Again: Anthem!!!!

Wow, long time no writing. Work's got me pretty busy but the real thing is that I've been tinkering with tumblr and G+ for a time now. Anyhow, I've already made an Anthem post here, but I'm making a new one because my elven nakama asked (more like commanded me) to make one; and I know just what to do.

Recently I shared a video on G+ and he liked it, it was about a live performance these guys made in 2005, it was the 20th Anniversary Tour. I'm gonna post some videos while talking about the band... you know, for educational purposes.

This is the 1st song of the show, Onslaught, from their album Eternal Warrior (2004). It show the current line up which is Shibata "Ski" Naoto on bass, Sakamoto Eizo on vocals, Shimizu Akio on guitar and Homma Hirotsugu on drums. After this song they played 9 other, and then they went out with a bang, as if the show was over... But wait.. the DVD cover said there was still other 17 songs to be played.

After a couple of minutes Shibata came out. Regretfully I cannot speak Japanese so I have no clue what he says, but I have a feeling he-s talking about the band and it beginnings... So he start calling people to the stage, who? Well the original members of the band. They played classic Anthem songs, the songs they used to play when that line up was active. For this "stage"of the show I-ve chosen to show you a song called Victim in Your Eyes, form the Tightrope album that came up in 1986. The line up for this song is  Shibata "Ski" Naoto on bass, Sakamoto Eizo on vocals, Fukuda Hiroya on guitar and Ohuchi "Mad" Takamasa on drums.

The original line up released 3 albums and, in 1988, Sakamoto left the band and went to pursue his own proyect: Animetal, a band every anime & tokusatsu fan should listen to. Anyhow, they got Morikawa Yukio to replace Sakamoto and thus in the tour at this time Sakamoto left the stage and Morikawa joined the band and played some other song of his "era" with Anthem. This is Hunting Time, from the Hunting Time album (1989)

In 1990 Anthem dealt with another departure. Fukuda left the band and Nakama "Shadow Walker" Hideaki joined. This guy is hilarious by the way. This next song is from the album No Smoke Without Fire (1990), one of my favourite songs: Shadow Walk.

Nakama left the band after recording just that one album and the search for a new guitarist began. Good thing these guys found Shimizu Akio, perhaps the best guitar player the band have had, technically speaking of course. They released just one album though, Domestic Booty in 1992 and after this they disbanded. "Final" line up: Shibata "Ski" Naoto on bass, Morikawa Yukio on vocals, Shimizu Akio on guitar and Ohuchi "Mad" Takamasa on drums. This song is called Venom Strike.

The band took a rather long hiatus and then, on 2000, they were joined by the legendary Graham Bonnet and released an album, with him on vocals, that featured all the classics sung in English. Great stuff. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of them ever being in a live show, so I'll just leave 2 songs here: Gypsy Ways and Blinded Pain.

In 2001 original singer Sakamoto Eizo rejoined the band and Ohuchi Takamasa was replaced with Homma Hirotsugu. These were the guys we watched in the first video, so I'm not gonna post any more stuff about them, but I will recommend that you listed to songs like: Eternal Warrior, Rescue You, The Sign, Immortal Bind, Freak Out, Running Blood, DIM and I better stop before I name all of them. To close this up I will post 2 more videos, why? Because they are awesome. After the show was done they came back out... all 8 members and played 2 more songs. Here they are. Do You Understand, from No Smoke Without Fire, and Wild Anthem, from their very first album: Anthem.

I hope you've enjoyed this. No go back to the top and play the videos again and/or go get the albums. It's the power of Metal that compels you!

Carta Abierta al Señor Faitelson

Yo en mi blog usualmente escribo en Ingles. No es mi idioma nativo, pero se me da mejor escribir en Ingles que en Español; sin embargo este post requiere que escriba en MI idioma debido al tema a tratar.

Este lunes, el Señor David Faitelson, comentarista deportivo de la cadena de deportes ESPN, hizo un comentario en twitter referente a la Selección Nacional de Fútbol Venezolana. El escribió:

"No se si un equipo que jamás se haya dignado jugar una Copa Mundial merezca ganar una Copa América"

Esta carta tiene que ver con ese comentario. Voy a analizar 2 puntos desde una manera bastante objetiva y a exponer otro desde lo mas profundo de mi pasión vinotinto.

