Books of the Year 2008

1. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo


2. The Music of Silence by Andrea Bocelli


3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis


4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis


5. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis


6. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis


7. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis


8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis


9. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis


10. Posion Study by Maria V. Snyder


11. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder


12. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder


13. Tathea by Anne Perry


14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card


15. The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks


16. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


17. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt


18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë


19. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson


20. Austenland by Shannon Hale


21. Cécile: Gates of Gold by Mary Casanova


22. A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen


23. The Giver by Lois Lowry


24. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry


25. Messenger by Lois Lowry


26. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer


27. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer


28. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer


29. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer


30. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë


31. Leyla: The Black Tulip by Alev Lytle Croutier


32. Release From Nervous Tension by David H. Fink, M.D.


33. Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping Charts & Winning Grammys by David Foster


34. Barrington Family Saga: Volume I, In Search of Heaven by Anita Stansfield


35. Barrington Family Saga: Volume II, A Quiet Promise by Anita Stansfield


36. Barrington Family Saga: Volume III, At Heaven's Door by Anita Stansfield


37. Barrington Family Saga: Volume IV, Promise of Zion by Anita Stansfield

Christmas Day

Christmas day was a lot of fun but hectic. My family opened presents at eight o'clock and then had breakfast. As the tradition goes some of us chose to stay in our pajamas that we opened on Christmas Eve. We went to parties at both our Grandparent's. It was fun but I'm not used to spending Christmas with so many people. For 19 years I haven't been around many extended family for the holidays. Occasionally, we come up for Thanksgiving but Christmas was always an immediate family all-day event. So the past couple of years I have felt like we have been rushed to open presents and then go visit both sides of the family. I think that they (as in Grandma's and Grandpa's) should have parties before Christmas so that the families can spend time with their immediate families more. People could have time to open presents and enjoy spending the day with family. That sentence somewhat makes this whole rant sound off but still. lol.

Oh and by the way I uploaded all the photos to MyPhotoAlbum. And I even put my favorites on Facebook. How cool is that. I actually got called out about a couple I didn't put on and had to go pull them from the many photos I took and add them to the Facebook album. It was funny. I think right now we are all good.

Oh! Have I told you about my Christmas present to myself? About a week before Christmas I bought seasons two through four (I already have season one) of Numb3rs. I love that show! I also got a SLR camera. I looked around and compared simple SLR cameras and decided upon a Canon Rebel XSi. It is so nice. I always leaned more toward Canon than Nikon and I would never go beyond the two of them. If I am going to get an expensive and really nice SLR camera I am going to stick with the high-end companies who know what they are doing. lol. But I like Canon more. lol. I love my new camera. I bought an 8G HDSD Card to go with the camera. I can fit so many photos on it. So much fun!

A Fun Night *said in sarcastic tone*

Last night I woke up at 11:46pm to voices ... and then a steam cleaner ... and then a vacuum. What is going on!? I crawled out of bed and opened my bedroom door to Dad steam cleaning the bathroom. Mom, Amber and Steven were downstairs in the living room vacuuming the carpet. And Chad and Eric were trying to mop up the rain in our kitchen. Seriously! Saturday night the upstiars toilet broke. We were able temporally fix it until today when Dad could go get the part. Apparently our fix slipped somehow and the bathroom flooded. The water leaked into the floor and the main floor ceiling, dripping onto the floor and into our cabinets, soaking down into the downstairs ceiling. Amber woke up in the middle of the night and thought it was raining. She walked upstairs and found a flood in the kitchen. I didn't go back to bed until 12:30am. We had to take everything out of the islands (which is all the pots and pans, the silverware, cooking utensils, Tupperware and lids). It was a mess but hopefully we were able to dry most of the water out.

Packages

I just looked on Amazon to track my package. Guess what!? It is here. Well, there ... at my house. It was signed for by a Higgins (according to online tracking ...) at 3:06 pm. That was half an hour ago. Exciting! I can not wait to go watch Numb3rs and play with my new Canon Rebel XSi SLR camera! So much fun! I'll post more later about the camera. I am sure I'll have lots to tell you.

Right now I have to go crash from my fun high ...

Stressful Hitman

I pre-ordered David Foster's CD/DVD a while back. On November 14 I got an email saying that my credit card was charged and that the item was shipped, via standard shipping (which is five to nine business days). Well, about a month later I still had not received it. I was starting to wonder where it was. So I sent Warner Brothers this email:

To Whom It May Concern,

I ordered "You're The Inspiration: The Music Of David Foster And Friend" by David Foster (aka: Hitman CD/DVD). I received an e-mail on November 14 saying that the item was shipped, via standard shipping, and charged to my credit card that day. My credit card has been charged and I have yet to receive the item. I was wondering when the item was going to get here.

If this matter could be looked into I would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Krysta

I got this reply from Warner Brothers yesterday morning:

Dear Customer:

We apologize that you did not receive the order. Unfortunately, this item is no longer available for us to replace. Therefore, we applied a full refund to your credit card. We apologize again for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,
Warner Bros Records Online Customer Support

I was pissed off after reading that. Where was I going to get a sold out PBS special by David Foster!? The only other places I saw the CD/DVD was Barnes and Noble and Target. And at each place I only saw one copy. So after work I went to Barnes and Noble to see if I could find it again. I couldn't. I was starting to panic at that point. When I was on the train I called my brother and asked him to go to Target and get the other copy that I saw. At least look for it. It took him at least half an hour to find it. But he found David's CD/DVD. I was so glad and relived. I didn't really sink in until after I got home. *sigh* Now I have David Foster's Hitman CD/DVD. And I am really happy.

Slowness

Today has been really slow at work. All last week it was slow and we are expecting next week to be slow too. It is so boring. I played games online all day. I think I have done maybe an hours worth of work today. No one has anything to do. I updated the rest of my photo album. So now every picture is up including the ones from August. I still have to go Christmas shopping for some family members. I don't know what to get them. I have been on Facebook all day playing The Dot Game with some friends. I should go hang out at FOJG. Maybe I'll do that now.

This is hilarious!

Thoughts and Wants

I have had a fun morning. I awoke to snow. I hate snow. lol. Last night I was watching PBS because they were playing David Foster's Hitman, again. I love it! The bad thing about that though ... I have yet to receive my copy of the CD/DVD. I really want my David Foster CD/DVD! I emailed Warner Brothers to see where it is. Some other random things ... I have been looking around Facebook and played a bit around there. I have changed some things on my blog (like the color scheme and some links). Now I am on FOJG. I don't think I'll be on much longer though. My Internet is really slow.

I still have some Christmas shopping to do. I would go but I have no idea what to get anyone. I know what I would get myself. lol. I need to buy for others first before I can splurge on myself. I don't really think anyone will get me my camera so I don't feel too bad about getting it now. Have I told you about that? I am planning on getting a Canon Rebel XSi. After researching which SLR camera would be the best I decided upon that one. And I was always leaning more towards the Canons more than the Nikons. I love and trust Canon. lol.

Photography Final

Well, I am done with school. Yeah! The final was a take-home test that was really easy. I think the hardest part was choosing the photo that I would print. We had to bring a 8x10 photo to class to be "judged" for part of our grade. I finally decided on this one. I love it!

