03.03.10

Parenthood Review (TV)

Posted in TV at 12:35 am

Tonight, NBC aired the first episode of its new family drama-comedy, Parenthood. Inspired by the hit 1989 movie that starred Steve Martin and shared its name, Parenthood brings a modern edge to a genre that was in dire need of a spark.

It is now clear why NBC decided to unshamedly promote the living hell out of Parenthood: The show and its star-studded cast delivers big.

Parenthood revolves around four siblings and their spouses, and focuses on their various battles towards raising their children. The age of these siblings range from the mid-thirties to early forties, but Parenthood also gives plenty of screen time to their children and parents. The show begins with Sara Braverman (Lauren Graham), who moves her two teenage children back home to Berkeley due to financial trouble. Her parents (Bonnie Bedelia and Craig T. Nelson) welcome them back into the house, thus beginning the show and its amazingly complete introduction to the characters.

While Lauren Graham may be the “star” of the show, the oldest brother Adam (Peter Krause) is the one who all paths cross through. He is the sage of the family that is constantly called upon to give advice and provide help to the rest of the family. Adam and his wife, Kristina (Monica Potter), however, have problems of their own when they learn that their son Max may have Asperger’s Syndrome.

In the meantime, their little brother Crosby (Dax Shepard) is hit with a bomb at the end of the episode, and the other sister Julia (Erika Christensen) is such a successful lawyer that her daughter prefers the company of her father (Sam Jaeger) due to her mother’s inexistent rearing.

Much of Parenthood’s initial issues are taken from the 1989 movie. Steve Martin wanted his kid to do well in little league baseball, as does Adam. Dianne Wiest had challenges as a single mom with two teenage kids – same for Sara. The “bomb” dropped on Crosby is also the same. However, these “thefts” are fine because it was a good story in 89, and with modern adaptations, it’s even better today.

My amazement with this show is how well so many characters are introduced without the loss of any plot development. Nearly a dozen characters are successfully brought in, but it is done in such a way that it supports the story. There is still plenty of drama, conflict, and resolution to give the show a proper storyline. I’ve seen shows with a third of the characters fail miserably at this. Consider this a true testament to the writers.

A great aspect about having this breadth of characters is that you will almost certainly find someone to identify with. Maybe you’re old-school and side with Dad in learning that parenting is a much different game these days. Maybe you’re a career woman who doesn’t/didn’t see your children enough. Or you’re single and frustrated. Personally, I empathize with Alan, who seemingly has it together and is the lightning rod for everyone else’s problems, but can’t seem to get a grasp on his own situation.

Parenthood has many funny moments (ever go to your girlfriend’s house and find a stainless steel thermos of another man’s sperm?), touching moments (Adam and Kristina’s realization that their son is different – thousands of mothers across the country cried at this part), and a few ridiculous moments (finding your single mother half naked with another man, after she had found her father’s condoms… are single mothers this desperate? Hmmm maybe so..) It kept me on my toes and thoroughly entertained – more so than most of the regurgitated slop I’ve witnessed on TV lately.

As much as I loved Parenthood’s pilot episode, the show may not be for you. Don’t bother watching if you can’t give it your full attention. If you can’t pause the TV and can’t hold your bladder, you’re out of luck – you’re gonna miss something during that bathroom break, and it will definitely come back to confuse you later on. Parenthood has no downtime; no filler. If you can’t keep 12 characters semi-straight, you will be lost. I imagine my Dad asking my Mom “Wait, which one is that?” about 10 times, at which point their arguments over whose kid is whose have made them miss half of the action on the show, ruining everything except a frustrated trip to bed.

There is also a lot of conflict. Feel-gooders need not apply. The best comparison to be made would be Friday Night Lights. This makes sense because the writer and director, Jason Katims, comes from FNL. Parenthood’s pilot follows a conflict-conflict-conflict-conflict-conflict-quasi_resolution-conflict-conflict-conflict-conflict-conflict-resolution formula. The best feeling you’ll get from the show is the feeling that things aren’t so bad after all, and you’ve just spent an hour watching something that was vastly more entertaining than everything else Hollywood has to offer (that is, until April 27th, at least).

All in all, Parenthood is the best TV I’ve seen in a long time, besides perhaps the Season 4 Finale of Dexter (and you can’t even compare the two). We needed this. Thank you to a wonderful group of writers, actors, and the team at NBC.

