i entered the lottery to get tickets to Michael Jackson's Memorial Service along with over 1.6 million other fans. and out of the mere 8,750 people (that's less than 0.5%) that were picked to attend, i was one of them! so i printed out my ticketmaster voucher and on monday, my mom and i headed to the Dodgers Stadium to pick up our bracelets and ticket hard copies. it was a very well organized process. we literally drove into the stadium parking lot, got our voucher scanned, then headed to another station to get our bracelets, then to another station to get our tickets. all without getting out of the car. i then headed home and had the Disneyland adventure as recapped in my previous entry.

my mom and i woke up really early to try and beat the traffic going to the Staples Center on Tuesday. and we did just that. the traffic wasn't too bad, and the roads around the Staples Center were closed to the general public except for those with wristbands, making it really easy for us to maneuver to the venue. got to the front of the Staples Center and there was just a huge mass of people, police, and news reporters.


news reporters galore.

the crowd was formally welcomed to the Staples Center with a riveting speech by one of the head employees as they opened the doors to the venue. lines formed, and after about a 20 minute wait, we were all scanned in, secured, and given a complimentary Michael Jackson Memorial Book. my mom and i were taken to our seats. which i thought were pretty good. as the rest of the mass crowd was being scanned into the venue, we just sat in our seats while they played MJ's classics, newer songs, and even some unreleased songs. celebrities were making their way to their seats as well. notable ones that i remember seeing are Kobe Bryant, Larry King, Wesley Snipes, etc. we all paid our respects as the Jackson family entered the venue. at about 10:30am, the memorial service was finally started with Smokey Robinson's welcoming speech.


Smokey Robinson opens the ceremony

after Smokey's welcoming address, there was a good 15-20 gap in the program. the audience was pretty confused, but was still very classy and respectful as the Staples Center was dead quiet for the entire duration of the gap, with some scattered people yelling out "i love you michael!" and other words of appreciation of the like. i got updates via AIM and text messages from friends watching the ceremony on TV that during that confusing gap, they were bringing Michael Jackson's casket into the Staples Center -- the audience had no idea. a choir was gathering on stage and started singing, in the middle of their song, the casket is carried in. the crowd goes crazy. it was a very surreal feeling knowing Michael Jackson's body was amongst us.

i wont go into too much detail about the events that went on during the memorial since it was aired on tv (and if you haven't watched it, you should). but i will highlight that Stevie Wonder's performance was my favorite of the night. hearing him say "this is a moment.. that i wished i didn't live to see come" was completely heartbreaking. then in his performance, you can literally hear the pain in his voice. i thought Mariah Carey didn't sound her greatest.. but after watching the televised version of the memorial, i noticed she was pretty much crying during her performance so i'll give her that, haha. My favorite eulogies of the night came from Berry Gordy, Al Sharpton, Brooke Shields, and his daughter Paris. They were timeless, powerful, touching, and heartbreaking, respectively. also, Magic Johnson's anecdote regarding MJ and his KFC bucket was priceless.

after the ceremony ended, we took a few pictures outside with all the commotion, and finally head back to the car to head home and beat all the rush hour traffic.

a few more pics from the beautiful event.


the London "This Is It" tour cast on stage with what would have been with MJ's "We Are the World" and "Heal the World"


my mom with the MJ Memorial wall

all-in-all, the memorial was a wonderful experience. there was a certain spirit that we all felt in the Staples Center. everyone was on the same page, and there was just a sense of person that we all respected, rather than a personality.

it was the perfect balance of mourning a loss, celebrating a life, and paying our respects.

We are here for a moment and then we are gone ...
-Lucious Smith

CLICK HERE to view the rest of the pictures from the event.

