Getting UP in DOWN Times

Subtitle: Reel Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto and Tip the Van: Toads Place, New Haven CT 1/23/09

There is no denying that Ska music can be some of the most entertaining, energetic and enthusiastic music around. So was it really a surprise that the 1300 person venue, New Haven’s Toad’s Place (CT), sold out one of the biggest Ska tickets currently touring.
The show opened with Tip the Van, whose home state roots shone through and the crowd vigorously got into their music. The 6 year old Ska group led by two sisters (Nicole and Simone) brought the venue to life and were substantially better than my sometimes musically challenged comrade made them out to be.
Of course, Tip the Van was just the opener to the two bands that made this venue sell out. Streetlight Manifesto took the stage and the crowd took to them. Despite some sound issues during the first couple of songs (given that Toad’s Place’s sound system isn’t that good to begin with) the Streetlight feeling broke though. With songs from both old and new album (almost a year old now) and the always good ‘Point/Counter Point’, ‘Keasby Nights’ mash up. This was the third time that I had seen Streetlight (currently holding the record for most views), and they rock the house every time and this was no different.
With little to no further ado Reel Big Fish was on the stage with a band and launched headlong into ‘Trendy’. Having just released their new album this week, the Fish mixed in some of their new songs from that record (all of which were thoroughly enjoyable), some of the better songs from their Previous Album and the crowd classics that have come to define Reel Big Fish. By the end of the main set they had had both lead singers of Tip the Van back on stage to sing with ‘She has a girlfriend now’, trumpet player from old Tyler Jones (pre Johnny Christmas) and the trombone player from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to sing along too. With these cameos, their relentlessly animated music and comedic intercourse with your brain the Reel Big Fish showed how to get up and dance when times are down. As always, it seems, the Reel Big Fish take the energy level to new highs and by the end of the night, nearly 2 hours from taking the stage, they had achieved this once again.
Oh, and if you were wondering who started that rousing ‘Ole Ole’ to which the Reel Big Fish answered by coming back on stage playing it in the beginning of the encore, well it was me and 6 other friends in what has become a tradition for Reel Big Fish shows.

Seaworld is NOT Disney

…so why is it trying to be? Seaworld is actually owned by Anheuser-Busch, the same company that owns Busch Gardens, which I guess I didn’t know until getting down to Florida this week. But this has nothing to do with the title save for the fact that Seaworld is not Disney. In fact it’s always been a break from the sometimes overbearing Disney atmosphere. So imagine my surprise sitting down for the dolphin show and being overwhelmed by the imagine-a-fantastic-once-upon-a-dream-magic schemed show reminiscent of any Disney production.
Not cool SeaWorld.
They took what I remember being a fairly sane and informational show mixed with lots of cool dolphin tricks with balls and jumps etc, and replaced it with a few dolphin tricks, dancing, happy-go-lucky orchestral music, parrots, flags, water jets and sprays, trapeze artists, plumes, feathers and the rejects from the USA Olympic diving team.
They did the same thing with the Shamu show too, although for that they kept a lot of the tricks that make an aquatic show great.
So shame on you SeaWorld, I can’t believe what a fantastical mess you made of this show. Also boo for not having Atlantis open yesterday either.
A quick note: Kraken is a great roller coaster and Manta looks like it’ll be good too (summer 09).

POTM: Iced Up

(Picture of the Moment)
A recent storm dumped ice and freezing rain on most of the tri-state area and what resulted, especially in my area was a town-wide virtual skating rink. This is just one path in the back woods where i walk my dogs which had anywhere from a coating to 1/2 of an inch of ice...2 days later.

Testees

I’ve been laughing along with the first season of FX’s show Testees for the past couple of night. I’d never even heard of this show before discovering it on Hulu.com, but have since jumped headfirst into this perverse and humorous half-hour comedy.
The show centers around two twenty-something’s whose job is to test products before the general public gets them. The products are bizarre to say the least but create the bulk of the situational humor in the show. Even though the majority of the show centers around the two main guys, Peter and Ron, and the occupational hazards of working at Testico, there are sub characters who contribute either to the main and subplot (sometimes constructively and sometimes not). Kate and ‘Nugget’ dysfunctional friendship often leads to humorous antics. It’s the show’s creator Kenny Hotz’s Character, Larry, plots that really irks me to the point where I dislike episodes in which he features heavily. Having said that the best episodes are by far:
Ep 03. Memory Loss (Awkward (read: Awkward!) Humor)
Ep 05. Uber-Glued
Ep 09. Jelly Bean Omelettes (Ron/Peter sections are LOL-funny)
Ep 11. Pineapple Shampoo
Ep 12. Project X

Here's to hoping this show gets renewed for its second season with more shows like the ones listed above.

PS3 Problem

So I did end up getting a shiny new PlayStation 3 for Christmas (yay!). And on the day I also received ‘Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destructions.’ I was happy, as I loved this series on the PS2, and had all the games. As this was the only game I received I decided I would play that game first. Well after setting up everything on the PS3 (fairly efficient and easy), I inserted the game to see a message saying there was insufficient space on the HDD for this game (just 400 or so MB). What?!
Well it appears that this version of Ratchet and Clank has a bug in the disk, a glitch if you will, where if there is nothing on the HDD then it reads it as being over full (thanks Google!). But with no other games on that day I had to resort to downloading demos (500 MB’s worth) before being able to play my very first PS3 game.
From Insomniac:
"We recently discovered a bug on the US version of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction that some of you may encounter the first time you boot the game. With specific amounts of free space on your drive, you may see a screen that tells you [you] have insufficient space to create game data even though there is plenty of free space on your drive."