And the best thing of all? Rumors from the set are that “it only gets better”. We’ll be there ready to take you up on that offer.

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12.31.09

My Top 15 Albums of 2009

Posted in Music Reviews at 6:39 pm

While 2009 was an incredible year for me, its music will go wholly unremembered. To prove my point, there is not a single album on this list that will make it to my top 10 albums of the decade (coming soon).

2009 brings a few major themes that you will see here:

• Female vocals – Anneke Van Giersbergen is everywhere. Theatre of Tragedy pulled the surprise of the year, the Gathering put out yet another solid effort, and Metric made it to the list as well.
• The resurgence of Devin Townsend – Devin is in the middle of a journey in creating four albums with his newly formed Devin Townsend Project. Every time I write him off he proves me wrong.
• Prolific musicians dominating – Devin Townsend and Steven Wilson are the closest thing we’ll come to a Frank Zappa in a long time. How long can they go on for? Then there’s yet another great album from Megadeth, (hed) P.E., and Hypocrisy… these guys all just keep going.

On to the list…

1. The Devin Townsend Project – Addicted

   Devin combines a mixture of metal, pop, techno, and Anneke Van Giersbergen’s beautiful voice to make an album that is truly addicting. It’s short (especially if you discredit the two minutes of fade at the end), it’s not the most musically articulate, and it’s probably not going to last forever with me — but I can’t stop listening to or loving this album — and that’s why it’s my #1.

2. Porcupine Tree – The Incident

   Musically, this is the top album. Steven Wilson, who I’ve raved about for years, has done it again. There are beautiful melodies, incredible solos, and even flashbacks to prior albums. The rhythm is rarely broken up, and the album strengthens to the end. Also note that it’s a two-CD set, but I am primarily focusing on the first album.

3. Theatre of Tragedy – Forever Is the World

   My surprise of the year. Nell Sigland does a fantastic job and lays a sweet track over some melodic-yet-sludgy heavy music. Countless bands have tried doing what Theatre of Tragedy has done, but none have succeeded to this level.

4. The Devin Townsend Project – Ki

   Devin putting out four albums at once sounds like a complete train wreck, but there’s a reason why it’s working – organization. When he was writing, if he was in a chipper mood, he could write something for Addicted. When in an introspective mood, he could switch to Ki. No more do we need to deal with the roller coaster of sociopath emotions that Devin goes through during a single album. In 2009 and 2010, I’ll be able to choose which Devin I want to hear for myself.

5. Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity

   This is the first album on this list that I can crush in the weightroom. It’s not as catchy as my favorite – The Arrival – but it still slams in a year that needed a lot more slamming.

6. Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot

   This album is total proof of what a fucking douchebag guitarist Joe Satriani is. He spent nearly his entire life doing solo guitar wanking in front of a bunch of lonely losers, but this is what you get when he actually joins a BAND and plays REAL music with other people. In one album, he did more for music than he did his entire, selfish career.

   The album is catchy, fun, old school (even sometimes lame), and a total winner. Welcome back, Sammy Hagar.

7. Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings

   I almost didn’t even give this album a shot. Their past few albums (since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence) have been THAT bad. I’m glad I listened, because this is a great prog album that got a ton of airtime for me. Three amazing songs within, I’ll let you figure out which ones they are.

8. (hed) P.E. – New World Orphans

   WHOA. What in the hell is this? I’ll tell you what it is – some unbelievably intense hip-hop slammed funk metal that breaks every barrier you have ever known in music. When Amazon says EXPLICIT LYRICS, they mean it. These guys hate women, the government, corporate America, organized religion, and sing about enough conspiracies to make your head spin. Furthermore, they’re from nearby Huntington Beach – But I don’t know if I’d ever go to a local show. I’d probably fear for my life.

   Just listen to the hit Renegade and you’ll be absolutely hooked. These guys can rap, groove, and most of all, piss you off to no end.

   This album should be higher on the list for the simple fact that it introduced me to the band, which has tons of music I was able to go through. But at the end of the day, it’s low because there’s too much ridiculous bullshit between the fantastic tracks on the album (Nibiru Intro? Planet X? The idiocy in Flesh and Blood at 3:10? come on…)

   Note that this is the part of the list where it starts becoming difficult to listen to albums all the way through – not a good sign for the year. Every album, starting here, starts to get a bit tired about halfway through, and that’s NOT a mark of excellence for me.

