ready for the ufc

georgia will bite your face off in the octagon

old jews telling jokes

good lord i love this site: old jews telling jokes. i wonder how many they'll put up.

rademacher changes drummers

yep, the ever evolving line up of fresno greats rademacher continues to...well...evolve. i spoke to former drummer eli reyes on saturday night. he told me that he was no longer in the band, but that he felt it was a pretty amiable split that had been coming for sometime. he's been devoting a lot of time to the fay wrays, and figured that he might leave the band after the next round of tours. he's also working with time commitments from family, job, and recording an album for the fay wrays.

rademacher now consists of
malcom sosa - vocals & guitar
greer mcgettrick - bass & vocals & piano dealy
eden davis - drums

here's what malcom said on the situation
"we haven't changed drummers yet. Eli will be playing 3 more dates with us in SF and Merced and Fresno, but for our upcoming tour with airborne toxic event, we'll be taking along our friend Eden Davis.

She has a different style than Eli."

on our recent podcast, greer told me that the remaining few fresno shows will sort of be farewell to eli shows, so it can really be a good transition and not just "you're fired," type situation.

some more rademacher news, taken from a myspace bulletin:
We're really excited to be touring with two of our favorite LA bands in the coming weeks. The Airborne Toxic Event and the Henry Clay People. We also have a handful of dates on our own.


Dates below. Make it out if you can!!! Some of these things already sold out, so get your tix in advance while you can.


2.05.Fresno, CA -- POST ARTHOP | Tokyo Garden
2.06.San Francisco, CA -- Hemlock Tavern
2.07.Merced, CA -- The Partisan w/ The Mumlers, Origami Ghost
2.11.San Diego, CA -- House of Blues w/ Airborne Toxic Event -- SOLD OUT
2.12.Los Angeles, CA Music Box @ Henry Fonda Theater w/ Airborne Toxic Event
2.13.San Francisco, CA -- Bottom of the Hill -- SOLD OUT
2.14.Arcata, CA -- The Green House w/ Geographer
2.15.Seattle, WA -- Neumos w/ Airborne Toxic Event -- SOLD OUT
2.17.Portland, OR -- Wonder Ballroom w/ Airborne Toxic Event
2.18.Vancouver, BC -- Richard’s on Richards w/ Airborne Toxic Event
2.19.Tacoma, WA -- World Famous Bob’s Java Jive
2.20.Boise, ID -- Nuerolux w/ Airborne Toxic Event
2.21.Salt Lake City, UT -- SHO w/ Airborne Toxic Event
2.27.San Francisco, CA -- Noisepop | Slim’s w/ The Submarines + The Morning Benders + The Mumlers

rademacher, more drummers than spinal tap. go out and see them as they hit up the west coast before they head down to austin for sxsw. or, see them in austin during sxsw (i hear they're playing the devil in the woods record label showcase even though they're not only the label.)

gender analyzer

so, i've been lazy on content this week. how's that for a 2009 blogger to watch?

anyway, i saw the gender analyzer on another blog and thought i'd check it out. (check yours, too.)

they were 66% sure a man wrote this blog.

well, they were correct.

i wonder about things like this. how do they determine man/woman, or clean/dirty, etc.? what are the key words that reveal gender?

any guesses?

waiting

i don't do waiting so well. i often fly through life, doing things. not waiting. it's not that i'm all about instant gratification, but i just like things done, now. when i get an idea in my head, i want to take care of it.

right now, i'm waiting for an email. you know how many times you can check to see if an email has come? a lot.

it's not like the email is really important. just some information i'm trying to pin down. totally not a big deal. but i want to know now.

now!

so, i could go and check the email again, and then maybe another half dozen times in the next 30 minutes. but i'm not. instead, i'm going to shut down the laptop, do a few things, and then enjoy some sleep.

and maybe when i wake up in the morning the email will magically be there.

the matrix @ edwards theater for flashback film

so, i think i know what i'm doing this thursday night (assuming i don't forget): going to see the matrix on the big screen.

for some dumb reason, i did not see the matrix on the big screen. i think it just got too much hype and i got stubborn and didn't want to give in. so, i eventually saw it on dvd, and immediately wished i'd seen it in all of it's big screen glory. in fact, this film helped me develop one of my going to the theater rules: is it going to be a movie that you need to see on the big screen due to effects, sound, etc?

