We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!! Yes another end of the year... It's been extremely tough and hard and difficult year for me. 2010 has been plenty of transitions... I faced too much disappointing down time so I am hoping next year will be plenty of UPS!!

Seven Hours...

It's still quite chilly here in London... I'm having really stressful time (Around mid November to now) and always, every seconds is very frustrating... Anyways I found this band while I was reading ICON reviews on heavyharmonies and I immediately checked their music and I thought wow, bloody good for an Americans. I thought Americans can't really do this kind of sophisticated and sensitive rock/metal music. Usually most their 80's stuff is really upbeat and simple and not too technical rock/metal music and boring but this is one of rare gem from USA!! They've got this neo classical influence from Europe and vocalist has good rock voice. This band only released 2 albums in 86 and 89. 1st self titled album is more simple traditional metal and similar to Pretty Maids. 2nd album is little bit commercial with promo video it's called "Time Will Tell". Shame they disappeared so quickly. Short lived...

Apparently they are active again so if you are interested check FIFTH ANGEL!!

Frozen Britain

All over the UK is covered with thick snow last weekend and most people weren't coping well and some of the transport system has stopped including the airport! Mad.

I'm still frustrated with many things in life and hoping things will be fine near future. It's been pretty awful year...

War Machine

I met my great friend and employer from Tokyo Mr. Habu last week and also I met the TANK and KILLERS (Paul Di'Anno) legendary guitarist Cliff Evans. I'm honoured and made me happy!!

Where's Wally? The Ultimate Travel Collection

I don't usually read books but this isn't really a book either!! lol It's a children's book and it hasn't got much text on it!! It's more or less puzzle game book. All you have to do is took look out for red and white striped guy called Wally. In US his name is different and called "Waldo" instead. Don't know why. I always wanted this book and finally I got it!! I found it in Yokohama, Japan's Village Vanguard shop and looked everywhere for this copy but couldn't find it but since it was written and drawn by British author Martin Handford it is easier to purchase it here in London. More you turn the page it's going to be difficult and I enjoy searching all these strange characters and objects. Also it's smaller compare to normal sized book so easy to carry. Smart!! Get it if you are interested. Great and well detailed art work!!

No Stranger to Danger

Okay and here's the 2nd Thrash Metal review!! It's Lääz Rockit!! I heard some of their stuff on "Leatherface" Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 soundtrack and most recent album "Left for Dead". I quite liked their music so I decided to check older materials. I'd say from "Know Your Enemy", "Annihilation Principle" and "Nothing$ $acred" is great. Probably their peak in career. On these albums this mascot character appears on it. Chip Hazard look alike from Small Soldiers movie!! Maybe Chip Hazard was copied/inspired from Lääz Rockit album sleeves?! Who knows. They always had this war theme songs. I'd say this band has little melodic edge. Not melodic as Megadeth but can be little bit thrashy rock 'n roll. In my opinion they are better than well known bands like Slayer but most metal fan would probably disagree but I'm entitled to my opinion!! lol I'd say "Nothing$ $acred" is the best album. Also they had secret album just in Japan. They changed their name to GACK and released "Fix". Good 90's thrash metal. Listen to the blood splashing "Leatherface"!!

Over the Wall

I'm going to do quick thrash metal double bill... First... Testament!!

Dunno too much about them but all I can say is very good crunchy technical thrash metal with good rough vocal. This band has famous singer called Chuck Billy. He's easy to identify because of his large stature. Big fat mean looking native American dude. He looks like wrestler from telly. He's got good vocal. I think his presence in this band is big. Also they've got relatively well known guitarist called Alex Skolnick. He used to be in Savatage as well. I think he was also a big part in this band's creativity. I haven't listened to this band's music properly but I would like to listen more and get into it. I would recommend their debut and latest "The Formation Of Damnation". 