9. The Gathering – West Pole

   After the departure of Anneke (she is seriously somehow connected to every album on this list!), one would think this band was done for. Not so! Silje Wergeland is somehow a fantastic vocal replacement, and this album is a grower.

10. Megadeth – Endgame

    Megadeth strikes again! This is one that entire metal community can pretty much agree on, and I see it being the BraveWords #1 album after all the votes are tallied up. The riffs shred, the vocals blast, and the drumming throws down bombs. Bring this one to the football weightroom.

    Dave Mustaine is a metal genius and I have an incredible amount of respect for him. I should have this higher, and I should be a bigger Megadeth fan… but alas, I am not.

11. Metric – Fantasies

    Call me gay if you must, but this is a great album. It’s catchy and sweet, yet still brings out a few explicit lyrics. If you liked the radio single “Help I’m Alive”, take a gamble on this album – you’ll most likely be happy with your decision. This is yet another female-fronted band.

12. Clutch – Strange Cousins from the West

    Disappointment of the year. Clutch is my second favorite band behind Opeth, and I hold them to standards that I’m not sure they can achieve any longer. This album, quite frankly, is annoying and absolutely sucks compared to their rest. I DEMAND better out of Clutch. Strange Cousins, in my not so humble opinion, is UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE. Track 4, Abraham Lincoln, is UNLISTENABLE. I’m disappointed in you, Clutch; you have let me down.

    But I still own it because I love you dirty bastards. Maybe it’ll grow when I calm down.

13. Insomnium – Across the Dark

    Hey, I almost forgot that I’m a melodic death metal fan! This is a fun, new album that mixes death metal with a touch of progressive. Sign me up. I’m happy to have found this band, and will start backtracking to their older stuff. A well-hidden secret that few metalheads know, and I’m happy to have made the late 2009 discovery.

14. Katatonia – Night Is the New Day

    This is largely a placeholder. Katatonia fans are raving over this album, and while I love the band, I never got into Night is the New Day. 2009 was reserved for happy music for me – stuff like Devin’s Addicted and Volbeat, and this album is just a downer.

    However, some day I’m gonna be down in the pooper, and this album will be there, ready for me to wallow with it. Until then, it sits at #14 patiently waiting for me to figure it out.

15. Anneke Van Giersbergen – Pure Air

    A number of albums could have gone here, but the choice here was clear. Anneke’s done so much, with her appearances in Addicted, her live album with Danny Cavanaugh (In Parallel), and this album, she deserves lots of credit. Such a beautiful voice. A great year for female vocals indeed.

Honorable Mentions:
Ensiferum – From Afar, Sacred Oath – Sacred Oath (young guys playing old school metal – cool), Immortal – All Shall Fall, Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us, Anneke Van Giersbergen & Danny Cavanagh – In Parallel

Top Songs of the Year:

1. Chickenfoot – 8 – My Kinda Girl
2. The Devin Townsend Project – Addicted – #5 – Hyperdrive!
3. Porcupine Tree – #14 – I Drive the Hearse

Shoulda Woulda Coulda List:
Volbeat’s entire discography. Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood would have been #3 in 2008, a huge feat. I discovered these guys late, thanks (as always) to my friend Brian, and they got TONS of my airtime this year.

Too late to add:
Redemption – Snowfall on Judgement Day. Not bad so far, but I just listened to it for the first time today on the 31st.

??? List:
Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know (just could NOT get into this album, despite the extreme talent on it)

Overall, BAD year for me. That’s fine because I was due. Not every year can be spectacular – when you highlight everything, you highlight nothing.

Coming soon – My Top 10 Albums of the Decade. Rock out in 2010. Consider this my return to blogging.

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02.28.09

Software Testing and QA Outsourcing at Pay4Bugs

Posted in Technology at 4:38 pm

Today I’m pleased to congratulate my good friends at Attigo in launching Pay4Bugs.com.

