k. so this is going to be my will-try-to-be-as-regular-as-possible "music" series. i'm a music person, vehemently passionate about what i'm feeling and couldn't give a gnat's ass about what you like. what qualifies me... well you can't teach taste, so it must be genetics. or maybe the growing up with my dad's 45s and lps, a decade of music lesson, about a decade on the radio, and time on the stage, behind the stage and writing the check that paid for the stage. not bragging. i believe it is important to understand the POV of a music reviewer or endorser. you can't teach taste, but you can develop it through diverse, focused experiences.
so. shots to K. Leon for the title inspiration. i'll be posting music i'm playing at the moment. not some contrived PR push, i'm not trying to creating promotion synergy by only talking about new releases or putting up obscure or invalid look-how-indy-i-am post either. hell. i was listening to motley crue two hours ago (yeah that's right motley crue at 7 on a saturday morn....!!!!).
my hope is that by sharing the music i can share more of myself. i've been trying to be more social but damn this xbox!!!!!!
so here. Diamond District. streets won't let me chill. right from the jump, i bet your heads bobbin, foots tappin or something. if vinyl was relevant, i'd get doubles. oh and soccer.. something something.
26 June 2010
17 June 2010
why is walt wet? (wiww)
if you haven't seen lost, please stop reading. if you have, then, please continue...
this is the inaugural Why is Walt Wet (shouts to Chan for the idea!. rather than compete with the thousands of other lost blogs/pages, i've decided to focus in on one thing. why is walt wet?
the wifey and i are rewatching lost, and we just finished the first season, which draws so many paralells to the conflicts of the last season it... makes you appreciate good writing and story telling. anyway. we just saw the walt-snatching. i finally made the connection that the others weren't after aaron, they were after walt, which begs the questions, when did they become aware of him? did ethan inform them? how could they tell he was special or did they know? how could they know he was special? did they watch him beat hurley in backgammon or throw the knife with locke?
hmmmmmmmm..
game on!
yeah. i'm into the trilogy. screw hayden and jar-jar can rot in hell. i still play battlefront and my favorite things include yoda and at-ats. i'm writing new songs and am really trying to make "hoth" happen, like "we so hoth" (translates to so cold because hoth is an ice planet.... yeah, i know). long story short, these are the reasons the trailer below has got me geeked up!
Star Wars: Knights of the old republic from Teknovole on Vimeo.
14 June 2010
i hate cable
i remember when hbo first started. i did not know what the big deal was, mainly because i did not recognize any of the movies (firefox anyone?). well, enter the turner family, nickelodeon, and all the other channels. now you have some entertainment for those weekend doldrums. then something happend. news channels and multiple channel entities (espn2, mtv3, etc).
content expoloded. at a rate, i believe, the public was not ready to except. was someone really yearning for FX in HD? univision i can understand, but espn classic. like there is a market for 'classic' games. its like that channel that plays those 'classic' game shows. i mean... that isn't even reality. you'd be committed if you watched reruns of the lottery machine numbers, but watching press your luck... that's kitschy. i feel like we are conditioned to accept this swill as entertainment, simply by presenting it as an option.
i've been there. rainy day, hungover or on vacation. flipping through the channels, just looking. what! you never know. the channel stops as an image of a chiseled chest dashes across the screen. oh, that's a px90 commercial. fifteen minutes later, your really contemplating ordering it. then you when you realize that you've never ordered anything from tv, you return to the remote, but forget what you were actually looking for. my guess is that most of us, when we are channel surfing, have no idea what we are looking for. going to the grocery store and taking a bite out of all the fruit would be crazy, but spending half hour or an hour channel surfing... that's just normal. and i've done it before. waiting for laundry or a delivery, just clicking channels. watch 5 minutes of the dog whisperer, catch the end of a criminal minds, then highlights from the celtic game, then a preview of the next season of jersey shore, then .......
well, it must stop. my wife and i unplugged years ago and have recently got hooked back in. mainly because of basketball (and torrenting became a pain with our slow as snails computer). admittedly, watching lost day-of, was great. not having to search for a half hour to find a copy of mad men, cool. having community and 30 rock on the dvr, awesome. and the sports, ah, the sports. nfl and nba, passion i lost touch with, but without the old cable box, i would have missed out on brett favres epic game versus the 49ers. i would have missed pitsburghs ncaa tourney run last year or butlers run this year. and the celtics, oh, the celtics. but the season ending this week, that only leaves sports i care little for (no offense) and a empty space on my dvr.
