May 2005 Archives
So going back to our old post roots, and being 50% less starwarsy, the Wang comes back from the Long Vacation, without Yamaguchi Tomoko but still carrying on. Also i'm not a piano genius and dont have the shohai Matsu Takako crushing after me... Hmm i think lost everyone with j-drama references. But anyways, the goodies:
Old timers like John "that's brisk" Rambo and Indy "shoot first" Jones r coming back out for more.
The not-so invisible Jessica Alba.
The Thighmaster found gold when linked this "your the man now dawg" website that does an enitre database of YTMND style pages. Including our recent famous Star War Vader NOOOOOOOO page.
UGO brings us the coolest gadget in Sci-fi
And as much as the Wang tries to stop linking Starwars stuff, they just pull me back in... so here is why. Its because Starwars is The tools of Satan! and Women in Leia's Metal Bikini page.
But speaking of bad prequels, i put Ep. III through the Toshi Station Chain Scale and got FULL CHAINS for it. So i guess Ep. III is geek rated high for the geeky elements that it has.
Achtung Baby! gives us the mother-load on Lost, u know that TV show made by the same guy who bombed Alias and Felicity. I mean who the hell write a time traveling season for a teen drama?! Sure lets reset the whole story plot, cause? we fucked the first half of the season?! Well rant aside, Lost was one of the few only watch-able shows on TV this past year, and so far... it hasnt sucked hard, yet. So the Wang is keeping his finger's cross for a not-so Felicity/Alias route. Plus, Lost is good income for the Wang's homeland of Hawaii.
U ever wonder where u r girlfriend/wife/lover is well due to the modern day geeky techs, we get Forget me not Panties. Panties with GPS and temperature sensors, so u can track her anywhere!!
So he is Deep Throat? Somehow Michelle Williams and Kristen Dunst would of been more sexy.
Heard this song is making a killing in the UK, but i guess if they like the Pythons' they'll like anything. Oh it has a blue frog... that goes, "ding ding."
Joss Whedon still has hope to direct Xmen3 as the news of Mathew Vaughn leaves the project breaks out on Aint it Cool.
OK a mouse that stimulates ur muscles while u play the computer...Atleast the Japanese geeks know where to direct their creativity towards...
For old school fans, and diehard MMO'ers, TN gives us another great article on the concept of "Zerging." Terra Nova is a great site for reading about the more intellectual thoughts behind all the time we waste on video gaming, specifically Virtual Worlds. Another great article is Memories of Virtual Children. Which talks about the "realness" of the NPC in MMO games. And this article they linked to The Game Is Virtual. The Profit Is Real. (NYT so bugmenot it)
And i leave u with this... Cause Wicket LOVES kids.
Thankyou:
Noble_zone
Golden Fiddle
Datawhat?
Achtung baby!
Waxy Links
E.
So this past memorial day weekend started wayy early. Starting Thur and Friday it was concert night with Mr. Starfizzy. We saw And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead @ the Wiltern. Here is Mr. Starfizzy detail documenting of the events of that evening. I deny any responsibility for any of my actions due to the air in LA. Also, Mr. Starfizzy forgot the most important rant of Cokie McPitStain, which he amended later in the week. Trail of the Dead was ok in my book, what really sold me that night was the performance by The (International) Noise Conspiracy. They r some sort of Swedish concoction with a fancy for red. They claimed to be communists, so i figure Mr. Starryfizzy was going to crème all over himself. But i found the band to be surprisingly entertaining as the lead singer did the Ganf of four crab walk i saw from Coachella, and had these Mic cord tricks that would of made a ranger with the rapid fire feat jealous. At the end of the evening i was convinced that yes, a whip should be a dex based range weapon.
Friday night was another concert night at the Hotel Cafe. The Wang really wanted to see Soda and his Million Piece Band. They r kinda of old school bluesy rock. And the band bit is really cool to see, kinda of jumpin' with 2 sax players. And the entire band is pretty skilled, they went through table/standing guitars, banjos, and mandolins. Overall it was a nice fun experiences to see an almost swing big band-type band in the small venue like Hotel Cafe.
So the Wang officially planned a Weekend trip to the Bay Area for a friends wedding. But the entire schedule got thrown off by a 5 man scholomance run on Friday/Saturday morning. Which lead the wang to 3p rise time. Thus running the entire 5hr drive for dinner in SF. Thus I hung around and went to Mr. Starfizzy's house LAN party. Which was very geek cool. If u never been to a LAN party its pretty much a bunch of guys showing off their "setup" and playing games that involves killing each other. The smell of hour old pizza combined with the sounds of roaring computer fans, fills the rooms. Cords, lights, speakers, and sleeping gamers all crowd the floor of any available space. Of course this will all follow by the insults and put downs from one gamer to another at the sound of "HEAD SHOT!!" or u bitch! Also where ever female gamer get ugooled and drooled upon, u know since girls are rare in gaming. The game of choice that fine evening was Republican Commando, Warhammer: Dawn of War, and one of them Command Conquer games. The Wang didnt stay very long, as the long road to SF required its own 5 hr block. But i had a nice home cooked meal with the Porn King and Queen.
Beyond SF is fun as usual. Met up with old friends, ate, hang out, read comics and unfortunately due to the shotgun nature of this trip, the Wang didnt have time to visit any SF venues for music. But some breakfast place and good meals lead to a very fun but short trip. The Wang of course showed up for the wedding with digital camera in hand and went to work. The groom is a old friend from work, and claimed a Hawaiian heritage, which lead to a small Hawaiian musician group and catering. Which turned out to be very small but nice. Around 50ish ppl at the Slovenian Hall near Bottom of the Hill in SF. The interesting part of the wedding was to watch the Groom's family from Ohio and the brides family, from Korea mingle. This lead to some odd accents and interesting dialog and ended with the mad crazy Korean dance off. The Wang did get to see a few ex-co-worker that i havent seen in awhile. And a few that should of showed up didnt.
