You Look Tired

Podcast Overload

2012-01-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

I think I may be "over" listening to podcasts. There were some days at work when I'd have 4 or 5 different podcast shows to catch up, each with multiple episodes. I wouldn't get to listen to any music and at the end of the day, I would find myself not remembering anything significant about the podcasts. So if none of these podcasts were making any impression on me whatsover, why was I spending so much time listening to them? Plus I get pulled away from my desk a lot so it's hard to listen to a continuous conversation.

I started cutting back on my subscription list by axeing I Want Wrestling, Kevin & Bean Show, Mohr Stories and even my beloved Walking the Room. Sorry, guys. Even a weekly podcast seems so disposable when you realize you can't remember what they talked about last week. The only one I listen to daily is Adam Carolla, and I am still subscribed to The Art of Wrestling and the B.S. Report but I will only listen to those if the topic/guest seems entertaining.

At least I have a lot more time to listen to music.

Is anyone out there listening to any podcasts, or multiple podcasts, with regularity?

Improv Blah

2012-01-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

Improv this week was kinda challenging. We didn't have a lot of time for scenes and for some reason, I tend to wait until the middle, or near end, of the volunteers to go onstage. I need to get better about being proactive. So I went up and had a not very good scene with a super nice guy that owns a restaurant in Camarillo.

Earlier in class, the teacher said that a lot of students will ask him, or wonder to themselves, after a scene, "What could I have done to make that better?" And his answer is "nothing." The scene is what it is. Improv is about the moment. The moment is over so forget about it and move on. I tried to incorporate that after I walked offstage but it was hard.

Time was running out in class and everyone had gotten at least once scene in, so people were allowed to start going up again. Once more, I sat out, feeling that this just wasn't my night. I finally just said to myself "F it" and I went up and did the last scene of the night with my coworker that I carpool with. I purposely try to avoid doing scenes with him because even though we are friends, I don't want it to seem like we have some master plan to do a bunch of our scenes together.

Luckily, our final scene went well and I ended up leaving the class with a good feeling. I thanked my coworker on the way home because otherwise, that night would have been (mostly) a waste to me. Ah, a nearly frustrating evening saved by a 3-minute scene about carving a chair for my scoliosis-laden dad. Thanks, improv.

Super Bowl

2012-01-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

I saw quite a few of my friends on Facebook comment that they are not looking forward to the Patriots/Giants rematch coming up in the Super Bowl. Some even said the first game between the two of them was boring or that they don't like to see teams re-matched in the big game.

My memory may be little hazy with details but I thought their first go around in the Super Bowl was a good game. Sure, it wasn't high scoring but what a dramatic finish to that game. The game ended with a Giants victory which ended the Patriots run at a perfect 19-0 undefeated season. It was the perfect David and Goliath story in 2008 since the Giants limped in on a wild card, and no one gave them a chance at all to beat the Pats.

And the best part about this year's Super Bowl? It's the same two coaches from the 2008 game. The same two quarterbacks from the 2008 game. You don't think the Patriots want a chance at revenge? You don't think Eli Manning wants to prove he's one of the best quarterbacks and win one more ring than his older brother? Plus there's the whole New York / Boston rivalry! Come on, these are perfect storylines heading into the game!

I'm super excited for this game. Of course, I'd be more excited if my beloved Saints were in it, but still. Let's go Super Bowl - get it on!

Gleek?

2012-01-18T20:39:00.000-08:00

Against my personal wishes, I have become a fan of Glee. It started out when I just "happened to be in the room" while The Wife was watching season 1 on Netflix instant. Then I heard quite a few songs I recognized and halfway paid attention to a few plotlines. Then I started paying more attention as season 1 went on and it wrapped up. I thought it was overall just okay, and then season 2 appeared on Netflix instant.

Oh how dare you, Netflix! I missed a few episodes in season 2 but The Wife watched the whole thing regardless of me being there or not. And unexpectedly, I'm going back to watch the entire season. I know this isn't manly of me at all, but it's introduced me to a few good songs.

Some of the stories and songs are cheesy and I have a very hard time believing a 30 year-old is really in high school in Ohio BUT the show is fun.

