what the hell?

So last night Erik and I drove all the way down into the heart of San Diego to go see Weezer and the Foo Fighters play at Cox Arena/SDSU. On the drive there we made a lot of Cox jokes and then I fell asleep during the middle of the trip. I hate car rides, I always pass out because I'm not really doing anything productive.

We get to the University and our first job was to find parking. We ask this lady who's in one of those traffic uniforms where to park and she directed us to the parking structure that she was in front of and told us this was where we should park. Turns out the arena was on the other side of campus so she LIED to us! She probably got a cut off all the parking proceeds.

After eating a quick dinner at the SDSU food court we headed over to Cox Arena. The opening band was Kaiser Chiefs. They did a decent job of warming up the crowd but I thought alot of the songs sounded the same and had one line as the whole song repeating over and over again. The guitarist was great though! I think the closest thing it sounds like is Surf Metal

Then after a stage change Weezer slowly came in to "When you wish upon a star" blaring in the background and then they started off with My Name is Jonas.

Weezer did lots of cool shit during their set. They let Scott (the bassist) sing In the Garage, they played two songs off Pinkerton, Why Bother (sung by Brian) and El Scorcho (Hell yes!). Say It Ain't So was spot on and totally awesome (most favorite song of all time). They let Pat (the drummer) play lead/vocals for Photograph while Rivers handled the drumming and then at the end Scott and Brian went up to the drum set and all three of them started drumming on the same drum set. They even covered a Foo Fighters song (Big Me) which was pretty awesome because I wanted to hear that song from the Foo and at least I got to hear it from Weezer.

And holy shit their encore. First Rivers actually moved all the way to the front of the seats about 20 feet away from where I was sitting and started doing an acoustic version of Island in the Sun. I wish I had my damn camera because my stupid camera phone turned Rivers into two blobs and a line of light. Then for Undone they let someone onto the stage to play the acoustic intro. Then they finished their set with Hash Pipe.

So after they were done I thought, how the hell were Foo Fighters going to top that? BY SCREAMING LOUDER THAN ANYONE I'VE EVER HEARD. Dave Grohl seriously has the loudest scream I've ever heard and they never stopped playing, it was literally one song after the other. Even if you weren't a huge Foo Fighters song there was just so much energy coming from Dave Grohl's voice. It was scary how he was able to scream like that and not destroy his lungs/vocal cords. They played all the hits off their old records plus the new songs from their current album. During one of the songs Dave Grohl actually comes into the seats to play his guitar and I actually see women running by just to touch Dave Grohl for maybe 2 seconds. One girl even started trying to dance/dry hump him but Dave Grohl would have none of that and walked away from the girl. They ended the night with 'Monkey Wrench' which was pretty awesome because Erik wanted them to play it just for the outro of the song. I think the only disappointment of the night for me was not bringing my camera but hey, I'm going to watch them again at Long Beach so next time I'll be prepared.

This show was great, I still think this is probably the 2nd greatest Weezer show I've been to (1st being the Irvine show 3/4 years ago). But in terms of concerts it was #1. The Foo Fighters were just intense and definitely worth the money to see. I'm very happy that Weezer has improved their live show especially because they looked really really boring at Cochella. A+

Weezer and Foo Fighters. Can't rock any harder than that.

Septermber 27th COX Arena/SDSU

Foo Fighters/Weezer

Also Ticketmaster took 21 dollars to process those tickets AKA printing out two tickets and mailing them to me.

Last night I took Josie to go see Erik play with his new band, "The Best Kind Of Trouble"

Cheap Booze, Loud Music and Josie accidently trying to get into the wrong car.

Trying to find Main St., running into a traffic accident, getting to Main St. but then changing our minds and going to Norms.

Dropping Erik off at his car, then running into a bigger traffic accident before getting on the 22.

Last night was awesome.

Yeah I'm going to E3 Expo! But I can only go on Friday because Wednesday I have a quiz and Thursday I have class all day and watching Episode 3 at night.

Also here's a cool flash I saw a couple of weeks ago but forgot to make note of. Beatboxing and Harmonica

I am listening to the new Weezer CD, Make Believe and that is making me so very happy

Honesty, loyalty, friends and then wealth.

I had this commented out. I decided I'd rather not. I guess I'm going to have to implement private entries or something.