three months ago, the dvr stayed above 50%, now, it barely gets past 30%. i doubt that it will get past 30% this summer (even with mad men, friday night lights and burn notice). so i've been thinking outside of the box (the cablebox). which brings me to the point of this post. espn coming to the xbox live marketplace. hells yes. end game. this plus hulu means FU cablevision/optimum with your weird fees (dvr insurance, installation maintenance). the bigger picture is that the fcc will have to begin redefining terms and language to allow for either, equal entrance into the entertainment market (tv) or tiered development of the information market (phone, internet). very interesting, but what does it have to do with the consumer. well, wouldn't it be cool if you could simply subscribe to shows a la itunes, but your subscription would be with a network, the content provider, instead of a third party. cable is currently the third party with networks, and cable providers are third party carriers for cable tv shows (mad men, breaking bad, dexter). it'd be awesome if i could just subscribe to nbc, like i subscribe to the skateboarder mag, allowing me access to shows, back catalog and all. everyone wins except the cable companies. networks won't have to worry about angling for prime time spots, shows can develop because you could accurately determine production costs based on subscription services (remember trauma and their million dollar pilot?...). moreover, once you get outside the stilted advertising structure of cable, you can explore more creative funding approaches (a la direct tv and friday night lights or grant work like the BBC).
the hope is that once you step away from the content-to-sell-advertising model, to a content that sells content model, you get better choices. we are starting to see that in the music industry. as labels scramble to find their cash cows (ke$ha), consumers are becoming the new a&rs (uffie), as itunes/amazon reviews are carrying more weight than ....huh..... i can't even think of a relevant music publication. i doubt that cable companies will wise up. i mean they are still advertising plug in home phones. who the f*ck uses a plug-in phone anymore. to be honest, my xbox has been kicking my dvr's ass this past month. and with 241 episodes of comedy central presents, fraggle rock, the guild and lost on netflix. my dvr is not going to see much action this summer.
all in all, i think we are gonna give it a year (that's when the contract is up). if hulu and espn work well on the xbox, kiss this cable crap goodbye.
check out this montage from the show arrested development, the best thing to happen on cable since the simpsons. if you haven't seen the show, don't speak to me. ever.
content expoloded. at a rate, i believe, the public was not ready to except. was someone really yearning for FX in HD? univision i can understand, but espn classic. like there is a market for 'classic' games. its like that channel that plays those 'classic' game shows. i mean... that isn't even reality. you'd be committed if you watched reruns of the lottery machine numbers, but watching press your luck... that's kitschy. i feel like we are conditioned to accept this swill as entertainment, simply by presenting it as an option.
i've been there. rainy day, hungover or on vacation. flipping through the channels, just looking. what! you never know. the channel stops as an image of a chiseled chest dashes across the screen. oh, that's a px90 commercial. fifteen minutes later, your really contemplating ordering it. then you when you realize that you've never ordered anything from tv, you return to the remote, but forget what you were actually looking for. my guess is that most of us, when we are channel surfing, have no idea what we are looking for. going to the grocery store and taking a bite out of all the fruit would be crazy, but spending half hour or an hour channel surfing... that's just normal. and i've done it before. waiting for laundry or a delivery, just clicking channels. watch 5 minutes of the dog whisperer, catch the end of a criminal minds, then highlights from the celtic game, then a preview of the next season of jersey shore, then .......
well, it must stop. my wife and i unplugged years ago and have recently got hooked back in. mainly because of basketball (and torrenting became a pain with our slow as snails computer). admittedly, watching lost day-of, was great. not having to search for a half hour to find a copy of mad men, cool. having community and 30 rock on the dvr, awesome. and the sports, ah, the sports. nfl and nba, passion i lost touch with, but without the old cable box, i would have missed out on brett favres epic game versus the 49ers. i would have missed pitsburghs ncaa tourney run last year or butlers run this year. and the celtics, oh, the celtics. but the season ending this week, that only leaves sports i care little for (no offense) and a empty space on my dvr.
three months ago, the dvr stayed above 50%, now, it barely gets past 30%. i doubt that it will get past 30% this summer (even with mad men, friday night lights and burn notice). so i've been thinking outside of the box (the cablebox). which brings me to the point of this post. espn coming to the xbox live marketplace. hells yes. end game. this plus hulu means FU cablevision/optimum with your weird fees (dvr insurance, installation maintenance). the bigger picture is that the fcc will have to begin redefining terms and language to allow for either, equal entrance into the entertainment market (tv) or tiered development of the information market (phone, internet). very interesting, but what does it have to do with the consumer. well, wouldn't it be cool if you could simply subscribe to shows a la itunes, but your subscription would be with a network, the content provider, instead of a third party. cable is currently the third party with networks, and cable providers are third party carriers for cable tv shows (mad men, breaking bad, dexter). it'd be awesome if i could just subscribe to nbc, like i subscribe to the skateboarder mag, allowing me access to shows, back catalog and all. everyone wins except the cable companies. networks won't have to worry about angling for prime time spots, shows can develop because you could accurately determine production costs based on subscription services (remember trauma and their million dollar pilot?...). moreover, once you get outside the stilted advertising structure of cable, you can explore more creative funding approaches (a la direct tv and friday night lights or grant work like the BBC).