so, i think i'm going to go and finally see the matrix on the big screen. i wish i hadn't seen it in the last month, but it was on cable, and i had some time. what?

the matrix - flashback films @ edwards theater
jan 29
9 pm
$5

brief film review - notorious

notorious was noboringous.

and apparently christopher wallace wore cosby sweaters.

sweet and tender hooligans vs. this charming band

so, if you like the smiths, and want to see a smiths cover band, seek out this charming band. i have had the pleasure if seeing both, and they are both good. I like that sweet & tender does more morrissey stuff, but musically they really can't touch this charming band.

i will also say that of the fans that travelled to fresno, the fans for this charming band were way better. they had the flowers, they knew every word and they represented both so.cal and nor.cal. sweet and tender's fans seemed to just reppin l.a. and fresno, of course. also, as I look around
the crowd at this sweet & tender show a lot of people just seem to be @ the show. they are mildly into it. the fans of this charming band were hanging on every note, every lyric.

anyway, i'm glad to have seen both because they're both enjoyable. it's just my opinion that this charming band us better. even if moz occassionally sees sweet & tender play.

buck farack bumper sticker

so, i've seen this truck twice in the last few weeks. the first time it was getting on the freeway near my neighborhood. the second time it was on shaw, where fresno & clovis meet up.



i know bumper sticker politics are overly simplistic, and it goes both ways, but these just really seem to bother me. the buck farack one just seems so disrespectful. again, i know it goes both ways and that there were disrespectful ones about bush. probably even eff bush ones.

are we able to rise above the lowest common denominator out there? i mean, i'm sure (i'm assuming) the guy driving this truck felt that everyone should respect the commander in chief when it was the last guy, and yet there is no respect being given for the new commander in chief. btw, i took this photo a day before inauguration. and when i'd seen the truck before it was a couple of weeks. i imagine that the stickers may have even been on before the election or shortly after it. i doubt there was even a thought to respect the new president. to give him a chance.

tuff shed in

today my tuff shed was installed. now I get to load it up with stuff.

the sleepover disaster & sweet and tender hooligans

so, i had hoped to post a podcast featuring the sleepover disaster on friday to help promote their shows this weekend and the release of their new album, hover.

we recorded it. it was fun. it was about one hour and fifteen minutes long.

and then we had a little snafu as we were putting things away. followed by another little issue. and the podcast was lost. gonzo. it took us twenty episodes, but we finally messed up so bad that we couldn't post an episode. so, sorry. the guys say they'll come back and record another @ a later date.

anyway, since you won't hear sleepover here, go hear them either on friday night @ cuppajoe or saturday night @ audie's olympic

arcade fire cover born in the usa

so, lately i've been really getting into bruce springsteen. it started through covers of songs like "the ghost of tom joad", then i got the album nebraska and was blown away. after a while, other songs of springsteen's captured my psyche and become ones that would just randomly pop into my head, like "born to run". when "road to nowhere" was free on itunes i downloaded it and loved it.

two weeks ago i bought "born in the usa." this album, and springsteen in general, were always sort of a pariah to me. i think it's because i didn't understand it when it came out, and then it was used by reagan in his campaigns. the songs seemed to be promoting things i didn't understand or resonate with. now, as an adult i've learned what they were really about, what bruce was really speaking on. these songs that i thought were so pro-american "good life" were really speaking out on the disenchantment. songs like "glory days"

anyway, at the obama staff ball arcade fire covered "born in the usa". now, i'll warn you, the audio on this is not so great. and, it seems that whoever is recording it was singing along, which isn't good. but, it's still sort of cool to check out.

yo comments are whack

think ya being clever but your comments are wack

lost season premier

lost is back tonight. i'm super excited.

