All The Trouble For A Paper
Ticket[Friday, June
29, 2007 @ 1:14 am]
I mentioned the Glassjaw 7.7.7 gig when it was announced and after a
month, I finally have the ticket in my hand. It came a little later
than usual as I had my Funeral For A Friend around 3 weeks before the
event. Come to think of it, I received that one around two weeks before
the event which is pretty much the same.
Anyway, I ordered my tickets through Seetickets who happened to have
the pre-order at the moment but receive their tickets later than
others. Forum members from Glassjaw.net who ordered through Ticket
Master got theirs weeks ago.
The tickets actually arrived on Monday but with my brother not being
around, they had to re-schedule the delivery. I was pissed but what
could I do as I used my brother's card and his signature and ID were
required. Logged on their website and rescheduled it for Tuesday then
someone called us and talked to my brother and said they would come on
Wednesday. This is the day my sister-in-law is having a baby but
thankfully they agreed that as long as I can show my brother's ID the
tickets would be handed over.
Come Wednesday and after hearing the wonderful news that she had
another baby girl, the delivery guy came and handed me the ticket.
Sweet.
It mentions "Plus Special Guests" which really makes you think. There
is no confirmed information about who they could be but some rumors on
the forums say either Saves the Day or Thursday. If it will be
Thursday, I am gonna freaking die!
Also, the forum members are trying to organize an after-show party with
Daryl Polumbo spinning. I doubt this would happen but if it does, it
would be so bloody awesome.
I mention the GJ forums a lot since I joined in hopes of hanging out
with other people whilst at a gig as I have always been pretty alone at
gigs here. Damn I miss the Pabida Team.
Now everything is set for the 7th of July. Well, kind of since I think
I ordered tickets for Live Earth on a silly whim. I haven't received
the tickets yet but I may sell them on ebay or something since I really
want to watch Glassjaw which is really quite rare.
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A Day At Thorpe Park[Tuesday, June 12, 2007 @ 5:54 pm]
Spent yesterday at Thorpe Park,
an amusement park just past Heathrow Airport. The place was slightly
more than an hours drive away from Bushey Heath (where I live).
When we arrived, it seemed that the weather wouldn't cooperate with us.
Thankfully, despite the clouds covering the sun, the rain did not fall
and a brief moment of sunlight even managed its way through after 5 pm.
The park is awesome. You can't compare it to Enchanted Kingdom. The
park has three roller coasters, Stealth, Nemesis Inferno and Colossus
plus a kids one called Flying Fish.
Started with the tallest and fastest first, which was Stealth.
it came first because the people I was with thought it was quite simple
as it did look on the map. Stealth just happens to be the fastest and
tallest ride. The experience was quite awesome. A quick sudden burst of
acceleration which shoots you right up the top, then before you could
even catch your breathe, you are heading straight down. It was a very
quick right but an intense one.
Next up was Nemesis Inferno
which is different from other roller coasters as you are hanging on
this ride. This hanging twist actually made the ride much more exciting
than it could have normally been. The feeing of having your body and
your feet hanging in the air was quite spectacular especially when you
were thrown from side to side. The most amazing part was spinning and
looking up at nothing but the sky.
After lunch and a few rides in between, we went on Colossus
probably their biggest coaster. This is more traditional with the
standard cart and rails but with several twists, turns and corkscrews.
This ride was pretty intense and the corkscrew portion really felt like
you were being pushed to the ground. It was pretty intense.
Also went on a few other rides like Logger's Leap which is just
Starcity's Wild River but with a prettier view. Rumba Rapids, A boat ride similar
to Rio Grande Rapids in Enchanted Kingdom but not as intense, it was
fairly mild actually.
The last ride for the day was Tidal Wave
which is quite similar to Wild River but more extreme and here, you
would really get wet. Actually, soaked is the more appropriate term.
The descent was quite nice but what got me was the wall of water it
created when it splashed down. It was quite an experience and was a
great choice for being the last ride.
There were so many more rides I wanted to try but we ran out of time.
The park's rides stopped taking in people around 5 in the afternoon
which was also the park's closing time.
I was pretty satisfied anyway as I was able to get on all the roller
coasters like I planed to and considering we only got there past 11 in
the morning, I'd say it was already a pretty good run. Another thing is
all the wonderful women/girls around dressed quite provocatively being
summer and all. I'd really consider going back someday.
I was going to add pictures but am too lazy now. You can check them out
at my picasa account.
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Saosin @ Mean Fiddler[Saturday, June 9, 2007 @ 10:54
am]
Being still jobless and all, I've got to keep myself occupied with
different things. Video gaming would be a good choice but without a
game
console this was not an option. Not having an external mouse for my
notebook also does not help so my notebook has not been used for gaming
either.