the hope is that once you step away from the content-to-sell-advertising model, to a content that sells content model, you get better choices. we are starting to see that in the music industry. as labels scramble to find their cash cows (ke$ha), consumers are becoming the new a&rs (uffie), as itunes/amazon reviews are carrying more weight than ....huh..... i can't even think of a relevant music publication. i doubt that cable companies will wise up. i mean they are still advertising plug in home phones. who the f*ck uses a plug-in phone anymore. to be honest, my xbox has been kicking my dvr's ass this past month. and with 241 episodes of comedy central presents, fraggle rock, the guild and lost on netflix. my dvr is not going to see much action this summer.
all in all, i think we are gonna give it a year (that's when the contract is up). if hulu and espn work well on the xbox, kiss this cable crap goodbye.
check out this montage from the show arrested development, the best thing to happen on cable since the simpsons. if you haven't seen the show, don't speak to me. ever.
bad tummy
it's the pressure, right below the navel. a tightening, then a sharp poke. you shift your bottom a bit, exhale deeply, but the pain doesn't subside. you stand and feel something rise in your stomach, then the hunger pain. after a moment, that pain passes and the cramps begin.
this has been my life since saturday. i think its a minor case of food poisoning, but you never know. this is the second time this years something like this has happend, the first being extremely debilitating (requiring doctor care). i am at my wits end. i'm hungry as all get out, but every time i eat something normal (not crackers or instant mash potatoes) i brings out the bowel gremlins. so what to do.
homeopathic rememdies suck. eat apples, drink water. and doctors, well they just tell you to ride it out, unless, like me, you become so dehydrated from the expulsion of fluids that you hallucinate (awesome!!). so it's me and my old standby, yoo-hoo.
i wouldn't mind it so much, except my access to the bathroom is severely limited at work because the faculty bathrooms are under repair. so hopefully the yoo-hoo works....
this has been my life since saturday. i think its a minor case of food poisoning, but you never know. this is the second time this years something like this has happend, the first being extremely debilitating (requiring doctor care). i am at my wits end. i'm hungry as all get out, but every time i eat something normal (not crackers or instant mash potatoes) i brings out the bowel gremlins. so what to do.
homeopathic rememdies suck. eat apples, drink water. and doctors, well they just tell you to ride it out, unless, like me, you become so dehydrated from the expulsion of fluids that you hallucinate (awesome!!). so it's me and my old standby, yoo-hoo.
i wouldn't mind it so much, except my access to the bathroom is severely limited at work because the faculty bathrooms are under repair. so hopefully the yoo-hoo works....
13 June 2010
questions
if you can answer 4 of these questions, we should have a drink or four.
1) Gary Gygax help create what game?
2) EPMD stands for?
3) FRAK is word used on which television show?
4) True or false, stevie williams got pop?
5) before nike, eric koston shoe sponsor was?
6) before djing for the beastie boys, mixmaster mike was a member of a dj group called?
7) crab, flare, chirp. these are different types of _______ ?
8) name one video game featuring a female lead character?
9) name 3 players from the detroit pistons (former or current)?
10) complete this sentence from a famous movie: "it's the ship that made the _____ run in less than 12 parsecs"
if you can answer 6 out of 10, i'll buy you a drink
if you get 7, i might ask you to go to comic con with me
if you get 8 or 9, then we should just stop messing around and buy some property together
if you get 10... then i will have to exterminate you because there can only be just one!!!!!
1) Gary Gygax help create what game?
2) EPMD stands for?
3) FRAK is word used on which television show?
4) True or false, stevie williams got pop?
5) before nike, eric koston shoe sponsor was?
6) before djing for the beastie boys, mixmaster mike was a member of a dj group called?
7) crab, flare, chirp. these are different types of _______ ?
8) name one video game featuring a female lead character?
9) name 3 players from the detroit pistons (former or current)?
10) complete this sentence from a famous movie: "it's the ship that made the _____ run in less than 12 parsecs"
if you can answer 6 out of 10, i'll buy you a drink
if you get 7, i might ask you to go to comic con with me
if you get 8 or 9, then we should just stop messing around and buy some property together
if you get 10... then i will have to exterminate you because there can only be just one!!!!!
