I've been a fan of Jason Mraz since his first album was released seven years ago, but I've never seen him live until this past night at The Hollywood Bowl. I did not know that I was in for a real treat...

First off, parking at the Hollywood Bowl isn't exactly the best thing, since it uses the "stacked parking" method, which I'm not a big fan of. I decided to try the park & ride option by parking at the Hollywood & Highland parking structure and then take a shuttle to the venue. Turns out it wasn't a bad plan at all, although I think I could have walked the distance if I wanted to. The shuttle only costs $4 for a round trip, with all-day parking costing $10 max, so I can't really complain.

Upon arriving at the Hollywood Bowl, the first thing I noticed was that there was an actual performance off stage by the entrance. I didn't know it until afterward, but the person on the mic was "Bushwalla;" who helped did some writing work on Jason Mraz's first two albums. I thought he was pretty entertaining on the mic, although the mic was having problems staying connected to the speaker from time to time. Then when Bushwalla left the mic, I find out that the guys that were playing the music was an actual band itself, "The Makepeace Brothers." They had this folky rock sound going for them, played several of their own songs, while some people were doing the hula hoops while they were performing. It was a pretty chill show they put up, and I ended up buying their album on the spot.

It was just about 7PM when arrived to my seat, and Bushwalla just introduced Brett Dennen on stage. He had a pretty folky rock sound himself, and it's the kind of music where you just absorb the sound and just... chill. After him, "G.Love and Special Sauce" performed on stage, and his music was very similar to Jason Mraz. It's folk rock, with some rapping, so it was upbeat enough to groove to the music. For one song, he even had Tristan Prettyman sing a duet with him. Very enjoyable and kinda relaxing hearing these two bands. To coin the word that I used a lot on my twitter feed for the event, "it was very chill."

Speaking of the word chill... I completely neglected to bring a jacket to this outdoor venue, and wow was it cold. All around me are people who had full on jackets, sweaters, or blankets to keep themselves warm. Of course since this was a Mraz concert, there were a lot of people wearing fedoras as well, which is a hat that I would not mind buying some time. The audience for Jason Mraz had a good variety too, from pre-teens to middle age people (mostly female). I know a lot of the younger kids were there specifically for Jason Mraz, and I could notice their frustrations of having to "put up" with Brett Dennen and G.Love for two whole hours before the main act went on stage.

9PM rolls over and they show a clip of a documentary called "May I Be Frank," which along with the Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco, helped inspire this tour. Jason Mraz went on stage with a full array of people for his band, and even had a gospel choir for several of his songs. He even had a couple of songs that brought K'Naan or G.Love on stage to help contribute. What I didn't really know prior to this concert was that he really mixes it up a lot on stage, with a lot of his songs sounding very different compared to the album versions. It would either be a super extended version, or in a completely different musical style, which kept me guessing as to what song he is playing until I recognize a key tune or lyrics.

For his encore set, Jason Mraz and a few of the band members; along with Brett Dennen, did several songs in this make shift stage in the front middle of the audience. It was pretty darn cool and showed how Mraz is really shooting to get the audience to feel more involved with the show. What I thought was really special was how for the song "Lucky," he had one of the female managers for the Cafe Gratitude sing the song with him. For the final song, he had hula hoopers as well as members of the audience get on stage with the band performing. It was pretty darn cool to see how the night really ended up being like a tremendously huge celebration of his music.

I had a great experience this past night seeing Jason Mraz in concert, and it's too bad it took me this long to get myself to see him live. To quote my twitter update to cap off the night... "Got to hand it to Jason Mraz for a fantastic, entertaining, wonderful, and beautiful show. I loved it."

* click here for the PHOTOS I took from the event *

* click here for the VIDEOS I took from the event *

- In less than an hour, I'll be leaving to go see Jason Mraz at the Hollywood Bowl. Still unsure how I'm going to handle the parking, as I'm going for the park & ride shuttle thing, but I'd prefer to avoid the stack parking. I hate stack parking.

- Speaking of concerts, this fall has been pretty good for live performances on my part. Just this past weeks I've seen Blink182, Weezer, All-4-One, and Marie Digby. Then these next five weeks, not only am I seeing Jason Mraz tonight, I'll be seeing Marie Digby three more times, Kevin Smith, Black Eyed Peas, U2, LIGHTS, Meg & Dia, Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, and The Swell Season. To think I actually said that I was going to take it a little easy with concerts this year. Go figure.

- Along with going to concerts, I've still been pretty steady watching movies. In fact I've been procrastinating putting up my reviews for five movies I've recently seen. By the time I post the reviews on Tuesday, it's probably going to be six movies. There's still a bunch of movies currently out and that will be coming out that I want to see. A Serious Man, Whip It, Couples Retreat, An Education, Where the Wild Things Are, Gentlemen Broncos, The Box, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and 2012 just to name some.

