31 December 2010

And the snow turned into ra-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-in...

Faster than a speeding bullet.  Quicker than flies on manure.  This year went by really, very quickly.  And here we are, on the last day of this year which has had plenty of ups and downs!  I won't go into all the details there, because you've probably already heard them all.  Suffice to say that while we lost some things this year, we also gained an awful lot. 

This New Years Eve has been, really, unlike any other I've ever experienced.  When's the last time you had 65° weather and tornadoes ripping through the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area?  Well, that's exactly what we had earlier.  I hadn't even heard that we might have anything other than some rain, so we weren't even prepared for anything like this!  We were sitting here in the back room reading and thinking about doing some painting when the sirens went off.  We knew it wasn't the first Monday of the month, when they do the normal testing of the sirens, so we turned the teevee on and sho 'nuff, as soon as we turned it on Channel 4 went into their famous "STORM MODE!!!!!!" ™.  There had just been a tornado touch down north of Rolla, and some really bad-ass stuff was heading our way.  When all was said and done, aside from that touchdown, there were tornadoes in Robertsville, Fort Leonard Wood, and even Sunset Hills here in town, at Lindbergh and Watson.  That is way too close to home for me - only about 5-10 minutes from our house!  I think there were about 20 houses damaged - 4 completely leveled - along with countless cars destroyed, a few churches and schools mangled, lots of telephone poles down, etc.  It was all pretty freaky, but it literally went through here in about 2 minutes and we're all better now. 

So now it's off to some really low-key "festivities" at the house of some good friends of ours.  We're just gonna have some lasagna and ring in the new year with some games maybe some football on the tube.  We may even be home in time enough to try to remember the words to "Auld Lang Syne".  We may even get all crazy and break into that Dan Fogelberg tune (which, by the way, is about a gal named Jill Greulich, who happens to be a school teacher here in the St. Louis area.  TMYK. Feel free to use that in a trivia game).

For tonight's stroke I grabbed just a smidge of some red, green, yellow, orange and blue.  Figured it'd be perfect for all of the fireworks that'll be going off tonight!  You guys be all safe and stuff out there this evening.  We'll get home in one piece, then start the new year off right tomorrow.  It'll be a good year, I can feel it. 

30 December 2010

Is this thing on?

Well, folks, it's gonna be a really quick one tonight - AT&T decided to let their servers go haywire, so the internets, they were gone all evening - just got them back, but we're ready for bed!

We watched a couple more movies today.  Started out with "Iron Man 2".  That was pretty intense and, I think, pretty cool.  I just really like Robert Downey Jr.  He is, in my opinion, one of the better actors of my generation, and I'm glad he got a second chance after all the drinkin' and druggin' he did!

Later on we watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox", a stop-motion animation movie from the same people who made "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".  This one had George Clooney and Meryl Streep voicing the main characters.  I really enjoyed it!  Jenny thought it was a bit weird, but that's just a Wes Anderson movie to me.  A bit unordinary, but hilarious!

After that, I left to go to band practice up at the church, but as soon as I got there I realized that most of the band was in Mexico on a mission trip to build houses in the border town of Reynosa.  So, I came back and, since the internet was still down, we watched "Get Him To The Greek".  Both of us thought it was pretty darn funny - extremely crass, but funny nonetheless. 

By this time we've got use of the computer again, so I threw down a little crimson, some red and some orange, for my buddy Iron Man, and also some of the colors of the Foxes.  We're gonna finish this up and go to bed now, before AT&T decides to take us offline again!  :-)

It ain't over 'til it's over...

'Tis a sad say, indeed, folks.  Today Jenny and I took down all the Christmas decorations.  This is possibly the most depressing day of the year for me.  I love the Christmas season!  I don't care what time of year it is, chances are I'll want to hear a Christmas tune!  Today, though, was the day that we took the Christmas decorations down.

We actually went one step further today and took all of the lights off of the pre-lit tree we have.  There are over 1000 lights on this tree - and only about 60% of them worked.  At first we just figured we'd get rid of the tree, but it really is a good looking tree; it's just that we didn't like trying to find the ends of the strands of lights, especially when most of them didn't light up anyway!

We put up with it this year, but no more!  Consequently we spent quite a few hours today taking off Every. Single. Light!  off of Every. Single.  Branch.  Wow!  That's quite a friggin' undertaking, if you're wondering!

Anyway, I just wanted to do another green stroke (I'm just really liking that color for this project, if you're wondering) for our beloved Christmas tree, which just lost all of it's little light buddies.  It ain't over 'til it's over, though!  I'm still listening to all the Holiday favorites

28 December 2010

G'day!

Although I've never been there, I like these things about Australia:

The Sydney Opera House.  One day I will go there.  I'll bet it's just absolutely amazing!   There are several Aussie bands I like, too, such as Men At Work, The Little River Band, INXS, and AC/DC.  I'm also fond of the didgeridoo

Shrimp on the barbie.  Not the horrible movie of the same name.  Actually, I've never even seen it, but considering that Cheech Marin stars in it, and it's not a proper Cheech and Chong movie, I'm guessing it sucks.  I'm talking real shrimp, real barbecue.  Yummy!

The Crocodile Dundee movies. Well, I never had the desire to see "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles".  The first two, however, remain towards the top of my guilty pleasure movies.  Love 'em!  Yahoo Serious I never got into, though. 

The boomerang.  Once again, not the movie of the same name, starring Eddie Murphy.  Also not the sister station to Cartoon Network, which shows some of my all-time favorites, like Scooby Doo and the Flintstones.   The actual piece of wood, or whatever, in the shape of a "V" which, when thrown properly, comes right back to you.  That is really cool to me.  I used to have one growing up.  I think I may have gotten it to work right twice. 

Foster's Beer.  You get me an "oilcan" of that, and I'm a happy boy.   

Along those same lines, I love Australian wines.  They've got some of the best in the world, really.  I'm especially a fan of a good Aussie Shiraz.  There are a whole slew of Aussie wines available in the U.S. that are relatively inexpensive, even downright cheap, but still very good.  If you want to try some out, and don't wanna spend a lot, try the Yellowtail line.  Most of them are under $12, some as low as $5 or $6.  Good stuff, Maynard!


The following things happened on this date in Aussie history:

1836 - South Australia, the state, and Adelaide, it's capital are founded. Today they're celebrating the annual holiday called "Proclamation Day".
1932 - Aussie cricketer Jack Blackham dies.
1957 - Anne Sergeant, Aussie netballer (never heard of it, but I'd like to see that) born.
1973 - Alex Dimitriades, actor, is born.
1977 - Rugby player Shane Elford is born.
1978 - Footballer (soccer player) Chris Coyne is born.
1989 - 5.6 magnitude earthquake in Newcastle, South Wales, Australia.  13 people dead.
1991 - Cassandra Harris (no relation, I'm guessing) - actress, dies.
2010 - Dave and Jen Harris (relation) go to Outback Steakhouse with Jenny's mom, Carla.  Good food was had by all.  

