The other day, we were talking in the office about music as one of my co-workers had seen a Stevie Nicks show in upstate New York recently. She mentioned that Stevie, at one point, shocked everyone by doing a Led Zeppelin cover. That led our conversation to that CMT show called Crossroads. It’s a series of concerts where country artists would do a show alongside a favorite, or perhaps an influential artist or group that aren’t at all country. It’s interesting to note how cool it is when someone from a certain background in music goes to cover a tune from a different genre. It’s really nothing new, but it’s still a cool thing, I thought.
Now, I’m really not a big country fan, yet I appreciate quite a few, especially when it’s mixed with rock! He! And I actually like Crossroads for that reason. I’ve seen a bunch of them and, just in case you missed it, I’d like to share some snippets which I thought were awesome! Hope you enjoy these as I have.
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Bon Jovi/Sugarland
Pat Benatar/Martina McBride
Heart/Gretchen Wislon
I think Gretchen could very well be an heir to the Ann Wilson throne.
ZZ Top/Brooks & Dunn
Kiss/Garth Brooks
And of course, this is my favorite one, even though it’s not a Crossroads show but from an old Kiss concert.
I’ve been trying to pick up on my songwriting so I can move on with this new CD project I’ve been working on for a couple of months now. But I’m just really dry. So last Friday, I got home from work and sat on my computer to write some lyrics. Nothing! Staring at the screen, I noticed the webcam hanging on top of the monitor and thought… hmmm!
Anyhow, I took a break and ate dinner. Afterwards, I came back, this time armed with my acoustic, and sat in front of the webcam. I hit record and started singing some old songs. It was embarrasing but I didn’t have anything better to do, so… the heck with it, I thought! I fired up Windows Media Player and looked for a song of mine to play. I decided on “Days Of My Youth” from the “Bleed” CD. It seems easy enough to jam to. So I went ahead and lip-synced as I video-taped myself. I’ve never done this before and it was terrible to see myself perform in front of the camera! So I reached out for the ceiling lamp and unscrewed all but one bulb to dim my basement. I re-recorded myself and thought… hmm, this one’s not too bad! Ha!
I did a quick edit. Nothing fancy. At four in the morning, I was done. And ready for bed!
I figured, I’d let it sit for a few days before uploading to Youtube. I might even decide to scrap the whole thing, I thought. After all, it is cheesy! But after a week of cringing, it’s up!
So, enough said… let’s check out the video, shall we?
Hey there… I’m just gonna be here for a second. I’m breaking out the popcorn and turning off the phone. The long awaited 4th season of The 4400 is about to start in an hour from now. Yes, I’m a big fan. No question about that!
But I just want to share a couple of pics from my trip to Jackson real quick. It was awesome. We went up the Tetons. What a gorgeous piece of artwork, those mountains!
It was the first week of June and it was foggy and in the 40’s. Ha! I love it! I wish I had more time (and money) to spend but the place was more luxury than I can, or want to, afford, really. Dining was insanely expensive! How does five bucks for a small glass of OJ sound to you?
But I’m glad I got to go and experience it. The conference was a week long deal. And my schedule was so hectic I didn’t get a chance to swing by Yellowstone either. That was a bit of a bummer.
But enough complaining. Okay, I’m outta here. Oh yeah, I’m not missing Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels either, just in case you’re wondering. I got it set on record! He he!
Alright. I have no life! It’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m at home glued to the tube. No, not Youtube. The old school Sony Trinitron kind. Yep, and since Gene Simmons Family Jewels is a repeat tonight, I just flipped the channel to Iron Chef. And life is suddenly back! Yeah, I’m cheap I get extremely entertained by it! So what? Hey, I actually planned on driving up to South Dakota to check out Mount Rushmore. I’ve never been there. But the stinking gas prices, man… it’s just too much to deal with! I mean, I think twice about even just going to the store to get some grocery items, y’know? It’s pathetic!
But right now, I’m just waiting for Good Eats to come on. It’s one of my favorite food shows. And for what it’s worth, another one that I watch all the time is Anthony Bordain’s No Reservation. But that’s tomorrow night! He he! I love that he goes around the world and never acts like a tourist or a chef. He hangs with the locals, eats with them and goes where the tourists don’t. I hope to one day be able to travel like that. Just bring a back-pack and a camera, and dive into the unknown. I’m eyeing on China and India for starters. Italy, maybe. Only because I love the food. But culture is what I’m looking for. To discover. To learn. To appreciate. To accept. To be! Yeah, I wanna travel. I wanna be a traveler, not a tourist! Oh well… someday. one day. Hopefully.
