Thursday, July 31, 2008

Album Reviews!

Well, I was waiting for the next 311 album to be my first album review, but it looks like it's not coming out anytime soon. If anyone wants to check out any of the music I review, just let me know and I'll share! B-)

Aug 8 update: (yes it's true, if I'm not with griff I don't have a lot to blog about, but I try. :-D )

Shiny Toy Guns - We are Pilots

Payce clued my into this group and I really like them. I think it's because they sound like an 80's techno-pop/new wave band or something. They're a dude/chick duo as far as singers, and I like that, it seems to work for them. The song "You are the one" is really catchy and I can listen to it over and over - "you'll never be alone again, you're more than in my head, you're more!" They claim to be from LA, but I think they might be Swedish, maybe that's why Payce likes them. They're opening at the big X96 show coming up in SLC, but there aren't any other bands I'd care to see, I don't believe, so I doubt I'd go. Le Disko is another catchy tune on this album, though beware, she does use a bad word once *GASP!!!* It's very techno-inspired but I like it (no, I'm not a big techno fan). "Starts with one" is a good song, as is "Don't cry out" and several others, this is a good album, lots of good tunes. Their sound is very different from any of the bands I've reviewed so far and that's a good thing, definitely need to break up the Rock with something a bit different sometimes and shiny Toy guns fits the bill. I'd give this a strong 8 out of 10 as I can listen to the whole album and maybe skip one or two sings is all, that's pretty strong. Here's the video for "you are the one" (you'll have to go to Youtube, they didn't allow embedding on this one): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxbWaMzsnJo

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August 6 update:

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Don't you fake it.

I can't remember where I first heard these guys, maybe at Buckle? This is another of those bands that has sprung up out of the Pop/Punk genre pioneered by the likes of Green Day and Blink 182. I know that Reece says "Pop/Punk" is an oxymoron, and he's right - the whole precept of punk was anti-establishment - The Clash, The Ramones, Social Distortion, the Sex Pistols, etc, are probably rolling over in their graves (if they're dead) at the concept of Pop/Punk, but whatever, we've turned everything into a suburban/shopping mall/giant waterpark product at this point, so it is what it is (is there a more generic statement than that? I want to scream anytime I hear someone at work say that. Anyway...) This album is OK. It has a couple of redeemable songs on it, I would say there are other things I'd rather listen to but if one or two of the songs hits my ears on the iPod, I don't mind... The song "Damn Regret" (is this going to make my blog pg-13???? hahahahaha) is actually pretty decent. See the video here (from the Vans Warped Tour)



They have a song called "Face Down" that seemed pretty good but I think it's about spousal abuse, so...not a fan. I would give these guys like a 5 out of 10, it's just getting a bit too generic. Maybe they just caught me on a bad day, but that's all they're getting today. And if I'm going to listen to a band scream, there are other bands I like better - Finch for one. Maybe I'll go back and review one of their old albums that Reece clued me into.

By the way, if you've never checked out http://www.rhapsody.com/ for your mp3 purchases, let me highly recommend it right now! You can listen to entire albums before purchasing, not just the 30-second blurbs you get on iTunes. AND, their mp3's now work on your iPods! The price is $9.99 per album, which is pretty good. Check it out! B-)
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August 4 update:

Silversun Pickups - Carnavas.

Paul turned me onto these guys with their fairly popular song called "Lazy Eye" which is one of the best songs on the album! So, I gave this album several listens. It's very different from anything else I've been listening to lately and I needed to see if I really like the whole album. They go through several different sounds on the album which I kinda like, keeps it from being boring. I would say these guys kinda sound like The Smashing Pumkins on Siamese Dream (not their later albums that I didn't like). The sound is fairly mellow with flashes of violence, for lack of a better term. The music tends to be more upbeat than the vocals done in the minor key a lot. So it's kinda like the music and vocals are at odds but it works. Track #2 "Well thought out Twinkles," track #4 "Little Lover's So Polite," #7 "Lazy Eye," and #8 "Rusted Wheel" are my favorites.

If you're looking for something a little different, give these guys a listen, you just might like 'em! I'd say 7 out of 10 - it's good but maybe takes a little getting used to for some. They'd be a good opening act for Incubus or someone (can anyone out there make this happen? I want to see Incubus in concert again...)

