you change that Book Desert what happens?’  We found that parents will use the book vending machines and get books for their children.  This year we want to see what the impact will be on child outcomes.

AD:  I have two more questions.  It sounds as though you think the proprietor is the person to court here in terms of reversing this trend.  Should government elected officials have a role in this in terms of allocating more money for this type of effort?

SN:  Yes, of course we do think that.  You know there’s a new opportunity to learn language in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) law.  I hope that Icema will begin to do this, but we would like to see that opportunity to learn focus on having access to books.  There’s all of this talk about digital access and stuff like that, but the good old book is how children begin to read.  So yes, we’re hoping to affect the opportunity to learn language with the new ESSA law.  And yes, we are trying to convince proprietors to step up because JetBlue can’t do this forever.  Proprietors have got to begin to stock books and recognize that people will buy them.

AD:  My last question is – are you all going to publish your initial findings in an academic journal in multiple parts, or are you going to wait and publish everything together?

SN:  Yes, we have one article coming out already in Urban Education, which is about the Book Desert.  We’ve submitted this year’s project to a journal and we’re waiting to hear back from the periodical.  We will definitely be putting the third phase into a journal when it’s done.  That’s what Academic’s do (laughing).

AD:  Okay, well there will definitely be people who will want to read about this work, track the timeline, etc.

SN:  Well, you always have good questions.

AD:  Thank you, Susan, and I definitely appreciate being able to help you all get the word out about this important effort.

SN:  Thank you, Anwar.

In part two of my interview with JetBlue, Icema Gibbs discusses the expansion of the book vending machine program into other markets in addition to what local proprietors can do to make books more readily available to their patrons.  If you liked part one of this interview, please share it, and leave any thoughts and comments below.

An astronomer looks for the Christmas Star 2016

hypatia-of-alexandria_121216From the Dec. 9-11, the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium hosted their final weekend of 2016 titled, “Science and the Christmas Star.” Each day of the weekend there were showings of the show titled: An Astronomer Looks for the Christmas Star.  The program was created in house by the Friends, and focuses on the phenomenon of the Christmas Star which according to biblical texts led the three Wise Men to the baby Jesus Christ in the manger.

Friday Dec. 9 was member appreciation night where all members were admitted for free.  There were standard showings of the program on Dec. 10 and 11.  Following each showing, Friends’ board of director, astronomer Jennifer Bartlett, Ph.D. portrayed Hypatia of Alexandria.  Her portrayal featured of a monologue where she argued for an alternative explanation for the Christmas Star.  Following Michael Molnar’s, The Star of Bethlehem, she argued that the “star” was a powerful horoscope including the lunar occultation of Jupiter in Ares at dawn on April 17, 6 BC.

“The mystery of the Christmas Star has been a mainstay of Planetariums for years during the Christmas Season,” said Friend of the Arlington Planetarium, co-creator and co-narrator of the program, Dr. Alice Monet.  The program itself discussed the potential explanations for the Christmas Star; a planetary conjunction, a comet, a supernova, or what is more believed in nonscientific circles, a Miracle.

The Friends will host special events at the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium one weekend every month until the end of the school year. Each weekend will be geared towards increasing STEM education/awareness for all ages and will feature a specific theme.  For more information, visit the Friends’ website.  The theme of January’s weekend will be: Citizen Science & Astronomy.

The 2016 Michigan-Ohio State game, the Big Ten officials and the College Football Playoff

This post was originally going to strictly be my reaction to the 2016 Michigan-Ohio State game, but I missed the emotional wave in the aftermath of it in terms of the news cycle. I’ve thus decided to craft a piece just touching upon the results of that game and also giving some reaction to the four teams selected for the 2017 College Football Playoff (CFP).  Oh what a ride it’s been.  By the way if you don’t have loyalty to a school or aren’t privy to the world of College Football as one of my buddies who watched the game with us wasn’t, this may all may make little sense to you.  I am admittedly a proud University of Michigan alumnus, so if the tone of this piece sounds biased, it probably is.

I’ll start with the 113th football game between the University of Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State University Buckeyes on Nov. 26, 2016.  First off, the only good news about my Wolverines’ 30-27 loss was that our program is officially back and was in position to win that game unlike the majority of the games in the last 10 years.  The bad news is that we of course lost the game.  It was a great game which went down to the wire.  The hard part for the Michigan faithful was how the game was lost.

As a scientist, I’m a pragmatist first and foremost and I thus like to deal with the facts and try to minimize emotion which – very difficult to do in something like this. Though I was disappointed with the outcome game, most of my Tweets centered around what our team did that contributed to the loss.  The three turnovers involving our quarterback Wilton Speight definitely helped Ohio State and its paltry passing attack remain in striking distance.  That said without Speight in that game playing with a broken collarbone, our offense probably would’ve struggled as it did the previous week in our 20-10 victory over Indiana.

One of those turnovers, a pick 6 was due to a blown blocking assignment by our offensive line. Up 10-7 later in the first half, the second turnover was a miscommunication between Speight and our Center on Ohio State’s goal line which probably would’ve given us another 7 points and a firmer grasp on the game.  The third turnover was clearly a throw Speight thought he could make and was picked off.  This is not all to pile on Wilton because I am a fan of his and I think he’s going to have a great senior season for us assuming he stays healthy.

Now the other issue with our offense which has been there all season, was our inability to get first downs and kill the clock at the end of big games. From my vantage point, our running game this year was efficient, but not explosive, and we weren’t able to move the chains with our ground game in many key situations.  I Tweeted about this after the game too.  This is what led up to the punt debacle in the 2015 Michigan State game, in addition to this year’s 14-13 loss at Iowa.  It also reared its ugly head against the Buckeyes.  Championship teams have to be able to close out their opponents, and I’m hoping this is something Coach Jim Harbaugh will drive home with his future rosters.

As I watched the game at Buffalo Wild Wings in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY I pondered that when both Michigan and Ohio State are competitive, these roller coaster ride-type games tend to happen. In addition to our turnovers, Ohio State’s kicker missed two field goals and the Buckeyes also went for a fake punt of which they didn’t get the first down.  It was odd as Coach Urban Meyer didn’t seem to know that it was going to be called.  At least he acted that way on the sidelines.

Despite our turnovers, our defense came to play and sacked Ohio State’s elusive quarterback J.T. Barrett quite a few times much to my surprise (because of his mobility). For the most part the Buckeyes weren’t hurting us through the air, but with occasional gashes via their ground game.  Early on with the way we were moving the ball, the way our defense was playing, and the way their offense was playing, it looked as though we would take and maintain a firm control of the game.

20161209_123308Enter the Big Ten officiating crew assigned to the game. This is where people who read this are going to diverge in terms of their opinions.  Legendary University of Miami and Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson said it best in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary The U when reflecting on a Hurricanes’ trip to play Notre Dame in South Bend.  That game ended with a call by the referees ruling a University of Miami wide receiver’s touchdown a fumble though he was clearly down.  Jimmy Johnson stated, “I tried to tell the guys that you can’t leave a game like that in the hands of the officials on the road against Notre Dame.”  Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Michigan did.

That being said, even when on the road should officials be expected to be as impartial and objective as possible? In my mind the answer is yes, but many of calls in that second half suggested otherwise.  The facemask penalty on one of our offensive lineman where we would have made the first down was tough, and I’ve rarely seen that call made on an offensive lineman.  Many of the pass interference calls on Michigan’s defensive backs were very suspicious as well, especially since Ohio State’s players were clearly doing the same thing.  Those calls clearly bailed out Ohio State’s less than proficient passing game that day steadily advancing them up the field and building their momentum.  The penalty on Coach Harbaugh was odd too.  Did he get emotional?  Yes absolutely.  Is it something other Coaches have done before?  Yes absolutely.

Michigan was able to put a lot of pressure on J.T. Barrett that day who in some instances tried to stay in the pocket and find receivers down field. In some instances, he was able to run away, but many wondered after the game if several holding calls were missed by the officials.  And then finally there was J.T. Barrett’s fourth down conversion which was clearly in the hands of the officials in terms of where to properly spot the ball – always a judgement call especially if their isn’t conclusive video evidence to overturn it.

The fan base you were a part of dictated whether you thought J.T Barrett made it or not. By eye, and from the camera angle we were watching on TV, it looked as though his feet crossed the marker but the ball didn’t.  When the play went under review by the officials, a part of me held out hope that Ohio State wouldn’t get that first down, but I suspected that the call would stand which is exactly what happened.  My personal opinion was that those officials weren’t going to reverse that call in that stadium whether it was the right or the wrong call if for no other reason than for fear for their lives.  That first down of course set up Curtis Samuel’s game winning touchdown scamper into the end zone in the second OT period.

Aside from a Buckeye fan named Tom who was watching the game with a group of Ohio State fans and who was a gracious winner, the Buckeye fans were smug and obnoxious, and defended that fourth down call (and all of the officiating) with tremendous conviction and sarcasm. Shortly after the game it leaked out that the officials who worked the game had Ohio State roots and were basically biased.  One official was previously fired by the Big Ten.  The thought that something like this could happen was infuriating, and if it’s true, the Big Ten conference and President Jim Delaney should draft some new rules to ensure that this type of thing never happens again.  The ultimate losers from this type of ineptitude were the student athletes.

Based upon the imbalance and nature of the penalties called, it would’ve made sense that there was a bias inherent in the officiating crew. It was some of those calls which made Coach Harbaugh irate.  He was particularly fired up in the postgame press conference which I would’ve been too if I genuinely felt like my team got cheated, and if an official said that he, “Would’ve penalized the Coach if it were a basketball game.”  Weeks later even after being fined, Coach Harbaugh was steadfast in his position which I applaud him for especially if his kids were legitimately cheated.  If the loss was crushing for us fans, it must’ve been exponentially worse for the players some of whom hadn’t beaten Ohio State their entire time at Michigan.

* * *

20161209_123241The loss left the Wolverines and the fan base in that nebulous space of needing other teams to lose to make it into the playoff – namely Clemson or Washington. It was the same position we were in at the end of the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State game – the 103rd meeting which featured players including: Chad Henne, Michael Hart, Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Jr.  The teams were ranked numbers one and two in the nation in that game.  After the Buckeyes took an early two touchdown lead by going with a spread offense they hadn’t used all year, we battled back, but the game was ultimately decided by a terrible helmet to helmet personal foul on our then linebacker Shawn Crable who hit Troy Smith as he went out of bounds late in the game giving Ohio State an automatic first down.  That was in Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era and ironically it was Coach Urban Meyer who aggressively lobbied for his Florida Gators get into that National Championship game against Jim Tressel’s Ohio State Buckeyes, who they eventually blew out 41-14 – something that was fun to watch as a Michigan fan.

