8 December marks the death of two musical legends

Image courtesy Wikipedia

On 8 December 1980, former Beatles guitarist was shot and killed at his New York City apartment by crazed fan Mark David Chapman, who now remains imprisoned in New York and has been repeatedly denied parole. This is Lennon's 1971 hit "Imagine", from the album of the same name. That song, with its lyrics "Imagine there's no countries/It isn't hard to do/...no religion too" remains a classic anthem for peace and unity among humankind. According to Wikipedia, "Lennon was responsible for 27 Billboard Hot 100 [the American music chart] number one singles as performer, writer or co-writer."



As for his work with the Beatles, who performed together during the 1960s, among the hits that Lennon wrote included "Hey Jude" (1968):


"Hello Goodbye" was part of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour:



Another one of my favourite Magical Mystery songs are "Penny Lane"



This is a clip from The Beatles Anthology of the Beatles performing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1963). I guess this should be the theme song of me and other single college guys



Another relatable Beatles song, this one from 1964, "It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog..."





The other musical legend who died on this day, also from being shot to death, was "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, guitarist for the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan; he died in 2004 after being shot during a Damageplan concert in Ohio. The shooter, Nathan Gale, was allegedly angry at Dimebag for breaking up Pantera. This is "Cemetery Gates" from Pantera's 1990 debut album Cowboys from Hell:



Another signature American heavy metal masterpiece, this time a lot louder and faster: "Walk" (1992):

Pantera - Headbangers Ball - MTV Shows

Dimebag joined Damageplan in 2003; that band released one album, New Found Power, in 2004. This is "Breathing New Life", the lead single from the album:

Damageplan - Headbangers Ball - MTV Shows

For the 1999 movie Detroit Rock City, Pantera covered Ted Nugent's 1970s hit "Cat Scratch Fever":



RIP, John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell Abbott, two musical legends still revered by many today for their immense, diverse talents.

Shuffle sessions, 21 July

Shuffle #1 (11AM) 5 songs that pretty much reveal the diversity of my playlist.
- Hall & Oates: "Kiss on My List" (Voices, 1980) *1980s, pop, East Coast (Philadelphia)
- Fleetwood Mac: "Landslide" (Fleetwood Mac, 1975) *1970s, acoustic, rock, UK
- The Notorious B.I.G.: "Me & My Bitch" (Ready to Die, 1994) *1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC)
- Alice in Chains: "No Excuses" (Jar of Flies, 1994) *1990s, alt/indie, grunge, West Coast (Seattle)
- The Black Dahlia Murder: "When the Last Grave Has Emptied" (Unhallowed, 2005) *2000s, death metal, Midwest (Waterford/Detroit, MI)

Shuffle #2 (1PM) organized by genre and (!) ethnicity (3 straight songs from African-American artists; then 3 straight rock songs). Two British songs.
- Pink Floyd: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pts. 6-11" (Wish You Were Here, 1975) *1970s, progressive rock, UK
- Ray Charles: "What'd I Say" (What'd I Say, 1959) *1950s, jazz, soul, rock, African-American, South (Leesburg, GA)
- Jimi Hendrix: "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" (Electric Ladyland, 1968) *1960s, rock, psychadelic, African-American, UK
- Lil Wayne: "A Milli" (Tha Carter III, 2008) *2000s, hip hop, South (New Orleans), African-American
- She & Him: "I Was Made for You" (Volume One, 2008) *2000s, alt/indie, West Coast (Portland, OR)
- Staind: "Just Go" (Dysfunction, 1999) *1990s, post-grunge, alt metal, East Coast (Springfield, MA)
- Maroon 5: "Makes Me Wonder" (It Won't Be Soon Before Long, 2007) *2000s, rock, West Coast (Los Angeles)

Shuffle #3 (4PM) all but 1 were hip hop, and mostly from the 90s
- Public Enemy: "911 Is a Joke" (Fear of a Black Planet, 1990) *1990s, hip hop, political, East Coast (Philadelphia)
- Steve Miller Band: "Baby's House" (Your Saving Grace, 1969) *1960s, rock, West Coast (San Francisco)
- Public Enemy: "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" (Fear of a Black Planet, 1990) *1990s, hip hop, political, East Coast (Philadelphia)
- Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West and Common: "Make Her Say" (Man in the Moon: The End of Day, 2009) *2000s, hip hop, Midwest (Cleveland; Chicago)
- Nas featuring Dr. Dre: "Nas Is Coming" (It Was Written, 1996) *1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC), West Coast (LA)

Shuffle #4 (5PM) Now all but 1 were metal (from outside US)
- Lacuna Coil: "Our Truth" (Karmacode, 2006) *2000s, goth metal, Italy
- Soulfly: "Back to the Primitive" (Primitive, 2000) *2000s, alt metal, Brazil
- A Tribe Called Quest: "Buggin' Out" (The Low End Theory, 1991) *1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC)
- Kataklysm: "Cripped & Broken" (In the Arms of Devestation, 2006) *2000s, death metal, Canada

