Well, last weekend was spent on the city of Las Vegas. This was my first time and probably only time there (I am not a gambler), but it was fun. The reason why we went last weekend was due to the fact of my favorite pasttime, hockey! For the past 11 years, there has been one preseason game in last Vegas called Frozen Fury. It is always the same two teams playing : The LA Kings vs the Colorado Avalanche.
We got to Vegas Friday night and checked in at out Hotel, the MGM Grand. This hotel was huge inside! As I was trying to get some refreshments, I was passing through the casino where I noticed some people around a table. I come to look closer and it turned out to be Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, and a couple of other Avalanche playing craps. That was a pretty cool susprise, plus I was able to find the refreshments :)
The next day, I took a small tour to the Hoover Dam to look at that engineering marvel. I would recommend it to anyone that goes to LV. It is only about 45 minutes away, and it is worth it just to see how people in the 1920s-30s were able to build this amazing dam. Really dam amazing :)
Then after coming back, we walked around the strip, going to hotels like New York New York, Paris, Venetian, Caeasar's palace, etc. New York, New York had the facade containing some of the new york skyline, the statue of liberty, the brooklyn bridge, etc; Paris had the Eiffel tower, the opera house, and the Arc de Triomphe. Fake, but cool at the same time. We walked inside the Forum shops (a mall that is associated with Caeasar's palace, and I was walking through a sporting goods shop, I got a glance of the all time hits leader, Pete Rose. Only in Vegas, baby!
Then that night was the hockey game. It actually was a very good game for exhibition. The stadium was sold out (about 13,000 people), and the house was rocking. There were many fights (Adam Foote got into so many that he was thrown out of the game), and plenty of end to end action. The scored was tied 3-3 coming into overtime, and remained tied, so the game went to a shootout. I really enjoy that new aspect of the NHL. No more tied games. The Kings missed all three shots, and the Avalanche scored once to win the game.
The next day we went back to New York New York, where I decided to ride the roller coaster. This roller coaster starts inside the casino, and then takes you outside where you are riding along the NY skyline. It was a bit steep in price ($14) but it was a worth it experience. Then we went back to the MGM grand, and hung out at one of the many pools in that hotel. This pool was called the lazy river, and it was one of those that will propel you in a direction.
All in all, it was a very fun weekend. Like I said, Las Vegas is worth seeing once, but I do not think we will go again unless there is some special occassion with our friends/family. I am glad I went, and watching NHL hockey is just nice.
Until next time!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
What happened!?
Well, I am really dissappointed by the state of punk rock for kids nowadays. Case in point, I went to the warped tour this year, and even though I had a great time, there were things that just were not right. Bands like GBH, the Street Dogs and the Vandals had the smallest crowds I have ever seen in the tour (maybe like 50-100 people!). Crappy bands like Angels and Airways (Sorry Tom, but you cannot talk about Caca after singing your crappy emo songs), Motion City Soundtrack, and The Academy is.. had the biggest. Kids nowadays go to these shows to listen to emo. It should be called the emo tour. At least they also have more stages that have nice bands that I have seen in the past couple of years like the Aggrolites, the Unseen, the real Mckenzies. Every year, I am less and less willing to go to this tour due to the lack of good bands signed up for it. They do have this auction every year for the show here where the money goes towards the Arts and Music of the NW, and they have interesting stuff, and I have won an auction for the past couple of years. I just hope that these kids don't end up forming a crapp emo band :)
Anyways, enough of my rant. Everytime I think about the show and I am sure of subsquent Warped Tour shows, I think of the H2O song "What happened":
What happened to the passion?
What happened to the reason for screaming?
What happened the music and the message that I love?
What happened to the hard work?
And why does everybody look the same?
What happened the music and the message that I love?
If you have not picked up this CD, and you like the first H2O album, and like real punk rock and hardcore, I definitely recommend this CD. It is one of the best CDs I have bought this year. Good songs throughout the album.
I am glad that at least these guys and other bands like Less Than Jake has come back to their original sound, and that many bands like the Vandals, the Street Dogs, the Dropkick Murphys, NOFX, etc have not deviated from their sounds.
Later!
Anyways, enough of my rant. Everytime I think about the show and I am sure of subsquent Warped Tour shows, I think of the H2O song "What happened":
What happened to the passion?