I did a nice deep blue stroke today, for the flag of this wonderful country.  I can't wait 'til I'm able to go walkabout!



 

27 December 2010

Life is a state of mind...

So today was a movie day.  We did some running around this morning after JB and Robert left, but it wasn't long before we realized we were both just worn out from the whole weekend. 

Jenny started taking down a few of the Christmas decorations (which always depresses me) and I wasn't feeling the best, so I just phlumfed down on the couch and plopped in one called "Somewhere In Time", starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.  Jenny and I had picked up this one at Blockbuster or Hollywood several times but never ended up renting it.  It's a time-travel-kinda movie, which I absolutely love, so when I saw that the library had it, I snagged it. 

Lemme tell ya, that one was quite disappointing.  There were a few things I liked, but for the most part, the former Superman came off like a complete stalker, and the movie just ended up not making a lot of sense. 

Next up was 1979's "Being There", starring Peter Sellers as Chance, the Gardener, a simple-minded gardener who has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of a woman (Eve) and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider. (synopsis stolen from IMDB, by the way - I could have written it all out, but this dude said pretty much what I wanted to say, and more succinctly, so there ya go!)

It was kind of like the forerunner to "Forrest Gump", in which a dude that really doesn't know what's going on is thrust into the world and experiences it all through very simple, innocent and naive eyes.  It's a beautiful, very funny movie, actually.  Sellers was nominated for an Academy Award for the role. 

Lastly, we watched "Did You Hear About The Morgans?", starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant (who I'm still shocked can still have a career after all of these years playing the exact same character.  Even Nicholas Cage has at least tried to do something different, although much to no avail).  It had a decent, albeit cliched, story line, but the dialogue - especially at the end - was just horrible!  And without giving any of the story away, I will tell you that it got all worked out in way too little time, and without real explanation.  I have seen a lot worse in a movie, though.  I didn't totally feel like I'd wasted and hour and forty minute of my life like I had on some other movies! :-)

Anyway, I think we're done movie-ing for the night.  I did a green stroke this evening for Chance's garden.  I wish life were as simple as he saw it!

26 December 2010

Point, click, click, point, save as...

Well, I spent the day trying to teach myself something new: how to put video onto the computer from a camcorder, then edit it using video editing software, in order to make a video for the ol' youtubes.  I probably would have gotten a lot further had I actually had the correct cord to go from said camcorder to the PC, but I didn't, so I spent half the day trying to look up info about that online, then finally talked to a tech geek at Sony who straightened me all out.  I think it'll only cost a few bucks to get the proper cord, then I'll be off to the races!

I did, however, mess around with the software to make a video to a song by an old band of mine, using various pictures I found on Google Images.  I love Google Images.  :-)  I put a link to the song up on a prior blog post from a few days ago, but here it is again, in all of it's majesty:  "Rudolph, The Redneck Reindeer" by Rocket Park.  I don't think it's too bad - not for my first try!

Anyway, I'm doing another short blog this evening because I lost track of time and realized that Jo Beth and Robert would be here soon.  They're staying the night again on their way back up to Chi-town.   That means more jamming with Robert!  :-)   I don't dig out the guitar nearly enough these days, so this is always a great excuse!

I did a quick stroke today of a purplish greyish concoction I whipped up to represent the audio wave lines on the editing software.   I gotta get going - Ted Drewes is calling our name!

25 December 2010

May your days, may your days, may your days be merry and bright...

Well, kiddies, we had a good one today.  A big ol' fashioned "White Christmas"!  Last year, we were down in Oklahoma and there was a good amount down there for Christmas day, but I don't think there was much up here.  I think the last time we had any sort of a white Christmas was 2005, when we had about an inch.  I was trying to find out when the last one was before that - the last really good snow - but the Googles, they fail me.

All I know is that we've had just enough, and under the perfect conditions, that the roads have been okay to travel on, but the view has been absolutely beautiful!

We started out the day with Carla, Jenny's mom coming down for some breakfast - breakfast being Jenny's friggin' awesome homemade cinnamon rolls!  After that, we just hung out for a little while, talking (or at least making fun of Jenny's inability to do so - the poor girl lost her voice yesterday!  Hopefully she'll get it back soon!), and then made our way down into the city to her cousin's house for a little bit of Christmas joy with her cousins, aunts and uncles.  That was really a blast - lots of great food, some wassail - which went down really nicely with a touch of Jack Daniels - and, of course the opening of presents.  I really had a nice time down there!  It was nice to just relax and spend some time with Sweet Pea and Co.!

After that it was time to make our way out to Jen's dad's house out in the Chesterfield area.  We had a great time out there, with her dad and his friend, Joanne, Jimmy and Kari, and Jim's best friend since 1st grade (!) Brandt and his girlfriend.  We did the gift thing out there and had a really awesome dinner of some tenderloin (cooked absolutely perfectly, as far as I'm concerned), as well as some baked taters, and a bunch of other stuff, but the steak was what I was concentrating on! :-)

All in all, Christmas once again was a rousing success.  To me it has nothing to do with what I get, but what I can give people, and how well they enjoy what I've given them.  As far as I'm concerned I didn't give out anywhere near enough stuff - there's so much more I could have done, but either ran out of time or just didn't think about it early enough!

Anyway, fun was had by all, and to all will be a good night, as soon as I finish this here blog post.  I'm gonna miss all this holiday brew-ha-ha after today, so I figured I'd post at least one more song for ya - maybe you haven't heard this one.  I love to hear new and inventive ways of interpreting old classics.


I love how it looks like they're playing in the snow!
 wanted to just do a simple white stroke today (I squiggled it around a bit, since that's what the snow has been doing) for this beatiful White Christmas.  I hope you all had a really great Christmas, filled with all sorts of good times with family and/or friends.  This is such an amazing time, just being with the people you love, reminiscing about old memories and making new ones!  Have a great rest-of-the-holiday-season, y'all!

24 December 2010

Hoozat fat man up on mah roof?

Well, kiddies, it's finally Christmas Eve.  Have you been extra good today to make up for all the crap you did the rest of the year? :-)  According to the NORAD online Santa tracker, as I type this, the Man in the big red suit is in Providence, Rhode Island, and will shortly be in Boston.  Hopefully he'll be at your house soon!

I love Christmas Eve.  I've got so many great memories of that particular night.  For the past almost 20 years, my family and I have had certain traditional things that we do whenever we happen to be together on Christmas Eve.  We would always sit in the living room together and one by one tell what we've been thankful for the previous year, and then say what we're looking forward to in the coming year.  After that, one of us would read the Christmas story out of Luke in the Bible.  Then it was my job to read "The Littlest Angel", and to supply the Kleenex for Ma, so she can dab her tears at the end of that story.  After that, we settled in to watch the classic movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".  I still don't know why that never won any Academy Awards! :-)

 I guess since I wasn't able to be down there with everyone, I figured I'd just give my "Thankful/Hopeful" list here: 

Even though neither Jenny nor myself are gainfully employed, I am thankful that we have had a bunch of time to get some projects done around the house, and that I've had more time to work on things such as my painting and music.  As much of a strain as it can be financially, people don't usually have this kind of free time to just do whatever!  I'm also thankful that with all of this time together, Jenny hasn't strangled me!

