what the hell?

Friday night I decided to go to Jack In The Box to get some food for dinner and on my way back I got pulled over by a cop for not having my lights on and missing a stop sign. Then he just let me go with a
warning so I don't know if I was lucky or if it wasn't time to issue tickets or if he was cutting me some slack but here I am without a ticket.

Thursday night I played with Erik at the Coffeehouse thing CA was hosting. Lots of great performers at the Pre Show. Everyone sounded nothing short of awesome and I'm glad I decided to participate.

That being said, talk about being nervous. Waiting for our turn to go up I was sweating bullets and constantly pacing around. I hadn't played in a performance since last year when we got jacked at the CV Talent Show. Only after about half way through the first song was I able to calm down and just start playing. Luckily I didn't do anything majorly stupid and I didn't mix around the verses like had done in practice. All in all it turned out well for us. I thought this would be the last show for what our group has called, The Team but now I am excited about future possibilities. :)

Also I'd like to say a big thanks to TL, Toni-Lynne, for driving down all the way from LA just to catch our show . Talk about being an awesome friend to go through all the trouble of driving down from LA
all for little ol Erik and Shuan.

Setlist: Josie, Fake Plastic Trees, Say It Ain't So. Undone (Jay-Z Intro)

Album:
Taken by Toni-Lynne

More pictures





Nostalgia Factor:

Erik and I will be performing at the Coffeehouse SSPA 1100 at UCI this Thursday. Not that anyone who reads this can make it because no one is really near UCI anyways. But yeah, that's it. We don't know how many songs we're going to play because that's still up for discussion.

Last Thursday, May 13th
To start off let me just say that although I messed up I don't think I was messing up that badly. Anyways we ended up coming in dead last.

Now I'm pretty bummed by this mainly because of a couple of things. First off they only had two microphones, one of which was barely on. Second, they had one extension cord that didn't go very far so all our amps were on the far left side. Three, because said amps were so far away I could barely reach the microphone when I did the Oooohs for Undone because of fear of breaking the pick guard for my bass. And lastly the person who won was part of the student CV staff which seemed a little suspicious. She did a dance that went along to "The Reason" by Hoobastank. While it wasn't "bad" it wasn't better than the belly dancer that was on earlier. I don't know why bands always get snubbed during these talent shows. I mean dancing is pretty hard but practicing and playing instruments isn't exactly the easiest or cheapest thing in the world to do. Hell we should have just played "The Reason" and drawn a really strong audience crowd but that song is very easy to play on bass and I would imagine that its pretty easy on guitar since the whole song is three chords (while typing that I put down 'thords' instead so I think I'll call songs that are only three chords). But to be fair we did play Undone, which is a thord song. But Undone actually requires effort by the whole band and you can actually throw in some variation in that song.

Speaking of which, after we got over our placement in the show I was just glad we totally nailed Undone. Freshmen year we played in the Middle Earth talent show and just stunk it up. Josh was just learning to play with a pick and apparently his B-string wanted to go flat that night. I was just barely learning bass and my D-String went flat as well. Just so many problems that occured during that performance. So we decided to play Undone again so we can say that we could nail that song. And I think we redeemed ourselves from that terrible first year performance. I was able to actually put in some of the walking bass lines that I see Matt Sharp (former Weezer bassist) do on some of the old Weezer videos. If nothing else, it was just great being able to totally rock out that song like we should have done freshmen year.

Setlist:
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Soul to Squeeze
Weezer: Undone

Each episode of VH1's Bands Reunited chronicles the effort to reunite a popular band from decades past, long since broken up. The show's host, VH1 personality Aamer Haleem, travels the globe to track down the former band members and convince them to come together for a one time only reunion and performance in Los Angeles or London, England.

Shock, embarrassment and sometimes anger are just a few of the reactions host Aamer Haleem finds as he shows up unexpectedly and surprises each band member with the possibility of reuniting with their former bandmates. Some are thrilled for the opportunity to relive their heydays, while others would rather keep the past in the past.

Convincing the band members to put their divisive break-ups behind them is not an easy task. Emotions run high from past conflicts about money, music, heartache, and the rock and roll lifestyle.

Join our host as he attempts to bring together these former band mates, and have them perform together live in a club packed with fans, some of whom will travel around the world to see their favorite band play one last gig, ultimately becoming a BAND REUNITED.

So Tuesday night The Team met up for the first time to practice at Jeremy's garage. Well first we went to Claim Jumpers to use off the prize money we had won from winning the CV Talent Show. All in all I think I had to pay $7 total for my meal which was pretty sweet.

