22 July 2007

Summer TV

For most American TV viewers, summer is the time to go to the movies to avoid the networks' schedule of reruns and garbage reality shows. That perhaps explains why movies make so much money if they're released in the summer.

I, on the other hand, an advanced placement & honors student at school and piano player, am too busy to catch most of the "first-run" TV episodes from the regular TV season. During the 2006-2007 TV season, the only TV shows I watched regularly were both on NBC (a.k.a. The Last-Place Network): Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as well as occasional Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien.

After the AP World History exam - where i got a 4 out of the 5 scale if you don't know already - i began watching more shows since I had more free time. I began watching syndicated CSI: Miami, The Shield, and The Simpsons reruns from the local CW station. Because I do not have cable/satellite at home, and the local Fox and CBS receptions have been terrible since summer 2006, then I am basically shut off from receiving new episodes of these of my favorite shows:

- 24

- 60 Minutes

- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

- CSI: Miami

- Family Guy

- MLB coverage on Fox

- NFL coverage on CBS/Fox :o these are pretty much the only local channels that even show FOOTBALL locally

- The Shield (on FX, the Fox cable channel for those who want an alternative to "The O'Reilly Factor")

- The Simpsons
With the exception of "60 Minutes" and sports, all these TV shows I discovered through syndication (thank goodness) or DVD. However, I occasionally watch FG/Simpsons on my parents' HDTV upstairs, otherwise, I'm shut off from CBS and Fox.

Also, I have been watching "Saturday Night Live" since around AP exam time. I see why that show has been continuously running since 1975: its format appeals to the masses, with the funny skits and all. However, the SNL season ended on 5/19/2007, so this summer I have had to watch SNL reruns with "dated" references - especially the weekend update, which was intended to cover the news around the time the episode was to originally air. But at least I'm not too bored. And speaking of SNL, I recently taped two episodes that might spark some controversy.

The first taped episode I just watched a week ago was a rerun of the 11/11/2006 episode with Alec Baldwin (host) and Christina Aguilera (music), aired on NBC 6/16/2007. Now the reason why that's "controversial" is because back around the winter I tried starting a campaign to cancel her concert from my hometown, but shelved it at request of my friends. I was basing my conclusions of Aguilera based on faulty evidence, such as this biased column written by our best friend, L. Brent "Bozo" Bozell III, the founder of TV's worst enemy, known as the "Parents Television Council". I have now learned that Aguilera is indeed a good live performer, but for now I'm not rushing to download her songs. Still, she is a good live performer, especially with "Hurt" and the duet with Tony Bennett, "Steppin' Out With My Baby".

On the other hand, I watched another SNL rerun from last night - the 12/16/2006 episode hosted by everyone's (but not my) favorite celebrity - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!!! Sure, Justin Timberlake makes a good amateur Dane Cook - heck, Cook ain't even that talented at comedy! However, TimberFAKE's live performances were just lame jokes. Timberlake's high-pitched singing was bad enough on his performance of "My Love", and it got even worse when he relied on his backing vocalists for most of the choruses on both "My Love" and "What Comes Around" - proving that most pop artists can't even hold performances with their own voices. OK, dissers, I know Timberhick even played piano on his "What Comes Around" performance, but hey! Ever heard of Jordan Rudess? I bet you haven't. So Jokin' Timberfake is nothing really more than a contemporary Hollywood celebrity whose fame will end up in the bargain bin/garage sales once I graduate high school in 2009.

Next school year will prove really really busy for me, as I plan on being more involved in school & stuff next year and will take three Advanced Placement courses: American History, English Literature, and (possibly) Calculus AB. Therefore, I doubt I'll be able to catch much good TV next year besides my weekly showing of the second season of Heroes as well as the news & occasional "Jay Leno". Besides, isn't summer supposed to be the opportunity to have as much fun as possible? Therefore, I am using the summer to catch up on as much TV as I can before the earth tilts on its axis, leading way for the rain and cold.

TV I'm regularly watching @ the moment:
- "24" (season 1, DVD)
- "CSI: Miami" (Season 1, syndicated/CW 44)
- "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (online, ComedyCentral.com)
- "Family Guy" (reruns, Fox 2)
- "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (Fridays for "Unnecessary Censorship", ABC 7)
- "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (NBC 11 after Leno)
- "Nightline" (Fridays before Jimmy, ABC 7)
- "Saturday Night Live" (2006/2007, rerun/NBC 11)
- "The Shield" (Season 4, synd/CW 44)
- "The Simpsons" (various reruns from synd/CW 44 and sometimes Fox 2)
- "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC 11)

16 July 2007

12 July 2007

Sharon Osbourne wanted the fees for CHARITY, huh?

