This past Friday night, I was at the Iron Maiden and Anthrax concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, CA. Once again, I'm continuing my quest in watching certain bands live in concert, that I wished I've been able to have seen in my child hood. Unlike the KROQ Weenie Roast two weeks ago, this time it was a "true" metal audience, what with all the black shirts and guys amounting for 97% of the audience. You've got one of the primary classic thrash metal guys with Anthrax, and one of the classic power metal bands with Iron Maiden. Although I'm not extremely huge fans of the two, they are bands that I've always wanted to see live before.

I was a bit disheartened that this lineup of Anthrax is with their newest lead vocalist, Dan Nelson. I would prefer it to have been Joey Belladonna or John Bush, but there's nothing I could do about it is there? This Nelson guy is still learning the ropes of being the lead singer to Anthrax and it kinda shows. The guy is also from the "newer" metal scene, where the singers don't really have much singing talent, except for screaming. I thought that would be a bad mix with Anthrax's songs (especially the Belladonna era), and it honestly was. He was mostly just yelling out the song, and focused too much on trying to get the audience to sing some of the lines, and all I could think in my head was that "It's primarily a Maiden crowd, you're asking too much." He sounded a bit winded with some songs, and looked a bit frustrated at times with himself and the crowd not feeling him. As for the rest of the band, they were kinda all over the place with some songs too, and it sounds like they realy were working out the cobwebs. I enjoyed their performance though (well, except the vocalist) and got to hear my favorite Anthrax songs.

Iron Maiden concert's are known for their stage setup and props, as well as their music ofcourse. They really had a nice stage setup and it's too bad I was far up in the Terrece section to have a closer look at the detail. The music from Iron Maiden has been mostly hit or miss for me, although I'm a fan of their style of metal, and pretty much like all their singles. Lead vocalist Bruce Dickenson is probably one of the best frontmen out there, and his stage precense is through the roof. He also had costume stages and talked to the audience before every song, giving their whole performance a theatrical feeling to it which worked really well. For some of the later songs, they even had their mascot "Eddie" come out on stage, once as a humongous prop display that pops out from the back of the stage, and the second time was with somebody in what looked like a 15 feet tall costume that walked around on stage. It's easy to see why for all these years, Iron Maiden still has a strong following.

I'm starting to get really tired of people in these big rock concerts smoking the mary jane. I thought this night was the worse case of second hand marijuana smoke that I've ever gotten, and I think that in combination to my lack of sleep for the day and lack of food (I only had cereal that day), I was about ready to pass out. Luckily that didn't happen, but my body felt ssooo relaxed, that I could have just closed my eyes and fall asleep standing at any point in the concert.

Life 2: The Unhappy Random Ending

Rock Band song download outsells iTunes (link)

GTA IV DUI (video)

biggest drawing in the world (link)

Facebook Gangsta - NSFW (video)

giant telescope links New York to London (link)

Metal Gear Solid + Lupin III (video)

worst celebrity video game renders (link)

Halo 3 Homicide Detective (video)

ex-Jack Sparrow talks about life after Disneyland (link)

Stealing From Girl Scouts (video)

In the mid to late 1990s, the internet was just finally rearing it's head to the mass public. This was a time when the internet was still confusing to many and a lot of people were still unsure what can be done with it. The one thing that was bound to happen though, was the media taking hold of it, bringing it into commercials, TV shows, movies, etc... One of the most popular ways of depicting it in stories was usually in the form of some "loser" hold up in his home like an anti-social hermit, ordering a pizza through the internet. I've always thought that was a rather neat idea, but at the time there really weren't many pizza places that offered that kind of service. At least, I never really bothered to check, and settled for just calling in the order through the phone. After a decade of knowing about this "ordering pizza through the internet idea," I recently finally decided to try it out with PizzaHut.com. Wow, I should do this method more often. Just click on what you want, choose the coupon you want to use, pay online, and wait for your order. No more needing to verify your order with a person on the phone that frankly speaks faster than you want him to, or the chance of having to deal with a misunderstanding. Pretty cool.

I even followed through this idea of ordering online in advance with BestBuy.com, by using their "store pick-up service" and choosing the items you want to buy, and just picking them up, ready and waiting in the store. There is no more need to look for your item, or ask a store clerk to find it for you, or wait in line to pay at the register, because that'll be taken cared of already by the time you are ready to pick it up. You don't even have to pick it up the same day, and you can literally just order it online for pick up, and wait up to 8 days before getting it.

Ah, the internet. Turning out to be pretty beneficial don't you think?

Here's an idea... you know how bartenders can stop serving a customer if they feel that they had been drinking too much alcohol? Now what if restaurants were allowed to stop serving customers if they feel that they had eaten too much food? I know that some all-you-can-eats have that rule, but what if it can be used for every restaurants? It's a tricky idea for sure, because who is to say what is too much food in the first place right? A person can't just say "you're too fat, you can't eat anymore," because it simply does not work that way. Imagine if it did though, and it would help get rid of the overweight / obesity problem that the U.S. has. See there's a health reason to this line of thinking. Ofcourse something like this will probably only exist in a fiction novel or a movie about a dystopian society, and who knows maybe one of those already exists. It'll be like the whole "Big Brother" thing from "1984" or the reading restriction thing in "Fahrenheit 451." Food for thought?

