Be sure to tune in for the 2hr finale! "The adventure of their lives comes to a close as Tommy Lee and Ludacris race to Los Angeles to perform on a star-studded bill at the Greek Theater.

This episode features guest appearances by:Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Adrian Grenier,Tom Green, Bill Nye the Science Guy,Keenan Ivory Wayans, Maria Menounos,Mike Rowe, Cedric the Entertainer, Tommy Davidson, Blue Man Group, Train, Switchfoot, Bowling for Soup, Rock Star Supernova, Ziggy Marley, Robby Kreiger, Billy Gibbons,Dee Snider, Velvet Revolver – Slash, Duff McKagan, Dave Kushner

and these products and locations:
DW Drums
Greek Theatre

Checkout the Planet Green Schedule to catch this episode of Battleground Earth." ]]> http://thewickedpinto.wordpress.com/?p=5282 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:44:42 +0000 Rosetta http://thewickedpinto.de.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/hillary-clinton-she-hulk-ottomanless-midget-en-espanol/ Note the special appearance by wiserbud near the end of the video:

I'll start this off with a great video about vision and how it works, brought to you by the Blue Man Group-Enjoy!

Intel should bring them back.

We started the evening at Chili's, with our room mate, Amber and Christina's sister, Sarah.  Two for ones all day is never a bad deal.  We realized as soon as we were seated that we had a lot less time than we originally thought.  So we ordered drinks and and appetizer.  Time came down to a crunch, and we had to leave.  We pissed off the server by canceling the last drink.  I would have felt bad, but she was just standing at the bar shooting the shit with the bartender when we approached her, after having waited on the drink for over 15 minutes.  Amber and Sarah stayed, and ordered dinner. 

Christina and I made it to City Walk and the show right in the nickof time.  Poor Christina had to pee since we had left the restaurant and the bathrooms were packed, plus we were short on time. We were seated about 5 minutes prior to the show starting. 

The show was quite the experience.  I good blend of visual effects, humor and live music really does make it appeal in some way, to everyone.

When we got back to the house, we had a glass of wine with our room mate and her girlfriend "homegirl." 

I wish I had take the camera with us to City Walk.  I've been really bad about carrying it with me lately. All in all, I think Christina had a great birthday.  She said she had the best birthday ever.  =)

I found out that I could about a $30 discounton each ticket with my AAA card.  So I call the AAA office, to inquire about times.  They confirmed that there were indeed tickets still available for the night of Christina's birthday.  I asked if I could purchase the tickets at their office location and the woman said "come on down."

I hop in my Jeep and travel 40 minutes across town to their location.  I arrive, then I'm informed that the tickets are not available to purchase at the office.  The deal is an online only offer. 

At this point, I'm irritated. I just used a quarter tank of gas, paid tolls and then was told I couldn't buy my tickets.  I drive back home, in what has now become 5 o'clock traffic.  5 o'clock traffic on the 408 sucks, simply put. 

I get home, log on to the internet, and go back to the AAA website.  Nowhere on the site does it say "PURCHASE HERE" or "BUY NOW."  I know this discount has to be done through the AAA website, and not Universal's site because the woman at the office told me so.  So, now I'm pissed. 

I dial the same 407 number from before, and explain my dilemma.  I called, was told I could purchase tickets ar the office, was told upon arrival that I couldn't, follow the representatives instructions and visit the site, just to be discouraged again because the site is not designed well. 

The phone representative does his apology/sympathy thing.  I know that drill, I answer phones for a living.  He pulls up the webpage on his computer, and compeltely agrees that it's not user frienly.  He walked me through the series of steps, and my tickets are purchased.  Awesome.

</end rant>

So, Christina's finally going to see The Blue Man Group.  I made her a card with The Blue Men on it, since I didn't have physical tickets to give her.  She's so excited. 

We're metting friends for dinner and drinks before the show at Margaritaville.  I'm excited too. 