.. RIP Michael Jackson. the greatest entertainer that ever lived.

so with the hit summer blockbuster Transformers 2 that just came out still in hype.. i'll continue my NERD fest. and i'm not embarrassed to do so. after the first film came out, my sister went out on a limb and bought a very expensive Bumblebee figure, one that actually transforms, lights up, talks, plays music, and moves animatronically. it's actually a pretty cool collectors item and stands in robot form over a foot tall.

check out the figure in car form. it's surprisingly detailed:


the car in mid-transformation. bumblebee lookin ROUGH LIFE:


and fully transformed.:


on the subject, check out this TIMBALAND produced track by Elijah Kelley using the Transformers Movie Theme: CLICK HERE

after a failed attempt at watching Transformers at a midnight showing last night (all eight theaters at Harkins and all seven theaters at AMC were sold out hours before midnight), i was able to finally catch a showing with RobRob (@r0br0bles) and Neil. i enjoyed the movie a lot. definitely worth watching it in a theater over a measly cam download. watching it with the imax experience may cause nausea with some of the camera work, haha. it's michael bay. if you're gonna complain about loudness and too many explosions.. then i would suggest not watching a movie about giant robots going to war. anyway, on to the movie.

it's not a perfect movie. far from it actually. but like i said, i thoroughly enjoyed it. to the max. major. but here are things i liked and disliked. (by the way, this contains no spoilers, so you can feel free to read even if you haven't seen the movie)

CONS: now onto the movie's flaws.. comedy was actually a driving force in the movie. while it may have been needed to keep the audience entertained.. it was a lot more than one would expect, almost hitting the excessive mark, but doesn't get too out of hand. i do get a bit annoyed when comedy is thrown in unnecessarily, like during an intense battle scene, but it's hollywood. speaking of comedy, i don't know if i was too fond of the twins, mudflap and skids. they were.. funny.. i guess? i dont know.. i think it wouldn't have made much of a difference in plot if they were not even included in the movie and ironhide and ratchet accompanied sam the whole time instead. oh, that random decepticon pretender girl was random as hell. and for devastator having such an epic 'coming alive' scene, he was severely underused. the whole section in the middle of the movie when they pick up jetfire felt incredibly long. once the movie was finished, i can see how the whole jetfire thing was needed, but it still felt draggy at that part. also, the plot was finally cleared up at that point. it took till the middle of the movie to finally explain what the heck was going on. but it's ok, jetfire's character makes up for that flaw, haha. megatron and fallen actually seemed pretty weak to me. megatron especially in comparison with his performance in the first film. i think if megatron wasn't under fallen's authority, he could have been so much stronger. the biggest thing that i didn't like about the movie was the faceless autobot characters: jolt, ironhide, ratchet, sideswipe, and of course the female, more curvaceous arcee, chromia, moonracer. ironhide and ratchet only got 2-3 lines, arcee only got half a line, and jolt only helped out near the end for about 2 seconds. there was almost no character development to them, especially with sideswipe's awesome introduction at the beginning of the movie.

PROS: the witwicky parents. as comical and almost cartoon-like as they are, they are hilarious. the mom especially. much more comical than she was in the first. and the dad -- he took on quite a role towards the end. showing actual emotion rather than being a funny guy. the scene between sam and his dad (and mom) during the last battle scene was so emotional it almost had me choke. but dad/son relationships in movies always get to me. i liked how there were a lot more characters in the movie, both in the human aspect and in the robot aspect. the fight scenes were much more detailed and engaging than the first. notable ones include the forest fight between optimus vs megatron and starscream. intense. another is of course the last battle, but emphasis on bumblebee's fight with rampage. man, when bee puts his helmet on, that guy goes crazy hardcore. jetfire's character is awesome. and old-man transformer with a great sense of humor. the music. if you read my previous entry, you'll see that i was a bit disappointed at how there were no hero/autobot themes. and that it was great as a compliment/addition to the first score. turns out i was right, because they used a lot of the cues from the first film for familiarities sake, which would be too redundant if included in the released score. so i was very happy to hear some familiar cues throughout the movie, took me by surprise. oh and megan fox. how do you miss this one. i thought she looked better in this film than she did in the first (i was actually ehh with her in the first film). i liked how they toned down her make-up a teeny bit from the first, she looked less artificial. but still artificial of course.. i mean, she looks hot face down in sand with explosions all over the place, but its hollywood, and who's gonna complain about that?

