Steve's Top 5 Top 5's-- #5 top 5 most interesting people of 2009

Rounding out my Top5 top 5's of 2009, with apologies to Barbara Walters for stealing her category, here are my top five most interesting people of 2009.

5) Adam Lambert: I started out not liking him on American Idol. I found him dark and strange. His song choices seemed sometimes very odd to me. What turned me around was his version of Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. He has a very good voice. I still find some of his song choices odd (on his debut CD), and his at times outrageous stage behavior can be disturbing. But he is being true to himself. I'm sure this Idol will be around for a while.

4) Sandra Bullock: A year ago I was asking myself, "what happened to Sandra Bullock, haven't seen her in a while?" I guess that was because she was busy making movies, With three releases this year she is suddenly every where this year, Two hits (The Proposal and The Blind Side) and one flop (All About Steve) have brought Sandra back into the public eye. She has two Golden Globe nominations (For The Proposal and Blind Side) and talk of an Oscar nod. I'm Glad she's back!

3) Lacey Schwimmer: This Dancing With The Stars pro is really interesting to me. I follow her on Twitter and she seems so down to earth and fun, Recently she has gone public with her struggles with anorexia. A very brave step for this rising star. Also she is working on recording a CD, following in the footsteps of Dancing with The Stars pros Julianne Hough, & Derek Hough and Mark Ballas (Ballas Hough Band). Best of luck Lacey!!

2) Taylor Swift: The country music Mega-star has been having a winning year including nabbing the CMA entertainer of the year award, American Music Awards Artist of the year and recently the AP Entertainer of the Year. Not bad for someone who just turned 20 this month.

1) Orianthi: I know I keep talking about her in top 5 list. But if you haven't heard her play, you wouldn't understand. This young woman is absolutely amazing on guitar. She is exploding onto the music scene, and you will be hearing this name for years to come. She has a ton of videos on YouTube, go check them out. Buy her CD Believe today. Buy This Is It on DVD when it comes out next month. You won't be sorry.

Bucket List (courtesy of 2012)

Never before have I really thought about making a bucket list. You know, like in the movie, a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. I kind of thought it was morbid, and possibly just egging on fate to end your life before you can finish the list. But as I listen right now to Adam Lambert singing the theme to 2012 and I realize that the world will be ending in three short years, it seems an appropriate time to make a list of things I'd like to accomplish in tghe next three years, before the earth turms itself upside down and swallows us whole. So I will post my top ten items, and then keep you all updated as I accomplih them. A lot of these involve celebrities, but I'm sure, once they realize that the world is ending, they'll be willing to help me out....although if any of you have contact with any of them, you might ask them to check out this blog. These are in no particular order.

Steve's Bucket List:

1} Finish writing my novel and get it published. This is a long-time goal, and now the end of the world is just giving me motivation to work faster.

2}Take a guitar lesson from Orianthi. She is the amazing guitarist from the Michael Jackson THIS IS IT movie, and to just spend an hour learning from her would be amazing.

3} Spend a month traveling in England and Ireland. I figure it would take at least a month to find all the historical, but not touristy spots.

4} Star in, or direct a movie with Zooey Deshanel. Maybe my friend Beau could produce it. She is one of my favorite actresses, and I'd love to work with her.

5} Spend a day at the park with just my kids and my parents. Sounds easy enough, but if you understood my family situation, you'd know this is probably the wildest thing on my list.

6} Write a song with Taylor Swift. I'd let her sing it, since my voice would make people pray for the end of the world. plus with her singing it would be a sure hit.

7} Get together and hang out for at least part of a day catching up with as many of my Facebook friends as I can. Since my Toyota friends I can see any time, I won't count those, sorry. So far my total is 1, and another coming next month.

8} Have lunch or dinner with Ashley Greene (from Twilight). Her character is so sweet, and from what I hear, she is too.

9} Spend a month on tour with U2. Maybe get invited up onstage by Bono.

10} Take a dance lesson from one of my favorite Dancing with the Stars pros, either Lacey Schwimmer, Chelsie Hightower, or Julianne Hough.

OOPS I have a #11 too} To see a sunrise and sunset on every continent. Well, could probably skip Antarctica. I'm all set on North America. Lets work on the rest.

