Well the Seattle International Film Festival is half-way over and I’ve been able to see three movies so far and probably going to see three more in the next week and half. After my first two movies, I was a little dissapointed in my SIFF selection, but tonight’s movie brought it all back together.
Icons Among Us - Jazz Documentary
This documentary focused on the unevolution of jazz over the past 40 or so years. It tried to show the underground scene of “jazz” that’s trying to break away from the stereotypes and the bad rap that jazz gets for being uninspiring and unfresh. And while it seems to be quite redundent and may be a bit too long, it did give me personally a taste of what’s going on in the scene and a list of artists to check out, which was what I was hoping. All in all though, I felt the film was a little too long, and towards the end, it lost its direction. It never seemed to go anywhere either, though some of the interviews were very solid and entertaining.
Egon & Donci - Hungarian Animation
This was I’d call a eastern european version of a primitive WALL-E. The CGI animation is top notch, up there or better than the Shrek and Pixar movie franchises. The movie has little to no dialog; scientist Egon and his walking cat Donci just moan and groan for sounds, with the occasional “DOOOOOOOOOONNNNCIIIII!” (kinda like “WAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”) After an expeditionary ship crash lands near them, Egon is able to finish his space travel project and the pair travel through the solar system. While this may seem like a kid’s movie at first, I really don’t see how any child would understand what’s going on in this movie, let alone the ending, which puts the pieces together and dumps a massive social/economic message at you. Overall, I thought the movie was alright. Almost seemed like everything in the middle was filler and you really only needed to see the beginning and end. Actually, thinking back, there was quite a bit of filler everywhere, with the odd antics of both characters that really didn’t do anything to the movie but was there just for some comedic value. Eh.
Welcome - French Drama
This movie is about a teenager who left his home in Iraq on a quest to find the girl of his dreams in England, who he had met a few summers ago through a soccer teammate friend. It’s a great, sad, and inspiring story of this kid who’s an illegal immigrant in a foreign land, with one goal in mind and he’ll stop at nothing to achieve it. It’s also a story about a swim instructor who has fallen on hard times with the fallout of his marriage gone south, and neighbors that hate him and a mostly lonely life, and how this instructor reaches out to the teenager in his journey. This movie has been the best movie I’ve seen this year so far, though I havent seen alot of movies. It’s a french film, but suprisingly it’s split almost equally in french, english, and what I think is Kurdish.
Next films on the agenda: Zombies of Mass Destruction (ZMD), Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, Kimjongilia
It’s been a hectic past couple of weeks for me in terms of Spring cleaning, or should I say, Spring accumulation. I’ve made the decision to amp up (pun intended) my stereo system (living room) as well as start decorating the room up with real furniture pieces and also decided to start the overdue and much delayed landscaping project. Here’s some updates:
Stereo:
Lots of changes, but my new set up will be nearly complete after tomorrow, when I get the last piece of the puzzle (for now)…
Before:
Parasound CA-220 Integrated Amplifier 20w/ch
Harman Kardon HD7325 CD Player
Numark PT-01 Portable Direct Drive Turntable
Monoprice RCA to Stereo Line Input for MP3
Monoprice IPOD Dock
Infinity Satellite Speakers x 4
After:
Cambridge Azur 640A Integrated Amplifier 75w/ch
Audio Control Model C-101 Series Two Graphic Equalizer
Harman Kardon HD7325 CD Player
Pro-Ject Debut III Belt-Drive Turntable
Logitech/Slim Devices Squeezebox v3 Internet Streaming Media Center
Athena AS-FS 2 Floorstanding Speakers
Acoustic Research 280V Bookshelf Speakers
It’s a good starter audiophile system I think. Lots of high quality stuff on the lower spectrum of audiophile equipment, which is all I can and should afford. 
The squeezebox is quite an amazing piece of gadgetry. I’ll have to write a full article on it later.