Facebook Surprise

So on Facebook I was on my homepage seeing what my friends were up to ... reading and commenting on status reports and the such. And I noticed that, yesterday, my cousin became a fan of Tickle Me Pink. I started laughing. I had posted a status saying "Krysta loves Tickle Me Pink and recommends you listen to their CD, Madeline." on December 4. Now I don't know if that influenced him to listen to it and become a fan but I think that is pretty cool regardless. Tickle Me Pink, the greatest band on the planet, has a fan page on Facebook! I love Tickle Me Pink! Sean is an amazing song writer and singer. And consequently I am now listening to Madeline because that's the way my mind works. You mention something and I have to listen to either the song or the whole CD, depending what reminds me.

No Sleep

I am really tired of having no sleep. (No pun intended.) I don't know why I can't sleep I just can't. Last night I only got three hours of sleep and amazingly, today I have been rather sane. lol. Only around lunchtime did I start to lose it. And then I ate and I was fine. But I have been rather quiet. On Friday, I called in and told them I wasn't coming into work because I didn't feel well. I slept until 1:30 in the afternoon. And I did the same thing on Saturday. Am I just getting to much sleep? Is that why I feel so drained and ache everywhere? I have thought before that I might have depression. But I can't figure out why I would have it. ... Actually, this whole paragraph has been a lie. I really do think that I have some form of depression due to all the pressure from everywhere. Some factors that I think have made it worse (and I am in no way blaming anyone!) are: (1) Mom and Dad want me to start dating, (2) Chad and Amber are having a baby, (3) my thoughts are not always the way I would like them to be, (4) I feel I need to move out of my parent's house but have no money, and (5) (the biggest factor I think) I feel very alone. I have tried everything I can think of, within my limited means, to change my life. I have colored my hair, which has helped some. I am planning on buying a SLR camera, which I have always wanted. I try to talk to people, mostly Chad whom I respect very much. I try not to think about anything while going to sleep. Thinking about it seems to make things worse. Last night, around 1:30 in the morning, while not sleeping, I was so scared (for reasons I cannot explain). I was sitting on the stairs (because I couldn't be in my room) hyperventilating and resisting the impulse to run! *sigh* I don't want to live my life like this anymore.

Photo Album

It has been many months (four to be exact) since I updated my photo album. I have put more photos up but I don't think I will EVER name them. I want to, but there are just too many. I have decided to update the album often and start naming my photos as well as tell you where the photo was taken (even if it is a general location) and maybe put some camera information too. I haven't decided on that last one for sure or not. But it could be interesting to know later.

Part of August is not up yet because I didn't know I needed those photos. Therefore, I didn't grab them. lol. Come to think of it I don't remember if there were any other pictures that needed to go in the August album. I will check and if I need to I will put them up tomorrow. lol. I just can't think right now.

DWTS week 10 (finale; part two)

First Place:

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Viennese Waltz. Score for dance: 30/30 Total score for the two nights dances: 88/90

Second Place:

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Hustle. Score for dance: 27/30 Total score for the two nights dances: 80/90

Third Place:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Jitterbug. Score for dance: 28/30 Total score for the two nights dances: 81/90

DWTS week 10 (finale: part one)

Last night, all three couples danced a Samba to the same song at the same time. First they re-showed some dances. After the couples danced the Samba they did the Freestyle.

Scores and Thoughts:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Re-showed the Tango and the Mambo. Samba. I liked their tricks. Their part was good. Score for dance: 26/30 Freestyle. They did a hip hop routine. I thought it was okay but didn't really care for it. Score for dance: 27/30 Total score for dance: 53/60

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Re-showed the Quickstep and the Paso Doble. Samba. She had good extensions. I liked it. But she did mess up a few times. Score for dance: 28/30 Freestyle. Wow. Some of those lifts I wouldn't trust anyone to do with me. Like the one where Brooke is upside down while Derek is spinning. Crazy! They did great. Score for dance: 30/30 Total score for dance: 58/60

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Re-showed the Viennese Waltz and the Paso Doble. Samba. He did good. Score for dance: 25/30 Freestyle. Score for dance: 28/30 Total score for dance: 53/60

more than one deer

Color

On Saturday I did something daring. I colored my hair. My cousin, Angie, owns a salon and she offered to color it. Normally, I go to my mom for a haircut but she doesn't do color. So I went to Angie, who specializes in color. lol. The only thing I requested was that my hair be kept long. Other than that I let Angie do whatever she pleased.

This what I look like before.



And this what I look like after.


Angie put highlights of auburn, blonde, and dark brown in my hair. That day she straightened it too. I might have to buy a straightener. It make for a good change.

Writing Mood

I am in a writing mood but don't know what to write about. ...

{Insert some writing here. Krysta is drawing a blank. lol.}

Hitman

So I finished David Foster's biography two days after I received it but I am just now getting around to reviewing it. I loved this book. It was simple and great to read. You can definitely tell while reading the book that David is not a writer. He knows music not words. It is such an easy read and that's one of the reasons why I loved it. I really loved it because I got to hear David's versions of how his artist's got discovered (i.e. Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, William Joseph). And I found out some new things that I had never known about David. For instance, he never takes elevators because he does not like them. He has elevator claustrophobia. lol. Seriously! It has caused some problems for him like missing interviews and "friendly" hotels upgrading his room to the twenty-third floor. David has (or had; he started losing it when he turn 50) perfect pitch. He discovered it when he was four and started piano lessons shortly after that. No wonder he is so amazing. lol. And a couple of other random facts I found out was that he can drive a bus and fly a plane. He's a pilot! I knew he like planes but I didn't know he could actually fly one. lol. Something else I didn't realize was that he has six sisters and no brothers and he has five daughters and no sons. He is surrounded by females.

And on a somewhat related note: David Foster was on Dr. Phil this week talking about the book and the DVD/CD and his life. I watched the show last night. And I fell in love with David even more. He is so funny. I love it when David plays the piano. He is just so fluid and amazing. I can't take my eyes off of him. Natalie Cole and Seal were there as well. And I really want to buy Seal's new CD now. I listened to it last week and seeing him sing again really reiterated the want to buy it. lol.

DWTS week 9 (results show)

The couple that got voted off last night was Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. I was thinking either he or Warren would go home and next week the other ones are going home. It's kind of sad that Julianne came back just in time to dance one more dance with Cody.

Cuteness

DWTS week 9

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Their first dance is a Mambo. I love their outfits. Best ones all season. And to add to that they did a wonderful Mambo. I loved it. Lacey's choreography is great. Score for dance: 28/30 Their second dance was the Jitterbug. Lance was kicking so hard that his shoe came off during the dance. I think that would be really weird dancing with one shoe going really fast and doing lifts. But he never skipped a beat. It was great. At the end of the dance you could tell he was embarrassed. But they both thought it was hilarious. The dance was good. I was crazy about the outfits. They should have gone with a more traditional colored sailor theme. And the red and blue was not working for me in Lacey's outfit. Score for dance: 29/30 Total score for dance: 57/60

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Their first dance was the Jive. I thought it was too scattered. They tried to put too much into the dance therefore getting nothing to work right. Score for dance: 21/30 Their second dance is the Salsa. Brooke's outfit was hideous. It would have been a little better if it was a mini skirt instead of the pants. But still, I did not like it at all. And her hair matched her outfit. Just so odd. But enough about the outfit choice, thoughts on the dance. It was good. Score for dance: 28/30 Total score for dance: 49/60

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Their first dance is the Paso Doble. I liked their army outfits. Cody looks good in a uniform. lol. But I didn't think the music and the dance actually called for the outfits. It didn't really fit. That aside, I did like the dance. Score for dance: 22/30 Their second dance is a Salsa. They did some dangerous lifts, I thought. Cody almost dropped Julianne on one of them. But he caught her just in time and it didn't look too bad either. I liked the dance. It was good. Score for dance: 24/30 Total score for dance: 46/60

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Their first dance is the Mambo. Honestly, I don't remember much about this dance so I must not have liked it. lol. Sad. I know. Score for dance: 24/30 Their second dance was the Jitterbug. Their out fits are awful. It's too much too focus on. Not my favorite at all. The dance was good. Score for dance: 25/30 Total score for dance: 49/60

DWTS week 8 (results show)

I loved this result show.