More adventures in shuffling

Shuffle #1 (around 11AM): bounced between the '90s and '00s and all from the Eastern or Southern US
- Death: "Symbolic" (Symbolic, 1995) *1990s, death metal, South (Orlando)
- Anti-Flag: "The Project for a New American Century" (For Blood and Empire, 2006) *2000s, punk, East Coast (Pittsburgh)
- The Notorious B.I.G.: "Unbelievable" (Ready to Die, 1994) *1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC)
- Shadows Fall: "Destroyer of Senses" (The Art of Balance, 2002) *2000s, thrash metal, East Coast (Springfield, MA)
- Eminem featuring Dr. Dre and 50 Cent: "Encore" (Encore, 2004) *2000s, hip hop, Midwest (Detroit), East Coast (NYC), West Coast (LA)
- Wale featuring Weensey and Gucci Mane: "Pretty Girls" (Attention Deficit, 2009) *2000s, hip hop, East Coast (DC), South (Atlanta)

Shuffle #2 (lunchtime): majority being 2000s; bounced between rock and hip hop for a while; all from West Coast/East Coast/Midwest
- Game featuring Bilal: "Cali Sunshine" (LAX, 2008) *2000s, hip hop, West Coast (Los Angeles)
- Bruce Springsteen: "Devils and Dust" (Devils and Dust, 2005) *2000s, rock, acoustic, East Coast (New Jersey near NYC)
- Jay-Z featuring Drake and Timbaland: "Off That" (The Blueprint 3, 2009) *2000s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC), Canada
- System of a Down: "Prison Song" (Toxicity, 2001) *2000s, alt metal, West Coast (LA), political
- Alice in Chains: "Rooster" (Dirt, 1992) *1990s, grunge, West Coast (Seattle), political
- Nas: "Sly Fox" (Untitled, 2008) *2000s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC), political
- Nine Inch Nails: "Survivalism" (Year Zero, 2007) *2000s, alt metal, Midwest (Cleveland), political
- Santana: "Black Magic Woman" (Abraxas, 1970) *1970s, rock, psychadelic, West Coast (San Francisco)
- Smashing Pumpkins: "Cherub Rock" (Siamese Dream, 1993) *1990s, alt/indie, grunge, Midwest (Chicago)

Shuffle #3 (afternoon ride home):
- Jay-Z featuring UGK: "Big Pimpin'" (Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter, 1999) *1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC), South (Houston)
- Chops featuring Raekwon: "What's Fuckin' Wit' Us" (Virtuosity, 2004): *2000s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC)
- Snoop Dogg featuring B-Real: "Vato" (Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, 2006): *2000s, hip hop, West Coast (LA)
- The Beatles: "Yesterday" (Help!, 1965): 1960s, rock, acoustic, UK
- The Black Dahlia Murder: "A Vulgar Picture" (Miasma, 2005): 2000s, death metal, Midwest (Waterford/Detroit, MI)
- Foxy Brown featuring Jay-Z: "I'll Be" (Ill Na Na, 1996): 1990s, hip hop, East Coast (NYC)
- Hall & Oates: "Kiss on My List" (Voices, 1980): 1980s, pop, East Coast (Philadelphia)

Shuffle degrees of separation

On my way home today on the bus I was listening to my Sansa e250 MP3 player on shuffle. These songs all have some sort of genre/generational organisation. Tags for categories follow titles.

- Snoop Dogg featuring Dr. Dre and D'Angelo: "Imagine" (Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, 2006) *2000s
- In Flames: "Leeches" (Come Clarity, 2006) *2000s, international (Sweden)
- The Beatles: "The Fool on the Hill" (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967) *1960s, oldies, international (UK)
- The Doors: "Touch Me" (The Soft Parade, 1969) *1960s, oldies, West Coast
- Game featuring 50 Cent: "Westside Story" (The Documentary, 2005) *2000s hip hop
- Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys: "Empire State of Mind" (The Blueprint 3, 2009) *2000s hip hop
- Rage Against the Machine: "Freedom" (Rage Against the Machine, 1992) *1990s alternative rock, hip hop, West Coast
- Alice in Chains: "Heaven Beside You" (MTV Unplugged, 1996; originally from Alice in Chains, 1995) *1990s alternative rock, West Coast
- Pink Floyd: "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" (Wish You Were Here, 1975) *rock
- Fat Joe: "Success (DJ Premier remix)" (Jealous One's Envy, 1995) *1990s hip hop, East Coast
- The Notorious B.I.G.: "Big Poppa" (Ready to Die, 1994) *1990s hip hop, East Coast
- She & Him: "Change Is Hard" (Volume One, 2008) *2000s, alt/indie, female vocalist
- Duffy: "Mercy" (Rockferry, 2008) *2000s, alt/indie, female vocalist, international (UK)
- The Guess Who: "No Time" (American Woman, 1970) *oldies, international (Canada)
- The Beatles: "Penny Lane" (Magical Mystery Tour, 1967) *oldies, international (UK)
- Death Cab for Cutie: "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" (Plans, 2005) *alt/indie
- Rage Against the Machine: "Know Your Enemy" (Rage Against the Machine, 1992) *alt/indie
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "All Along the Watchtower" (Electric Ladyland, 1968) *oldies
- Mos Def: "Beef" (Rawkus Records: Best of Decade I 1995-2005, 2005) *2000s, hip hop
- Lamb of God: "Laid to Rest" (Ashes in the Wake, 2003) *2000s, metal

