Obama, Batman, Venkman, and the Eiffel Tower

I've mentioned before that I will sometimes take a picture of other photos or posters or concepts that help me think of what photos to take or how I can display one I have already taken. Oftentimes, I sneakily capture a shot inside of a store (easier nowadays thanks to cameras in smartphones). Here are a couple of inspiration photos I captured in Silverton. I am not sure I like the typeface in the Devil's Tower, but it and the Slverton poster give me ideas.

And what about the bright colors in the Rockies poster below? Too bright?

Here is one I took in a restaurant in Ouray. However, since it is a snow photo, I am not sure what ideas it might give me. What do you think?

I do have a shot that might could work, taken looking at the Amphitheater behind downtown Ouray on a snowy day. I might want to lighten the trees in the foreground.

I woke up with 'Thank You, Lord' in my head. You know the old song. "Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul, Thank you, Lord, for making me whole; Thank you, Lord, for giving to me. Thy great salvation so rich and free." I would think that is better than waking up thinking of the Rolling Stones song 'Sympathy For the Devil."

Speaking of songs, my current song count in iTunes is 10,501. And speaking of totals, the current photo count in iPhoto is 13,050. And it looks like this will be Blogger post #1,709 since the blog started in 2005. I do not have a current count of how many Clarity of Vision comics I have written, although I think the count of funny ones is 17.

Paper towels or air hand dryers. Which do you prefer after washing your hands? Be careful which you choose because air drying may spread MORE germs. Is nothing safe anymore?

Did you listen to Obama's immigration speech last night? I confess that I did not. However, that does not mean I won't make fun of it.

Do you remember the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. He had such great lines. Who wrote them? Well, the actor sort of had the part rewritten for him because the quotes were his and Stanley Kubric like them. Here is a quote from an interview with his right-hand man, Leon Vitali. "It’s no secret that former Marine Corps drill instructor R. Lee Ermey, who played the vicious Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann in Full Metal Jacket, started out on the film as a consultant. After wowing Kubrick and Vitali with his verbal vitriol directed at the movie’s young actors, Ermey got a field promotion to the breakout role. What you may not know is that Kubrick reworked the script, using Ermey’s own words. (Hartmann, you'll recall, had such indelible lines as 'Did your parents have any children that lived?' and 'You’re so ugly you could be a modern art masterpiece!') “What we did was we took 800 pages of transcribed video [of Ermey],” recalls Vitali. 'Then we went through the script line by line and picked out all the best lines that R. Lee Ermey had uttered. We strung his role together like that. It was a fantastic sort of genesis. I’ve never come across anything like it before or since.'"

How many times have you asked yourself, "What if superheroes were the subjects of classic Flemish portraiture?" Come on, you know you have been curious about that. Who wouldn't? Anyway, wonder no longer. Here we go. I think I like Batman's outfit the best.

And speaking of things that you never knew that you wanted, how about iconic world landmarks painted using a bicycle tire? Yeah, right? You can read a little more in this story.

Have you ever heard of Honest Trailers on youtube? Here, watch this one about Ghostbusters and you may want to see what other movies they have covered.

Did you say it is Friday and time to get going? OK, I will let you go and see you back here soon for blog post #1,710.