In the upcoming Beijing Olympics, there will be many magical moments to be captured. These amazing victories and painful athletic letdowns are only complete with a soundtrack. This article discusses how these milestones will be heard by the world. The answer includes wacky music search engines and Damon Albarn.
Read More......Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Bright Eyes
So I know you all know the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," but have you ever seen the music video? Bonnie Tyler's music video has fencers, ninjas, some alien being with glowing eyes, and serious 80s hair. Aaaaaaah! Freaking creepy!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
But Anyway (Updated!!!)
So I've been having random cravings for chocolate. Maybe I'm pregnant.
I've been considering changing the direction of this blog in many ways. I've accumulated top 5s from other writers to make this a Top 5 List only blog, but that might make it a little dull. I've considered random musings about my life, but that seemed a little emo. This post by itself is a little whiny, but anyway (cue John Popper harmonica solo)
I do have one random musing.
I had to buy some serious amounts of Japanese snack food today for my brother who is opening a sushi restaurant in Santiago, Chile called Fukai or deep. I went to the faithful M2M and purchased bags of wasabi peas, japanese nut mixes, and fruit gummies. Then I noticed something beautiful. Something glorious!
These friends, are Kasugai Chocolate Fruit Gummies. My intense love for chocolate covered gummies started with my initial love for gummies: gummy bears, gummy worms, pogo sticks, and pencil erasers. For about 4 months, I had been searching for Muddy Bears in movie theaters, but I never found them. I constantly asked my friend Ryan, like a 5th grader questing for the details of a first kiss, "What are they like? Are they as good as they sound? Chocolate covered gummy bears??"
I tried them at the Union Square Theater and was not let down, like many of us were by our first kiss. It was magical. But you can't find Muddy Bears everywhere. So when I found the Kasugai "Gumi Choco" Pack, I couldn't be happier. I was so excited when I got home that I ripped open the Apple Choco Gummies, and they exploded across my room . I suffered some shrapnel injuries, but Trickstar survived (pictured below).
The pack comes with four flavors: orange, grape, apple, and cherry. The cover characters depressed me. I didn't want to eat them, they were too cute, maybe a little tooooo cute.......AAAAAAAAAAARGGGHHHH!!!!!! GUMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!
From the apple that I salvaged after the explosion, I felt like a little bit of chewy chocolate covered Red Delicious expanded like a hot air balloon in my mouth, flavor floating for taste bud to taste bud. The grape were a little 'artificial.' But what do you expect: its fucking candy! The orange kicked any sort of chocolate-covered-orange in the Naval. I have yet to try the strawberry. Its waiting for me back home while I update this article in JFK airport.
But anyway, everyone should head to their favorite Asian grocery store and see if they can find the "Kasugai Gumi Choco 4-Pack." If not, you can order them online here . Happy Eating.
Also, do yourself a favor. Download the song "But Anyway" by Blues Traveler. It'll match your gummy eating perfectly.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Damn Pretzel Man!
Stew guides you through the whole thing. At first, I thought he would get annoying. Who the hell does he think he is? Narrating the whole story in song, and with an electric guitar!?
Stew ends up becoming your friend, and you learn to love Passing Strange, a new New York musical, the more it continues. You understand the main character's (not Stew) deepset attachment to music. Its a part of him, despite the fact that he's no good. The young man does performance pieces in Berlin, and love-making in Amsterdam. Stew steers you through the young man's life, city by city, and gives witty introductions to the characters, that you would likely think to yourself, but he's there with you! A guiding light. A shining beacon of truth. And then, he'll break the 4th wall and speak to you personally.
Throughout the musical, the youth, as he has no name, is searching for "the real." What the "real" world is like, outside of Crenshaw, the Los Angeles District. His journey makes him realize what is truly most important to him, a ((warning~~Made Up Word) monomythical model. During his enlightenment, Stew dictates a personal anecdote:
Stew: So I'm hanging with this man at the Telephone Bar in the East Village. Y'all know where that is?
Audience: (a low mumble)
Stew: Anyway, this man sells pretzels in Astor Place. You know, a pretzel vendor. So we were hanging out at this bar. And he tells me, "You know what your main character is looking for the whole time. The Real? Well the Real can't be found in the real world."
He continues to elaborate pretzel man's story until Stew responds moved: "Damn Pretzel Man. You're a deep motherfucker." When Stew shares this moment with you, its just you him and his guitar.
The music is stunningly fun and freakishly rocking. The participation, inclusion, and visibility of the live rock band awoke you to the music in the youth's head and made you part of Stew's creative process. Yet, due to this awesome live band is probably the show's biggest drawback: the steep learning curve. There's some adjustment time to not having fields of dancing lunatics clapping and jumping and screaming to your entertainment. The dancing in Passing Strange is much more subdued, personal movements of human beings and not lion kings. But you're not expecting this. You want shimmer and shine, but you get "the real." So, there's an adjustment period.
Anyway, Passing Strange rocks. period. You find yourself slowly falling into the "youth's" life and and stumbling into Stew's witty and insightful narration. Suddenly you're enveloped in a whole new world. The very reason we experience art. Yet the question as to what the experience is remains unanswered throughout the show (till the end, where these questions are kind of answered). Is art an escape from reality? Or the closest thing we can get to it?
Go find out for yourself. Balcony seats are only $66 bucks a pop and the Belasco Theater is pretty small so you'll still be able to see well.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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