The rest of trip was the Wang catching up on sleep to be ready to drive another 5 hrs to get back home... for a RPG game... yes. But doing high speeds on the I5 is always fun as u can take into full account the "passing game." Where u try to pass slow cars and dodge trucks. Still driving for 5 hrs alone is always fun, cause u can just fall asleep and no one will notice. The biggest regret was when the Wang noticed a disabled VW GT or Jetta on the side of the road near Kettleman City, a hundred feet away was a cute looking blonde girl in pigtails. But the time the Wang realized the golden opportunity, it was too late. The Wang does feel sad though; pig-tailed girls should never have to walk 3-4 miles for a service phone... alone, in the hot hot sun, by the freeway.
Best Star Wars Ep. III review EVER! Ok maybe its just better than the 2 reviews before it, but due to the events of last week, if u r better than the 2 before, it makes u the best one!
So how does it feel when Ring 2 stole ur plot Dark Water?
DVD reviews of DVDs bought in Shanghai for about a dollar.
Ep.3 = 2 Stars!
Thankyous:
Almost a week after the tragic event, we still cant get Star Wars out of our minds, this from the Wang brother, play 20 questions with Lord Vader. This is probably rooted from the system thats behind 20Q.net. Here's a Boingboing story about 20Q.net and a new toy that has they whole question AI into an 8-bit chip. So in theory, Lord Vader's intelligence is the same as an 8-bit chip. Speaking of SW tech, they've also made vader's robotic hand.
SO i'm here surfing the blogshpere as usual, when i stumbled on Goldenfiddle's link to the infamous Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. commercial. The video is at Chris Applebaum's page. Chris Applebaum is a music video/commercial director. He's done a bunch of pop-tart videos for Britney and Hilary Duff. Most of time he's ur typical hormone suggestive director with spank material for 14 yr old boys. But i watched a few of his videos and noticed that he's really good at making things look hawt. Sure Paris with a six dollar burger at a car wash is ur typical blonde, car and water combo, but i found a video for Jewel's Stand to be quite cool to watch. I mean Jewel is pretty hot in my book. But Applebaum here takes this weird liberal social commentary video about current politics and still manages to slip in some scenes for Jewel to look 30s hawt.
Here we see this nice picture of Jewel in a dress, but the rear lighting really adds a level when it shines through her dress.
And here we have her in some sort of ribboned shoe in almost the same dress as above.
Overall hawtness i say. Cant quite say the Wang had much for Jewel since the olds days of Foolish Games, but its either the glory of Chris Applebaum or Jewel is still pretty hot. Even though her new albums are boring at best.
IN an odd moment of TV channel flipping i caught a weird bit of the Tom Cruise Oprah event. I tuned in just in time to see Dakota Fanning give the "Ilove uncle cruise" video segment. But still today leads to the entire blogsphere going after the broadcast. Uncle Grambo chimes in with his own take on the whole event. The Thigh master gives us the links to some of the animated gifs from all this weirdness. And of course the mother of all tabloid talking, Defamer has their Cruise-Oprah round up and a nice photoblog of the event. Of course this probably all due to the fact that after tapping katie Holmes, Tom realized that women are good.
Ok that was just way to gossip-y for the Wang's taste, so we have this as a palette cleanser:
Connan O'brien, only decent talk-show on latenight also is a great writer. He did this comical article on the future of entertainment technology for Newsweek. The man is on a role with comically gold stuff like this:
As reality television becomes ubiquitous, being unknown becomes cool. Oprah proclaims that "Anonymity Is the New Fame," and the hottest new program is a worldwide search for someone who has never been on television. The winner, an 80-year-old Maori tribesman, is soon on every magazine cover and is spotted canoodling in the bar of the Four Seasons with Tara Reid.
RAGE! Rage of the gamer! even better than Rage of the Wookie, with 20% less roaring.
A great commercial, Stunt City
And it is time for Weird videos about dolls. First we have Interpol's Evil and then this Japanese Anime-esque doll-thing called Kimono.
Thankyous:
Goldenfiddle
Defamer
Engadget
Joystiq
Waxy Links
Weblog: sex and fun
So here we are, Ep. III + 1 day. Of course, the monstrosity made mad money, $50 million in one day. In fact thats more money then some of the Wang's favorite movies EVER made. Still its shame to see the fans taking this thing up. I just hope not everyone out there is a Lucas Sheep.
But still for some of us, we need to move on at the end of this saga. The Wang recommends a made trilogy viewing over this weekend to rinse the taste of the prequels, go old school, and party like its the early 80s. Though the choice of Special Edition or Original LDs is entirely up to ur own choosing, the new DVD version do have some enhancements. But the biggest question will be how has the Prequels effected ur enjoyment of the originals? Well the Wang will help the transition by adding a few hints in connecting the two storylines.
Better technology/Art Design: We clearly see that the old Republic had cooler tech, art design and all sort of fancy gadgets. The original will have the 80s haircuts, and crappy spaceships. Just remember they r old school and streamlined by the emperor now. So instead of a multitude of ships, all ships look the same. Also we can clearly see in Ep. 3, that hobbit-hair cut of the 70s was making a comeback in Corscant. So its natural that in ep. 4 everyone would have an 80s haircut. Though this off course would put Leia out of fashion. She seems to be still wearing the bun-style hair cut that her mom used to wear, like thats so 20 yr ago Leia!
Fancier Lightsaber duels: Of clearly Ep. 3 hand some awesome lightsaber fights. The climatic duel between Anakin and Obi-wan was the apex of jedi weapon masters. So what happened to them in episode 4? how come to acrobatic saber master ended up to be the stick twirling slugs of a New Hope? Here's how the Wang sees it. Jedi/Sith Master fight on a higher level. And while they r older and more powerful than i can possibly imagine, the two, now masters, duel on multi-levels. So instead of just what we see here on screen, the two not only are dueling sabers, words, they are also having a Button War™. Basically this is where Obi-wan, using the force, keep trying to turn off Vader's suit by hitting the buttons on his chest plate. Vader, in defense, uses the force to block him. What we dont see on screen is an intense warfare of force-button attacks, and Vaders skillful deflection of these attacks with his "chosen one" Sith force skills. Thus the two masters dueling on multiple fronts, leads them to fight much slower than they once did at a younger age.
