Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Jason Mayoh
143 Plays5 years ago
I chatted with JASON MAYOH, author/director of ‘Tales of Rocky Point Park.’ It was an inspiring and delightful conversation that covered horror, childhood, comics, philosophy, the pandemic, the creative process, Rocky Point and more!!!
Many Americans enjoyed amusement parks in their childhood and in non-pandemic summertimes. Rhode Islanders and Southern New Englanders had Rocky Point park with its joys and fun and clam cakes and urban legends and weird accidents and horrors.
The legend of Rocky Point’s cursed FLUME Log Number 13 haunts Rhode Islanders to this very day. The same fear resonates in visions of the great VIKING who stood to protect (?) or attack (?) those who dared visit the HOUSE OF HORRORS. Did you jump off the SKYLINE and live to tell about it?
This is a Rhode Island story but it is also a story of Summers of Yore.
https://johnstonsunrise.net/stories/cranston-native-exposes-haunted-ri-,62453
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Belante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
Guest Jason Mayo Introduction
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello listeners of something rather than nothing. This is Ken Belante. This week we have an episode with Jason Mayo. Really excited for this interview.
00:00:29
Speaker
author of Tales from Rocky Point, Tales of Rocky Point Park, a famous amusement park, long lived, now defunct in the mid 90s, Warwick, or Warwick, Rhode Island. Great chat with him coming up. Wanted to talk about the program itself, the podcast itself.
00:00:57
Speaker
Very happy to be at over 2,750 downloads for the podcast. Really appreciate the support and your interest in, I don't know, philosophy and art and interesting people, which I think that the program has the Facebook page, which is something that rather than nothing podcasts with over 200 fans and a super popular episode with the incredible artist of Vanessa Stockard.
00:01:24
Speaker
It's been downloaded over 200 times and she's quite the artist if you haven't checked her out. Definitely the most popular episode.
Upcoming Guests Preview
00:01:35
Speaker
We got Jason coming up, but I wanted to chat about some other upcoming guests. We got a few. Mishka Shubali, a author, musician, comedian, does a lot of things. Author of the long run in Cold Turkey.
00:01:51
Speaker
And this question about, you know, his art, but also getting sober, which his recent book on Audible is about full turkey. So we're going to have a good discussion about that, you know, art, sobriety, art, lifestyle. And also, you know, my connection to sobriety being alcohol free, sober from alcohol for over 10 years. Also,
00:02:22
Speaker
It started built of a great kind of new me blues metal band, Coyote, local here, for me, Eugene, Oregon. The incredible upcoming guest, Joelle Jones, incredible writer, winner of an Eisner Award for her short-term miniseries called Lady Killer, artist, really
00:02:52
Speaker
incredible work. For Joelle, you can find her at joeljones.com. So J-O-E-L-L-E, jones.com. And for Gina, you can probably find her on Instagram, the easiest. And Mishka Shubali actually has a site as well. It's M-I-S-H-K-A-S-H-U-B-A-L-Y.com.
00:03:18
Speaker
A couple more, we got one more guest planned, Matt McTray, P-A-T-R-E-I in a band called Hopper from Rhode Island does solo work. He's also a philosopher, carpenter, active in the art scene out that way. He also has a master's in social work and yeah, overall good guy, a talented guy.
00:03:46
Speaker
So a lot of great episodes coming up. Another little plug here, Metal Maestra. She's got a Facebook page, a friend of mine who fills in once in a while for a Eugene station, KWBA, Metalhead, great metal show. She's trying to get some of her material up for her list of if you're into Metalhead. I like myself.
Engage with the Podcast
00:04:17
Speaker
I'm going to ask you if you have the chance to rate the podcast on iTunes, probably the easiest way or the most visible way. Subscribe to the podcast, the podcast itself. This website is something rather than nothing. You can comment there. That's the source material through the podbean of the page of the podcast.
00:04:47
Speaker
So yeah, if you could rate the episodes or the program itself highly or as you see fit, I would love for you to do that. So yeah, I've got a lot of great material in very complex, difficult times. I hope everybody's listening to this is doing okay. Adjusting, surviving the health hazard of life in a pandemic, both mental and physical health.
00:05:16
Speaker
I hope the programs themselves are of, you know, of interest and help us think about art and think about what we're doing in life as we experience these difficult times.
Rocky Point Park Memories
00:05:30
Speaker
I want to thank everybody who listens for the support and hope you enjoy the ample content that will be coming out over the next couple weeks. Thanks so much for listening. It's Ken Boulon with us.