3:18AM edit:
I mean I already understood, "friends" so why make such a big deal about it afterwards?

Shit, okay big fuck up on my part. Hindsight is 20/20 and I wish I could take what happened back now but I'm an idiot. I'm weirded out by this whole experience. Christ, I didn't want any long term commitment, hell I'm probably leaving Irvine in 4 months. Perhaps using the phrase "date" was too strong of a word, in the 1800s, but I guess I learned my lesson. Interest apparently means some kind of phase into seriousness. Lesson learned. Lesson learned.

First saying you didn't want to get serious, fine I didn't want it to be serious. Then you flake for us to hang-out. And the whole not bothering to make eye contact with me at all and then you having to reiterate something along the lines of "not interested." I GOT IT THE FIRST TIME. Goddamn, talk about being weirded out.

I'm not leaving this experience angry or hateful. It's just kind of sad actually. I'm not going to give her any stupid silent treatment because I refuse to be the one responsible for this whole mess. I'm glad you thought it would be nice to tell that you didn't want to lead me on but you can't really lead anyone who's lost interest already and is just trying to save the situation from becoming awkward, which it already is.

Added bonus for telling me not to get distracted too easily when I'm studying for my midterm and then throwing down drama 5 minutes later.

Also I'm really starting to find it more and more difficult to just head out to CA events. I mean lately it's just been really bad in terms of what I see around me. Some people are real bitches. I only stay because of the people who are actually nice decent people are in the organization

In the spirit of wanting something right now and not later, I bought The Killer's CD, "Hot Fuss" at Target today and am now enjoying it.

I also bought Sam Reservoir Dogs and Fight Club for his birthday. Sam also got drunk off 3/4 pints of beer and then threw it all up about an hour after we got home.

Rooney's CD used for $2.99 Too bad the CD case is cracked. Oh well I can always replace that.

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.

Wednesday: Alkaline Trio concert
Friday: Dalai Lama speaks at the Bren Events center with guest 5 minute speaker Sharon Stone
Saturday: Wayzgoose Washout :(

Joss Stone, releases a song called "Fell in love with a boy" which is essentially the same exact song as "Fell in love with a girl" by the White Stripes, only The Roots help her play the song and she changes 'girl' to 'boy' and then gets to release this as a single? What.

Now I have no problem with covers and what not but this is kind of absurd it seems more like a huge gimmick than her trying to cover the song and pay homage to The White Stripes. Also the fact that the song isn't even that old adds to the fact that she shouldn't have been allowed to do this.

I am so enthralled with the Beatles right now. Well more so now than before. Before I knew they wrote great songs like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Yesterday" and "Come Together" Songs that everyone has heard of. But now, now its full blown appreciation for them. My playlists is just filled with Beatles music (with one Rooney song, that's just too catchy not to be on my playlist).

New Beatle Favs: Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I Want You (She's So Heavy), Why Don't We Do It In The Road, Sexy Sadie, Octopus Garden, Carry That Weight, Elenor Rigby, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lovely Rita, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Glass Onion, and Revolution on top of all the other songs I loved from them: Come Together, Here Comes The Sun, Blackbird, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, When I'm Sixty-Four. Hell anything off Abbey Road, White Album, Sgt Pepper's and Revolver. Fucking

Today is probably the only time I regret being Chinese.

Scratch that, regret taking Chinese 2B, having to go to the New Years Festival and missing out on an incredibly crazy concert that I would have been able to go to had it not been for Chinese 2B

I am the sads. :(

Also, according to the thing keeping track of my listening habits in WinAmp

Top Played Songs:
Something Corporate - Drunk Girl - 16
Yellowcard - Back Home - 15
John Mayer - New Deep - 14
Death Cab For Cutie - We Looked Like Giants - 14
John Mayer - Home Life - 13

Top Bands Played:
Blink 182 - 129
John Mayer - 121
The Beatles - 117
Death Cab For Cutie - 93
Coldplay - 84
No Doubt - 80
Yellowcard - 72
Rilo Kiley - 69
Norah Jones - 66
Weezer - 55

For the most part Weezer should always be #1 but I haven't had them on my playlist in a while.

I can't stop listening to I Kissed A Drunk Girl by Something Corporate.