I admitted I watched this show to some coworkers and this young girl who is...maybe 22 rolled her eyes at me. But the thing is, this girl's favorite show is American Idol! A karaoke game reality show! At least Glee has plotlines, scriptwriters, actors and choreography...okay, maybe I'm getting a little too defensive here.

Enjoy one of my favorite songs/dance numbers I've discovered thanks to this show -

LACMA

2012-01-08T21:32:00.000-08:00

Went to check out the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this afternoon and walked away with this lingering thought -- why don't they give out stickers/hand stamps or a wristband with a ticket admission? Their collection is spread out amongst 8-9 different buildings and each time you have to dig your ticket out of your pocket and show it to the person. It's a waste of my time and your security's time when they can just look at a sticker or hand stamp.

Other than that, our LACMA adventure was absolutely lovely.

Camp Freddy 2011

2011-12-29T09:27:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty certain you won't remember my posts from last year about Camp Freddy but we saw them twice again during this year's Christmas residency at The Roxy. A brief recap -- Camp Freddy is basically a band made up Dave Navarro (of Jane's Addiction & Red Hot Chili Peppers), Matt Sorum (of Guns N' Roses & Velvet Revolver), Billy Morrison (of Billy Idol's band) and Chris Chaney (of Jane's Addiction). The big attraction of the show is they play cover songs and have a ton of guest singers and musicians onstage.

Last year, we were treated to Steven Tyler singing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and Billy Idol singing his own "Rebel Yell." I was very excited for this year's shows even though both The Wife and I were exhausted from work and various holiday functions. They play on four consecutive Fridays at the Roxy and we decided to do shows 2 and 3. I figure they will never have their biggest show first, and the last show was too close to Christmas.

Week two guests included Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes), Stephen Pearcy (Ratt), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) and Paul Stanley (Kiss). It was a pretty good show although the song selection was a bit odd overall. I mean, you've got Paul Stanley onstage and he does Strutter (decent Kiss song), You Shook Me (terrible blues song), All Right Now (a cover of the Free song which was okay) and then they closed with the Kiss song Lick It Up. Huh -- no Rock & Roll All Nite?

Week three guests included Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), Chino (Deftones), Steven Adler (Guns N' Roses), and Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple). The song selection this night was stronger, I thought. The Wife and I had gone to her company's holiday party then straight to the concert so we were very tired. Before they brought out the Big Guest at the end, I said we could leave early if it was lame. They introduced Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) so I turned to her and said, "Let's go."

Week 3 Setlist -- Relax & Seven Nation Army (w/ Donovan Leitch Jr.), 20th Century Boy & Search and Destroy (w/Neon Trees), Anarchy in the UK (w/Billy Morrison), Firewoman, Helter Skelter & War Pigs (w/ Franky Perez), Round & Round & Tobacco Road (w/ Stephen Pearcy), Creep & Whole Lotta Love (w/Linda Perry), You Really Got Me & Sweet Emotion (w/Fred Durst), and Strutter, You Shook Me, All Right Now & Lick it Up (Paul Stanley)

Week 4 Setlist -- Relax & Seven Nation Army (w/ Donovan Leitch Jr.), Highway to Hell & Helter Skelter (w/ Franky Perez), Pretty Vacant & Fight for Your Right (w/ Mark McGrath), L’il Devil, All Right Now & Highway Star (w/ Glenn Hughes), In the Meantime & Search and Destroy (w/ Chino), Youth Gone Wild, Paradise City & Sweet Child O’ Mine (w/ Sebastian Bach & Steven Adler) and Wine Wine Wine, Foxy Lady & Sharp Dressed Man (w/ Billy Gibbons)

Not sure if we'll go again next year. The shows are a lot of fun but they start around 11:30 and are over by 1:00 so it's a lot of standing around. Plus, everyone gets their cellphones or cameras out for the really good shit and put it up on YouTube anyway.

New Saying

2011-12-28T19:27:00.000-08:00

You know that old saying "never bring a knife to a gun fight." I have a food based variation on it --

Never bring a vegetable dish to a Christmas potluck at work.