By the way in recent times Ohio State always seems to get a lucky bounce here and there. In the 2002 season where they went undefeated, several things fell their way.  They didn’t have to play Iowa that year who also went undefeated until they themselves were defeated in the Orange Bowl by Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans.  Michigan had to play both Iowa and Ohio State that year.  In our match up with the Buckeyes in Columbus that year, wide receiver Braylon Edwards’s would be touchdown reception was nullified due to an offensive pass interference call against Chris Gamble.  That play was our best chance to score a touchdown in that game which the Buckeyes went on to win 14-9.  And then there was the National Championship game against Miami in the Fiesta Bowl which turned on a controversial pass interference call in overtime which gave Ohio State new life and helped them towards their victory 31-24 victory.  Does this all sound familiar?

The debating and haggling over who is deserving of postseason play is actually quite amusing to listen to when it’s not your team. For the 2004 BCS Championship game for example, the BCS had to pick two teams for from three potential undefeated schools; USC, Oklahoma, and Auburn.  I specifically remember Auburn’s then Coach Tommy Tuberville agonizing and pleading for his team to be selected, and then lamenting about it afterwards when his Tigers were left out of the Nokia Sugar Bowl.  That’s just one example and it continued to happen year after year from disappointed coaches and fans almost like a ritual.  What’s also funny is it took another 10 for a playoff to be created.  Again it’s funny when it’s someone else’s school but when it’s yours its quite nauseating and can be angering as well.

I thought that our best chance of getting in the playoff was Washington and not Clemson losing their championship game. The winner of the Big Ten Championship game between Wisconsin and Penn State seemed to be inconsequential to the whole thing, especially since Ohio State was said to be a lock.  Penn State had beaten them in conference play and they wouldn’t be the conference champion under any circumstance and still make it into the playoff – something that felt very unsettling.  That said, that week leading up to Selection Sunday the committee actually divulged that the margin of separation between Michigan and Washington was very, very slim giving us all some hope.

20161207_190251It wasn’t meant to be though. Probably after hearing all of the talk about their weak non-conference schedule, Washington came out and played inspired in the Pac-12 Championship game against Colorado.  The Huskies got some luck too as Colorado’s starting quarterback Sefo Liufau hurt his leg when getting sacked in the first quarter and missed the rest of the first half.  He was just getting hot when he was injured too as he gashed the Huskies for a long quarterback scramble.  When he re-entered the game he clearly wasn’t the same player as he threw several costly interceptions.   Washington went on to win 41-10 making it difficult for the committee to not seed them in the playoff.

The next night everyone’s eyes turned the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game between Clemson and Virginia Tech. Led by Deshaun Watson, Clemson controlled the game for the most part but was challenged late by Virginia Tech though they held on to win 42-35 locking up their spot in the playoff along with Alabama and Ohio State.  With both Clemson and Washington winning, the chances of Michigan getting in now looked even more slim.

Adding insult to injury, Penn State rallied as their offense exploded propelling them to a 38-31 victory over Wisconsin. In the aftermath of that game, the commentators on all of the networks, most notably ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit were now speculating that Penn State should get into the playoff over Washington and Michigan, which made me sick to my stomach.  That CFP committee clearly had a more difficult job now.  The camera took a panoramic shot of the committee that night who all seemed to look on with great focus and potentially dread about which teams to leave out.  I’d forgotten that former Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice was on the committee but she was there nonetheless looking on.

20161207_190123That next morning I woke up with no expectations and expecting my Wolverines not to be selected. When the announcement was made starting at noon, the teams were steadily announced on my Twitter feed.  Alabama was seeded number one followed by Clemson at number two.  Ohio State was seeded at number three while Washington was seeded at number four.  The two matchups would thus be Washington vs. Alabama and Ohio State vs. Clemson.  Michigan remained at number five in the CFP rankings and was selected to play number twelve Florida State in the Orange Bowl.

None of the commentators discussed the poor officiating in the Michigan-Ohio State game as though the Buckeyes won it cleanly and without controversy. Maybe that was a media thing to save face for everyone and present the appearance of fair play across the board.  Only Skip Bayless kept championing Michigan’s cause.  Jason Whitlock also spoke up about what happened in Columbus.  Still feeling some residual contempt about what happened after the announcement of the teams, I tweeted about the officiating in Columbus and was confronted by another Tweeter named Ron.  He was probably an Ohio State fan because he rebuffed me and talked about how the officiating in the game was fair and how Michigan should’ve just, “Played through it.”  He also got off a jab at our coach calling Jim Harbaugh, “Cry-baugh.”  I wished him luck with his team and discontinued the back and forth as it wasn’t going to lead anywhere.

* * *

In terms of the playoff itself, ESPN’s Todd McShay said it best when he said, “This is more of an invitational than a true playoff.” By that he meant that in a true playoff, participation is judged simply by record and not voting, and not a weight of evidence approach by a committee – one of the paradoxical hallmarks of big time college football.  For those unfamiliar with the history of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, the current playoff (only two years old) was preceded by the afore mentioned BCS where only the top two ranked teams could compete for the championship.  Before that it was strictly polls where the coaches and media voted on the national champion which was absurd.

Eventually an eight team playoff should be created. Everyone is already clamoring for it.  Under that format, the Power 5 Conference champions would theoretically get automatic bids, and three “At Large” teams would be seeded similar to the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments.  Under such a scenario my Wolverines would’ve made it in this year.  However, as ESPN’s Mark May stated, “In an eight-team playoff, the number nine and ten teams would feel left out, so there’s always someone who is going to be left out and unhappy.”  If Michigan were not in the top eight, I think I could live with that though.

Until then we have a four team playoff and this year that consists of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington. A lot of Big Ten fans root for the conference when getting into postseason play.  I’m torn between rooting for Ohio State this year because of the way that they got in and that they didn’t win the Big Ten championship.  I am hoping that they carry that paltry passing game into their matchup with Clemson in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31 and get destroyed, though I predict it may be a shootout.

The last time however the Buckeyes made it into the playoff, they shocked everyone and defeated Alabama to win the 2015 the National Championship. In the Chik-fil-a Peach Bowl, I’m hoping that Alabama crushes Washington (similar Michigan State last year) to corroborate the Huskies’ weak strength of schedule.  That’s all wishful thinking though, and we’ll have to see how it all plays out ultimately.

Mostly though I’m hoping the Wolverines end the season with a victory and make short work of the Florida State Seminoles in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30. If that happens and some of the teams in the playoff lose, we’ll leap over them in the final rankings.  In addition to playing in the Orange Bowl, it would also be a small consolation prize I guess.

In the after math of our loss to that team from Ohio, and the seeding of the playoff, I pondered that this is only year two for the Jim Harbaugh regime in Ann Arbor. While it’s disappointing that with the talent we had this this year that we didn’t make the CFP, it’s also important to keep in mind that neither Nick Saban or Urban Meyer won National Championships in their first two years at Alabama or that school in Ohio.  A solid College Football program takes time to build in terms of recruiting players, developing them, and getting them the game experience.  I predict that will happen for the Michigan Football program.  Fair and objective officiating ensuring a level playing field will help out as well.

While I wasn’t happy about what happened in the Columbus last month, this post was meant to be partially humorous. When watching these games, I have to remind myself that it’s entertainment and the student-athletes are 18 to 22-year-old young adults who are still developing, going classes and trying to figure out life.  I try to remind my friend Alim Gaines about his whenever Michigan loses.

These student-athletes are also unsalaried amateurs which is something we debated at Buffalo Wild Wings during the game with our friend Hestin Brown. Alim’s brother Raheem was there watching the game as was my brother Amahl who was sporting his “Michigan Brother” t-shirt.  Alim was steadfastly rooting for Michigan while Raheem whom I sometimes refer to as “Urban” Gaines was rooting for Ohio State.  Hestin was new to the College Football world but decided to root for Ohio State who he perceived as the underdog.  He also tormented me and Alim as he continually speculated about Jim Harbaugh leaving Michigan to coach his former quarterback at Stanford Andrew Luck – now with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

Most importantly there are more serious events taking place in our world. The Monday after the game, there was actually a small Terrorist attack on Ohio State’s campus which was probably partially overshadowed by the CFP happenings.  My condolences go out to the families who were affected in that incident, and while we get upset that our favorite college teams don’t do this or do that, it’s important for all of us to keep perspective.  Happy Holidays and GO BLUE!!!!

Thank you for taking the time out to read this blog post.  If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and or leave a comment.  To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right hand column in this post and throughout the site.  Lastly follow me on Twitter at @BWArePowerful.  While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

A review of Marvel’s Dr. Strange

As described in my bio for the Big Words Blog Site, both my brother, Amahl Dunbar, and I are “Fanboys” and have a love of science fiction and superhero feature films such as those produced by DC and Marvel.  In addition to having an abundance of books in our home at an early age, we both developed a love for comic books.  These books were important tools for both of us continuing to learn how to read, speak, and even to think, imagine, and ponder subjects like science.  While I ventured away from this love in high school when basketball became my love, and then later salsa dancing, Amahl never strayed from it.  He even started exploring the worlds of animation and visual effects, and eventually contributed to the production of the film The Space Detective produced by the Swamp Media Group.

His sticking with it actually allowed me to come back to the comic book/science fiction world in my early 30s when he turned me on to DC’s classic graphic novel, Kingdom Come, written by Mark Waid; featuring the brilliant illustrations of Alex Ross.  I loved that book and had never seen anything like it.  Amahl also shared DC’s The Watchmen with me prior to the movie adaptation.  I also have a copy of the Dark Knight Returns which I’ve yet to read because of my busy schedule.

Over the years we’ve developed a ritual of watching these movies, sometimes independently and sometimes together, and then convening afterwards to discuss what we saw and thought of that particular film.  Our debriefing sessions are either in person or on the phone, but we have them nonetheless.  We’ve thus decided to try our hands at conducting our very first movie review for publication.  The movie is Marvel’s Dr. Strange starring Benedict Cumberbatch.  The following is our candid review, thoughts and reflections on Marvel’s latest film.

Anwar: Well Bro, I’ll start this off and we’ll just see where it goes.  As you know, when we were younger, I was more of a DC guy and was heavily into Batman and the Justice League International.  G (our best friend Gabriel Smith), was more of a Marvel guy.  In fact, I remember him always going on and on about Captain America.  You were kind of a jack of all trades with knowledge of both the DC and Marvel universes, and amazingly, you sat in the middle with knowledge of both.  I’m saying this to say that aside from Spiderman, who was heavily featured in numerous TV cartoon series throughout our youth, and even The Electric Company back in the 70s and early 80s (snippets with real life actors), much of what I know about Marvel and its characters today, I’ve learned through their movies.  And I love The Avengers films.  I would say Robert Downey, Jr., as Tony Stark/Iron Man, is my favorite character.  Indeed, their entire cast of actors and characters is stellar.

