Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Sometimes I wonder if my next job interview will be anything like this:

Bowed Glockenspiel

Stef finally got his glockenspiel back. He was interested using a bow with it, but weren't any videos on the web showing how it's done or how it sounds, so we took the initiative and created one ourselves. With my little Flip cam taped to our floor lamp, we were able to get an awesome angle of the glockenspiel. I edited the parts together and Stef worked a bit on the sound. 'Twas a fun little project.

July in Music Retrospect

The Toughcats at Echo Curio

This is an early retrospect. Yes, it's being written a week before the month officially ends but there already has been a ton of great shows.

July started with Woolen and Lou Barlow and the Missingmen at The Hobby Shop which came the day after Stef's solo performance at Echo Curio. The next day, Stef and I saw a friend's band, Marcus Very Ordinary at Hotel Cafe. Three days of great music back to back to back. A great way to start the month.

Bayyyyy Areeeeeeaaaaaaa!

The next night, Sarah and I went to Freak City and experienced an all night party with various DJs and hoped to see one of our favorite French electro DJs play the afterparty after hearing the rumor. DJ Mehdi was in town performing as Carte Blanche with Riton and his posse showed, but he never played. This place was more of a urban/hip hop scene, but filled with good vibes. I remember one tiny room being aurally dangerous because the decibel levels were off the charts.

howardAmb at Pehrspace

Bobb Bruno's last solo show?

A friend of mine curated a video game themed art show at Pehrspace called Tetricide where howardAmb and Bobb Bruno played. howardAmb was spectacular, as always, and it was a treat to have Bobb decide at the last minute (that day) he was going to play. Being sleepless the night before, I walked around with a Red Bull in my hand. Bobb handed me his Jägermeister in a flask to make a Jäger bomb in my mouth.

Amanda Jo Williams at Las Perlas (I know, dark picture.)

Our friends invited Stef and me to watch Amanda Jo Williams perform at Las Perlas on the first night of music there. A friend plays guitar in her band. The sound system could vastly be improved, and maybe the loud nature of the bar isn't the right setting to have music, but her performance was still entertaining. They'll need a PA if they're serious about hosting music acts there. Though I must say, the tequila selection is pleasantly daunting.

Missincinatti at Human Resources

Someone I know recently opened an art gallery in Chinatown called Human Resources where they occasionally have music performances. Missincinatti is one of my favorite bands and they played outside under the perfect summer night atmosphere. I wish they would have had bands set up at the far wall so it wasn't so awkward for the audience. The entrance is located where I was standing, and people kept having to distractingly walk in front of everyone to get to the other side. Missincinatti released their debut CD at the show and it is a must have in your collection.

The Toughcats in color

The Toughcats traveled across the country from a small island off the coast of Maine to embark on a West Coast tour for two weeks. Their first stop was at Echo Curio in Echo Park and I haven't seen that place that crowded in a very long time. It was a great start to their tour. Many friends made it out and those who never experienced one of their shows were enthralled by their performance.

Here's to a great August.

Vegas and Beyond

One of the very few photos I took in Vegas

My month was kept busy attending several live music shows and taking a trip to Vegas. Stef has never been, so I thought it would be nice to take him to see The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show for his birthday.

Funny story: I booked everything in advance and planned it out in my head--we'd drive out on Sunday, have the night to roam around Vegas, and then see Beatles LOVE Monday night to leave the amazing show in our heads during the long drive home. The website had technical difficulties so I had to book tickets via phone, which I absolutely abhor. They misspelled my last name by one letter and I never got my e-mail confirmation.

When we arrived at The Mirage on Sunday, we played around with the idea of picking up our show tickets since the lines weren't atrocious. By the time we got back to the hotel after enjoying a night out, the box office was closed.

The next morning, I opened the Word document that included the scribbled confirmation number and the date we were seeing the show.

The date was for the night before.
Ifreakedthehellout.

Coming to my senses, I remembered that I ended up booking tickets for Sunday night since there were better seats available for that show. Not getting the e-mail confirmation, that thought was buried in the back of my mind.

Luckily, The Mirage was very accommodating and were able to transfer our tickets to that night. Dancing around with an air of relief, we headed to the pool with a bloody mary and strawberry daquiri in our hands.

I am very grateful. The show was spectacular. One of my favorite parts was when the dancers were engaging in high-jumping acrobatics onto London-style telephone booths. Another awesome part was seeing the dancing yellow boots to Lady Madonna. The best part was seeing it with Stef.

Vegas is what you want it to be. For us, it was the perfect, relaxing (and hot!) mini-getaway.