According to LiveNation.com, which is selling Ozzfest tickets for the 7/19 concert at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre:

"A portion of the proceeds generated by Premium Seat sales will benefit the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center"

So the "free ticket" thing was pulled simply because Ozzy's wife desperately needed some cash for charity? Geez. Why didn't she come up with this to begin with? That's pretty much the same darned thing as Sharon Osbourne announcing straight-up at an Ozzfest concert in 2004 near Philadelphia (Camden, NJ to be exact) that Rob Halford (the fag who sings for Judas Priest) would substitute for Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath vox just MINUTES before Sabbath was set to perform. In that concert, some fans brought expen$ive front row seats just to see the original Black Sabbath up close. However, due to Rob Halford's unexpected appearance and the "no refund" policy, that pissed off the Sabbath fans. And Sharon Osbourne's done some "Last minute" B.S. again! Geez, how greedy can Ozzy & Sharon get anyways?

And, I'll keep updateing this post to display even MORE evidence that this "freefest" thing was a scam:

More evidence of the Free Ozzfest Ticket scam

(you need to click the image to see the whole thing)


Woo hoo, so those in Seattle who wanted free tickets had to go out-of-town to pick up free tickets - to miss the Second Stage acts and be possibly late to the Main Stage. What a joke. Get your tickets for free and miss practically half the concert. If you've seen my Myspace page lately, if you see the "SCREW YOU OZZY OSBOURNE" thing, you know what i mean. I think we need to file class action lawsuit against Ozzy & his greedy War Pigs. In fact, this isn't the FIRST time Ozzy's been involved in crap. Tommorrow, possibly, I'll blog about all of Ozzy Osbourne's controversies.

But I've seen the Ozzfest Seattle photo gallery, and I guess that the Seattle metalheads must've gone out of their minds just to get tickets. Maybe they got them through promotions by Ozzy Osbourne's new cd "Black Rain", buying Monster Energy drinks, or going on Stubhub. I don't know. Certainly I'm not going to the Mountain View ozzfest, as I'm pretty sure that Live Nation will mistreat me and the other fans as they did to Seattle.

The "free Ozzfest" thing seemed too good to be true at first. And now we've all realized that we were right of our first impression. It's not fair that untalented mainstream "recording artists" like Justin Timberlake or "tours" like Wild 94.9 Bomb (Chris Brown, T-Pain, Bow Wow, Danity Kane, and all sorts of pseudo-hip-pop rappers) or Project Revolution (emo/poser rock like Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, H.I.M.), can organize well, yet tours of REAL recording artists like Ozzfest can't serve their fans well. I hope that Ozzy goes to rehab and makes a better Ozzfest 2008. I'd rather pay for tickets and get good seats than get "free" tickets for a crappy seat right before show time or halfway into the concert.

11 July 2007

To the Ozzfesters in Seattle...

Oh yeah, Ozzfest.com has reported that the first Ozzfest show this year will be held tomorrow in the Seattle, Washington area. Now, my problem with LiveNation.com doesn't just apply for me & the other fans living in my local San Francisco Bay Area, it applies EVERYWHERE ELSE...I've looked up the Live Nation listings for the other American Ozzfest shows, and whether you live in Seattle, Boston, New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Miami, or anywhere else Ozzfest stops this year, you'll run into the same problem as I did. Since the first Ozzfest show happens in less than 12 hour from now (9:30 PM Pacific Time as I speak), I wonder how filled will each theater be? That's gonna be a big mystery, given that it was so hard to obtain tickets for Ozzfest this year by any reasonable means. Hmm...

No ozzfest or rock the bells for me :[

Bad news:
- I have two big math tests tomorrow.
- Rock the Bells, the hip-hop concert tour that'll be in San Francisco on Saturday 8/18, sold out by last week.
- After a month of the free Ozzfest 2007 tickets being offline for unknown reasons, LiveNation.com suddenly put up $75 premium seats tickets online! That's what happened when I visited Livenation.com/ozzfest (where I should have redeemed my free ticket code that I was emailed on my request) and then when I clicked "special offers available" to try to get my ticket, it took me to a page to "buy premium seats", and then I was lead to LiveNation.com, where tickets cost $75. So the "FreeFest" ticket thing was pretty much a joke, I conclude, unless Live Nation changes their mind real quick.

So I'm stuck this summer with Math Analysis and AP work. Oh well, at least I can spend the night of July 19 doing homework while all the hardcore fans are breaking their eardrums and jumping around. At least I have plenty of hip-hop and heavy metal music in my MP3 player and hard drive.

