Closest thing I have to LEAVE IT TO BEAVER

Last night, I did something I don’t often do. Something I just try not think about.. I called my brother. And we talked for hours. My brother and I aren’t estranged or anything. We just don’t really have much in common. He’s a huge sports junkie and loves to work out. I read comics and would rather hang out. We just never see eye to eye.

I called him with a techno-question (How can I change DVDs into realplayer files on my computer?) and he just accused me of doing something geeky with it. He was right. I wanted to add lightsabers to a sword fight on THE PRINCESS BRIDE, but that’s neither here nor there.
But there I was, trying hard to have a normal conversation with the lil’ bro. Then he said something great. “Dude, I’m almost done with a script.” And BAM, there it was. The one thing that my little bro and I have that’s real and hospitable and enjoyable for both of us. We both love movies and would like to write them.

That’s the only way we could have talked for hours. We only spoke about movies. What was good, what was bad and what was bad but really cool. He talked about his script. He even asked me my opinion on certain things. It was great. I felt like the older brother. “I’d try this,” or “maybe you should do this.” He listened , too. I talked about form and structure and he just agreed or said things like, “good point,” or “Okay I see know.”

We worked out the ending to his script. We both felt really good about it, but then a lull hit in the conversation. We had that moment of silence and it was noticeable. My lil’ bro even asked if I was still there. He thought his phone went out on him. I tried to get the conversation up again, but slipped.

“Have you seen CONSTATINE, yet?”
“Dude, I’m not a geek like you. I don’t go and see every comic book movie out there.”
“But you knew that it was a comic book movie.”
“Yeah, because I have a big geek for brother.”

We were done. I hung up the phone and went back to reading (a real book) and he probably went back to making his man collages from his MEN”S FITNESS clippings. But we were there. We talked like we were friends. It was nice. But I’m still mad because I never learned how to make DVD movies into an Mpeg file.