I'm thankful for my brand-spankin' new (well, 10-month-old now) niece, Savannah, as well as all my other great girls, Atala, Morgan and Sweet Pea!  I love my girls!

As far as next year goes, I'm looking forward to both of us once again becoming gainfully employed.  That would be good.   Until then, however, I'm going to do my best to be more proactive as far as my music goes.  I want to try to find work as a session musician, and more work with a band; maybe be kind of a hired gun for all sorts of bands.  I'm also going to see if I can maybe get some of my artwork into a studio for sale!  I just really want to try harder to do what I love for a living!

Anyway, Santa's gonna be here soon, so I better get out of here.  I had to do a red and green stroke for the man, the myth, the legend.  Everybody sleep tight!  Don't be waiting up for him, or you'll get a lump o' coal in yer stocking!

23 December 2010

You wanted the best? You got, well, a short blog entry...

Well, here in a couple of hours, Christmas, Part Deux will start!  My sister, Jo Beth and her husband, Robert are en route to St. Louis from Chicago - Yay!  I'm looking forward to seeing them , even if it will only be for a few hours this evening and Sunday evening - better than nothing!  I'd love to be able to see them more often - all of my family, really - but you know how it goes with the lack of time, lack of fundage, etc.  Actually I guess we've got all the time we want right now, we just don't have the cash!

I always have a good time with those two.  Jo Beth and I have been the two that were more into the rock and roll kinda lifestyle than the other two.  And Robert and I have a lot of the same tastes in music, and he plays drums and guitar, too, so we always seem to have a lot to talk about.  He is a huge fan of KISS, so I'm kinda looking around to see if I can find some rare footage he hasn't seen yet on the youtubes.  I think I just found some here.  :-)

Anyway, I'm gonna make this short, and do a quick stroke of crimson and black, since I think of those colors when I think of JB and Robert.  Gotta go help Jenny make some grub!  Ta ta!

22 December 2010

More great words from the Seuss-man...

"Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights."

From the brilliant brain of Theodor Geisel - Dr. Suess - from his wonderful book "Oh! The Places You'll Go".

Probably my biggest dream (aside from the whole "rockstar" thing I talked about the other day) is to be able to travel to every corner of the world.  I just want to see everything (mostly the warm places, of course - I've no desire to climb Mt. Everest, either).  I haven't really gotten to do a lot of traveling thus far - no money, no time; you know the story.   The most exotic place I've been is Piedras Negras,  in the state of Coahuila, in Mexico, right on the US border, across from Eagle Pass, Texas.

I have been able to go a few places here in the states: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and several other substantially smaller places.  

Jenny isn't quite as adventurous with her destination wish list as I am.  About the only thing we totally agree on is going back to Orlando, and New York, but also Europe.  We both want to go to Spain (she's been there, but would definitely go back), France, and England.  She really wants to go to Germany, though, since that's where her family is from.  I wouldn't mind seeing that, either!

What I really would love to be able to do, though, is to travel to places like Mexico (further down than just the border, as well as into Central and South America).  I'd love to see all the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec ruins!  I want to make it down to Australia, maybe go walkabout with Mick Dundee, then hit New Zealand.  Dunno. 

From there I'd love to make my way up through the South Pacific - Fiji, Bora Bora, Polynesia, Guam, etc.  I just imagine that places are among the most beautiful places in the world!  And I'd love to visit some of the littler islands that have barely been touched by man - that still look like they have for a thousand years!

Then I'd hang a left, and go north.  I really would love to see the Orient.  Vietnam, India, Singapore and Thailand I'd kinda like to see, but what I really want to see is Japan and China!  They just look like absolutely beautiful countries, and so rich in ancient culture!  I want to see not only the big cities like Tokyo and Shanghai, but the outer, more rural parts of both countries!  I'd love to check out Mt. Fuji in Japan and, of course, the Great Wall in China, among other things

I'd love to learn more (I say that like I've already been studying it) about the culture and the rituals of these amazing countries.  I just watched a movie today called "The Seventh Moon" which, while it was fabricated for the most part, was based upon an old Chinese superstition.   Seeing that really got me interested in checking out more of their mythology.  In fact today's stroke, a red and yellow squiggly one on the left side a little bit south of the middle was based on this little dude right here.  Maybe one day I'll get to see him in person.  Maybe make him dance!

At the end of the day, I just wanna be able to sing this song.  Maybe I can write a sequel about the whole wide world.

21 December 2010

I like New York in June - or December - how 'bout you?

10 years ago right about now I was walking through Midtown Manhattan.  It really is beautiful there at Christmas time!  We got to see the big ol' Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, and watch people skating on the ice there.  Just walking around while the seemingly quarter-sized snowflakes were falling was cool in itself!  I'll never forget walking down the sidewalk with Jo Beth, when all of a sudden I looked next to me and there in a long black leather trench coat was Laurence Fishburne!  I couldn't believe it!  Apparently Jo Beth had also seen him earlier in the day, wearing a different trench coat.  I guess that was "his look" after the Matrix came out.  :-)

My family and I (minus Jen, who, unfortunately, couldn't go) were in New York City to help celebrate the wedding of my Aunt Phyllis.  She was diagnosed about a year or so prior to that with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, and wanted to marry her long-time best friend, Stephen Barbash.  We had a nice little get-together the night before, with just a few friends and a wonderful dinner of tenderloin medallions in some sort of sauce.  There were some other things, but I just remember the medallions - probably just about the best steak I've ever had in my life!

The next night we went to Carnegie Hall, where the wedding was held.  Phyllis was the Director of Education there, and wanted to also have the ceremony there.  I wish we had more footage of the evening - it just all went so quickly (as events like that usually do - I know our wedding day seems like it was over in about 3 minutes!).  We only ended up with these two pics of the whole weekend. (the first one is the family with Phyllis next to me on the left and Steven on the far right.  The second is myself, Ma, Katie, Jo Beth, and Erica with Phyllis' good friend, the late, great Isaac Stern)

Running around NYC with Katie, Bruce, Jo Beth and Erica!  We were on the way back to the hotel from the dinner party the night before, and Katie was sitting in the front seat of the cab.  Those of you who know Katie know how friendly and outgoing she is.  She struck up a conversation with the cabdriver, who's first language was not English.   They got on the subject of where Katie was from - which, at the time, was Dewey, OK (not too terribly far from where they are now).   He asked what Bruce did for a living, and she told him he was the city manager.  He didn't quite understand what that was, so she explained it as being kind of the same role as Rudy Giuliani's there in New York.  From then on he referred to her as "Giuliani's Wife".  She also got to repeatedly honk the horn, since she thought it was so cool to do that in the middle of Midtown traffic. 

