Random Girlfriend
b-day party for a video game character (link)
Pole Vault Accident (video)
Turtle on the Roomba (video)
girls fart butterflies (video)
As Seen on TV – a tribute to doing it wrong (video)
If Rambo Was A Sitcom (video)
Nazi Zombies (video)
Worst Foul Call Ever (video)
Creepy Baby Shuffle (video)
Dawson and Joey Summarize Entire Show (video)
Japanese Dating Simulator (video)
the banned M.I.A, “Born Free” video – NSFW (video)
This past night, me and my friend actually drove down to the University of California San Diego (about 100+ miles from where I live) for “The Loft,” where “Luminance 5″ was being held. In particular, we were there to see Marie Digby once again. “Luminance” was created to give Asian American musicians a stage to perform their music to an audience. This time around we got to see three youtube stars, Clara Chung, Sam Hart, with Marie Digby headlining. It was a sold out show, in a small venue, but we all pretty much had a good view of the stage.
Me and my friend got on campus at about 7:20PM, and although we parked at the general parking structure, we were a little concerned at this 11PM limit that the signs are suggesting. Being at past Marie shows, we knew that the meet & greet after the show would most likely go past that time. Well we took that gamble and off we went (there was no problem afterward). I haven’t visited the UCSD campus for probably a decade (wow there are A LOT of Asians here), so although I kinda knew where I was going, it all still felt pretty foreign to me. We got to The Loft with no problem, and there was already a decent line that formed. The doors opened around 8:15PM, and thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long for the show to start.
Clara Chung was the first one up along with Daniel Chae (?) accompanying her on guitar for the first two songs. I’ve never seen this artist before and I admit that I was very very impressed with her. Very personable with the crowd, lovely voice, and good original songs, plus one mash-up of a Kings Of Leon song with Colbie Cailat. By the time Clara Chung had to sing her last song, there was an obvious “aawww” from the crowd, and I agree, I definitely would have wanted to hear her sing more.
Sam Hart was next and is another artist I’m not familiar with (not true, I’ve seen one of his youtube videos before). He is also another singer / songwriter and what instantly stood out are the subject matter of what he sings. Sure he has the love songs in his repertoire, but he’s also got songs about his cat, super villains, and video games. I really enjoyed his lyrics. He also did a nice rendition of the theme music of the Pixar movie “Up,” and his own enjoyable mash-up of songs. Sam Hart had a very fun and good set list of songs, and I was impressed.
Marie Digby got on stage by about 9:45PM and as always she looked beautiful and friendly to the audience. She played a lot of her staple of songs, as well as a cover of Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams,” and they all sounded great. At one point though, during “Sanctuary,” she must have completely been in the zone listening to the piano solo that her keyboardist Stan was playing, that she completely lost track of when she was suppose to jump in and sing. The entertainer that she is, she turned that moment into something positively memorable.
That is one of her best strength as a performer, her ability to interact well with her audience, and in turn the audience feels very comfortable with her. Marie took off her jacket after a couple of songs because she was feeling warm, but at that time when said “I’m hot,” somebody in the audience immediately said “yes you are!” Can’t disagree there dude. After she sang her last song, the audience was able to convince her to do one more last song. Appropriately enough it was her cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which was the song that helped catapult her career to where it is now. To top it off, she was able to get a group of people from the audience on stage, and it all quickly became a sort of party. What a way to top off her set though. Great job Marie! Awesome as always.
The meet & greet afterward went by a little quick, as the performers had to leave the venue sooner than later. Before we got up for our turn, me and my friend chatted a bit with Marie’s keyboardist Stan (almost got stranded in Mexico that day), her guitarist Dave, and her sister Naomi (who said she remembered me – yay). When me and my friend got our chance to meet Marie, she seemed to have recognized us from the last times; which is a nice feeling. A brief chat took place regarding the snowman necklace I gave her last time as well as the status on future tour dates (July-August she said). We took our photos, along with who we thought was her bodyguard (who he himself was a really cool dude), and as always it was a great experience meeting her.
