The Secret of Kells

I watched this animated film last night film and I loved it. It's beautiful and richly animated with a very stylized celtic theme. It doesn't mess itself up by getting too serious or heavy or by falling into many of the cliched traps that it so easily could have done. I also liked the Irish accents and names and how they tied in celtic mythology with early christian tradition and history. The girl in the video is Aisling (pronounced Ashley) and she sings in gaelic: "White fuller, white fuller(the cat's name, Pangur Ban), there is nothing in life but mist, and we are alive, but for a short, sharp while." She is a forest spirit, a fairy, and in this scene helps to free her friend Brendan from where he is locked in the basement. It is an amazing film, nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature and I recommend it to anyone, of any age, and especially to those with celtic roots...

Giants Shock the Phillies...

Cody Ross hit two solo homers from the 8 spot off Halladay and Timmy out pitched him for the win. It's such sweet come-uppance after all the trash talking, overconfident, no respect crap the Phils fans have been spouting. The Giants shock the world and put the Phils in a must win position at home tomorrow. I tried to warn Philly fans about the Giants but they weren't trying to hear that. Nothing feels better than shutting them up. There's a magic feeling to this team of misfits, castoffs and rookies. It's them versus the world and the world had better not take them lightly. The Phillies found that out tonight. Go Giants!!!

DJ Sulli Mix

This is a new mix from my friend and former co-resident DJ Sulli aka Sean Sullivan. Sean is a great guy and a talented DJ and producer and owner of the Amfibius Recordings label. He has been playing house music since the early 90's and isn't subject to many of the fads in the genre and manages to play a timeless style that is contemporary but with a classic feel. This mix is free to download if you care to. Enjoy!

Giants beat the Braves!!!

The Giants beat the Braves tonight to progress to the NLCS against the very formidable Philadelphia Phillies. Looks like game one will be one of the greatest pitching match ups in NLCS history, Lincecum vs. Halladay. The Giants will have to play very well and catch more than their share of breaks and beat a very talented Phillies team to win the NL Pennant. Tonight was the last game of Bobby Cox's long and storied career as manager of the Atlanta Braves. I have always hated the Braves and Cox by proxy but you have to tip your cap to one of the greatest managers of the modern era, second only to Joe Torre in postseason wins I believe. You have to beat the best to be the best and it looks like the Giants will have to play their best ball of the year in the coming games to be the champs. After four hard fought one run games the Giants may have to dig a little deeper. I have faith in our boys and I think that we can do it. Don't stop believing!

Don't stop believing!

...this could be the season. Black and Orange til I die!

Giants Win!!!

It began as a 2 hit gem for Jonathan Sanchez who ended up striking out 11 batters along the way. Those 11 strikeouts would have been a Giants post-season record except for the 14 Ks that Lincecum had in game 1 of the series. The Giants starters have not allowed an earned run in the series so far and that is just unbelievable. Cain had an unearned run in game 2 but that's all the starters have allowed. The rotation is the strength of this team and the Braves have been unable to put much offense against them so far. Giants setup man Sergio Romo on the other hand has been dreadful. He gave up two hits to the braves without getting an out in game two and tonight he gave up the go-ahead home run to pinch hitter Eric Hinski in the bottom of the 8th. The Giants were down to their last strike with two outs in the ninth and a runner on first when Freddy Sanchez (my favorite Giant) singled to put the tying run in scoring position. Then Aubrey Huff, who has struggled at the plate in the series so far, singled sharply to right field to plate Travis Ishikawa and tie the game up at 2 runs a piece. Sanchez moved to third on the throw home, which was wide and the Braves catcher Brian McCann moved up the line tripping on Huff's bat and falling hard on his wrist. Then Buster Posey appeared to ground out to the Braves second baseman Brooks Conrad but it skipped through between his legs in a very Bill Buckner-esque play that allowed Sanchez to score easily as he was running on contact with two outs. It was the third error by the Braves second baseman in the game and his 4th in the series. The Braves have been hobbled by injuries to a few of their infielders as well as their closer Billy Wagner and those injuries are turning out to have a huge effect on the series so far. I will not be surprised if Conrad is run out of town post haste if Atlanta fails to progress. This kind of win is exactly what the Giants needed after a tough extra inning loss in game 2. They now have the momentum and Lincecum in reserve if a game 5 becomes necessary. Overall it was a roller coaster ride of a game but it ended well and was an even bigger gut punch than the Braves handed us the game before. It's nice to know that the Giants can come back from the brink this way because that's what champions do. Game 4 tomorrow, go Giants!

Lame Commercial...

Ok that commercial really bugs me. I don't usually blog about crap like this but I had to get this off my chest. Those kids were not racing home. Those kids were gonna bully and beat up the little guy. I guess that after they produced this spot Chrysler decided that bullying isn't something they want to have associated with their brand and changed it to the "race you home" idea instead. If not, why is he hiding from his "friends"? Why is he diving into his mom's car and thumbing his nose at the kids chasing him? It's so obvious and insulting and this commercial is getting a lot of play so I just had to say something. I'm not sure this ad is helping them sell many minivans but it sure is bugging the hell out of me, that's for sure. Get a clue Chrysler, damn!

Inland Knights at Triple Crown...

