Updates 'n' Such

12/03/09

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:12:00 -0500

So, the Grammy Nominations are in and I have to say I am largely pleased. I'll have to go through all of these though, so bear with me:

Record [single] Of The Year

I guess "Use Somebody" by Kings Of Leon - it's at least halfway decent compared to "Halo", "You Belong With Me", "Poker Face", and "I Gotta Feeling", none of which I can truthfully say I like.

Album Of The Year

Not really a fan of anything here, either; I'll go with Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King by Dave Matthews Band 'cause it's not pop (or trash).

Song Of The Year

I don't get the different between record and song, but, once again, I'll go with "Use Somebody" by Kings Of Leon since nothing else on the list is near decent.

Best New Band

This would be a tie of MGMT with Silversun Pickups. You can't call either new, though, so whatever... It's actually for the first time these bands have been nominated, I think...

Skipping to something with a nomination I like...

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Most here isn't actually what I'd consider pop, and I'll go with "Kids" by MGMT - a truly amazing song.

Random note: How the heck do you have an instrumental pop album? Oh, and now dance... here's what I'd call pop. But...

Best Electronic/ Dance Album

Sweet! Divided By Night by The Crystal Method made it on here! Heck yeah!

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Both "Life In Technicolor II" by Coldplay and "21 Guns" by Green Day are great, but I'll go with the former. That song is pure awesomeness.

Best Hard Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Go Linkin Park! "What I've Done" rocks! One question though - how the crap did it get here this year!?

Best Rock Song

Green Day for "21 Guns" definitely wins for me.

Best Rock Album

Once again, go Green Day for their album 21st Century Breakdown.

Best Alternative Album

One - what's the difference between Alternative and Rock?... Two - holy crap, apparently I love Alternative - Depeche Mode's Sounds Of The Universe, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz!, and Death Cab For Cutie's The Open Door EP were all nominated. Depeche mode easily wins, but dang. It's Blitz! is great (though Death Can could have done better...)

Lastly...

Best Short Term Music Video

Depeche Mode has done it again with "Wrong"! Yeah!!!

As for my music reviews... no... I'll get around to simply finishing In Silico, though...

10/11/09

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:09:00 -0400

I've been listening to Pandora a lot recently. It's really freaking awesome. Disjecta Membra Radio, I've called my station. Loving it.

I redid BBG, and it's a bit better, but I have aquired permission to use Final Cut Pro at school, so I'm tweaking the volume a bit.

Now, the main reason I feel like making a blog that no one will read:

Architecture!

Since I was three, I've loved it. I remember standing on the foundation of my soon-to-be house: "Is this gonna be my room?"

Houses really do seem small without the frames.

Anyway, after that, I began going around to 'look at houses', collecting floorplans from different neighborhoods and builders and stuff, sometimes making my own plans.

I have a pretty huge collection now.

The last year or two, I've kinda grown out of it, but now I'm totally into it again. Last weekend, I went to four neighborhoods, looking at six different models. Oh yeah!

The weekend before that, at my mom's, I went with Jimmy to the Grand Homes neighborhood across the street. We walked through several houses being built (no workers on a Sunday) and then the model. The model was awesome, but I don't think the agent believed that Jimmy was my brother, so no floorplans for us. :(

Today, without Jimmy, I went back, walked through some half-constructed homes, and then walked farther back to two community by CB Jeni. The agents there were a bit more nice, and I managed to see five models and get two packets of floorplans.

I have a TON of floorplans by a ton of builders, and I love spending time looking at them and designing my own.

Soon, I'll post about all the music I've gotten lately.

9/21/09

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:46:00 -0400

This is the first blog in the awesome month of September!!

It's so awesome because my birthday is in September. The 25th, to be exact. I share my special day with poet Shel Silverstein, actor Will Smith, two of my teachers last year and one of my classmates. September is the month with the most births (which means that most of these babies were concieved in December).