My own summer - I love it!

(apologies to fans of Deftones, a band that I also like, regarding their song "My Own Summer (Shove It)", one of my favorite metal songs ever)

Summer so far has been greatly lawless for me. The third week of summer is beginning, with just a few days to go before we Americans celebrate our 232nd year free from tyrannical British rule and as an independent nation. Yippee! Also on the 11th I'm leaving for a week up in the Yellowstone National Park and some other places in the Rockies.

The first two weeks, I admit, have been a bit unproductive. My average daily wake-up is usually at 9:30-10:30am, and sleep usually 11-11:45PM, the same late-night timeslots when I've had to sleep during the Junior Year of Abominations (especially AP English Literature). During the day, my usual activities: TV, workouts, reading. Nope, I've never done anything majorly "social" this summer yet; hopefully I can do so on Independence from Britain day - hell, school has been over for about 18 days, and I still express pedantic obsessions (yes, "pedantic" is an SAT word, look it up in a dictionary if you've been playing too much Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

Starting on Monday the 23rd I joined cross country training. I think I will be improving my running over the course of the training, but I'm doubtful about going to the team. But at least going to the team = enhancer for college apps.

On Thursday the 26th, I got my SAT Subject Test scores back. Spanish = 520; US History = 690 (I thought I'd get a 750 on that one!!). So now is crunch time for me: October 4 =retaking SAT I (first attempt on May 3 was a 1990); November 1 = retaking US History and possibly the English Literature test if I get a 3 or below on that test.

Saturday the 28th, spent the day at the library, home, watched some TV, edited Wikipedia, slept too late again.

Sunday the 29th, went to lunch at Chinese restaurant with family, went to Barnes & Noble trying to find a copy of Chris Matthews' book Hardball in the political books section (actually its called "current affairs"). No luck, but I did reserve it at the library. However I did find some interesting political books there:
- The Real America by Glenn Beck, host of his self-titled program on talk radio stations nationwide and on the CNN Headline News channel. I borrowed his other more recent book An Inconvenient Book, which has some pretty funny and intelligent commentaries to issues in America such as political correctness, global warming, and poverty. One part of Real America I did read was Beck's take on abortion, which he supports only for women in the most dire conditions (such as rape or any other disgusting extramarital B.S.). Now I have to tell you, although I'm a liberal, I have to say that Beck is arguably one of the "smarter" conservatives (unlike [coughcough] Ann Coulter/Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reilly) who actually tries to use his brain. The part about the "women in dire needs" in the abortion debate is rarely uttered by any right-wing commentator I've heard. Thumbs up Beck! The other chapter I looked through was one on "Celebrities", with the typical conservative belief that Hollywood has...well...a liberal bias! Basically, the simplest explanation for that would be it's a more comfortable opinion against Big Entertainment...unlike some of the more extreme rhetoric pushed by groups like Parents Television Council.
- The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce, who considers herself on her own website one of the most bizarre political positions I've ever seen: "openly gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, voted-for-President Bush authentic feminist" and "lifelong Democrat". Yes, you've seen all those normally conservative/Republican positions back there...and the vote for Bush...and the dreaded long "F-word" (generally conservatives opposed feminism)...and then the word "Democrat". However, I have read another similar book by a "conservative democrat", A Deficit of Decency by former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller. In the book, Bruce condemns what she considers sex education and its "robbing innocence from kids", vulgar rap music in the popular culture, and other travesties such as moral relativism. But Bruce's book also discussed two other issues that I became so interested in that I looked them up online once I got home:
-- In 2002, a student of Lakeland Community College near Cleveland, Ohio nearly failed a criminal justice class for not wearing a pink ribbon for "Gay Pride Day". Although Bruce has confirmed she is, err, of the "other" sexual orientation, she opposes "LGBT pride" type of stuff as she believes that sexuality is a private matter. This sort of opened my mind a bit: ALL "oppressed" minorities have been known to hold "____ Pride" events for their respective groups over the years, including black pride dating back in the Civil Rights Movement era. Then I was thinking to myself: "It's really the anti-gay conservative's fault that the LGBT community needs to hold 'pride events' yearly: Because they need to push for tolerance!" If conservatives had grasped a hold of reality and accepted that sexual orientation is indeed genetic then there wouldn't have been as much "LGBT Pride" to begin with. I do accept that sexual orientation and genetics have a close relation, but I personally prefer heterosexuality. Speaking of which, Bruce also speculates what would've happened if the college ever held a "Heterosexual Pride Day": All hell would've broken loose! Similarly, I've always wondered why "minorities" (such as gays/blacks/Asians/other non-white/straight people) are allowed to express "pride" but for majorities (white in America) there's a taboo?
--Also Bruce brought up a 2002 controversy regarding the 9/11 (Patriot Day) commemorations in the University of California-Berkeley. She complained about how two students requested white ribbons instead of the usual red/white/blue to express dissatisfaction of President George W. Bush's handling of post-9/11 domestic policy. What i didn't find in her book (maybe because she ommitted it for a stronger argument?) was that UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Berdahl quickly countered that the "unpatriotic" celebration was NOT a campus-wide thing!! If it was indeed ommitted, then obviously it shows her bias - which the liberal group Media Matters for America has documented.
- And Jack Huberman, the liberal author of the hilarious 2006 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America (a response to conservative Bernard Goldberg's 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America) has a new book for 2007: The GOP-Hater's Handbook - let the title explain itself, Huberman finds every reason to trash disgraceful, lying Republicans!