But then after we got back we started to practice. We played until 11PM at night practicing two songs. And they both sounded awesome! Not much else to say about that, at least not until later.

First off in case no one figured out, The Team won the CV Talent Show. Now that it was a big accomplishment or anything because there weren't that many participants in it. But still, The Team won. For winning, The Team received a $35 dollar gift certificate to the restaurant of our choice (Claim Jumper). Toni-Lynne was nice enough to tape it for us for... posterity?

Rather than just taping it for us and showing it off her copy of the show, Toni-Lynne went above and beyond what she needed to do. She actually edited the footage to make it look nice and gave us all copies of it! That is so cool (cue emoticon with sunglasses)!

I also took a midterm today for Asian Art History. I spent so long studying this (with lots of procrastination in between) only to have my stupid brain turn off on me and switch around the answers. Gah I am not enjoying the tests in that class too much. Its all pure memorization, which my brain has long since given out on.

Begin long winded rant about Lakers, skip if you want

The Lakers won last night against the TWolves. <sarcasm>GOOD THING THE REFS WERE THERE TO MAKE SURE THEY WON BY 30!</sarcasm>.

By the way, I'm making fun of people who think that the NBA has a conspiracy where the Lakers are winning because they play in a big market and they're a big label. But when you look at it there are definitely better ways the NBA can bring in revenue rather than the Lakers. Hell if the NBA was specifically making sure teams in big cities or big stars got in, consider the following.

The Houston Rockets didn't get in even though Yao Ming in the playoffs would have been huge. That alone would have brought in more internation viewers from China and other asian countries.

The Washington Wizards are a no-brainer. I mean think about the ratings! Michael Jordan, in his last season in the NBA taking this ragtag team of players and leading them into the post season for one last final romp. Oh think about how many tickets they could have sold with that!

Last thursday's game had a controversial call. Now is that "proof" that the referees are trying to help the Lakers win? Maybe. Is that proof that the referees are humans and make mistakes too? Yes. I'm sorry but I've yet to see a post season where the referees have not made a single bad call. Hell there are at least 2 or 3 bad calls per game. Now while I'm not saying that the referees were justified in calling a foul on Szczerbiak against Kobe (although I could not watch the game so I can't tell whether or not this is true. I am just going by what the NBA.com article says), stuff like that happens.

And at least this was reported. There is one man who consistently does not get called fouls against, Michael Jordan. I'm a fan or Jordan just like anyone else but MJ gets away with lots and lots of calls. Not necessarily phantom calls but if there's anyone who gets away with more hand checks and gets saved when he's in trouble, it's him. The one that totally stands out (and replays show it) is Michael Jordan fouling Byron Russell during Game 6 of the 1998 Finals. In it Byron appears to slip but it is actually Jordan's hand that causes Byron to take a tumble. Further proof of his star treatment lies in the fact that while he was a tenacious defender, he's only fouled out of 10 games in his 13 year career.Source of the MJ info

End long rant

But anyways, Happy Birthday to all the April people, last one being Victor. It seems that lots of people were either born in April or July. I guess it is just a big coincidence..

The Team played last night. It was a hard fought battle and although mistakes were made we made off with 35$ to Claim Jumper. More later!

Courtesy Mark

Okay these fill get filled in later. Too tired to write everything today (tonight?)

So much LA this week...

Wednesday I had to goto LAX to pick up my uncle. Security there seemed to increase but it just seemed to be more of a hinderance now. For example, the ramp to head into the terminal was delayed because there was a security checkpoint. But seriously think about this: If I had a bomb, would I really stop at that checkpoint? Hell No! I mean not that I would do something crazy like that but I'm saying that that's not a good way to do it 'cause it hinders people more than it helps. So I picked him up took him to Rowland and then headed back.

Thursday I went with Erik to USC to hang out with Don and James. But we got there late 'cause Erik wanted to stop at Carls! Yeah so we decided to go onto campus and we wandered around for an hour and a half before meeting up with Don. I give Don the Tenshi Na Konamaiki anime series; or at least the first 20 episodes. We watched a couple of those before we decided to go eat at this Mexican fast food stand that I keep forgetting the name of. While we were ordering, a bum came up and ask us for some money. He was pretty honest about it, "I'm really hungry and I just want something to eat" rather than making up some bullshit story so I gave me all of my change which was around a dollar's worth. After we got our food and were heading back to our car, another bum stopped by and tried to get us to give him money by concocting some weird story. He basically said that his "car" had broken down and that he needed some gas money to drive his car. The while time I was puzzled and I kept looking at him, Gas? I don't get it, do you want us to give you some of our gasoline or what? It didn't seem to make any sense because it infact didn't. Why would someone who could afford a car not be able to afford gas? Basically he was trying to trick us into giving him something like $10 for gas. Don ended up giving him like 50 cents in change. He looked at it like, "This is it?" but said, "Thank you" and left. Also the car he pointed at wasn't even his.

