Conclusions of Variety A Personal Blog on my happenings and thoughts

Sonic YouthPosted by cczernia on January 11th, 2010

Last Thursday I want to see Sonic Youth at the San Diego House of Blues. I had seen them once before when they opened for Pearl Jam a few years ago but I wasn’t able to get very close. When I saw them previously we had assigned seating and security would not allow me to pass a certain area even though maybe 10% of the crowd had shown up.

This time around the venue was much more intimate and we got right up to the stage. We stood through the opening band and then Sonic Youth came out. I must have been about ten feet from Thurston Moore (SY front man) and it was amazing. It is always cool to be close at any concert but for Sonic Youth it is a big deal as they do all kinds of crazy things to guitars including using a screwdriver, file, and violin bow.

They are also a fairly old band with most of the members pushing 50. However, I was surprised to find that most of the audience was around 20 making feel a little better about the following generation.

On another note I had a nice Christmas vacation. Stephanie and I didn’t do anything special. We stayed home or went to the movies during Christmas and New Years.

Comic-Con 09Posted by cczernia on August 3rd, 2009

I almost didn’t go this year. Not from not wanting but when I went to buy tickets in April the 4-day, Friday, and Saturday tickets were sold out. Luckily I had a friend who hooked me up.

This year is probably one of the slowest comic-cons I have been to. I did my usual thing taking two half days on Thursday and Friday and then doing all of Saturday. Nothing really exciting happened and the panels I went to were mediocre and had long lines (had to wait 1:30 to get into the main Ballroom). I did get some great deals and had fun walking around the dealers room. I think my favorite parts were hanging out with friends after the con and gaming Saturday night with friends I don’t normally get to play with.

By Sunday I was completely exhausted so I didn’t go. Overall, a fun event as usual and to make sure I get my 4-day pass I bought my membership a year early at the con.

Final FrontierPosted by cczernia on January 4th, 2009

On Friday a couple friends and I went to the Star Trek Exhibition at the Air and Space Museum at Balboa Park. It was a lot of fun and as you can see had replicas of the original Enterprise bridge and the transporter room. If also had a lot of great costumes and models. The exhibits were also in rooms next to a Next Generation hallway. It didn’t have the interactivity of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas but was still a lot of fun.

Later that night we got some dinner then roleplayed until 3 in morning. Overall a great geek holiday!

Karaoke and ChristmasPosted by cczernia on December 30th, 2008

A few weeks back we decided to have a December birthday for Stephanie and my two friends Erik and Andy. We went to the same karaoke we place I went back in spring. It was just as much fun this time around as it was last time. The highlight for me was when I tried to sing “Jump Around” an early 90’s rap song. I was fumbling over the words as they were going too fast but Stephanie picked up the second mike and started rapping in sync with the words. Apparently she had memorized the song when she was younger.

We had a nice Christmas. On Christmas we went and saw a live performance of “Xanadu” based off the 1980 movie with Olivia Newton-John and featured lots of glitter and people on rollerskates. I was skeptical at first but it was hysterical apparently a parody of itself.

A few days after Christmas we went to see “A Chinese New Year.” It was a production of traditional Chinese singing and dancing with vibrant costumes, acrobatic stunts, and beautiful dancing. They even had mock dancing battles of the Monkey King and Mulan.

So, we went a little less traditional this year replacing Uncle Scrooge with a roller disco and the Nutcracker with girls dancing with chopsticks.

The ComedianPosted by cczernia on August 4th, 2008

Last Saturday Stephanie and I went to see Eddie Izzard. This wasn’t at a comedy club but more a huge production done at a large theater. We had great seats at the mezzanine level which is the middle level. We did not know this as we headed to the top and they sent us back down.

Eddie Izzard is known for cross dressing but during this show he played it straight. Needless to say he was hysterical with bits about mac and pc computers, wikipeida, history, language, tennis, and religion. He did a bit on religion and dinosaurs which reminded me a lot of Bill Hicks, a comedian who was popular during the early 1990s until he died in 1994. Though the subject was the same (why does the bible not cover dinosaurs) the jokes were different which I found interesting.

I was also amazed that he didn’t recycle any of his old work. The entire show was new material and I own one of his DVDs, seen two others and have a CD.

This is the first time I have ever seen a comedian live. I think I would enjoy seeing other comedians but I’m not really familiar with them. I think the only other ones I can think would be Jerry Sienfeld and Dennis Leary.

Comic Con 08Posted by cczernia on July 28th, 2008

Comiccon was a lot of fun this year as it always is. I went from Wednesday night to Saturday. I usually arrived sometime between 12-1 and left around 7pm. Some great panels were “Torchwood”, “Doctor Who”, “Joss Whedon: Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog”, “Dollhouse”, “Spaced”, and the best was “Battlestar Galactica” which was moderated by Kevin Smith.