Go Go Ackman

Another SNES/Super Famicom review again. I finished playing Go Go Ackman and I'm now near completing Go Go Ackman 2 and then when I'm done with that I will play Go Go Ackman 3. This is short comics character created by Akira Toriyama of DragonBall/Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) fame. It's about demon kid v angel but their position is rather opposite. Demon is just a demon trying to do their job. Taking dead people's soul but Angel is trying to save people but somehow he manage to kill so many innocent people and do demon's job. So angel has so much grudge towards demon even though he hasn't really done anything bad... Twisted cartoon... I found 2nd one is much harder than the 1st one. Game it self is rather average but playable.

AVGN

What's AVGN? What does it stands for? It means Angry Video Game Nerd! I've been watching him on YouTube for last couple of years but this guy is genius! I think he's great because he reviews many shitty games from various consoles and his reviews are pretty fair from my point of view. He's commentary style is rather offensive but he's doing it on purpose and that makes his reviews rather more exaggerated style. I would say his reviews are very good and spot on really. It became so popular AVGN has created many imitators such as Happy Video Game Nerd, Irate Gamer and JewWario. Happy Video Game Nerd are good and Irate Gamer is bad. Because he's a blatant rip off of AVGN. JewWario is more or less tells and teaches how to play retro Japanese Games for foreign audiences. He kinda gives instructions really. Nowadays AVGN doesn't do much game reviews due to his biography movie project. So I am excited about that. But I do miss his regular game reviews. He only makes 1 video game review per month!! Before it was like 1 video games review every 2 weeks. I wish James Rolfe and Mike Matei well and hope they will produce more great videos.

If you are interested check Cinemassacre

p.s. I actually wrote this blog back in 2nd of October 2010 but never get to finish it until now! lol

Blind Guardian

I've got so much music in iTunes I've decided to give a listen to old Blind Guardian catalogue. It's not bad really. They have distinctive style. First two albums were just simple plain thrash metal then they added some of their Uriah Heep and Queen also some progressive rock influence to their thrash metal sounds. Their music definitely improved and more grandiose. They are from Germany and they are now known as power metal band. But I would say first and second album is definitely thrash metal. They had stable line up till their 8th "A Twist in the Myth" album. Their classic line up is Hansi Kürsch on vocals (ex-bass), André Olbrich, Marcus Siepen both on guitars and Thomas Stauch on drums. Stauch left the band in 2005 and joined other bands. I'd say their albums are cheesy but interesting and probably best on will be "Imaginations from the other side". Really thrash yet grandiose. So that's it. Latter albums are kinda machine like because over dubbed recording style and it's not raw enough. I known this band in early 2000s and they were rather well known in continental europe and south america as well as far east, Japan. This kind of genre "power metal" was rather over looked and weren't that popular in north america and in the U.K.

Being a band from Germany wouldn't help either. In music business you need to be either British or Yank otherwise music will be seen as crap or not get any attention for not being a native English speakers. Anyways they are good band and I think they should never be over looked. Now they are relatively known band in metal market.

Longer Route

This one is about just over 5km distance and tonight I managed to run within 27:43 I think it's okay. Not that bad. Tomorrow is very important and hope I can bring the positive news back home!!

World Cup Hosts 2018 and 2022

It's been won by Russia and Qatar. I don't mind bid was won by Russia but the only 2 votes to England's bid was disgrace and BBC and the Sunday Times's article about corruption in FIFA has certainly damaged our reputation and bid. How on earth free country, free press stupid attitude?! I don't understand. It's pure madness.

2022 going to Qatar is mad. Small oil rich country with small population without no history in football, never qualified to any major international event gets to host the biggest sporting event in the world is mad. Well Japan was same like Qatar back in 1996 never been to World Cup but they managed to qualify 98 and has been regular and steady competitor in World Cup tournament. But it's all about money. But positive side is that World Cup is going to the place where football is still developing and not so popular so that is good. Spread the football for good cause. So it's not all that bad but I think big nation like England contributed to football so much and I think we (Obviously me being English man and little bias) deserve to have one more tournament here.

 

It's very controversial.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention this before but congratulations to Nagoya Grampus for winning the J-League title for the first time in 18 years and well done to cult Serbian legend Stojkovic.

