Halloweenie!

Halloween was never a favorite holiday of mine. I'm a real scaredy cat, which I think runs in the family.

The Bravo Channel is running a countdown of scariest films and scariest movie moments and I haven't seen most of them. Which is natural since I'm a big scaredy cat.

The top scary movie in yesterday's countdown was "Hostel", a film I will never see. I can handle suspense (Hitchcock), monsters that are beyond belief (Freddy Krueger) and the occasional zombie film ("Shaun of the Dead" but not "28 Days Later"). But I will not willingly see torture-gore movies.

My mom was watching "Saw" on TV and I joined her for a few minutes before I got up and listened to Belle and Sebastian or something.

I understand how these films have an underlying political message or something but I can't get past the intestines being ripped out of some poor fuck's stomach. Or someone being drawn and quatered. Or someone rolling around in used needles. Or hill-billies gang raping then stabbing someone repeatedly. Or someone shaving off their skin because of a flesh eating disease.

I remember watching "Tommyknockers" and leaving the room when Jimmy Smits's teeth are being pulled out with pliers. (Was it Jimmy Smits? I tried to rub it out of my mind.) I must have just gotten my braces then and teeth-pulling pain is not something I wanted to relive. Incidently, I've never read any Stephen King books either.

The film makers interviewed for the countdown have unanimously agreed that Asian horror films are surpassing Western ones. Rob Zombie and Eli Roth, both sick fucks themselves, were genuinely disturbed by Miike Takashi's "Audition". Again, a film I will never see under my own will. How horrible is this movie that even Zombie and Roth are creeped out by it?!
***
I've switched gears because my cousin put on "Anne of Green Gables" on the DVD. This is truly the best remedy after feeling fear and disgust on celluloid.

Seriously, in my opinion, "Anne of Green Gables" is one of the best film adaptations of a book ever. The cast is perfect, the sets and scenery are perfect, the script is perfect. And there's no tooth-pulling scenes!

I have roughly two weeks left in my sabbatical/awesome vacation and I've been emailing my employers to see if I still have a job. So far it seems I still do although they've changed everyone's schedules and it looks like I'm not going to be slacking off as much as I was before. Dammit.

I'm looking forward to going back to the daily grind. It means being a productive member of society unlike what I've been lately.

I've been indulging in copious amounts of American television. As some of you may know, I love television. I've loved television since I was born. I learned days of the week from television. I learned how to talk from television (hence the pseudo-yank accent). Television is my friend and I'm going to miss American shows when I get back home. Of course I can look for torrents but it just isn't going to be the same.

Recently I discovered the joy of watching Live with Regis and Kelly. Dude, that show is freaking entertaining. Jimmy Kimmel was guest hosting this week and he was great. I thought Kelly Lee (which is what Dave Letterman calls her) would be annoying but she is just delightful. Such a guilty pleasure.

I've been enjoying other guilty pleasures lately such as:
- The Price is Right with new host Drew Carey. That show has not changed in 20 years. Even the products and games are still the same! Drew is still adjusting which is natural since Bob Barker's shoes are very hard to fill. I like it though when Drew giggles after the announcer does some over-the-top VO for a ridiculous prize ("Make your meals more festive with this ah-may-zing cheeeese grater!"). I love rooting for crazy people to win a living room showcase.

- Anything on E! Unfortunately, I now know more about the Kardashians, Kimora Lee Simmons, and the Sunset Tan people than I care to.

- Gossip Girl. I haven't read the books so I have no basis for comparison. It's actually not bad. The clothes are great and the acting is alright. And Matthew Settle is in it! Go Capt. Spiers!

- "No One" by Alicia Keys and "Built to Last" by Melee. My two guilty pleasure songs. You may have noticed the last.fm "quilt" widget in the sidebar. I didn't put the chart widget there because people will see that I play these songs more than is recommened by professionals.

Things I am shameless about loving:
- Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. The best show about cake decorating. I am in love with Geoff. Like truly and deeply in love.

- Pushing Daisies. Good thing I can torrent this when I get home.

- Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel. I am also in love with Mike Rowe. Because he is a manly man. And manly men are hard to come by these days.

Now what could tie up my guilty pleasures with my shameless loves? Why a mash up of Canada's second best band (with Wolf Parade being first. Sorry) and a pee-loving R&B singer.