- and speaking of movies, I've noticed that the buzz for Paranormal Activity has finally reached a point where the hype is getting pretty big. I myself have been sucked in the hype, although my intentions are that I DON'T want to see it. I'm reading enough impressions saying that it actually is a pretty scary movie, and I'm not sure I want to watch a scary movie about sleeping in a typical bedroom. That hits a little too close to home if you ask me. I've actually went online to check out as much spoilers about the movie as possible, to desensitize myself of what is suppose to happen in the film, just in case I do end up seeing it anyway. I realize that I am at least curious to see if it'll live up to all the hype, and all it's going to take is somebody asking me if I want to go with them to see it.
check out these youtube links on Paranormal Activity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or9wQrRIjmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19c9E-Z3ZKE

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read this analogy...

from : http://tom-wfbc.itmblog.com/2009/09/23/would-you-like-fries-with-that/

Nice analogy right? Simple enough to understand and all. But see, this is how my brain works... The first things that came to mind after reading that was "so how come that McDonalds is allowing employees to prevent people from purchasing the full Big Mac Combo? It's not like it's off the menu, as proven by the fact someone else was able to order it. The guy should complain to the manager that he is being discriminated. He should just go to another McDonalds as there are so many around." Sorry, but maybe this McDonald's analogy needs some work.

now trying to think of my own analogy...

What Do You Need Most? You Need Freedom

You need to have full control of your life. You must make your own choices and decisions. Your confidence and self-esteem comes from being independent. It's very important that no one tells you what to do. You don't do well with rules, responsibilities, or commitment. You're not flaky, but you do need flexibility. You may not always exercise your freedom, but you need to know it's there. Just feeling constrained constrains you.

What I've been listening to lately...

1) SModcast 95: RB 07701 - in which our heroes do it in front of others
2) Metalocalypse : Dethklok - dethalbum II
3) Lights - the listening
4) KSM - read between the lines
5) Kill Hannah - wake up the sleepers
6) Meg & Dia - something real

Yesterday; Oct 5, 2009, the Federal Trade Commision set up new guidelines for bloggers (not excluding sites like Twitter/Facebook) concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in terms of advertising. Basically, if you are using your blog to review a particular product, the FTC wants to know if you were provided with some payola from that product's company. You don't disclose that information, then you pay fines up to $11,000.

Now, I can understand the FTC acting like the police checking to see if influential websites are putting up positive reviews for a product just because they were given some freebies to do so. Websites like imdb.com are known to have "fake" reviewers who talk positives about a movie, just to drive more audiences to go see it. There was also a report awhile back about certain game journalists that were given monetary incentives to post positive reviews of particular games. So the FTC is just thinking about the consumers right?

The question now lies at how far this will go as a "Big Brother" situation. Are they really only targeting well known review sites, or will they also target regular joes like us? The FTC claims they're not. They say that all you have to do is claim to purchase the product with your own money and they will leave you alone, but will they really take that comment at face value no questions ask? The fact that a written 140 characters product review on Twitter can be regulated by this new guideline is some pause for concern as it is. Is receiving a free t-shirt for watching a movie considered a bribe, if you post in a blog recommending the movie? These are concerns the FTC really needs to alleviate.

I'm waiting for the moment the FTC fines somebody $11,000 on Facebook, because their status update reads "go buy the latest album by Linkin Park, it's really good."

- links below to check out -

More transparency coming to blog reviews under new FTC rules (link)
FTC to bloggers: Fess up or pay up (link)
Yes, new FTC guidelines extend to Facebook fan pages (link)
Understanding the FTC's New Blog Guidelines - AOTS "the Loop" (video)

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Yesterday night; Oct 3, 2009, was a time of several firsts for me. After years of going to Glendale, CA, this was the first time I've actually been to "The Americana At Brand," which is a shopping, dining, entertainment, and apartment/condominium place. It's really nice. This was also the first time I've seen singer/songwriter "Marie Digby" in person, especially considering the fact that I became a fan of hers two years ago. Speaking of time passing, it's also been years since I've heard about the R&B group "All-4-One," so seeing them perform live this past night was a real treat. Days prior to this day, I was honestly pretty darn excited for this night of free performances; courtesy of "Donate Life America."

I got to The Americana at approximately 5:15PM, and I must have been too excited for the event that I was pretty absent minded at that moment. I had to go back to my car two different times, since I apparently forgot my parking ticket; which I needed to keep for validation purposes, and then later I realized that I was suppose to bring with me one of Marie's albums for her to sign; which I left in my car (in this case it was her latest release; "Breathing Underwater"). By the time I actually got to where the stage for the concert was, I was still early enough to be at the very front of the rails; which means that I should have a pretty good angle for my camera. There were rows of chairs at the front, but those were reserved for invited guests.