Mighty Morphin' POWER RANGERS

I recently did the SNES game review and this is the 2nd one. I completed playing 2 games and there's 3 Power Rangers SNES games but I played 2 of 'em. Power Rangers are Japanese TOEI's "SENTAI SERIES" franchise and it's been shown all over the world since the mid 90's. Basically man in a costume and do actions and cheap Godzilla like B or C miniature building sets and enormous robots and monsters etc.

Anyways let's get back to the main review. The game is very good, it says it was made by Bandai but it was actually developed by Natsume same as The Ninja Warriors Again. Graphics are good and smooth control. What I really liked was that the first Power Rangers games were simple platform fights and latter part of the game was Street Fighter 2 style fighting game. I don't remember much about the MOVIE EDITION game but I think it didn't feature any Street Fighter 2 style fight games. But all in all good game.

There is FIGHTING EDITION but I decided to give it a miss. Not really my cup of tea but graphics were good.

Walthamstow Marshes

I walked to Walthamstow Marshes today. I had some problem at home so I decided to come here. I walked and walked for few hours. Today there's snow and all over UK was frosted. Walthamstow Marshes are historic place and there's wild life, beautiful nature and a river. There's some bridges so you can across to the other side. Then I bought a bag of potato snack by Watermint Quay. It's a Jewish grocer and most of their product were written in Hebrew. Don't know what it says but it taste fine and it was cool to see some Hebrew text. Then I walked toward Seven Sisters/Tottenham Hale and I returned home. I haven't done much run recently but I got the time 20:52 I hope to go faster next time.

New jogging route in London

I have been doing occasional run from my mum and sister's flat from Stamford Hill to Manor House station and the distance is nearly 4km. I run this distance within space of around 21 minutes-ish. Last week I managed to run in time of 21:22. I would like to run this distance in 20 minutes or something like that.

It's simple course but it's not bad.

England v France

I hardly watched the game... I was too busy looking for work and attending some interviews etc. I'm getting pressurised due to not getting any work and I need it quickly. I need to get out of my mum and sister's small flat and I got to get some money to the house. I'm going to give another 4 or 5 days or else I have to pick this sales work. Anyways from what I know England lost to France 1-2 at home, The New Wembley and played awful. The usual physical, long ball towards big man like Andy Carroll etc. We just don't have good players and we have best club manager like Capello but no progress and it looks really depressing but the good news is much delayed Burton project will start from next year and should all be complete by 2012. St. Georges Park the first England's National Football Centre. And then we can develop and train the new coaches and players. It's sort of famous French Clairefontaine of English version.

Anyways I've been back for 2 weeks and half and I need to sort everything quickly... I think my wife and son likes London, England a lot. My wife don't like the weather here but apart from that all good really. My son smiles a lot since he moved to London so that's good.

The Ninja Warriors Again

I played this game yesterday and managed to complete it!! It was produced by Taito but actually it was created by Natsume. Again... it's because there was old one called The Ninja Warriors!! Dunno much about it cos I haven't played much but this 2nd game is really good for a 16 bit game. Great graphics, great music and good action. It's basically about a dictator trying to take over the world and opposition politician created this special ninja robots to destroy this dictator. I'd say play it cos it's worth your time!! If you like Final Fight then you'll love it!!

The war drags ever on!!

I've been listening to Tank the NWOBHM band a lot. I only had their debut album "Filth Hounds of Hades" and it sounds like poor version of Motörhead but from the 3rd "This Means War" they become more Metal and faster and heavier. I really like their 4th "Honour & Blood" and it's bloody good!! I love it. They were rather on and off but now they are active again without their main man singer/bassist Algy Ward. They are back with Scottish singer Dougie White (ex-Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen etc).
New album is good but it's kinda reminds me of Saxon. Dougie's voice is similar to Biff at times and music is also bit like recent modern Saxon albums but it's a great comparison to have. I hope they carry on cos they are great band!!

Back in UK!!

I took my family to London, England. It's been nightmare but now it's all over but I still have to do many things. Took me about 9 months to sort out marriage, spouse visa, birth and my son's passport. It costed me dearly. I went through very tough time.

It's been 10 days since the arrival but seems like my wife and son is very happy to be with my mum and they like the city of London.

