(TV) Yeah Yeah Yeah - Gold Lion (David Letterman)
Grade: D
I saw them on Letterman for their last album and the performance was much better. Karen O just seems ridiculous to me. There are parts of this song that I enjoy but seeing it live made me think less of the song, rather than more.

(TV) The Flaming Lips - Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (David Letterman)
Grade: C
The vocals don't come across as well live, the song is okay but an interesting message. Performance was highlighted from a member dressed in a skeleton halloween costume.

(TV) The Editors - Munich (Conan O'Brien)
Grade: B
I still really want to see this band live. They may not be really energetic but the songs seem solid. Came across well on TV.

Have you guys seen this?? So sweet. Leprechauns do exist.

(G) The Subways. (Troubadour, March 23,2006) Grade: B+

Photo taken by: Charles Pham
Thoughts: Nothing new here really, just the usual bunch of young kids from the UK with an album loaded with punk driven songs. Yet strangely I found myself really enjoying their set and energy. Made up of lead singer Billy Lunn, his fiancée/bassist Mary-Charlotte Cooper and half brother/drummer Josh Morgan, this little unit is fun to rock out to and have a grand old time. Even more interesting is Ian Broudie (lead singer of Lightning Seeds) helped produced their first album Young For Eternity. The only downside I can see to loving this band with my whole heart is they were on an episode of that crappy show The OC, which mainly lead to their exposure here in the States. Oh well you can't have everything.

(G) Belle & Sebastian. (Wiltern, March 18, 2006) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Although not decked out in my twee wear and having not heard Life's Pursuit yet, I ventured to the Wiltern to enjoy an evening that was sure to make any Indie kid have a wet dream. After all, the opening act was the New Pornographers with A.C. Newman and the gang. It was a shame however that Neko Case was not present because she would have added a much needed pow to their performance. Oh well. Then the B & S company got on stage. I have to say I have a special place in my heart for Mr. Jackson now. Although Mr. Murdoch is quite snazzy with his dance moves, it is Mr. Jackson's pimp suit that I enjoyed. Of course all the rest of the members were lovely as well but that goes without saying ... after all they are Belle & Sebastian and everything about them is lovely.

If you're bored at work and want to watch an amazing juggler, here you go. You can watch without sound of course, however, he is juggling to a song. He gets more advanced as the song goes on. click here

Sorry I keep blogging. This is a record for me. I forgot to write something about Vegas.

Worst Job Ever(maybe not EVER, but it's pretty damn bad)
At the entrance of Club Tao at the Venetian, they had two rows of bathtubs filled with flowers making an aisle to the cashier. In the first two on the left and right were girls with petals covering their breastsstss and nothing else.(I'm assuming they had underwear but the water covered it) You think THAT'S bad. INSIDE the club, they had one random bathtub by the dancefloor. Inside that bathtub was another girl. She had to sit there, while people danced and partied. She couldn't even dance, she just had to use her arms to act like she was dancing. It was the most bizarre thing ever. She looked so bored and unhappy.

Check my brother Erwin's myspace aka Hernan Co. I'm pretty impressed. He's 17, self taught. He's not quite there yet, but he's been improving steadily over the years. Sorry for the shameless plug for my brother. Can you tell he's from Hawaii??

(O) Cal State Long Beach Art Show 03/26 - 03/30

First, I'll show one of my favorite pieces of the night, though nothing special it's the one I liked most for the message I took from it.


When I see this piece I think, "How obsured this would be if things went this far. Then I thought... how obsured that mammals like ourselves already do this. Look at how silly it looks on other animals, and it's just as ridiculous that we do it as well."

Next are a few of the items I came to see specifically. This artist took photos with some of his students at various places. They all passed a camera around and took photos, then the artist arranged the photos to make an almost in-sync looking image, though it's not a complete image. Each image is divided in half and pieced together with another image, making an almost whole looking image but with part missing. The idea was showing the perception of shared experiences among people yet there also being an absence of shared experiences at the same time.
For a better idea of the pictures you can go here.



This next piece is part of a series of an artist who made books. The part that represents the words of the books is the artists actual hair sewn into the book. I don't know what the idea was behind it but I thought it was interesting.


Lastly I'll share this image. It's a room that was titled, 'The Power Of The Penis'. There were no penises, only a phallic looking helium container. All across the floor were opened condom wrappers and fans were placed around the room blowing the condoms (filled with helium I guess) all over the room in a tornado like effect. It was fun to walk in and get smacked in the face with blown up condoms (never thought I'd say that)and kick them around and watch them float around the room.

Weekend in Vegas

Short story:

thumbs down: getting elbowed by a stripper named Chicago(see website below), losing my money on blackjack and pai gow, Tao at the Venetian(very crowded!!)

thumbs up: $14/person for the room, Paris Buffet, Olympic Garden strip club, getting a kiss on the cheek from the stripper that elbowed me, moving to the front of the line at the club BOTH nights, The Light at Bellagio (good music, not too crowded)

There's really too much to blog about and I don't wanna bore you guys. I can't blog on my personal site because some of our friends from school weren't invited to the weekend.