I’d heard of Dr. Strange and seen images of him, but I didn’t really know what to expect when I walked into the theatre other than the fact that there would probably be an Easter Egg at the end of the movie – a hallmark of the Marvel movies, in addition to cameos by Stan Lee.  We both saw the movie, but can you give an overview of the story?  To any readers, if you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to stop reading here.  This might spoil it for you.

Amahl:  Sure.  Marvel’s latest film offering is Doctor Strange, a blend of Jedi-style sorcery, with world shifting special effects. Benedict Cumberbatch leads an ensemble cast as Dr. Stephen Strange, an elite trauma surgeon who becomes a magic wielding superhero.  The film has the typical hero’s journey similar to The Matrix or Harry Potter.  Cumberbatch is smart not to play Dr. Strange in the same way that Robert Downey, Jr. plays Tony Stark.  The mature cast seemed specifically chosen for their ages and educated appearances.

Dr. Strange’s photographic memory and speed reading ability allow him to move through his sorcerer training at an accelerated rate.  If you’ve ever met someone who can speed read or has a photographic memory, you realize how special they are because they can operate at almost a computer-like level.  These two attributes allow Dr. Strange to quickly become a powerful sorcerer.

The role of the mystic teacher is brilliantly played by Tilda Swinton, as The Ancient One.  She steals every scene she’s in with clever philosophy, comedy, and good hearted unpredictability – the unpredictability that’s required to keep adult students, like Strange, interested in learning.  Swinton’s Ancient One is as good a science fiction mentor as Morpheus, Yoda, or Obi Wan Kenobi in the Matrix and Star Wars franchises.  She takes her mentorship one step further than other mentors by telling Strange and the audience exactly what he needs to do to be great versus good.

Anwar:  Interesting.  What stood out to you about the film?  For me much of the imagery and special effects reminded me of Inception, starring Leo DiCaprio – with the moving and shifting scenery and landscapes.  The costumes and the whole sorcery piece reminded me of the movie The Last Airbender.  I also recognized some of the characters from Spiderman: The Animated Series from the late 1990s such as Mordo, portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Dormammu, voiced by Jonathan Adams, the ultimate antagonist of the film.  I really liked the travel through the dimensions, and seeing Dormammu initially was definitely pretty scary with the two ominous eyes in space-time looking on.

Amahl:  I think you hit several of the main points.  What stood out to me is how these sorcerers were presented, and knowing that Dr. Strange would eventually join the Avengers or help them.  Again, these sorcerers were portrayed kind of like the Jedi.  Dr. Strange was likened to Obi-Wan Kenobi without a light saber.  Their manner of dress had an Asian nod to it.  They were not just sorcerers, but also martial artists as well.  Typically when you see Dr. Strange, he’s always wearing his red cloak.  Seeing him without the cloak, underneath it looks like a Jedi-like costume.  So there was a lot of thought given to what they were going to wear and how they were going to be perceived – not as Harry Potter-type sorcerers or like witches and wizards from other franchises, but a very specific kind of a warrior-sorcerer look.

Anwar:  I had to get used to seeing Benedict Cumberbatch as a hero because I’m used to seeing him play a villain, such as when he played Kahn in Star Trek: Into Darkness, or playing some kind of high-ranking government operative/spy/politician.  It was similar to when I first saw Robert Downey, Jr. portray Tony Stark/Iron Man.  It was like, ‘Wow.  Robert Downey, Jr. is a hero.’  I was used to seeing him play so many other things – especially in the 1980s in comedic teen movies like Weird Science, and then later as a villain in US Marshals.

Amahl:  Absolutely.

Anwar:  I also had to adjust to watching Cumberbatch exhibit humor.  In every Marvel movie there’s usually huge element of humor in their scripts, though I wasn’t used to seeing Dr. Strange being absent minded at times, and trying to be funny and witty.  I won’t give it away, but his solution to stopping Dormammu was definitely creative, and funny.

Not long ago, we also talked about the fact that in the comic books, Dr. Strange has more of a Latino or Asian look.  Is that correct?

Amahl:  Some friends of mine who know more about the Marvel Universe than I do, told me months ago that the character is supposed to be Latino, which gives a whole new perspective to viewing the film – knowing that the character in the comic book is Latino versus the character in the movie being European or British.  That’s not to say that the movie wasn’t good – it would’ve just given the movie a completely different spin – seeing that character played by Michael Peña who was actually in Antman or Philip De Blanc – any good looking Latino actor – it would’ve given a completely different vibe to the movie.

Anwar:  As I was watching the film, I noticed that The Ancient One told Dr. Strange that The Avengers were the guardians of the non-mystical world and they themselves were the guardians of the mystical world, and I was in fact wondering if this particular story would fold into the upcoming Infinity War.  As per usual Marvel gave a nice Easter Egg during the credits and it turns out that it is going to be a part of the larger story that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is constructing – they’re all going to come together at some point and they’re all going to fight Thanos, I would imagine.

Amahl:  There’s also a shot of the Avengers’ Mansion at the beginning of the movie.  I think the movie opens with Dr. Strange in surgery where he practices medicine.  In the following scene when they show him getting ready to go to the party, there’s a push-in shot in the city and you see the Avengers’ Mansion in the mid-ground.  It’s not in the foreground, nor in the background.  It’s in the mid-ground and it’s large enough for you to see it.  And that push- in shot goes into Strange’s apartment and it shows that he actually lives close to the Avengers’ Mansion.

Anwar:  As per usual with these little details, I completely missed that.  Okay Bro, I think that wraps up this review.  You have a lot of experience working with visual effects, and you’re currently working on your own Superhero trailer right?  How long have you been doing that?

Amahl:  Well, I have been working on a Justice League trailer probably for about two years in my spare time.  Most of it has been during mornings and early afternoons before I go to work while I’m either eating breakfast or lunch.  During those times I figure that the 10-15 minutes that I’m actually eating is time that I can do this; it’s the best time for me to work on it.   It involves ripping footage from DVDs, organizing the footage, and editing it down to shots.  I’ve had to figure out which shots from these movies to use – the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, the Michael Keaton Batman movies, some of the latest Christian Bale Dark Knight movies, and finally Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman television series.

I’ve taken shots from each of these movies and shows, and I’m going to try to tell a narrative through a trailer.  The trailer could also be viewed as a “Visual Treatment”.  A “Treatment” in Hollywood is basically a description by paragraph of what a movie or TV show would actually be.  You can view this trailer as a treatment – of what my ideas would be for a Justice League movie.  I’ve included some of my own visual effects, and there is also some 3-D animation so that every shot that you see isn’t directly pulled from a movie.  Some of the shots have actually been edited or enhanced to further tell the narrative that I’m going for.

Anwar:  When it’s completed it will be on your YouTube channel?

Amahl:  Absolutely.

Anwar:  And will people be able to access that through you Twitter page?

Amahl:  Yes, the links will be available in places where people can easily see them.  I’m actually looking forward to connecting with some Comic Book stores here in the Buffalo area and saying, ‘I’m a local artist and I think you would find this very interesting.  Here is the link.  If you like it, share it with your customer base.’

Anwar:  Making trailers is actually a pretty big deal on YouTube.  There are people making trailers and videos about their favorite franchises just for the hell of it, and sometimes leading up to the release of the next movie.  A lot of fan trailers were made leading up to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, for example, and that’s very impressive.

Amahl:  Absolutely.  If fans have their own episodes or even make their own movies, this is a new way for them to show their appreciation for the franchises.  It’s not just, ‘I’ll buy a movie or I’ll buy a t-shirt or I’ll buy a DVD collection of the show,’ but fans can show their appreciation of the franchise by making their own short videos.

Anwar:  Well Bro, I guess that wraps it up.  Hopefully, there are some readers who enjoyed this.  Star Wars: Rogue One is actually coming out in a couple of weeks.  We’ll have to reconvene and talk about that one after we see it as well.  What’s your twitter handle just in case other enthusiasts want to follow and interact with you?

Amahl:  It’s @amahldunbar.

Anwar:  I also have a personal twitter handle, but I’m trying to grow a following for Big Words so I’m going to offer up @BWArePowerful.  If you’ve read this review and like it, please do leave comments and I’ll respond.  It could be something as simple as saying that you enjoyed our discussion.  Thank you and we’re signing off.

Thank you for taking the time read our review.  You may also enjoy:

• A review of Marvel’s Black Panther
• A review of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok
• A review of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming
• A review of Marvel’s Dr. Strange
• A review of Hidden Figures
• A review of All Eyez on Me

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and/or leave a comment. To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right-hand column in this post and throughout the site or add the link to my RSS feed to your feedreader. Please visit my YouTube channel entitled, Big Discussions76. You can follow me on the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page, and Twitter at @BWArePowerful. Lastly, you can follow me on Instagram at @anwaryusef76. While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

Swamp Media Group discusses release of Space Detective film part two

This article is part two of my interview with the Swamp Media Group regarding the upcoming release of its new independent film, Space Detective.  In part one, founders Antonio “Tony” Llapur and Matt Sjafiroeddin discussed how they started the Swamp Media Group, their backgrounds and love for Science Fiction (Sci-Fi), and finally, their full length production, Space Detective.  In part two, Antonio and Matt continue their discussion of Space Detective, in addition to lessons learned, and future creative aspirations.

Anwar Dunbar:  So Matt, you said Space Detective is a Noir story?

Matt Sjafiroeddin:  Yes, it’s very Noir, a very classic conventional Noir.

Antonio Llapur: Film Noir was a movement in cinema in the 1940s and 50s to make dark films.  The themes are usually dark and involve a femme fatale – a lady who is going to screw over, or do harm to, or mess up the life of the protagonist which is usually a cop, district attorney or detective.  So Space Detective literally took all of the elements and added outer space and aliens – it’s pretty much a Humphrey Bogart movie from the 1940s – like The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep, a Sam Spade or a Phillip Marlow movie; along those lines.