00:05:49
Speaker
Come with your family Come with your friends It's a Rocky Point tradition Cause it's summertime again Rocky Point, it's so exciting Rocky Point, where you can call the line Rocky Point, you're all invented to share all my life Rocky Point
00:06:16
Speaker
Well, yeah, before we get started, I just wanted to I remember your name from probably Myspace, right? So you you had got maybe some comics from me back in the day, right? Very likely when I saw given the date now you had done the comics Well, it's been up. It's going back a little while, right? 2008. Oh Man, yeah, sure. Um, I
00:06:40
Speaker
That would probably been the only way, you know, to kind of come in contact with something. I was in Wisconsin at the time. Yes. Yes. I definitely remember it. Wow. Um, uh, yeah. And I had that for, for a bit. I kept track of it. I send, you know, a copy to my parents and stuff. Everybody loves this stuff. I'm sure people gobbled it up in Rhode Island for a bit there. Um, but yeah, well, good call Myspace. I still think it exists. I think it's out there.
00:07:09
Speaker
I think it exists. Yeah, that goes back. Now, you put out the individual comics. It was about 10, 12 years ago, maybe? Yeah, 12 years ago. And then, well, I don't know. Are we rolling now? Or are we just? Roll, roll, roll. We're rolling. Let's go. Yeah. No, yeah. In 2008, it was a friend of mine that owns a comic store here in Rhode Island.
00:07:38
Speaker
And I was just getting out of Rhode Island College and I really wanted to try to put something out into the world. So my buddy had suggested a Rhode Island comic and we did an anthology that was called Fib. And it was all stories about Providence and then came to the second issue and all the other artists had kind of lost their interest. But my friend had suggested Rocky Point, which was the amusement park here in Rhode Island and I hadn't thought about it for years.
00:08:07
Speaker
I was just really inspired to, it's hard to explain to people that haven't grown up in Rhode Island, but if you can picture your own childhood amusement park, and then you don't think of that place for 10, 15 years, and then you see pictures of what it turned into, and it was just this sort of abandoned sort of Stephen King landscape. Yeah, and we're talking with Jason Mayo from Rhode Island,
00:08:37
Speaker
And we're gonna be talking about his art and his creativity. One of the big things that brought me to him is Tales of Rocky Point, Tales of Rocky Point Park. They were released as individual comics, beautifully done, collected in a volume by the same name, and then a documentary a few years ago around a really famous park that had been around for such a long time
00:09:08
Speaker
in Rhode Island since Jason was about the mid-nineteenth century, 1850 or so? Right around there it was actually 1847 and before it closed down it was considered the second oldest amusement park in the country and then it closed in the 90s and from there while it sat abandoned it was dozens of fires over the years and then sort of around the same time you had
00:09:37
Speaker
urban photography sort of pop up on the internet. So you would see all these different sites of photographers that would sneak into places. And one of them from multiple photographers, Rocky Point was a choice of breaking in and then sort of capturing the decay. But one of the most interesting sites was called Opacity. And that had a message forum along with it. So you'd see the individual rides, you'd see the old buildings,
00:10:07
Speaker
And then people would start speculating, oh, I remember hearing this accident on this ride, and this person got killed on this. And that sort of sparked my creativity to try to search down the legends behind these. Yeah. And it was just an incredible
00:10:29
Speaker
Is the type of thing like you said like you don't think about it for a while And I think you prompted my my thinking about it and also I had moved out of the area So the ultimate fate, you know, I went to the University of Rhode Island 1990 1994 and my last contact with Rocky Point Park would has been like a Beastie Boys and L7 concert the concert Yeah, yeah, yeah the Palladium and um, oh Jane's addiction so
00:10:58
Speaker
There was this trailing off of Rocky Point. It wasn't too far, short drive, it's Rhode Island, to the park from the university. But yeah, I kind of didn't know the fate of it. And it played such an outsized role growing up. But let's talk about that, Jason. Just go step back a little bit. Tell us what it was like for you, just in general. What kind of kid were you?
00:11:28
Speaker
Uh, I mean, did the, the, the, your artwork in, um, tales of Rocky point park is, is, is incredible. You know, throw back to the, uh, you know, older style of the horror comics, extremely well done in story. Yeah. Yeah. But tell it to, what were you, were you always sketching as Kim and what were you doing as a kid? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, uh, I was an only child. Um, my parents had me when they were pretty young.
