Incredibly complex and highly intelligent sci-fi movie. You really have to pay attention and keep your perspectives straight to this one or you can get easily lost. Nolan's direction and the special effects in this movie were top notch. This ensemble cast was well picked and I hate to admit it, Leo was pretty good. He's become the new pre-crazy Tom Cruz. He's picked his projects well. It was also nice to see the 500 Days of Summer guy in a sci-fi role. I enjoy his films as well. I couldn't help but notice a lot of Batman alumnus in the film. But the most surprising thing to me is that I think I have seen almost every Chris Nolan movie there is to see and I have not been disappointed by any.
I would like to watch the movie again and try to see it from another perspective. Only then I can make a more comprehensive review. Plus, I'd hate to ruin anything.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
We Need A Gathering Instead
Happy Friday and welcome back to another friday night cover special! It's been a while since I've done this so please bear with me.
Today's video features Mike Park, owner of Asian Man Records and of Skankin' Pickle covering 'The Crowd' by Operation Ivy on acoustic guitar. Midway through the song, the original singer of Op Ivy, Jesse Michaels gets on the mic and sings the last verse up to closing.
I picked this video, cause of all the Op Ivy songs, this is always the one that sticks in my head, along with Hedgecore. Everyone knows Knowledge, and UNITY, but this is just catchy. Along with Mike Park's ageless, soft vocals and simply plain but wonderfully sounding strumming on his guitar this rendition does the original justice. Having Jesse Michael's closing the song was just icing on the cake.
Jesse Michael's since Op Ivy, has become a prominent artist and has dabbled with music off an on over the years. Since then, there's been Big Rig and Common Rider and lately, Classics of Love (after a great Common Rider song!). Check out his latest works at Asian Man Records.
BONUS CUP(s)!
Original Performance of The Crowd by Operation Ivy featuring a young Jesse Michaels, Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong.
Classics of Love by Common Rider
Today's video features Mike Park, owner of Asian Man Records and of Skankin' Pickle covering 'The Crowd' by Operation Ivy on acoustic guitar. Midway through the song, the original singer of Op Ivy, Jesse Michaels gets on the mic and sings the last verse up to closing.
I picked this video, cause of all the Op Ivy songs, this is always the one that sticks in my head, along with Hedgecore. Everyone knows Knowledge, and UNITY, but this is just catchy. Along with Mike Park's ageless, soft vocals and simply plain but wonderfully sounding strumming on his guitar this rendition does the original justice. Having Jesse Michael's closing the song was just icing on the cake.
Jesse Michael's since Op Ivy, has become a prominent artist and has dabbled with music off an on over the years. Since then, there's been Big Rig and Common Rider and lately, Classics of Love (after a great Common Rider song!). Check out his latest works at Asian Man Records.
BONUS CUP(s)!
Original Performance of The Crowd by Operation Ivy featuring a young Jesse Michaels, Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong.
Classics of Love by Common Rider
AT-AT Day Afternoon
This video is genius! My friend, LM brought this to my attention, and whenever I feel a little down, I just watch this and the sadness melts away.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Paul McCartney at AT&T Park 7.10.10, home of YOUR SF GIANTS!
When one of my best friends asked me if I wanted to buy tickets to go see Sir Paul McCartney, my first reaction was, HELL YEAH! My friend was able to buy presale tickets so we ended up getting Club Level tickets. I've never been club level before and when we went, I felt like I was in baseball heaven, except I wasn't there for a Giants game. I was there to see Paul effin-McCartney! Never in a million years would I have thunk that I would be seeing him. A former Beatle. Which is why I jumped at the opportunity. I had to dig deep to pay for the tickets for both my wife and I, but I figured that this is one of those once in a lifetime events. And he hasn't played here since he was a Beatle which was in 1966, which was their last touring concert performance. Hopefully its not another 40+ years.
Paul was always, second in my opinion to John, who was my favorite Beatle. Sometimes I would rank him under George. But you have to give it up, he was 1/2 of the main writing duo and has been responsible for some of their greatest hits. Independently they were great, and sometimes achieved greatness. But together they were the GREATEST, hands down.
But at a youthful age of 68, he still rocked AT&T park and owned the sell out crowd of 40,000 people. There was a lot of electricity in the air. A lot of anticipation. People of all ages and color. All together to roll up on the Magical Mystery Tour. And so we journeyed... We journeyed through his career at got samples of different stages of his musical journey. I was in awe to even be there. I tried to anticipate which songs he would play for the night. But his catalogue is so vast that if he played everything, we would be there all night but the material selected for set list was great. He mixed it up often playing Wings, McCartney, and some solo hits. Some of his new material, through in an occasional Beatles tune but as the show progressed he eventually ended with the songs everyone knew and love... His banter between songs was slick, he was sharp, witty and funny most times. He told a lot of stories. He covered some songs in tribute to old friends.