so i did end up liking the movie a lot.. and everything said here is simply my opinion.

on the subject, check out this TIMBALAND produced track by Elijah Kelley using the Transformers Movie Theme: CLICK HERE

my thoughts on a few things:

Pelham 123 SCORE by Harry Gregson-Williams
i'm not gonna lie, i'm pretty disappointed with this score by HGW. there was no recurring theme to keep the listener interested.. or to even give the score a personality of familiarity. HGW's gonna need to step it up a bit and get back on that scoring high. the last really memorable score he's done was for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Wolverine was pretty boring, and nothing in 2007 really jumps out at me. As far as Pelham 123 goes, the score was his normal electronic synth to convey suspense sound, but it feels like it was limited to just that. a couple emotional piano accompanied cues, but all-in-all a pretty boring score.

i'd give it 1.5 out of 4 stars.

The Hangover
i thoroughly enjoyed this movie. after reading a bunch of rave reviews, i knew i had to go out and see it. it fell under the same category i would put Drag Me To Hell -- a movie that seems like it would get bad reviews, getting good ones. many of my peers who have seen The Hangover said they were laughing the entire time. and to be honest, i was... but it was more like a chuckle to myself rather than actually laughing out loud. some things i wished would have happened though: that they would explain in more detail what really happened, rather than a picture slideshow at the very end. like where all the people came from in the party they had in their room, and the random chicken walking around. but despite a few fallbacks, i must say -- alan's speech he gave at the rooftop about the wolfpack is classic.

i'd give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Transformers 2 SCORE by Steve Jablonsky
very good and powerful score, but doesn't quite match up to the epic-ness of Jablonky's score for the first Transformers movie, which is understandable.. read on. Upon listening, i love how on the cue "Nest," he's incorporated an instrumental portion of Linkin Park's current made-for-movie single "New Divide." To seamlessly work Linkin Park into your movie score is a risk worth taking, and in Jablonsky's case, well done. i was a bit saddened by the fact that he pretty much ditched the Autobot melody/theme. but was relieved to hear it towards the end of the score.. but to hear it at the 10th cue out of the 14 tracks is a pretty long wait. but then i remembered that this movie is pretty much a Deceptacon revenge movie, so it makes sense that the "good guy" theme wouldn't be heard until the end. but this score is missing some truly epic sounds that the first had. For example, the first score had tracks like "The All Spark," "Arrival to Earth," and "No Sacrifice, No Victory." But what this score lacks in epic-ness makes up for it in it's dark and somber soundscapes. "Infinite White" is a deep, sad, and haunting theme. I'm pretty interested to know what part of the movie this falls on. "I Rise, You Fall" is pretty much the ending track/clone to "No Sacrifice, No Victory," and literally ends in the same exact way. All-in-all, the score is a very good listen, but I'd use it more as a compliment/addition to the first score. Together, they are great, and both contain what the other is missing. harry gregson-williams, you are still my favorite composer, but i'm sorry, you need to step it up to live up to these kind of scores!

i'd give it 3.3 out of 4 stars.

---

but either way, i'm seeing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in a few hours! so expect my thoughts on the movie pretty soon!

bMod at ultimate brawl 9

remember that strange feeling i had about fusion? how it was missing that something.. but that something was something i couldn't quite point out? well whatever it was, ultimate brawl had it. i've only been to ultimate brawl twice, but there's something about it.. may it be 909's welcoming atmosphere, the friendly attitude all the teams share backstage, the fact that there's a bar, or that it's the cheapest competition of the year.. that makes UB my favorite competition of the year. all the teams were so friendly backstage! not to say they didn't bring their a-game.. because that was surely brought; Common Ground killed they're set. one of my new favorite sets of all time. i seriously have a crush on that entire team now.

it was a bittersweet performance for a lot of bMod. we knew this was our last competition of the year. we knew this would be the last time that specific team may perform or even see each other at the same time ever again. and it always brings up the questions like: so what happens from now on? we'll see..



