I must eat my words. I hope that they aren’t written on hot shards of glass, of course.

The Nintendo Wii is fun beyond words. And this is only after playing Wii Sports. The physics, timing, and ease to learn is amazing — it is astonishing how fast one develops skill with the games in a short period of time. Not only that, but it gives you one hell of a workout. It took about 3 rounds of Wii Bowling before I had the technique mastered, but then it was a matter of trying to keep my body in good condition. If you’ve ever bowled, well, that is the sort of physical exertion you should expect to endure while playing Wii Bowling — the swing in your arm, the bend in your step, the timing for hold and release, it is all there the same, even the twist of the wrist to get a curving ball.

Wii Tennis introduces a new level of timing, which even twitch gamers who sit on the couch will have plenty of skill with. I found this to be the easiest to stay stationary with, but the most difficult to quickly master. Once I figured it out, it began a matter of, well, not endurance, because it’s not physically tolling on you to play it — you just have to outlast the HELL out of your opponent (in my case, the computer), which may take a very long time. Winning is a true glory, however, considering the difficulty of gaining points later on.

Wii Baseball was the one I had the most difficulty warming up to. Like Tennis, you can play it in a twitch gaming style, or with a full batter swing, but it’s much more difficult to make your hits into good ones. Most of mine, at first, were strikes or fouls. Eventually I got the timing (which is a lot harder than Tennis to quickly master) and was able to make a few good hits. Most seemed to get caught by the computer, but they were good just the same.

Wii Boxing was even MORE physically exhausting than Bowling, and seemed to be the easiest to “slow down” in your skill in. It’s the only one of the sports I played (I ignored Golf on principle) that required the Nunchuck attachment, allowing you to sock the living snot out of your opponent. The action is so intense that it’s easy to get caught up in beating on the other guy and thus also easy to leave yourself open, but like a real boxing match, you’re sweaty and panting at the end of it. This was the most fun to win.

So, I admit it. I stand corrected. The Wii is immensely fun — not that I really doubted that aspect, just that it would be able to carry a lot of replay value with it, which it does extremely well. I watched some of action for the new Zelda game, and it looked very fun, but not the type of game I would want to play on that system. I want more games like Wii Sports, which is why I anticipate playing Rayman: Raving Rabbids in all its cow-hurling glory.

A side note, which I need to embellish on from my last post:

Guitar Hero II is AMAZING fun. I wasn’t sure if knowledge of playing the songs would help with the gameplay. It does, and it doesn’t: more often than not, it’s knowing the songs themselves that helps. Even if you can air-guitar the songs, you’ve got an advantage to people who don’t know the songs to begin with. For this reason, I tore through “Mother” by Danzig, “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana, and “Them Bones” by Alice In Chains, scoring over 80% my first time through on the first to and 96% on the third one (again, first time through). It’s also a lot easier to play than DDR or any of its similar cousins, and in my opinion it’s because (1) you play songs that DO have notes/rhythms you can follow, and (2) rather than changing one or both of your legs with each beat (or even arms), you need only change the fingering on ONE hand, so it requires less ambidexterity.

Anyway. Two incredibly fun games, two innovative new ways to play. I’m hankering for more, and wish I had the cash to shell out to get both things. Sadly, they are both far outside of my price range, and not “necessary” right now. So I will have to content myself with playing on friends’ systems. In the meantime, however… ahhh, it’s good to have days off again. Off to bed.

I need to announce a disclaimer first off: the insults, attacks, etc. below are not meant for any of my close friends. I don’t know if they’re MEANT for anyone in particular, but they’re there and those who actually read this blog need to understand… they are not at you.

That being said.

I sent the list I made earlier this year, which detailed exactly what I wanted in the “gift” variety, to the important people in my life that I knew would read it and pay attention to it. Well, that I THOUGHT would. I did not receive a single item from that list this year. Now, that list is pretty short, all things considered. Nothing on it is terribly expensive, either (save the Lemony Snicket collection, but I wasn’t expecting to get that anyway), so… I don’t understand why it was so hard to heed, or easy to ignore. Whichever the case is.

Now, on the upside, I DID get a lot of USEFUL things. A new chair, which I have wanted/needed for ages; new clothes, always useful; storage containers, a lot better than the same cardboard boxes over and over again; a FILM camera, unexpected but probably very useable; books, not on that list, but creative suggestions nonetheless. However, aside from these, I got a few things that made no sense — in fact, the giver had no definite reason for why they got them in the first place. An aging board game? Shoddy jewelry bells? Literally, these are things I will NEVER use. I have no desire for them and no use for them… so why?

