One Man’s Trash… Is Another Man’s Art

Tim Nobel and Sue Webster take piles of trash and it into art… but sometimes the art isn’t apparent until you see it in a different light…

Viva Las Vegas

Well, my Dad and I just got back from the Las Vegas trip that we won. It was just for the weekend, but it was more than enough time because you can only drink and gamble for so long! Anyways, we had a great time. The prize included our flights, limo transportation, $200 cash, 2 nights at the Rio, and Penn and Teller show tickets. All I have to say is that I’m thankful I only have a 3 day work week this week.

My dad with Penn (he wanted to drop his pants for this picture, but I wouldn’t let him so he ended up striking this sweet pose)

Messing with the limo driver…

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Rating: 4 / 5

I’ve heard the hype about MGMT for awhile now, but just never got around to checking them out. A few weeks ago, I downloaded their album “Oracular Spectacular”, that was released in 2007, and have since then been kicking myself in the ass because I had more than one opportunity to see them live, which I clearly did not. As a whole, the album isn’t a hit all the way through because there are a few songs that I’m not too crazy about (Future Reflections, The Handshake). However, the songs that I do like make the album kick some serious badonkadonk (Electric Feel, Kids, Time to Pretend, The Youth). So yeah, if you haven’t already checked MGMT out, I urge you to do so. I’m off to Vegas, catch ya Monday…

Wedding Party Video

Kate and I wanted to do something different to ask people to stand up in our wedding, so we decided to make a music video spoof of the Fresh Prince of Belair. We taped the video with a green screen cloth behind us, recorded the audio in Garageband, and edited it all in Final Cut Pro. I also implemented everyone into the cast of various tv shows with Photoshop. Its not the most professional production, but it got the job done in a short amount of time while hardly spending any money, except for printing out the DVD covers. Here is the video, and remember we were aiming for “corny”…

Fresh Kate n Jer from My Name is Gerard on Vimeo.

Here is a green screen shot…

Our dvd cover…

The lyrics…

Now this is a story, all about how our life got flipped - turned upside down,
And we’d like to take a minute,
just sit right there,
We’ll tell you how we became Kate and Jer.

In Pekin, Illinois born and raised
in the cornfields is where I spent mosta my days
Chillin out, detassln’, relaxin’ all cool and all
Little did I know what would happen at school
At the U of I in Champaign Urbana
I was a d-bag frat boy who wore bandanas
I was lookin’ for some lovin’ so I went to an exchange
Although my roommates said ‘You ain’t got no game’

I saw this beefy man hangin’ with some friends
A future dentist – Mercedes Benz?!?
With all of my might I went to say hi
But realized I had homework and was quick to say bye
This smoking hot chick asked me to dance
Before I knew it, party in my pants
‘Hmm.. this girl be alright’
A future lawyer, man that’s tight!

5 years later, look at us now
A ring on my finger, writin’ our vows
No big lawyer, no Mercedes Benz
A teacher and a tooth fairy with great friends
That is why we’re sharing this story
Cause you were all there to witness our glory
So were askin’ you an important question
Stand up in our wedding be a part of our procession?!?

An Incredible Story - Peter and the Elephant

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through a Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same fucking elephant.

-The End.

All I Want for Christmas

Dear Santa,

Contrary to what you’ve heard, I’ve been good this year. With that said, all I want for Christmas are these 4 things…

- An outdoor movie theatre for my driveway

- A couple of these sweet urinals for my bathroom

- This pixel couch for my basement

- This dude’s sense of style for my ego

Regards,
Jerry

U of I Weekend and Bella

3 years ago: A doll by the name of Bella was adopted by the senior girls of Gamma Phi Beta. Bella was worshipped by all. At the end of the year, she was handed down to the soon-to-be seniors.

2 year ago: Bella supposedly contracted a STD, was burned, and buried.

This past weekend: While visiting the good ol’ alma mater, day drinking led to a brilliant idea…

The Streets - Everything is Borrowed

The Streets - Everything is Borrowed
Rating: 3.75 / 5

Everything is Borrowed is the fourth album by The Streets, a band from the UK. If you have never heard their music before, you may have to listen to a few songs to get used to their distinct genre and sound. However, in the end, if you’re like me, you’ll be keeping this album on your playlist.

Sick

Dear stuffy nose, achy body, itchy throat, and head cold:

Please bother someone else.