I did a yellow streak with a little bit of black for those lovely New York City cabs!  I'd love to be able to bring Jenny up there to the Big Apple for Christmas and New Years!  It would be so much fun to see that big ol' ball drop!

20 December 2010

Waiting for Bonnie Tyler...

Well, I won't be writing a "War And Peace"-style epic tonight.  Still recovering from last night's post!  It was kind of a lazy day today - for once we just didn't have anything going on, so we both just took it easy.  Jenny worked a little bit on her genealogy stuff and I finally watched "The Godfather, Part II". 

Now we're just settled down - no, I don't have a kerchief, and Jenny doesn't have a hat - we're just watching the season finale of "The Sing-Off".  I'm hoping "Committed" will win.  After that, I don't know - maybe we'll get a wild hair and stay up to see the full lunar eclipse.  It's the first time one has occurred on Winter Solstice since December 21, 1638!  But, we'll probably just fall asleep.  :-)

I did a quick reddish-orange stroke this evening, for the color of the eclipse.  It kinda looks like a big ol' blood orange - with a buncha craters, and maybe an American flag stuck in it. 

19 December 2010

"Stilleto" friggin' RULZ!!!!

I was gonna be a rock star.  No, really!  I was!  Starting around 7th grade I really started getting into music, even more than I already was. I started playing in the school band at Southwest, where Ma was the band teacher.  Since it was such a small school, and an even smaller band, I played whatever she needed at the time.  Unfortunately what she needed at the time was a bass clarinet - at least at the time I thought it was unfortunate - I later learned to appreciate it, especially after getting into the later Miles Davis stuff, like"Spanish Key", from the album "Bitches Brew" - man, Bennie Maupin just made me completely rethink the instrument!  Absolutely nothing like when I was playing the solo piece "Going Home" (which I wish I could find a copy of - don't remember who the composer was, though).

Luckily for me Ma soon needed drummers.  This was (and is - sorry, reed players, it's my opinion!) infinitely cooler than the bass clarinet!  I wouldn't have minded learning more about the woodwind family - especially the sax - but the reeds always really bothered my teeth!  Blowing on them got to be the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard for me!  It just really hurt my teeth!

So I started learning drums. I caught on pretty quickly - always kinda had a knack for it (as well as learning other instruments - they just kinda came naturally to me).  Within a couple of years the rest of the percussion section had graduated and I was the only remaining drummer.  This meant that for marching band I literally was the entire drum line!  No one else at the time could play any of the percussion, so we recruited a couple of kids that could at least halfway walk in time, and I had one on the right carrying a bass drum, one on the left carrying a couple of cymbals, and I had a set of quads, and I played everything - kinda like a traveling drum set!  It was quite interesting to watch, I'm sure!

Around this time (I'm guessing 6th or 7th grade) Ma found an old 70s Slingerland drum set in Exeter (another little bitty-ol' town not too far from Washburn) for a few hundred bucks, so we grabbed that, and I was on my way to super-stardom.  Right.  Yeah, I didn't even know what to do with all those drums for a good couple of years!

1986.  I discovered Metallica via my cousin, Chris.  This was by far the coolest discovery of my entire 13 years on Earth!  He gave me a copy of "Ride The Lightning", and I just fell in love.  To this day it's one of my favorite albums of all time!  From that time on, I wanted to learn to play guitar (I had also received an acoustic guitar for Christmas, I believe) and drums and to be a rock star.  This obsession just grew and grew, despite the lack of rock musicians (or any musicians, really, outside of band class) in Washburn.  A couple of years later, around freshman year, my good friend, Brandon, bought a B.C. Rich Warlock guitar and a little Crate amp, and Chris already had an electric guitar (can't remember the model, but I believe it was a Charvel) and we dug up one or two other kids, Tom Miles and Sam Callison to play (and I use that word very loosely) bass, and occasionally another kid, Freedom Willis, to play another guitar.  Of course there were never more than 4 of us in the garage at the same time, and as soon as Randy, my stepdad got home, everyone had to get out. 

We actually learned a few songs, including Dokken's "Unchain The Night", Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild", The Ramones' "Death Of Me", Lynyrd Skynrd's "Simple Man", and a few others.  Word got around that we had this "great band", and Mr. Roe, the principal of Southwest High actually held assembly, calling together all of the kids from 7th to 12th, I think (it may have only been 9-12) to the gym to let us put on a concert for them.  We played the aforementioned Dokken and Skid Row songs, in addition to Fastway's "Trick Or Treat", KISS' "Lick It Up"(by the way, one of the most re-damn-diculous videos ever!), and a song by a very obscure Swedish hair metal band named Stagedolls, called "Love Cries".  We only had vocals on the KISS and Stagedolls songs, sung by me (an octave lower), and only had bass I think on maybe two of the songs because whoever was supposed to learn the bass lines didn't.

Nonetheless, we were a huge hit (well, as much of a huge hit as you can be in a school in southwest Missouri with an entire population of less than 1000 kids from Kindergarten to 12th grade).  I remember my girlfriend at the time was really jealous, because all of the "Hot Senior Girls" that were in Office Tech class with me (do they even have a class like that now?) were all up against the stage cheering for me.  From that point on, all I wanted to do was to be in a band and be a big rock star. 

I didn't get much of another chance while I was in high school - Chris and I got one or two chances to play while in the "Pep Band", playing during basketball games.  One time I remember vividly was during a Homecoming game.  These games were very heavily attended, and during half time Miss J (Louise Jaramillo, our current band teacher) let us play.  We went into an instrumental version of Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls".   You'd think that with the massive amount of country fans out there we'd just get lynched for playing something like that, but they loved it!

When I got to college, I kept looking around for people to get into a band with, but it was a totally different atmosphere up here - whereas I was still stuck on my beloved heavy metal, in college there were all of these other kinds of music that I'd never been exposed to.  I was able to get together with a few guys here and there to jam - I was introduced to the likes of Fugazi and Prong, as well as the "new movement" (just a revival, really) of ska music, through local bands like MU330 and The Urge, The Bearded Clams, and Life Without Wayne, that my buddy Dwight knew (he was my introduction to the St. Louis music scene, God love him!   I guess he's also indirectly the reason I ended up with my lovely wife, since the reason we got together was that she came to check out a band I was in, thanks to Dwight.)  We actually got a pseudo-band together (although we never played out) called "Bob Can't Count".  I was on drums, Dwight was on bass, Matt Meyer was on guitar and vocals, and there was some dude named Bob (who had a lot of trouble counting on this one song we were practicing, hence the name).

It wasn't until '94 when I actually got into a "real band" - who performed in front of people for money and stuff.  That was the band "Shameless" that I told you about a few posts back.  Then came Free Dirt.  That was my first brush with crowds of any size at all.  I had the bug again.

With Rocket Park, I had some really great experiences, including a spot opening for such bands as The Strokes, OK Go, and Jimmy Buffett, not to mention all sorts of "has beens" like Live, The Fixx (twice), K's Choice, Jesus Jones and the Marshall Tucker Band.  Of course on the other side of that, we also played to crowds as small as the other band we were playing with and the bartender.

