Country version of The Sound of Music

It all started with a simple article. NBC is doing a live 3-hour telecast of The Sound of Music next holiday season featuring American Idol winner and country singer Carrie Underwood.

The question is...What if the whole musical was country-themed?

 

If we're going to have Carrie play Maria, we would need to have another star play Captain von Trapp.  So we signed Larry the Cable Guy.

 

Rent-A-Center, Marlboro, The Singing Fish on a plaque...

Carrie singing "My Favorite Things"

 

Here is the family, all lined up for the opening weekend of NASCAR racing.

 

Captain von Trapp singing (to the tune of "Edelweiss")

♫ Natty Ice, Natty Ice, Every morning you greet me
♫ Small can, white ♫ Crisp and bright
♫ You look happy to meet me.
♫ When I gotta go ♫ At the toilet, I flow,
♫ Seems like I go forever.
♫ Natty Ice, Natty Ice, ♫ Bless the white trash forever

We can't forget Liesl singing "I am 16 (with a kid) Going on 17 (with another on the way)"

The role of Gretl von Trapp will be played by Honey Boo Boo.

 

Special guest appearance by Dolly Parton singing "Climb Every Mountain"

One of the highlights of the show is when Maria teaches the children to sing "Do-Re-Mi" from the back of a pick up.

DOE

a deer

a roadkill deer

RAY

our family's

middle names

 
ME

a name I don't

use right

 FAH

what I do

after beans 

SEW

you don't sew

jeans with holes

(just cut the legs off)

LA

A Spanish word

for "the"

TEE

a shirt without

no sleeves




...that will bring us back to

DOE...

DOE...

DOE...

DOE...

Finally, we have all the kids (including Honey Boo Boo) singing

♫ So long. Farewell.
♫ Adios and gracias

♫ Don't let the door 
♫ smack you on your fat ass

.

A few

2012 pool 1

London Olympics - Part Two

There are some great games here in London, like badminton...

 ... and trampoline.

Except, these are games you can play in your backyard. 

If (or when) East Aurora gets the Summer Olympics, I can see a lot more backyard games being added.

It would look something like this...

Olympic Can Jam

 Olympic Cornhole

 

Olympic Ladderball

 

and Olympic Beer Pong

Note:  I'm not really pleased with the cornhole pic, but I did it with three different cornhole games.  I think you get the idea.

I think the Can Jam game turned out really good.  I eliminated the lines and players, and got a pic of the players on the other side (so the same team is facing each other).  I played with all the shadows and - voila! 

Plus, the logo on the beer pong table turned out good.  I put one on a cornhole game but, again, I didn't like the way it was skewed.

 

 

London Olympics - Part One

As some of you may have heard, I am the chairman of the organizing committee to bring the 2020 Olympics to East Aurora.  I'm in London this month visiting all of the countries' executives and lobbying for votes.

Oh, come on.  Who am I bullshitting?  I got a lot of state and federal grants, plus donations from several large local corporations (let's just say the "Price" was right).  I printed up a couple dozen brochures at Kinko's, flew to England and I'm partying all the time.

Of course I need to take care of business, so I'm sending a lot of documents home.  Too bad all of these London volunteers are dressed in purple and orange.  I try to give them my Fed Ex packages, but they ignore me.

I've got other pics and lots of stories to tell of my time in London.  Plus, I'll post some of the proposed venues in Aurora.

JJW logo

Ever since I can remember, I've been fascinated with letters.  Not only words and writing (we'll save that for another day), but the shape of them.  The fonts, the geometrics, the symbolism, the effects and manipulation...

One of the earliest memories of letters were the initials on baseball caps and other sports gear.  In the 1960s, teams did not have three and four-color computer-generated artwork embroidered on their hats like today.  It usually was an initial, occasionally two or three.  I always wondered why teams chose looks for their identity.  Why did teams like Detroit and Oakland decide to use Olde English style fonts...

...while other teams like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington use script?

Why did the Cubs use a perfectly round "C" logo while Cincinnati had a wishbone?

Why did Cleveland have the same wishbone "C" in different colors?  Why did the Minnesota Twins, of all teams, have a wishbone "C" on their caps?  And the Chicago Bears also had this letter.  Was there no other font out there to use?  Couldn't someone buy an Olde English one?

(just to let you know, Minnesota's cap initials stand for "Twin Cities.")

Later, I saw teams manipulating a letter to include symbolism, like the Atlanta Flames adding fire to their A, or 

This logo also includes another course I loved: geometry.  It is a series of three circles: the red one, the yellow which is twice the diameter as the first, and the blue which is three times the diameter as the red.  The circles form the letter W, and the negative spaces form two J's.