After B&N, went home to study SAT vocabulary, chill, watch Gossip Girl and One tree hill.

gnight

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.

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.

Summer so far

So far, summer has been relaxing, but the relaxation will slowly wear away as I proceed to do the following activities this summer, among others:
1. From now until 7/27 I take summer math classes at Evergreen Valley College- Precalculus and Trigonometry - to advance to AP Calculus AB in my junior year. Passing those courses means another AP exam to study for in junior year.
2. For AP English Literature class, I will have to do analyses on selections from the Chrisitian Holy Bible and Aristotle's Poetics, as well as the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. This will take up the majority of my summer work. All those works look pretty darn hard to me.
3. On Monday, July 2, I will go to the school bookroom to pick up my AP United States History textbook. I don't see why we didn't get to pick it up before the last day of school. That will be also the day I'll start U.S. History notings.
4. Other things to do in summer include piano, basketball, fitness, voluntterring, SAT, college research, and other stuff to enhance my college transcript.

The last week of school was a blast. I got a lot of signatures in my yearbook, especially from the class of 2007, Ruby, and Tina. Also, I had photos taken with Ruby and Tina! Now, lately I've been asking around for those photos, and I'm not gonna be so cynical as to think they've been destroyed. Oh well, there's always next year & the dances & junior prom. But schoolwork & my brain come first.

In addition, I'm enjoying summer math classes so far, but I predict they'll get harder every day. But I had gotten A's in both semester of Algebra II last year, so I predict I will not "bomb" the class, but I'll at least get grades acceptable enough to advance to APCAB in September if I study hard enough and pay attention. So far, I've been paying attention and taking notes everyday. My clases take place Monday-Thursday, with the Trigonometry course from 8:15-10:15AM and Precalculus 10:25AM-12:25PM - those two classes combined equal one year of Math Analysis @ EVHS, so I advance to AP Calculus AB passing those two classes.

I've almost finished my weekend math assignments. In the meantime, today, I had piano lessons, then came home for math, the computer, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, West Side Story, Mobb Deep, and Depeche Mode.

Tomorrow: Finish math assignments, study math, practice piano, watch Steamboy, analyse the Bible for AP English, and more.

School over? Not quite....

So school ended today, and I spent a lot of time with my friends for the last time before summer, especially RubyAngela. Today, I got to have photos taken with Ruby and Tina. It was so darned hot all day that I struggled in my PE final. Luckily, since I got A's in the 4th and 5th marking periods, and I think I did very well in the softball quiz, I hope I can still get an A in PE this second semester. I also have A's in Algebra 2, Chemistry, and Spanish 2, and B's in AP World History and English 2A. Next year, my classes include (tentatively) Spanish 3, Biology, AP English Literature, and AP U.S. History. If I get at least B grades in both Precalculus and Trigonometry classes that I will take at Evergreen Valley College starting this Monday 6/18, then I can take AP Calculus AB in 2007/08. So I will still be busy until 7/27, when my summer math classes end.