Thoughts:
1. I never thought I'd really enjoy a strip club. It was so much fun not just because of the hot men, but it was fun and entertaining. Too bad I got knocked on the cheek by one of the strippers. It left a mark and I have a feeling it will be darker tomorrow. "I got hit by a stripper" isn't exactly something my attending would find funny.
2. Two girls, one married and one engaged(not the celebrant) were all over these two guys(from a bachelor party) we met at the club. It wasn't like they were making out, but they were dancing with them like they wanted to take them home. And then at the end of the night they exchanged numbers and emails because the guys had taken pictures while we were partying. It was really unsettling to me.
3. I wish I had more money to lose--I mean gamble. Since I'm wishing for things, I wish I won money everytime I gambled haha.

Have a good week everyone.

I found this information interesting:
(Source: The National Marriage Project, Rutgers. University, 2002)

Co-habitation among the youth is replacing marriage. Over 1/2 of those walking down the marriage aisle today have lived together first.
Here are the universities findings:

1. Living together before marriage increases the risk of breaking up after marriage.
-There's a 46% higher chance of divorce
-Co-habitators are not as committed as married couples in their dedication to the continual relationship and reclutance to terminate it and are more oriented towards their own personal autonomy.
-In living together before marriage there is the perception of "if this doesn't work for me, it's easy to leave you," therefore conflict-resolution skills are not developed.

2. Living together outrside of marriage increases the risk of domestic violence for women and increases the risk of physical and sexual abuse for children.
-The most unsafe of all family environments for children is that in which the mother is living with somebody other than the child's biological father.


3. Unmarried couples have lower levels of happiness and well-being than married couples.
-Married couples have more labor force productivity, better physical and mental health, and general happiness and longevity.
-Those entering a marriage have the mindset of being committed to each other long-term which therefore provides stability long-term.

Other statistics:
-Annual rates of depression among co-habitating couples are three times that what they are among married couples.
-Women in cohabiting relationships are more likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse.
-Aggression has shown to be twice as common among co-habitors than it is among married couples.
-Women are 9 times more likely to be killed by their partner in a co-habiting relationship than they are in a marriage.

(B) South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami, 2000) Grade: A
The premise of this book—a man’s happy life is disrupted by the reappearance of his childhood friend, his true love—might seem deceptively simple. But Murakami weaves interesting visuals and ideas throughout. For example, when the man looks into this woman’s eyes, he sees death. Does this foretell actual death? Or symbolize the death of his former self? Is there really freedom in passion (see Wharton’s Ethan Frome)? There certainly aren’t any easy answers, and that’s what’s appealing about this book. As the French song “Plaisir d’amour” states, “The pleasure of love lasts but a moment; the sorrow of love lasts all one’s life.” This is a good indication of how the narrative ends.

Belle & Sebastian (Wiltern/Amoeba, March 18-20) Grade: A+
While driving in my Civic (with a B&S sticker), listening to Tigermilk on my stereo and wearing my B&S shirt, I realized then that I had become that fan. Nevertheless, B&S is one of my favorite college bands, and I made sure to see them at all of their L.A. appearances this past weekend. New Pornographers opened each night and though A.C. Newman is fantastic, Neko Case’s absence was all too apparent, especially during such songs as “The Bones of an Idol.” Immaculate Machine’s Kathryn Calder filled in for Case and she was an acceptable replacement but still doesn’t really compare.

Highlights of Belle & Sebastian included Stevie Jackson’s clock dance during “Electronic Renaissance,” Stuart Murdoch’s overall stage presence and the inclusion of “Like Dylan in the Movies” (my favorite B&S track) at the end of the first night. When asked for requests during the encore, no one mentioned Life Pursuit tracks, but perhaps we all still need time to warm up to it.

On the second night, a fan threw a pair of knickers on stage. Stuart laughed and tried to throw it back in the audience, but it went in the wrong direction. “I don’t handle women’s underwear very well,” he explained. The band also invited the audience on stage and two of my friends were there dancing with producer Tony Hoffer. Lucky!

Though I typically dislike in-stores, at Amoeba, I had the opportunity to see B&S up close and personal. I suppose that’s why Stevie looked so uncomfortable throughout; he was confronted by hundreds of people staring straight at him. Most of the members looked pretty shy, with the exception of Stuart and Sarah Martin. The highlight was when Stuart changed the lyrics of “Step Into My Office, Baby” to “Tell your boss that … you’re going to go back to work after the Belle & Sebastian gig.” I didn’t go back though. I just drove to my apartment and rewatched Fans Only. Obsessed!