The REASON I’m being such a bitchy Scrooge about this is because I made an effort to ask everyone what they wanted, and buy them everything they asked for. And the people in my family, group of friends, etc, all got at least one of the major “gift” things they wanted. The list I made, if you look at it, is full of USEFUL things, things that I wanted because I was going to imploy them for use. They were not needs, they were wants, this is true. But so what? I gave gifts to people, I fulfilled their desires. I feel really gypped (sp), especially considering the few gifts I received that served no purpose whatsoever.

Now, truly, I am happy with most of the gifts I received. I needed most of them and they will probably serve me well in the time to come. But come next year, I wonder if I should even bother creating a detailed list, including links and prices, etc., when no one is going to pay a shred of attention to it. Instead, perhaps I should just ask for money… and go out and get what I REALLY wanted.

Well, aside from that — I hope everyone else had a good Christmas! The day itself definitely went well (aside from work, but that should be obvious) and the evening was awesome. Nothing can match the fun of Guitar Hero II, in my opinion. I need my own copy of that game… soon.

PS: the Gloomy Bear and pirate duck that I got kick ass.

I am compelled to write, but I don’t really have a main subject. I suppose that’s what’s really bothers me.

I hate having an inconclusive future. More than that, I hate when I have my future set, my plans and ideas cohesive and made, and then boom, some random thing comes in to take them away from me. In this case, it was my parents telling me that I was going to have to move out again. So all that going to school, or saving up to move and go to school somewhere else, goes right out the window.

I just applied for classes on Monday, and now I’m not sure that I want to even bother to take them. Why should I? With any of the places I’m going, the credit probably won’t matter. I’ll be pressed to more deadlines, to more tight schedules, and worse still, I’ll be jumping into almost-fulltime school while still having to work fulltime. I’m not ready for that transition. School required unfathomable amounts of brainpower for me, and working PART-TIME and going to school was difficult. Yes, I had less experience in the working world and was more immature at that point… but the principle is the same. It was difficult because I simply did not have enough time to do anything.

What I REALLY want to do, I can’t do. And that would be to leave my current job, get a fulltime job in San Francisco, move there for a few months, working mornings at a hotel and nights at the Warfield, or possibly other venues if places had openings. I really do care about my job here still and value the respect I get here, which is part of the reason I’m staying — it’s easier, it’s more secure, and besides, if I left again I’m SURE I couldn’t come back.

But if I had my druthers, what would I do? Here’s what:

1. Work in another hotel (morning shifts) in San Francisco, as well as concerts at night. Get more concert photography in and learn the ins-and-outs of working at a venue. Have lots of time to save up money.
2. Go to Coachella with her in April, then drive up to Vancouver and over to Winnipeg. Go to school full time in the field of sound design while living in Winnipeg.
3. Finish with my sound design degree. Work at a recording studio or similar place until I can afford to open my own.
4. Go back to school for a degree in management, or whatever would be best for qualifying me to be a retail store manager.
5. Open up a recording studio / record store / coffee shop, open 24 hours. Spend time going to concerts, taking amateur photography (maybe go back to school for that, too) and writing reviews. Maybe have my own zine or something.

and possibly:

6. Along the way, meet people and start a band. Do all the things there associated.

Really, in a nutshell, that is what I think I would want to do with my life. I don’t know. I’ve been in such a live-for-the-present mood this year that it’s difficult to transition out of, but I have the drive for it now. I have the motivation and the general direction. Not a CLEAR direction, but a “hey this seems like a blast, let’s try it” that wasn’t there when I went to school for computer science or design. I love webdesign and computers, but I don’t think I want to sentence myself to a career in them.

So can I do it? Well, yes, I can. I can apply to work at another Best Western. I can start looking for apartments in San Francisco. I can talk to my contacts at the Warfield and find out if I could get into working at other venues, like the Fillmore, or look into entirely different venues, like the Independent or the Red Devil Lounge. Do I see all of this coming together cohesively? No, not really. Moving to another country 3 months after that will probably motivate a lot of employers to tell me to piss off. But it’s always possible.

I do know this. I need to get out of this town. By my 23rd birthday, maybe sooner, all of my friends will be out of this town. Out of this county. Out of this area of Northern California. And I’m getting tired of it. I want to see what else there is in this country, in this continent, in this world. I want to do what it takes to get to these places. This seems to be one of the clearest directions for this. I feel very alone deciding it all, and yet I feel a little more at ease because it is clarifying so well for me.

Despite all this, I’m not really sure if I should have something MORE to write. I’ve kind of circled around these subjects a lot recently. Even now, I’m not sure if I feel positive or negative about my current situation, or my future. But, I think I better wrap this up. I DO have 2 more hours of work tonight, after all.

