Super Leung Bros - the coolest kids on the blog!

Today Is My Birthday

2006-03-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

It's 11 o'clock at night, I'm sitting at home, and drinking tea. The day was a slow crawl of dreary grey and strange silence. The night doesn't move any quicker, and it brings a chill with it, too. My neck strains and my knees ache from the cold. I feel like an elderly, worn and discarded man...

But today is my birthday. I have seen enough birthdays to understand that this cannot go on forever. So I cherish this day, I cherish what I have. A quarter-century lived has been a full experience; the joys and wonders in life that I find by my God have been enough for me. If tomorrow never comes, I am at peace. I am blessed, and I am thankful.

Just Finished Reading LXG

2006-02-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. My belief is that it is a singularly remarkable piece of comic-book fiction. Not that I should have expected anything less from the writer of the seminal Watchmen book (the only "comic book" to land on the recent TIME magazine All-Time 100 Novels list), the hauntingly dystopian V for Vendetta, and the landmark Batman graphic novel, The Killing Joke.

The book is a peculiar - but entirely cogent - Victorian-era pastiche of prominent characters from classic British novels by such luminaries as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bram Stoker, to name a few. At the forefront of the story are Mina Harker of Dracula, Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines, the titular juxtaposition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Griffin of The Invisible Man, and Captain Nemo of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The dynamic of this team is something to behold... As if that were not enough, peppered across the entirety of the graphic novel are references and homages to Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe, Fu Manchu, Around the World in Eighty Days, Moby-Dick, Oliver Twist, and War of the Worlds. In any less capable hands, the endeavor would result in complete and utter disaster, but Moore balances the whole with even pacing and a wisdom in focus. (Of course, one could argue that no other popular fictionist, with the exception of Philip José Farmer, would even have dared dream of such grandiose literary blasphemy.) The curious amalgamation here offers a very dark and unflinchingly cynical view of humanity and heroism, and yet never calms its lust for spirited adventure and awe-inspiring visuals.

Seeing as how I had long "outgrown" comic books, I had never heard of League until previews for the screen adapatation were making the rounds a few years ago. I never did watch the film, but judging by reviews and word of mouth, to say that it underwhelmed is an understatement. After reading a brief comparison between the book and film, I can see why the adaptation failed to properly capture what was so brilliantly laid out on paper. Put bluntly, the filmmakers seemed to have ripped each and every member of the League of the exact qualities integral to the essence of their respective characterizations. I guess it bears repeating the oft-used cliché: the book was better. In any event, I would give my strongest recommendation of the book to any lover of British literature and high adventure.

The Olympics Are Boring

2006-02-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

Is anybody watching the Winter Olympics in Torino?

I might as well admit that I'm more interested in MLB spring training. Truth is, I've never felt drawn to the Winter Olympics. Outside of hockey, it's a boring set of events to me, comprised almost entirely of "sports" and competitions unfamiliar to a Southern California boy. But to be honest, even the summer Olympics aren't much of a draw to me anymore. The last time I was excited about watching the Olympics was way back in '92 when the Games were held in Barcelona.

What happened?

I think I'm a hardcore sports fan. I love watching the Big Three (football, basketball, and baseball) just like anyone other joe. I catch some hockey games or tennis matches. I'll even sit down to watch a round of golf or a game of soccer. But the Olympics bore me.

I need a real reason to watch. Don't argue for the purity of amateur sports or the brotherhood of friendly international competition. That doesn't cut it for me. That doesn't make me want to pick up the remote and check out what's going on in Torino. That doesn't make me curious about what will happen in Beijing in 2008.

You know what I think it is? What's really lacking is political intrigue and political context/subtext.

For me, the real drama of the Olympics lies in stories such as the elation of the Miracle on Ice that threw back the Iron Curtain and years of Cold War fears; the tragedy in the Munich Massacre that made Black September and all other terrorists a much more real danger to the world at large; the beauty in black-skinned Jesse Owens winning four gold medals and singlehandedly toppling Hitler's ideology of Aryan superiority; and the awe of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their black-gloved fists in salute of the fight for civil rights and black power.

After the latter display, then-IOC President Avery Brundage had indignantly said, "They violated one of the basic principles of the Olympic Games: that politics play no part whatsoever in them."

Was he joking? That's the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard about the Olympics! Politics is what the Games are all about! Unfortunately, all of the events I mentioned occurred over 25 years ago. In our ever-so-politically-correct new world, strong subplots such as these no longer exist. You can argue for the peacefulness in the betterment of our global state of affairs, but all I know is that the Olympic Games I loved are gone and replaced by something uneventful and uninspiring.

Jez's Choice for Best Album of 2005

2005-12-31T15:07:00.000-08:00

The year 2005 certainly had more ups than downs in the music world, and that reflects in the difficulty I encountered upon ranking a top album. Last year's Rubber Factory by the Black Keys seemed an obvious choice to me (though I certainly wouldn't have argued against a choice of several other deserving artists' works), but this year I found no such clearcut winner among an accumulation of 20-plus albums. In the end, I decided upon an album that certainly wasn't a widely acclaimed critics' darling and yet was the one that I found myself listening to time and time again as the year came to a close:

Best Album of 2005
The Craft by Blackalicious

The duo of Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel already have a sizeable discography to their name and a superb one at that, but they still remain under the radar to most of the world. Through no fault of their own, the Quannum boys seem to have been overshadowed (for lack of a better word) by their esteemed brother-in-arms DJ Shadow for most of their careers. Perhaps The Craft will help to change that once and for all. Their previous full-length album Blazing Arrow was a joyfully vigorous production strengthened by its sophisticated sonic breadth; Chief Xcel opens the expanse just a bit further on The Craft by the addition of an organic funk band aesthetic. Of all things, the album serves notice as a true heir to the G-funk era; that genre had grown so stale by the late 1990s that the genius of Dr. Dre's innovations had almost been forgotten. Here, Blackalicious redefine the West Coast sound into a lush, flowing, real musicality that bends and shapes accordingly to Gift of Gab's lyrical dexterity, which itself is now freed to experiment away from any gimmicky speed raps of years past. Combined with the duo's penchant, or adroitness rather, for uplifting social/spiritual messages and creative conceptualizations, of which The Craft is in abundant supply, Blackalicious continue to create music that ranks among the best of their generation in spite of an alarming lack of extant recognition of their gifts.

Nominees for Best Album
02. Demon Days by Gorillaz
03. Suit Yourself by Shelby Lynne
04. Arular by M.I.A.
05. Be by Common
06. The Mouse and the Mask by DangerDoom
07. Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
08. Drunkard's Prayer by Over the Rhine
09. Triple P by Platinum Pied Pipers
10. Late Registration by Kanye West

11. The Back Room by Editors
12. Transistor Radio by M. Ward
13. Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers
14. Guero by Beck
15. Z by My Morning Jacket
16. Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team
17. S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M. by One Be Lo
18. Takk... by Sigur Rós
19. Beauty and the Beat by Edan
20. The Minstrel Show by Little Brother

21. Naturally by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
22. Ta Det Lugnt by Dungen
23. Lookaftering by Vashti Bunyan
24. Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode
25. Ozark Empire by Listener
26. Fisherman's Woman by Emiliana Torrini
27. Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple
28. The Forgotten Arm by Aimee Mann
29. Lullabies to Paralyze by Queens of the Stone Age
30. The Mysterious Production of Eggs by Andrew Bird

Teshtimony

2005-10-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

I don't think I quite know how to express properly what this means to me, but last night I went to see John Tesh (*snicker snicker*) lead worship at Shepherd of the Hills and I came back a witness to a live rendition of "Roundball Rock" (aka The NBA on NBC theme)! My life is that much closer to completion. Can I get a hallelujah up in here?

Black Girl Pain

2005-10-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

I switched on my iPod and let the songs file in that day by way of the player's shuffle feature: a little Marvin Gaye, Radiohead, some classic Louis Armstrong, Duran Duran... It all started a bit innocuously and curiously devoid of my genre most beloved - hip-hop.

Then it came: a little girl singing what sounded like a schoolyard rhyme... I'd never heard this song before. Before I could check my player's Now Playing menu, a familiar voice started: Talib Kweli, a champion of the hip-hop underground. Odd. How could I have passed over a song by one of my favorite rappers? A quick check let me know that it was a song off his album The Beautiful Struggle which came out last year and hadn't reached the top of my queue for in-depth listening thanks to a preponderance of older albums awaiting my critique.

"Black Girl Pain" - the title and the topic of the song.

Teach her what black is, the fact is her parents are thorough / She four, reading Cornrows by Camille Yarborough / I keep her hair braided, bought her a black Barbie / I keep her mind free, she ain't no black zombie / This is for Aisha / This is for Kashera / This is for Khadijah / Scared to look up in the mirror / I see the picture clearer through the stain on the frame / She got a black girl name, she livin' black girl pain

Before I could let that sink in further, another voice began the second verse. Jean Grae's on this track? Huh... Yeah, that does make sense. A black woman would be needed to bring weight and real truth to this statement, and Jean is the best female rapper on the scene, bar none.

The strength of mommy's backbone / The length of which she went for raising, sacrificing her own / The pain of not reflecting the range of our complexions / For rubber pellet scars on Auntie Elna's back I march / Fist raised / Caramel shining in all our glory / For Mauritius, St. Helena / My blood is a million stories

I felt that; I understood even though I was ostensibly about as disparate from her as possible.

The following morning, I headed to the Dream Center in Los Angeles for volunteer work. I and others from my church were bussed to a park centered in the projects of Watts, where we handed out food and clothes to needy people in the area. After five minutes, there were no more foods or clothes to hand out nor anymore responsibilities, but the bus wouldn't return to pick us up until a couple hours later.

There were plenty of neighborhood kids running around the park, so we headed to the playground to pass the time. Most of the kids - around the ages of 4 to 9 - preferred the swings and asked us to push them for the entirety of our time there. Kids are always a joy, no doubt, but there was the vexing feeling that our time was wasted that day. I thought I'd be going around handing out food and clothes person-to-person, doing cleanup of the neighborhood, giving my time and effort in a tangibly rewarding way; anything but just aimlessly hanging out with a bunch of little kids.

With what I perceived to be a lack of structure and instruction from the Dream Center, I found myself a bit frustrated as the bus returned to pick us up. The kids climbed onboard, too, so that the bus could bring them to a nearby church for the afternoon. The kids, being kids, were abundantly loud and rowdy as they packed in, three to a seat. But as the bus cruised down the freeway, the noise generally subsided and the kids settled down.

That was when I saw her: a little girl, a couple rows up on the opposite side of the bus, sitting on the edge of her seat facing the aisle. I recognized her as one of the kids who had begged me incessantly to push her swing, always giving me the most exact orders on how to do my job, screaming delightedly as I launched her higher and higher. But now here she was just staring vacantly through a window pane of the bus.

The impact of the words from Talib and Jean impressed upon me a profound sense of relation to this girl now. Was she looking at her own reflection in the window? When I gazed upon her, I took her reticence for sadness and I sympathized. But as I looked deeper into her eyes, as I allowed that face to linger in my view, I understood what her expression truly was: it was the look of adulthood.

This was a girl seven years old and yet I saw in her eyes the wisdom and sorrow of a woman who had been worn down by decades. In that moment, I understood why God had placed me that day in a playground in a park in Watts to push this little black girl's swing. I helped her to be a kid again. The innocence of naïveté was hers once more. For those couple hours, she was free to fly on that swing. Whatever worries, troubles, hardships she has to endure, whatever things make her frustrated, make her insecure, make her cry, make her grow up too fast; those things weren't there at the playground.

For Winnie, for Joan, and for Edie / For Norma, Leslie, Ndidi / For Auntie Betty, for Melanie, all the same family / Fiona, Jo Burg / Complex of mixed girls / For surviving through every lie they put into us / Now this world's yours and I swear I will stand focused / Black girls, raise up your hands / The world should clap for us

As the bus pulled up next to the church and the kids jumped off, I sat there watching her walk away. Too often, we box ourselves into distinct and separate societies. It's the easy and natural thing, but we do so at the absence of empathy and fellowship with those perceived as different from us. We forget the commonality we share: we are not only white, black, brown, yellow; we are not only lower, middle, upper class; we are all God's creation, God's children, recipients of His love and salvation with none excluded; we experience the same griefs, we experience the same joys. We all need the same supports in life: recognition, encouragement, guidance, kindness, love.

Did that 7-year-old black girl care that I was a 24-year-old Asian man? All she knew was that she wanted me there with her. I wish I had shown her that I wanted to be there with her, too. I'll never see her again, but I pray that she finds more blessings in her life than she can count.

My mama said life would be this hard / Growing up days as a black girl scarred / In every way though, you've come so far / But they just know the name, they don't know the pain / So please hold your head up high / Don't be ashamed of yourself / Know I will carry you forth till the day I die / 'Cause they just know the name, they don't know the pain

Nintendo's Revolutionary Controller

2005-09-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

The next-generation Nintendo console, codenamed the Revolution, was said to have a controller that would live up to that name. The rumors swirled for months and months but Nintendo's showing at E3 earlier this year was devoid of any hints about it (which is something I was convinced of only after searching their booth up and down). It turns out they chose this week's Tokyo Game Show to unveil their plans.

There is is, folks. It looks like a remote, doesn't it? Well, it's more than that. For starters, there's a port at the bottom that will allow for connectivity with a number of control units. The first and most obvious one shown is the analog stick unit.

But the real revolution lies in an all-new level of interaction that Nintendo has created by the use of motion sensors. Put simply: you move the controller itself.

Its motion, depth, and positioning are all keys to the way you interact with a game. In a video shown at the Tokyo Game Show, the controller was used to swing as a baseball bat, chop as a kitchen knife, wave as a conductor's baton, cast as a fishing rod, search as a flashlight, flick as a flyswatter, and slash as a sword.

The question: Will this ever amount to anything more than a niche product; is this a catalyst toward a brave, new world in gaming? There are hardly moments when anything lives up to the hype that precedes it, but I could conceivably concede that this will be a true revolution that forever changes the way we play.