What happened to the reason for screaming?
What happened the music and the message that I love?
What happened to the hard work?
And why does everybody look the same?
What happened the music and the message that I love?
If you have not picked up this CD, and you like the first H2O album, and like real punk rock and hardcore, I definitely recommend this CD. It is one of the best CDs I have bought this year. Good songs throughout the album.
I am glad that at least these guys and other bands like Less Than Jake has come back to their original sound, and that many bands like the Vandals, the Street Dogs, the Dropkick Murphys, NOFX, etc have not deviated from their sounds.
Later!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Still Trying to Keep Punk Rock Elite
Man, I need to start writing this posts more frequently!
The trifecta of the punk rock shows came about back in April when I went to see my favorite band, NOFX. This was a sold out show in the same venue where I had seen Flogging Molly just a while ago. First, American Steel played. Very good poppy punk rock. This was actually the first team I heard these guys, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Then came No Use For A Name. The funny thing about them is that the last two times I have seen them live, they have opened for NOFX. I really like them, especially their older stuff (around 1996-1998). They made sure to play many of their old songs, so that was a treat. One tidbit about this band is that one of the guitarist now plays for a "Slightly" bigger bands, the Foo Fighters. So next time you go see the FF, just tell Mr. Jackson that you liked him from where he was in NUFAN :)
Then came the main act, Fat Mike, El Hefe, Melvin, and Smelly! well, of course they started with .... talking! It is a great fact that in all NOFX shows, the guys really do talk a lot between songs, all very enjoyable however. They played a great set, songs like Bob, Sticking in my eye, Kill all the white man, the Longest line. they even played their longest song, the Decline, which is about 18 minutes of great punk rock.
This was the last show of their short West Coast tour (since the day after it was El Hefe's child's birthday), and I was glad they decided to stop in PDX. This is the 6th time I have seen this band life, and it just gets better and better. And I am willing to go a 7th if they ever come back!
Until next Post! Peace out!
The trifecta of the punk rock shows came about back in April when I went to see my favorite band, NOFX. This was a sold out show in the same venue where I had seen Flogging Molly just a while ago. First, American Steel played. Very good poppy punk rock. This was actually the first team I heard these guys, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Then came No Use For A Name. The funny thing about them is that the last two times I have seen them live, they have opened for NOFX. I really like them, especially their older stuff (around 1996-1998). They made sure to play many of their old songs, so that was a treat. One tidbit about this band is that one of the guitarist now plays for a "Slightly" bigger bands, the Foo Fighters. So next time you go see the FF, just tell Mr. Jackson that you liked him from where he was in NUFAN :)
Then came the main act, Fat Mike, El Hefe, Melvin, and Smelly! well, of course they started with .... talking! It is a great fact that in all NOFX shows, the guys really do talk a lot between songs, all very enjoyable however. They played a great set, songs like Bob, Sticking in my eye, Kill all the white man, the Longest line. they even played their longest song, the Decline, which is about 18 minutes of great punk rock.
This was the last show of their short West Coast tour (since the day after it was El Hefe's child's birthday), and I was glad they decided to stop in PDX. This is the 6th time I have seen this band life, and it just gets better and better. And I am willing to go a 7th if they ever come back!
Until next Post! Peace out!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Take me down to the Alphabet City!
For Shannon's Xmas gift, I decided to give her a vacation in her favorite US city, NYC. The actual gift took place at the end of last month. We spent 6 days over there, and had a good time. And for the first time in my life, I got to go do something in New Jersey! Twice!
The main reason she likes NYC is due to Broadway, so of course the gift had to also include a broadway show. We actually ended up going to two shows, Wicked and Curtains. I enjoyed Wicked and really liked Curtains (David Hyde Pierce played the main character). I am not a musical buff, but I do enjoy the ones that are funny (Like SpamAlot, Young Frankestein, etc) and that is a reason why I really enjoyed Curtains.