Vader is Luke's father Revelation: Assuming u watch these things in order, than this revelation at the end of Ep.5 is not-so dramatic. I mean we knew this. So how does one still enjoy this epic moment in movie history without the spoilers from the Prequels? Well the best way the Wang con suggest is to use the Jedi Mind trick on ur self, and tell ur self to forget about Anakin and Vader of Ep.3. Or if u r not-so-strong in the ways of the force, try the Spiral Eye. If that still fails, then try some blunt weapons. Use at ur own risk though, blunt weapons have been know to cause D4 to D8 dmg. Still this will help u erased the fact and enjoy the revelation that (SPOILER ALERT) Vader IS Luke’s father...(END SPOILER)
Well hope all this will help u enjoy a weekend of Star Wars old School Style. And may the Force be with you... for the first time... again.
Thankyou:
Achtung baby!
P.S. Oh incase u've all missed E3, here r some E3 Game Trailers, the only thing worth seeing from E3. And yes thats counting the booth babes.
Ok so beside the fact that we saw it in a not-so technically advance theatre, the Wang was content with seeing it on opening day/morning. So there I was, after 28 yrs, the saga comes to an end. Right? So there wasnt any die-hard fans in jedi robes, but there were a few toy sabers. Still, 3 hrs later, i wish it ended back in 83. When i still remember the young Wang watching Return of the Jedi in the theatres. I mean sure the first 2 episodes sucked, how hard was it to make a movie that links two crappy movies to 3 good ones? half of the plot of this movie is set alrdy the other half is alrdy revealed in later/earlier movies. Lucas still manages to turn an almost 3 decade event into a merchandising machine, catering to none other than himself and a few fanbois that worships the ground he walks on. I mean Lucas could of throw sh1t at these Hardcore fans., and they would of loved it.
The Setup: The first to episode before werent the best pieces of work. The original three were up to opinion on which one is the best. So here's the connecting chain. To link 2 crappy movies, and conclude an epic saga of almost 30 yrs. into 3 alrdy well known movies of our generation. Some of the biggest revelation are, infact not. Watching this movie is like reading a book, where u know the ending to. Its all about the delivery. Fans of the past 30 years would of taken mostly anything, just a simple tie-in movie that started with some cool lightsabers, and ended with Anakin in a vader suit. I mean how hard is that? Actually it thats all u expected, then this movies is pretty much that, if u can sit through all the bad dialog and cold acting.
The Visuals: Hands down this movie was great to look at. The art direction, the CG, the integration of actors and CF characters, the effects, and even the action was pretty good. Lightsaber fights were brilliantly fun to watch and safe. Space battles were on another level. More space/land vehicles were shown off, which will probably lead to a few more billion for the Lucas toy empire. This time, most of the characters dont seem as out of place in their chroma-keyed studio lighting.
The Story: Now here's where it bombed for me. The first 40 min of this movie felt like a Greek play. Sure the tragedy bit i can buy, but really the cold acting, the scene per scene dialog that basically plays out like a rushed con-game, where everyone needs deliver two important lines so everyone can stand around awkardly after. All that. that didnt work. The pacing for the story was so off, that Ep. 2 should of been the first 40 min. of Ep 3, and the crap we call Ep. 2 should of been some videogame or comic book. Best quote i read about the Anakin/padme love scenes is this:
...and his approach on romantic scenes is comically asexual. (To come to the Revenge of the Sith screening, as I did, having written all morning about the eros-charged work of novelist James Salter, was akin to falling asleep in a brothel and waking up in a monastery.) -Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
And the some of the later scenes that involve some dramatic story climaxes, Lucas deliver these scene so short, so un-focuses, u think other scenes like R2-D2's bizarre adventure was more interesting. And those choices angers the Wang. I mean droids arent real! Also the Wang refuse to buy the attempt that Anakin Dynamite's turned to the darkside as tragic hero. I mean please, enough of those whining, "i'm doing it for u" crap. Also as much as Lucas says he doesnt accept the whole Expanded Universe thing, he does draw a lot fomr it. Like the sith and the whole line about understanding the darkside before mastering the force bit.
The Full Circle: So ep.3 is suppose to bring the Star War saga to an full circle, in some ways it did. I give the story credit for showing some scenes that mimic scenes in the future ep. but seen in different angles, which bring more to the later scenes. And might add elements when u see the ep.4-6 once again, after watching the prequels. In that aspect, there were some good moments. And some of the bestest scene cut short by the Lucas maniac is definitely the Vader thing. Also the naming of Leia and Luke, seemed like there could of been a scene there, but no, the bad juxtaposing and short edits made the scene feel rushed and meaningless...
Over all it wasnt the conclusion the Wang wanted. It was more of the result of Lucas to make a "thing" to satisfy his fans and his ego. I hope the leaked copy cut atleast cut a dent into his profits. One of the bestest lines came from Padme:
"This is how democracy ends - with thunderous applause."
-
Thankyous:
Data What
BoingBoing
AFK Gamer
Achtung baby!
I am not at E3, but its presence has alrdy caused me much traffic:
and house guests:
But I give u all these cool sites that should satisfy u r E3 news needs:
Joystiq
Kotaku
G4TV's E3 2005 Coverage
Engadget Gaming
Gizmodo's Home Entertainment Section
GameSpot E3
GameSpy E3
1up's E3 coverage
So roommate Jestr scored some comp tickets to the More Friends Music from Final Fantasy event during the current E3 week. Not being on of these Cosplay, Animecon goers, i had very little interest in actual video game scores, even to FF series which i do quite enjoy. But the event has some interesting allure. They seem to play a lot of the cut scenes from FF series to match the orchestral performance. So i went.
The event took place at the Universal Amphitheatre. The Orchestra was lead by Arnie Roth, whom i read has some Grammy fame. But beyond that i know very little about the classic music world. But they played through some of the music from FFVII with a poster-child scene of Aerith selling flowers flow by the famous Midgard zoom out. That was one fo the first time in RPG history did such cut scene existed. The first time the Wang played FFVII i was about to cry from the goose-bumps. It was beautiful how they combined the FF polygon characters and the FMVs. Not to mention one of the most classic gaming scenes of Aerith death. (ok if u didnt know about that spoiler for the last 10 yrs, then TOO BAD!!)
But the concert then lead to some more interesting pieces, including the Jazz ode to Chocobos, Battle music from FF series performed by Nobuo Uematsu's rock band, The Black Mages, the famous opera number from FFVI, and a climatic chorus rendition of the Sephroth number.
