Kids Making Better Choices on YOUTUBE

My company CONCRETE DREAM INC. recently received a grant to conceive, write, produce, and edit a video that might help kids make better eating and exercise choices. Kids today face many very serious health issues, and they need good quality information presented in an inspiring and fun way. This is exactly what I tried to do with KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES. I wrote the script with as many slapstick jokes and magic tricks as I could weave through it. I also wanted Mom's and Dad's to be able to share the video freely. KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES was created under a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE which allows people to copy and share the entire video legally - as long as the sharer gives credit to the copyright holders, does not change the content, and shares, but doesn't sell the content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. The video was created and produced through a grant from the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils, Inc. and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. To make it easier for people to see and share... we've uploaded it in tiny little bite sized pieces to YOUTUBE. You might want to check them out. It's our sincere desire that kids everywhere live happy and healthy lives. Maybe this video will help them a little.

2007 Outstanding RC&D Project Award Winner

Any career is going to have ups and downs. Last week was a real up for me. I was awarded the 2007 OUTSTANDING RC&D PROJECT AWARD by The Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils, Inc. In 2007 the Northwest Alabama RC&D Council sent me to selected Alabama schools with my TRASH & RECYCLE SCHOOL SHOW to share magic and ideas about Reducing Reusing and Recycling. The kids were great and I hope we made a difference in the way they see their relationship to the natural world around them.

Media Riot & Jakprints

I'm getting ready to print some Steve Trash stickers with my NEW printer Jakprints. I met them at SXSW in Austin, TX. I wanted something really cool and new, but just couldn't seem to get the design right. Dianne - my wife - tried to update an old logo for me, but it just wasn't working. So I e-mailed some more cool folks I met at the SXSW festival - Media Riot. After two or three pretty good attempts... they came through with a GREAT sticker design - based on a pretty recent studio photo of me taken by Patrick Hood. I really really love it. I hope we can get Jakprints - a green printer - to print them really soon. In fact I may even go for some T-shirts too. I wonder if I met any t-shirt people at SXSW?

Cartoon Steve Trash

Last year I finally incorporated my business. It's now called Concrete Dream Inc. I think it's a good name. It sounds both solid and ethereal all at the same time. It's kind of yen and yang. Kind of Salt and Pepper. Kind of sweet and sour. I like it. The most hilarious part is that once the name Concrete Dream Inc was listed, I started getting mail for "all my concrete/construction firm needs". I can get you a REAL bargain on mortar mix and gravel... anytime you need it just have your people call my people. Anyway, thinking of myself as a corporation has actually helped me a lot. It allows me to look at creative projects in a different way. I can step out of myself a little better. It's been really good. In fact, it's been great. Over the next few months we're going to be developing and pitching many Steve Trash - Rockin' Eco Hero concepts & projects. In fact, we've worked up a cartoon version of Steve Trash... it's currently called Steve Trek. Pretty cool huh? Basically an animated Steve Trash travels around in a magic trash can. The rest is a secret... you'll have to wait and see if the show gets picked up. Stay tuned. In the meantime... how thick do you want this slurry... it's drying fast.

Ernie Kovacs

Back in the mid 1980's... technically... last century... I moved to NYC to become a famous entertainer. Well actually I moved there because that's where my girlfriend Pam wanted to move, but that's a totally different story. Anyway, we lived in Greenwich Village/The Village in Manhattan on Spring Street. It was quite an experience to drive all the way to New York City jammed packed into a tiny Ford Escort with everything we owned - including cats - from the mean streets of Florence, Alabama only to arrive at our 5 story walk up apartment... get out of the car and there's a guy standing there peeing on the sidewalk. Hey cool... Welcome to New York... make a note... it's okay to pee on the sidewalk. Actually it's NOT okay to pee on the sidewalk, but that also is a different story. Anyway... I had a few bucks in my pocket when I arrived and spent the first few months in my new home walking around the streets of New York. I would just wander around and see what I could see. One day, I stumbled on to the Museum of Broadcasting. It was magic. I went inside and there was an exhibit about a guy named Ernie Kovacs. I'd never heard of him. Apparently, he was a tv guy in the 50's... so I sat down and watched reels of his stuff. I was blown away. I kept looking around at the other people in the museum trying to see if they thought he was as hilarious as I did. He was so silly and funny and at the same time what he was doing contained some real substance and art. That day I became an instant Ernie Kovacs fan. I have in some ways, tried to be as much like him professionally as I can be... mostly because... my life feels sometimes like his tv show KOVACSLAND - scattered, silly, funny, but mostly never makes any sense. I wish I'd gotten to meet him. God Bless You Ernie Kovacs.