14291715_10154466227454603_5502618745684795128_nWe added this crazy element of it being in the future, essentially in a galactic community.  So rather than our story taking place in some hard-boiled American city, it takes place on this space station called ‘Carina Dawn’ which is floating out in the middle of nowhere close to the Carina Nebula, which is a real Nebula by the way.  It’s like a domed Las Vegas-like pleasure center. We re-interpreted and inverted the tropes of the Noir detective movies and put it in an outer space environment much like what Ridley Scott did with Blade Runner; that involved detectives and took place in Cyber-Punk reality.  But Space Detective isn’t as dire as Blade Runner.  Space Detective is a hilarious fun movie.  It’s serious and it’s funny, and there are all kinds of crazy things going on in it.

MS:  There’s also a lot of mystery going on because the Space Detective is human and he’s in this galaxy, a galactic community of aliens.  He’s a rare breed because humans haven’t been spread out in the galaxies.  There’s a mystery about him.  Why is this human out here in the middle of the galaxy?  He’s got these weird, special alien powers, and so one question is where did he get those powers from?  Some of the questions are answered by the end of the movie and some of them are left unanswered for possible follow up stories, just to keep people interested.  So there’s the possibility of this movie moving forward in other serials, or other sequels, or even a television show that we hope people will be interested in.

13007160_10154091556354603_8070129816005573364_nAL:  But the basic plot of the movie is that Shiro (the protagonist) gets a phone call from his ex-girlfriend.  She says, “Come back to Carina Dawn.  I need some help getting away from my gangster husband.  He’s not good.”   And essentially that’s it.  He’s going to help this girl get away from her gangster husband and he gets mixed up in a crazy plot involving space terrorists, mobsters and the fate of the galaxy.

AD:  Tony, give me the name of the Nebula again.

AL:  It’s the Carina Nebula.  It’s actually pronounced Car-I-na, but we pronounce it Car-EE-na.  So what we did for the special effects is went on the Hubble website, and I downloaded a bunch of their free use images.  Their policy is, “Use whatever you want, but just make sure to give us credit for it.”  I think Hubble is the greatest thing in the universe.  Our Nebula is actually based on a Hubble image.  We basically photo-shopped in some of the colors, which allowed us to include some semi real geography.

AD:  That’s really interesting because you guys know that whenever a Sci-Fi movie or show comes out, whether its something like Prometheus or The Martian, there are always Sci-Fi groups who rip the science in that particular production.  Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson does a lot of that.  So it sounds like you did your research on what’s known about our natural world and universe in the production of Space Detective.

AL:  Yes, a little bit.  We tried to do that.  Let’s face it, it’s a silly space movie-cartoon. You’re going to hear lasers when they’re flying in space. We obviously know that sound doesn’t work in space, but we don’t care.  We grew up watching Star Wars movies and when we can throw something at someone and it’s legitimate, I think it lends something to the movie and it enriches the universe a little bit.  I understand Dr. Tyson’s frustration when he sees something and he says, “Obviously that constellation isn’t there that time of the year”, whatever – and I think that’s cool that he does that.  I don’t hate on him for it.

Matt’s like that too.  I’ll want to do something because it looks pretty and he’ll say, “That planet won’t have rings around it for this reason, this reason and this reason,” and I’ll say, “Dammit Matt.  Curse you and your Vulcan logic (laughing).”

carina-dawnMS:  I’m really big on astronomy, so while making this movie I did want to make sure some of the science was on par. I’ll watch science fiction movies and I’ll say, “Wait a minute, that’s not how that happens.”  But making a movie and telling a story, there are certain things you just have to bend sometimes, like sound in space for example.  If you watch Star Wars movies when the ships are fighting each other in outer space and you do it with no sound, it’s boring.  There are just certain rules you have to bend sometimes in terms of telling the story.  But if you try to keep things as scientifically accurate as possible, then people will enjoy it.  People like Tyson will enjoy it if he knows this and that don’t happen.  He’ll at least know this is right and that’s right.

AL:  But don’t get me wrong.  I wanted to experiment with some stuff with sound too.  In certain parts I’ll say, “Let’s make this a little more realistic.  Let’s make it muffled.”  I’m a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, the new show.  They tried to do stuff like that – muffle the sound when the ships were out in space, but that didn’t work with Space Detective either because it’s so bright and colorful and cartoony that it begged for those engines and those super loud explosions in space.  It was like it said, “No, please treat me silly”.  But things like the nebula and having the movie take place geographically on the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, we incorporated into the back story.  We tried to give it some semblance of reality, but ultimately we just want the audience to have some fun with it.

AD:  Yes you can really see how all of the effects come together in the trailer.

AD:  You used real life actors in the movie, and from the snippets that I’ve seen, it has a really unique look.  Has this technique been done before, or are you pioneering this look?

11988413_10153727330919603_2828824418057083117_nAL:  Oh yes, this is all us, man.  That’s something that we cooked up.  There’s a similar technique they use called roto-scoping where they will trace over actors to creates an animated look.  We didn’t do that.  We did everything in camera.  We put makeup on our actors – almost kabuki style.  The style of film is very striking – we shot it in front of a green screen and then we put that in the computer and processed it a little bit.  We adjusted the contrast, the black and white levels, but its still actors and we didn’t change it that much.  We’re just doing a visual crunch, if you will, on their images.  We use a lot of puppets too.

MS:  It’s funny because some people look at it and it reminds them of Sin City.  And it is like Sin City in space, a detective film which is really dark and Noir.  They say its funny because Sin City is one of the inspirations for this movie, and the actual Sin City comic book illustrations are really high contrast black and white whereas if you watch the movie it’s more shades of gray.  So it’s unusual that people will look at this and say, “Oh, it looks like Sin City in space”.  Making it in this particular style allowed us to get away with so much.  I built a lot of the props and-.

AL:  What do you mean you built a lot of them?  You built all of them.

MS:  Okay yes, I built all of them.  In this black and white style I was able to get away with a lot because I built a lot of things with cardboard and trash bags, but it doesn’t look like it.  That’s one of the things about a lot of the Indie Sci-Fi films being made out there. They’re really expensive to make which is why a lot of Indie film makers make dramas and comedies. When they do make Sci-Fi it actually looks like it’s made out of cardboard and trash bags. What’s unique about our movie is that it doesn’t look like it was made of cardboard and trash bags and in actuality, it is. We were able to get away with so much and cut so many corners that that square turned into a circle, and people are really going to enjoy it I think.

AL:  I was more in charge of the visual effects so I did a lot of computer imaging and it allowed me to get away with a lot too.  Like I said, Amahl Dunbar, who created the 3-D animation of our ships, was able to populate one of the scenes with hundreds and hundreds of characters in the background.  The fact that he didn’t have to render different textures and colors and shading, saved him a lot of time and he was able to do the work of ten dudes.

MS:  Yes, a lot of Amahl’s 3-D models and spaceships are awesome.  When you do special effects, a lot of time is taken up with the skins of it – making sure it looks metallic, making sure there are proper shadows, reflections, etc.  But with this movie we didn’t need any of that.  We just needed it to be black and white and that’s it.  Amahl was able to make designs and not worry about making shadows or reflections.  We just needed the baseline model and it works.

14390665_10154492658709603_2194268707253942364_nAL: Yes, so to describe the visual aesthetic of the movie, everything in Space Detective is black and white – high contrast black and white with no shades of gray.  And then the rest of the movie is literally splashed with color.  However, it’s splashed with purpose so anything that generates energy in the universe, that’s a color.  If you see a laser gun, the beam is going to be a bright orange or a blue.  If you see an exhaust from a ship, it’s going to be a bright color.  If you see lights on buildings, they’re each going to be different colors.  The movie has its own unique look.  I remember Matt mentioned the Sin City comic book because I was obsessed with that comic book, especially in college.  I grew up worshipping Frank Miller and his work.  One of the first comics I ever read was Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, for God’s sake.  Anyway, the color has a purpose in it.  Everything found a purpose, not just to cheat, but man did it help us cheat.

MS:  The movie ended up being more colorful than we realized.  It was one of our biggest concerns when we started – if it was going to be black and white and hurt people’s eyes.  Now we’re at a point where we realize how colorful it is.

AL:  There was a French movie called Renaissance which did a similar thing with black and white, and it’s hard to watch.  They don’t have any color in it.

MS:  But that was all animated and they had no live action actors.

AD:  So ballpark, your goal for releasing Space Detective is the next month, two months, half a year?

MS:  We are having our world premiere at the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival in January 2017.  We’re so thrilled about it.  It’s so exciting.

AL:  I really think we have something special and the festivals are really going to enjoy us and want us to be a part of them.  It’s a really unique movie.  It’s a different kind of movie.  The story is fun.  It’s intriguing and it’s funny.  The characters are rich and original and look completely different than anything you’ve ever seen.  It sounds amazing – thanks to the music that Matt’s older brother, Marcus, composed for it.

12260_10153822145274603_7895615237706236118_nMS:  My brother, Marcus, is a classically trained musician.  He played in the Las Vegas Philharmonic.  He has been in bands since he was a kid, and he’s got two decades of recording experience in studios.

AL:  He’s a great rock and roller.

MS:  He really elevated this movie in terms of sound, and a lot of people will tell you that half of a movie is what you hear, so my brother is really responsible for half of this movie.  He helped to record all of the dialogue.  He helped to create all of the sound effects and he helped compose all of the music.  It’s just fantastic.  The quality of the audio and the music is just so amazing that it really elevates this movie to professional levels I think.

AL:  Yeah, and as the director and the producer, it really makes Matt and me look good.  Matt plays the main character Shiro, and it really looks cool when he’s beating up a bad guy and leaping through the air.  I’m like, “Oooh, that’s cool.  We’ve made a real movie here.”

AD:  I’ve heard that before about films and their scores/soundtracks.  I watched a documentary where James Horner discussed composing the music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.  He described how some of the most memorable films are perfect marriages between the film and the music, and so what you remember is the two together and not separately.

I know that you probably already have sequels in mind, but I won’t ask you about that.  Discuss the major learning points in the production of Space Detective?

MS:  I learned that we could make a feature film. To be honest, I learned what it means to be a producer.  I went through college learning all kind of things and you know what an actor, writer, and editor do, but it’s hard to know what a producer does.  I’ve learned that a producer produces, and that’s what I’ve been able to do over the years whether it’s been producing practical effects, make up, wardrobe or anything like that.  Just to get things done as the producer, you have to be on the ball and get it done.  That’s probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is how to produce.

tony-directingAL:  I agree with Matt.  We learned that we can do it.  I was always scared of directing growing up.  I would say, “I can’t come up with all of these shots.  I don’t know what I’m doing.”  But I actually do know what I’m doing.  I’m pretty good at it, and Matt’s pretty good at it.  I’ve learned that I think directing is probably the hardest thing that anyone can possibly do.  It is the playing soccer of art making.  It is all about endurance.  It is all about not giving up.  It’s about trying to con your friends into doing insane things, and then trusting them.   It’s about leadership and a lot of other things.