some other pictures

two days before ultimate brawl was our pacn performance. it went great except i superFAILED during a piece where i'm in the front yay... we were able to watch the 2nd half of the show after our performance, and it was a darn good show! we hit up TGIF's afterwards.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Score composed and conducted by Harry Gregson-Williams. i've already given myself enough listens to this score to verify that.. it's not one of HGW's best works.. only a few stand-out cues: Logan Through Time, Kayla, Logan Meets Gambit, and I'll Find My Own Way. the rest literally sounds like ambiance and ominous tones. i'd only give it about a 5 out of 10.. if it wasn't for those stand-out cues, then i'd give it a 4.. ouch. hopefully HGW's puts something better out later in the year (The Taking of Pelham 123 and I Am Bad; Prince of Persia: Sands of Time out in 2010).

random, but i took this from JOWEE's blog (http://mzjowee.blogspot.com/):
( to the CUPCAKERS... )

first day of fusion hell week is over.

started practice at 10:30pm!! it's alright because of all the events that went on tonight though. couple newly inducted SHEROES had a meeting/practice, and our very own Jackie taught her very first Boogiezone class in which the team attended. but starting late means ending late.. and after what i hear was a very intense class that jackie taught, everyone was already drained come practice time. a few hours in, delirium sets. and that just causes chaos. i let it slide a little since those who needed to work were still working. plus at the end of practice, the team was able to pull everything together and put out a pretty good rough-runthrough.

in other news, i just saw the movie trailer for The Taking of Pelham 123. looks pretty intense, like a modern day Speed. and John Travolta is playing a bad guy. crazy! if anyone remembers Tom Cruise's role as the bad guy in Collateral, it worked pretty well for him. anyways, the movie is about a hostage situation of a metro/train taken by Travolta; the protagonist to save the day is mr. Denzel Washington.. and a couple surprises popped up in the preview: one of my favorite actors, James Gandolfini (best known as Tony Soprano) makes an appearance, and Harry Gregson-Williams is doing the score. i usually know these things.. so it came as quite a surprise to see both of them in this movie.

on my drive home from practice, BLASTING the new Rascal Flatts album, Unstoppable (because as you know, i cant turn my volume down..), their song "Why" came on. such a sad song.. at first it just sounded like a somber ballad, but when i really listened to the lyrics and realized what it was about, it literally gave me chills. it's about a teen taking his/her own life. CLICK HERE to listen or check out the snippet:

Oh why? that's what I keep asking.
Was there anything I could have said or done?
Oh, I had no clue you were masking a troubled soul.
God only knows what went wrong.
And why you'd leave the stage in the middle of a song.

anyways, i know why i've always hated having soda available at home. i drink that stuff like water! it's 4:30am and i just downed a glass! sleepfail?! i'm not sure, caffeine has never really affected me that much.


a random picture of a fly i took in MID FLIGHT!!
it looks like a frog with wings.. haha!

well obviously, my delirium has taken the best of me and produced this very random entry.. gnite!

to start off.. here's one of those questionnaires that have you answer with your songs on random..

( music questionnaire )

my valentine's day was splendid. spent the entire day at my sister's in Chino Hills. it was my mom, my dad, jamie, bintu, and myself.. and kobe. my sister cooked brunch!! i had myself a sausage omelet, hash browns, and banana walnut pancakes. rest of the day we just bummed it inside.. with wine and beer. we all watched Taken, had dippin' dots, watched some of the NBA All Star games, watched Body of Lies (bored me to sleep..), drank some more, finally started playing Metal Gear Solid 4, but we took off shortly after.

anyways, the host server for the barkadamodern.com domain seems to be down.. hopefully they're working on getting it running as soon as possible!

as i type, i'm listening to harry gregson-williams' score for the movie drama (that i've never seen) "the magic of marciano".. i believe it to be one of his most underrated scores. it has a beautiful recurring melody that is heard throughout almost every cue, and is written in a way that it sounds beautiful and haunting at the same time. not necessarily scary, but haunting.. and haunting enough that one would feel some sort of apprehension when listening to it.. no idea what the actual movie is about, but from the score.. the story it tells in itself is powerful and a bit sad.