Primero Señor Faitelson dejemos algo en claro. Yo estoy muy consciente que el nivel de fútbol de la Selección Venezolana nunca ha sido el mas elevado en la confederación, pero eso no quiere decir que un equipo pequeño no pueda mejorar o dar sorpresas. ¿Recuerda cuando el Alcorcon venció por 4 goles al Real Madrid? ¿Cuando Grecia ganó la Eurocopa? Lo cual me lleva al primer punto que quiero analizar: ...un equipo que jamas se haya dignado a jugar una Copa Mundial... Que jamas se haya dignado, lease bien: que jamas se haya dignado! ¿No estamos siendo un poco severos acá Señor Faitelson? ¿Es decir que la selección solo va a las eliminatorias por cumplir?
Señor Faitelson la Selección Venezolana ha demostrado una gran mejora el los últimos años, se ha dejado todo en la cancha! Llegamos a Cuartos de final en la pasada Edicion de la Copa América y quedamos rankeados en 6to lugar por encima de Chile y Peru. Aca se pueden ver las estadísticas finales de la copa, por si no las tiene a la mano. Y como es que no se han dignado de jugar una Copa Mundial cuando para la copa del 2010 quedamos a solo 2 puntos de Uruguay en la tabla de clasificaciones; una Uruguay que fue a repechaje para luego quedar cuarto lugar en la Copa del Mundo cabe destacar. Aca puede verificar eso. ¿No se ha dignado en jugar una Copa Mundial? Me parece algo muy severo considerando como se ha comportado la Seleccion Venezolana en los ultimos tiempos; y cabe destacar Señor Faitelson que la CONMEBOL solo da 4 puestos y medio, y teniendo paises como Brasil, Argentina y Uruguay, que son practicamente participantes fijos, la clasificacion se le ve complicada, mas aun a equipos mas pequeños, pero que si han ido a Copas Mundiales, como Ecuador, Paraguay y Chile. ¿Entonces? ¿No nos hemos dignado? Repito mi pregunta, ¿No le parece muy severo decir eso?.

Lo que me lleva a exponer mi punto desde un el punto de vista de un fanático. Son ahora las 9:00am del dia jueves 21 aca en Venezuela y la derrota aun no la trago. ¿Por que? ¿Acaso no ganamos ante Ecuador y Chile con un juego al nivel del rival? No voy a decir que superior porque tampoco quiero sonar absurdo o fuera de sitio, pero no ha visto usted el nivel que han demostrado jugadores como Cichero, Vizcarrondo, Rincon, Vega (aunque a veces no inspire la mayor de las confianzas). ¿No se da cuenta que jugadores con experiencia, como Arango y Maldonado, si bien no fueron del todo decisivos, llevaron con experiencia adelante al equipo?.
Veamos a otros equipos:
- Mejico, solo anotó un gol y perdieron los tres partidos.
- Argentina, a pesar de ser local, solo ganó un partido.
- Brasil fallo 3 de los 4 penales que pateo.
- Paraguay jugara la final sin ganar ningún partido.
¿Aun cree usted que Venezuela no merece la Copa? A ver, yo no digo que ha sido el mejor equipo de la copa, tampoco digo que debió haberla ganado. Pero de haberla ganado, ¿no cree usted que es una justa recompensa? Incluso si el caso fuese que lo demas equipos se volvieron todos malos de la noche a la mañana y termina siendo Venezuela uno de los que tiene mejor nivel ¿acaso no tiene merito el mantener su nivel a pesar de que todos los demás se han vuelto mediocres? ¿Se merece Paraguay pasar a la final sin haber ganado un solo partido? ¿Usted vio el juego? ¿Vio como Venezuela jugo tan bien como Paraguay? ¿Vio que de momentos dominaba el partido? ¿Vio que pego 2 palos? ¿Que llego mas a puerta? ¿Que de hecho encajo un gol que fue anulado (bien anulado cabe destacar)? ¿Que termino Paraguay con uno menos y con el DT y su asistente echados fuera? ¿Eso si es un posible campeón? ¿Un equipo con 5 juegos y 5 empates si se lo merece solo por haber jugado la Copa del Mundo?

