Anthony's World

No one posts on my site. They do hate me, Sebastian. no comments, nothing. I'm sad. :(

I always feel behind the times in so many things. Sigh.

First softball game of the year for us Sea-Men today! We came out, fought hard, but loss in a close match with Curly's Jerky. Ah well, it was our first time playing and now we have a better idea of what to expect (e.g. put someone who can field the ball at second base).

Labels: sports

You’d kill yourself for recognition, kill yourself to never ever stop.
You broke another mirror, you’re turning into something you are not.

Drying up in conversaton, you will be the one you cannot talk.
All your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love
They’re the ones who’ll hate you when you think you’ve got the world all sussed out
They’re the ones who’ll spit at you. you will be the one screaming out.

-Radiohead, High and Dry, 1995

There are times when you think you're on top of the world, but then reality settles back in and you realize your falters, your missteps, and your misdirections. Simple words drop you back down to earth and everything hits you all at once. Them's the breaks, I guess.

I feel like a bit of a doofus but I guess I sometimes let me sarcasm and jokingness go without really thinking whether it's really appropriate for the given situation. A couple times in the past two weeks, it's come back to haunt me, and it's dwindlin down on me. I never really mean what I say sometimes, and although there is some truth to everything anyone ever says, I, myself, can't say that I am innocent of these social crimes.

Respect is something I give out in as plentiful bundles as possible, but there are very few people out there that I hold to the highest of regard, so when one of them comes out and tells me something, it hits a bit harder to home. Anyway, things are okay now; a mishap that hopefully will be corrected in the future.

Last weekend, I went to a house party at Adria's and I met a bunch of people. One of the guys I met was actually friends with another guy that I knew that I didn't know knew Adria as well. The guy was having a "dance-off" with Gordy so it was pretty funny, and his name was Ben. Anyway, yesterday Adria called me up and I met her at this coffee shop in the U-District where this Ben guy was playing a mini show. From house party odd ball dancing to somewhat pop-folksy music... totally weird. He actually had a pretty good voice and he was entertaining. He also gave me a funny introduction as I walk in 2/3rd of the way into his gig. :)

Immediately following and an hour or two later, we went to see Ladytron and openers The Presets. I never heard of the Presets before but I thought they were really good (Adar thought so too). They reminded me of a mid-80's Depeche Mode, where it was new wave but borderline Industrial, or the early beginnings of it anyway. I was even more shocked to find that the band came from Australia, cause they have a very european sound to them (I was thinking Dutch actually).

Ladytron was dancey! We had somewhat of an odd view from the balcony and part of our view was cut off by the hanging speaker so I couldnt see their guitarist at all, and I think he did a fantastic job with the sound. The girls both sounded good, or borderline great, and their drummer is top notch. I'm typically not a girl-band fan, not that there's anything wrong with it -- it's just the ones I've seen haven't been very good (I have not seen Sleater-Kinney though). Ladytron is half/half, and they were good.

So what's with the rest of the title of this entry? The Bends is the CD that's been in my player non-stop the past few days. The 1995 sophomore release from Radiohead is just so, so, so full of bombastic rock and emotionally distraught Thom Yorke vocals, it's really a sound to hear. It's easily my favorite Radiohead album, though many would disagree.

Remembering you running soft through the night.
You were bigger, brighter, whiter than snow.
You screamed at the make-believe; screamed at the sky.
You finally found the courage to let it all go...

Hold for the last time. Then slip away quietly...
I open my eyes, but i never see anything.

If only i had thought of the right words,
I could have hold on to your heart.
If only i'd thought of the right words,
I wouldn't be breaking apart all my pictures of you.

Beautiful lyrics those are, and one of the most beautiful songs in my list of favorites. This is an excerpt from The Cure's 1989 track, Pictures of You from their album Disintegration. Not totally sure what made my want to listen to this song on this night, nor what made me want to recite or shall I say, copy and paste, those lyrics onto here, but I did it.

I guess with all that I can make or break of things, I never really have full control of anything. The world doesn't work that way, and its a complex system of dominos where one thing relies on another to work. There aren't many exceptions to that rule. I can't think of any. Mentally perhaps? Nah, you wouldn't think so hard if you didn't have something to think about. Thinking ruins everything.