Watch Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's keynote address
(Skip to 28:50 for the first real glimpse of the Revolution controller in use)

September 13, 1996

2005-09-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

Nine years, homies. It's been nine years. To this day, I can't help but get torn up inside whenever I hear one of his songs play on the radio - Me Against the World was the soundtrack of my life, man, no joke. I'll wait until it's been ten years to give testimony on how my life was affected by the life and times of one Tupac Amaru Shakur. Until then, we still must remember the man, remember the lessons he taught us in life and in death. Growing up as a youth here in the streets of Los Angeles, Shakur was one of the most powerful influences on my life, for better or worse. His death on September 13, 1996 changed my life forever. I've since grown into a man from the time he was shot and killed; I've since seen him for the impossible and incorrigible antihero he really was. But no matter the perception I hold now - even the disillusionment - I'm still able to look back fondly on the years I idolized him. After all, he did help to build me into who I am today, in more ways than you might believe or understand. Rest in peace, 'Pac.

September 12, 2003

2005-09-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Today marks two years since Johnny Cash died. I didn't truly become a fan until after he passed away, which is something I will regret for the rest of my life. I'd heard of him - who wouldn't hear and remember a name like Johnny Cash? - but I'd never cared to listen much to an old country singer...

A few weeks after he passed away, Philo insisted that we visit the Museum of Television & Radio for a Cash tribute they were exhibiting. They screened a few documentaries but the one that stood out the most to me was "Johnny Cash at San Quentin." I'd grown up always hearing about that prison upstate whose walls held the worst of the worst in humanity. And yet here I could see the faces of the men it housed, spellbound, hanging upon Cash's every word.

He sung about the prisoners, about death, about crime, about cruelty. He sung about love, about humor, about peace, about Jesus. He had recently come off the worst in a battle against drugs and alcohol, come off a hardened lifestyle that had landed him in jail once or twice. Yet the experiences ultimately served to strengthen his presence and performance. But perhaps performance isn't the right word. The concert was being filmed, all right, but he wasn't some square, smiling dolt staging a publicity event in front of poor, misguided souls. He was there to meet his brothers. He was real and the prisoners understood that. He didn't have a number on his shirt or a cell to return to but he was one of them. The mythos that spun behind him was something to behold that day.

Johnny Cash is gone now but I'm proof that even in death he will continue to have his presence made known to inspire others. There may never be another Man in Black but somehow I think it was always his intention that there would be others to take up his mantle and carry on that legacy. And that's what I aim to do.

I Need a Cell Phone Again

2005-09-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

After more than two years of swearing off a mobile device for a manifold of reasons, I need a cell phone again. Problem is, it's been so long that I've all but lost touch with mobile technologies, features, designs, manufacturers, and providers. I'd appreciate recommendations from anybody in the L.A. County area. I'd appreciate heads-up on deals on plans and phones even more.

Here's where I'm at right now: I'm thinking of going with either Verizon or T-Mobile service. I don't know a thing about Nextel and I don't think I'll ever go back to Cingular after my last experience with them. As for phone manufacturers, I seem to like Sony Ericsson's features but Motorola's style. Other popular companies like Nokia and LG seem fine, but nothing particularly stands out.

So steer me right, people. At the very least, let me know what provider you use so I can better factor mobile-to-mobile into the equation.

Interview with Deepspace5: Playdough and Sivion

2005-08-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

You know what, I almost forgot about this: I conducted an interview with Playdough and Sivion of Deepspace5 a couple months ago. Sivion's put up the expanded version on his Deepspace5.com profile page, which you can reach directly at http://forthelistener.com/deepspace5/sivion.php. Check it out, 'cause it took me hours to edit correctly. It's a good read, if I may say so myself. I don't normally like to show off the work I do to my friends, but I just figured that there's enough interest in Deepspace5 that I ought to link to this. Have fun.

NBA 2K6 > NBA Live 06

2005-08-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Get this: IGN has reported that the videogame NBA 2K6 will feature exclusive songs from The Roots, Common, Aesop Rock, RJD2 and so much more. Congratulations, 2K Sports, you automatically get my money this year over EA Sports! Now please come out with a limited edition packaged with a soundtrack CD.

The official tracklist stands as follows:

1. "Schoolyard Scrimmage Intro" - RJD2
2. "Big Money Talk" - Lyrics Born
3. "That's Why I'm Here" - Redman
4. "Excellent" - Blackalicious
5. "Carolina Agents" - Little Brother
6. "Set 'em on Fire" - The Roots
7. "Doin' My Job" - Aceyalone
8. "Throw It in Ya Grill" - Hieroglyphics
9. "The Movement" - Common
10. "The Jam" - Jean Grae
11. "Ride" - Zion I
12. "Junkyard" - Aesop Rock
13. "2K6" - Skillz
14. "Schoolyard Scrimmage Outro" - RJD2

Song of the Summer

2005-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

I don't care what anyone says about it being pop or mainstream or whatever - my song of the summer is "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield. I love it, I love it, I love it. It's got just the right sound for a kickin' beach party, and that's something that underground rap and indie rock can't give me. Take that, you heads and hipsters. Complain all you want about me falling into typical SoCal shallowness; I'm heading out for some fun in the sun.

Change Clothes

2005-08-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

I think I'm shrinking. Either that or America is growing a whole lot bigger, at a rate for which I have yet to receive the McDonald's memo (menu?).

I'm not a particularly big guy, vertically or horizontally. But I'm not all that small either. Last time I checked, I'm 5'9" and 175 lbs. That's about average, isn't it? Tell that to the clothing manufacturers.

I normally wear medium-sized shirts and jackets, with the occasional large thrown in here and there. It doesn't even feel like that long ago that I was buying strictly larges with the occasional medium thrown in. Small is definitely something I've never had to try on. Until now.

While shopping the past couple weeks, I found myself trying on mediums and finding the fits too loose! After some trepidation, I grabbed some smalls when nobody was looking. (Oh, the shame.) Lo and behold, they fit perfectly.

These are the same brands that I've bought over the years, ranging from designer labels like Claiborne and Cole to mall brands like Banana and Hollister to athletic apparel like Nike and Reebok. They're all making their sizes bigger! What's going on?

I'm really starting to think that people in America are just getting fatter and fatter. The clothes I tried on still retained similar lengths to my current wardrobe but the widths are markedly different. I'm not even a skinny guy so if medium is too big on me, we have a problem, people.

The Influence of British Accents

2005-08-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

I recently met a couple girls from England. It seems a bit out of agreement with my memory but they must have been the first Britons I've ever really talked to. I say that because I've just discovered the strangest thing about conversation with our neighbors from across the Atlantic: I imitate their accent.

It was certainly no intentional thing whatsoever, but the more I spoke with the girls, the more I found myself picking up their accent. I had to continually keep myself in check and consciously bring myself back to an "American accent," however foreign as that may sound to my ears (the phrase, not the dialect).

I was in no way ready to offend their sensibilities nor fuel their preconceptions about rude Americans (I was already informed of the latter by my host friend; no preconceptions on my part) so I was a bit nervous about continued conversation with them. But they actually seemed to take quite a liking to me; perhaps my idiosyncrasy -I assume it is one- went unnoticed. It's been suggested that they may not have noticed because they hear the British inflection all the time in their native country. But I would think that they'd be able to spot a bogus accent that was probably built upon nothing more than hours of watching Monty Python.

With that said, I'm still puzzled over my odd behavior, and am very curious whether it is indeed an idiosyncrasy or not. Do all we Americans, whether because of admiration or derision, carry some innate accent switch that gets toggled whenever we come into contact with Britons?

Cave Story = Addictive

2005-08-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

A lot of times I'll pass by Philo on his computer playing some stupid Flash-based game that one of his friends has linked to him via AIM. He'll tell you that whenever I catch him, I'll complain vehemently. I mean, why did I buy a PS2 and a GameCube if he's just going to play these stupid, free games?

I've got no more ground to stand upon. I'm hooked on an indie freeware game called Doukutsu Monogatari which translates to Cave Story. Yeah, lousy title, I know. But the game's good, I swear. It's better than most of the trifle that gets put out on the GameBoy Advance. The structure reminds me of the Metroid series or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night if comparisons help to entice you. It's been so much fun I've even hooked up my dusty PC gamepad again. If only all free games were this good...

EDIT: What the...? Cave Story keeps crashing on me whenever I reach a specific point in the Labyrinth level. It appears to be a glitch in the latest revision of the game (1.0.0.6), so the only known solution is to revert back to an older version (1.0.0.5) as well as an accompanying, older version of the English translation patch. Not cool.

Go to http://maxdamage.justblank.net/cavestory.htm to download the older version with the translation patch, and simply copy your previous profile.dat file over to continue right where you left off in the Labyrinth.

REEDIT: That was certainly a prompt fix. A new version of the translation patch has already been uploaded to http://agtp.romhack.net/doukutsu.html. Cave Story version 1.0.0.6 works perfectly now. Thanks to Shih Tzu for the quick heads-up!

I Try

2005-07-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if I've made a difference in other people's lives, whether I mean anything at all to them. Am I an integral part of the way others experience and remember moments of their lives? There are so many times when I'm with a group of people and I feel as though I could leave right then and there and the day would be the same to them. I've become little more than an afterthought on the high-wire brink of the forgotten...

twas then he...

2005-07-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

FELT ALONE

Jazz It Up

2005-07-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to update the blog because my free time's been spent in front of the stereo. I've been buying CD after CD after CD... More recently, I've been on a quest to compile a respectable jazz (and vocal) collection. So far it stands as follows:

Rosemary Clooney - Some of the Best
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight
Miles Davis - The Complete 'In a Silent Way' Sessions
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Blossom Dearie - Blossom Dearie
Duke Ellington - Ebony Rhapsody: The Duke Ellington Vocalists
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella for Lovers
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin
Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
Charlie Parker - The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes
Matthew Shipp - Equilibrium
Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours

There's a whole lot more I could add... I could easily point out the glaring omissions of Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie... I welcome suggestions warmly.

Star Wars for Sale

2005-07-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz is putting up some very special items for sale! You can buy screen-used props like Luke's lightsaber and Yoda's cane! While I doubt that anybody I know could afford to purchase these pieces, and I'm dirt-poor, it's kind of cool just to know that these things were one step closer to being in my hands...

Not Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

2005-07-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been nearly a month since I last posted. I've been set back with other preoccupations these past few weeks.

You just don't know how truly deeply this resonates with me: "Last Moments" presented by BOASAS.

Film Review: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

2005-06-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

Twenty-eight years after the release of the original Star Wars film, the six-part modern-day myth comes full circle with the final installment, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. After a couple of ignominious, seemingly irrelevant prequels, Revenge reveals at last the end of the Clone Wars – complete with the decimation of the Jedi Order and the formation of the Galactic Empire – as it leads into the events of that first film that now truly seem to have passed "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

Most importantly, we are witness to the much-anticipated transformation of young Anakin Skywalker, Jedi hero of the noble Republic, into Darth Vader, Sith Lord and agent of the evil Empire. It is here that we see the heart of the narrative, because at its crux the Star Wars saga is an intimate tale of personal, moral choices more than it is a space-opera epic of lightsaber duels and Death Star explosions. It may be the whiz-bang special effects and inimitable visual design that have had the greatest impact upon our pop culture, but the series’ staying power is arguably found in the emotional investments we have made in its many characters throughout their universally-relatable struggles.

The story’s case study, Anakin, is a man blessed with a natural talent in the Force (the élan vital power which flows through all things within the Star Wars universe) who is perceived to be the Chosen One who would restore balance to the Force itself according to ancient prophecy. But he is also a man beset by the archetypal inner conflict between love and duty, power and restraint, good and bad.

We have always known that Anakin eventually turned to the Dark Side, but we have never known exactly why. Revenge uncloaks the mystery by giving a further glimpse into the intrapersonal torture he suffered on account of his gifted mastery of the Force and the associative pressures to fulfill prophetical expectations. To abide by the Light Side would mean discipline by separation from possessions and attachments – to be free of all sentimentality. But, unable to forgive himself (and the ways of the Jedi) for his powerlessness to save his mother from death, Anakin vowed to always protect those he loved first and foremost. In Revenge, he becomes blinded by that passion and seeks ultimate power by any means to achieve that end until – as later chapters have disclosed – he finds himself inextricably trapped by a lifetime’s worth of sin and guilt. He will, in effect, become the very evil he has striven to destroy because he cannot recognize that his individual, well-intentioned choices are leading him down the wrong path. He is seduced by the Dark Side because he so fears to lose that which must be lost anyway. Clearly, Star Wars strikes a chord in the grand tradition of classical tragedy.

But that is not to say that Revenge can be so easily compared to the works of the great Greek dramatists Sophocles, Euripides, or Aeschylus. It is certainly not without its failings, as it retains some of the lesser qualities of its new-trilogy predecessors – namely their sometimes egregiously stilted dialogue. Star Wars creator George Lucas is revered as one of the great visual and conceptual storytellers of our time, but he has never been known as an especially sharp screenwriter. Surely no one expects Mametspeak but it becomes increasingly obvious that Lucas lacks a certain gracefulness and wit in his scripts. This inadequacy is compounded by Lucas’ over-infatuation with CGI which has resulted in nearly all scenes being filmed against green screen. That decision has translated to a perceivable awkwardness in acting performances, even from respected thespians such as Ewan McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson. Meanwhile, their CGI counterparts continue to be hampered by that strange vapidity – a veritable lack of essence – that has yet to disprove naysayers of the technology’s supposed ability to replace human actors.

Still, whatever its flaws, Revenge does indeed uphold the legacy it was charged to preserve. For years, fans of the original trilogy had heard whispers about the mythical occurrences of Episodes I-III: in particular, the crippling devastation of the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine’s rise to totalitarian power in the Republic Senate, and the horrific duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin. The ramifications were all too evident but the actual events were the stuff of legend. Revenge answers our most pressing questions in full detail, and in turn grants the greatest wishes of Star Wars devotees: We look upon the dark visage of a wizened, yellow-eyed Palpatine as he dons his hood; we behold the misguided acclamation that greets the wartime establishment of the Empire; we watch as Obi-Wan is forced to battle his closest friend in a bitter clash of lightsabers and ideologies; we experience the eerily Frankenstein-like sight of a black-cloaked Vader arising for the first time. The highly charged scenes of this film gratifyingly connect us to the original trilogy in ways that The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones could not.