I kissed a drunk girl
I kissed a drunk girl, yes I did
Kissed a drunk girl on the lips
I let my guard down
How could I have been so dumb?
Her eyes were open
I know I am not the one (x3)

CA Thursday After Event was happy time for me. I promised David I would "show" him how to work his new camera. And when I say "show" I mean, "Hey this looks like the button I use for my camera."

David forgot his camera at his apartment in CV so when the meeting ended Le's friend was nice enough to drive us over. Only problem was we had 7 people to fit into a 5 person car. So we squish Le and Julie in the passenger seat and Philip, Me and David sat in the back with Jennifer lying on top of us. Haha it was great. I wish I got a picture of that but Jennifer was resting herself on my backpack.

The After Event was to go eat at Jack Shrimp near the Park Place Edwards. The place was nice looking and all but the food is mighty expensive. Luckily we only had to pay 50% of it. I ordered their Jack Shrimp special (which was 16.95). Basically large shrimp in this cajun sauce. I liked it but didn't think it's worth 17 bucks. 8-9 bucks maybe but not 17 bucks.

I also had to prepare a speech for Chinese today about co-habitation. If this is me reading this in the future. Friday (yesterday) was the day where you somewhat redeemed yourself. Self-congratulations are in order.

Lastly, I have to stop being so sad about stupid girls. I mean I don't even know why I crush on girls. On one hand my mind goes, "You must get a girlfriend" and the other half goes "Hey man, be , don't worry about them girls" (My thoughts aren't filled with emoticons or improper grammar, and I also doubt my mind is split in half like that). I generally feel that I don't really want a girlfriend but just needing to have someone to be with. It's about a week until Valentine's Day. Who knows what will happen within a week but I know that I won't force myself into looking stupid and getting into a relationship if I don't feel comfortable with it, no matter how cute the girl is. Although girls with a nice Chinese accent is quite the sexy.

I'm listening to Schoolhouse Rock right now, "The Shot Heard Around The World," and now "I'm Just A Bill" is coming up. Awesome

Last night while I was testing out the new smilies I accidently clicked on the link to edit my Kill Bill "review" instead of clicking on the link to edit the comment I had left. So lo and behold when I go to click the delete link, it deleted the post instead of the comment.

I had forgotten what I was going to write and just looked at the screen for a couple of minutes. Then I realized what I wanted to talk about. The bass getting no respect

When Erik and I went to watch School of Rock, they show all the kids jamming in the closing credits. All of them get a solo... EXCEPT FOR THE GIRL BASSIST! I mean c'mon I know keyboard and backup vocals are pretty important but why can't the girl just get a solo like the rest of the band? Everyone got a solo, except for the bassist! Even Moby agrees with me (is that good or bad?).

so i went and saw the 'rock school' or 'school of rock' or whatever it's called movie this evening and it was very sweet. kind of like 'dead poets society' for the lollapalooza generation. my only criticism is that the female bass player didn't get a solo as the credits were rolling.
everyone else got a solo. why didn't the female bass player get a solo?
i don't know why this bugged me so much, but it did. a lovely movie, compromised by the fact that the female bass player was the only member of an 8 piece band who didn't get a closing credits solo.
she should've been given her own solo. poor little bass player.

Where is the love (for the bass)? The other day I had to do a project with my group for Chinese class. And I mention that I played the bass. One guy goes, "Isn't that easy to play?" while one of the girls in the group goes, "No man, bass is cool, bass keeps the rhythm."

Look, I understand that the bass only has to worry about one note at a time as oppose to guitar players who have to (for the most part) worry about three notes to form a chord. But lots of guitarists in bands play just power chords which might as well be playing one night. Hell I can play a goddamn power chord on my bass!

But to be fair, it's probably pretty easy to pick up a bass and learn simple stuff to get by. But I mean lots of instruments only play one note at a time (like uh nearly all of them) yet they don't get the bad rap that a bass gets. I use to play trumpet and trombone and those instruments only produces one note at a time, so why doesn't anyone say a trumpet or trombone is easy to play? I guess learning the basics would be easy but mastering any instrument is pretty hard ('sup triangle players).