We also met Clara and Sam and told them that this was the first time we ever saw them, and how great they were. They were very friendly as well. We had Clara sign a poster of her for us, but Sam didn’t have his own poster to sign on, so I quickly drew a make shift smiley face drawing of him on Clara’s poster for him to sign next to. We took photos with them, and the group shot looked great. Clara, Sam, I hope to see you again in the near future.
Me and my friend once again had a great experience in a Marie Digby concert, and now we can also add Clara Chung and Sam Hart to making the night even better. Thank you all for doing what you do. Until next time…
* Click Here for the PHOTOS I took *
* Click Here for the VIDEOS I took *
| The Scribble Circle Test You Are Consistent |
 You thrive when you are able to be an advocate for causes that you believe in. Some people may say that you are a bit stubborn and inflexible, but you’re more tolerant than they realize. |
What I’m listening to this week…
1) 4 Guys 1 Up – 04/24/2010
2) Streetlight Manifesto – 99 songs of revolution
3) Armored Saint – la raza
4) The Living End – hellbound: it’s for your own good
5) Valentine’s Day – original motion picture soundtrack
6) Metallica – st.anger
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-04-26-hawking-aliens_N.htm?csp=34
Recently, famed british astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said that we humans need to “think very carefully” about trying to contact extraterrestrial life. Although there’s good intentions about trying to reach out to lifeforms in space, there’s a sort of naivete in assuming we’ll get a positive reaction. Hawking said that alien lifeforms could potentially be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, and we humans could be like the native Americans who got screwed by his arrival. That is a rather scary thought about what could happen.
I’ve always had a positive outlook at aliens in space, and always thought that they could potentially be enlightened beings that would be above evil things like war. All these years I’ve held that belief, but now I’ve got to change it, as I now share Stephen Hawking’s opinion about the subject. If these aliens are so advanced technologically to be able to travel to other planets, why wouldn’t they want to do whatever they can in their powers to obtain our resources? Isn’t that something WE would do? These aliens could take advantage of our gullibility to think they “come in peace,” and then annihilate us with their advance weaponry. Isn’t that something WE would do?
Am I being too pessimistic about this?
Is Star Trek wrong in thinking that there’s an intergalactic federation of alien planets out there, who joined forces for the betterment of preserving peace, and whose only goal is exploration to expand one’s enlightenment?
Are we just giving these aliens a sign on our planet that reads “sucker?”
Kevin & Bean show – Stephen Hawking On Extra Terrestrials (audio)
Random Countdown
Dog Hates This One Particular Song (video)
Stealth Dog Stops Robbery (video)
Guy Makes Awesome Jump into Convertible (video)
Wasted guy at Coachella 2010 (video)
Jon Hamm pulls the Chuck Norris Rural Policeman Handle (video)
Iron Man & ACDC vs Dirty Dancing (video)
Porn for the blind (video)
Mom Finds Out Daughter Masturbates (video)
octopus steals my video camera (video)
Tight w/ Michaela Watkins – NSFW (video)
25 Best Movie Remakes of All Time (link)
The 5 Worst Deaths Written for Great Characters (link)
Movies I’ve Seen Recently…
Kick-Ass (2010) A-
It’s very easy to just say that “Kick-Ass” kicked ass, because it’s incredibly entertaining to watch. Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, this story is based on the idea that the reason nobody tries to be a superhero is because they would die. Enter Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski, who tries to fight crime as the superhero Kick-Ass; usually via humorous attempts. His modest exploits earns him popularity via the internet, which is one of the movie’s social commentary on celebrity figures. It would have been a simple gig if it wasn’t for the fact he interfered with a mob’s business, as well as two other superheroes entering the scene, Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, and Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl. Moretz by far steals the movie as this 11 years old girl who is able to skillfully kill adults as well as talk with a dirty mouth. The action sequences involving Hit-Girl in particular are spectacular to watch. As a satire about the typical superhero movie, “Kick-Ass” is excellent, but it seems that Director/co-writer Matthew Vaughn wants his cake and eat it too, because by the end of the movie it turns into the typical conventional superhero movie that it was poking fun of in the first place. There are also several plot conveniences that ruins the smart attitude the movie initially has. Despite it’s thematic flaws though, “Kick-Ass” is still a great movie just for the sheer fun of it all.
