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February 24, 2008

Behold the beginning

Of the embellished national anthem.

Perhaps the most original yet compelling version of the SSB. Indeed, a singular moment much like Jimi's at Woodstock and Whitney's before SB XXV.

However, unless you can outdo Marvin, you best be singing it as intended:

Straightforward and in 1:40.

February 22, 2008

Concert moments of 2008, ongoing

I'm not sure that there will be that many for me this year.
However, The Police put on a very strong show at the Blaisdell last Saturday.

And the crowd ... Vegas can't party like HNL. Period.

February 21, 2008

Concert moments of 2007, Part 4

With much liberty taken:
You gotta see The Shins live. It'll change your life. I swear.

This is THAT song from Garden State.
However, not much to choose from from their Pipe performance this past summer.

---

Amazing performance, surpassing all my expectations.

February 20, 2008

Concert moments of 2007, Part 3

Most Funny Concert Moment: This Sucks!!
NIN, this past September

An inside joke it shall remain for the faithful that showed up.
All maybe 1000 or so of us.

February 19, 2008

Concert moments of 2007, Part 2

Most Amazing Crowd/Most Metal Moment/The Sing-a-long
Heaven & Hell, Radio City Music Hall in March

This was an affirmation of the powerful metal riff, and the Sabbath faithful
Great crowd, that we had the privilege to be a part of, that Friday night in New York City.

February 18, 2008

Concert moments of 2007

Most Impressive Crowd Award
Expose, live at Pipeline this past summer

Yes, it was really THAT f'n loud. A hair raising, ear drum busting experience

---

Most Impressively Creepy Crowd
Lisa Lisa, that very same night

All the local women, well mostly Jpnse women, in their late 30s+ singing their heads off to All Cried Out. If you're a guy, you're wondering: WTH, am I gonna make it out of here alive. Uhm, let me guess, someone hurt you in high school? Amazingly creepy.


February 17, 2008

Song of the Week: Classic Edition

Never knew this song had a video. Still very fresh sounding at 5 years old.

February 11, 2008

Justice for Milli Vanilli

1990 - Best New Artist

give them back the Grammy. really.

or give it to Charles Shaw and the other session guys

looking back, did the other nominees: Tone Loc, Soul II Soul, Indigo Girls, or Neneh Cherry amount to anything either?

no wonder there was no giving of the award after it was revoked from MV.

give it to them to commemorate the fact that 1990 sucked for new artists

More from the House of Winehouse

Song of the week. Live.
Oh and a little bit of MosDef to lift it higher still.

February 10, 2008

Song of the Week

I really hate the Rehab song. However, this song has really turned me on the brilliance of her album (well, except for Reh). Another discovery courtesy UK radio, to celebrate her big night at the Grammys.

Here's hoping she gets her shit together and doesn't go the way of TTD, down the Wishing Well.

February 6, 2008

So what does it all mean?

After looking at Super Tuesday results last night and today, I have come up with a few impressions about what I think will happen going forward -- at least on the Democratic side. I am not following the Republican side with the appropriate level of diligence to make relevant remarks

1. The Hillary coronation is deferred.

I think that the best result for HC yesterday would have been an overwhelming victory. She certainly did well enough to carry the large big yield states. But I think that her campaign needs to be worried that she lost 13 or 14 of yesterday's contests. It doesn't really speak well of her momentum going forward.

2. Strategic change

I tend to agree with most pundits that the new debating posture of HC is due to the fact that she is quickly running out of money. In fact, the NY Post speculated today that she had put in $5M of her own funds today to continue her campaign. Ouch, kinda Mitt-like and desperate in appearance. Her campaign must be thinking that maximum exposure can be had by debating BO weekly. I can see BO playing hard to get now, because now he can really stomp out her campaign by choking out this line of exposure for her. From the perspective of the BO campaign, he has a number of small donors that have yet to max out their political contributions -- I think HC has shot her guns already, not much room for improvement unless she can pull more new people under her tent and make it rain. I am finding the BO campaign strategy of small donors to be more brilliant daily

3. At the end of the day, you like an apple or you like an orange

You want change and hope. Maybe you want experience and a resumption of the Clinton agenda. It seems as if certain categories of supporters have held for both candidates, so much so that one cannot deny the trends. Both candidates must consider how they can strip off weakly affiliated groups. For BO, it is "lower" economic class women and pick up more white men. For HC, it is holding on to old Clinton coalition groups from the Bill era -- in particular, the Latino voters especially with Big Tex on the horizon in a month.