I much prefer being here because Tokyo was extremely crowded, busy, so narrow and everything was so small and no grass field to plays football. Not so much nice environment. Concrete jungle...

Tokyo has great theme parks, safe to be at night and lot's of shops open late at night, very convenient but not for me really.

I learnt to appreciate nice people from Japan and they are precious people. I will miss them. I also enjoyed my job. I lived in Tokyo for 5 years and that's quite longish time.

I met my beautiful wife and had lovely son and gained so much.

Thank you!!

My journey start from here again!!

Happy Halloween!!

Trick or Treat!! It's time of Pagan tradition... the celtic Scots and Irish invention... Samhain as known as Halloween!! Japanese people are very obsessed with Jack 'O lantern despite not being Celtic people!! I see pumpkins everywhere!!

JAM

That's what my mum call him! Jammy git!!

3.5km Jogging 2

Best time so far is 15:19:16...

Also yesterday I climbed Takao Mauntain in Tokyo. Shame about not seeing much temples due to it was for a school trip. I was looking after 9 years old kids!!

England v Montenegro

I haven't seen the match yet but having seeing the 0-0 result at home was extremely disappointing.

Run For Cover!!

OK so last time I wrote about John Sykes so this time I'm going to write about Gary Moore the guitarist from Northern Ireland. He's often to mistaken to Irish. He probably is Irish but he was born in UK so I'd say he's British guitarist. He's been around for quite long time. His first recording were called "Grind Stone" in 1973. He's a close friend of legendary Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy and he had few stint with Thin Lizzy too like "Black Rose" album. Then he did another solo "Back To The Streets". Some weird compilation called "Spanish Guitar" with original song "Spanish Guitar". Then he formed G-Force. After G-Force he had relatively stable solo band. What can I say about this guy. Jaw-droppingly good! Deserve the knighthood title, SIR GARY MOORE! His guitar play is just awesome really. Brilliant! Super technique! Not just the guitarist but also a great singer. Very very talented and influential musician. I think he's also very versatile as musician too. His style is very varied. Not necessary hard rock/metal. Nowadays he's known for Blues (since the beginning of 90s) but before he changed he was a great rock musician. My mum's friend Bob Daisley played bass with Gary Moore! His guitar tone hits really high and sounds very clean, heavy and fast yet very melodic and emotional. Some war themed lyrics make you think that peace is necessary. Even to this day PEACE is needed/wanted!! I did compare him with John Sykes and I'd say John and Gary are sometimes similar but I don't really think they are the same. Gary's been around so much longer and John admires and influenced by Gary so no surprise there. They are both great guitarists and they are in my top 5 really. I'd recommend his albums "Run For Cover", "Wild Frontier" and "After The War" trilogy. Best 80's Hard Rock. No doubt about it. If you like guitar music or traditional hard rock/heavy metal then I'd strongly recommend his music to you!!

Bless!!

My SON!! 2

I've been rather busy visiting my wife and our baby Justin. Both of them are doing fine and I'm pleased. I run again today but shorter distance 3.5 km. My time was 15:48:67. Not too bad I think.

My SON!!

He's born today at around 1:05 this afternoon! Weight is 3.6 kg. I feel great becoming a father!!

Bless you!!

5.1km course 4

My time is getting better each time. Yesterday I managed to run this distance within 26:43:25 very pleased indeed! And the big news is that I'll be a father maybe tomorrow...

We All Fall Down!

