Dallas | Page 10 | A.J. Wood

July 16, 2003 by A.J. Wood

Happy Tree Friends

Overheard today at the school library:

“So this gal wants to come stateside.”

“What girl?”

“This gal I’ve been chatting through Ultimate Singles.”

“Yeah?”

“We’ve been talking for about a month now, she lives up in New York. She’s incredibly hot.”

“Really? She sent you her picture?”

“Oh yeah, she’s sent me over a dozen pictures already. Only thing is I just found out her Visa is going to expire. Turns out she’s Russian.”

“NOOO Shit.”

“Yeah, she said she needed $600. I haven’t decided what I’m gonna do yet. She said she wants to come down here to Dallas and move in with me.”

“Dude. Might be a scam dude.”

“Maybe, but isn’t she hot?”

At this point I had to go back to class and for the briefest of moments I thought I’m not so completely screwed up after all.

All right my peeps, time to bust out some linkage:

I didn’t come across any kittens, but Agent Perry will certainly enjoy watching episodes of the Happy Tree Friends. Reminds me a lot of Itchy & Scratchy, but then so do Ren & Stimpy. If you’re looking for gruesome with a purpose check out the little ninja boy series Ninjai that’s be making the rounds over at Atom Films. And if you’re looking to walk your dogma I’m sure the cartoonist over at Sinfest has a few funnies that will make you laugh. (Those that have been hangin’ here for a while know I love me some Sinfest)

Hump Day Hoozas! to Kristen (need the 411 on the blog name girlie), Melissa who turned some new folks on to my blog and Jer who sent me a cool e-mail AFTER tellin’ his peeps about my blog.

July 10, 2003 by A.J. Wood

linkfest

I need to clean out my IExplorer Favorites because I’ve added too many damn blogs. Here’s a list of random websites you should visit:

Acidman – I admire any man who has a bionic penis and writes about it.

This Chick – Props to Sarah whose website I came across while searching the MT forums this morning for answers on how to add the category ID to my blog entries. Thank you!

Bill Palmer, Mac Guy – Bill knows his Mac and he doesn’t lay the smack down when us PC folk badger him with questions.

Postcards at intherain.org – The photos impressed me, but I was also motivated by the PHP gallery layout.

Brain Farts – OK, I dug the hipster layout, but Sean gets linked for the Options & Water Fountain story (HINT – snap a photo of the water fountain and post it on your blog).

Purrz.net – Hey I found a cat blog… err cat gallery… err a pretty cool cat website. Mi gatos will be quite jealous.

Quira.net – Gets props for the online art. Anybody that actually can pull off a vector drawing gets a thumbs up for actually using the skills I have yet to acquire.

Someone Called James – I should have linked and worshiped James long ago when I lifted the correct syntax for a “New Window” checkbox from his site. My apologies for not having the genius to code my own shit.

Tales From The City – Because Homer Simpson quotes are funny and I wish MT could spice up my comments like Blogger.

Chirish.com – I would have been Uber-Computer-Graphic man had there been cool computer classes when I was in school.

Two Muses – Added to my Favorites during that whole May Day Project thing as I thought their entry was very unique design-wise.

OK, that should do it. If I make the list too long you won’t get a chance to visit those links. Still plenty to do offline; anybody got friends in Dallas needing to hire a super groovy computer guy?

in Editorial 6 comments

June 27, 2003 by A.J. Wood

Concert Review – Justified & Stripped Tour

Well, last night Michelle & I saw quite a show. I have to say Christina Aguilera did not disappoint and I can say without a doubt she’s not a “studio” singer. That girl has got mad vocal skillz. A number of things struck me about Christina’s performance, mainly the fact that she really seemed to be enjoying herself. A lot of pop performers present a certain persona on stage which carries through each tightly choreographed number (Think Janet’s attitude, Britney’s come-hither looks, Madonna’s sassy-bitch style). In-between songs said artist will scream “How are we doing in [insert city name here] tonight?” or something else to personalize the moment, but then the music kicks in and the game face is back on. In contrast, Christina rarely seemed to be “in character”. It reminded me of a scene in Rock Star where Mark Walberg’s character can’t keep from grinning during a band photo shoot. Even during those sultry moments, she offered a quick smile or wink reminding me more of the girl next door type then “X-tina”.