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SO, the first review will be for an album I just discovered from Rise Against called "The Sufferer and the Witness." Funny thing is I heard the song that led me to this album on Guitar Hero, it's a song you can buy in the store once you've rocked the socks off enough people in the game. The song I heard (and can play like a rockstar ;-) is Prayer of the Refugee - it's a rocker! The whole album pretty much rocks. I would put it in the post-grunge rock genre, but definitely not whiney like some of this genre can be,. The best tracks are #3 - Ready to Fall, and #6 the above mentioned Prayer of the Refugee. However, I like nearly the whole album and that is rare anymore. So, since music is SO varied, I'll be using a 10 point scale - 1 being "worse than Bargain Bin quality" and 10 being - "go see these guys in concert any time they're in town (even travel to see them!)" I'd give this album a solid 7 - it needs more than 2 great songs to get above that, but the rest of the album is definitely not crap. It did go straight on my shuffle for working out, and it did make a play list on my car iPod, so that's not bad!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

BIG NEWS!

Fear Factor is back on Reruns!!!





I always liked this show, and then when we were in Colorado Springs we watched it religiously, it was one of our relaxation rituals along with Deadliest Catch, Real World vs Road Rules challenge, and Napoleon Dynamite!

It's so gross and yet so funny - like when things actually gross out Joe Rogan!

So, as many of you know I have the tube on while I'm working, for a little noise, and discovering this show is back on reruns made me SO happy! So, if any of you are into this show and have DVR, it's on at 11am on FX - channel 136 on Dish. ENJOY and you're welcome. ;-)

Monday, July 28, 2008

I'm the Batman!



I went and saw Batman - The Dark Knight and it was awesome. I really liked it. It was a good sequel to Batman Begins - though I think I liked "Begins" better than this film, this one was still REALLY good. "Begins" was one of the best movies I've ever seen, it was excellent. Anyway, Christian Bale was really good as Bruce Wayne/Batman (hope I'm not giving anything , away there :-D ) Michael Caine is solid as Alfred again, Morgan Freeman is good as Lucius Fox, Aaron Eckhart is good as Harvey Dent, etc, etc, etc. I'm not a real Big Maggie Gyllenhall (sp?) fan, but she's good as Rachel Dawes! Gary Oldman was good as James Gordon. The only weird casting was Nestor Carbonal as the mayor of Gotham (which, is in CHICAGO! I always thought it was New York) - that def did not fit.

Anyway, the movie is dark, but not as dark as the first movie. I'd say it's a bit more violent than the first. The thing that made this movie really memorable, and I'm sure you'll hear this from just about anyone who sees it is Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker.
He was SO good, SO believable, and just SO much into the role, he is truly creepy and scary. If ever this type of movie would draw Oscar nominations, I'd say he deserves one for Best Supporting Actor. It's really too bad he's dead (of course, since he was so young!) because this role could really have defined his career (way more so than "Brokeback Mountain" hopefully...)
So, don't take your kids to this one, take someone brave with you if you get easily scared, and really enjoy this movie, it's really well done. Don't drink too much cuz it's long and you don't want to miss anything!!! Def 4.5 out of 5!!!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Griff plus Scissors!

You can see the hole in his t-shirt but can't really see the one in his shorts. This is apparently what happens when Griff gets scissors and isn't supervised. At least he didn't cut his own hair

:-D Crazy kid...

Griffin beats Rampage!

No not my Griffin, Forrest Griffin in the UFC! I can't believe I forgot to post this! Griffin is my favorite fighter and he's now the Light-Heavyweight champion. Rampage talked a LOT of smack leding up to this fight, they were the coaches on the last season of the Ultimate Fighter reality show and Griffin just bided his time to the fight. The fight went all 5 rounds and Griffin won a unanimous decision. I still haven't seen the fight, I couldn't make it that night to go see it, but I heard it was a war and of course Griffin looked like he'd been run over by a train - but he wins! That's what I like about him, the guy can take a punch - Rampage is no slouch, he put down Chuck Lidell pretty easy!

Anyway, here's a link if anyone cares: http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=EventDetail.FightCard&eid=1200

Now I want to see Griffin fight Anderson Silva! That dude is unreal, and he is mowing down opponents in the UFC right now. I think that would be the ultimate test for Forrest right now. Probably won't be for a while though!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Live at Draper Days!

Griff and I went to Draper Days for a couple of hours. There was a small car show, there were some pretty cool rides there.

This was Griff's favorite - El CAMINO!!! He liked it because it's a car and a truck!

My favorite - the 67 bus with Safari windows. The interior was all original, I don't think they came in Purple though ;-)

Some other cars, monster trucks, and a motorcycle.




This 55 has a Newer Corvette engine in it - pretty cool

This was an "obstacle course" that Griff blew through in no time! The kid taking tickets didn't think he could do it and he OWNED it, I was a very proud dad :-D

The Giant Slide that Griff went on about 100 times. Fine by me, it was by the shade - the day was super hot, but pretty fun.

Griff got the Superman Tattoo after running the obstacle course, very appropriate.

