Oh Deer! It's Hanukkah!

Wow, it’s already Hanukkah, and December just started!  Usually we jews have to battle with the rest of Christmahanukwanzika for gift giving, and national media attention.  This year, it seems we practically have to compete with Turkeys instead.  While I generally am not crazy about holidays, Hanukkah is special to me, as I was born on Hanukkah, and thus named after it.  ”Ori” means “My Light” (or “My Skin” / “My Leather” if you misspell it, with an Ay’in instead of an Alef– perfect for going to a fetish party?) in Hebrew.

No gifts this year, since I’m in Costa Rica.  No Jelly Donuts, no Potato Pancakes. But, I did get to speak to my parents with Skype, and I do have internet access, so I can find and share awesome songs like this with you!  So… Enjoy the holidays!

The Gangsta-Rap Hanukkah

Rock-N-Roll Hanukkah

The difference between Hanukkah and Christmas

Traditional Hanukkah Songs

Apple thinks you are a tool

Apple is the king of marketing and creating hype.  Their technology has changed the world.  Their style has made technology simple, and pretty.  And now, they think that we are all fools. Me personally, I am waiting for the youtube itunes video of the person who came up with this latest scheme getting executed by firing squad.

Yesterday had all the tech sites wondering what Apple will announce today, as their home page announced with poor grammar that “Tomorrow is just another day.  That you’ll never forget.”  I gotta admit, with all that they’ve done, I too was curious what their announcement will  be.  What will they have people lining up around the block for this time?

Apparently, all the hype was to announce that the Beatles are now on iTunes.  Seriously?  That’s it?  That is worth shutting down the Apple home page for?

For those who were not aware of it, all the Beatles albums have been available for sale at your local record shop for decades.

The entire discography (the whole collection) AND a bunch of rare stuff that you can’t even buy have been floating around the web for ages, and for free, on Torrent Sites, so it’s not like you couldn’t get mp3s of your favorite Beatles song.  In fact, those sites have their content in higher quality than iTunes does.

There was this one site called Oink.Me.Uk – which got shut down (and in January of this year, the owner of the site was declared not guilty), because all the record companies attacked it.  Why were they so afraid of that site? Because the quality was way better than their offerings.  The selection was way better than theirs as well.  Oink had really high standards.  It got the collectors to encode and share their private stash at high quality.

If you’re a huge Beatles fan, and you want the collection, then buy the CD and encode it to FLAC – a lossless compression.  Get Vinyl, now that has a rich sound!  Even play it on CDs… fine.  Whatever.  But, don’t spend your hard earned money on iTunes!  At least if you buy the CDs you have a pretty box!  You have something to show!  With iTunes you have a medium quality mp3…. that’s locked to your computer!  So… you can’t even buy this as a gift!

Yeah… here’s a story for you! This girl took me on a date to this concert, and the next day bought a song on iTunes (Stolen, by Dashboard Confessional) just to send to me (awwwww)…. except that I couldn’t play the damn thing ’cause she bought it on her computer.  Can you imagine how that feels?  To buy someone a present, and they aren’t allowed to open it?  Well…. that’s called DRM – Digital Rights Management- I wrote about DRM and what you can do about it.

I respect an artist’s right to make money.  But guess what?  Most of them don’t!  The reason is not because of people downloading… it’s because the record labels hardly pay them anything.  They make their money on touring, tshirt sales, that kind of stuff… not off of record sales.

This (NOT safe for work / kids — language) hilarious animation came out when Metalica was bashing people for downloading their stuff at the time when Napster came out.  Napster is now another tool for buying music… but back in the day, it was like Limewire– a tool for finding and sharing files.  P2P (Peer to peer) sharing — which is what Torrent Sites are these days.  These tools have many legitimate uses by the way.

So… Yes, I think it is pathetic that Apple fans will wait in line for 12 hours to buy a $600 phone that’s going to be replaced next year… or break the 1st time they drop it.  Actually…. what I have to say about it can’t explain it any better than this incredible video:

Yeah!  That’s right!