A personal highlight would be the appearance of Rikki doing Suteki Da ne from FFX. All done to the big vid screens showing the kissing scene between Tidus and Yuna floating in the lake. Which was, quite nice. The wang showed a soft side that normally one can see if only viewed from the bottom. Another great scene is Yuna's Ritual of Sending dance, that she does in the early aprts of FFX. Overall it was a nice event for $40 that i didnt have to pay.
On other E3 news here's a direct link G4TVs E3 05 live page. They have some real gems there. Beside the cool daily shows on E3, news articles, there some funny features too. Like Top 10 Booth babe Pick-up lines and the ongoing coverage of Xbox 360. Still, this week makes G4TV respectable. I give props to the folks working hard on the whole E3 event. Cause the only thing it is doing for me, is causing traffic by the I10 -I110 interchange.
So the PS3 picture yesterday was off course wrong. here some live coverage fo the PS3 and with detail tech specs live from Joystiq. Now A live demo of PS3 and a gallery. Not to sure of this trend fo all consoles to be white. At least the revolution rumor so far, hints it at being black.
Even the LAist decided to comment on E3, Day 0.
Rachel Harris of recent Kicking and Screaming fame gave us 13 things we dont know about women from Esquire magazine. Rachel is quite cute, specially on VH1's Best Week Ever. Another cute comedian from BWE is Melissa Rauch. She and Rachel have some nice clips in the BWE video section.
Welcome to Geek Fantasies, where u can watch hot women quote Monty python while doing sensual things with D20s, and TI81s. Get ready for some Geekgasm!
Ok, g'night gentle viewers!
THANKYOU:
BoingBoing
Achtung baby!
Joystiq
Thighs Wide Shut
Data What?!
Kotaku
Hello from wangverse. The wang has been out mostly of last week due to work schedules and long hrs behind the computer, which lead to some sickness-state of non-sleep. But all that is behind us. But this event lead to some catching up on DVD and TV shows that the Wang has been neglecting of late. So today we start with a bunch of Media related topics.
First off, Diet Coke now has Splenda. Its a Nutrasweet like artificial sweetner. But this lead to a few of their new advertising campaigns with the likes of Adrianne Brody doing the "Bounce". But the important thing is in one of the latest commercials to come out last week was the "Sparkle" commercial. U can see all these at the Diet Coke Website under thier little commercial section. Now the Wang has noticed that unders "Sparkle" they go with the hip route, using a song by Oakenfold and even using this yong blonde girl. I think this is Coke's answer to the Pepsi Girl, Mandy Amano of superbowl ass shaking fame. Still i think the blonde care-free roller skate look, works with the sunset and the Santa Monica beach look. And the Wang likes. So if the cola commercial battles will lead to cute girl intro casualties like these, then the Wang says let the War of Colas begin!!
The next big media event of discussion would be SNL this past weekend. The guest host would be none other then returning cast member Will Ferrell. Mainly to promoting his Kicking on Screaming movie i assume. The shwo started off in the usuall Will Ferrel cliche, with him stealing one to many sketches, but i guess it works this time since he IS the host. But they also zoom the camera in on his face a little too much. But the crowning moments are definetly the return of Celebrity Jeperody with Sean Connery and Will Ferrel supporting the Musical act, Queens of the Stone Age with an intense cowbell performance, reprising his fame as Gene from the "Blue Oyster Cult." I mean u just cant go wrong with more cowbells.
GOLD!
The Like, cute girl band consisting of barely legal daughters of music producers in the LA scene, has just returned from their oversea touring and recording. With a new website The LIke is finally releasing their long awaited album at the end of summer. also they will have the following shows coming up in the LA area.
5/25 House of Blues for A.P. MAGAZINE'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY
5/27 The Troubadour w/ The Icarus Line
6/7 House of Blues Sunset w/ the Go-Gos
Also due to the coming of E3 this week, G4TechTV has brought out in force their coverage of it. From real hard hiting news worthy shows covering about the upcoming events, Pre show coverage to great commercials like "Beleive it Or Not it's E3". G4 Tech TV and IGN is taking the whole tech/gaming journalism/media thing to a respectable level.
and a last bit of gossip info: Maybe this is the PS3? (via Thighs Wide Shut)
Slow day here, but here's a few things just randomly thrown at ya all.
Parrots are getting smart. Here's a clip to proof it. This parrot does every sound effect fomr wolf calls to space ship lasers.
NO! Natalie shaved her head for Vendetta...
Speaking of which, Egotastic also has a link to the Fantastic Four vs. Magic Johnson NBA commercial.
According to Uncle Grambo, girls can be mean at age 3 alrdy.
For those of us that cannot get into any cool E3 parties, there's the IGJA 1st Annual Not an E3 Party
And remember the great news of the day, Calendar Live from LA times is free again!
Thankyous:
Logan
Waxy Links
Egotastic
Whatevs
Engadget
Kotaku
If Hyrule (from Zelda, in case u dont know.) had MySpace, it would be HySpace. And read the user comments, those are the funniest.
Noble_zone alerts us of the following two trailers: Teaser for Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I guess the fantasy genre is still alive. I guess LotR has stirred up a few years of fantasy movies. All good. The Wang loves stories about little kids discovering fantastical lands... i mean they might as well get their kicks before they have to pay mortgage on their castle or work 9 to 5 for the ministry of Magic.
Tokyo Metro installs "Women Only" cars to prevent gropers. This will kill an entire market of the Japanese economy. This was the only stress release Japanese business man had. Now they must resort to buying panties from vending machines. Atleast they can target advertising on these cars. The Japanese are really opportunistic. But then again, the new car is called the "Lesbian Heaven Train."
Xbox Spec revealed? DS and Revolution will talk wirelessly? I guess only u E3 goers will truly know. Or maybe u'll just a lto of useless convention junk.
NPR interviews Strongbad, and his creator
How Stuff Works gives us this little magic tip on How Light Saber's work and their multitude of uses, like slicing ur bagels.
Thankyous:
Waxy Links
Noble_zone
BoingBoing
AFK Gamer
Sploid
GIzmodo
Kotaku
DataWhat?
Viva liberté! The Broadcast flag has been defeated! The US Court of Appeal strike down the FCC for regulating what we watch on TV. Good to hear. Now lets hope the future is still bright, until the current government replaces all the justices on the Court of Appeals... then it will be a dark day.