Obama day one celebration

so I popped in at the day one celebration after I finished work. good times. got to see people, and enjoy some nice music. fashawn ripped it for a bit and was super nice. he rapped in front of a band featuring kevin hill, eva scow, armen nalbandian, aaron wall, and the drummer that plays with that crew.

my new "mission" is to find out that drummer's name. he is insanely good and i talked to him last friday but forgot his name. adam might remember him, he keeps a good beat. really, i will talk about him again on this blog.

post inauguration plans

so, what do you have planned for your post-inauguration? going to get your party on? you could go to the starline from 8:30-? and hear some poets, some musicians playing music, some other stuff. or, you could do something else.



i've got to grade papers.

the the impotence of proofreading

as a english teacher (occasionally, in fact as rarely as possible) i really appreciate this video. it's quite humorous, and points out the need to actually read things you write & print before turning them in. sadly, this lesson is frequently lost on students.

hope you enjoy this vid. i warn you that the language is a little nsfw. sort of. no swear words, just funny things that could accidentally be substituted for what you really meant.



thanks neatorama.

2009 sundance short films

do you like short films? interested in free short movies? have you heard of the sundance film festival? do you have itunes?

if you answered yes to a few of those questions, then you should load up your itunes and download ten of the thousands of short films submitted to sundance.

now, how to find the films in itunes can be a little tricky. so, i'll just give you the directions that sf blogger violet blue wrote over @ laughing squid, and i followed.

"To find them, go to the iTunes store, and look in the left list for “Movies”, then scroll down and look left for their “Genres” list, where you’ll see a little *new* icon on Shorts. Click shorts, then look at the top of the page for the Sundance logo. Strangely then you’ll see your iTunes nav path has you in the “Music” area, but laugh bemusedly to yourself and ignore that, and watch the free shorts. Yeah, it’s *that* not-easy. But worth it."

hey, they're free, but only for a limited time. so jump over there soon and download. also, the films are all rated pg-13 or r, so no that they're not little kid friendly, at least by ratings standards.

run for the dream indoor track meet - revised details

on monday, jan. 19 the save mart center is hosting the annual run for the dream track
meet. the schedule has been revised, and you can click over here to see what's what.

i'm excited to see the 55m dashes, as well as the hurdles. the men's 55m hurdles, starting @ 3:42 features tim bogdanoff, who grew up in the clovis area (and who's brothers both starred @ fpu in track). the pole vault and high jump will bee some of the best competitions. women's pole vault, @ 3:30, features one of the greats of the sport, stacy dragila. the women's high jump, starting @ 4:30, features amy acuff, one of america's best, as well as two mexican internationals. the women's pole vault

anyway, i've scored 6 suite tickets to the event. i may only go to the evening time slot, but the tickets are good for all day. call me if you're interested in going.

the sleepover disaster - video

sleepover posted a video from a show on july 31 from seattle over on their myspace. but you're too lazy to click over there. so i'm reposting it here.



btw, i told vince that he looks uninterested when he's playing. like, yeah, i'm here, so what. he got a kick out of that.

btw, the sleepover disaster is playing two cd release shows next week. they're playing an all ager over @ cuppajoe on the 23rd. more importantly, they're playing @ audie's olympic on the 24th, with sweet & tender hooligans (the moz endorsed smiths tribute band). holy ish!

odd news

strange things in the news today, let's talk amongst ourselves.

- a dude was expecting a package of tools. what was delivered was 30 lbs of weed! yowza, that's a lot. and it reminds me of this post. police say it was worth about 10k. that's like 333 dollars a lb. i don't know, but that seems like it's a good price, assuming quality.

- "The goats and a family dog were rescued, but the cat was missing." stupid goats started a fire. well, it's better said that moron who put a space heater in shed with goats started a fire when the goats expectedly kicked over said heater.

- a gang intervention officer in los angeles was charged with robbing bizzy bone from bone thugs n harmony. i don't know, that sounds pretty gangsta to me.

- what do you get when you cross a bob's big boy and a noodle house? no, it's not asian denny's. well, maybe it is. more specifically it's noodle world in alhambra.

fashawn - boy meets world epk

in my effort to step my game up and live up to hmac's fresno blogger call out & the fresnan naming me as a blogger to watch in odd nine, here's some more content. and, this time it's a fresno related video. local rapper, fashawn & his boy meets world epk



can't really say i'm all that impressed with the video, as it's a jumble of clips, and songs. and it plays a little choppy. i did like him flowing over the ting tings, and it does get me much more interested in trying to see a fashawn show & get his album.