I made a super delicious Southwestern corn dish (consisting of corn, bell peppers, hominy & seasoning) and I think maybe 3 or 4 people tried it. It got passed over in favor of the nachos, the meatballs and the 13 different types of dessert. There's supposed to be variety at a potluck! I figured some health conscious people would appreciate something that wasn't filled with sugar. Oh well.

Lesson learned. Next year I'll just bring something covered in cheese and sugar, and it will all be eaten.

Improv

2011-12-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

I'm surprised by a lot of my coworkers and people I've met that are fairly clueless as to what improv really is so I thought I'd try to condense it down, and explain why it's so much dang fun. Improvisation basically boils down to a game. The game is titled "Yes, and..."

One person starts a scene by doing or saying something and it's up to everyone else involved in that scene to play the game of "Yes and..." but adding to it. So if I start off the scene by miming the lifting of weights, I have established that we're in some sort of gym or at least exercise area. If the next person comes in miming that they're underwater wearing a scuba tank, they've kind of f'ed me over by denying what I established. Likewise, if they start a scene by saying, "This is a lovely Thanksgiving dinner you've cooked" I can't switch gears and pretend that we're flight attendants. I'd have to say something like, "Thanks, Grandma." I've acknowledged [yes] what they've said and added to the scene by establishing that person as my Grandma. The scene then goes on and on until it reaches whatever conclusion.

Of course, things can go awry and curveballs can be thrown. In one of my classes, a woman started a scene by being very somber weeping and miming an outstretched hand touching a coffin. Her scene partner came in and said, "Mom, I know you're upset that Dad never fixed the heater." It was a curveball but it added to the scene and took it from something kind of heavy, like a funeral, to something more comical, like family dysfunction.

I'm toying around with the idea of having an improv party for my birthday in June where I get a bunch of people together to take an improv class as a group. It's really a lot of fun and you get to be pretty damn goofy. Hopefully I continue to enjoy taking these classes over the coming weeks.

ImprovE

2011-12-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

So, I started taking weekly improv classes again. I like this theater because it's a lot smaller, it's not in Hollywood and the people seem to be average people taking this for fun -- not the usual mattress (model/actress) types. I'm only two classes in but I am enjoying a hell of a lot more than the last time I took improv back in 2008. I'm a lot more relaxed this time around and I don't feel like I'm competing with a bunch of mattresses just trying to get noticed in town.

The first time around, I really struggled with improv because you're supposed to hold back and let scenes develop. Everything in my mind and training as a comedian taught me to go for the joke! Time is of the essence, so you get up there and it's set up, punchline, set up, punchline. I don't know what's changed in the 3 years since my last improv class but I seem to be doing a better job of holding off.

I remember one day during my previous improv class. I was about to start a scene when the teacher told us to hold off because he wanted to relate some story. He went on for about a minute or two, but I wasn't paying attention to him. In my mind, I was thinking, "I'll start the scene like this, then my scene partner will probably say something like this, and then I can steer the scene in this direction, and then this will be the payoff joke at the end."

The teacher told us to start the scene and it went pretty much exactly like I mentally mapped out. Afterward, the teacher told me after 5 classes, it was one of the best scenes I had done. I had no guts to tell him it wasn't truly improvised and finished out the class weeks later.

Part of my brain still tries to plan ahead and think of stuff ahead of time, but I think I'm better at letting go. I've had a few scenes where I thought they would go one way, and my scene partner surprised me so I had to react and keep it going.

So anyway, as you can tell by the blog title of this post, I think I am improving at improv and I hope it continues to go that way.

Ednaswap

2011-12-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

Thinking about the Katy Perry song "The One That Got Away" and the overproduced pop version versus the stripped down emotional version reminded me of one of my favorite bands of all time - Ednaswap.

Ednaswap was a band I first saw open up for Better Than Ezra in 1996 at The Roxy and I was immediately hooked. Thankfully, they were a local band so I had a chance to see them multiple times and meet them at least twice. Ednaswap was responsible for writing the song "Torn" which was covered by Natalie Imbruglia to great success. Natalie's version is overly poppy and lacks the true emotion of the song as you can see in the live performance here:

*sigh* I really, really miss Ednaswap. So whatever became of them? Some of them formed the band AnnetennA which lasted a little while and recorded a stellar debut album, but then broke up. The primary songwriters, singer Anne Preven and guitarist Scott Cutler, went on to become songwriters for others including Katy Perry, Madonna, Miley Cyrus and many others. They were even nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe for the song "Listen" from the movie Dreamgirls, so I'm pretty sure they're content.