It's into middle of September 2010... Hot weather is fading slowly but still pretty hot here in Japan. August and September so far only few rainfall in Tokyo. Anyways I've been watching films a lot but I'll write about music here. I'm going to say something about John Sykes the English rock/metal guitarist. He's 51 now! Time flies... He's 20 years older than me! Lets go back to main subject, he's often compared to Gary Moore, in a good way or bad way. I like both just as much and can't pick who's better. It's like McDonald's and KFC?! He started his career just after I was born (1979) and played in a NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) band called Street Fighter but they've never recorded any materials I think. Then he joined famous NWOBHM band called Tygers of Pan Tang from Newcastle, North East of England. Then he left his mark with great guitar play and they also had good singer Jon Deverill. I think Tygers of Pan Tang peaked after "Spellbound", because their music wasn't good anymore. Then Phil Lynott asked John to join legendary Thin Lizzy band to record mega heavy "Thunder and Lightning" album. He revitalised lethargic group like them and beafed up the music to more hard and tough, metal sound rather than good hard rock music for what they were known for, then he joined David Coverdale's (ex-Deep Purple vocalist) Whitesnake. Coverdale wanted to hire Sykes to break into US market. Whitesnake had orthodox and subtle blues/hard rock feel to their music but with Sykes they can toughen their image as well as music and he eventually joined. I think somewhere between Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, John played for John Sloman's (Lone Star/Uriah Heep) band called Badlands (He also did some solo called "Please Don't Leave Me" and one instrumental for a Xmas album - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"). I got the demo tape on mp3 format but not very good really. Whitesnake released "Slide It In" and "1987" with John Sykes on guitar and I'd say it's there best material. "1987" is one of the all time best hard rock/heavy metal really. Sykes left the band after a row  with Coverdale. Not just Sykes but all recording member had left the band. Coverdale is a great singer but he's a egomaniac, dictator and control freak and he only care about image and money!

So he formed Blue Murder with Tony Franklin (The Firm) on bass and Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, King Kobra etc) on drums. "Blue Murder" self titled album and "Nothin' But Trouble" both great albums. Latter album had unknown Marco Mendoza on bass and Tommy O'Steen on drums. But the band didn't get enough recognition and John dropped the band name to simple Sykes.

With Sykes more or less same line-up from above mentioned musicians and some guest and he released "Out of my Tree", "Loveland", "20th Century" and "Nuclear Cowboy".  And then he hasn't released anything for a decade now! He does occasional live gigs but only play Thin Lizzy tribute stuff with main members from original Thin Lizzy members but really bit dull to be honest. I prefer his solo stuff.

I really love John Sykes and he's one of my all time favourite guitarist ever. Not just the way he plays his trademark old and battered Black Beauty Gibson Les Paul guitar but he's a great singer as well as song writer and music is great. Melodic yet fast and aggressive. It's really rare to find such talented musicians really. He deserve a knighthood really. He should be called Sir Sykes!! He's often under rated but I would put him very high. And great thing is that every time you listen to him live music sound different but each one is great. He has released quite a few live albums too but it's all brilliant. I can't praise him more.

Lucky I've seen him once live in London! I hope he'll release more solo albums!

His best albums are... "Spellbound", "Thunder and Lightning", "1987", "Blue Murder",  "Nothin' But Trouble" and "Out of my Tree". I think these albums should be enough!

5.1km course 3

Last night my time improved by more... 27:10:66!!

I'd like to run this distance within space of 26 minutes!!

Well done me!!

5.1km course 2

I checked my time again cos I run same distance. It did improve little. Time was 27:51:44 not bad. I think if I was fitter I could do better...

Satisfied!

Brüno

This is the 3rd comedy sketch by Sacha Baron Cohen. He's a Jewish/British comedian and I've seen him on Channel 4's programme called The 11 O'clock Show. At first I thought his sketches are rather funny and these characters he play are based in real life. He plays 3 characters. 1st one was a British Wigger (Check urbandictionary ) called da Ali G. 2nd one was a Kazakh called Borat and finally the 3rd person is the gay Austiran Brüno. It was funny but after a while Sacha Baron Cohen's characters become very repetitive and boring at times and I didn't find it funny later. But having left UK for 5 years I found it rather fresh and interesting to see these films. Actually he didn't really play that much Brüno. Anyways this film is basically it's about Brüno the gay Austrian fashion journalist gets fired from TV presenter job and moves to LA in US then develops this desire to become famous in US, Hollywood etc. There's plenty of sick gay f**king scenes and very graphic, including a scenes like bicycle machine converted to dildo poking machine and it goes Brüno's ass in and out. 360 degree rotating anal f**king with a little south east asian man. It was horrible BUT if you like these extreme sick jokes then you'll love it. Also he auditions for an interviewer for the TV and he tries to interview Harrison Ford then he says "F**k off!" then there's this penis full on TV screen and rotating and talks! It was outrageous! Latter part of the film he discovered that to become famous he needs to be straight and he opt for conversion. But he fails and can't remember how it ended... I think I would spoil it so I won't write it. I'd recommend this movie if you can take graphic gay jokes and someone with strong stomach.

