Only 2 foot '9 inches tall, Weng Weng fights crime in the Phillippines as Agent 00. Track by THE CHUDS (www.myspace.com/chudsunderground) Video edited by John R. www.rroom.org Dedicated to the true Mack... Weng Weng
Last Saturday, my girlfriend received a frantic call from our friend who had given us the CMJ passes. She couldn't find any photographers to photograph a movie screening at Tribeca Cinemas, of the new Joe Strummer documentary by Julien Temple and supposedly a few celebrities where scheduled to show up for the event. (I'll review the movie at a latter date.) She asked if I would be able to do it. Now event photography isn't really my thing mostly because I'm not much of a people person and I've never done it before. I'd much rather go out to an open field and photograph a blade of grass blowing, in the wind. She did get us the free passes and you should always help out a friend in a jam, whenever possible so I happily agreed to do it. So she sent a car to pick us up since we wouldn't of been able to arrive there in time if we took mass transit.
Well when I get there, I'm told that Steve Buscemi and The Beastie Boys are scheduled to show up to the movie. This is going to be interesting, I thought not only would I be photographing The Beastie Boys but also Mr. Pink. So it's getting closer and closer to the start of the movie and no one has showed up yet. Finally, just as the movie is starting I'm told that it doesn't look like either one of them will be making an appearance and I should just go in and watch the movie. Fifteen minutes into the movie, I see a silhouette of a skinny guy with an afro walk into the theatre and I instantly recognized him as MIke D.
After the movie, Mike D is cajoled into standing in front of a CMJ backdrop and having his pic taken, by me of course. When I looked thru my viewfinder I couldn't believe what I saw! Mike D looked like an old man, he looked way older than his 42 years of age. Now granted this wasn't a professional photo shoot, there's no retouching done to smooth out the lines and the flash I used was a bit harsh but still. Gone was the image of the beer swilling, trucker hat wearing young punk hip hopper that I first saw when I was 14 years old during the Licensed to Ill tour. I know that they've matured and have grown out of that phase along time ago but for alot of people that is the image of The Beastie Boys that they hold in their minds. Yet for me, the moment I looked thru that view finder it was washed away for ever. 
Now I had wanted to somehow tie in some Neil Young lyrics "It's better to burn out than fade away" and The Who lyrics "I hope I die before I get old", but I just wasn't sure where I wanted to go with that. It's just at some point should musicians and actors just fade away from the public spotlight when they reach a certain age and appearance so as not to destroy the fans image of them. Take for example Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Kurt Cobain(who unfortunately took Young's lyrics to heart) . As tragic as their too soon deaths were and the fact that they will never be able to create more art for us to enjoy and to enrich our lives, we will forever have these lasting iconic images of these artists when they were young and in their phyisical prime, burned into our psyche. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that when artists reach a certain age that they should stop what they're doing. There alot of older established musicians still making great music, but maybe they should do it in seclusion so as to not destroy the public's iconic image of them. Am I just being selfish and shallow in thinking this way? Maybe I should stop here so as not to have my argument misconstrued and dig my grave any further. I guess what it comes down to is that I prefer young Elvis to old fat bloated Elvis. I'd love to hear your views on this topic.
Related Posts: CMJ Music Marathon, Brad @ Highline Ballroom
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Ok so for my regular readers I just want to let you know that for the next week or maybe even month or so, this blog will be under construction. For some time now I've been wanting to change up the design, color and look of this blog but I've never gotten around to it because I've been wasting time with other things like work and school. Yesterday, I received a complaint about my use of white text on a black background. This hasn't been the first time that said person has complained about it(you know who you are). You see, white text on a black background is a bit of a design no no and can cause eye strain for some people. It never really bothered me that much and I kind of liked how it looked, but than again I'm not a graphic designer so what do I know. So, since the people(or should I say person) have spoken and it has been in the back of my mind to make some changes, there is no time like the present or maybe tomorrow to do so. While in this transitional phase I highly encourage your opinions and suggestions about what you don't like and what you do like. And, yes before anyone says you want more porn, I would agree but this is a family fun blog and just think of all the children that come here.
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As I mentioned in my previous post, I had gotten free passes to the CMJ music marathon here in NYC. The first night of the music marathon I had found out that the band Brad was playing over at the Highline Ballroom, a small little music venue located in NYC's meatpacking district.
Having first heard of Brad way back in 1993, when they released their debut album Shame, which ended up being one of my favorite albums of that year, with its soulful funk grooved rock jams. I had always thought that that was their only offering and that the band kind of just disbanded, but unbeknownst to me they have steadily been putting out albums since then. They're currently working on a fifth album due out soon. So when I saw that they were playing I was pretty excited to go check them out.