We went to a movie/TV sites tour, which was pretty cool. A bus took us to a bunch of places where they have shot movies and TV shows (Mostly exterior shots, of course, since most of the insides for the TV shows in 90s we learned actually happened in LA!) . Some places we visited were the Soup Natzi kitchen from Seinfield, the Friends "building", the Cosby "house", places where they shot movies like Hitch, Ghostbuster, Big, etc. It was very entertaining, and we got to see a lot of New York in the process. One of the stops was this place called Rice to Riches (where one of Hitch's scenes took place), where they server all kinds of flavors of Rice pudding! I mean, I am not too much into rice pudding, but they made it taste pretty freaking good. They had flavors like cookies cream, peanut butter, butter pecan, coffee, etc. Think of it as an ice cream shop but with pudding instead of ice cream.
We also did some more touristy type stuff: We spent a day at the Met, we took a cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (where we learned a bunch of interesting information regarding the immigration in the late 1800s-early 1900s), we watched the sunset from the top of the Empire State Building, visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (Nice view and good exercise at the same time :) ). It was pretty fun!
Now, you will say, where does New Jersey fit into all of this? Well, first we went to visit some friends who live in NJ. We met in Hoboken, and had dinner there, at a restaurant that offers a magnificent view of the NY skyline, and then went to see their place. The second time we went to New Jersey was to go to Newark... why, you may ask? Well, noting that my wife is a wonderful person, her Xmas present also involved going to 2 NHL games!!!!!!! The first one was the NJ Devils against the Philadelphia Flyers, which was also my first experience of seeing a game end in a Shootout (Devils won the game), and the other was to see Sid the Kid and the Penguins face against Jags and the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This game also went to OT, but it was won by the Rangers on an OT goal by Chris Drury.
All in all, fun times was had by all. It left a different impression of NYC than I had previously (where I thought it was just dangerous and dirty).
Okay, until next time! Peace out!
The main reason she likes NYC is due to Broadway, so of course the gift had to also include a broadway show. We actually ended up going to two shows, Wicked and Curtains. I enjoyed Wicked and really liked Curtains (David Hyde Pierce played the main character). I am not a musical buff, but I do enjoy the ones that are funny (Like SpamAlot, Young Frankestein, etc) and that is a reason why I really enjoyed Curtains.
We went to a movie/TV sites tour, which was pretty cool. A bus took us to a bunch of places where they have shot movies and TV shows (Mostly exterior shots, of course, since most of the insides for the TV shows in 90s we learned actually happened in LA!) . Some places we visited were the Soup Natzi kitchen from Seinfield, the Friends "building", the Cosby "house", places where they shot movies like Hitch, Ghostbuster, Big, etc. It was very entertaining, and we got to see a lot of New York in the process. One of the stops was this place called Rice to Riches (where one of Hitch's scenes took place), where they server all kinds of flavors of Rice pudding! I mean, I am not too much into rice pudding, but they made it taste pretty freaking good. They had flavors like cookies cream, peanut butter, butter pecan, coffee, etc. Think of it as an ice cream shop but with pudding instead of ice cream.
We also did some more touristy type stuff: We spent a day at the Met, we took a cruise to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (where we learned a bunch of interesting information regarding the immigration in the late 1800s-early 1900s), we watched the sunset from the top of the Empire State Building, visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (Nice view and good exercise at the same time :) ). It was pretty fun!
Now, you will say, where does New Jersey fit into all of this? Well, first we went to visit some friends who live in NJ. We met in Hoboken, and had dinner there, at a restaurant that offers a magnificent view of the NY skyline, and then went to see their place. The second time we went to New Jersey was to go to Newark... why, you may ask? Well, noting that my wife is a wonderful person, her Xmas present also involved going to 2 NHL games!!!!!!! The first one was the NJ Devils against the Philadelphia Flyers, which was also my first experience of seeing a game end in a Shootout (Devils won the game), and the other was to see Sid the Kid and the Penguins face against Jags and the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This game also went to OT, but it was won by the Rangers on an OT goal by Chris Drury.
All in all, fun times was had by all. It left a different impression of NYC than I had previously (where I thought it was just dangerous and dirty).
Okay, until next time! Peace out!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
When I think of St. Paddy's day, I think of.... Jack Daniels!