What I am getting at? I, myself, am not really sure. I started thinking about things and how they are going and then I put on some Disintegration and it sombers my mood about everything. This album has a major effect on me. It's not classified as "EMO", but it's about as "emo" as you can want, or not want.

Last week, Tool announced they were going to kick-off their US tour, first one in a few years, in Seattle at the Paramount Theatre. No Pre-sales. Limit of 2 tickets per person. Paramount seating only too, which limits the amount of people that can be there. Of course, the show sells out in a matter of seconds, even despite Ticketmaster's attempt of limiting scalper action by only allowing Northwest billing addresses to be accepted...

And the aftermath? Craigslist is seeing tickets listed for sale at upwards of $1000 or more dollars PER ticket. Legitimate sellers demanding as little as $400... is this ridiculous or what? I never liked the idea of profitting on what's not really yours to profit off of, in this case the artists and the venue. If I were to lose out on buying a ticket, I don't think I'd mind spending a little bit more money, and in the case of Tool, if I liked them more, upwards of $100. But, no way would I pay $500? You crazy?

For that much money, I'd buy a plane ticket and go to Coachella and see them, and 250 other bands on a mini vacation. And that, won't sell out.

Anyway, I have a pair of Ladytron tickets, of which I am not selling but it's an interesting case as well. The show is tommorow night, and someone I know wanted to get a ticket to go to the show today. It's sold out. I checked Craigslist and no one is selling but theres many buyers out there. Supply and demand? I couldn't see myself being guilty of selling my tickets for more than say $30 for my $18 ticket ($22 after fees), because well, it's just kind of wrong.

Samething with Sigur Ros. I gave those away at face value instead of selling them on eBay for $150 each, which was what they were going for at the time. Crazy world. Crazy.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002947940_bush23.html

"I strongly believe hydrogen is the fuel of the future. That's what we're talking about," he said. "It has the potential, a vast potential, to dramatically cut our dependence on foreign oil. Hydrogen is clean, hydrogen is domestically produced and hydrogen is the way of the future."

President Bush believes Hydrogen is the future and that's where we should dedicate all of our research money into. I think he's smoking crack, again. Maybe in a double dose this time around. Hydrogen fuel cells? Sure it looks great on paper. Just add water!

Yea, but fuel cells cost a whole ton of money, have not worked in a vehicle very well, and you'll be driving a pseudo hydrogen bomb! I do not disapprove of the idea of delving into hydrogen research, I'm all for it. It's definitely a great alternative, but newer technologies in fuel should have more money put into it than already is. In this, I mean, HYBRIDS and BIO-DIESEL.

Why? Because they both WORK, are environmental friendly, and are INEXPENSIVE. The most important is that it actually works. Hybrids use a battery + fossil fuel-based engine which is fine, but doesn't totally allieviate the issues we have with gas prices and gas shortages. In Bio-Diesel, we have a solid fuel which is only missing the fact that its not widespread and we don't have the farming resources currently to support a widespread use. But all the systems are in place. We already have cars out there that can support it -- any diesel-based car, which is a very popular fuel alternative in Europe. We can make it fairly easily. My friends able to make it in his garage... And did I tell you, it actually works? It's fuel efficient? Volkswagon TDI diesel cars get 45-55 mpg, and the fact that unleaded 87 grade gas cost $2.95 and biodiesel is roughly $3.00 a gallon is quite competitive.

Any of the choices I mention, along with total electric cars are great ideas. Electric cars have been developed for many years with very mixed results. No one has successfully made a battery which can power a car for a very long period of time. Hydrogen hasnt worked yet and is very expensive, and biodiesel is missing resources and popularity.

Bush needs to re-think what he's pushing all of this money into. Don't push it into a dead-end technology!

Yet another new toy for me. I'm spoiling myself lately. But it was time to get a new tennis racquet given my Wilson H Tour was wearing down and I just broke my strings on Tuesday playing at Greenlake with the Adar.

This new racquet is the latest generation of the Hyper Hammer 5.2/H Tour line of racquets. Its based on Wilson's nCode technology and its called... the nCode Tour 95.