Now for those of you who don't know one of the members of Brad is Stone Gossard who some of you might realize is a guitarist for that little known band Pearl Jam. Now although that would be one reason to go check them out the real reason to listen to Brad and to see them live is for their singer Shawn Smith. I had never seen pictures of the other members of Brad so I was surprised to finally see where this extremely soulful voice come from. Shawn Smith looks like a combination of Meat loaf, Ronnie Van Zant(singer from Lynyrd Skynyrd) and one of the actors from the defunct HBO series DeadWood. Looking at this guy you would never expect a voice like that to come out of him, yet it does. Even though Stone Gossard, contributes to the signature sound of the band the real star of this band is Shawn Smith, not only can this guy sing he also has a commanding stage presence.
The one criticism about the show is that they had this special guest guitarist playing with them. This guy looked like your middle aged uncle who still thinks he's in his twenties. He had 1980's style long hair that was pulled back into a pony tail which was just barely covering the bald spot on the top of his head. He also wore sports styled sunglasses throughout the entire performance(maybe he just had a cataracts operation I don't know). I could of lived with those two strikes against him but the camel that broke the straws back would be his constant guitar solos that really just didn't fit in with the rest of the music. He would start his solo and stroll up to the front of the stage and place one foot onto a monitor and get into that cliched 80's style rockstar guitar pose that says hey look at me aren't I so cool! I just didn't get his whole schtick, maybe he was crying out for attention, or just trying to relive his former glory days. He was just so distracting from the rest of the band . What would of been an outstanding stellar show was just a pretty good show, all because of him.
So the next day I did some Googling to find out who this guy was. Well, it turns out his name was Kevin Wood. He was a member, along with his brother Andy Wood of the band Malfunkshun, who some considered the "godfathers" of grunge, along with The Melvins(my favorite) and Neil Young. So, finally the connection was made as to why he was there. You see his brother Andy after Mulfunkshun broke up, formed a band called Mother Love Bone which featured Stone Gossard. Just days before the release of their first album Andy Wood died of a drug overdose. The significance of this is that if that didn't happen Pearl Jam may have never existed since Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament would than go on to form the basis of that band.
So enough with this grunge music history lesson since this post is getting way to long. I will leave you with this, if you have a chance to see Brad live, do so and hopefully they won't a guest guitarist, who is an aging rock star trying to relive his past on stage with them.
Brad @ Myspace
Brad official website
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Last week was the CMJ music marathon here in NYC. My girlfriend and I were lucky enough to score some free passes to it, since one of our friends is the marketing director for the event. The CMJ music marathon was 5 days of, yep you guessed it music. It's similar to the South by Southwest music event in Austin, Texas and the North by Northeast event in Toronto. Essentially the vast majority of music acts that are featured in the festival are unsigned bands trying to get signed to a record label or it's a band that's already signed but is just trying to get more recognition. Peppered throughout these unknown or barely known bands are a few bigger named bands that also play during the event.
Now if going to see live music isn't really your thing, which if that's the case I'm sorry to hear that since it's one of the few things that keeps me young at heart. There are other things to do and experience during the week long event. The most notable of these is movie premieres/screenings with a Q & A session afterwards with the director.
So, hopefully in the next week or so I'll find the time to post some of my reviews and recounts of some of the things I heard, the things I saw and the things I did. So please stay tuned.
One more thing, if your wondering what CMJ stands for, your not alone. I was in the dark about it too, so I came up with some of my own ideas that ranged from the very catchy Christian Music Jamboree to the plainly obvious College Music Jam. Finally I had to ask my friend who had gotten me the passes what CMJ exactly stands for. As it turns out it stands for College Music Journal. Well if you ask me that just doesn't have the same ring as Christian Music Jamboree but what do I know I'm not a marketing director.
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There's a new The Ordinary Adventures of Tomas out now. Go check it out, it's not like you have anything better to do.
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The other day, when I was walking to work I noticed that they were filming the new Sex in the City movie on my work block. Well it wasn't too hard to notice because they had the whole road closed off on the south side of Bryant Park. There were also throngs of people jamming up the sidewalk because everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of Sarah Jessica Parker or SJP for short. Below you will see a very blurry photo of her. It was taken moments before a rather large movie security officer blotted out the sun and told me to leave the premises immediately. I also "accidentally " positioned myself in the backround for a few of the scenes so hopefully I'll make the cut and not be on the editing room floor.
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It's political season here in the good ole US of A and with the primaries up and running there's bound to be a bunch of good stuff that I can not only waste my time with but waste your time with too. The following clip is of Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney being asked a question regarding Medical Marijuana from a guy in a wheelchair suffering from MS. He asks Mitt if he would have him and his doctors arrested for using medical marijuana. Essentially Mitt sidesteps the question with some vague political speak and turns his back on the guy to greet other people with his fake plastic smile. What a douche bag. You know I would almost have more respect(if that's possible) for Mitt and other politicians if they were just more up front with their views. If they said what they really felt instead of using political speak and general round about answers to questions. Yet in this day and time in our country you can't do that and still get elected.
