A new domain!

You may have noticed a change in the domain name here! To make things easy for you, feel free to hop on over to the main page at http://www.jaimeh.com or to check out this blog, the updated URL is http://blog.jaimeh.com

Thanks for stopping by!

I Gave In...

...And I got a Kindle. It's one of those things that I suppose seemed inevitable, but I'm kind of impressed at how long I held out. I'm liking it so far, although I've only played around with it a little bit. I've got a couple Kindle books downloaded already, and I think the next step is to try checking out an e-book from the library and getting it moved onto the device.

Videos from the Japan earthquake and tsunami

Well, I've spent a good chunk of the morning watching video of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan today, so I'm going to compile some of the videos I've found here, and keep updating as I find new videos:

A whirlpool off the coast of Japan:



Source: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/03/11/that-giant-sucking-sound


A water surge in Santa Cruz, CA:



Cars and boats being pushed around by the waves:



Footage of the quake from indoors and outdoors:



Raw footage from a grocery store:



An oil refinery fire:



Tsunami waves flooding a the port city of Kamaishi




Added at 12:53 PM Pacific

More first person video of the quake:



Road damage after the quake:



Tsunami TV coverage from Japan:

Whole Wheat Bread: Dirty South Punk

A few weeks back I went to go see Murs at a small local venue with a friend. Before Murs came out, there were a few other acts, the first being a punk band called Whole Wheat Bread. They were definitely the best of the opening acts, and in a rare move I bought their CD. I love the disc, it's just been playing over and over in my car since I go it. So if you're a fan of punk, check them out. Their album "Hearts of Hoodlums" is on Amazon, both in disc and MP3 format, and you can get it here: Hearts of Hoodlums

In the meantime, enjoy this video for "Bombs Away". The video itself is kind of weird, but music videos tend to be that way. Just enjoy the song for now!

Rogue Review: "Birds & Bees: A Cost Benefit Analysis"

This year I had about a half dozen shows I wanted to get to, but so far I've only made it to one. It was definitely not a disappointment, I really enjoyed myself.

"Birds & Bees" is a tough show for me to review honestly because I know both people in the show, but I'm going to do my best.

The show follows a couple talking about where they are now. They talk about the various stages of their relationship, with scenes cutting back to show the happy, sex-crazed, early part of the relationship; the "all I can do is think about him, why won't he call me" and "I'll call her later, I'm going to read a book now" stage; and the "big fight".

The show ends with a choice. The audience gets to choose from three endings: happy, sad, and amicable separation. I've read other reviews saying that this is a good way to get people to come back to see the show again, although this is no guarantee you'll see a new ending (unless you bring a bunch of your negative friends to root for the "bad" ending....or something similar with the other endings).

As a whole, I really enjoyed this show. I laughed a lot, I enjoyed the music, and it does hit a true spot with me, and probably with just about anyone out there. When times get tough, like during the "big fight", you have to make a choice. And that's where the cost benefit analysis comes in. It's not always "the hot sexy time" vs "the big fight" time, there are a lot more variables involved, but we've all been there. Is it worth sticking around? What should we do? Too bad we don't always have an audience to choose for us!

The show starts with the cast talking, and cuts to a video of an older band performance, which is the night they met, and there is a picture slideshow of the couple during their early part of their relationship. I really liked the concept, but this is the part of the show where I was confused. Particularly with the slideshow. At this point, I wasn't really sure that we were seeing a couple. Their early banter didn't make that clear enough for me, and the slides showed the two of them having fun, but most of the pictures could have been some good friends hanging out. Near the end of the slideshow, there is one picture of the couple kissing, but my general confusion about their relationship left me wondering if it was just the angle that made me think it was a kiss.

Once the video and picture part of the show was done, and the acting part of the show started with the "flashback" scenes, things became very clear. And this is the part I enjoyed the most. I felt like the use of media was clever, but could have been left out of this particular show. Like it would have fit in better somewhere else.

But that's it, the rest of the show was a lot of fun. There were lots of little one-liners that I loved:

Lady: "I'm going to sing you a song I wrote for you. Why don't you sing along?"

Guy: "Oh, I know this one? Ok, I'll play with you."

Just clever and subtle.

"Birds & Bees: A Cost Benefit Analysis" plays at the Broken Leg Stage, and they have two shows left, on Saturday at 1PM and 5:30PM. Not a great show for young kids due to language and a little sexual content. Check out their Rogue page here: http://roguefestival.com/rogue2011/?p=119

I went to see "Spamalot" last night

I was fortunate enough to get a pair of tickets to go see Spamalot at the Saroyan Theater in Fresno last night. I've never seen it before, but as a fan of Monty Python, and a huge fan of The Quest for the Holy Grail, I was stoked.

The night was a lot of fun. I was exhausted going into it (just a long week and a long day), so I was kind of worried I'd have trouble making it through the show. Fortunately, I was very wrong. Once the show started, I had no issues keeping focused. The songs were great, the story was great, and we had a great time.

Although based on the Monty Python "Holy Grail" movie, the show doesn't follow the movie exactly. I found that the first Act was more in line with the movie, and the second Act expanded on a different story for the play. Although if you've seen the movie, you know that it doesn't really have a "conclusion" in the typical sense, so this was great.

For the Monty Python fan, there were plenty of familiar scenes. Arguing with Dennis, arguing about whether a swallow could carry a coconut, the Black Knight, the Knights of Ni, the French castle to name a few.

Among the big changes from the movie to the play, I really enjoyed The Lady of the Water. Only mentioned in the movie, she had a prominent role in the play, and I really enjoyed her. A bit of a diva (even a song lamenting that she's been offstage too long), she guides our hero King Arthur on his quest for the Grail.

And finding the Grail? Of course they had to, you need some closure! And that's where some audience participation comes in. Not only did they "find" the Grail in the audience, the lady got to go on stage, be serenaded by the cast and had a quick polaroid snapped! And around this time there was plenty of one liners following the day's headlines (something about California's Father of the Year....Charlie Sheen!).

Overall, lots of great fun, if you get a chance to see it, you'll love the silly, irreverent humor (perhaps I should use 'humour'?) that we've all come to love from Monty Python!