Random Bitches In Tokyo

Kobe jumps pit of snakes (video)

Weezer's love letter to the internet (video)

smile, you are on google street view (pix)

LFC 25 Double Knockout (video)

Houston Rockets Mascot Scare (video)

The World of Chemistry (video)

board game murder mystery (video)

10 Optical Illusions In 2 Minutes (video)

Hitler Is A Meme (video)

Videos Removed for Copyright Complaint (link)

Movies I've Seen Recently...

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull  (2008)  B-

The Indiana Jones movies have always been more about the adventure and action that expects you to suspend your disbelief, and "Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is no different. Well that's not entirely true, because this particular chapter seems to have increased the action and expects a lot more to suspend disbelief more so than the previous installments. The adventure aspect, while still present, doesn't feel as "adventurous" as I expected from an Indiana Jones film. I think part of the problem here is that the movie itself feels more like a two hours homage to the first films, and because it uses a lot of elements from those, it in turn makes this one lose it's opportunity to establish it's own identity in the franchise. It also seems to lack more quieter scenes found in the previous films that help develop the characters more, and there seems to be a lack of truly exciting traps and riddles that are also a staple of the other chapters.

Although I seem to be a little too obsessed comparing this movie to the previous ones, and point out the flaws a little too much, I have to say that I did enjoy this movie! Despite the unbelievable coincidental moments that happen far too often in the movie, and the silliness of some scenes, it was still fun to watch. From the beginning to the end, you will want to see how it all plays out, and you'll probably enjoy yourself in the process. The movie ofcourse would not have worked if it wasn't for Harrison Ford, as he IS Indiana Jones, and does another great job in the role. Shia LaBeouf is a surprisingly great addition to the cast of characters, and Cate Blanchett plays the tenacious nemesis to great effect. Director Steven Spielberg, and writers George Lucas and David Koepp, may not have made a cinematic classic like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but they did at least made an entertaining fun movie for the whole family.

Redbelt  (2008)  B-

Can the traditional philosophy, spirit, code of
honor, laid out by the martial art Brazilian JiuJitsu, actually apply
to the real world? Or is it's legacy in it's form of fighting, that can
be used for non-idealistic reasons like simply making money? "Redbelt"
deals with those questions, and considering that this is written and
directed by David Mamet, the movie definitely has more scenes of dialogue
than actual fighting. That's right, this is mostly a drama, as opposed to a martial arts film. There are some martial arts in this, but I'm afraid the camera work wasn't done really well to properly capture the action. Chiwetel Ejiofor wonderfully plays the lead role,
trying to live up to the ideals of his martial art, while he struggles
with money, his personal life, and his friend's well being. Good/Decent
movie with a compelling story, that kinda cheats plotwise in the end.

Recently I got to watch "Sasuke 20" or "Ninja Warrior" as it's called here in America. It is an obstacle course competition that's in the spirit of the endurance, strength, and agility of a Ninja. In part I was mostly curious as to how far the American competitors from "G4's American Ninja Challenge" can go, in a very Japanese show. Impressively, out of the three representing the American's "Ninja Warriors," Levi Meeuwenberg was one of them and makes it all the way to the third stage (out of four). Not only that, but he went farther than any Japanese contestant in this 20th version of Sasuke, including Makoto Nagano who is one of the all-stars of this event.

Levi is a practitioner of "parkour" or "free-running" which I thought would be very beneficial to this obstacle course competition. Whenever he would pass a stage, in his interview he would say things like "it was exactly what I expected" or "I see what needs to be done, and just did it." Now, is it just me or does that sound like the stereotypical "cocky American," and would the Japanese also see it as that? It doesn't help that he beat out every Japanese contestant either does it? However, his answers were really because that is the philosophy of parkour / free-running, in that you see the obstacle you have to overcome, be aware of what you need to expect from it, and conquer it accordingly. Even though he sounded like the ubnoxious American, he really was just being truthful to his professional background. I thought he redeemed himself a bit at the final interview though...
Q: how do you feel beating out all the japanese competitors?
A: its not
about japanese or american strength its about the strength of the human
body and what all of our limits are.

You were awesome Levi, and I'm looking forward to see how you do in Sasuke 21.

Random Window Bird

Indiana Jones theme song (video)

LEGO boulder chases Indiana Jones (video)

get paid to use Microsoft's Live Search? (link)

Gladys Knight Auditions For "Pips" (video)

Home Depot Solid Gold (video)

30 mins before the 2008 earthquake in China (video)

Puppy Screams "Elmo" (video)

famous failures (video)

undressing woman with large machine (video)

the Japanese "Office" (video)

Recently, listening to the Kevin & Bean show, there was a discussion about the "rules" in ordering food in a restaurant. Apparently, there is this rule that you are simply not allowed to order the same thing as somebody else in your same table. What?! I've never heard of that before, and personally I think that's kind of a childish rule. Supposedly if you really really want to eat a particular meal, then you better order first. If you know what your eating companion wants, you can "burn" that person by ordering that food first, forcing that person to order something else. Competition in what food you get to eat? Really? When there are countries out there that don't have much to eat at all, this rule is followed by some people out there? You've got to be kidding me. This rule creates problems with ordering a full pizza, a bucket of chicken, all-you-can-eats, etc... Supposedly it's an insult for your dining table to not have a variety of food on it, and that will make the Gods of food angry at you. I'm sorry, but that's just stupid. If you can't accept the fact that somebody else ordered the same thing you have, then you have problems.