five star day

what has rademacher and jena malone (mary from saved if you're not sure).

five star day.

while the trailer isn't up yet, you can check out the website and the video on the opening page does feature rademacher's letter from fresno, ca. from what i hear, it's not the only rademacher song in the film (although i can't verify that).

also on the soundtrack:
the stooges
the henry clay people
and more


super cool.

pt. loma track view

snapped a little photo today to show you where i'm hanging out friday and saturday. good times, nice weather.



the team did real well today. one of my throwers may have broke a school record, that may have been held by my friend becky. the issue of the may deals with when the javelin changed. several years back, the weighting on both mens and womens javelin changed, so you basically have two sets of records @ every level, old record and new record. well, the record listed on the fpu website seems that it should/could have happened during the old jav period, but we're not 100%. and, it doesn't list which jav type it was. if it was old, then there should be a new one, which should be b.stigs (now anderson). which we think would've been broken today. we'll get it all figured out eventually.

high school reunion stripper - i remember andrea better

so, i know some folks that have a high school reunion coming up, and the other night they were talking about it (adam is making more than housewives and the g.i.c. (i'm not elaborating on that on the blog). reunions are something that many dread, so i understand not wanting to go.

this woman had another solution. she sent a stripper in her place. pretending to be her. and a crew to document it. the stripper was well trained in the girl's history, and had a small earpiece to be fed more info.

the reactions were mixed. check out the video for the documentary that was made, and make sure you read the original article as well.

pt. loma sunset

just so no one thinks i'm suffering from being away from my beloved fresno, here's the view from the pt. loma university cafeteria where i dined this evening.



sunset over the ocean. nice.

musings on a thursday afternoon

so, i'm in san diego for the next few days. not a bad place for the job to take you. however, most of it will be spent at a track, so it's not like i'm taking in the scenes of san diego. however, i will still be blogging.

a bit of fresno business to take care of. this is the sign on the door of the laughing buddha. i went to try them out the other day, and mike oz alerted me to the possibility of them being closed. he was right.



we stopped for lunch today @ a souplantation in santa clarita (i think, we took the magic mountain parkway). saw this @ the start of the line and it made me think about pronunciation.



do you pronounce that saneegiser? sanigizzer? sanig-izer? what do you think?

gavin newsome for governor

this is a bad idea



i don't think i disagree with all of his politics, but i do dislike his personna. and, i don't really want to see months and months of commercials akin to the ones that prop 8 used featuring newsome.

nike naked running camp

i'll be the first to admit that i'm not a big fan of nike for various reasons. over the last decade i've reluctantly owned a few pairs of nike throwing shoes, and they are pretty good. those of you that know me well know that i'm an adidas brandwhore. so, it pains me a little to admit that nike does make good advertising (and maybe even decent shoes).



i'm glad that they used elite athletes for this, and not just your average joe. frankly, i doubt many want to see a fourty year old dude with a beer gut jogging up a hill.

rules of facebook etiquette

some people just don't know how to behave on the electric friendship machine. the fine people over @ yourtango sponsored this video to help us all behave appropriately.

malcolm sosa @ tokyo garden

if you're looking for something to do saturday night, aside from the film festival, ufc fights, or a ton of other things, you can check out malcolm sosa from rademacher playing solo with primer skyline & others @ tokyo garden.



or you can be like me and do several of those things. that's right, i'm bragging that i can manage to do two things in a night.

maybe i will manage to remember to finally pick up the r.i.p. gardenside e.p. from rademacher.

national record store day

national record store day for real this time (not a month early like i thought before). in honor of this day, i'm going to stop by spinners and peruse their selections, and perhaps purchase something.

how to make a baby

not sure where babies come from? here's a handy instructional video

my first dictionary

oh my, thanks to neatorama i have found the bestest online dictionary, my first dictionary. awesomely hilarious. here's an example:

fresno grizzlies game 4/16

last night i went to the grizzlies game thanks to free tickets from fresno famous. thanks fresno famous. it was my second game of the new season, and sadly it was the second time i saw the grizzlies lose.

the night started with a quest for food. this time i tried the bbq nachos from the meat market bbq stand, located sort of behind first base on the concourse. they were pretty nice. the shredded pork was sweet and it contrasted very well with the nacho sauce and the spice of the salsa. the order is a generous portion, and i was satisfied with my dinner.



it was the first thirsty thursday of the year, so that meant cheap tecate. this cost me $2.



we had a nice view of the field.



this guy was wearing a big, stupid, foam cowboy hat that screamed "i need attention." so, here you go buddy, attention on the fresno blogosphere.



later in the night, the moths came out. big ones.



finally, there was one or two ladies in the first level that were blowing bubbles. it was pretty cool and amazing how many bubbles there were, and how they filled up the night sky.



thanks again to fresno famous for the tickets.

baptist pastor tazed by border control

a fascinating account from a pastor about his recent (april 14) encounter with border control agents in arizona.



freedom? rights? not when the police or government agents are involved.