Event recap to come. =)

Belangrijke thema's uit hun shows zijn:

• het moderne, door technologie en wetenschap beheerste, leven
• informatieverwerking en information-overload
• onschuld en beïnvloeding
• groepsdruk en buitenstaander zijn
• zelfverwerkelijking en idolaterie

De zwijgzame blauwe mannetjes deden mij in eerste instantie denken aan `the matrix', ze zien er uit en gedragen zich als een blauwe versie van pas uit het systeem bevrijdde mensen, die op een naïeve onzekere manier de voor hen onbekende wereld om zich heen proberen te begrijpen, alsof ze van een andere planeet komen. Later viel het me op dat ze zich juist in snel tempo aanpassen en zich de manieren van doen van de wereld om hen heen eigen proberen te maken. Ze transformeren gaandeweg van blauwe onbeschreven bladen tot volgzame consumenten, laten zich verleiden door het succes en worden uiteindelijk gevangenen van hetzelfde systeem wat ze eerst zo vreemd vonden. De popcultuur speelt in dat alles een grote (vormende) rol.

Ik zie in de blauwe mannetjes onze kinderen en tieners die aanvankelijk op een onschuldige manier de normgevende gedragspatronen nadoen, totdat ze uiteindelijke helemaal opgaan in het moderne systeem van controle en uitbuiting en daarin hun eigen identiteit verliezen. Dat stemt wel tot nadenken, hoewel ik me afvraag of de gemiddelde bezoeker van de shows zich dat ook afvraagt…

Our four cats (three now that my kitty died) were all feral cats that we adopted right off-the-ground.  

In one case we adopted a litter of cats after one of my wife's friend offered them to us: the cats were sharing Kay's friend's property and her next-door neighbor's property, and both property owners were concerned about them.  Kay's friend's neighbor approached us at a Blue Man Group concert.  How did she know who we were?   She told us that she found this very Web site (via Google I think), and saw our pictures here, and that's how she recognized us.  Neat!

My other kitty was abandoned at my house when she was too young to be weaned.

ipe. Tube. Conduit. A hollow cylinder.

I guess it doesn’t really matter what it’s made out of or what flows through it; any way you go piping is simple, bland, and deeply spiritual.

Yes, I really think a pipe can be spiritual. And not just in some hippy cliché “yeah man, when I smoke my pipe it’s like all the chaos in life becomes so peaceful” kind of way. If it leads us to think about more than just the physical, then I think it can be “spiritual."

In some semi-meditative thought, I considered the history of pipe and thought about what its basic purpose is: transport. Modern pipelines transport oil, water, and even sewage: all things that society needs to get from one place to another. Initially, I only thought about all the valuable stuff we can get from a pipeline, but then I decided that it’s equally valuable for pipes to get rid of waste. The Blue Man Group brought to my attention this function in one of their performances where they not only used pipe to make wonderful music/performance art, but they also spent quite a bit of time explaining that most of the plumbing in the world is used to transport poo away (they had an echo loop on the word away.. away.. away). 

When googling pictures for this post, I found this one of a water main in Philidelphia made of wood. I’m guessing that, when it was built, water pressure wasn’t that big of a deal; in fact, they were probably just excited to have water flowing. I guess my thought was that the only reason why it matters what the pipe is made of is efficiency of purpose. Can you imagine trying to carry drinking water in a pipe with holes?  And yet you want holes in some drainage pipes.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s tough to carry out what you’re designed to do if you aren't made of the right material. 

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with us.  Well, over the next 12 months we’re working with our church to lay some pipe, not physical pipe, but spiritual pipe. We hope to connect our church community, eXchange, with orphanages in Guatemala City to allow love to flow between the two.  There won’t be any literal pipe. I guess the piping will be us. Not just “us” being me and Rachael, but “us” the community of people who are following Christ and serving him by loving others. We are the pipe.

I think Paul might have been alluding to this by saying we’re jars of clay. Back in Paul’s day, they used clay pots for transporting water, oil, flour, and probably waste in a similar manner as to how we now use pipes. (Although, I’d like to think we increased the efficiency and sanitary factors over the course of centuries…)

I’m looking forward to seeing how God can use a simple mission like ours in Guatemala to share his love with some unloved children, creating a bond (community) among eXchangers, and seeing God blow our feeble efforts out the of the water with his life-changing power.