-Insomniac Games community manager James Stevenson

I can only image the frustrations for all those first time PS3 users when Ratchet and Clank first came out, and this information was not available on the web.

Best of 2008: Songs

Another year over (or almost over, depending on when you read this), so its time to look back on the year that was 2008. This post is dedicated to the songs of 2008, the ones that made you want to sing along, the ones that got stuck in your head (good or bad), or the ones that were played so much you had to like them. So without anything further, the top 20 songs from 2008:

20. Duffy – Mercy
This girl burst onto the scene in 2008, and now is a Grammy nominee.
19. Metro Station -Shake It
I originally got into this song in Australia, only to discover it was big in the U.S. too.
18. Lady Gaga- Just Dance
Another song that debuted in AUS, and on returning finding it had a gained an audience on the other side of the pacific.
17. the Killers – Human
Kick-starting their third studio album, the killers released this song mimicking the days of Hot Fuss, and mixing it with Sam’s Town.
16. Britney Spears – Womanizer
“Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you’re a womanizer, oh, womanizer, oh, you’re a womanizer, baby”…Brit’s back?
15. We the Kings -Check Yes Juliet
Originally downloaded at iTunes free single, then it got big.
14. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
This X-Factor winner crossed the pond to give us this song you just want to belt out.
13. Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
A strong song that almost makes us forget she kissed a girl and she liked it…
12. Panic at the Disco -the Green Gentleman
They dropped the exclamation mark and this great single too.
11. Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care
Eyeliner and all, Fall Out Boy is back with songs more catchier than the plague.
10. Rihanna – Disturbia
The strongest showing from Rhianna who dished a fairly good helping of songs this year, she ‘Don’t Stop the Music.’
09. The Fratellis - Mistress Mabel
Slamming keys, hard hitting beats and staccato guitar strokes bring this first single to life and define the second Fratellis album.
08. The Living End - White Noise
This Aussy band jumped into the (Aussy) spotlight with this song that makes you want to jump along.
07. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Admittedly, I’m one of those Coldplay fans who liked this album and single.
06. Daughtry - What About Now
Daughtry, like Rhianna, has done well for himself getting 5 charting singles out of one album, all of which are good.
05. Gavin Degraw - In Love With A Girl
A melody that just begs to be sung along with.
04. David Cook - Light On
I might have missed this songs limelight in Australia, but I couldn’t help but not get into it on my return. From the latest, and probably my favourite, American Idol this song gets us into the mood for a full album from him.
03. Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Overplayed? Sure, but still a god damn good song. Get up, clap, sing, harmonize, scat along because this song makes you happy and want to. I can’t say the same about the rest of the album though.
02. P!nk - So What
She just lost her husband, but she hasn’t lost the spunk that giver here the ‘!’ in her name. Amazingly P!nk manages to fit all into one song the angry part of a break up and the sad part. But it’s for the badass, rock star part that I love this song and can’t wait to get the album.
01. It's Not My Time - 3 Doors Down
For their fourth album, 3 Doors Down came back strong with this catchy and punchy song. As those first 3 power chords to hit the scene is set for a strong single. And as the chorus comes we embrace the melody. It’s a song you just want to turn up and sing along with the full vocals. Not only that but it starts a very strong album from the group.




(In creating this list i did mistakenly get 1 too many songs, so if anyone wants to know: 21. Vampire Weekend- A-Punk)

Time for a NEW christmas song

Geraldine McQueen (aka british comedian Peter Kay) thinks its time for a new Christmas song. One that "you'll be singing this over and over and over again..."
'Once Upon a Christmas Song'


Happy Christmas Everyone!


"...over and over and over again..."

bloHG goes widescreen

I've just been playing with some of the CSS backbone to this bloHG to go along with some of the site-wide changes for the redesign (version 6). Look for the widescreen-ness of the bloHG now, fit for the 1024 browser window. Also i added in some spacing to the lines of the blog post--something that has been bugging me for a while now. That spacing includes modifications to the spacing of dates, blog titles and the paragraphs of the bloHG content. Finally, the header has been changed to coincide with the universal header for the mercury studios. In a last round of modifications to the bloHG i will hopefully add in links to the other site content like the rest of the site appears.

Repetitive Radio

I’m kind of annoyed at New York’s z100 (“ny’s hit music station”) right now. Their playlist seems to comprise of only seven songs: two by Beyonce (the mechanical one and the one where she’s a boy), two by Rhianna (disturbia and the numa-numa one), two by Britney Spears (womanizer and her new one ‘circus’) and Jason Mraz’s im yours. Now I like z100, it has good current music and at least one good show—Elvis Duran and the z100 morning zoo. But I swear EVERY TIME I’ve gotten in my car for the past two weeks it’s been one of these seven songs (or commercials followed by one of these seven songs). Throw a little variety in there z100, because these songs have been worn out beyond repair.

Football on FOX

Come on FOX. Seriously now, its 44- zero (3rd and 1:36). Even the commentators are asking for something else to cover. It’s obvious the Patriots have won this game with the Cardinals, yet you continue to cover it. Sure the Patriots are in the run off for some divisional championship…but there is another game playing right now that is also going for that title. The Miami Dolphins, playing the Kansas Chiefs. Their game is tied 31-31 (3rd and 3:40). Since when is a game that is a complete blowout better than a nail-bitter of a tied game going into the third quarter. I don’t care that this happens to be the north east, and they’re the New England Patriots…all I care about its good football. That is, not football where the cardinals can’t get a first down and cant keep their feet on defense. And not playing in the snow for 25 years is not an acceptable excuse for the cardinals.
Alls I’m saying is there should be some sort of limit/rules to when they change the game to something more interesting.