The overwhelming swell of nostalgia that inevitably accompanies Revenge could conceivably sway the staunchest of critics of the prequel trilogy. After all, the most outspoken of these critics are often the most ardent fans of the original trilogy; it should be recognized that Revenge has done a great service – some might say the impossible – in undeniably enhancing the weight and history of those preceding films. To wit, the entire Star Wars saga’s most profound statement may lie in this film’s closing scene, which reminds us that even as the darkest of times approaches there remains always a hope for redemption.

Score: 7.5 / 10

concert update

2005-06-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

Yet another one. For everybody.
The prices listed are lowest available without Ticketmaster charges yet..

JUNE:

14th > Wilco, The Roots - Greek Theatre, $39.50
16th > Apostle Of Hustle - The Echo, $10
17th > Electrelane - Troubadour, $12
17th > Aesop Rock - Henry Fonda Theatre, $20
17th > Juana Molina - Knitting Factory, $12
18th > Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick - Temple Bar, $20
21st > Spoon - Avalon Hollywood. $18.50
23rd > Let's Go Sailing, Say Hi To Your Mom, Summer At Shattered Creek, The Cloud Room - The Echo, $7
24th > J-Rocc, Peanut Butter Wolf, Med, Madlib - The Vanguard, $20
26th > David Byrne, The Arcade Fire - Hollywood Bowl, $4
28th > Architecture In Helsinki - The Echo, $8

JULY:

2nd > Maria Taylor - Troubadour, $10
5th > Annie - Cinespace, $5
8th > Brazilian Girls - Avalon Hollywood, $20
9th > Dungen - Troubadour, $12
9th > Esthero - Avalon Hollywood, $18
10th > Oh No, Diverse - Knitting Factory, $10
16th > Sufjan Stevens - El Rey, $14
19th > Nicolai Dunger - The Echo, $10
21st > The Go! Team - Troubadour, $13
24th > Robert Plant - Greek Theatre, $35
31st > Pernice Brothers - Knitting Factory, $12

AUGUST:

19th > Al Green, The Four Tops - Greek Theatre, $25.50

Also
Got any suggestions for what I should do for my birthday?

SEPTEMBER:

4th: Brian Wilson - Hollywood Bowl, $4
8th: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - El Rey, $12
9th & 10th: A Night at The Copa with Pink Martini and Bebel Gilberto - Hollywood Bowl, $14 (...attending with royalty at my side.)
13th & 14th: The Decemberists - Henry Fonda Theatre, $18
27th: M83 - Avalon Hollywood, $18.50
29th: New Pornographers - Henry Fonda Theatre, $16

Deep Throat ID'ed?

2005-05-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Has one of journalism's best kept secrets now unmasked himself? Watergate's infamous "Deep Throat" has stepped forward, and his name is Mark Felt, ladies and gentlemen -- former deputy chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Merce Cunningham

2005-05-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I could find an mp3 of the entire show on the internet. Nobody is going to believe me if I told them I went for the accompanying music.
...and I wouldn't be caught dead forking money over to watch people dance

The Who Sell Out

2005-05-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

...to Petra Haden!

If you have no idea what this is about, just imagine people who were too poor to buy instruments and decided to cover an entire album completely acapella. I recommend this show. Though I don't really know how well it translates live.
You would see my butt in attendance if it wasn't for prior commitments.

Shelby Lynne Live at Amoeba

2005-05-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

I just want to say that Shelby Lynne is the damned coolest celebrity I've ever met.

The country-rocker was at Amoeba tonight to promote her new album, Suit Yourself, with a live in-store performance. Because Amoeba live shows are free events, most artists will play for only about 25 minutes; Shelby was on stage for well over an hour!

The length wouldn't have mattered if the show wasn't any good. But Shelby's an artist who's completely comfortable on stage, like as though she's just rocking on the front porch with some old friends. She was a smooth operator tonight, moving in and out of songs with impeccable control over her instruments, band, and audience. She didn't play much old material but her new songs are very strong compositions that are even arguably better than the ones on her previous Grammy-winning album, I Am Shelby Lynne.

Shelby's stage presence is simply incredible: She exudes the charisma and confidence of someone who was born to be a star and knows it. But she's no diva, as plainly seen in her repeated playful bantering with members of the audience, including a point late in the set at which she turned to front-row photo-snappers and teased, "Ain't you got enough pictures yet?" She then proceeded to have them hand over their cameras so she could take photographs of them!

To illustrate the point further, at another point, a little girl in the front grew restless and whined to her father about being tired, which Shelby just happened to overhear. She decided right then and there to call timeout on her set so that she could entertain the bored little girl by asking her on stage to sing a song. The little girl chose "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and a smiling, kneeling Shelby played the accompanying chords and sang along with her, ending to thunderous applause.

The show would've been great even if I'd paid for it. But as Shelby so poignantly said, "You know what I love about this show? It's f---in' free! ...I love free s---." Couldn't have said it better myself. I could've said it cleaner, but not better.

Just when I thought the night couldn't get any cooler, Shelby hung around around to sign autographs after the show. Okay, so most artists performing at Amoeba will do that, but only for about half an hour if they're generous, making the autograph line feel like a conveyor belt. Shelby actually stuck around for yet another hour, going way past the usual niceties and actually engaging in real conversations with her fans. She didn't place any restrictions on autographs either; there were none of the typical "one item per person" or "new album only" limits. She really seemed grateful for her fans' adoration, wanting to reach out and touch us so much that she shunned the chair behind the signing table and sat right on top of the table to give us all hugs as we came up. Unbelievable.

I had one weird moment that night: When I approached the signing table, Shelby didn't immediately greet me with her usual "Why, hello there!" in her Southern drawl like the one she had just given Philo before me. Instead, she grew quiet and we sort of just looked into each other's eyes for a moment, almost inquisitively. It was a bit uncomfortable to me simply because it was such a surprise. She was sitting so near that it became a strangely close, intimate gaze... I don't quite know how to describe it but I guess it was like one of those surreal moments when you run across someone you know you've never met but you feel that you have sometime long ago, like there's some deeper connection than you can understand right then. It was obviously a totally unexpected occurrence but it was actually kind of cool to have it happen with Shelby of all people.

Anyway, I got past that and we chatted for a little while as I gushed over her music and she talked about what a blast she was having in Los Angeles. She totally seems like the kind of person who could make friends with anybody in the world. I told her (truthfully) I wouldn't have minded paying $50 for her show that night, and she gave me a sportive aw-shucks jab to the arm as I said goodbye and shook her hand.

I wasn't too sure what to expect from Shelby Lynne as a live performer but I have to admit that I hadn't expected her to be this damn good. I've definitely become a lifelong fan from here on out...

Convert to Vinyl

2005-05-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

I often look at my massive CD collection and wonder how many vinyl crates I'd own if I lived 30 years earlier or became a DJ. The Vestax VRX-2000 will let me wonder no more. You can record audio from any source and press it onto vinyl, just like that. I want this gadget so much it hurts.

R.I.P.

2005-05-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

Rest In Peace
Frank Gorshin

Vatican Radio Is Pollution

2005-05-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've heard of pushy evangelism, but this takes the cake. Apparently, the Vatican's radio broadcasts were being transmitted via antennae so powerful that they've raised cancer rates in the surrounding area. The transmissions were so incredibly strong that residents could hear radio broadcasts through their domestic lamps.

Beck presale password

2005-05-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is for the KROQ presale. The password is "mariachi."

Mann, am I one happy camper.

2005-05-03T21:59:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I have been in such a state of rapturous delight! (It could not be more obvious in the photo above..)
I went with me brotha to watch Aimee Mann play a 5 song set [I admit it is short but I have to say that her singing is the musical equivalent of finding the cure to cancer....awful analogy]
I actually got to meet her AND get an autograph.
[nominee for highlight of the year award...among a few other things]
Too bad I couldn't convince her to draw a red, big, juicy heart with my name inside and maybe a couple bluebirds with ribbons in their mouths with some words about undying love. haha I don't think I've been as nervous as I was when I asked her for an autograph. Her eyes pierced me like an arrow through some tofu. I have to say...she is truly mesmerEYESing.
The Amoeba security guard got a bit upset about getting a picture with her.
BUT WHO GIVES A FLYING DUTCHMAN!
I can't believe I have a picture of me leaning awkwardly towards Aimee Mann!! Trust me, she looks 50 times better in person.

-You can catch her on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Thursday.
forgot to post this too....
Aimee Mann on Morning Becomes Eclectic

lonely + not sociable + no close links to friends or family = DEATH

2005-05-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

So what if one is not sociable mainly because of a failed romance... then aren't the high risks of heart problems a given?!

concert update

2005-05-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

If you notice, I put a star next to the concerts I really want to attend.
But I don't think I am going to any of these, so it is pretty much here to inform you. If you really, really want to go to any of these shows with me, then it might take: Bonding, Convincing, and Dunkaroos. The prices listed are the lowest available without the extra charges added yet. If you want to hear what any of these bands sound like, I can send you mp3s. Or if you need info about how to acquire the tickets, just ask me and I'll try my best to help you.

->MAY

*Aimee Mann - May 6_ House Of Blues Sunset Strip, $25
*Ivy - May 11_ Troubadour, $13
*Amy Ray - May 12_ El Rey Theatre, $16
*Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - May 12_ Knitting Factory, $15
*Mates Of State, Irving, Ahmaste - May 16_ Troubadour, $13
*Sam Prekop, Pit er pat - May 19_ Troubadour, $15
*Prefuse 73 - May 21 and 22_ Knitting Factory, $15
*Kaki King - May 23_ Knitting Factory, $12
*Boom Bip - May 26_ The Echo, $10
*And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - May 26_ The Wiltern, $20
*Peter Murphy - May 27_ Henry Fonda Theatre, $25
*Stereo Total, The Gossip - May 28_ The Knitting Factory, $12

->JUNE

*Monade - June 1st_ Troubadour, $12
*Of Montreal, Tilly and The Wall - June 3_ The Echo [in the Ex Plex], $10
* Old Crow Medicine Show - June 4_ Troubadour, $12
*Kraftwerk - June 6_ Greek Theatre, $35
*Common - June 6_ House Of Blues Sunset Strip, $25
*Emiliana Torrini - June 8_ Troubadour, $15
*Sleater Kinney - June 8 and 9_ Henry Fonda Theatre, $18
*Athlete - June 9_ Troubadour, $12
*Wilco - June 14_ Greek Theatre, $39.50
*Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - June 14_ El Rey Theatre, $15
*J-Live, Vast Aire, Pro-verbs, C Ray Walz - June 15_ Knitting Factory, $12
*Apostle Of Hustle - June 16_ The Echo, $10
*Juana Molina - June 17_ Knitting Factory, $12
*Electrelane - June 17_ Troubadour, $12
*Keren Ann, Jesca Hoop - June 17_ McGabe's Guitar Shop, $18
*Enon, Thunderbirds are Now, Sparrow - June 20_ Troubadour, $10
*David Byrne, The Arcade Fire, Si Se - June 26_ Hollywood Bowl, $ TBA

.....

2005-05-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

*****
Say something
Anything will do my love
There's a girl on the phone
That's the girl who's never home

Say something good
There's a wilderness of hope
That's the girl, on the phone
That's the girl who's never home

And your friends, they were so close

Say you will stay
Forgot what I came here for
Passing signs on the road
Telling me I'm far from home

Your friends, they were so close
One by one they didn't stay
Drift away like a rolling sea
One by one they drift away

One of these days
One of these days

And your friends, they were so close
One by one they didn't stay
Drift away like rolling seas
Day by day they drift away
And the people that were close
Are the ones you miss the most

One of these days I'll blow away
One of these days I'll blow away

*****
It seems things are indicative to
A distinct desire to
observe such, heal such, behave
such that makes this hard for me

I'm not real and I deny
I won't heal unless I cry
I can't grieve so I won't grow
I won't heal 'til I let it go

It seems things are indicative to
A distinct desire to
observe such, heal such, behave
such that makes this hard for me

I'm not real and I deny
I won't heal unless I cry
I can't grieve so I won't grow
I won't heal 'til I let it go

Cry, cry 'til you know why
I lost myself
Identify

I'm not real and I deny
I won't heal unless I cry
I can't grieve so I won't grow
I won't heal 'til I let it go

Wanted: More Mixtapes

2005-04-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

Here's the deal: I'm really in the mood for some mixtapes. I've been listening to cohesive-album-statement artistry for so long that I'm feeling empty without the excitement of being passed a grimy mixtape full of hot new joints and juicy cuts. After being on-the-go with my iPod for the past weeks, I realized that I need something more immediate than my sparse hip-hop electronica or moody experimental post-rock. Something like a "check this out" mixtape. So feel free to hand me something that fits the bill. If you're not up to that, make recommendations on commercially-sold mixtapes or compilations. There are a lot out there, but I admit that they barely fall within my sphere of awareness. As far as I'm concerned, Rawkus' Soundbombing II is the greatest commercial mixtape ever made. Am I wrong? I'd be glad to have you prove that. 'Cause it's been 6 years since Rawkus put that out...

Feel Good By Numbers

2005-04-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

Feel free to sample the Go! Team here..

Everybody on this planet should go see THE GO! TEAM at the Troubadour.
They will be playing there on July 21st for $13. [without misc. charges that is]

If you want to hear the whole album, I can send you the mp3s.

U2 Tickets Latest in Online Free Offers

2005-04-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Remember FreeiPods.com? Yeah, I know you do. Even if you didn't participate in that, you must've known someone who did. It spawned hundreds of imitators, offering rewards from bigscreen TVs to designer handbags to BMW cars. All you had to do was type in "free" followed by your object of desire, then add a little ".com" to the end, and it was a good bet that something would come up.

The latest offer is a bit of an oddity though: U2 Tickets?