Brad Paisley was the special guest. The first song he sang was Ticks. Lacey Schwimmer and her brother, Benjie, danced great. It was fun with all those lifts in there.

This week the Macy's Stars of Dance performance was the dance that got voted upon by the fans via Internet. It was a jive to Great Balls of Fire. I loved the outfits. Those were ones I voted for. The dance was performed by Julianne and Derek Hough. I thought it was great that a sister and brother were dancing. They could do lifts and flips that I wouldn't be comfortable with someone I didn't trust. Here is the performance.



Brad Paisley's second song was off of his new CD, Play. There were three couples dancing, Maks and Karina (who are dating), Alec and Edyta (who are married), and two other people I don't remember. Maks looks so odd with his head shaved. I loved the curls!

The couple going home is Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke.

DWTS week 8

On Monday the couples danced two dances. Here are my thoughts and the scores.

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. First dance, foxtrot. It classy and fun at the same time. I liked it. Score for dance: 28/30 Second dance, samba. I was not to crazy about the outfits. Lance's solo was very boyish. I didn't think it fit with the dance very well. Score for dance: 24/30 Total score for dances: 50/60

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. First dance, tango. Brooke looked gorgeous in that red dress. I loved the choreography. I thought it was really great. Score for dance: 28/30 Second dance, mambo. I liked this dance too. It flowed together and looked like a lot of fun. Brooke's solo, at the beginning, was really fun to watch. Her footwork was great. I wasn't to fond of the wig. Score for dance: 27/30 Total score for dances: 55/60

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. First dance, quick step. I am tired of the burgundy. Is it just me or have they worn that color a lot this season. The dance was good. Score for dance: 24/30 Second dance, paso doble. I thought it was great that they sat down and looked at last weeks team dance, in which Maurice did the paso doble. That helped them to get their posture right. Maurice's solo didn't have dancing in it. He just flipped a cape around amazingly fast. Score for dance: 24/30 Total score for dances: 48/60

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. First dance, foxtrot. I liked it. It was a very grown-up dance for Cody. Beautiful. Score for dance: 24/30 Second dance, mambo. I liked the dance but thought it sort of chaotic. It didn't flow together well. Cody's solo was egotistical ... that might be too strong of a word. Score for dance: 24/30 Total score for dances: 48/60

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. First dance, tango. I love Kym's dress. It looked fabulous on her. I loved their dance. It was classy and elegant. Warren's footwork was great. Score for dance: 28/30 Second dance, jive. I thought is was a lot of fun. Warren's solo fit right in with the dance but still had his style. It was great. Score for dance: 26/30 Total score for dances: 54/60

post script

I watched American Masters last night. It was about Annie Leibovitz, a photographer. This program might have saved my life. And I am serious about that. My life was in a downward spiral to who knows where. This program and Annie have motivated me to follow my dreams. It has inspired me to buy that camera I have been wanting and take pictures of anything and everything. So instead of moving out I am buying myself an early Christmas present.

Disney Dreams Portrait Series by Annie Leibovitz

Roger Federer as King Arthur

Rachel Weisz as Snow White

Beyoncé as Alice, Oliver Platt as the Mad Hatter, and Lyle Lovett as the March Hare

Jennifer Lopez as Jasmine and Marc Anthony as Aladdin

Julie Andrews as Blue Fairy and Abigail Breslin as the apprentice

Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella

Jessica Biel as Pocahontas

David Beckham as Prince Phillip

Gisele Bundchen as Wendy Darling, Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan, and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell

Julianne Moore as Ariel and Michael Phelps as a merman

Whoopi Goldberg as The Genie

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens

Born in 1949 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Annie Leibovitz enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute intent on studying painting. It was not until she traveled to Japan with her mother the summer after her sophomore year that she discovered her interest in taking photographs. When she returned to San Francisco that fall, she began taking night classes in photography. Time spent on a kibbutz in Israel allowed her to hone her skills further.

In 1970 Leibovitz approached Jann Wenner, founding editor of Rolling Stone, which he’d recently launched and was operating out of San Francisco. Impressed with her portfolio, Wenner gave Leibovitz her first assignment: shoot John Lennon. Leibovitz’s black-and-white portrait of the shaggy-looking Beatle graced the cover of the January 21, 1971 issue. Two years later she was named Rolling Stone chief photographer.

When the magazine began printing in color in 1974, Leibovitz followed suit. “In school, I wasn’t taught anything about lighting, and I was only taught black-and-white,” she told ARTnews in 1992. “So I had to learn color myself.” Among her subjects from that period are Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Patti Smith. Leibovitz also served as the official photographer for the Rolling Stones’ 1975 world tour. While on the road with the band she produced her iconic black-and-white portraits of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, shirtless and gritty.

In 1980 Rolling Stone sent Leibovitz to photograph John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had recently released their album “Double Fantasy.” For the portrait Leibovitz imagined that the two would pose together nude. Lennon disrobed, but Ono refused to take off her pants. Leibovitz “was kinda disappointed,” according to Rolling Stone, and so she told Ono to leave her clothes on. “We took one Polaroid,” said Leibovitz, “and the three of us knew it was profound right away.” The resulting portrait shows Lennon nude and curled around a fully clothed Ono. Several hours later, Lennon was shot dead in front of his apartment. The photograph ran on the cover of the Rolling Stone Lennon commemorative issue. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors named it the best magazine cover from the past 40 years.

Annie Leibovitz: Photographs, the photographer’s first book, was published in 1983. The same year Leibovitz joined Vanity Fair and was made the magazine’s first contributing photographer. At Vanity Fair she became known for her wildly lit, staged, and provocative portraits of celebrities. Most famous among them are Whoopi Goldberg submerged in a bath of milk and Demi Moore naked and holding her pregnant belly. (The cover showing Moore — which then-editor Tina Brown initially balked at running — was named second best cover from the past 40 years.) Since then Leibovitz has photographed celebrities ranging from Brad Pitt to Mikhail Baryshnikov. She’s shot Ellen DeGeneres, the George W. Bush cabinet, Michael Moore, Madeleine Albright, and Bill Clinton. She’s shot Scarlett Johannson and Keira Knightley nude, with Tom Ford in a suit; Nicole Kidman in ball gown and spotlights; and, recently, the world’s long-awaited first glimpse of Suri Cruise, along with parents Tom and Katie. Her portraits have appeared in Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker, and in ad campaigns for American Express, the Gap, and the Milk Board.

Among other honors, Leibovitz has been made a Commandeur des Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and has been designated a living legend by the Library of Congress. Her first museum show, Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990, took place in 1991 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and toured internationally for six years. At the time she was only the second living portraitist — and the only woman — to be featured in an exhibition by the institution.