Arctic Monkeys (Henry Fonda, March 15) Grade: B
I had been pre-warned that the Monkeys had very little stage presence but curiosity got the better of me, and I forked over my money anyway. Being in the dance/mosh pit was fun—I always enjoy a raucous crowd—but it became apparent pretty quickly that my friends were right. If I didn’t have the distraction of sweaty kids pushing and shoving, I might actually have been pretty bored. But then again, the appeal of these Sheffielders is their music and not much else. So I suppose it worked out that I didn’t actually watch the band, preoccupied as I was in the pit. At the end, the members threw towels, a guitar pick and other scraps of stage items to the ravished audience, looking quite sheepish doing so yet still enjoying the thrill. Why not enjoy it while you have it?

(G) Voxtrot (Echo, March 11) Grade: B+
The measure of twee for Austin-based Voxtrot came mid-way through their set when singer Ramesh Srivastava mentioned a kissing booth at their merchandise table. “Kisses are one dollar,” he advertised. “I’m serious,” he added, to those clad in cardigans shyly considering the offer.

Listen to key track “The Start of Something” and the Smiths comparisons abound, though the rest of the Voxtrot catalog has more of a Lucksmiths quality: shiny face joyfulness rather than Morrissey melancholia. There are hints of the latter, however, hidden in the bouncy pop melodies: Take me back to the place where I can feel your heart. Is this the end or just the start of something really, really beautiful … wrapped up and disguised as something really, really ugly?

The band is still young and it will probably take some time to reach their potential, but it seems this is the start of something promising. Bah dah bum!

(G) Isobel Campbell/Neko Case (Troubadour/Amoeba, March 8-9) Grade: B/B+

It was a contrast of female musicians in Hollywood this week, as I went to see former Belle & Sebastian singer/cellist Isobel Campbell at the Troubadour and New Pornographers frontwoman Neko Case at Amoeba Wednesday. Both artists are in town supporting their respective solo releases, and each attracted a respectable crowd—though some might have been more drawn to the women’s music associations.

Keeping in mind the phrase “those scowling Scots,” Campbell and her accompanying band were largely disengaged from the audience and hardly cracked a smile during their set at the Troubadour, as if the performance was a form of torture. Though Campbell kept her dialogue short and turned her back to the audience whenever she had a chance, she eventually warmed up mid-way through, smiling, laughing and appearing to have a good time. Sadly, Campbell’s delicacy transferred to the vocals and often times, she could hardly be heard. Another disappointment was the absence of Ballad of the Broken Seas collaborator Mark Lanegan, which was a shame since the set list was largely comprised from that album. Eugene Kelly substituted for Lanegan and did a suitable job, but his unfriendly demeanor was often intimidating.

Case is at the other end of the spectrum in terms of her on-stage presence. She is bubbly, talkative and generally enjoyable. Departing from New Pornographers ’60s-inspired pop sound, Case’s solo album is very alt-country. But naysayers of that genre will most likely find themselves swept up by Case’s interesting lyrics and impressive vocals. As is usually the case with in-store performances, there is a bit lacking in the sound and atmosphere, but the trade off is the opportunity to see Case for free.

(O) ECHO Art Show (Cal State Long Beach)
Grade: C
I went to an art show on Sunday. There were four seperate rooms of "art". I only really went to see the stuff done by the ECHO Long Beach art group and I enjoyed their stuff the most but wasn't blown away by anything. One of the artists had a bunch of what were probably 5x7 photographs of nothing in particular, mostly probably stuff nobody would care to pay attention to and I probably enjoyed his stuff the most because it made me think of how you really can take photos of almost anything and make them interesting in some way or another.

There's a new show opening up this Sunday and I am looking forward to it because I've seen some of the sample work that's going to be shown and it looks really interesting.

Just watched the Scientology South Park episode (Trapped In The Closet). The nice thing is South Park can educate you. I now know more about Scientology (and from a previous episode, Mormonism) than I ever had.

Yay we're complaining on the blog again. Ok so my coworker, he's a PA student we will call RP. He talks and talks and talks and talks about absolutely nothing. He's also one of those guys who says things just to say them or to look cool. AND he says really inappropriate things.

Valerie is the pediatric secretary that does all our scheduling. RP thinks she's hot even tho she's not. Actually he thinks anyone that has female parts is hot. So I tell him one day, "oh it's valerie's birthday tomorrow." He goes, "Oh maybe I'll give her a poke for her birthday." Why why would you say that? Why would you say that to a girl? Why would you say that out LOUD.

Then today we were looking at this chart that shows when you have to report statutory rape. Basically if the child is 16 years old or older, you don't have to report anything as long as their partner is 16 or older. So you could be 21 having sex with a 16 year old. So he starts making jokes about going to the high schools and picking up on 16 year old girls. Yuck. I wonder if he's just kidding or if he's really just a lonely perv. Nasty.

Oh my gosh shut up you stupid f*ckface. Ugh. Now he is talking to his girlfriend about doing her homework. Sheesh how old is she??? Like 12 or something. Ugh. On top of that I had to go to lunch with him and a bunch of other people and he was talking about how buying gold is the best and how great he is for getting his property early before the prices all went up. Seriously he needs to be QUIET!!!!