Well yeah, if ever there was a concert ticket that was hard to get, it'd be one to see U2. So if you're really desperate, fulfilling the requirement of 6 online offers might not be such a hassle. After coming through on your end of the deal, FreeU2Tickets will send you 2 tickets to the date and venue of your choice. Seat location isn't guaranteed, but with the way U2's concerts sell out in mere minutes, you can't complain too much.

Besides, these guys are donating a significant amount of their profits to charity. They'll even let you choose a charity to benefit from their generosity! Not bad at all...

How to Impress Parking Valets at Anime Expo

2005-04-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

For all you anime nerds (okay fine, otaku) there's an aftermarket kit made by Saitaniya for the Honda Fusion that makes your speedy scooter look just like Kaneda's bike from Akira.

You can buy the barebones kit for around $6,000, a pre-assembled Fusion for around $11,000, or a special edition Fusion complete with decals and battle scars for $14,000.

The caveat is that this is not an officially licensed product, so all the specifications are still a bit off from the original manga/anime in order to avoid legal issues. However, Saitaniya's trying to win an endorsement from Akira rights-holder Kodansha. If that happens you can look forward to a perfectly exact replica that'll shut up that one nerd (you know, the one with long greasy hair and a patchy beard, holding a newly bought anime vocal themes album in one hand, Nacho Cheesier Doritos bag in the other, wearing a burrito-stained Dream Theater shirt or something like that...) at the convention who really wanted to make a snide remark about your bike's inaccuracy -- and he knows 'cause he's read through the Akira encyclopedia 500 times. I guess he could still point out that your Fusion doesn't actually hit 12,000 rpms or something...

Friend

2005-04-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am a terrible one.

Age Limit Good for NBA

2005-04-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

NBA Commissioner David Stern has long been seeking an age limit for entry into the league -- preferably 20 years old -- and he may finally get his wish. For years, the players union has long resisted such a move, but under new collective bargaining situations as the old labor agreement expires, it may finally acquiesce.

One player, however, is not happy and has let it be known. The Indiana Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal, who entered the NBA straight from high school, has gone so far as to make an accusation of racism as the reason for the league's desire to impose the limit:

"In the last two or three years, the rookie of the year has been a high school player. There were seven high school players in the All-Star Game, so why we even talking an age limit? As a black guy, you kind of think that's the reason why it's coming up. You don't hear about it in baseball or hockey. To say you have to be 20, 21 to get in the league, it's unconstitutional. If I can go to the U.S. Army and fight the war at 18 why can't you play basketball for 48 minutes?"

What O'Neal fails to understand is that the age limit's intent is not to prevent great high school players from making a direct jump to the NBA because the league can't handle them. It's because they can't handle the league -- something the union has not recognized in their over-pursuit of players' rights. Great basketball skills are no guarantee of personal maturity. The NBA is currently facing an image crisis -- apparent even before the infamous Basketbrawl -- in which spoiled, immature multi-millionaires show no sense of responsibility nor philanthropy. Despite the NBA's drive to promote charities and community services from players, what sticks in the minds of the general population are the constant reports of marijuana possession arrests, public altercations and other examples of reckless behavior.

The age limit would give those younger players more time to develop and mature, both on and off the court before entering the NBA. O'Neal himself rode the bench for years before he made an impact. Wouldn't that time have been better spent in college or a developmental league where he would have benefited from superior hands-on coaching/training and high-pressure game experience? He also would have learned to make real-world adjustments from high school life at this level, and not at the NBA's expense.

The proposed age limit also seems designed to reinvigorate the college game which is in a serious state of atrophy right now. College players are consistently leaving after one or two years because they view college as a mere jumping point. With an age limit in place, players would be forced to view college as a viable option and treat their time there with respect as a serious part of the process. The shift in perspective could also mean an increase in full-term students, and thus maturer adults ready for the highs and lows of top-level professional basketball life. As a side effect, this would also mean an increase in jobs for veterans who would have otherwise been waived to make way for new blood.

As for O'Neal's assertion of racism, the age limit is colorblind; it would not apply to black players exclusively. While it's true that all of the players who have gone to the NBA directly from high school have been black, the game is quickly expanding internationally and it's all but a guarantee that in a few years we'll be seeing players of many diverse ethnicities who will seek to enter the NBA as teenagers. The age limit would apply to them as well.

Besides, what imbecilic sort of racism wards off young black players when they create such overflowing revenue for the league? True racism would seek to exploit these young players while encouraging their proliferation without regard for their welfare. Commissioner Stern, who possesses a true love of the game, recognizes that there is more at stake than money here. Anyway, there is hardly any executive in the sports world who has done more for the black athlete than Stern. For O'Neal to judge him otherwise is unfair.

Much has been made of the high-schooler success stories; O'Neal poignantly points out that the last two Rookies of the Year came straight from high school. I'll say this: LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady and O'Neal can be my fantasy starting five any day. But for every one of them, there were several more high school prospects who got it in their heads that they could be the next success story, declared for the draft, and never heard their names called. The bottom line is that truly great high school players are still an exception rather than a burgeoning trend.

Perhaps there's a 14-year old out there with dreams of being the next LeBron James. Perhaps he'll be just as good at 17 as James was. With the proposed age limit in place, he wouldn't be able to jump into the league the way that James did. It seems an unfortunate effect, but it's a necessary sacrifice. Why? The age limit is a long-term move with higher aspirations than the fulfillment of individual desires. Look to the greater good. Call me idealistic but I think this could be the beginning of a plan to improve the quality of the entire NBA game, continue the tradition of the college system, prove the viability of a developmental league, provide assistance in players' personal growths, promote higher education and reform the public image of not only the NBA but perhaps young black males at large.

Kids, Be Sweet To Your Mother!

2005-04-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

Everything is so beautifully awful from the bad acting to the lame put-downs. I am going to reenact this for my mom on Mother's Day.

Gumby Goes to Town

2005-04-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

Gumby's getting a video game? Didn't his TV show go off the air like 20 years ago? I challenge you to find a GameBoy Advance-toting kid who actually knows who this green claymate is. Anyway...

Now, this picture is something I can understand. Gumby skipping along in a winter wonderland, collecting delicious ice cream cones -- perhaps one to share with Pokey. But what the heck is going on in this next picture?

He's already got 79 cones, does he really need to kill people for more?! Damn Gumby, that's cold.

iPod: My Buddy and Me

2005-04-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, so you're wondering where I've been for the past several days. I know... I'm sorry. But at least I see that my absence has given a lot of you motivation to go back through the ol' archives. Thanks for padding my stats.

So why have I been gone? Did you not read the post title? This is the reason why:Yes, I've become an iPod owner. I finally got that digital music player I've always wanted. And ripping my 800+ CDs to it has consumed the entirety of my leisure time on whatever computer I'm on. (I'm still not finished ripping in case you're wondering.) Just thought I'd give you a quick update while I'm waiting for a few albums to take a spin through the drive...

I picked up a 40GB iPod photo for a grand total of $324.87, which is really good considering that it would have cost me $499 just a few months ago. You can typically find it for $330-360 at most places. The 40GB photo is the model that was discontinued to make way for the cheaper 30GB photo ($349) released some weeks back. But the new model has made no improvements whatsoever; the old and new models are actually the same in every conceivable way except for the obvious 10GB discrepancy and a slight millimeter difference in thickness. The irony in this move is that Apple removed the 40GB photo simply to make way for a cheaper, stripped model and yet the discontinued status now drops the older model to a comparable price to its replacement.

You'll also realize that the discontinued 40GB photo is a significantly better deal than the new iPod photo lineup when you consider that the new models have removed almost all the accessories that were once standard across the line. If you were to add those accessories back into the equation, the 30GB photo would cost another $106, bringing it to $455! That bit of math did the trick for me, so I pulled the trigger on the purchase. (Even more ridiculous is the fact that the drab monochrome 20GB iPod still sells for $299!)

The funny thing about all this iPod shopping is that I really wasn't going to buy an Apple device. It seems way too trendy to own an iPod and its audio quality doesn't quite stand up to competitors' offerings (I say this as a demanding audiophile). But the clickwheel always stood out to me as an intuitive control interface so far ahead of the game that it made the iPod feel more like a natural extension than an electronic device. Still, with Apple's astronomical prices, I was ready to buy an iRiver or Creative player which feature more bang for the buck. Or perhaps I'd wait it out for the 5th generation player from Apple. But along came an offer I couldn't refuse and here I find myself an iPod owner.

I'm not going to pretend to be a proud Apple convert -- I plan on trashing those white earphones as soon as possible. However, a digital music player is exactly what I need in my life and the iPod just so happens to be one. I should also say that extended personal use with it has actually exceeded my expectations. I'm starting to like this li'l' guy more and more. Further thoughts on this later...

R.I.P. Hideaki Sekiguchi

2005-04-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

Now my most beloved insanely loud, chaotic band will never be the same again.

egg-cellent fact #327

2005-03-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

The first chocolate eggs were made in Europe in the early 19th century!
76 percent of people eat the ears of chocolate bunnies first!
Red jelly beans are kids' favorite!

Easter Outreach Recap

2005-03-19T23:22:00.000-08:00

I volunteered at the Union Rescue Mission today to participate in their Easter Outreach event: thousands of prepackaged plastic boxes containing personal care and hygiene necessities were handed out by hundreds of volunteers who went door-to-door at surrounding hotels that sheltered the homeless in Skid Row.

A noble cause no doubt, but the organization and execution of the volunteer service was sorely lacking in preparation and efficiency. I'd sincerely appreciate a logistics discussion with mission staffers in the volunteer department; I'll try to contact someone next week to express my concerns and see what I can personally do to help improve future events for volunteer participants. Here are the main precepts that I would lay down if I were in charge:

Each group should number no larger than ten to twelve members
Each group should have one mission staffer and/or returning adult leader
Each group should be given more detailed guidelines on performance efficiency
Each group should be given one specific mapped route through their entire quota

You're probably wondering why I'm even making these criticisms (albeit practical ones) of an act of altruism that ultimately benefited the community. Let me tell you the day's story so you might understand where I'm coming from.

My church group of seven was combined with two other church groups and a smattering of other volunteers to form a large gathering of thirty-plus people. I was appointed the group leader and pulled aside so that I could be given a CB radio and trained on how to use it for communications with mission HQ. Unfortunately, that meant that by the time I returned to the group, I had missed a briefing given by the host. I have no idea what was communicated, but I definitely could have used some sort of basic information about operation supervision and group management in regard to this specific event. As it stood, I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into...

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: how hard can it be to tell a bunch of people to knock on doors and hand out boxes?

Let me put it this way: I was out there with a huge group of people, most of whom I had never met in my life and were unwilling to pay full attention to a stranger. Yet I was expected to lead them all in an activity that I had never participated in before! Being thrown into the proverbial frying pan like that meant a lot of disorganization and trial-and-error at others' expense. It's not fun for them and it's not fun for me either.

It was a lot harder than you think once you realize that our group had a quota of a dozen hotels, which meant that I had to split them all up in order to accomplish our goal on time. With only one CB radio to handle questions, requests and updates for the entire group (not to mention matters of safety!), I had to run back and forth between hotels to make sure everything was running as smoothly as possible. As group leader, I was expected to make sure that every member was accounted for at every step, which was no easy task when you're dealing with over twenty unfamiliar faces spread across three to four hotels. Add in goof-offs and stragglers and this becomes a difficult operation.

Now here's where the day gets even worse: approaching one group for an update, I was told that a hotel on their list had already been completed before they'd even gone there! A few other similar reports came in soon after. I radioed the mission to ask what was going on but was met with total ignorance of the situation. I soon realized that nearly an entire block of hotels on our list was already completed by other groups who apparently had even less of a clue how to run the show.

The mission eventually sent some staffers to help out our group (without first letting me know, I should add) but even the new guys didn't seem to know too much about what to do next. After dawdling for a while, the staffers essentially relieved me of my role and led the group to whichever hotels in the area were marked as uncompleted.

I'll be the first to admit that during this fiasco my visible leadership wasn't much good at all, and I won't even use my inexperience as an excuse because that failure had nothing to do with this specific event. But it certainly didn't help matters any that a couple people were being openly derisive of me and defiant against my instructions. For most of the morning, they seemed to be doing nothing except shooting dirty looks at me and making snide comments behind my back just loud enough for me to hear. I don't know what exactly spurred them to act that way, but I have to admit that it wasn't so easy to disregard their behavior nonetheless.

I think what especially hurt me was the fact that these people had professed to me not more than thirty minutes prior that they had driven from faraway churches to offer their time and services; I figured that these people couldn't be all that bad if they were fellow Christians unselfish enough to do volunteer work. What must I have been doing so grievously wrong to stir up such negativity and utter disapproval? With that response compounding my self-frustration, I felt altogether helpless and incompetent, which was a sentiment I hadn't felt for the longest time. (Well, that's not entirely true; I had encountered that conviction two Decembers ago but that's another story, and my only exception.)

I guess I kind of figured that the day was going to go badly for me when I took my first hundred steps out from the mission and was confronted by a mentally ill homeless woman who -- without provocation -- screamed "F**k you!" a couple times, threw wet gutter trash at me and tried to spit on me. Not that I was really fazed by that, but I can't say that the rest of the day got any better for me. It was very, very frustrating to see everything slip out of my already tenuous grip and nearly fall to pieces under my direction. In all honesty, I don't think I can say that today I had what could be called a fun time.

But having fun isn't necessarily what this outreach was about... I think that my enduring memory of this day will be that of an old lady who hobbled up beside me and cheerfully and sincerely whispered, "God bless you," in my ear. At the time I was so down on myself that I simply returned a weak smile and thought nothing of it. It was only later that I fully recognized the inspiring gratefulness she manifested to me. You know what? That woman was the exact reason why I came. I came to reach out and touch somebody out there; to enable even one person to know the measure of God's love as exemplified in His people; to prove in some small way that I can be the salt and light of the earth that the apostle Matthew called us to be in order to demonstrate our character and glorify God's name to the world, even if no one but myself and God should see what I have accomplished by His grace for His will. And that was my day.