After getting my heart torn out of my chest by the Giants game on Friday night I decided to go out to the city and get my mind off of the heartbreaking loss. I had been on the fence about going out that night but the idea of sitting around my apartment stewing about the game seemed like a bad idea so I made the ride across the bridge to The Triple Crown to have some drinks and hear some beats. One of my favorite DJ duos, Inland Knights was in town from England and they are very talented house producers and co-owners of one of my favorite labels Drop Music. Some of my favorite tracks of all time have been produced and/or released by Andy Riley and Laurence Ritchie and Drop Music. Needless to say, they did not disappoint and some bumpin house was just what I need to lift my spirits. I love the Triple Crown in every way except one, it's HOT in there. Like way hot, underground party hot, sauna hot, hard to dance unless you're in front of the fan hot. Anyway, I had a good time and saw some friendly faces and reconnected with some of my favorite local DJs and promoters.

Watch an interview at Trip C with Inland Knights HERE

Giants lose a heartbreaker...

I was gonna write a whole blog post about game 2 of the NLDS but to hell with that, you can find that info elsewhere and I'm not gonna relive it if I don't have to... Let's just say they had it in the bag and gave it away... =[

Timmmaayy!!!!

Tonight was your standard 2010 Giants nailbiter 1-0 victory over the Braves. It was slightly unusual in that it was a post-season shutout victory and an unbelievable performance by Tim Lincecum in his first appearance in the playoffs. He held the Braves to two hits and struck out a franchise post-season record 14 batters including the last two outs of the 9th inning. It was a breathtaking thing to behold and will be part of Giants lore for years to come. The offense didn't do much against Atlanta starter Derek Lowe and the Braves bullpen looks downright filthy so I'm hoping the bats can heat it up a little bit in the coming games. Although the Phils and the Yanks look to be the juggernauts of this year's playoffs, the Giants just need to take it one game at a time and worry about those teams when the time comes. For now we just need two more wins to progress to the NLCS and 4 more after that to make the World Series. Anything can happen and if it's meant to be and it looks like the pitching is gonna lead the way. Go Giants and go Timmmmaaaayyy!!!!

The Social Network

I went and saw "The Social Network" last night and I liked it a lot. After doing a little research it seems that like most movies based on real events, the creators took some liberties with the facts and details. I'm ok with that and I think it wasn't a slam against Mark Zuckerberg as had been portrayed in the media, which prompted him to donate one hundred million dollars to schools in Newark, New Jersey, and on Oprah no less as mitigating PR. More power to him as the youngest billionaire in the world. I began to think about how not long ago Facebook was just some geeks in a dorm room and now just about everyone I know uses it. I'm a bit of an addict myself, and probably spend more time on there than I should. It is very interesting how someone with a great idea can change the world and how you have to fight to keep your idea, because someone will try to take it. There seems to be a limit to what you can do in life before someone sues you. Nature of the beast I guess. Also, if you're interested in finding out just how insignificant you are, go see this movie filled with elite Harvard clubs, old money privilege, overachieving geeks, and huge sums of money being thrown around like it's perfectly normal. It will put your place in the world in perspective in a hurry I promise you...

Kanye on SNL

Simply amazing. I love the imagery and the songs. Also of note is that he changed the lyrics from "Power" (fuck SNL and the whole cast, tell them Yeezy said they can kiss my whole ass) to something a little more friendly. I also liked that he performs playing an MPC on "Runaway"...

The Giants are NL West Champs!!!!

It was a long, tortuous and exciting season and now the Giants are on top! They send the Padres packing excluded from post season play in a rousing 3-0 win at home on the very last day of the season. I am a very happy guy right now. I cried a little. I can't describe what the Giants mean to me. I am a fan for life and Orange & Black flows through my veins. Way to go Giants, now lets get ready for the playoffs! I'll be watching every pitch and rooting for my boys. Anything can happen now.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Every year in Golden Gate Park, SF Bay Area residents are treated to a world class Folk, Country, and Bluegrass festival, free of charge and open to all comers. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass had it's tenth anniversary this year and it just happened to be the first time I have have gone to check it out. Many of my friends attend regularly and I always wanted to give it a whorl, and I am very happy that I finally did. I met some friends at their place in the avenues, within walking distance of the event for some lunch and a few beers before we made the trek into the park. There are 5 stages with music going all day at each so there's no way to see it all but we managed to catch a little of Joan Baez's set at the very packed Banjo Stage. I'm glad to have got a chance to see her for a bit as she is a legend and a virtuoso of folk music in this modern age. Unfortunately there was nowhere to sit and hardly a place to stand so we moseyed over to the more relaxed atmosphere of the Porch Stage and layed out a blanket with a great view of the acts.
The highlight for me was seeing an artist named Skip Gorman. He played guitar, fiddle and mandolin, all with a deft hand, and sung songs about cowboys and the frontier and open prairies that were sweet and sad and took me back to the ranching days of my youth. He seemed about as authentic as they come and was very pleasant to hear. I could feel an ache that is rare for me except when hearing old timey music like this that made me melancholy and yearning for my younger days on the range in New Mexico, roping and riding and going to the rodeo. I never listened to this kind of music when I was a boy so it's difficult to explain how it stirred up these memories, but something about Skip's songs made me see a place in my mind where the views are long, with sagebrush and mesas, green valleys and arroyos. A feeling of great freedom and intense loneliness, and the vast distances between men. Skip Gorman's music takes you back to a harder but simpler time, and there is a part of me that wishes I could be there. Life can be so complicated and furious sometimes, I often wish I could tack and saddle my horse and just head off in any direction to be alone for a bit, across this great country before there were so many fences.
Here's a quick bio and a sample of this talented man who for a while yesterday moved me across the years and the land, at least in my mind and heart...
FYI, that's Skip onstage in the background of the top pic...

El Guincho - Bombay

This song and video are both off the scale. Be warned, there is some nudity and strong imagery NSFW...

EL GUINCHO | Bombay from MGdM | Marc Gómez del Moral on Vimeo.