The Mike Stern and Eric Johnson concert

   

     Last Sunday I saw Mike Stern and Eric Johnson at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills. It was a fantastic show with plenty of great musicianship from everyone including bass and drums. It was Mike Stern on guitar, Eric Johnson on guitar, Anton Fig on drums, and a bassist named Chris Maresh. All of them are quite well known by musicians except the bass player.
     They opened the show up with a slow mellow jam and everything just went up from there. Mike Stern, who played with Miles Davis is the more jazz oriented guitar player while Eric Johnson favors a much faster rapid rock style of guitar playing. In some ways they don't quite mesh but somehow they complement each other in an interesting way. They all took solos on every song that was long and full of tasty licks. Anton Fig's drumming is quite incredible. He's a powerhouse but also capable of light touches here and there for the slow stuff.
     After a while you hear some of the same patterns and licks from both guitarists. Eventually they run out of ideas and they start to recollect the old ones and do variations on it like great jazz musicians. Even though Johnson is a rock guy you get the feeling that this is a jazz gig your at, not a rock gig at all, although there are great rock and funk type moments.
     The best part of the show for me was when the shred guitar hero Paul Gilbert came out and played an extended solo on one of the tunes. Paul can't play like Stern or Johnson but his playing kind of hits home in a much simpler way. He doesn't swing and he doesn't have complicated licks. He just has a soulful rock style and he's great. Paul is a very tall skinny guy and looks very much the rock guitar god with his beard and red Ibanez guitar. He's one of my favorite guitar players ever and him being there kind of made my night. Also, one of my friends was there watching the whole show with me and we had a great time. Even though he isn't a musician, he could really dig and feel the music. Definitely a show to see if you ever get the chance.

Thoughts on Andre 3000 Hendrix film

   

     This was an interesting movie because it features none of Jimi Hendrix's music whatsoever. Instead, this musician created little bits of a Hendrix style that was nowhere near the real thing. However, that doesn't make this a bad movie, its just a little empty in terms of the actual music. Andre 3000 plays a great Hendrix, probably the most thoughtful Hendrix. He's seen as an intelligent thoughtful person in this movie. The movie focuses on the beginning of Hendrix's career with his British girlfriend Linda Keith (formerly Keith Richards girlfriend) trying to hook him up with studio executives and managers so he can get started on forming a good career in rock and roll.

     Chas Chandler(bass player from the Animals) eventually decides to manage Jimi and he's seen as a overall nice guy but Mike Jeffries, Hendrix's other manager is seen as a knife throwing eccentric in a suit and shades. At one point Hendrix gets a red-headed British girlfriend and she beats Jimi up in one scene. A really cool scene was the one where Hendrix got up on stage and played with Cream, and Eric Clapton got off the stage because he felt like he was being upstaged. Hendrix mentioned he only wanted to go to England if he could meet Clapton. 

     Although this movie lacks the music of Hendrix its still a great portrayal of Hendrix before he made it big. If anything it shows that Hendrix was more thoughtful instead of just the usual naive and quiet-spoken. 

Thoughts on Keep on Keepin' On Film

     This was a movie that was about trumpeter Clark Terry, one of the all time greats who played with Duke Ellington's orchestra and many, many others. He's credited on being on at least a thousand records. He's a total legend and inspired people like Quincy Jones and Miles Davis. This movie doesn't show the musical giant that he is though. Rather it focuses on him being a teacher to young up and coming jazz musicians, particularly a blind piano player named Justin Kauflin who eventually gets signed by Quincy Jones at the end of the movie.

     This was a beautiful movie because it captures CT and Justin's love for jazz. Justin would come by to CT's place to work on tunes, to talk, and rehearse with his college band. Their friendship was a great one and CT thought very highly of Justin's playing. Justin's career hadn't really taken off when he moved to New York because he was blind and people didn't think a blind man could make it to gigs or learn their music. Justin was entered in the Thelonius Monk Competition somehow but didn't make top three, but in the end it worked out for him and he may become a great jazz musician working under Quincy Jones. This was a really fantastic film although it doesn't really feature much of CT's music or playing. At times I was sad to see CT in such destabilizing conditions as a result of his diabetes. The great trumpeter lives through his students!

Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Thoughts and Opinions

     

     Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2 is one of the best games I've ever played. It takes place five years before Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and isn't made by Bioware. Rather it is made by a company called Obsidian. This is a much darker game compared to the first one and perhaps compared to all Starwars games. This game really pushes the ante when it comes to the dark side and what it means to be Sith or Jedi.
     You play as a general of Darth Revan's who fought during the Mandalorian wars but lost a connection to the Force, and is slowing regaining all of your abilities. Your name is Meetra Surik and you find out that you were cast out of the Jedi order for fighting with Revan in the Mandolorian wars. You wake up in a Sith spaceship and you meet a woman named Kreia, who becomes your mentor. Later, you find out that she was a Sith Lord named Darth Traya and that she was guiding you and influencing your every move throughout the game. So basically you have to escape this ship and from there the story really starts.
     For me, the game really begins when you meet Atris on Telos. She tells you all about how you were cast out and she even had kept your light-saber hanging up on her wall to remind her of you and the fall of the Jedi. Supposedly Atris says she's the last Jedi and that she doesn't care what you do but later you find out she was into the Dark side, like a lot.
     So you figure out at some point that there are a few of the Jedi order still alive so you set out to find them. You have the option to kill them, or maybe they die anyways by Kreia's hand, because at the end she becomes a villain to you. I didn't try any of the light side options in the game so I went ahead and struct down all the Jedi. Then, Kreia tells you what you have learned after hunting down all the Jedi. For me, she said that I had much to learn still and that her teachings have shown me nothing through the Force. Being a bad guy gets you nowhere with her perhaps? In between that, you can either help a revolution in a major city or hinder it as well.
     So at the end you have to destroy a Sith ship and kill a Sith Lord named Darth Nilhilus who apparently cannot speak English and wears a pretty cool mask. He's an apprentice to Darth Traya. He puts up a good fight and goes down. After you blow up his Sith ship you have to go down to Malachor V to confront Darth Traya and her other apprentice Darth Scion. Darth Scion is a Sith Lord with powers that allow him to come back to life every time he dies. So you have to kill him a few times. Then you fight and defeat Kreia or Darth Traya and the game end. She tells you that by killing her she has succeeded in training you in the Darkside and that nothing could make her happier. Pretty bad feelings huh? That's the path of the Darkside. All in all, a great story. I wouldn't say its better than the first one but its much darker in terms of themes and story-lines. What a game!

What I think of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

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     I beat Call of Duty Advanced Warfare just the other day. I didn't think I was the type of FPS (first person shooter) gamer. You know, all those kids on Xbox live who talk shit and yell into the mike when they play Call of Duty Games. Those kids are annoying and give the Call of Duty series a bad name. Never the less, Advanced Warfare might be the best Call of Duty game since Black Ops. I played the heck out of Black Ops with a friend of mine I met online. If you don't want the story spoilers then don't read any further. 

     The story is simple minded but the interesting thing about it is that it features Kevin Spacey as the leader of this military outfit called Atlas. Your character was part of the marines but you lost your arm in a mission and your best friend, who's Kevin Spacey's son dies. At the funeral Spacey gives you a card and says to see you to get your life back.
     So you meet up with Spacey at his Atlas place and he gives you a mechanical arm and decides you should join Atlas. I won't spoil the story too much but basically Spacey turns out to be a bad guy and you end up joining  a renegade outfit to stop him. It's a little cliche that the good guy turns out to be the bad guy but that's pretty much the story, it doesn't really get anymore complicated than that. However, that doesn't mean that the game-play wasn't fun even if the story was a little lacking in creativity and the character simply had no personality whatsoever.
     The cool thing about this game is that you have an exo-suit that allows you to perform special abilities. You have a jet-pack that allows you to double jump. You have a move where you can move to the left and the right really quick. In addition, you have cloaking and an ability that slows down everything so you can carefully aim down the sight and kill a bunch of guys really fast. This stuff is all really cool and its even in multiplayer.
     The multiplayer is where this game really shines. I would say this is the best part of the game even though I have barely scratched the surface of load-outs, custom weapon slots, and exo-abilities. I know this game will definitely became a big game in E-sports and MLG (Major League Gaming). If I could give this game a rating I would give it a 4 out of 5. It's so good. Although the single player campaign is a bit bland, the multiplayer definitely makes up for it. Great game!

Books I'm interested in reading

Starship Troopers

The Windup Girl

The Diamond Age

All Tommorrow's Parties

Martian Chronicles

So far recently I've read We Can Build You, The Windup Girl, and Brasyl. 

Link to twitter, facebook, and tumblr

There's tons of info on my facebook and I just started using twitter so there's less content on there. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/orlando.figueroa.3150
https://twitter.com/fig_land
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/megasaxophone05