I haven't had a whole lot of other chances to be this rock star I once envisioned.  I have been fortunate to play in front of thousands of people at a time.  It's very cool, lemme tell ya!  I still, however, have a dream to play the main stage at Riverport Ampitheater (Or Verizon Wireless, or whatever corporate name it's taken on as of this week).  The closest I got was playing the side stage with Buffett.  If I can do that, I'll die a happy man, musically speaking.  I mean I'm already a pretty darned happy man as far as life goes.  We may be in a rough spot right now, but over all I've had a damn good life.  I've pretty much told myself that I'm never going to be the big rock star that I had once thought I would be.  I know better.  I know the music industry enough to know that they don't want some late-30s pudgy-greying dude  on stage, they want an early 20s hot chick.  Possibly the ones that were "fawning" over my would-be band 22 years ago.  Sad, but true.  I still love to play music, though, and as long as I can find people to play and write with me I'll also be a happy man.

I do play now, though, as much as possible.  I've got an original rock band, called The Janson Gates, made up of myself, plus a few guys that I also play with at my church, and also I've recently joined a cover band.  We'll see where this all takes me.  I'm still in search of that big rock star turn, but I ain't counting on it.

I did today's stroke for the name that my old high school band would have gone by, had we made it as huge rock stars: Stilleto!  I had it scrawled across my bass drum for a long time.  That was just in pencil, but we always wanted it to be in crimson, so there ya have it: a crimson stroke.  Rock on, kiddies, rock on.  And never forget your dreams.  Unless you're a pudgy white-haired, middle-aged dude like me who wants desperately to be the next Justin Bieber, in which case you should just give up right now.  Yeah, you would just look plain silly in that haircut, anyway.

18 December 2010

Rooster's are saying "Man, that's friggin' early!"

Okay, folks - really quick one today!  Got a house full o' young'uns, and apparently they don't even need sugar or caffeine to be all hyped up.  I think they produce it naturally, and they've been going and going and going!  Miss Atala woke up at 4:30 am.  That is not a typo.  4:30.  Ante Meridiem.  That's Latin, folks, for "really friggin' early!" 

We've got the whole fam here, though (minus Jo Beth and Robert, unfortunately - they'll be through next weekend) and we're getting ready to do Christmas dinner and presents and stuff. 

I did a pink stroke today.  I'm going to tell Atala it's pink for her favorite color, but we all know it's the color of Benadryl.  Is it wrong to crush that up and put it into the kids food?*  DON'T JUDGE ME - WE'RE ALL THINKING IT! :-)









*365 Strokes does not condone the drugging of children to shut them up.  Thank you.  :-)

17 December 2010

Mom's cookin' chicken and collard greens...

Well the family will be here soon.  Ma, Katie, Bruce, and the girls are coming up to do "Early Christmas", and just spend some time together.   It all started as just Ma coming up, which I was really happy about, but I was really hoping I'd get to see the rest of them.  Katie called a week or so ago and said that she and the girls were gonna make the trip, too, which really just made my entire week - I was so happy!  Then right before they left today she told me that Bruce was gonna get to come after all!  If only Jo Beth and Robert could be here we'd have the whole family here!  Bethy will be here next weekend, though.  They're gonna stop and spend the night here on their way down to Cassville.

Anyway, it's almost that time.  Everyone should really be in the mood by now, so I figured I'd run down a list of great Christmas songs - but not the ones you always hear on the radio.  Now, there's nothing wrong with
"Up On The House Top", or "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year", but I figure they get enough airplay.

One I've always loved ever since it came out back in the late 80s is Run-DMC's "Christmas In Hollis".  Probably the first rap Christmas song - at least by a big name group (Kurtis Blow had a song called "Christmas Rappin'"
back in 1979, but he wasn't nearly as well known as Run-DMC).  And the video is just plain goofy fun!

Another one I haven't heard in years is "Snoopy's Christmas" by the Royal Guardsmen - kind of a holiday-themed sequel to "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron", which was a major hit for them in 1966.

There are quite a few great comedy Christmas songs - in fact Bob Rivers and Twisted Radio released an entire album of spoofs (which I actually owned at one time - it may still be up there, I don't know).  From that album, though, my favorite was probably "Walkin' 'Round In Women's Underwear".  I still just think it's hilarious!

One that some of you may have heard on the radio, but only here in St. Louis is a song that my old band, Rocket Park, did several years ago called "Rudolph The Redneck Reindeer".  It's basically "Freebird" with they lyrics to "Rudolph" - and they go together perfectly!  Anytime we were playing a show and someone shouted out to do "Freebird" (which happens a lot more than you would think!) we would always go into that.  Most of the time it just stunned the person shouting for it.  It probably angered some of them, too - to think we would "screw up" that amazing song!  The nerve of us!  :-)  Hopefully I can get a copy of it on here soon! [edit: I finally got around to learning how to make a video - so there's the link]

Anyway, they're probably just about here, so I'm gonna sign off.  I'm just doing a quick red and green stroke this evening, because as far as I'm concerned, Christmas has begun!

16 December 2010

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

My Grandpa is a great man.  I'm learning this more and more as I age.  I always thought he was cool - never had any problems with him at all, really, unlike a lot of people who were exposed to their grandparents that much, especially at an early age (we lived with them for several months in 1980 when we moved back to Missouri from Virginia Beach).

Now Grandma, on the other hand - that was another thing.  We never seemed to see eye to eye.  I'm not really sure why, actually.  We just didn't.  Because of that we were never really that close, which is something I really regret.  She passed away in 1999, and I can remember very vividly not becoming emotional at all during her funeral.  About 6 months later I was on my way home from work, digging around in my glove compartment for a cassette tape to listen to, when I stumbled upon the tape of her funeral ceremony.

I popped it in, and I tell you what, if you would have seen me, you would have thought I was a 5-year-old girl who's kitten had just been stomped to death!  I was a friggin' blubbering idiot!  It took that long for it to sink in that I would never see this great woman again in my lifetime!  What really got me was the story that John Duncan (the pastor at First Baptist Church, where all of us went growing up) told about how my Grandpa met Grandma in Tulsa, and 3 months later they were married, and were so for 60+ years.  Holy cow - I get a bit verklempt just thinking about that!

That phenomenon is just amazing to me, really - knowing someone for so little a time before realizing that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with!  That story is a major reason that Jenny and I strive to make sure that this marriage works.  We know we love each other more than anything, and we know that it takes a lot of work - I'm sure that G'ma and G'pa didn't see eye to eye every day from September 20, 1941 to January 13, 1999!

Anyway,  I did a little white swipe tonight, for the purity of the love that was had between Grandma and Grandpa.  I only wish that there could be more love like that in the world!

15 December 2010

Ssssssslick!

