I went to see the Sugarcult concert at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, Hollywood California. The support acts were The Pink Spiders, Damone, and Meg & Dia. That’s right, if you’ve been reading my blog posts for the past half year, you know what band I really came to see. My favorite band of the year, Meg & Dia! I’ve seen them three separate times already, so this will be the fourth time for 2006. But this is the first time I’ve seen them with their new lead guitarist; Chase, since Kenji left the band to pursue other interests.

Since Meg & Dia are the less-popular independent band of this concert, they were the very first opening act that starts at 7:30PM. The HOB in Hollywood is about a 40 miles drive for me, and should theoretically only take me about 40 minutes to an hour to get there. I left at 5:15PM to give me some allowance time in case of heavy traffic. It was allowance time well used because I arrived at the venue at 7:15PM! When I was still on the road at 7PM, I was afraid that I would completely miss the reason for my attending this concert.

This Sugarcult tour that Meg & Dia are a part of, is probably the biggest exposure they ever had to a large audience, short of the myspace tent at the 2006 warped tour (which only really held about 30 people inside). They played six songs from their “Something Real” album in their 30 minutes set, and I noticed that they really do like changing the songs around for the live versions (always something new). There was even one incident where Dia’s microphone turned off in the middle of a song, and that’s humorously enough something that’s happened before. Also, the crowd surprisingly created a mosh pit when they played the song “Monster.” Not necessarily a song to mosh to, but it was definitely a sight to see, and I think the band was very surprised as well.

The second band I really wanted to see is Damone, who I am also a fan of. They had a killer set and played several of my favorite songs. The band didn’t really stick around to mingle with the crowd, but I did enjoy rocking out to their songs live. The next act was The Pink Spiders, who I have seen before already when they opened for Angels & Airwaves’ very first concert. My opinion of them hasn’t changed, decent but nothing great, but are very much supported in attendance by a lot of teenage girls (with their guardians) because of their MTV hit “Little razor blade.” Sugarcult had an hour set list since they were headlining, and I admit that I wasn’t familiar with the band at all. They sounded better than decent, and some songs I actually liked. Unfortunately, I don’t see myself being a fan of theirs. I did enjoy Meg’s cameo as one of the guitarists for a song, which she’s been doing in this tour. Not only that, but at the very last song Sugarcult did, Meg, Dia, Chase, and some of the Meg & Dia crew hopped on stage for an impromptu dance. Chase; that brave man, was dressed in only a speedo, while Meg looked really cute in pig tails.

Unlike that unforgettable night I had at the Meg & Dia concert at the Alley, I didn’t really mingle much with the band or other fellow fans. In between sets, I did greet the band members, said a few words, and showed them my custom shirt that I was using with the Meg & Dia design I did (they liked it). I even chatted for awhile with a fellow forum member and creator of the meganddia.net website. To my surprise, I was able to chat with ex lead-guitarist of the band Kenji, who showed up to see the show. He was still wearing the suit he was using for work, which made him look really snazzy.

Despite the fact that Meg & Dia were the minority band and fans of the concert, our presence must have been felt to the people in attendance who has never heard of them before. Several of us were wearing Meg & Dia t-shirts, the band members were mingling in the crowd after their set, and you’ve got cameo appearances from Meg & Dia themselves with Sugarcult. It was a good night and a great show. My only problem is that the House of Blues does not allow people to bring in their cameras (phones they can’t help), so I was stuck only using my camera phone.

oh, it was funny seeing Dia drunk by the end of the night.

Several years ago, we placed a mouse trap behind the TV in our family room. It’s one of those mouse traps that keeps it alive in a box if it ever enters it. After all these years, it finally caught one. At first I didn’t even know what happened, but I kept hearing some scratching noise behind the TV one afternoon. I assumed it was a mouse, but I didn’t see one roaming around, until I realized that a mouse trap was pretty well hidden under all those electronic cables and cords. Sure enough the mouse was still alive and couldn’t escape the trap. I watched the cute little mouse as it’s frantically trying to find a way out of the trap. Ofcourse I didn’t want to kill it, so I’m just going to leave it outside of the house.

As soon as I stepped out into the backyard to dump the mouse there, to my surprise it was actually able to escape one of the openings of the mouse trap (that *should* have stayed closed at that point). Luckily I was already outside of the house, as I watch the mouse run away from me. It eventually tried to run back into the house via the garage, but I scared it back away. I was hoping that it would run out the back gate of our back yard into the “wild,” but instead it opted to run to this small gap in our side wall and into the neighbor’s back yard. Well now, I guess that’s the end of that situation…. for now.

p.s. I didn’t know mouse can climb walls. It didn’t go very high (2 feet maybe), but still…

Hardest Random Part

Kung Fu Baby (video)

dunk jumping off friends back (video)

Slow motion high FPS compilation (video)

bothering mormons (video)

David Cross Sings One Bank (video)

The Simpsons – Da Ali G Show Parody (video)

PMS survival tips (video)

bunny letter opener (video)

zune monsters (video)

the memory pill (link)

Me and my fiancee are going for the first time, have my family (parents, siblings, in-laws, nieces) come to our home for a lunch gathering. Also for the first time as a couple, we tidied up the place, vacumed, cleaned, reorganized our place just so we can make a good impression of the place. We argued a bit about things, but nothing that put a strain on the relationship at all. I’m sure everything will go smooth with my family.

