Entertainment

When I was thinking last week about gift for the holidays and/or our upcoming 20th anniversary I started thinking about pearls for some reason. One thing led to another and the fact that I was looking at a pearl necklace online got me to thinking about the classic ZZ Top song by the same name and I just couldn’t stop laughing. At that point I just had to kind of lay off of the ‘window’ shopping (online) and go to work doing something else more constructive.

They are one of my favorite classic rock bands and they are still going strong, you just don’t hear about them quite as often as some of the others.

I was always a big fan of martial arts as I was growing up but more of an armchair fan than anything I suppose. I have always loved Seven Samurai and any other type of martial arts movies up to and including stuff with Chuck Norris and some of the other more recent stars like Jackie Chan. I even incorporated Oriental elements into role playing games I was involved in from the late 70’s up until about ten years ago. Even our guest bathroom is decorated in an Oriental motif.

Anyway, although my fascination is much more laid-back, my son took a much more direct approach. From the time he was six or seven he was very involved in martial arts. He took classes for several years, eventually distinguishing himself as a second degree black belt in Choi Kwan Do. It was interesting in that during boot camp most of the guys that had taken any martial arts prior to joining to service were asked to lay off a bit and not use any of their training. I guess it’s just not really possible when working with all of those guys to keep them seperated and perhaps develop what they already know into something else.

I thought that I had some pictures online of the Marine when he was 11 or 12 in his uniform but I can’t seem to lay my hands on any currently. Oh well, just means I need to start scanning all the old photos like I have been wanting to for quite some time.

My fascination with Oriental culture and martial arts doesn’t actually stop at the TV for me. I like all sorts of Japanese weapons and armor as well. I would love to get a hold of a Samurai sword like this one.

This is a Tachi Katana, traditionally forged and folded. It’s got a bigger curve than the katana and was generally used from horseback. The blade itself has a mirror polish finish that’s a beauty to look at. Most of the time a family crest is on the laquered saya . Swordmaking in the Orient was and remains an exceptionally arduous task and every sword holds it’s own personality unlike most of the European swords we are familiar with. One of the biggest differences is the hardening process. After the blade is forged and finished in it’s final basic shape it’s coated in a mixture of water, clay and ash along with whatever special ingredients the sword smith decides to use.

They apply the clay mixture over the surface of the sword, thcker along the spine. It acts as sort of an insulating during the cooling process, and the thicker part of the spine cools more slowly. After that they apply thin strips of clay over the surface of the blade. They also provide insulation during the quenching process and form small sections of softer material in the hardened edge.  It gives the blade the ability to prevent cracks in it under hard use and high pressure.

One of the things that the Marine did while he was at home this last time was to splurge and go out and purchase an Xbox 360. I have been meaning to move it downstairs and give it a try but just don’t seem to have the time to devote to any type of gaming lately. The xbox is pretty cool though. Apparently it works pretty well with Vista and I can broadcast multimedia from my PC to it from Windows Media Player. It looks like I might even be able to get BeyondTV to work with it as well as a client. That would be pretty cool since my Media Center is still down.

I don’t want to get too used to the new toy though since he will eventually be taking it with him. One thing I might do though is to load a couple of software mods onto his old xbox and start using that as my media center, at least in my bedroom. We need to move the big TV back down from the playroom into my room anyway.

This Post is Sponsored by PMbuzz.com

It’s interesting how many different social networking sites there are now. All but a few of them really seem more directed to gaining web traffic to your site rather than doing any type of actual social networking. One that I have come across recently is PMbuzz.com. PMBuzz is a social networking site for the New York City community. All of the content is user driven and includes photographs, blogs and other multimedia and gives a glimpse into some of the best things that New York City has available.

The site itself is still in Beta but like a lot of sites is an open beta that is more of a full release that will evolve and change. It’s funny how many sites call themselves beta at first, sort of like a cool buzz word.

The site itself is fairly attractive without being too flashy. Right on the front page there are listings for the most popular clubs as picked by the users, photographs, blogs and most importantly people. The site was created for the night life community, for the folks that are out late hanging at the clubs. It’s for the people that go there as well as the entertainers and DJs.

There are lists to sign up for to get notified of events at your favorite clubs so that you can make plans ahead of time, which is always a good thing and you can send messages to your friends on the service so that they will know when and where to meet you. MySpace does this sort of thing but it is so huge and spammy now, whereas something like PMBuzz allows you to be part of a much more local community of people with the same interests in the same area.

For those of you that aren”t aware, Savatage was the precursor of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

…is part of what I have been listening to today.

Now Playing: Savatage – Edge of Thorns – Labyrinths [Instrumental]

* Sponsored By http://www.sourcetix.com/

I don’t get to enjoy going to concerts quite as much as I used to but when I do I generally do the same thing that I do with movie tickets, order them online. When I was twenty camping out for days to get primo seats was great. I loved it. Now that I’m 40 I just don’t see it happening now. I much prefer the convenience of my own living room to get tickets.

SourceTix is an easy to navigate site to buy concert tickets online. I’ve been there once or twice and the setup has been redone somewhat recently (at least since the last time I stopped by to price tickets) and is quite attractive now. Of course I don’t go there to look at the site templates but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have an attractive setup.

I DO go to price/buy concert tickets. Right on the front page (currently) is a link to purchase tickets for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, one of my favorite bands no matter what time of year it is. Founded by members of Savatage the Trans-Siberian Orchestra takes heavy metal one step further into a classical/pop/metal mixture that will blow you way. They are going to be in Atlanta on November 8th and I would certainly like to go see them.

Along with concerts, SourceTix also provides tickets to sporting events as well as the theater. They also take their service very seriously, offering a guarantee that the tickets are authentic, they will be shipped to you prior to the show and that they will refund your money if the event is canceled and not rescheduled for another date. Some venders offer no guarantee at all. What you see is what you get. Head on over to SourceTix.com the next time you are looking for concert tickets.

Ronnie James Dio is one of the more powerful voices in Rock & Roll, specifically Heavy Metal.

I loved Dio with Rainbow (the origin of this song) as well as with Black Sabbath. His solo stuff is pretty good. His first album, Holy Diver, kicked serious ass and the second one was pretty good. Successive releases found me getting bored with him. Normally he would have a good song or two but all of the rest of his stuff sounded just like everything else he did. No evolution of his music at all.

Queensryche recorded one of the songs off of their last album with him and he did some shows with them as well, and it was pretty good. He didn’t perform The Chase with them when I saw the show in 2006, but it was still pretty good.