The Importance of God’s Cousin Rod

      As a kid one of my fondest memories was watching TGIF on Friday nights with my family.  Corny as it sounds it was a defining part of my development. I am quite fond of movie and television trivia,a love passed down to me from my father. Of course, asking us random cartoon trivia questions could have just been his attempt at keeping us kids quiet in the back seat but still, it inspired a love of trivia in me. Even better, with the advent of home accessible internet I was able to fuel my knowledge with a whole internet movie database filled with trivia and message boards for all sorts of actors and actresses I was interested in. This (and Neopets) was my life mid 90s- early 2000’s.
          In 2013 I was introduced to a show called Firefly. It took me three tries to watch the first episode but once I did I was in love. When I saw the character of Shepherd Book I was struck with a sense of familiarity. IMDB came to the rescue and helped me place him as God’s Cousin Rod from the late 90s TV show Teen Angel. When I finished the series I went on a trivia binge (aided by some Jack Herer concentrate from TerpX) and was surprised to learn that the actress who plays Kaylee (Jewel Staite) was in a show I watched as a kid about a school that was in space. (A show I originally only watched because the actor who played the black Power Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was on it.) One of my favorite things to come from the binge was my new found appreciation for Alan Tudyk. The first thing I ever saw him in was A Knight’s Tale. I’ve seen that movie hundreds of times and thought he was funny as hell in that movie. It occurred to me half way through the second episode that I didn’t know if Alan was American or European and upon looking it up I learned of his talent for voices. I now follow his career more closely than before and my favorite role of his to date is the chicken in Moana, HeiHei. I love the fact that a grown man got paid to make chicken noises professionally.
           My love of trivia, community and nerdy things has made me a fan of Comic Cons and the like. The are Cons for cannabis such as : Hemp Con, New West Summit, Terpene and Testing Conference, to name a few. I love going to conventions because even if the panels are not as informative as I had hoped I can always get something from the experience. It is good for one’s soul/spirit/energy to be around people who share your passion. Whether you believe it or not your body feeds off the energy of others and generally speaking, the people at conferences want to be there and share an interest in the subject matter. It is a good place to begin building your community or expanding/ delving deeper within your community. Even if you choose to talk to no one new you can still observe what is going on and how this particular culture is playing out in real time and how it may evolve or stay the same. Sometimes, it’s fun to think about your role in the culture you participate in. All of this stemming from the fact that I saw this brown dude playing a deity as a kid.