The past night, I went to see Meg & Dia again at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. Since it was a Saturday night, more people showed up for the show. They actually performed a pre-show for the people who weren’t able to get tickets for the sold out concert, which is pretty cool of them to do. I myself did not see that pre-show, but opted to hang outside with my M&D board member acquaintances.

While I was standing outside, one of the producers of the people shooting the music video for Daphne Loves Derby, was asking people in line if they had a flashlight they can loan them. Nobody offered to help, so I decided to step forward to help the dude. I had a flashlight in my car so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t help out, and I probably would just feel guilty if I didn’t.

By the time we got in, I was debating whether I should video record the whole Meg & Dia set again or not. I was still positioned in a really bad spot, so shooting footage would just be a pain. I did want to get some more footage of Ronnie Day‘s set though, because there were still some songs I haven’t got yet. He played two of the songs I’ve been wanting to get, so I have those on video. I even took a video of one of House of Fools‘ songs. By the time Meg & Dia started their first song; which started out with Rebecca this time around, I decided I will go ahead and record the whole show afterall. Unfortunately, I could only really hold my camera way up high with my arms, before I started to get really tired. The footage ended up pretty bad, because I was constantly readjusting my arms, which caused the video to shake a lot. I’m not going to upload this batch, but I will upload the new song that Dia sang (work in progress).

After Meg & Dia’s set, and at the time of Daphne Loves Derby set, I opted to just head out into the parking lot. There I got to chat with my board member acquaintances, but most especially I got to hang out with the band. Out of the band members, Dia was the one I was with the most, ‘cuz she’s just one crazy spontaneous girl. Hella cool. She noticed my custom Meg & Dia shirt and said “what’s that on your shirt, oh wait, didn’t I say that the last time too? I’ll make sure not to forget the next time around.” Haha, see, cool. The rest of the band actually took pictures of my custom shirt (I should make a new one for the future). Nearby, a new acquaintance of mine was doing this trick with a cigarette lighter and catching the flames in her hand. They asked Dia to do it, and she was kinda scared about it, that she grabbed my arm and said “here, he’ll do it, and I’ll just hold on to him, no wait, you might just get caught on fire, and I don’t want you to get hurt.” See, crazy spontaneous. I wanted to do the trick anyway, and it was indeed pretty cool and harmless.

As the minutes go by into Daphne Loves Derby’s set, more and more people start showing up in the parking lot outside and notices that the Meg & Dia band are just hanging around. So more and more people are asking Dia and the rest of the band for pictures and autographs. Since I was right next to Dia, I was pretty much designated as “the guy with the marker” for the fans who didn’t have a marker with them for Dia to sign her name with. One of the younger fans were all “can I borrow your marker sir?” and I was all “sir? c’mon I’m not THAT old looking am I?” and Dia comes in with a “he’ll lend you the marker, but don’t call him sir.” Sweet. BTW, I did get Dia and Meg to sign their authographs on my copy of the rare “Our Home Is Gone” CD. Both of them were very pleasantly surprised to see it. I was also able to get Nick and John’s autographs too.

It was pretty cold standing outside at the parking lot, and to reflect that, Dia’s best friend Hannah (the extra dancer in the When You Were Young vid) started singing “bbrrr, it’s cold in here, I think I smell the “mikey” in the atmosphere….” It prompted Meg & Dia to sing along with her too, and they did an impromptu dance also, with it ending with Dia hopping on Hannah’s arms. Awesome, fans of Kirsten Dunst’s “Bring it On!” too I see?

I ended the night and left to go home after saying goodbye to the band and my new acquaintances. It was probably about an hour and a half since Meg & Dia’s set ended, so I was hanging out with them for quite a while. Oh, I did get my flashlight back from the production crew. What’s interesting about that is that at the time I loaned them my flashlight, it actually ended up traveling to Hollywood and back to Anaheim, right before I left. That’s a gap of 40-50 miles apart! The guy said it was a long story he didn’t want to have to explain.

This past show was also the most people I’ve seen who wants Meg & Dia’s autograph and pictures, to the point that a nice long line formed for them. In fact, while Daphne Loves Derby is the real main act, there were more people there for Meg & Dia. This is just a precursor to how things will be in the future. I better savor these personal times that I get to spend with them, before it becomes impossible in the future.