Speaking of travel… next week, I’m driving up to Jackson Hole. Ha! That should do it for now, I guess. It’s about 7 hours drive from Cheyenne, I think. Not too bad. I look forward to it even though it’s work-related. I’ll be there all week for a conference. Although I doubt if I’d be able to swing by Yellowstone even for a short while. Too bad. I’d be busy as heck during the entire event. The weather should be perfect though. I flew out there in January and it was like… uh, negative 25? Or something like that! It was torturous! And you couldn’t see a thing due to white-out conditions. I was just glad I didn’t drive.
Anyhow, I’m rambling. Okay, I was only suppose to take a bathroom break during the commercials but found myself blogging on my way back to the TV. Weird, I know. But that’s me sometimes. Okay, okay… most of the time! Fine! But Iron Chef is back, I think. And it looks like Bobby Flay is about to clean house… so, I gotta go.
But I’m hoping your Memorial Day weekend is much more eventful than mine.
Okay, this could be way off the wall for some, and enlightening to others. I don’t know. All I know is I didn’t make it up. I read this one from a blog the other day. You might already have known this, but it sure is news to me. Oh, the things you learn on the Wild Wild Web, I tell ya! I just thought it was pretty amusing, and funky indeed! Thought I’d share…
And so the story claims… A long, long time ago, they used to ship manure on boats around the Mediterranian. Well, the cargo was always on the lowest deck. The problem was, the boats back then would be quite leaky, and water would get in. When water and manure mixed, it would produce a large amount of methane.
Careless and unknowing crew members at night would carry torches, and if they went below deck with enough methane, the ship would explode. To solve this problem, they simply started shipping them above deck so any gas could go out into the atmosphere. To make sure this was done, manure-containers would be labeled with “S.H.I.T.” This of course, stands for “Ship High In Transit.”
Well, there you have it. As for how it became a vulgar term is beyond me though. And I don’t think I’m that interested in finding out either.
I haven’t been listening to the radio much this past few months. But this morning, I found myself immersed in music on last.fm. By the way, you should go check this website out. It’s like satellite radio, only it’s free. Also, the music selection is world-wide and not just your typical top 40 variety, so you get to broaden your spectrum. Anyhow, I was tuning in to music that came out in the last 5 or so years, and it reminded me of the classic Desert Island Discs. Remember those? You picked your ten all-time favorite CDs. Yeah, back then, it was the entire CD (or LP :)) that counted.
I thought of gathering my latest DID then. And since we’re now living in the age of iPods and MP3s, I thought it was more appropriate to go by individual songs instead. I could jot down a personal DID for each decade since the 60’s but it’s just old and pointless to me. I wanted to come up with one that only included new music from – say, within the last 6 or 7 years. There’s so many killer songs and I could go on forever. But in true DID fashion, I’d like to keep it down to just ten. As hard as it may be. So, without further ado… here they are, my 10 Desert Island, uhh, MP3’s! In no particular order.
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Nine Inch Nails – All the Love in the World
I’ve always loved NIN’s music. You can almost feel a physical pain when listening to their music (like in the song “Hurt” for instance). To this day, Trent infuses an amazing amount of vulnerability (and madness) into his music and lyrics. And he lays it down with perfectly quantized rhythm! Insane! The combination of techno beats & samples and the piano creates an extremely eerie contrast that relentlessly grabs your attention. At least it does mine.
Disturbed – Down With the Sickness
Talk about badass! They remind me of Metallica with razor-sharp, machine gun-like rhythmic precision – similar to early Megadeth perhaps, but very modern. Godsmack is another one that I like. But this particular song makes me stop what I’m doing and just groove to it. Also, check out their cover of Genesis’ Land of Confusion. Man, this is brilliant! Who’s saying rock is dead? Me? All I can say is… ooh-wa-a-a-a!