Sincerely,
Jerry

Nikki Farquharson - Mixed Media

Here is a sample of graphic design art by Nikki Farquharson. I am a big fan of the colors, line work, and the mixture of media…

Chicago Bears / Blackhawks Weekend

I’m still exhausted from the weekend. I was pretty tired at work on Friday so I downed a 5-hour Energy… little did I know how well that stuff works. I ended up getting home and didn’t end up falling asleep til close to 5 in the morning.

So Friday night, I ended up buying some books online…

- Night by Elie Wiezel - I read this in high school and remember it being really good.
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - A friend recommended this to me.
- A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich - I hated history in high school, but now love it.
- America: The Last Best Hope by William Bennett - Again, the history thing…
- HTML, XHTML, and CSS by Elizabeth Castro - Because this trial and error approach to messing with coding takes up too much of my time.

Saturday I chilled.

Sunday I got up to go to the Bears game, tailgated, ate too many sandwiches, and watched the Bears lose to the undefeated Tennessee Titans. I was wiped, but we went on to round 2 for the Chicago Blackhawks game. My Dad’s sister is married to Bob Pulford’s son (NHL hall of famer and ex General Manager of the Hawks) so he got us awesome seats to the game…

It ended up being a great game with the Hawks winning 6-1. So yeah, it was a long weekend to say the least, but I really can’t complain.

99 Balloons - The Story of Baby Eliot

In times of regression, like these, it is important to remember the importance and value of those we still have around us. Some of you out there might not have a job anymore, lost a house, or had money disappear in the stock market, but we have to remember to cherish the things and people we have not lost. The story I have posted about Baby Eliot below is an empowering video that will make you realize how miniscule our problems are and will allow you to see the big picture, as his parents already see. This was on the Oprah Winfrey show. Why was I watching Oprah? You’re guess is as good as mine…

Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. Here is his story…

Check out www.ninetynineballoons.com for more information about Eliot.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
mynameisgerard.com Rating: 4 / 5

I saw Bon Iver this past summer at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t too familiar with the band or their music. After a rather enjoyable, chill set, I downloaded their latest album “For Emma, Forever Ago”, which came out this past February. It has ended up being one of my favorite albums from this year. If you’re looking to unwind for an hour, I highly recommend this indie rock / folk album…

In other news, I went to one of my friends fundraiser events tonight for The Global Alliance for Africa at a bar called Zellas in Chicago. Global Alliance for Africa partners with local African NGO’s, religious institutions, and community based organizations to design and implement innovative economic strengthening programs with the goal of enabling communities and households to provide sustainable care and support for oprphans and other vulnerable children affected by HIV / AIDS. If you would like more information about the organization or would like to volunteer or donate, please check out their website at http://www.globalallianceafrica.org

Hard to Read Verification Boxes

A rant from my old blog…

So today I was trying to look up some tickets on Ticketmaster, but was unable to do so because apparently nowadays you have to be an FBI agent that can crack codes and ciphers. I’m absolutely sick and tired of these little “verification” boxes with scrambled up letters and numbers that you have to decipher and type in to go to the next page. Supposedly, they do this so “robots” aren’t making automated registrations, etc. Are millions of robots really sitting at computers seeing how many Yahoo mail accounts they can open??

For those of you out there that have no idea what I’m talking about, I have put together a list of the 4 Most Common Verification Boxes that piss me off…

1) “The easy to understand, but obnoxiously long as hell” Verification Box. In this box, you have to replicate an obnoxiously long word that you end up often misplacing a letter or two. A common side effect from this is carpal tunnel syndrome.

2) “The Shroomer’s Paradise” Verification Box. In this box, courtesy of Myspace, you will begin to hallucinate after staring at it for 10 seconds. You end up getting so dizzy there is no possible way you can have the coordination to get it right.

3) “The easy as hell until the last letter” Verification Box. In this type of box, you start fist pumping in excitement because you can ACTUALLY decipher all the letters and numbers… until the last one. Usually they’ll pull a flipmode, and throw in a random Chinese character.

4) “The Screw this Sh*t” Verification Box. In this type of box, you just simply give up on trying to register to pay for your Super Bowl tickets. I think they hire chickens to write the letters, throw in the most random pictures like the Hamburgler, and then end with the clearest and simplest letter to kindly say “up yours”!

Barack Obama - 44th President of the United States

Some people are awesome, and they can handle awesome things. Others that aren’t awesome, cannot handle awesome things. A person or something can be awesome to a degree. Super-awesome, or insane-awesome are examples.

Obama becoming the 44th pres is super-awesome.