Choreography took a backseat to a strong vocal performance and while she managed to strut her stuff Christina’s dance troupe provided the visuals. Songs from her first album were offered up as remixed medleys and I was impressed by her covers of Etta James. The show closed with an energized version of “Fighter” followed “Beautiful” which Christina kicked off a cappella.

Now some of you are wondering “But Dude, I heard she’s fat now?” I can’t remember her quote from Rolling Stone (and it’s not in the online excerpt), but I don’t think she looked too plump or anything. It’s obvious she’s not the waif she was a few years back, but I’m not really concerned enough to delve into her personal eating habits. I will say kudos to her & Justin for having dancers that actually looked healthy (gotta have some meat on them bones). The female dancers had curves (and I don’t mean aftermarket breasts) while the guys weren’t all washboard abs and chests like Johnny Bravo.

Grade: A+ (Let me say again CHRISTINA CAN SING HER ASS OFF!)

So what about Justin?

Well, other than Punked and maybe a couple clips from some N`Sync video I can’t say I knew anything about him. Sure I’ve heard the hype and read the disses, but I can honestly say I had no expectations going to the show. That being said Justin’s performance, in contrast to Christina’s, was all about the choreography and putting on an energetic show. I can see why there would be Michael Jackson comparisons as the dance grooves were very frontman oriented unlike Madonna’s shows which play like musical theatre. The show was slick and by that I mean the production almost seemed too processed. I’d be more inclined to believe there were some vocal tracks covered by Justin’s backup singers as the sheer intensity of the dance moves would make it hard to commit an even stronger vocal performance. (As a former singer/dancer I have an informed opinion) There were pieces of the show that were very remnant of Britney’s performance on HBO and noticing the similarities in their music that doesn’t surprise me.

It’s clear that the former N`Sync guy has talent, but I’m just not a fan of his voice or vocal style. It’s not his use of falsettos which make him MJ-like, but whenever he sings in his full voice it just doesn’t convince me his weuvos<sp?> have dropped. Now I’m not saying he can’t sing because it’s obvious he can; I’m just saying he doesn’t do it for me.

Moving on the highlight of the evening was when Justin broke into his human beat box shtick. While not the most original it was fun to watch as he stepped on a platform which place him about 100ft above the main floor audience. Add a local Dallas DJ and a great percussive style drummer and you had yourself probably the hippest rave ever.

Grade: B (Justin will be the MJ for a new generation. Let’s hope he doesn’t follow ALL the King of Pop’s footsteps)

in Arts/Media 12 comments

May 27, 2003 by A.J. Wood

Mavericks 103, Spurs 91… Oops…

I could break it down for you all fancy like, but the end result would be the same – the Spurs gave away Game 5. They stumbled, they balked, they tripped, they stood in awe, they folded, they quit, they refused to win, they decided they wanted to road trip to Dallas.

Michelle & I know the game the Spurs are capable of playing. Let’s hope they decide to bring that to Dallas on Thursday.

Makes me wish I finished working on the pictures from this past weekend. Hopefully, I’ll get those photos up for y’all tomorrow.

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May 27, 2003 by A.J. Wood

Weekend Recap…

Pardon the misspellings and poor grammar, but I’m still waking up (who am I kidding, F7 spell check coming right up). Before I kickoff the weekend recap, it appears Cyn had a guest poster Friday & Sunday. The direct post links seem to be down, but look for guest post #1 & #2 as I’m still chuckling.

Well the weekend was an adventure. I have MANY pictures to go through and I intend on sorting sometime today amidst all the chores Michelle & I left undone before heading out of town. As I mentioned Saturday night, we spent the weekend in Austin. It was Jamee’s birthday Sunday and our good friend Amy flew down from Michigan to join in the celebration. I met both Jamee & Amy while hangin’ out at Michigan State (no I never actually attended, I just got drunk there on many an occasion). It had been a couple of years since Amy’s last visit so it was quite the birthday treat. Here’s a quick recap of our weekend:

Thursday – Amy flies into Dallas from Detroit. We grab dinner for three at Applebee’s and toss back some Perfect Margaritas.