Living Room:
The living space has seen quite a few upgrades the past 2 or 3 weeks which include the stereo equipment above, as well as the all new furniture everywhere. As we’re talking stereo, I also upgraded the ClosetMaid (from Target/Lowes) modular cabinet/shelfs which were barely supporting my equipment (weight issues!) with Sanus modular stereo racks which I found for cheap on craigslist. Those things were a bit difficult to decide to get because the pictures dont actually do them justice. They look a lot better with real components in them at home. I also bought a new couch, green fiber/fabric, to replace to futon which was moved upstairs, from kasala. In 2 weeks, I’ll finally get my Kasala chair in. I also decided to get a minature version of the Expedit Ikea shelf for up here even though I think its a little weird to have two of the same furnitures in one house. But this shelf is PERFECT for storing LPs so what can I say?
I also put up window blinds, faux wood, that I had bought custom made from Lowes last summer but never got to put it up. I bought a drill/driver finally and got it done pretty quickly!
To go along with all of this, I ordered up a couple Canvas prints of two of the photos I’ve taken with my DSLR that I really liked. I hope these turn out well, because canvas is freakin expensive! Also got some cheapo rugs from Ikea to fill some floor space for the chair coming in.
Landscaping:
Lots of stuff going on here. Mowing the lawn sucks. I got to finally lay down black plastic everywhere I wanted to and that’s actually a bigger pain than you’d imagine. Hopefully in a couple weeks the grass will be gone and I can start treating it with some round up to kill any remaining weeds. I also put some moss killer on my grass this past weekend, so I may have to follow that up with some grass growing stuff (fertilizer?) to fill in the missing holes. Lots of stuff! I also need to clean, scrub, and eventually stain my deck. Did a quick cleaning coat this past weekend, but really need to sand off some moldy areas.
LOTS OF STUFF. LOTS OF STIMULATING THE ECONOMY FROM ME. Yikes.
Tags: acoustic research, art, athena, audiophile, cambridge azur, cd player, couch, decorating, garden, ipod, landscaping, lawncare, living room, lp, mp3, music, photography, plants, pro-ject, squeezebox, stereo, trees, turntable, vinyl, yard work
They totally destroyed!!! I don’t even know what to say more than it was LOUD! Loudest show I have ever seen, and by a long shot - nothing even comes close. I have never, ever had to wear ear plugs to a show before, but they were handing these out the door with sign disclaimers saying THIS SHOW WILL BE LOUD. And they were right - even through the filtered ear plugs, the guitars and effects SCREAMED!
The WALL of Sound was redefined that night. I was at the giant Wamu Theater, an attachment of Qwest Field, and the whole place shook worse than any earthquake I’ve ever been in. You could feel the wind blowing from the monitors. How many Marshall Stacks did Kevin Shields have to his own? 6 full stacks and a handful of half stacks!
Incredible.
Tags: concerts, music, my bloody valentine
I love toys, especially when it’s electronics and music. Always been a wannabe audiophile especially with my dad and his envious home stereo system. Now I’m old enough to do it on my own and I’m already developing a few different, unique, systems at home and trying to build them each seperately and at the same time. Money. Ugh.
The Living Room - in-progress -
The living room is where I want the real audiophile stereo system. It’s got vaulted ceilings and open area that I think will make music really rich and engulfing. I started building this system with whatever I had lying around, which were parts of an Infinity HTS satellite speaker set, a 1988 Parasound CA2100 integrated amplifier, and a few other odds and ends. One day the Parasound stopped working, and that was when I decided to re-tool. (that was really a month ago)
Enter today, where I am now waiting for stuff to come in. I’m currently using a Pioneer Stereo Receiver from 1996 or so, and it flat out sucks. I can’t stand it. Sure it’s got some juice (75watts/ch) but it sounds like blah. That 20watt Parasound amp sounded so much better…. so what am I doing? I’m waiting til Friday to receive my new Cambridge Audio Azur 640A amplifier in the mail! I’m pretty excited about this amp. Found a great deal on ebay for it. I also just added a set of Athena AS-F2 tower speakers, which has been very highly rated and coveted, especially for the bargain price they used to sell for. I got them on craigslist. Stereophile once called them the best set of speakers you can find for under $2000… I also added some Acoustic Research bookshelfs to round out the room. On CD, I have a hi-fi Harman Kardon CD player from circa 1995, which still sounds great to this day. To tinker the sound a bit to match the room and the music, I have a Audio Control graphic equalizer. There’s also a cheesey, falling apart ipod dock, and a stereo-jack-line-in for mp3 players. And finally, I’m currently using a NuMark turntable, but am in the market to buy an upgrade at this. I’m looking at a Rega P1 or P2, Pro-Ject Debut or Xpression, or a Music Hall turntable. All three are extremely stylish, and great bang for the buck. Once those pieces fall, I’ll have to look into getting better storage for these toys.