1. Sigur Ros with Amiina
The quiet, peaceful, humble set of the girls of Amiina was gorgeous in its simplicity, but to say that it prepared anyone for the stunning, epic majesty of Sigur Ros is saying far too much. The haunting, moving shadows of the band that covered the screen before the stage actually overcame my senses with emotion — and that was just the opening. Besides hearing epic, building crescendos of the songs I have always found peaceful joy in, it was like seeing musicians from another world — titanic and sprawling in the fields of sound they created, and yet fragile and full of beauty, looking as if they might drift away with the passing moments. It was the only show of my life where I have seen an audience hold themselves in total silence for nearly a full minute; it was the only show this year that brought me to the edge of my seat and nearly to tears with the emotional commitment their light, sound and, well, performance instilled in me. Thus, I can honestly say that it was the greatest concert of 2006.

2. Gogol Bordello with Kultur Shock and ZOX
There was no better trio this year for a show, in my opinion: the almost indie-rock boys of ZOX, with their killer live performance and wildly innovative combination of a punk-indie sound melded with a furious violinist; the multi-origined Kultur Shock, brimming with energy onstage and in the crowd, with music that sounded like it had traveled thousands of miles in every direction to form together in one blast of wild sound; and the absolutely flooring Gogol Bordello, one of the most energetic bands of all time with their punkish energy and gypsy/Russian influenced brand of new school rock. The second show of this trio outlasted the first: following Eugene’s trip across the audience on his bass drum, nearly the entire first half of the Slim’s audience was pulled onstage to party with the band. The sight of Eugene perched atop the rafters of Slim’s, the drum held below him by the onstage crowd, was utterly astonishing, and a reminder of all the ways that music draws so much together.

3. An Evening With Tool
There is absolutely nothing like seeing a platinum-selling, arena-rocking band in a tiny club for the first time in nearly half a decade. Tool is one of the only bands that can pack this much godlike devotion and power into their fans, and the energy in that club was unfathomable when the band members took the stage. The first time I saw Tool was stunning enough; this show blew even that one out of the water. But the real kicker for me was walking to the front of the crowd and standing less than 10 feet away from the band that people would sell their souls to be near. To say I was shell-shocked wouldn’t cut it, I was positively in awe. The most powerful moment of the show was the final section of “Lateralis” — the moment Danny smacked the gong, it passed through my entire body in a way, and with a sensation, that will never again be repeated.

4. Alice In Chains with Hurt
When you establish a long-running connection with a band of the caliber, following, and stake in history that Alice In Chains has, you don’t care who their singer is or what their opening band is like. You will go to that show and sing every word of every song, you will be caught up in the massive energy of the crowd, you will revel in every single trick and surprise the band wants to share with you. This show had a ton of those: a mini-Unplugged set, including a performance of the ultra-rare “The Killer Is Me”; a powerful, respectful tribute to the late Layne Staley; and the biggest shocker of all: James Hetfield of Metallica coming onstage to sing and play “Would?” with the rest of the band. Even if you were like me, and missed the band in times of old, this was the show that reaffirmed your love and devotion to the glory of Alice In Chains.

5. Porcupine Tree with Tony Levin Band
Maybe it was the amazing musical talents and hilarious banter of Tony Levin and his band as they opened the set. Maybe it was the brilliant professionalism that Steven Wilson displayed as his show was crashing down around him. But perhaps, maybe, it was the fact that Porcupine Tree, a band whose music has always resounded to me as my favorite combination of styles, came together through a difficult and trying night to play one of the most epic shows I’ve ever seen. Over an hour of new material, with long, stunning pieces, and then a wildly entertaining return with a full set of their classic works, including “Halo”, “The Sound Of Muzak”, and of course the chilling masterpiece “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here”. This was a night of music, and I really wouldn’t have minded if it continued for hours on end past that.

HONORABLE MENTION: Ministry with Revolting Cocks and Pitbull Daycare
I’m sure that part of my reasoning behind my love for this show is the fact that it was a combination of some of my favorite industrial bands, and on my birthday, nonetheless. Also, meeting Pitbull Daycare before RevCo’s set was truly a blast, and I would say they were some of the most entertaining and best conversationalists as far as angry musicians go. Even after them, and the psychotic circus that is RevCo, the nightmarish terror of Ministry could not be matched, and the band tore the place apart with their astonishingly-loud set. What could possibly make the night more fantastic? Why, the sudden appearance of Jello Biafra, who strode onto the stage waving a burning flag before Ministry’s final song began — an epic performance of the positively evil “Psalm 69″. I don’t think I saw a single metal band compare to the gruesome fury that Ministry possessed.