Radiohead is releasing their new album, In Rainbows today(Oct. 10th). This is their first studio album in 4 years, since Hail to the Thief. You might be saying big deal so Radiohead has released a new album. Well you see the big deal is that Radiohead no longer has a record contract with EMI, that ended with Hail to the Thief, fulfilling their contractual obligation of 6 albums. So with no record deal they decided to offer their newest album straight to their fans with out having to deal with a middle man(i.e record stores) as a digital download.
Ok, Ok you may still be saying big f'ing deal, well Radiohead is allowing you the fan to determine how much you want to pay for the new album yourself. Yeah you read that right, YOU set the price! So if you want to pay a penny for it you can! Although you'd be a bit of a cheapskate if you did that. You could also conceivably not pay anything for it and set your price as nothing and I'm sure alot of people will be doing that, hell it even crossed my mind. Yet I determined that Radiohead is a good enough band(understatement of the year) for me to shell out some of my hard earned cash. So I went to their site typed in a price I deemed appropriate, payed it and 3 minutes after downloading the DRM free album, I'm listening to it. It couldn't of been any easier.
Could this be the way of the future for bands to sell their music, just totally bypassing record companies all together? Or is this really something thats only feasibly for more established bands who already have a built in fan base? I guess only time will tell.
Official Radiohead site: Dead AIr space
If you haven't already clicked the In Rainbows link above than click here to purchase it.
For more Radiohead goodness check out this blog
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So in a post I did last week, I talked about how one of my professors said that a condom can be used to waterproof a microphone, when are recording around water. To my surprise non-lubricated can be used to waterproof a variety of things. Nayy seals use them to waterproof firing assemblies. Here's a guy who shows you how to water proof your digital camera. The same technique can be used for other electronic devices. Here are 20 more uses for condoms other than sex and for waterproofing electronic devices.
Related Posts: The Sound of Pee
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If your in the mood for a popcorn movie, with some scares, alot of great action, some good special effects and a whole lot of ass kicking done by Milla Jovovich then go see this movie. If not then don't go, hows that for a movie review. This movie is what it is and it doesn't try to masquerade as something it's not. I was going to talk about the plot and premise of this movie but it doesn't really matter and is really just secondary, the plot is just a means to fuel all the action/fight sequences.
This is the third installment of the Resident Evil movie franchise and I fully expect at least another one in the future due to the very very open ended ending that was in the movie and plus the fact that these movies make a butt load of money. I won't give away any spoilers but your left hanging on a couple plot points and they basically set up the next movie with the end of this one. In fact they just should of put to be continued at the end of the movie.
So to make a short review even short if you want to see Milla Jovovich kick some zombie ass then go see this movie. Ali Larter of Heroes fame also stars in this movie and gets in on the ass kicking too.
Resident Evil: Extinction @ imdb
Resident Evil: Extinction official site
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So I don't normally blog about my personal experiences here or anywhere for that matter but this is just too funny and weird not to blog about. I'm currently in graduate school studying visual effects for film/animation and one of the classes I'm taking is digital audio for film. In the class, we're learning how to create foleys and sound effects and then editing them into a movie. This past monday, our teacher showed us a short 2 minute movie that had absolutely no sound to it, we would be creating and adding all the sound to it. This is were the story/class gets interesting or maybe I should say a bit weird.
The movie consisted of our teacher walking into a men's room, going up to a urinal, peeing, washing and drying his hands and than walking out. Now granted we thankfully didn't actually see him do any actually peeing, this men's room has the great dividers in-between the urinals. Yet we could still make out the moment he unzips his pants, whips it out, pees, does a little sigh, shakes it off and puts it back in and zips up.
We can't actually record someone peeing into a urinal because as the teacher said that would probably get him fired. So we than proceeded to have an in-depth 20 minute discussion about all the sounds we need to recreate from the moment the zipper zips down until it zip backs up and and how to recreate them. We then proceeded to the nearest men's room to start recording. We only go so far as to record the sound of the men's room door opening. Next week will be the big week were we will be spending essentially the whole class in a men's room recording sounds for this oscar worthy short film.
Since we will be using microphones around water, our teacher asked us if we had any ideas how to keep our microphones waterproof. He seemed kind of annoyed that no one knew the answer to this because he thought it was so obvious. He than went into his backpack, pulled out a condom(unlubricated) and held it up high over his head.
So not only will we be spending class time in a men's room but we will be using condom wrapped microphones to do our recording. Yep higher education at it's finest.
Writing out this blog post got me thinking about the old philosophical question, if a tree falls in the woods and no ones there to hear it dose it make a sound? I guess this could be applied here also. If a man pees in a urinal and no ones there to hear it does it make a sound?
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