Apr 30, 2009

Apr 29, 2009

Hump Day Eye Candy Extravaganza

tickets.....check

hotel........check

liquor.....check

chloroform(just incase).....check

large duffel bag.....check

Sayumi........





Anime Expo here I come!!

Apr 27, 2009

Soooooo Faucked Up

Kyle Maynard was born with under developed arms and legs....he made is MMA debut over the weekend and not surprisingly, loss. Surprisingly though, he wasn't knocked out, submitted or even lost to a TKO....his loss came via unanimous decision

its not like he came in with no experience whatsoever...he's an accomplished wrestler and has even competed in submission wrestling tournaments
scary right?....like something out of the movie FREAKS

Diggin' in the Crates "Take the Coltrane" Edition

Last year, when I came back from the New York CD & Record Show in Wilkes-Barre, PA and showed off my newest aquisitions here (crossposted with my LiveJournal), a longtime LJ friend told me, "I'm super jealous of all your Coltrane."

So, after giving her fair warning with the mantra of Randy Bachman ("You ain't seen nothing yet"), I pulled out all of the 'Trane vinyls I had to date, grabbed my digital camera, and set them up like so:






From top to bottom:
  • A Love Supreme (Impulse!/GRP, 1995 180-gram reissue)
  • John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse/GRP, 1995 180-gram reissue)
  • Crescent (Impulse/GRP, 1995 180-gram reissue)
  • The Coltrane Legacy (Atlantic, pressing date unknown)
  • Coltrane Live at the Village Vanguard Again! (ABC Impulse! mid-70's repress with green target label)
  • Impressions (MCA/Impulse!, 1980's repress, blue label, non-gatefold)
  • The Stardust Session (Prestige/Fantasy, 1975 original pressing)
  • Kulu Se Mama (MCA/Impulse!, 1980's repress, blue label, non-gatefold)
  • Coltrane Live at Birdland (ABC Impulse mid-70's repress with green target label)
  • Coltrane/Prestige 7105 (Prestige/Fantasy, 1987 "Original Jazz Classics" reissue)
  • Coltrane's Sound (Atlantic, pressing date unknown)
  • The Best of John Coltrane (Atlantic, pressing date unknown)
  • My Favorite Things (Atlantic, pressing date unknown)
  • The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. III: Jupiter Variation (ABC Impulse, 1978 original pressing)
  • The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. I: Feel Good (ABC Impulse, 1978 original pressing)
  • The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. IV: Trane's Modes (ABC Impulse, 1979 original pressing)
  • Alternate Takes (Atlantic, pressing date unknown)
  • Sun Ship (MCA/Victor, 1976 Japanese pressing)
  • Soul Trane (Prestige/Fantasy, repress of "Original Jazz Classics" reissue)
  • Blue Train (Blue Note/Manhattan/EMI, pressing date unknown)
  • Giant Steps (Rhino/Atlantic, early 2000's 180-gram reissue)
To date, I think I've only added one Coltrane vinyl to my collection since those pictures were taken, the 200-gram double vinyl edition of Impulse!'s archival Coltrane release One Down, One Up: Live at the Half-Note. 

At the end of the post, I warned my friend, "Don't make me break out all of my Miles Davis vinyls." I haven't done a hard count, but I probably have more Miles vinyl than I do Coltrane vinyl. Maybe someday soon, I'll do a similar photo shoot and blog post with those records...

Apr 26, 2009

...R U the tooth fairy?

it's my bedtime..



(I've more or less been watching stuff like this all day)

*checks mouth* I'm sure I'm missing something....

Apr 23, 2009

More Resolute

eps 4-1o for those who haven't watched them yet











Bollywood Babes

Gauhar Khan
Weinstein back with another edition of Babes...ahh with the last name Khan you can be sure this dame is Muslim. Nothing wrong with that.

This chick is a model based out of New Delhi. Weinstein will say it again, India has some of the hottest muslims on the planet. Thankfully they don't adhere to the terrorists, so we can enjoy these.
To quote SOG, Badass!