So…. Apple, thanks for making the iPod.  It’s really rad!  I appreciate having a stylish player to carry my content with me where ever I go.  I think it’s great that you buy up every 5th billboard in every major city to show people holding ipads.  But damn dudes, why blow your wad on announcing that you have a few more tunes on your music store?  I hope this is a giant flop.  I think it’s insulting, showing how the whole world talks about anything that Apple does, even if it’s something so trivial.

And for the record… my iPod Touch was acting up this morning, completely ruining my jog!  Thankfully the people from Brooks set up small pavilions on the trail, and had people do 1 minute challenges for prizes.  I just wanted to see what it was about, so I tried to eat a spoonful of cinnamon in 1 minute.  That’s harder than it sounds!  That cheered me up

So… yes, I was pre-bitter about Apple before I even saw their misuse of brand power.

Alyx found an embarassing old VHS tape of Scott dancing, and asked me to convert it to digital. I said that I would, and that I would post it when it was least expected. A year later, I gave Skizzy the VHS back. He said “Couldn’t convert it, eh?” I replied “It’s difficult to find a VHS player, let alone one that converts to digital.” – but I never said that I didn’t get it converted. Almost a year after returning the tape, here’s the video, posted online, after it’s been long forgotten:

If we’re not careful, all our analog memories shall fade.  It’s fairly simple to get your VHS tapes, 8mm films, slides, and photos converted to digital, so that you can humiliate yourself and your friends and family… er… so you can share and relive those precious memories.

Why not go find your own faded memories, and put them online, tagging all the participants  You’ll brighten not only their day, but also all that they are socially connected with.

More importantly though, always keep your word.  This was one of the more difficult things  I’ve had to do– to have this video, and actually wait until it was forgotten about.  But, damn, I feel GREAT posting this.  Many people got a smile today.  Check out some of these comments!  Leave your comment below, and make sure to like / share this.

Me with Adrianne Gonzalez and Kyler England of The Rescues - <3

Writing a book doesn’t have that much to do with writing a book.  It’s been more about organizing information, filtering through it, and learning about the publishing and self publishing industries.  So far, that’s the case.  I had a friend come into town, and she wanted to catch some live music on Friday.  I thought I’d be suave, and make happen what I had happen with my friend Joanna, while I was couchsurfing with John and Julia (whom I met at Burning Man)— we took out some ocean Kayaks, food, and booze, and saw Crosby Stills and Nash over at Humphreys.

Humphreys however had no one playing on Friday, which I found odd, ’cause they usually have quite the lineup .  I don’t mean to be spoiled… but watching a concert by Kayak is more fun than just going to a show.  I like things to be new and exciting, or at least unique. I don’t know any of the San Diego performance spaces, nor do I know who’s playing.  Sure… there’s Google for that, but Google can land you in an outletless coffee bar with no internet (such as Living Room in La Jolla). So, we just went for some good Mexican food.

The next night however I was as giddy as a little girl at a Justin Bieber concert!  I saw Kyler England post on Facebook that she’s recovering from a midnight milkshake, and that the band is on their way to San Diego for the last show of their tour

The band is “The Rescues”.  I’m a huge fan!  They are 4 members in size, and every single one of them has really strong lead vocals skills. They keep switching off on who sings, and they keep changing instruments.

lI found them on TheSixtyOne.com — Click here to go to the The Rescues TheSixtyOne page – and instantly got them stuck in my head.  With each new song they uploaded, I liked them more.  I never actually read their bio until the other night.  Apparently, they’re hot shit!  They’re already being featured on all these popular tv shows, going to the Grammys, etc… You can read it on TheRescues.com.

Anyways… I instantly messaged Kyler (who’s one of the band members, and has such mesmerizing vocals) to get the details on the show.  I didn’t wait for a reply.  I went to their website, checked out shows, and saw that there was one that night at The House of Blues in San Diego.

Grrrr!  Frustration set in!  I’m generally very technically capable, but I was not able to figure out how much tickets cost, or how to get them.  Maybe they sold out!  That would suck… ’cause I really like them, and I never actually thought I’d get to see them live. Here was the chance for that.