Leibovitz met Susan Sontag in 1989 while photographing the writer for her book AIDS and its Metaphors. “I remember going out to dinner with her and just sweating through my clothes because I thought I couldn’t talk to her,” Leibovitz said in an interview with The New York Times late last year. Sontag told her, “You’re good, but you could be better.” Though the two kept separate apartments, their relationship lasted until Sontag’s death in late 2004.

Sontag’s influence on Leibovitz was profound. In 1993 Leibovitz traveled to Sarajevo during the war in the Balkans, a trip that she admits she would not have taken without Sontag’s input. Among her work from that trip is Sarajevo, Fallen Bicycle of Teenage Boy Just Killed by a Sniper, a black-and-white photo of a bicycle collapsed on blood-smeared pavement. Sontag, who wrote the accompanying essay, also first conceived of Leibovitz’s book Women (1999). The book includes images of famous people along with those not well known. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon and Diane Sawyer share space with miners, soldiers in basic training, and Las Vegas showgirls in and out of costume.

Leibovitz’s most recent book, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, includes her trademark celebrity portraits. But it also features personal photographs from Leibovitz’s life: her parents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews, and Sontag. Leibovitz, who has called the collection “a memoir in photographs,” was spurred to assemble it by the deaths of Sontag and her father, only weeks apart. The book even includes photos of Leibovitz herself, like the one that shows her nude and eight months pregnant, à la Demi Moore. That picture was taken in 2001, shortly before Leibovitz gave birth to daughter Sarah. Daughters Susan and Samuelle, named in honor of Susan and Leibovitz’s father, were born to a surrogate in 2005.

Leibovitz composed these personal photographs with materials that she used when she was first starting out in the ’70s: a 35-millimeter camera, black-and-white Tri X film. “I don’t have two lives,” she writes in the book’s introduction. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” Still, she told the Times, this book is the “most intimate, it tells the best story, and I care about it.”

–Rachel Somerstein

Rachel Somerstein is a writer who lives in New York.

DWTS week 7 (results show)

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani went home. I am going to miss seeing Tony every week but it was their time to leave the competition.

DWTS week 7

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Rumba. Bare foot. Score for dance: 25/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Foxtrot. Score for dance: 30/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. Cha cha cha. Score for dance: 25/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Viennese Waltz. Score for dance: 22/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. Paso Doble. Score for dance: 24/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Foxtrot. Score for dance: 21/30


Team dances: Cha cha cha vs. Paso doble (scores added to individual dancers' scores)

Team Cha cha cha is Lance Bass, Cody Linley, and Susan Lucci (and their respective pro partners). Score for dance: 20/30

Team Paso doble is Warren Sapp, Maurice Greene, and Brooke Burke (and their respective pro partners). Score for dance: 29/30


I totally forgot what day it was so I didn't vote. I really hope that Tony stays but I have had the same feeling for the past couple weeks about them. They are going home tonight. Sad! *tear* Now who do I vote for?

Random music questions

Go to the music player of your choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud and press play. Use the song titles as your answers.

*Note: I used Rhapsody's David Foster channel to do this quiz. I love David Foster!*


1. How does the world see me? "Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire" by David Foster.

2. Will I have a happy life? "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson.

3. What do my friends really think of me? "My Love" by Justin Timberlake featuring T.I.

4. Do people secretly lust after me? "Hangin' Tough" by New Kids On The Block.

5. How can I make myself happy? "Praying For Time" by George Michael.

6. What should I do with my life? "Let's Make Love" by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

7. Why should life be full of so much pain? "Te Aviso, Te Anucio (Tango)" by Shakira.

8. How can I maximise my pleasure during sex? "(I Got That) Boom Boom" by Britney Spears.

9. Will I ever have children? "Waiting For You" by Seal.

10. Will I die happy? "Don't Be Cruel" Missy Elliott featuring Monica and Beenie Man.

11. What is some good advice for me? "Greatest Love Of All" by Whitney Houston.

12. What is happiness? "Gone" by 'NSYNC.

13. What is my favourite fetish? "Jumpin', Jumpin'" by Destiny's Child.

14. How will I be remembered? "Kitty Kat" by Beyoncé.

15. What is my best memory? "Where Is The Love?" by Black Eyed Peas.

16. What is my theme song? "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" by Michael Bolton.

17. What do I look for in a partner? "Ritmo y Romance (Rhythm and Romance)" by Kenny G.

18. What is my day going to be like? "Blame It On The Boogie" by The Jacksons.

19. What one thing could I not live without? "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" by Jessica Simpson.

20. How's my love life? "Up The Ladder To The Roof" by The Supremes.

21. How am I feeling today? "Lost" by Manudo.

22. How far will I get in life? "Hey Bulldog" by The Beatles.

23. What is the story of my life? "On And On" by Stephen Bishop.

24. What is the best thing about me? "Surfin' U.S.A." by The Beach Boys.

25. What is the worst thing about me? "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani.

26. How is my life going? "Open Your Heart" by Madonna.

27. What will be the hardest part of my life? "Mi Reflejo (My Reflection)" by Christina Aguilera.

28. What will this year be all about? "Miss Independent" by Kelly Clarkson.

29. What should I be doing instead of this? "Someday" Mariah Carey.

30. Will I fall in love? "Words Get In The Way" Gloria Estefan.

Change

I am so tired. I think the time change messed me up. I couldn't sleep from one to three in the morning on Saturday. I have no idea why. I watched TV. I don't remember what I watched. One show was CSI: Miami. I remember that one. I can't think ... there was a reason for writing today ... more than the following at least. Grr! I can't remember.

This weekend something happened that really made me want to move out of my parent's house. I have decided to look for my own place to live. Somewhere I can have pets because I am getting a dog when things settle down. For my own sanity I need to move out. I haven't started looking at any places yet but I will. I was thinking of looking online first and just trying to figure out what my price range would be. I expect to not have much of my paycheck left over every month but I am okay with that. I'll keep you updated.

Happy Halloween!

New Journey

Journey has a new song and I heard it today. It is called After All These Years. They have a new lead singer which I really like. His voice is great. But this song almost made me cry. It is beautiful. Take a listen.

Smile and Have a good day!

DWTS week 6 (results show)

Yeah! Cloris went home! She really needed to go before Toni and Misty (although that one couldn't been stopped). Cloris needed to go a long time ago. Now this can be a competition and not a joke. I'm kind of nervous for Susan and Tony. They have been in the bottom two (at least last to know they are safe) two weeks in a row. I don't know if I can save them. This always happens. Tony and his partner start to slip and then get eliminated. They should just get Tony a really good partner so that he could go to the end. Although I don't think he would mind being voted off because he has twins at home (or in LA right now) that I don't think he has had time to spend time with them. For the first time yesterday I noticed that Tony wears his wedding ring. That is so cool. He should take some time off (after he is done with the show) and spend time with his wife and three kids.