All of you know Napster. What some of you might not know is CD Burning Software conglomerate Roxio bought out the Napster name a few years ago after Napster was unable to pay it's bills. It has now revamped it into an online music service similar to iTunes and BuyMusic.com and hopes to start selling music to the masses with it's brand name. From this Business 2.0 article

He recently conducted a survey and found that 93 percent of respondents knew of the Napster brand, compared with 15 percent who recognized RealNetworks's Rhapsody service. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said they were interested in purchasing music online.

Wow 93% is a lot of people. So I'm guessing this will go over successfully with consumers who want to buy legitmate music online.... unless this doesn't work in which case it means that consumers want to get music for free...

It is no longer possible to have an original opinion on Radiohead.
You've absorbed the deified albums, quarreled over the rock critic pontifications, frowned at the guarded, combative interviews. Thom Yorke's ugly-stick-beaten mug has peered at you from the pages of every magazine known to man; his every word and every note has ignited its own individual Internet flame war. Mass media has bombarded us with Radiohead critique, rendering us unable to generate an unfiltered opinion of our own.

So what does this guy do? He gets 5th graders to draw what they hear in Radiohead's music

But slowly, they begin drawing. One kid starts scrawling a guitar; the girl next to him immediately begins copying -- an apt metaphor for music criticism.

BWAHAHAHAAHA

LINK HERE

Erik came by yesterday to help tune Andrew's guitar. Then he helped me out with some songs although the tab we got for Hands Down was weird, to say the least.

While he was here I realized that the VMAs were on. Only by Satellite is on EST for some reason so by the time we turned it on we had missed the first 2 hours. So we watched the final hour of it. I thought I had missed the Coldplay performance but it turns out that we were just in time to see it. And man were they spectacular. Seriously I want to make love to this band and have its babies.

Some thoughts about the show: I missed the Britney/Madonna kiss but thanks to the Internet I can relive those 5 seconds of hot hot kissing. Also 50 cent seems to have been nominated for every single award in the show. Every single time they go through the nominees for a category you hear, "In The Club." I think they would still have that song even if the category was Best Female Group or Best Rock Performance. When they started playing Beyonce Knowle's "Crazy in Love" during one of their commercial breaks Erik got up and said, "That reminds me, I got to figure out how to play that on guitar" and promptly went into the other room. Metallica seems to get worse with every showing.

Today I went to Guitar Center. I bought a tuner, picks and a book. I didn't know Fender picks were so goddamn expensive. I didn't know tuners were so expensive. Everything is expensive. I was playing around with a 100 watt amp with this nice looking bass. This is what I desire the most right now. A new bass and amp. Maybe it's just my amp or maybe it's my bass but I'm not happy with the way it sounds although technically there's nothing wrong with the sound, there's nothing really right about it either. It sounds nothing like what I think a bass should sound like.

Another thing I noticed, I never seem to fini

Music can be used to convey nothing, everything and all in between. No one ever told me that it produces irony.

Don, Gary, Jimmy, Derek, John Shin and I went to eat all-you-can-eat sushi yesterday. I think I am still feeling the reprecussions of that lunch.

Yeah so my idea is to put all the version of Say It Ain't So that I have onto CD so I can listen to it in my car.

Those who are afraid now to ride with me in my car, never fear. I don't plan to play it for anyone else! It's my precious! and no one can have (listen) to it!

Also, I am crazy.

Edit: Today I took my first final. It was for Bio 50. It sucked. :(

Tomorrow is my last day of classes and hopefully the last time I will ever have to wake up for an 8 AM class. Those really suck and should be avoided at all costs. Chinese that early... wow I'm surprised I went to it every single day. In fact I have yet to miss a single lecture all quarter. Which I think is quite an accomplishment for me. I went to most of my discussions (only 2 of my classes had discussions) so the whole quarter I attended my classes. Although I tend to fall asleep in my ICS 151 class cause it's right after Chinese so I don't get a chance to sleep. Speaking of ICS 151, our teacher assigned homework that's due finals week. What the fuck? I hate that. It's like, oh I know there's going to be a final worth a lot of your grade but while you're at it why don't you complete this homework assignment. And also her assignments are really long, tedious and did I mention they were really long?

I need a Summer Mixtape, preferably fast tempo songs, suggestions?