Metallica – St. Anger
Their first time not doing any guitar solos. Weird but refreshing. I love the whole CD because it’s so Metallica but at the same time, it’s so NOT Metallica. The video was shot at a concert inside San Quentin prison. Pulling off a Johnny Cash trick, you say? Perhaps. But I read an interview of him saying they’re his favorite rock band and he actually went to their shows with his son back in the 80’s. I say… \m/ GO JOHNNY, GO! \m/
Marilyn Manson – Mobscene
It’s unfair to say that this song takes the cake but the ones I like better where recorded in the late 90’s. I think listening to his music is like looking at a Van Gogh painting. I know cause I’ve been to a Van Gogh exhibit and it really does transport you to a different dimension. This kind of music to me has an element of art to it that’s more than just the music itself. Although this song stands on its own, just like most of his material, the video helps paint a more complete picture.
Jack Johnson – Flake
Surf’s up! I remember hearing this song for the first time, it never occured to me that he could’ve been playing it on the beach under a tree or something. I’m a sucker for a great melody and I think his songs, especially this one, hooks you right in. This particular one took me back to the late 90’s when I was playing open mic nights at coffee houses down Venice Beach, CA! I miss those days.
Def Leppard – Long Long Way to Go
This could be the oddball in this collection. I’ve always been a big Lep fan, not only because they’re hookmasters, but also because they’re able to reinvent themselves even to the point where you’d never imagine them going. I think that’s genius. Sounding like AC/DC at one point, and then pulling off a ballad worthy of a cover from Mariah Carey at another? Uhh, love it!
John Mayer – Waiting on the World to Change
I remember playing at Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta years ago. They said John Mayer used to play here, and so did the Indigo Girls and other acoustic artists that are now in the big time. Wow! But to be honest, I wasn’t too hot on this guy. I don’t know. Not enough soul, I guess. But when this song came out, my head turned. I thought Curtis Mayfield is back from the dead! I mean, doesn’t this song remind you of “People Get Ready?” Now, that’s good enough soul for me! BTW, I used to cover “People Get Ready?” in a band when I was in L.A.
Green Day – American Idiot
To be honest, I like Green Day but I’m not a huge fan. I think their songs are catchy and Billie Joe’s Marshall amp’s got one of the best tones since Van Halen. But when this CD came out and they had a spot on VH1’s Storytellers, I saw it and was mesmerized with the songs on that album. I mean, on their other albums, I like a song here and there, but on this one, it was like… everything! Every song was a knockout! And this particular song blows your face out in the gutter right from the beginning!
Velvet Revolver – Slither
I know I’m strange but I hate GNR. I don’t particularly like their songs and Axl’s voice is like a scratch on the chalkboard! But man, do I love Stone Temple Pilots! I think they’re one of the greatest rock bands ever in terms of the quality of music! Velvet is okay. But I can’t help but admit that this particular song hits me in the gut and I just couldn’t ignore it. I guess a good rock song is a good rock song regardless of who did it.
Evanescence – Call Me When You’re Sober
Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of other chick singers too but this band has something different to offer. For me, they’re kind of a blend of Linkin Park, NIN and a pop vocal diva singer with a gothic sensibility. It’s almost like Tori Amos with down-tuned guitars. And like Marilyn Manson’s music, you gotta experience the video to fully comprehend the complete package.
Tool – Lateralus
Tool has got to be one of those groups that could last a very long time. They are not only a great progressive band, but they also have the mysticism that some of the classic bands of yore had. You don’t see their faces a lot. And they’re not known for doing clinics showing off their prowess and making a household name for themselves. “Lateralus” is like the modern day “2112” or “Cygnus X-1” in my opinion. But then again, most of their material fit into that category as well.
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So, there you have it. My top ten. What? Eleven? There’s eleven in there? You sure? Ooops! Oh well…
But I am so tempted to add another ten. At least! But no, I will restrain myself. Who knows, I might change my mind some other time and replace these with a brand new compilation.
Hope you enjoyed these selections, though. See you next time.
Well, I’m not sure why I’m even posting anything right now. I don’t seem to have anything of substance to blab about. But I did eat a fairly substantial amount of din-din just now, mind you! Yep, I am fat as hell right this second. And that, my friends, is good enough news worth a shout at the rooftops, yea? Besides, my posts lately have become quite philosophical and severely poker-faced. Although I’m afraid I’ll always have that side of me popping out quite often, every now and then, I love to simply let out a nice big hoot just because…
Yeah. Just because.
For some reason, I was craving Thai food today! I haven’t had any in years! To make matters worse, there’s not a Thai place in sight in this town, so I had to whip up a dish on my own. Luckily, I had the technology. I had the logic. The specifics. The plan. Okay, okay, I had red curry chicken! Yummy! Spicy good indeed! So, uhh, you want it? Well, you’ll have to make it yourself, too bad. What? You don’t know how? Oh, alright, it’s your lucky day I guess… here you go. But go subscribe to my RSS feed so you won’t miss a recipe when I post a new one here, ok?
