RUMPSHAKER NETWORK L.A.

Musical Rant: Almost Every Top 10 Music List Was Wrong This Year

2009-01-12T08:46:00.001-08:00

Before I dive into 'what's hot for 2009', I gotta say that any "best album" or "best song" top 10 list this year not mentioning Rihanna doesn't deserve to be taken seriously -- which means almost all of them. The woman took hip hop and Diana Ross diva'd it up 21st century style. Disturbia and Umbrella could have been hits for anyone from Christina Aguilera to CSS. Music critics are contrarians who discriminate against artists just because they are wildly popular. Oh, and just because a band has multiple ethnic types or 'boys and girls' doesn't make it 'top 10'. TV on the Radio is fine and all, but they really ain't nothin' but the Black Eyed Peas for yuppie hipsters.

Jill and Simian are married!

2008-07-23T06:59:00.001-07:00

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Camp Rock Reviewed - Not as Good as HSM But Not Horrifying

2008-06-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

I just watched Camp Rock. I am not any smarter for having watched it. . . but not that much less intelligent either. Skip to the last third in order to speak intelligently with one of the 8.3 million tweens who watched this last week.

Good clean fun. . . but not quite as tolerable as High School Musical. The songs as usual are a cross between 80s duets and Third Eye Blind. Not bad considering. If they replaced most of the adult contemporary stations on my radio with Radio Disney, I wouldn't be complaining.

WARNING: There were MANY ads during the show for Disney Channel's next movie spectacular due August 22, in which THE CHEETAH GIRLS GO TO BOLLYWOOD. Nope. Not Shitting You. Be Bery Bery Afraid.

Spring Break LA + Music + Birthdays = OMFG

2008-04-11T01:01:00.001-07:00

OMFG. I am SO glad Geebus and Joe are coming down Friday.

Czech it out:

I am going to try to write my posts in poems from now on

2008-03-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

I've been dark. No good new photo shoots to report. Just doing a lot of life stuff.

I have decided that you will see the following kinds of posts here on my blog from now on:
1) Photos and stuff
2) Links to things (I'm trying out Delicious and Twitter and all those right now to figure out the best one)
3) Poems.

Yes. Poems. Stream of thought stuff that doesn't suck (I hope). I don't know what kind yet, but I am trying to improve my writing and I think this will be fun and will help.

For instance, a post on this topic might read something like:

Dave is a marketing director,
Thinks all day in Powerpoint and bulletpoint,
On Sunday, he started writing poems on his blog.
Commercials are 15 second haikus.
Ads aren't lies, they're feelings.

Hmmm. . . We'll see how this experiment goes.

dp

London - Brit Bowling, the Tate, Nate Cashdollar, and Mor

2008-02-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

Never underestimate the power of the American Cashdollar. My first trip to the UK. 5 days of meetings. 14 hours of shenanigans. Thank you to YrPoison for connecting me to this week's tour guide Nate Cashdollar, and to my bud Huw for the invite to Fran's sweet Birthday Rock n' Bowl celebration. (Yes, Londoners interpreting American 50's diner style fun.)

Philippine Vacation -- Sightseeing

2008-01-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

Photos of Jeepneys, the fish market, the PBA, and a cross-dressing new year's parade from my family's great trip to the Philippines over Christmas and New Years.

Philippine Highlights - Relative Stuff!

2008-01-22T18:04:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Part 1 of 2 highlight reels from my Philippine trip.

LOVE the relatives and they organized lots of cool stuff for us to do while we were in Mandaluyong over the holidays. Christenings, Anniversary spectaculars, and an all-star Filipino-American basketball game. Great vacation.

PS: Sorry for the delay. I had some trouble with With Windows Movie Maker and picking songs. Much as I love Papaya (the last song) which was all the rage in Manila last year, I don't think I can listen to it for 3 minutes. Same sort of thing for the Frau Lippo Lippi tune in the beginning which cousin 'Gelo likes to lisen to in the car. . . along with Clocks by Coldplay.

Rumpshaker Alum Phil Payton in New Kravitz Video

2008-01-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

A) Lenny Kravtz still rules. Brand new single above

B) Our boy PHIL PAYTON was in the orchestra for this video! Check out a good shot of him (with headphones) at 3:41

C) Nice to get back from the Philippines to find this waiting in my inbox. Thanks, Alge. Actual Philippine photos coming soon

Vacation Update: Basketball is EVERYWHERE in the Philippines

2007-12-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

Basketball really is the national sport in the Philippines.

