Meh....

So here's the deal "readers" (i.e. Kristen).  My bad.  Sorry I haven't blogged in forever.  I know...I am super unreliable when it comes to doing personal blogging stuff.  Here's my list of excuses.  Many are real.  Many are fake.  Guess the right ones and you win a cake.

1.  my life is pretty boring, and nobody wants to hear about it
2.  my life is actually not at all boring, and I'm so busy living a cool life that I forget to tell people about it
3.  I've been super busy
4.  I have a real like "hey I'm a professional artist" website now...so sometimes blogging seems moot
5.  I've stopped listening to audiobooks because they were lulling me to sleep in transit during my super cool life...so I didn't have anymore audiobook adventures
6.  When blogging...sometimes I found a million friends (obviously not entirely true) that had blogs and I felt like a bum if I didn't read everyone else's too
7.  My Jedi training has been super intense

Okay, done with excuses now for clarifications.

1/2.  Now...the first two, could actually both be true, depending on who you're talking to.  And like...you could be talking to me...just on different days...or moments.  Seriously.  My life is weird.

3.  I HAVE been super busy.  Not a lie.

4.  "hey I'm a professional artist" website <-- Check it out, yo!

5.  Audiobooks.  True.  I was listening to Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and nearly snoozed right off of the road..

6.  Other people's blogs.  True.  I feel like if I'm acting like other people should care about my life then I should show that I care about other peoples' lives too.  And I DO care.  But sometimes I don't seem to have the time to show it by reading blog posts.  If Emily Post knew about blogging etiquette...she'd probably tell me that I'm an unfortunate miscreant with no prospects for marriage.

7.  Lastly, false.  I finished my Jedi training like...years ago.

Anyway, I'm trying my hand at this again.  Why?  I'll tell you why.  Alaina's Blog.  The end.

So...yes, I guess I have like 7 months to catch you multitude of readers up on...but I'm going to wrap this up.  I'm either going to go read my book or watch Thor.  Yes, I've been told is pretty awful.  No, I don't care.  I like to decide these things for myself.  And I want to go watch something else because my brother is enforcing the "Tuesday is Deadliest Catch Day Rule."  I don't mind watching the show.  I actually like it.  But I'm not in the mood for it right now.  So I'm going to do the "mature" thing and pick up my ball and go home.  Haha.

But it's also almost 9pm.  And tomorrow morning is my third day teaching theatre to 7-11 year old kids.  It's awesome.  I love it.  Yet it does take energy.  I may just read my book and turn in early.

Oh the endless possibilities.

Night all, stay classy.

Feisty Fortitude

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Pieces Video Log 1: Meet the Cast

Hope For Tomorrow: Korea's Got Talent

Follow your dreams.

That's why they have been given to you.

Let no one tell you

that your quest is selfish.

Don't bring others down...

...but don't hesitate to lift yourself up.

To raise your head and look toward the sky.

You are not stuck in your past.

You are free in your present.

Move on to your future.

Bring your lessons from the past.

Bring your dreams from the now.

You can do this.

Whatever it is.

That's why you are here.

Stay Classy,

LT

LTVlog_07: Waiting for my Owl to Come

Love Conquers Hate

This day, September 20, 2011, marks a great victory for LOVE in the war against hate.  We've come a very long way and this is fantastic news for all of us.  ALL OF US.  We mustn't let this blind us to the fact that we've still got a long way to go.  From moment to moment, we each get a new chance to fight for what is good.  For what is right.  

May we always remember to love first.

 Love     God.  

Love Each Other.
Love Ourselves.

Love Equality.

Love.
.

Stay classy*,

LT

*And don't rest on your laurels because the United States of America just got classier.

The Critical Corner: Why God Why?: I can't even think of a title....

Welcome back to the long-neglected "WHY, GOD, WHY?" segment of NftLS.  There are so many things to say about what's going on here...but I'm not saying them right now for a few reasons.

1.  I'm tired.

2.  I don't have time.

3.  Normal people...wait...goofy people like me too...PEOPLE KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS. Words from me right now aren't really necessary.

4.  I have words to say though, shocker, and maybe I'll say them later when I'm less tired and have more time.

Prepare yourself.

Stay classy*,

LT

*Steps toward classiness:

1.  Don't dress your 3-year-old daughter like a hooker...and then defend your stupidity.

2.  Repeat.

LTVlog_06: One of those days

LTVlog_05: My Fake Contact Sheet

LTVlog_04: Standup, and Red Bull, and Matt...OH MY!

Sorry guys.  Just realized as I was finishing up the most recent LTVlog that I forgot to put up the last one.  I seriously doubt and hope that your lives were not ruined by this oversight of mine.

Without further ado...here it is.

