Monday 30 August 2010

I'll stop writing about Club Football... Sunday...

It's nearly end of August and tomorrow will be my 5th anniversary since my return to Japan. 31st of August 2005... Yesterday was my rare occasion to go outside (hanging around with my friend/s). I hooked up with my french pal in Shibuya then we walked to Yoyogi Park. Shibuya is a centre of Tokyo and it's a place for where the youth spend their time. I used to go to Shibuya occasionally but I find it rather expensive, little far and not that many places to go. Other places are slightly cheaper I think. Don't know.

Anyways it was good to see my friend and I will see him next Saturday as well. There will be Brazilian Festival in Yoyogi Park this coming weekend.

I actually did wrote about Chelsea's results twice on this blog but I actually don't really care about club football. For me International football is far more important and I want to see THREE LIONS (ENGLAND) play. And I couldn't be bothered typing about it. I feel like a fool and I am not a news reporter! I do like Chelsea a lot but what I want from them is not domestic little titles at home, I want to see them the big ones like UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup. Then I'll be a proud Chelsea fan. It means that they achieved everything they need, all the international club titles. What I don't like about English football is that we tend to deprecate competitions like Olympic football and FIFA Club World Cup like it doesn't mean anything, mickey mouse cup etc. It means a lot. Just because English are crap at it you don't need to deprecate it. Stupid. Let's go back to original subject. I did watch Chelsea's game against Stoke City. It was entertaining 2-0 and plenty of hitting the post and cross bar situations but that's it really. It was actually first game I watched. I didn't watch the first and second league games. I had enough with football after the World Cup and it really was shocking and upsetting to see how crap we were at the World Cup. Devastated.

Anyways seems like this hot climate will continue...





















This guy is an artist from Congo. Met him at Yoyogi Park. Zebra drawn by Biro...

Saturday 21 August 2010

Chelsea 6 Wigan 0

Another great display from Chelsea FC! Easy win over lowly Wigan 2 goals each from Anelka and Kalou as well as 1 goal each from Malouda and Benayoun. 12 goal difference and top of the league BUT, still long way to go.

Friday 20 August 2010

Under The Gun!!

I'm going to write about the band called ICON. This band is my recent favourite and it's rather obscure band. People knows their metal knows about them. This band is from Phoenix, Arizona USA. Having listened to their 1st and 2nd album I liked it a lot. Especially the 1st album. They follow the text book from Judas Priest especially the "Screaming for Vengeance" and "Defender of the Faith". Their 1st self titled debut album is a basic in your face traditional 80's metal and most of their songs are slow but chest thumping, anthem-ish yet very heavy. Good bass and drum beats with great harmonised riffs. Their singer Stephen Clifford has very powerful voice. Vocals are very tough, rough and raw and it does fit into this kinda rock/metal music like a glove. Very similar to Surgical Steel and Racer X's Jeff Martin. Reminiscent of Jeff Martin is there but Clifford's career is before Jeff Martin. In my opinion Clifford is slightly better. He makes me want to scream and sing! The leader of the band Dan Wexler is very talented guitar player also, him and his partner John Aquilino the skinny black hair dude is just like K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton from Judas Priest. They don't play rock/metal like most of Americans do. They have British style of play. They have great harmonised twin guitar melody and it's beautiful. Reminds me of Thin Lizzy or something like that. Bass and Drums are very good. Especially the drums. Good beat and rhythm. After the 1st album they changed the direction to slightly pop and more acceptable to mass of people. They've been labeled as glam but not with 1st and 2nd albums. Music are  catchy and cheesy. I mean cheesy in a good way. Some of the songs they wrote it with Bob Halligan Jr. They released 2nd album called "The Night of the Crime". Best songs from 1st album I'd choose "(Rock On) Through The Night", "Killer Machine", "On Your Feet", "World War", "Hot Desert Night" and "Under the Gun". 2nd album I'd pick "Naked Eyes", "Missing", "Danger Calling" and "Raise the Hammer". Under the Gun is really heavy and mid tempo hard rock/metal tune and Danger Calling is really catchy and sweet rock/metal song. Brilliant stuff. The "1984: Live Bootleg" is not bad and this live album contains some of the songs that didn't end up on actual albums. After the 2nd album Clifford left the band with not too clear reason and band declined. I didn't even bother listening to last 2 studio albums cos it was S**T! It's unfortunate they end up getting covered in dust because this band was really talented. If Clifford had stayed I think they'd be very big or had potential to be big. I swear. I just love the 1st and 2nd and live albums. If you like it just dig it. I'd strongly recommend the 1st and 2nd albums. ROCK ON!! THROUGH THE NIGHT!!