00:11:57
Speaker
And they were both artists. My dad went to RISD and he sort of got some recognition in Providence, but from the moment I can remember, I remember being in like a preschool and while all the other kids were coloring, I took a piece of paper and copied the coloring page just to, I don't know why, I just wanted to draw it as opposed to color it. But yeah, then, you know, I don't know, my generation was like,
00:12:27
Speaker
with toys. It was Return of the Jedi, He-Nan, G.I. Joe, Transformers. So, I mean, I was creating these storylines by myself in my room with these toys. But at the same time, it was constantly drawing. And you're right, that EC horror approach, it was that style of artwork that always just resonated with me and
00:12:53
Speaker
the early mad magazines, I would copy. I would copy those famous artists. And so I was always, always drawing and it was always a mean, and it took me a long time to figure this out, but it was always a mean for me to tell stories as opposed to words. They always came through pictures that I drew. And my real big break, I think it was around 12 and, uh,
00:13:20
Speaker
There was a late night horror host here in Rhode Island in New England, actually. It was on Fox 64. I don't know if you remember this, but it was called Dr. Mongo's Midnight Movies. So my mom would let me stay up late and watch these horror movies. And I remember they had an art contest. So I drew a picture of Dr. Mongo and his apprentice, Cuiso, and I got on the show. All right. And so that was a, you know,
00:13:49
Speaker
being 12, being 11, being obsessed with movies, comics. And here I was getting to go to a TV station. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was a dream come true back then. And I still have the VHS tape to prove it. Beautiful. I'm so excited for you back then. That is awesome. Yeah.
00:14:11
Speaker
Yeah, I remember growing up. I think it might have been a Boston or Massachusetts station in Rhode Island. I think it was Channel 56. They used to have Creature Double Feature on Saturdays. Oh, yeah. I remember they showed Creature from the Black Lagoon, and it was 3D. And I remember my mom walking me down to like the CVS to get the glasses. Yeah, the glasses. Yeah. Yeah, we've lived the.
00:14:34
Speaker
at some points parallel, parallel lives, I'm sure, with, with our, with, with our interests. So, so yeah, so it's something, you know, from a young age, you had, you know, you had an interest in, in, in obviously some, some exciting pieces where you're able to be recognized that, you know, doing what you're doing. Well, what I'm a comic books freak, still am I'm lucky enough to live
00:14:59
Speaker
have lived and be near Portland, Oregon, which is just a massive hub for the comics industry, of course, with the coronavirus and the pandemic affecting, you know, that industry amongst all industries, you know, that that's been a bit different. But I believe, you know, comics are shipping again, as of this week to some of these local stores. But, you know, for you, you know, you obviously like, you know, some comics and things like that. What what type of
00:15:26
Speaker
What type of art did you enjoy or do you enjoy now as an enthusiast? It's a great question. It's tough for me to say. I keep looking back to that older work. I'm not sure why it resonates with me so much, but I don't necessarily have a lot of newer comics.
00:15:50
Speaker
absolutely
00:16:09
Speaker
uh, spacing out on the, on the names of, uh, but, but he has, I could see how stylistically it burns, how you would, how you would connect to that. So, and I very much share what, what you're talking about. Sure. There's a lot of new comics industries, you know, different, it's going to be, you know, smaller and then probably hopefully grow back up again. But those classic reprints of, uh, you know, the, you know, those fifties comments or,
00:16:33
Speaker
You know, even Marvel and DC had their haunted series, Ripley's Believe It or Not. That style has never, I mean, it's been continued throughout. And I think a lot of publishers have done a great job with reprints or higher quality content. And I think it's fun when you look at those, because I think on the outside, if you're not into comics, you might look at those as being kind of hokey and strange. And then when you get into some of these things,
00:17:02
Speaker
crazy intense, you know, like the reputation they had was partially deserved. They're super gory and intense and wild. Oh, sure. Yeah. It seems to continue to have this resonance.
Creative Philosophy Discussion
00:17:16
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, you know, going back, I'm just thinking, you know, you brought up a lot of memories when you're talking about my childhood. For me, it was always sort of comics and movies. So it was always sort of walk in that line.
00:17:31
Speaker
of storytelling. It really goes back to that. So you're a fan of David Lynch. Well, he was, uh, you know, I've read his book and I'm escaping the title right now, but you know, he talks about when he was in art school, setting up a painting and he was a painter, but then realize that, well, if I set the camera up, I can actually make the painting move. Right. Was it, was it his book room, the dream or was it
00:18:00
Speaker
Just a different type of I think it's called. Let's see. I got it on my catching the big fish is I know catch I know catching the big fish and it's about about his process about his Transcendental meditation and images appear the in and you try to capture those images in a peaceful state of mind Whatever those nightmares, whatever those dreams were that came up. Yeah, sure. Yeah, that's a inspirational book for anyone that's
00:18:31
Speaker
looking to enhance their creativity, for sure. Absolutely. It's been a pivotal one for me. The book that I had mentioned will geek out for a second on David Lynch. The book I had mentioned, Room the Dream, is very unique and absolutely darkly hilarious at times because he allows somebody to do his biography, and I forget the author's name, her name, but after each chapter that she writes,
00:18:58
Speaker
He responds to it. So it's like this biography where it's like she writes something. She gets to write that. And then he responds to it with a non sequitur anecdote or a counterpoint or like you didn't get it quite exactly right. This is what happened. Well, I got to check that out. Yeah, it's called Room the Dream and added bonus if you're ever in the position.
