Artist: Weezer
Album: Pinkerton
Release Date: September 24, 1996

First things first…there should be no need for a reminder for this album. It was one of the best albums that were released in the 1990’s. It’s also one of the albums that has caused polarization among the Weezer Nation, because people tend to fall in one of three categories. Either you’ve signed up under the “I love this album and it is better than Blue” faction. Or you’re waving the “Eff this album! It’s no Blue” flag. Or you’re musically hopeless and only know the Weezer songs on Rock Band.

I’m not going to say which faction I fall under, but if you can guess, there’s a reason why I chose this album for this article.

Originally, Weezer’s follow up was to be a rock opera titled Songs from the Black Hole, but (and I’m assuming thankfully) because of Harvard and surgery for Rivers, this did not happen.

Pinkerton was a then highly anticipated and ultimately the follow up to the legendary Blue album, but since it was so different from Blue, Pinkerton was not well received. However, as time passed, people started to appreciate the album more and it has became one of Weezer’s better albums (and to be honest this is possibly due to the fact that since Pinkerton, their albums have been on a steady decline). Weezer still pumps out hits, but there hasn’t been a full album that has had the impact that Blue and Pinkerton has had.

Pinkerton was one of the albums that helped direct my musical taste. The album is full of irony, pining and sadness, but kept it at a very acceptable level which kept it fun. Who hasn’t been in love with a lesbian and/or a half Japanese girl?

Why should I dust off this album?

Why the heck not?

The album is epic…and if you don’t know the first line to El Scorcho, you’re, again, musically hopeless…

Early August, I took a quick weekend trip to Chicago for their Rock N Roll Half Marathon. I had so much fun during my #AYCJ trip last year there, that I needed to find a reason to go back. I stayed with my now good friend via CouchSurfing.org from last year, so I was able to save on hotel costs. I was also fortunate enough to use a free Southwest Awards flight, so the overall trip wasn’t costly at all.

I took an early morning 7am flight from LAX Saturday, then returned Sunday night. What a quick weekend trip that was. Technically, according to our Vegas rules of “it’s not a turnaround if you sleep more than 3 hours,” I actually did a turnaround. Once I arrived in the afternoon, I took public transportation to the Health Expo. I had an hour to closing, but I didn’t stress, once you’ve been to one, you’ve seen them all anyway. Went to my couchsurfing friend’s apartment (which I helped her move into last time I was there), and we pretty much made it a blockbuster night w/ frozen pizza from Trader Joe’s. Yes, that’s some real Chicago pizza right there! I was still in LA time, so wanting to sleep at midnight to get a good amount of rest, was really 10pm for me, I didn’t even sleep until 2am.

Two hours later, I had to wake up to get ready for the start of the race. Ended up taking a taxi because trains don’t start until 5am. I was so early to the race that the set up crew was still working! It was dark. It was silent. No music. No announcers. I probably only counted 5 other people. I thought I was at the wrong place for a minute. 20,000 other people filled up the area pretty quickly, so it all became familiar again.

Prior to this event, the Philadelphia ING Half Marathon was my favorite. Chicago RNR Half Marathon just topped that. It was pretty hot & humid at the end, but overall, the scenic views and the energy of the runners and crowds, made the event amazing. We started at Grant Park, passed through Millennium Park (where “The Bean” is), through the downtown area passing Willis Tower (Sears Tower), to Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play), and came back around, ran along the tree-lines paths lakefront. The final miles to the finish line (pictured above), gave a nice view of downtown Chicago.

After the race, it was a quick eat downtown, explored Millennium Park once again, and stopped by some taping area for Transformers 3. Saw some teeny tiny explosions, pre-Michael Bay effects, so it was non eventful. It was interesting to see a bunch of flipped over burnt cars and pieces of junk everywhere though. Before I ventured home, I had a few drinks with a good friend I met from Team in Training this past summer, so we played a little catch up there.

And that was it! Fly in, hang out, run, eat, hang out, then flew back. I got all the tourist curiosities out of the way last year, so I was in no big rush or pressures other than to get my Chicago RNR Half Marathon medal, which was #4 of the 7 events I needed to get the big ass Rock n Roll Medal. Still one of my favorite cities to visit, and I’ll be back for sure! I highly recommend running this race next year, or even just to visit this beautiful city. Good times!

