Mundane & Simple Photos That Aren't + Reasons

Here you go....

Let’s do this….

CRANK IT UP:

Context of this post: My own personal creative wish is to become a movie director one day.

I don’t care if the film is a large-budget production made in Hollywood or a medium-sized one that is funded by a bunch of VCs for a new production company Millennials start up or if it’s something smaller and very memorable a super-niche group of people love to pieces and talk about in their college dorm rooms while getting baked and making lasting memories.

What I DO care about is that I get to use my talents for personnel management, graduate degrees, the 3 languages I speak, and my 15 years’ experience as a successful Start-Up CEO to add my voice to the media world.

You may have noticed conversations in Notes I’ve been having with

George Ziogas

, the Gentleman known as The Growth Hacker.

George and I started speaking 3 weeks ago when I joined Substack remotely from my home in Woburn, MA, a home that is about to undergo a full-scale 2-floor renovation project that took my wife and I about 10 years to be financially prepared for to take out the large almost 7-figure loan that it took to hire:

• Roofers for a brand new roof (already complete)

• 4 separate interior designers

• An architect

To transform the property into what you will see as soon as the work is complete around September 2025.

Neither my wife and I are trust fund babies, even though we met at Vanderbilt.

Her Dad is from a village in Spain of 150 people called Buena Madre (Google is your friend.)

Her Mom has never had a job other than Homemaker in her life.

They are wonderful people and her whole family of about 76 very tight-knit Spaniards from Salamanca, Spain, are the people, along with my own family here in Boston, to whom I would dedicate any film that I ended up making with an awesome cast of actors.

So the PURPOSE of this post here is to SHOW YOU various aspects of the INSIDE OF MY HOUSE as it is BEFORE the RENOVATION and to also DEMONSTRATE (not explain) how EVERYONE has an EPIC STORY living right inside your home and YOU JUST DON’T REALIZE IT!

So, sit back and Let Pick work the Boston Magic….

Of course we are going to start with beer… LOL.

Note: I do not drink alcohol due to its DIRECT CONFLICT with LITHIUM I take to MANAGE by Bipolar Disorder (First Diagnosed in 1995 and labelled as “Bipolar In Remission” on ALL my medical data with Lahey Clinic here in Boston. #SAFETY-FIRST-ON-SET!)

Picture One: A bottle of beer (minus the beer) from TRANSYLVANIA.

Yup. Where’s

Shadow Journal Dispatch

??

This pic is for you Shadow.

Our Castlevania conversations inspired it!

Where did I get BEER FROM BAVARIA? Easy. My autistic buddy Dr. Luke, The Biotech Scientist (He’s single, ladies!), who speaks (no shit) 6 human languages AND runs an $50M science lab in Boston brought it home for me on one of his trips to what USED TO BE TRANSYLVANA.

So, Yo Shadow! I dare you to POP THAT CAP! LOL!

You think some of Alucard’s blood is in there? God I hope not…

I DID drink this beer when I got it 2 years ago. It tasted like SWEET SILKY CHOCOLATE with a HINT OF THE UNDEAD.

Did I mention my preferred genre in which to work is HORROR?

Oh yeah… SpookyPick Productions? LOL.

Image Two: That is a coffee maker from (era-era) EURRRROPE. (J-Roc voice from Trailer Park Boys).

That thing came from Salamanca, Spain. My mother-in-law gave it to us. You unscrew the bottom and the top half comes off like a flying saucer lifting up into space and then you add couple of scoops of whatever coffee grounds you want and lift the top lid and add water. It makes 1-2 small European sized cups. Tiny little baby coffees. This thing must cost like $9? 11 euros? Something like that.

Image 3: That’s a spoon holder from TX. I used to live in Austin and some of my best friends there were (Names Omitted):

• CEO of a now $490M/year video game company in Canada

• Sony Sound Engineer

• Hispanic Female Media Personality (who made out with me in the bathroom when I was 25 on my 2nd day in Austin and ended up marrying the best childhood buddy of the Sony Sound Engineer, who is this big heavy-set guy who married a woman named Karen (LOL!) who has a PhD, a lisp when she speaks, and is a SUPER MODEL HOT level human being. (My Austin CAST OF CHARACTERS! LOL!)