DWTS week 6

Thoughts and scores for last night:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. I liked their jive. It was fun. I thought the choreography was good for them. Score for dance: 27/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. She was worried about her ankle. She didn't do as well as she could have in her rumba. Maybe if they stay to the point where they get to try a dance over they will do the rumba. Score for dance: 26/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. They danced a waltz and I thought they did okay. Score for dance: 21/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. She needs to go home!!! She can not dance! They were supposed to be dancing a cha cha cha. I do not know how Corky can stand to teach her because she never listens to him. Score for dance: 15/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. I thought their samba was very good. Poor Julianne though. She is dancing with stomach pain. She is having surgery today. Next week Cody will dance with Edyta while Julianne recovers. Score for dance: 23/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. They danced a mambo. Dare I say it but they weren't too great this week. I still voted for Tony. So hopefully they can stay in and keep working. Score for dance: 23/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. They danced a rumba. I thought it was good. Kym looked odd with her hair straightened. I wasn't used to that. I liked it though. Score for dance: 25/30

DWTS week 5 (results show)

Talk about nerve racking! Susan and Tony were in the bottom two, at least didn't know they were safe until last. I am kind of sad that Toni and Alec went home. I really wanted Cloris and Corky to go home. But they were one of the first ones to be safe. Oh, well. Next week they are doing two dances. One group dance and then one individual dance. But with the couples having already done two dances they kind of know what to expect.

DWTS week 5

Scores for Monday night's dances:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Score for dance: 21/30

Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo. Score for dance: 22/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Score for dance: 29/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. Score for dance: 27/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. Score for dance: 21/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Score for dance: 28/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. Score for dance: 22/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Score for dance: 25/30

What does one 20-year-old, 374 miles, and one tank of gas result from?

A mental breakdown at midnight. No kidding! Last night I woke up from my non-sleeping state of mind and cried for five minutes. Then I couldn't stay in that room, let alone that house a minute longer. I had to get out! I had to run! I put some shoes on, grabbed a jacket, and grabbed the car keys. I took I-15 southbound for two and a half hours. I didn't really want to turn around until that point. I just kept driving, and driving. I had to stop for gas once. I checked google maps this morning and I figured I went from South Jordan to Beaver, which is 187 miles. I know I went I little bit past that but not far. I am running on no sleep right now. I have no idea if I'll be able to make it through the day but I am going to try.

Grrr ... Frustrating

I have been really down on myself this last week. I have been trying to find a friend of mine from high school. And I feel like I have looked everywhere via Internet. I have looked on classmates.com, MySpace, Facebook ... I have googled her ... I don't know what else to do. Kristine, I need to talk with you. Please, God, just let me find her before I do something I really shouldn't. I feel like I need to move out of my house. And now that I have money coming in I feel like I can look into that more. But Dad needs to get rid of some assets so I am buying the Honda. I was going to do that anyway when I turned 21, which is in a few months. But he needs me to buy it now while they are talking to the bank about ColdStone. My name has been put on the title so I suppose that I do own it now. I haven't paid anything yet. Dad says I can pay him a little each month up until June. I really just want to pay him as much as I can now so that as soon as I can I will be able to start saving for my own place. What I really need to do is to get a complete change of scenery. Hopefully, moving out will help me do that. I need to take a step back from my life right now. Chad, can I come and stay with you guys for a bit. I am kidding about that, although that would probably help my sanity right now. I don't know where my life is going. School is slow and I just want it to be done. So many things are tying me down to Utah. I have to finish school which will take at least another year. My entire family is here ... but they are the ones I need a break from. Maybe I'll take a trip and go visit some Grobanites. That would be fun. I am sure that Anja would love for me to visit her in Croatia. I could take a week or two off from work and fly over there and recharge. How's that sound, Anja? Can I come visit you? On a somewhat happy note, David Foster's website has been redone. I have been wanting a new websites for months. But to tell you the truth I don't think I like this new setup. I loved the old pictures. They were so hott. Although some of the new ones are pretty hott too. lol. Oh my goodness, now everyone knows that I think David Foster is hott. lol. Well, he is so just back off the age factor. I know he is in his 60s. That does not stop me from saying that he is so hott. I love when he plays the piano. Oh, and his singing is divine. He is no Josh Groban but I still love him. And speaking of Josh we got a Thursday surprise this week and they are four of the hottest pictures I have ever seen of Josh Groban. I love the third one. He just looks so cuddly and I said on the boards and I will say it here ... That suit is gorgeous and makes Josh look amazing. I just want to hug that man. Right now would be a really nice time to get a hug. I don't really like myself right now. I don't really know why. Amber, I love your music. I am listening to it and it is making me feel better. But that could also be because I am writing a freaking novel. Sorry people. If you get to this point I congratulate you. lol. Oh, on FOJG I revamped my signature. I was tired of the old one. It now has that picture of Josh I love so much. It makes me smile. Maybe that's why I am having a difficult time right now. This Internet connection is so slow. I was on FOJG earlier and I couldn't stand how slow it was. I had to log off. And I didn't really get a great night's sleep last night. No scratch that ... all week. You know half an hour of free-writing actually helped me. Thanks for listening. lol.

DWTS week 4 (results show)

So last night for the first time this season they told who in the bottom two. The bottom two were Cloris Leachman and Rocco DiSpirito. Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff were the ones with the lowest score/votes. They went home. I really hope that Cloris goes home next week. I was really glad that Tony and Susan were the first people to know that they were safe. I was waiting for their names to be read. They aren't usually the first ones. I am so nervous for them every week. I never know how much my votes are really doing.

And next week they are introducing new dances to the competition. The hustle, jitterbug, salsa, and west coast swing are the four that they now get to dance. I can't wait to see what Tony does for choreography.

DWTS week 4

Okay. I have not watched the show yet but I will as soon as it is up on the website. I did find scores. Thoughts may or may not be coming. lol.


Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Score for dance: 26/30

Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo. Score for dance: 22/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Score for dance: 26/30

Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff. Score for dance: 18/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. Score for dance: 20/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. Score for dance: 22/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Score for dance: 23/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. Score for dance: 24/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Score for dance: 22/30

DWTS week 3 (results show)

So due to Misty's injury no one went home last night. They did tell us who would have gone home. The person with the lowest score/votes was Rocco and Karina. Now they know that they have to work really hard. I am surprised that Cloris is still doing good with votes. She can't dance! They need to let her go. I also thought it was odd that Derek hit his head on Saturday which they made mention of yesterday but not Monday. And as he pointed out he has had two head/neck injuries since he has been on Dancing with the Stars.

DWTS week 3

Misty May-Treanor and Maks Chmerkovskiy had to leave the competition due to an injury. During the rehearsal Misty tore her Achilles tendon. Maks knew something was wrong before she knew something was wrong. She didn't feel any pain for a moment. They had video of the rehearsal that they showed. She looked like she was in so much pain when it came. Maks looked horrified before she could feel anything. Poor guy! She is going into surgery today and the estimated recovery time is six to eight months. Luckily, Misty was planning on taking some time off from volleyball so it doesn't really affect her schedule for the next year or so. Needless to say Misty and Maks could not go with the Dancing with the Stars. They were going to do a jive. On a happier side note ... Maks looked so hott in that suit! lol.