"Whore College" was part of the program at the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival.
A review of Kingdom of Heaven ala Noble_zone.
The Barabi Flash Drive. Its nice to see a headless doll's body sticking out of the computer. Speaking of Barbi, here's her dairy from McSweeny's short essays.
Oh and watch out for the new Google Accelerator. Apparentyly it can cause a lot of trouble by linking everything even javascripts and ignoring warnings, which really does a number on web-apps. Also the web-accelerator might be doing some deep-mining of websites that the normal search engines cant get to. Almost like Google is turning into the big-corporate brother. I mean when they were small and cool, everyone liked them. Now they are crossing the lines into Microsoft area. I guess all small companies become giant mega corps one day. And then ppl start to be paranoid of them.
Rilo Kiley's Portions for Foxes music video on Filter Mag.
Around this time every year in May till June LA looks the best with this late Spring look. Yesterday a freak rainstorm came and cleared up the usually smog filled sky, to reveal a decently beautiful day in LA today. These days are rare in LA's case. A specially great look for the May/June period are the Jacaranda trees. These trees produce a lavender/pink flower during this period of the year. The above picture is the street across from where i live, and has rows of these Jacaranda trees. Though my crappy phone cam cannot get the fulll glory of these things. I've alrdy setup some time to go get some photo of these as my first photo outing with my digital SLR. Then i should have something worthy of posting. But for now, bathe on the glory of the purple trees across my street.
Viewing Chris Tallman's Batman
And Engadget gives us the scoop on the recent Xbox 360 events, and the links to its release in 2005. The whole MTV Xbox release party landed some photos from some Norwegian site? Not to sure, but here's a link. Of course with all this spot light, the PS3 is taunting specs.
Alrighty have a nice weekend folks, Wang's out.
Thankyous:
Noble_zone
Waxy Links
Uncle Grambo
Sploid
BoingBoing
Weblog: sex anbd fun
Engadget
ThighMaster is right, forget Coachella, check out the lineup for Austin City Limits Music Fest. Its like everyone who played at Coachella decided to go again in Austin, and they brought some more of their musical friends... Thats going to be another insane festival. Think the Wang will finally have to visit Austin this fall.
Click this guy's face and u can almost get a Andy Knowles, the Fiery Furnaces drummer look out of this.
More star wars news leads us to this Cingular commercial where everyone of the cast sells out for advertising. Though with the coming of EP. III, inspirations of great art works are also abundant. Like this Last Supper Jedi & Bounty Hunter picture. Or LKego Carbonite Solo. In fact something else that should be put in carbonite, Jar Jar. Also, Wired gives us two cool articles on the Artisit Lucas, and The Lucas Empire.
Zorro is back! *z-swoosh with mouse*
Monty Python's Sir Spamalot site has sample audio tracks.
Anne Hathaway in Vanity Fair photo shoot. I always thought that she has this classic beauty, like the actresses form the 40s-60s. Still, i guess hotness transcends time.
Steven Soderbergh and Mark Cuban decides to release films on DVD, Pay-per-View, and Theatres at the same time. This can either revolutionize future entertainment, or get some new Bill passed to "protect" Hollywood. Though the Wang is all in support of change. This will definitely cut back on the crap handheld piracy market.
So it only took 5 month for Apple to claim 58% of the flash MP3 player market with the iPod Shuffle. Mean while the iPods still hold a 90% on hard drive based markets. Scary, so much for supporting Apple as the underdog, they'r now the ghetto corporate giant of the music scene. Playing up their indie, underdog angle, Apple has niched them self with ideals of individualism. I dont know how that works, seeing how everywhere the Wang goes, we see those crappy white earphones.
And still more coachella stuff, the Coachella 2005 Mediaeater Photostream on Flickr. And now that Uncle Grambo pointed it out, i do think my Coachella write up sounds a little bit like this. Still, recalling that i didnt enjoy much of Bright Eye's performance @ Caochella, his recent protestperformance of "When The President Talks To God" on Leno does redeem some coolness.
A Photo gallery of some amusement park in Japan. This looks like a coop place to do some sort of LARP, not that the Wang encourages that sort of things, it just leads to Furries.
LAist recommends 5 Mexican restaurants to celebrate, Cinco de Mayo.
Warning from Gizmodo is that LCD prices are going to rise. So swing on over to Dell and get some coupons from Techbargains and grab some of those nice UltraSharps while they r still cheap.
Since the Wang spends a lot of time in World of Warcraft, and reason to read a "serious" article about it just makes it seem more intellectual. Terra Nova, brings us this article, Reputation Capital, about the importance of reputation in the endgame of WoW. Discussing the importance of being a well-known "good" player in the virtual social environment. While blacklisted people gets the virtual dunce-hat. On the other hand the daily rants of AFK Gamer is a funnier in-the-trench view of the WoW world. Though as a true shame, Foton of AFK Gamer has moved on to Guild Wars.
WHat golf? sure i'll play golf with Maria Menounos
So now that the reputablebig news agencies noted that parents are noticing that their kids keep blogs that reveal too much. This will only turn the eyes of the conservatives on this whole internet/blog event and turn it into some sort of mediated media. Soon, website will require to have a rating on it...
And Skeet on Mischa's 50's hott ppl on Cobra snake. And his dizz on Coachella is also in the same entry.
Have a nice night, and dont party to hard, but drink till everyone looks hawt!
Thankyous:
DataWhat
Waxy Links
BoingBoing
Thighs Wide Shut
Wired
LAist
Gizmodo
Terra Nova
Uncle Grambo
CNN gives us this article that tackles the very disturbing fact that Ep. III will be PG-13. I mean we all knew this alrdy, But CNN decides to tell us a few scenes that makes the movie PG-13. On that note, figuring since the movies will start in around 2 weeks, so in case u haven’t seen the old movies in awhile here’s the Star Dudes site, so u can watch the Dudes version from ep. 4-6 and ep. 1. Also in SW news, the legendry Mann’s Chinese line has been immortalized in Lego goodness.
Studio Ghbili forum mentions Miyazki’s next and possibly last film, "Wo Diushile Wode Xiaonanhai (I Lost My Little Boy)."
