Book Signing Bash : Rich Barnett’s “The Discreet Charms of a Bourgeois Beach Town: Rehoboth Beach Stories”

I had the distinct pleasure over the weekend of being in attendance for the book singing party for my friend Rich Barnett. Rich is a highly charismatic, wonderfully witty, gentle giant of a man; he’s one of those people that always seem to have a sparkle in their eye when speaking. His writing, which I highly recommend, reflects his Southern charm and keen sense of humor.

Click on the cover of his book  to read excerpts and to purchase from Amazon.com.

The book signing was a fantastic poolside affair and I was quick with my iPhone to document some of the bash.


Poolside at the event.


Well wishers cheer Rich and toast to the success of his book.


Rich Barnett addresses the crowd.


Prudential Gallo REALTOR® and Associate Broker George Thomasson makes his way through the crowd.


Poolside at the event. I forget this charming woman’s name – I think it is Kathy or Katherine. The scarf draped over her shoulders was glorious.


Another shot of Rich addressing the crowd…


More festive attendees. I believe this is Bobby from Bad Hair Day


The party continues. Paul Nye and Jerry Hofer center.


Rich signs copies of his book at the event. In the foreground (with glasses) is another celebrated local author, Fay Jacobs.


More guests in line for cocktails…


Pool side attendees…


A wonderful time had by all…

21 Household Uses For Vodka - Hic...

21 Household Uses For Vodka

And you thought it was just for Martinis, Cosmos and Bloodys...

Sound O’ The Past….

I just came across a great article on the Atlantic Monthly’s web site entitled The Mechanics and Meaning of That Ol' Dial-Up Modem Sound. It’s a well written and fascinating article that explains what was happening (or, what is happening for those who may actually still use a dial up modem – is that even possible?) during that cacophonous yet oddly alluring sound that would take place when a modem would “piggyback on an analog telephone network”.

It’s also worth the read just to hear that sound again. At times, that same sound would once be the bane of my sanity when trying to get online back in the 90’s. If done successfully - and the sound went through it’s predictable song of clicks, beeps and buzzes -  then it was smooth sailing like an effortless merge onto a busy highway. When it didn’t work – that dropped connection “klunk” sound would prove wildly frustrating.

Read the article for old time’s sake, but if you’re simply curious, or pressed for time, and you can recall the sound from your memory banks without having to hear it anew, then you may appreciate this info-graphic that explains the process step by step through the sound….

How One Guy Met Mr. Right and Lived Together Happily Ever After…

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the day that I met my partner for life - George. Since we're not legally allowed to be married in this land of the free, we have always used the day that we met as our “special day” to celebrate as the anniversary of our relationship.

We were the successful result of a blind date arranged by two well meaning and coupled friends. One of the two was “my ex”. Our relationship had been really more along the line of glorified dating and it had only lasted a handful of youthful months from the very early Spring to very late Summer of 1992. Fortunately, he and I made the mutual decision that we would be better friends than inamoratos. Soon after, he began dating a tall, charismatic brunette chap with big soulful eyes and a keen sense of humor. The three of us became fast friends.

A wagon rolls better with four wheels than three, and it wasn’t long after our merry trio had formed that I could sense my ex was flipping through his mental roll-a-deck searching for my perfect fix-up. 

One late afternoon, over a late lunch/early dinner, my ex informed me that they had planned a little cocktail party for the following weekend and they really wanted me to join them. It was to occur on May 16, being that that was the birthday of my ex’s new beau (the third corner of the trio) and it also happened to be the day before my birthday. We could kill two birds with one stone so to speak, and as I had expected,  my ex had invited this “really great guy” that he was certain that I “would hit it off with”.  Though reluctant, I agreed – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Somehow, perhaps through divine intervention or a damn fine mental roll-a-deck, my ex was right. George and I have been a couple every day since meeting on the evening of May 16, 1993.

We’ve long lost touch with my ex and his beau. They were together for a few years, and for a while, the wagon of our friendship rolled quite well with four wheels. Eventually however,  they ended their partnership and they each went their separate way. But George and I stayed together.

When I look back over our immense history as a couple, I am awed. There have been breathtaking highs and teeth gnashing lows – peaks and valleys, successes and failures, births and deaths, departures and returns, tropical breezes and violent storms, magic carpet rides and terrifying free-falls.