Thoughts and scores:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. They did a very proper viennese waltz. I thought it was very nice and dignified. I liked it. Score for dance: 22/30

Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo. They also viennese waltzed and I thought it was awesome. It wasn't hott with Len or Bruno but Carrie Ann liked it. Alec smile is so dazzling. Score for dance: 22/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. I thought their viennese waltz was beautiful. They got the first ten of the season ... and from Len. He is frugal with those tens. Score for dance: 28/30

Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff. I think that Rocco thinks too much about the dance. That is why he doesn't do so well. He is still better than some of the other people. They did a viennese waltz. Score for dance: 20/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. They danced a jive. Score for dance: 24/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. There jive was ... scary. lol. I had no idea what they were trying to do. I felt bad watching it. I really hope that she leaves tonight. Score for dance: 16/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. I kind of don't want to say it but I thought Cody looked cute in that outfit. Also Jullianne's outfit was odd. I thought it was funny. I liked their jive. Score for dance: 21/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. *sigh* I love Tony. I loved that vest. He was sparkly. He looked so hott. Oh, and the dance wasn't too bad either. I thought it was somewhat slow for a jive but I still thought it was competent. Score for dance: 21/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. I am surprised that Warren, being such a big guy, could dance so well. He was light on his feet. They danced a viennese waltz. Score for dance: 25/30


I really, really hope that Cloris goes home tonight. If she doen't I am going to be mad. She can't dance so don't keep her there!

DWTS week 2 (results show)

So last night's elimination was a shock to me. I really thought Cloris Leachman would go. But instead Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas left the ballroom competition. I thought they did better than other people.

The entertainment last night was interesting. Jessica Simpson sang exactly what I thought she would sing like live. Not very great. Don't get me wrong she is a lot better than some other performers I have seen. And she looked great. The second song she sand they danced a rumba to. They being Maks and Cheryl. It was very refreshing to see a beautiful and proper rumba. And Maks isn't bad to look at either. lol.

DWTS week 2

Here are the scores for last night's dances:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Score for dance: 20/30

Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo. Score for dance: 23/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Score for dance: 24/30

Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff. Score for dance: 16/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. Score for dance: 19/30

Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas. Score for dance: 17/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. Score for dance: 15/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Score for dance: 21/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. Score for dance: 21/30

Misty May-Treanor and Maks Chmerkovskiy. Score for dance: 21/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Score for dance: 24/30

And as always, I voted for Tony. I really don't think they will win but at least I can keep them in for a little while longer. Oh and Tony looked so hott last night. lol. His wife is very lucky.

Random Writing

I feel like writing but I really have nothing to write. I had a thought but then lost it.

Three days after it was posted, I finally watched Josh Groban's latest video blog. I am looking forward to hearing that duet with Placido Domingo. That could be fun. And I want to hear Josh and Chris Botti's songs.

I wonder when Chris Botti's CD/DVD comes out. Hold on, I'll go check. ... Okay, I cannot find a realse date anywhere. lol. But I am now listening to Chris' Italia CD. So something came out of unfruitful searching.

I have missed going on FOJG so last week I spent some time there. It was fun and I am going to try and spend more time there. I love talking to and playing games with people I meet there.

Lunchtime Adventure

I am so tired! Today at work I payed invoices. I got so distracted. I didn't get them all paid. I have a few to do on Monday. And we were all hungry and tired. Around lunchtime Laura and Katie ordered Chinese food. I ordered a Sprite because I was craving it. Guess what? They never brought my drink! I was so pissed off. I called the place and told them that I payed for this drink and I wanted it. The guy I was talking to said it is just a drink and can we credit you back or give you other stuff next time you order. I said that I would prefer to have my drink today. He than told me that there is only one driver and that because there are other orders it would be about an hour before they could get me my drink. An hour! I said that is not acceptable. They should have double checked the order before that drove away with it. And then I told him to forget about bringing it and don't credit me back the 95 cents for the drink. And hung up bitterly. I was so pissed off at that guy. Laura and Katie were just staring at me. They couldn't believe that I got mad at someone. Let alone over a drink. I have been very irritable all day. It's amazing that I can actually talk to people and pay their invoices. lol.

If A Dog Was The Teacher

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

A Dog's Purpose (from a 6-year old)

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, 'I know why.'

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

DWTS week 1 (results show)

Ted McGinley and Inna Brayer got voted off last night.

I'm just glad Tony is safe.

DWTS week 1 (part two)

Jeffrey Ross and Edyta Sliwinska were the ones voted off. Poor Edyta! She has been on every season and never won. She and Jason Taylor came in second last season.

Now we get to see who is voted off tonight.

Here are the scores for Tuesday's dances:

Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer. Score for dance: 21/30

Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo. Score for dance: 23/30

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough. Score for dance: 26/30

Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff. Score for dance: 21/30

Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke. Score for dance: 21/30

Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas. Score for dance: 18/30

Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas. Score for dance: 16/30

Cody Linley and Julianne Hough. Score for dance: 23/30

Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani. Score for dance: 22/30

Misty May-Treanor and Maks Chmerkovskiy. Score for dance: 21/30

Ted McGinley and Inna Brayer. Score for dance: 19/30

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson. Score for dance: 22/30

DWTS week 1 (part one)

I just put in my votes for Dancing with the Stars' first night of dancing. Guess who I voted for using five different email accounts? lol. If you know anything about me you know I don't vote for the celebrity I vote for the professional. I vote for one person in particular until he gets voted out. I vote for Tony Dovolani. lol. We got 13 votes per email account therefore I voted 65 times for Tony and his partner.

So let's recap who is even in this circus.

Lance Bass (NSYNC) is paired with newcomer Lacey Schwimmer (2007 So You Think You Can Dance finalist). Score for dance: 22/30

Toni Braxton (singer and actress) is paired with Alec Mazo (season one champion), who returns for his fourth season. Score for dance: 22/30

Brooke Burke (host, actress, entrepreneur and celebrity mom) is paired with Derek Hough, who returns for his third season. Score for dance: 23/30

Rocco DiSpirito (celebrity chef and author) is paired with Karina Smirnoff, who returns for her fifth season. Score for dance: 14/30

Maurice Greene (winner of two gold medals) is paired with two-time champion, Cheryl Burke who returns for her sixth season. Score for dance: 18/30

Kim Kardashian (actress, model and reality television star) is paired with defending champ, Mark Ballas, who returns for his third season. Score for dance: 19/30

Cloris Leachman (actress) is paired with World Latin Champion and Mark's father, Corky Ballas, who makes his series debut. Score for dance: 16/30

Cody Linley (actor on Hannah Montana) is paired with two-time Dancing with the Stars champ, Julianne Hough who returns for her fourth season. Score for dance: 18/30

Susan Lucci (actress on All My Children) is paired with Tony Dovolani, who returns for his sixth season. Score for dance: 15/30

Misty May-Treanor (won Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics for beach volleyball) is paired with Maksim "Maks" Chmerkovskiy, who returns for his fifth season. Score for dance: 21/30

Ted McGinley (actor) is paired with another newcomer, Inna Brayer (current US Amateur 10 Dance Champion). Score for dance: 18/30

Jeffrey Ross (comedian) is paired with Edyta Sliwinska, who is the only pro to compete in all seven seasons of Dancing with the Stars. Score for dance: 12/30

Warren Sapp (defensive tackle and Superbowl Champion) is paired with Kym Johnson who returns for her fifth season. Score for dance: 21/30

Josh Groban at 2008 Emmy's

This is hilarious!! I was laughing so hard! I love all the impressions Josh does. The Grobanites know that he is funny and now the rest of America knows. I love it!