It may not be my birthday yet, but I had my party last Saturday (the 19th). I invited seven, but only four made it (Chris was sick, for one): Ethan, Jeremy, Jimmy, and Francisco, who unfortunately had to leave early and didn't spend the night.

I got a total of $150. My grandma got me two $15 iTunes gift cards, my dad a $50 dollar one, Francisco a used one (and then an unused $25 one), Ethan and Jeremy a $20 dollar bill, and Jimmy a $25 gift card to anywhere (it's like a credit card).

This is what I got:

Absence - Paper Route
Are We All Forgotten - Paper Route
A Thrill Of Hope - Paper Route
The Resistance - Muse
"Meet Me On The Equinox" - Death Cab For Cutie
It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
In Silico - Pendulum
Living Thing - Peter Bjorn And John
Here We Stand - The Fratellis
Look Out Sunshine! - The Fratellis
"How To Save A Life" - The Fray
Velocifero - Ladytron
Hourglass - Dave Gahan
Show Your Bones - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oh No - Ok Go
Room On Fire - The Strokes
Off With Their Heads! - Kaiser Chiefs

Oh yeah. 15 albums and two songs.

I'm having trouble with Jimmy's Visa gift card. For one, it has a $4 activation fee (wow) and, even though iTunes let me download it all, it says it has trouble with my credit card. I overspent the $21 and am now $16 over. It's okay, though, because I didn't do anything with the $20 Ethan and Jeremy gave me.

Later on in the party, we played Killer Bunnies (Ethan won the 4-hour game) and ate hot dog buns without hot dogs (well, I did, at least). We filmed a video, Half-Price Psycho, which I think is some of my best editing yet, even though it's only thirty seconds long.

Overview of all the music (Happy B-day, The Fragile, by the way!)

Absence - Paper Route

Of course I already knew most of this album by heart, but the stream on MySpace didn't include all of "Be Healed", and it didn't have the bonus track "Have You Fallen Asleep". They're pretty good (but not the best on the album).

Play count so far: 1

Are We All Forgotten - Paper Route

I only really knew "American Clouds" (they played it at the concert) and "Are We All Forgotten" (it was on Absence), but the other three songs on this EP are really good.

Play count so far: 1

A Thrill Of Hope - Paper Route

I hadn't heard any of the three songs from this Internet-only EP, but they are, of course, amazing.

Play count so far: 1

The Resistance - Muse

This is the latest album by the great band Muse. I only had Black Holes And Revelations and Absolution, not to mention "Sunburn", an awesome song from their debut Showbiz. I was pretty fond, and this album doesn't change that. While it has its highs and lows, the highs outnumber the lows and it was not a letdown. Plus, the iTunes LP is pretty freaking cool, too. That's a great idea.

Play count so far: 1

"Meet Me On The Equinox" - Death Cab For Cutie

This song is from the New Moon soundtrack, but I'm gonna pretend it has nothing to do with sparkling creatures with a thirst for blood. It's obvious that it will be used during the part where Edward breaks up with Bella, in that its lyrics include, "remember, everything ends". It's a great song, though. I adore it.

Play count so far: 3

It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I haven't heard it yet (besides the opener and lead single "Zero", which is great), but I'm a pretty big fan of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and it seems they've gona bit electric. Not that it's bad. I got the deluxe edition with four bonus acoustic tracks (plus the iTunes one).

Play count so far: 0

In Silico - Pendulum

I heard about Pendulum because of iTunes Genius. I looked up "Propane Nightmares" and fell in love. The album has more great music that blows my mind. On top of ten awesome songs, I got three remixes and three music videos. Cool beans!

Play count so far: 1

Living Thing - Peter Bjorn And John

I've heard "Young Folks" (who hasn't?) and this album seems way different. I've only heard the first songs and some samples of others, but it sounds great!

Play count so far: 0

Here We Stand - The Fratellis

After one of my teachers gave me their debut, Costello Music, I fell in love with them. This is their second album, and it's no letdown.