50,000th visitor

okay, so deciding who my 50,000th visitor wasn't as easy as i hoped. #50,000 was from germany looking for pulp fiction images. the one before that was from some strange military isp. the one after was from italy and hit my adidas vespa post. #49,998 was in china. so, the big winner of my little prize (yoshi now gift certificate) is...#49,997!

and, i'm pretty sure that the winner is...eli reyes. why do i think that? well, i talked to him last night, he said he was trying to win, the hit came pretty late in the evening, and the out-click was a picture i took of him from saturday night's fay wrays show.

if i'm wrong, let me know, but as it stands, i'm declaring eli reyes my official 50,000th visitor.

slap chop & shamwow in spanish

dude, vince shlomi is bilingual! now if he can just avoid hookers biting his tongue.



i miss the "you'll like my nuts" line not being en espanol.



do spanish speakers think germans make quality products?

thanks to superpunch.

travis vick - the goat ep

last august i saw a fabulous musician play a show at tokyo garden. this doesn't surprise me, as they are often really good shows there. anyway, i enjoyed the show, especially the music of travis vick. i liked it so much i wrote up a little review that you can read here.

anyway, a little while ago, probably a few months ago, i received and email from travis asking for my address because he wanted to send me a copy of his new ep. and he did, which was super cool of him. i've intended to review it here for quite some time. well here is that review.

the ep is five songs, which is pretty standard ep length. actually, it seems a lot of the ep's i see lately are three or four, so five is nice.

onto the songs:
track one - box - a gentle, simple song about the box where mementos of a past love are kept. the song has a nice alt/country feel, a sound which i quite enjoy.

track two - pagemakers - this song reminds me of something from the 60's, in a good way. a banjo creeps into this song, as well as delicate picking on a guitar.

track three - sheep skin - the start of this song actually reminds me of rademacher's road to nowhere, played on a ukulele. overall, the song doesn't do much for me.

track four - if i don't lose my mind - this song may best show off travis vick's ability on the guitar. the track features intricate sounding picking (i have no idea how intricate it actually is but it sounds nice while being complex). the picking and vocals give the track a nice depth to it. also, this song is longer than the previous three at 4min 41 secs, so it a little more time to develop and grow on you.

track five - bill - this track is 10 minutes long. i know, i just talked about a longer song being nice, so it seems odd to be wary of a ten minute song. but i worry that a ten minute song might just ramble on aimlessly. it kinda did. and that around five minutes in i'm going to be disinterested. which i was.


here's the artwork from the ep
front cover - frankly, this goat kinda creeps me out. i think it's the dual image thing. it seems like satan or something.



inside cover - mr. vick himself. when i saw him play live he really reminded me of my brother in law. this picture doesn't.



back cover - this goat doesn't creep me out. it has a nice beard. and is probably the same goat.



so, i wouldn't race out to get this ep. it has some nice touches, and reminds me of his previous work a bit, but it also takes some odd turns as well. i would like to see travis play live again, because i really dug that and am curious to see how his music has evolved live. it kinda bums me out that i didn't like the ep all that much because i really enjoyed him live, and i liked his other album, player piano.

monday haikus

easter food was nice
verenika and sausage
my belly is full


i keep forgetting
to get my copy of album
rad rip gardenside


blake jones talks to me
every time i see him around
insightful nice guy

rademacher & the fay wrays at zapps park

tonight I had my first chance to see the new rademacher line up, or the rademacher b team as malcolm called. first thought, they're not quite polished yet. some little guitar flubs, some slight timing issues. second thought, for as little as this new line up has been together they are really good. the rademacher sound is still there and kicking. in fact, it may be a little more notched up. it's different, but very good. third thought, malcolm is a very good musician. i already thought this, but i'm impressed toale the switch to bass. it's tough to play bass lines and provide main vocals and he does it well. i'm excited to see these guys build on this.

what can be said about the fay wrays? they are everything they advertise themselves as: loud, hard and fast. and great at it. i love the mix of loud guitar that resonates under the vocals. and, eli tears it up on the drums, filling every gap just as it should be. there is no way to go to a fay wrays show without feeling the intensity of the music and leave without your ears ringing. they're not just thrash loud either. it's melodic heavy body blows.

as for zapps park, it's decent. the music gets a little mushy in such a small space, especially louder bands. it's still decent, but it's not the premier fresno music venue but alright to see a show at.

update: here are some photos of eli i took. he came from a wedding, and played both sets in a dress shirt, slacks & a tie. nice.

50,000th visitor contest

who loves you? well, i sorta do. and, i'm coming up on my 50,000th visitor since i started tracking hits on my blog. so, in honor of that, i'm giving away a $10 gift certificate to yoshi now! in downtown fresno.



let's be honest about this contest. i'll give you the certificate if i can figure out who you are. and, if it's easy for me to get it to you. i'm not going too far out of my way to make this happen. i guess i don't love you that much. but, if i can figure out who you are, and you can email me your address, i'll mail you the certificate. how's that sound?