My partner and I are not a couple because of a document legally binding us together (though that should be our federally mandated legal right should we decide to do so). We’re not staying together because of children that we are  raising (though we should be able to legally adopt like any other legally married couple in every state of the union should we decide to do so). We’re not together because it would be a time consuming, painful journey through a jungle of red tape should we decide to part ways. We stay together because we choose to stay together; we stay together because we are still in love with each other.

So, in closing, as our year long hair-raising, exhilarating roller coaster ride pulls up to the platform today as it has on every May 16 for the last 19 years, I can look my partner straight in the eye and with complete and utter honesty say, “Let’s do it again!”

I love you George.

All Eyes On You

This is somewhat interesting. It seems all you blue-eyed folks are but a massive group of distant cousins. Personally, I have green eyes with a ring of what I will artistically call burnt-orange around the pupil so don't look for me at your blue-eyed family reunion. I also can't seem to find my color combo on this chart. Sigh...

Find the info-graphic and the back story here: http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/what-your-eye-color-reveals-about-you-infographic/

Lil’ Brian and the Travelers….

One of my highlights from the over holiday weekend was getting to experience some live and amazing and authentic Zydeco Funk at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware.

The featured band is called “Lil’ Brian and the Travelers”. And, indeed true to their name, they had traveled all the way from Dallas, Texas for the gig.

The show was outstanding, the crowd large and the applause  passionate. They were there as part of “Sydney’s Music Revival at Bethany Blues” created by my dear friend, Jazz and Blues Professional Promoter Sydney Artz. She been booking fantastic live performances at the venue located at 18385 Coastal Highway in Lewes, Delaware for the last couple of years and she has other amazing live performances scheduled each Friday night through at least the end of May, 2012 (shows begin at 8 PM).

I’m not sure when Lil’ Bryan will be back in this neck of the woods, but I hope to catch it when they are.

Michael Tisserand, author of “The Kindom of Zydeco”, called"Lil' Brian a “trailblazer in the spirit of Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco- revs up his mighty sound on FUNKY NATION. This is great music, hard-driving and irresistible." 

I snapped some live action shots of Lil’ Brian and the Travelers with my iPhone and I told Sydney that I would share them. So here they are, and remember – the next time you find yourself in Rehoboth Beach/Lewes, Delaware on a Friday night, swing by and catch Sydney’s Music Revival, you’ll be glad you did!

Click on any of the image below to see larger versions in a new window…


Lil’ Brian and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


Lil’ Brian (on mic) and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


An enthusiastic crowd dances at the Lil’ Brian and the Travelers as they perform live at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


Lil’ Brian smiles at the crowd’s enthusiastic reception as they perform live at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse

Lil’ Brian and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


Lil’ Brian and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


The astounding drummer of Lil’ Brian and the Travelers glances stage left right moments before performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


Lil’ Brian and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


Lil’ Brian and the Travelers performing at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse


The ever-memorable, Mid-Atlantic legend, Jazz and Blues enthusiast Sydney Arts introduces Lil’ Brian and the Travelers prior to their gig at Bethany Blues in Lewes, Delaware on Friday, April 6, 2012 courtesy of Sydney’s Music Revival. Photograph © 2012 Michael Sprouse

Honey? Huh?

I just washed down a mediocre sandwich from Harris-Teeter with this diet green tea drink. The second ingredient is listed as honey yet it has zero calories. The last time I looked, honey had calories. Something isn't adding up here.

Mercury. Retrograde. Arrrrgh!!!

It seems my EZ pass vanished the same day Mercury went into retrograde. It stays there until April 4th. Mystery explained. Though, it's still a pain in the ass. Keep your eyes open folks, dot your I's and cross your T's until it passes. And expect to be frustrated. Sometimes even the awareness helps. Cheers!

One painting, two portraits steeped in history…

In honor of Lincoln's birthday here is a fascinating story from the New York Times of two portraits in one painting.

Photographs from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum

Left, the altered portrait depicting Mrs. Lincoln; right, the restored image, an unknown woman without a Lincoln brooch.

It’s a story that, while still exposing a fake portrait, accents not only the important historic and intrinsic value of art, but the poignant connections attached to it that were ultimately triggered by the assassination of a great leader.

Read the full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/design/portrait-of-mary-todd-lincoln-is-deemed-a-hoax.html?_r=1

Pure. Ugly. Hypocrisy.