WORST: Hyde with The Black List Club
I really, really, REALLY wanted to enjoy this show. I really did. But the combination of the earsplitting crowd, the horribly poppy opening band, and the silly-cum-foolish Engrish banter of Hyde really added up to a miserable time. While I could hear his songs, and I appreciated all that I COULD understand of his words, the screaming, feverish otaku girls filling the club were more than enough to make this an unpleasant experience. Besides that fact, people were being checked, and checked, and CHECKED AGAIN at the door to make sure they had no cameras, and security was threatening to erase the memory cards of camera phones if anyone wielded one. For a place like Slim’s, it was totally the wrong kind of show and brought the worst crowd imaginable. One day, I may see Hyde again — but only if it’s a full show of bands like his, and only if it’s without the ridiculous numbers of banshee-like fangirls.

1. The Mars Volta
This goes without saying, on any of my lists. No one will ever top these guys for me. The moment that the first break hit in “Day Of The Baphomets”, not only did the crowd around me go berserk, but the band onstage went absolutely supernova with energy. It is one thing to see an entire band animated and pulsing with the sound; it is quite another to see them ricocheting across the stage like rockstar pinballs, glistening with sweat before the first song is even halfway over. The Mars Volta are, and continue to be, the most impressive live band I have ever seen.

2. Gogol Bordello
However, to say that these guys were a close second would be egregiously unfair — Gogol Bordello could top the Mars Volta with some of their performances. Eugene Hutz is mindblowing in his capacity for energy, and is definitely the wild, crowd-pleasing type of singer; Sergey and Yuri, the violin and accordion player, respectively, don’t have quite as much energy as him, but their furious instrument work is nearly unmatched. Not even counting the madcap stage antics like riding a bass drum, rattling the fire buckets, and using washboards and random objects to generate even more, louder, noises, the energy of the band sucks you in and drains you, leaving you full of adrenaline and begging for more — and that’s just after a few songs.

3. The Polyphonic Spree
Nothing says “strength in numbers” like the Polyphonic Spree. Not even mentioning the fact that the band is nearly 30 people strong, including a 10-person choir, they feed off the energy of frontman / conductor Tim DeLaughter, who is like a kid at Christmas as he frolics, jumps, spins, and almost cartwheels around the stage in his joyous celebration of his music. The ‘Spree is one of the bands that you can have never seen before, and still go crazy about as they fill the auditorium with sound and bombast. True, their explosive cover of Nirvana’s “Lithium” really triggered the first spark of energy in the crowd, but the spectacle of the ‘Spree is definitely not one to be missed.

4. Mindless Self Indulgence
Henry Rollins described his first Ramones show as seeing the band members exploding into the songs with idiot-savant precision. Mindless Self Indulgence comes staggeringly close to this description, as the antics of frontman Jimmy Urine are shocking in their energy, wildness, absurdity, but most importantly, being a stickler to the beat of the music behind him. The rest of the band, while not coming close to the bombshell of energy that he is, supports extremely well with their wall of music and ridiculously-precise playing ability. If the Hot Topic poseur crowd was gone, MSI would be one of the greatest live bands you’ll ever see.

5. Revolting Cocks
The one-two-ten industrial punch of RevCo will positively knock you off your feet. Running around the stage like a hellish circus high on angel dust, the industrial, sensationalist collective that is the Revolting Cocks are a force to be reckoned with. Besides the crushing but singalong quality of their songs, factor in the wide collection of members — Al Jourgenson and Luc Van Acker, just to name two — and then throw in a harem of uproariously scintillating women, chased around the stage by Van Acker in a giant dildo costume. You’ll be wondering what other tricks the band has in store by the time they finally leave the stage.

HONORABLE MENTION: TV On The Radio
TV On The Radio is on par with the energy-spewing bands that rank in the top five of this list, but they fall slightly short, as their mostly-atmospheric wall-of-sound compositions contrast sharply with the explosions of energy that most of these bands draw. However, to say that the band is without energy is doing them a great dishonor — I don’t think the members stopped moving ONCE, and the singer was absolutely on fire with energy, rattling around the stage like a Tourette’s victim having a musical seizure. Coupled with their innovative use of sound effects and instruments, they are, without a doubt, a must-see-before-you-die-or-leave-your-town band.

WORST: TIE: Peaches / Earth
This leans a little more in the direction of the first one, but both had their equal points of terrible. Earth was exactly what their genre calls for — drone metal — and the band members looked like they would fall asleep in the middle of each of their songs, not to mention that the compositions dragged on for incomprehensible amounts of agonizing durations. However, just as bad were the antics of Peaches, the overweight and overaged strumpet that opened for Nine Inch Nails, who forced the Shoreline Amphitheatre crowd to watch as she ran around the stage and the seats, dressed in horribly ill-fitting pink and black vinyl.