Downstairs - Home Theater
The downstairs has always been thought of as my home theater, and I am making it exclusively that now. Nothing’s intending to change with it the way it is right now, except I’m pretty close to buying a center channel to complete the 5.1 set up. At that point, I’ll have to decide if I really want to add 2 rear surrounds (small wall mountable speakers) to make a 7.1 system for new Blu-Ray movies. But as it stands, I have the brain/nucleus of a Pioneer Elite VSX91 AV receiver controlling the inputs of an XBox360 (gaming, streaming movie and music), Playstation 3 (for blu ray movies), Toshiba HD-DVD player, and Verizon FiOS TV set top box, as well as line-in for ipods, stereo-jack in for other mp3 players, hdmi-in for laptop and a Sony LocationFree box to stream tv to my laptop or someone’s PSP. These components are being played over a set of Dahlquist (Profiles) PDQ-200 floorstanding speakers, and Polk Monitor 4 bookshelves on the rear on speaker stands. The low sounds are coming from a Martin Logan Dyanmo sub, which provides some very solid dynamic bass for a very small form-factor. I’m looking to add the Definitive Technology Mythos Seven center channel pretty shortly to complete the system. I badly need a center for this. Finally, it’s all being outputted to my little treasure, the Samsung LN-46A650 “Touch of Color” LCD tv. Such a great display.
Garage - I’m sorta turning half my garage (right side) into a mini play-room. It’s got a couple rugs down now and a foosball table and chairs. Along with it is a stereo system with no components at all except for a stereo line jack in for mp3 players. But the system cranking out the digital tunes is an analog day treat. A Nikko pre-amp controller is sending sound through a Kenwood power amp into a pair of home-made speakerlab oversized bookshelf speakers. It’s very focuses on mid-range sounds, but it’ll do for now.
Master Bedroom - I dont know what I want to do here yet, make it a music set up or a theater set up - more likely it’ll be both, with music-centric. I dont watch that much TV and even less in my room. In fact, I dont even have a working cable feed into my bedroom TV now, and dont ever turn that thing on. So it’ll probably be focused on music. Right now I’m using the Infinity sats with a Harman Kardon AV receiver to process. It’s actually connected to an Akai 27″ LCD and a Panasonic DVD player, which I use to play CDs. And of course it’s got line in for mp3 player. This is a work-in-progress, and it’s got a ways to go.
As you can see, I’m pretty obsessed with this stuff… it’s a bit insane. Once my living room is complete, and my center channel is purchased, I think I’ll be overly satisfied for quite a while. I hope.
Tags: audio, audiophile, home theater, movies, music, speakers, stereo, video
Why am I doing this? because my backyard is too much grass and nothing else. Also there’s a greenbelt and a creek that runs along the house and that wetness is creeping into the perimeter of my property making it really muddy, soggy, and brings weeds and other junk in.
I want to reduce the lawn size by mulching it with bark and plant some good low-maintenance trees and plants that’ll soak up the water and cut my lawn care time signficantly.
Starting this in April and hope to be done in July… doing a little bit here and there.
0. Design/Plan it
1. Mow lawn really short (1 day)
2. Weed b Gone everywhere just to kill weeds in general (1 week)
3. Round Up in the areas to remove grass (1 week)
4. Lay down newspapers and fabric to create the new base and kill all weeds and grass for good (at least for a year, sigh) (3 weeks)
5. Also lay down bricks or wood edging along the area. (1 day)
6. Plant trees, shrubs, stuff (1 week)
7. Lay down mulch and be done! (1 week)
maybe i’ll add a picnic table and stuff somewhere too.
