...Devo and Joy Division cover band photos

you can't tell here in this picture that looks like a painting, but right before this show I learned how to tie a double windsor knot for my tie






2 devo sets from the pretty-accurate multi-time period Mongoloid


hmm...doesn't look like Ian Curtis...but kinda sounded like him

...Devo, Joy Division tonight?

Mongoloid (Hard Core DEVO)
Ghost of Curtis (Tribute to Joy Division)
9pm @ El Rio$7 (3158 Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and Valencia)

I'm not typically into cover bands per se but seeing reasonable facsimiles of the above 2 bands in the same night should be fun...pics to follow...Probably.

...Star Wars Alpha Zero: My Rankings

Best to worst:
1. Ep. 5: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Ep. 4: A New Hope
3. Ep. 6: Return of the Jedi
4. Ep. 2: Attack of the Clones
5. Ep. 3: Revenge of the Sith
6. Ep. 1: Attack of Jar-Jar

...some pics not taken by me

Here's one of me at Roscoes Chiken and Waffles from last years E3


A pic of one of our cats back home, taken by my sis...I'm not sure the signifigance of it but it looks cool

Oh and check out Tamsen's site for pics of me doing my best "Wall Guy" impersonation...

...some E3 pics from LA

Tamsen has 4 drinks with her dinner!


Waiting for the cab to take us to E3


Naveen, confident in his Havok implementation


Our booth at Activision


PS3...controller = yawn...they still didn't fix the awfull d-pad or add analog triggers...goto Tamsen's site to see some better pics of it


Behind me is Stan Lee, the name amongst names


This girl has a triforce tatoo on her arm


Dinner was exciting?


Ben Johnson - SBM...and I don't mean smash bros. melee...


10 minutes after Jeff's monster chop I still has a red handprint


Tamsen + shopping deals = big smile

...the end

...E3 mini-thoughts

General thoughts:
Lots of good current gen games. Maybe 'cause we're doing Shrek Super Slam I was surprised how many 3d brawlers there were...not surprisingly most were American made, and most were not too special the worst being the EA vs. Marvel game Also I was unimpressed by the next-gen stuff in general...Sony was up to their usual lies (albeit with very good looking vids) and Microsoft didn't show much that looked special at all...I was able to talk to Valve's Robin Walker and he said TF2 news is imminent (yay!).

Some notable cool games and a link for each:
Stubbs the Zombie
Shadow of the Collossus
Killer 7
Mark Ecko
Prey
Chibi-Robo
Hulk 2

Games I wanted to check out but were played behind closed doors:
black
gears of war
dead rising
nba 2k6 xbox360
madden xbox360
spore
bully

Notable Stinkers
Madden PSP - terrible framrate and camera too zoomed in for 16:9!
Top Spin Xbox 360 - looked like xbox1
Rockstar Booth - C'mon show off the games!

...pre-E3 - my checklist

Valve - Team Fortress 2: some info would make this my most anticipated
Nintendo - Revolution System
Sony - Ps3
Nintendo - GBA 2 (portable gamecube?)
Microsoft - Xbox 360
EA Criterion - Black
EA - Spore
Sony - Wanda and Colossus
Nintendo - New Mario
Monolith - F.E.A.R
Epic - Unreal 3
Sega - Virtua Fighter 5?
Silicon Knights - Too Human?
Rockstar Vancouver - Bully
--- more ---
2K Games - 24
Sierra - Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
EA - Battlefield 2
2K Games - NBA2k6

...and I'm going to E3 in 3 days

E3 is the biggest event in video games that is held in LA. I'll be there from tuesday until sunday. I'll have some of the games I'm interested in and pics when I get back...until then here are some pics of the japanese cherry blossom festival.


















...the end.

...long time, no post

It's been awhile since my last post...my internet connection has been out at home since Wednesday...soon I'll have something more interesting to say.

...and some pics from Jessica's birthday party.

Some pics from my phone at the party in some hip little bar. The cake looks like a fireball here...The whole day was fun because after this we went bowling! Thanks to Tom for setting it up and for Scott and Sally for the ride yo!






...the end.

...the winning streak continues

More good luck this week...a week or so ago I won a trip to Seattle for 2 nights...the luck continued on Saturday night with the first Shaba no-limit texas hold 'em poker tournament. I actually managed to outlast 20 other people to win the grand-prize ($100 Best Buy gift certificate)! Tamsen managed to get a very respectable third place, especially having not too much knowledge of the game. I think she may be my good luck charm...in addition to my Sabbath shirt...




...the end.

...quick question

Does anyone know if the star wars "the clone wars" animated dvd is any good? I'm considering buying it...

...another reason to get a mac

So recently Trent Reznor just released the newest single from his new album in garageband format. Man I really want a mac with garageband 2 so I can mess with this 16 track song. Granted the song isn't too good...I got a bad feeling about the album as well. It all falls into my universal band theory:

1. Band A is great and put outs good albums (in this case Broken and The Downward Spiral).
2. Band A puts out an album that is not as good as their previous works (The Fragile). Usually this album is more "mature" and has less edge than past albums; oftentimes this album takes longer to make as well.
3. Every album from then on the band will never regain their past talent.

Bands that fall into the above (Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses, Metallica...). I have asked many people and have never heard of a band that was able to overcome step #2. The lesson is, like The Beatles, strike while the iron is hot...if you are making good records don't stop for anything...keep cranking them out!

...fell in love with a psp

...got a psp last week as a present from work (yay!) then returned it last night as I was sick of my 8 dead pixels driving me insane and keeping me awake at night (boo!)...as soon as best buy gets some more in I will get another one, then return it if it is not pixel puurrrfect...repeat ad infintum until I get something deserving of the quality $250 should get you.

On a positive note, the bird that comes by to wake me up all the time has been incorporated into my dreams without waking me up last night....

...pics from last weeks shows

The pics from the 2 shows I went to last week as promised:


Oxen guitarists both had no wires for crowd action...this guy got a beeer mid set!



Big business played a new song without vocals so they invited anyone to come up and sing.









These Arms Are Snakes singer danced around so much he was drenched in man-sweat.




I was joined at concert #2 (Death From Above 1979) by Tamsen...which was nice as I usually end up going to shows alone.



The actual pics from the DFA show aren't so great, but this one below shows the middle band (controller controller) notice the guy in the white shirt with a mohawk...thats the DFA '79 singer.

...the end.

...some current game reviews

Currently playing or just finished:
Freedom Force 2 (PC) - B+ so far
Fight Night 2 (PS2) - B
Brothers in Arms (XBOX) -B+ so far

Also saw Sin City (grrrrr ate) and changed the layout here on the right. The book and movie reviews were getting too low on the page so I mixed all the reviews up. I'll have last weeks band pics up tommorow night.