* read more * – comparing the movie to the graphic novel (link)
The Joneses (2010) B
Have you ever met a family where it’s easy to be envious of all the cool things they own, and makes you want to have what they have? What if it turns out that family was paid to make you feel that way, so that you can spend your money on the products they are “advertising?” That’s the fascinating and interesting story of “The Joneses.” This movie brings up a good social commentary on consumerism and how far corporations can go to try to get your money. Because this family has to live a false life to trick their neighbors and the people who live in that city they are “assigned to,” this movie also has a theme about hiding who you really are and whether you should just be who you are suppose to be. Director / co-writer Derrick Borte has done an admirable job with this high concept story, but unfortunately the last act of the story kinda falls apart into plot conveniences that tries to give this movie some resolution. The cast in this are good, from David Duchovny, Demi Moore, and Gary Cole. “The Joneses” is overall a solid movie that’s worth checking out because of it’s ideas, even if I’m not satisfied with how it ended.
Defendor (2010) B-
As far as trying to make a realistic movie about regular people putting on a costume to be a superhero that fights crime, “Defendor” more or less lives up to that idea. Woody Harrelson plays a mentally challenged individual named Arthur Poppington, who believes he is a superhero at night called Defendor, trying to “rid the city of it’s scum.” While the character of Defendor is able to come up with inventive ideas for weapons; like marbles or angry wasps, he is still a normal human that doesn’t really have the skills to properly fight crime. He befriends a prostitute played by Kat Dennings, who at least gives him some sort of help, despite the fact she initially intended to use him just for his money. “Defendor” definitely has some charm with it’s lead character, thanks to Harrelson. However the obviously low production of the movie seems to have hurt it. The pacing is a little bit slow and the visuals aren’t much to talk about, which I wonder if Director / Writer Peter Stebbings could have fixed with a higher budget. Either way, if you are looking for a more realistic superhero story, “Defendor” might just be for you.
Let The Right One In (2008) B
Vampire stories are usually pretty grand and exciting, which makes the Swedish movie “Let The Right One In” about a boy who befriends a young neighbor who happens to be a vampire very unusual. Sure there are scenes that involve blood and biting, death and mutilation, but overall the movie is actually rather slow in pacing. Directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the film is visually arresting with it’s simplicity of snow mixed with buildings and trees that have dark tones, but the story is very nuanced and not as straight forward as you might hope it would be. There are questions and answers that are revealed in the story, but the film assumes you are smart enough to not get spoon fed by them. I did like how subtle the movie was able to integrate myths and rules regarding the vampires of this world, which made it feel very real. Now if there’s one particular reason to watch “Let The Right One In,” it’s for the strong performances by the young actors Kåre Hedebrant as the bullied boy Oskar, and his vampire neighbor Eli played by Lina Leandersson.
I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to see Conan O’Brien live at his “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television” Tour. This is one of those rare moments in entertainment, because after he starts his show on TBS, I doubt we’ll see something like this again…. (maybe).
April 24, 2010 at the Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, California. That’s where I was just now, and I had a fun time. Like many others have pointed out; and Conan himself mentioned, this is his first time returning to Universal Studios since he lost his job, which if you didn’t know is affiliated with NBC, and where he was filming his show. In his opening monologue, he made lots of references to that fact, and poked jabs at NBC very freely (if you are wondering, there was no mention of Jay Leno).
Going into this show, I avoided all the youtube clips available from his previous tour dates, this way the night would be a complete surprise. I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to try and follow the format of his late night show, and my suspicion was correct. The whole thing was like a variety show. Lots of music, comedy, funny taped video segments, and outrageous-ness overall. To be honest, it was kinda hit or miss, but thankfully it was mostly hit.
Highlights of the show for me would be….