Meanwhile, the recreational activities I plan to do this summer are two extreme concerts: heavy metal tour Ozzfest (7/19, Shoreline Ampitheater, Mountain View) featuring bands like Static-X, Hatebreed, Ozzy Osbourne, Lamb of God, Daath, etc. and hip-hop tour Rock the Bells (8/18, McCovey Cove, San Francisco) featuring MC's like Rage Against the Machine (rap-metal band), Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, and more. I registered for a redemption code for the free ozzfest tix on 6/12 and am waiting to be able to register the code online so i can download/print my free ticket. Then I need to arrange to take Caltrain to Mountain View for Ozzfest. As for Rock the Bells, if I still have piano lessons in August 18, then I can't go. I'll just wait and see.

Anyway, all have a great summer! And I love Ruby and Tina.

Remaining school & Summer Plans

With Memorial Day weekend approaching, many of you may be thinking of summer now, as there are only 14 days of school remaining. Indeed, I have a lot of cool stuff to do over the summer. They include:

1. I will take Math Analysis at Evergreen Valley College this summer, a combination of their courses "Math 21" (Precalculus) and "Math 22" (Trigonometry). If I get at least a B in both these courses, then I can take AP Calculus AB in my junior year.

2. The summer will also introduce at least two concert tours coming locally in the SF Bay Area. (Screw you, Jokin' Timberfake.) The concerts that I am especially looking forward to include, as I know right now: On Thursday 7/19 in the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View will be the FREE OzzFest 2007, the 12th annual installment of the heavy metal music tour founded by lead singer of founding heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. Hopefully, I can keep my grades up this year and in summer school so I can go there. However, this will technically be considered a "school night" given that summer school will end on 7/27, so I hope maybe a delay might let me go there. If I can't go to Ozzfest, then I can attend the Rock the Bells hip-hop concert, headlined by reunited rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine and hardcore rap group Wu-Tang Clan. It will be held in the parking lot at McCovey Cove on Saturday 8/18 at noon. The focus of the concert will be on hip-hop, as most of the other headliners are alternative hip-hop acts, and the headliners are hip-hop in some way. The guests include Immortal Technique, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and many other true MC's who you might've never heard of from Wild 94.9, BET, or MTV. (106 KMEL does play mostly mainstream hip-hop, but dedicates weekend evenings to the obscure but juicier stuff) That is at least gonna keep me happy this summer if I can't go to ozzfest.

3. I should start going out more often, including for working/community service. I'm considering working for the Lunardi's at Evergreen Village Squre, and volunteering at the Evergreen Library and other places.

4. I recently read in the San Francisco Chronicle about the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" of 1967 being celebrated by the "hippies" there. Thus, maybe I wanna create my own "Summer of Love", maybe i should find a girl before the end of the year and do all sortsa crazy stuff with her in the summer of 2007, 40 years after masses of young people in SF and elsewhere began freedom of social lives.


But remember, I did say there were 14 days of school left, so I need to work on my AP World History presentation where I act as Harry Truman giving a "farewell" speech to American tv viewers, and study for finals for Chemistry, Algebra 2, and Spanish. Indeed, I'm not sure if Mr West will give us an English final exam, but I will expect a final project

Youtube & Copyright

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you might have heard about Viacom, which owns TV channels like Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, or VH1, suing Youtube for copyright infringement. That meant that three videos on my Myspace page were pulled. To be precise, they were: a segment of the VH1 special 40 Greatest Metal Songs covering Korn's "Freak on a Leash", part of an episode of MTV2's Headbanger's Ball covering the death of former Pantera/Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, and a scene from the South Park episode "Go God Go" where Ms. Garrison taught a screwed form of evolution. Well I understand why they'd remove the Korn and South Park videos. But how DARE they remove the Headbanger's Ball videos! MTV Overdrive has Headbangers Ball dating back only to December 2005, and because Dimebag Darrell died on December 2004, Youtube was pretty much the only way we Pantera/Damageplan fans could re-watch such a tragic event. Now his death is gonna be forgotten just because of corporate greed. If it weren't bad enough for Viacom to be promoting Justin Timberlake on MTV all the time despite his actions in that Super Bowl halftime show in 2004 with Janet Jackson, or removing the music videos from MTV and VH1. Sheesh! But when I was searching for HBB videos on Youtube again, to check if people re-uploaded the Dimebag Darrell videos, I found this: There is going to be a new band established as a joint between members of Pantera, Mudvayne, and Nothingface called Hellyeah. Big Vin Records posted this promo up on Youtube, LEGALLY:

Now I hope that later on they can re-post Headbangers Ball coverage of Dimebag Darrell's death.