Kyler replied that the show was at 8:30, and is a free show!

I was back to giddy!  I get surprised by one of my favorite bands coming to town, and it’s a free show!  It must be all that good Karma or something!

I messaged her to see if I can bring my camera.  I don’t know what the House of Blues’ photo policies are, but I suspected they may be strict.

We left Moffatt’s place shortly after to try and catch Happy Hour.  No problem with the camera as we sat by the bar and feasted.

Personally, my skills at recognizing people in public are fairly horrible.  I nudged my friend (whom I had shown the picture of the band before we left, as I was letting her hear their music), and said “Is that them?  I think it is, but I can’t quite tell!”  I pointed to the big table in the back.

“That’s totally them!”

“Ok… I’m gonna go and say hi, and see if I can take pictures. What do you think is appropriate? Maybe I’ll say ‘Oh my God! *squeal* The Rescues! I can’t believe it’s really you!’”

“Umm… sure.. whatever works for you.”

My friend was slightly mortified as she heard across the restaurant *Squeal* “Oh my god! The Rescues???”

Rob Giles frowned, “No… We’re ‘The Cured’”

“Oh crap! This is the 3rd table I’ve tried!”

Kyler wasn’t at the table, so I explained briefly to the rest of the band that I’m here to see them, am a big fan, and that I’m a pro photographer, have shot Avenged Sevenfold, Wycleff, Rob Zombie, etc… and would love to shoot them if they don’t mind.  They agreed that it’s fine.

I didn’t stick around longer than a minute or two.  I figure if you’re famous, and just chilling out at a table before the show (as compared to signing autographs afterwards), you probably want your privacy/space respected.

The show started, and Garrisson Starr was opening.  Kyler had told me that she was good, so I packed up from the bar, and went to the restaurant stage.  The other show that was a paid show was “The Cured” – a Cure cover band. No offense, but being a full-time cover band just seems like being stuck in artist-hell.  Having to perform over and over on someone else’s work.  *shiver*

The Cure already had their chance last millenium, I was going to see a fresh new band with a much wider vocal diversity (although, I am a fan of The Cure… I lost my Virginity to The Cure, “Just Like Heaven” (and whatever songs followed)).

I didn’t want to get in people’s way, and there were no tables open.  I stood behind the guy at the Mixer, and started taking pictures.

“Who are you with?”

“Ummm… The Rescues. The band that’s going on next.  They granted me photography permissions.”

“Well, that’s nice that they did, but House of Blues didn’t! You can’t shoot in here unless you have all the clearance.”

The guy running the mixer was pudgy, had long wirey hair, and a face that reminded me of Chris Farley.  I kept wanting to call him Chris, and expected him to huff, bring his arms up, and then flex them in front of himself while yelling… sort of like in Black Sheep.

Rather than bore you with a word by word recall of our conversation, I’ll summarize. I asked whom I would speak to to get the proper paperwork, and Chris (I never got his name, so I’m calling him Chris) said that he’s the person, but he’s busy running the boards.  I told him that I’m “just a blogger, going around crashing on people’s couches and looking for cool things to photograph.”  He explained that even if I got the contracts done, the contracts state that I can’t do anything with the pictures… not even post them online.

Let me take a step back here, and explain one small detail: Everyone had their cameras out!  Maybe 1/4 of the audience was taking photos on their point and clicks, and their cell phones.  That’s why I was getting upset.

I mentioned to Chris that everyone’s shooting, and he explained that you can’t stop point and clicks, and what happened was that people would post pics on the internet, and the House of Blues’ clients would sometimes be shown in circumstances they wouldn’t want to be in (Smoking weed? Snorting coke? Screwing on the table? It’s a fucking restaurant, and is lit… what is someone going to do that’s so horrific?), and then House of Blues had trouble, so they just canned Photography all together…. with Professional cameras.