Run DMC - It's Tricky
Shaft Theme Song

In what is a rare thing here in Irvine, Jurassic 5 rolled into town on Friday for the only concert sponsored by (AS)UCI. UCI does not like to provide for any concerts at all even though they have a bajillion dollars from all our student fees. Pfft, bleh.

So the opening act sucked. I don't know something about his screaming didn't do it for me. Kinda sounded like he trying to go an octave higher than he could. Also he screamed... over and over again... Basically every word he'd try to scream out multiple times in a sort of AC/DC. Brian Johnson fashion... only terrible.

Then Jurassic 5 came on! Contrary to popular belief, the band actually consisted of 6 core members (4 people rhyming and 2 DJs).

Let me clarify here, I was not a Jurassic 5 fan before hand nor do I claim to be. They just happened to be here on a free concert.. so, hey, free concert. I can't really explain it but I mean their performance was just amazing. The energy in there was great and they let the DJs have at it with some crazy ass shit. My arms were very sore (more on that later) so I tried as best as I could to cheer when everyone else was putting their arms in the air (and waving them like they just don't care...) while I tried my best to clap. They were great! I'm a big fan now.

On Thursday Night I went broomballing with Chinese Association. We drive up to Disney Ice, waited for the hockey teams to finish practice and then started playing at around 11. The concept of broomball is to make it into the goal of the other team. The thing is you have to do with while walking (falling?) on the ice with your shoes and using a stick with clam-shaped end.

There were a lot of people playing at the start of the game. It was comedy "Huge Glob of People Centered Around the Ball Wherever It Moved" option. It was so hard to move the ball around because so many people would be over the ball trying to take control with 5 other sticks trying to do the same.

Also the ball is very hard to hit/control. This is the reason why hockey sticks are shaped the way they are. So that they can scoop up a puck and control where it goes. In broomball it is a lot different. The stick has a clam-shaped end so you can't put very much power behind it (which I guess is to prevent people from getting hit too hard in the face). The stick also makes it hard for someone to dribble the ball down. Most of the time movement of the ball involved just dumping it against the boards and hoping no one on the other team would deflect the ball in the other direction.

Oh yeah and also since we have no skates, falling was a common site. Attempting to use your stick and trying to move on ice without skates is not an easy thing. If you're not careful and you try to hit the ball too hard you will most likely slip! I slipped a total of three or four times.

The first time happened because I tried to lunge for the ball while it whisked past me. That hop that I took caused me to lose balance and I hit the ice hard on my elbows and side.

Second time happened for what seemed to be no apparent reason at all. I'm standing at center ice watching the other team's attempt to score on our goal when all of I sudden, I try to move only to have my lead (no foot slip on the ice when I attempted to push forward. I try to rebalance myself but no luck. My stick goes flying and I land straight on my back.

The third time, relates to control of the ball. The ball had been passed to me (sort of) and I was attempting to make my way down... I try to dump the puck into the other end and I reach back and prepare to strike the ball as hard as I could. I do make contact but in doing so had lost balance and fell to the ice on my elbows.

So to make a long story longer I had a fun time playing broomball. I woke up Friday to the aching of my elbows. A direct result of going to the ARC on Wednesday and then broomballing. Oh and Jeanette is a hardcore broomball player who is out for blood when she plays. Also, she is a pirate. Iron Jessica Cash!!!!!!! ARRRRR!!!

Everyone must listen to the Ja Rule MP3s duets2 and duets3

I'll send 'em to you if you wanna hear them.

HOLLLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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!

So I'm sick. I have no idea how it happened, but I'm sick. What I have is a dry throat that likes to make me cough whenever the fuck it feels like making me cough. Goddamn colds.

For helping out backstage at CA Cultural Night, one of the head prop gals, Stacy (is it with an e too?) and her roommate gave us some Cheesecake to eat after the CA meeting. I decided to wait to eat it after I got back to my apartment where I would have a fork. But many many eyes were... eyeing my cheesecake so I took a bite out of it tasted great.

When I got back to my apartment we didn't have any utensils left so I basically picked the cheesecake up and scarfed it down. Big mistake. Although it was probably because I ate the piece of cheesecake waaaaaayyyyyyyyy too fast I would like to think that the cheesecake was instead poisoned. Yes, someone tried to poison me by sneaking it into my cheesecake.

