Tune in now! After a hiatus of almost a decade, KNVP Radio is back on the air (well the Internet "air" if you will). Broadcasting from Los Angeles, KNVP Radio is an internet radio station that I program myself and it reflects my current musical mood. I enjoy sharing my love for music with my friends and hope that you'll come by and listen sometime! Just click on the widget to the right ------->
And to kick things off, KNVP Radio is featuring the album "The Destructive Anatomy of Hope" by An Epic Theory! That's right kids, you'll be able to hear cuts off this album throughout the day on KNVP Radio. Come on by and give it a listen and tell us what you think! The band has a full-length album for sale on iTunes, CDbaby, and Amazon, as well as music videos (one of which is showcased earlier on this blog). These guys are super talented, and overall great guys! Get more information on the band, pick up a copy of their CD or book them for your next gig! Please visit http://www.anepictheory.com/ for more!
It's not often that you actually know members of a band that is going places, and these guys are going places! An Epic Theory has released a full-length album entitled "The Destructive Anatomy Of Hope", and I wanted to share the most recent video (yes, these guys are classy - they have music videos!). Tell em' what ya think of it, and if you like it, check out their album. I wish them the best of luck! They are good peeps! Check out the link below the video. Rock On!
For Band Info and to check out their debut album click HERE
We decided, based on a recommendation by my In-Laws, to try this place for lunch today. Boy, what a treat! In the newly-still-being-redeveloped downtown Lancaster, there is a restaurant called BEX, and it looks more like either a modern art museum or even a metal-shop. But the food is awesome!
You walk in the door, and you are stunned by the decor - raw, unfinished steel i-beams make up the framing structure of the roof and supports. It looks kind of like the inside of a barn at first, but then you look up above the maitre d' station and there is a huge chandelier and to the right is a very large fish tank that almost resembles a gigantic HDTV, but rest assured, it's real. There is a bar which is separate from the restaurant, and apparently there is also a lounge (which we didn't see).
You place your food order at the maitre d' station and then they seat you. There are both booths and tables, all with very plush seats, and the tables have high backs, making them very comfortable. After being shown to your seat, you are free to roam and get your own soda/tea or what have you, as it's all self-serve. Here's where the cool starts. The soda vending machine is basically shaped like an ATM machine, with a touch screen that presents you with nearly 100 different options. This is VERY cool. Check out this video below:
Bex has 2 of these puppies and they were very popular attractions I must say..and quite fun to play with. You can pick virtually any combination of Coca Cola product you can think of. Alone, these were well worth the trip if you are a soda drinker.
The menu is pretty vast in selection - from whole chickens to a whole tri-tip roast, to burgers, pastas, soups, chili and salads. We chose the MOAB (Mother Of All Burgers) which is a 3lb hamburger that can feed 2 to 4 people (shared it of course) and had an order of Garlic-Parmesan fries. The food is served up like you'd see on television, in a fancy restaurant. I tell ya, it's like we were in the middle of downtown Hollywood eating in a fancy bistro - except we are in Lancaster!
The food was excellent, and we had to have dessert too. We had the "Monkey Balls" which although the name doesn't sound appealing, they were quite tasty! It's usually called "Monkey Bread".
The waitress will ala-cart add any item you want at any time by taking your additional orders via a handheld PDA looking device, complete with mobile printer. The PDA device will swipe your credit card right there and then print out the receipt for you to sign. Very cool.
All in all, I highly recommend Bex for the food and the atmosphere, believe me you have not had an experience like this before. Bex Restaurant / Bar / Lounge
706 W. Lancaster Blvd.
661-945-2399
I enjoy science fiction quite a bit, whether it be in the form of books, movies, or video games. I'd say it's my favorite genre. I deliberately waited this long to watch the movie, so that most of the hype would have disappeared and it would be far from every one's memory. I also avoided reading any reviews of the film so that I could get a first hand and hopefully unbiased opinion of the movie.
Knowing Cameron's penchant for epic and other-worldly storytelling, I figured "Avatar" would be a big movie, probably of "Titanic" length, with the visual awe of "The Abyss", and the character development and strong back story of "The Terminator". I was pleasantly surprised that all of these qualities were present in "Avatar". The visual effects were superb - just gorgeous actually and for about 3 hours I felt like I was actually on another planet. I rather enjoyed his use of scale in this movie. The fact that the indigenous people of the planet Pandora were almost twice the size of us humans, really helped move the sci-fi along instead of just creating characters the same size as human beings. When we saw the aliens next to one of us, you knew there was a definitely a difference between us and added to the perception of the overall size of Pandora. I also liked the contrast he exhibited between the overly large industrial and mechanical humans versus the tree-hugging, all-natural, living-off-the-land natives.
Of course, the movie was a social commentary on us humans' never-ending thirst for conquering what isn't ours, the unwaning destruction of natural resources, and the unquenched desire for the mighty dollar being chased by big corporations. Oh yeah, and some really cool battle scenes mixed in. In many ways I felt like I was watching a repeat of our own country's history - the "white man" removing the "red man" from the land that was theirs to begin with. Of course in "Avatar", the "white man" was removing the "blue man".
The visual effects were breathtaking. Pandora looked like another world. The only thing remotely resembling our own was water and trees. I'm glad that Cameron made the air (if there was any air to begin with) unbreathable by humans and made them wear air rebreathers/masks to reinforce the fact that we don't belong there. The creatures of the world looked amazing - somewhat familiar yet completely alien. In many ways, I felt like I was playing a video game, namely an MMORPG, like Aion, and could easily see myself (or my character) walking around and exploring this alien world.
The picture and audio quality were top notch. I viewed the movie on Blu-Ray on an LCD TV and player capable of displaying the movie in it's native film speed of 24 progressive frames. The colors were vivid and plentiful - hell it was like watching a computer rendition - it was perfect. I listened to the DTS (in a watered down 5.1 - I don't have a 7.1 setup) track and it sounded great - the overall mix was well done and James Horner's score was quite good.
That's it really. I recommend the movie to anyone who enjoys good sci-fi and can spend nearly 3 hours glued to their TV.
Well it's another interesting week in the e-book business. It looks like everyone and their mother (BTW, Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms in the blogosphere) is getting into the digital e-book realm. Just this week we saw Borders release details of their KOBO book reader in order to directly compete with Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and Apple's Ipad.
It looks like the Kobo is not actually exclusive to Borders however, as it is available at many outlets in Canada now, but will only be available in the US in the very near future - and apparently Borders will be setting up an e-book shop to run alongside the KOBO as well.
The KOBO is a watered down version of the Kindle and Nook with very limited connectivity as far as wireless goes. Instead of WiFi or 3G cellular data, the KOBO will use your cellphone's Bluetooth capability to download your books. Although certainly a unique feature, it does limit your ability to shop for ebooks, and I can only assume that one must be using a smartphone such as a Blackberry or Windows phone in order to pull data into the KOBO.
We'll keep an eye on this new piece of hardware - perhaps there is a niche market that Borders is counting on that will purchase this device - only time will tell.