boring friday

So here's what happened at school today:
Algebra II - Just some boring review of absolute value equations for the finals that're coming on Wendesday. Wee.
Chemistry - The last 10 mins of that boring Nova Einstein docu-narrated-drama AGAIN, and then a worksheet reviewing scientific notation and stoiciometry.
AP World History - Presentation on the French Revolution
English - Drafted the last real-world parallel of my final exam/essay, this time for Lord of the Flies. Surprisingly, Mr West let us listen to MP3 Players/iPods in class, which reminded me that I shoulda bough my Sansa E350 with me so Rachel woudn't hafta force me to listen to F**kin' Timberfake (Justin Timberlake properly). So that Rachel wouldn't hafta torture me again, I had to let Tina sit in my seat while I sat in the corner of the room near the exit. Anyway, how'd she torture me perhaps? (first) she put the earbud near me so I heard two seconds of "Sexy Back", (second) she showed me a full sheet of paper in green: "I [heart] Justin Timberlake". In the back, I wrote a pledge to the late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell - whose music we all treasure and love - and told her "Pantera pwns Mr Timberfake". Geez, why didn't Nathan Gale get his head checked and come to San jose to shoot Timberfake? In fact, how did Timberfake get away with exposing Janet Jackson's you-know-what in the Super Bowl XXXVIII hafltime show back in 2004, hurting the sales of Jackson's new CD's? Wow, what a crappy society we live in!
PE - Basketball in the large gym.
Spanish - I got to check my answers to the 175-question final exam I took yesterday, and I began memorizing my script to the vidoe project I'm doing with Brian, shooting will take place this sunday.

Now, in case you haven't heard, after I'm done with the chemistry final on Thursday, I'll start outlineing a book that I'm titling: The Conspiracy Behind Justin. I'm imagining the cover art to look sonething like those "Future Sex & Love Sounds Tour" promo, except it's gonna show JT's back and in big letters: CONSPIRACY. "The", "Behind Justin" will be smaller. The book will basically explore how the heezy that JT got a record deal with a major label in the first place, how he sold out N'Sync (who cares if i spell it wrong), how he got away with the Super Bowl 2004 controversy to get "Sexy Back" and "My Love" to be #1 hits in recent months, and much more sith about Timberfake! If you want some good music, look just below, or listen to the bands that are on the Last.fm charts in the music section of my main Myspace profile page. Now, excuse me while I go study some math.

Headbangers Ball 2006 recap special

Yesterday at a friends house who had Direct TV (I don't even have cable/satellite at home, I watch TV analogue atenna & record TV with my VCR), I was watching part of the "Best of Metal Videos 2006" special on MTV2. I started with Avenged Sevenfold's "Seize the Day", which was #8 out of the top 15. The evening before yesterday, Nikki Blakk, the DJ at local rock station KSAN-FM "107.7 the Bone" claimed that countdowns were for "Casey Kasem and all that pop crap". Yeah right, Jamey Jasta (host of MTV2's Headbanger's Ball) seemed more open-minded. Plus, given that he is a VJ at an MTV network, and MTV has the contriversial maintsream countdown show Total Request Live, then it's justified. Oh well. Anyway, it took me a while to get used to "Seize the Day" by A7X, given that their newest CD, City of Evil, strays them a bit from their metalcore roots in their earlier CD's Sounding the Seventh Trumpet and Waking the Fallen. Currently, the A7X song I bang to is "Unholy Confessions", from the MTV2 Headbangers Ball, Vol. 2 album. Anyway, here's what I think of the next top videos that were played on the Headbangers Ball yesterday, based on votes at MTV2.com:
7. Unearth "Giles" (4/5) - don't really care for the video, but the song was intense and banging, with crushing gutiars and lightning-fast drumming.
6. All That Remains "This Calling" (5/5) - the video depicts a woman in stress, accompanying this dark dramatic song with a catchy guitar lead.
5. As I Lay Dying "The Darkest Nights" (5/5) - who cares if their a Christian band? At least their not untalented posers like Jars of Clay or Kutless! This video rocks, with AILD's usual crushing guitars and fast-paced drumming, with religious themes proving that not all heavy metal music has to be secular or Satanic.
4. Dragonforce "Operation Ground and Pound" (2/5) - although Dragonforce has talented guitarists and drummer, they fail to put all their talent to work, as they play all their songs with the usually similar fast-paced structure and BPM with little variety, and their vocalist, Herman Li, has a bothersome high-pitched voice that lessens the appeal of the song. I'm not too crazy for power metal, so I recommend this only for die-hard power metalheads.
3. Powerman 5000 "Wild World" (4/5) - Good video, good alt-metal track from the band of Spider, who is Rob Zombie's brother.
2. Atreyu "Ex's and Oh's" (4/5) - Atreyu rocks with this video and screamo track. Forget regular emo like Panic at the Disco, which I consider poser pop punk.
1. Dir en grey "Saku" (3/5/5) - Whoa, I'm pretty surprise that a Japanese rock band would get the best metal video of 2006. I couldn't really understand the lyrics, but I know that this band has good musicianship, but the vocalist's goth look sorta crepps me out.

So overall i thank those who voted on mtv2.com and I hope that HBB will have a good 2007 season as it had in 2006. meanwhile, you can watch this mentioned ep, as well as past eps, on hbb.mtv2.com.