wobz is back from america's best dance crew and is able to hang out with the team again! we've missed her dearly. sad to see tm voted off. but happy to have wobz back here. their last routine (the britney week) was awesome.

february is such a crazy month for birthdays! there's one almost every week! cesar carissa arvin robbie paul jowena.. so pretty much it's been a very celebratory few weeks.. panda inn, cesar's house, joe's sushi, lax, jowena's apt.. with bamboo bistro tonight and joe's sushi again next week.. not planning to eat anything at bamboo bistro tonight though.. it's weird to pay for filipino food when i can get pretty much any kind at home cooked for 'free'.. haha. and i cant stand going somewhere and paying for something thinking, "hmm, my mom makes this better.."

chris cornell's (of soundgarden/audioslave) album leaked! admittedly, soundgarden and audioslave fans are going to hate this album with a passion. but with major collabos with timbaland, along with some with justin timberlake and ryan tedder of onerepublic, it makes for a very interesting sound.

i'm hoping this stormy weather continues until the week of our retreat!!

( Click here for a SURVEY )


here's a random pic of me with jowena's roomie's dog, marley


here's a random picture of the tuscani pasta from pizza hut. the bacon mac&cheese. it is actually VERY good, i strongly recommend it

composer harry gregson-williams is set out to do the scores for the upcoming "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" movie! i'm excited to see (or hear?) what he comes up with. he's also slated for the video game turned movie "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" coming in 2010. although excited, i am sad to see that his discography list has been getting shorter each year with only 8 projects last year, and 5 this year.. ah well..

speaking of gregson-williams, anthony let me borrow his Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots! i'm excited.. but i know i wont be playing it too much considering my only access to a ps3 is my sisters' and i dont want to feel intrusive going there to play a video game..

anyways, i'm hungry.. off to mcdonald's!

2008 is almost gone!

but it's ending pretty alright..

all four of us (five including kobe) spent christmas eve and christmas day at my sister's new place. christmas in general gets less and less hyped for me every year, but i've noticed our gatherings become more intimate.. if that makes any sense. we started our christmas eve at the pomona house for dinner, then we packed up all our stuff and presents into my sister's truck and headed to her place. after settling there for a bit, we headed out to the st. paul the apostle catholic church, which is a really nice church. when i heard we were going to a church in chino hills, i thought to myself, "hmm, i wonder if this is the church eddie and regina go to.." we got to the church 15 minutes early and it was PACKED. standing room only in the main cathedral. we were directed to a side-set mass in a smaller room, with more available seats. and i saw eddie singing in the choir! but the small room didn't have the grace and awesomeness of the big room, so we decided to stick it through and just stand in the main room. after we settled and found our standing spot, someone taps my shoulder. i turn around and it was nick! yay for seeing some of the bmod fam on christmas day! anyways, my family looked like a-holes because we left right after communion to avoid the crazy traffic that was sure to keep us from leaving any time soon. got back to jamie's and proceeded to eat and open presents. blazer jeans slacks jacket best buy card and tools! after settling down, we all head to sleep. the temporary couch in jamie's living makes for a very uncomfortable slumber area...

on christmas day, we have a quick lunch, and my dad comes back for dinner again. most of this night we just spent inside, and the rockbanding craziness ensued for hours. it was my dad's first time playing it and he was doing pretty well on both guitar and drums. my mom sticks to singing all the time. after a bunch of late night rockbanding and snacking, my mom and i decided to stay there another night. we leave pretty early the next morning, leaving kobe behind at my sister's permanently!! yeah, it's sad that kobe is moving out from the house also.. but since my sister is living by herself, and kobe seemed to be happily enjoying a new setting, it seemed like it was for the better. so my christmas was fine and dandy.. hope yours was just as great or better!