This past night, I went to yet another concert featuring Meg & Dia. This time it was at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim. This is an all ages music venue that I’ve never been to before, and it’s actually a pretty small place. It’s pretty much like a bar/restaurant, made into a concert hall. Cozy, and perfect for up and coming bands. Parking is pretty much very limited for this venue, but I was lucky enough to find one great spot with absolutely no hassle. A minute or two later, and I would have to find parking somewhere else. This concert is part of a whole tour, and a continuation from the one I went to on Wednesday night, so I don’t really need to talk too much about how the bands were. I more or less have the same opinions as last time. I did notice that the Meg & Dia band and the crew actually remember me by face now, so that’s kinda cool.

This time around though, I did not stand next to the stage, but instead opted to stand way in the back of the room. Ofcourse that meant that my video footage is not going to be as dynamic as the ones I took the last time. Oddly enough, there was a man standing in the back as well, who does NOT fit the typical description of a fan who would be at that show. Basically, he looks to be about my age, and he is a big guy, almost like a bouncer type. It turns out that he was able to get permission from Meg & Dia to videotape a good amount of their shows for this tour. Not only that, but it turns out that he is also selling a copy of the very hard to find “Our Home is Gone” album, which is the self published first album that Meg & Dia released by themselves. I have been able to download the .mp3s of this album from the internet, but having a hard copy is a very rare thing. He is aware of this fact and is actually having an open bid for that album for interested concert goers. I put my bid down, and hoped for the best.

While I was listening to the first band, I was able to say hi to Meg & Dia’s guitarist Carlo (Pinoy!), Meg herself, and Ronnie Day. I had Carlo sign his authograph on my ticket, and chatted a bit about his Filipino background. For Ronnie Day, we talked about his day visiting Santa Monica Beach and Huntington Beach, that he went to with some common acquaintances of mine (Meg & Dia board members). I also had Ronnie give me an autograph on my copy of his album. For Meg, I was actually there to give her a gift. I made a mix CD of various bands, in the intent that they can listen to it while they are on the road. The other gift is a mix Video DVD of my “Tell Mary” music video and a bunch of other miscellaneous Meg & Dia related footage. Not only that, but I had the ballz to put in a parody song that I actualy sang at the end of that DVD, which I’m hoping they enjoy…. uhhh yeaahh…

It was my intentions to leave the show after Meg & Dia’s set, besides the fact that the main act; Daphne loves Derby, is filming a music video using footage from these two concerts at the Chain Reaction. I don’t think I care enough to be seen in that video, so I was practically the first person to leave the show. Walking out, I got to see Carlo and the other new guitarist John. Out of all the band members, I haven’t got a picture with John yet, so I got to at least do that this time around. Oh yeah, almost forgot, I won the bid for “Our Home Is Gone.”

That’s it for Friday night. Just one more show to recap Saturday night until…. March.

Random Masterpiece

watch your DVDs using R2-D2 (link)

Wii-kini sports (video)

finger board tricks (video)

scariest accident ever (pics)

a perfect circle (video)

mini-skirt ball (video)

Snow’s “Informer” = “Chori Chori” (video)

the future internet 1995 (link)

College Saga (video)

vanishing point (game)

– Cooking Mama – X-Play review — (my youtube)
– God Hand – X-Play review — (my youtube)

This past night, I went to “the Knitting Factory” music venue in Hollywood, for my first “Meg & Dia” concert of 2007! Since I’ve already been there once last year, it felt really comfortable going back to a venue I’ve been to before. I showed up early this time, and ended up mingling with a couple of other Meg & Dia fans from the band’s message board, as well as get early meetings with the band members (except for Meg). I’m making an attempt to catch Meg & Dia at all their Southern California shows, but these other fans beats me by actually making all of them. For the most part, I was just kicking back and letting them do all the talking. The other fans seem to get along so personally well with the crew and the band members as well, that I honestly felt a little out of place. But I’m an observer at heart, so no biggie.

By the time we got inside the venue, one of the first things we did was plant ourselves at the front of the stage. Gotta be up close to the band you know. I set myself up at the front side corner, and have more or less a good enough angle for my camera to take pictures and videos. The first band that played was “House of Fools,” and they weren’t bad at all. It’s a traditional rock band and they definitely have their own thing going for them. I enjoyed their performance, but unfortunately don’t see myself picking up their CD. The next artist after that is “Ronnie Day,” who I have also seen before already. I consider myself a fan of his now since then, and even bought his CD “The Album” when it was released. He actually performed several new songs that weren’t in his just released CD, so that was a surprise. He did play several of my favorite songs, but left out some that I wish he did play. All in all, he was great for being just one guy on stage with a guitar.