00:19:22
Speaker
The audio book is by the author and by David Lynch doing his own section. So I find when he speaks both in that catching the big fish in this room to dream came out a couple of years ago. There's so much wisdom. There's so much art process stuff that I found it to be a good guide. And I'm glad you've connected some into that.
00:19:53
Speaker
What is Jason? What what is art? It's a big question to me. I mean, I think, you know, it's a big question. It's it's sort of it's an expression of your innermost feelings, I think. And to me, art can come in the form of, like I said, film, movies, music. It's an expression of the truest form.
00:20:23
Speaker
You know, and creativity is really important to me. And at sometimes it can be a little bit of a curse because anyone that's an artist will know that, you know, there's something inside us that compels us to create. And whether it's a comic book, whether it's a script, whether it's a film, you just have to get it out of you and into physical reality.
00:20:52
Speaker
So if you've got daily chores, if you've got kids, if you're an artist, you've still got that deep burning passion to express yourself in the creative motif that you choose. Yeah. In a lot of the interviews I've done, a lot of times it isn't a question of like,
00:21:20
Speaker
whether to do it, there's this kind of intense need. I say it's like breathing for certain people. It's like how much for an artist, how much is it like to do art for them to be able to breathe, right? And I think whether in the change in the world, in the pandemic, whether that's opened up, the ability to breathe and to do your
Pandemic's Impact on Creativity
00:21:44
Speaker
art,
00:21:44
Speaker
Or if it stifles it, I think it's been a huge impact on artists being close to them and experiencing some of those things. I think it could be different depending on, at one point, we looked at it as sort of, well, we've got a lot of downtime to sort of catch up on projects. But when the world is sort of tipped upside down for everyone, it's kind of tough to concentrate on.
00:22:14
Speaker
Creativity, so it's been a battle these these past few months a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad we're I'm glad we're talking now Rocky Point we can't leave Rocky Point too far from our field of vision here You know again folks Jason male in in just talking about his creative process I did tales of Rocky Point Park
00:22:39
Speaker
And for many people in the New England area, there's going to be kind of a cool, interesting, nostalgic piece. But I know Jason, just in looking, having really enjoyed the graphic novel and the documentary, just noticing that there's different parts to this story. When you're talking about the abandon, people seeing Rocky Point kind of vandalize and stuff like that, which an empty space and growing up in Rhode Island,
00:23:09
Speaker
People are going to monkey around, light things on fire. I remember growing up as a kid and even, you know, adults, it's just this kind of mayhem. But, you know, I'm fascinated by abandoned photography.
Rocky Point Park's Cultural Nostalgia
00:23:22
Speaker
So like I've really hooked into seeing those images and kind of what they evoke. But Rocky Point was the hub, the place. And I remember walking around a lot of the urban legends, the stories, the accidents, the ghosts of the park.
00:23:40
Speaker
These were active things that if you walked around the park, you ended up with the stories that show up in your graphic novel. It was, it was around. Yeah, that's just it. I mean, it was, I remember being on the Skyliner ride, which is very similar to a ski lift for people that haven't been on it, but I remember being on it with my cousin and him saying, Hey, I heard that this guy got killed on this ride and
00:24:08
Speaker
We didn't have the internet back then. So sure enough, when I started the comic and I started thinking about all these rumors and everything, I went down to the Providence Library, researched it. And when you look at it as a whole, I'd say probably 80% of the rumors were true. And the fact that it had been open since 1847, it was a good,
00:24:37
Speaker
It was an all-encompassing sort of cursed story. And that's sort of where we get into the film aspect. What, in the Skyliner is the one I remember, again, like you mentioned, thanks, you know, the ski lift. There's always the deer at the end of the ski lift up towards the highest part to jump off the small fall, right?