Apr 20, 2009

Diggin' in the Crates "Six of Frank, Half a Dozen of Sinatra" Edition

Every once in a while, I get in the mood for the music of Francis Albert Sinatra, and and I'm in the beginning of one of those periods:



Additionally, there have been times when I feel the need to kickstart or expand certain parts of my vinyl collection. Last year, after I got my Numark TTUSB, I started grabbing Miles Davis and John Coltrane records, then records on the Blue Note label. Now, I'm expanding my very meager collection of Frank vinyls (as of this writing, 90% of my Sinatra library is on CD). A first package of six Sinatra LPs from eBay arrived in my PO Box over the weekend, and I bought a second lot that includes the vinyl of one of my favorite Frank albums, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, this afternoon. Until that package arrives, here's the exact booty I opened up today:



Clockwise from top left:
  • Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra (Cornet CX-186, 1963)
  • That's Life (Reprise, 1966)
  • The Broadway Kick (Columbia, 1959)
  • Adventures of the Heart (Columbia, 1957)
  • Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely (Capitol, 1958)
  • Pal Joey soundtrack (Capitol, 1957)
The two Columbia albums are really compilations of material from when he was with that label for about the first decade or so of his solo career, and the Tommy Dorsey album, or at least Sinatra's cuts on it (only half the songs on the album feature Frank's vocals), predate even those recordings. Also... ALL of these albums are in MONO. I've only played The Broadway Kick and That's Life (the latter is spinning on my turntable in the top photograph and just finished playing Side 2 while I was writing this) but they sound pretty damn  good for records that are eight and one years older than I am! So, yep, vintage pressings all around (the two Columbia releases are with the "six-eye" labels, trainspotters...). 

In a side note, I'm not completely sure of the legitimacy of the Tommy Dorsey record, only because I've nevered own any of the guy's records in any format until today, but as far as I know, recent legit CD releases are on RCA and its vintage jazz imprint Bluebird (and thus currently under Sony Music ownership)... anyone knowledgeable want to clue me in? 

End note: Speaking of Frank's Reprise masters... his estate took the rights back from Warner Bros. (who manufactured and distributed Reprise for Frank, then bought the label off of him a few years later) last year, and all of his Reprise-era albums are being reissued soon on CD by Concord (they're already on iTunes and AmazonMP3.com!), the same folks who are the caretakers of the Fantasy,  Stax, and Prestige tape libraries (amongst others)... that includes quite a few titles that have either been available only as import CDs or not released on CD EVER. Excuse me while I check my download options...

Apr 18, 2009

Nicovideo is where it's @

This program has so much to offer

It's an anime about idols
but then it's got it's own real idol mascots
and cookery things

But this bit in particular is a gem
(vid will jump to the right part upon pressing play):

GI JOE RESOLUTE

HOLY SHIT!!!!!...this is how GI Joe should be..no red and blue lasers...actual bullets flying and people dying!!..not to spoil anything but the first ep has 1 cobra, 1 joe and over 10 million Russians dying...YO JOE!!






Apr 16, 2009

Rhythm Heaven

I picked up the Tsunku produced Rhythm Heaven, aka Rhythm Tengoku Gold in Japan, for the Nintendo DS recently and I have to say, its a really good game and pretty hard to put down once you start...my only complaint is that the jpop songs that they translated for the american audience just sound off....a perfect example:

and now the original version:
AND the live version:

think I might have to pick up the jp version......oh and peep Tsunku talking about the game at IGN and Wired Magazine

Bollywood Babes

Shruti Seth

Shruti Seth is a chick that is famous for co-hosting a comedy show in India. Her prescence and her giggly laughs at dirty jokes made her an instant hit with the masses.

She hosted the show for two seasons and for some unknown reason was removed from her spot. What happened was an uproar the likes of what no Indian tv show ever faced.

Now she's happily back hosting that same comedy show laughing at dirty jokes. Baby Pa!
She is a girl next door favorite of Weinstein.

J-Music Clip of the Week

Artist: Buono!
Single: MY BOY




I think I'm gonna have to put money down for this Single V (gotta reward steps in the right direction). Musically with the breaks n everything I'm feeling quite happily buzzed.

Apr 15, 2009

Hump Day Eye Candy Extravaganza

so for those that didn't look at the comments from last weeks Hump Day Eye Candy post..I'm sorry but...IT WAS A MAN BABY!!....now go take a shower and try to scrub the guilt off...but this week's young lady is in fact that...A LADY..Kana Tsugihara is her name and her ridiculous body is very reminscent of retired(?) gravure idol Miwa Oshiro, petite frame with huge gazongas. Enjoy gents..