So there's the list. Keep watching this sight for updates.

Blogging with the Stars

In just less than an hour the fall season of DANCING WITH THE STARS premieres here in California. Many out east have already watched. I am beyond excited. My family has been hooked on this how since season one. I personally have been a fan since season 4 when I first caught sight of Julianne Hough, she's just adorable...and not on it this season. I have suddenly become enthralled with all things ballroom. It is just such fun to watch...perhaps I'm just getting too old for regular TV. In fact in our house I believe the only first run regular show we are still watching is CSI Miami.

We had long resisted reality shows. We watched the first two seasons of Survivor, then quit. We watched most of season one Big Brother and then quit. Then suddenly when Dancing with the Stars and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition hit the airwaves, we got hooked. It wasn't an over night jump away from scripted shows into reality, but before long we added America's Got Talent. Then during the writer' strike we watched Celebrity Circus, Nashville Star, and every Game show that came to prime time. It was coming out of the writers strike last fall when all the shows were back from extended hiatus that we realized we actually preferred the non-scripted reality/competition shows. We followed Kris, Danny and Adam as they battled it out on American Idol, and were glued to our seats as Jeanine peaked at just the right time to win So You Think You Can Dance.

Have we left scripted TV behind for good...We'll see after we watch tonight's CSI Miami on our Tivo Thursday night (No Dancing on Thursday). Of course we still watch the reruns of Seinfeld, and our DVDs of Friends. And I've Got Alias, Dark Angel, 24 and Heroes to watch on my lunch at work.....Ah, but tonight is for Dancing with the Stars!!!

Celebrites examples of growing older gracefully

Good morning. My first morning post on a lovely Saturday. Today I'm going to tell you about three celebrities I feel are Growing older gracefully. Now let me emphasize I don't think these celebrities are old (They are I believe all younger than me) but they are growing older gracefully; that is they are older than they were when they first rose to stardom. It would be easy to list the child stars, and young Hollywood celebrities who have grown older ungracefully. The list goes on and on of stars who have faced addictions, troubles with the law and family issues. But I don't want to talk about them. I want to talk about three celebrities who show that you can come from success at an early age, and turn that into a really productive life.

First off is Alyssa Milano. You remember her as the cute little girl with Tony Danza in Who's the Boss or as one of the bewitching sisters in Charmed. These days Alyssa is the author of Safe at Home: Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic and the designer of Touch, a line of sports fan wear designed specifically for the female sports fan. She will also be returning to TV in a mid-season series Romantically Challenged. But if that isn't enough, Alyssa is an avid user of the social media network twitter, sharing post on any topic she feels passionate about, from Dodger Baseball, to the Iranian Elections, to helping save a rescue dog. She is constantly using her popularity and celebrity for good causes and I salute her for proving that being a child star doesn't have to be a curse. Oh, and she still goes home for family dinners on Sunday with her parents and brother.

Another former child star who is growing older gracefully is Melissa Joan Hart, the star of Clarrisa Explains it All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Now in her early 30's Melissa is the proud mother of two boys. She has her own production company, and her own sweet shop Sweet Harts. She has recently relocated her family to the east coast to be closer to her mother as she recovers from surgery on a brain tumor. Melissa is also very active on Twitter and MySpace. And starting in 9 days you'll be able to watch her compete on Dancing with the Stars. Quite a long way from Clarrisa and Sabrina.

My third celebrity who I feel is growing older gracefully is the lovely Kathy Ireland. I remember Kathy from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. She was the covergirl of the 25th anniversary edition of the swimsuit issue. But what I remember most was hearing her talk about how after the shoots when all the other models would go out on the town to unwind, or in between shoots when there was down time, how she would spend her time reading the Bible. this really stuck out in my mind. Today Kathy has a design company that designs home decor, fashions, garden solutions...oh heck, just go to kathyireland.com to see it all. And beyond that Kathy is involved in a number of charity outreaches and worthwhile causes kathyireland.org will show you all of these. And she also is an avid Twitter user, giving advice to busy moms, and keeping us up to date on the causes she supports. And you can also see Kathy on Dancing with the Stars this season.

These three woman are shining examples that celebrities are not all spoiled brats, or wild party-going egomaniacs. Three cheers for these three stand out celebrities.