Say It Ain't So is officially the greatest song ever.

Not much activity going on. So here's what I'll do. Leave a question in the comments and I'll answer it! Haha!!!

Edit: Well okay I do have something. A few days ago, Toni-Lynne and Diana, residents of CV and hardcore Weezer fans (They had a Weezer wreath on their balcony for Christmas!) went to a Space Twins show. The band was formed by Brian Bell, guitarist for Weezer! So after the show they went to Brian and asked him to sign one of those paper CD sleeves. They made sure he spelled all our names right (Erik with a 'k', Shuan with a 'ua' and Josh with a 'osh') and they tried to get him to put down. "At least I'm on The Team" but the place was really loud so the words got mixed up as he was signing it. But it's great anyways! First we meet Rivers Cuomo, now we have Brian Bell's autograph. Mad props to the ladies for going to the show and doing that for us. Unbelievable!


Toni-Lynne and Diana are the best!

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.

Erik, Asuka and I went to the Tower Records in Brea to go check out this Ataris show that was going on to promote their new album, "So Long Astoria"

I have some pictures/videos if anyone wants to see them and.. yeah.

I had to do a lot of driving on Saturday. First I went to Asuka's house, then to Erik's, then to the Brea Tower Records, then drive back down to Valencia High School to pick up my cousin who had to go to some Scholar thing at Berkeley. Then we had to go back to my house so he could get dressed up, then we drove up to Rowland Heights to drop him off with my parents so they could drive him into LA. One thing I noticed is that my Chinese has slightly improved 'cause of taking the class. Before I could pronounce my parent's workplace in Chinese but I could never read the characters sans one. When I took a look at the sign today I was like, "Hey I learned those words!" And stuff.

Yeah so anyways, after I dropped my cousin off w/ my parents we went to The Boat in Life Plaza to go eat. The food there is pretty cheap and good.

Then afterwards we went to go get boba, then we decided to go back to the Brea Mall! Ay, so we drove back down to Brea and hung out at the mall. By the time my parents called me it was already 5 or so which means we were gone for 2 hours or so.

Some pretty funny stuff that we saw and I wished I had brought my camera out from my Passat (no not Jetta, and not a Pjetta): Asuka stripping a male model's clothes, a shirt that read 'Fit Shaced' and 21" Homer Pez Dispenser! Oh how I never have my digital camera when I need it.

Anyways so to recap my route. I think I saw the same piece of the 57 throughout the day: From Chapman to 91E, 91W to 57 off Imperial, back down the Chapman, up to Diamond Bar Blvd back down to Imperial, back to 91E again, and 91W to 57 off Chapman.

So yesterday I went to LA to go visit Don at USC. GAY.

I went to go hang out but only Don was there 'cause James went to some stupid frat thing down in San Diego. So I ate his food and drank his drinks in his absense. Later on we picked up Asuka and we went to Manhattan Beach w/ Don's roommate to go watch the sunset. Then we went to a Mongolian beef all-you-can-eat place that was on PCH. Then we headed back to Don's apartment and just chilled for a long ass time. Lots of gay jokes and old stories were told. So so so many gay jokes. I blame it all on Don.

• Most people say that John Mayer got popular because ladies love him. While that may be true, he still writes great music and his lyrics are top-notch. But the only reason I know that he existed at all was because he was signed onto a major label (Columbia) which is a rarity these days.


• For example, the radio. There is a major problem with the radio because this is how it works now (since Clear Channel Communications basically owns nearly every major radio station in every major US city): basically a music label with major muscle (read: $$$) decides that a certain artist should become a mega super star. They hire a "middle-man" to tell the radio station's to play their new star's hit single, "I'm not a woman yet but I'll appeal to any man over 13" and the radio station agrees to put it into its rotation of songs.
  
  What's wrong with this? The problem is that everytime someone "calls in" to request a song, it's usually because they were going to play that song anyway because radio DJs these days are nothing more than people who press play because they have almost no control of the content they air. I mean KROQ at a certian time was playing singles by Eminem and DMX. Tell me what the fuck does Eminem and DMX have to do with Rock music? Absolutely none. I don't expect Green Day to come on while I'm listening to POWER or THE BEAT so why do I have to put up with Eminem and DMX on KROQ? and KIIS, don't even get me started. This is what that station is good for. When there is a very popular song out that I need to hear at the exact moment I'm in the car I switch it to KIIS because I have at least two to three odds that they will be playing that song the moment I switch to it.
  