I've seen courts in fishing villages, in the middle of streets, and in classy neighborhoods too. Sometimes for small courts they'll cut off a couple inches of rim and bend it in so it's smaller. . . then they'll lower the hoop by a few inches so they can play more like the PBA.

PBA basketball BTW doesn't mean dunking. It's kind of like a more athletic version of Golden State run n' gun with full court press thrown in.

My cousin got me great seats for a doubleheader yesterday at Areneta 'thrilla in Manila' coliseum yesterday:

Welco Paint vs. St. Lucia realtors
Magnolia Ice Cream vs. Air 21 (fedex)

Magnolia ice cream is owned by San Miguel. . . the budweiser of Philippines. . . so they're like the Mavericks. Pay no heed to the salary cap.

So the ball itself. . . this is the 'filipino only' half of the league. . . which means you have to be at least 50% Pinoi (or have good fake papers) to play. So lots of team ball vs. the 'import' season where the foreigners basically isolate and just go one on one against each other for most of the games.

So. . . the style of play . . .Yeah. Lots of full court press. . . cherry picking. . . and transition. Not so much half court. Very exciting and very physical. Hand checking and basic elbowing encouraged, streetball style.

WHY DO I CARE?

In addition to having a great time playing/seeing basketball, I've been preparing for my family's inaugural 'Pagkalinwan Fil-Am Tournament'. . . . Takes place tomorrow. All of my cousins go head to head in an American vs. Pinoi basketball family feud.

Starring for the locals: My cousin Gelo and his brother Ian. . . Gelo's on his college team (Grad/dental school) and Ian was the starting shooting guard for his high school.

For the traveling Americans: My cousin Jun (Plays with former PBA players in an orange county league) and his 12-year old daughter Erica.

For the game, we've rented the practice court of the PBA's 'Red Bulls' and are taking this very seriously.

Off to search for a 'Pure Foods Giant Chunkees' jersey.

Results to be posted later.

Steve Sanders Sighting in Santa Monica

2007-12-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

I'm not a big starfucker. Usually I try to treat any actor/celeb type I see around L.A. like a coworker: Even if I look up to them (or the opposite), I don't go around asking my coworkers for for autographs or photo ops unless I have expense checks that need to get paid.

My celeb exceptions to this rule have always been:
- Mr. T
- Heidi Klum (cuz PRun RULEZ)
- MacGyver
- and Steve Sanders of 90210 fame

So, with that in mind, I apologize to all ya'll who had this conversation with me last night/this morning:

PAVA: (cchssksth shhhket.) "HEY YOU PICKED UP THE PHONE AT 1AM"

YOU: Yeah. You know it's 1am

PAVA: dude I just saw Steve Sand(garble)ers. It's like (garblegarblegarble) foot and (crowdnoiscrowdnoisecrowdnois) f'n scooter!

YOU: What? I can barely hear you.

PAVA: dUDE! Steve fuckin' sanders! Can you hear me

YOU: Sounds great. Call me later

PAVA: (CLICK)

Chocolate and Peanut butter Dept.: Shakira and "Danzig" Mashup

2007-11-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

Delicious

Rumpshaker Reviews: Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis is a Freaky God)

2007-11-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

(If you didn't know, image above is sort of a cartoon. )

Two bloody thumbs up for Beowulf on the Bloodsport Scale.

I am picturing the Greenlight meeting for Beowulf:

Robert Zemeckis: Hey, I want to do a $200m rated-R cartoon with more dudity than 300 and some of the characters will speak in Flemish or dutch or something.

Paramount: Nobody wants R-rated cartoons. Can you at least throw something loveable in it. And sneaking in teens don't like foreign languages.

Zemeckis: Angelina Jolie plays a hot dragon chick.

Paramount: OK. So we got loveable covered. But no one likes R-rated cartoons.

Zemeckis: I'll make two of the characters good looking enough so you can sucker everyone into thinking it's live-action.

Paramount: Fine. Blood. Live action. Can work with that. But what about the nerds?