Sometimes I like ice, sometimes I don't.  I like it crushed in my Route 44 "Cherry-Vanilla Dr. Pepper" from Sonic.  I like one, maybe two cubes in a nice glass of Lagavulin, or just an ice cold pint glass filled with Budweiser

There are several "Ice" movies that I enjoyed: "Ice Age" and it's sequels, "The Ice Storm" (that one's for you, Ma! :-D), and "Iceman".  Notice the absence of  "Cool As Ice" - as much as I try to never miss a Vanilla Ice movie, I had to miss that one.  

Speaking of rappers, I also like "Ice Cube" and "Ice-T" (who would have thought that a guy who railed against cops so much in his rap career - and boy did he - would end up playing one on "Law and Order:Special Victims Unit"?)

The ice I don't like, however, is the stuff that's coming down from the sky right now.  Apparently it's slicker than snot on a doorknob out there right now.  Jenny almost fell on her butt coming in from the garage a little while ago!  It's just treacherous out there - all sorts of police reports scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen telling about wreck after wreck, then running through the names of the schools that have already called off tomorrow.  Joy.  I just hope all this crap is gone by Friday, so Ma, Katie, and the girls have no problems driving up here - I can't wait to see them!

I haven't done a stroke with any of my mediums lately, so I did one with my gloss gel tonight, to give an icy look.  Be careful out there, kiddies - don't go slip-slidin' away!

14 December 2010

We don't need no stinkin' Santa!

'Tis the season, folks - the season to get bombarded with millions* of Christmas- and Holiday-themed movies and specials.  You've got your classics: "It's A Wonderful Life", "White Christmas", "A Charlie Brown Christmas", "Frosty The Snowman" "Miracle On 34th Street", etc.  Then you've got the more contemporary ones like "Scrooged", "Elf", and "Polar Express", not to mention the Jim Carrey remake of "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas", which wasn't too bad!

One "classic" I have yet to see (it's in my queue at the library, but it's got another 55 people to go through, so I'll probably get it some time next August) is "A Christmas Story". My favorite Christmas movie of all time, though, is of course "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation".  It should, in my opinion, also be everyone else's favorite Christmas movie.  I think I may contact my congressman - see if we can get that put in the law books.

Today I watched a movie I hadn't seen since the 80s, I think: "Gremlins".   Seeing that made me think about the fact that it is, to a certain extent, an "Unconventional Christmas Movie", and I figured I'd put together a list (although certainly not comprehensive) of other "UCM"s.  Here goes:


1)  The aforementioned "Gremlins" - although it's kind of a "family-friendly" horror movie about a cute little "Furby"-looking animal that ends up spawning a bunch of mischievous (and occasionally murderous) green baddies, it does take place around Christmas.  In fact the main girl (Phoebe Cates' character) has a depressing, somewhat disturbing monologue explaining what tragedy in her life made her hate Christmas.  The movie also stars the late, great country singer-songwriter, Hoyt Axton, as the main character, Billy's dad.


2)  "The Ref" - Denis Leary plays a cat burglar who gets left behind by his partners during a Christmas Eve break-in.  He ends up having to take the homeowners hostage, but regrets doing that when they start bickering and fighting and he ends up having to pretty much play marriage counselor.  I may have to rent this one again - haven't seen it since college.


3)  "Die Hard" - Yeah, who would think to call this a Christmas movie?  It does, however, happen during Christmastime - I think, if memory serves, the big party everyone's attending is a company Christmas party.  Another one I'll have to rent again.  Yippie-kai-aye!


4)  "Home Alone" - Macauley Culkin's masterpiece (and who ever thought those three words would ever be in a sentence together?) is also, of course, based on the fact that his family is traveling elsewhere for Christmas and forgets the adorable little punk at home. Alone, even.  Hilarity ensues when a couple of hapless burglars try to invade the house and Kevin (Culkin) is forced to protect the castle. 


5)  "The Nightmare Before Christmas" - Tim Burton's masterpiece in stop-motion animation. Everything I was going to say was summed up better on IMDB: Jack Skellington is the pumpkin king of Halloween Town, is bored with doing the same thing every year for Halloween. One day he stumbles into Christmas Town, and is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- but alas, they can't get it quite right. 


There are a whole bunch of Christmas-based horror films, too, such as "Black Christmas" (the 1974 version is the original "the call is coming from inside the house" film - pretty friggin' creepy, too; "Silent Night, Deadly Night", "Jack Frost" (not the adorable Michael Keaton film), and "Santa Claws", but I won't go into them right now.  Or maybe ever. 

Anyway, hopefully this gives you some good holiday viewing ideas!  What are some of your favorite "UCM"s?

I went with another green stroke today, for Stripe and the gang, my little mischievous, murderous buddies!

















*not literally millions.

13 December 2010

They're jingling - ring, ting, tingling, too...

Okay, so I wasn't gonna say anything about the weather today, but Jee-muh-neez!  It's just really friggin' cold out!  Unfortunately in St. Louis anymore there are only 2 seasons - extremely hot and extremely cold.  We may, if we're lucky, get about a week each of spring and fall, but other than that, it's just the Dog Days of summer or whatever the opposite of that is for winter (Penguin Days?).

Boy, when we were kids we loved this stuff, didn't we?  I remember we always got so excited when it snowed - not because of the snow days (that's just a given), but because this great lady down the road about a mile, Gwen Scroggins, would drive around with her tractor pulling a bunch of sleds, and all of us kids could climb on and go for a ride all around the Greater Washburn Metropolitan Area (see map at right).

So what happens as we age that we stop enjoying the cold weather?  Or is it just me?  I mean I still enjoy looking at the snow, but I just wish it could happen in, say 75° weather!  :-)

We did have a lot of really great, really bright sunshine today, though, so that was nice!  Because of this, I felt it was appropriate to have some bright yellow and, of course, white.  If it looks weird (it's up there at the very top towards the middle) it's because my paints were actually frozen on the palette.  See?  I told you it's too cold!

12 December 2010

Baby, es ist kalt draußen!

Well, we got a lot more white stuff than we thought!  Just a few inches, but it's still extremely windy out - we can't tell if it's still snowing, or if it's just the wind blowing the previous snow around.  I do know that it is, for lack of a better way of explanation, colder than a well digger's ass!  As I'm typing this, it's 13°, with a windchill of -5°!  As my late, great Aunt Phyllis would say, "This will not do!"

Although it provided us with a nice leisurely day in which to catch up on TV episodes online and just relax, do a little laundry, and smell the wonderful cookies Jenny made, it did prevent us from the plans we had made for today.  We were supposed to go to Hermann, MO for their annual Christmas festivities.  Hermann, for those of you who don't know, is a really old German town dating back to the 19th century.  Jenny's family had a big farm there at one time, which had been splintered and sold over the years until one of her cousins bought all the land back recently.  Now it's back in the family.

Anyway, the town celebrates the Christmas season every year with a couple of weekends of events including a tour of the St. George Catholic Church Rectory, live Nativity Scene, the Deutschheim Weinachtfest (a mini Christmas festival within the big festival, at the Deutschheim State Historic Site),  and a Kristkindl Markt, which is a holiday market with vendors in full traditional costumes. 