• We all remain FIRM FRIENDS to this day. Absolutely fabulous people who are incredible 40-something academics, creative peeps, and business bosses.

• (SO I’VE GOT A TRIBE BABY. PICK’S GOT TRIBES… YOU’LL SEE… Muhahah [good/evil Dad laughter]

Image 4: I had to get creative b/c I am ALONE a lot. So that briefcase was my OLD EMBASSY BUSINESS ATTACHE CASE :) It’s Samsonite. If you buy another brand of briefcase, Uncle Sam is going to pop out of your closet like the Angry Monkey from Family Guy and send your soul to live in Linda Blair’s powder room from the set of The Exorcist. Inside are some permanent markers I needed, and some other Upstairs Personal Creative Studio (that will lock with a digital locking soundproof door after all the work is over.) That’s a tea inside a mason jar I made tomato sauce in. And that cool little castle-looking thing is a $12 item I got from Stop N’ Shop during Halloween for outside and I loved it so I made it an inside decoration. That chest of drawers below is made of PURE CEDAR. It has to be RESTORED, but it’s from 1946. I found it.

No, not that kind of “found” it. LOL.

Boston is full of OLD HOMES and there are estate sales and also care takers of old homes leave random, old, super-rare items just lying around. Pick drives around in his car and collects them. I’ve done this 100 times. Some I’ve restored myself and sold for a tidy profit and others I keep or give away.

Image 5: Yup. Mericiless peppers. My brother Ryan, DESIGNER of the B&G, LLC logo, made this himself. He’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He also has this eerie talent to know you for 12 seconds and know EXACTLY what to MAKE you for BIRTHDAY GIFT. Not BUY. MAKE. Amazing. He’s a Managing Director of (legal) Marijuana Dispensary Distribution Center in Maine, USA.

Image 6: An unusual construction: this is our CLOTHES DRYER. In Europe, washer/dryer is often in the kitchen. So when we moved into his house in 2015, we configured is so the washer/dryer were within easy reach of the sink. This space will all open up and next room (living room) will be a totally OPEN CONCEPT.

Good for hosting poker, D&D, parties/BBQs with our close friends and family in the area.

Image 7: My DEACTIVATED Federal Credential for use with work regarding the Harare Zimbabwe Embassy around business development. So Pick understands things like the complex contracts it takes that goes into making a film production. Obviously, totally needing the help of lawyers to understand it all 100%, at least Pick has familiarity with Federal/State contracting and bureaucracy any effective Director needs to do his/her/their job well.

Image 8: Birds! Margarita and I have a private joke. She hates birds. They terrify her. She would not have survived even one little showing of Hitchcock’s iconic film “Birds”. LOL. She calls me her “Curious Bird” because I love asking people questions to learn about their personal life story. These birds ended up on top of the fridge because they were part of a mobile over Maria’s crib when she was 2 and Maria, true to her feral form, (LOL) grabbed the birds and yanked and the mobile broke. Instead of throw them away, I made them into a unique decoration.

Image 9: Those cloths belonged to my mother, Linda, who tried to drown me when I was 17. Why do I have them? How come they aren’t on fire? Because HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS ARE COMPLICATED and you NEVER UNDERSTAND THE FULL DEPTH OF SOMEONE ELSE’S PERSONAL STORY BECAUSE THEY MIGHT NOT EITHER. That’s the case for me. She was my MOM. I hate the fact she tried to kill me one night, yeah. But also, she had her really funny points and she was an EXCELLENT middle school teacher. I know… STRANGE….

Image 10: Aesthetics are pleasing. Note the position of the cups and the John Deere thermos I used to carry in my mail bag with soup or coffee when it was raining wicked hard as I was bringing my Postal Customers their mail. The Brandeis cup was a gift from my wife’s Data Department to her as one of those corporate “Hey we appreciate you” things.