00:25:05
Speaker
You know dangerous jumping off the rides, but you know the haunted house and everything the house of horrors with that evoked and the unlucky flume log and of course the flume was just just a Fantastically popular ride and folks might be familiar with flume rides, but you just you're in the kind of floating along on the log, you know the makeshift log and
00:25:33
Speaker
you go down a huge splash, you know, huge high point down into a splash. And I remember hanging out near the splash area in order to get some relief from that New England summer. Right. Uh, so one thing I don't want to forget to ask in this is, you know, these rides, popular summer curse, you know, a lot of stories around them.
00:25:56
Speaker
Were you able to ever track down where all or where some of these ended up and did some of the legends continue? And I'm talking about the rides and the pieces of the park. Well, that's that's very interesting. Well, you know, it was cool. It was like working on the comic, the park was still there in ruins. So like the House of Horrors, for example, all of those ride cars that had the famous monsters painted on them were left inside.
00:26:25
Speaker
At the time in 1995 there was an auction and supposedly it sold for a thousand dollars Now there was a flume log number 13 that was left inside the shore dinner hall Long after the flume had been sold to the Philippines So I can I had contacted the city of Warwick at the time to salvage these pieces whatever they could So they're currently in the city of Warwick's
00:26:55
Speaker
either lumber yard or storage yard, but we've gotten them out a couple of times now. We've had some museum exhibits in Warwick, so we've been able to display them. The only thing that I haven't been able to track down is the legendary Viking statue, which used to be essentially the mascot for the House of Horrors. Yeah, tell us about the Vikings, Vikings big. The Viking was installed in the haunted house
00:27:25
Speaker
It was called the castle of terror originally and it was inside and your car would go by it and actually hid into it now there was a lot of rumors that there was a kid that was scalped and So they had to move the Viking outside of the ride So it was actually outside of the house of horrors on the second level Now there was several other rumors of a death on the house of horrors and mysteriously in the 80s the Viking disappeared
00:27:52
Speaker
Well, in the comic, I've used the Viking as sort of a curse motif in the mascot. I don't know where it actually wound up, but one of the buildings that burnt down, I think it was the Cliff House, I had got a Myspace message from an old employee that said that was the last place that they saw the Viking in the basement. And that's the building that burnt down last. Dang. Well, that could have been the...
00:28:21
Speaker
And listeners, anybody knows about any information regarding the Viking of Rocky Point Park. We'd love to know. Do you think it was, you think it was, you think it might've, well, it might've disappeared there, right? Maybe. It could have, or the other weird urban legend that, you know, we, we heard about, uh, was called the ride graveyard. So whenever a ride broke down, and this was in the sixties and seventies, as opposed to hauling it away or trying to sell it, well,
00:28:50
Speaker
it was much easier for them to bury it off in the side of the woods. So it could very well be buried on the property, which after the film was released, the city of Warwick paved over that certain section of the woods. Cover up. That's a typical Rhode Island cover up right there. That's a typical Rhode Island one. It's too transparent. But I'm glad you brought it up, and I'm glad you got a chance to check
00:29:20
Speaker
out the film because, like I said earlier, for me, art, my favorite art has always been storytelling. So I think I might have done the comic because it was my easiest way of telling stories. And then once the comic came out, because I got a reputation for being the Rocky Point guy, what happened was a lot of this old film footage started popping up and people were very willing to share it with me.
00:29:50
Speaker
Um, and before I knew it, I actually had, you know, hours worth of old footage. And even some of the accidents that I drew in the comic book, I found footage up, which is life imitating art. It was very surreal. Wow. I, uh, well the, and now there's a Skyliner bumper sticker out here in Oregon. So.
00:30:16
Speaker
If anybody recognizes that, we're going to be chatting car to car on the freeway, high five. Oh, that's awesome. Well, yeah, it's a work with a lot of residents. And I'm really glad you captured a lot of these tales. And I'm sure when you were working on this, tell me what it's like.
00:30:41
Speaker
There's one question I wanted to ask. What was it like for you as a filmmaker? And you're going to talk to a wide array of people about something that, for me, it seems like was when they had an opportunity to tell those stories, there was a lot of positive energy. There was a lot of, you know, you could see people thinking back as they're talking. What was that experience like talking to all those folks connecting back to
00:31:10
Speaker
Jeez, their childhood for the most part. Yeah, it's an incredible experience because, you know, even when we did the museum shows, I mean, people of Rhode Island and we had people that traveled from Florida that were in town and they just, you know, they want to talk about it. They want to be nostalgic. They want to remember the rides with other people. And I think it's something to do with because Rhode Island is so small.