Monday 16 August 2010

Laro Shiflin

Laro Shiflin is a famous film music composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He composed music for classic films like Bullitt, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, The Amityville Horror and Rush Hour. Also for TV series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible and Starsky and Hutch. According to Wikipedia he compose Spy music (Don't know what a hell it means...), Bebop and Rock. I quite like these 60's and 70's Bebop (Faster jazz music) and I often listen to his music. Really good stuff. I don't know any musician from Argentina apart from him and he's probably one of the most famous musician from South America. I'd recommend people to get hold of "Most Wanted 1968-1979" compilation album. Or just watch above mentioned films and see if you like it or not.

Superbad

This is a comedy from 2007 and watched it bits and pieces. It's about usual American college kids trying to lose their virginity before the college finishes. These films has been made way too many (i.e. Porky's and American Pie etc) and I don't know what to expect but it was alright I guess. My favorite part was that this fat guy called Seth drew so many pictures of penis. Cock, cock, cock... Penis goes on forever... I also liked geek getting laid with hot chick. Hilarious.

Sunday 15 August 2010

Mould Killer aka Kabi Killer

It's still very hot and scorching in Japan. Last weekend and this weekend I've been cleaning our room, bath room and toilet with my wife as well as plenty of washings needed to be hanged dry outside. There's lots of mould especially on the walls and bathroom ceiling. So I had to bring this Mould Killer and spray it all over it. It was horrible because while I'm scrubbing and scraping the mould with a brush, Mould Killer bleach creates this toxic gas and made me feel sick and dizzy. It was awful but in the end my hard work payed off and everything is clean...

2010-2011 Premier League KICK OFF!















Yesterday was the big Premier League kick off and my club Chelsea FC beat West Bromwich Albion 6-0! Hat-trick from Drogba. Malouda scoring 2 goals and Lampard scored 1 goal.

Friday 13 August 2010

Donald Land

I'm so obsessed with side scroller or platformer games. Yes this is a McDonald's game! The famous two golden arch! Mackie D's! I can't remember when but I borrowed this game from a school mate and played it through and it was pretty good. I must be around 10 or 11 something like that. It's not too difficult as well as not too easy. I think for a 8 bit game graphics was very good and music is alright. This game was released by Date East aka DECO in 1988, it was released only in Japan. Basically Ronald McDonald save his friends from the evil and he throws an apple bomb. I don't know but only in Japan, Ronald McDonald is called Donald. It's kinda confusing with Disney's Donald Duck having a same name. So you go through the stage beating them enemies with an apple bomb and meet a boss in the end and when you defeat the boss you get to rescue the likes of Mayor McCheese, Birdie, Fry Guys and Officer Big Mac. I like these characters but they have similar resemblance with the characters from H.R. Pufnstuf (It's a live-action kids show from late 60's to early 70's featuring an English actor Jack Wild and Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo.) and Sid and Marty Krofft company successfully sued McDonald's and won it. And my thoughts on McDonald's fast foods... Despite having high sugar and oil in nutrition I love it. I don't eat them often but it taste good and cheap. It fill your stomach as well so I'm not against McDonald's. I have seen Super Size Me documentary as well. My favourite food is Big Mac Meal. I also like Cheese Burger. In Japan it's called Value Set. That's it!


Kenny G

I'm not a huge Smooth Jazz fan but I quite like his music. I know nothing about Jazz music. He plays Saxophone. His music reminds me of dentist, restaurant, department store in Japan. Because these places plays a lot of Smooth Jazz.  It's good music to calm and chill if you know what I mean. He's a Jewish American.

Thursday 12 August 2010

England v Hungary

After the disastrous World Cup campaign England is back in action. Half the squad has been changed to younger, hungrier English players. i.e. Theo Walcott, Adam Johnson, Michael Dawson and Joe Hart. I watched the first half 4 o'clock in the morning in Japan! I was tired and decided to sleep. I got up and watched the highlights and read the news and we won 2-1 thanks to two great goals from Steven Gerrard. But this is just a friendly and don't know what's gonna happen to England's future...