Stay Classy,
LT

Sunny Day Sweepin' the Clouds Away (Intentionally Ironic Title)

Kiwanis Club Commercial

I just now realized that I never put up the new commercial that I'm in on my blog.  I put it on Facebook and Twitter...but sometimes I'm a goof and I forget that I have this blog too.  I'm working on that.  HaHa.

Without further ado.  Do more...with Kiwanis.

HaHa, okay.  Well, in going to youtube to get this video, I found that someone really doesn't like the commercial.  They're entitled to their opinion, of course.  No doubt about that.  But it should be noted that I officially gave their negative opinion a "thumbs down" on youtube.  Take that you Debbie Downer!

LTVlog_03: #Hashtags and Childstars

LTVlog_02: Today, I made a Bandaid

myTunes: Soldier by Hanson

First, I would like to make an announcement:  If you're already laughing at me...you can just click your little back button and back off.  Hanson is awesome.  They always have been.  And until they get abducted by aliens and are altered in such a way that they are no longer themselves in any way, shape, or form...they will always continue to be awesome.

If you weren't already aware of their amazingness...you'll get no judgement from me.  I am not here to judge you but to educate you.  Ignorance isn't always the fault of the individual.  (But if you have read this far already, you no longer have any excuse for any further naivete on your part, at least when it comes to the subject of Hanson and their awesomeness.)

I will even grant you this...you may have heard Hanson before (who hasn't?  Except for those people that have been living under rocks that are being exploited by the new Geiko commercial) and thought that you didn't like them.  A poor life choice?  I'm gonna go with "probably yes."  But we all make those every once in a while.  I, myself, had salt and vinegar potato chips and Sour Patch Kids for breakfast.  Yes...I do have a fault or two...but I try to keep them under wraps for the most part so as not to alarm the lot of you.  (It should be noted that I was too weak to cook anything and those two regrettable items were out on the coffee table.  So at least I have an excuse for eating them...buying them?  No.)

Anyway, here's your chance to understand the truth: Hanson is great.  I would go into all of the reasons...but I honestly haven't the time to do so right now.  So if you're going to sit around and be a pouting doubting Thomas, then you can just go listen to the JoBros and live in the darkness of musical unawareness.

So here's the deal, when I was home at my parents' house for part of Spring Break, I grabbed some of my old CDs to put them back into my iTunes library (after having lost my music).  When doing a Google Image search for the album art for 3 Car Garage, the album cover did not show up until the sixth page of results.  This is a sad day.  It's kind of a rare record, I know.  But still.  It was the first CD I ever bought myself (my first CD ever was Abbey Road).  It's a great CD.  The world needs to know about it.

Soldier has always been one of my favorite songs from 3 Car Garage and from all of Hanson's songs in general.  The brothers wrote and composed the song (as they did with all of the songs on 3 Car Garage) and it is just sublime.  3 Car Garage was made from 1995-1996, starting two years before their first major label album release, Middle of Nowhere.  The video that I have for you is not the original recording of the song but a revisitation of the song from a recording of their Albertane Tour, so it's naturally in a different key because they had aged.

There you have it.  Awesome.  Now, back to being productive (and not eating chips and candy).

Stay Classy,

LT

Flicks I've Picked: Simon Birch

Last night I had the unbelievable privilege of watching an absolute gem of a movie: Mark Steven Johnson's Simon Birch.  Honestly, I do not know how I have not seen this movie until now.  It is unbelievable.  It's going on my Amazon.com wishlist right now.  Be right back.  Alright I'm back.  It's officially on the list.  Now, back to business.

Simon Birch is the inspiring and miraculous story of a small boy named...you guessed it...Simon Birch.  (I haven't read anything about this...but my keen skills of deduction are leading me to believe that the boy's name was most likely the inspiration for the name of the movie.  I know...my skills are just...daunting for you all, right?)

Anyway, Simon, though smaller than the 3rd grade turtledove from the Christmas pageant, is actually not  a boy at all, but an inquisitive and eloquent twelve-year-old.  Now...I haven't seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I'm "pretty sure" that the story isn't...how should I say this...possible.

I'm not knocking Benjamin Button, in fact, I'm going to go put in a request for it on the library website right now.  Be right back.  Okay, no that didn't work...but I will watch it someday.  Here's the point that I'm trying to make, despite the fact that I cannot back it up with fact or experience.

Where Benjamin Button is fantastical, Simon Birch is fantastic.

Both Simon Birch (the fictional character) and  Ian Michael Smith (the actor playing said fictional character) have Morquio Syndrome.  According to Wikipedia, the following are all symptoms of this condition:

• Abnormal heart development
• Abnormal skeletal development
• Hyper mobile joints
• Large fingers
• Knock-knees
• Widely spaced teeth
• Bell shaped chest (ribs flared)
• Compression of spinal cord
• Enlarged heart
• Dwarfism

Patients with Morquio's syndrome appear healthy at birth. They often present with spinal deformity, there is growth retardation or genu valgus in the second or third year of life.