00:31:39
Speaker
we sort of have this group memory of the place and they're all good memories for the most part. I mean, that's sort of the irony of the comic is in the film is was the place cursed or do we just miss it and we're angry that it shut down and it ran into decay, you know? Yeah. I think that brought the passion out because when people saw what happened to it, it was like, how did we let this place get like that?
00:32:08
Speaker
Especially with such a special history to us Yeah, I think that that's that's a big piece and thanks. Thanks for pointing that out. I am I've been thinking about the the park and about the about your work and then also strangely enough not too far from me there's a place called enchanted forest which I actually haven't even been to and it's a small amusement park and might even be akin to something like a rocky point I'm gonna
00:32:35
Speaker
We'll see what happens with the pandemic and such. I hope they get there sometime. Um, it was featured on, uh, you know, I think the guys are from Rhode Island to the ghost hunters, you know, on the travel channel, the famous show. I think those guys, when I get a watched episode, I'll do so soon. Um, you know, visited enchanted forest cause this is supposedly, uh, you know, it's about 50 minutes from here. It's supposedly haunted. The grounds are haunted. So, um,
00:33:03
Speaker
me kind of connecting back to your work and thinking about this up the road. I'll be sure to get you an update whether there's anything going on over here across the country. A question right now that I invite you to answer one or two ways. My general question is about pandemic and what you feel is happening to art or its impact of art. Or maybe if it's not just art, I'm talking about horror, right?
00:33:33
Speaker
So I talked to kind of like some metal folks and maybe some folks who were into making like horror movies and things like that. You know, is there a resonance of, you know, when there's aspects of life that feel like horror or like this situation we're facing? Like what's going on here? What's the role of art or what's the role of horror in a pandemic as an artistic expression?
Horror as an Escape During Crises
00:34:00
Speaker
Well, that's that's another good question. I mean, I don't know. I I always loved the horror growing up and I had an aunt that, you know, told my mom I she was worried that I was going to be a serial killer. But it was, of course, it wasn't because I loved hurting people or death or anything like that. And I think ultimately it was an escape from the real horrors of life. So I was sort of channeling my own fears and escaping them through this fictional fear.
00:34:30
Speaker
So, jump flash forward to now, it's like, oof, I don't know what to think, honestly. And I'm in my little basement studio now that I've been able to set up during the pandemic because I was upstairs. But I haven't been able to quite focus, you know? So it's scary. I mean, I don't know. And I think the fact that I have some little ones. I've got a three-year-old and a five-year-old.
00:35:00
Speaker
You know, so sure. I've tried to put any fear out of my mind. But what are your thoughts on it? I want to know what Ken's thoughts are. Oh, well, that's you can turn the tables. I am. I've found, you know, I've asked this question of guests, but also for me, I have found that for me, I've been positively positioned to be able to to do art. And I think, you know, I work as a labor rep, so I work this
00:35:29
Speaker
absolutely completely insane baffling job that I enjoy and that I'm very good at. But I've only started to develop more of a deliberately artistic component to what I do through the podcast, you know, conversations and collaborating with you and others in creating this, but also with painting in short writing that I do and with photography.
00:35:54
Speaker
And I found that being home, for me, where a lot of times late hours and things like that kind of take me away from home, I've enjoyed being home and present and be able to do these things for quite some time. My big thing that I've encountered in talking to other artists, so I think for me, I've been able to create, it's helped me at times it's stifling.
00:36:24
Speaker
I've been worried about folks who are artistic types where some move into it and kind of keep going and doing, you know, just do their thing and maybe a little bit of extra time. But other folks are like, holy shit, the fucking world is collapsing. Like people are dying. Like when can I ever go out again? And let's just say their artistic craft is compromised in that. Yeah, I think I'm so in that. Yeah.
00:36:52
Speaker
I think I'm somewhere in the middle where I'm sort of waiting to see what's gonna happen, but certainly the uncertainty of the future, it's scary, you know? But I think the other thing too, we brought up work and I feel very fortunate that I'm able to create art and to draw for my job. So maybe there's a little bit of, now this home time is a little bit of time off for me and I'll get back into it. You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:37:22
Speaker
It's it's I think it's impacted folks in different ways and part of the thing is like even with the podcast itself I never felt like any desire to like kind of like put it on mothballs or anything because it's like I have freedom in doing it I enjoy talking to interesting people. It's a blast I think people enjoy it, but all that is like you ask the questions of philosophy like podcasts So yes questions and I asked like why the fuck am I doing a podcast in the pandemic? You know, like it's a re it's like it's fine for me to do and
00:37:52
Speaker
It's fine for us to do, but that fundamental question kind of lingers. What are we supposed to do with our time right now? Because things have changed radically. Well, I think you're making the best of it, man. I think you're supposed to be doing this podcast during this. Thanks. Thanks.
