Nothing Is Sound

I wake up this morning and groan. Why? because I am coming down with a sickness, the kind of thing that lingers in the upper back pallete of your throat. It bugs me. Nothing is sound anymore except for the fact that I went to the very first concert of my entire life......Switchfoot!

They are a truly unique rock band with an intense longing for meaning, something I search for in the music I listen to. Their concert was gnarly! Thought I'd throw in a California surf word. It wasn't just great because it was my first rock concert I've ever been to, but because their concert was absolutely bodacious. The lead singer had a lot of presence. He jumped up on the drummers platform, rocked out on the bass drum, almost knocking it over, and then jumped back down. He also got into the crowd and sang. Yeah...wow...
Our crowd was tremendous. The sheer decible noise was intense, louder then our football games by far. The kind of screams that you can feel in the pit of your stomach and then it got louder something I didn't think was possible. The whole experience was amazing and I diffently am going to have to listen to more of their music because my friend CJ got me interested in their stuff and now that I heard it first hand I'm psyched.

My good friend Nate might like to know that Switchfoot is coming to Brisbane Oct. 3rd. He should go and convert some 'lost souls' at the concert. Too bad I have no way of 'contacting' him... *UT04 2AM* if(sleep==true) return sorry; else run fragBySteve;

The world as my palette

In my life I never would've thought I'd be a published artist, ever! Now I have been published twice and the second time my work will travel the world round. This drawing I completed on YouDraw is part of a collection of 3 posters of two thousand drawings each, to celebrate the milestones of one hundred, two hundred and three hundred thousand drawings posted on Youdraw.

My drawing of Edvard Munch's Madonna (Which by the way was stolen alone with The Scream, neither of which has been recovered.) is in the third YouDraw Poster.













I included that picture just to show the immensity of all the drawings. If you can find my drawing in there kudos to you. Click here to see a larger view of rows 21 through 24. My drawing is on row 24, thirty drawings over.

Edit: Someone later asked what was the other piece I had published. Here it is. (If you Google Steven Held this is also the first link you get :-)

Wallazamuo

Isn't nature awesome!? This spectacular waterfall peeks out from the lush forest after about a three mile hike in the wonderful state of Minnesota. I was there for my cousin Erin's wedding in August. Here my brother and I stand next to the two love-birds. Awwww...

Seeing that no one who reads my blog knows my cousin, I'll skip over the whole wedding and get to the great waterfall. So without further I do's, I mean ado, let me tell you about The Great Waterfall Expedition.

The morning after the wedding everyone gathered at a national park somewhere on the outskirts of Minneapolis for the reception. Long picnic tables of food glistened in the sun. After gorging ourselves my cousin Erin told us of a great waterfall called Wallazamuo. I just made that name up but it was something similiar. She pointed to the trail.

A group of about five decided to go. We trudged through the mud and cut through thick overhanging trees. After traversing up a mountain side, crunching the twigs below our feet, we saw a clearing ahead. A small creek had carved out a shallow pool. My cousin Paul was the first to jump in. He took off his shirt and made a face with his belly to Yoshi, a Japanese girl.

"Gross!" She had the look of upmost horror on her face.

"What you don't like my fat American belly? Do ya hear that Pudgy, she doesn't like you? She looked at him quizzically until Paul snickered. "I'm going to throw you into the creek, unless you say you like Mr. Pudgy." She obviously doesn't know my cousin because she didn't move until it was too late and well the rest is comical.

Hmmm...it seems I have deleted those pictures of Yoshi being thrown into the creek. Dang... Just imagine a 90lb Japanese girl being tossed by Paul into the creek screaming and afterwards placing a kick into the Achilles Heel of manlihood. The two of them later hit it off. My cousin is a character, he always makes me laugh.

After Paul recovered and Yoshi dried off, we set off for the waterfall. I could hear the water but the thick forest shielded the waterfall from our view. Then around another bend I saw Wallazamuo Falls or whatever it's called.
I love how the light shines down in this picture.


Then we climbed up and behind the waterfall. This is a great experience. The roar of the water pounding the rocks throwing up mist that tickled my skin as I watched the colors dance off the sparkling water. I could have stayed behind that waterfall forever, it was that beautiful.

My Sentiments

I've wanted to post about Hurricane Katrina, give my sentiments, pray for the people there, but I thought I couldn't offer anything of great importance in my blog. However, the more I think about it the more I believe my sentiments can effect people a lot more than I originally thought. The other day I overhead a college student (probably a freshmen) ask what was Hurricane Katrina! Granted the person lives in Wyoming, has probably never seen the ocean, let alone even been outside the 100 mile radius of their birthplace and if they have a television it is most likely permanently tuned to MTV. For this I can't blame them. Just as I can't blame that bird nesting in the tree outside my window. I really cannot blame stupidity or ignorance but I would like to. I would like to shake some sense into them, peel back their eyelids and force them to see what's going on in the world but I can't because I'm a nice guy and even if I were they probably wouldn't care.

This attitude reminds me much of the message from the novel Brave New World. In the novel the people used a drug called soma. This gave them instant gratification and they didn't care about what was going on in the world. We might not take Soma but we surely don't care what is going on the world. The United States is in a war and people go about their lives normally, Hurricane Katrina devastates millions and most go frolicking about their lives without a thought of what's going on. Maybe it's a good thing, a sort of a semi-retarded coma state. Why care about the world if it doesn't effect you?

I'm just as guilty, though not in stupidity but in ignorance. I sit here with a nice computer glowing, the sun shining through the window, birds chirping while those effected by Katrina are without. Even more ignorant on my part is that I went to Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver last week. I went with a group of friends and we were flipped, twisted, spun around and sprayed with water all while laughing about it. So call me a hypocrite if you will. I'm not saying we should all become depressed and not carry on with our lives. I'm just saying we need to reflect upon what is happening in the world and lives of others whether or not they directly effect us. A Haiku that sums this point up beautifully.

When my house blew down
there was nothing left to see
but the rising sun

That's the outlook on life we all need. Let us all appreciate what we have and to give what we can to those in need.

Black Bird Singing in the Dead of Night

My cousin Mark received the Black Crowe drawing I completed for him for his birthday a few of months ago. I had forgotten to take a final picture of it and I asked him if he would send me one. I really like the picture he just sent me. His face is reflected back in the glass glare of the drawing and he really looks as if he is in a reverie. Mark called me when he received the drawing and was ecstatic!!! He complimented me over and over again. I was so happy he liked it because when he first asked me to draw a Black Crowe drawing I had no clue what to do.

He asked me to make a drawing of the lead singer if I could. I thought I would personify a black crow as the lead singer instead.

One of my many sketches (From this sketch I made the final piece)


My drawings begin to take form








For those of you unfamiliar with my cousin Mark, he was in a car accident eight years ago which left him mostly paralyzed. He is in a wheel chair but can manage to walk short distances with extreme effort. When he was younger he played the violin and used to call me Baby Steven, actually he still calls me that. He was in a coma for 2 years before coming out of it right before they nearly pulled the plug on him. He still is very knowledgable, writes very well and has a quick wit. He is a riot to take into a mall because he will hoot and holler at all the girls. He loves the Black Crowes, his ultimate favorite Rock-n-Roll band..