Unexpected Art In Unexpected Places

One of the perks of my job is that I get to satisfy my voyeuristic cravings..... I get to enter people's homes and see how they live..... Occasionally, I even run across famous people during my inspections (e.g. Don Doolittle).

I was recently inspecting a senior community in Long Beach, California and saw some art that I did not expect to see..... The tenant was an elderly Korean man who lives by himself in a small studio apartment and his walls were adorned with his drawings. He doesn't sell the drawings, or even exhibit his drawings outside of his apartment. He did not speak a lot of english, but he was able to communicate the names of the people he had drawn, and he made sure that he told me who was in each drawing. Each. And. Every. One. It was a lot of 'This Tum Hunks' and 'This Dusty Hoof-A-Man'.

He allowed me to take some pictures of his art, and now I get to share them with you.... But I'll spare you the identification of each portrait. (By the way, you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them....)

The Late Shift

Don't get me wrong, I'm on Team Conan, but YouTube user FiveAlex2009 has posted 26 Jay Leno appearances on 'The Late Show with David Letterman'....

All before their friendship crumbled because Jay Leno and his manager used shady tactics to beat out David Letterman for the 'Tonight Show' host position after Johnny Carson had retired.... And when I say beat out, I mean, having an agent who bullies NBC executives and hiding in closets during executive meetings to gain an upper hand in negotiations.... Have you seen the movie 'The Late Shift'? It's about the battle for the 'Tonight Show' host gig.... Now we need 'The Late Shift 2' to cover NBC's latest debacle between Jay and Conan O'Brien....

Keep in mind, most of the videos include David Letterman asking Jay Leno a question, then Jay proceeding to talk for four to five minutes. But it was interesting to see their dynamic (and Jay 'Elvis' Leno) before the feud.... Click on the photo of Jay and Dave to see the videos....

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

I've got some sad news.... Aaron Schroeder passed away on December 2, 2009, after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

You may know him as the man who wrote songs for Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole..... The songs written for Elvis include the number one hits "It's Now Or Never" and "Stuck On You"....

Or you may know him as the man who is credited with helping the young careers of Jimi Hendrix and Barry White....

But this song is his pièce de résistance.... His brightest star amongst a vast universe of adequately bright stars.....

Animals Named After Celebrities

David Bowie has received an honor that few can claim. The man who brought you "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars", has a spider named after him.

Scientist Peter Jäger, in an effort to bring attention of the rapid rate of extinction of spiders and the destruction of their habitats, has named the Malaysian spider 'heteropoda davidbowie'.


Look at this.... While trying to get more information about the David Bowie spider, I found this! In 2007, scientist Jason Bond from North Carolina found a new spider and named it 'myrmekiaphila neilyoungi', after Neil Young.

Wow! Apparently there's a huge list of animals and insects that have been named after celebrities and musicians.... Here's a link to the list.... List Of Animals Named After Celebrities. Yeah, I know it's a Wikipedia list, but most of the animals are noted in scientific journals and on respected science web sites if you look for them on Google.

The list includes a woolly lemur named after John Cleese (avahi cleesei), a snail named after Boris Becker (bufonaria borisbeckeri), a roach named after Jerry Garcia (cryptocercus garciai), an ant named after Harrison Ford (calponi harrisonfordi), and a jellyfish named after Frank Zappa (phiallela zappai). Also, each of the Ramones have a trilobite named after them!

My favorite is the wasp named after an Elvis' song, the 'Preseucolia imallshookupis'.

If you discovered a species, what would you name it? I would have to go with something historically bad.... Like naming the animal after Kevin Federline or Jon Gosselin.... Ooooooh.... Or something historically good, like naming the animal after Katharine McPhee or Christina Hendricks!

My Little Art

Check out these amazing little pieces of art created by an artist in Finland, named Mari Kasurinen. Mari is selling them for £330 (Approximately $470 US) each and will ship them anywhere in the world... What a fun idea... Talk about thinking outside the box... I think I'll stick with the $5.00 My Little Pony from Toys'R'Us, but the rest of you should definitely help support a starving art student.

My Little Stormtrooper


My Little Slave Princess Leia


My Little Han Solo


My Little Chewbacca


My Little Skeletor


My Little He-Man


My Little Bride Kill Bill


My Little Joker


My Little Batman and Robin


My Little Jack Sparrow


My Little Edward Scissorhands


My Little Crybaby


My Little Alien


My Little Elvis


You can see the rest of her My Little Pony Art collection at her site at:

http://www.marikasurinen.com