Just the first 5 minutes of the great Rachel Maddow segment alone (linked to at the end of this post) will give enough documented proof to show the pure, fetid, stomach churning hypocrisy that the  Republican party of today represents. Somehow - over the last 25 years or so - , they have de-evolved into a party of hateful, fearful, easily-lead, unquestioning, gullible, small-minded, selfish, uncaring, unimaginative, colorless, stunted, drab, hypocritical people.

They have become the kind of people not to fight against oppression, but to lead it. They have become the kind of people not to stand up for human rights, but to oppose them. They have become the kind of people not to help those in need, but to trod upon them.

The beautiful words forever etched on the base of the Statue of Liberty - “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - have become lost on them, though they themselves are the descendants of immigrants to this fantastic country.

How long I wonder, if ever they were to create a place where their warped fantasy of a totally homogenous world consisting of a white, Christian, heterosexual, male- dominated population were to come true, would it take them to start pointing their fingers at each other.  What imperfection would it take? Perhaps having brown eyes, or left handedness, or maybe an usual way of pronouncing certain words could be the trigger pulling defect.

Of course, one doesn’t have to look very far through the history books to see the last time this kind of empty headed, blind trust in a “one of us” kind of mentality shook the world.

Fortunately, predictably, and historically it failed.  And as all hate-inspired, fear-fuelled, separationist movements go, eventually, the dark wave that has currently engulfed the GOP will find it’s way down the drain.

The problem will then be, as always, the dark ring left behind.

Rachel Maddow segment here:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republicans reverse themselves in trying to drag America backward

Stupid is as stupid does….

Here's something to file under "Things You Already Know To Be True But Are Glad For The Confirmation All The Same".  A new study, published in Psychological Science, showed that people who score low on I.Q. tests in childhood are more likely to develop prejudiced beliefs and socially conservative politics in adulthood.

So, the next time you find yourself confronted by a Tea Party moron, hand them this article and a crossword puzzle for a quick escape.

Or, maybe a Speak-N-Spell for the truly slow ones, though quite perplexed by "smart" toys they love the line "The cow says moo"…

One bad apple…

If you blissfully stroll through the the brand driven, ad agency carefully crafted, glistening, candy-coated Apple dreamscape of an exalted place of refined air far above the hellish nether-world of jaw-dropping labor abuses in Chinese sweat shops, it's time for your wake up call.



Yesterday’s Business Section of the New York Times, featured a scathing and comprehensive article titled, “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad”. It does a fine job of describing just how much blood, sweat, and tears (literally) goes into the shiny new iPhones and iPads that have driven Apple sales into new realms of success.

Make no mistake, I’m no fan of China. In my opinion, they are simply wrong on every level whether it be citizen oppression or social injustice, wildly flagrant environmental damage, over population and a strict unyielding compliance to an outdated, failed, political system steeped in dysfunction. I could go on, but my point is made.

Regardless of my personal feelings however, I understand that when all the layers of psychological, religious, social and personal identification are gone, people are people.

And a human being deserves better than what is reported in the article.

I’m curious now as to what steps Apple will take, if any, to repair this ugly situation.

Now who’s gonna swab the deck pirate scum?

I laugh heartily when I hear GOP spin-masters decry Obama with baseless implications about him being weak on military support or lacking in concern about defense against terrorism and the such.

As Commander-in-Chief, not only did he authorize the taking out of bin Laden, last night, right before/during his SOTU address mind you, he authorized an operation to rescue Jessica Buchanan, an American citizen who was kidnapped and held against her will for three months in Somalia by pirates.

These are pirates who now will no longer be needing an eye patch, peg leg, or parrot.

(Image by johnx1 of the Independents for If Pirates Ruled Photoshop strange pictures contest)

Way to kick some smarmy Somalian pirate pirate ass POTUS!

Read the entire article here courtesy of thehill.com 

Empty Subway…

Having lived in Washington, DC for over 20 years, I’ve taken countless metro rides throughout the great city and surrounding metro area.

While journeying via the metro to the Shady Grove stop for a business meeting late yesterday morning, I realized that it had been years since I had ridden to any of the “last stops” on the system. I lost track of time gliding through the tunnels as I mentally flipped through the years attempting to pinpoint the last time I had the experience. No luck. As I lifted my head out of the futility of my memory haze, I noticed that I was the sole passenger on the car.