For me, giving money to bums is a difficult position for me. I mean, I want to give them money, but how am I suppose to know what he's going to do with the money? Is he going to spend it on some cheap booze rather than on food or is he just going to gamble it off with other bums in hopes of getting more money? Which is why I think the best thing to do is to buy them food rather than giving them money. Also I don't like the fact that these bums make up these stories or start talking shit when we don't give them money. Look I understand you're hungry but I didn't put you in the position you're in now. Also I'm just as poor as you as I'm just a simple college student _trying_ to make some money later on. Back to the whole money thing. How am I suppose to know what they're doing with it? I mean if I give them money it'll help them survive maybe another day but that's not going to help them get a job or anything. I mean I remember before the beginning of senior year of high school (after one of the orientations) I was filling up for gas off of Chapman & Placentia when a bum asked me for some money. I basically gave him $5. And I was very poor at the time (as oppose to just being poor now) but I gave it to him anyways. But at the end of the year, I believe when Jimmy and I went to the Beach Comber's dance. I saw him again, in the same state and in the same place, but this time he came over to the In'n'Out and ask me for money _again_. I really didn't have any to spare this time I just gave him my fries from In'n'Out. Anyways the point of this is that if I have change I'll give it to them. But I don't appreciate that harassing my friends and I if we don't have any to give.

Anyways we went to Rebecca's dorm afterwards to eat our food and she showed us all her Dodger memorabilia. It was amazing, she has pictures and autographs of people from the Mighty Ducks and the Dodgers. And then we caught up since Rebecca never talks to any of us! >:D!

Friday I again went into LA, this time to watch the AM Radio show at the Troubadour starting at 8. The first band was the Waking Hours. They were okay but you couldn't really hear them. Just a huge wave of sound that wasn't really distinguishable. But listening to their mp3s, they sound wayyy better. The Space Twins were up next: This was Brian Bell's (from Weezer) band but I had never heard of them before. They were pretty good, you could actually distinguish the bass from the guitar but it was so loud. The whole night my ear drums were killing me to the point of me getting a headache! :(

The next band was called The Steven McDonald Group, I really like this band, they were pretty good in my opinion. But by that time we saw Rivers Cuomo (lead singer of Weezer) lurking around so that was distracting me. We had met with Karl, who maintains the Weezer website but here was Rivers himself!! He was wearing a gray hoody to try and hide himself I guess. He's a big recluse when it comes to his fans. Yeah so the band finished their set and Rivers eventually came out for the AM Radio set. Man they were so awesome! Kevin Ridel has such a huge voice. My ears were ringing but mann it was soooo awesome!

So after they finished their set by playing Smells Like Teen Spirit but singing lyrics from some hip-hop songs (Haha, he was doing Work It by Missy Eliot and Gin and Juice by Snoop. Fucking Awesome~!) we saw Rivers Cuomo standing literally 5 feet away from us. We finally all got the courage to rush him to say hi to him. He looked kinda scared like we were going to tackle him and stuff but he was pretty cool about it. I think he was trying to stay incognito and not get noticed to much. Josh asked a whole buncha questions and I asked him about the next Weezer album. WOW I CANT BELIEVE I GOT TO TALK TO RIVERS CUOMO! Literally the center of my musical world has involved this man and here I was talking to him and seeing him and I got to shake his hand! Shit that was awesome and haha I'm just ranting on and on like a little fanboy... BUT I AM! HAHHAH it was great! And then we also got to talk to Kevin Ridel afterwards! We told him that he had an awesome voice and that his performance was great and he thanked us for coming. We took some pictures with him but we don't know how those came out! I had a headache and my legs were tired from all that standing but man it was totally worth it to meet him. I mean Erik and I have posters of him on our wall (Rivers I mean) and we got to talk to him. And then we get to meet Karl and Kevin and see Brian Bell play a set of Space Twins songs. What a rocking night, second only to the Weezer show in Irvine in August. Shit talk about choosing choice concerts. SO FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

- end rantings!

Wednesday: Went to LA to pick up my uncle
Thursday: Went to LA to go visit USC people
Friday: Went to LA to go watch AM Radio Show at the Troubadour.

ERIK JOSH AND I GOT TO MEET RIVERS CUOMO FROM WEEZER AND KEVIN RIDDELL FROM AM RADIO

I have blown (not necessarily wastefully) so much money this past week.