so, I’m out and about in Chicago taking a couple days off, but the app that allows me to post photos on our blog is broken to say the least, so I’m using a round-about route to get this single, sad little picture up for you. lame.
anyway, I’ll post a bunch of pictures tomorrow when I return from my mini-vacation…
this photo is of what’s living right outside our hotel window… with about 20 of his scary friends. apparently terrifying spiders find tall buildings to nest into.. thank the good lord, he’s not inside our room.
starting today, my beautiful wife and i are taking a couple days off of work to relax downtown (chicago.) it’s been really wonderful working on all of these misc. projects lately, but having some time off will be great and will make me enjoy my work even more when i return to it.
i feel like i haven’t left my studio in weeks (other than to eat) so, i’ll be sure to post some photos of anything neat i see in chicago… with my iPhone 4! (yes, i still adore it…)
will post more soon!
before i sign out, check out this sweet article about a recent fossil find in peru that is of a giant sea monster! sweeeeet…
Nat King Cole’s voice is my favorite male vocal of all time. not only that, but he’s one of my favorite musicians of all time as well.
he’s one of the rare artists that i grew up around and throughout every stage of my life so far i have appreciated him and his beautiful music (even when i was young and listened to mostly terrible music, nat was there to guide my taste in a better direction) and nat king cole’s Christmas album embodies just about all of my favorite Christmas memories. when i hear it, it floods me with a really wonderful, pure feeling. not a lot of music has that effect on me.
his voice was effortless, in a way i don’t think anyone has been able to recreate. his pitch was spot on, his tone was perfection, not to mention his abilities as a pianist are impeccable as well. he was a genius and will forever be a cherished part of my music collection!
i’m sure you’re already well aware of his gorgeous music, but listen closely to these two performances:
that song is so simple and little, but it’s absolutely magical. and that voice!! i especially love his tone in his younger years, during and right after his time as a the nat “king” cole trio.
and here’s a later song in his career… “answer me, my love.” the orchestration and choir arrangements are lovely. this one has a very disney-esque feel that i love.
this’ll be a short post again, due to lots of work needing to get done today…
but i was curious – what movies are planned to come out this year that you are looking forward to? i ask, because there are only like 2 that i’m looking forward to… not a lot.
remake after remake, sequel after sequel… it now seems like hollywood has decided instead to just rummage through old childhood toy bins to find stories to make movies out of. i recently read that there are movies being made based on: the battleship board game, monopoly, stretch armstrong… i also read about one for candyland, he-man… (and let’s not forget about the recent films already made: transformers, g.i. joe…) so, so, so, so, so weird. and i just today read about lego: the movie. no joke… in fact, normally i would write something like that off, BUT the directors for “cloudy with a chance of meatballs” are possibly going to work on it… on a recent flight somewhere, i enjoyed “cloudy” much more than anticipated… so a lego movie from them could be interesting, at least.
in general, i think toy story should be the only toy-inspired movies out there. but who knows, maybe some of these strange un-toy-story-toy-movies will turn out decently.
as for movies coming out real soon… i’m looking forward to inception. and i always enjoy the harry potter films, so that’ll be fun as well. the last airbender certainly does not look like something i’d enjoy, and i certainly am not a huge fan of m. night shyamalan’s most recent “the happening” movie… but i’ll always love signs and a few others of his films, so i’ll give it a shot.
how about you? what are you looking forward to movie-wise for the rest of 2010?
love, ryan
p.s. speaking of movies and lego… check out these awesome lego-inspired movie posters:
lately, we’ve been having some pretty incredible storms around here in illinois. during one of which, lightening struck a major power line just a couple hundred feet from my house – causing a pretty remarkable live wire that sparked and flamed in the neighbors yard. a few neighbors ran outside in the pouring rain to inspect it and called the fire dept. while the firemen were pulling up, apparently a tornado siren went off at the same time… which none of us could really hear because of the fire trucks.. yikes.
anyway, since i lived to write about it on here, i’m sure you’ve already assumed that (thankfully) no one was hurt and the fire/electric line didn’t really do much damage, due to the flames not being able to spread on wet ground. that same wet ground also turned the entire yard into an electrical hot bed, since the live wire was just flailing around on it, sending electricity through the yard – which is truly dangerous. obviously. it took the electric company many, many hours to show up, get the whole mess under control and finally clean it all up. as you can imagine, the entire neighborhood was fully entertained by the spectacle. quite an evening.
anyway, i stumbled upon this incredible video that was taken in downtown chicago during one of these insane storms. watch this video… it’s pretty amazing. lightening strikes three of chicago’s tallest buildings at the same time… and a fellow chicagoan by the name of craig shimala caught it beautifully on film. i don’t generally love the danger associated with severe thunderstorms, but goodness – they sure can be gorgeous. this video is a perfect example of just that:
but who knows, maybe some of these strange un-toy-story-toy-movies will turn out decently.
