Steve Trash

Photo of no unauthorized Photography Sign

2008-05-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

I often wonder how much of what we become - in life - is in our own personal biological chemistry - ie our DNA - and how much we actually choose for ourselves. My grandfather was a ad man, professional photographer, poet, and gun collector. He lived in Dallas, Texas almost his whole life. I'm sure that his life has had a real effect on mine... although we spent very very little time together. Now it's totally amazing to me, but I seem to be constitutionally incapable of NOT WORKING on something creative and artistic. It seems to be the thing that I chase the most... maybe I chase fame and fortune more, but I don't think so. The passion that gets me up in the morning is to tell a new story or to device something that will make people laugh, or to create something that has never existed before, or to express something that is hidden from the world and can only be revealed through my vision and expression. I suppose everyone feels this way. I don't know. I haven't met everyone yet. So here's my contribution for today... a photo of a sign dictating that no photos be taken! Cheers. :)

Kids Making Better Choices on YOUTUBE

2008-04-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

My company CONCRETE DREAM INC. recently received a grant to conceive, write, produce, and edit a video that might help kids make better eating and exercise choices. Kids today face many very serious health issues, and they need good quality information presented in an inspiring and fun way. This is exactly what I tried to do with KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES. I wrote the script with as many slapstick jokes and magic tricks as I could weave through it. I also wanted Mom's and Dad's to be able to share the video freely. KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES was created under a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE which allows people to copy and share the entire video legally - as long as the sharer gives credit to the copyright holders, does not change the content, and shares, but doesn't sell the content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. The video was created and produced through a grant from the Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils, Inc. and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. To make it easier for people to see and share... we've uploaded it in tiny little bite sized pieces to YOUTUBE. You might want to check them out. It's our sincere desire that kids everywhere live happy and healthy lives. Maybe this video will help them a little.

2007 Outstanding RC&D Project Award Winner

2008-04-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

Any career is going to have ups and downs. Last week was a real up for me. I was awarded the 2007 OUTSTANDING RC&D PROJECT AWARD by The Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils, Inc. In 2007 the Northwest Alabama RC&D Council sent me to selected Alabama schools with my TRASH & RECYCLE SCHOOL SHOW to share magic and ideas about Reducing Reusing and Recycling. The kids were great and I hope we made a difference in the way they see their relationship to the natural world around them.

Media Riot & Jakprints

2008-04-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to print some Steve Trash stickers with my NEW printer Jakprints. I met them at SXSW in Austin, TX. I wanted something really cool and new, but just couldn't seem to get the design right. Dianne - my wife - tried to update an old logo for me, but it just wasn't working. So I e-mailed some more cool folks I met at the SXSW festival - Media Riot. After two or three pretty good attempts... they came through with a GREAT sticker design - based on a pretty recent studio photo of me taken by Patrick Hood. I really really love it. I hope we can get Jakprints - a green printer - to print them really soon. In fact I may even go for some T-shirts too. I wonder if I met any t-shirt people at SXSW?

Cartoon Steve Trash

2008-04-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Last year I finally incorporated my business. It's now called Concrete Dream Inc. I think it's a good name. It sounds both solid and ethereal all at the same time. It's kind of yen and yang. Kind of Salt and Pepper. Kind of sweet and sour. I like it. The most hilarious part is that once the name Concrete Dream Inc was listed, I started getting mail for "all my concrete/construction firm needs". I can get you a REAL bargain on mortar mix and gravel... anytime you need it just have your people call my people. Anyway, thinking of myself as a corporation has actually helped me a lot. It allows me to look at creative projects in a different way. I can step out of myself a little better. It's been really good. In fact, it's been great. Over the next few months we're going to be developing and pitching many Steve Trash - Rockin' Eco Hero concepts & projects. In fact, we've worked up a cartoon version of Steve Trash... it's currently called Steve Trek. Pretty cool huh? Basically an animated Steve Trash travels around in a magic trash can. The rest is a secret... you'll have to wait and see if the show gets picked up. Stay tuned. In the meantime... how thick do you want this slurry... it's drying fast.

Ernie Kovacs

2008-04-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Back in the mid 1980's... technically... last century... I moved to NYC to become a famous entertainer. Well actually I moved there because that's where my girlfriend Pam wanted to move, but that's a totally different story. Anyway, we lived in Greenwich Village/The Village in Manhattan on Spring Street. It was quite an experience to drive all the way to New York City jammed packed into a tiny Ford Escort with everything we owned - including cats - from the mean streets of Florence, Alabama only to arrive at our 5 story walk up apartment... get out of the car and there's a guy standing there peeing on the sidewalk. Hey cool... Welcome to New York... make a note... it's okay to pee on the sidewalk. Actually it's NOT okay to pee on the sidewalk, but that also is a different story. Anyway... I had a few bucks in my pocket when I arrived and spent the first few months in my new home walking around the streets of New York. I would just wander around and see what I could see. One day, I stumbled on to the Museum of Broadcasting. It was magic. I went inside and there was an exhibit about a guy named Ernie Kovacs. I'd never heard of him. Apparently, he was a tv guy in the 50's... so I sat down and watched reels of his stuff. I was blown away. I kept looking around at the other people in the museum trying to see if they thought he was as hilarious as I did. He was so silly and funny and at the same time what he was doing contained some real substance and art. That day I became an instant Ernie Kovacs fan. I have in some ways, tried to be as much like him professionally as I can be... mostly because... my life feels sometimes like his tv show KOVACSLAND - scattered, silly, funny, but mostly never makes any sense. I wish I'd gotten to meet him. God Bless You Ernie Kovacs.

