Meryl Streep

After starting her career in the theater, and eventually Broadway, Meryl Streep auditioned for one of her first motions pictures, King Kong. The film's producer, Dino De Laurentiis, thought she was so wrong for the part that he commented to his son in Italian, "She's ugly. Why did you bring me this thing?" Streep stunned them both when she replied to them in fluent Italian.

Although she didn't get the part (it went to Jessica Lange), Meryl Streep went on to receive 15 Academy Award nominations (winning two) and 23 Golden Globe nominations (winning six), more than any other actor in the history of either award show. Her work has also earned her two Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, three New York Film Critics Circle Awards, five Grammy Award nominations, a BAFTA Award, and a Tony Award nomination. And her work and list of awards only continue. Today, she is regarded as one of the most talented and respected movie actors of the modern era.

Bravo!

Elvis Costello

In a Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn hotel bar, during one of his first U.S. performances, a brassy 24-year-old Elvis Costello engaged in a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett. It's said that the young Costello shouted racial slurs against both Ray Charles and James Brown. Charles, who later forgave the young performer, said, "Drunk talk isn't meant to be printed on paper!"

But Costello, who had already changed his name from Declan Patrick MacManus, had already changed on the inside. He worked extensively on Britian's Rock Against Racism campaign. And the incident inspired "Riot Act!" from one of his early breakthrough albums, Get Happy!!

Since then, Costello has evolved, reinvented himself time and again, and worked with some of the most respected names in rock, country, classical, jazz, pop, and R&B. His unlikely collaboration in 1998 with Burt Bacharach for the equally haunting and romantic Painted from Memory (worth the click) silenced even his harshest critics. Few performers have experimented and turned constant trial into resounding success as Costello.

In 2003, Elvis Costello married singer Diana Krall at Elton John's estate in England. Earlier that year he released North, an album of piano-based ballads concerning the breakdown of his former marriage, and his falling in love with Krall. Together, they have twin sons, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James.

Proof that everything, especially people, can get better with age.

Our Saviour

Here's one that came together rather quickly. Divine intervention? (smile) It's one of my largest at 24x30".

I made it as an outward symbol of "thankfulness" for being blessed with the mere ability to paint. I then gave it as a gift to the church I attend, Grace Point. What a wonderful bunch!

If some tiny voice inside of you feels as if you're taken in by this "fallen" world (lonely, angry, frustrated, selfish, sad, bitter, hurting) then I have a short video for you. It's a brief version of a French film that was nominated for an Academy Award a few years back for Best Short Film. But it speaks volumes.

Peace.