Play count so far: 1

Look Out Sunshine! - The Fratellis

This is a single that comes with a live version of the title track and three b-sides. I'm lovin' every minute of it.

Play count so far: 1

"How To Save A Life" - The Fray

I've always liked this song. The album, from what I've heard, isn't that great, though.

Play count so far: 2 (only counting since I've bought it)

Velocifero - Ladytron

I'm kinda liking it. It's not awesome, but it's not bad. I heard about it the same way as Pendulum - iTunes Genius.

Play count so far: 1

Hourglass - Dave Gahan

Dave Gahan is the lead singer of Depeche Mode, and this is his second solo album. I've had "Saw Something" and "Deeper And Deeper" for a while (not to mention the single edit of "Kingdom"), so I 'completed this album'. It came with three bonus remixes. "Kingdom" sounds weird with extra parts in it, now that I've known the single edit for almost a year...

Play count so far: 0

Show Your Bones - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This is the second album by Yeah Yeahs Yeahs. Yeah! I really like it!

Play count so far: 1

Oh No - Ok Go

From the opening riff, I was hooked. I've know "Here It Goes Again" for a while (from the video game SSX On Tour), and this is really good (except for the last song, which features thirty-four minutes of the singer's girlfriend sleeping).

Play count so far: 1

Room On Fire - The Strokes

I totally love "Reptilia", but, as for most of the rest, I'm not really feeling it. Not that there aren't good songs on it.

Play count so far: 1

Off With Their Heads! - Kaiser Chiefs

The teacher that gave me Costello Music reccomended this band to me. I can see why. This album is amazing! I especially love "Like It Too Much", ironically.

Play count so far: 2

Well, that's it for the music.

Yesterday, I redid Attack Of The Killer Hamster and its BBS. they came out really well! I've really learned a lot about editing. It's still not the best, but, oh well.

Can't wait for the reissue of The Fragile!

8/26/09

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:10:00 -0400

For Broadcast Journalism, I made a blog. It has to be separate from this though... http://tindefacto.blogspot.com

8/21/09

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:04:00 -0400

Lately's been fun...

I haven't been to my dad's for a week because I've been at my grandma's (hence my not putting up the videos I was supposed to). Jimmywa came over and stayed the night for four nights in a row. We had a poi party there. Poi is when someone takes a glowing ball at the end of a rubber band (or something) and does tricks with it in the dark. It didn't come out well on camera, so I and the other 17 kids there (all with parents befriended to my grandma) swam in the pool while watching it. it was awesome.

Also there, this dude made balloon hats. He made a turtle (!) for me and a jester's hat that was HUGE and then some. Jimmy's was pretty dang tall, too. I got that on camera, of course. That'll probably be on YouTube by the end of September.

We've been swimming all week and yesterday I got three albums:

21st Century Breakdown by Green Day (the special physical Target edition, too, with a bonus live disc)
The Open Door EP by Death Cab For Cutie (from iTunes, so it came with the Grapevine Fires video)
iTunes Live From London Festival '09 by Franz Ferdinand (also from iTunes [duh], so it came with a PDF)

21st Century Breakdown, upon first listen, sucked, but on the second, I loved it. It's a little weird how that works, but I do love it. I'm still only on the second listen, though... Is it just me, or does "Restless Heart Syndrome" sound a whole lot like Garbage's "A Stroke Of Luck" from their eponymous debut? It's a little scary. Also, "Horseshoes And Handgrenades" sounds a lot like "Main Offender" by The Hives. Seriously. They're both awesome, but wow.

The bonus disc, with six songs from the 2004 album American Idiot played live, is very good, too. The singer talking sounds nothing like him singing, though, which is kinda weird. I like live things a lot. My only complaint about these songs, though, is that the tracks are cut in strange places. For instance, one song is cut in the middle of the frontman's words. Oh, well, though.