Movie Of The Week

2005-03-17T17:47:00.000-08:00

You would not really think you would watch this movie. But once the commercial gets to the end and you hear the title... you'll have nachos and Slurpees at the ready!

BABY GOT BOOK

2005-03-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

I don't know how to describe this video. BTW, new link

Bring Back Political Incorrectness

2005-03-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

You know what TV show I miss? I didn't realize it until today, but I miss "Politically Incorrect" which is pretty strange to admit since I disliked host Bill Maher, who was too much of a smarmy, know-it-all. I think he parched the show with a too-far-gone slant just for the sake of controversy. But the political talk show did provide a curiously diverse forum for people from all walks of life. Any given night's episode could include an old white senator and a young black rapper in its panel. It was this sort of interaction between disparate conversationalists that made the show worth watching, no matter whether the participants became heated opponents in debate or turned into unlikely partners.

At the heart of it all was an engaging exchange of opinions, even if some of the opinions were blatantly silly or ignorant, though many were witty and articulate. On that same note, the show gave us a unique chance to find out whether some of these multimillionaire actors and critically acclaimed authors were as smart or stupid as they seemed. It was never quite as easy to make assumptions as I thought it'd be...

Unfortunately, "Politically Incorrect" was cancelled three years ago. I haven't come across another show like it, but I admit that I haven't been actively seeking substitutes in the time since. Are there any shows out there that keep its political free-for-all concept/ideal alive?

Happy Birthday?

2005-03-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Just kidding, I don't really feel the way that White Ninja does. So I don't know why I posted this. I guess I have a perverse sense of humor... Even growing a year older can't tame my jocularity.

So Happy Birthday to me!

(I suck.)

Bonus birthday comic!

Zelda Trailer at GDC

2005-03-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

A new Zelda trailer has premiered at the Game Developers Conference! I have to keep reminding myself that this is a GameCube release, not a next-generation project... It looks like it's going to be an epic poem whose magnitude we have not felt since a work of art that just happens to be one of its predecessors, Ocarina of Time. The wait will be excruciatingly long. (Is it just me or does it almost feel excruciating to say excruciating?) I think you all know what I'll want for Christmas.

the letter after T and the number before 3

2005-03-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

MUST. TRY. AGAIN.
This Sunday morning will determine if I fall into the hellish pits of depression or the comforting lily fields of bliss

Tom's Algorithm

2005-03-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the very first MP3 created was "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega? Here's an excerpt from Business 2.0:

MP3 fools the ear by eliminating the least essential parts of a music file. For example, if two notes are very similar, or if a high and low tone occur at exactly the same time, the brain perceives only one of them; the MP3 algorithm selects the more important signal and discards the other. To create MP3, Brandenburg had to appreciate how the human ear perceives sound. A key assist in this effort came from folk singer Suzanne Vega. "I was ready to fine-tune my compression algorithm," Brandenburg recalls. "Somewhere down the corridor a radio was playing [Vega's song] 'Tom's Diner.' I was electrified. I knew it would be nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice."

Because the song depends on very subtle nuances of Vega's inflection, the algorithm would have to be very, very good to select the most important parts of the sound file and discard the rest. So Brandenburg tested each refinement of his system with "Tom's Diner." He wound up listening to the song thousands of times, and the result was a code that was heard around the world. When an MP3 player compresses music by anyone from Courtney Love to Kenny G, it is replicating the way that Brandenburg heard Suzanne Vega.

...As U2 Is To...

2005-03-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

ESPN poses the analogous question: Who is the U2 of sports? Up to the challenge? I've got nothing...

New ESRB Rating

2005-03-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has introduced a new addition to their content rating scale, the Everyone 10+ rating.

Personally, I don't see the need for it. Why can't it just be incorporated with the existing Teen rating? That rating starts at age 13, which means that Everyone 10+ spans only a scant three age years. Not to discount the importance of those crucial, capricious years, but with the way kids are growing up nowadays, I'd think that most anything rated Teen is "been there, done that" material for tweens.

If you ask me, what the ESRB really needs to focus on is enforcement of their ratings...

Speaking of which, on two separate occassions I have been asked the following questions while purchasing Mature-rated games: "This is rated M for mature, are you old enough?" and "I should warn you that this is an M-rated game, just in case your kids might play it." Serious.

concert update

2005-03-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

March 6, Sunday
Knitting Factory - Brazilian Girls *$10

March 9, Wednesday
Troubadour - Inara George *$10

March 10, Thursday
Troubadour - Joseph Arthur *$12

March 12, Saturday
The Echo - Erase Eratta *$8-10
El Rey Theatre - Souls Of Mischief, Zion I, Non Phixion *$22.50
House Of Blues Anaheim - Aimee Mann *$22.50

March 13, Sunday
House Of Blues Sunset Strip - Ian Brown *$30
Avalon Hollywood - Slint *$23

March 15, Tuesday
Knitting Factory - guitar Wolf *$10

March 16, Wednesday
House Of Blues Anaheim - Living Legends, Pigeon John, J-Live *$20-22

March 21, Monday
El Rey Theatre - Doves *$19
The Echo - Mono *$8

March 22, Tuesday
El Rey Theatre - Kings Of Convenience *$18

March 23, Wednesday
Knitting Factory - New Model Army *$12

March 24, Thursday
Henry Fonda Theatre - The Decemberists *$16

March 25, Friday
Henry Fonda Theatre - Marianne Faithfull *$32.50
The Echo - Death From Above 1979 *$10-12
U-Turn Lounge - Ill Harmonics *free!

March 28, Monday
House Of Blues Sunset Strip - Handsome Boy Modeling School *$20

March 29, Tuesday
Troubadour - M Ward *$12
Amoeba Music - Solomon Burke *free!

March 31, Thursday
El Rey Theatre - Low, Pedro The Lion *$20

Newsom and I

2005-03-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

First things first, I think I have introduced everyone I know to her music and they all hate it. I will never share anything with people again. (insert laughs) When I first got there, they didn't open the doors yet even though it was supposed to 20 minutes earlier. So I stood in this really tiny bar with all of the people that got there before me. They crammed us all into this minibar until the venue opened. So after a few other people walked in, I knew what it felt like to partake in a Guinness record for most people in a Volkswagon Beetle.

It was a good thing that I stood in the front of the door because right when they opened the venue, I walked in and looked around. I went up some stairs and sat on a bench that overlooks the stage. I had a really good view and I ain't used to that being so short. Well the opening band Vetiver went on and they weren't that bad. They were pretty quiet and their sound made you think of driving through a snow covered desert. I don't really know how to describe their music as you can tell.

Well after they left, Joanna came out on stage but she took around 25 minutes to tune her harp. I'm guessing but it didn't bother me a bit. Some of the so-called fans seemed to keep complaining about it every other minute. By "fans" I mean the drunk guy two seats down. (insert laughs) When she started, the crowd went crazy, sort of like when Jordan makes a buzzer beater. Except not that insane.

I totally forgot what songs she played but "Sadie" and "Inflammatory Writ" were really good live. She also played two new songs that were about things that I could not dream up in one night. She spoke of arguing dragons, a couple with a relationship on the rocks (the twist is that the couple are two rocks), singing clams, falling in love with a mermaid, and just about everything from the medieval era. The funniest part of the night was probably when she acknowledged the fact that she did not prepare a setlist. She just started taking requests so people started blurting out from all corners of the Earth. Sadie! Cassiopeia! After all of the hubbub jubbub ended, there was this awkward silence then a girl with a tiny voice and a hint of a Southern accent shouted PLAY WHAT YA WANT! For some reason, I started laughing. I have no idea what is wrong with me. That is the end of my story.

I also saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They were all there for the show. I was 4 feet away from Karen O and I said nothing. Golly.

Fast Casual Restaurants

2005-03-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

The NY Times reports on the rising popularity of "fast casual" restaurants, which are basically a cut above the fast food norm by providing fresh quality ingredients and the freedom to choose which ones you want. I've been eating at places like In-N-Out and Chipotle for a long time now and let me tell you, there ain't no going back to McDonalds or Taco Bell. The prices are just about the same yet the difference in quality is so far apart that I can't help but see the demise of fast food as we know it, frozen artificiality, greasy trans fat, and all. Amen to that.

77th Academy Awards

2005-02-27T22:07:00.000-08:00

I could on length about how much I love Clint Eastwood, who had himself a grand night; how much I love Martin Scorsese, who was cruelly snubbed for the fifth time in his brilliant career; how much I love Charlie Kaufman, whose genius was recognized by the Academy for the first time. But I'll leave all that for now.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I noticed tonight was that Best Actor winner Jamie Foxx may not even have been the best black nominee in his category! He was the popular choice for sure, and his momentum gained considerable steam with Ray Charles' recent passing. But many critics have argued in favor of Don Cheadle's performance in Hotel Rwanda. How often is it that you get one black actor nominated in this category, let alone two? Has it ever happened before? How much rarer must it be that one could be the clear popular vote (and eventual winner) and the other the apparent critics' darling? I'm just saying...white people had no chance this year. [Insert Flava Flav's "Yeah, boy!"]

The biggest kick I get out of tonight's Best Actor award is imagining all the future trailers that will announce "...and Academy Award winner for Best Actor, Jamie Foxx." C'mon, I know you all still remember him as one of the young bucks on "In Living Color" who'd disappeared afterward along with everyone not named Wayan. Well, he didn't quite disappear, but he had a show on the WB and that's just about the same thing. Now the guy's going to be able to command top dollar for his work. How times change...

I don't know how Foxx pulled it off but he's unquestionably become a world-class actor now. We're talking about a guy who starred in Booty Call! But in the years since that debacle of debauchery, accomplished performances in Ali, Redemption, Collateral, and Ray have proven his worth as a dramatic actor; B-list comedian will he be no more. Let's hope he can parlay this into great opportunities for himself and other black Americans better than Halle Berry did. Looking at Foxx's filmography, he might want to stick to movies with one-word titles...

iPod Hits Refresh

2005-02-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

No, this is not news on the fifth generation iPod. What I can tell you is that Apple has updated their iPod lineup with new and improved versions. This is good news, by the way, unlike the release of the disappointing iPod shuffle...

The iPod mini improves its battery life to 18 hours per charge, and drops the 4GB version down to $200 while a new 6GB version will soon replace it at the $250 price point, possibly with a color screen.

The iPod photo lineup adds a newer, more affordable 30GB version at $350 which completely eliminates the 40GB version. It also lowers the price on the 60GB version to $450, a huge drop from its original $600 asking price.

I still have not purchased an MP3 player despite my ever-increasing need for one -- the perfect device has yet to reveal itself to me. But a $200 iPod mini and a $450 60GB iPod photo are both tempting. Extremely tempting. It's just that I keep telling myself that I've got to wait until the fifth generation iPod is out... Stay tuned to see if I can wait this sucker out.

Don't Network with Paris

2005-02-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've all heard of the latest Paris Hilton debacle, though I'd have to begrudge the fact that she has no real fault in this affair: her T-Mobile Sidekick II's contact list was spread to the public by hackers who infiltrated T-Mobile's online database server. As a debutante notorious for mingling amongst the flavor-of-the-week crowd despite the fact that she has no meritable skills or achievements of her own -- even her infamous amateur sex tape has hardly managed to turn her into any sort of a perverse flesh goddess -- nearly every MTV-demographic celebrity has been inundated with phone calls in the past days thanks to this internet gaffe.

I loathe such celebrities as Fred Durst, Carson Daly, and Ashley Olsen who themselves carry little more credibility than Hilton; you'll find them and plenty more bozos in her virtual rolodex. But here's where I draw the line: You don't invade their privacy even if they are no-talent idiots who deserve to be told so. You don't invade their privacy even if you are a big fan and want to tell them that you love them and want to have their babies or whatever.

Thousands of people seem to think that the release of this contact list actually gives them a bizarre right to call any of these celebrity listees. Sure, these contacts probably aren't home phone numbers, but regardless, they are personal information and were obtained illicitly. Are you Paris? Were these numbers given to you personally? No. Calling and annoying people you don't know is a despicable and desperate act, not to mention an overall pathetic waste of time. Stop it.

Dumbrellas

2005-02-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

We've been having some real stormy weather in Angeles lately, and it's got me thinking: Aren't there any durable umbrellas out there? Every single one I've ever used has broken in some way(s) within a season, no matter the price or the maker...(or the color?) I believe that I'm a very careful person and yet my umbrellas break with a seemingly uncommon regularity.

Why hasn't anyone come up with a better design? Is there some mass conspiracy at work, a la The Man in the White Suit? Somebody tell me, please...

47th Grammys

2005-02-18T23:32:00.000-08:00

The only thing I was enthusiastic about was the U2 performance. I liked it but I would kill endless amounts of alligators for wallets and shoes to see them live. So watching them on television just makes me sad now. The rendition of "Across The Universe" left something to be desired. How does one go about making Norah Jones and Stevie Wonder sound out of tune? The funniest moment of the show was probably hearing Scott from Velvet Revolver sing uncannily like David Bowie. I was already picturing a David Bowie biopic in my head with the glam rock alien plot and the neon mullets. I don't know why this show always makes musicians collaborate and expect it to work. As if you could just combine talent and mash it into one ultimately wonderful performance. I understand time constraints but I'd rather hear one band clearly than six bands getting in five lines each. No amount of pyrotechnics or dancing extras will help either. I guess I'll just wait for the Juno awards. Leave it to Canada to produce almost all of the amazing bands of the past year. At least with these awards, I can recommend every single nomination for Alternative Album of the Year. They could also be the only awards show that features a category for Aboriginal Recording Of The Year! They even give out an award for Best CD Artwork Design of the Year. I guess those artists never get recognized. This post sure was full of itching and oaning. Next time, I'll just list who received awards.