The only major hiccup we faced was that apparently our water heater is leaking, but it shouldn’t get in the way of the day at this point. That’s going to have to be fixed sooner than later though (after today at the least).

A tradition of mine that I started two years ago for the holiday season of Thanksgiving, is to re-watch all the episodes of what is arguably one of my most favorite TV series of all time. “Firefly.” It’s a short lived tv show that spawned a movie to finish off the story, as well as created a passionate fan base called the “browncoats.”

This western meets science fiction fantasy concept created by Joss Whedon, has given me a TV show that I think I’ve always either wanted to make myself or at least be able to watch. Despite the niche genre of fans that this show attracts, there are many qualities about Firefly that makes it work so well to my inclinations. The action, the drama, the sense of humor are all top notch in my eyes. But the two elements that really stand out to me though are, the ensemble cast of characters and the writing.

Before the TV show “Lost” made ensemble casts in serialized TV shows popular again, Firefly was the one that got it right first in this decade. I grew to think of these characters like an extension of my family, and that’s a testament to what they meant for me. Malcolm Reynolds as played by Nathan Fillion, has also become my most favorite character of all time (to think that he started off as a simple tribute to Star War’s “Han Solo”). To me, the story is probably the most important element for me in a TV show, and Firefly’s got this down exceptionally. Before the “Battlestar Galactica” TV show remake made humanistic and realistic stories in a sci-fi world popular again, Firefly was the one that got it right first in this decade. Whedon was able to make some seemingly conventional plots in his stories come out fresh and original all over again. That’s something most TV shows wish they can claim to achieve.

I know that Firefly isn’t necessarily something that meets everyone’s tastes, but damn do I love it. I’ve just recently re-watched the pilot episode again, and I’m already looking forward to seeing the rest of the show, up to it’s inevitable conclusion in the movie finale.

Random Low

Harry Potter Movie 5 behind the scenes (video)

Sony PlayStation 3 review (link)

toothpick trick (video)

92 year old woman dies in cop shoot out (link)

rollerman (video)

Forbes’ richest fictional characters (link)

reputation defender (link)

hyperactive machine (flash)

breasts, natural or augmentation? (test)

the wizard of Floyd (video)

– Japanese Kingdom Hearts 2 — (my youtube)
– Addidas – impossible field — (my youtube)

movies I’ve seen recently…

Casino Royale (2006)  B+

“Casino Royale” is not really a typical “James Bond” film, and that’s actually a compliment. This is a good espionage action / drama, without the over the top elements that usually makes a Bond film. Daniel Craig is probably the grittiest, most serious, and arguably the best acted James Bond I’ve ever seen. Eva Green is also one of the most memorable Bond girls to ever grace the franchise, and shows great chemistry with Daniel Craig. The gadgets used in the movie are actually real gadgets that we can use in reality; which is cool, as opposed to the fantasy spy toys that we expect from 007. The typical Bond jokes have been toned down a bit for this movie, but they are pretty satisfying when they do happen. The story for Casino Royale is pretty engaging, mixed with some awesome action sequences, and even a good chunk of the movie dedicated to the texas hold ‘em poker tournament. The movie is rather lengthy at near two and a half hours, and I was a little annoyed at the seemingly false endings. Not perfect, but a very good promising start to rebooting the franchise.

Tenacious D : The Pick Of Destiny (2006)  B-

“Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny” does not hide the fact that it’s a rather silly rock opera-ish road tripping comedy. This movie is made for the cult film audience, so don’t expect an Academy Award winner here (but the songs qualify). If you like rock and roll, heavy metal, caper scenes, buddy films, …. getting stoned, then this is the movie for you. Jack Black and Kyle Gass do a good job playing more or less their over the top selves, and the humor is entertaining enough to keep you watching. Throw logic out the window, and just enjoy the craziness, as well as the songs by Tenacious D themselves.

Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006)  A-

“Who killed the electric car?” does a good job in selling you the idea that we should be driving electric vehicles. The problem here ofcourse, is that you can’t purchase an electric car, and the movie gives you the reasons why that is. The documentary covers the steps that birthed the electric car as well as how it fell to it’s demise. I kinda wish they did more comparisons on the capabilities of the electric car to the other cars out there, but they did say just enough to prove their point.

With “black friday” after Thanksgiving sale just around the corner, the holiday rush to buy Christmas gifts is probably in a lot of people’s minds. This year is a little different with me and my immediate family though, as we’ve all agreed not to buy presents for each other, except for the kids ofcourse. Us adults can go without presents as we have most everything we want, and this way we can save up on money that doesn’t necessarily need to be spent. Maybe next year we’ll go back to giving each other presents, but not this year. As long as the children are happy, we will be too.