a couple days before christmas, bMod had an awesome performance at avalon's toys for tots drive. but the night ended in blurs since a bunch of us got a little crazy with the drinks.. ahem me vince carissa jackie arvin eric.. no bueno!! but a fun night indeed. CLICK HERE for the performance.

the day after christmas, some members of the team were dying to see one another after our almost 4 days away from each other, so we schedule a dinner at bj's. good times. then some of us head to wal-mart, and then i end my night rushing home, packing, and heading to cesar and andrew's to stay the night before snowboarding! i barely get any sleep, but who cares. we leave the house at 5am. and get to the mountain pretty early. so early that we were one of the first to get a run on the mountain! a very awesome session for me. landing more jumps. i finally carved and conquered down the diamond slope that always scared me to death!! but then i was dumb and tried to carve down an ice double diamond run.. ended bruising my knee. but made up for it with the last run where me rk and andrew literally sped down miracle mile without stopping. quite a rush!!


cesar rk me and andrew (not pictured: shelly and charmane)


but poor shelly fractured her pelvis from a pretty hard fall.. oh no!! get better!!

after snowboarding, the drive home was HORRIFIC. took over 3 hours.. people were just stupid driving down the mountain. how about this for an idea.. if you're going to stop to take your chains off your tires, how about doing it OFF the road? and not in the middle?

anyways, after a nice dinner courtesy of cesar's parents, i headed home for a quick change and shower then to locust lounge for terminal. busy night tonight woot! ended up great and ended blah.. so it canceled out and it was just a night.

anyways, for all the audiophiles out there - chris cornell (lead singer of the bands soundgarden and audioslave) just released a new single collabo with timbaland! the mixture sounds pretty freakin awesome. and upon further research, the solo album he's releasing, Scream, is going to be almost entirely produced by timbo with guests spots justin timberlake and some production from ryan tedder of onerepublic! i really can't wait for this! and i know some of you can't either.. so here is the first couple singles off the album, "Scream f. Timbaland" <-- click!

probably gonna see one more quick update before the year's end... til' then, goodbye!

kobe had a visit to the vet on monday. he has been pretty sick for the past few weeks. he developed skin rashes around his body which results in more scratching and licking which results in more coughing up hairballs. and he's also noticeably depressed. literally just sitting up and staring at a blank wall no more than a foot away from his face. the doctor diagnosed him with flea allergy dermatitis. which is easily treatable. but the thing is, kobe does not have fleas. upon further research, i found that the allergic reaction can be started by just a single flea bite, who decided to bite him and leave. his depression/anxiety is caused by a sudden change in the household (moving to a new place, or someone moving out), and with my sister moving out, i'm guessing that's the case. but either way, he now has meds that is keeping him both not itchy and happy.

in music news, common's new album "universal mind control" leaked! this has been a very anticipated album for me. a little weird that it only has 10 tracks.. but 7 of them are neptunes produced. all of you know that i'm a sucker for the neps.. and while i do enjoy listening to this album, i must admit that i miss common's usual jazz/soul influenced sound. production-wise, i love it. the neptunes sound great.. which is saying a lot considering i haven't been liking TOO much of their recent stuff. common on the other hand.. hmm.. i have to mention that he has fallen down lyrically. his words just lack the substance that he had for such albums like resurrection or like water for chocolate.. for die-hard common fans, this album is going to be a definite flop much like electric circus (man, that album was.. interesting..). but anyways, while i know this album is going to be a disappointment to many, it's still a handful of rich-layered and top-notch neptunes sounds. my top tracks are: universal mind control, gladiator, and inhale (i hear chad shining like crazy on this track).

there's gonna be a lot of random and unsorted stuff in this entry.

bmod practices have been getting very tiring for me.. but in that "getting a lot of stuff done" kind of tired.. so a good tired.. but at the same time, wishing i wasn't in so many pieces kind of tired.. haha!

me, jackie, rj and jean highly recommend the new pita snack at jack in the box.. in our opinions it was quite good. and only a dollar something. you get pita, inside is your choice of chicken (crispy or grilled), fish, or steak.. and then you get cheese, lettuce, and a really good chipotle sauce in there that is just nicely spiced.