R. Kelly/Broken Social Scene - I'm A Flirt (Shoreline)

The mash up is pretty old and someone even made a video for it. Weeks ago I heard the original R. Kelly song and it was boring as hell without the BSS beat.

As a bonus here's Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's version of R. Kelly's Ignition. I haven't heard the original but it can't be as good as this.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Ignition

We kiss with dry lips when we say goodnight

Live blogging my morning

I'm reaching new lows. I'm watching the Hills. And as horrifying it is to see bland, inane rich people live as if the world owes them a living, there is actually something worse than that. It's called Living the Hill$ Life.

While you're watching the Hills, every once in a while a graphic will pop out indicating how much Audrina's hoodie costs ($68) or how much Lauren's hoop earrings are ($375).

There's nothing on Bravo or E! or the Food Network so I'm going to stay with the Hills. I'll see how much of this staged drama I can stand. I feel like being outraged really early in the morning.

***
I've been downloading random music from hype machine and spinner.com. It's always a hit and miss thing, trying to find new music that I really like. So please, please, please listen to Sea Wolf's "You're a Wolf". It is awesome.

Sea Wolf - "You're A Wolf"

Spinner.com also has a new song by Nada Surf. It's not bad but I like their peppier songs better.

***
I've regained my sanity and I've switched channels to a film called "Pop Gear". It's a series of performances by 1960's Britsh Invasion bands. It is surreal, wonderful and of course filled with great music.

Watch the Gold Pants dance. American Apparel stole everything from this. What has always amazed me when I watch 60's dance footage is that they never dance with the beat. It's always this weird herky-jerky thing they do, it's like they're not even listening to the music. Bizarre. My mom says it's because music like that was new at the time and people didn't know how to dance to it yet. I don't believe her.

Evidence: The Byrds - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

("Pop Gear" is over and I'm back to the Hills. Lauren needs some heavy concealer or something. She's got bad wrinkles under her eyes. Maybe it's from all the stress of living.)

Since I'm on this 60's kick, I've compiled some of my favorite videos from youtube. I found a clip of the Byrds from the Ed Sullivan show that I taped from laserdisc onto VHS. Man, I used to watch that VHS of various clips of footage all the time. I think I lost it when we moved though. Thank god for youtube.

Spencer Davis Group - Keep on Running
This whole time I thought the Spencer Davis Group was black. I'm ashamed that I've never looked up Steve Winwood and connected the two together.

The Byrds - Turn Turn Turn
Roger McGuinn is freaking me out in this clip. And around the 3:04 mark you can hear some crazy lady yelling.

The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic/You Didn't Have to Be So Nice
My favorite 60's band. Yeah, even more than the Beatles. John Sebastian is a great songwriter.

The Turtles - Can I Get To Know You Better
Crappy video quality but I love this song. And Jimmy Durante introduces the band!

The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
When I was 10 years old I made a mix tape with this song just playing over and over and over. I didn't have a CD player of my own then. Wait, maybe the song was "Come Go With Me". Well either or, I really liked the Beach Boys when I was 10.

Chad and Jeremy - Distant Shores
I saw them live a couple of years ago and the crazy music lover in me got their set list after the show. I didn't stick around to have anything autographed because the line of baby boomers was too long. They sounded great that night though.

Broken hearts want broken necks

Luis, my editor at Pulse and Burn, asked his stable of reviewers for our top ten list of albums for '07. As I mentioned not too long ago, none of my picks got into last year's line-up. This year however, after the tabulation was done, I got three of my top nine into the final list.

You'll have to wait for the December(?) issue of Burn for the whole list. But I guess I can reveal that my top album of 2007 is Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Wilco came in second and Hilera third.

AOL finally put up their session with Modest Mouse. It makes me want to see them live soooo badly. They played four songs and the first one, "Broke", was their first ever single that was released in 1996. It's the first time I heard it and it made me fall off my chair (metaphorically).

The rest of the set got better and better ("Little Motel", "The View", and then "We've Got Everything"). I scrounged around and found mp3s of a set they played in 2000. While still good, I have to say the newish six-man line up is leagues better than what they had before.

I love that they have two drummers. One of the drummers is mighty tasty, btw. Their photoblog is great and I really want to know what this is about.