Don't Know Nothing

I just got done with tonight's photo class and I now realize I don't know nothing about my camera's qualities. I am going to go home and read the damn manual, which something I am not looking forward to. I want to just be able to take the pictures and have them be good the first time. So frustrating! That's is why I am taking this class. So I can learn about how to take good digital photos and so I can get to know my camera. lol. This class is going to force me to know what my camera can do. We went shooting today, during class, and I had no idea how my camera worked. We were trying to do slow shutter speed photos and I don't have any idea if my camera will even take shots like that. I got a picture of a sweet old car. I don't know what it was. It was gorgeous! Oh, and I also got a picture of a Porsche. That was funny. I saw the car, pointed the camera, and snapped a picture without even giving it a second thought. But those shots were in focus.

Photography Class

Have I told you I'm taking a photo class this semester? The class description says:

Provides an adventurous class for the photographic beginner. Covers the basics of camera handling techniques and controls to produce quality photographs and explores the relationship of photography to visual design. Students are introduced to basic image editing using Photoshop. All work is accomplished in Digital format. Students will need a digital camera that has manual settings for shutter and aperture.

I am not too fond of the Photoshop idea but I am willing to expand my horizons. If you don't know my thoughts on that idiotic technology go read my post entitled Be One With Your Camera. It should be a fun class beside that fact. I am really looking forward to getting back into photography.

caution!

Viggo in Vouge

I found this article last night and becuase I love Viggo I wanted to share my findings with you. Enjoy! He deserves an Oscar for every movie he has ever been in.
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Viggo Mortensen wears his heart on his sleeve
Oscar nominee known for wearing his heart, and his politics, on his sleeve
By Phoebe Eaton, Mens Vogue
updated 10:26 a.m. MT, Fri., Feb. 22, 2008

Is that a yawn? OK, so Viggo Mortensen's yawning. He's seriously tired and in some kind of mood, and let's respect that, roll with it, because the hours he's keeping here in New Mexico have just been preposterous.

First, there are the 4:00 a.m. wake-up calls he's grimly endured on the set of “Appaloosa.” And the locals hired to work Mortensen's cowboy picture (who plainly adore him) say they've never seen such a hard-partying cast and crew as the Appaloosans, and God only knows what happened last night, but there he goes again. Another yawn. This is his only day off and it kind of got shot and he didn't get to do some stuff he really wanted to do, and then, his obscure Argentine-concert CD got stuck in the player inside his trailer, because he's never not two-timing the movies with all the rest of his esoteric interests. Some union characters finally smashed the thing open and fished the CD out and he tipped them mighty good, but he's still got an hour-and-a-half drive ahead of him back to Santa Fe in his Dodge pickup — that is, after he figures out just where and how we're going to while away the next few hours together.

The frostbite-blue eyes snap onto mine for a split second. If the brow is a two-way mirror to the soul, his is cracked in several places by Despair and Inner Torment. Mortensen is justly celebrated in Hollywood for how he telegraphs both, which are reading in his face right now. A face rendered (almost) unrecognizable with that distracting droop of a Wild West mustache, the familiar starburst cleft in his chin forested over by a neat beard. In his black skullcap and flannel shirt, jeans and dirt-caked Tasmanian sheep-station boots, Mortensen, 49, has the sullen affect of a man who's just found a ticket on his windshield.

There had been talk of a country drive, but the sun hit the deck at 5:00 p.m., and so we trudge upstairs at the Abiquiu Inn, a 10-minute drive from Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch, and attempt to make ourselves comfortable in this spare attic that is one of New Mexico's ubiquitous art galleries. Some folding chairs are produced.

His sideline business is coffee-table books — or perhaps that's Mortensen's principal business, and acting the actual sideline that supports a pretty expensive habit. A book is handed over, page after page filled with his photography and poetry and published by his own Perceval Press imprint back in Los Angeles (which he calls home). The work is meticulously accomplished and high-production-value, a library of drawings, paintings, photographs, and music by those he's talent-scouted over the years, some strangers, some friends (and even an ex-girlfriend, Julian Schnabel's daughter Lola). It is only when he contemplates Perceval Press's jammed-up assembly line that his voice, a shy, exhausted mumble at the moment, dials up a notch. "I have things I have to finish. Because of this movie, there are four books that my press didn't put out this fall. Which is not a big deal, but—." He sighs and his whole body seems to deflate as he considers the debut artists and authors he's let down.

At first, Mortensen is so fiercely contained that you can't help but wonder if he's one of those Method fanatics who prefers to live in character. He's been reading “The Life of John Wesley Hardin.” An outlaw and a gunslinger, Hardin once shot a man for snoring — but always claimed he never killed anyone who didn't need killing. In “Appaloosa,” Mortensen's a gun for hire, deputy to actor-director Ed Harris's marshal. "Sort of like a lethal butler" is how Mortensen sees his character, Everett Hitch. But you won't hear Hitch saying ain't like the rest of them: He's a West Point man — though without a doubt, the black sheep of the family. Or that's how Mortensen imagines him.

He's also bagged the lead in the screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's “The Road,” which director John Hillcoat, a newcomer from Australia, starts shooting this fall. "Now we just have to find a great kid," Mortensen says, referring to his putative costar, the boy who will play his boy, as imagined by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. "That's going to make it. Or break it," he says. "Hopefully it won't totally depress people," he adds.

He didn't know McCarthy actually lives in Santa Fe. "Hunh. I should look him up. I'd be stupid not to," he says. (He's known for his Ph.D.-level research. Prepping for his next major release, “Good,” which wrapped several months ago, Mortensen tried to visit all the concentration camps in Poland to better play the film's lead, a university professor who finds himself tangled up in the issue of euthanasia in Nazi Germany. "They're kind of hard to get to, and I have to say, apart from Auschwitz, I don't think the Polish make it that easy to find them.")

In the McCarthy book, some nuclear episode has reduced the world to a gray-skied ash heap. A father and his only son wander the earth as hobos, survivalists trying to avoid a macabre fate as a feast for any of several roving bands of cannibals, Mortensen is saying, revving for book talk just as his tomato-and-mozzarella salad arrives, which he'll eat Indian-style on the hard wood floor. Food in the belly, he stretches out on the ground as if on some psychiatrist's chaise, his wool cap tucked under his head, eyes annealed to some comfortable middle distance. Arms remain folded across the chest, but answers miraculously turn essay length.

One reason he admires “The Road” is that the child teaches the father a thing or two, particularly about compassion. "You do learn from your kid, if you're open to it," Mortensen says. He has one son, Henry, from a while-ago only marriage to pink-haired punk-rock-pioneer Exene Cervenka. Now a sophomore attending a good college in New York City, Henry has a history-of-punk radio show he deejays. "I just think of myself at that age," says Mortensen, who wound up at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, a Spanish literature and government major. "I didn't have it as together as he does. He's more social. He's got more friends. He sort of interacts with people more easily — or he's more interested in doing so. Not that I couldn't; I just wasn't so interested."

Though he was born in New York City, the Argentine soccer-fan scarf looped around his neck immediately flags Mortensen's affinity for the great elsewhere — his favorite team (somehow unsurprisingly) is San Lorenzo, by tradition Argentina's underdogs. Before they divorced when he was 11, his American mother and Danish father trooped their three boys (Viggo's the eldest) through Argentina, Venezuela, and Denmark, where his father managed farms.

Viggo's handy too — he can cook, do laundry, mend his shirts and whatnot. He spends quite a bit of time with his parents; his father is now pretty much retired and lives on a farm. Like the father in “The Road,” Viggo has an outdoorsman's self-sufficiency. "I'd like to learn more about how to fix engines," he says. "I have a 1948 pickup truck, and that's a very simple engine. But today, I think you need to be some kind of specialist."