To be clear about the Ozzfest tickets, here's what happened. Earlier this year, tour organizers Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne announced that Ozzfest 2007 would be free in response to the ever-increasing ticket prices for most major musical concert tours. June 12 was when they'd start giving out free tickets, requiring fans to register on Ozzfest.com for a secret code to redeem online so that they could print out their tix from home. I did that on June 12, discovering oddly that the codes weren't redeemable at the time. So the rest of the month, I waited patiently. When July came, they still weren't available free, yet "VIP" packages were on sale. Finally, today was when the ticket prices were increased $75. I suppose this is the last straw. Now through July 19 is not enough for me to arrange transportation and stuff to Mountain View after summer school on 7/19 to see Ozzfest. It was a great opportunity to do so, as I don't have math class Fridays. I don't know who to blame more: myself for not signing up for free tix on time, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne for being greedy, or what else? Maybe they added the $75 because their budget was getting maxed out? What happened?

Regarding Rock the Bells, since most of the featured artists I haven't heard of or I've frequently listen to before, I don't care about going to that concert. Same with Ozzfest - the only Ozzfest '07 bands I currently like are Static-X, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Nile, and Ozzy Osbourne. I despise 3 Inches of Blood for ripping off Iron Maiden, and the rest of the bands I've never even heard of. But Chtonic is particularly special, as they are from Taiwan; I'll try finding their music this weekend. Through TicketMaster.com I have confirmed: Rock the Bells 2007 in San Francisco is SOLD OUT as of right now. Darn. Now I gotta go study for my math tests.

07 July 2007

A busy Saturday out of town, Live Earth, concert tix


Friday, July 6
Woke up at 9AM to go to school to pick up my American History textbook. Why it wasn't available before the last day was beyond me. Then I went home, took a little siesta, played piano, and did math homework. In the evening, I tried getting Ozzfest tickets, but the Live Nation site still doesn't have 'em available, and now they're still not available! Grr! And now Rock the Bells tix to San Francisco are all sold out! So I'm out of luck going to the best concerts I was anticipating this summer.

Saturday, July 7 - the lucky "777" day
In the morning, I returned some library books and Went to a bar mitzvah of a family friend over in Fremont, then had lunch there. Then I went boating and walking at Central Park in Fremont. Went to FYE at Fremont's Newpark Mall and sampled hip-hop and metal music while my parents wandered around the mall. Then had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and got home to watch Live Earth on NBC.

NBC included the Black Eyed Peas' performance of "Where is the Love" in their coverage. The original version featured (cough urrgh) JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE...but the Live Earth performance had female BEP member Fergie (known for such boring songs like "London Bridge", "Fergalicious", "Glamorous", and "Big Girls Don't Cry") singing the hook. Well, I'd like to move on, but first a warning. IF YOU ARE A JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FAN, MOST PARTS OF THE REST OF THIS POST MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR EYES. PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE MOVING ON. STARTING RIGHT NOW, THIS AIN'T JT-FRIENDLY TERRITORY!!!!!! If you want to read the rest, skip the rest of this bolded text. I REPEAT, IF YOU ARE A JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FAN, MOST PARTS OF THE REST OF THIS POST MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR EYES. PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE MOVING ON. STARTING RIGHT NOW, THIS AIN'T JT-FRIENDLY TERRITORY!!!!!! And for a third time, IF YOU ARE A JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FAN, MOST PARTS OF THE REST OF THIS POST MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR EYES. PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE MOVING ON. STARTING RIGHT NOW, THIS AIN'T JT-FRIENDLY TERRITORY!!!!!! OK...here we go now...

You see, Justin Timberlake is a very greedy, rich white man. From 1998 to 2002 he sold millions and millions of records and attracted millions of screaming teenage girls when he performed with the fake, bubblegum pop boy band N'Sync (seriously, how the heck do they spell their name?) Then after the band broke up, he got attention for his affairs with Britney Spears and a solo album in 2003, "Unjustified". In early 2004, as you might recall, you might've known that JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE was the man who during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show tore off part of co-performer Janet Jackson's wardrobe to expose her right breast for 2 seconds. That led to a national debate over decency, so the FCC fined Super Bowl broadcaster CBS over half a million $$$, began the era of "Not-so-quite-live" TV (in plain English, all live broadcast TV shows must have a 5-15 second delay to prevent the broadcast of any obscenities), and led "moral panic" to lead the conservative Christian voters of America to vote for the worst excuse for an American president, GEORGE W. BUSH!!! Conclusion? Justin Timberlake supports President Bush!! What a cockface!