The Hobby Shop Music Series - Woolen + Lou Barlow and the Missingmen

The July 1st The Hobby Shop music series featured Heard of Elephants collective band Woolen and Lou Barlow + The Missingmen.

Woolen is a band I haven't heard of before that night and it was great to see them at an aurally pleasant environment as my introduction to them. They are a great indie rock band to check out.

Lou Barlow played a couple of songs solo and then asked The Missingmen to join him for the rest of his set. I just missed him at the Bootleg Theatre and discovering that he was playing at The Hobby Shop was a treat. The set had a nice mix of heavy sounds and slow-paced music.

I was spoiled by the setting that night. It's going to be difficult to experience live music at a larger venue. Sadly, The Hobby Shop music series has ended, but there are plans to revive it in August.

To hear recordings and view video of past performances, visit The Hobby Shop Studios site (http://www.thehobbyshopstudios.com) and click on "Live at The Hobby Shop."

Orbital at Glastonbury 2010

Orbital performs the Doctor Who theme song with current doctor, Matt Smith

I crave this experience.

Coast Starlight

I recently hopped on a 11 hour time machine (er, train) from Union Station to Oakland where the sights were majestic and life was undoubtedly slow-paced. I admit, I did fall asleep for a couple hours, but even so, the train jolts woke me up enough times to quickly snap scenery before falling asleep again.

Unlike planes, where hardly anyone talks to anyone else, the train is a very social place. At dinner time, we opted to eat in the Dining Car where a couple joined us at our booth. They had just gotten on the train in Salinas and were on their way home to Eugene, Oregon.

For those who haven't experienced a train ride, I recommend taking the Amtrak on one of their long routes.

E3 Roundup

My world has been consumed with churning out E3 posts in a timely fashion. There's still a ton to write, (closed door Kinect dashboard demo, Gran Turismo 5 in 3D, Little Big Planet played with PlayStation Move, etc.) but here's what's up so far:

Giant Robot Night - Gaijin Games (BIT.TRIP series)

Nintendo Press Conference Pictures

E3 Show Floor Pictures

Ivy the Kiwi? (Wii/DS)

Ys (PSP)

E3 Show Floor Pictures

Conduit 2 (Wii) Behind the Scenes Demo

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii) Hands-on Impressions

Vanquish (360/PS3) Impressions

Hard Corps: Uprising (XBLA/PSN) and Space Invaders Infinity Gene (XBLA/PSN)

Nintendo Developers Roundtable

Also, a ton of pictures are posted on my flickr page.

Whew!

Kandyce and the Killdozer at Pehrspace

I finally got away from the world of gaming last night and took a refresher by catching some live music at Pehrspace in Echo Park. A band introduced to me last year has slowly been becoming one of my favorite local bands. Kandyce and the Killdozer, featuring Kandyce, Dylan (60 Watt Kid) and Bobb Bruno (Best Coast) has a killer line up and one hell of a sound.

Catch their tunes on MySpace or keep 'em close on your social network via Facebook:

MySpace
Facebook

Michael Jackson The Game

Michael Jackson... The Game?

Yes, it's true! Ubisoft will basically be publishing it on ALL major consoles: Xbox 360's Kinect, PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move support, PSP, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS. Ubisoft states that, "The game is family entertainment at its best and will provide an interactive experience that enables players to step into the shoes of Michael Jackson himself and re-live his most iconic performances through their own singing and dancing." What is the point of creating such a game?

Seems that Michael's estate has been shaking his money maker as much as they can. I respect Michael enough to not rape his fame and steal it to create a game for the purpose of revenue, especially since this is a project he was never directly involved in. I can't find it in my heart to support this. As far as I know, this is the only Michael Jackson game:

E3 2010

E3, Day 1

At the beginning of the week, I should have written, "BRB, covering E3" to explain my lack of posts. Now I'm saying...

BRB, writing E3 previews, impressions, etc.!

Echo Park Shows

Holy F-Bomb!

It seems I've been out all week. With summer approaching, more and more events are happening and I'm blessed to have the problem of having too many events to choose from as an Angelino.

Origami Vinyl is a record store that hosts in-store loft shows and I was finally able to make it out to one. From somebody's suggestion to Stef, we made it a point to check out HOLY FUCK at Origami. Someone in the crowd blurted out "Mogwai," and I assume they were probably describing bands that are similar to HOLY FUCK. Well, they're wrong. Although both may seem to have the same style of musical setup and a lack of vocals, their music has very little similarity in sound. We opted to stay outside to prevent smelling hipster aroma, hearing stupid comments like the one mentioned above, and to save our ears from their LOUD performance. It actually sounded great outside and we were able to eat our Two Boots slices with ease.