After this, i think im going to consider adding a walking path from the front to the backyard, gravel… and done in much the same way as above… we’ll see how this goes first.
Tags: garden, house, landscaping, lawncare, mulch
I just got back from the exciting Mariners game tonight where Griffey hit his 1st home run of the year at home, which happens to be his #400 as a Mariner, and Ichiro hit a grand slam in his first game this season. That along with some great small ball and solid pitching gave the M’s another victory to this surprising season thus far.
While at the game, I was thinking of all the promotions the Mariners used to run and what they run now. For example, yesterday they were giving away magnets (I think) and later this week there are posters and Ichiro Bobbleheads. During the course of the year, there’s a lot of interesting, and mostly useless junk the PR department throws at fans…
I have my own thoughts on some promos. There’s a theme here… in light of Ken Griffey returning to the Mariners, I thought we should also honor other Mariners from the past…
1. Bring back BUHNER BUZZ CUT NIGHT - Jay was one of the most popular and recognizable mariner ever and still is to this day. Why not bring back this popular promotion and give fans free seats for cutting their hair off?
2. Edgar Martinez “Light Bat” night - “It’s a Light Bat!” as Edgar proclaims. Hopefully people understand this one, but maybe I’ll have to shed some light to you. (har har) Back in the day, before Eagle Hardware was changed to Lowes, they ran some of the most funny commercials using Edgar and Jay as spokespeople. One of them involving Edgar is the most memorable. He had a light bat! So… this promotional night would take those mini-bats they give away, attach a light bulb to it, maybe a base, and a power plug, and voila … a night stand light bat!
Eagle Hardware (presented by Lowes) Edgar Martinez Bat Night
3. Woody Woodward Trading Card night - Our good pal Woody had an interesting time as Mariners GM during the 90s. This is a great promo idea. For people who purchase their tickets in advance or season ticket holders — along with your ticket stub, you get trading cards of Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, Bill Swift, Mike Jackson, Dave Burba, and Jose Cruz Jr. It’s a pretty sweet deal, but make sure you bring them to the game with you… As you enter the gate, the ticket checker will scan your ticket stub, and then you hand them your set of trading cards, and in exchange, you’ll receive a new set of trading cards consisting of high value players like Heathcliff Slocumb, Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric, and yes, Kevin Mitchell.
4. Ken Griffey’s Partner in Crime Trading Card night - Yes, another night of trading cards. This time, the first 15,000 fans get a limited edition set of every single left fielder who has played alongside Ken Griffey during his 10 years as a Mariners CF. I’m actually a bit interested in this evening just so I can figure out who’ll be on this set: i can think of a few…. Jeffrey Leonard, Henry Cotto, Greg Briley, Jose Cruz Jr, Darren Bragg, Vince Coleman, Ricky Henderson, and yes, Kevin Mitchell.
5. Norm Charlton Firehat night - because… Norm was the man… and we got rid of Kevin Mitchell to get him.
6. Rhombus of Pain night - Get a sweet rhombus-shaped picture frame with included photos of your favorite Mariners who could barely hit over 250 and get on base 30% of the time — Dan Wilson, Russ Davis, Joey Cora, and whoever the hell was in left field.
7. No speak English night - in honor of Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki, as well as Kenji Johjima, and a few others… no english allowed. must speak another language.
8. Ken Griffey Chocolate Bar night - remake and reprint those griffey treats and give them out to fans! plus lucky seat numbers will be chosen at random during each inning will receive Ken Griffey Baseball SNES game and console!
Kid Chocolate
9. Gaylord Perry Spit on the Ball night - There will be a gigantic baseball set up at each gate and every fan can walk over to it and spit on it. Umm, that’s really about it.
10. Sweet Lou Base Night - Yea, they’ve given away bats, balls, gloves, etc… let’s give away a commemorative Lou Pinella baseball base. With each base also comes a bag of sand. Now you, too, can be an upset Lou Pinella!
