My children’s book, Easter’s Eggs (Or Why We Hunt Easter Eggs) is now available on Amazon.com!
Check it out and order here:
Easters Eggs (Or Why We Hunt Easter Eggs) By Steven Langston
I would definitely go see this movie! Great parody!
I couldn’t take my eyes off of this video!
Audible Perception by Steven Langston
I just released my novel (EXPLICIT), Audible Perception, as a Kindle E-Book. Here’s the link:
The story is about a couple. The wife has had a miscarriage. Tragedy strikes again yet again and he has an affair. What happens when the wife finds out?
It’s an EXPLICIT (can I warn you enough?) suspense/thriller.
This will also be released soon as a paperback book as well.
Now available on AMAZON.com!
Easters Eggs (Or Why We Hunt Easter Eggs) By Steven Langston
I had the idea around 2002 and wrote out the text for my children’s book entitled, “Easter’s Eggs (Or Why We Hunt Easter Eggs)”. I didn’t do anything with it until 2005, when I decided I wanted to get someone to illustrate it. I figured it would be a brightly watercolored book filled with gorgeous images of easter eggs. So, I quickly put together some vector images to give my future illustrator the basics for what I wanted. I couldn’t find an illustrator, though. And the few people I showed the book to loved the images I had created. So, instead of changing it, I kept it as is with my own illustrations.
I got it published through a small company (at the time) and the price for just one hard cover copy was $50. Far too much to be commercially available. So, I kept my one hardcover copy and tucked it away.
At the beginning of this year, I assisted another author in getting her book published and found a publisher for her book that didn’t have such a large cost for their books and so I pulled my Easter’s Eggs book back out. I got it ready for print and now it’s being released soon. I will post the link here when it becomes available.
If you wish to purchase a signed copy, please email me and I will give you instructions. ($40 & 4-6 weeks)
ChessCards By XackPhobe
I just made my ChessCard game available for purchase at:
It’s a twist on the classic game of chess, with a little card snatching included!
Here are the rules:
One of my favorite films is 8 Femmes-a movie that was made from a play in France. The thing I have always liked about it was the unusual way the songs are incorporated into the film. Most of the time in musicals, the song adds to the plot or enhances what’s happening or what’s going to happen, but these seem to be just a character developing feature. The interesting thing is that the other actors watch the singers as if this is really happening. They respond to lyrics and when the song is over, they say things like “are you finished with all that rucus?”
Weird!
And I LOVE IT!
I had seen it on TV back in 2003 or so (maybe on showtime or hbo?) and had a copy of it that I watched once in a while. The language is French with English subtitles. Recently, I wanted to see it again and instead of digging out my copy, I downloaded it from the internet somewhere. I watched it several times and noticed that the english subtitles did not match what I thought they were saying in French. I passed it off as my limited French vocabulary. The odd thing was, even though this is a strange movie, the first song, translated in the subtitles, spelled out everything that was going to happen in the movie and even gave away the surprise ending!
I decided to look for the DVD to see if there was a version with English as the language and found it on amazon.com. The description even said English language. I ordered it and got it today. I started watching it to hear the english, and there was no way to change the language track. I looked on the back of the box, and it didn’t indicate alternate language tracks. So, of course, I wrote an email to Amazon, explaining their mistake. They, of course, wanted to pawn it off on the seller, but I informed them that the seller didn’t have anything to do with the description that Amazon put up there. Either way, I am not sending it back. It was nice to see it in high quality (higher than what I had).
I started watching it from the beginning and got to the first song when I noticed that what I was hearing was being translated correctly and they didn’t give away the plot. Obviously, whomever translated the one I had was being “funny”. Who can I blame? No one… I downloaded it. LOL
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, I will tell you a little about it.
It starts off on a snowy day, in what appears to be the time frame of about the 40s or 50s. It’s hard to determine what was normal in France in that time frame, but they make mention of it being bad that women wear pants and read novels.
7 Women live in the house with one of the women’s husband. 2 employees, the wife and her mother and sister and the wife’s 2 daughters(one was away at school but just arrived home). When they try to wake the husband, he has been stabbed. There is a touch of grief, but then the whodunnit begins, lies and scandals come out and then the husband’s sister arrives. 8 women in the house.
The wife is played by Catherine Deneuve, whom I find fascinating. I don’t think I have noticed her in any of her other movies, but here, she is beautiful, graceful, elegant and fragile. Do I sound like I am gushing? I am. I love her in this role! Here’s a quick snap of her:
Catherine Deneuve from 8 Femmes
That picture really doesn’t do her justice!
The sister in this film is the comedic relief. The husband’s sister is the town whore, very upscale and looks a little like Sandra Bernhard. There are more similarities to Sandra that I won’t reveal-you’ll have to watch it.
There’s a big twist at the end, and then yet another twist!
This movie is not for everyone. I think first, there are types of people who can’t watch a subtitled film-so they’re ruled out. Second, you have to be able to appreciate this for the costumes, the weirdness and the beauty of the actresses. You also have be secure with your sexuality. (wink)
I would have loved to see this live! (Especially with Catherine!)
Since most people who are running this company are old white men, I think it’s time for a change. They are always out of touch with where this country needs to go. They only represent their generation’s views. I think 35-45 should be the age range for any elected office. That way, there is more growth, more jobs, and more reasons for people to do the right thing while in office.
35 is a good age to start- they are old enough to have been doing some important work, yet young enough to invest in the future. The older you get, the less you look to the future.
45 seems to be where people start losing touch with where the country should be going. The closer I am getting to 45, the more I start longing for a simpler time, like the 70s. I would imagine that the people in office are in the same mindset. When I speak to anyone over 50, they don’t grasp new technologies-simple things like cellphones and tv remotes. The brain starts shutting off the learning center at some point, I think. This is happening with me. There is a programming language that I want to learn, but every time I start it, I tend to get bogged down after a time and then want to get away from it.
So imagine a country where people are governed by the out of touch… that’s US!
UPDATE:
This story was in the news today (9/15/2010):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39060764/ns/politics-the_exit_interviews
Despite what the entire United States is going through, there is actually some good coming from the economy going sour.
-People moving in with family harkens back to a time when families did live together
-Children are growing up without excessive “stuff”
-People are having to upgrade/redefine/expand their skillsets
-People who couldn’t afford housing are now able to
If you think of any more positives, let me know and I will add them.
I started working on a clothing line I call “Fabrique” which means fabricated in French.
One of the t-shirts says “Fabrique Aux Chine” (made in China):
Fabrique Aux Chine-XackPhobe
Here’s another one: says “100% COTTON”
100percentcotton_xackphobe
Dry Clean Only:
drycleanonly_xackphobe
Tumble Dry:
tumbledry_xackphobe