• Short stature (flat vertebrae cause a short trunk), short neck
• Moderate kyphosis or scoliosis
• Mild pectus carinatum (pigeon chest)
• Cervical spine: odontoid hypoplasia, atlanto-axial instability; may be associated with myelopathy with gradual loss of walking ability
• Joint laxity, mild dysostosis multiplex, dysplastic hips, large unstable knees, large elbows and wrists, and flat feet
• The combined abnormalities usually result in a duck-waddling gait
• Mid-face hypoplasia and mandibular protrusion
• Thin teeth enamel
• Corneal clouding
• Mild hepatosplenomegaly

Even with his condition, Simon Birch believes almost unwaveringly that God has a specific purpose for him in this life.  The world's chiding does nothing but fuel Simon's belief that God will act through him specifically...that he is an instrument of the Lord.  While many might think of him having a purpose or a mission in spite of his challenges, Simon's message to the world is that he has these challenges for this purpose and this mission.  The film, based on John Irving's novel entitled A Prayer for Owen Meany, follows both Simon's search for his divine purpose and his best friend Joe's (Joseph Mazello) search for his biologic father.

It's quite possibly impossible for me to tell you all whether I laughed more than I cried or if it was the other way around.  I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this movie...nothing at all.  Would I recommend that you watch this movie?  No.  I would demand that you watch this movie.  It is 114 minutes of tears and laughter, doubt and faith, intolerance and acceptance,  and hypocrisy and devotion.  It is a brilliantly told story that needs to be heard by all.

Bottom line?  Just watch it.

Stay classy, everyone.  I'll leave you with a few words from Simon:  "Faith is not in a floor plan."

LT

Genevieve - a Photo Timeline

This will be short as I am getting ready to perform Troilus and Cressida this afternoon.  I'm so excited.  Anyway, here's the deal, I always get these e-mails from the humane society, checking up on if I'm taking care of my dog (not in a bad way [I think it's great...if you're going to get a dog, you sure as you know where better take care of it] but by giving me coupons to take care of her for like...food, beds, flea stuff...etc..

It's funny because, before I adopted Genevieve, her name was not as awesome.  Each e-mail refers to her using her name from the shelter.  Today's e-mail was titled thusly:

"Keep Grape protected from Fleas, Ticks, and Heartworm"

Yes...her name was Grape.  She and all of her siblings had seemingly fallen victim to being given names found in a fruit basket or the produce aisle.  Things have changed, and I don't think she remembers those days too often anymore.  (While I do joke about the name thing, I must say that the shelter is awesome and does wonderful work.)

Anyway, here's the point.  In said e-mails, they always include a picture of "Grape" from her brief time as a shelter resident.  I just had to share.

Grape...as she was when I met her.

The Dog formerly known as Grape (i.e. Genevieve).

I think this was the day Genevieve came home with me.

Genevieve with her pal Nelson.

Genevieve (I know...shocker) on the patio.

Somebody was eyeing my dinner....

Yeah...we're awesome.

Genevieve awkwardly sitting in front of the vacuum.

Genevieve, proudly being the focal point of
the first photo taken on my iPhone.

Okay that's all for now.  This was way more time consuming than I thought it would be...and I couldn't find some of the pictures I wanted.  My mom has them, so I'll hopefully put them on sometime soon.

Stay Classy (and come see Troilus and Cressida if you're at Butler!  LH 328, 3:50 pm.  TODAY!

LT

myTunes: Vintage by Break of Reality

This post is mostly for Kristen...but it also applies to anyone with awesome taste in music.  Love you, Sis.

Flicks I've Picked: The Last Exorcism

This is the second installment of Flicks I've Picked.  As you have probably surmised already by reading the title, the flick that I picked this time was Daniel Stamm's The Last Exorcism.  (Just so you know, that website is way scarier than the movie itself...but the website is rather scary, as far as websites go.)

The film is set up like a documentary, following the "final exorcism" of Reverend Cotton Marcus (played by Patrick Fabian), a scammer/preacher, who has been faking exorcisms for money.  This documentary is meant to expose exorcism as the sham that Cotton believes it to be.  When Cotton arrives at the Sweetzer farm to meet with the tragically possessed Nell Sweetzer (played by Ashley Bell) however, he is unexpectedly faced with something that he has never encountered: The possibility that this young woman may actually be possessed by Satan.

The resultant questions are these:

• Is Nell possessed?
• If so, what is a phony exorcist going to do about it?
• If not...what exactly is going on?!