I can't wait to try it out next week! Its in the shop now for stringing along with a restringing and patchwork job on my older Wilson H Tour.

Labels: sports

Oh no! Shaun Alexander will grace the cover of the 2007 editions of Madden Football!! This is not a good sign for the Seattle Seahawks. Here's why:

Madden 2000 - Barry Sanders - retires before the season begins...
Madden 2001 - Eddie George - Key fumble in playoffs to lose the game. Hasn't done anything since...
Madden 2002 - Daunte Culpepper - misses 1/3rd of season and throws a million INTs.
Madden 2003 - Marshall Faulk - Worst season ever, and practically lost starting job.
Madden 2004 - Michael Vick - Breaks leg in preseason. out for most of year.
Madden 2005 - Ray Lewis - his worst season ever plus had injuries.
Madden 2006 - Donovan McNabb - multiple injuries, bad season, and had season ending surgery.

SHAUN!!! Please end the curse!!!

Labels: sports

Kinda scary, yet pretty funny. I'm actually surprised this kid was able to drive so well AND know how to configure the car like that, cause I have enough trouble lowering the steering wheel and adjusting my seat as it is.

--

MODESTO, California (AP) -- An 8-year-old boy swiped his teacher's car keys and took her minivan for a joyride, cruising safely home and into the record books as the city's youngest auto thief, police said.

The third-grader told officers he "just wanted to drive around for a while" when he left the James Marshall School on Monday, officer Michael Amarillas told The Modesto Bee newspaper.

The diminutive driver snatched the keys from teacher Caren Brady's purse when she turned her back to the class.

In order to operate the Dodge Caravan, he raised the driver's seat, lowered the steering wheel, adjusted the rearview mirror and turned off the radio.

"This is the smallest child you can ever imagine," said Brady, who noticed her vehicle missing a couple hours after school, according to the paper.

"I don't think this kid is 4 feet (1.22 meters) tall. He's tiny; he's the tiniest kid in the class."

The boy, whose identity was not released, was suspended from school, Brady said. Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt. Police said they would not charge him with a crime.

A neighbor saw the boy driving and called police. Officers found the van parked in front of the house, which is less than a mile from the school. They lectured the boy after interviewing him.

"You can't do anything but laugh," said Brady, who spent 90 minutes Tuesday teaching other pupils about the consequences of choices they make. She said she would not let the boy return to her class, according to the Bee.

Labels: news and politics

It's nice. It was sunny today and that is music to my ears, sorta. Things are just going pretty good these days, I guess. Working in a new location, away from everything, really. My group is the only one in our general vicinity and its peaceful and we can just do what we want really. Still productive, no worries. :)

But when the sun shines, I really like to stay active. I need to, to make up for a really dormant winter. Typical winters I at least go snowboard or play night tennis, but this year I was pretty lazy. I'm quenching some of that now with some renewed spirit, an "outdoors activities" partner, a gang of friends, and walking on sunshine. Two or so tennis go arounds a week, 1 or 2 softball gatherings, and at least a weekly jog -- pretty good, and it fills my down time. Also gets me out of the office, where I worked a bit of OT the past few months. :)

Today was no exception, went to Greenlake, played 2 hours of tennis and then jogged (mostly this time around) the 2.8 mi trail immediately afterwards. I don't even feel tired, so this is good news. :)

I'm trying to catch up on my french. Hahaha. Man, after talking to this one person I met a while back, I really did lose out on the prime opportunities to travel adbudently, the college years. It's alot harder now to just simply pack your bags and take off. I have a job, without unlimited vacation hours. Sigh.

I'm talking too much about work, this is bad news. I need concert buddies for Mogwai, Lyrics Born!, Mono, Elf Power, and one more person for Sigur Ros.

Word, g.