Nice plug, I know.
By the way, I was going through My Documents folder earlier today and found an old gem of a comedy! I’ve shared this with a ton of people throughout the years, and they all seem to be ROTFL after hearing it. It’s from the late 90’s, I believe. You gotta have a little hip hop sensibility to get the jokes though. So, here it is. It’s a prank caller ordering, what? You guessed it… Thai food!
I’m a pretty big fan of web 2.0 even though some of it is still kind of cryptic to me. I like the idea of “people first, machines second.”
And this technological mantra has definitely been the highlight of this new generation of the web. You may have heard of web 2.0 by now. It’s been an ever growing
buzzword since 2004, as far as I can recall. Yep, it’s not exactly a new kid on the block. If you’ve utilized websites like windows live, youtube, flickr, digg,
del.icio.us, technorati and my favorite web portal, netvibes (I have a lame version of it right here), among many many others,
then you have already been baptized in the waters of web 2.0 without even knowing it. It is so revolutionary though that by the time the rest of the world
catches up (if it ever does), a lot of us will have been wallowing on the 3.0 playground already.
I’ve barely scratched its surface here on my website. In this new version, I really just wanted to increase its usefullness and useability. And relevance, of course.
But there’s a whole lot more to it than just blogs, feeds, tags, CSS and all the obvious ones! Hey, didn’t you get enough buzzwords yet?
The cool thing about web 2.0 is that, at least for my own purposes, it’s not as much a new technology as it is a new attitude. A new way of thinking and
doing things perhaps. The technologies behind it, in fact, have been around awhile. But the combination of these make up a whole new world of web usage.
But I think I’ll skip the gruesome details. Now, going back to version 3.0. What could it be like, I wonder? Delivery pizza straight out of your CD drive?
One slice at a time? Sweet! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for that one. We’ll see…
Sorry, I couldn’t resist the humor…
But on a more serious note… yes, change is sometimes hard. But change is good. Just like web 2.0, our lives go from one version to another. Sometimes, even without our permission or our blessings!
Good grief! Pray that it’s at least an upgrade! It’s like warming a new bench all over again. Like upgrading software, if you will. There’s always a new learning curve
involved. Some are steep, some are cake. It can be a nuisance sometimes. Or an interruption of sorts. But it can be exciting as well. If you can only look at it that way.
There are possibilities, opportunities and a chance to further enhance life with new experiences. Bad or good. Do you like surprises? I don’t. Well, not necessarily.
But sometimes, after a surprise, you’re glad, thankful, and you feel good.
Sometimes.
But that’s life. Change involves taking chances as well. By the way, that reminds me how funny it is that I, almost all the time, mistype “change”
with “chance.” (Yep, see, I did it again, just now.) And vice versa. It almost seems like these words are interchangeable in a peculiar way. Anyhow,
I know I took a lot of chances to get where I am today. Not that where I am now is ultra peachy.
No, not by a long shot, unfortunately. But I appreciate it nonetheless. It’s not shabby at all, in fact. For most of my life though, I feel like a nomad. Yeah,
Bohemian Rhapsody could very well be my theme song! 😉 (But no, mama, didn’t kill the man!) It seems I’ve been moving a lot the past seven years. I wish I could be
settled and be done with moving. But I can’t control it. The wind blows and I’m swayed. But I tell you, it doesn’t hurt when you don’t go against what feels natural.
It may in the beginning but the pain doesn’t linger too long. That’s the beauty of contentment. I don’t know about you, but I hate being miserable in any way,
shape or form. Actually, I don’t remember ever being bored for any reason. I find that there’s always something to do, or I can do… like say, write a blog? Ha!
That’s an acceptable excuse, I believe.
Anyhow, enough of my going on tangents! Where was I? Oh… when you’re content, no matter what, you learn to be less critical and cynical. And you learn to
appreciate and accept, whether or not you understand. Because to me, understanding something, in many ways, is irrelevant. There’s a lot of things we don’t understand.
And we struggle to understand but to no avail at times. I find that when I let go, life gets a lot easier to handle. It becomes more pleasant. There’s not much
to think about, wonder about, struggle about. You just enjoy it in whatever capacity you can.