The day before, Stef and I were invited to a backyard party at a friend's house. The three of us are not on Facebook, so we were oblivious of the scope of the invite. One observation that made me sneer was while an iPod played music through a small guitar amp, a kid from one of the bands covered the speaker with a piece of paper labeling the location of the communal ashtray. THIS GUY IS IN A BAND... where's his awareness of sound and music equipment? This dude muffled the sound of the only good tunes coming from that scene. It quickly got crowded by hipsters and I was eager to leave after checking out at least one band.

Even the guy in the band looks bored...

I kept sane by taking pictures like the one above. Sadly, video footage wasn't caught. The awkward, unrehearsed songs sounded like a joke. Uh, I guess it's fine if it makes them happy... right?

LA to OC

So much has happened since my last post. That time was dedicated to having some great LA adventures rather than writing posts.

As many of you know, I have been interviewing around the gaming industry to find a position that fits me best. I was a top candidate for two positions. Someone beat me out for the position I thought fit me best, and I politely declined a second interview for the other one. The reason is because I couldn't find myself working in kids gaming.

One of the reasons why I am in the video game industry is because it is filled with the most artistic and creative people in entertainment. As we find ourselves more immersed in technology, video games are at the forefront of hardware and software. I want to be part of a change and be able to work on games that are culturally penetrating, and intrinsically influential.

I pulled an unintentional all-nighter on Saturday, hanging out with friends and going to Taco Sinaloa #3 past midnight. The menu is intimidating, but the food is great! We caught the late night Latino club crowd, who were there dressed up and drunk after a nice(?) night out.

A couple of hours later, I was off on a fishing trip. We docked out of Marina Del Ray on a friend's boat. He took the crew to a secret place off Malibu to fish for cod. Once getting to our destination, I was blown away by being surrounded by so many dolphins playing in the ocean! My friend told me they even saw whales during our trip--which is a shame because I spent the rest of the trip feeling nauseous and laying in the fetal position in the cubby, repeatedly thinking to myself, "I hope I don't throw up." The guys caught some fish, which we made into fish tacos the following night.

Like all LA transients, I occasionally have to get out of LA. Yesterday was spent with a good friend who will be starting his new life in San Francisco soon. Funny that I was almost in the same position a couple of months ago, ready to move my life to SF to continue my job in marketing/PR in the gaming industry, but at the last minute I decided to let it all go and stay in LA. Ironic that now he will be the one moving--I had asked him to move with me back then and become my roommate.

We had a great time kayaking in Newport Beach waters. Our goal was to make it to Balboa Island, but the tide was coming at us so strong, that half an hour of paddling only got us halfway (it only takes 45 minutes to get there and back in normal conditions). Instead, we drove to Balboa Island and took it all in. It was the last time we both will be there in a very long time.

The Hobby Shop Music Series

Jail Weddings @ The Hobby Shop

Last Thursday, Stef and I attended Mudrock's first Hobby Shop series. Mudrock owns a recording studio whose building blends in the face of the street, hidden and unmarked in Highland Park. The only indicator of the location of the studio was a piece of lined paper with a logo printed on it saying "The Hobby Shop." We walked in during The Bonebrake Syncopators, which features a lineup of extremely talented musicians playing jazz music from reminiscent of the 50s. It felt like everyone was in a Shag painting, sans the dirty martinis in their hands. They covered many songs with new arrangements including the vibraphone and Hawaiian steel guitar. One of those covers was "Dinah," a song The Toughcats also cover.

The atmosphere could not be any cooler. During their set, I thought that it sounded fantastic in there--and then I remembered I was in a real recording studio!

Being in such a delicate space, the long tear down and setup of bands' equipment is understandable. Luckily, it gave us enough time to walk down the block to get veggie burritos at Tacos El Pique, one of the best (original, not trendy) taco trucks in LA.

Tacos El Pique!

The veggie burrito was grand. Highly recommended for late night eats. They're open until midnight most nights, and later on Friday nights.

Back at The Hobby Shop, we got back in time to see Jail Weddings perform a set. The recording studio floor was able to fit this large band (about 9-10 members?) effortlessly, and even leave room for the spectators... and the cute dogs!

A DJ spins tunes out back, where the free beer and smoking area is. The backyard itself is another great feature of the space. It has a welcoming vibe, and is very inviting for those who like a touch of nature.

The Hobby Shop features two bands and a DJ each night. $10 and your email address pays for admission, beer, and a link to the mp3s of the night's performance.