Back to Coachella, here’s a link to Eisley’s Travel blog, which has an entry for the Cochella event. Where they comment greatly on their monitors going out, and hwo the fan stayed true. Still if u want to catch the Eisley family show, they r doing a few shows with New Found Glory @ the house of Blues in the LA area in the next few days, which means last night and tonight.
Also more stuff to add on the whole Coachella event. After reading a few more blogs today, I came to the conclusion that there’s just needs to be more “stuff" for a weekend like that. I mean its seems like I’m missing out on some spiritual level of a music fest without having some substance in me. I’m not one to try out the hardcore stuff, but I guess, next time I should atleast go drunk or something. Cause one of the best photo journal pictures I found about Coachella seems to involve college kids on weed. Still the Wang regret not taking more pictures, and will have to ratify this in the coming yrs.
The girl from the Photo journal above mentioned how this past weekend was the one of the best time of her life, I honestly cant say I have that passion for things now days. Is it an age thing? Maybe the Wang is getting old. But still, the Wang respects anyone who has passion for things. Much like the Thorn bird I think the Wang needs a rapture-esque moment of passion. Something worthy of this thing called "life". U think if a event such as a musical festival aint going to do it, I guess then, the Wang needs to try even more newer things.
Coachella was an interesting event. Much like the musical fests of legend, there was ppl, and they were high. I don’t think these modern day corporate festival mock-ups will ever be anything truly legendary. Still its an event for our ages I guess. Wonder what it would have been like to be there like 10 yrs ago. How I would view these things? Or who I would be with… though I think I c it now in my current age, I’m sure it is an different experience to go to one of these things in my 30s, and watch as the “kids" dance around in their youth. The number of beautiful girls in urban fashion wear was un imaginable.
I think somewhere, there is a version of us in different times.
Pseudo Japanese Co-work mentioned to me yesterday about a short story he read awhile back called The man who folded himself . About a man who inherits a time machine. But was intimidated by distant times, instead he found an area and hung out with himself from different time periods of his live. He would hangout with the old self, and the his own young self. I think it would be an interesting experience to do that. Say hang out at Coachella with the 60 yr old me, and the 20 yr old me. Thing I would want to tell myself, and the things I would want to learn from the old me… I think that would be a great music festival, an event.
Somewhere deep down the Wang recall the American Beauty scene, where the freaky plastic bag boy mentions how sometimes there is just soo much beauty. It was a nice scene. I think the beauty wasn’t in the girls or a sexual thing, rather, the beauty of youth, of fans, of those who come and gather to share a moment, to experience a singled shared experience with 100,000 ppl. There’s something beautiful in that. Even Mr. Starfizzy comments that singing along to Weezer with thousands of ppl has something to it. Maybe that’s what it is about. Sharing that single moment in life, and that’s the greatness of the whole event. It was about the gathering of 100,000 music fans. It was about that single moment where 100,000 ppl forgot about everything else, and joined in in one Weezer song, and in that moment, we were just us… u know a bunch of fools making noises in the desert.
Thankyous:
BoingBoing
Thighs Wide Shut
Achtung baby!
Tony Pierce Blog
JRock
Arcadefire.net
So this past weekend has been a long and exciting event. So much, that Monday was my day of rest, much like Sunday, but not really. So, this week was the convergence of two large events, first was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the second was Coachella 2005 Music & Art Fest. The weekend pretty much started on late night of Last Thur. where close friends and I went to see Hitchhiker's at some mad midnight showing. With towel in hand, the Wang watch the glory that is The Guide.
Classic.
Movie was awesome. With this as its opening number, i knew this movie was going to catch the essence and the humor of the book. Movie was funny in that off-the-wall british way that made so little sense u find ur self either laughing or going what the hell? Having an early exposure to the books in my youth, i found the movie extremely funny. I would agree that Noble_zone's comments about how a lot of ppl won’t get this movie are probably right. Its a shame, the movie is classic, and i hope it does well in England, to warrant a sequel. Though i would think the later books arent as good, but who knows maybe in the spirit of things, the movie can be adapted with the feel of Hitchhiker.
So i liked it so much, i saw it again on Friday with the Wulfgar crowd.
Then the actual weekend. So Coachella music and Art fest. was located about 120+ mile east of Los Angeles, In the city of Indeo, in the Coachella Valley on the Empire Polo grounds. It took about 2hrs of driving to get there, around another hr to get parking. And the Wang was mad enough to drive there and back each day. Cause? breakfast is better in Pasadena and I notice the 2nd day that i can sneak in my camera.
Though i do regret not taking enough pictures. The 2nd day was alrdy quite tiring, that lugging the camera was simplier than shooting with it. Though i would admit the SLR wasnt really that good for the scene. The lack of lighting produces very bad pictures indoors and at nights, while the lack of a telephoto lens made it hard for me to get any good shots form the distance i was at. Which made me vowed to get a Press Pass or better for the next time i go there, amongst other vows/promises.
Upon arriving at Coachella, after some 1hr of parking traffic, we hit up our first Act, the The Raveonettes. it being the first experience of the entire fest, i was mainly paying attention to the setup of the field, the stage and wondering where all the ppl r. I soon learned that it was still early, and people didnt show up till later in the afternoon. Though they strike me as a Modern day Abba, cept i lost that comparison when i realized that one of the lead singers was a man, and not a women...
M83 is this French electronic duo. The Wang is usually not an electronic fan, but i stumble across their website a few month back. They had their entire album, Before the Dawn Heals us online, and the Wang thoroughly enjoyed most of the songs. Plus they had a really cool website, done in Flash, that used text as its only navigation. Unfortunately they have changed that for a more user friendly site. Still their music is borderline post-rock without venturing into techno stuff. Kind of mellow, which is nice for the Wang. But sad things is they were completely out of their environment in the desert sun at 3p. Maybe a night time show in the Techno tent would of been better for them.
Then there was Eisley, a cute family from Austin. 3 sister DuPree, 1 brother DuPree and this other dude makes up the band. The Wang had some of their music prior and has a soft spot for their pop-single Telescope Eyes. Unfortunately their show was plagued by the curse of the "Outdoor Stage" and Sherri DuPree obvs got realy pissed off at the whole event and was angry... Angry texan christian girls, ah… good times.
