My oldest nephew Alex, who will be eleven(!) next month, spent the weekend with me. Although I love all my sister’s kids (Alex plus eight year old twins– a boy Nicholas and a girl Natalie), Alex and I are particularly close. When my ex and I split, I ended up living with my sister, her husband, and the then eight month Alex for about three months. Since at the time I was editing full time for Mojo and therefore working at home, I spent an awful lot of time with the little guy. Matter of fact, my name was his third word, albeit a little bastardized to accommodate the eight month old mouth ("Unca Icky", much to the amusement of my friends and family). During that time we bonded. I introduced him to Godzilla, Batman, action figures, and other geeky things. He was doomed to a life of geekdom.
The irony that my sister loathes geeky things is not lost on me. As children we often fought over the TV. This was back in the 70s when households often had only one TV, five channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and an independent), and no VCR. After school we raced home. Whoever got the TV first could make a claim. Course it didn’t usually stop us from a pitched battle, but every day it was the same. On one channel they showed Looney Tunes. My sister in her insanity hates Looney Tunes. She preferred The Brady Bunch, which showed on another channel. UGH! It was even more crucial for me to get home on those occasions when the Million Dollar Movie had Ape and Godzilla weeks. You never knew when those gems might be shown again. For a while Friday nights were awful when for that brief period Quark ran opposite Donny and Marie. They canceled Quark and I went back to my reading while she watched the Dancin’ Mormon Happy Hour.
Whenever I spend time with Alex, I attempt to introduce him to some new geek element. I took him to his first movie (Iron Giant). I developed Alex’s love for the original 1933 King Kong, overcoming his resistance to b&w movies in the process. After Kong stop motion fascinated him, so we watched The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad together. We’ve seen countless cartoons together and I’m sure much to his mother’s shame, he loves Looney Tunes. He now knows the difference between Linux and Windows and he’s showing a growing interest in comic books.
Before each visit, I carefully plan out possible movie viewings, things I want to share with him. The last I saw him he mentioned how he had never seen the original Star Trek. That’s just criminal. Course I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s another thing my sister can’t stand. ST:TOS holds a special place for me since my grandmother loved the show. By the time I as eight or nine, I must have seen every episode multiple times with her. The same is true for the Adventures of Superman, another favorite of hers.
When Alex arrived on Saturday, his first question was about Beverly Cleary’s incredible The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I previously told him about the adventure of Ralph S. Mouse. Sadly his school library only had the third book in the series. Luckily for Alex, I had picked up a neat book club hardback. I own another copy, SIGNED by Cleary, that I’ve had since I was eleven. No way he was getting that one yet and hopefully not for a long time. Anyway, he fell sleep Saturday night reading the book.
After going through some books and comics, we decided to watch some Star Trek. The geeks that Brandy and I are, we own the complete ST:TOS seasons one and three. Alex insisted that he wanted to see the first aired episode "The Man Trap." I tried to dissuade him since it’s not exactly the best nor most exciting episode. Alex claimed to enjoy it but didn’t want to watch another episode right then.
After some dinner, I slid Monty Python and The Holy Grail into the DVD player. Alex knew of Monty Python and even thought they were funny, but he had never heard of this movie. Uncle Ricky to the rescue! He was a little dubious about the false beginning but once Arthur clopped onto the scene with Patsy clapping coconut halves, he lost it. Many times, I had to pause the film so he wouldn’t miss anything from laughing so hard. It’s so much fun watching a movie you’ve seen a zillion times from fresh eyes. He thought it was one of the funniest movies he’s ever seen. I hope he quotes Holy Grail bits to my sister for months to come!
Alex then showed me the card game he designed. We talked about game play, rights, and some strategy. Not your typical eleven year old conversation.
Sunday started with another Star Trek selection, but this time I chose. While not necessarily the finest, "The Arena" may be the most typical and certainly one of the more action oriented episodes. Besides it’s based on one of the Fredric Brown‘s best short stories. Lots of lovable Shatner overacting with one of the stupidest-looking Star Trek humanoids. Spock is logical. McCoy emotional. Scotty worries about the engines. Like I said, had it all. And actually it was better than I remembered. Course the fact that Alex was enjoying it, may have colored my perceptions.
We ended the geek weekend with Alex’s first ever Jackie Chan film. Alex and I do differ on some geek subjects. One of Alex’s favorite funny movies Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a decidedly unfunny mish-mash parody of kung fu movies. With Jackie Chan, I hoped to show him a truly funny martial arts film. We watched The Legend of Drunken Master. Alex was amazed by Jackie’s stunt work (who isn’t), especially after I told him all the stunts were real with no computer work. Again like Holy Grail, he laughed himself sick. The drunken fighting scenes remain some of my favorite martial arts bits.
My sister picked up Alex soon after and they headed home to Houston. I’m already planning his next visit.