For a good 3 or 4 hours last night, I was finalizing my All You Can Jet trip via JetBlue’s special AYCJ trip. Initially news of the open booking window started as a link on the Facebook AYCJ message boards that it’s live around 9ish pm PST.

Last year, we had it to do it old school and actually call a JetBlue representative to book flights using written down flight numbers (for the quickest booking), or talk to them about your planned destinations. I think this new way is a huge improvement because you can get an overall view of your itinerary, pick seats, change seats, cancel flights, change flights, you name it. There were a few kinks last night, many were pretty frustrated to find out that their account has been “deactivated”. It was a database error, and it seemed like it was random because it affected some new jetters, as well as experienced AYCJers. People were left on hold for an hour or more, but seemed to slowly get resolved as the night progressed. Some cities weren’t available in the beginning, but eventually made its way to the AYCJ system, which one of my intended cities happened to magically appear.

So here’s my tentative schedule, being a weekend warrior AYCJer, taking no days off from work, probably not sleeping much

9/10-9-12 Portland, OR
When I went to Portland last year, lucky me, I had food poisoning the night before, and so when I got to Portland, all I did was sleep to fight off that sickness, then forced myself to check out the nightlife around 10pm. My last day at Portland too, was the beginning of MusicFestNW, so I didn’t really experience it. This year, I’m playing catch up and will get the full MFNW experience to check out as many shows, plus Smashing Pumpkins will be performing. Also that weekend is a Pints to Pasta 10k run, Do-Over Portland, and there’s supposedly 70 microbrews around town.

9/16-9/19 NYC & Philadelphia
I’ll be taking a redeye on Friday to NYC 5am, which I’ll only have a few hours until a busride to Philadelphia. I might have brunch with a friend, or just explore. The main reason for this weekend trip is for the ING Rock N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon, which I did last year and LOVED it. It’s also #5 of 7 of the events on the road to getting all the Rock n Roll Medals. I’ll probably get a cheesesteak sandwich or two (or three) as well.

9/24-9/26 New Orleans, Louisiana
I’m pretty much sacrificing all my Fridays for AYCJ because of these redeyes. I’ll land in New Orleans, which I’ve never been before. I will have a full day to explore, then a night of craziness until I have to leave the next afternoon. Will have to do more research here so I don’t break the bank.

10/1-10/3 Portland, Maine
This last weekend is still up in the air, but just wanted to book it to reserve my spot for at least one trip. What is there to do in Portland, Maine? Honestly, I have no idea, but I’ve never been. This will definitely be a relaxing weekend, eating up some of that Maine Lobser i kept hearing about last year.

You can check out my AYCJ map here – http://www.everlater.com/sketch/aycj-2010

This is still as exciting for me this year as it was last year. It’s been fun providing tips to first timers this year, plus there seems to be so much pre-planning and conversations this year and I can guarantee that this one will be a memorable one (hope I don’t hype it up too much for myself). It’s going to be rough during the week, wishing I’m having fun with other AYCJ folks, but I’ll manage. Work environment doesn’t suck, so I’ll keep busy. Sure, I can only jet on weekends, but you know me, i’ll make the most of the limited time I’ve got!

Since this year I will be grounded from #AYCJ jetting on weekdays, I’ll take the time to give the jetters some tips, based on my interests in Los Angeles, and learning from my quick travels last year.

Before I start, let me give you a little background about myself so you can make the decision whether or not you are the type of person to make use of these tips. I was born in L.A., but grew up most of my life in the suburbs. I grew up going to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and all the amusement parks Southern California has to offer. I went on family vacations out of state, from road trips to cruises. Once I became of age, I partied my ass off driving to Hollywood and Orange County, ranging from clubs, house parties, raves, frat parties, you name it. I’ve already got all that out of my system. It wasn’t until 4 years ago that I moved to deeper into L.A, and beach cities of So Cal.

I’ve learned to live with the land of crazy traffic and road rage fanatics. I was never interested in biking around time (although I should) because I know the drivers suck here and I’d probably get run over, but things will change in the near future. So, by living here all my life, I can point out what are the tourist traps, the clubs and bars to avoid during a given night, what areas to visit. I don’t call myself an expert foodie, or expert traveler, but I’ll give you my tips as an L.A. native. There’s not much of that around here to be honest, well, at least not in the Westside. Many of the L.A. natives I know are already married and live more inland. All the writers of Fast Track Prototype are L.A. natives, so any of these blog posts will give that kind of local perspective.