Schedule: http://www.thehobbyshopstudios.com/Hobby_Shop/Live_Shows.html

The Hobby Shop
5239 York Blvd.
Highland Park, CA 90042
Every Thursday night in June
$10, doors 9pm, bands at 10pm and 11pm

8-Bit Stop Motion Video

MY DESK IS 8-BIT from alex varanese on Vimeo.

All day, I surfed the web reading gaming sites and refreshing my mind of old school games. I only started to really think about missing working in gaming lately--I've been in touch with former industry people I admire and they are the ones I miss the most.

However, I stumbled upon the video above and it made me smile. If you get the references, I hope you smile too. The video above reinforces my goals to create my own stop motion piece and find another job in the industry. I heard some news about Level 5 coming to Santa Monica, and I would love nothing more than to find my way in there somehow!

Killing Myself Off of a Social Media Website

There has been a influx of information overload in my life. Social networking drags my hand along different channels, spoon feeding me things I don't necessarily need to read. So much information passes in front of people's eyes, which is constantly being updated by the minute. What is the value of that information if it just gets lost in the digital space?

Everything in moderation, right? That reason alone has justified leaving Facebook. There is so much value in time and brain-space that is wasted by aimlessly browsing through Facebook. I have noticed that I am reading and consuming so much information that it has become difficult to retain what is important. Consider it online suicide. I will be non-existent to many people once deleting my profile tonight. Those I barely keep in contact with can wonder what I am doing instead of actually knowing, as if walking with an air of mystery. It is liberating.

Twitter will satisfy my digital cravings for now.

"What good is knowledge is it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer. It changes and grows every second of every day. But nobody actually knows anything."

What I Think I Understand (to a Certain Extent)

Many things I've read or stumbled upon lately have enlightened me in the same way as Stephen Fry in this interview. Perhaps I notice these life lessons a lot more in different places because I am more aware of them in my own life.

STEPHEN FRY: WHAT I WISH I'D KNOWN WHEN I WAS 18 from Peter Samuelson on Vimeo.

A Distant Memory

I am back from my trip to Maine. It's still a shock to have spent some time in a city that's very walkable and an island that's surrounded by nature, only to come back to a traffic-laden, busy city like LA. I drove for the first time in two weeks in a car that wasn't mine. The car had all the current technological features, where everything could be controlled by the push of a button. Driving was nerve-wracking and I was not used to the drivers on the streets, especially on the freeway. I haven't felt that nervous in a while. It still feels weird to be back. I can't quite snap back into reality just yet.

Lane's Island

Lane's Island near Vinalhaven is one of the special places in my heart. It meant a lot to experience a place like Lane's Island with Stef--a place that was once loved by his mom.

We stole a wish flower from the island. Following his secret wish, we proceeded to hike past the family building sandcastles in the limited amount of sand before the rocky shoreline. Our destination was the large rock at the edge of the island to see what was causing the waves to crash in the middle of the sea.

We made it to a point where we concluded the object in the sea was just a large buoy but could not proceed any further than that. It had rained the night before, leaving the trails too muddy to hike without proper attire. The weather still looked a bit ominous, and rain could have started coming down at any moment. Upon turning around, I noticed that massive amounts of black kelp dried up on the shore. I discovered that stepping on the mass makes a crunchy sound. I couldn't help but stomp on it some more.

There was nowhere else to go. Right before exiting, we backtracked and wrote our names on the sand. Stef drew a couple of hearts around our names and added a string, as if it was a heart balloon. When the waves are high enough, part of each our souls will fade into the island, only to become a distant memory to us immortalized by the picture above.

The Toughcats Live

It is Friday. Stef and I will be in Maine for another week. After he records some material for the next two days, we're off to visit his sister, who I have yet to meet. Following that visit, we will take a ferry to Vinalhaven, an island that is tremendously beautiful according to everyone I have recently met here in Maine.

Joe's place is a gem. It's a treat to have him as our host.

Last night, The Toughcats performed at One Longfellow Square.

We sat up in the mezzanine to capture the aural pleasures of the first set.

...and The Toughcats ROCKED IT!

Quick Update from Maine

The video above is a stop motion piece created by Joe from The Toughcats with the iMotion app on the iPhone. Helping him on the piece (I made the clouds!) got me interested in making more stop motion pieces in the near future.

Currently, Stef and I are staying with Joe in Portland, Maine and are excited to be in town for his album release show tomorrow night. I like this little port town. It's great to be able to smell the ocean air and hear the seagulls while walking around. Yesterday, while on a stroll around town, we visited a gallery called SPACE and it's the type of venue I only would dream of owning.

I'll make sure to take some pictures at the show tomorrow night to post later on.