12 June 2010
10 June 2010
afterwork, i popped by my new favorite skateshop (sorry kcdc!), park deli skateshop, located in the crown heights (much cooler than saying prospect heights... word). i first went to the shop for a naysayer bbq. naysayer skateboards is a company my friend eby started. that is cooler than a polar bear's toenails (big boi!).first impressions are a big deal for me, especially during a retail experience. i've had such shitty luck from nyc skateshops. there's that time i was in autumn and was shouting "hey! can i buy this!" to an empty store. i'm certain they were skating the bowl or something, but still, i mean your a store, someone, anyone should be on a register during business hours. i'm not one of those pissy yelp reviewers that over-exaggerates their bad experiences. i was literally walking around the store calling out for help for a good minute. i probably should have just walked out with the shirt. then there's supreme, whose employees are notorious for being aloof, unless your japanese, then its like they can't help but take your money. i don't know even know why i go into that store. they never have anything in stock that is my size. unless your getting flow, fuck the boards. and why do hoodies cost $200 bucks! really. for that logo. really. then there's blades. i know, i know. one-step above modell's, but when i see sale, i motor (plus when i first moved to ny, i came up on some ipaths there hella cheap). blades is your run of the mill, corporate skateshop. they stock the Dow Jones companies, like zoo york, element, world. little kid shit. also have to mention homage, which i was initially psyched on, but i get this weird vibe when i go in there. can't really put my finger on it. plus one of the sales people tried to sell me some vans. i took it as some retail numbers bullshit, because i don't believe myself to look like a "vans" skater, even though i love their team (chris pfanner is the TRUTH!!!!!!!).
so, park deli. that's my joint. check them out...
and yeah. i think i figured out this video shit, so check out the steeziest white boy skatin... (skip to about 1:20) .
i think i am going to get a new board today, depending on the weather. ah. nothing like fresh pop to start the summer off. my dilemma is that i can't decide which deck to get. there's my friends company Naysayer, good wood, love the graphics BUT i can only find 8" decks , nothing smaller. so it's either support your boy and keep mobbing kickflips or switch brands and get all Kelly Hart ( yeah right). maybe I'll get lucky and they'll have a 7.8 or 7.7.
speaking of skating, I'm feeling Levi Brown. im gonna call it and say he's the steeziest white boy skating. sorry lizard, wade, kalis, stefan and smolik. i wish I knew how to post vid clips. put that on the summer list of things to do.
09 June 2010
it begins
where to begin, where to begin. first things. i don't capitalize because i'm lazy (but i punctuate... go figure). i could use some snazzy analogy, or some pedantic prose, such as, "capitalization detracts from the energy of the writing, or cite a pro-feminist bent, a la bell hooks, but in reality, it is simply something i do. maybe to be different.... and i am huge fan of ellipses (used properly and improperly...).
the basics, i'm a math teacher, but that does not define me. i'm really, really into hip-hop and hope to somehow find a way to make a (decent) living off this love ... (we can dream can't we!!!!). but the teaching gig is good, because i get time-off to write, record, etc. never really pictured myself as a lawyer and having the amount free-time i get as a teacher. i guess making less money isn't always a bad thing. plus, i am certain that more than 3 years in the legal profession turn anyone into a douche.
about the blog, in terms of content, i read, listen to music and game. i am a fan of the popularly obscure, meaning, if it is something that is large enough to have a convention but not so popular to be featured on a morning talk show or appear in gossip girl, then i'm probably in to it. i collect music (hip-hop), love buying used books and have recently go into point and shoot digital photography (what i call "i can't afford a fancy dslr so i'm shooting with this...). i'm into geek/nerd culture, so yeah, i've read comics, can't wait to cosplay, will pick up the occasional graphic novel and am a bad bourbon night-out from getting HOTH or the BSG logo tattooed on my forearm ("so say we all"). i guess if you decide to continue to read, you can also expect the occasional product review, movie or music review and maybe a synopsis of a tv show. (watch Friday Night Lights...)
so.... let's talk games
i am finally a next-gen gamer. may not be a big deal to you, but i am a child of the home video game console. it was different when i was growing up. today, video games are popular; popular kids play them, popular kids obsess over them. video games are popular. however, decades prior, it was a really, really bad social move to continue to play video games after 7th grade, much less spend hours trying to navigate a blue hedgehog around a screen in high school. but hell, i've never shied away from geek-culture (while he eyes his Battle Star Galactica poster and stuffed yoda doll).