Within that span of almost two hours of waiting for the event to start, some things prevented me from being bored. There was this older lady who stood next to me that had quite a personality (who didn't even know who was performing), and there was this guy next to me; Ken, who I spent most of the time conversing with. So it was a combination of me talking to Ken, and "putting up" with the old lady next to us. At one point she pointed out that Ken will get cold without a jacket, but she also pointed out that I should be fine since I "have fat" on me, and proceeded to pinch my side. I didn't say anything. She even interrupted us at another point, asking us how to get to her text messages on her phone. I suppose she was only trying to be friendly, but she honestly came off mostly rude and annoying. Luckily she wasn't too obnoxious, and I admitedly even found the humor of her presence there.

The concert was suppose to start at 7PM, but Jamie Jones of "All-4-One" was running late due to him literally coming straight from the airport. Prior to the R&B group performing, our hosts for the evening; Manny Streetz of KIIS FM and Justina Machado of the CBS show Three Rivers, would address the crowd from time to time. "All-4-One" started about a half hour behind schedule, but it was still pretty exciting getting flashbacks to the '90s; which was when they were pretty popular. Along with their new song "When I Needed An Angel" (proceeds of that song helps "Donate Life America"), they of course performed two of their biggest hits, "I Can Love You Like That" and "I Swear." A lot of people seemed to remember those songs, and were at least singing along to the choruses. They only played four songs though, but they did have a good performance, sounded great, and had those "boy band" dance moves that were entertaining to watch. That was All-4-One! Woot!

After showing the music video for Avalanche on the video screen, Marie Digby herself was finally on stage. She was accompanied by another guitarist, and they performed an acoustic set. She has such a nice personality and has a good sense of humor. Marie also had a good relationship with the crowd, and vice versa. At one point, there were two people in the audience that were competing in telling Marie that they love her. "I love you Marie!" "I love you more!" On another occasion, a guy actually had the courage to ask her if "she was available." She humored the guy by suggesting that she would consider going out with him, and how she is "easy" because all a guy needs to do is buy her ice cream. I kinda wished I captured some of those spontaneous moments on video, like the time when she saved one of her guitars from falling off the chair by kicking it up at the last second, so that the tech guy could grab it on time. Marie only did play five songs, but it was at least the two lead singles plus the two title tracks from her two "main" albums, and she also played her most famous cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella."

The next step for me was to finally meet her in person, and wow was the meet & greet line long. It definitely looks like I won't be able to do the meet & greet with All-4-One at that rate. I was maybe about a hundred people away from the front of that line, but at least I was still with Ken, and we just continued conversing to past the time. There was an unexpected moment that was very surprising to me. At one point while I was standing in line, I get this tap on my shoulder, and when I turn around I see Carlo; lead guitarist for Meg & Dia (I'm a huge fan of theirs)! How cool is he for recognizing me in line and stopping by momentarily to say hi. We chatted for maybe about a minute before he had to leave, but he did notice that I was "representing" their band as I was wearing one of their shirts. lol

Almost two hours later, I was finally up next to meet Marie. It turns out that they were actually generously passing out a free copy of her album to us in line, which means that I didn't even have to bring my copy. So I finally got the chance to tell her the two things I've been meaning to tell her in person... First I wanted to clear up the message I wrote to her in Japanese in one of her Facebook webcast, because it looked like she was confused about what I said. The second thing was about how I used her cover of Umbrella on my wedding video, which she appreciated me telling her. I complimented her fashion sense, told her I will see her again in her Hotel Cafe concert, and we also took a photo. I had a big smile on my face afterward, as this really made my night complete. She is so friendly and open to her fans, which just makes her extra awesome. There was still a pretty long line behind me at that point, and it was already 10:15PM. Marie would later say online that it took her three and a half hours to get to everybody, and I believe that was only possible because the organizers at The Americana eventually cut off the line. I'm sure the line would have continued to grow if they didn't do that.

Thank you to Marie Digby, All-4-One, Ken, Donate Life America, The Americana At Brand, and even the odd older lady for making this past night a very memorable one.

* click here for the PHOTOS I took from the night *

* click here for the VIDEOS I took from the event *

...and just when I thought my wounded left hand was getting better... I think I'm back to square one again. I actually thought it was well enough to carry something relatively heavy, but nope. As soon as I carried this box, I felt a sharp pain on my wrist... should have listened to my friend and hold off on doing anything like that for a few more weeks. It's also been quite a bit of work to wash the dishes, as apparently when I grip something like a bowl in a certain way, I get this pain on my thumb. At least I felt some pain? Earlier in the week, I lost a little bit of feeling on my left hand's thumb, which I joked about poking it with a needle to see if I would feel anything (never did that though).

So carrying stuff, is still no go with me. Gripping things hard is no go with me. Thankfully I can use my left hand to type with not much problem though, since I don't use my left thumb when using the keyboard (home base! proper typing posture!). Using my blackberry doesn't seem to be an issue either, so that's good. Haven't tried playing Rock Band or video games in general at this point, so can't say how that would go. Driving a vehicle isn't an issue either. I suppose I could continue getting away with just putting up with this (I'm hoping is) temporary problem of mine. I *should* go see a doctor, but if you know me.... stubborn.... ironically I just took my dogs to the vet earlier today too.

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