As he was finishing up a Wings selection, he broke into soloing and the band started jamming to Foxy Lady. I know my Hendrix! When they finished, he told a story about Jimi...
...Sgt. Pepper was released on a Friday and Jimi was in town for the weekend for a show. I went to Jimi to say hello and he asked if he could play a Beatles cover. I said it would ok and during the show he played Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... His downstroke while strumming was so strong it would make his guitar go out of tune. So he stopped during his set and called Eric to come up on stage to help him. He was referring to Clapton. Clapton tried to hide avoid being seen...
I thought that, that story was amusing. 3 musical legends in one room, casually at a show.
At one point of the show he broke into silence and addressed his relationship to John. His other half of the writing duo when they were Beatles. It was known that their relationship was on a decline towards the end but when he played Here Today, you would know what his true feelings were, despite what anyone else had to say, or whatever ill happenstances occurred between the two. This song was a conversation that never happened between the two. When I heard the lyrics, it made my heart move. It was both sweet and sad. And yes make a manly man cry.
Paul singing John's part in A Day in a Life and ending with Give Peace a Chance.
Another memorable moment was his tribute to George, who also passed away. He played Something on a ukelele and mid song the whole band started to play at the solo portion where George would normally play. Something, in my opinion, is the BEST love song ever written. And it was written by not Lennon or McCartney, but George Harrison. Another beautiful tribute his fellow Beatle.
I always associated social activism more with John and a little with George, but I never knew Paul to write about it. Very subtle and clever of him, now that he explained about the people dealing with apartheid in South Africa was the basis for such a beautiful song. Here's Blackbird.
Band On The Run from the Wings days...
Ode to San Francisco ...
Pyrotechnics during Live and Let Die
Let It Be
He ended his second encore set with a rockin' fashion with Helter Skelter followed by "The End", whose lyrics are me and my wife's quote for our wedding programs. A fitting way to end probably the greatest show I have ever been to. In terms of personal and historical perspective, this has been the most meaningful show to me I have ever attended. To rock this hard 3+ hours straight at Sir Paul's age is a testament to his rock awesomeness. To witness greatness and genius this close is a once in a lifetime thing. This is at Beatlemania as it gets for me and I'm thankful to experience it after the fact. Thanks to Rob for getting the tickets. My wife, for letting us go, Sir Paul and his band for this memorable show I will never forget. Thanks to all for the videos.
Paul McCartney at AT&T Park SF 7/10/10 7:30PM
1. Venus and Mars / Rockshow
2. Jet
3. All My Loving
4. Letting Go
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Highway
7. Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
10. Let ‘Em In
11. My Love
12. I’m Looking Through You
13. Two Of Us
14. Blackbird
15. Here Today
16. Dance Tonight
17. Mrs Vandebilt
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Something
20. Sing The Changes
21. Band On The Run
22. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
23. Back In The USSR
24. I’ve Got A Feeling
25. Paperback Writer
26. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
27. Let It Be
28. Live And Let Die
29. Hey Jude
Encore
30. Day Tripper
31. Lady Madonna
32. Get Back
Second Encore
33. Yesterday
34. Helter Skelter
35. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End
Paul was always, second in my opinion to John, who was my favorite Beatle. Sometimes I would rank him under George. But you have to give it up, he was 1/2 of the main writing duo and has been responsible for some of their greatest hits. Independently they were great, and sometimes achieved greatness. But together they were the GREATEST, hands down.
But at a youthful age of 68, he still rocked AT&T park and owned the sell out crowd of 40,000 people. There was a lot of electricity in the air. A lot of anticipation. People of all ages and color. All together to roll up on the Magical Mystery Tour. And so we journeyed... We journeyed through his career at got samples of different stages of his musical journey. I was in awe to even be there. I tried to anticipate which songs he would play for the night. But his catalogue is so vast that if he played everything, we would be there all night but the material selected for set list was great. He mixed it up often playing Wings, McCartney, and some solo hits. Some of his new material, through in an occasional Beatles tune but as the show progressed he eventually ended with the songs everyone knew and love... His banter between songs was slick, he was sharp, witty and funny most times. He told a lot of stories. He covered some songs in tribute to old friends.