Still My Heart, Stay My Soul

2005-02-14T22:50:00.000-08:00

I've felt you coming, girl, as you drew near
I knew you'd find me 'cause I longed you here
Are you my destiny? Is this how you'll appear?
Wrapped in a coat with the tears in your eyes
Well, take that coat, babe, and throw it on the floor
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

As you've been moving surely toward me
My soul has comforted and assured me
That in time my heart, it will reward me
And that all will be revealed
So I've sat and I've watched an ice age thaw
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built
Out of longing great wonders have been willed
They're only little tears, darling, let them spill
And lay your head upon my shoulder
Outside my window the world has gone to war
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

We will know, won't we?
The stars will explode in the sky
But they don't, do they?
Stars have their moment and then they die

There's a man who spoke wonders though I've never met him
He said, "He who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in"
I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting
And how every little thing anticipates you
All down my veins my heartstrings call
Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

OverClocked Remix Hits 5 Years

2005-02-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Videogame music remix website OverClocked Remix has hit five years running. If you've never heard of the site, give it a try. You're sure to find tunes that you'll recognize, now wrapped in shiny new wrappers; plus all the music is free! I've downloaded dozens of great MP3s from OC Remix, ranging from games such as the Legend of Zelda to Street Fighter to Chrono Trigger to Mega Man.

While the site certainly offers more antiquated heavy metal or techno-oriented tracks than I'd prefer -- I simply don't have a stomach for those genres especially when sampled in amateur arrangements -- my hard drive stores a great deal of songs that remain on my Winamp playlist to this day.

As a token to commemorate OC Remix's five-year anniversary, its creator DJ Pretzel was recently interviewed by CNN/MP3.com. Now recognized as one of the founding fathers of the videogame music remix scene that's all the rage now, Pretzel (real name David Lloyd) offers his thoughts on how the hobby and community has grown and where he envisions it will go next.

One of the big future trends that Lloyd highlights is lyric writing for videogame music, which I don't think is anything more than a cheap novelty. But all the kids seem to like it, so hey, what do I know... I guess that at the least I can say that those remixes aren't as pretentious as some of those overdone, sweeping orchestral numbers that pop up now and then. Personally, I'm hoping to hear some more jazz remixes -- the few that have been posted are interesting to say the least.

Perhaps the greatest thing about OverClocked Remix over the years has been its openness to remixes of all kinds. You're bound to find every musical genre represented in some form, as well as base tracks from the biggest landmark titles in videogame history to the most obscure games that hardly a soul remembers. I hope that OC Remix never restrains its submission acceptance in that regard.

With a lack of discrimination against anything but technical quality, and with the ever-increasing popularity of videogames in society, I think that the videogame remixing community will find it easy to turn this hobby into an international music phenomenon.

EAT FROM MY ROASTERS!

2005-02-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

KENNY top the previous link? yes he can!

I'm sorry, but this site makes me laugh more uncontrollably
than Jimmy Fallon in a failed skit on SNL.

Stickball Tricksters

2005-02-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Ever read about the 1890s Baltimore Orioles? What a bunch of dirty players! I can't even fathom some of these devious ways they tried to stack the odds in their favor. Hidden replacement balls in the outfield? Cutting across the diamond to skip second? Now that takes some real audacity. It's the sort of thing you'd only see in a comedy movie nowadays.

In a way, I almost lament the stiffer rules that have been enforced in the century-plus since that time. While the rules make for overall fairness, they also squelch some personality and humor from the scene. Yes, those guys were dirty players but the public love little rascals, don't they? I'm not saying that I endorse cheating, but sports have come down so hard with the rules that players seem restricted against doing anything now. As a result, sports can sometimes seem so bland... It's a difficult concept to grasp, but the truth is that sports need villains, too -- guys who cheat the system and flaunt that fact.

While the idea of relaxing rules that are tantamount to wins and losses may be too controversial, I'm at least of the opinion that idiosyncracies, customizations, nicknames, gestures and any sort of individual flair are really better for sports in the long run. In order to make up for the creative dystopia of American sports, teams have resorted to things like comical mascots -- which are pretty pathetic and all but phased out in today's sports world -- and changing up uniforms every few years with "modern" twists. But if you ask me they're just making things worse.

I realize that too much personal expression can become unclassy, grungy, or objectional (see professional wrestling for an ugly example), but I still say that we ought to give players some leeway. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought that last season's Red Sox team was pretty cool with their dingy tar-covered helmets. Express yourself. Just...not like N.W.A.

In an Octopus's Garden

2005-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

If there's one thing I've always wanted to do, it's to live under the sea, just like Ringo. Will it ever happen? I sure hope so. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was visit aquariums. The depths of the oceans hold an appeal that pulls at me like no other. In this new era of globalization, there's very little left to the mysteries of nature and creation; the ocean is one of the last vestiges of fascination left to human discovery. No better place to explore in this new world where ruins and jungles and caverns have all been upturned. I want to go out to sea. Perhaps I have Atlantisian blood in me. Either that or I have a secret desire to be a Bond villain with a menacing underwater base of evildoing.

Albinos In the Nineteenth Century!

2005-02-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

a hat that comes with an intact water mist mini fan?? absurd! ALBINO such thing!

I know what you're thinking. Philo is just trying to 1 up Jez. Well I'll have you know that I am not.. that I... well..er... okay you got me!

Another Reason Why Alcohol Is Bad

2005-02-09T21:56:00.000-08:00

You think you're a diehard sports fan? Let's see you bet your balls. Now that's f'ing hardcore.

Best and Worst of Super Bowl Ads

2005-02-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

I feel strange making a post about the Super Bowl ads and not the game itself but this year's contest was pretty boring anyway. The first half was one of the sloppiest displays I'd seen from either team all season long. After the recent string of great Super Bowls, I was afraid that we'd exhausted our good luck. Looks like my fears proved to be correct... That's about all I have to say about this year's game, so I'm going to talk about the ads now.

My favorite ad of the Super Bowl is the same as Philo's: the FedEx spot detailing the necessary ingredients for a supposedly successful commercial. It encapsulated everything that's right and wrong about today's advertising agencies (with more tongue-in-cheek emphasis on the latter). The brilliant thing about this approach is that FedEx simply needed to employ all the stupid, unfunny things it was trying to ridicule in order to create a funny ad for their purpose. Let's just hope that no one attempts a similar angle next year, because that would be truly unfunny.

Two other favorites of mine are the Ford Mustang convertible teaser and the Frito Lay ad featuring MC Hammer. Both started off dull and predictable, but the Mustang punchline voiceover was so impeccably delivered and the kids throwing Hammer back over the fence was so laughably crass that I had to give my approval at the end of those ads.

As for the worst, offensively unfunny ads, my picks would be the GoDaddy.com ad with the pitch girl whose top strap breaks at a censorship hearing and the Bud Light cockatoo ad where the bird gets rid of a bar creep for a single girl. The first one wasn't funny or daring in any way whatsoever, and, as Philo so passionately railed, a talking animal is not funny in of itself. Get rid of them, please...

Superbowl advertisements

2005-02-07T01:49:00.000-08:00

advertisements broken down by companies

My personal favorite has to be the FedEX commercial. I don't care to credit their highly skilled research team. But WOW!
Nobody has ever stripped the advertisement industry down to its bone like that.
Not only does it accurately show exactly what you need to get people
to buy or use your product or service. But it shows how low our society has
become as a whole. I mean honestly for the love of all we hold dear HOW MANY MUGGER FRICKIN' COMMERCIALS DO WE NEED
WITH TALKING ANIMALS! WILL IT GET FUNNIER IF WE BARRAGE THE AUDIENCE WITH BACK
TO BACK TALKING ANIMAL ADVERTISEMENTS?? NO!!
Sometimes I am really amazed at the human mind
for coming up with such atrocities... but
I guess watching Babe: Pig In the City will help me
immensely?

Jez's Choice for Best Game of 2004

2005-02-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

This post is late in coming because I simply hadn't found time by the end of 2004 to play through all the games that I believed were the cream of the crop. To be honest, I still haven't finished all these games, but I believe that I have now played each significantly enough to gauge how I would rank them. Philo's already made his choice, and now so have I (plus a list of ranked nominees):

Best Game of 2004
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes by Retro

The first Metroid Prime had proved to be an unmitigated success in spite of all the lingering doubts and harsh assessments during its early development at an upstart studio. It was the sort of new-millennium masterpiece that would be nearly impossible for a potential sequel to match in any way. Yet Echoes has done just that, by masterfully carrying on the series' renowned tradition of presenting sublime environs that are frighteningly atmospheric and pose as carefully crafted puzzles, too, all the while connecting a cleverly understated narrative. The rousing action has improved over its predecessor to become a true challenge that concedes nothing to those who lack the ability to strategize instantaneously, and the complexity of the puzzle construction demands an ever-precise spatial memory over the course of the maps' twists and turns even across alternate dimensions. In a mere two years after the unimitable original Prime's release, Retro has conceived and developed a brilliant successor that stands just as tall alongside that magnum opus.

Nominees for Best Game
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal by Insomniac
Burnout 3: Takedown by Criterion
Half-Life 2 by Valve
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by Konami
Ninja Gaiden by Team Ninja
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door by Intelligent Systems
Katamari Damacy by Namco
Halo 2 by Bungie
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow by Ubisoft

Coachella lineups!

2005-02-03T01:57:00.000-08:00

Coachella lineups

I love the contrast of the headliners. You just have to read lyrics from both Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails. Then you will laugh yourself silly.

Nine Inch Nails:
you let me desecrate you
you let me violate you
you let me complicate you
I wanna f*** you like an animal
my whole existence is flawed
you can have my isolation
you can have the hate that it brings

Coldplay:
Honey you are a rock
Upon which I stand
And I come here to talk
I hope you understand
The green eyes
Yeah the spotlight
Shines upon you
And how could
Anybody deny you
I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter
Now I met you
Honey you should know
That I could never go on
Without you

Nine Inch Nails:
lick around divine debris
taste the wealth of hate in me
shedding skin succumb defeat
this machine is obsolete
made the choice to go away
drink the fountain of decay
broken bruised forgotten sore
too f***ed up to care anymore
poisoned to my rotten core
too f***ed up to care anymore
in the back
far away
is a place
where I hide
where I stay

Coldplay:
I want to live life, and never be cruel
I want to live life, and be good to you
And I wanna fly
I'll never come down
And live my life
And have friends around
We never change do we no, no
So I wanna live, in a wooden house
I wanna live life, and always be true
I wanna live life, and always be good to you

...and another reason why I love Emily Haines
look at her t-shirt! I Had My Birthday Party At McDonalds!

The Godfather Presses Start Button

2005-02-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm excited about the Godfather video game. There, I said it. I really shouldn't be since we gamers are all supposed to be hating EA right now. They appear to possess a long checklist of ethical wrongdoings, and are currently busy placing a mark next to each and every item in the hopes that they might attain some evil ranking that would usurp the artist formerly known as Lucifer.

This is to say nothing of EA's foul elimination of competition (equivalent to the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan debacle) and the spout of creativity along with it. The very prospect of taking a beloved film and book property and converting that experience into a video game (with all its inherent differences from the other two media) can itself be blasphemy against the original creators' artistic vision. But with a soul-sucking corporation behind its development, the daunting idea of an artistically successful translation should now be wholly lost to me.

There are two basic approaches to making a game based on a movie. You can attempt to recreate every scene from the movie as closely as possible, or you can try to create a backstory that doesn't interfere with the original plot but carries the ideal that you are fleshing it out with every conceivable sundry that movie audiences had pondered upon. Both have fundamental flaws, the former especially. What fun is it to replicate scenes I've already watched and must play out to a specific outcome? I may as well watch the movie again. As for the backstory approach, it falls into the pit of boredom by providing only lesser characters and uninteresting plot threads, in essence featuring all the cutting room floor excisions. Nearly all movie-licensed games have failed thus far because they cannot be anything more than those two approaches offer.

With that said, EA's opted for the latter approach in making a Grand Theft Auto-style game that places you as a create-a-mafioso character as you start off small-time and eventually cross paths with the Corleones and other characters from the Godfather films. While EA's ineptitude at creating a spin-off has just been exemplified in recent palpable failure, they should at least have some form of template established by 2002's similarly GTA-styled Mafia. They've also managed to secure voice acting performances from key actors in the films, namely James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Marlon Brando (recorded shortly before his death), admittedly a feat that only a deep-pockets corporation such as EA could accomplish.

I'm excited about the Godfather game because living out the life of a Corleone-connected mafioso is something I've always wanted to do, or at least seems like something I've always wanted to do, despite any heavy reservations against near-certain desecration of an iconic film by a video game. Obviously, I could never carry out that fantasy in real life because I don't think that the Italian mob registers Chinese men among any of its charter members. We could also go into the moral argument here, but I think that's unnecessary because we all know that Godfather's romanticization notwithstanding, gangsters are bad people who steal, kill, and generally spread animus.

Nevertheless, we all have a fascination with the mafia after the popularity of The Godfather, The Sopranos and other fine mobster dramas. Surely we've all wondered at some point what it'd be like if we were put in the Corleones' proverbial shoes and not resigned to merely watching them. Forgetting for the moment my lack of faith in EA's ability to deftly handle this property, their decision to use the GTA-style of open-ended gameplay fits appropriately with my vision and I also believe that there can be enough room for interesting, canonical side-stories. This Godfather video game could provide that immersive, interactive experience that we've all been longing for.

Namco and Capcom Together

2005-02-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Namco and Capcom have announced a joint project, an RPG that stars favorite characters from both companies' cornucopia of franchises. We've seen a lot of cooperation between video game companies recently, but the crossovers are usually limited to mere cameos and inconsequential bonuses. Rarely has a collaboration run this deep even if the ground idea is nothing particularly groundbreaking. Even less creative is the title of the game, dubbed Namco x Capcom -- I sincerely hope that's tentative. Still, the sheer thrill of a mass crossover between these two venerable companies should make any nostalgic gamer very glad. The last time I remember a video game of this nature was Kingdom Hearts, the 2002 amalgamation of classic Final Fantasy and Disney characters.

Namco x Capcom will feature two wholly original creations as its main protagonists, but the rest of the roster will consist of characters from series as diverse as Street Fighter, Tekken, Resident Evil, Soul Calibur, Mega Man, Xenosaga, Darkstalkers, Klonoa, Ghosts 'N Goblins, and Tales of Destiny. It sounds fun but a project like this could really go either way on the quality spectrum, so keep your fingers crossed.