In other news:
- Thom Yorke snubs the PM Tony Blair.
- I would not want to mess with the South Park guys - Matt and Trey. They are coming back with a "Return of Chef" ep. Scary stuff what they can do :)

Dale or annoying guy as I like to call him is on fire this morning. Oh the joy. Shut up you stupid lame-o and stop cracking your f*cking knuckles so many fu*king times. Oh gosh.

In other news:
- The Simpsons are staying around until 2008 no matter how weird the eps are getting.
- Pitchfork finally put a news story worth reading for me about Radiohead.

Tickets went on sale today for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at Spaceland in LA for April 2nd. Tickets went on sale at Ticketweb.com though now, three hours later, they don't seem to be available. So I guess now it's only what's left at the door the night of the show... and with the experience of trying to get into the Editors show, I can only guess it's not even worth a try.

The World Baseball Classic - C

This event was a treat for any baseball fan. I personally had the chance to go and watch Korea vs. Japan at Anaheim. The game was very entertaining, and I never smelled so much kimchi, sushi, and dog in my life. Anyways I have no qualms with that game in and of itself as I was enjoying the atmosphere as much as I was enjoying the game. So why the average grade? It is in my opinion that this event was too biased for the U.S. team, who happened to lose anyways. I will go down and list the reasons why I believe so.

1) The way that they had the first set of pools was fine. What I do not understand is why North America was grouped with South Africa, probably the weakest team involved in the games. Can somebody seriously explain to me why South Africa was in the U.S. bracket? I understand that there are only 3 countries in North America, but why wasn't it Puerto Rico or Australia?

2) The second pool set was also unfair. The U.S. obtains a bye for the first round, and is pretty much intent on giving themselves a by in the 2nd round as well. In theory Japan and the U.S. were supposed to advance into the semis, but Korea pulled off an excellent run of 6 games and ended up in the semis. The U.S. just felt that they were good enough to beat everyone in a weaker pool and ended up losing to Mexico and Korea, but everyone knows that the U.S. was the favorite.

3) I really do not understand why in the semi-finals the same 2 teams that have competed against each other have to compete once again to reach the finals. It is much more fun to watch teams compete with other teams, especially if it is something between countries. Look up the the World Cup for instance. In the semis we had Korea vs Japan again for the 3rd time, and the Dominican Republic vs Cuba. We already saw these teams play each other, why not add more variety and let them play a team from the other bracket? It is because the U.S. officials who organized the event wanted the U.S. to face the weaker team to advance into the finals. Well that's my 2 cents.

One last thing. Team USA sucked, but Byung Hyun Kim is the worst pressure pitcher of all time.

(M) Scenes From A Marriage (Criterion Collection, Ingmar Bergman)
Grade: B

Originally a TV series in Sweden, it was made into a 2 hour and 45 minute movie for release in the U.S., cutting out 2 hours of footage, had I known this I'd have rented the TV series version. None-the-less, the film was a great piece of work and I could only wish television in America would do series like these. I like the idea of a one-time show, not multiple seasons (at least in a drama series).
The story is divided into six parts. It is about a man who is very self-assured and a woman who basically defines herself as her husband’s wife. Over the six segments the marriage takes on the consequences of an affair and a divorce, which brings more maturity and self-understanding to the couple. It's a great story, and one I'm sure many people can relate to.

(M) Sex Is Comedy (Catherine Breillat)
Grade: C

Not as controversial as the filmmakers other works, yet it has moments of insight, which I always enjoy from Catherine. I still would love to read a book by this director that entails her views on 'the philosophy of life and sex'. This story mainly focuses on a female director who is trying to get her actors to complete the sex scene in a movie and all the difficulties of the situation. Considering the real directors past works, I am sure this is a real life experience (or conglomerate of experiences) that she's had to deal with and decided to make a film about it. Again, in my opinion it's not the directors strongest work but still it had moments of enjoyment.

As requested by New Wave:
OBGYN @ Riverside
I wrote this in January

Hi all. I am post call meaning I was up for about 30 hours. I have since slept but still feel bleh. It was a pretty good call. I got to see 7 deliveries and helped in some of them.
It was really surreal to watch a baby being born for the first time. The first one I saw was a C-section. And this is even more surreal because you go in there as if it's a regular surgery. You make the incision and start cutting through the layers. Then all of a sudden there's this baby and it's crying. And it's like wtf just happened? I swear childbirth is a complete miracle. The placenta comes out and it looks like something someone made/designed and it's perfectly made. I got to help transfer the baby to the examining table. It was all warm and slimy. I was so scared I was going to drop it. So crazy.

My first vaginal birth I saw was of an anencephalic baby. The parents had decided to carry the baby to term instead of terminate the pregnancy when they found out. It was so sad because you know this baby is going to die, and they still went ahead with it, went through the labor and pain just to see their baby and say good bye. It was extremely hard not to cry on either delivery. But after like the 4th one it wasn't so bad.