(thanks to nahright) - btw, don't ever read the comments on nahright. they are recockulus. totally unrelated to any post they're ever on. just nonsense.

warren sapp vs michael phelps race in the pool

yeah, it's true. michael phelps raced warren sapp a little after new years. young jeezy ref'd it. sounds unbelievable. but it happened.

i won't tell you who won, you've got to click over here and watch it. i'd embed it, but that option was disabled.

funny condom ad

so, yeah, this video (i've been finding a lot of interesting videos lately) is probably not something you want to watch at work. or, let your children watch. i mean, it's a commercial, but it's an online commercial, so it's sort of graphic. and it's for durex condoms.

next day air trailer

so, donald faison, mike epps and mos def have a movie coming out soon that looks rather humorous. and, it seems like you'll actually be able to understand the words coming out of mos def's mouth during this one.

btw, mos def also has a new album coming out on feb 24 called the ecstatic.

barenaked ladies "one week" parody

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

thanks college humor. i'm not in college, and haven't been for some time. and now that song will haunt me for a while. maybe it will take the place of bad love every morning. still can't figure out how that one got stuck with me.

heather flower tattoo part 2

so, i have an ink update.

here's the original picture that i took in and my artist, monica pasillas @ tower tattoo used. now, when i got this picture of our good friend the internet, the artist had it listed as a winter flowering heather. now, if you search for heather flower you'll find a lot of pictures taken further away. i knew this was a real individual and different picture of the heather flower. it's really opened up, and zoomed in, as well as being a very high contrast photo. so, it's difficult to find similar pictures, let alone find a way to use this to expand the tattoo. i pretty much consider this, as well as my tattoo, to sort of be an abstract of the flower.



here's the tattoo when it was initially finished, january 18, 2008.



and, here's the tattoo earlier this afternoon, before i went in



so, just short of one year, i took in some more photos, monica searched for photos, and we came up with some design that incorporates the leaves along with much smaller flower buds.

here it is with the flash on



flash off



closer view of the top branches with out the flash



midway through the tattoo, we took a brief break and i was looking at the work. turn out monica decided she would go over the edges of the original. this actually turned out very well because it helped it all feel a little fresh and all one tattoo, not just stuff added to another. she also went into some of the original black shading and darkened it a little to enhance the contrast. i'm pretty happy with it right now. the smaller buds and branches, along with the different colors really help it pop. if i do anything with it after it heals, i might go a shade or two darker with the green.

jack's back

that's right, jack bauer returned over the last two nights. and you know what? i don't care. i don't. i don't like the show 24. maybe i was convinced by too many comedians that constantly rip on the show for being in los angeles and people are able to get across town in minutes instead of an hour. how funny would it be to see jack bauer stuck in traffic on the 405 or the 210 for a whole episode? gawd help us all if he was on 10 east. i imagine it being like the intro to office space, but with shooting.

i can't quite figure out why i don't like 24. i like action. i like spy stuff. i like loosely political stories. totally seems like a show for me. but it's not. it bores me. i caught about 4 episodes in one of the seasons and it just bored me. maybe if i'd gotten roped in during the first season i would believe that iddy biddy keifer sutherland was a badass spy type and it would be neat that it all takes place over a day.

wev. i'm not saying you can't like it. shoot, i don't think any less of you if you do. just don't invite me over for a 24 marathon. or to watch the latest episode. i'm not coming. it's me, not you. well, it's 24, not you.

3 rules for the internet

a nice little diddy to help you understand teh internets, aka a series of tubes



thanks laughing squid for sharing that with me.

gran torino review

gran torino is an excellent film. and, it really does seem to be the role that clint eastwood was made to play. however, i could have done without hearing him sing the closing song.

i don't want to go into a lot of details or really retell you the movie. you need to go and see it. enjoy the story. enjoy the characters.

what's got me thinking is the role that race, stereotype and language play in the film. eastwood plays a crotchety old guy. he frequently uses racial slurs. now, i'm an adult, and hear all sorts of language. i'm not offended by the language. it's just odd to hear people chuckle and seem to enjoy the slurs. i don't expect them to gasp or storm out (in fact i would make fun of them for doing that). just don't seem to enjoy them so much please.

no town derby concert

that's right y'all. tonight at audie's we got music, we got derby girls, we got an old school raffle.