so after five years of being last-gen, i finally got me an xbox and am steadily finding new ways to procrastinate. there was some introductory friction when i first got the "box." i guess the better half believed we could have put the money to better use. wrong answer! of course there are better things you can buy with $300, but all the legal options are LAME. now, the wife is using it for netflix (can you say LOST rewatch) and with hulu coming, it may replace this piece of shit optimum cable box.
so there you have it. i've been next-gen gaming for just under 3 weeks and am already obsessing over my achievement score. What really, really, really sucks. if i had started when the box first came out, i would have an epic score because I AM EPIC (in games).
enough of that.
why don't we do a summer goal list and see how many i can not do by september:
1) break 2000 achievement score
2) beat bioshock 2, batman:arkham asylum, half-life 2 and borderlands
3) start fallout 3
4) finish writing e.p.
5) learn my mpc from sample to beat
6) buy a digital 4 track to do some home-recording
7) install windows 7
8) hang-up pictures in the living room
9) buy a new foot-stool cover
10) learn spanish
11) draft and storyboard Teacher PSA
12) become a runner (again!)
13) welcome my abs back from a 4 year food vacation
14) buy the LOST boxset
15) learn a knew flip trick (frontside flips, heelflips or kickflip-shuv)
16) master half-cabs and fakie 360s
17) pop shuv the 4 stair at the park near my house
18) 5-0/feeble/smith a bench
19) knee high nollies
20) visit one family member (bro, cousin or moms/pops)
and there you have. the blog has begun. comment, follow...... whatever
the basics, i'm a math teacher, but that does not define me. i'm really, really into hip-hop and hope to somehow find a way to make a (decent) living off this love ... (we can dream can't we!!!!). but the teaching gig is good, because i get time-off to write, record, etc. never really pictured myself as a lawyer and having the amount free-time i get as a teacher. i guess making less money isn't always a bad thing. plus, i am certain that more than 3 years in the legal profession turn anyone into a douche.
about the blog, in terms of content, i read, listen to music and game. i am a fan of the popularly obscure, meaning, if it is something that is large enough to have a convention but not so popular to be featured on a morning talk show or appear in gossip girl, then i'm probably in to it. i collect music (hip-hop), love buying used books and have recently go into point and shoot digital photography (what i call "i can't afford a fancy dslr so i'm shooting with this...). i'm into geek/nerd culture, so yeah, i've read comics, can't wait to cosplay, will pick up the occasional graphic novel and am a bad bourbon night-out from getting HOTH or the BSG logo tattooed on my forearm ("so say we all"). i guess if you decide to continue to read, you can also expect the occasional product review, movie or music review and maybe a synopsis of a tv show. (watch Friday Night Lights...)
so.... let's talk games
i am finally a next-gen gamer. may not be a big deal to you, but i am a child of the home video game console. it was different when i was growing up. today, video games are popular; popular kids play them, popular kids obsess over them. video games are popular. however, decades prior, it was a really, really bad social move to continue to play video games after 7th grade, much less spend hours trying to navigate a blue hedgehog around a screen in high school. but hell, i've never shied away from geek-culture (while he eyes his Battle Star Galactica poster and stuffed yoda doll).
so after five years of being last-gen, i finally got me an xbox and am steadily finding new ways to procrastinate. there was some introductory friction when i first got the "box." i guess the better half believed we could have put the money to better use. wrong answer! of course there are better things you can buy with $300, but all the legal options are LAME. now, the wife is using it for netflix (can you say LOST rewatch) and with hulu coming, it may replace this piece of shit optimum cable box.
so there you have it. i've been next-gen gaming for just under 3 weeks and am already obsessing over my achievement score. What really, really, really sucks. if i had started when the box first came out, i would have an epic score because I AM EPIC (in games).
enough of that.
why don't we do a summer goal list and see how many i can not do by september:
1) break 2000 achievement score
2) beat bioshock 2, batman:arkham asylum, half-life 2 and borderlands
3) start fallout 3
4) finish writing e.p.
5) learn my mpc from sample to beat
6) buy a digital 4 track to do some home-recording
7) install windows 7
8) hang-up pictures in the living room
9) buy a new foot-stool cover
10) learn spanish
11) draft and storyboard Teacher PSA
12) become a runner (again!)
13) welcome my abs back from a 4 year food vacation
14) buy the LOST boxset
15) learn a knew flip trick (frontside flips, heelflips or kickflip-shuv)
16) master half-cabs and fakie 360s
17) pop shuv the 4 stair at the park near my house
18) 5-0/feeble/smith a bench
19) knee high nollies
20) visit one family member (bro, cousin or moms/pops)
and there you have. the blog has begun. comment, follow...... whatever
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