I don’t get it!  At all!  What’s the difference between a pro camera and a point and click?  Both can take photos of a House of Blues client snorting crack off a hooker’s ass mid-show!  My 70-200mm lens at least can zoom in close enough to where I only shoot the band, and NOT the fiends that House of Blues clearly attracts.  Chris’s logic was not making any sense to me. He even refused to let me get portraits of the band… i.e. I zoom in, and get nothing but their faces.  No.

“Well, I guess I’ll just put this away then.” I took my camera, and went to look for my friend, who had gone to the bathroom.  I explained the dealio, and found out two seats against the back wall.

“You know I’m going to take photos, right?” I can’t help it! Since I was live-Tweeting/Facebooking what was going on (You know… being mature, calling them “House of Blows” and stuff like that), someone said “can’t you just enjoy the music?”  My response was:

“no… I couldn’t JUST enjoy the music… not while I had my whole backpack of camera gear…. It’s like bringing a tennis ball outside with your dog (that loves to play fetch, and is jumping backwards on 2 legs ready to play fetch), and then not doing anything with it… not one throw… the dog will be quite unhappy! I’m a photographer…. … See Morenot only professionally, but instictually. I have to shoot. It’s my nature, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that I appreciate. I try to capture it. Kyler England is so beautiful, and her voice lifts me away to another place….. the entire band is super-talented, all 4 of them with a mastery of voice and every instrument, and together, it’s magic… so not being able to shoot that, while I have all my gear with me… straight up torture…” — but that response was after the show, when I got home and checked FB.

My friend agreed that if I get kicked out, she’d take my bag with her upon leaving.

I saw Kyler, and told her what’s up “What? Our tour manager was told to tell House o Blues that you had permission.  Well… shoot anyways, Guerilla style!”  — as if I didn’t think she was awesome before

My plan was to shoot from the back of the room, and as they announce that there’s only a few songs left, I’d get closer to the stage, and shoot more.  I was going to shoot behind Chris’s back.

Things got easier.  Chris left the room, and some skinny tall dude took over.  I was shooting more, but not as inconspicuously.

After a few seconds, I got bored of shooting from the back of the room.  I wanted Depth of Field!  I wanted portraits!  This was not good enough… if I get kicked out, so be it!

The restaurant was actually adjacent to the bar area…. there were no doors between the two, just archways you could enter through.  There were red felt curtains that could close up, but were actually bunched in the open position.

I started shooting from behind them, but I could only get good shots of half the band– despite that they were better shots than from the back of the room.  I went back to the back.

Over the next 20 minutes, I kept shuffling around… getting closer and closer.  Finally I just said fuck it, and went immediately behind the guy at the mixer. NOW I was getting good shots.

As the evening progressed I got closer and closer, to the point where I was leaning against the stage, and shooting…. i.e. I had the absolute best seats in the house, and no one was doing anything about my shooting.

“Act like you’re supposed to be there, and people will think you’re supposed to be there!” — This philosophy has worked many times in the past.

Chris walked right past me as I was on the floor, front and center.  He didn’t notice me, and I scurried back to the back of the room.  I took out the 32GB memory card that had all the pics, put it in my pocket, and put a smaller 8GB card in the camera… just in case I get busted and they try to wipe my card.

Chris left, and I finished up the show.

The lighting was dim, and I couldn’t use a flash, so as not to piss off the band members or the audience.  My lenses are F2.8 at worse (‘cept my 180mm, which is an F3.5), meaning they let in a decent amount of light, and at a high ISO, can shoot in the dark just fine.

I walked out of there pleased. I got to watch a show that I really wanted to catch, and I got the pics that I wanted… despite being forbidden to…. which made it that much more rewarding.

When Kyler found out that I swapped out cards, she laughed and said “This isn’t your first rodeo, eh?”

I’m thrilled to say that The Rescues were incredible live.  I’ve been to some shows where the band just did not sound as good as the studio (Counting Crows 1997- I’m guessing they had too much pot and pain killers… everything was 1/4 tempo), but The Rescues did not disappoint!  It was great to see which ones of them produced which voices, and which ones played which instruments.

They had all switched up all through the show, and sometimes teamed up on the drums.