Yesterday I picked up some stuff for pasalubong at Disney. It is wonderful to have a cousin that has employee discount.

Since we were at the park, I begged her to ride Hollywood Mansion with me once. Here's the proof.


What's funny about this is that our "elevator" was the only one among the others that had nearly everyone throwing up peace/gang/devil horn signs. All the other pictures were really sedate. We had a fun elevator.

Later that evening I went with Nicole to her co-worker's birthday party in Azusa. Sal was the birthday boy. He just turned 25 and is gay. The second fact will be important in a minute.

The party was at a small house with a large backyard and it was owned by Sal's friend (who is mexican). Let's just say there was an interesting mix of people there.



The "fun" started when two white girls took out a large table to the backyard and took off their tops and asked Sal to do body shots off them.


Now remember Sal is gay. Completely and utterly gay. But that didn't stop him from licking salt off these girls' stomachs and then making out with them. That didn't stop the straight guys from taking pictures of them either. It was hilarious!



Joe, Nicole's good friend, refused to believe Sal was gay. He literally turned his back on the show and was sorely disappointed that he wasn't gay too that night. Here's Joe looking very disappointed. You can see one of the girls-gone-wild do her thing back there.

Nicole worriedly told me that this isn't usually how she rolls. I assured her that I had an fantastic time and an experience like this is exactly why I blog.

p.s. I just have to show you Sal's awesome tattoos on his forearms. So cute!

This is how men are measured

My cousin Nicole and I headed out to downtown LA to see Rogue Wave last night. They were the last of a series of great shows that I've been lucky enough to see.

I have a handful of their songs in my iPod. They're often compared to the Shins which I think is fair but lately they've been moving away from mellow stuff to slightly louder pastures.


The El Rey is a beautiful venue that looks like a burlesque bar slash cruise ship ballroom. By 8:30 the crowd was still thin and by 9:00 the opening band Port O'Brien faced a sparse audience.


Port O'Brien are California natives but spend lots of time working in Alaska. Most of their songs are sea-themed and blue collar music. They have a banjo player who was adorable in her polka dot dress but she wasn't a very good back-up singer.


Rogue Wave took the stage past 10:00 but they were good from the get-go. Most of their set list was made up of their new songs from Asleep at Heaven's Gate. "Lake Michigan" was just stunning. So much better than the youtube video that I posted earlier because there was some serious audience participation.

Nicole and I were in a great spot just right of the stage. We both agreed that the band's new guitarist resembled Mr Bean and the bassist was hot (girls will always be girls). Zach, the lead singer, introduced "the new lady in his life" who happened to be right infront of us. She was his baby girl and she was wearing headphones too big for her tiny head while resting in her mom's arms. Throughout the night Zach kept looking over to his wife and baby, especially during "Lullaby". Eventually the baby fell asleep, even though the band was playing really loud and I left the theater partly deaf.


Midway through the show Zach broke my heart by saying they wouldn't be playing "Love's Lost Guarantee". That's my favorite RW song. The last minute of that song is truly sublime.

They appeased the crowd by going into "Publish My Love" and a differently arranged "Every Moment". The band was really impressive. They sounded great even though they had tuning problems which Zach attributed to their sick guitar tech who "only had the strength to bring the guitars to the stage".

They had great rapport with the audience specially since they had a lot of friends in the crowd which included a minor celebrity (don't get too excited).

After someone in the crowd yelled their love for multi-instumentalist Gram, who played the keyboards, guitar, drums and tambourine, Zach says "raise your hands if you love Gram". A good number did including Gram himself (both hands in fact). Zach looks over at him as says "loving yourself is the greatest love of all." Indeed. I don't know if I love Rogue Wave but I know I like them a little more now.

What's a wonderwall anyway?

I'm seeing Rogue Wave tonight. It's nice to get out of the house finally.

Just wanted to share a couple of songs. Usually I like things in threes but two will have to do for today.

Travis - Writing to Reach You (from The Man Who)

An oldie but a goodie and relevant since I'm away from home. I know they came out with an album recently but I haven't heard much about it. I miss good britpop.

Second, is "Guess I'll Forget You" by Black Heart Procession. I couldn't find an mp3 online. I think I have a copy of it at home though.

This guy wrote a review and summed up the song very well.