MS:  I think the biggest thing we learned is that we can make a movie on our own for freaking nothing.  We can do it ourselves and we can make it look good.  So I try to think that if we can do it on our own with nothing but chicken scratch, imagine what we could do if someone gave us a real budget, a multi-million dollar budget.  You can imagine what we could do with the actual resources to get things done.

AL:  And I’m not even talking about Marvel money, or Batman and Superman money.  I’m talking about ten million bucks (laughing).  I mean what could I do with ten million bucks?  I could change the world with ten million bucks.  We could change movie making with that, and yeah, I’m not going to lie, I think one day Matt and me should be able to tackle a Batman movie or something like that because hey at the end of the day, it’s just more expensive and it’s just the same stuff we did with Space Detective.  There’s a bad guy, some colorful villains and there’s a town that he has to protect.  And there’s a crap-load of special effects going on in there.  We can handle that.

AD:  Is that what you would like to tackle some day?  A Batman movie?

AL:  Sure, a Batman movie, an X-Men movie, any of those.  We’re both comic book nerds so we love that genre.  Anytime one of those big movies comes out, we’re there.  We’re like excited 11 year olds.  That’s not to say that we’re not influenced by other things.  I’m a big George Lucas fan.  He’s my hero.  I love Akira Kurosawa. I love Terry Gilliam. Orson Welles – I was just reading a bunch of articles today on Citizen Kane.  It’s the 75th anniversary of its release and it’s probably my favorite movie.  That being said, capes and laser guns are where it’s at man.  It’s so much fun and I think those types of movies and those types of stories are great mirrors on society and humanity.  They show the things that we can accomplish in the future, or things that we can do today as far as – I’m just rambling, but I just think that popular entertainment is more important, more artistic than people give it credit for.  And with Space Detective, I think we tried to make a popcorn film that would reflect that kind of movie.

space_detective_poster_a_webAD:  Well gentleman, thank you both for this interview.  I look forward to seeing Space Detective and your future productions.

AL:  Thank you, Anwar.  This is our first interview.

MS:  Thank you, Anwar.

AD:  No problem guys.  I suspect it will be the first of many interviews that you will do, and I’m honored to be a part of the first one.

Visit the Swamp Media Group website to learn more their current projects and upcoming productions.  Thank you to the Swamp Media Group for generously sharing their trailer, and or the photos used in this post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy:

• A review of Solo: A Star Wars Story
• A review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• A review of Marvel’s Avengers Infinity War
• A review of Marvel’s Black Panther
• A review of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok
• A review of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming
• A review of Marvel’s Dr. Strange

If you’ve find value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and or leave a comment.  To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right hand column in this post and throughout the site.  Lastly, follow me on Twitter at @BWArePowerful, on Instagram at @anwaryusef76, and on the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page.  While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM, and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

Swamp Media Group discusses release of Space Detective film part one

In May of 2016 I conducted my very first interview related to Science Fiction and Cinema.  I talked with Antonio Llapur and Matt Sjafiroeddin, founders of the Swamp Media group about their upcoming independent production The Space Detective – a film created independently with no outside assistance.  The only reason I knew about this project is because my brother Amahl Dunbar worked very closely with the Swamp Media Group to produce the film.  I’m thus also one of the lucky few to have seen the movie, and I must say it is quite impressive.  Part one of this interview was actually published prior to the Examiner closing down its operations, so part two was never published.

At the time of the interview Antonio and Matt were finishing up production of the film, and they are currently actively submitting the film to festivals and looking for a distribution home.  They’re also looking to do a local screening in 2017 in Las Vegas where the Swamp Media Group is based.  The three of us had a lot of fun discussing Space Detective, the Science Fiction genre, and our favorite Heroes, Franchises and TV series growing up, so we covered a lot of ground.  Enjoy.

Science Fiction has long been a vehicle for entertainment – whether through books, television or cinema.  The popular genre serves as an escape from real life; a vehicle to look at science and the cosmos, and a means of speculating on where science is going.  It further serves as a canvas for commentary on humanity and the current social, spiritual and political issues of the times.  Lastly, Science Fiction can simply be a vehicle for storytelling and a means to take part in spectacular and other world adventures.  On May 2, the founders of the Swamp Media Group, Antonio “Tony” Llapur and Matt Sjafiroeddin, granted an interview to discuss their backgrounds and the upcoming release of their new independent Science Fiction movie, Space Detective.

Anwar Dunbar:   First, Tony and Matt, thank you for this opportunity to interview you guys and to help promote Space Detective.  I write for the Examiner on literacy and in many instances Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related topics.  I also volunteer at the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium here in the Washington, DC metro area.  With our full dome shows and guest speakers, we promote STEM education and we actually have a Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) weekend every year in the spring focusing on the genre.  At this year’s weekend we had some guests from the Star Wars films including Storm Troopers, an Imperial Commander, and a Jawa.  Sci-Fi is something I grew up with and even now as an adult, I am still consumed by it to a large degree.

When I saw some of the promotional media for Space Detective, I thought the images were very compelling and that it would be exciting to talk to you both about what you’re doing and how you created the movie.  So with that, let’s get started.  Where are you from originally and how did you start the Swamp Media Group?

Antonio Llapur:  I grew up here in Las Vegas.  I was born in New Jersey and we moved here when I was a little kid, when I was four or something.  I met Matt in a production class at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV).  We shared a cigarette and started talking about Batman comics and have been friends ever since.

Matt Sjafiroeddin:  I grew up in Oklahoma and I moved to Las Vegas to go to college.  I followed my brothers out here and that’s where I met Tony, at film school at the UNLV.

AD:  What’s the significance of the name ‘Swamp Media Group’?

swamp-media-groupMS:  It’s funny because we’ve been roommates for a while.  We live in a house now and we used to live in an apartment.  We used to call our place ‘The Swamp’.  Do you remember the Television show MASH?  Hawkeye and BJ used to call their tent ‘The Swamp’. So we started calling our place the Swamp as well, and it just kind of went from there.  The ‘Media Group’ is our production company.  We didn’t want to be called ‘Swamp Films’ because that’s just dumb, so we went with ‘Media Group’ because that involves things beyond just movies.

AL:  The Swamp makes a reference to MASH – whacky doctors and Media Group makes it sound kind of important I guess (laughing).

AD:  What are you backgrounds?  It sounds like both of you have backgrounds in media, production and writing screenplays.

MS:  Both of us have a background in theater as actors.  I was originally a theater major before I switched to film.  Through film, we learned all of the processes of film making: production, editing, and screenwriting.  I think we both fell in love with screenwriting.  We’ve written several things together and it just kind of grew from there.

AD:  What in particular did you like about screenwriting?  Was it the whole creative process or something else?

MS:  I’ve always loved stories and telling stories.  My dad was a big story teller and it was good to be able to finally write my ideas down.  Being able to take a class to learn the format of screenwriting really helped open the doors for me personally to be able to write stories and get things down on paper.

 

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AL:  I’ve wanted to be a movie director since I was a little kid.  I would see things and say, ‘Okay I would do that different and do that different’.  I learned a little bit at a time.  My first thing was drawing, then I learned acting, and then I learned writing and then it all coalesced into directing.  I was born with a pencil in my hand so my stuff is always very visual and it compliments Matt because he’s a strong writer, and we play off each other really well.

AD:  So you said you were born with a pencil in your hand.  Does that mean you grew up drawing and illustrating?

AL:  We both did.

MS:  Yes we both did.  We had a lot in common before we met.  We both drew and we both loved movies.  We both loved Batman, and we were both the weird kids in school and were thus both really connected since day one.

AL:  I think we were both the youngest in our families too.

AD:  You both have a love for Batman.  What superhero or science fiction series had the biggest impact on you?  Was it cartoon series like Robotech or Voltron, or was it movie franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars?

AL:  The earliest memory I have is going to see Star Wars at the movie theater as a little kid.  Star Wars was big for me, but the Star Trek movies were what drove me growing up.   I think Matt and I battled over Star Trek a lot in film school.  I think we were the only two Star Trek nerds in our film school.  Generally speaking, Star Trek and Star Wars were my biggest influences.

MS:  I’m a total Trekkie.  I mean I love Star Wars, but I’m nowhere near as big a Star Wars fan as Tony.  I grew up with Star Trek, and as far as Sci-Fi goes, we’re from that 80s generation so I grew up with the Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats and all of that.

mr-blackAL:  Robotech was pretty big too.  I remember Robotech being that first cartoon I saw as a kid and thinking, ‘Wow this isn’t necessarily meant for an eight year old.  This is a little bit more intelligent’.  In the 80s there was a lot of really good Sci-Fi, a lot of good Space Opera, and a lot of the laser gun stuff.

MS:  My biggest influence growing up wasn’t Sci-Fi.  It was actually a comic book called Elfquest.  That’s where I get a lot of my inspiration for stories and characters.  I’ve been reading it since I was ten.  That’s been the biggest influence for me.

AL:  They’re really beautiful books if you ever get the chance to read them.  They’re really, really striking.

MS:  It’s got nothing to do with Sci-Fi though.

AD:  There’s a writer’s center here in Washington, DC where I’ve taken some classes myself and those two genres, Science Fiction and Fantasy, are always grouped together.

AL:  I read a lot of Vertigo comics in high school and college.  I always gravitated towards stuff that was a little weird and a little out there.  What I really loved about comics was that they always gave the chance to be out there and really do some crazy things like multi-verse and have things like clones. They it brings you back and it presents it in this silly caped form of simple morality tales – good guys and bad guys.  I’m a big fan of Jack Kirby.  That was a big influence on me and the look of Space Detective; the same with Frank Miller and a whole bunch of other guys like that.

AD:  Now before we move on, the thing I remember about Robotech was that there were a lot of mature themes in it.  I think Robotech and Voltron were originally Japanese cartoons which they took and dubbed over and created different plot lines for the United States market.

AL:  They rewrote them for essentially American audiences.  The Power Rangers, which is essentially after our generation, were originally Japanese shows that were reworked for American audiences as well.

AD:  We had the Voltron toys and I remember there was a Voltron II.  My brother and I looked at one another and wondered where it came from because no cartoon was released for it in the United States.

AL:  The Voltron with the cars?

AD:  No, that was Voltron I.  With Voltron II when you put the robots together it had multiple arms because it had-.

AL:  Yeah, yeah, yeah!  It was the three dude robots and they stacked into each other.

AD:  Yes, and Voltron III was the lions.