So here is a story all about how... my life got.... wait... no, this is just something interesting that happened. As I was watching to see who was coming to town, I saw that Flogging Molly was coming during the Thursday near St. Patrick's day. However, tickets could not be bought. You had to go to a website and sign up, and hopefully you would get tickets. So I went to this website, and it turned out to be a Jack Daniels website (http://www.jdstudiono7.com). I signed up, and hoped for the best. About 4 days before the show, I went to the site, and saw an announcement that all tickets had been given. I was bummed out about that. Two days later, I get an email from JD saying that I got two passes to go in! I was happy to say the least. So the day of the show, we go in to the venue, and as we entered, we saw Jack Daniels logos everywhere, on the floor, the ceiling, the wall, the stage, etc! It was just an explosion of JDs everywhere. They had a buffet with food, and each person got two drink tickets to be redeemed for two JD drinks (either whiskey, or wine-cooler typed drinks ). They also had free prizes (I got a set of drumsticks) and free cab ride home. It was pretty nice I have to say... Everything free.
So the first band that opened was a local band. They kind of were a rock band with some rockabilly and some punk added to it. Not too bad. Then came FM. They played for about an hour and 45 minutes non-stop. Pretty much every song that I wanted them to play, they played. It was an awesome show. Shannon also saw some bikers beating up a racist skinhead. You can ask her about this next time you see her :)
All in all, we had a great time. A great free concert with free food, drinks, and prizes. What more can you ask for!? Thanks Uncle Jack! Btw, we tried the Lemonade and fruit punch drink they make, and they both tasted pretty good.
Peace out!
So the first band that opened was a local band. They kind of were a rock band with some rockabilly and some punk added to it. Not too bad. Then came FM. They played for about an hour and 45 minutes non-stop. Pretty much every song that I wanted them to play, they played. It was an awesome show. Shannon also saw some bikers beating up a racist skinhead. You can ask her about this next time you see her :)
All in all, we had a great time. A great free concert with free food, drinks, and prizes. What more can you ask for!? Thanks Uncle Jack! Btw, we tried the Lemonade and fruit punch drink they make, and they both tasted pretty good.
Peace out!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Let's Go Murphys
One of my Xmas presents this past year was tickets to see the Dropkick Murphys in concert. The day finally arrived, and I have to tell you, it was a good present! There were two opening bands that opened for them: Everybody out, which hailed from Boston, but had a British singer, and Big D and the Kids Table. Everybody out was very good, they reminded me of a mix of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastard, the Bouncing Souls, and the Clash. Very entertaining. I suggest that people reading this check out their myspage page.
Big D and the Kids Table were mostly ska with some punk thrown into it. I do own one of their Cds, so I was not surprised by their music. They do a pretty good live set, and they are very enegertic. And not having seen a ska band play in a long time, it was very refreshing.
Then came the Murphys. First of all, it was weird not seeing the Kid play guitar. I went afterwards to the internet, and found out that he left since he wanted to make some music that did not fit with the Murphy sound. Anyways, the set was great. They played A LOT of songs. The place was going crazy (it was a sold out show, so it was packed). Oldies like Boys on the Dock, Gang's all here, Kiss me I am ****faced, the Fields of Anthenry, Barroom hero; newbies like the State of Massachusets, Flanningan's Ball, Johny I hardly knew ya, and Tomorrow's industry. Great show! And it all started with a Pint of Guiness before the show!
Big D and the Kids Table were mostly ska with some punk thrown into it. I do own one of their Cds, so I was not surprised by their music. They do a pretty good live set, and they are very enegertic. And not having seen a ska band play in a long time, it was very refreshing.
Then came the Murphys. First of all, it was weird not seeing the Kid play guitar. I went afterwards to the internet, and found out that he left since he wanted to make some music that did not fit with the Murphy sound. Anyways, the set was great. They played A LOT of songs. The place was going crazy (it was a sold out show, so it was packed). Oldies like Boys on the Dock, Gang's all here, Kiss me I am ****faced, the Fields of Anthenry, Barroom hero; newbies like the State of Massachusets, Flanningan's Ball, Johny I hardly knew ya, and Tomorrow's industry. Great show! And it all started with a Pint of Guiness before the show!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Let's Go Blazers!
Well, since I have been NHL-deprived since moving to PDX, I have been going to other sporting events (see last post). Before moving here, the NBA really did not do that much for me (except when I was a kid watching MJ and the Bulls destroy the competition :) ). But I went to a couple of games last season, and I really liked the young Blazers team that was playing. They seemed to have a good vibe, they were good kids, and this Brandon Roy kid really impressed me. Then the draft happen, and everyone was excited about Oden. So I kind of jumped into the bandwagon and started getting excited (especially after they traded Randolph and got rid of the remaining "JailBlazers".