We had a really difficult(personality wise) patient last night. 21 year old couple, very little prenatal care and so her dates weren't good. she was around 32 weeks pregnant +/- 3 weeks. she had 2 previous c sections which increased her chance for uterine rupture if her uterus continued to contract. we wanted to give her a medicine to stop her contractions b/c the baby was too young and we didn't want her to rupture. b/c she had been given this medication b4 and had some side effects, she didn't want to take it. we tried to explain to her that the risks of the side effects outweighed the risk of her bleeding or having the baby's lungs be underdeveloped. she couldn't understand this for some reason and didn't want the drug. finally she agreed to it. she finally ended up leaving against medical advice(AMA) b/c she said her babysitter had to go home. um ok. i swear people are crazy.

weee does that count as a real blog even tho i wrote it months ago? hee hee

So it looks like Tom Cruise and his scientologists are trying to take down South Park. If it were me I think the last people I would want to mess with would be the South Park guys. They are a bit unforgiving and relentless when it comes to grudges. If the scientologists really wanted to recruit people to their "religion" shouldn't they want South Park promoting their ideas and beliefs, as stupid and unbelievable as they might be, thats just my thoughts on the issue. That being said, praise to xenu!!

Who said our page is boring? You know, when we had the blog page in its original format (rant and rave), it was "all you guys do is complain." And now that it's in review/whatever format, it's "you guys are boring." You just can't please people these days, can you?

Thank you, come again. Or don't.

So if it is not bad enough that we have to read all about celebrities, apparently there is a new site that allows the common joe to stalk them as well. WTF?? I feel kinda of bad for them now, well only kinda.

Check out the Gawker Stalker Map, unforunately it is only for NYC.

Okay here is a funny story as I just read New Wave's topic of stories.

So me and an unnamed person were at the mall the other day. She says to me what do you think of nails, do you like them like this (clear polish) or with black nail polish. I responded with, I think the clear looks better. She then says, is it because black is really weird? At this point a black person is walking by and she sees this and quickly says, "Cause Black Nail Polish is Weird?" HAHAHAHA I wanted to laugh so hard, but of course I waited til the guy walked way ahead of us. Good one!!

Morrissey is a jackarse. At a press interview at SXSW he was quoted to say: “I saw Joy Division, and they were always incredibly boring,” he said of the influential group. Blech.

And this from CNN about the Smiths pretty much never coming back.

Morrissey loves himself some himself.

So I'm reading that Neverland Ranch is closing, its kinda sad in a way. When you were a kid MTV would show clips there and it seemed pretty amazing. Sure, now that we really know what went on there its creepy, but it is something from the past.



Have you been up my ...Wishing Tree? Tuh!
It's where I come to think and dream.
And now I'd like to show you my ...Wishing Tree. Jam on!
Where we can laugh and giggle and scream. Hee hee!
Imagination is the key.

I was informed our blog page is a bit on the dull side. I guess because all we do is review stuff and do not talk about personal items. I actually like to keep it that way but I have to admit just reviewing can get tiresome. My thought is maybe adding some more amusing stories/anecdotes/situations similiar to my awesome tale about my not so awesome coworker. We'll see how that works out.

The annoying guy next to me is eating right now and he can't just eat quietly. He has to smack his food around in his mouth so you hear it. Ugh. So gross and annoying. Maybe today I will account of all the not so awesome things he does.

I just found out my friend's grandpa passed away today. Pretty sad stuff. It makes me miss my grandma ... she was so rad.

As I'm going to San Diego for the World Baseball Classic this weekend, I wanted to give a shout out to Tex, Arod, Vernon, Dontrelle and all the other guys for not being able to beat a bunch of scrub players and thus not advancing to the next round. Who really wanted to see them anyway though right? I mean now I get to see more of Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee, Lee, Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim, Park, Park and Park...yep this trip is gonna be awesome. Who do I root for though? Japan, Korea, Dominican Republic or Cuba? The communist in me wants to say Cuba, but the baseball fan wants to say the DR, while the baseball purist wants me to say Japan, and finally the bandwagoner wants me to say Korea. oooh the plot thickens

Lets see it is 8:16 am on my computer clock right now.

Drive to work today was pretty sweet, no real traffic which was nice. When I got to work however I found the elevators were out and I had to take the stairs. My building isn't exactly accessible by everyone so it took me a while to get to the top floor. Yeah I can tell his day is going to be great already....we'll see how it goes.

(Event) Uganda Art Show in Irvine
Grade: A

This was a rather small showing of photographs by a group of people who went to Uganda recently. There were some great pictures and I enjoyed looking at them and had that been all it was I wouldn't have though as highly of the event as I did. What was great was that in a side room you could go listen to a presentation from the people who went. They had a slideshow of images and a preview for what looks like a documentary somebody is putting together.

The stories shared were fascinating, humorous, and sad. After seeing the lives that people live in Africa, I can only say I respect them more than anyone in the United States. It was beautiful to look at people living in such gorgeous environments to and to have such a sense of community and family and love for all the people around you. If only they had the food and medical treatment and were removed from the threat of wars, it could possibly be one of the greatest places to live.