For the HC campaign, I think they severely underappreciate the "dislike" that their candidate evokes in the minds of independents and slightly conservative voters who may sway democratic for the right candidate. For the BO campaign, it's time to get to the meat of the discussion. All this change, hope, and yes, we can talk gets you in the door after the GWB era for a lot of voters, however it doesn't close the sale. It's time to pull a (reverse) Reagan and put out a progressive agenda that will kill conservatism dead in this country (except for the most staunch, and ardent) -- the door is open, now he has to make himself at home.

4. The lead is as good as the chase?

BO's campaign is wonderfully positioned to be competitive all the way through to the convention in Denver. Can it sustain the momentum of the underdog when he is expected to move to the top of the leaderboard in the next couple of weeks? Is this really a movement? If it is HC's campaign is pretty much dead in the water -- political wisdom suggests that it is easy to defeat a candidate, but hard to defeat a movement.

5. What can we expect from either candidate as the front runner?

I have yet to really boil down what I feel about this issue. I think it is easy to make simple pronouncements about direction. If HC wins the presidency, the worst that we can expect is business as usual and extreme gridlock. Some are predicting that this will be the ultimate outcome. The best that can be expected is the going forward of a successful progressive agenda and economic revitalization.

If BO becomes the president, the worst that we can expect is that there was no substance to the campaign, and there was much sizzle but no steak. The best that can be expected is a Reagan-like healing of America, going between the aisles and moving forward in a nonpartisan positive direction to solve various problems

February 5, 2008

Song of the Week

Rooney is back. Love the retro sound.

February 4, 2008

Integrity of the game

Recently two of the major professional sports, baseball and basketball, have been rocked with scandals that go to the integrity of the competition. Baseball with performance enhancing drugs and basketball with the referee gambling scandal. It has always seemed that professional football was immune to such scandals, even though the tell tale signs of performance enhancing drugs are seemingly evident in the sport.

And now the story that will not go away for the NFL, Spygate. If you are unfamiliar, Spygate is the controversy surrounding the New England Patriots using taping equipment allegedly to record the game signalling of their opponents, to purportedly gain an advantage. As in baseball, the contrary opinion about the effectiveness of the cheating focuses on execution. In baseball, you can shoot your buttocks with every performance enhancer known to man, yet still have to pitch a baseball accurately or hit it. In football, the advantage of "stealing signals" is dependent on players being able to translate that information into execution on the field.

Getting beyond the punishment of the Patriots and the commissioner's destruction of the submitted evidence, I think there is a greater issue to be considered, and it concerns the integrity of the game. The league and its fans need to believe that the competition on the field is real, on the level, and that no team or player has attempted to secure an unfair advantage.

I don't really think that the advantage has to be successful to make it punishable. Rhetorically speaking, we criminalize and punish such things as attempted robbery and murder. It is the spirit of the offense that we are trying to deter.

The NFL posted a memorandum earlier this season about videotaping game signals of opponents. The Patriots, notably their coach, did exactly what they were prohibited from doing. Why? Beyond the obvious competitive advantage argument, it offends the spirit of competition and calls into question the integrity of the games that we all watch on Sunday -- since all teams do it to some extent.

Now, new information has arisen suggesting the Patriots taped the Rams walkthrough prior to SB 36. As I recall the game, the Rams were stifled for most of the game by a brilliantly executed game plan. I must question now if the play on the field was affected by these alleged acts. I hate that feeling that something smarmy is afoot regarding this.

It is why I have felt that stronger sanctions should have been taken against the Patriots and their coaching staff for this year's Spygate controversy. Forfeits or forfeit of playoff eligibility would not have been so far-reaching because this goes to the integrity of the game. Suspensions of coaching staff who knew of or authorized such taping, up to and including multiyear or lifetime suspensions again would not be too far-reaching.

In some ways, I think that if the evidence warrants, the Patriots may face further sanction for not only the recent Spygate events but for past events as well. To me, all justifiable if it can be proved that they were trying to upset the integrity of the game

February 3, 2008

Perfect Season?

No, perfect ending.

I think that for most of the season, Flying Elvis fans thought that they were the wave in "The Perfect Storm". Today, they were the boat.

Greatest QB of all time?
Epic ass beating, 18 knockdowns without counting 5 sacks

Greatest coach of all time?
Out-coached

Greatest team of all time?
You can't cheat and be it. You can't lose and be it.