Still, I really miss them. If they did a reunion concert, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Their albums are available on all of your favorite digital music channels so do yourself a favor and give 'em a listen.

Katy Perry

2011-12-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, in fact, I did see Katy Perry at Staples Center a few weeks ago. I got tickets to this as an anniversary gift to The Wife a few months ago and I actually really loved it! I was familiar with a few of her songs from the radio but borrowed the CDs from The Wife a few days before the show so I could familiarize myself more with them.

Stark confession here, friends: I've actually been listening to her CDs a lot since the concert. Like a lot A LOT. I don't know if it's her somewhat goofy personality or seeing the songs performed live accompanied by dancing, costume changes, fireworks and beach balls, but I think I'm a bona fide fan here now.

One song I was blown away by is called "The One That Got Away." I also kind of glossed over it on the album but the live performance was stripped down and full of emotion. It's actually an personal and emotional song but it's turned into a generic pop song on the album. I hate when they do that. Here's the way it should be:

I also loved all of the dancing and costume changes during "Hot N Cold":

Such a fun concert!

How to Keep Your Coworkers Away From Your Food in the Communal Fridge

2011-12-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Lie about the contents.

Valiant Comics

2011-12-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

One of the things I've been excited recently is the announcement that Valiant Entertainment will relaunch their comic book line next year. A brief history - Valiant Comics existed from about 1992 to about 2000 and at one point, was the third largest comic book company. They got bought out by the video game company Acclaim around 1996 who decided to flush all of the good things about Valiant down the toilet in order to make the comics more adaptable to video games. It worked, kind of - with the success of Turok and Shadowman, but eventually the comic book market crashed and Acclaim went bankrupt.

The run of Valiant Comics lasted about the same length as my foray into actively collecting/reading comic books. I liked the books they produced a lot - partly because they weren't Marvel or DC comics. Their characters were a bit more realistic (origins, body types, problems, etc.) and also the entire universe had a tight continuity to it. You didn't need to read all of the books they published, but you had a real sense all of these characters existed in the same universe.

In comparison, take the Marvel character Wolverine who currently stars in his own monthly book, and is a part of the team books Avengers, X-Men and X-Force. That would almost be like one quarterback playing on four different teams in the same week. I know, I know, they're comics, but still.

Anyway, back to Valiant. The rights to the vast majority of the characters eventually lapsed and were snatched up by a group intending to relaunch the comic book line in 2012. I'm not able to pinpoint it exactly, but I am very excited by this. I may even venture into a comic book store again and pick up some of the relaunch on the days they come out. I've been re-reading the old Valiant stories and enjoying them and have also been buying some older back issues to fill in some gaps in my collection.

I'm very curious to see what they pull together for next year and hopefully it will last. They're supposed to release some information in the next week or two on what their overall plan is. Stay tuned to the official website for details, all of you comic book fans that read my blog.

...back?

2011-12-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all. I'm not sure who still has this bookmarked or is subscribed to it. It's been a long while. Part of me feels like nothing super profound has happened so I haven't had a lot to say. Even when I get together with friends I haven't seen in a while, it's not like I have a million crazy stories to share. But nonetheless, I do somewhat, sort of, kind of miss blogging. I hope to do this more often.

Hey Jealousy

2011-08-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I've done it to myself again. I went and talked to a high school classmate (oddly enough he works at my company now) so I was catching up with him. He told me how after graduating college, he worked in San Diego for a while, then Toronto, then Seattle and now he's back in L.A. We were talking about old friends and such, so he also told me about a former classmate who writes for the Wall Street Journal and another who is a graphic designer in NYC.

So then I went and got myself discouraged because I've been located in southern California since birth, and feel like maybe I haven't lead that exciting of a life in comparison.