Friday – Michelle, Amy & I drive to Austin. Except for the two hour delay trying to get out of Dallas, the drive is mostly uneventful. Sorority screams and high pitched squealing ensue after arriving at Jamee’s place. The birthday celebration has officially begun. After settling in and hugs followed by more hugs, the five of us (Amy, Jamee & Scott, Michelle & I) make our way to 6th street which is the club district in Austin. As it was Game 3 of the NBA playoffs, we just had to start off the evening at a sports bar. Amy & Jamee went next door to a brewery after dinner while Scott, Michelle & I watched as the Spurs took Game 3 away from the Mavericks.

We took our victory celebration over to the Ginger Man and joined what was now a large group of people wishing Jamee happy birthday. From the Ginger Man we moved on to Poly Esters for some disco dancing & karaoke. Needless to say it was a long night which ended with my recap of Game 3 at 3am.

Saturday – For some reason everyone slept in pretty late. The day didn’t begin until Noon and required massive amounts of coffee as motivation. Jamee’s friend Juliet offered to host a crawfish boil (yes, new experience for me too). We packed the truck and drove out to Lake Travis where Juliet has the most AMAZING house overlooking the lake (this is me green with envy). Scott labored all afternoon preparing 100lbs of crawfish. By the end of the night Juliet was walking next door to ask her neighbors to come and take a few pounds of leftovers. Never has such a small party gorged themselves so thoroughly. The evening wouldn’t be complete without some fireworks and a small brush fire.

Sunday – Jamee’s birthday!!! Woo Hoo!!! While still a late morning, we managed to pull ourselves together and head out to Hamilton Pool. This by far was the highlight of the weekend. Yup, Michelle & I are only jobs away from moving out of Dallas. The park only allows 75 cars in at one time so we had a bit of a wait before we were able to enjoy the pool. Unfortunately, we arrived in the late afternoon, so we didn’t have time to really take in the scenery. I snapped off some quick pics along the trail to the water, but next time I’ll get some better photos. After lounging in the water we drove out to the Salt Lick Barbecue for dinner. WOW! Can you say tasty eats? On a Sunday evening we had ourselves a 45 minute wait, but it was well worth it. GINORMOUS portions of ribs, brisket, pork, chicken with side plates of potatoes & coleslaw – YUMMY! Oh and if you’re ever out that way, the Salt Lick is BYOB.

Now I know what you’re thinking – you did manage to watch the Spurs game Sunday night right? Well, fortunately Michelle is ALWAYS prepared and although dinner did not include a TV, she did manage to bring her headset radio. In-between drinks and the occasional morsel she spouted out game scores for Scott & I. You’d think after gorging ourselves two days in a row that the food coma would have set in quite nicely. Seeing as it was Jamee’s birthday we left the Salt Lick and moved on to Lake Austin for drinks at the Hula Hut. We sat outside drinking “fish bowls”, Michelle announcing game scores while I took pictures of the ducks and Jamee & Amy caught up on all the latest gossip.

We closed the bar out and briefly thought of going back to 6th street before heading home. Jamee & Scott fired up the “ghetto tub” and we had ourselves one last night cap before passing out… err… well Michelle & I had one last drink. Rumor has it the birthday girl &amp company stayed up until 4am, hence the slow moving and hangovers the next morning.

Monday – Yeah, I know what you’re thinking – Why didn’t YOU stay up partying `til 4am? Well seeing as how a 3-4 hour drive absolutely sucks with a hangover; I figured I’d make the smart play for once. It was fun pouring Amy into the car and watching Jamee attempt some for of morning conversation in-between sips of coffee. The drive back to Dallas went quicker than we anticipated and Michelle & I dropped Amy off in record time for her flight home.

So there you have it. I’ll get to the pictures later and hopefully post them today. But first I’ll go wake up Michelle and get some stuffed french toast for breakfast.

in Editorial 1 comments