I’ll state this once and I may state it again: Ken Griffey, Jr. is the primary, and possibly sole reason I have any interest in the sport of baseball.
Being born in the early 80’s, I was at the ripe age of 6.5 when the Kid made his debut in 1989. Just enough to understand sports. I mean, I do still remember the seahawks heart breaking loss in the 1988 playoffs. Watching Junior was the most awesome and breathtaking things a little kid with an interest in sports could have been blessed to see; besides transformers and robotech… and maybe GI JOE.
I grew up watching Mariner baseball just to see the magic of Junior’s swing, and even more so, his defensive ability. I learned the sport watching him and the rag-tag team play. I copied his stance, his swing, and his knack to go all out on defense. I never played little league baseball, but I played tons of sandlot-playground stuff with my friends and neighbors. I always wanted to play outfield. I tried to bat left handed - i’m a righty by trade. I’m an awful switch hitter now, but back in the plastic bat days, I was equally as “devastating”. Hah.
I didn’t have that many childhood heroes, but Ken Griffey was easily one of them. No one in sports made as much of an impact on my interests and hobbies than him. Nowadays, when I’m playing softball with my co-ed rec team, The Sea-Men, I play center field, just like Griffey used to. I almost refuse to play any other position. A lot of it has to do with my likeness to run the entire field, cover the middle and the gaps, and being the point man in the outfield, but even more so — its the position that Ken Griffey dominated baseball at. His 10 gold gloves as a Seattle Mariner count for something.
And now he is back in Seattle, dressed in Mariner blue. This afternoon he’ll be jumping out of the home dug out and into the on-deck circle in the house that he built - Safeco Field. It’s going to be a spectacle and I tried my hardest to get tickets there. I failed. I had to settle for tomorrow evening. That’s okay though, I can embrace the moment on television today just like I did so many times when I was a child, and tomorrow, I can be there to show my love and support. I can’t wait.
The fact that the team is 5-2 right now, and riding high with a working clubhouse cannot be a coincidence with kid Griffey and Mike Sweeney’s additions to the team. This is a team that lacked leadership, and now we have two solid members of the baseball community - a living legend among baseball players, and a former institution of KC Royal baseball. Great pickups, and now a team that has youth and veteran leadership - at least some potential for some good small-ball, the stuff that wins games - glimmers of hope after an awful, awful 2008.
Speaking of which, 2009 has shown to be a 180 degree turn for the good in terms of Seattle Sports. You could not have imagined or painted a scene that was as terrible, depressing, and disheartening than 2008 where you saw one of the worst baseball teams ever to be fielded, a promising seahawk team with super bowl hopes fade by the end of preseason with a rash of injuries so crazy that even the 7th, 8th, and 9th string WRs picked up on the streets were going down with season ending injuries, a UW football team that was the worst in the country, and even feeling pity for the slightly better yet awful WSU football team who had an open-campus tryout for the starting job at QB in the middle of the year. Then there’s the whole Ty Willingham disaster… the underachieving UW basketball team, the move of the Thunderbirds hockey team to KENT, and…. ugh the worst hit of them all - the loss of my beloved Seattle Super Sonics…. TO OKLAHOMA!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
but 2009 is looking up. The UW Basketball team rebounded, played to their potential, and the ceiling has yet to be touched - putting up a solid #4 seed in the NCAA and played alright. The Mariners signed Ken Griffey. Biggest up for me in a long long time. The Hawks signed TJ Houshmanzadeh, and look to build another contender. Jim Mora may have what it takes…
The huskies football new coaching staff looks amazingly solid and i love the new attitude the team brings. and the best yet… the Sounders FC kicked off and they are already in the running as MLS Cup contenders and a team that everyone is scared of, plus is actually receiving attention around the world with their mix of world-class talent.
Hooray.
Tags: huskies, Ken Griffey, Mariners, Memories, Seahawks, Sonics, sounders, sports
bad. need to stop. must remove deal sites from google homepage, bookmarks, twitter, emails, and firefox add-ons. must remove…. must… but… i cant.
in related news. i’m looking for a low-profile center channel, stereo amplifier, among other things. Nooo must not buy….
oh, and i made King 5 this weekend for the Sounders FC match!