Next up was Meg & Dia, and not to be too biased, but they were the best performance of the night. This was also the first time I get to see the newer guitar players, and one of them is Filipino; which pleases me. The setlist for this tour is changed a bit compared to their previous ones, because they now have a keyboard for several of their songs. Meg & Dia started out the show with a song I’ve never really heard of before called “Yellowbutterfly,” and unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough to get my camera out in time to record the whole thing. I was able to get videos of the rest of their setlist though, which includes their first cover song that is the Killers’ “When you were young,” as well as Meg by herself performing “Rebecca.”  Speaking of Meg, she was extra hot wearing those knee high socks, yowza! Dia was also looking cute with her “Where’s Waldo-esque” striped shirt.

In between Meg & Dia’s set and the final main act, I decided to chat a bit with the female photographer that’s right next to me. She introduced herself as Alexis and she apparently works for the Daily Trojan, which is a college newspaper, and that she was hired as a photojournalist to cover this event. Being a little forgetful, I mistakenly said that it was a UCLA paper. She was amused by my lack of college football teams knowledge, correcting me that it’s actually a USC paper. We talked about her job, her taste in music, college, her SLR camera, and my digital camera. She did say that she’s never heard of any of the bands, however she did say she liked Meg & Dia the best. Sweet, and goes to show that they are a phenomenal live band. Right before the next act went on, I amusingly asked her what the mascot of UCLA was.

The final act was “Daphne loves Derby,” and I have to honestly say that while they weren’t bad, a lot of their songs didn’t really light up the stage. There were a lot of slower type songs, that didn’t really get the crowd rocking out. I suppose I have to remind myself that this is primarily an acoustic tour, so there’s a reason to that. Still not bad, but following after Meg & Dia, who was still rocking out in a more acoustic setlist can’t be easy.

Afterwards, I mingled some more with my message board friends, and chatted a bit with Ronnie Day, Meg, Carlo, Dia, Hannah, and John Cheese. I also took photos with some of them. I also asked Meg that after The Killers’ cover song, what do they plan to do next. She said that it’s going to be somebody old, so I suggested The Beatles, and she liked that idea. I wanted to have a group shot of me with Meg and Dia, but for some reason, when one is present, the other isn’t. It’s like “wait, where’s Dia?” or “where did Meg go?” I never did get that group photo with them that night, but I can try again at their next show.

Another great night with the Meg & Dia band. I love it.

You know, I’ve always wanted an Old English Sheepdog, ever since I’ve seen how big and fluffy and huggable they can be. Today, I went to my county’s animal shelter, because they had a young, male, white furry Old English Sheepdog (“OES) in their custody. It was sharing a kennel with a red Chow Chow mix; who was also really cute looking and very energetic. Since the Chow mix wanted all my attention, he pretty much forced the OES to go in the corner, not knowing who I was really there for. Poor Chow mix. At first the OES did not want to get out of the cage because he was really scared. I’d like to think it’s not necessarily because of me, but he would rather just lie down in a corner. Timid and mellow, not too hyper, just the kind of dog I want. It took two animal shelter employees to get him out of the cage, and then I spent a little bit of secluded time with the OES. After about five minutes, knowing that he really is a non-aggressive dog, I decided I wanted to keep him. So yup, I got myself another dog! After a long line and half an hour, in what was surprisingly a very busy animal shelter, I was able to take him. He was very hesitant in jumping in my car though, so I had to pick him up. He liked the car ride though, and was relaxed all the way home, not making a fuss.

When I brought him home, my current dog was excited to meet him. I left the OES in the yard before I would let him in the house, because he REALLY needs a bath first. I introduced my current dog to him, and the Old English Sheepdog all of a sudden livened up, and was acting very friendly with my current dog. Each one of them was trying to establish dominance though, but my current dog thinks she’s a princess, so she was having none of that. They seem to get along well enough, except I think my current dog demands to be the dominant one. Hopefully, I won’t have an issue with them together.

This Old English Sheepdog actually had a collar on him when they found him, so he may have ran away, or his previous owner abandoned him, or they haven’t tried hard enough to find him. He was picked up by the shelter on January 6, so he was fair game to the public for adoption as of the 13th. I’ve got to say that it was really hard walking through the shelter seeing all these dogs that want to be adopted. I would just want to get all of them if I could, but that’s obviously impossible. At least I was able to rescue this Old English Sheepdog, and added a new member to my family as well.