Neil Gaiman: Hey, I'm helping to write this thing, and I write those comic books that everyone claims they've read but I know no one really understands.

Roger Avary: I'm taking all the blood I didn't use in Pulp Fiction and just pouring it all over the top of this.

Paramount: Is there enough man-yelling?

Zemeckis: I promise the main character will yell I AM BEOWULF with blood all over his face at least 3 times. Oh, did I tell you I'm throwing in just a touch of anti-Christian blasphemy?

Paramount: Awesome. R-rated anti-christian full of naked butts cartoon that we won't market as a cartoon. PERFECT. Our jobs are safe again.

And in my opinion they should be. Especially cuz I saw this with Alge in 3-D IMAX MADNESS.

Rotten Tomatoes puts this film at 70%. Screw you critics. As a piece of tech it deserves much more than that. Story? Like a dog walking on its hind legs, points don't get taken off when the characters don't loook human, but just the fact that they look good enough some of the time to fool you into thinking everything's real? I'll take it.

Hell. . . isn't a half-naked cartoon dude screaming 'I AM BEOWULF' enough for you???

(Rob EG and purists: Here are some links about the movie so you can begin your rebuttal):

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beowulf/

http://www.beowulfmovie.com/

Genius Encounter

2007-11-24T22:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know and love The Genius Family:
- Alexis is dynamite and obviously staying in shape by chasing Iron Maren (almost 3) and Eddie around their house
- Steve has 2.5 years of medical school left. He says he's not the smartest guy in class (yet) but you know he kicks ass
- Trent and me -- by living with Steve for 2 years -- obviously taught the Geniuses how to deal with hyperactive toddlers

I Gained 8 Pounds Today. It is Thanksgiving.

2007-11-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Home in Berrien Springs. The baseball caps you can buy in the supermarket to support the basketball team say 'BS' on them. (Way to go meta, Fighting Shamrocks!)

More importantly, today was Thanksgiving.

I hate big Thanksgivings. I want my Thanksgiving day routine in my old house:

Wake Up
Smell Mom baking two turkeys for me and our guests. One is a smoked Butterball from Sam's Club.
Mom invites (maximum) of 4 guests to help us eat the two turkeys. This year there were two extras.
I watch part of the Lions game
We all talk about how awesome the spread is. Two turkeys, two kinds of potatoes, two kinds of rice, 2 kinds of beans, a pie, two cakes, pumpkin bread, and 5 people to eat it all.
We all proceed to eat from about 2pm until about 10pm.
In the middle of this I sneak out somewhere between first and second dessert course to check the Lions score (losing), falling asleep
Alge comes over for 3rd dessert
Lots of dishwashing and more eating after the guests leave.

Yeah. I'm happy. Waterbed time.

I am a Will Smith Whore

2007-11-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sigh. Yes. I want to see this.

Nooooo! Computer ate my Europe Photos!

2007-11-16T07:38:00.001-08:00

SONOFABITCH! Woke up at 4am today happily jetlagged after my two week Euro trip.

Transferred all my photos from camera to computer. . . only to discover everything between Amsterdam and my last night in London were mysteriously GONE OR CORRUPTED!

booooooooo!

Apologies to Mark, Anna, Seasons, Vega, and all you cats who wanted to see my throwing down at Shunt in London or Teatriz in Madrid. I am SOOOO sad right now.

I think my camera is F'd up too. Not doing well with the backpack-to-pocket lifestyle.

Maybe I am just not built for nice things.

AAAAGH!

Euro Road Trip - Day One Observations - It Likes Cold in England

2007-10-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

I am going to attempt to write something every day of my Euro road trip.

Day one - England (two hours outside of London):

Observations:

1) They like it cold here. In a newly-refinished pub/lounge called the VOODOO LOUNGE in a town called Leamington Spa . . . nice atmosphere and all. . . my lamb pie was delicious. . .but they insist on leaving the doors wide open even though it's like 40 degrees outside. People sit around sipping martinis in their jackets no problem.

2) Re: What is a Leamington Spa? It's a town an hour out of Birmingham that's maybe as close as you can get to like a 'sexy suburb' around here. Like a not quite as cool Royal Oak or a Burbank or something.

3) In the locals only pub, I understood the French theatre manager on tour from Paris better than the local fellas ordering up what looks like a mix of Hypnotic and Smirnoff Ice in a bottle. Will find out what that is tomorrow.

