Greetings Loyal Airmen, as we pen these words, it is one hundred years ago today that Fenway Park opened in Boston, Massachusetts and is the oldest major league ballpark in America today.  Happy Birthday Fenway and may you be around for another hundred years.

Which seems like the appropriate time to remind you the Air Chief has a story in FINAL FENWAY FICTION released at the start of the year and is still very much available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major book sellers.  It's a grand collection of stories, essays and poems featuring our beloved Fenway and the Boston Red Sox.  If you're a sports fan, pick up a copy and see for yourself.

        
                            LARRY, CURLY & MOE
Growing up in the 50s & 60s, the Air Chief was first introduced to the Three Stooges via their 20 minute shorts for Columbia Pictures which still played at the local movie houses. Then when television became popular in homes across the country, they their comedies were feature there.  We loved their wild and wacky slapstick antics and have remained life long fans of the brothers Moe & Curly Howard and their wild haired partner, Larry Fine. We've collected most of their films on DVD and whenever we need to laugh, watch them over and over again.  Recently a new movie was released based on them.  The other day, after long hours on the phone, Valerie told me to grab my jacket and hat, we were off to the movies to see the New Three Stooges.

          
We had been seeing the trailers for this and were anxious to renew our acquaintances with the Stooges.  And both of us loved it.  No, it's not the great comedy every made, but be series, neither were any of the original shorts. What it really is, is a great homage that perfectly captures the zany antics of the Stooges. Ever since its debut, the Air Chief has been bothered by all the so called “purist” on the internet criticizing this movie because these three actors, Will Sasso, Chris Damantopoulos and Sean Hayes aren't the “real” Three Stooges.  Which got the Air Chief thinking about all that idea.  People, get a life. There were no “real” Stooges.  The dimwitted, naive trio portrayed by the Howards and Larry Fine were CHARACTERS they portrayed on screen, period! Those actors were trained on the stages of vaudeville and their crazy slaps, punches and eye-gouges were all routines they taught themselves in perfecting their act.  But it was an act.  Moe Howard was a brilliant man, Curly a comic genius and Larry a gifted musician.  The were not the simple innocents they played on camera.  And neither are these new actors, who do a terrific job in recapturing the essence of those fictional characters and bring them back to wonderful life for today's audiences.  The Air Chief is told children all over are loving this movie, enough so that they are now wanting to find the old shorts and watch them again.  We guess one has to be truly young at heart to continue one's love affair with the Three Stooges.  That includes us, and we'd guess, many of you Loyal Airmen as well.

           
                      FROM TWILIGHT STAR STUDIOS
In the year since the Air Chief moved to Fort Collins, CO, we've made some truly great friendships with many of the local comic book creators here. Two of these are pro artist Felipe Echevarria and writer Todd Jones. Todd have pretty much become the Air Chief's protege and we were only too happy to hook these guys up with our good buddy, and Managing Editor of Twilight Star Studio, Bill Gladman.  The result of that hook up was the newest issue of Twilight Star's Pandemonium Spotlight which features a story, “Gabriel's Last Testament,” by this talented pair and Felipe even did that magnificent cover you see above.  So hit up the old internet, go find Twilight Star Studio and get yourself a copy.  This is Todd's first published comic work and we were thrilled to help get it published.  He has a truly bright future in this business.

Finally, later this week the Air Chief will be a guest at the Rocky Mountain High School here in Fort Collins, for their annual career day on April 24th.  We'll be talking to juniors and seniors about the business of writing and truly looking forward to our visit. 

That's it, Loyal Airmen.  Next week the Air Chief and his partner, Rob Davis, will be in Chicago for the Windy City Paper & Pulp show, one of our favorite conventions.  We hope to see many of you there as always. Till then, take care,

Ron – Over & Out!