Greatest feeling of all time?
Oh yes, I can hear the sweet chants of 18-1! ... 18-1! ... 18-1! ringing in my ears

Acronym for the Greatest of all time
GOAT!!!! That pretty much says it all

Perfect Commercial

Perfect ending to the NFL season!

February 2, 2008

Endorse-O-Thon

Yes, We Can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.

Behind The "Yes, We Can" Song

(Courtesy Dipdive.com)

The Yes We Can Song
by will.i.am

I was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates...
Torn between the candidates

I was never really big on politics...
and actually I’m still not big on politics...
but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry...
And we supported Kerry with all our might...
We performed and performed and performed for the DNC...
doing all we could do to get the youth involved...

The outcome of the last 2 elections has saddened me...
on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful,
corrupt, and just simply, how wrong the world and "politics" are...

So this year i wanted to get involved and do all i could early...

And i found myself torn...
because this time it’s not that simple...
our choices aren’t as clear as the last elections ...
last time it was so obvious...
Bush and war
vs
no Bush and no war...

But this time it’s not that simple...
and there are a lot of people that are torn just like i am...

So for awhile I put it off and i was going to wait until it was decided for me...

And then came New Hampshire...

And i was captivated...

Inspired...

I reflected on my life...
and the blessings I have...
and the people who fought for me to have these rights and blessings...

and I’m not talking about a "black thing"
I’m talking about a "human thing" me as a "person"
an American...

That speech made me think of Martin Luther King...
Kennedy...
and Lincoln...
and all the others that have fought for what we have today...

what America is "supposed" to be...

freedom...
equality...
and truth...

and thats not what we have today...
we think we are free...
but in reality terror and fear controls our decisions...

this is not the America that our pioneers and leaders fought and
died for...

and then there was New Hampshire

it was that speech...
like many great speeches...
that one moved me...
because words and ideas are powerful...

It made me think...
and realize that today we have "very few" leaders...
maybe none...

but that speech...

it inspired me...
it inspired me to look inside myself and outwards towards the world...
it inspired me to want to change myself to better the world...
and take a "leap" towards change...
and hope that others become inspired to do the same...
change themselves..
change their greed...
change their fears...
and if we "change that"
"then hey"..
we got something right...???...

1 week later after the speech settled in me...
I began making this song...
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song...
because that speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time...

it spoke to me...

because words and ideas are powerful...

I just wanted to add a melody to those words...
I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over...

so i let it..

I wasn't afraid to stand for something...
to stand for "change"...
I wasn't afraid of "fear"...
it was pure inspiration...

so I called my friends...
and they called their friends...
in a matter of 2 days...
We made the song and video...

Usually this process would take months...
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates...
interviews...
all that stuff...
but this time i took it in my own hands...
so i called my friends sarah pantera, mike jurkovac, fred goldring, and jesse dylan to help make it happen...
and they called their friends..
and we did it together in 48 hours...
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration...

then we put it on the net for the world to feel...

When you are truly inspired..
magic happens...
incredible things happen...
love happens..
(and with that combination)

"love, and inspiration"

change happens...

"change for the better"
Inspiration breeds change...

"Positive change"...

no one on this planet is truly experienced to handle the obstacles we face today...
Terror, fear, lies, agendas, politics, money, all the above...
It’s all scary...

Martin Luther King didn't have experience to lead...
Kennedy didn't have experience to lead...
Susan B. Anthony...
Nelson Mandella...
Rosa Parks...
Gandhi...
Anne Frank...
and everyone else who has had a hand in molding the freedoms we have and take for granted today...

no one truly has experience to deal with the world today...

they just need "desire, strength, courage ability, and passion" to change...
and to stand for something even when people say it's not possible...

America would not be here "today" if we didn’t stand and fight for
change "yesterday"...
Everything we have as a "people" is because of the "people" who fought for
change...
and whoever is the President has to realize we have a lot of changing to do

I'm not trying to convince people to see things how i do...
I produced this song to share my new found inspiration and how I've been moved...
I hope this song will make you feel...
love...
and think...
and be inspired just like the speech inspired me...

that’s all...

Let's all come together like America is supposed to...
Like Japan did after Hiroshima...

that was less than 65 years ago...
and look at Japan now...

they did it together...
they did it...

"We can't?...

Are you serious..?..

WE CAN!!!

Yes we can...
A United "America"
Democrats, Republicans and Independents together...
Building a new America

We can do it...
"TOGETHER"

Please visit www.yeswecansong.com

Thank you for reading and listening...
will.i.am

Message of the weekend

You've got no fear of the underdog

That's why you will not survive