Volviendo al tema original de esta carta, y al segundo punto el cual mencione antes... Escuche el martes una discusión que usted sostuvo con el Señor Richard Méndez en donde este le reclamaba por su comentario. De entrada le digo que no estoy de acuerdo con la forma en como el Señor Méndez lo abordo, pero usted dijo algo que me llamo la atención. Usted expresó, palabras mas, palabras menos, que la gente había mal interpretado su comentario y que lo que usted había querido decir era otra cosa. ¿Que cosa? Asombro que las semifinales de esta edición de la Copa tienen ausencias como Brasil y Argentina y que esta Copa tiene un nivel atípico. Señor Faitelson, si eso era lo que usted quería expresar ¿por que no dijo eso y ya? ¿Por que tenia que decir "No se si un equipo que jamás se haya dignado jugar una Copa Mundial merezca ganar una Copa América"?. Se me ocurren 2 razones:
1.- Usted es una persona que realmente considera a Venezuela un equipo mediocre y al verse rodeado de tanta polémica decidió retractarse.
2.- Usted realmente quería expresar otra cosa y no dejar por bajo la Selección de Venezuela.

Si el caso es el primero pues creo que se merece el odio de todos los que decidieron odiarlo, pues no puede esperar que una acción ocurra sin reacción alguna, y esta en usted ver como asumirá las consecuencias de sus acciones; porque una cosa es pensar algo, todos tenemos libertad de expresión, y una cosa muy distinta es ponerla en twitter. Al ponerla en twitter debe entender que a alguien hara enfadar. Pero ese no es el problema, el problema es si el caso es el segundo! Pues es algo bastante mas grave y le sugiero, de buena gana y a manera de consejo que una persona le da a un amigo, que tenga mas cuidado con lo que escribe, pues si el caso es que usted no se sabe expresar bien, yo podría comentar cosas como la siguiente:

"No se si un periodista que no se digne en expresarse bien merezca trabajar para una cadena tan importante como ESPN"

No tome esto como un insulto, mi intencion no es esa; primero no es de caballeros, segundo no gano nada con ello y tercero mi intencion no es crear polemica. Tomelo como una muestra de lo que la gente podria opinar tomando en cuenta su argumento de "Lo que quise decir fue..."; y tome el resto de esta carta como una manera de ver, con otros ojos y de una posicion distinta, lo que su comentario significo para muchos venezolanos.

Para terminar me despido como lo haria una persona a quien admiro mucho: Buenas noches a todos!

Yesterday...

... I found out several tings.

1.- That movie will always rock no matter how many times I see it.
2.- I was right, we should have watched that.
3.- I'm more scared than what I thought.
4.- I'm not the only one who thinks you should shut the fuck up and listen.
5.- You rock harder that I thought.
6.- Honey was right.
7.- It's true that the things you regret the most it's what you didn't do.

Great Advice

I've written a couple of posts like this before, but this is named different for a reason.
There's this girl I met some time ago. She was always at one of my friend birthday parties or something like that. I never really got in touch with her or anything, but then, that same friend, brought her home one night to play RPGs with us and I got to know her better. Turns out that she is one of the most wonderful human beings I've ever met, and I grew very fond of her.

I have not seen her for a year now, I don't know why because it's not like we live in different towns or something, but last Xmast I was feeling really bad. One day (new year's eve I think) I came down from room made some 3 or 4 tweets because I really needed to let out some steam and she wrote like 5 minutes later. We had a talk and she gave me the best advice I've gotten in my life, she said "give yourself a break". I don't think she has any idea how much that meant to me, specially coming from her. I mean, she's not my closest friend, she's not the one I hang with all the time, but she seems to care more than most people that see me on a daily basis.

It's a bit ironic that me being so good with word find it so hard to talk about this kind of stuff face to face, or even on the phone. I guess I don't like being exposed much, but this right here is my way of saying thank you. Thank you for saving me from myself, because who knows what might have happened is you hadn't told me that. Thank you for being there Freckles.

That Pisses me Off, Part XIII

Hello children, it's been some time since I last wrote one of this post, but the thing is that I've been trying to live a more tolerant life. Well no, not more tolerant, but more "complain free". But there is this thing that's been bothering me for a while, and I've tried to leave it alone - believe me - but I can't hold it anymore. Twilight really really pisses me off.