1408

look, i admit i am a bit of a john cusack junkie, but 1408 is a great movie. if you have not seen it, you should. seriously. see it. it's good.

and yes, it also has sam "that's the way i talk" jackson in it. he just turned sixty.

slipping on the bowlling lane

don't try this at home, or at the bowling alley either



(sort of cross posted @ wide world of fresno sports)

fresno thrift store finds

today i went to a few of the downtown thrift stores. i wasn't looking for anything for myself, and was basically along for the ride.

i saw this little gem as i was getting ready to leave the first store we went to. snow globes always give me a little chuckle. seeing this one made me think of the andersons.



i saw this beauty @ the last place we went. it was on top of a rack of clothes, waiting to pounce.

every day normal crew rap

this canadian is pretty nice. beware of the salty lyrics



he's got some cali dates in late jan & feb. roadtrip anyone?


thanks neatorama!

the customer is not always right

i've never worked in retail, but i get plenty frustrated with people in lines at stores. i can only imagine how bad it must be to put up with people. not that every clerk is always happy, pleasant, or anything else, but man, i don't know what i'd do if i had to put up with some of the customers on this website. it's no failblog, but it's pretty funny.

here's a little sample:
(A man walks up to our hot case with his wife and two little girls.)

Me: “Hi! How may I help you?”

Customer: “Hi - we wanted to get some chicken strips.”

(As I am taking his order, I notice his daughters licking the hot case glass.)

Me: “Excuse me sir, but your daughters are licking the glass.”

Customer: “Yeah.”

Me: “Well…aside from the fact that the glass is hot, we cleaned it this morning with a chemical cleaner to wash off a layer of grease build-up.”

Customer: “So?”

Me: “The chemical we used is a known carcinogen. I might suggest that you stop your daughters from ingesting it.”

Customer: “Look, lady. You’ve obviously never been a parent. When you have kids, you’ll learn that it’s MUCH easier to just let your kids do whatever they want.”




or how about this gem:

(Our credit card machine went down, and we started to make signs for the doors alerting the customers to this. Before the signs were up, I had to ring up a customer’s order.)

Me: “The total is ****. I’m sorry; our credit card machine is down.”

Customer: “Well, I don’t see any signs!”

Me: “The machine just broke five minutes ago while you were still in line. I was just telling my coworker to make signs a moment ago….”

Customer: “I don’t have enough cash. How about debit?”

Me: “Well, debit would use the same machine as the credit cards, but either way our store does not accept debit. Just cash today.”

Customer: “How about a check?”

Me: “Sorry, no personal checks. Just cash today.”

Customer: *getting upset now* “Well, what do you expect me to do?”

Me: “The last customer went next door to use the ATM to get cash.”

Customer: “You’re being extremely rude, you know!”

Me: “Ma’am, I’m just trying to explain to you that the credit card machine is down.”

Customer: “Well, I don’t listen!”

Me: “…”

january post art hop show

it's actually the 2nd thursday of january, but the it's the tower/downtown arthop on thursday. and that means...post art hop show @ tokyo!



this month's offering:
circles and circles
the love seats
and rademacher

only 5 buckaroonies.

be there, drink with a square.

mississippi burning

holy cow. i've seen mississippi burning probably a dozen times and never realized that frances mc dormand was in it. i mean, i knew the wife character, i saw her face. today, as i was killing a little time i flipped over to the movie. the directv synopsis had her name but i didn't htink anything of it.

and then i saw her in the film and it all came together. that's frances mc dormand.

crazy, it's been a dozen years since fargo.

the sleepover disaster @ starline 1/6/08 - UPDATED DETAILS

hey, it's tuesday, you ain't got crap to do, why not take in a good show for only $5?

i know some others have also plugged the show, but so am i. and, inside info from one of the bands tells me that the show starts @ 8 (flyer says 7 - must be just the doors) and that the sleepover disaster will be on 9ish. you can be home and in bed by 11. or later if you want.