I quickly glanced to both the left and right to see if I could see a distant profile of some other rider lost in a newspaper or iPhone. No one.

It’s a surreal, dreamlike, short-lived and rare experience to be the only person in a passenger car on a metro system that shuttles over 2.5 million people annually. So, of course, I reached for my iPhone to make quick use of my favorite camera app to quickly visually document the fleeting experience. After a wee bit of tweaking in Photoshop, I present the results here for you to enjoy.

If you ever find yourself alone in an otherwise crowded space, after taking a moment to take in the Zen of it all. Grab your camera, visually document, and then let me know. I’d like to see what you come up with and I’d like to share it here.

(and please remember folks - all images in this post ©Michael Sprouse 2012)

Click on the image below to see a larger version in a new window

Pardon me, is that a head in your bag? Say Cheese!

What kind of twisted American society have we created where the first impulse someone has when they have the unfortunate and horrific experience of stumbling across a severed head while walking through the park is to have a photograph of taken of themselves posing next to the hideousness with a smile?

What if their second impulse is to list the macabre image to a photographic licensing firm so as to get at least a 5 grand asking price from the media frenzy as they each attempt to claim it?

I envision snarling, angry junkyard dogs leaping wild eyed for a gnarled bone dangled from the hand of an inbreed mouth-breathing freak.

Horrifying though this thought may be to the sane few who dwell amongst this culturally decimated society , it's all true. You can find the sordid details here.

How rich the irony that this news item appears on the same day photography giant and American icon Kodak files for bankruptcy?

Remember, say cheese...

STRIKE AGAINST CENSORSHIP

More Free Facebook Covers!

The last time I posted some recent Facebook covers that I designed for free, they became very popular. So, being that I’m in a generous mood today – I’m posting more. Share as you will and enjoy!

I created these in Photoshop using either my own original photographs, or digital collages from vintage and/or retro photographs.

To use them, simply click on the image below for the larger version which is the size you’ll need for the cover image. Then

1. Go to your timeline
   
2. Click Add a Cover
   
3. Choose choose “upload a new photo” and direct it to the are where you have saved the image
   
4. Once you choose a photo, you can reposition it by clicking on the image and dragging it up or down
   
5. Click Save
   
6. Enjoy!
   

Kim Novak Lashes Out?

According to an article I ran across in The Mainichi Daily News, Kim Novak feels “violated” because music from the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece film “Vertigo” is used in “The Artist” (the new  French black-and-white homage to the silent-film era and expected to be a front-runner at this year's Academy Awards).

Violated? It’s not as if she co-composed the film’s astounding score, and I’ll make the safe assumption that the film’s score wasn’t being piped onto the set during her scenes in the film. 

Let me mention that I am a tremendous fan of both Hitchcock and Novak and “Vertigo” is truly an outstanding work of cinematic art. Masterfully directed by Hitchcock, the magical and skillful performances by Novak and the late great Jimmy Stewart are integral parts of the film’s mystique and allure.

That being said, I find this reaction by the now faded, but still treasured, star over the top. Was this really worth having a “statement released by her manager” to document her disdain?

According to the article, Kim feels that her "body of work has been violated by 'The Artist.' This film took the love theme music from 'Vertigo' and used the emotions it engenders as its own. Alfred Hitchcock and Jimmy Stewart can't speak for themselves, but I can. It was our work that unconsciously or consciously evoked the memories and feelings to the audience that were used for the climax of 'The Artist.'"

Perhaps, but I sense that this smites more so of bitter grapes then anger over music. Novak was at the pinnacle of her film career in the early to mid 1960’s. She made a handful of forgettable theater and television films in 70’s and early 80’s culminating in her last film appearance, 1991’s “Liebestraum”. According to Wikipedia however, “owing to battles with the director over how to play the role,” in that film, her scenes were cut. “Novak later admitted in a 2004 interview that the film was a mistake.”

In 2007 she said in an interview, that said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."  Personally, I would love to see her on the big screen in a meaningful role. Where’s Taratino when you need him?

That interview was over 5 years ago. Perhaps Kim felt that some attention getting, rattling of the cage of the film industry was in order over what she considers to be a cinematic no-no in connection to a master film that she starred in over 50 years ago.

It isn’t.