Why?

Because Vampires monsters dammed by God to not see the light of the day, to draw nourishment only from blood and to live forever, to see the world change and not being able to really change themselves, to watch everything and everyone they love die and crumble to dust. These are the children of the night, but not emo or goth like, no no... Real spawns of darkness because, unlike emos and goths, they WERE cast out from the light! Vampires are the stuff of nightmare, like Dracula or Orlok (whom is pretty much Dracula himself) not EMPTY, PLASTIC, SPARKLY AND STUPID SEX SYMBOLS!!

nuff said.

Disappointment

I am disappointed at many things in life, but as Dross Rotzank said in his most recent video this is a generation where style is more valuable that actual worth, and that is what this post is about. People would rather see a movie with neat special effects than a good movie, let me set an example with 2 movies of the same trilogy: The Matrix.

In the first film we have an awesome sci-fi/action movie with a nice cast of characters, the action sequences are very good, direction was good, plot and theme were both deep and well written and on top of all that we have state of the art technology when it came to special effects. I'm talking about shit that was never seen before. Then you have Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. At the time I enjoyed the movies, and I still do, but you have to take into consideration that of the elements mentioned before only the cast remains, and that is a case of debate because as the trilogy developed it drifted away from character development and went straight for the action sequences. And while I really enjoy one or two scenes, most of them are just plain tacky... like the fight of Neo vs a gazillion Smiths. And there a people that say that Revolutions and Reloaded are far better movies than the first. Why? Style is more valuable that actual worth.

This is true. I'm not making this up. I've been a target of this mediocre way of thinking that people assume more and more everyday. I've found myself bringing movies that are actual masterworks (not because I say so, but because people that know more about the art than I do, people that could appreciate a movie way better than what I can, people that went to school for that agree with me) to a friend's house and, when the time to select what movie should we watch, my options have been rejected EVERY TIME. I'd be ok with that if instead of watching a good movie we'd watch a GREAT movie... but no. Style over actual worth people, so they (not me, never me) went for Alvin and the Chipmunks.

You know what? I've been wrong about God all this time... That Alvin and the Chipmunks thing right there is proof of God's existence and the fact that he finds it really amusing to piss me off.

Style over actual worth people. That is why now we have bands that make crappy songs and it's ok as long as they look good, and it's not just in the music that I like, metal have the least problems I think. Look at pop or Hip Hop. Movies... Well, just take Terminator for example, 2 great movies (84 and 91) then that blasphemous piece of crap that came out in 2003 and, while I think it's a good movie, Terminator Salvation is nowhere near the first two. In these days a horror movie is about make a monster look as fake as a 3 dollar bill using a computer and then make it appear all of the sudden out of nowhere. Back in the day where actual worth was still valuable we had movies like The Shining, The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. You know that the condensed breath in the scenes where people is inside the little kid's room is real, right? They didn't have the technology to add it up using computers... THAT'S awesome, not some fake looking monsters like we see in Resident Evil.

What the fuck is wrong with brains? It's as if they're getting smaller every passing day. I'm not saying go to your local video store, rent all the copies of Alvin and the Chipmunks and burn them, no. If you like that movie cool! My favorite movie of all times is the Lion King (Scar, Mufasa, Timon and Pumba are 4 of THE best characters ever! And it's Hamlet for kids), but one thing is liking one movie and another thing is saying "Matrix Revolutions is the best of the trilogy", that's just style over actual worth.

If you are one of the rare people that think like me, there here are a couple of movies I recommend: Old Boy (2003 Korean film), The Crow (1994), Blade Runner (1982), Event Horizon (1997), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Equilibrium (2002), Princes Mononoke (Original title: Mononoke-Hime, 1997 Japanese Animation), Spirited Away (Orinial title: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001 Japanese animation), Akira (1988 Japanese animation) and Grave of the Fireflies (Orinial title: Hotaru no Haka, 1988 Japanse animation) to name a few.

Well, that's all for today. Hope you all like what I wrote, if you did please comment and if you didn't please leave your comment too. this is not a dictatorship and you're entitled to your opinion. Keep on rocking.