4) Jet Lag means a lot of time to play Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It's OK.

Ted and Misty Wedding - Slow Jams

2007-10-21T23:54:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

I really want to put all these pics up from Ted and Misty's wedding, but I've had trouble being prompt lately. . . so I'm going to start with this quick clip of their first dance and a shoutout from Birdmonster. Congrats again you two!

Adult Swim Covers Burning Man: DJ Jesus

2007-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yeah. First the New York Times, and now Adult Swim. Some internet only cartoon about Jesus, the Devil, the daughter of the devil, and a 40 foot high candle slash DJ Booth.

Not bad.

Go to Lucy: The Daughter of the Devil. Burning Man Style (Adult Swim)

Burning Man 2007 - Spider Monstrosity Machine

2007-09-16T22:20:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Trucking out the BM videos slowly. Bad for 'up to the minute webzine coverage,' but great for someone who wants to savor their awesome vacation as long as possible.

So here's the first of a few. This one is also my first experiment with the lates version of Vegas Video. Not bad to use.

Correspondence from Carnita73.

Burning Man Coverage: Burning the Man Too Early -- My Interview with Ranger Sasquatch

2007-09-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

So thanks to Eddie and GeekEntertainment.tv, I actually got to interview Ranger Roger Sasquatch. He's one of the main guys quoted in the SF Chronicle and other places after Paul Addis burned the Burning Man down early. Ranger Sasquatch was not happy as you can see.

Play the Interview at Eddie.com

I'm going to let this interview sit up her for a day or two and then I'm going to weigh in with my opinion on the situation. (Feel free to comment here or on Eddie.com direct)

Burning Man Report Coming. . . and Berlin

2007-09-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

Been so busy having fun, have not had time to post anything lately.

Burning Man report on the way. . . to be followed by my 12 hours in BERLIN!

IN the meantime, Wired's coverage of BM is actually very good.

Go there while you're waiting for me.

High School Musical -- I Get It. Mostly.

2007-08-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

This song is like Peter Cetera Good. No Kidding.

So even though I never considered myself much of a 'tween', I finally made it through High School Musical. . . and I don't know if it's cuz I've still got some 12 year old in my soul or maybe it's the half a vicotin I had tonight (Back's hurting. . . The Vic did nothing. Ibuprofen much better.) . . . but I think I GET it.

So. . . the things I'm guessing and learning from this:

1) It's good. . . but how the heck is it so huge? Disney did not expect this thing to blow up like it did. I mean. . . seriously. They weren't like "This is gonna make up for Meet The Robinsons sucking big ass" when they original released it. I mean it's better than the average 'Disney Channel Movie of the Month'. . . but it ain't no Ten Things I Hate About You. How the hell it was like the #1 album of the year. . . I'm just not sure. Can someone who's like 9 explain please?

2) It's one third as good as GREASE. The first two acts suck. . . but the big third act where they have to have a (SPOILER ALERT) singing contest, big basketball game, academic decathalon and two big dance numbers including the finale is totally good and had me actually doing a little bit of dancing like I was practicing for a Rocky Horror screening. The big duet (Breaking Free) is Peter Cetera worthy. I mean it's American Idol good.

3) Zac Effron = Partridge Family on Steroids. Though by the time HSM 2 rolls around, he might be super great, John travolta and Olivia Newton John are way ahead of HSM lead Zac Effron . . . who is like David Cassidy as a jock. . . which pisses me off because if there's a guy in the high school paradigm who has everything (smarts, good looks, a great singing voice, AND popularity and jockiness), that truly only leaves nerds with goth makeup, bell choir, and smoking cigarettes out behind the dumpster. AKA nothing of lasting value to live for.

And that's what I got to say about that.

PS: 80's FLASHBACK club. . . The guy who wrote half the music in HSM 1 is ROBBIE NEVILLE who many of you will know had a big hit with 'Cest La Vie' back in our Howard Jones/Falco days. Which all somehow makes sense.

1907 Party Highlights

2007-07-21T02:34:00.001-07:00

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Oh man! 7.7.07 theme party to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Casa Ardell AND Kristy's birthday? And Dawa Lady? And Ice Luge? And costumes? Yeah, It Was Fun.