So for the Seattle Sounders FC (soccer) matches, this guy I met playing softball, myself and a few other random people I had never met before decided to start a support club called Gorillas. There’s a huge one called Emerald City Supporters, but we wanted to have a support club that not only celebrated during the game, but also before and after games and benefit parties (i.e. drink drink and umm drink).
Anyway, we met last week at Fado (irish pub in Pioneer Square) for the pre-function (and also post-function). I came a little late, watched the Drew Carey pep rally at Occidental Park, and then met up with the other Gorillas, and we had our own march following the Sounders Wave march, and the ECS march. We made it on TV!
http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=351141
The feature us at the very beginning, and then at around the 1:21 minute mark. If you look at the left side of the screen, you’ll see a tall guy in bright blue shirt - that’s my friend Scott. Next to him is an asian dude, that’s me.
So does this make you excited to go to games?? YA!!
At the end of last year, I re-kicked-off my blog and I was doing a decent job of updating it, and then I got busy, distracted, and stopped. I think I fell into the publish junk to facebook and twitter and left my blog in the dust. Well, I am going to try to do this thing again, and because its actually a kept up, written record, whereas other things just go away.
Sounders FC
I am so glad and so sad that I have season tickets to this amazing new franchise. It’s been a very pleasant surprise on how classy they are playing and how much atmosphere is at the games. I swear it’s on par with Seahawk games! The team plays great soccer and actually makes MLS games enjoyable. Trust me, I try to watch other teams play and its a bore. It’s also wonderful to hear the response from fans of other teams about how much they appreciate the Sounders and the fan support! So why the sadness? I wish I had gotten an entire season package to myself instead of splitting it three ways with friends. Oh well, I’m backfilling on games with single game seats on the ones I can actually attend - works out in the end!
Rancilio Silvia - Enter the home espresso
After contemplating on getting a home espresso machine for a couple of years, I finally made the splurge to buy one, and while I was looking at the 299-399 price point, I ended up jumping up to the next step and getting the best rated, highly recommended single boiler machine on the market - the Rancilio Silvia. And you know what? From the first day of exprimenting, it is totally worth it.
I had to first get myself the proper grinder. Yes, folks, the grinder makes the biggest difference. The dream grinder is the Mazzer Mini, but its industrial and its over $750. The next best was the Rancilio Rocky, but I was a bit afraid of spending $350 for it. I ended up finding a Baratza Virtuoso, which was the top model from that company, for a ridiculously cheap $135 on the manufacturer website. It was a refurb, but it works like a charm! Now I can buy fresh whole beans and grind away… using coarse settings for my french press at work, medium to fine settings for my drip machine, and finer for espressos. Perfect.
Anyway, the grinder has 40 positions for grinds, with 40 being the most coarse. I spent most of this evening and about 2/3rds of a pound of coffee trying to pinpoint the best setting to pull a 20-30 second espresso shot. I ended up hitting the target at about 18, which was well off my initial guess of 5. So after tons and tons of wasted beans, I finally hit the preferred mark, at least for Zoka Espresso Paladino beans. Yikes, I need to go get me some Cafe Vita Bistro Blend, Stumptown Hairbender, and Cafe Ladro Fremont blends to try some more stuff out.
Also need to get some better cups and learn the proper technique to froth milk so I can make latte art. The process of making the basic rosetta art looks fairly simple, but getting the right consistency and froth in the milk has been tricky… I’ll probably waste half a gallon of milk and another 1/2 lb of coffee this weekend trying junk out. hah!
Tags: baratza, coffee, espresso, rancilio, silvia, soccer, sounders, sounders fc, virtuoso, zoka
Dean had a Birthday Rock Band party at his house on Saturday night, and here’s some video from Sharat’s camera of Dean dancing to “When You Were Young” by the Killers as sung by me, Tim on drums, and I believe Prashant and Alex on guitar and bass.
Tags: dean, killers, rock band, when you were young
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