Here are the Forbidden 96 for your enjoyment (punchline afterwards)

All that, and I still didn’t get a single audience member doing a single illicit thing!!!!

Since I do know a bunch of them, I am at least aware of what I am ingesting, and my environment… So, when I got back from a 3 week road trip, where my diet consisted mostly of Taco Bell, coffee, and other things you can get near the freeway, I was in a mental funk. I did not know what was up, but I highly suspected that the lack of exercise, not taking my various vitamins and minerals, and the consumption of fried crap had a lot to do with it. Within about 3 days of getting back and eating raw food (from the Whole Foods downtown), and taking various minerals again, I was back to myself again.

My normal self can take some rough news pretty easily. But when I’m in a funk, I get shaken pretty easily. My relationships and conversations were even affected, and also affected in a major way was my productivity!

I decided that this would be a great time to join my friends in a cleanse. They were already going to start any day, so why not be in on it too? I had already had a few days of mostly juice and raw food. So, I ordered the kit from Blessed Herbs. Here’s the exact one I got, and I can’t tell you what the experience has been, as I’m only in day #2.  It comes with a colon cleansing kit as well, which is what we’re doing for the 1st step.  That’s an 8-day process.  Basically, I’m on a mostly liquid diet, and am taking these packets, in organic apple juice, then at night, a bowel stimulator…. They want you to have bowel movements every day.  I’m also drinking a ton of water daily now.

I know.. you didn’t come here to read about my bowel movements, but I did title this “Colon Cleansing and stuff” – so, you can’t say you weren’t warned.  Just know that the colon and digestive system are the first to be cleansed, otherwise, you’re introducing the same toxins that are stored there right back into the body. The kit ac

OTHER THAN THAT…. I’m house sitting for Ceci, though I’m writing this from Craig’s house because I wanted to catch up with him, and he’s an expert on this health stuff…. also, he’s a CNR practitioner, so will do some energy work with me.

I tried jogging yesterday in Vibram 5 Finger shoes… they’re shoes that look like gloves.  I’ve never tried a pair, and Craig has an older pair that was slightly torn up.  I tried them on, and went straight into a jog.  About 2 blocks into it, my big toe poked through a hole in the Vibram, scuffed the ground, and the next thing I know I”m rolling around on the ground.  I have a 1/2″ hole in the palm of my hand, both my big toes are scuffed, and some road rash on my left elbow.

Here’s the funny thing that made me smile today.  I called my parents and wished them a good day of trading (they’re day traders), then told them what’s new (They don’t read my blog– otherwise Mom would’ve known we were coming to surprise her for mother’s day), and I included my fall and wounds.  Where previously mom would freak out about all these things, she said “Well, you’re used to getting banged up ”  Wow!  They finally get it!  That makes me happy.

I’m also learning a lot about communications.  I’m used to communicating with people… and thought I was good at it.  My friend Elizabeth PW has told me for a while about this one test, the 5 love languages. While there’s a free test on that site that gives you the gist of it, there’s actually a full test in the book… she gave me the test, and analyzed my results.  The thing is that there’s different ways that people feel loved.  This has been a matter of confusion for me lately, and maybe some of you have had to deal with this.  The issue I notice is that one person doesn’t feel liked, and the other person feels that no matter what they do, the other person doesn’t really appreciate it.

Here’s the thing… different people feel love (or appreciation) differently.  For me, it’s Physical (hugs, hair playing, sex, high fives), Quality time (time that it’s just the 2 of us, and we’re paying attention to each other), and words of affirmation (being thanked, or told you’re liked, or that you’re sexy).  I don’t really care about “Stuff” or having stuff done for me…. I’m very used to doing it all myself.  I buy what I need.  I use what’s around.  However… other people do care about these things.  So, this girl that doesn’t want to be named —

That’s another thing that I’m dealing with… I won’t quite say dating (I’ve discovered that labels cause more damage than they’re worth, but I spend a lot of daily time thinking about her) but let’s say spending a lot of time with… and she doesn’t want her life published. It’s understandable, but she knows me as Couch Surfing Ori, the blogger/photographer/adventurer/jokester (and even part sweetheart… shhh)…. so, that’s part of why I haven’t blogged. A lot of the things I learn or deal with are related to this.