The Black Heart Procession is responsible for the most intense listening experience I have ever had. “Guess I’ll Forget You”, from their 2000 album III, was the first song to make me cry. A brilliant song in its own right, “Guess I’ll Forget You” entered my life at a time when I knew I was in love, and hearing someone articulate the exact feelings I would face if that love fell apart was devastating. Imagining myself in the emotional space that the song described was just too much. I’d love to mention that at the same time it was a rewarding experience because it taught me that I was still able to be affected by a song, but that would be skirting the issue. I bawled. Uncontrollably. And then I listened to the song again.

I've never been heartbroken but if it ever happens, I'm going to make sure I don't listen to this song.



now you know there's no light on the waves
but before i turn there's just one last word
then i'll try to forget you

now they say there's no light in the caves
and we all know that there's no way out
i'll try and forget you
but before i go i must say
that in my heart you'll always be found
always but i'll try to forget you
i guess i'll forget you

Life Report

I have four weeks left in my sabbatical (which is what I'm calling my vacation now)and I can truly say this trip has been the best decision I've made since...I was born. Not a minute of it have I regretted.

I may come back home a pauper and all my savings gone but I rationalize that by looking at all the pictures I've taken and all the people I've met and places I've been. I love spending time with my cousins and my nephews (and one niece). Reconnecting with people I haven't seen in years has been maybe the best thing about the trip. (With Wilco, Josh Rouse and Jason Collett being a very close second.)

I didn't take this sabbatical to find myself. I already know who I am, for the most part. I took it because I could. And I know there's a lot of people who can but think they can't.

Taking this trip wasn't a big leap for me since I don't have any huge responsibilities with the exception of my job. I like my job (I do!) but I don't know how long I can see myself there.

Speding time with my relatives in Portland taught me that a career isn't necessarily the next step after college. Marriage isn't necessarily the next step in adulthood. And your life doesn't have to follow anyone else's. I kind of knew that already but they just affirmed it.

When I get home, I'm going back to work with a smile on my face, I'm going out with friends in my new clothes and shoes and I'm going to plan for next year's trip.

Last weekend I spent time again with my dad's side. My aunt organized an Autumn Moon festival thing. Rolling dice for prizes is fun. I won nothing but two bags of mini cheetos. Good thing my nephew Philip traded with me (I really wanted a notebook).


Philip is a bright boy but he does stupid things like jumping into the pool with all his clothes on.



After the dice-rolling excitement (and old people karaoke), we celebrated Alan's third birthday

Alan's birthday cookie was awesomely yummy.


I sat at the kid's table because I didn't feel like talking to my grown cousins about raising children, mortgages and how difficult it is to be married. Instead, I sat with my nephews as they threw peanuts at each other (and at me), played with their chopsticks (which I was best at), and constantly insulted their aunt(me).

***
I've been doing nothing lately. The doggies and TV are keeping me company.


Pushing Daisies is fantastic. Heroes is boring me so far. The Irish gang thing is retarded. Top Chef is over (what will I watch now?!). America's Next Top Model is like crack. Tyra is an egomaniac. I want to marry Mike Rowe. He's so macho.

Did you say chowda?

The day before I left Portland, Janet and I drove up to Seattle. It's a three hour drive from Portland and we planned to drop in on my crazy uncle (and her cousin) Sonny.

If he wasn't home our plan B was to go to Pike Place Market and take tourist-y pictures.

He was home and he took us to the dog park he frequents with his puppy Chocolate (aka Doodoo Girl). The dog park happened to be on an old military base that's now occasionally rented out by local community groups. On that day a library that was going out of business had a massive booksale in a hangar. A hangar full of books!!! It was like heaven.


I didn't buy any books since I was thinking about my luggage exceeding its limit, but I did buy a couple of CDs (Travis, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and a Suicide Squeeze Records Sampler). We could've spent the entire day there but we didn't have much time in Seattle and we had to hit the Market before we left.


What could be better than a hangar full of books? Seattle chowder of course! We went to Pike Place Chowder and had the most awesome chowder in the world. I was so hungry and the seafood bisque I had was so good, I finished a pint of it in a sitting. I dream about that bisque now.




If you're with my crazy uncle Sonny, you have to be ready to get out of the car to take a picture, be it on a busy freeway, in freezing weather, or a lonely country road.