And then I made things even worse by looking at LinkedIn and getting envious of other former coworkers/classmates and what they're doing now. I swear to God, I could really do without jealousy in my life. It's not anyone's fault - of course I don't want my friends to leave their well-paying careers or to lead a lifestyle identical to mine -- but still, a part of me cannot help but feel envious. I just can't help it.

And yes, in the same breath as my jealousy, I also know I am incredibly fortunate with the life I have. For Pete's sake, I have a classmate who died in a car accident in 2009 so what do I really have to complain about.

So anyway. I get down about this kind of stuff about once every six weeks or so, so I guess that's what this feeling is. On the plus side, it does motivate me to find a better job and I already applied to 4 postings last night.

Just wish I could live my life without the feelings of envy.

Awkward Partygoer Pt. 3

2011-08-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report we had a friend function to attend this past Saturday and I actually enjoyed it. I think being aware of my awkwardness helped because I was (somewhat) focused on not being awkward. It was kind of a weird set up with a huge table full of people at a restaurant but I managed to make my way around to a few people and mingle a bit. I shared some good laughs with friends along the way so...yay.

I Might Hate the Internet

2011-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Trying to find a nice place to stay for our upcoming anniversary weekend so I'm clicking around Expedia, Google and TripAdvisor. I think I find a good place...and then I start reading reviews. One person's review on one website says it's nice and the staff was accommodating, and a review on another website says to only stay there if you want to get murdered. So I keep looking and find an equal amount of contradiction on just about every hotel I've come across. Ugh!

Friendbook

2011-07-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was perusing my friend list on Facebooks the other day when I decided to look at some photos posted by this one girl I went to high school with. She went to go see Britney Spears in concert along with someone else from my high school. I clicked around a few more photo albums and saw that she had not only kept in touch with, but had taken recent photos with, about 10-12 people from our high school. Holy shit.

Compare that to my Facebook friends list - I think I have about 6 people I went to high school with on there, and I don't correspond with any of them regularly. In fact, I frequently consider deleting them.

Switch over to the friends I have from college and I think I have 3 on my Facebook page, two of which are very dear to me, and I would never think about deleting.

I think the longest friendship I have going now is with someone I met when I was 15 years old while working my first job at the library, so we've been friends now for 18 years.

It just seems so odd to me - to have friends from high school that you've kept in touch with for 15 years. Maybe I missed out on something there.

Awkward Partygoer Pt. 2

2011-07-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking a little bit more about my previous post (thank you for your comments Kristen and Jenny), and I think part of my problem is that, like Jenny said in her comment, I think I do much, much better in smaller group settings. A group of 8 people or so allows a lot of time for everyone to interact, split off into side conversations and such and it's also not overwhelming to my brain.

I feel like this when it comes time for lunch at work, too. My entire department consists of about 25 people and about 13-14 of us go to lunch at the same time. Sometimes we are fortunate enough to get the big table in the lunchroom but I much prefer it when we have to split up into two tables of 6-7. Those are the lunches I find much more enjoyable so I think that is part of my "issue."

I also was thinking about the abundance of social media, as I mentioned previously. I was struggling for something to say to a good friend when a good topic came to mind, which would then lead to other related topics. I brought it up and good friend said, "Oh yeah, I saw your blog post about that" and that kinda killed my momentum for talking about it. Blerg! Oh well. Still working on this overall and hoping the next friend function is fun and lively.

Amazing Spider-Man

2011-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

So...this trailer is out.

...and I'm not really sure what to think about it. The Amazing Spider-Man, out in July 2012, will be Marvel's 4th film about Spidey. Since the director and entire cast departed after the last film in 2007, Sony is treating this film as a reboot. I think it's been recent enough that we remember how Spider-Man got his powers, what his powers and issues are - yet we're going to have to sit through all of that again in this movie.

Another confusing issue is the introduction of Gwen Stacy, played by the highly overrated Emma Stone, who was Peter Parker's first love in the comics. Moviegoers have spent 6 years loving (or loathing) Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane in the original films. They also spent that time understanding Spider-Man organic ability to shoot webs but now he'll have mechanical ones like in the comics.