Griff got to build his own rocket and launch it, his went farther than anyone else's by a good 10 feet. Every time he launched it people ooo'd and aaaah'd. Yeah, I'm not competitive or anything LOL.

Griff and Rusty.

There were also a bunch of carnival games where Griff could win prizes, he did everything so well! He won a prize at every booth, so now we have a pile of junk toys in the house - whoo-hoo! He loved it, and I had a great time watching him, so all in all it was a fun day. Thanks Draper City! B-)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Live from Lifetime fitness pool!!! B-)



This place is pretty sweet, it's practically a resport-type pool. Griff had a blast. After we left all he kept saying over and over was, "That was so fun dad!" Like he's trying to talk me into going again - like we're not going again, COME ON! :-D The kid's section of this pool it really good and big with a little waterslide and everything. There are 2 bigger slides, but they close early I guess. Anyway, if anybody wants to come, I can get passes pretty easy, just let me know.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Pic from work!

Got a little bored in my day-long meeting today and sneaked a pic on the ole cellphone. The dude next to me is Erik Janniche, he's the guy that has transitioned several large clients to me so we're kind of friends - I mean as much as we can be living 5.5 hours away by plane. He's fun to hang out with on work events and we were goofing off for just a second during a presentation. Not for too long as this is serious business, but just for a second ;-)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Live @ Cheeburger Cheeburger Annapolis

This is about my favorite place in Annapolis to get dinner. You might be thinking to yourself, that doesn't sound very healthy and you'd be right, this is one of those places you can get a burger as big as your head and you get your picture on the wall if you eat the whole thing. Also, their shakes are insanely good! HOWEVER, due to certain contests going on at present - I got the grilled chicken salad with a tiny bit of ranch and WATER. No shake, you heard me right.

Anyway, the weather is nice in Annapolis. Too bad I really only have time for work this trip, because I bet the bay is beautiful right now. Maybe next year :-D

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Live from Get Smart!




I couldn't talk anyone into going to "Get Smart" with me, so I went by myself! I'd heard mostly good things about this movie, so I was pretty excited to see it. I was not disappointed (yes, a lot of the funny parts were in the previews - someone needs to fix this PRONTO! but that's for another post I guess - but it was SUPER funny.) Steve Carrell was perfect for this role, Anne Hathaway wasn't my first choice for Agent 99, but she did pretty well (the original 99 was like this sulty woman and Anne Hathaway seemed like an 18-year old trying to be an adult, but she wasn't horrible). Actually Carrell and Hathaway seemed to have pretty good chemistry. The Rock was good, the other supporting cast were very funny as well. I was a fan of the original Get Smart TV series and I thought this was WAY funnier. I'd give it easily 4.25 out of 5 - I'd totally watch it again. I'd post more pics, but my laptop is on the fritz so it won't let me for some reason??? I'll try again later...


Thursday, July 10, 2008

Partying at Kaja's 4th B-Day Party!

This party was SO much fun! We had a total blast and I hear Kaja just loved it, so that's awesome. The kids had a blast on the waterslide, and the older kids (Me, Sean, Paul, Jim, Dave, Tyler, Kevin) all played Badminton and Volleyball. I don't mind saying I was undefeated in both! It was actually REALLY fun, I hadn't played either game in years and we all had a great time.

Kaja picked out Red Velvet cupcakes and Andrea made them look like the beach and the ocean (I'm sure there are pictures on her blog) and they were super good!

Kaja was super funny about her presents and LOVED the baby diaper bag she got, she didn't want to put it down.

Anyway, here are a few pics of the gang and a video of the waterslide!









Monday, July 7, 2008

Live from "The Hulk!"

Went to see the Hulk with Curt this evening. It was pretty good. I like Ed Norton, who plays Bruce Banner, and they filmed a lot of it in Brazil so they spoke a lot of Portuguese, which I like hearing. The funny thing is the sub-titles weren't always right like at one point a guy is talking to Bruce about Anger and he says Medo - which is Fear in Portuguese, not Anger. There were several little things like that I caught. Anyway, nothing of consequence, so it didn't detract from the movie.

This version was a lot better than the version that came out a few years ago with the Hulk that could jump so far he was basically flying (SO STUPID!!!) It was not, however, better than Ironman. Ironman got one of my highest ratings I believe so I'll go just a touch lower on this one and say 4 out of 5. It is a pretty violent, so not a kid movie, though there wasn't much bad language and no sex, so it's pretty good in that respect.

Liv Tyler is also in this movie and she is a good love interest. She's a good actress I think, and she's pretty in kind of a unique way, which I like, so she was cast well in this part I think. William Hurt as the General trying to catch the Hulk was very good, and the main antagonist besides Hurt was also very good - Tim Roth, who some of you may remember from Pulp Fiction.