If you want to see photos from the event by one of the men who went you can click here.

So you may all already know, or not care... but they're coming to LA next year.

Okay, so I don't know how to review music, but I do know how to grade it and I've listened to a lot of stuff lately (that probably everyone else listened to last year or more) but here's my grades.

Arctic Monkey (Whatever People Say...) - Grade: D
Coldplay (X & Y) - Grade: C-
Elefant (Black Magic Show) - Grade: C-
Gorillaz (Demon Days) - Grade: C-
Hard-Fi (Stars Of CCTV) - Grade: B
Mew (And The Glass Handed Kites) - Grade: C+
Mogwai (Mr. Beast) - Grade: B
Arab Strap (The Last Romance) - Grade: C
The Sounds (Dying To Say This To You) - Grade: B
The Subways (Young For Eternity) - Grade: first half=C Second half=B
Iron & Wine with Calexico (In The Reins) - Grade: C
Ladytron (Witching Hour) - Grade: B-
Sigur Ros (Takk) - Grade: B
Supergrass (Road To Rouen) - Grade: B
American Analog Set (Set Free) - Grade: C
Dandy Warhols (Odditorium) - Grade: B-
Annie (Anniemal) - Grade: B
Editors (The Back Room) - Grade: B+
Charlatans Uk (Up The Lake) - Grade: C
Concretes (Concretes) - Grade: C+
Voxtrot (Voxtrot EP) - Grade: C
Love Is All (9 Times The Same Song) - Grade: C
Orangs Peel (Circling The Sun) - Grade: B

(M) Thumbsucker - Grade: B
This is an interesting movie. It's a quirky story. It's about a guy who sucks his thumb and is embarrassed by it. His father feels it's a shameful thing to do. The interesting thing is all the socially acceptable or at least tollerable things he does to substitute for the most natural thing a person does for comfort as a child. Taking medication, getting drunk, smoking dope and engaging in sex are all substitutes for finding comfort. He feeds on these addictions that are held in higher regard that sucking your thumb. It's an interesting thing to look at and on judging how people comfort themsleves. The father in this movie (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) did an EXCELLENT job.

(M) A Tale of Two Sisters (Ji-woon Kim, 2003). Grade: C- ?
A Tale of Two Sisters begins as the two sisters return home after a stay in a mental institution. Home isn't exactly sweet, as their evil stepmother (yeah) treats them coldly and their father is very distant and stern. There is a strange force in the house that no one wants to talk about, and soon enough, a creepy ghost begins haunting the family. As the story (sorta) unravels, you (sorta) find out the reasons why the girls were in a mental institute in the first place, and why things are happening. I won't say much more, but in the end, you're left scratching your head and wondering why certain things happened, and what the symbolisms were. At times the movie moved at a snail's pace, at other times, it was much more engaging. But overall, too much is left unsaid, leaving the viewer completely confused. I watched this movie with Cup O Noodles and another friend, and we were all confused about the storyline. We even had to go online to get some clarification. It's definitely a movie you have to watch more than once to fully get. I'll have to pass on that one.

Random stuff:

-Rewatched City of God tonight and was reminded of how amazing this movie is. Loooove it!
-Now that another great season of Project Runway is over, what show am I supposed to be obsessed with? Oh yeah, American Idol.
-Who's been watching Am Idol? Favorites so far are Chris Doughtry the rocker, and Tyler Hicks, the old young guy.

Did anybody watch the Sopranos last night? It was so good. Only 19 more episodes left!

This thursday (03/16/06) There is a benefit for the children of Uganda. It's an art show and a brief film with Q&A from a group who went to Uganda. The event is to raise money to send the children to school. $15 can provide school for a child in Uganda and dramatically change their future. The event is free, a $5 donation is suggested, and you can always give more if you want. If you wish to attend the location is:

14988 Sand Canyon Ave.
Studio 6
Irvine, CA 92618
Begins at 7pm

I think I have slowed down on my movie watching which makes me sad but I haven't had time due to work and looking for a new job.

(M) Constant Gardener. (Fernando Meirelles, 2005) Grade: A-

Thoughts: Based upon the bestseller by John Le Carre, Justin (Ralph Fiennes) is a high court British official who meets Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a free spirited thinker and civil rights activist. The two fall in love and get married. Tessa begins to discover what a drug company, KDH, is doing in Africa, which is killing patients to test their drug and the link to the British govt. She is murdered during the investigation, basically as a well to silent her. Justin decides to finish what Tessa started and learns ugly things along the way. Some people felt Rachel Weisz, famous for her roles in Mummy and Mummy 2 - they even said that during the Oscars, should not have gotten nominated for her role because she was barely in the film but I disagree. She was in the film quite a bit and she did such a great job every time she was on-screen. I personally don't think Ralph Fiennes had to really act out of his part. After all, he just had to be an uptight British official, not hard for him. It would have been nice to see him with a best actor nomination though but that category was pretty filled up. I really enjoyed how the film was shot as well.