I'm just wondering if all of this rebooting and restructuring is really necessary for a film franchise that only left us 5 years ago. I'm highly unimpressed with the trailer but I could be proven wrong, as I was with X-Men: First Class.

Awkward Partygoer

2011-07-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Something's been happening over the past year or so that I don't really like - I've become somewhat of an awkward partygoer. I don't know when or how this happened but I'll show up to a friend get together and end up being anti-social. It's weird usually I am the one excited to go to the party...but then I show up and don't enjoy myself as much as I should. I think part of me feels like I have nothing super interesting to talk about so I'm just awkward and not really outgoing and chatty. And then perhaps I cling to The Wife a little bit too much (my observation, not hers).

Anyway, I'm just thinking/typing out loud here. I know this is happening but I don't like it. I was at a friend get together over the weekend and kinda didn't feel like chatting with anyone. I was even amused by the friend who was looking at his watch and his girlfriend who said to him, "No looking at your watch! We're staying for a while!" (or something to that effect).

I wonder if part of it is just falling out of touch with certain friends...like the friend that once asked how much I made (when I was proud that I was actually doing well) so I told him and then he told me how much he made and his salary put mine to shame so I've felt awkward around him ever since; or the friend that tells me her son doesn't like carrots but loves broccoli as if that's something I want to hear about.

Part of me wonders if it's also an abundance of social media -- i.e., I already saw the photos/status updates from your weekend getaway and you already know that xyz happened in my life, so what else is new?

But please, all four friends of mine that read this, keep inviting me to your shindigs. This awkward phase will pass and I genuinely do value our friendships and our time spent together. Like I said, I'm thinking/typing out loud here so this post may very well get taken down in a day or two anyway.

Graham Colton

2011-07-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Wife and I headed over to The Hotel Cafe last night to check out a set from Graham Colton. I'd seen Graham about 6-7 years ago when he opened up for Better Than Ezra. I was impressed back then so I've been following his career and picking up his albums along the way. I think he's played quite a few shows here and there in California over the years but a completely free Saturday night made it an easy decision to check him out.

Graham played for about an hour and was very entertaining. He was surprisingly really funny, too - commenting that he hated San Francisco (where he played the night before) and saying he used to play in a band called the Graham Colton Band, which is actually true. He joked that he's incredibly vain when it comes to his career and tonight, the band was calling themselves the Graham Colton Explosion.

He has a real genuine quality that comes through. At the end of the show, he said he wanted people to go home with his music if they liked him, so he invited people to stop by the merch table, say hello and pay whatever they wanted for his music. We stopped by, said hello and he was kind enough to sign the CD I got for our donation.

Check out his latest music video for the single "Pacific Coast Eyes." Head over to Graham's website or iTunes if you like what you hear.

You might also recognize Graham's song "Best Days" that we played at our wedding.

We are definitely going to check him out next time he's in town so let me know if you're interested.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

2011-07-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

I was in the mood for something episodic and comic booky so I booted the first disc of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes up to the top of my Netflix queue. I watched it with a little trepidation because Marvel's track record with animated series has not been great, in my opinion.

Add to it that Captain America is my favorite character and I think I prefer the Avengers over the X-Men and I was sure this series was going to suck.

I could not be ~~wronger~~ more wrong. The first disc starts out by collecting the animated web shorts and telling background stories of the individual characters. So the first episode is only about Iron Man, the second is Thor, then Hulk, then they start sharing some characters with episodes focusing half on a character like Black Panther and a little bit of Hawkeye. I didn't realize these were web shorts until I looked up the series on Wikipedia.

By the time the series officially starts with Breakout (Parts 1 & 2), I was just dying for the characters to all come together and start kicking some ass - which they do! I think one aspect I most enjoy is seeing characters come to animated life. Mandrill is an incredibly boring character on paper but when you see him move around and use his powers in cartoon form...well, he's still boring. But how cool!