So, good flick especially if you're a comic-book movie fan, if not, maybe wait for the video. I think you'll like it regardless if you're an action movie fan.

Trip to Costco with Griff

Griff and I made a trip to Costco cuz the kid is eating me out of house and home so I needed bigger boxes of fruit snacks. Since I've been photo-documenting just about everything I decided to take a picture at Costco - guess who's sick of having his pic taken??? He couldn't even muster his cheesy smile. He said, "no more pictures dad, I'm sick of it." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Griff and Dave are Famous!

I forgot to post this the other day, but Griff and unkie Dave made the paper!

See this Link -----------> Liberty Land

Check out the 2 smaller pics!

Fat Cats!!!

Amy and Dave were in town for Quincy's baby blessing and they stayed for the 4th. We decided to go hang out and headed down to Fat Cats for some bowling - one of Griff's top 5 favorite things to do. Took a couple of pics to remember the event:



I started off strong, but faded a bit, then ended on a decent streak, I don't think you can see the scores very well but I did manage to pull out the win. It wasn't easy, Dave put up a good fight! Griff bowled very well and even had a spare or two and Amy managed a strike and some spares. We had a great time, it was fun to hang out with Auntie Amy and Unkie Dave!




Saturday, July 5, 2008

Streets of Fire!


This pic came out kinda cool, it's Griff with a Sparkler! It's kind of Baroque. My cellphone doesn't have a flash so this is the best I could get and it turned out a bit artistic.

We had a great time over at Andrea's parents' house (Thanks again guys!). They had a LOT of fireworks and the neighbors got in on the action too so it was pretty fun! It was especially funny watching the little girls SPRINT as fat as they could into the house and watch the show from the window. Even Jaxon got used to it, but he is all boy.

Grand Finale

Paul was going to get on a blonde wig and lipsynch to "Best of Both Worlds" to give us the Full "Stadium of Fire" feel. He backed out. hahahahaha, still funny to imagine.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Live from "Hancock" with the Fam...


The Fam (or who's here anyway - Mom, Amy, Dave, Paul, Andrea, Reece, me, Griff) all went to the movies to see Hancock


see this look on Will Smith's face in this pic? That's the look on his face he has the WHOLE movie. It got a BIT old. The flick also stars Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman (Arrested development alumni!!!)
I thought this was going to be a comedy/Action movie. It had a LITTLE of that, but about an hour in, I was wondering where the movie was going and how they were possibly going to end it. It didn't go well. While I'm a fan of all three of the main actors, I'm not sure how they got roped into this one. The story was SO thin, and the plot didn't get developed at all, and it ended really dumb. I think there were a handful of funny parts (most you've seen in the previews) but not enough to save the movie. I'd say wait for the video rental if you MUST see it, otherwise wait til it's on TBS in a year or so. I'd say 2.5 out of 5 and that's only cuz Jason Bateman is pretty funny and Charlize looks really good! Oh don't take kids either! Later on at the fireworks (above) Griff says, "What the HELL is going on???" Yeah, I'm a bad dad. :-D

Happy 4th of July! Up Provo Canyon!

We went "hiking" up Provo Canyon around the Bridal Veil falls area, it was such a nice morning!!!


Griff and Unkie Reece

Griff at the pond


Griff at the Waterfall - that water was SO cold!!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wednesdays with Griffin

Well, Griff and I got sick of the house AGAIN, so we struck out for some activities. Of course we had to hit the pool like we have every day that he's been here!

Me relaxin (yeah I have my phone, and I was working)


Griff in the hot tub (it was only 90+ Outside but he wanted to get in the hot tub???)




Riding bikes down under the train tracks where we found some inspiring graffiti


Big Griff!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Live from soccer camp! ;-)

Griffin attended his first Soccer camp today! It was a private camp with his Dad as the Coach! He does pretty well, but as all little kids, I think, he has the attention span of a goldfish and ended up on the jungle gym after about 3o minutes.

He's pretty fast and does a good job kicking the ball. We worked on passing, trapping and dribbling a little. Then he just wanted to run and I swear he went about a 1/4 mile before he came back. Then we tried some tricks, that was funny. I mean I can't do most of them, so watching Griff try to copy what I was doing was really funny.

I think by the time soccer season rolls around, he'll be ready! Here are some videos. In the one where he falls down, I got to the ball before he did and rolled it out of the way and he pulled a Charlie Brown with a big swing and a miss and he crashed. It was pretty funny. That and listening to him laughing while we're playing just cracks me up...

Chasing Griff down and stealing the ball

Griff getting "juked"

Griff practicing triangles...

Some of my favorite Griff pics - pre-blog