So let’s move on and talk about what you guys have been working so hard on, Space Detective.  First of all, I’ve seen bits and pieces of the concept art and it looks really cool.  The official trailer is pretty hot too.

AD:  Let me know how much detail you want to give about it because I know you probably don’t want to give the whole plot away before people see it.  Talk about the concepts behind Space Detective.  How did you come up the ideas for this production?

12143190_10153667532149603_3174277451153358555_nMS:  Well, we had just recently finished production of one of our other short films called, Joker Does Shakespeare!, which you can see on YouTube. And we were looking to do something new, another short.  We were actually going to do a short for Heavy Metal Magazine which is ironic because when a lot of people see Space Detective it reminds them something they would see on that particular publication.  This heavy metal short was black and white and it was Sci-Fi, and the guys in it had ray guns.  It was just a single guy running around in an industrial complex getting chased by cops and it was all very Noir-ish. It was very dark and there was no dialogue, just voice over.

We were going to make it a short, but somewhere down the line we’re writers and we realized that we like to write so we said, “Let’s just drop this concept.”  But we kept the idea of the black and white Sci-Fi Noir story, so we ran with that, and then we said, “Let’s add a little bit of color and some lasers, and some exhaust and robots.” Then it just started to blow up from there.  So this ten minute short then turned into this feature length film.

AL:  Yes, we just kept running with it.  We read our script and it was 40 pages. So we said, “Let’s just shoot it.  It’s going to run about 20 minutes anyway. So we got our first cut and it went about an hour and we said, “I guess we have a feature film”.  So we added to it and made it a little longer.  It’s a disadvantage that it took so long, but it was also an advantage.  We spent about a decade on it, but it grew a lot, so we just started shooting it and said to heck with it, we’ll just learn as we go.  It just ballooned and over the years we’ve gotten a little more sophisticated and we added some things to it, enriched the universe a little bit, and went with it.  It’s been a long time.

thu6MS:  We’ve joked that this film has been like our graduate school education in that we’ve had to do so much of it ourselves from the writing, to the acting, to the directing, the special effects, the practical effects, the sound, the music – we had to do so much of it ourselves in this tight group of us.   It felt like graduate school you know because we learned some of this stuff in college, but until you actually apply it to something, it’s all theory.  So making this movie has really helped us hone our skills as film makers and storytellers.

AD:  Well, you know when you build something from the ground up, there is a little bit of trial and error, and figuring things out.  It’s definitely not something for people with no staying power.

You know, listening to you guys talk about it reminds me of the documentary, The Making of Alien, where Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett discuss how they came up with the ideas for the movie, and then how they had to shop it around quite a bit before Fox agreed to make the film.  So when you build something from the ground up for the first time, sometimes it can take a while, but it sounds like you stuck with it and its going to bloom pretty soon.

AL:  When we started, we had a pretty cool little ‘short’- a proof of concept video.  Around that time I was writing for a local magazine and I was covering night clubs and stuff.  I wrote under the moniker ‘Digital Tony’, so I spent a lot of time in the night club industry.  I knew a lot of dudes with money and I knew a lot of guys who might be willing to make the investment in a picture.  No one gave us a dime.  I think the most we got out of someone was a broken computer.  We just said, “Screw it,” and kept shooting for a few years until we had another set of stuff to show off.  We found some people who were interested in financing it, but the housing market crashed and the economy went in the toilet and no one had any money to give us.

13782042_10154350899089603_8113530380274121943_nSo we just said, “Okay, let’s just keep at it”.  We got to point where people said, “Hey, we’d like to invest”, but we had come so far and we’re going to finish it ourselves (laughing).  So we own all of it. We paid for all of it and now we have an executive producer to help us with the Post and the Film Festival.  He was our cameraman, Aaron Goodwin.  He’s on the show Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel.  He started off as the cameraman and has been with us a number of years and he continues to help Matt and me out.  For the most part it’s been Matt, his older brother, Marcus, is handling music, Amahl Dunbar has been handling the 3-D animation, our homeboy Charlie Wilson has been our assistant animator and handling all of the lasers you saw, and myself.  Our buddy Rico Lee, Jr. played Zyzzo (the villain) in the movie.  He helped out with the music and all of the other cool stuff.  It’s been a small team and a family affair, but it’s just us.

space-detective-matt-sjafiroeddin-as-shiroMS: Yes, we started this so long ago that it was before Crowd Funding and Kickstarter.  There wasn’t any money anywhere.  Most people who try to start Indie-films today start on Kickstarter or they’ll start trying to crowd fund money.  We started so long ago that it wasn’t in existence so we just did it ourselves.

AD:  I’ll let you guys choose how you do this, but without giving the plot-line away, in general terms, what’s Space Detective about?  I’ve seen some of the footage and I’m looking at one of the promotional pieces right now and it has a kind of Blade Runner look.  So are we in a Blade Runner type of thing or is it something else in terms of the main character and the story?

jinksMS:  It’s funny, because people would always ask us, “What is this about?”  And the title tells you.  Space Detective is about a detective in space.  The title is so simple.  It’s like the Vermeer painting – The Girl with Pearl Earring — that’s what it’s about.  We took this really straight forward conventional approach to a Noir story.  It’s a very classic Noir story – this brooding detective gets hired by a femme fatale that walks through the door and hires him for a case to get her out of some ugly marriage, but then the case turns into something bigger.  The visual style is very basic – it’s black and white.  We took this basic approach to telling a detective story.

This interview will be continued Swamp Media Group discusses release of Space Detective film part two.  Follow the Swamp Media Group on Twitter or visit the Swamp Media Group website  to learn more their current projects and upcoming productions.  I want to thank the Swamp Media group for generously sharing the photos used in this post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. If you enjoyed it, you may also enjoy:

• A review of Solo: A Star Wars Story
• A review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• A review of Marvel’s Avengers Infinity War
• A review of Marvel’s Black Panther
• A review of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok
• A review of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming
• A review of Marvel’s Dr. Strange

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and leave a comment.  To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right hand column in this post and throughout this site.  Lastly follow me on Twitter at @BWArePowerful, on Instagram at @anwaryusef 76, and at the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page.  While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM, and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

 

On the shoulders of giants

20161119_193757From November 18-20, the Friends of Arlington’s David M. Brown Planetarium hosted their third weekend of programming for the 2016-17 school year titled, “On the Shoulders of Giants”.  The weekend was dedicated to the most notable astronomers in the 20th Century, and their contributions to science.  As per usual the weekend featured a stellar lineup of digital shows in addition to an interactive panel discussion highlighting scientists and astronomers who laid the groundwork for modern astronomy and space exploration. 

On Friday November 18, there were viewings of the full dome shows Two Small Pieces of Glass and Cosmos: Harmony of Worlds.  On Saturday November 19, there was a viewing of the full dome show Natural Selection followed by a panel discussion titled, “On the Shoulders of Giants”.  On Sunday November 20, there were showings of the full dome shows Astronaut, and Accidental Astronauts.

Saturday’s discussion featured three very notable and knowledgeable speakers in the world of astronomy.  The discussion was started by Dr. Seth-Ann Howard who previously gave a talk at a Friends’ weekend titled, “4000 Years of Women in Science”.  She was followed by retired NASA scientist Steven Dick, and David DaVorkin who serves as a curator at the Smithsonian National Air & Space museum.  The panel’s discussion involved a host of visual images and simulations and was a “Who’s Who” of the astronomy world highlighting its most notable pioneers and their contributions to the field.  Some of the names included:

·         Cecelia Payne- Discovered what stars are comprised of in terms of chemistry;

·         Bertil Linblad- Discovered how the Milky Way rotates;

·         Karly Jansky- Detected radio signals from the Milky Way;

·         Joceylyn Bell- Discovered Pulsars;

·         Percival Lowell- Discovered the canals on Mars and;

·         George Elory Hale- Built the largest telescopes of his time.

20161119_210154Some of the more well-known names often used in entertainment world’s references to science were also mentioned.  Albert Einstein is frequently referred to in Science Fiction media for his Law of Relativity, and has been portrayed in various TV shows and movies.  Edwin Hubble had a telescope named after him.  Carl Sagan who is most known the TV series Cosmos, was also a writer (Contact which was adapted into a film), in addition to his research in astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics and astrobiology.  The interactive discussion was followed by a question and answer session from the audience.

The Friends will host special events at the David M. Brown Planetarium one weekend every month until the end of the school year. Each weekend will be geared towards increasing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education/awareness for all ages and will feature a specific theme.  For more information, visit the Friends’ website.  The theme for December’s weekend will be, “Finding the Christmas Star”.

 

Chris Brown discusses true stewardship and financial peace

sports-jacket-standing-hands-together-close-up2_backdropAround 2012, two friends introduced me to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University – a faith based curriculum for managing one’s finances and achieving financial security and stability.  I had heard of Dave Ramsey before and knew that he had a radio show, and maybe had written some books.  I admittedly was suspicious that it was potentially another Multi-Level Network Marketing business proposal.

It turned out to be something very different, and four years later it has changed my own finances and life, and I also help out with the Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church.  The following interview was published on the Examiner shortly after Dave Ramsey’s Washington, DC Smart Money Tour stop in the spring of 2016.  There I met Chris Brown who took the stage along with Dave that night, and was subsequently granted an interview.

* * *

On April 21, 2016, talk show host Dave Ramsey and his team visited Washington DC for one of his many Smart Money Tour stops.  That evening, Ramsey shared the stage with a member of his team, Chris Brown.  This Chris Brown, however, is not the controversial recording artist who shares the same name as they joked that night, but instead he is the host of the True Stewardship talk show.  Shortly after the tour stop Chris granted an interview to talk about his background, his True Stewardship talk show, and Financial Peace.

Anwar Dunbar:  Hello Chris.  We met briefly just after the Washington DC tour stop when you took the time out to talk to all of the current and prospective Financial Peace University (FPU) coordinators in the audience.  I really appreciate the opportunity to follow up with you and talk a little bit more.

Just a little bit about me for some context here. I’m a coordinator in the Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, VA.  When I start with a group these days, as part of my personal story, I tell them first and foremost that I have a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan.  I share that at one point in my life I thought being a “Dr.” would be the key to having a good comfortable life.

In the sciences, a Ph.D. typically commands a significant income.  It wasn’t until after I completed my doctorate, got my first job and made some money mistakes that I realized the degree by itself, while definitely an accomplishment, didn’t put me where I wanted to be in life.   There were a lot of aspects to the financial world and money that I just didn’t understand, and several lessons that I hadn’t been taught.