The Open Door EP was a bit disappointing. "Little Bribes" is by far the best track, but the others are pretty good. I knew that the style would be different from Narrow Stairs, but, eh... I've heard it thrice already.

iTunes Live From London Festival '09 is really good. I'm glad iTunes finally got some live Franz on the US iTunes store. Franz Ferdinand is pretty freakin' good live. I enjoy it immensely on every listen.

Anyways, we went to Dave And Buster's today. After some Ice Hockey (I was pwned terrifically) I decided to play some SkeeBall. Apparently, the one I went to was a little broken. It awarded me points like crazy. My highest score became 1,500 points - and the maximum is supposed to be 900. I mean, 9 balls with 100 points max on each. It didn't even have four digits! It started over from zero after 990.

Apparently, getting over 450 points counts as a jackpot, so I was awarded over 500 tickets! I couldn't believe it. I tried again and again, but I only broke 450 once after that despite the glitch.

After getting over 700 tickets, I decided to stop and do other things. An employee who turned out to have been watching us silently immediately walked up the ramp and got to fixing it. Wow.

8/17/09

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:20:00 -0400

My birthday is approaching and I'm finding that the only thing I want is a load of iTunes gift cards...

Things that I'd get with it... (not in order)

Divided By Night - The Crystal Method (I'm a big fan on 'em)

Palookaville - Fatboy Slim (I've gotten into him a lot recently; I only have the first three songs from it)

Invaders Must Die! - The Prodigy (I love Fat Of The Land and I head the title track on a ToToM bootleg)

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned - The Prodigy (I want this, too)

Hourglass - Dave Gahan (I love the three songs I have from it so far)

21st Century Breakdown - Green Day (If it's anything like American Idiot, I'll love it)

Sounds Of The Universe - Depeche Mode (love Depeche Mode)

The Open Door EP - Death Cab For Cutie (latest release)

In Silico - Pendulum (I heard it was good)

iTunes Live From London - Franz Ferdinand (glad there's sme official live stuff in the US)

Off With Their Heads - The Kaiser Cheifs (I heard it was good)

I'll also get two songs from The Fat Of The Land by Prodigy because they're scratched on my CD copy. Maybe some Postal Service b-sides. I'll also save up for Dead By Sunrise's Out Of Ashes and Bloc Party's "One More Chance", if it's ever released here in the US.

...so yeah.

7/29/09

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:40:00 -0400

The Adventures of John helpful is up on the home page, the video page, and YouTube.

Also, I'm announcing a new video:

September 7: Robotics Competition

Francisco and I were partners for a Robotics competition in school.

7/27/09

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:02:00 -0400

I just added commentary to Silk Milk, its bloopers, Billies B & G, and its bloopers 1-4. Emma and I will film John Helpful.

7/25/09

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:06:00 -0400

Sorry; John Helpful will be pushed back two days. Everything will be since Emma didn't want to film. :tongue:

July 29: The Adventures of John Helpful

August 3: The Adventures of John Helpful Bloopers And Behind The Scenes 1

August 5: The Adventures of John Helpful Bloopers And Behind The Scenes 2

August 10: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Part 1

August 12: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Part 2

August 17: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 19: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 2 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 24: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Part 1

August 26: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Part 2

August 31: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

September 2: A Day At The Zoo

7/22/09

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:04:00 -0400

Lots of news:

Since Ethan and Jeremy said I could put up James Zimmerman Episode 1, I'll put it up soon. At Jeremy's birthday party we filmed Episode 3.

The main thing:

Starting this Monday (the 27th), I will put up a new video every Monday and Wednesday. The schedule so far:

July 27: The Adventures of John Helpful

July 29: The Adventures of John Helpful Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 3: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Part 1

August 5: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Part 2

August 10: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 1 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 12: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 2 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 17: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Part 1

August 19: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Part 2

August 24: The Tonight Show With James Zimmerman Episode 3 Bloopers And Behind The Scenes

August 26: A Day At The Zoo

Episodes 1 and 3 are both 14 minutes long, so I had to split them in two.

Also, I updated the list of actors on the GFP page.

Now I'm going to finally finish John Helpful.