- LaBamba and the tour’s official band was great, and had an awesome opening number
- Conan’s monologue, which was mostly about his situation with NBC, his drive to do this tour, and stuff
- Seeing Conan show regulars, like Andy Richter, the Masturbating Bear (now the self-pleasuring Panda), Triumph The Insult Comic-Dog, etc…
- Conan and Andy interacting with the crowd, from picking people to be one of his groupies, to this “interactive conversation” bit where we in the audience talked to them via reading off the video screen (which resulted in Conan licking LaBamba)
- O’Brien performing his “Conrad Bain – of TV show Diff’rent Strokes” song
- A cover of Five For Fighting’s “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” sang by Conan, with special guest Jim Carrey dressed in Superman! It was pretty awesome!
- They did the always funny “Walker, Texas Ranger” Lever bit, which was re-dubbed “Chuck Norris Rural Policeman” Handle. He had helped from more special guests, Aziz Ansari, Jack McBrayer, Jonah Hill, and Jon Hamm.
- ending some of the songs with strobe lights and crazy erratic dance moves is genius!
I should also mention that comedian Reggie Watts opened the night, with funny bits involving him doing different voices and humorous songs. Conan O’Brien show Writer / comedian Deon Cole also did a stand-up bit in the middle of the show, that was pretty funny as well.
Overall it was an entertaining show, and the crowd seemed to have enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed my time seeing Conan on stage, and he said that he wanted us to leave the show at the end and think “that was sort of worth it.” I’ll have to say that it was definitely worth it. Thanks for a great night Conan O’Brien!
P.S. As far as seeing celebrities in the audience, the only ones I was able to see were Russell Brand, Katy Perry, and David Spade.
P.P.S. The audience lived up to the Southern California stereotype, as there were lots of beautiful people in the audience.
P.P.P.S. Only downside was that a 50 minutes drive to the venue, ended up being a 1hr 45mins drive due to traffic. I luckily was able to get to my sit about 10 minutes before the show started. After the show, there was a bit of traffic at the 11 o’clock hour, at night?! Well at least it wasn’t as bad as earlier.
P.P.P.P.S. No more post-scripts
* Click Here For The Photos I Took *
* Click Here For The Video Of The “Superman” Song *
*EDIT* April 25, 2010 – 6:03PM - Wow! Hayley Williams of Paramore and Conan O’Brien himself posted the link of my video of the Conan/Jim Carrey Superman song? Nice
@yelyahwilliams Ummm, Conan and Jim Carrey? Oh yes… yes please! http://youtu.be/DxPEVe5Ih2MRT
@ConanOBrien Jim Carrey rudely interrupted my power ballad last night. How did he get past security in a Superman outfit? Look here: http://teamcoco.com/blog/last-nights-surprise-guest-superman/
Also as of writing this edit, I actually got some honors on youtube…
*EDIT* April 26, 2010 – 5:45PM – My viewing numbers are up thanks to all the plugs, and the video page actually has an “As Seen On: teamcoco.com” thing on it. I noticed a couple of websites re-uploading my video, as if it was theirs (really now?). For the second night’s show at the Gibson, Conan and Jim re-did the song again, accept Jim is dressed as Kick-Ass and Conan as Superman. Check it out – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuXvEKaYp0w
As of writing this edit, there have been 124,564 views in over a day’s span for my video. I’ve got additional honors on youtube as well… Woot!
To top it off, my youtube channel got some notice
#34 – Most Viewed (Today)
*EDIT* April 27, 2010 – 6:05PM – The video has now reached 269,281 views! Out of all the 3+ years I’ve been on youtube, that’s the most any of my videos have ever gotten. Woot!