They are really using a ton of characters so far in this series - everyone from the main Avengers to villains like Living Laser, Wrecking Crew and Doughboy (who?). Only the first two discs are out commercially and available on Netflix but I just stumbled across the entire first season available via Netflix Instant about an hour ago. A big bonus is that The Wife is enjoying the series. Can't wait to see how the rest of Season 1 wraps up. Great work, Marvel.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2011-07-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Finally had a chance to watch this movie thanks to Netflix Instant. This movie essentially takes a look at "street art" and focuses on a couple of subjects - Shepard Fairey, the ever elusive Banksy and the main subject of the movie - Mr. Brainwash.

The movie is overall enjoyable, even humorous at times but ultimately left me feeling annoyed. I was/am annoyed because of the mere notion of "street art" which I consider to be graffiti and a public nuisance. I fully believe art has a time and a place - I just don't think you need to vandalize someone's property as your canvas. If an artist is really that talented, I think they should be able to get their art out through legal and mainstream methods rather than mess up our already crappy looking major metropolitan cities. I guess they're reaching a much larger audience because you get random people walking down the street but my first emotional reaction is always going to be annoyance.

Another thing that bugs me is the notion that what these guys do is art. I know, I know, art is all subjective and whatnot. But as someone who makes his living as an artist, what the main artist in the movie, Mr. Brainwash, does can hardly be called art. He is shown in the movie having a staff of artists scan in images out of books, Photoshop them to some minor extent under his orders and print them out. So, he's taking an image he didn't originally photograph and having someone else manipulate it. The work of Mr. Brainwash they show in the movie seemed highly derivative of Andy Warhol's work so it seems he hardly has an original idea. Where does the creativity of an artist come in to play here...? And of course, Mr. Brainwash ends up selling a lot of his work for a LOT of money which infuriates me as well.

On the plus side, even though I would consider it vandalism, a lot of the work I've seen from Banksy does seem rather clever and in fact, humorous.

I'm not really sure what to say of the movie as a whole since it left me liking the work one street artist (yet still despising vandalism) and being highly annoyed with another street artist. I guess it it made me think about what really is considered "art" and I don't think anyone can provide a definite answer for that.

Fogo de Chao

2011-06-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Wife took me to Fogo de Chao for a lovely birthday dinner a couple weeks ago. I had first heard about this place on Bill Simmons' podcast and had been very curious to try it.

They have a tutorial on their website to let you know how they run the dining experience. You pay one flat charge per person and essentially stuff yourself with heaps and heaps of food. There is a very upscale salad bar that was quite good. I would have gone back for more but I just took one bite of the items I wanted since the big draw of Fogo is the meat.

Once you're done with the salad bar portion, you flip a card over on the table and the Meat Swordsmen come up to your table quickly and frequently and offer you different cuts of meat - Picanha, Filet Mignon, beef ribs, lamb, bacon wrapped chicken breasts, Parmesan encrusted pork loin, sausage and a couple other ones. They also bring you cheese rolls, polenta, garlic mashed potatoes and caramelized bananas. And they keep offering you meat and side dishes until you flip the card back over and throw in the towel and/or vomit at the table.

I liked that there was one flat fee for the experience, and it's all you can eat. I tried to eat light during the daytime but even I got stuffed in a short period of time. It is pricey (about $56) so you feel like you should eat your money's worth. A beer was reasonably priced at about $5 so at least they don't screw you over on drink prices, too.

The big downside is that with so many meats to try, you're tempted to try one of everything to see what you really like, but by the time you try them all, you're full. My advice - the picanha (house specialty top sirloin) was hands down the best. Skip the chicken because...well, it's chicken. You can have that anywhere. I'm not a fan of ribs, the sausage was okay and I personally can't really tell the difference between cuts of beef. Stick to the picanha, parmesan pork loins and lamb. The polenta was excellent and the cheese rolls are super good.

Another downside is there are no take home boxes so a lot of the food gets wasted! I kind of understand that because anyone could load up 10 slabs of filet mignon and then ask for a to go box but still...I always feel bad about wasting food. (Ask me about the week old mushroom pasta leftovers I ate that ended up making me sick sometime.)

Overall, a good dining experience. It gets hectic because there are a TON of people walking around (going to the salad bar, Meat Swordsmen roaming around, etc.) so it's not exactly a romantic destination. I'd go there maybe every other year just to experience it again but not more frequently than that at that price.