Any book is a self-help guide if you can take something from it.Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, speaker and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob. Smith’s first several films were mostly set in his home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, they frequently feature crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon described by fans as the “View Askewniverse“, named after his production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
Remember: You be you. Your voice is the only currency in this world that you’ll never have to earn or fret about losing. So spend it often. Kevin Smith
Born and raised in New Jersey and very proud of it; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. His first movie,Clerks.(1994), was filmed in the convenience store in which Smith worked. He was only allowed to shoot at night after the store closed. This movie won the highest award at the Sundance film festival and was brought to theaters by Miramax. The movie went over so well that Smith was able to make another movie,Mallrats(1995). This movie, as Kevin has said, was meant to be a “smart Porkys”. Although it didn’t do well at all in the box office, it has done more than well on video store shelves and is usually the favorite among many Smith fans.
Probably my newest quote, just pulled it off his tweeter feed, but I love his sentiment about finding and using your own voice.
A calamity at Dante and Randall’s shops sends them looking for new horizons – but they ultimately settle at Mooby’s, a fictional fast-food restaurant. Free from his dead-end job (and lodged in a new one), Dante begins to break free of his rut, planning to move away with his clingy fiancé. Dante is ready to leave the horrors of minimum-wage New Jersey behind, but Randal – always the more hostile of the two – starts to become overwhelmed by his own rancor.
This is not the full speech, sorry, this is the best I can do.
Randal Graves: Why because I enjoyed what I did? I got to watch movies, fuck with assholes, and hang out with my best friend all day, can you think of a better way to make a living? Yeah maybe it wasn’t what everyone does but it was pretty fucking good.
Randal Graves: Man, you must love this fucking guy, ’cause he’s the biggest pussy I ever met, the dude who lives his life according to everyone else’s standards. “I have to go down to Florida and get married because that what’s expected of me.” And the fucking insane part is, he ain’t even crazy about the chick he’s marrying or Florida, never mind the fact that he’s got a perfectly good chick right here in Jersey who he’s nuts about, and even Anne fucking Frank could see she’s nuts about him too. And she likes you for who you are, man. She ain’t trying to stuff you into a box you’ll never fit into, not to mention that she’s carrying your hideous fucking chud of a kid. Jesus, if you had any sense whatsoever, you’d fucking stop trying to bray it up with the rest of the sheep and live your life the way it makes sense to you, you fucking ass.
Randal Graves: [to Dante] You’re my best friend, and I love you… In a totally heterosexual way.
I cant wait to see how the story ends with Clerks 3.
Beginning on 8/23/2014 I will be trying something new, every Saturday I will be posting a new piece in the newest category Travel and Diversions. I posted my first unknowingly about my trip to Red Bank, New Jersey and my time in Kevin Smith’s comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Then because I have not been posting much original content lately I decide to challenge myself with something new and different (like the chapter a week of story of the Disinclined Purveyor of Sequential Art).
I grew as a writer while working on that and it made me stick to a deadline, so I will try again starting next week when I write about the lobby of the Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge.
