Christmas Time!

Just to remind everyone that Christmas (and finals) is in the air, I Christmas-afied my blog and posted some of my favorite holiday tunes to get you in the spirit!

Good Time for a Good Cause

Some of you might be familiar with my good friend Shaun Lowder. His sister is in need of a kidney transplant, and he has offered to be the donor, but they still need to raise some money for incidental costs that the insurance won't cover. In order to do that they are having a benefit concert in Salt Lake on December 11th. It promises to be a rockin' good time for the whole family. If you are going to be in the area, you can check out the details and other opportunities to help out at Shaun's blog. A good way to get in the giving spirit this year.

BYOB, Bring your own beard

The dream is over, at least for a couple of weeks until I grow it back, if I do. We'll see.
I think that this is a good time to explore a couple of options for the future. Let me know what you like and I'll see what I can do.

(1) This is an in-between look. It is one part beard, one part burns, one part handlebar and completely cool. I think it says, I don't care if you like it or not, your girlfriend sure seems too.


(2) This my friends is the classic look. Never goes out of style. Handlebar 'stache with a little soul.


(3) The old standby, I like to call it the "teenage boy". Yeah, I know, it makes me look a little younger. Let me tell you my theory though. I have already gotten some compliments on how I look without a beard, I would not have gotten those if I had not had a beard. So I grow a beard, people compliment me on it, I shave, I get more compliments. Drastic changes lead to compliments, you gotta keep em guessin. Let me know what you want to see next!

Awkward

First of all, congrats to Marc and Tracy Nuttal, they are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl as of last night. As for me, this just makes me the favorite Uncle once again, and I am used to that, but very excited to have a new niece.

As most of you know, in our family we have a habit of smiling with these funny open-mouthed smiles, which is great and we all think is really cool and funny. However, I do not believe that we would put it on the cover of a musical album, and a poorly sung one at that. This cover is so funny, and for all her acting talents Hillary Duff is not a singer. The one other thing I cannot figure out is what she is doing with that hand. Beckoning? Waving? Conjuring up some sort of magical beast? Her expression, instead of narrowing down the possibilities just makes it impossible for us to tell. What goes through a person's mind when they are deciding what picture to put on the album? I mean, do they hate her? The sad part is, my mouth will not even open that wide on a normal open mouthed smile, that is like pushing the limits. I know, I tried.
The reason I saw this is because I have already started listening to music on Pandora, so that means pretty soon I will have my blog Christmas-safied for all your viewing pleasure. With that being said here is a picture to let you know how excited I am for Christmas!

Not Wicked at all

Well Kaley, I hope you're happy with yourself. My roommate Steve and I (and Lucinda and Melissa) decided that the time to had come to take advantage of the fact that the musical Wicked was playing a block (not even kidding) from my school. We waited for the lottery, got four tickets for $25 dollars apiece, and the magic began. I am not gonna lie and say that I usually don't like musicals, because that would be a lie, I really like 'em, so I was expecting to like this one as well. I was not disappointed. I am not surprised at all at the run that this one has made, it really was great. The best part was Elphaba though. In our show the lady that played just had an incredible voice, just an great voice. One of the perks of living in San Francisco I guess, we get some pretty good talent. So if you haven't seen it, do, and if you have, you might want to think about seeing it again before it's gone. All I know is that after it I was just thinking, "I think I'll try defying gravity . . ."

I am whispering into Elphaba's other ear if you can't tell.

Family Friends and Farewell

I promised a movie blog from my October weekend at home, and I will not disappoint. I made no promises about the quality, however, and I stand by that. With Trent getting his Eagle, Tracy having a baby shower, and Renee giving her farewell talk it was quite a weekend. I think this turned out all right, although my "hit and run" style of editing does me no favors. I do think the disco skating portion turned out rather well though, although when you work with Hall and Oates, you don't have to work quite so hard. Enjoy. And Renee, we'll miss ya sista.

p.s. Mad props to Kim for the video work, as well as the many pictures that I poached from her for this project.

THIS IS IT.

I suppose most of you are getting sick of my Micheal Jackson posts, but like the title suggests, this will probably be my last one. I went and saw the movie yesterday with my friend Amy. I liked it. I am not sure that everyone will, and while it was good, I liked it almost more for how it made me think then for what it actually was.
The saddest part of the movie was that Micheal actually looked and sounded very good. He still had the moves, and that makes me even more sad that he passed on when he was not ailing. I hope we all learn our lesson about abusing any type of drug, whether prescription or not.
One thing that was apparent to me was that Micheal Jackson was the consummate performer. In the movie it was clear that the performance was what mattered, and it kept coming back to that. Just from last night it was apparent to me that he would not have performed if he felt that he could not do so at the level that he and his fans expected. Micheal was also surprisingly gracious, and while that could have been creative editing, he seemed to make suggestions in a gracious way, although it was always clear that he was in charge and it was his show.
The final thing that I noticed was that the people that he was working with had turned him into a false idol. They treated him like he was more than a man. I could not live in an environment of "yes" like it was portrayed on the show. I feel bad that they treated him that way. I think his accomplishments lose something when you treat him like he is better than everyone. He should be celebrated because he was just a man and still managed to do so much. Respect him because he is a man, and don't try to raise him to something more than that.
This movie did make me a little sad. It made me really wish that I had seen him live, it would have been quite a show, from the the foremost showman of our time. Rest in peace Micheal, in a place where you don't have to be any more than who you are.