Whew! talk about a rant! Can you see my passion here, folks? Yeah, I’m just a little politically incorrect sometimes, but at least it’s the real me. I’m not
going to jump into any bandwagon. No thanks, I’ll ride my own. But again… I appreciate all kinds of bandwagons passing by. Hey, let ’em roll from one place to another.
And just like web 2.0, let ’em roll from one version to another. I’ll be right behind trekkin’ along. Hey, it’s all change to me. And change is good.
I’ve been meaning to get this new website live for about a week now but I thought I’d let it go beta for a few days just to work out whatever kinks I might find. Now that it’s ready to go, I was excited until the terrible news from Virginia hit the airwaves this morning. What a bummer that was!
I am watching CNN as I write this, and I couldn’t believe… I mean, the terrible things that people do for absolutely no reason at all! I know I shouldn’t ask why. I don’t like the word “why.” But this is just ridiculous. It breaks my heart to think… man, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how it would feel if I was a parent of one of those unfortunate kids.
You know, even when life is tough sometimes, I still feel very lucky to not have gone through what I know other people have gone through. I mean, you know, I try to think, there’s always someone out there that suffers more pain than I do. Yeah, it’s awful to think that but it’s true. And it sure helps to see that, whatever it is that happened to me, it could’ve been worse.
I remember last summer when I was down in Denver, I drove by the Littleton area where the Columbine tragedy happened. It was surreal imagining what had happened there just a few years ago. I had the same feeling standing in front of ground zero in New York just eight months after 9/11. They were still in the middle of cleaning the hole. I mean, there was an eerie sense of quietness in that city that it was hard to imagine the loud bang that everyone there had heard just a few months back. Even going further back, to 1992, when the Rodney King incident happened. I was in the middle of all that. And I wasn’t sure if my house was still gonna be around the morning after.
But anyhow, excuse me for pondering these thoughts for a moment. I meant for this post to be a happy one. After all, version 5.0 of chrisalmajose.com just went live! Right? Yeah, I bet you didn’t know. It’s been around for seven years now. However, as much as I know that there’s not much I could do about today’s adversity, I could at least give some respect by offering my thoughts and prayers to all those affected… right here, and right now.
In the meantime, why don’t you go browse around the site and find out for yourself what’s new and what’s changed. I decided to go for a little face-lift since the old one’s been around for over two years now. I like it but it’s just old and worn out, I think. On this one, there’s more, uuh, liveliness to it, if you will. I’ll try my best to really make it talk and move. And more often. Starting with this blog. I even have an RSS feed available now that you can subscribe to, so you’re always in-the-know of any website updates/changes even when you don’t visit. Hopefully, I’ll get around to populating it with my senseless musings more than ever before! I love it when I do that as I am fairly quiet in person, as you may have already known. A lot of folks say that they see me in my website. Ha! That’s a matter of fact, I say! I get to express myself more clearly in my website than in person. In fact, I get to express myself more clearly in any work that I do. My art, in particular. And I’ve tried to capture most of it here in this new version of my website. Even the image of the mic above should tell you something. If there’s anything that should speak well in my behalf, it’s this little web space of mine. So, hopefully, you’ll take some time and get to know me… all over again! 🙂
Meanwhile, I think I’ve had enough bad news for today so, I’ll just go finish my jasmine tea and hit the hay.
In the meantime, why don’t you go browse around the site and find out for yourself what’s new and what’s changed. I decided to go for a little face-lift since the old one’s been around for over two years now. I like it but it’s just old and worn out, I think. On this one, there’s more, uuh, liveliness to it, if you will. I’ll try my best to really make it talk and move. And more often. Starting with this blog. I even have an RSS feed available now that you can subscribe to, so you’re always in-the-know of any website updates/changes even when you don’t visit. Hopefully, I’ll get around to populating it with my senseless musings more than ever before! I love it when I do that as I am fairly quiet in person, as you may have already known. A lot of folks say that they see me in my website. Ha! That’s a matter of fact, I say! I get to express myself more clearly in my website than in person. In fact, I get to express myself more clearly in any work that I do. My art, in particular. And I’ve tried to capture most of it here in this new version of my website. Even the image of the mic above should tell you something. If there’s anything that should speak well in my behalf, it’s this little web space of mine. So, hopefully, you’ll take some time and get to know me… all over again! 🙂
Chris Alma José 