I'm losing friends left and right. Where are all my homies at? :|

Scott - Japan
Neil - Denver soon
Meaghan - San Francisco soon
Melissa - Chicago
Jayson - Oregon
Pat - North Carolina
Sebastian - Pullman
Wingo - North Carolina soon
Mai - Irvine
Mitch - Arizona soon
Ryan - Arizona
Mason - Arizona
Chris - Syracuse
Sharon - Korea
Liz - San Francisco
Kiet - Oak Harbor
Deniz - Arizona
Jay - Ireland
Shayna - Pullman
Azam - Ellensburg
Pete - San Francisco
Karen - China

At least I recovered some friends back from elsewhere...
Leslie - Colorado/Santa Barbara
umm... that's it.

I've been digging through the past and thinking of some great shows that have come and gone. Here's some commentary:

Twin Peaks: I found this really funny SNL skit of Twin Peaks: [link]

This show was wonderful. But it had to end. What else was there to really do after they discovered the true meaning of Laura Palmer's death? Unfortunately that wasn't enough for director David Lynch, as he kept the show going for about 10 more episodes and losing alot of interesting in many with even more plot twists than the true core of the show. Still, this was a revolution for TV Dramas back in its time and truely paved the way to shows like X-Files and more recently Lost.

Robotech:

Of course this is my most favorite thing on TV ever, possibly edging out Seinfeld. Robotech's run really only lasted 2 years, and really 1 season on TV before it went sydicated. But it's perservered through the years in the form of comic, novel, and gaming adaptations, and a very cult-like following. Carl Macek, the show's producer had a mighty imaginative mind to take three totally different anime series and link them together in such a way as to tell an epic story that lasted three full generations of love and war. While the infinitely promising Robotech II: The Sentinels never made its way to television, and only through an unrevealing movie, the long overdue and massively hyped up upcoming release Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles DVD is making my appetite wet with delight. Early animated footage looks great and this could be the missing link to the untold story of Robotech.

"Seattle is not interested in having the NBA there."

[News Link]

What is this all about? David Stern, the NBA Commissioner who I really don't like in the first place is complaining because the city of Seattle does not want to shell out $220 million to pay for a freakin rennovation to Key Arena which just opened 10 years ago. Ok, granted 10 years is a long time, but they played at the old Collisieum for nearly 30 years before that. I don't see any problem with Key Arena. For cases like the Kingdome, there were definite issues with it. Ceilings were falling, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Key Arena is not. What's the point?

Starbucks CEO and Sonics owner Howard Schultz is demanding to raise taxes in Seattle otherwise he'll sell the team to another owner who'll take the team away from Seattle... Yea just another reason to dislike Starbucks coffee and their automated piece of crap coffee. Seriously though, take the team away from Seattle? Are you kidding me? The Sonics' have been losing money the past 5 years because the team has absolutely SUCKED the past 5 years, not because Key Arena is not accomodating. When Schultz took over, we thought that he'd turn it around, but man, oh man, I wish Barry Ackersley still owned the team. They hired proper people up until they let go of Trader Bob Whitsitt and put in Wally Walker. Wally is a freakin terrible GM. This team isn't looking pretty in any sense. They had quite a fluke year last year making the playoffs, and they weren't even able to keep Nate McMillan, Mr Sonic. There's something wrong here. Its not Key Arena, or it could be a small part, but not $220 million. Use that money and feed the homeless, boost our disgusting unemployment rates, and lower our cost of living. Build a park. Win.

Labels: sports

You never know how good you got it til you lose it is what they say. I guess I got it good and have not lost it yet, but it's not as good as I'd want it to be... I've had alot of nice sunny afternoons lately, and I'm hoping it'll continue. This rainy mornings are really just a front for the nice afternoons we've been having, but it looks like it may come to an end soon. It always finds a way to rain on the weekends lately, it seems. But ah well. I've been lucky to have non-precipitation weekday afternoons and a mass cool Greenlake activities partner lately to keep me entertained and better yet, in shape!


It looks like they've announced some of the Bumbershoot 2006 Festival lineup. Copy and pasting Trisha's post...