Easy Livin'

Yes this is a famous song title by Uriah Heep. Amazingly their career has lasted for over 40 YEARS! This year the band has been active for 41 years under control of Sir Mick Box! There career started from late 60's under name of "Spice" then changed the band name to Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens novel. Their musical style is heavy hard rock with progressive rock twist with folklore based theme. Their album covers always had folklore based children's book look. Very arty. I forgot to mention it but Uriah Heep are one of the pioneers of hard rock/heavy metal genre with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. They are like deities of Metal. They had distinctive high pitched, charismatic singer called David Byron, keyboardist/guitarist, the main songwriter Ken Hensley and main man Mick Box on guitar. They were quite successful at beginning of their career but by the end of 70's there popularity kinda declined. They also had many line-up changes but the classic line-up was above three and Gary Thain on bass and Lee Kerslake on drums. Best albums would be difficult to choose because they released 22 studio albums to date. I think "Demons & Wizards" and "The Magician's Birthday" are great David Byron era albums and "Firefly" is good for John Lawton era and I think "Abominog" is great. Pete Goalby is great singer. The band nearly disbanded in 1980 after the release of "Conquest". Everyone has left the band apart from Mick Box and he decided to carry on. What a WILL!! Since then he managed to keep very stable line up. I should mention current members: Barnie Shaw on vocals, Trevor Bolder on bass, Phil Lanzon on keyboard and Russell Gilbrook on drums.

Last saturday

I forgot to write/type about event held in Yoyogi Park last Saturday. It was a 5th annual Brazilian Day event. I went there with my wife and soon after my friend joined. We drunk Acai juice, Caipirinha and ate beef known as Churrasco and some sausages as well. It was very hot and we saw some famous Brazilian celebrities and musicians. We saw a group called Kid Abelha. Not really my cup of tea but it was alright.

Last night I run 5.1km distance and time was 28:35:76. This is my excuse but I think I could run little faster if my stomach was in better condition. My best was like something like around 27 minutes.

So I'm running 1km within space of 5 minutes +. It's not great but it's not bad either!

Wednesday there was heavy rain in Japan with typhoon arriving and caused some flood and landslides but it didn't effect Tokyo. It was tad cold but today is pretty hot again. It was nice to have rain for a change.

That's it.

5.1km course

This is the running course for extended run that I sometime do. I usually run just 3.1km but when I've got enough time then I go this way.

I manage to run this distance for about 27 to 30 minutes. I will count next time.

My mac history...

I've been using apple mac computer for quite a while now. I don't really use them fully like some expert does but I think I am alright for using certain applications. My mother bought a Apple performa desktop first back in 95 or 96 I think. I was like age of 16 or 17 at that time. It was for family use to make some attractive documents etc. Then we had the slow dial-up internet connect with motorola modem. I remember using internet for the first time and after a month or so I got caught for over using it. You know young lad would use internet for viewing dirty stuff. I was caught because of the bill. Then couple of years later my mum bought a new iMac. It was like round television box or something like that. It looked more like modern interior. Then I left UK and my father bought me a iBook G4. I think iBook G4 was rather crap and couple of years later I'm using this MacBook Black 250G. I'm really happy with current MacBook because it has lot of memories, built-in webcam etc. I payed half for my wife's current new iMac. Mac is great but expensive...

Switzerland v England

I woke up today around 8 o'clock in the morning because I had to take my wife to hospital and I found out on BBC news that we beat Switzerland away 3-1. It was good to see the good results BUT still far away to EURO 2012. Rooney, Adam Johnson and Darren Bent scored the goal. Goal from Switzerland was awesome though. Rooney had tabloid speculations and he was in trouble. I don't know if it's true or false but it didn't effect his game so it was alright. Hope it is false though. Good to see Adam Johnson scoring 2 goals in 2 games for the Three Lions. He might become a new young hero for England.