Paul Merrill
My nephew Tijs (roughly pronounced, “Tace”) is an amazing artist. The apple does not fall far from the tree; his mom (my sister Amy) is an artist too.
When Amy sent me this little metal piece and his artwork, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities.
Newer visitors at Shiny Bits of Life may not know that I also run The International Toothpaste Museum.
The latest paste is one of the most unique – from Lush Cosmetics.
And just to throw you off, I’m not showing the paste here but rather the shopping bag it came in. (Thanks, Amy!)
I enjoyed seeing this dad with his three triplet sons – all on leashes and all with monkey backpacks. (I took the shot in Austin in March 2011.)
I’m not going to answer. However, I will tell you one band I wish I had seen, back in about 1976… Little Feat. Their two albums, The Last Record Album and Feats Don’t Fail Me Now were incredible.
Alas, I won’t see them live now. I’m generally not into seeing old bands in their current forms. Most of the time, they are a sad shadow of their former selves. My son saw U2 a few weeks ago. I would have gone to that show, except for how I greatly prefer seeing live music in much smaller settings.
By the way, I would love to hear your answer to which three bands or musicians you would like to see. (And thanks to Plinky for that great prompt.)
I’m not sure if you saw that little link. If you click that link on yesterday’s poll, you can see the latest results.
I know you were wondering.
Update: We have a winner! (See the end.)
You can win a free copy of a John Denver Greatest Hits CD – with Chinese packaging!!
To win, all you need to do is simply comment on this post.
Yes, it’s that easy. No tweet my blog, join my Facebook page, sell me your first-born child stuff.
This 2-CD set is brand new. It even still has the shrink wrap on it. (So I don’t know if John tries to sing his hits in Chinese. The winner will have to tell us.)
The lucky winner will be randomly chosen at 6 pm mountain time, on Thursday, April 14th. I’ll announce the winner on this blog post. (I’ll also contact them by email.) Sadly, I cannot ship outside the USA, as I’m too crazy-busy to make a special trip to the post office.
The winner, picked unseen out of a salad bowl by my daughter Rachel, is Carl Irby! Congrats, Carl!! The CD will be headed your way in tomorrow’s mail.
And special thanks to Elizabeth, who provided the inspiration for this post.
A Christian lamp.
I was amused to see these inside a conservative church not far from where we live. I thought you might be too.
I stayed one day past the end of South by Southwest Interactive. My brother came up from San Antonio and we savored a day of free music together. Literally every nook and cranny of 6th Street in Austin was taken over by live music of every stripe (within the realm of popular music).
It was great to hang out with my brother. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing several bands play in intimate venues.
The definite highlight was a band called The Civil Wars. Joy and John Paul rocked the house in a very gentle way. Every song garnered a standing ovation. (Well, it was standing room only.) Their intricate harmonies perfectly blended while John Paul played a variety of acoustic guitars. Their presence was genuine.
Here is the video I took of the song 20 Years. Enjoy.
Yes, our cat, Floof, is the king of the world.
This particular post was one he chose, after being awoken from yet another nap.
This bar appeared in our nearby 