No Chance to See U2

2005-01-30T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ever since the U2 Vertigo tour was announced several weeks back, I'd been anxiously awaiting my chance to see the band in concert. I've been waiting at least eight years for this: The ZOOTV tour of 1993 came and went before I was old enough to go out to concerts, the POPMART tour of 1997 was a promotion of an album I didn't like at all, and I passed up the Elevation tour of 2001 because I couldn't afford a ticket and didn't have my own car. But now, here was my moment. What better opportunity? The Vertigo tour accompanies a great album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. I had the money for a ticket and I could drive myself without a problem. And honestly, U2's getting a little grey around the edges -- if not now, there may not be anymore chances to see them in top form. Here at last was my chance...

Or so I thought. My hopes of seeing U2 in person were completely crushed this morning, when at 10 a.m. Ticketmaster officially opened for business and promptly told the first customer in line that the April 5 concert at the Staples Center was totally sold out due to presales for the U2 fanclub. How in the world that could be possible is beyond me, because any concert presale should only take up a certain allotment of total tickets available. To make matters worse, the April 1 concert at the Arrowhead Pond was pronounced sold out of all but single reserved seats immediately thereafter. Five seats in a row, or even within the general vicinity of each other, were obviously too much to ask.

The fanclub, which had egregiously taken away all ticket availability from me, costs $40 a year and gives each of its members the benefit of buying 2 tickets through an exclusive presale. But with the way ticket sales are organized, fanclub members are apparently the only ones who can attend U2's concerts at all. Put bluntly, the presale is the only sale. On top of that, I've been reading reports from fanclub members during this past week, their presale peroid, that complained that even they had not been able to secure tickets. I thought they had merely meant that the presale allotment was sold out so that they would have to wait in line with the general public on this Sunday morning. Apparently, entire arenas were sold out even before the general public sale started (with the exception of the single seats at the Arrowhead Pond, but really, who goes alone?), according to my local Ticketmaster outlets. It's completely ludicrous to suggest that anyone who wants to go to a U2 concert needs to cough up an additional $40 just for a non-guaranteed chance to buy tickets.

I'm utterly disappointed in U2, Ticketmaster and the entire sales process. I had been planning to spend a wonderful night together with some loved ones and the greatest band in the world. Instead, I get absolutely nothing.

"Did I disapppoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?"

Yes. Yes, you did...

UPDATE: As rumor suggested, U2 announced two additional shows to accomodate fan demand, an April 2 show at the Arrowhead Pond and an April 6 show at the Staples Center. Amazingly, I had checked for any such information this morning at 9 a.m. before heading out and neither the official Ticketmaster website nor the official U2 website had any mention of these dates. Clerks at my local Ticketmasters did not inform me of anything either. By the time I came back home from church at half past 3, both new dates had already sold out completely. I couldn't even find single seats at the most expensive price! I've read complaints from people in line at Ticketmaster outlets when the new dates went up -- they say that the shows were immediately sold out upon announcement, which would seem to be impossible. Regardless, once again I'm out of luck...

Nash for MVP

2005-01-29T01:33:00.000-08:00

If the MVP of the 2004-05 NBA season were chosen today, who would win?

ESPN's Marc Stein argues on behalf of Steve Nash. The Phoenix Suns floor general has undeniably changed his team for the better since signing with them during the past offseason. The ultimate statistic of the win-loss column compared to last year's record clearly indicates that Nash must be a catalyst like no other since he's the only real change for Phoenix between this season and last. The Suns have gone from a 29-53 team to a group currently at 35-10, projected for a 64-18 season. Who else can boast such a dramatic improvement to his team?

Did Phoenix's other All-Stars Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion ever look this good last year without Nash (or, if you really want to go there, with Marbury at the 1 spot)? Putting aside his impressive numbers, Nash's biggest contribution to the team is one that can't be measured: he makes his teammates better. If anyone is still wondering what brought about this sudden and remarkable change to the Suns, the clear answer is their new point guard.

It might be more natural for me to pick Tim Duncan -- who's always an easy choice -- because he can dominate in any area of the game, also makes his teammates better, and consistently keeps his team in the NBA's elite. But it's hard for me to argue with anyone who'd choose Nash instead this season. He sure looks like an improbable MVP (c'mon, a short, white point guard?) but his team's improvement and overall record are nearly impossible to overlook.

Film Spotlight: City Lights

2005-01-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

City Lights
Released in 1931
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Starring Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Florence Lee

The silent film seems to be an all but forgotten entity for today's general movie audience. It's understandable since silent films appear hopelessly antiquated by today's terms. That's not to say that I don't recognize their historical importance, but honestly, I could count my personal favorites on one hand. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some fine connoisseur of the silent film era; I'm practically a card-carrying member of Generation X after all. I suppose that makes City Lights all the more special for being one of my all-time favorites, bar none.

In what I consider to be his magnum opus, Charlie Chaplin plays that irrepressible Tramp yet again as he finds himself caught up in all sorts of hijinks across town. At this point in his career, Chaplin had already worn the role of the Tramp for 16 years and in this film has his character set perfectly in every conceivable mannerism. Every step, every smile, every turn of the eyebrow radiates with a remarkable charm, and displays a supremely confident performer in his absolute prime. There's hardly a dull moment to be had with Chaplin at the helm of this feature, an unabashed silent film that came three years after the advent of talkies.

What truly makes City Lights special, however, is that despite all its comedic turns, the film is a romance at heart. The Tramp stumbles (quite literally) into a poor, blind girl who sells flowers on a busy city corner, and he immediately falls in love with her. But recognizing his social standing, the Tramp sees that love is out of reach for him. As luck would have it, he later runs into a late-night drunkard in the middle of a suicide attempt and saves the man who turns out to be a wealthy millionaire. His newfound friend, a severe alcoholic who only recognizes his savior when he's filled to the brim with booze, freely (and perhaps unknowingly) allows the Tramp use of his liquor, home, and money.

The Tramp certainly knows how to take advantage of a good thing while it lasts and uses his borrowed affluence to drive up in a Rolls-Royce to woo the girl of his affection. (Yes, the girl is blind and might not completely recognize a Rolls-Royce for what it is, but in the Depression era any carowner must have been a well-to-do citizen.) The film, of course, progresses into a series of mischievous sequences as the Tramp must struggle to keep up his facade even after the millionaire's generosity is long gone, culminating in a hilariously desperate scene in which he enters a local boxing ring's fight night to earn money, which has to be one of the funniest slapstick moments in cinematic history.

Though I said that City Lights is a romance at heart, that fact may not be lucently determined until the film's final scene. I would not spoil it, but suffice it to say that only a master of drama could have achieved a heartfelt scene like it that manages to elicit a very real response from its audience. In fact, it almost makes the rest of the movie seem mere calculations to build up to this very moment that opens the viewer's eyes, though that should not in truth take anything away from the skillful comedy of the first 86 minutes. Chaplin may have seemed an unlikely candidate to fulfill such dramatic expertise but he more than proves his worth here. City Lights is one of those true rarities of a film that is extraordinarily enjoyable throughout and caps off with a perfect ending, too.

An Empire at War

2005-01-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

I swore off Star Wars games when, after the release of Rogue Squadron in 1998, Lucasarts announced that they were shifting focus away from the original trilogy era. I had to renege that vow when Knights of the Old Republic released in 2003. It definitely wasn't set during the original trilogy timeline -- it was in fact, set even long before the new trilogy -- but that game was about as perfect as a Star Wars game could be without hitting any of the familiar touchstones that I hold so dear. It proved that a good game could still be made outside of the Star Wars canon while remaining within the same persistent universe, effectively changing my mind.

Now here's where it gets good: Lucasarts has announced the development of Star Wars: Empire at War. Technically, it's not set during the timespan of Episodes IV-VI; it's set in between the forthcoming Episode III and Episode IV. But that obviously means that we'll be able to see many of the things so embraced by fans of the old movies (as opposed to the multitude of rejected contributions from the new trilogy). In fact, Lucasarts is really taking advantage of this position and will endeavor to show us the humble beginnings of the Rebel Alliance in the face of the Old Republic's deterioration and the Galactic Empire's oppressive government. For example, the game will have you undertake a mission in which you must seize a prototype aircraft, which then becomes the basis for that backbone of the Rebellion's air force, the X-Wing.

Empire at War is a real-time strategy game, which isn't a genre that has captured me wholeheartedly the way that free-roaming adventure has. The truth is I've never played much Command & Conquer nor Warcraft. But the game's developer, Petroglyph, has a pedigree that even I can recognize. With a staff consisting almost entirely of former Westwood Studio members, Petroglyph is led by people who are practically responsible for creating the RTS genre itself. With that in mind, I think that I can get very used to this style of gameplay when coupled with the Star Wars license, which actually seems like a natural partnership when you give it some thought.

Knights of the Old Republic was so much fun partly because it caught me by surprise when I had lowered my expectations for any game under the Star Wars banner. Empire at War will have no such luck. I'm expecting a fun and thrilling game of epic magnitude with an attractive and interesting presentation that recaptures the sense of wonder I had in Star Wars (did you get all that down?), and I expect that Petroglyph has the ability to deliver what I want.

Can EA Be Stopped?

2005-01-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

And you thought it was over. After signing improbable contracts of exclusivity with the NFL and the AFL, Electronic Arts has announced a 15-year exclusive deal with ESPN, snatching that license outright from EA's biggest sports rival, Sega. Technically, this is no monopoly, but in all practicality, EA's recent moves have completely squashed any possible competition for football video games. I'm not quite outraged, but I do see this as a sign that any need for creativity has been clearly eliminated. Why bother pushing yourself to make a better football simulation when you're the only game in town? The masses will take whatever you give them.

At the very least, Take-Two, publisher of Sega's ESPN sports games, have not resigned themselves to oblivion. Instead of sitting by idly while their rival grabs everything in sight, they're now in discussions with the MLB for a similar contract of exclusivity for baseball, in order to counter EA's dealings on the football side. Certainly, none of this exclusivity-hoarding is the sort of competition that I would hope for in the game industry, but there's not much that can be prevented now that game companies are becoming huge multibillion dollar businesses capable of such actions...

Trying Something New

2005-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been asking me, yes, I decided to stop writing film reviews for every single one I watch. Philo and my father started up the MVP program at Hollywood Video several weeks back, which means that they pay $10 a month and get unlimited rentals on anything in the store except the newest, week-old releases. Since signup, our home has been a 24-7 multiplex theater, screening all manner of films that one (or three in this case) could possibly want. Perhaps you can imagine the copious amounts of time spent in front of the television when you have a license to a neverending amount of videos. It adds up to about 3 hours gone in a typical day, and I simply don't have the additional time to devote to writing up critiques of every 90-minute set spent in front of the tube.

What I will try to do on this blog, however, is start a series of spotlights on forgotten classic films that I believe need to be recognized again. How many of you out there can say that you have actually watched films like 12 Angry Men, Once Upon a Time in the West, Wild Strawberries, City Lights, Ikiru, and Kind Hearts and Coronets? Maybe I can help just a few more of you out there to raise your hand.

If that works out, I might convince Philo to help me start up another spotlight series on so-bad-it's-good movies, starting with an article on the incomparable Death Wish 3. I think the world could always use more features like that.

hooray

2005-01-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

happy birthday Judy Chang!
I just wanted to promise a day chock full of fun when we
meet again.
Next time
the museums will have to work around our schedule!
We need to talk to each other about writing a complaint letter
to the museums.
4pm?? CMON! haha
Well I hope you had a happy and eventful birthday.
Though I hate the fact that we don't see each other much, you will always
be one of my favorite human beings.
You're one in a gazrillion.
I really couldn't ask for more in a friend.

...and now is the time I quote some song from a pop-punk band like a 15 year old
but this isn't Xanga

on another note:
remember kids... TO REMEMBER MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Just Say No

2005-01-13T23:57:00.000-08:00

Why do some parents think that buying something for a kid is an acceptable way to resolve a temper tantrum? I'm sure that they know it's not the right thing to do, but they still do it anyway. Is it truly that difficult to just say no to your child? Today at Target I watched as a mother sternly told her son that she wouldn't buy him a DVD. The boy put on a real show bemoaning his great loss, even outstretching his arms in a desperate grief like he'd just heard that summer vacation was cancelled forever. My eyes followed slowly as the mother wore down to a pathetic "okay, fine" as she trudged over, picked up the item of provocation and tossed it in the cart. I caught a glance from her as she passed by and noticed my interest. Her blank expression said it all. I could see that she felt guilty but really didn't know any other way out. Until then, I hadn't realized the hopelessness a parent can feel in that situation.

I realize that I'm not a parent myself so that gives me less authority here, but I feel that in modern society, the role of the parent over the child has been exceedingly restricted and it's led to an epidemic of bad behavior. If I had a son or daughter throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of a store, I'd straight smack that kid upside the head. Buy that overpriced piece of junk that's going to be tossed aside in an hour anyway? Hell no. I don't care if other people nearby are staring. Making a public spectale doesn't help convince me that a SpongeBob Snowcone Maker is necessary in my home right then and there. I ain't going down that easy. I hope to God that if I were a parent in that situation that my will to discipline would outweigh any shame or laziness. The kid needs to learn a lesson and I'm going to stick to it: throw a temper tantrum and you don't get a damn thing. For the sake of our future, parents, don't give in to the every whim of your children. Raise them to be people of virtue. The earlier you impart these lessons, the more likely these children will be shaped in that image. Thank you.

game of the year award: 2004 edition

2005-01-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know about Jez
but I definitely choose Bad Boys: Miami Takedown.
This game excelled in every aspect.
The gameplay was so engaging, I forgot about my friends and family for
weeks and weeks... and I wasn't even bothered by it!
This game is not only my selection for video game of the year of 2004.
This is honestly one of the top 10 if not top 5 if not top 1.
Even though I didn't know why I had to "take down" Miami
it didn't matter!
Do people ever wonder why we always put peanut butter with jelly??
Do people ever wonder why we don't use triangle-shaped tires instead of round ones??
Do people ever wonder why there are 60 seconds in a minute??
Do people ever wonder what exactly a hot dog consists of??
well.. yes.. but that is a whole 'nother Ballpark!