At the end of the DC Tour Stop, you took some time to acknowledge the FPU coordinators in the audience.  Did you start off as a coordinator yourself?  How did you get to your current position where you’re working with Dave Ramsey and hosting your own talk show?

Chris Brown:  Yes, I remember meeting you.  Well, I think it was important that I had a background in Financial Peace University, and whether or not I was a coordinator or had been to a class, I think that it’s important that whenever you’re going to be representing a philosophy and a way of life – you’ve got to know that you’re behind it and living out what you say.  So I think that’s important.

Whether or not I was a coordinator, I don’t think that would’ve mattered. I’ve never personally coordinated a class.  I’ve been in several of them.  I’ve actually led at a church and my role was to make sure that we had several coordinators and that they felt equipped.  So for me, I went from attending a couple of Financial Peace classes to making sure that several of them happened at my church.  I kind of skipped over the coordinator piece.

AD:  So you must of have distinguished yourself in such a way that you got to meet and work with Dave Ramsey.  How did that all come about?

CB:  Yes.  I view my role at Dave Ramsey Solutions not as a platform thing.  It’s more of a calling.  We lead out, Dave and myself in particular, with our mistakes, not necessarily as experts.  It’s more of a vulnerability of saying we have been successful, but more than that what people are actually relating to is that we have failed, and that’s what people are resonating with the most.  We’ve applied biblical principles and they’ve worked, and we’ve applied non-biblical principles and they haven’t worked.  And so we’ve seen both worlds, so we lead out with our vulnerabilities and our huge mistakes.

AD:  How long have you been doing your True Stewardship talk show?  When did that start?

CB:  It’s been about a year.  Dave has always had a passion for stewardship which is managing God’s blessing, God’s way for God’s glory.  It’s deeper than just financial principals, the Xs and Os, and the mathematics.  It’s more of we’ve been entrusted with resources, our time and our talents.  And how do we manage those things for those who have lived by faith as believers?  And we wanted to make sure that we ministered to that particular demographic.

Dave is obviously serving everybody whether you’re a person of faith for not.  But he wanted to make sure that we had a branch of our organization that just ministered to those people of faith, and broke down what the Bible says about money.  There are 2,350 verses in the Bible all about how to handle wealth and possessions.  We want listeners to not only be educated, but empowered, and that they feel a little bit of encouragement and hope wherever they find themselves in their stewardship financial journey – when they apply themselves they can find themselves being successful on the other side.

It’s a twenty-five minute show, and just like Dave’s it’s a call-in show.  Dave Ramsey has a call-in show Monday thru Friday.  It’s a three-hour call in show in 550 plus markets around the country.  Mine is a twenty-five minute show.  It’s also call-in.  I occasionally have a guest, or I occasionally do a full teaching myself, but it’s on Monday thru Friday, as well in 20 different markets and both of us have podcasts that are associated with the show, and also we stream on our websites.

AD:  With so many financial gurus out there with their own systems for wealth building, do you find that some people perceive Financial Peace University to be a hustle or is it perceived the way you guys intend it to be?

CB:  I’ve never really thought about it that way because we’re really focused in on what we’re trying to do.  We like to say that we’re on a crusade.  We’re really trying to enhance a movement that’s already started so we’re more focused in on what we’re doing.  I don’t know about what all of the other gurus are doing.  I don’t know if there are any, if they’re twisted or if they’re shady.  I’m actually not familiar with any of that, but I do know that we have a very loyal tribe, and I also know that there are a lot of results, and people will follow where there are a lot of results.

Over the last twenty years there have been over four million people who have gone through this class and have experienced an average $8,000 swing in their finances in just the first 90 days. And so for around $100 for you to enroll in Financial Peace University and have a kit and some resources, and a book and all of that kind of stuff – after 90 days to have an $8,000 swing in your finances, for me the value of that is so big.  There’s never been a question about the value added to society.  So I really feel that way.  We give away a bunch of stuff for free on our websites and podcasts and radio shows.  It’s our way to serve the community.

dsc03840AD:  From your testimony at the tour stop, it sounds as you were pretty deep into the real estate investing world and experienced a lot of success, which is a lot of further than I ever got.  I did some learning, but never got any deals done.  Based upon your experience, once someone’s life becomes “Financially Peaceful”, would you recommend that arena for someone else?  Once you get out to Baby Steps Five and Six and you’ve got money in the bank and no debt; you’ve got your 15% retirement savings going, and you’re saving for your kid’s college funds, would you recommend someone going into the real estate investing arena to acquire properties, flipping homes, and similar things?

CB:  Let me just say that investing in real estate is great.  So there are a couple of factors.  First you have to make sure that you’re already diversified.  What we teach in Baby Step Four, which starts getting into investing, is to start with 15% of your household income going towards long-term investments – things with tax advantages.

You want to think long-term so you want to make sure you’re diversified: mutual funds, 401-Ks, Roth IRAs, 403-Bs, 457s, those kinds of things first.  Then you’re going to go to Baby Steps Five and Six; pay off your primary mortgage first – that primary has to be paid off first, and then you can get into rental homes, flipping homes, but only with cash so you’re not borrowing anything for that to happen.

So let’s say you go out and buy a $100,000 house with cash and two and a half years later you sell it for $175,000 – that’s really good.  You get cash, you use that $175,000 and then you go buy two properties for $70,000 each, and then clean them all up, and then two years later you sell them both for $200,000 each, or $150,000, whatever it is, but it’s always with cash.  You also want to buy investment properties where you have a local intelligence where you are, and where you can feel it.  You don’t ever want be a landlord if you’re living out of town.  You want to do it in your town.

AD:  As a literacy Examiner, from time to time I’ve written about money, not telling people what to do or trying to sound judgmental myself, because I’m not rich and have made my share of money mistakes.  However, I think the principles of Financial Peace University and money lessons in general are important to talk about.  With the exception of one or two pieces I’ve written, many of my financial articles have gotten little to moderate reaction.  Have you found money to be a sensitive topic in your experience, and if so, why do you think that is?

CB:  I’ve personally seen more traction on articles, and videos and teachings when they have a personal, emotional or a relational component in them.  So it’s not really just about the facts because we live in Google society where you can look up the information.  You need the inspiration with the information – some kind of personal or vulnerable moment whenever you’re explaining anything financially or some kind of personal anecdote.  Those pieces tend to be shared and liked a little more often because, yes you’re right, it’s a sensitive topic.

It’s taboo to talk about money and there are lots of opinions out there and nobody can argue with your experience.  For me, I deal with the faith-based side and on the faith-based side you can’t argue with the scriptures.  So I lead out with the scriptures and my experience and that’s a lot better than if I do a cold article that says, “Here are the three steps to budgeting”.  You can find that stuff on a lot of different websites, but what you can’t find is your story.

AD:  You’re right, I wrote a piece called, The Difference Between Being Cheap and Frugal, and it got a lot reaction I think first because I told a story with it in a humorous way, and also because it’s something a lot of people have been personally faced with.

When you were coming up, did your folks talk to you about a lot of this stuff or did you have to find it all out on your own?

dsc03836CB:  I have an interesting story.  This is pretty cool.  I did not have a dad growing up.  I actually had four fathers who were all violent and we were always running away from them, from abuse shelter to abuse shelter.  So I didn’t have a dad and my Mom, because she was a single, Mom was always working three jobs and was never home.  So I really raised myself, but I say that liberally because I’d be sitting in an apartment with no food and no furniture for days at a time completely bored stiff, but the one thing I did have was my Yellow Sony Walkman; if you remember from all the way back in the day before the Sony Discman.

I was listening to the radio and I was never a really big music guy at the ages of 11, 12 and 13 years old.  I was always more intrigued by learning because to that point, I had just been sitting around the house by myself and bored, and we didn’t really have TV and cable or anything like that, so I was just intrigued by things that would get me to think.  So I would listen to guys like: Charles Stanley, James Dobson and Larry Burkett, and then later on Dave Ramsey.

Pretty much the radio raised me.  I mixed that in with some pastors, some teachers and coaches – there ended up being some bosses later on that really walked me through life and taught me these principles. Then I found out about Financial Peace University which made it more formalized.  But for me, I was never taught this stuff other than listening to the radio, and no one ever sat me down in a formal setting and taught me these things.  For me it just clicked and as soon as I knew that it was God’s way of handling money, it made sense to me.

I actually didn’t make a lot of money mistakes in middle school, high school or college.  I did great financially starting off as an adult.  I was the man.  I was rocking and thinking that what I was doing at the time really worked.  And then one day I decided I was going to get cocky.  I was flipping homes and I said, ‘Why am I flipping homes one at a time?  This is great.  This is fun.  This is awesome.  I’ll flip eight at a time.  I’ll go borrow a million dollars and I’m going to expedite this thing.  I’m going to get rich quick.’

The year was 2007 (the start of the bursting of the housing bubble) and for the next 36 months I couldn’t put a renter in any of my properties and I couldn’t sell any of them, so I was paying out $10,000 a month on vacant homes all of the way to January 2011 when I had to walk into a filled courtroom, look a Trustee in the eye and I had to file bankruptcy.  So it was a major fall because of one month of getting greedy and getting cocky.  So I was never taught, but I learned more from that big mistake than I learned all of the rest of the time.  I will never go borrow again, not even for a house.  I will never borrow money again period.

AD:  So at the DC Smart Money Tour stop you told us the funny story about your sons and the garage door.  As an education writer and a science tutor, I’m always fascinated by what resources some kids have access to early in their lives versus others, because what you learn at a young age can greatly impact your life as an adult.  Are these lessons you’re going to teach them gradually?  Or are you going to sit them down one day and say, “Okay guys, we’re going to sit down and watch Financial Peace University today and then we’re going to debrief afterwards”?  How are you planning to do that?

CB:  The best thing I can do is teach them the world view and the heart behind good financial management.  I don’t want to manage their behavior, I want to manage their heart and so every day from the time they’ve been able to retain a thought – so four, five, and maybe six years old – anytime anything happens with relationships or anything else, there’s a great teaching opportunity to say, ‘That relationship, that brother of yours, God has put that relationship in your life trusting you to make sure you handle that relationship well and for His glory.’  And they’re not going to get it right away, but I’m planting seeds all of the way throughout their childhood.

Now as far as formal guidance, they’re already getting that.  They actually love it because kids are sponges.  We have what we call Financial Peace Junior.  It’s a great curriculum and age appropriate for my kids and they actually love it.  They’ve got this savings jar and it’s got three different compartments where you: give, save, and spend.

They have a chore chart where they get commissions for their chores.  Two of my three have bank accounts where they save and we go out to the mall and they save their saving part, give their giving part, and spend their spending part.  So it’s been great and when its time they’ll go to the next curriculum for middle-schoolers and high schoolers; Generation Change and then Financial Peace University.  I don’t ever want to make them do anything.  I want them to want to, and I’m never going to force them.