BONUS PIC.....screen grab from one of Kana's gravure dvd's


and just incase you're not familiar with Miwa Oshiro


Apr 13, 2009

Diggin' in the Crates "Is It or Isn't It Legit?" Edition

Most of the items I've been posting for this feature since it started are more recent additions to my collection. This week, we dust off something that I've had for several years and nabbed when I saw it while flipping through the 7" bin at Gallery of Sound in 1997:


Artist: Youth of Today
Title: LIVE at Van Hall, Amsterdam
Vinyl: Gray vinyl

In what has to be a testament to the enduring interest/popularity in a band that only existed for a few years in the late 80's (in their short lifetime, Youth of Today only released two 7" EPs and two albums, but also gave rise to the still-active indie labels Revelation and Equal Vision), in 1996 a start-up label from Amsterdam called Commitment Records issued a colored-vinyl EP of a show Youth of Today played at Van Hall, a former clothing warehouse in Amsterdamn's Stattsliedenbuurt (a neighborhood "notorious in the Eighties for its strong squat scene", according to the liner notes on the six-panel insert(!) enclosed with this record.

In 1989, Youth of Today were on a European tour that was marred with problems from troublemakers (drunks trying to hit lead singer Ray Cappo in Belgium, "so-called punks" throwing beer bottles at the band at another gig, Nazi skinheads crashing a third and forcing the band to curtail the gig seven songs in). By the time the band reached Amsterdam, however, the Van Hall gig went without a hitch - something Cappo can be heard complimenting/thanking the crowd for at the end of the recording. Even more thankfully, someone had the wherewithal to record the show with a Sony Walkman.

Fast forward to July 1995 when a few enterprising Amsterdam punks started Committment Records first as a distributor to facilitate the easier availability of American and European straight-edge punk records that would otherwise be hard to get, and (to again quote this record's insert) "to release records of straight edge bands with a positive attitude" to counter what they most disliked in the then current straight-edge scene - bands who played "slow metal moshcore" with more negative lyrics, and European labels that refused to release straight-edge material on vinyl. 

To finance the operation, the label decided to press a 7" EP containing tracks from the audience recording of the Van Hall Youth of Today gig. Their reasoning was spelled out right on the record's back cover:
Why a Youth of Today Live EP?

In the first place, because we had a live recording of Youth of Today at our disposal, which perfectly captured the atmosphere existing in the European hardcore scene at the end of the Eighties, at a time in which the Straight Edge scene in Holland, Belgium and Germany was at its peak.

In the second place, the ideology of the band Youth of Today has a lot in common with the ideology from which Committment Records was started: Straight Edge, positive thinking, and awareness of the wrongs in this world.

In the third place, by releasing a record of a very popular band, we can bring Committment Records to the attention of a lot of people. All proceeds of this record will be invested in the label and the distribution service. It will give us the opportunity to lay a solid foundation for the future releases on Committment Records by less known bands. 
Now, here's the fun part: When I recently went to look up this record on Rate Your Music, they had it listed (as of today, and when I added my copy to my database there) as a bootleg. While the recording itself would be considered "bootleg" quality, the label itself is not a bootleg label.In fact, the label still continues today, has its own website as well as a MySpace page, and points out in its own label discography that some asshole in the United States managed to issue a counterfeit version of the record on black vinyl (probably without the professionally-printed six-panel insert legit copies contain). One would have to conclude that the consent of Youth of Today's Ray Cappo and John Porcelly (the band's founding and only constant members from beginning to end) plus their approval of Committment's modus operandi made the record legitimately possible. 

So, is this record a bootleg? I would daresay, only if you don't come across a gray vinyl copy. Good luck finding one on eBay.  

Apr 12, 2009

Apr 9, 2009

Recently Acquired



yes, the sumbitch is freakin HUGE


this is only the 3rd KAWS piece I have in my collection, the other 2 being the SantasticxKaws Hasheem figure and the Kaws Trooper. The stuff KAWS releases, are typically pretty damn hard to get unless you pick them up on the secondary market and even then, you'll likely be paying 4x the retail price, if you're lucky. By chance, I was able to get the OriginalFake Companion 1000% Be@rbrick off of the Kawsone website for retail.


Bollywood Babes

Shivani Kapoor
This angelic beauty hails from London, so cheerio ol chum...Weinstein's gone British for some arse.

She came to India at the age of 14 to try her luck in the world of modeling. As luck would have it, some swarthy guy found her and voila, she's made it in to the mainstream.

She is also set to do some dance routine in some movie. Probably with some swarthy actor. She also maintains the fact that she doesn't mind doing nude photos. Just the reason to try and convince her to do the Indian version of Playboy, Play Sahib.

Apr 4, 2009

I Got 99 Problems (But Kramer Ain't One)


"Seinfeld was the ultimate show for water cooler conversations. With a countless number of inside jokes, nicknames, characters, and story lines, it didn’t take long for the show to develop it’s very own social language. Now, thanks to Kiersten Essenpreis, we have a beautiful painting depicting a massive, heaping pile of these references (99 to be exact)."