In other news, I just looked up the Best Metal Performance nominees for the 2007 Grammy Awards, and they are:
- Lamb of God "Redneck" (4/5) - Still a good LOG track despite being on hard rock radio playlists in Denver and San Francisco. I first heard this song on listening to Denver-based hard rock radio station KBPI. The video is also pretty humourous. However, I know heavier LOG songs.
- Mastodon "Colony of Birchmen" (4/5) - I was just listening to a 30-sec clip of this on iTunes, it sounds good, and Mastodon's good too with their unique sludge/progressive metal sound.
- Ministry "Lies, Lies, Lies" (3/5) - Decent death metal song, but the chorus is repetitive, and Ministry isn't really that special.
- Slayer "Eyes of the Insane" (5/5) - The best song of the bunch. This song is about the War in Iraq. It basically points the "eyes" to President Bush and Tom Araya shows his angst against the War in Iraq for all the deaths and such. I hope this song wins, given it's political influence.
- Stone Sour "30/30-150" (4/5) - Good track from Corey Taylor's side-project from Slipknot. Unlike most of the other tracks on Stone Sour's new CD, which are practically slower and sound more "hard rock" oriented (think Metallica's Load and Reload), this track is Slipknot-reminiscent.

Happy new year everyone!

Falling to an Unspeakable Urge....

As we music fans mourn today, 8 December, as the anniversaries of the deaths of musicians John Lennon (one of the singers/guitarists of the Beatles who died today in 1980) and "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (former guitarist for the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, d. 2004), today in this year 2006 also was the day when students in Evergreen Valley High School were to turn in their applications to run for ASB office. That also marked the end of a certain thing you'll get to know once you're done reading this.

As many of you knew, I originally had an application, and all the week after thanksgiving vacation I was arguing with Kathleen and Alyson regarding survival within the office. They were good Democrats who were willing to follow anything the mass student body would bring up, and then in there arguments, I relised (conciously) that I wouldn't be a reputable leader because they pointed out that I wanted to lead the ASB like a dictator.

I felt the urge to campaign my new dictatorship to the EVHS students because of all the BS that's gone on within EVHS activities in recent times, such as:
- The cruddy homecomings and the 2006 Battle of the Classes (as of today I don't know about the 2007BOTC)
- The horrendous, junk, overplayed corporate radio music that gets played during lunch, with bias toward rap, R&B, and poser emo pop punk rock.
- The lunchtime activities that make me want to puke out my lunch

There are others I'm sure I've forgotten. This urge led my ego to urge me to be a democrat like Kathleen is right now as c/o 2009 president and be more open midned about the mass student bodys opinions. Then my id told me not to listen to my liberal Democratic side and summon to my Mao Zedong side, which convinced me that ruling like he did back in the Communist revolution in China would do better for EVHS's ASB. My superego and ego fight back, convincing me to be more like John Kerry and Phil Angelides. My id throws a bunch of burning Japanese flags and swatsikas in front of me, convincing that Hitler = supreme. My head spins as I try to fill in my application, with my running getting hyped across all my classes, and even ppl in my classes who i rarely talked to were excited. I couldn't fill in my application, because I had no idea how to given the fight earlier between my id (Communist Party of China) and ego (Democratic Party of USA). Finally, I could take no more. After the weekend of 1 December confusing myself with my id and ego and the next couple days of confusion as well, on Tuesday 5 December I returned my application up to the door at the activites office, giving up. And then today, 8 December came, with a black cat looming at my backyard, reminding me of the spirits of John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell. It also reminded me that some people who suported these pathetic activities are turning in their apps, and I'm gonna suffer a week in hell with their nonsensical campaigns.

So, peoples, with my story of things learned from my English class who was reading William Golding's Lord of the Flies, you have understood that my id caused me not to run. Then it convinced me that I can have more to camapign for in the class elections in May, after 5 months of additional bull I mentioned above. So after 5 months of homework, piano, basketball, logging EVHSBS, studying in AP World History, preparing to skip 11th grade, etc., YOU WILL FIND my name in your ballott on 25 May 2007, I swear! By May 2007, I will have a far fiercer and stronger campaign than what I could've made right now if I did it.

Now, I need some sleep.

Oh, if your curious about all this psychological language I was just using, check out this handout from my English teacher. It's a PDF file, so you need the latest version of Acrobat Reader to view it, and you need to rotate it clockwise within the application, as for some reason the document was flipped sidways.