Why I Recycle

2008-03-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

Recycling is messy. Recycling is not very convenient. Recycling takes more time than just throwing that yucky old garbage out in the dumpster.

That’s all true. But here’s why I recycle anyway.

1. Recycling reduces wasted landfill space. The landfill is the place where ALL your garbage goes when the garbage truck picks it up and it leaves your house. It’s a place where the co-mingled waste of the planet’s people just sits around taking up space. No one can build a house on that land. No one can put a farm there. No one can turn it into a wildlife preserve. No one can open a Krispy Kreme donut shop there. And that’s silly, because land is valuable and filling land with trash... wastes that excellent space. Why waste valuable land? Recycling reduces wasted space.

2. Recycling saves energy. It takes so much more energy to make a new aluminum can than it does to take the recycled materials of an old can and transform them into a new can. In fact, producing an aluminum can from recycled materials saves 95% of the energy that would have been used to produce a can from virgin/raw materials . Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep your TV running for a whole three hours. Recycling a glass container? Same thing... recycling one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours. Cool huh? Recycling saves energy.

3. Recycling reduces pollution.
Making stuff creates pollution. We’ve got to make and use stuff. And and I’m really okay with that. So the smart thing to do is choose a way to create stuff while making less pollution. Recycling does this really well. Paper made from recycled paper makes 95% less air pollution. And glass that is made of recycled materials creates 50% less water pollution. That sounds like the way to go to me.

4. Recycling conserves natural resources. A resource is anything that can be used. The earth is round. That means you can start at one side and as long as you “keep moving in a straight line, you’ll get back to the same place you started. The earth is not infinite. It doesn’t keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. Neither do our natural resources. We have plenty of natural resources on this planet, but ONLY if we use them wisely. Using something only once is very NOT wise. In fact it’s a really poor use of natural resources. Using a resource over and over and over is the best use. That’s exactly what recycling works. It’s using a resource over and over again. Besides, nature is already recycling our air. Nature is already recycling our water. Nature is already recycling all organic stuff like; plants, trees, animals, humans. It’s all turned back into earth that other living things use for food. Recycling is simply people doing what nature is already doing. Did you know the we use over 65 BILLION aluminum soda cans every year? And every one of them could be recycled. There is no limit to the number of times an aluminum can can be melted down and used over again. Did you know that, every year enough paper is thrown away (not recycled) to build a wall from New York City to Los Angeles, California? Or did you know that, one ton of recycled steel (the kind of container your dog’s food comes in) saves 2,500 pounds of the raw ore, 1000 pounds of coal, and 40 pounds of limestone? Recycling sounds like a great way to conserve resources to me.

Recycling IS messy. Recycling IS NOT very convenient. Recycling DOES take more time than just pitching the yucky old garbage out. But, it reduces wasted landfill space. It saves energy. It reduces pollution. And it conserves natural resources.

So that’s why I recycle. I hope you will too.

Free Green Magic Book

2008-03-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

I self published a book of 22 magic tricks that illustrate ecological principles over 10 years ago. We were offered a deal with a national kid book publisher, but the terms of the agreement were not very good... so we just did it ourselves. My wife Dianne created the drawings... magic books MUST have good drawings or it's too difficult to understand what you're supposed to be doing. The book is called THE MAGIC OF ECOLOGY. It's a really good resource for primary school teachers trying to share eco-principles with their students - grades 1-5 - in fun ways. It's free in pdf form and can be down loaded here. Steve Trash Resources It's being shared under a Creative Commons license - which allows copying, sharing, duplicating, yelling at, dancing around, calling unflattering names, but NO selling. Please pass the word. I'd love for kids everywhere to get just a little bit greener and to be a little more magical.

Michael Eisner & Steve Trash entertainment impresarios

2008-03-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

So I decided to go to a party that the creators of THE ALL FOR NOTS - a webisode docu/comedy about a touring indie rock/pop band invited me to. I'm still in Austin at the SXSW festival and figured... hey they're nice folks, I should go... so I went. I was standing around at the party and there in the corner was a very tall guy - I'd say at least 6.3 or 6.4 - that looked exactly like Michael Eisner the founder of VUGURU - a new media entertainment firm and the Ex-boss at Disney. I'm a fan of his business book WORK IN PROGRESS. In fact, most of the magic tricks I've learned over the years and most of the business concepts I've learned, most of the green/environmental concepts I've grown to embrace and share with the world, have all come from books. I'm a book worm. I read really really slowly, because I'm dyslexic... so I guess I'm a slow worm... but that's another story. So I walk over to this guy and sure enough. It was Michael Eisner and he is producing THE ALL FOR NOTS and was super nice and let me have my picture made with him. Pretty cool huh? The rest of the party was really fun. I hope THE ALL FOR NOTS is a huge success, because it will pave the way for other digital media success stories. Maybe Steve Trash will be one of them.