Before the stage scooped him up, he sold flowers on the street, moved furniture, was a longshoreman. It has always helped that he looks like a Round Table knight; parts abound for the handsome hero-rescuer waving a literal or metaphorical sword. In the business, he's that worldly poetic soul who can do credible justice to gangland Russian, Sioux, or Elvish dialects. That guy who looks great on a horse. That guy who never kills anyone who doesn't need killing.

In David Cronenberg's “A History of Violence,” he is Tom Stall, an upstanding family man who has somehow, somewhere learned to break a man as easily as he pours him a cup of coffee at his diner. Called back from the reserves to star in Cronenberg's “Eastern Promises,” Mortensen is Nikolai the chauffeur, whose tattoos advertise a moderately successful, mid-level career in the Russian mafia while the wraparound shades mask surprising humanitarian impulses. The Russian underworld types he found to school him in their ways finally relaxed "once they realized I wasn't going to make fun of them," he says.

He also went for a walkabout in the Urals. "We kind of worried he'd never come back and we'd never find out what happened to him, until we'd probably find him running the country eventually," says Cronenberg, who insists Mortensen "takes the best out of Method and leaves the bullshit behind." As Aragorn, a caped crusader in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, he supposedly slept for weeks in his medieval getup. Cronenberg suggests this had less to do with any Methodmania (as was conjectured) than it was an attempt to render the costume less obviously a costume. On the set of “Eastern Promises,” Mortensen had wanted to wear Nikolai's shoes around, break them in so they'd look right. Feel right.

‘The Undertaker’ and ‘The Soviet Bloc’Nikolai's charming nickname is "The Undertaker." Around the set, his squared-off Dracula pompadour acquired a nickname, too: "The Soviet Bloc." In shooting the now classic naked knife fight in a public bathhouse, Mortensen says he could only hope everyone would heed the exquisitely timed choreography. Not for a moment did he fear for his groin, he insists. "You're mostly focusing on not getting stabbed or slashed."

Preparing to clip off a murder victim's fingertips as if he were deadheading a rosebush, Nikolai extinguishes his cigarette on his own tongue. That was Mortensen's idea — and there were multiple takes, so he was obliged to do it over and over again. "Well, that's the cost of coming up with something neat like that," says Cronenberg. In this age of DVD screen captures, Mortensen volunteered to lose the towel for the steam-bath knife fight, which was not actually demanded by the script. "To suddenly get coy about it, and have things blocking his crotch" — as if Nikolai were some mafioso Austin Powers with better biceps and bone structure — "would have been ridiculous," Cronenberg says.

Mortensen's back kicked out the day before the scene was to be shot — for the first time ever — but he never mentioned it. He didn't need attending to like some high-strung racehorse, requiring a masseuse on the set or heat treatments between takes or anything of the sort. For treating improv as extreme sport, Mortensen surely deserved more than the critics' unanimous acclaim, even if he confesses he's a little turned off by the hysterical shrieking run-up to the Academy Awards. Three nominations — one for a Golden Globe, one for a Screen Actors Guild award, and, finally, the Oscar nod itself — are possibly a harbinger of something. Or possibly a harbinger of nothing.

"For months, it's the whole who should be nominated. And who should have been. Then, who should win and who will win and who should have won," Mortensen says. There's continuous pressure to slam your mug in front of the Academy. He notes (with pleasure) that the paparazzi have forsaken him ever since the Lord of the Rings trilogy wrapped. There are no more telephoto close-ups of him conferring with a nurse at his vet's. Or sleazy surveillance freeze-frames of him walking out of a store with a doughnut in his mouth.

The Oscars, he notes with some distaste, "are like politics. It's very much like people running for office." Mortensen remembers when the music died on “A History of Violence.” "It was like, 'Cronenberg's a genius, he's a shoo-in,' and then ... nothing. It vanished from consciousness." That said, now that he's been favored with an Oscar nomination, he won't pull a Brando and not show. Now that would be rude. Venting seemed to relax him: One boot goes up on the ledge of a folding chair.

Watching the presidential campaigns, Mortensen sees vaguely nauseating parallels. "They had this very important vote on the new attorney general, who's now been approved. And four senators who are running for president didn't even bother. They couldn't make it, I don't know. I want to learn more about that. I'm going to do some research on that. My feeling is, they're campaigning for their Oscars, you know? And they're too busy to realize this was a crucial moment for the country — for the Constitution."

During the primaries, he was rooting for Dennis Kucinich, the vegan -congressman-bantamweight from Ohio. Mortensen recently endorsed Kucinich on Hannity & Colmes, hopping a red-eye to Manchester, New Hampshire, to express his dismay that ABC had excluded Kucinich from a pre-primary Democratic presidential debate — with that scarlet Argentine soccer scarf again around his neck. As for the current commander in chief, Mortensen calls him "out-and-out simple. Which is not to say that he is simple. I think he's very clever. I don't think you get to be president twice fairly legitimately or illegitimately without being a smart person, even if you're kind of a tool. But Bush is a willing tool. Reagan was, too. Most presidents are." The doomy blue eyes stay fastened to the ceiling as the boots come off.

Some Sundays, if he's not trout fishing, he'll just get in the car and drive, which is a thing to do in New Mexico, with its jagged, primeval landscapes and pendulum-swing microclimates. "There's rarely a day he doesn't show up bearing gifts of some sort from his different weekend jaunts," says his “Appaloosa” co-star Renee Zellweger, "where he'll go find some really obscure village behind Taos somewhere and visit an artists' colony and bring back some wares to share. And there was never a day that he wasn't plying us with dark chocolate. It was ridiculous. Bags full. Bags full! Bacon–covered truffles. Where was he getting it? He was the chocolate crack dealer." On with the boots and away with the dirty dishes downstairs, where he sneaks a quick unfiltered American Spirit butt outside.

Mortensen recommends I try out the mission-churches trail, also known as the "High Road to Taos." The 18th-century chapel in Las Trampas is particularly picture-postcard. It seems he took a date to this well-groomed graveyard: Ariadna Gil, the Barcelona-born actress who co-starred with him in the Spanish film “Alatriste,” has a role in “Appaloosa,” and is said to be his girl. He showed her the headstones on the grounds of the church, "which are mostly this one same family: Leyda," he says. On one concrete slab from the 1940s, somebody gouged ETERNAL REST in Spanish into the wet cement with a stick — only the word eternal is spelled wrong.

"And then, under it, they wrote, FOR ETERNITY," Mortensen says, chuckling at this second helping of careless absurdity.

The road is something of a comfort zone. His son was fixated on all things Nordic, and so he indulged them both with a winter trip around Iceland in what felt like one never-ending snowstorm, intrigued by the steaming volcanic landscape. "It was like, it could blow any time!" says Mortensen, laughing. And of course he plundered the Norse sagas to prepare: "All the place names are the same as they are in the sagas. The same farms have the same names." He discovered an artist there whom he's now published. He heard some great music in Reykjavík's cathedral. He caught some Arctic char. He was eating dinner at two and three in the morning.

Some coffee arrives. He pours. With the same ease, it should be noted, that he could maybe break a man if he wanted to. But this isn't one of those nights. He picks up the check. He hands me some cigarettes. He tells me the way to Santa Fe. Gotta be up at four. Gotta hit the road.

Is that a yawn?

Copyright © 2007 Mens Vogue