Random Rome
Dell impresses with new mobile products (link)
This Week in Unnecessary Censorship (video)
Hitler on Hitler parodies being removed from YouTube (video)
Amazing Results (video)
New York Attacked By Pixels (video)
Shenmue intro, done using King Of Fighters (video)
Defective Coffee Cup (video)
Modern Warfare 2 Warning Extended (video)
Pokemon: Gotta Buy ‘Em All (video)
Google Earth Grand Theft Auto (video)
Iron Man Punches Hugh Grant (video)
Telephone vs Enter Sandman Mashup (video)
Several days ago (afternoon of April 18 to be exact), my wife noticed a cat running away from our front yard. Turns out she left six baby kittens on our yard when she took off. We actually had to even shoo a raven away, who was making an attempt to get one of the kitties. Well the first thing we thought about this baby kittens was that they were abandoned. So what were we going to do about them? We thought of going to the pet rescue people that we usually find at PetSmart, but they weren’t accepting abandoned baby cats at the moment. We weren’t going to call the pet shelter or the ASPCA either, because that’s guaranteed death to the baby cats.
I consulted the local vet, and they told me that those kittens were probably in the middle of being moved by her mom. The general advice was that we should leave them alone for the time being, until we are sure that the mommy cat really did abandon her kids. I wasn’t sure how we could tell and were concerned as to whether the kittens were being fed at all by their mommy. The vet told us that if the kittens are not crying the whole time, then that means that they are getting fed by the mommy cat. Well, they definitely were not crying at that time, and were simply just asleep. Let nature take it’s course I guess.
Using gloves to avoid putting too much human scent on the kittens, we put them on a towel and in a carrying crate, so that they are a little bit out of the elements. The crate’s door was left open, so that the mommy cat can still get to her kids. We then moved the crate to our front porch, so that they don’t attract other animals too much (although we question how protected they really were). Several hours later, we find a seventh kitten that was added to the mix. I guess the mommy cat came back with another. The final total for that day ended up being five black and two orange kittens. One of them I dubbed being “punk” because it’s a black cat with an orange streak of fur on it’s head.
A day passes by and there’s no change to their status. Baby kittens were still at our front porch, but they were at least still alive and were not crying. Mommy cat must just come by sporadically then, but I still never saw her. At one point there was evidence that she did come by, based on how the towel was indented on one side, while the other side had the litter of kittens bundled up. It looked as if the mommy cat must have been lying next to them at some point of the day.
Another day passes and things started to look grim. The kittens looked noticeably affected by the colder weather, and I did hear them cry a bit more than before. The kittens were starting to crawl out of the crate by themselves as well, but I didn’t know what that signified. I wasn’t around the whole time to watch them, but when I would return to check on them, they weren’t crying anymore. Was the mommy cat really still feeding them? I got the impression that this was some domesticated house cat that only came back when she felt like it, and didn’t visit her kids as often as she probably should have. We decided to give it one more day, and if things don’t improve, we were going to take immediate action.
The next day, we sadly find out that four of the seven kittens died (two blacks and the two orange ones). We figured that it was because of the cold. We decided there and then that we had to decide for the welfare of the remaining three kittens. My wife’s friend’s sister was studying to be a vet, so she took the last baby cats for the rest of the day. They took the cats to get checked up on by the vet, and of course fed them.
As of this blog post, the three kittens are still alive. They are currently with another party who was interested in having cats, so the surviving kittens went to that person. I can only hope that they grow up healthy from then on.
My wife said while I was at work at night, our dogs were barking at something outside at the front porch. Supposedly there was a cat outside, which we can only assume was the mommy cat looking for her kids. If that’s the case, sorry about taking the cat’s kids, but we were afraid that the whole litter would have died if we didn’t intervene.
I’m actually quite a bit saddened by this whole experience. I wish that we could have been able to get a happy ending with all the kittens surviving. At least the next time this happens to us again, we’ll know better as to what we have to do.
| Are You An Angel or Devil? You Are an Angel |
 You may be an angel, but you’re not a goody-goody. You just don’t want to cross any moral lines. You treat other people well, even if they don’t want to treat you well in return. |
What I’m listening to this week…
1) /Filmcast – ep 96 : kick-ass
2) Feedback – marvel vs capcom 3, the ebert debate, viewer questions
3) Scorpions – sting in the tail
4) She & Him – volume 2
5) Slash – slash
6) Metallica – S&M