So I’ll try to think of useful articles catered to the #AYCJ travelers who are reading this, because I know how tough it is to plan these city trips, especially if you’re traveling alone. There’s so much to experience, and there’s so many ways you can experience Los Angeles. Just as quick as you can love this city, you can in turn quickly hate this city. I’ve heard from people about their bad experiences, and you know what? They simply just went to the wrong places. I’ll try to help you avoid that. I still love this city, so if you have any ideas, leave them in the comments and we’ll try to help you. So from now until October, you will see more #AYCJ posts. Just a quick tip though, L.A. is pretty large, so you will definitely need to add in some time for traffic congestion between areas, and public transportation isn’t as great as N.Y. (although it’s somewhat gotten better.

You don’t need to be #AYCJ to think these articles are useful. You could even be someone visiting for a weekend, or someone who would be planning to stop by in the coming months. I’d be even happy to come meet you and hang out for happy hour. Happy travels!

For all those times when you “didn’t remember.” Maybe it happened for a reason.

First watch this:

Now for Inebriation:

(or maybe even try playing them at the same time)

Have a good weekend!

The weekend has started. I hear beer cans opening, champaign bottles being popped, and wine bottles corked. Coworkers playing beer pong, keg is flowing, and Jell-O shots have arrived. You think there’s nothing to do in L.A.? Think again. This is what caught our eye, we might or might not see you there. Enjoy!

The Sunset Junction Street Fair @ Silver Lake 8/21-8/22
This is one huge block party full of live acts, food, and freebies. It’s $20 at the gates, and big acts include Fishbone, Shiny Toy Guns, J Rocc, Mayer Hawthorne and DJ Doc Martin

3700 to 4300 Sunset Boulevard (between Edgecliffe Dr and Fountain Av)
4000 to 4200 Santa Monica Boulevard (between Sanborn Ave and Hoover St)
http://www.sunsetjunction.org

Lucky 7 at the Playboy Mansion 8/20-8/22
This is for the ballers. $975 general admission, but it should be tax deductible, right? It’s a charity event!
Partying for a Purpose fundraiser
http://www.partyingforapurposemansionparty.com/
4 parties (Friday Casino Hyatt Century Plaza, Saturday Hyatt Pool Party, Saturday night Playboy Mansion, Sunday recovery pool party)

Tori Black at Spearmint Rhino, City of Industry 8/20-8/21 11pm & 1am
I’m doing this post from the office, so I’d rather not post her photos or links. Just Google her, and that’s all you gotta do.

Redbull Flugtag, Rainbow Harbor, Long Beach 8/21 11am
You’ve heard it on the radio. You’ve seen it in the commercials. Red Bull Flugtag challenges the brave and brainy to design, build and pilot homemade flying machines off a 30-foot high flight deck in hopes of soaring into the wild blue yonder…or often, plunging into the waters below. Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German, pushes the envelope of human-powered flight, but competitors need more than impressive airtime to reach the podium. Teams are judged on three criteria: flight distance, creativity of the craft, and showmanship.
http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/LongBeach2010

Hollywood Club Crawl, Hollywood 8/21 10pm @ Beauty Bar
Can you handle a night of drinking and dancing around Hollywood?
Beauty Bar – free shots for girls
Ecco – the old Tokio Tokio bar, revamped
Music Box – new Hollywood club
Vanguard – legendary L.A. club
http://www.HollywoodClubCrawl.com

Scion Smog 4 Year Anniversary
8/21 4PM – 2AM,
$10 RSVP – http://app.championsound.com/1440/events/smog-4-year (closes midnight)
Lot 613
613 Imperial St
Los Angeles, CA 90021
12th Planet, Skeet Skeet, Thee Mike B
http://www.smogla.com/

Drenched Daytime Pool Party @ The Custom Hotel 8/22
Headliner set by Steve Loria
8630 Lincoln Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
1:00PM-8:00PM
Free before 3pm, RSVP here – http://drenched.eventbrite.com

Love Festival 8/21 – 8/22
Not your typical weekend party…. but if this is your thing, go for it.
LA Coliseum Sports Arena
http://www.thelovefestival.com/2010/index.html

Ladies, have you ever found yourself enjoying the sandy beaches of Venice, CA and wishing to tan certain areas more evenly but totally couldn’t for fear of indecent exposure tickets? Have you ever looked over at that shirtless guy sunbathing next to you and decried the unfair double standards? How come HE gets to do that and I don’t?

