Josh's blog

ROCK-morial Day Weekend

Big concertgoing weekend for me this weekend.

Friday night I'm seeing David Hidalgo & Louie Perez of Los Lobos, in an acoustic "Storytellers" setting where they'll be talking about the songs, then playing them.  I can't imagine any way this won't be one of the best concerts I see all year.

Here's what it's going to be like:

 

"How Much Can I Do" - David Hidalgo & Louie Pérez - Live 2009

On Saturday, I'm seeing Band of Horses at The Independent.  That's a reasonably small club and a much smaller place than Band of Horses would usually play (I also have tickets to see them at the Greek Theater in September, and they just got off a tour opening stadiums for Pearl Jam).  I saw them last year at the Fox and it was great, but I expect their dynamics -- from the quiet openings to the loud wall-of-sound guitar crescendos -- will be awesome in a small venue.

Band of Horses, No One's Gonna Love You

 

On Monday, I'll be back at the Indy to hear The Very Best.  Not sure how that's going to work live, but I sure loved their album last year.

Tengazako - Esau Mwamwaya

Tour Of California

Here's the bike race I saw this week.
Again, I waited 45 minutes in the rain to see this...

(Lance Armstrong is one of the guys in red at the front of the race.)

DSCN1105

Josh Rouse - El Turista

I just saw Josh Rouse in concert Friday night.  He was good.  Not the most amazing singer in the world, but what a songwriter.

Here's a song from his new album El Turista, which is mostly Spanish and Cuban-influenced music (due to his currently living with his Spanish girlfriend in Valencia).  The rest of the record is similar to this, but most of the songs aren't quite as peppy.

 

Valencia

Josh Rouse

The Bird and the Bee Meet Hall and Oates

The Bird and The Bee just put out an album entirely of Hall and Oates covers called "Interpreting the Masters vol. 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates".

It is nostalgic and fresh at the same time.  (These people know how to make a song their own, as they say on American Idol.)  And also, note that even with a female vocalist, the genders of the songs stayed the same.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

 

05 - Kiss On My List

The Bird And The Bee

 

03 - Rich Girl

The Bird And The Bee

Baruto vs. Sumo-Tori

Remember the awesome Sumo Bird cartoons the Sumo Association came up with?
Looks like they've come to life.
My sources have delivered this picture of new Ozeki Baruto going up against one of them in a heated match.  Awesome.

That's a big bird

Big Sumo News

A Sumo tournament passed by so quickly recently like in this cool video and I didn't blog about it at all...

sumo tilt shift time-lapse

Newly-crowned Ozeki Baruto meets his fans

Well, the big news is that Baruto went 14-1 (winning both the Technique prize and the Fighting Spirit prize) and earned himself a promotion to Ozeki.  Being from Estonia, he's the 2nd European wrestler ever to make it to Ozeki (after Bulgarian Koto'oshu).  Barring injury, Baruto should be an Ozeki for a long time.  The bad news for Baruto was that his 1 loss was to Yokozuna Hakuho, and Hakuho beat everyone else, too, to go 15-0 and win the tournament.  And I expect this might happen most of the time for the next couple years, which could hold Baruto back from making Yokozuna.  (Though going 14-1 and coming in 2nd every time would be good enough for Yokozuna promotion, I think.)

I don't remember any other big news for the tournament.  Kotomitsuki was in danger of demotion but had no problem getting a winning record this time.  Kaio is still hanging around and also got his winning record relatively easily, for him.  But even Harumafuji and Koto'oshu had mediocre 10-5 tournaments.  3 rookies made the majors for the first time and 2 of them (Okinoumi and Tokusegawa) made winning records, both 8-7.

And Kunitachi had an up-and-down tournament in the Sumo pool -- my best tournament for picking correctly, but ended up only 8-7 with a win on the last day.

Separated at Birth

You have to admit the resemblance is uncanny...

 

LillyAndFriend

The big omission from the Oscars In Memoriam

Forget Farrah Fawcett - here's the actress who deserved recognition and didn't get it Sunday night...

 

Let's Go get your daughter

(It's so sad that they don't have the "Go into the light!" clip on YouTube.) 

 

RIP Zelda Rubinstein...

Another reason to love Christoph Waltz

I haven't seen Inglorious Basterds.  I've heard Christoph Waltz is amazing in it, and totally deserved his Academy Award.  I've seen a couple interviews, and he seems like a very likable person.

And here's another reason to love the guy:

Christoph Waltz on His Role in Der Humpink

(OK, the Humpink stuff is stupid, but the Mr. Lolololo impression is awesome!)

PS - if you didn't see the Handsome Men's Club on Jimmy Kimmel, you really need to watch it.  It's hilarious.

Handsome Men's Club

Another reason I love the Internet

If you have not seen this video yet, watch it now, and thank me later:

Hilarious Russian Singer from the 70's (Ed roll'd )

Just having seen that is reason enough to love the Internet.

But there's more.  Some guy created a Web site for that video at:

http://trololololololololololo.com/

And "Mr. Trolololololo" is now on Twitter, too.
Why just today he tweeted:  "TROLOLOLOLO LOLOLO LOLOLOLO LOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOOOOOOO"
And yesterday, he said: "HOHOHOHOHO HOHOHOHOHO HOHOHOHOHO HOHOHOHOHO"