SUPER DUPER SLY UPDATE - DOORS ARE NOW OPENING @ 9 & SLEEPOVER IS ON @ 9:45ish!

btw, rademacher is playing thursday. post to come.

prestigious jobs

today in my sociology class, we were talking about how society is structure or layered (stratification). things like caste, social class, etc are some of the systems of stratification. social class is influenced by several things such as wealth and prestige. we get wealth. do you have money or not. but prestige? how is that determined? frequently, occupation helps determine prestige. so, i asked my class what were prestigious jobs. i didn't give them any ideas, or really prod any certain directions.

prestigious jobs (under top label) are on the left. the jobs they didn't think so prestigious on the right. (hope you're able to read my handwriting/chicken scratch.)



first freaking thing out of their mouths on non-prestigious: teachers.

damn.

i laughed though, it was sort of funny. i guess if we were more prestigious we'd get paid better.

odd news stories

on break today i perused the local fish wrap. saw a couple of stories that struck me funny. that's right, i'm olde timey like that.

one of the stories was about an alabama police officer that was missing. the initial article was sort of worrisome because the officer was still missing. the officer is an organized crime specialist. looked like maybe the mob or some other organized nefarious agency had caused this officer to disappear. well, by the time i got to poking around on the fishwrap website, said officer had reappeared. in vegas. seems faron white staged his own disappearance to cover up some money missing from his department. i dunnoh, this looks worse.

however, i couldn't find the other two stories that struck me funny in the print edition on their website. so i turned to teh internets.

one story was about the possible future in-law of sarah palin, sherry l. johnston. she's the mother to levi johnston, who is engaged to and is the future baby daddy with bristol palin. it seems ms. johnston is charged with six felony counts of misconduct with a controlled substance. (the bee said she was selling oxy.) now, i realize that this doesn't reflect on the governor of alaska, or even the woman's son, just an interesting connection. i wonder if the "barracuda" will have a comment on the issue?

the other story was about a four year old that shot his baby sitter. it seems that the 18 year old baby sitter, nathan beavers, stepped on the foot of the four year old. the child went to the closet of the trailer home (that's right), got a shot gun and blasted. i've got to say, i'm a little impressed with a four year old shooting a shotgun. even a 20 gauge has got a ton a kick for a youngster like that. fortunately, mr. beavers only had minor injuries. the child has not been charged. o-hio!

bedtime stories review

so, this evening we went to see bedtime stories. now, i don't usually go to kid's movies, but we went with my brother and sister-inlaw and their kids (10, 7, 4).

honestly, i thought i might go nuts. you see, i don't have kids. and, i don't go to kid movies (as i already stated). i hate it when i go see an adult movie and there are screaming, squirming kids in there. this movie was made for them. fortunately, there weren't too many people in the theater other than us. a few other kids, but not too bad after the movie got started.

overall, i found the movie to be enjoyable. it was light-hearted and fun. it was also pretty cool how the stories sandler's character came to "life." yes, it was pretty transparent as to what would happen but it was enjoyable.

and, for a kid movie, i didn't think there was anything inappropriate or really questionable.

back to work

vacation is over. i don't want to go back to work.

blah.

(let mandatory jokes about my part time jobs and "hard life" begin in comment section.)

dive bar loyalty card

i think our local needs to start offering one of these:


toothpastefordinner.com

california's cell phone law is ineffective

"While traffic officials applaud a new law that makes it illegal for drivers to read, write or send text messages, they admit there is little evidence that last year's ban against talking on a hand-held cellphone has actually prevented accidents."

yep. no data to actually prove that banning cell phone use or texting prevented accidents. i love these reactionary laws that we make. i'm wondering when they'll outlaw changing the channel on my radio, or searching through my ipod? soon enough it will be illegal to even talk in the car because that will cause you to be distracted and could get in an accident.

it's funny, in the article they have quotes from cops and legislators about how they've seen less people talking on the phone. so what? have you seen less accidents? are our roadways safer now? and of course you get stories from people who almost got hit by someone on the phone. ever almost been hit by someone who wasn't on the phone? sure, but you probably just called them a jackass and went on with your life. you didn't harbor your little cell phone aversion.

who am i kidding? i ride a motorcycle. i don't talk to people. i don't talk on the phone or text while moving. i don't change things on my ipod. and, i don't pay attention.