So I bought a couple of tickets for some early games (Dallas and New Jersey), and I got hooked watching this young team, working together, and capable of beating the best teams in the league. Since then, I have gone to about another 10 or so games, and watch them on TV regularly. No matter if they make it to the playoffs or not, they definitely have gotten one more fan. I still have three more games to go before the end of the season, and I will be going to many more games next season.
So, if you do not have an NBA team nearby, and you like players that give their 100% every game, I suggest you watch the Blazers and you will like what you see!
Until next time!
So I bought a couple of tickets for some early games (Dallas and New Jersey), and I got hooked watching this young team, working together, and capable of beating the best teams in the league. Since then, I have gone to about another 10 or so games, and watch them on TV regularly. No matter if they make it to the playoffs or not, they definitely have gotten one more fan. I still have three more games to go before the end of the season, and I will be going to many more games next season.
So, if you do not have an NBA team nearby, and you like players that give their 100% every game, I suggest you watch the Blazers and you will like what you see!
Until next time!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Hockey?! What Hockey?
Well, as anyone that knows me well, knows that I love hockey. It is a fast-paced sport that can have you on your feet many times during one single game. I was very happy when I lived on the East Coast to be able to watch professional hockey live on almost a weekly basis... Then decided to move to the NW, and unfortunately the NHL has not decided to provide this side of the country with a NHL team (We need to drive to Canada to see an NHL game, eh?). This has been very hard for me, especially at the beginning, but nowadays I am coping with some of the other sporting events around the PDX area. This includes the Blazers (will post about them later), the Portland WinterHawks and the Portland Lumberjax.
The Winterhawks are a junior Hockey team that plays here in PDX. The team consists of 16-19 year old kids trying to show their skills to get drafted to a NHL team. I try to go regularly to these games to at least get my hockey fix, and even though it is not to the level of the NHL, it is still fun to watch. Well..... It is fun to watch the Winterhawks score from time to time! You see, the Winterhawks are last in the league with a dismal 9-498 record. But, I still go to games to hope that they win once in a while, and to enjoy the game of hockey.
The Portland Lumberjax are a professional Lacrosse team. I have never been to a game before this year. I was kind of interested in it, and my wonderful wife bought me season tickets to see them (only 8 home games). I was kind of skeptical at first, but after attending the first game, I really enjoyed it. It is a mix of about 80% hockey, and 20% basketball. Usually the games are high scoring (10 goals per team is not unusual), so it is a lot of fun to watch and cheer. I have also gotten to meet some of the guys in the team, so I know who to cheer for more depending on how personable they were :)
So there you have it. Two posts in a span of a day. Hell must be freezing over! I have been wanting to write, but I never got around to it.
The Winterhawks are a junior Hockey team that plays here in PDX. The team consists of 16-19 year old kids trying to show their skills to get drafted to a NHL team. I try to go regularly to these games to at least get my hockey fix, and even though it is not to the level of the NHL, it is still fun to watch. Well..... It is fun to watch the Winterhawks score from time to time! You see, the Winterhawks are last in the league with a dismal 9-498 record. But, I still go to games to hope that they win once in a while, and to enjoy the game of hockey.
The Portland Lumberjax are a professional Lacrosse team. I have never been to a game before this year. I was kind of interested in it, and my wonderful wife bought me season tickets to see them (only 8 home games). I was kind of skeptical at first, but after attending the first game, I really enjoyed it. It is a mix of about 80% hockey, and 20% basketball. Usually the games are high scoring (10 goals per team is not unusual), so it is a lot of fun to watch and cheer. I have also gotten to meet some of the guys in the team, so I know who to cheer for more depending on how personable they were :)
So there you have it. Two posts in a span of a day. Hell must be freezing over! I have been wanting to write, but I never got around to it.
Marriage is a wonderful thing!
I just want to give a shout out to my buddies Rich and Ed for finally willing to cross-over the depth of h.... I mean, to finally get engaged to be married! That is just awesome news! I am very happy about that. The next 100 beers I drink during the year will be dedicated to both of you! Cheers!
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