(M) Thumbsucker. (Mike Mills, 2005) Grade: C

Thoughts: I'm still trying to figure out why they made this film. It was not great but it was not bad but there was no point. Justin Cobb (Lou Taylor Pucci) is a 17-year old kid trying to grow up normal, too bad he can't stop sucking his thumb. His dad Mike (Vincent D'Onofrio) is embarrassed by it and his mom Audrey (Tilda Swinton) is trying to be supportive but they have their own problems as well. Justin turns to his orthodontist Perry (Keanu Reeves) and his debate teacher Mr. Geary (Vince Vaughn) for help and he gets some but not what he is looking for. Notice the names I'm using for the cast. I think that was what made people perk up interest for this movie and I have not even mentioned how Benjamin Bratt ties in. The film was like an after school special about being weird and how to embrace it. The main kid Lou Taylor Pucci did a good job but the rest of the movie was forgettable.

(O) Annoying guy who sits next to me at work. (2006) Grade: F
Thoughts: The guy is sooooooooooooooooooooo annoying. Just a few things he does everyday - hums loudly to himself, sings to himself, talks out loud, says phrase like chica chica and bam bam bam bam, cracks his knuckles multiple times a day, calls his girlfriend EVERYDAY, sometimes twice to see what she is doing and talks baby talk to her and just bugs the living daylights out of me. UGH!!! I want to yell shut the f*ck up to him but that would mean I would have to talk to him and I'll pass on that.

Viva Belle & Sebastian!

City Of Lost Souls (Japanese)
Grade: F
I think this movie had no script and was made up as the director went along. It was incoherent and I couldn't even get through it. It takes place in Brazil or something and I don't know, it was just ridiculous.

Spetters (Dutch) - Paul Verhoeven
Grade: B
If you've seen Breaking Away, well this movie came out a year later. If breaking away was the "feel good movie of the year", Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) decided to tell a similar story that was depressing. Where Breaking Away was of bicyclists, Spetters was about dirt bike riders who are hoping to make it in the big time. Each persons life goes through rather significant changes and some stories are sad and depressing. There's no real happy ending to the film. It's basically the opposite of what Breaking Away was.

Audition (Japanese)
Grade: C
This movie was done by the director who did 'City Of Lost Souls' the other movie I reviewed here and gave an F to. This movie was far far more interesting than that other piece of garbage. It would be considered "a scary movie". A man searches out to find a new wife. He and his budy pretend their holding a casting call and audition a bunch of women who respond to the add for the role in a movie but they're really auditioning to become the potential wife of the main actor. Once he picks his women, the story slowly starts to get crazy and crazier. For me though, like a lot of Japanese movies... not everything is really explained and so I am left confused about things. I think a lot of Japanese films seen to just do things because it might be cool for the movie but have nothing to do with plot.

Visitor Q (Japanese)
Grade: C
I really don't know how to discuss this movie. New Wave reviewed Oldboy by saying Korean's are f**ked up. Well... maybe they are... but I gotta say... the Japanese are EXTREMELY f**ked up, or at least their film makers seem to be, especially this one. Basically the movie starts out with a family in comlpete chaos and some mysterious guy comes along and brings teh family back into a cohesive unit. Sounds good right? The path of the movie from beginning to end is plain and simply f'd up. I don't even want to describe all that is portrayed in this movie. I am sure you can get insights about some of it if you're really interested on movie review sites.

Suicide Club (Japanese)
Grade: B-/C+
Why do the youth of Japan keep killing themselves? Is it because they're all lonely, isolated and depressed? Is it because of sadistic wanan be rock star? Is it because of bubble gum pop music? Is it the internet? This was an interesting movie. Enjoyable. I would have liked it more if I was able to follow along more closely as it delved into philosophy. I wasn't expecting to have to try and read and comprehend the meaning of life so I was a little unprepared for that aspect. However, I enjoyed the film.

Battle Royal (Japanese)
Grade: B+
Finally... I get a great Japanese movie!!! You know how on Netflix you rent a movie and it suggests others you may like... well I got on a kick of renting the suggestions and have been watching a few Japanese films and this one was great. I think everyone knows about this film though. A lot of talk re-surfaced after Kill Bill vol. 1 came out since that one asian girl in the movie of Kill Bill is in this one as well (the one with that ball and chain weapon). Anyway, this movie was a lot of fun. It's described as Lord Of The Flies with weapons. Basically a class of kids is kidnapped and taken to an island and they have three days to kill each other, whoever is standing alive at the end of the 3 day period wins and gets to go home. If they don't kill each other in 3 days, the necklace bombs around their necks will explode and everyone will die. This movie was fun to watch.

Okay I was getting more death threats my new wave to blog so I guess I should. Although for the record I did post a long blog that blogger somehow deleted.

Hmm lets see what there is to review

Two trips to Las Vegas (O) 2006: C
Vegas is fun every so often to kick back, drink a little, gamble a little and for me to bowl a little. I did these things in back to back weeks and it was pretty darn tiring. Getting sick in between the two trips didn't help any either. I think I am done going to vegas for the rest of the summer, unless some magical deal happens. I'll just wait until my next bowling trip in about 6 months.

