It's true!

This wonderful front page - of the Weekly World News - is framed and displayed prominently on the wall of my Frog Pond,  Alabama office.  I framed it because, the headlines make me giggle each and every time I read them.  Having said that... there are millions of people that bought this magazine and actually believed every word of it was true.  This leads me to conclude that we are a very interesting species.  Not that sharp... but... interesting.

Random Play...

My laptop tunes are regularly set on "random play". I like the surprise of a song coming up that I didn't expect.  Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones just played... followed immediately by The Chicken Dance... I'm reconsidering the whole "surprise thing". 

Organizing is a Meditation

One of the greatest things about my life as a professional entertainer is that I get to spend the end of each year and the first part of each new year... organizing things.  I organize my office.  I organize my studio.  I organize my storage spaces.  I organize my computer files.  It always makes me feel wonderful.  For some reason, it fills up my creative tanks to make sure magic props, funny ideas, movie making tools, illusions, and all the weapons of entertainment are easily accessed and at my disposal.  It's sooo easy for the tornado of life and tsunami of creation to scatter everything to the wind, that it makes me happy to set it all back in order.  It's almost a meditation for me.  Oh yeah.  It also allows me to clean out Jelly Beans from a prop box that's been stored since 2009.  Does it bother anyone else that they still look okay?  Sheeeeesh... that's scary.

Great Minds Discuss Ideas

Here's something fun to consider today. The famous and oft-quoted Eleanor Roosevelt quote goes something like this... "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I'm gonna think about that. ###

Makin' Music Makes Me... Happy

It's hard to describe the enjoyment and pleasure that making music has brought me over the past couple of years.  To put it mildly, I've been bitten by the "bug".  I've always been a music lover, but the desire to "make music" has only hit me in the last couple of years.  Teaming up with the amazing Kelvin Holly to make this cool green song - The Green Houdini - was such an artistic pleasure.  I hope we get to do it again and I hope you like it.  The amazing Muscle Shoals Sound "Swamper" - David Hood - just told me yesterday (at a party) that he'd like to play bass on any new tracks we make.  Woohoooo!  I've love that.  So here it is kiddies.  I re-edited the music video for higher quality.  Hope you enjoy it.   Let me know.  Peace, Love, Understanding

Magic Trick... Compost Bin?

We have a new compost bin in the Casa-De-Trash kitchen.  We got it from RecyclingIsCool.com web site.  We like it a whole lot.  It's big and sturdy.  Our old kitchen compost holding bin (we jam the peals, apple cores, broccoli stems, pieces, leftovers in there until it's full, then we take it outdoors to our composter... fewer trips that way) was actually really terrific... so why did we trade it in?   The answer is... a magic trick.  One of the most interesting things about being an illusionist-magician-entertainer-type is our constant search for "just the right prop".  It turns out that the old bucket is made of metal and makes an amazingly loud sound when something is dropped into it.  One day on my trip out the our backyard "claw-foot" bathtub compost bin (that's another story), I dropped the metal one and it made an amazing sound.  I was instantly hit with the idea that it would make a terrific "Misers Dream" can.  That's the trick where the illusionist appears to pull silver dollars out of the air and drops them into the bucket or can and every coin clangs as it hits the bottom of the bucket.  I brought it inside.  Dropped a few silver dollars inside and voila... new magic prop.  Thank goodness the Queen of All Things Casa De Trash... agreed... These are just a few of the sacrifices she makes to support her show business husband .  And... I have a new Misers Dream bucket.  :)

Steve Trash Releases - Psychedelic Music Video - SUN JUICE

Well it's official.  Our - SUN JUICE - music video is finally finished!  Woooohoooo!    A day long video shoot and several really late night editing sessions and I think it looks just great!  The Trash Team - Jim Torres, Keith Sims, Corey Hannah, and The Art Goddess (Dianne) all pitched in and I think the video is terrific.  It's silly.  It's psychedelic.  It's fun.  It totally sounds like a song from the nineteen sixties, which I really like.  When Kelvin Holly and I started writing and recording songs for The Trash Tunes - our green songs for kids album - I visited his studio and saw a sitar (Classical Indian & Hindustani multi-string instrument) sitting in the corner with a bunch of other guitars.  I was intrigued.  I asked Kelvin, "hey can you play that"?  Which - come to think of it - is kind of a stupid question because he's a very very accomplished guitarist and it was in his studio.  But he said, "yeah I can play it" and I immediately started imagining the sounds we could make on our new album.  I always loved The Beatles.  I particularly like the psychedelic period of their music.  On Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Magical Mystery Tour albums they were particularly experimental in the sounds and instruments they chose to use.   I also really like the sound of the sitar.  It sounds cool.  So when we dove into making Sun Juice, I said, "lets kick it off with the sitar".  Kelvin (always a man of many words) said, "Ok"... so we did.  Most of the video was shot at my home and digital production studio in Frog Pond Manor in downtown Frog Pond, Alabama.  The photovoltaic solar array you see in the video is mine.  We installed it in 2012 to capture the sun's energy and then we use that energy as electricity.  When the sun shines, we're making our own electricity.  It's clean.  It's green.  It's free.  Well the Ten K Solar - RAIS WAVE SOLAR ARRAY and inverter and batteries were not exactly free.  In fact, they were really expensive, but it was a one-time payment for the equipment/installation and now I make much of my own electricity. THAT'S energy independence... make your own power.  So... when the sun shines... I make my electricity for free.  My electric bill for this past October was $52 bucks.  Thank you Mr. Sun.  Sun Juice... it's for free.  It CAN power you and me.  It can power everyone.  So do me a favor, if you like our latest creation... Sun Juice - Official Music Video on YouTube.  Share it with your friends. If you really really like it... buy it on itunes.  Hee Hee.  Thanks and have a "sunny day".  ST - ###