one last thing before I quit

My, oh my. How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that it was 1984, and you were a mere 29-year-old Dutchman, flying around the stage with you long curly mane. Schooling young greasy adults and old greasy teenagers on your axe. Finger-tapping on your Frankenstrat.... So maybe I wasn't even alive when that would actually have taken place, but I most certainly have sifted through the stockpiles of footage and educated myself.

You turn 54 today. You've battled through a ton. Throat cancer. Alcoholism. Hip replacement surgery. DLR. Hagar. Cherone. Bertinelli. DLR again. You are clearly a strong man.

Thank you for being the greatest rock and roll guitarist ever.

Thank you for letting us see your young protege son Wolfgang on his first tour.

Thank you for writing some unbelievably kick-ass songs that will forever remind me of good times.

I can't wait for you to come back here and rock the 'Peg like only you can.

For anyone who knows the history of art classes that I've taken, the style I adapted, as well as the enjoyment that I had while doing it, you'll know how excited I actually am for a show coming up in an L.A. gallery, Crewest Gallery. The exhibition revolves around the use of what I feel to be the prime medium to use for most art, the trusty ol' black Sharpie marker.

The premise of the show is being described as follows:
"Although many writers elevate their art form to the level of creating huge and beautiful murals, they all began their journey as an artist by first learning to write and perfect their name. The Sharpie marker is often the first tool a writer acquires in his lifelong journey to hone his craft and in becoming an artist. From stylized hand signatures, to throw ups, piece books, stickers, and any other possible object that can be marked upon, this exhibit will demonstrate the level of creativity that can be achieved between an artist and his/her most basic tool - The Sharpie."

The show will feature some renowned graffiti artists, as well as some tattooists and illustrators. I am truly excited to see some of these final pieces.

Lost started up again on Wednesday. I was skeptical of whether or not I'd be able to get back into a show that I've adored since season 1. But kudos to the team, as I found myself wrapped right back into the drama. I even surprised myself with how much I remembered, despite the ginormously, black hole of suck, that was the prolonged off-air delays. It wasn't the best season premiere, let alone episode, but it wasn't stupid-ridiculous either.

As anyone who watches the show knows, questions are raised, curiosity is tweaked, and we all expect to not get anything answered, yet that's on of the elements that draws me back to it. That said, I just seriously want answers regarding that insane 4-toed statue!

After the big day in the States this past Tuesday, I learned that the Secret Service. has an interesting taste in fashion. Apparently Obama's inauguration suit that he wore was made of the bullet-resistant material, Kevlar.

Miguel Caballero, a designer from Colombia, has been known for making these flexible business suits that can stop most handguns and knife attacks. Due to the increase of danger in Latin America, these clothing garments are apparently selling at a fast rate too. A simple polo shirt that can stop a 9mm bullet only costs $7 500.

Oh, and the Secret Service codenames for the presidential family are as follows:
Barack - Renegade
Michelle - Renaissance
Malia - Radiance
Sasha - Rosebud

Some of my favorite codenames that I've found were:
Barbara Bush - Snowbank
Dwight Eisenhower - Scorecard
Jeff Carter (Jimmy Carter's son) - Deckhand
Michael Reagan (Ronald Reagan's son) - Riddler

The codenames' sole purpose these days is merely tradition.

With suburbia seeming to have the inevitable snowball effect of not being able to stop, it feels as though it's getting more rare to see buildings that have a unique or even an inspired look to them. It really sucks. Buildings just seem to be blending together more and more, simply resulting in them all being a sight for sore eyes.

Here's something that most likely doesn't get brought up into conversation when one's discussing odd architecture. Churches. Yep. There are most certainly some creative ones, be it design or just its location. Here's a few of my favorites that I've come upon.

The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira, Colombia
Built underground in a tunnel 200m inside of a salt mountain.

... for not giving out an award to Benjamin Button last night. Really. It made my night.

I'm not a huge fan of award shows, because I just generally don't agree with many of the winners. Yes, some certainly deserve it, but not necessarily more then others. At last night's Golden Moldies, it was obviously nice to see the 'less popular' and 'not-star-ridden' works be recognized. And it was nice to see Button not win in the major categories.

I may have just gotten caught in the hype of the film, but I was really disappointed after seeing it.

The Good:
The idea. I love it. Thank you to F. Scott Fitzgerald for that one. I wish someone will work with this idea with a much larger mass.
The compositions and lighting were beautiful. It immensely helped tell the story. By far one of the easiest films to look at.
The make-up was obviously outstanding, on Brad's part at least.
I also loved the lightning. It just helped the movie push through at times. And was hilarious.

The Bad:
The actual story ruined this whole movie for me. Other then the simple difference that a character had a condition similar to Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, nothing special happened. He fell in love. He fell out of love. He went on adventures. People close to him died. I found it to be just your typical story. When you compare it to other movies somewhat resembling it, like Big Fish or Forest Gump, you find yourself surrounded by a certain lack of depth, and cleverness.

The Sickening:
The whole 'Titanic-old woman dying-young people around her' element. There wasn't a surprise to it, and served absolutely no purpose to me, other then allowing for time to pass in the Benjamin story, and to just waste more time. It really angered me.

In all fairness, I'd still recommend this movie. I just can't see why or how so many critic's and average people had put it in their 'Top 10's' of the year. Well, maybe they only got out to see Bolt.

Oh! Speaking of which. Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press for not voting in favour of Miley Cyrus' song to win whatever it was nominated for. Hopefully next year she rightfully won't be nominated though. We want more Klaus Badelt!

Nick Veasey. The name may not stand out, but his originality most certainly does.

After stumbling upon some of his work a while back now, I can't help but obsess over his site, hoping and waiting for something new. He has spent roughly the last 10 years working on his craft, using industrial x-ray machines, normally used for art restoration, inspecting circuit boards, and checking for stress fractures in army tanks. Ya, I know. Weird.

What sets this apart from your usual x-rays in hospitals, is that instead of exposing you to a couple quick seconds of radiation with the doctor, Veasey will expose his subject with up to 12 minutes of it. That's crazy. This helps get the depth, detail and contrast that he needs. But don't worry! He generally uses skeletons to mimic humans. Though he has had access to corpses in the past.

Enough talk. Here's some samples:

Nick borrowed a cargo x-ray machine from the US-Mexico border to get the shot of the bus. He then took separate x-rays of a skeleton and pieced it all together. A hospital in New York used this as for promoting themselves by putting it onto the side of an actual bus. Frequent complaints from citizens had it removed.

A simple turntable that he later colored in Photoshop.

Nick used all three, yes, three of his x-ray machines to complete this office scene. He captured each item individually and used just one skeleton throughout. He then pieced it all together in Photoshop. It took over 200 x-rays.