Anyways, we have quality time in common on that love languages thing.  But one of hers for example is acts of service…. so  for example, helping her clean, noticing she’s low on something, so picking some up without being asked, or just giving a massage.  Where as, I like a massage for the physical aspect, she likes it for the service aspect as well… according to that test anyways. I kind of noticed these things before I had her take the test, but I’m sure I thought of it because Elizabeth had told me about the test.  It was a feeling of frustration that made me finally take the test.  Actually, that’s only part true.  It was a feeling of productivity… I had started on this Chocolate Bliss stuff – it’s a superfoods based drink that’s kind of a meal replacement. In fact, I’m using it for most of my meals during the next 30 days, as I do the cleanse.  This stuff practically gets you high!  I had  a few glasses of it, some raw food, and I was more productive than I even get when I am given adderall or massive quantities of caffeine.  I just broke things into small steps, and checked them off one at a time.  One was taking that test.  I wrote it, I did it, I sent it.

Anyways- speaking of productivity, I gotta get back to it!

One last thing that I wanted to share… I’m listening to the radio from Israel right now.  Part of who I am is someone from Israel.  I was there till my 9th birthday (flew to the USA ON my birthday), and I still have pdreams about my old neighborhood, etc… I’m not very in touch with my Israeli side, but I do love the music.  So, if you want to check out some of the music from there, here’s a neat site that has a lot of the radio stations from there.  Just so you know, there’s a lot of American Music as well… they’re still huge into David Bowie, The Cure, etc… and there’s a lot of music that’s played in Europe, and Asia… so… if you’re sick of overplayed music, want to hear some of what I grew up on (they still play a lot of oldies), or just want to check something new out– check http://www.fromil.com/radio/index.php?radio=4 – a small note:  It’s currently set to GalGalatz – when I grew up in Israel, Galey Zahal (Zahal is the Israeli army, and Galey, means Waves of… so… Israeli Army on the Airwaves) — which was news on the hour, talk radio, and the occasional music… but now there are many more radio stations… so Galgalatz is the music station that’s broadcast by Zahal…. Galgal means “Wheel” so this is kind of a play on words….  Anyways, that’s just some miscelania-

Have a (good) adventurous day!

I had the roach suit…. had a guitar…. I couldn’t sing or play the guitar… but that’s all right.

Despite being completely mortified, and having my brain yell at me at how people will laugh at me, how this is going on the internet – thus can’t be removed if it’s that awfu…. you know, standard brain stuff.  But, I was able to say “Shut up, I’m doing this!”

I keep telling people that if they are petrified of doing something… then that is something thaty must do!  Well.. I took my own medicine. Despite never singing and playing the guitar at once (or doing much of each separately), I recorded my 1st effort and here’s what I got:

I googled “Happy Birthday sheet music”- It was a few chords, and I knew them (C G F), so I tried it once, and tried singing.  It was simple enough, but now there were a few things making a difference:

1)No guitar strap

2)The Roach suit is slippery for the guitar….

3)I had my extra roach arms weighing my arm down a bit.

These would sound like excuses– but I didn’t let it bug me (Get it… bug me! a roach joke!).  I just did it.  My brain went off about “Well, you can practice some more, THEN rerecord, and then upload” – I just uploaded it, and tagged Jason on Facebook.

Because it was on Facebook, and Jason was tagged (as was I)- everyone would see it.  In fact, I embraced how badly I sucked while singing.

What happened? Did the world end?  Not at all! In fact, most people commented about how badass it is…. or how it’s tough to top that.  Yes, they were being nice.

What else happened? I posted a video, and the world didn’t end… and now I know it… so I may post another, that won’t be so awful.  It’s hard to make it worse than what I posted– thus, I can only improve.  Oh well… whatever happens, I made a few people laugh, and confronted a strong fear.