I don't want to give anything away here, in case you're planning on watching the film (which I will get to in a minute), but suffice it to say that one or more of those questions may remain unanswered.  (They certainly did for me...at least after one initial viewing.)

Speaking of "one initial viewing," will I watch this again?  The answer is yes, I will.  Why?  Because much like Winter's Bone, something in the end of the movie all but demands that I watch it again, to search for clues and answers that I may have missed.  To me, if I did miss them (which I'm sure I probably did), then that warrants a second viewing.  Why?  Because I care...I care enough about the people in the film that I want to know what actually happened...what didn't happen...and why.  If I didn't miss anything...then I may be frustrated by a second viewing, feeling that I've wasted my time on a DVD with nothing but loose ends and the mother of all abrupt, confusing, and possibly pointless endings.

Yeah, you heard me.  The mother of all abrupt, confusing, and possibly pointless endings.  When I run into something that steals that accomplishment away from TLE, I'll be sure to let you know.

What's good about this movie?

The way that it was made is absolutely fascinating and captivating.  Stamm's direction seems to have been trying to get as close to reality as possible...without actual reality.  The creepy farmhouse that much of the movie takes place in is a real creepy farmhouse...not to be confused with its distant cousin, the fake creepy farmhouse.  Additionally, most of the actors (aside from Fabian and Bell) played characters with the same first name, in order to keep them from escaping too far.  They weren't looking for actors acting...they were looking for people experiencing.  And that comes across absolutely brilliantly in the film.

What's even more brilliant about the film is Ashley Bell, a relative newcomer to the filmmaking scene.  Her performance is so lavishly layered and creepily crisp (please take note of that awesome alliteration) that even if I didn't want to watch the film again to try to piece the puzzle together...I might just watch it again for her performance.  Little trivia tidbit here for you, according to IMDB, "Bell did all the bends and contortions of her body on her own.  No special effects were used - she has hyper-mobility."  That statement will mean very little until you see the film...or at the very least the film's trailer.

What's that you said?  Trailer?  Yes...here it is...but be forewarned.  Not only is the trailer (like the website) way scarier than the movie itself...but the trailer is also...well...in my opinion...terrifying.  So if you think that you might be frightened by the trailer...then by all means, DO NOT WATCH IT.  If you do and you get scared, I totally warned you.

So yeah, that's the gist of it.  If you're looking to be scared out of your wits (which I wasn't) then you may be let down by TLE.  If you're like me and you can appreciate a film, even with its shortcomings *COUGH-ENDING-COUGH*, for the unique way that it was made, and a cornucopia of stunning performances (not just Bell), then TLE may be worth your time.

If you've seen it, or see it after reading this, let me know what you think.

Stay Classy,

LT

myTunes: Sons and Daughters by The Decemberists

The winds are blowing like crazy outside and I love it.  There's just something about the wind...the idea that the air that I breathe and that gives me life takes on a life of its own.  There's a natural strength to it.  Oftentimes it is a subtle strength, but on nights like tonight, it's a force to be reckoned with.  I think that we all have that inside of us.  Anyway, I just think it's awesome.  It actually has nothing to do with this post (well, I guess now it does, but whatever).

I really don't have anything to say other than those airy thoughts (pun intended).  It's just that I finished watching Tuesday's episode of Glee a little while ago and the final song from that episode got me to thinking about what my favorite songs on the planet are.  I'm thinking I want to integrate that into my blog somehow, but I'm not sure how yet, and I don't care to take the effort to even think about that right now.  Just wanted to share this song.  I took my brother to see The Decemberists for a graduation gift last summer.  Not this past summer, but LAST summer, you know?  I guess that doesn't really matter to you.  Oh well.

This has always been one of my favorite songs of theirs and one of my favorite songs, period.  When they closed the show with this song, I'm not going to lie, I cried.  Just so simply beautiful and beautifully simple.  No complexity.  Just hopes and dreams and the belief that we can make them so.

When we arrive
Sons & daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls aluminum
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now

These currents pull us 'cross the border
Steady your boats
Arms to shoulder
'till tides will pull
our hull aground
Making this cold harbour now home

Take up your arm
Sons and daughters
We will arise from the bunkers
By land, by sea, by dirigible
We'll leave our tracks untraceable now

When we arrive
Sons and daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls aluminum
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now
(We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now)

When we arrive
Sons and daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls aluminum
(Sons and daughters)
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon
(We'll make our homes on the water)
We'll make our homes on the water
(When we build our walls of aluminum)
(We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon)

Here all the bombs they fade away (x20)

That's all for now.  Just wanted to share that awesomeness with you guys.

Okay, now I think that I may be adding this as a section entitled myTunes.  We'll see.  I'm accruing a lot of sections these days, it seems to me.

SC,

LT