Image 11: A close-up of the Transylvania beer brand label. Note the cool details. Each SYMBOL in the branding has MEANING. Google is your friend.

Image 12: A small container of whole milk. All things in Moderation. Ben Franklin.

Image 13: My screen at my desk. AD&D 1st Edition Spell Tables FTW! Awww yeah! And also a cool screen shot of a terrible horror movie from English that was SO BAD it was AMAZING. Note the Homage to William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. See that little silver square at the bottom of the picture? That’s a piece of 100% genuine Waterford Crystal. It’s a paperweight. It’s the one the Waterford (Irish Company) Crystal Board gave my Dad in around 1990 for his years of service as one of the firms American Sales Presidents who crushed records back in the Boomer Days of America when people had lots of spare money to spend on things like Crystal. I also have a Waterford Crystal Christmas Tree topper which looks like this:

(See below)

Image Above: Waterford Crystal Xmas Tree Topper: You can’t buy this retail anymore. Only from collectors. There’s one on eBay right now for $135 USD. Not a bad deal at all. When you string some thin, small, white Xmas lights inside and place it on top of three, it throws dancing lights all over the place. Add blinking lights for a beautiful, enchanting, nostalgic effect.

Image Above: My desk. Why share it? PERSPECTIVE. Shout out to Substackian

Persephone ☽☾

who created the Coherence Image she gave me express permission to use. Asking permission to use another artist’s art is not “people-pleasing”. It’s called professional courtesy and also LEGALITY. That’s not optional on a GENUINE FILM PRODUCTION SET at ANY LEVEL.

Image above: Hispanic Jesus and a Lobster. Duh. What did you think it was?

Captain America random single key. Where’s that go? Wouldn’t you like to know. Hehe.

Creating some MYSTERY around your CREATIVE WORK in the AGE OF DIGITAL SOCIAL TRANSPARENCY is KEY.

For DECADES and DECADES, the spirit if INTRIGUE has sold films, especially in the HORROR GENRE or TRUE CRIME GENRE.

Even in genres like COMEDY, there is a sense of BUILD-UP around a JOKE, right?

More MYSTERY.

You don’t have to be NEO IN THE MATRIX or a SECRET AGENT about it, but like, you know… make people PONDER/WONDER about your creative material. Our brains LOVE TO SOLVE MYSTERIES and that is one SERVICE that ENTERTAINMENT provides.

Ask former President Calvin Coolidge who AWARDED the US FREEDOM MEDAL, the highest non-military honor our Government bestows on CIVILIANS for SERVICE TO AMERICA.

History shows us that former President Coolidge was SO MOVED by the performance of a handful of ACTORS and FILM DIRECTORS and PRODUCERS during the GREAT DEPRESSION that he called them all to the WHITE HOUSE and said “You guys kept all these people SMILING and LAUGHING and THINKING during the Original Great Depression, so here, have MEDALS and your names are not FOREVER ENSHRINED as some of the most important Americans who ever lived.”

True Story. Look it up.

Picture above: My Massachusetts Freemason License Plate. Massachusetts is the only state in the country where the Masons have our own license plates. One of the guys from my hometown, Richard Maggio, a Baby Boomer Mason, introduced the License Plate program to the state legislature and it passed a while back. My role in the Masons is called CHAPLAIN, which is another word for “Priest” or “Preacher”, but even though I talk about god and angels sometimes, I am NOT religious. My own personal beliefs are that Christianity is FINE and that REPUBLICANS stopped practicing it long ago. Erickson’s 5th Stage of Human Development is the psychological phase of any human’s life where we ALL become MORE OF WHO WE ARE NATURALLY, so if you are already Liberal, you’ll become MORE of that. If you like sports and video games, you will get MORE into them. And then all the flip-side is true. And this is one major HUMAN BEHAVIORAL (non-clinical/psych) reason that we have SO MUCH POLARIZATION. Personally, I think we Americans have indulged these absurd conversations about other people’s psychological make-up for far too long as well as the polarization, but that’s just me speaking for myself.