So I console myself with watching gigs albeit watching alone to satisfy
my urge to have some fun. Wanted to watch Modest Mouse a week after
Funeral For A Friend but was not able to secure tickets, plus it was
only days away from the Funeral For A Friend event and with the
declining funds I have, I need to space them out evenly.
Found out via last.fm again that Saosin was playing at the Mean Fiddler
on the 7th of June. Purchased my tickets a few days before the event so
they were not able to mail me the tickets and had to pick them up at
the venue. I used my brother's card and initially thought I'd have
problems picking the tickets up. Thankfully, there was none of that.
Mean Fiddler is tiny compared to Carling Academy Brixton but is right
in the center of London. I'd say it is about two-thirds the size of
Bahay ng Alumni in UP Manila, Philippines. It also had an upper portion
and several huge bars. Beers caused the same though.
Gates opened at exactly 7pm with the first support band
playing around 8. There were two support bands Futures (?) and Lights.
Action!
Futures was alright but nothing special. Just something to fill the
night with. Lights. Action! on the other hand
was bloody awesome. Too bad they haven't released any CDs yet, just a
demo vinyl. You should try listening to the two songs they have on
their MySpace.
Of course, the highlight of the night and the reason I was there was Saosin.
They were quite awesome live and played one long set which included
most of my favorites like Seven Years, Mookie's Last Christmas, and
Bury Your Head as well as a bunch of their new songs which I haven't
really gotten into with the new album only being recently released. No
encore this time around which they did mention before their last two
songs. They already played all of their better songs so what's left for
an encore right?
So the next gig maybe on 777 with Glassjaw. Sure, there are a couple of
other acts I'd like to see in between like The New Pornographers and
Asobi Seksu, but with the limited resources I have, this would have to
do.
Hope I get a call for a real job soon so I can have more fun.
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Different Things[Wednesday, June 6, 2007 @ 11:13
am] Stargate
Atlantis
I started watching Stargate Atlantis back when I was in Manila when I
chanced upon a copy of Season 1 and 2. I was curious about it after
reading so much about Stargate SG-1 which I would preferred to see
first but could not score a copy of.
Anyway, I loved it back then and recently finished watching the 3rd
season. It was pretty awesome aside from the 2 or 3 episodes which
bored the hell out of me. The series really shines in their continuity
episodes which link back to older or previous episodes. I guess it
would shine more if I was familiar with the tons of references to
Stargate SG-1 which I have yet to watch since I am 10 seasons behind.
I doubt anyone who would read this watches the show or is familiar with
it even but I was pretty surprised when they killed off Dr. Carson
Beckett (played by Paul McGillon), one of the main characters who
really had quite an effect on the show. There is little to no chance of
him returning since they did send him off with a funeral and all. As
per information on the Intertubes, he would be returning as a character
in season 4 but only for an episode or two. His dead was of course sad
as he did play a very crucial role in the series since he was the head
of medicine in the Atlantis expedition.
On a happier note, he is replaced by Jewel Staite as Dr. Jennifer
Keller who played as Kaylee Frye in the short-lived Firefly TV series
and the movie spin-off Serenity. She happens to be my most favorite
character from Firefly and has got to be the sexiest space mechanic
ever. She was in an earlier episode of Stargate Atlantis but was seen
as a different character, Elia a wraith which was quite a shame since
she was covered in make up. This is certainly something more to look
forward to for Stargate Atlantis when Season 4 comes on.
In the meantime, I should most probably catch up by watching Stargate
SG-1 so future references would make more sense not forgetting the fact
that it is pretty amazing on its own.
Yesterday, Apple released new versions of their popular Macbook Pro
line. It isn't much different from older versions which are already
awesome in their own way as I would say they just received a little
bump or update to keep with the times.
The more significant changes would be the shift to LED back lighting
for
the screen, upgrade to Intel's new Santa Rosa chipset, bumps for
processor speeds from 2.16Ghz and 2.33Ghz to 2.2Ghz and 2.4GHZ,
increase of maximum memory from 3GB to 4GB, and the Nvidia 6800
graphics card.
So far, the energy saved by the LED back light coupled with the more
energy efficient Santa Rosa platform extends battery life to 30 minutes
to an hour which is ok but nothing revolutionary. I expected LED
back lights to conserve much more than that. New Benchmarks would
hopefully roll out by next week so until then I can contemplate about
the idea of getting my Macbook Pro a month early.
Yeah! A new gig was announced yesterday. Glassjaw will be performing at
the Carling Academy Brixton on July 7 (yes, 777). Tickets go on sale on
Monday and I will be ordering mine. I did not expect myself to be back
at Carling Academy so soon. I am already excited. It is on a Saturday
so I shouldn't have any problems in the event I would already be
working by then (which I should already be).
