Oscars

For the first time in years the Oscars were entertaining. They brought back a feeling of old Hollywood. I have to say though, I'm not crazy about runaways. I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire because it actually doesn't interest me in the least, but that doesn't matter - I just don't see how, with all of the wonderful movies this year, it could win things like "Sound Mixing." I mean come on - it's like there's a box on the ballot that allows you to vote a straight ticket.


I'm so happy that Sean Penn won for Milk. I remember walking out of the theater saying, "he deserves the Oscar, hands down." His transformation reminded me of Charlize Theron in Monster. Not that Harvey Milk was a hideous serial killer, but that I forgot I was watching the actors on the screen. They completely became the people they portrayed and left every bit of themselves out of it. I didn't think he would win just because it didn't have the hype of some of the others, but I knew he deserved it more than the others. I actually clapped and threw my arms in the air when he won...I don't do that sort of thing.


Hugh Jackman did a great job as host. He's funny, hot as hell, and extremely talented. He was the perfect choice for bringing back the feel of old Hollywood. Overall, it's been years since I've been able to say this, but we really enjoyed all 8 hours of the ceremony. (Yes, it's still too long.)

Latest Painting

Inspired by a walk through Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas.

Overheard in the Showroom

Oh, I had to share - this was too funny...

An anonymous designer said today,

Remind me to tell you the story someday of the drapery installer and the dildo. I'm writing a book.

And it was left at that. I'm dying to hear the rest!

Ella's Dance

My niece decided she needed to dance to "Life is a Highway." It's pretty cute.

Gorum Trees

Here's the most recent painting. It's taken from the same photo of trees as "Grandma's Trees." Gorum, LA is hidden away in a National Forest in Central Louisiana. This is a small guy at 20x16...I think I prefer working on the larger pieces, but I like the way this one turned out.

Star Wars/John Williams Tribute

So, I came across this video on the internet, if you've seen it you'll agree it's funny. The kid (ok, he's 21) in this video has quite a few videos on YouTube (in fact, now he's paid by YouTube to make them.) His name is Corey Vidal and he's very open about the fact that he's lip-synching. The original group who wrote and sang this is called Moosebutter. He had their blessing to do the video and they loved it - in fact they're collaborating on more videos.

Because of copyright issues Warner Bros has removed the original upload from YouTube, but there are still some copies out there. If the embedded video doesn't work, click here to see it on Facebook in really high quality.

Here are a few FAQ's about the song and video from Moosebutter's blog:

FAQ About Star Wars - there's a lot of confusion about the origin of the Star Wars song, since many people are attributing it solely to Corey Vidal. Here is information to clear up the mis-information, which we have little hope that the people who need it will read it.

• Music is from 6 different not-Star Wars movies, all written by John Williams.


• Words are paraphrased or directly from the original Star Wars trilogy, by George Lucas, et al.


• Song was arranged spring 1999 by Josh Slagowski and Bryant Smith, original members of moosebutter, in Salt Lake City, UT. Parts were re-arranged later by Mister Tim (Tim Y. Jones)


• Song was recorded in 2000 by Josh, Bryant, and Tim, and re-recorded in 2002 by Tim, Chris, Glen, and Weston, the new cast of moosebutter.


• There have been almost 50 different cast members of moosebutter since 1999, including subs and special guests. About half of those have sung Star Wars.


• Corey Vidal contacted us in summer 2008 to ask permission to produce his video. We said yes.


• WHAM BAM internet explosion.


• Corey is lip-synching to the 2002 studio recording of moosebutter. It was recorded at June Audio, Provo, UT. Corey filmed his video in his kitchen.


• moosebutter filmed their response video in November 2008. Corey was the most vocal supporter of us producing the new video, and he graciously posted it to his popular YouTube channel to generate more views.


• At the time of posting, Corey's video has more than 3.2 million more views than moosebutter's. That's because Corey is cuter, and smells better.

Eli Update

Elijah's brain is good! He will wear an eye patch for the next two weeks to see if it corrects itself.

Elijah's MRI

This morning, Elijah, my nephew is having an MRI. Suddenly last week he started having double vision and one eye started to get lazy. The doctors aren't sure what's going on. It isn't worse, but it isn't getting better. He's been wearing an eye patch to help the lazy eye get stronger. I mentioned that he gets to be a pirate...yeah, he's tired of the patch. I don't think he wants to be a pirate now.

Please send all of the positive energy, prayers, etc (whatever you believe in) that he's ok. I've attached this particular picture because it's how I'm imagining him facing whatever is going on - anything that will help. We should know something tonight.

Lose It

There's an iphone app I discovered that I have to share - "Lose It". It's a free app that figures out how many calories you need to consume to maintain your weight and how you should consume to lose.

The fun part is that it counts down for you throughout the day. You just enter what you eat and it figures it for you. A lot of name brand and restaurants are in there already, but what isn't in there you can input and it saves it as one of "Your Foods".

Because I mix my own creamer blend and drink 32 oz or so of coffee, I have "Steven's Coffee" set so I don't have to enter everything that goes into it individually everyday. It also remembers common meals you have so you can quickly plug them in.

Then, there's a graph and chart showing how long it will take to reach your goal weight and how many you've used and have left. There are two customizable features that are cool too. You can set it to also record fat, fiber, etc if you want to figure points (there's no point calculator), and you can input exercise and it'll figure that in. (I don't use that part.)

Grandma's Trees

Here's the newest painting. I started it on the 1 year anniversary of my grandmother's death. The trees are taken from a picture I took standing on her screened in porch. The colors aren't really my style, but were dictated by the impression she left on my life. I won't go into too much detail about the meaning behind it all, but here's a couple of major things...

The colors are bold and strong like she was. She had an amazing personality and presence. I knew when I went into this painting that it had to be large and bold.

The trees are black to resemble stained glass lead. She was Catholic and she loved the stained glass windows of the cathedrals. It also conjures up memories of going to church with her on occasion when we would stay with her as kids.

The entire time I was working on this piece memories were just flooding my brain, and I could find some correlation to the painting - without really trying. It was almost as if she were standing over my shoulder directing me - and believe me, that's a very strong possibility. In fact, I thought I was finished with it earlier today, but then realized that the purple blended in with the black too much.

My first instinct was to set it aside and deal with it later. I was ready to start working on the next one. Then I could hear her tell me to finish it...she wasn't a big fan of leaving things unfinished. So, since I was out of purple I mixed my own until it was just right and sat here and repainted it. I'm glad I did.

I feel like everything I've been holding in for the past year I was able to release into this painting. I also feel her presence very strongly in it. Unfortunately I now have a 4'x3' painting that I don't know what to do with...it doesn't really go with our decor. Oh, and the next painting won't be nearly as large.