Then, you might've known that Timberlake is a bestselling singer despite the fact that his only "talent" is singing with an annoyingly high voice that rips off other TOLERABLE "high-pitched" singers like Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Ronnie James Dio (1980s-era Black Sabbath, Dio), Prince, Michael Jackson (yes I can stand MJ despite the "child molesting" thing), Axl Rose (Guns n' Roses), you name it. In 2006, his music polluted the national music scene once against with "SexyBack", "My Love", etc. on his NEW Cd, "Future Sex and Love Sounds". The album was a #1 album with several #1 hits, while after the Super Bowl thing Janet Jackson was treated like the SUSPECT (although it was really Justin's fault) so Jackson's sales faultered, despite the fact she's actually tolerable. So, while misogynistic, greedy ol' Timberlake gets nonstop radio and MTV airplay, you actually have to go BUY Janet Jackson's new CD's (post-"Damita Jo") just to even HEAR them...new Janet Jackson gets as much airplay on terrestrial radio as Howard Stern. (And do you know where "The Howard Stern Show" is broadcast now? XM Sattelite Radio!) So what's our lesson here? Misogyny (defamation of women) is acceptable! In fact, on "Entertainment Tonight" the day after the Super Bowl halftime show or so, JT said that the exposure was "fun". FUN? Excuse me? When mainstream music is filled with rappers overuseing the words "b-tch" and "h-" and girls are having unprotected sex? So Justin Timberlake is teaching America that is it totally acceptable to disrespect women.

And how many times have you heard Justin Timberlake participating in any humanitarian work or efforts to reform the world? None, compared to actions by Michael Jackson, Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Sum 41, Jay-Z, and even gangsta rappers like David Banner and T.I.! But what was JT doing all that time? Well, Justin Timberlake was wallowing in all his riches he got from NSync and "Unjustified" and "Future Sex and Love Sounds", while jerking off to his archived video of his performance at the Super Bowl 2004 halftime show with Janet Jackson's exposed breast. So, with little justification, I go to a school where intelligent teenage girls who claim to be "moral" supporting a man who supports an incompetent president, misogyny, and materialism, just because he's "cute". Wow. Well this is all the truth about why I loathe JT and wish he should be shot. Why didn't the UK car bombers target the Justin Timberlake concerts that were taking place in the UK this week? Geez, what dumbasses. If you're a JT fan who read all this, be shocked and prepared to destroy all your NSYNC/JT garbage.

And finally for my fellow anti-JT people, here's some fuel for your laughs:

- MTV, Video Music Awards, 2003: this year's host Chris Rock, known for his profane comedic routine that included monologues like "N__gas vs. Black People", mentioned Timberlake in his intro monologue:


- CBS, The Late Show with David Letterman, 2/8/2007 - Christina Aguilera was reading the Top Ten list tonight. Watch for item #6 for Timberlake. Also, #7 is pretty funny, but it's not JT-related. Watch on Real Player
- CBS, The Late Show with David Letterman, 2/9/2007: Another top ten list. Watch for #2 for your anti-JT joke. Watch on RealPlayer

06 July 2007

Math analysis and other stuff

So far I've been takin' the Precalculus and Trigonometry math courses at Evergreen Valley College four days a week, four hours a day. So far I'm getting A's in both classes, haveing gotten A's in all exams taken in those clases so far. In those classes, I get to see my friends from evhs Tom, Jamie, and Jagbir. I also got to see some girls I knew from Chaboya back in 8th grade, they went to Silver Creek or otherplaces. In my Precalculus class, Kunal drops in to socialize, even though he doesn't take class at that time. Wow.

Also, I've seen a few of the Japanese acts from Live Earth, courtesy streaming coverage from CFTO 9 (CTV affiliate of Toronto, Canada and MSN. On CTV, I got to see only part of the set by Japanese metal band Rize before they switched to the Sydney, Australia concert with all these light pop bands I could care less for. Thus, I switched to MSN, where I heard Ayaka and Ai Otsuka. I enjoyed them.

However, tommorrow I've got to go to a friend's bar mitzvah, so I'll be asleep the rest of the Asian concerts (That includes Tokyo, Shanghai, and Kyoto). Also, I'll miss the Hamburg concert, where Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden) and Snoop Dogg will perform, and since I'll be gone tomorrow from 10 A.M. to the afternoon I suppose, I'll have to watch tape-delayed coverage on NBC from 8P.M. to 11P.M. that day.

Also, this morning, I picked up my AP United States History textbook. That reminds me: Start notes on the first 5 chapters. Given that I took AP World History last school year, those notes shouldn't be too much trouble, compared to the AP English Lit and Calculus homework. Ooh...