As he was finishing up a Wings selection, he broke into soloing and the band started jamming to Foxy Lady. I know my Hendrix! When they finished, he told a story about Jimi...
...Sgt. Pepper was released on a Friday and Jimi was in town for the weekend for a show. I went to Jimi to say hello and he asked if he could play a Beatles cover. I said it would ok and during the show he played Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... His downstroke while strumming was so strong it would make his guitar go out of tune. So he stopped during his set and called Eric to come up on stage to help him. He was referring to Clapton. Clapton tried to hide avoid being seen...
I thought that, that story was amusing. 3 musical legends in one room, casually at a show.
At one point of the show he broke into silence and addressed his relationship to John. His other half of the writing duo when they were Beatles. It was known that their relationship was on a decline towards the end but when he played Here Today, you would know what his true feelings were, despite what anyone else had to say, or whatever ill happenstances occurred between the two. This song was a conversation that never happened between the two. When I heard the lyrics, it made my heart move. It was both sweet and sad. And yes make a manly man cry.
Paul singing John's part in A Day in a Life and ending with Give Peace a Chance.
Another memorable moment was his tribute to George, who also passed away. He played Something on a ukelele and mid song the whole band started to play at the solo portion where George would normally play. Something, in my opinion, is the BEST love song ever written. And it was written by not Lennon or McCartney, but George Harrison. Another beautiful tribute his fellow Beatle.
I always associated social activism more with John and a little with George, but I never knew Paul to write about it. Very subtle and clever of him, now that he explained about the people dealing with apartheid in South Africa was the basis for such a beautiful song. Here's Blackbird.
Band On The Run from the Wings days...
Ode to San Francisco ...
Pyrotechnics during Live and Let Die
Let It Be
He ended his second encore set with a rockin' fashion with Helter Skelter followed by "The End", whose lyrics are me and my wife's quote for our wedding programs. A fitting way to end probably the greatest show I have ever been to. In terms of personal and historical perspective, this has been the most meaningful show to me I have ever attended. To rock this hard 3+ hours straight at Sir Paul's age is a testament to his rock awesomeness. To witness greatness and genius this close is a once in a lifetime thing. This is at Beatlemania as it gets for me and I'm thankful to experience it after the fact. Thanks to Rob for getting the tickets. My wife, for letting us go, Sir Paul and his band for this memorable show I will never forget. Thanks to all for the videos.
Paul McCartney at AT&T Park SF 7/10/10 7:30PM
1. Venus and Mars / Rockshow
2. Jet
3. All My Loving
4. Letting Go
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Highway
7. Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five
10. Let ‘Em In
11. My Love
12. I’m Looking Through You
13. Two Of Us
14. Blackbird
15. Here Today
16. Dance Tonight
17. Mrs Vandebilt
18. Eleanor Rigby
19. Something
20. Sing The Changes
21. Band On The Run
22. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
23. Back In The USSR
24. I’ve Got A Feeling
25. Paperback Writer
26. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
27. Let It Be
28. Live And Let Die
29. Hey Jude
Encore
30. Day Tripper
31. Lady Madonna
32. Get Back
Second Encore
33. Yesterday
34. Helter Skelter
35. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End
I almost forgot I had a blog...
I've just stepped away from the computer for a couple months, except to check emails and facebook periodically. Supposedly, its the only way I can keep up with some of my friends, yet I still feel so disconnected. Hence the lack of blogging, yelping, facebooking or whatever. So I've been just living life. And working my ass off. Trying to save vacation time. The wife wants to start travelling. Looking forward to going here, which is our first stop. I'm really excited. The last couple times I went there was between 10-15 years ago. Went there gradnight when I graduated, and then with some friends for a summer road trip to LA. But I never went to Orlando. One particular story I vividly remember the last time, my friends and I were in line for the Matterhorn, which was one of my favorite rides as a kid. The ride is built inside of a faux-mountain setting and the lines are usually long and they wrap around the base of the scaled-down but realistic-looking mountain. So we were closing in to the front of the line and this little kid was slyly passing people up, cutting folks, pretending to be part of the group ahead of him. I eyed him the whole time and when he got to our section of the line he tried to go around me and I stuck my arm out and stiff armed him. I said, "Watch out dude!" He looked stumped that someone would try to stop him. Funny thing, I was a year or two out of graduating high school and here I was trying to regulate some kid trying to cut me and my friends. I guess thats just my personal Will Farrell type of moment.
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