I also attended the opening of “The Gamers: Dorkness Rising” which is a movie about roleplayers. I geeked out at this one and absolutely loved the movie.

One of my D&D teens. Kids got taste

Me and the Suicide Girls

Battlestar Galactica panel with Kevin Smith

2 Concerts, 1 ConPosted by cczernia on June 5th, 2008

On Memorial Day weekend I went up to LA for GameX which is held three times a year. This con was possibly the worst of four I have been two. I had planned on running two games, Werewolf the Forsaken and Fading Suns and no one showed up to either game. I ended up playing in some fun game though including Tribe 8, Spirit of the Century, and old school Deadlands. I also got to play in a demo of D&D 4th edition.

Last Thursday (a week ago) Stephanie and I drove up to LA again for an REM concert at the Hollywood bowl. Suspecting hellish traffic we left at noon and got a room. We then took a bus to the concert. We got their about half an hour before the opening act and got some dinner. We had really good box seats where the staff brought us a table and we had a nice picnic dinner. The concerts opened with a band called “The Nationals” and then moved on to “Modest Mouse” which I was excited to see. Finally REM came on stage and they were great. We took the bus back to our hotel and left the next day.

For years I have wanted to see the band The Cure and had given up as they kept saying they were going to retire. My dreams were answered and Stephanie and I went to see them last Tuesday. They played a really long set and ended with three encored of vintage Cure. It was great and was the best concert since NIN a few years back.

First SD Club ConcertPosted by cczernia on December 10th, 2007

On Friday night me and a bunch of friends went to see “Shonen Knife” at a local club called the Casbah. We met up around 7:30 at a quick Thai restaurant and hung out for about an hour. We left for the club which was neat. It had two indoor areas and one outdoor. It was covered in stickers and had that rock bar feel throughout. We drank a few beers and chatted until around 9:30 when the first band Wildbirds came on and then a band called Juliet Dagger.

Finally it was time for Shonen Knife. For those who aren’t familiar Shonen Knife is a Japanese j-pop/punk band. Their lyrics are silly and fun and make little sense. They will do typical punk/hard rock posturing but it is fun and silly. They will throw the horns \m/ with big smiles on their faces. I loved the show and got into it. They were a ton of fun.

On Sunday we bunch of us went and saw “It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play.” Stephanie and I saw it last year at the Cygnet Theater and it was just as good the second time around. All our friends enjoyed it and the play was a great holiday activity.

Minneapolis and the FiresPosted by cczernia on October 29th, 2007

A week ago I flew up on Thursday to Minneapolis to visit my friends Joe and Lisa. We hadn’t seen each other for over a year and that was just visit to Madison WI. It was good catching up with him and of course the first day was all about old times and catching up including playing an old video game called “Rpg-Maker” where you create a rpg in the style of Final Fantasy II and III. We called our “The Adventures of Hot P” and it was about a blog that wanted to became human so he could have sex. It was silly but brought back a lot of memories.

We also visited Dinky Town, played and beat Halo 3, and played a lot of other games. We also went to the Walker (modern art museum).

I returned on Sunday and as I was flying over San Diego I noticed a number of forest fires. So, I land in San Diego to have it burning down around me… again. Four years at almost the exact same time of year and exact conditions we had a huge forest fire. Now I got to experience it all again. It wasn’t as bad this time because I was 8 miles from the two forest fires. Monday and Tuesday were extremely intense as people were evacuated and we couldn’t control the fires. Even though I wasn’t in danger I had a lot of friends that were in danger of the fire. While I was at work everyone was glued to the internet or radio and constantly updating the google map of the fires.

Everything is fine now but it was a crazy experience. No one got much done at work and everyone is looking forward to normality.

PumpkinsPosted by cczernia on September 21st, 2007

Back in 1994 I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins during their Siamese Dream tour. I went with my friend Tim and it was my first concert without adult supervision (the previous concerts being Bon Jovi and MC Hammer with Vanilla Ice). On our way there I remember discussing the music Tim and we kept referring to the lead singer which at the time we did not know his name. To help the conversation we gave him the name Bobby Johan. The name stuck for about five years.

I saw Smashing Pumpkins for the second time almost 13 years later at SDSU Open Air Theater and they were just as good now as they were then if not better. I went by myself this time and had a seat unlike the 1994 concert where I got to push my way to the front and get sprayed down by a security guard to keep everyone from over heating. However, the rows were not clear and at one point a guy said I was in his seat. I asked him if this was row “J” (my row) and he said it was row “H”. I hopped one back and that guy said I was in his seat and that I was now in row “K”. I was kind of frustrated that I went from row H to K but hopped one more back where there was a gap. Made me wish for the old days where I could push my way forward instead of having people whine me backwards.

Still, I had a blast and the Smashing Pumpkins put on a great show.