Final thoughts: It’s crucial for me not to be a leaky pipe or one that’s polluting what I’m carrying. My prayer is that God would continue to refine the material that I am so that I can efficiently and effectively carry what he’s designed for me to transport.

Nate

From October 25 to January 11 the Blue Man Group Show comes to Switzerland. They will play in the Musical Theater Basel. After their big success in the US and a continuation in Germany they plan to conquer the Swiss audience. The Blue Man Group is typical for our time: they produce a mixture of a powerful rock-pop show, combined with humor, artistic skills, theatrical know-how, sarcastic criticism of today's world and a big portion of enthusiasm. Let's hope that the Swiss public gets fired too. Further informations: www.bluemangroup.ch.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Letzten Dienstag habe ich eine Aufführung der "Blue Man Group" im Stuttgarter SI-Zentrum bestaunen dürfen und was soll ich sagen, es war wirklich phantastisch! Ich habe im Vorfeld schon einige Meinungen hören dürfen und diese waren eher gespalten. Die eine Fraktion meinte diese Show sei genial, die andere war eher der Meinung, sie sei befremdlich. Ich bin der Meinung, dass die Blue Man Group Unterhaltung der sehr modernen Art bietet - wenn ich Kultur will gehe ich in die Oper ;-)

Die Blue Man Group sollte aber trotzdem jeder gesehen haben. So ein Blue Man ist ein sehr interessantes Wesen. Er spricht nicht, er kommuniziert allein durch den, meist sehr starren Blick und die Körpersprache. Die Blue Man's wirken wie Besucher aus dem All, die voller Neugierde unsere Erde erforschen wollen. Die Art und Weise, wie sie mit bestimmten Gegenständen interagieren erinnert ein bisschen an Kinder die die Lektion "heiße Herdplatte = Aua!" lernen.

Noch bis zum 12. Oktober 2008 gastiert die Blue Man Group in Stuttgart, danach geht es weiter in die Schweiz.

http://www.blueman.com/

http://www.stage-entertainment.de/musicals/blue-man-group/blue-man-group.html

It was in these circumstances at work today that I came across an article about the hegemony of classical music.  Written by Alex Ross, the article Why So Serious: How the Classical Concert Took Shape shows that classical concerts were not always a sobering, silent and seated affair.  Contemporary concerts (of the classical variety anyways) traditionally tend to include playbills identifying composers with a single name, long periods of silence between movements, and a lengthy ovation at the performance's conclusion.  In the years prior to the French Revolution, however, procedures were different:

While most were in their places by the end of the first act, the continuous movement and low din of conversation never really stopped. Lackeys and young bachelors milled about in the crowded and often boisterous parterre, the floor-level pit to which only men were admitted. Princes of the blood and dukes visited among themselves in the highly visible first-row boxes. Worldly abbés chatted happily with ladies in jewels on the second level, occasionally earning indecent shouts from the parterre when their conversation turned too cordial. And lovers sought the dim heights of the third balcony—the paradise—away from the probing lorgnettes.

Freaking sweet, right?  I'd much rather attend a classical performance in those circumstances.  In high school I was lucky enough to visit Severance Hall for a performance by the Cleveland Orchestra, and I was so distracted by the gravity with which people attended the event that I failed to engage the music at all.  Surely repeated visits to the hall would make me more accustom to the surroundings, but that night it dawned on me that live musical performances aren't necessarily the best place for engaging music.

This is for a number of reasons, but primarily because there's just so much visual stimulus to soak up.  Passing scenery on long drives is refreshing because hills, fields and valleys needn't be consequential in shaping the music and somehow distract us just enough.  Alternatively, instruments, equipment and stage presence are all integral to the music's success and demand our attention as we visually link sounds to their origins.

Do I still go to concerts?  You bet.  Are they awesome?  Totally.  But for me concerts are increasingly visual affairs that lend the opportunity to superimpose visual anecdote on the music as we see how musicians practice their art.

Talk about a scatterbrained post.  Read the article though.  Ross will likely inspire you in ways I won't.

I went to a show last year from their How to be Meagastar 2.0 tour, and it was quite fun.

It's interesting to see the actors being able to express themselves, as I've read before they're not allowed to speak while under make up.