Well, the people at GoTopless have decided they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. According to the organization, Venice USED to be a nude beach in the good old days of the 70s until CERTAIN members of the moral police decided women’s bare breasts are simply unacceptable in public.

You can support their fight for women’s equal rights this Sunday, August 22. Protesters will march topless to make a statement against laws that allow men to parade around shirtless but require women to cover up. Women, follow the wise words of Alanis Morissette and use your body as an instrument. In this case, use them to demand your rights to Go Topless. You can “take off your tops and hide your indecent nipples with latex nipple covers…that look EXACTLY like nipples!” (These will be handed out on the beach) Men, join the cause and cover your chests with bikini tops or other choice items.

The group meets at 2pm on Ocean Front Walk at Navy St. March starts at 2.30 PM towards Windward circle for their speech and entertainment at 3.30 PM. They start marching at the beat of the drum circles.

See you there!

I’ve been a fan of the NFL Madden Series since Madden ’96 on the Sega Genesis. In 2004, Madden had exclusive rights to the NFL and it’s players so unless you wanted to play with stupid generic games fro like the Los Angeles Rubber Duckies vs the New England Chowders, the only real authentic game to play was Madden. That gave self-induced pressure to EA to create a game that will be accepted by NFL fans all over. Just last week, I picked up the PS3 copy, and I’m lovin it.

My review: Thumbs up for all football fans. Everything has been upgraded from last year, graphics are cleaner, animations are smoother, background details refined, easier controls. There’s a new “coach” mode where you’ll be given a suggested play by the coach, based on last year’s stats on the certain situation, certain play. Sure, it may seem like cheating, but there’s always a play that would work well against it, or sometimes your players don’t respond well to the situation. The older mode is still present, where you can choose whatever play you want. The physics of the game is more realistic. There’s no “turbo” button, which we’re all used to in these kind of games, but I actually like it. You have to read the defense and holes better to succeed. It’s tougher to take down certain players, as you should in real life. There’s a new announcer, Gus Johnson, and he steps up the broadcast feel/quality of the game as he’s more charismatic, and responds well to high pressure situations.

There are a few downfalls though, but nothing too big. Although the overall animation is better, I do see some choppiness, which breaks the excitement sometimes. The game is also pretty fast paced that the announcers get cut off on what they are saying. I’m still trying out all the different modes, but it “seems” like there should be more features. Still getting around to it.

Overall, I’m still having fun playing it. Pick it up if you’ve been playing Madden. Pick it up if you love the NFL. Pick it up even if you like the EA sports series. I’m playing the season with the San Diego Chargers. I’ve always used the Saints these past years (way before they were Superbowl Champs), so I wanted to change things up. Soon I’d like to get on the online play aspect of things, but let me practice a little more.

4:49AM PST I get a missed IM from a good friend David whom I met in NYC’s JFK Airport:

“It’s backkkkkkkkkk AYCJ
get on it and book it!”

I immediately ran downstairs to get my laptop and my checkcard! It was one of those “Am I dreaming? Is this an Inception type of dream within dreams situations?!? This is too good to be true!” moments. Sure enough, saw the special, and shortly after I booked it!

Just two days ago, JetBlue announced the highly anticipated All You Can Jet pass, also known as #AYCJ, a hashtag popularized by its own Twitter community. This morning, they sold out. Last year’s pass was a big social media experiment to fill in seats for a usually slow period of travel, the month after Labor Day, and what a success it was! At the time I bought it, I was freelancing, working my own schedule, so I pretty much traveled the full month.

This time around? Things have changed and now I’m employed full time. Not complaining though, I love my job and everything related to it, so I’m only going to travel on weekends. Is it still worth it? Hell yeah it is. Sure I paid $699 for the AYCJ-7, but considering I probably used $2500 in fights last year, and 2 east coast flights this year, I will still be in the positive. Sometimes you can’t look at the prices, what you get out of it is the experience, meeting new friends, experiencing cities you would otherwise not visit, and the crazy stories you’ll tell your kids and grandkids.