Honestly there aren't enough words in the English language to describe this game.
You just won't understand happiness
until you have picked up the controller and played it.
You will be experiencing perfection in the form of a video game.
To sum it up, if you ever wanted to be bad, a boy, or take down Miami or all of the above.. this game is for you! From the level design to the gameplay to the script,
this game really takes it to the next LEVEL.

Be on the Next Deepspace 5 Record

2005-01-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

As you read this post, Deepspace 5 is in Atlanta finishing up recording sessions for a new album due out in May. But the followup to their 2001 debut is still missing something. Just that little something to put it over the top. What am I talking about? Here's a word from one of the DS5'ers to let you know what's up:

Hey y'all, Listener here. We're in the studio right now working hard on the next record for Gotee. It sounds like a rap record. We were thinking the other day about how many times people have hit us up about joining DS5, and came up with an idea to have you guys on the record. So, today is Tuesday, January 11th, around noon. We are going to give you a shot at it. We have set up a special number and answering machine for the contest. It will be open for you to call for the next three days, and the contest closes on Friday, January 14th, at noon. The best submissions will most probably be included on the next record. So, spread the word to all you know, and good luck. 404.286.5810

Please answer these 6 questions, keep it brief, speak clearly, and answer the questions in this order:

1. Phone number.
2. Real name and rap name.
3. What city you're from.
4. Why you would want to be a part of DS5?
5. What could you contribute to the crew?
6. Give us a taste of your skill, no beats -- raps only, and keep it to a 1 verse minimum.

Now how's that for a creative promotion? Have you heard anything so strange before? I like it; it's fresh. If you're interested, you have a couple more days to put this together and phone in. Again, the number's (404) 286-5810 and don't call any later than 12 p.m. on Friday. Good luck.

Dolby Digital Plus

2005-01-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Great news for audiophiles: Dolby recently demoed their upcoming audio format, Dolby Digital Plus. This new technology has been shown to allow for a data rate of 6 Mbps through 13.1 discrete channels! For comparison, the current technology, Dolby Digital, only allows for a data rate of 640 kbps and 5.1 discrete channels. In essence, we're getting nearly 10 times the bandwidth and nearly 3 times the immersion with Plus. It will be used as the standard audio format for HD-DVD and possibly Blu-Ray as well, so the technology should be in homes within a couple years.

This step up for Dolby has a great side benefit, too. They are now taking Dolby Digital (regular kind without the fancy "Plus") to a new home. Your home, in fact! Now you can create surround soundtracks for your home movies with a new product called Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator. I can't wait to get my hands on this...

EA Signs AFL, Too

2005-01-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse than when EA signed an exclusive NFL videogame contract, along comes news that they have also signed an exclusive deal with the AFL. You may remember that I joked about other companies having to resort to making arena football games -- now they can't even do that! This is like robbing a guy of all his money, then returning to take the shirt off his back, too. Amazing...

you know you've always wanted to be Bono...

2005-01-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

sing to your heart's content!

download any of these and perfect your u2 tribute band

Microsoft Settlement Deadline

2005-01-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Just a quick heads-up for California residents that the deadline for mailing in your claim in the Microsoft-California Class Action Settlement is tomorrow, January 8th. Last week I read that not even 10% of all eligible consumers and businesses have filed claims! Microsoft is going to walk away with nearly a billion dollars because the public is by and large too apathetic to participate in this settlement. I don't think that people out there realize that they can claim $100 in vouchers without even needing to provide proof of eligibility. More claims need to be filed. Send'em in, folks!

concerts with attendance potential

2005-01-06T01:08:00.000-08:00

From now on, I am going to keep listing concerts that seem interesting.
Some of them will be more FYI and less of a homicide-for-tickets type of thing.
I really just need a place to keep track of the concerts I want to attend.
All the scribbling on random post-its will end as of now.
I am doing this for myself and for the other people that visit this blog.
Well, most of my friends will not know quite a few of these bands.
So this is for the people who read the blog anonymously from afar.

so here are the first contestants:

> The Soundtrack Of Our Lives _ The Troubadour, Wednesday January 26th, $15
> Luna _ El Rey Theatre, Friday February 4th, $20
> Jill Scott _ Universal Amphitheatre, Monday February 14th, $35
> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists _ El Rey Theatre, Sunday February 20, $12
> Mission Of Burma _ The Troubadour, Tuesday February 22nd, $20
> Joanna Newsom _ The Troubadour, Thursday February 24th, $12
> Slint _ Avalon Hollywood, Sunday March 13th, $23
> Guitar Wolf _ The Knitting Factory, Tuesday March 15th, $10
> The Decemberists _ Henry Fonda Theatre, Thursday March 24th, $16

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

have you ever wanted to reenact your dull, boring, mundane, monotonous life with action figures?

Pope-ing and locking!

2005-01-06T01:04:00.000-08:00

this is the most memorable event of 2004!

ESPN Lists Best and Worst of NBA

2005-01-03T14:52:00.000-08:00

Marty Burns at ESPN posted an NBA article listing the best and worst of the league in 2004. It's a pretty good list, but where is Grant Hill? I just hope that Burns' omission was intentionally made because he didn't want to jinx a good thing going. But c'mon, if there was one thing about the NBA this year that made me happy to still call myself a basketball fan, it was definitely the comeback of one Mr. Grant Hill. Have you seen him out on the court? The guy's grinning like a little kid after every big shot he hits. It's like even he can't believe that he's back...

At least another ESPN'er, Marc Stein, had the goodness to honor Hill in his first trimester awards. The guy's nearly playing at an All-Star level and he's not even close to getting back that comfortableness that comes with being out on the court everyday. Don't forget that Hill hasn't played a full season (barely even a half season) in years after undergoing four ankle surgeries -- I think that by the end of the season he could very well reclaim his spot as one of the top 10 players in the league. But this month is a crucial one to watch: all of Hill's surgeries have come in the month of January. Even with that in mind, I'm just going to say this anyway... Welcome back, Grant.

Look Ahead for 2005

2005-01-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are in the year 2005. It sounds like a nice year, doesn't it? Just say it. "2005." Just sounds cool, I guess.

But maybe I'm talking crazy. Maybe I'm just thinking about all the amazing stuff that was supposed to happen by now. George Orwell had predicted his future-era to settle in place by 1984. Boy, was he wrong. It's now been over 20 years since and we're still nowhere near reaching any semblance of the future that we had envisioned. But if the future is indeed Orwellian, then it's a good thing that we aren't quite there, isn't it?

Anyway, I hope you all had some fun ringing in the new year. Who's got big plans for these next 12 months? I've got a few schemes up my sleeve... But we'll get to that later. It's nothing like those two in the picture though.

Look Back at 2004

2004-12-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

This past week's been a pretty sobering reflection for me as I look back on where I was at this same time of the year in 2003. It was then that my life took a harrowing downward spiral on December 23, one from which I've only recently begun recovering. For the week after that day, I was up at all hours light or dark, stuck in what felt like some strange state of shock. I won't discuss the events that led to this because they need to remain private, but suffice it to say that I was a dead man walking, ready to leave once and for all. Something held me back in stasis for a while but from that moment I was falling apart in every possible way -- in love and life, in spirituality and intellectualism, in relationships with family and friends, in career and fortune, in physical and even mental health.

For the first half of 2004, I behaved as a persona non grata, unnoticed, unmissed, unloved. I'd admit that even in the second half of this year, I've gone through each day as someone who has yet in his heart to be complete and healed and absolved. Sure, I could put on an act; I'd laugh and and pretend that not a single thing was amiss. (Theatre training came in handy there, huh?) But behind the scenes, I was slowly and sadly losing grip and giving up on life.

Through the end though, I managed to hold onto my faith, however tenuously. Always, I've possessed a belief that all is good and just and never without reason though the logic may be beyond me in the here and now. Those who know me would probably say that I like to play the eternal cynic but the truth is that hope is an integral part of my foundation. Without it, I really might not have much else to live for, and I mean that in a most literal way. Faith isn't just an excuse for my incapacity to understand certain things. I believe that it's gradually shaped me into a man of character able to overcome and do much of the good that I've accomplished. Besides, even if it were an excuse, I'd rather live by faith than deny it and live in hopelessness.

I don't think I've had what could be called a good year since 2000. But I've been comforted to know that if I can walk through these trials and still remain standing (if only as a wiser, weaker man) then I've got reason to have hope for the future. There should always remain a hope and faith in the human condition. If I have to find that hope in myself and whatever faculties I have, then so be it. What need in me dictates that I should find my hope in others and not be the one to give it? Ultimately, I have my share of troubles and sorrows, but I don't needlessly object to the righteousness and validity of my life experiences. I've come to see that even the cruelest that life has to offer holds those qualities in its potential to teach and enable overcoming. I know that I've got plenty more lessons to discover and lessons to impart. Gives me something to do to keep on going, right?

Most Intriguing Games of 2005

2004-12-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

I'm still getting that "Best Games of 2004" list put together so in the meantime here's an ordered list of the most intriguing games of 2005. Keep an eye out for these in the coming year.

Super Mario 128 (tentative title)
The Legend of Zelda (tentative title)
Wanda and the Colossus
Final Fantasy XII
Resident Evil 4
Jade Empire
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Kingdom Hearts II
Gran Turismo 4
Destroy All Humans!
Okami
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Kagero II: Dark Illusion
Psychonauts
Killer 7
Medal of Honor: Dogs of War
Odama
God of War
Phantom Dust
Tekken 5

Free Fiona

2004-12-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

If any of you out there are Fiona Apple fans, you might have heard that she had a finished album, Extraordinary Machine, shelved last year. Despite the fact that her previous two albums had gone platinum, Sony/Epic decided that they were readjusting their focus toward mainstream pop and rap artists, which of course did not include Ms. Apple, who was deemed unworthy of their distribution and marketing muscle. But now there's a grassroots campaign to "Free Fiona" as they call it, and have this album released at long last. The gimmick here is that everyone's sending in an apple or any apple-related item to the address of the head of the Sony/Epic label, Andrew Lack, to be mailed in on or around January 24 of the new year. Even if you can't send something in yourself, you can leave a note (effectively signing their petition) and they'll tuck it in a fake apple sent on your behalf. Just do it.

Sin City...

2004-12-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

I can't wait for this movie to come out. Robert Rodriguez better do this comic justice.
After watching the trailer, you realize that nobody else in the world could play
Marv except Mickey Rourke.

watch the Sin City trailer now

Philo's Best Of 2004 (music)

2004-12-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

I know it is strange. But this is going to start off with albums I did not really love.
Many people have expressed how they believe one of these albums will change the world as we know it. But I wasn't feelin' any of these.
But you seem to see many of these albums on top ten lists.
So this list is for the...

> The Liars - They Were Wrong So We Drowned
> Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind
> Blood Brothers - Crimes
> Black Dice - Creature Comforts
> Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
> Xiu Xiu - Fabulous Muscles
> Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
> Scissor Sisters - self titled
> McLusky - Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire
> Les Savy Fav - Inches
> Frog Eyes - The Folded Palm
> Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
> Weird War - If You Can't Beat 'Em Bite 'Em
> DFA Records Compilation #2

Now that we are done with that...
On to MY list of the best albums of 2004!
I was originally going to carefully craft a top ten list.
They were all going to be ranked and have audio samples
of every track.
Each album chosen was also going to have a clip by
each band introducing themselves.
That proved to be a difficult task.
Of course, I am going to miss some superb albums.
Whether it is due to the fact of my memory or just not
having the privilege of hearing the album at all is a different matter.
So now it is just a jumbled mess of a list.
No well thought out essays summarizing
the immense importance of each artist.
Well at least it is organized to a numerical amount.
25.

Philo's best of 2004 list

> Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
> Elliot Smith - From A Basement On The Hill
> U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
> Sam Phillips - A Boot And A Shoe
> Adem - Homesongs
> Of Montreal - Satanic Panic In The Attic
> Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender
> Bjork - Medulla
> The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
> Tortoise - It's All Around You
> Madvillain - Madvillainy
> The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
> Mission Of Burma - OnOffOn
> Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/ Lyre Of Orpheus
> Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
> Brian Wilson - SMILE
> Foreign Exchange - Connected
> AC Newman - Slow Wonder
> Kanye West - The College Dropout
> Franz Ferdinand - self titled
> Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
> Juana Molina - Tres Cosas
> PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
> The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
> Moonbabies - Orange Billboard

honorable mentions:
> Jim Guthrie - Now More Than Ever
> Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
> Iron And Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
> Julie Doiron - Goodnight Nobody
> Annie - Anniemal
> Junior Boys - Last Exit
> Keren Ann - Not Going Anywhere
> Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake The Sheets
> Apostle Of Hustle - Folkloric Feel
> Jean Grae - This Week
> The Libertines - self titled
> Mirah - C'mon Miracle
> Lali Puna - Faking The Books
> Solex - Laughingstock of Indie Rock
> Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks
> Gwen Stefani - Love, Angel, Music, Baby
> Susanna And The Magical Orchestra - List Of Lights And Buoys
> Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - The Doldrums
> Savath And Savalas - Apropa't
> William Shatner - Has Been (actually have not listened to the entire album yet... just wanted his name on my list)

It seems like The Arcade Fire's album Funeral was undoubtedly on everybody's top ten list. I don't understand the band's name. But once I had a nightmare where I almost beat Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. There was a big crowd around me as I was whuppin' each character one after another. Then suddenly, the whole place was in flames! Everything around me was on fire: the DDR dancers, the Pac Man players, all the arcade cabinet frames. I didn't know what to do! All the time put into each game and inputting the names. Disgruntled gamers were throwing in molotov cocktails for charging too much money for the games.(can you blame them? $1.50 for Aerosmith's Revolution X?? no way) I panicked, I knew I should've upped the turbo speed before playing. I think I died a burning crisp of a man. One second away from the ending animation. So in conclusion, I still need more time to listen to the rest of the album.

the end.

p.s. I might expound on each of these albums later.
But I just wanted to put these up.
You know, since I haven't written in such a long time.