Kanye West AFI A Tribe Called Quest Yellowcard Atmosphere Hawthorne Heights Feist Shooter Jennings Mates of State Of Montreal Matt Costa The Blood Brothers Bettye Lavette the subdudes Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Yerba Buena The English Beat Gossip 3 Inches of Blood Deerhoof Laura Veirs Nouvelle Vague Breakestra Jamie Lidell Vashti Bunyan Dengue Fever Metric

I am already excited sorta. It's not as great as last years, thus far, but it will only get better from here. I've seen most everyone of the bands I know already, and I'm really hoping that the Metric and Feist additions will also bring in their soulmates: Stars, Do Say Make Think, Jason Collett, Apostle of Hustle and ultimately... BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE. But that's a man's dream...

Oh, and New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode, and the Pet Shop Boys - who have a new album due out soon!

Smile!

My latest toy has arrived!

http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/zenvisionm

:)

The New Pornographer's new record Twin Cinemas is great! It's been out for a few months now, but I've been lazy to listen to new stuff up until now. I sort of wished I did, but I did just see this band a few weeks ago and it really made me want to hear their music some more. They were great live, and good on recordings. I like.

Brouwer's - one of my new likable bars in Seattle. Thank you Bjorn for introducing me to this bar a few weeks back. I went there again last night and it's just a nice atmosphere. It's alot like the Tap House as there are alot of beers (not quite the 160 that TapHouse holds, but at least 35 - 50 here), but instead of the yuppie, pretentious crowd, you have the typical Fremont crowd holding up the place. More of my scene anyway.

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles - I borrowed this 5 issue comic series from Dean a few weeks back and finally got around to reading it today. It's basically a really quick summary of the Sentinels series that never made it to TV (but adapted by comics and books) and gives a sufficient "prelude to the" the upcoming DVD release of the next chapter of the best american anime series ever, Robotech. I'm totally excited.

Zoka Coffee's Roaster decided to brew a porter based on their Paladino coffee. Wow! I wonder what this thing taste like? I mean, it's the best two drinks you can have... coffee and beer, mixed together! :)


Tennis in the Greenlake community is hard to come by during the rush hour times of the weekday. With the sun shining, or at least peeking slightly through the clouds, added with the bonus of daylight savings, Adria and I have been able to break out our racquets and "swing into Spring" a couple times a week for the past 2 weeks. It's been way fun, except we're both soooo streaky and I'm really inconsistent, and I think however each of us is hitting that day really feeds off the other cause when one of us is off, we're both off, and vice-versa. Either way, it's always great to run around and be active. I'm actually excited Saturday and Sundays will be softball/baseball days for the rest of Spring and Summer. This will be grand.

And let me tell you, a grand don't come for free.

I think going to that Belle & Sebastian concert is the sole reason I've been listening to their latest album and their debut album much more frequently. "The Life Pursuit," released earlier this year, is one of the most catchy albums in their collection, and that's saying ALOT since all of their records are some of the most catchy pop-inspired music ever.

I have two tickets for Sigur Ros left. Need to get rid of them! Anyone in the audience want to buy at facevalue?

It's really weird cause I've read the book but never got around to watching the film until last night, when I was essentially bored and still fairly sore from tennis-ing and going out the night before. It's a really good adapatation from the book, and really, the only thing different is that it takes place in Chicago instead of London. Besides that, it's excellent and really captures the essence of the book. And to honor this great watching-ness, I will give you my top 5 records that inspired the club dance movement:

1. New Order - Blue Monday, 12" Single 1982
Enough said. Done.

That was easy.

what a weird night:
1) parking ticket thing doesnt work and took my money
2) vu's ID is expired and the only place that DIDNT let him in is TRINITY which was where we all were
3) we had a VIP room at Trinity
4) AUSTIN was in town!!! surprise!
5) David Ma was at Trinity and Wingo and Mike actually showed up!!!
6) Jake was asked to be PAID money for sex with some girl from Montana, seriously...
7) A guy wouldnt drive more than 3mph so Jennifer honked and he stopped and got out of his car to talk to us...
8) there was NO WAITING at Beth's Cafe
9) Vu ate about 2 full 12egg servings of HASHBROWNS himself
10) my phone didnt stop ringing. stop bugging me.
11) i have blisters (2 on feet, 1 on hand) and a cut from 2.5 hours of tennis today. worn out!
12) oh yea, ran into Ken who used to work at THE BON with me at Trinity too!!