My mom's on facebook- witty, and accurate

My parents ARE on Facebook… and on Twitter (though, they say that’s too much work).  Good thing I already tell ‘em most everything… this video totally says it all   Best hair-band video ever!

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

[podcast]http://www.couchsurfingori.com/couchsurfing-radio/couchsurfing-couchcasts/CouchsurfingRadio-Couchcast-number-10-Hippyband-sxsw-pet-mountain-lions.mp3[/podcast]

All sorts of crazy, but you definitely want to catch the replay!  There’s a ton of awesome SXSW insider info on how to party for free, mingle with the stars, and all sorts of great reasons to go into town… with or without a badge.

My guest, Chase, talks about his pet mountain lion.

I tell jokes.

There’s a lot more– just listen, it’s fun!

[podcast]http://www.couchsurfingori.com/couchsurfing-radio/couchsurfing-couchcasts/CouchsurfingRadio-Couchcast-number-10-Hippyband-sxsw-pet-mountain-lions.mp3[/podcast]

I even include some music in this one– let me know what you think of it.

This came later in the night though. And if you don’t recognize my weird noises, I’m making a tribute to the Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody video.The one who’s being quiet in the video is Will’s friend from Sweden.

I had couchsurfed with Kevin & Will before.  This time I was just visiting, because I’ve been in town for nearly two weeks, and we had yet to hang out.  His mom was in town too, and someone as crazy as Will.. I gotta see where he came from.  She was pretty damn funny!  In fact…..  Since she was prepping dinner, and Fried Deer was part of it, I described the episode of the Chapelle Show where Tyrone wins on Fear Factor… after eating Deer Penis.

She started talking about the various balls.. testicles if you prefer… that she’s eaten.  Talking about Calf Balls for example, so… me… being a goofball… I say “You know… I’m from Israel, and us jews have this one animal called a Matzoh.  We castrate them, and we use their balls specifically for soup.  You ever heard of Matzoh Ball Soup?”  She has heard of it.  I wasn’t even trying to keep a straight face– she didn’t notice, since she was prepping dinner.  She thought I was being serious.  Will set her straight, and I laughed my ass off.

I was able to tell her many jokes which I normally wouldn’t tell peoples’ parents!  Lots of fun was had.  While dinner was prepping, we watched Rambo, First Blood…. or at least a portion of it.  But then once the food was ready, we popped in Fight Club on BlueRay.  Holy crap!

I’ve seen Fight Club.  We all had.  In fact, 5 of us had it memorized, and Kevin had even me beat as far as being able to recite more quotes from the movie than me.  All in all, you could have muted the movie, and we would’ve recited it just fine.

Everything looked amazing on this tv!  Seriously! It was a Samsung UN46B8000 LED HDTV if I’m not mistaken.  It was as thick as my cell phone!  Rambo was being broadcast in high-def, and the thing that didn’t match up to the amazing feel of the movie was the audio… the sound effects back then are not what they are now, that’s for sure!

So… Fight Club in Blue Ray was amazing on the Samsung UN46B8000!  At first I wasn’t paying attention, I was watching my friend Brendan’s new ustream show… then I glimpsed up and saw the movie, and was stunned.  Whatever it is they did to this movie, it did not look or feel the same as the Fight Club I had seen so many times!  It was so sharp, and vivid, and I think they did something to the footage.  It looked like HDRI to me.  It had so much depth.  It was like being there in the movie!  I got off the couch, and sat in a chair which I moved even closer to the tv.  This needed to be watched up close!

After 30 minutes, my brain forgot that everything was so amazing, and I was back to just enjoying the movie.  But then, every time a scene that was artfully lit, or had some effect in it.. .I would remember again, that this was some new alien technology.  Look at my Avatar movie review, and read my future predictions…. I didn’t even take into account the improved quality of the displays.  People are just not going to leave the house!

It was after the movie that they showed me the apps you saw in the video above. We jammed out on Ipods for a bit.  Then they showed me a clip that is not on this blueray, but is on another one… not sure which one has it-  this is Brad Pitt & Ed Norton singing about a Penis.

This is not to be confused with Rodney Carrington’s song “Dear Penis” -