Annoying

I really dislike it when my mother makes someone else's deal HER deal. Lemme explain.

For those who don't know I suffer from allergies to the most common things. It's not a serious thing, but it can get ugly from time to time. One of the things that causes my allergies it's actually the damn AC, which works on the entire house. When I'm cold my nose just doesn't work, I start sneezing and and can't breathe well... It's shitty actually, sometimes I can't sleep at all.

So today I woke up at 4am or so with a damn allergy attack, I just couldn't sleep, so at about 5am I got up and went to make breakfast. My mom found me in the kitchen and asked me what was I doing up so early. I told her. She asked me why didn't I turn the AC off, like I said before, if I turn it off I'd be turning it off for everyone, not just for me and I have done so in the past; every time my father said "If you're cold don't turn the AC off or else I'll get hot". He even said that the time I had a fever and was really cold. I felt terrible, so I turned off, and that it's the kind of response I got.

Well me being, like we say here in my country, "un macho cavernario, legionario y polla gorda", which means more or less a pretty hardcore guy, I can take it. I endure silently. But when I told my mom that today she said "You're so annoying".... Me?! Why? You're the one that asked, I'm wasn't saying shit nor was I gonna say shit... My plan was to endure silently as usual but you poked your nose in the matter. If anyone's annoying YOU'RE IT, barging into other people business all the time, so fuck you.

Hey, here's a bit of advice; you don't like being annoyed? Then step off everyone's neck lady! And if you're not gonna step off then be silent when you get annoyed because you brought it upon yourself.

Bog Hag

You might not know this, but I'm into Role Playing Games.
It all began in 2001 when I went to a tournament to play for the first time. I ended up going to a place near home to play with this dude that taught me everything he knew. Some say I'm a better game master than him, I don't think so but that is not the point. The point is that there is one game in particular that I like to play: The Legend of the Five Rings. It's based on The Book of Five Ring by Miyamoto Musashi, and it has a feudal Japanese setting.
I've been running games of L5R for some 5 years, maybe 6, and there is this creature that I really like: the Bog Hag. This creature, this hag, lives in bogs and swamps, hence the name, and it makes Count Orlok looks like the most beautiful creature alive. "Why dude?", "Why do you like this Bog Hag so much" you ask? Because of what it does.

The Bog Hag kills it's prey and then very carefully removes the skin from the corpse. Why? So it can wear it. It then goes into human civilization "dressed" as it's prey. Let's say it kills a maid, it goes and serves the maid's master, then one night silently kills the master and wear his skin from then on. Later meets with it's second prey's Lord, a member of the samurai caste, and now it has a samurai skin and so on and so forth and next thing you know you have an impostor as the governor of a city. When you deal with a Bog Hag you can't trust anyone because you don't know for sure who the hag really is or whose skin it is wearing. You can run a very interesting game full of intrigue with an adversary like that.

As you all can see this is not useful information, this is not a complain, this is not the story of the time I used a Bog Hag on one of my games. Why am I telling you all this? I know one, oh yes I do.

I Can't Believe It

I just posted how I wanted this year to be different from the last one, but it is too much to ask apparently.
First day of the year and I already got pissed, first day of the year and the lack of respect in this fucking house has managed it's most fucked up maneuver yet! Why? Why does it has to be like this? Why? What have I done wrong? I don't expect to be swimming in a pool of money with girls begging to be with me and the world at my feet, I just want to be left alone. That's it, plain and simple. But it would seem that it is too much to ask to be respected, it's too much too ask to be taken into consideration, it is too much to ask to be treated right and fairly; because if destiny is already written the the one that took care of mine wrote it with one hand and with the other he masturbated furiously while thinking about dead babies!!
Well if you're not gonna respect me then you will fear me, if you're not gonna take me into consideration then to me you're shit and if you're not gonna treat me right and fairly then I will treat you exactly for what you are: SHIT!!!

New Year

2010 literally sucked for me, there is not one single good thing to talk about. Not one!
I just hope 2011 be a very awesome year for everybody, full of nice beautiful moments and accomplished goals. For me? I just want 2011 to go easy on me, I don't ask for much.

Truly yours:
Heavy Metal Guaji