00:38:13
Speaker
So yeah, and it's one of the things in talking to artists and just seeing how they're processing through this. And I always thought, like, my interesting thing, and maybe you'll see it in a couple episodes coming up, is things like music, right?
Music's Resonance During the Pandemic
00:38:27
Speaker
Like, if you play dark music, if you're into doom metal, like, I have a couple guests coming up where I'm going to want to talk to them and being like, the doom feels less abstract now, or the sound of doom feels. Yeah.
00:38:42
Speaker
You still what do you still, they're probably gonna listen to the Grateful Dead now. They're gonna go, they're gonna go for the Grateful Dead. You're absolutely right. All the metalheads are gonna kind of finally go down that track of just chill.
00:38:58
Speaker
Got to the big something rather than nothing question. But before that, Jason, can you just tell us a little bit about your work process? As far as I know, you create things, you do some stuff within film, you do storyboards. I don't understand exactly storyboards and things like that. Can you just kind of say a little bit about some of that creative work you've done? Yeah, absolutely. Well, like I said, I mean,
00:39:24
Speaker
drawing with pictures, writing with pictures was always what I was after. And after I had put the comic books out, I had been working in film in New England. And from there, I had that comic book as a portfolio piece to show different directors that came to town. So something that a storyboard artist does is work directly with the filmmakers being the director, the producer, the cinematographer. And they're actually drawing out
00:39:54
Speaker
scenes from the script. So it's always different. Sometimes the director will do little stick figures. And if you can picture it in your head, it's almost like seeing a film how you would see it on the screen in an edit line. So one of the biggest films that I had the opportunity to work on was The Town, and the director was Ben Affleck. So got to work with him for three months. I have about five binders of the whole film. So essentially,
00:40:25
Speaker
If you've ever seen a behind the scenes featurette, you'll see the little picture, the drawing, the storyboard in the left hand corner of the screen. Oh, wonderful. Okay, that's actually they use it as a roadmap to, first of all, flesh out anything that they don't want to shoot and really whittle down that sequence so that when they get to the location, they've got it all on paper. And as opposed to a comic book,
00:40:51
Speaker
It's got to be drawn really fast. So, you know, there's no inking. It's really just sort of a loose sketch sketches. Um, and the same goes for, you know, drawing at home, or I try to think of it just like I said, uh, different editing. So if you're using an editing, if you've got all this video footage, you're sort of piecing together, um, in a story form where those shots go. I don't know if that explains things.
00:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, it does. And I want to give the listeners a little bit of connection to that. And with film and kind of like visual representation, you know, I picked up on the pieces and components of you
Storytelling Through Art and Film
00:41:33
Speaker
as an artist. I mean, you're talking about storytelling, you're talking about like your art style in a way to do your storytelling with graphic novels and just seeing that connection to, you know, with film and images of, you know, how do you tell the story and give folks
00:41:48
Speaker
the feel for what you would see. You're successful in that in Tales of Rocky Point Park. You have to be successful in that to convey the feeling of that era, the aesthetics of what's going around, what Rocky Point looked like. And you're successful in doing that. And I think that's the piece. When you do that and represent it and tell that story, folks can connect to it. Rocky Point for Rhode Islanders and New Englanders, but also
00:42:17
Speaker
folks everywhere they you know they're going to amusement park when your kid is i don't know what it's still like for kids but for me even right now it's like one of the best days of the year no matter what yeah and you know uh i gotta tell you that one of the most rewarding things about producing that book it's uh and i've had numerous kids over the years that are now adults believe it or not never got to experience the park when it was open but somehow through the
00:42:46
Speaker
the illustrations and the information just sort of became obsessed with the place. And to me, that's above any sort of monetary compensation. I mean, that's the ultimate reward to be appreciated and have your art be appreciated. Yeah, that's a huge connection for folks to be able to move into that particular world, that particular time.
00:43:15
Speaker
And Rocky Point itself, just subject to so many, you know, I'm just watching, you know, being from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, just seeing it right on the water and, you know, hurricane, hurricane, flood, fire. It's like, you know, it's just being around for long enough. There's like just those incredible like build it back up. And here's the next iteration of Rocky Point. And, you know, I think it's I think it's
00:43:42
Speaker
pretty cool that there's pieces of it that are that are still out there and of course why not that the mystery is going to continue about you know where some other some other pieces are it kind of you know there's a little bit of a investigation still to happen or keeping your eyes on the uh sure on the internet for the for the viking showing up somewhere across the world well yeah and the other positive too is uh
00:44:08
Speaker
I think because of the public, you know, there was another film when the comic came out called You Must Be This Tall and then there was the comic books and then the adaptation and then the city and the state finally acquired that land back and were able to clean it up. So it is an open space park now and they've got little informational signs as to say, well, the House of Horrors stood here.