give nkotb's album "the block" a listen. you may be surprised.

the iron man dvdrip leaked.. as well as the dark knight screener... and yeah, the dark knight was quite hyped.. i think too hyped for me, because i was expecting a little too much from it.. i thoroughly enjoyed iron man though. but it suffers from transformers syndrome.. where it's fine the first time you watch it.. but anytime after, you'll be extremely bored during the first half.

the CMA music festival is going to air tonight in about 25 minutes.. not that anyone who reads this would care.. haha. i lose.

anyways, shameless plug:

     
bmod will be holding workshops in san jacinto on sept 20
as well as auditions for the team on oct 20-23. come out!

did the photoshoot for some of the bmod newbies today. too bad it was hot and humid out.. there were even a couple raindrops. but it was fun.. photoshoots are always fun, but all the crap i have to do after; resizing, uploading, emailing, touching up, re-emailing, updating the website.. quite tedious.. but in the end it's still fun.


the four newbies that got their pictures taken today..
and if anyone remembers Alvin from barkada a few years ago..
that's his little sister on the left.

went to red robin again to take advantage of my mom's free birthday burger. i tried their raspberry limeade.. it was alright; just tasted like sprite with raspberry syrup.. and for the same price as their famous strawberry lemonade; i'd rather have the strawberry lemonade.. i did see, though, that they have a new drink: the blueberry pomegranate limeade.. made with pomegranate syrup and real blueberries.. sounds like i might like it.. that's for next time..

last night after practice, me vince kj gigz arvin leah mark jasmine and jean ate at the new guppy [tea] house in hacienda heights right off the 60fwy. as far as food and the quality, its the same as the other guppys' (awesome!!), but this just makes it soooo much better because now we dont have to drive all the way to cerritos to get our guppy's fix!! much excite!

and here's another cat story. so.. around 5am (give or take 15 minutes) EVERY DAY, kobe starts scratching at our bedroom doors, never mine though; because my door is always open so he can freely walk in and out at night. but for my mom and sister, he just continuously scratches at their doors. while the majority of his reasoning is that he's hungry, it just seems interesting to me that he does it at around the same time every day. but sometimes, he's just weird and it seems like he's just checking that whoever is in the room is ok. for example, he'd scratch at my sister's door for 15 to 30 minutes.. when my sister finally cant take it and gets out of bed, she opens the door and just looks at him sitting there, and he looks up as if to say, "hello..". she closes the door and goes back to sleep, and kobe wont bother her anymore for the rest of the morning.

i've found myself going back into country music mode and listening to rascal flatts and ms. underwood a lot recently.. dont hate!

oh man i have not updated in over 10 days! i dont know.. these past couple weeks i just haven't had the inkling to jot down my thoughts.. and even now i feel like i'm forcing myself to..

been feeling a bit distant and absent from everything and nothing at the same time; makes no sense at all but it's the best i could do.. theres always a million reasons not to do something, but when you find that one reason TO do it, it's supposed to make it all worth while. but i feel like im forcingly continuously searching for that one reason.

anyways, this is pretty semi-random; it's one thing to dislike someone, but it's another thing to not have respect for someone. you can be disliked and respected. but when you're BOTH disliked and not respected.. and you're still trying to talk as if you're in a legit position assuming you have that respect when all you've done was to lose respect.. it just makes me laugh.. and others are laughing too..

new set planning for bMod will be put in motion soon, so pretty excited to see what comes of it!

anyways, i've decided to put my entire music library out there for the masses (for streaming only, not downloading.. that's illegal.. haha). but it's only for my regular livejournal readers right now; so you have to log in: username is just your first name, and password is.. password. if it doesn't let you log in, leave a comment, and i'll add you in. this will help me in the future when i'm reviewing a new album that hasn't been released yet so you guys can listen to it as well. so yeah, to listen to my library, CLICK HERE!!

n.e.r.d. - seeing sounds
you knew it was coming. my review for n.e.r.d.'s "seeing sounds"!