Scrubs (NBC): B-
This is not the best season for this show, I still enjoy watching how weird and quirky it can be, but with the characters all growing up it just doesn't have the same feeling to when it first started.

The Oscars (ABC): C+
There was nothing overly suprising in the show, well except maybe the 3-6 mafia, but even that wasn't so big since it was the biggest movie song of the year. Crash wining was somewhat a surprise but if Brokeback didn't win, I thought it would since it had one the SAG award and seemed to be more highly praised than the other movies around award season. John Stewart hosting was okay, I think he played it safe.

Star Wars Transformers (Hasbro Toys): A
These toys are my two favorite things as a child combined into one. I already have my darth vader that turns into a tie fighter and the general greivous that turns into his circular bike. There are 10 more planned. Yes I'm a dork, no need to point that out.

Lost (ABC): B+
This show seems to be throwing more and more stuff out there everyweek without answering many of the questions we all have, so in that regard it gets frustrating. On the other hand however, many of the characters are still very strong and I enjoy learning about their backstory, which is sometimes better than the island story. I just hope the rest of the season doesn't keep setting stuff up, but answers some things so that I'm not watching going whaaaa??!?!!

Random thoughts:
-No word yet on whether arrested development has officially been picked up by showtime, just a lot or rumors that it has. This show was so great, all the way through the end on fox, why isn't it a done deal yet? Oh but in case you are wondering Freddie is still on....yeah thats fair.
-Baseball season is right around the corner which for me means, many fantasy leagues, going to many games, and remembering useless information to come in handy in the future, okay so it probably won't come in handy but I like to know it anyway.
-I didn't get a call back from Lingo, Vh1's pop culture show, or deal or no deal, i'm pretty upset, i really want to go on a game show now.
-Watch MTV's Parental Control if you haven't already, its soooooooooo bad that it becomes good again. Seriously watch it, you will thank me later.

Okay thats all for now, hopefully new wave won't cut me now.

Crash as best picture?!? Really??!!?? Oh well. I think Academy got it wrong this year. I would personally like to see Brokeback Mountain get it because it was a well made film but I realize it does not have the mass appeal that Crash has. My probelm with Crash was it was a good movie but not great. When did best picture go to movies that were just okay. What happened to the days of Braveheart, Silence of the Lamb, Lord of the Rings, and Titanic? I think Walk the Line and Cinderella Man should have gotten nominations. Oh well.

Addendum: So I have been doing a lot of Oscar reading about people's reaction to the best picture win and some good points have been made. The best one I heard was from 980 AM this morning. A writer/reporter from the LA times gave his outlook. It breaks down like this - Crash was marketed better than Brokeback. Crash cast members went on every talk show circuit and promoted the movie. Crash was send to over 1,000 people to be viewed for consideration. Crash writer and director Paul Haggis got no credit for writing Million Dollar Baby last year so the Academy gave him the honor this year. Crash had the lady who did the marketing campaign for the Miramax company when the Weinstein people were there so she knew how to market the movie i.e. best picture Shakespre In Love. It all makes sense. I agree though the best reason is because Hollywood is not making good films anymore.

(M) Dot the I - Grade A
This is such a great movie. It starts off as any love story does where the girl gets engaged, she falls for another guy and is torned between which guy she really wants. Then you add in a murder and a few video cameras in the mix. Did I mention that this is a great movie? Oh yeah, the setting is in London, but some of the characters have Spanish accents. Weird.

(G) Whittier College 1st Annual Poetry Reading
Grade: A

I don't know if this really qualifies as a "gig" but it was an event. Three professional poets were reading. Each read for 45 minutes a piece. I don't remember who the first lady was, but the last two were fun. Ken Waldman went 2nd. He combines instrumentaion and then reads a poem and then goes back into playing his instrument. This guy had a great personality, a strong voice, and enjoyable material. I'd surely go see him again. The 3rd and final poet was Kim Addonizio who happens to be my favorite poet there is and influenced me to really try and write. This was the first time I got to see her read and she really brought life to her poems. She also hosted a one hour seminar/meeting before the poetry event started. She talked about writing and just had an open question and answer forum. She has one novel, a collection of short stories, and maybe 4-5 books of poetry. The book of hers that grabbed my attention is called Tell Me and was nominated for an award. As a poet she's won many awards herself. Great great great!

(A) Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (Arctic Monkeys, Feb. 28) Grade: B
Though a strong debut, the album probably won’t change your life or be very relevant in a few years. But anytime the four-letter word “hype” enters the equation, exaggerated expectations about “the new movement of music” spoils the listening experience...

I'm not sure why but this picture makes me laugh. Doesn't it look like Bush is thinking hmm what is under that thing?

A belated birthday shoutout to Rancid and Cup O Noodles - Happy Birthday!

You look like a monkey and you smell like one too.