00:44:33
Speaker
And a lot of the text is actually from the comic book. So you can go and read the urban legends now if you take a trip back here. Yeah, I didn't see those signs. Just a few years ago, I was over near the grounds, and it had shifted over. I forget what access was like. I think it was just a time of the year where it was just too freaking cold out. So I saw some of the main highlights. But it was a few years ago. So I'm not sure what stage it was at, but I'm definitely
00:45:03
Speaker
when I make my way back over there, take a look at that.
Creating Something Out of Nothing
00:45:08
Speaker
Talking with Jason Mayo, talking about Rocky Point, his creative process. Jason, the big question, why is there something rather than nothing? That's sort of the existential question, right? Yep. You know, for me, creating something is the goal. It's that creative curse.
00:45:33
Speaker
When you can create something out of nothing, you've given art to the people, essentially. Yeah, I like that. Before I give you a little bit of information to listeners about where to find your work, I've got an upcoming guest, Joelle Jones, who won an Eisner Award within comics for a comic that I think you like, if you haven't encountered, called Lady Killer.
00:46:03
Speaker
extremely gory horror, but it also takes place in this kind of, I don't know, timeless, like back, I don't know, it was like 50, 60, 70. I'm not sure when it's supposed to be, but kind of like this dual suburban life that she holds. And it's kind of a throwback style with lots of macabre elements. So yeah, Joelle Jones, and we're going to probably want to catch that episode because she's quite the kick and I think you'll
00:46:30
Speaker
I think you'll dig the aesthetic of Joelle Jones. Sounds good. But that's Joelle in the future. About you, Jason, before we depart here, tell folks, listeners, how to connect with the stuff you do, how to connect with you, your work, whatever you'd like to share.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Well, uh, I've got a, an online portfolio that, uh, you could check out my work and a little bit about me and some of my projects. It's just www Jason Mayo.com. And then if you're interested in the Rocky point stuff, you can also check out tales of Rocky point park.com. Thanks for those. And, um,
00:47:15
Speaker
Jason, I have to tell you, it's been a blast talking to you. I'm super excited about this program, about the work that you do. Thank you for the time and all the countless hours you put into it because I know for myself and a lot of people come in contact with it. There's a nice emotional resonance. There's this kind of, you know, the bizarre curiosity or whatever component is that you put out there. It's a real joy to,
00:47:43
Speaker
to connect with. And I hope we get a chance, maybe in the near future to chat again and maybe explore some more of these themes and talk about what you're up to. But I wanted to give you deep thanks for joining the podcast program and spending some time here. Ken, thank you very much. And thank you very much for what you do. And if I could just say, let's everyone try to just stay positive and see what happens next.
00:48:11
Speaker
not let the horrors of the world affect our creativity. Hey, thanks, brother. I couldn't have said it better than myself. Jason Mayo, great pleasure. Thanks again. Take care. See ya. Bye bye. If you enjoyed that episode with Jason Mayo and connected to Rhode Island, I just wanted to mention
00:48:42
Speaker
give a shout out to the Cumberland High School class of 1990. That was my graduating class in Northern Rhode Island. And they've done a great job fundraising amongst the class for the Northern Rhode Island Food Pantry. And I'm gonna give you that website right now. It's n-r-i-food-pantry.org.
00:49:08
Speaker
And having raised thousands of dollars for that, the Cumberland High School class wanted to thank everybody for their efforts doing that. And if you're able to make a contribution or to help with that project, particularly if you're in Rhode Island, go to that website and tell them Cumberland High School class of 1990 something rather than nothing podcast sent you. Thanks for your consideration for that.
00:49:37
Speaker
one final note future guests from spelt dog productions and Producers of the show dead friends which you could find on YouTube page Henderson and Nicole Murray will be on an upcoming episode and really excited to talk to them and they're a close collaboration as well as you know discussing the
00:50:03
Speaker
the art of acting and work on their series and have a great bit of a table read where they can do a scene or two from the series. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Paige Henderson and Nicole Murray and again their YouTube show, Dead Friends, which I've seen every episode and it's a lot of fun and very, very well done. I think you'd enjoy your
00:50:31
Speaker
your time moving through those short episodes. It's Ken Vellante from Something Rather Than Nothing and wanted to thank you for your support of the podcast. Have a great day.