( read my "Seeing Sounds" review )

all-in-all, i'd choose this album by light years above Fly or Die. but i highly doubt it will ever surpass the classic that is In Search Of.... that album is a gem.

pharrell up close. click for more pics.

jamie and i attended N.E.R.D.'s mini-concert today at the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. and ehh.. they were just........ AWESOME and everything i could ever ask for at a concert.

anyways, we headed to the virgin megastore first to buy a couple copies of Seeing Sounds to get wristbands to meet N.E.R.D. after the concert. and then we headed for the super long wait outside Jimmy Kimmel's Pontiac Garage stage. about an hour into the wait, we could see the band start setting up and teching, and not too long after, the guys of N.E.R.D., pharrell, chad, and shae, show up and start teching. i heard them do parts of Spaz and Antimatter which are currently my top two tracks, so i already knew i was in for a good show.

after finally letting us in, everyone finds their spot on the standing room only area. jamie and i find our spot only about 10 feet away from the end of the stage. woot. since it was a live taping, we had to stand there and watch the entire jimmy kimmel show while he interviewed sean william scott and emmanuelle chriqui (girl from 'on the line' w/ lance bass). but once N.E.R.D. came out on stage it was pure craziness. they opened up with Everyone Nose, which is probably the only one that will air on tv. that got the crowd hyped up and the guy next to us started moshing.. which got annoying after like 1 second. security came and told that group to stop. So it was perfect after then. after their opening song, they continue with Spaz, then Antimatter.. which both hit sooo much harder live. i'm glad i heard the album first or else i'd be spoiled by the live performances.. then they throwback to their first album with Brain, and then to their second album with She Wants to Move. the entire time their energy was CRAZY. pharrell and shae were all over the stage, and i was surprised to see shae getting a lot more mic time than the previous two albums. chad of course is more on the production side and just sung background vocals and played synths. free concert of five songs.. and by those none other than N.E.R.D., it was more than worth it.

after the concert ended, jamie and i were heading back to virgin megastore.. and on the way all the groupies were screaming and running across the street.. adding them to the line that had already formed IN the store for the cd signing.. yeah, we were not about to wait in that line. so we headed home, stopping by tgiFriday's on the way. awesome times.

things i'm looking forward to in the near future: bMod banquet and vegas the day after then auditions the day after then the new team mixer the day after auditions.. beezee much??

what a week for music. at least for me.. harry gregson-williams' score for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots leaked. and of course, just with all the other metal gear solid series after the first one, it is a collab effort with some other composers (but on different tracks/cues). AND N.E.R.D.'s new album Seeing Sounds just leaked today! just give me some time to dwell into the sounds and let the melodies set into my head.. and i'll be sure to post my thoughts up later.

[edit1]: holy crap, nerd's "anti-matter" is siccccccccckkkk

just from reading some of my previous entries, i'm guessing you can tell that i'm not the biggest fan of heat. i dont have the luxury of having a central air conditioning system, so my mornings waking up are very uncomfortable. i love waking up in the cold because you can just throw another blanket over yourself and cozy up into sleep again. but in heat, you have no choice but to lay there, and theres not much you can do about it.

anyways, i woke up crazy early to wake up the ading for class. it only took me the first call to wake him, and he actually went to class. so that was my accomplishment for the day.

my next accomplishment shall be surviving tonights practice, first day of hell week before ultimate brawl 8 on may 25th, 6pm, riverside municipal center! our last performance of the year!

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n.e.r.d.'s next album is releasing soon! i'm pretty excited.. although i've listened to a couple leaked tracks and.. the album has potential, but i highly doubt it'll come anywhere near "in search of..."

harry gregson-william's score for "the chronicals of narnia: prince caspian" has also been released. downloading now, and i'm expecting a very dark sounding score. the tracklist for "metal gear solid 4: guns of the patriots" has also been announced, so i can't wait for that release! whether or not i'll actually be playing the game? we'll see..