Pay4Bugs is a site with two personalities and was designed for two different kinds of people: 1. Software engineers, program managers, and web/application developers who want low-cost, high-quality, on-demand beta testing and bug-finding; and 2. Self-motivated people who want to play with new technologies and get paid for spotting problems.

choose the price that their bugs are worth. Pay4Bugs’ software testing pricing scheme even allows developers to try to get their applications tested for free with a $0.00 bug-finding assignment. I love this because as more and more developers join the site, there will be worldwide competition, and bug-testing prices will reach a market equilibrium — capitalism at its finest! — something this country no longer seems to understand.

On the other end, people can make money from home by testing software. As there are more testers out there, software developers will get to lower their bug-testing prices and the competition will get their testing done faster and more thoroughly!

I have both a developer and a tester account on Pay4Bugs and they’re both very well-designed, clean, and easy to use. In fact, if you already have a Google, AIM, Yahoo, or OpenID account, you can already sign in using OpenID! I’ll be posting some side-projects and have people look for typos on this website as well, so see you over at Pay4Bugs.com!

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01.20.09

How to Disable Root Logins in phpmyadmin with Ubuntu

Posted in Technology at 7:58 am

This took me a bit too long to figure out. Using Ubuntu 8.10 on a server, I wanted to use phpmyadmin to graphically manage my MySQL databases, but disallow root logins for security reasons.

There are two things you must do:

1. Change the ‘auth_type’ to ‘cookie’. This will be under the /* Authentication type */ comment. The line should read as
   

   $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = ‘cookie’;

   Make sure it is uncommented by removing the “//” before it, and then change the parameter to ‘cookie’ if that’s not already set.

2. Add a new line below this, that says
   

   $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowRoot'] = FALSE;

That’s it! Very easy but was tough to find in the forums.

Happy administrating!

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01.08.09

Good Riddance to James Laurinaitis and the 2008 Ohio State Senior Class

Posted in HUMILIATIONS, Rants, Sports at 12:16 am

This post is a follow-up to last year’s article, James Laurinaitis: Ohio State’s Most Overrated Linebacker Ever.

This post has three main messages:

The first message is one giant middle finger to every brainwashed, spiral-eyed zombie Ohio State fan who sent me hate mail regarding the aforementioned post. I was right and you were wrong. James Laurinaitis is not only overrated, but he sucked in every big game he played for us, including this week’s Fiesta Bowl disappointment. I may have seen him make about two impact plays since I wrote that, and one of them was during a Michigan State rout.

The Fiesta Bowl was over the second Texas figured that they could simply pass it over the middle a few yards over #33’s head time and time again. He was absolutely lost in coverage, and got schooled by Colt McCoy his thousand-yard passing entourage. I won’t bother posting pictures or videos, someone else can go prove me right. I’m sure whoever does it will find a few good pics where JL is jumping on piles after the whistle and is somehow upside-down too, for good measure. That is, when he’s not standing around like an idiot with his thumb up his ass during passing plays.

My second message is good riddance to the 2008 Ohio State football senior class. You have continually let us down, you never played with ANY heart, and you have diminished the respect of this University (note to spiral-eyed zombie Ohioans – I’ve lived in Texas and CA. We have zero respect and I’m getting sick of defending my degree.)

I should have known there’d be four years of disappointment from these clowns when I saw punter AJ Trapasso starting fights at a local campus bar before he even enrolled into the school. Or when perpetual-disappointment Alex Boone got a DUI and hasn’t made a block since. I’ve never seen an offensive line so out of shape as they were in the second-half of the Fiesta Bowl. I’ll lump Malcolm Jenkins in on the blame too – you all go down together – Jenkins perhaps you should have stepped up as a leader after #33 failed us the first 3 big games?

My third message is that I refuse to enter the Shoe until some major changes are made. I’m not supporting this bullshit. Fire Bollman and every other lopsided Tressel cronie, get an offensive coordinator who knows how to call plays, and find someone who knows what to do with Terrelle Pryor, who is possibly the best player in college football for the next three years unless you continue to waste him. Until then, I’ll fly to Columbus, wear my OSU shirt, hang with friends, and laugh at the morons who pay $800 to watch a truly elite team like USC obliterate us.

I’d rather go 8-4 and show some heart than beat up on the pathetic Big Ten and leave nothing on the table against real teams. Good fucking riddance.

GO BUCKS 2009.

PS – To the thousands of people who found my blog by searching for James Laurinaitis’s girlfriend – GET A LIFE.

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