R.I.P. John Lennon, 9 October 1940-8 December 1980
R.I.P. "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, 20 August 1966-8 December 2004

Book review: "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America"

Book: 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

Author: Bernard Goldberg

Publisher/Date: HarperCollins/July 1, 2005

ISBN: 0060761288

This book is Bernard Goldberg's opinion on 100 people who are, of course, "screwing up america". After the introduction, you need to read about 55 pages of more of Goldberg's boring old rants of blah, blah, blah, how we liberals are stupid jacka**es and how the media is so f**king indecent and...ahem...GANGSTA RAP IS MAKING BLACK PEOPLE LOOK BAD. That's right, in "I'm Your Pimp, You My B**ch" (pp. 24-28), he starts by being a KMEL-hypnotized teen and saying that he loves rap, then he says he tricked you and claims the truth: that gangsta rap "is moronic, disgusting, inane, ignorant, and soul-deadening, not to mention...dangerous and destructive" (25-26). Speaking of gangsta rap, #'s 60-58 have to deal with that very topic. #60 was Ludacris, who Goldberg condemned for being "very big with kids, (too) many of whom get their 'values' from the pop culture and the street and guys like Ludacris--instead of from a mother and a father at home" (136). Look, Mr. Goldberg, didn't you notice?

In case you're blind, look on the low-left corner. The words: "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content". That's similar to a rated "R" in movies or "TV-14" on TV, the RIAA (and TV and Movies) do these "ratings" and "advisorys" so that they can't be held liable to any damages to the kids' mind. Besides, you know as a parent it's their responsibility to teach their kids that Ludacris and other black people are stupid and should be mistreated and reffered to as n...oops, sorry, i was only kidding...I mean gangsta rap should be only used as entertainment and never be consider moral. Sheesh, do your homework before publishing stuff in public. Sorry, this is just stupid.

Following is Shirley Franklin, mayor of Atlanta because she on June 2004 honored Ludcaris "with an official proclamation citing his good works", for his having "given some of it [his royalties and profits] to charities in the Atlanta area" (137). Say, Mr. G, I can justify that, I even as a liberal find it retarded for Ludacris to be honored just for his charity work...it's like relasing a drug dealer from jail early for him/her saying "I'm sorry i did that sh**, I promise never to do it again". Then, at 58, Eminem, please refer to the previous paragraph. The "Parental Advisory" thing applies here too.

#43: Paul Eibeler, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, manf. of "Grand Theft Auto" video games. Goldberg condemns him for glorifiying the killing of police officers and violence and crime. Fine then, how about this: Why don't you go condemn the creators of other violent games or TV shows glorifing crime damit? Plus, you didn't mention the game was rated "M" - Mature/intended for players 17 and older. NO HE DOES NOT WANT TO PEDDLE THE GAME TO KIDS!! Man, one big fat "F".

Back down the list to #65, Oliver Stone, director of the recent bomb film "Alexander". Goldberg says that Stone is fictionalizing history in his films and getting away with it, in an era when fewer and fewer people can name George Washington as the first American president and basic American/world history. Sorry man, you shoud be pushing for better history/social studies education instead.

The rest of the book is just bullsh*t, basically ultra-conservative bullsh*t against people I appreciate such as Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, and Diane Sawyer, and a buncha other peeps I don't know of but I'm sure that Goldberg is being a bitch about them. However, he did make good points on these people:

100. Rick & Kathy Hilton

99. Matthew Lesko

95. Courtney Love

90. Michael Jackson

85.-83. are various references to stupid jackass celebrities

62. Howard Stern

53. Anna Nicole Smith

32. Jerry Springer

31. Maury Povich

20. Howard Dean

And, back to the negative side, who was #1? Answer: MICHAEL MOORE!!!!!!! All that Goldberg says is a quote from Moore that he thinks Americans are dumb. Not the director of a film that says that Bush is a dumbass! And now regarding Ludacris: in 2003, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News fired at Pepsi for using music from the controversial song "Move B*tch" by Ludacris because he thought of Ludacris and rap music as immoral and Pepsi is being a bitch by using gangsta rap, so Pepsi replaced Luda with the Osbournes (y'know, Ozzy, the former Black Sabbath lead singer). Russell Simmons, president of Def Jam at the time, condemned Pepsi for apparant racism, because both Ludacris and Ozzy were known for being vulgar, violent, profane, etc., and called for his fellow blacks to boycott Pepsi. I see a silmiar situation in this book: Why is Ozzy Osbourne not on your list, Bernard Goldberg? I have listened to many Ozzy songs as Ludacris songs, and I can safely say that Ozzy's lyrics are just as profane and vulgar and violent as Ludacris if not less. Or how about Marilyn Manson for his promotion of Satanic themes to young people? Why did you not condemn punk rock or heavy metal for promoting immorality to young people? Are you trying to say that black people are stupid for promoting such values to teens but don't care about white rock artists for doing pretty much the same? Wow, what a bitch.

So in the end, this book is simply 305 pages of ultra-right wing crap, only like 20 pages worth reading.

Grade: D

Comment from Kevin L: "It's a load of shit. why'd you even read it? Michael Moore at #1? i think this goldberg guy is screwing up america with his lies."