We would really have loved to have gone, but it just wasn't worth risking life and limb to travel out there.  Apparently it was just really nasty out there - especially out west, towards Hermann.  Therefor, I made my stroke green and white: Christmas trees all covered in snow.  They're fun to look at - from the warmth of my house or car.  I may look into getting one of those Scooby Doo Snuggies or something! 

11 December 2010

Will it or won't it? Either way people's gonna be nutzo...

So we've been hearing reports for the last week or so that today was supposed to be rainy, then later on tonight turning to a few flurries - maybe a dusting.  Well, that's changed again (I know never to put much stock in St. Louis weather reports - it's too weird of a weather town!), and now it looks like we're gonna get 1-2 inches.  Of course you never know.  I do know that it's really getting cold, and it is windy as all get-out!  It looks and sounds like the soundtrack to "Wizard Of Oz" out there!  I keep expecting to see Flying Evil Monkeys out there!  Jenny put on her Ruby Slippers just to fit the part. 

I hope whatever it does, it waits until after 1 or 2 a.m.- I've got a gig tonight, and it's hard enough to get people to come out to see you, especially in a little bar like the Famous Bar, much less if it's all nasty and freezing out!  We'll hopefully have a couple of the booking agents from different places there, so maybe we can line up some more shows.  That'd be good.  We can use the money!

You can tell just by driving around a little bit that there's been talk of a "big storm", though - people are driving around like absolute idiots, and the stores are jam-packed!  Luckily we went shopping earlier in the week for all the groceries we needed!

Today, just for this impending doom we call a snowstorm (the first one here in St. Louis is always just absolutely nuts - people turn into complete panicky morons), I decided to do a white stroke.  In fact, I decided to do it over one of the prior strokes of the glass bead medium, so it almost looks like falling snow. Stay warm and safe out there, kiddies!

10 December 2010

Maybe I could make it better...

Ya know, there just wasn't a whole lot that happened today, aside from a whole lotta yard work.  I thought maybe it might take us an hour or so to whip through the remainder of the leaves, get everything cleaned up.  Wrong.  5 hours later, we finally called it quits (whether we were finished or not!), so Jenny could get cleaned up to go to her mom's house for a holiday party. 

After that, she left, and I'm here to fend for myself. And I'm not doing a whole lot, except for messing around on these here internets and watching scary movies.  I figure I've written a whole buncha big ol' blog posts lately, so I'm gonna pick a random video (I really love this song - you should check out the rest of their stuff!) off of youtube and tell you I'm picking a random color (actually I picked one, orange, then grabbed the red and yellow to go with my placement - it worked in my deranged brain, but you tell me if it works for you!), and that'll be it for me this evening. 

I'm gonna settle in and watch a classic horror movie: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".  Everyone always thought this was a big gore-fest.  There's actually very little blood in this film at all - it's all suspense, and the fact that it was "based on a true story" (which we've already determined in a prior post that's pretty much a marketing ploy to get your voyeuristic ass into the theater seats!).  

Workin' on that graveyard shift...

In late 1994 I joined my first original music band.  When I tried out for them, I didn't really know anything at all about the St. Louis music scene - I was, at the same time, still playing bass for a cover band out of Washington, MO called Shameless, and that was my only experience with a real band.

I remember going to this dude's house down on Osceola with a bass and amp I borrowed from my buddy Dwight (I had been using the bass and rig belonging to the lead guitarist for Shameless, and didn't feel it right to borrow that to try out for another band).  I was walking in as the prior audition-ee was walking out.  I plugged in, and you could barely hear me - it just wasn't that powerful of an amp, but I guess what they did hear they liked, and so I became an official member of The Maurys (we practiced on Maury Ave. on the south side of St. Louis).

We played a couple of shows under that moniker, then one night at practice, Tom walked in and said "What do guys think of calling the band "Free Dirt"?  It was cool with all of us, so Free Dirt it was.  We started getting a pretty decent name around town, even scoring a regular gig every 2nd Saturday of the month at the Way Out Club, which was rapidly becoming the place to play for up and coming bands - it was well known that all the hip kids were hanging out there. 

We started getting some press here and there (including a little blurb in "Billboard" magazine - we all thought that was the coolest thing in the world!), and most of it was good!  We kept getting compared to this band "Uncle Tupelo", which to the guys was the coolest thing - quite an honor.  I, still in the waning days of my "Heavy Metal Youth" had heard the name, but didn't know the first thing about them, or this relatively new musical genre people were calling "Alt-Country".   In fact, until very recently I had never even really listened to any Uncle Tupelo album in it's entirety!  Kinda funny being compared to something you've never even heard!

Uncle Tupelo inspired hundreds of bands in the 90s, and even today.  Shoot, there's even a magazine (now only available online, but which was around for almost 20 years) called "No Depression", named after UT's first album of the same name!   Many of them can be found on mid-90s compilations such as "Out Of The Gate Again", which we were thrilled to be included on!  I remember playing with such amazing bands as Caution Horse (another Belleville,IL band which was actually helped along by Jeff Tweedy of UT, also from Belleville), Stillwater (man, did I love that band!) and the Highway Matrons (who sounded absolutely nothing like UT, but still, for some reason, got lumped into the same genre). 

Anyway, Free Dirt was around in earnest for about 5 years, then we went our separate ways, Tommy forming Fran, then Leadville, Danny going to Earl (which I also spent some time in) and The Homewreckers, and Greg eventually going to The Quaaludes.  I, of course, went on to Rocket Park and Earl, and now The Janson Gates.  We "Dirt Boys" keep getting back together for "reunion shows" every once in a while - in fact we've played more actual shows than my current band has this past year!   And we may keep doing so, so watch out - we may just rock yer face off!

Well, today I decided that, in honor of the Dirt, I would do some brown.  In fact I did a couple of browns.  I've really had a great time reminiscing about all of this, actually - found quite a few articles here online, actually, that I had never seen before, such as this review of a show we did to promote the "Out Of The Gate" compilation.

08 December 2010

It's easy if you try...

30 years ago today around 9:30 pm I was most likely at grandma and grandpa's house, most likely in bed, asleep.  On Monday Night Football the Miami Dolphins were playing the New England Patriots.  Toward the end of the game, Howard Cosell made the announcement that John Lennon had been shot and killed. 

At the age of 7, this news really didn't phase me much.  Like I've said before, Ma really was more classically trained, and I'm pretty sure G'ma and G'pa weren't exactly members of the John Lennon Fan Club.  Because of this I just wasn't exposed to the Beatles, or really much of any pop music at all at that age.  It wasn't until I was 9 or 10 that I started listening to the radio a lot, and recognizing what was popular, even recording songs off of the radio.  I didn't have a fancy radio that had a built-in tape deck with which to record things, so I would take one of those old cassette recorders and put it upside down on my little clock radio and hope that no one made any noise so I could record "Electric Avenue" and "Mickey". 