Sandra Bullock in DFW & a book

2008-03-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well... I haven't even gotten to SXSW Film Festival yet, and I've had my first really cool film related experience. I had a layover in Dallas at DFW... on my way to Austin. The plane was delayed so I pulled out Blake Snyders' screenwriting technique book SAVE THE CAT. As I'm reading page 93 - which features the film MISS CONGENIALITY starring Sandra Bullock - as a great example of a high concept/logline. It also features a picture of her in the book to illustrate the point clearly- I look up from her picture. I actually see her. There's Sandra Bullock sitting across from me in the terminal at the airport! My head made that weird wobbly noggin shaking noise that you see on cartoons... because I am staring at a star... who is also the picture I'm staring at in a book. It was too weird... so at the risk of making a scene... I very very quietly wandered over and asked her to sign her picture in the book. She did and she was very nice about it. In a way my head is still making that wabby noggin noise... come to think of it... that may be normal for my head.

George Lindsey Film Festival featured Billy Bob

2008-03-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

The Shoals Alabama - my home community - played host to the incredibly talented TRIPLE THREAT OF ENTERTAINMENT - actor, writer, director - Billy Bob Thornton this past weekend at the UNA/George Lindsey Film Festival. Billy Bob, Lucas Black, and Natalie Canerday shared stories about the making of the now classic movie - Sling Blade. The movie was written, directed, and it starred Billy Bob Thornton. The event at the Shoals Theater included clips from the film and then the cast shared stories about the making of the movie and its subsequent effect on their careers. It was a really enjoyable evening hearing the stories and seeing that Billy Bob seems to be a regular guy and he's also really funny! No green content to the evening, but a great evening anyway.

I'm headed to Austin, Texas tomorrow for the SXSW film festival. I had so much fun last year that it actually turned out to be the highlight of my year. I'm told there will be a very large green component to SXSW this year. They're very serious about integrating sustainability into the SXSW events and screenings. Should be fun to see what they do.

Generation Green

2008-03-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

Recently an article ran on the AP wire GENERATION GREEN - KIDS ENLIST HELP OF PARENTS TO SAVE THE PLANET - written by Leanne Italie. Green Generation is a cool new moniker for kids that are passionate about all things green... ie recycling, carbon footprint reduction, bio-degradable materials, etc., but from my perspective it's a hollow moniker if green kids only focus on the outside environment. Don't get me wrong. I live in an earthbirmed house. I recycle passionately. I compost. I use an on-demand gas water heater in my home. For crying out loud - I created an entire magic show with trash!

But your body is also an environment... as is the local community you live in. Treating your body with respect is being green. Treating your neighbors with respect is being green. We can't separate our bodies from our communities or from the global world around us. So three cheers for Generation Green... just don't forget to eat your spinach. S. T.

Honda goes for Zero Landfill in Alabama

2008-02-06T06:34:00.000-08:00

My home is in Alabama. I live in beautiful downtown Frog Pond, Alabama - population 76 when I'm not home - and recently I saw an ad for Honda Manufacturing of Alabama that touted it's Zero Landfill initiative. If I understand this correctly, Honda Manufacturing in Alabama will build close to 300,000 cars and no waste will go to the landfill. I assume most of the waste is recycled and what's left over is converted to non-polluting energy. If this is really true, I'm really impressed. Not only does Honda build great cars, but they're doing it in a smart green way right here in Alabama. Way to go Honda! I'm filled with a great deal of hope for the green-ness of our future. When big companies truly understand that we must create an economy that works WITH the natural world and not AGAINST it. We will all win. Woohoo!

KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES video

2008-01-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

Part of my mission as Steve Trash is to empower kids to be the best they can be. I'm really really happy to announce that the Alabama Association of RC&D Councils - that's Resource Conservation & Development - will underwrite the cost of a 30 minute video for kids ages 6-12 years old called KIDS MAKING BETTER CHOICES. In this video we'll teach kids better exercise and eating choices they can make to live healthier and happier lives. We can't all go out and be great if we aren't healthy... this video aims to help kids make better choices...so a big hurrah for the Alabama RC&D's. Way to go. We'll be shooting the fun, funny, and magical video over the course of the next month or so. Stay tuned. It will be made available to ALL Alabama primary schools. Woohoo!

Steve Trash finally arrives in blogosphere

2008-01-28T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well it's about time, but I've finally decided to add a BLOG to my www.stevetrash.com web site. 2008 looks like it's going to be a fabulously green and magical year. I have a real interest in both of these... so I'm going to put my two cents in.
Steve :)