Lost and Found in America

Have you ever had the experience of being away on vacation, perhaps standing on the beach or lying in the woods, and thought "I wish I could just bottle this and take it with me"? There is a great commercial playing on TV these days by GE that shows a little boy carrying a bottle of "captured wind" to a family birthday celebration that is beautifully shot and is, apparently based on a fable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=563GHUCECBg.

Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to figure out how to "capture the wind" of our Lost in Woonsocket experience and share it in a much broader sense and I think I've found it. Last week, we started to put the plans together to start Lost and Found in America, Inc., a non-profit organization created to restore the basic values of our American society through media projects. Respect, dignity, integrity, humanity, to name just a few. We'll support those organizations that are dedicated to these issues such as Matthew 25 Center for Hope, Crossroads and Mobile Loaves and Fishes. We discovered a real sense of togetherness when we came together for the screening in Woonsocket (ok, I didn't really discover it, I really just experienced it for the first time, which moved me to action). When all was said and done, almost 1,200 people watched the movie, and Matthew 25 and Crossroads each made over $4,000 by splitting ticket sales, DVD sales and collections. This seems to be a great model for future endeavors.

More importantly, what I got about Normand was this amazing sense of accomplishment he was feeling and how dedicated he was/is to this "movement" of helping others overcome issues of addiction and homelessness. I wanted to be part of something that could give him a permanent outlet for that energy and I am set on creating a position in this new organization for Normand to be a speaker and go on tour, supporting others in their quest for restoring humanity in our world. If we could create something for kids to participate here as well, it would be really exciting. David Riordan is going to create a place on the new website for people to upload their stories - we're thinking about putting them out in a book ala "PostSecret". Very exciting! I am so pumped about this - if we make a difference in one person's life, it will have been worth it.

-B

Spidey's coming!

As President of an entertainment company, it is almost in my job description to watch television and go to movies - how can it get any better than that? Considering my company, Platinum Studios, is a comics-based entertainment company, it DOES get better as I pay particular attention to television shows and movies based on comic books and graphic novels. This coming weekend we will see the kickoff of the early summer movie campaign with the highly anticipated Spider-Man 3, the 4th comic-based film to premiere in 2007 following Ghost Rider, 300, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (all of which hit #1 in box office receipts at least one weekend in their respective runs!) And Spider-Man 3 should be the highest-grossing film of them all, especially considering the first two Spider-Man movies grossed just under $1 Billion in worldwide box office. This weekend, we get to see our spidey hero wrestle with his own dark side as well as the bad guys. The Plot Outline: A strange black entity from another world bonds with Peter Parker and causes inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge. While I'm too old to go stand in line at midnight and catch the 1st possible showing, I am going on opening weekend and I am really excited.

On a cool side note, my oldest daughter (now a 5th-grader - yikes!!) was in a private school for kindergarten back in 2002. Like most private schools, this particular school required a lot of parental involvement in the classroom, which is nearly impossible on a regular basis when both parents work. My daughter had one parent who she really loved hanging out with because he always came on parent reading day and he was her reading partner. All year, I heard about Sam reading this book or Sam sharing that story, but because I came to school on different days, I never met Sam. Near the end of the year, there was a classroom event where our kids showed off stories that they had written with the help of their reading partner and I got to finally meet the infamous SAM. Needless to say, I was speechless as I stood there shaking hands with my daughter's reading partner, Sam Raimi, the director of all three Spider-Man movies, among other amazing credentials. But the surprises didn't stop there - the day was May 3, 2002, the very day that the original Spider-Man was premiering -not just some ordinary day. I asked him why, of all days, he felt it was necessary to come to school on this particular day when there was so much going on surrounding the premiere of his movie, and he told me something I will never forget. He said "Work is just work. My son's education is important to me and I made a commitment to be involved as much as possible and whenever I can. I'm never too busy to be here for him."

If Sam Raimi can come to kindergarten on the opening day of the largest movie of his career (up to that point) to be with his son, I can NEVER complain about being too busy to come to a talent show, open house or any other event my kids have going on. "Work is just work. I'm never too busy to be there for them."

-Brian