Several years later I would start hearing the occasional early Beatles song: "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There", and of course, thanks to Ferris Bueller, "Twist And Shout" (yes, I had heard it before that, but this obviously made more of an impact on me!).   On the "classic rock station" down there, US97, I started hearing some of the later stuff - "Day Tripper", "Helter Skelter" (as much as I hate to admit it, I first heard Motley Crue's version of this).  These songs appealed to me more due to the fact that I was getting more into hard rock and heavy metal. 

Throughout all of this, though, I never really heard a lot of John Lennon's solo stuff.  Every once in a while I'd catch "Woman", "Watching The Wheels", or "Instant Karma" on the radio.   My senior year of high school, some dude came in (I'm guessing a salesman) with a mobile karaoke machine/recorder (way before karaoke was popular) and all of us in Miss J's 4th hour band class got to pick one song to record.  We selected "Imagine".  My friend Shannon still has a copy of that recording - I'd really love to hear that again!

Anyway, long story short, it took me a long time to really get into his work, and everything he stood for and worked for.  The day after his death, Yoko Ono issued a statement saying, "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him."  Although I didn't really know any better at the time, today I am definitely mourning the loss of John Lennon on this, the 30th anniversary of his death.  Tonight's stroke is inspired by this photo.  RIP, John. Your work has touched countless lives, mine included. 

07 December 2010

This one's for the children (that's for my wife and sisters)...

I tell you what, as I get older, every year around this time I get more and more sentimental.  I used to be more "Jingle Bells" and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree".  Now I'm more "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", "Celebrate Me Home", and "Christmas Through Your Eyes" (one of my favorites).  Yeah, so I'm a softy.  So what? :-)

I'm definitely less concerned about what I get anymore than I am what I can give to other people.  This year, in fact, I couldn't care less if I got one thing.  We are, however, making gifts for everyone, and I'm really enjoying that more than going around trying to find something in the stores - plus it's just that much more personal!

Another thing we did again this year, that we've done for the past several years, is to take part in the "Angel Tree" project through our church, which is a program that fellowships to prisoners through collecting gifts for their children.  They set up a tree with pieces of paper attached to it.  On the paper is the name of a child, their age, and what their parent would like to buy for them - usually not too much money, although they don't really specify too much.

As would be expected, the younger kids cards get picked pretty quickly.  Jenny and I like to focus on the older kids (8+) - the ones who seem to always be "left behind" and forgotten all to often in real life.  We saw another of these trees at a different church this evening when we went to a Christmas program, and 95% of the cards left on the tree were aged 10+.  It just breaks my heart to think of a child potentially going without a gift on Christmas!  If I could afford it I would grab every single card off of every tree I came across and buy as many gifts as I could.  These kids are many times being forced to grow up entirely too quickly as it is in these instances - no need to take away more of their childhood!

I would encourage all of you to look for these trees.  They're not only in churches - I believe the program is sponsored by the Salvation Army, so I'm sure you can help out online even.  I know times are tough (believe me, we know!) but it doesn't really take that much money - and it's so worth it!

I did a red stroke today - the color of the cards on the tree we saw this evening.  Here's to hoping that they're all gone soon, replaced by the smile of a child who may just have a better Christmas than they otherwise would have.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

06 December 2010

Okay, campers, rise and shine...

...and don't forget your booties cuz it's COLD out there!  Man, is it ever!  I guess the good thing about the cold (and probably the only good thing, in my opinion) is that it kinda makes us stay in the house and do things.  Things like art.  Both of us have been working our buns off on creating Christmas gifts.  Now, of course I won't go into detail as to what these gifts are, as I'm sure there may be some recipients reading this here blog (at least there better be! :-D).  Suffice to say I think these same recipients will be very happy with what they are receiving.

I also did a little bit of painting of other stuff, too, just playing around with different styles and ways of doing things - something I need to do a lot more of, I just can't afford as many canvases as I'd like.   I'm playing around with different flowers, because 1) they're awful purty, and 2) I know people like purty flowers.  I did this poppy the other night in class:


And the other one I did first, actually - just messing around at the house a couple of hours before class:

I decided today to do a bright pink stroke today just for these little "fludders", as Sweet Pea used to call 'em.   Fludders is good!

05 December 2010

Oh the weather outside is...

Friggin' freezing!

We got to spend the day with Sweet Pea.  Man, do I love doing that!  After church, we settled in to a nice couple of hours of Scooby Doo, and then playing "Poptropica" online.  It's a pretty cool game, albeit a bit frustrating because it's kinda hard to move the characters.  Or maybe it's just me - I was never any good at video games. 

After that we went with Jenny's good friend Anne and her 3 little boys over to Fontbonne University for their annual "Christmas Around Campus" festival.  We got there a little after 4 and headed straight to the line to take the kids on a horse and carriage ride.  I tell you what, I had long underwear on, plus 3 or 4 layers up top, and a heavy-duty winter coat, fleece gloves and scarf, and I was still absolutely freezing!  Man, do I hate cold weather!

After we finally got to ride on the big white carriage, pulled by "Chuckles" the horse, and they fed a few sheep, a donkey and a camel we made our way inside to try to warm up and to start the arts and crafts.  Actually it wasn't so much arts and crafts as much as giving the kids these big ol' frosted sugar cookies and letting them decorate them with all sorts of different candies - gummy bears, chocolate chips, etc.  Nothing like getting the kids up on a sugar high!  Oh, well - I guess the higher they are, the harder they'll fall!

From there we moved into the Dunham Student Activity Center (which houses the student union and the gymnasium).  The kids were able to do about 10 different games - ring tosses, skee-ball, throwing bean bags through holes, etc. to win small prizes.  Man, did those kids make off like bandits!  I was carrying all sorts of little prizes, plus coats and stuff while the kids played and rode the little train (time after time).

They had a blast, and so did we just watching them have a great time!  I think I've finally thawed out a bit.  Still, I did a light icy-blue stroke, because I'm pretty sure that's what color my skin was a few hours ago.  I wouldn't trade it for the world, though - I love to see kids smile!

04 December 2010

BOO!!

Today I got the bejeebus scared outta me again.  I watched a movie called "Them", a French film based on a true story (although I'm still trying to figure out what story that is, and how much of the film is completely made up).  It's about a French couple living in the middle of nowhere outside of Bucharest, Romania who awaken to their car being stolen.  After that they realize that they're not alone in the house, beginning a long night of complete terror. It was just brilliantly done - I was so damn nervous, my hands hurt from being clinched!  The director did all of this with almost no use of blood whatsoever - it was basically a chase movie, unlike so many of the "gore-horror" movies these days, which equate "blood" with "scary". If you like horror movies I highly recommend this film.  It is reminiscent of "The Strangers", but this one came first.  It is in French with English subtitles, so bring your reading glasses. 

Anyway, now that I've gotten my heart rate back down, I'm going to do a crimson stroke - not for "blood", but for my Oklahoma Sooners, who have just begun the Big 12 Championship Game against a very good Nebraska Cornhuskers team, so I'm gonna go in the other room and try to keep the blood pressure down!  BOOMER!