  Another problem, "artists" (using the term lightly) who sound nothing at all live like they do on the CD. Example: Sum 41 (credit: asuka)
  
  Bigger problem, "artists" (again, using the term lightly) who sound like shit on their own CD and no goddamn electronic filters will make them sound any better than if they were to sing live: ex, Vanessa Carlton.
  
  Also, does no one else see a problem in the fact that they (the music industry) is just basically telling it's listeners what to listen to? They are saying, "Buy Britney Spear's latest album" or "Listen to Ja Rule because he's a thugga" and all that bullshit. Do you like the music you listen to because YOU yourself enjoy it or do you listen to your music because someone told you it was popular?


• I'm not trying to be a music wh0re or anything but just think to yourself; when was the last time you listened to music by word-of-mouth in which that musician wasn't getting significant airplay on the radio?

After watching Back To The Future; yet another reason to learn guitar. In case one day you accidently go back in time and then you prevent your parents from meeting so you must convince them to go to some "rhythmic ritual" where they have to fall in love so you can be born.

Guitarmageddon in a bit, but first some observations about some songs.

Chic 'n' Stu by System of a Down - I mean I know this song isn't about pizza pie, but goddamn it is! Listen to the song and you'll know what I mean. I was talking to Kirk and Kenny about this after we watched Shanghai Knights. SoaD had some song that was talking about pizza and mentioned pepperoni peppers and etc... Listen to the song or just look at the lyrics.

Forever Young by Alphaville - Most of you probably don't know who they are. They were a band that released this single in 1984 as one of those slow songs that you would dance to at... a dance. So anyways, if you've seen the second "Adulthood" commercials for the Saturn Ion you'll recognize this song. It's the background music that is playing while they drive through the block of "high school" now I find it a cheap shot that it made me nostalgic for high school but the end result is that I now have to buy that car.

Let me rephrase that better. I think whoever thought of the advertising for this car commercial did a good job. Obviously people who were teenagers in the 80's and listened to this song (in high school no less) are now old enough where they can buy cars. Advertisers of course use this fact to exploit the emotions of consumers.

I too have graduated from high school and although I had never heard of that song in my life it still brought back memories of being in high school. Although maybe some bad memories rather than the good ones. I wonder what song they'll play in 19 years to sell cars to us. I can't really think of any slow song, maybe Good Riddance by Green Day?

Well anyways, Guitarmageddon's 1st Prelim was TONIGHT! Josh, Erik one of our friends and I went to the Guitar Center in Costa Mesa(Probably not) and listened to about five guitarists wail and show their skills in shredding. The range of experience went from 1 year to 18 years. But the best one out of them played a lot of blues licks and riffs and had been playing for 10 years which isn't odd until you realize that he's only 17. Shit!

Yeah so that guy and some guy with a squire won. Which means they advance to the store finals. Then the final finals in the Hollywood store. Also I have small clips of them playing if anyone wants to see them I should be able to send them over.

1. Must think of a catchy three-word-or-more name for your band. Maybe something like, "Simply Taking Back A Pizza I Found On Friday 13"

2. Lead singer should not play any instrument. Obnoxious whiny voice only requirement. Also, his voice needs to sound like it went through 30 some odd voice filters in the studio.

3. Guy who does backup vocals has to be able to scream like a goddamn screaming thing everytime they jump into the chorus. Okay if he can't really scream like it live.

4. Lead singer should swing his microphone as though none of his band members are near him. Most likely they won't be because they are too busy bending down and looking down at their guitars.

5. Songs must be how a girl broke his heart but he doesn't care anymore or a song about a girl broke his heart but he wants her back or a song about him breaking up with her but wanting her back or a song about him breaking up with her because he wants her hot roommate instead.

6. One member of the band must have a hair color that is not naturally occuring. Another member must have blonde hair.

It's not that I don't like these bands, it's just that they're so cookie cutter

Erik keeps watching "The Scientist" video by Coldplay that I sent him a week ago. It has become the new Cochise of his playlist.