* update 1/20 * After a couple of days and different opinions from other dog lovers, pet groomers, and the vet, I have to say that the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter made a mistake in saying that my new dog is a purebred Old English Sheepdog. In actually, he is in fact a mix, that is most likely a soft-coated wheaton terrier mixed with quite possibly an old english sheepdog. So there you go folks, I’m just going to start saying that he is just an “Old English Sheepdog Wheaton Terrier mix.”

Random Indiana

porn industry choosing HD-DVD over Blu-ray (link)

you park like an a-hole (link)

Tigger punches kid (video)

100 person flashmob (video)

bubble wrap dance revolution (video)

spiders on drugs (video)

Paula Abdul: Stoned Drunk or Both? (video)

Martin Sweeney Slalom (video)

fun movie quiz 4 (link)

just cancel the @#%$* Account! (link)

Woo Hoo! 24 season 6 is finally here! Another 24 episodes of the best action drama on TV for our viewing pleasure. Heck, famous author Stephen King himself loves him the 24. The show’s main star Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer is simply one of the best TV characters to have been created, and he is back! As they say from the basic truths about Jack Bauer, “If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef. Then you better believe it’s beef.” Remember, the bumper sticker on Jesus’ car reads “What Would Jack Bauer Do?” Also don’t forget that January 15, 2007, is the official “Talk like Jack Bauer day.” Woo Hoo! 24 is friggin back!!! Boo Yah!… can you tell I’m excited?

A friend of mine went ahead and bought a PlayStation
3… actually, he bought it in the idea that he could
possibly sell it on ebay. However, when he found out that people are
currently selling it at a lost on
ebay, instead of returning it to the store, he decided to just keep it. Good man. While I currently
have no intentions to buy a PS3 for myself, I did want somebody to get it, so I
can play it. See how that worked out for me?

The
PS3 itself is quite huge in size and beats the
original xbox in being the biggest video game console. It
definitely has to be treated like an audio/video appliance, just like a
traditional DVD player or the TiVo. However, the way it’s designed,
it’s not exactly something that you can stack on other electronic
units. The wireless
“six-axis” controller is pretty much a tweaked Dual Shock 2
without the rumble feature, and besides my continue issue with this
supposed digital pad that Sony designed, it’s quite
good.

Playing around with the interface of the PS3,
I have to say that it’s just… adequate. It’s easy enough to navigate
around I suppose, but there’s a sense of “where do I need to go again?”
until I get used to it. Also, unless there’s some option that I’m
unaware of, the on-screen “keyboard” that they have is crap crap crap.
Why it isn’t a traditional “QWERTY” on-screen keyboard boggles my mind,
and it’s set like how you would type on a cellphone using the number
keys. A lot of tapping there. I did use the built in web browser for
curiousity sake, but it’s definitely not going to make you stop using a
PC.

We rented what is arguably the only game worth
buying for the PS3, which is “Resistance :
Fall of Man.” Me and my friend has played through half the
game already, and it’s a pretty fun first person shooter. The whole
thing looks pretty and the action keeps coming at you, however, the
game really doesn’t stand out too much from other shooters. Not a bad
game at the least, but it’s not a real competitor to the current
shooter darling that is “Gears of
War.”

Roughly four hours spent with the
Playstation 3 and “Resistance,” the question needs to be asked. Is it
worth $600? Honestly; and nothing personal to my friend’s decision, but the answer is a flat NO. I understand that it is also a Blu-ray disc
player, but it
doesn’t mean anything to me at this point in time. As time
goes by, the PS3 will justify that hefty price tag, but right now I
suggest to just mooch of a friend who has it.

Now I
just need to convince another friend to get the Nintendo Wii.

Tell Random Mary

iPhone interface in motion (video)

what’s wrong with the iPhone? (link)

‘GamePro Expo’ Gets Final Name, Price (link)

Sophia Bush’s Boobs (video)

classic He-Man & She-Ra PSA (video)

disney character scares kid (video)

Super Bowl Wedding Proposal (link)

nobody’s watching little superstar (video)

Bruce Campbell’s Old Spice commercial (video)

conservative cartoon all-stars (video)

– what your boyfriend is looking at — (my youtube)
– Olivia Munn’s inbox — (my youtube)