Image Above: A metaphor for my wife and I: I’m the Mason Jar. (Ha!) and she’s the Brandeis Book nerd. Our cups match our life. Also, Free Masons don’t summon CTHULU (Google him). We are mostly just Dads helping with charity work and no-cost help around our communities. Scary, I know.

If anyone is interested in Masonry (Men only, Sorry ladies. Trans? I do not know how the rules work for you guys… I can find out…), please ASK me… TO BE ONE ASK ONE is the GLOBAL MOTTO. The ONLY COUNTRY that has Women in Masonry is France. In my opinion, like a Female President, we should have had women in Masonry long ago. Someone has to make the sandwiches, right? KIDDING! HA! My wife cracks up at those wise-cracks of mine, but probably half the women here didn’t which is fine. Get a sense of humor and never call me. Cheers.

Image: Another horror movie scene from that terrible British Horror movie I reviewed the other day. The purpose of sharing it was to show while all know all Horror Directors FAKE everything they put on film, some fake it so terribly, it’s really funny and actually ends up endearing the audience to the film, even though it will never win any real awards or get genuine recognition.

Image: That was cool. I got that for the work I did with Africa and the Embassy.

Justin Pickering Celebrated for Dedication to the Fields of Business and International Relations

People wonder all the time if Who’s Who is FAKE.

Let me explain.
Step 1: You do something EPIC.

Step 2: You want to use it to PROMOTE YOURSELF for something else you want to do.

Step 3: You INTERVIEW with the Who’s Who Board.

Step 4: If they think your work accomplishment was EPIC enough, then they let you in, you pay some $$ for the plaque and they write you a PRESS RELEASE. This is called SELF-PROMOTION. Many WRITERS see this as FAKE. This writer sees that point of view AS DUMB AS FUCK. Cheers.

Image Above: Harney’s Tea from England. It’s really good. It’s on Amazon. You can use the tins for stuff like jamming your ghoul eyes in and adding some tomato juice and chugging it with an egg as soft-boiled as Donald Trump’s Brain.

Trump Bloody Scary Mocktail anyone? Talk about a Dude who is always having his Period….

Image: My office. My personal sanctuary I built one book and one little item at a time over years. When our housing renovation is done there will be a DOOR on this room that says “DIGITAL RECORDING STUDIO: DO NOT DISTURB” in cool Marquee letters.

Image: Some cool sugar, sugar. Amazon. Try it out. No, I don’t get product placement $$. I am trying to be helpful by sharing products I liked that made my life work. I know. It’s a WEIRD CONCEPT in America now. It’s called HELPING. Try it out.

Image: R2-D2 says….

Image Above: Just a cool shot of random items lined up…

Image Above: Mundane objects around the house tell a STORY. The STORY OF YOU, if you know how to do it….

Image Above: MOLLY! NOOOOOOOO!

Image Above: World of Warcraft anyone? I was one of the Original Beta Testers :) Had an account since 2004 when I lived in Texas.

Image Above: Notebooks for Doodling, Notes, and other writerly things. $20 for 20 on Amazon.

Image: Ba-dee-ah ba-dee-ah ba-dee-ah THAT’S ALL FOLKS…

REMEMBER: Find your own inner creative direction so GOONIES like ME don’t have to yell at you to do it because of STUDIO CONTRACTS :)

Cheers,

Pick :)

Image Above: Note to Republicans: THIS was a FUNNY and APPROPRIATE use of a DISABLED PERSON on TV/MOVIES in the 1980s. Everyone loved SLOTH, played by former NFL player John Matuszak.

Image: John wore MAKE UP to make him look disabled and needed lots of STAGE DIRECTION to properly encapsulate the energy required to reprise the role.

Trump?

Image Above: Trump didn’t need any makeup other than the orange paste he slathers on his Howler Monkey Face every single day to feel one minute younger. When he dies the world will truly be a better place.

SPARKLES AND SUNSHINE!

-Pick :)