Garbage Art

For years now I've been fascinated by... garbage. You know the stuff people throw away. No really, ever since I was a kid I'd travel around my neighborhood and look through stuff other people had thrown away. I would always find something wonderful. Sometimes it would be a cool steamer trunk or a velvet Elvis painting or a broken secret decoder ring. I never knew what would turn up. This fascination with other peoples trash lead me to the development of the worlds only eco-magic show done almost completely with found objects. Not only did I create magic tricks, but sometimes... I'd build garbage sculpture/garbage art with the stuff I'd found. Recently there was a festival in my home town - to honor Sam Philips the founder of Sun Records. Sam recorded many many famous singers - Carl Perkins and Elvis to name a few. A friend asked me to create a guitar art piece for the celebration. I used many many bottle caps, a piece of cool rusty tin from a barn and an enourmous amount polyurethane that had turned brown with age. I like the way it came out. What do you think? Peace & Recyclage S.T. :)

Frog Pond Style

I live in Frog Pond, Alabama. It's in the northwestern part of the state - Franklin County to be exact. It's smack dab in the middle of...well nothing. I'm surrounded by hills and trees and more trees and more hills. I have not always lived here. In fact, I have lived and traveled all over the world. I've lived in New York City, Los Angeles, California, and even spent a few crazy months living in Miami. I've worked all over the world too - Japan, Canada, Australia, Greenland... all sorts of cool places... but I love Frog Pond. I have room to stretch out and think. My stuff is there. I get to hang out with my dogs and family. Life is good in Frog Pond. I hope you have your own Frog Pond... a place you can go to find peace and harmony and help you make great choices with your life. Even if this harmonious place is only in your mind... it's good to have it. Peace & Recyclage - S.T.

Working for a living

Let me say right off the bat that I've done many many jobs in my lifetime. Some of them stunk and some of them were okay. I've delivered drugs...for a pharmacy. I've delivered auto parts. I've washed dishes in a southern style home cooking restaurant. I've swept the floor in a factory. I've even been a temporary secretary at 55 Water Street in the famous financial district of NYC. Even with all that uninspiring career experience, there are days that I start to look only at the downside of my life as a touring entertainer. Each day - especially when you're on tour by yourself - can be a real personal challenge. In most cases I'm in a town that I've never been in. I'm in a venue that I've never played in. There is no one in that town that knows me. They don't care if I'm sick. They don't care if I locked my keys in the van. They don't care if someone just sideswiped my van. They don't care if I haven't had one day off in over 27 days. They don't care if I have another 476 miles to drive and I'm already really really tired. They don't care about anything having to do with me. There is a real sense of isolation that can set in when you travel alone. The worst part is... it feels like there is no one else in the world looking out for you. This type of thinking can be very mentally very taxing and it will get to you over time. But these feelings can be emeliarated when I actually get to do what I came there for. The show! It's why I love show business. I love to make people happy. I love to hear kids cheering. I love to hear Moms and Dads laughing out loud at something I said. Their happiness... makes me happy. I guess it's why I put up with the other part. The good part is way better than the bad part. Hope your life is like that too.

Photo of no unauthorized Photography Sign

I often wonder how much of what we become - in life - is in our own personal biological chemistry - ie our DNA - and how much we actually choose for ourselves. My grandfather was a ad man, professional photographer, poet, and gun collector. He lived in Dallas, Texas almost his whole life. I'm sure that his life has had a real effect on mine... although we spent very very little time together. Now it's totally amazing to me, but I seem to be constitutionally incapable of NOT WORKING on something creative and artistic. It seems to be the thing that I chase the most... maybe I chase fame and fortune more, but I don't think so. The passion that gets me up in the morning is to tell a new story or to device something that will make people laugh, or to create something that has never existed before, or to express something that is hidden from the world and can only be revealed through my vision and expression. I suppose everyone feels this way. I don't know. I haven't met everyone yet. So here's my contribution for today... a photo of a sign dictating that no photos be taken! Cheers. :)

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?