So all that angry texan bit was followed by the British O.C. invasion. Not that Snow Patrol or Keane were on the O.C. specifically, but their music might as well be in some WB teen drama hour compilation. Snow Patrol is pretty good on album, but i think they r still a little green live. I've heard some of their live performances online, and they seem to like a charisma or power. Very shy british boys. While Keane should of been born in Texas with the DuPree family. His love for jeans and a belt buckle almost makes him a honorary Texan. Plus he likes these hand sway motions that grabs the microphone in some sort of I'm-toned-down-60s-rock-star kind of way. But still, Snow Patrol's Run and Keane's Somewhere we belong are on the top end of the repeat track for the Wang right now. Keane's swaying texan antics made him more entertaining to watch, but we had to leave early to get a good spot for Rilo Kiley, so the Wang did get to hear a live version of Somewhere we belong. Ok maybe a an echo version from the food stand...
Ah that bring us to Rilo Kiley. Jenny Lewis would be the dream Mrs Wang. She's perky, funny, witty, and knows how to handle a mic. Plus the outfit she wore can only be awarded the number one best outfit for a performer at Coachella 05. This, what Mr. Starfizzy described as a Raggedy Anne doll hooker wear, ended some where around the thigh, and was accessorized by pick knee high socks. Having heard a bunch of Rilo Kiley's song before hand, Jenny would of been nothing less then this, the image of spunk. Jenny gave a great performance, with cool lines like, "Holy Shit." she addressed the crowd in gleeful surprise. Other antics include the "knee all the keys on the piano" move, which i assume lead to the rilokiley.net's discussion on whether she was wearing underwear or not. Again, the stress on getting a Press pass next year. But beyond the eyecandy-ness, Her songs are cute and witty. Not poopy, but full of interesting lyrics. And she sounded pretty much like she does on tape.
We quickly rushed off to catch the tail end of Wilco which seems to be some sort of pop-country rock bit. I know a lot of the Wang's friends r all over this band, but the Wang seems to miss something. Plus their performance was a little mellow. I guess typical for some country act. But it wasnt very memorable. They were followed by the well know Weezer. My influences from ex-co-worker Thai-party girl, has lead me to at least hear one or two of Weezer's albums, plus they r ghetto popular. Songs like Hash pipe is a staple. This is when the Wang first noticed, the sheer amount of ppl at the fest smoking out. And when i say smoking out, i mean grass. Cause there was a circle of ppl lighting up. And only the lyrics of Snow Patrol's Run started to echo in the Wang's mind... Light up light up, as if you have a choice.... Realizing that have the fun of Coachella was probably about the smoke out, the Wang was his closest to reach over and borrow a "tug." But having never smoked anything would of probably lead to shameful coughing, and spazzing on the ground like some sort of fish out of water. thus the Wang decided against it and save such experiences for other times. Still Weezer put on a good show, but their lead singer, Rivers Cuomo, seemed like he was very stoned. I expected more punk antics from the lead of Weezer, but instead he stood there like an unmoving pillar on stage. Though i did dig the Van Halen mock sign they had hanging up.
We again left early for some experimental band called Bloc Party. I'm not sure what exactly to call them, but they seemed to be a new wave of British punk-pop that will be the big thing in a few years. Mr. Starfizzy with his infinite knowledge of British rock, explained to me that they are the new catchy thing. For the Wang, they were some sort of rock, funk, punk mixture that was shaken and stirred. later the Wang found out that ex-co-worker Thai-party girl was also in the same tent raving towards Bloc Party.
We ended out first night with Spoon instead of the pop-choice Coldplay. Spoon eneded up commanding a small intimate crowd, much in contrast with the headliner-rock-fest of Coldplay. The Wang enjoyed the Spoon. The Wang is currently on this 80s rock bit, and Spoon had an Elvis Costello feel to him. And the small crowd seemed cooler way to end the night then the large behemoth of the Coldplay minions. Still due to the curse of the "outdoor stage" Spoon ended up playing late due to audio problems, which prevented us from getting out of the field early enough, thus we were stuck in outbound traffic for like a good hour+.
Having refreshed out selves on a nights sleep at home, we trek back out to Indio after a good breakfast at Aux Delices in Old Town Pasadena. the drive being slightly faster still took us about 2hrs, but this time only about 20 min of parking traffic. We obvs missed the Gram Rabbit who handed out these rabbit years. Not knowing much about them, the Wang decided oh well, we dont need to see them. After seeing this picture of their lead singing, Jesika Von Rabbit. The Wang think he really missed out. Plus reviews mentioning the hoppy-ness of Jesika Von Rabbit. Still a few sample tracks from their website has convinced the Wang that they aint up the Wang's taste alley, but maybe the whole Von Rabbit thing is for another alley...
Then there was an entire afternoon of hangin out by the "outdoor stage" which became the stage that won the best stage of Coachella award. The afternoon was filled with Jem and Fiery Furnaces Jem is cute as always, sporting what won the 2nd best dressed award for Coachella, Jem wore a swimming suit top and a denim skirt, which seemed in fashion amongst the girls this year. As Mr. Starfizzy noticed, a lot of the girls in the audience also took this attire. Unfortunately Jem played the same act she did a few month back, when Mr. Starfizzy and I caught her in the El Ray. So not much of this stuff is new. Jem carries a tune as well as the next pop star. But i think her cuteness well help her sell records. Curse the O.C. music machine!!
Of course after Jem ended, we strategically moved our selves to within stalker range of Eleanor Friedberger.
yes... Friedberger.
As u can see above, on the right, that is the crazy Fiery Furnace drummer, Andy knowles. As we like to call him, The Clockwork Orange Drummer on Milk-plus. As he drums like hes on something. Though the Wang did catch him taking a shot of Red Bull, but i'm quite sure he had a special supply of Red Bull Plus. but i missed getting a shot of his first entrance where he had a Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas look, with he hat and big glasses. Still this drummer is the coolest drummer evah!
Anyways, Eleanor got into her spot by the mic stand and never moved much as the Fiery Furnace carried on an almost non-stop 50 min act. Much like the last time i saw them, they mix a few of their songs together, linked by musical transitions. Mr. Starfizzy, a stalker of Eleanor, knew all the songs by heart. And the Wang caught one too many side glances of Mr. Starfizzy singing along like some sort of german mountain girl on a thin air high, jumping and yodeling. Still the Fiery Furnace gave a powerful performance, and having heard some of their songs this time, it was much more enjoyable then when i first saw them and confused them with 6 older guys...