John Carpenter's The Thing

This is the remake of the classic science-fiction/horror film"The Thing from Another World" 1951 by John Carpenter and it was made in 1982. It was a novel written by John W. Campbell Jr. and it's called "Who goes there?".  Starring Kurt Russell. I've never read the novel and also never seen the original film so I can't comment but all I know is that John Carpenter wanted to remake the film with updated special effects because older special effects are inferior with less technology. John Carpenter is a famous B-movie director specialises in horror/science-fiction genre. He employed young Rob Bottin as special effects make up artist and these guys came up with gory aliens. Story is about an American scientific research group in Antarctica was attacked by an angry Norwegian, who was chasing a dog through the sky, riding a helicopter. Norwegian was shooting rifle randomly and Americans managed to stop him by killing him with a gun. Dog was kept in the American base and one night monster appeared from the dog cage with a nasty scream, killing several dogs and this dog turned into a huge grotesque alien monster. Research group members somehow managed to kill the monster but it didn't stop there. This alien can transform himself blood-like red liquid and transfer to other human while they are asleep and they can imitate that person. So it's really hard to trust each other because you don't know who is an alien, to find out you have to take a blood test by burning the blood. One by one members dies and in the end few of 'em survives the terror. This movie was a cult movie but for me this film remain classic science-fiction horror.

 

Here's the gross Norris Alien!

Thursday 5 August 2010

GeoStorm aka GunForce II

I had a go on this game yesterday and I must say it was brilliant. Side scroll on steroids! I had to control this guy and he gets targeted by enemies and gigantic machines. It's very much like Contra and maybe probably little bit better because it was made tad later than Contra. I read that this game was based on Metal Slug series. And having played Metal Slug before I can tell the similarity between GeoStorm and Metal Slug. It's almost the same! This game was released by Irem in 1991 and speed and graphics are awesome. Top notch! Few disappointing things about this game was that it takes so many shots to kill the bosses and it's nearly like 2000 or 3000 shots to kill'em! No lie! So obviously it's going to take long time to get past the next stage! And also this game ONLY have 5 stages and there's no conclusions. Yes there's no ending sequence! I was disappointed not to see what happened to our hero. But other than that it's a bloody good game. Full of adrenalin and your stress will disappear after killing them evil army!

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Screaming for Vengeance!!

I'm going to write about the METAL GODS known as JUDAS PRIEST. They are LEGENDS! They just come right on TOP of pile of METAL. Like Black Sabbath this band is also from Birmingham, England and highly influential. I think Judas Priest definitely defined the style of music. They also added speed to music and made it more faster than slightly older metal band's music. They have a charismatic vocalist Rob Halford who has extremely high pitched voice could shatter a glass. Very talented. Also great two guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. Their aggressive guitar play with harmonisation are great. And you have quiet Ian Hill on bass and various drummers. Since 1990 Scott Travis kept his position and it has been stable. Judas Priest released their first album "Rocka Rolla" in 1974 and gradually with time they progressed more and more heavier music direction as well as their image. Back in the 70's all rock bands had same image. Typical long hair, a shirt and flare jeans! But after the release of "Stained Class" in 1978 they adopted to motorcycle gang image with leather, chains and studs. This image gave them more hard edge and since then every metal bands copied. The band also adopted permanent new logo with "Stained Class" album. In 1980 they released epic "British Steel" and more great albums were released such as "Screaming for Vengeance",  "Defender of the Faith" and "Painkiller". In mid 90's Rob Halford already had left the band and replaced with young talented singer called Ripper Owens. In 1997 they released "Jugulator". This is my first Judas Priest album and this album had elements of old skool metal, modern death metal and thrash metal influence. The guitar sound was down tuned, distorted, fuzzy, so heavy, so low, so razor sharp could cut anything! Great stuff and listening to Ripper Owens voice was absolute pleasure. I got into Jugulator album a lot and obviously listened to that album. Great thing about Judas Priest is that they are very flexible as musicians and do take little bit of an influence from what's in from time. They don't sound the same like some bands tend to do i.e. AC/DC, Iron Maiden to name but a few. In 2003 Halford returned to the band after some solo materials and decade of absence and rather controversial court case about subliminal message James Vance and Raymond Belknap in early 90's.  Most recommended recordings are "British Steel", "Screaming for Vengeance", "Defender of the Faith", "Painkiller" and "Jugulator". These five albums are essential for all metal fans all over the world. They deserve to have a title of Metal Gods because they play the major role in this genre of music! Defender of the Faith!