I think the only thing I would do if they were rebellious and looking to get married at 23 years old, I think about six months before they got married, if they hadn’t done it yet, I would probably bribe them to make sure they’ve got it in their brain first.  I’d say, ‘I’ll give you $200 to watch this class just so that I know that you did,’ and just so that I know that I equipped them on my side as a parent.  I would say, ‘You’ve got to listen to this.  This is going to save you thousands and thousands of dollars, maybe even millions if you sit down and watch this.’ So I would make sure that before they got married they did it, but I don’t think I’m going to have that problem so far.

AD:  And once again Chris, when does your show come on?  You have a livestream broadcast right?

CB:  In DC we’re on at 3:30 pm on 780 AM-WAVA.  And, of course, we’re on in 20 different markets at all different times from noon to 8 pm depending on the market all of the way from Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Washington DC, Detroit, all over the place.  We also have iTunes podcasts and we’re on Google Play and we’re also at Stewardship.com. So there are lots of different places people can connect with us.

AD:  Well Chris, those are all of the questions that I have.

CB:  Thank you, Anwar, we appreciate all of your work.

A special thanks for this interview goes out to: Chris Brown, Dave Ramsey Solutions, to the Alfred Street Baptist Church, and finally to Tommy and Erica Walker, founders of the Financial Peace University Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this post. If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy:

• The difference between being cheap and frugal
• We should’ve bought Facebook and Bitcoin stock: An investing story
• Your net worth, your gross salary and what they mean
• Simone Griffin discusses homeownership and the African American community part one (also parts two and three)
• Mother’s Day 2017: one of my mother’s greatest gifts, getting engaged and avoiding my own personal fiscal cliff
• Father’s Day 2017: reflections on some of Dad’s money and life lessons

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and or leave a comment.  To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right hand column in this post and throughout the site.  Please visit my YouTube channel entitled, Big Discussions76.  Lastly follow me on Twitter at @BWArePowerful, on Instagram at @anwaryusef76 and at the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page.  While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blog/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

Challenging Misconceptions and Stereotypes in Academic Achievement

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“A study showed that Asian students study an average of 12 hours a week or more after school.  For Caucasian students the number is six hours, and for African American and Latino students the number is four hours.”

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Early False Ideas About Race

The following piece was my second piece published on the Examiner back in November of 2012. It was based upon an actual conversation between me and my father during my youth growing up on the east side of Buffalo.  Early on I developed misconceptions and stereotypes about peers from various ethnic groups and what they were and were not good at–Asians in particular.

My father challenged those stereotypes which is something that empowered me later on in life and helped change my academic paradigm and world view.  The visual for this piece is a playground for young children, because at a young age before we get socialized and develop racial biases and ideas, we all start off with the same potential to learn and achieve.  It’s what happens to us as we grow up in our unique environments that determine how our lives turn out, our successes, our achievements, and our failures.

Those Asian Kids are Smarter

“Those Asian kids are smarter than everyone else and they’re on the honor roll every quarter,” the son said to his father.  His statement was partially true.  At his school there were students of Asian descent who were on the honor roll every quarter and consistently had grade point averages of 90% or greater.

He was an average student from the inner city.  Like many young people, his views of the world were shaped by what he saw in his community, his peers, the media and ignorance.  His older brother and his best friend, both of whom he spent most of his time with, were not honor roll students either.

A Key Conversation About Priorities and ‘Time On Task’

The father challenged his son’s statement saying, “They’re not necessarily smarter than you; they just spend more time in their books than you do consistently after school every week.”

“A study showed that Asian students study an average of 12 hours a week or more after school.  For Caucasian students the number is six hours, and for African American and Latino students the number is four hours,” the father said citing a study he had read.  The study suggested that academic performance was a function of time invested, not the intelligence of one race over another.

The conversation changed the son’s educational paradigms allowing him to become an honor roll student himself later on.  This true story demonstrates the importance of both parenting and mentoring.  With limited experience and wisdom, young people don’t always understand the world around them and can make conclusions that aren’t accurate.

The Power of Paradigms, Parental Involvement and Socialization

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People the late Stephen Covey describes paradigms as mental road maps that guide our behaviors.  These paradigms direct us and tell us how to react in certain situations.  Paradigms largely influence perceptions of academic achievement.

Dr. Ralph G. Perrino, of the Northern Virginia Tutoring Service, describes in The Socialization Process and Its Impact on Children and Learning, that a student’s academic performance is influenced by family, school, peers, mass media, public opinion, work, volunteer groups and religion/spirituality.  In summary, the expectations and culture students are exposed to, affects their performance.

The counties in northern Virginia, for example, are inhabited by families with highly educated parents.  “These parents are willing to invest their financial resources to make sure their children do well and go to college,” said Dr. Perrino.  The 90% college matriculation rate in these counties is thus a function of values and resources, and not necessarily an innate superior ability over other students such as those within the neighboring District of Columbia.

Systemic Determinants of Academic Achievement

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol argues that the quality of education available in any community is strongly affected by economics and politics.  These two factors directly impact not only educational and neighborhood environments, but also the culture, expectations and long term goals of the parents and children within communities.

Circling back to the opening of this article, at the University of Michigan and similar research institutions, a trend started in the early 21st Century.  Many of the research labs, particularly in the biomedical sciences, were employing large populations of Asian scientists.

It wasn’t magic though.  A professor noted that these scientists were “extremely hardworking, dedicated, and not concerned with things that their American counterparts are preoccupied with things such as having social lives and lots of leisure time.”

The Truth About China’s High Achievers and Others We Don’t See

“Not everyone in China is smart.  Similar to America, there are a lot of people who aren’t smart and successful,” said Dr. Cheng Fang, a talented scientist from China, discussing the stereotypes about his people and his country.  Simply put, some of China’s most motivated and successful families come to the United States seeking the opportunities for advancement that this country has to offer, many in the sciences, and those are the ones that are seen most often.

Interestingly, Cheng further revealed that there are no second chances in China academically.  In the Asian countries if you don’t excel early in school, numerous doors and opportunities permanently slam shut.  In the United States you can under achieve in the lower grade levels and still positively make something of yourself through higher education or other avenues such as the military, entrepreneurship or entertainment.

The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story Part One is available in the eBook, Hardcover and Paperback Editions

Writing a book was the genesis of my blogging and becoming a video content creator. I have published part one of my book project entitled, The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. It is currently available on Amazon in eBook, hardcover, and paperback formats. The paperback format is available on IngramSpark, and signed hardcover and paperback copies on my online store entitled Big Words Authors via credit payment. Payment using Cash App, PayPal, Venmo and Zelle is also available. Reach out to me for further details. Finally visit the page discussing the book. Please consider visiting it to learn more about the project and see promotional content I’ve created surrounding the project.

The Difference Between Being Cheap and Frugal

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“Hell yeah I’m cheap and proud of it too.  I want to save every single penny that I can! I don’t mind getting perfectly good stuff for free either.  My wife’s family frequently gets rid of really good stuff, and I willingly take it.”

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cheap-and-frugal

The following piece was originally published on the Examiner back in December of 2013, and actually turned out to be one of my most popular compositions.  It visited something very emotional; one’s money management and how it is perceived by others – families, friends, significant others, etc.  It discusses how two groups of people are classified in terms of their money management; those who are cheap and those who are frugal.

It was in part inspired by the late Deborah Aguiar-Vélez, founder of Escuchame who came to my job and gave a discussion about wealth building.  Prior to publishing this piece she granted me permission to use a slide from her talk as the accompanying visual for this article.  Lastly it falls under my “Financial Literacy” principle.

*  *  *

“The difference between envy and jealousy Anwar is that there is no malice attached to envy,” my mentor and friend Mark told me in a recent meeting.  “When someone is jealous of you, you have something that they want which upsets them and they will go to great lengths to make sure you don’t have it anymore or don’t even get it in the first place.  They may even go as far as to cause you harm.  Envy is simply when someone wishes they had what you have with no malice attached.  Envy and jealousy are two different words that most people confuse.”

Mark and I frequently have discussions like this spanning numerous areas/topics.  This one reminded me of another confusion of words; the definitions of cheap and frugal, two very important concepts in the worlds of financial literacy and intelligence, and thus the basis of this article.

“Hell yeah I’m cheap and proud of it too.  I want to save every single penny that I can,” a coworker named Hardy said smiling during a random conversation at work a couple of years ago.  “I don’t mind getting perfectly good stuff for free either.  My wife’s family frequently gets rid of really good stuff, and I willingly take it.”

“You’re proud of being cheap?” was my question to Hardy after hearing him revel in his self-diagnosis.  Cheap was not a flattering word in my vernacular.  The word had recently been pinned on me by a girlfriend leaving me feeling snake bitten and sickened by just hearing someone say it.  This conversation with Hardy gave me a new perspective on the matter and actually made me laugh at the word.

Another word that was assigned to me years ago by another female during graduate school was frugal, which is actually an important attribute to have when you are in school but also later in life.  It wasn’t exactly clear to me at that point what that word meant as my behavior was simply the recapitulation of the spending habits of my mother and father who themselves were frugal.

During Hispanic Heritage Month almost a year after my discussion with Hardy, entrepreneur Deborah Aguiar-Vélez, owner and founder of the company Escuchame visited my job and gave a really good seminar on wealth building.  Much of her talk discussed sound financial decision making, living within one’s means and saving money which sound like common sense ideas but for many people are not.  Interestingly a couple of her slides described the differences between being frugal and being cheap.

Mrs. Vélez eloquently described being frugal as:

  • Living within your means
  • Careful management of anything valuable which expends nothing unnecessarily, and applies what is used to a profitable purpose
  • Finding ways to save money
  • A conscious decision and you are therefore in control of your actions towards a goal

That slide was followed up with a description of what frugal is not:

  • Cheapness
  • Meanness
  • Bizarre behavior
  • Suffering
  • Difficult

Her talk helped me to see that there is in fact nothing wrong with being frugal, and re-enforced why it’s a good idea to be this way versus the alternatives; impulsive, frivolous and wasteful.  My discussions with Hardy described above and Mrs. Velez’s seminar also reminded me that labels and titles that we assign to each other are often subject to one’s point of view.

Though this post was written partially in a humorous way, these are important and serious lessons for everyone, especially in our society which actively promotes consumerism to all economic classes poor and rich, and attaches self-worth to material objects and luxuries of all kinds.

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at bwllcnl@gmail.com . Best Regards.