Then we saw Sare and Tegan. On first impression, i assumed they were some sort of Canadian Bubblegum Pop band, which by their sound they r. Their latest album, So Jealous seems to be going down a pop route, that given enough airtime on the O.C. they can become the next big thing this coming fall. But upon further readings it seems that their older music was along the line of women-folk-rock of Lilith Fair, of which they played at in the 90s. Still the Wang dig the poppy sounds of Bubblegum pop, cause it spanks of images of girls hopping around in pigtails.
After that, Mr. Starfizzy suggested we go catch this group called The Gang of Four which brought back memories of the old days, when the Wang had to endure culture re-education under the great father and Chairmen. Of course, the Gang of Four are the fore-fathers of Punk, not the fore-father of Communist power struggles. Easily confused though. After the confusion, the Wang was more acceptable to the band. Surprisingly they were quite good. Their lead, Jon King, which the Wang has associated as the model for Bill Nighy's character in Love Actually gave a entertaining performance on stage. He busted a Microwave, did the crab walk, and pulled of some sort of 80s chained dance, that only a lanky britsh fellow could pull off. After i got some of their music, and wished that I were big music fan and could of enjoyed the fact that they havent played on stage like this in 20 yrs. Still... It was a fun moment.
We had to leave early again to catch Arcade Fire. The indie poster child of 2004, Arcade Fire is a group of rowdy kids from Quebec. Normally u would think that description wouldnt be entertaining. But still they have a great Album and are decently fun to watch. though i think they are too rowdy. I did find their live performance on KCRW's morning becomes eclectic to be much more pleasant. They toned down a bit of their rowdy stage antics and u get to hear their cool songs a lot better. Now i do recommend the Morning Eclectic site, they get a lot of live performances, and most of them have videos of the actual performance in-studio. They have some cool ones with Jem, M.I.A. and M83, which are much better in a studio then the "Gobi tent." Still Arcade Fire's fame from this last year lured the largest crowd at the "Outdoor Stage" that the Wang seen all weekend. The Arcade Fire kids were also the only ones that stage dove into the crowd. Seems like these guys are getting great reviews on their performances, however the Wang only seem to like their CD album... while their on-stage drum kit hitting ways seems to be... well childish. Still Mr. Starfizzy mentioned that someone said, when the Arcade Fires mature, they will become the Decembrists. Which the Wang agrees.
Another one of Mr Starrfizzy favored was the Dresden Dolls. They can be described as a punk burlesque show. Which happened to turn out to be one of the most entertaining and high energy show throughout the whole festival. I mean their drummer, Brian Viglione, is probably the only one that can match the Fiery Furnaces drummer in sheer energy. But mostly he came on stage with white face paint and a bowler hat. Their singer, Amanda gave an all out goth/punk thing on the keyboard. And the Dolls dark comedy-esque lyrics were also quite entertaining. The Wang came to the conclusion that shows are only truly cool if u know the songs. Experimenting with bands is always a little weird. They just seem like random music at that point. But having listen to the Dresden Dolls i find watching them much more exciting. Having seen some of their videos, i knew the type of act that they have, but wondered how they were going to translate it to the live stage, surprisingly enough, they carried on a greater energy and their on-stage mime acts seems to carry their goth/punk feel. And i loved the way Amanda hits the right keys on her keyboard with the whip of her hand, thats just attitude.
And then some where in the experimental trip of the fest, was the Blood Brothers. (noticed no linking here, i'm trying to protect u... trust me) I can only say they on stage duets and 80s jazzercise antics can only be called Terrance and Phillip on drugs. I'll just leave it at that. but atleast it helped us avoid Nine Inch Nails.
We ended up almost ending the night on Black Star, which is a indie hip-hop/rap group made up of Mos Def and Kweli, Talib. Yes the Mos Def from Hitchhikers... the Wang was confused too, u mean Ford Prefect can rap!? Again, to the Wang's surprise, it was a enjoyable show, the energy and the crowd makes most event quite exciting. Not a fan of the rap scene, but i guess it is a experience to see on of these. Plus i heard it was a reunion of sorts, since both these singers have solo careers now. Not having any idea what indie rap is all about, it still sounds like a bunch guys shouting in rhythm, if any at all. But having been surrounded by energy-filled people hoping and tripping. Its quite neat.
We then ended the night on Bright Eyes. Whom happened to be one of those bands great on album, but slap them on stage they seemed like they had one too many substances. I mean beside the cool comment about using up whats left in ur pockets, lead singer, Conor Oberst seemed like he had nothign more to say then a somber "thankyou." The Wang almost regret not staying with Black Star, atleast at the end of the show, Mos Def asked the stage hands for one more song, for the fans... but was rejected. See thats an Artist. Still Bright Eyes melancholy showed landed us an early exit, avoiding the sea of people and making it to our cars early. Thus giving us a head start on traffic. Which got me home around 3:30am after all the drama of driving.
And then the Wang hit the bed...
Some photos of the event can be found at The Getty Image Coachella Gallery. Or even the The Desert Sun's Coachella coverage. Meanwhile the OC Register gives a interesting review from the writing of Ben Wener of which I can only guess to be an old school die hard music reviewer. But be warned, OC Register requires a login... *cough*.
Overall the event was a nice experience. Having enter the music scene in only the past year, the Wang needed a big festival of music, those legends of rock history. Dont know how famous Coachella will be in 30 yrs. Still the Wang can say, that Coachella had Wang in 2005. Still there might of been some hot females at coachella that should of had a little Wang also. but i guess there's only so much Wang to go around. But yes... the Wang is quite pleased, as it was a good weekend. Good music, good food, friends, movies, hot girls in swimming suits and urban fashion, 60s sun dresses... it was a mos def good weekend.
my desert travelmate's blog on the Coachella: Win without a blog
On other notes:
A new "music video" called A Hero Falls on Starwars.com. It has some more new clips for Ep. 3. Might be spoilerific though, so watch at ur own leisure. Also Kevin Smith, aka Silent Bob, gave a fanboi review of ep. III. I do warn u first though, Smith is 1)a big fan of Star Wars and 2)spoilers abound.