I learned a lot last year and I never had a chance to finish my AYCJ blog adventures. Here are some quick key learnings:

• Pack even lighter. Last year I packed only a carry on and never checked in any bags. I still found that I packed too much clothes, or packed unnecessary items
• Research high priority experiences. Sure, most of my itinerary on the fly, but last year, I found myself missing some major concerts and music festivals by a few days mainly because I didn’t know. For example, I flew OUT of Portland before their big music festival started, and I arrived in Chicago hours after Oprah Winfrey had her large TV season premiere concert/block party AND my hotel was only 3 blocks away.
• I don’t need to stay at nice hotels. Granted, I didn’t sleep at 5 star hotels, but they were in between average and high end. I didn’t really sleep in the rooms anyway, so I’ll just try to see what works.
• Don’t be afraid to talk to other AYCJers. Everyone I met last year were really fun to talk to, and everyone had some unique and interesting adventures. I didn’t really get social until the second half of my trip. This time, I’ll start at the beginning and engage in more social media and IRL conversations.

Are you new to AYCJ? There’s a lot of pre-trip chatter in these places. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/AYCJ
http://www.meetup.com/AYCJ-2010
http://twitter.com/JetBlue/aycj

I’ll provide more tips and experiences from now until we all start, and also along the way, since I will be grounded during the week!

Follow me on Twitter to catch my travels: http://www.twitter.com/sketch678

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is a video game movie made for the Nintendo generation. And I don’t mean that it’s adapted from a video game, nay, I mean that it’s format and visualization is almost a video game.  We got goon fights, boss battles, bob-ombs, 1ups, etc. Sadly, most kids today won’t understand the opening 8-bit midi Universal logo in the beginning, and they might get the Zelda audio cues.  Hell, even Scott’s band’s name, “Sex Bob-omb”, might fall on deaf ears.  But to the rest of us, those that had a NES, or spent significant time playing on one, this movie is one big easter egg hunt.

I’ve never read the comics, so I came in with zero idea of what the world of Scott Pilgrim is like.  I guess it was pretty significant for some because when some imagery popped up on screen that looked like it was lifted right off the comic book, people squealed/cheered.  I did come in as a big fan of the director, Edgar Wright.  His previous outings, Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz” are two of my favorite films.  This movie would be his first outing without the dynamic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, so, I was curious to see what a non-British comedy from Mr Wright would be like.

It was epic.

This movie is one kinetic, hyper-edited, film, but in a really good way. The film moves at a good pace, and rarely slows down, yet, somehow Wright is able to build up his characters and give them the history they deserve, keeping them from being one dimensional caricatures.  Much props to all the players (actors) in the game (movie).  It has to be said: Holy Crap Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  Aside from the subspace highway running through Scott’s head, you kinda get why Scott goes through what he does for her, aside from her good looks, and fickle/indecisive/spontaneous ways.  Ellen Wong’s Knives Chau is cute, albeit kinda creepy, but, you’ll understand why. I did raise an eyebrow at the whole “she’s Chinese” bit.  Do white folk from Canada (the film takes place in Toronto) still think Asians are “exotic”?  Wasn’t really a big deal, but you could hear the mumbring from all the Asians at Century City. Keiran Culkin (Macauley’s little bro) as the boyfriend stealing gay roommate was a hoot, playing the straight man to Scott’s crazy.  Special nod goes to Captain America and Superman (Chris Evans and Brandon Routh).  They weren’t on for very long, but they owned their scenes.

Much has to be said about the fight choreography:  It was pretty damn good.  Okay, that’s not a lot, but when you believe that Michael Cera can take on multiple goons and then go into a boss fight and actually succeed, well, they did a pretty bang up job.  Oh, and please, suspend your disbelief. People (mainly Scott) fly around and get socked/punched/kicked Street Fighter style throughout and no one in the world bats an eye.

Lastly, the music.  I’m buying the Soundtrack.  I liked it that much.

Your choices for this weekend are between this, The Expendables, and Eat, Pray, Love.  I say go see this one. It’ll tickle the back of your knee in ways no other movie can/will/has.