My Top Ten Metal Bands list

     I've been doing these kind or random posts lately because I feel like writing for the blog has really given me a voice on the internet and its a great release after working late hours in the middle of the night. Anyways, here's my list for top ten best metal bands. I'm considering this for all forms of metal. Share, like, comment if you agree or disagree!
      1) Death, this is the quintessential death metal band that made death metal famous. Sure, they didn't officially start death metal, but their music speaks for itself. It is hardcore or extreme metal that deserves the name Death, which is a really brutal name for a metal band. Although I don't like their early stuff, I have to say their later stuff (like 1998) is really amazing. I know that by then Chuck's vocals were a lot higher pitched than your usual guttural death metal style vocals from the late 80's, but I prefer it over their first couple records. In addition, I think the music got better as they progressed as a band and had several line-up changes. Their guitar playing is phenomenal and learning how to play it wouldn't be easy and would require down tuning. Songs like Crystal Mountain, Suicide Machine, The Philosopher, Flesh and The Power It Holds, and Spirit Crusher are standards that every death metal fan must know. This is a must listen to band if you like death metal, maybe even just metal in general. They are definitely one of the best metal bands of all time.
     2) Megadeth, this is just one of my favorite bands of all time. The music never gets old to me. The reason why I love this band so much is that I've always liked Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman working together. Marty is my guitar sempai, I love everything he plays, and every things he's ever played on. He's probably my favorite guitarist of all time, maybe even above Hendrix and Jeff Beck! I would say Megadeth is the greatest thrash metal band of all time, above Metallica, even Slayer, and definitely above Anthrax. I've seen Slayer and Anthrax so I can attest to know that Megadeth is better than them live at least. Songs like Hangar 18, Holy Wars, Peace Sells, and Mechanix are all standard thrash metal songs that every thrash metal fan would know, and again maybe every metal fan in general would know these songs as well. They are one of the best and they haven't changed at all since the 90's, they've kept the same gun metal gray aggressive player but only had changes in lead guitars and drums, the two Daves staying together until the very end it seems. Check out Rust in Peace and Peace Sells, those are their best recordings. That's a picture of Megadeth up top.
     3) Black Sabbath, one of the most influential metal bands of all time. Although I don't think they were considered metal at that time in 1969 when their first album came out. The first album was a sort of blues rock thing with a lot of power chords, but they really developed into a super heavy band after that first bluesy rockish sort of album. Toni Iommi is one of the greatest guitar players in metal history, and guitar history too! He created the idea that all you need is pummeling riffs over and over again to make a great song. He got rid of the idea that you had to be a Jimi Hendrix or a Jeff Beck. Although he was no slouch when it came to lead guitar either! This band had so much influence on me and my guitar playing. When I first started all I would play is the Ramones and Sabbath, that's how I learned guitar basically. All of their songs are metal anthems, even the Dio period was great in my opinion. Ozzy doesn't have the best voice, he has 'thee' voice, a great voice for what Sabbath does, which is pummel you with great riffs over and over again. If I had to rate this band I would give them a 10/10. They are probably the best metal band of all time.
     4) Deep Purple,  while some peeps might not consider Purp metal I do, mainly because of the influence they had on metal musicians and rock music in general. They're like Zeppelin (who will be on this list too), they didn't necessarily play metal but they inspired it to the point that they might as well be metal. What's great about Purp is the great songs like Smoke on the Water, Burn, Space Truckin', and Child in Time. Not only did they have great vocals and songs but they had a great lead guitarist with Richie Blackmore, who is so skilled that I would say he might have been near Hendrix's level at his peak. He inspired Ywngie Malmsteen, one of the greatest shred guitarists from the 80's. Blackmore often incorporated classical style runs into his solos as well as bluesy rock licks. He's one of the best in the business. Also, Purp stood out from the other heavy bands at the time because they had Jon Lord on organ. Cool stuff.
     5) Led Zeppelin, again its hard to argue that Zep is metal but I would say that because of the influence they had on metal music and rock in general, I deserve the right to call them heavy metal. Their music is rooted in blues rock and black blues especially but Jimmy Page just took the blues and made it his own thing. He's one of the greatest songwriters and guitar producers of all time. He isn't a Hendrix or a Jeff Beck but he wrote some of the greatest riffs and solos in recorded history. His live guitar work is a little bit sloppy but his recordings are amazing. Also, this band is the musicians band. Every musician loves Zeppelin, drummers, bassists, guitarists, and singers. How can you not like John Bonham (drums), John Paul Jones (bass), Page, and Robert Plant (vocals). They really did it all. There seemed to be a trend with heavy rock music coming from England in the late 60's, early 70's.
     6) Back to the real metal, fuckin' Slayer! Slayer is just one of those metal bands that every single metal fan loves. I've never met anyone who said Slayer sucks or anything like that. It's one of those standard bands that everyone knows. Like Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax (the big four), they all started back in the 80's and made a big name for themselves from there, resulting in probably millions of fans all over the globe. Their songs are all standards but I really like God Hates Us All and Reign in Blood. What I think makes them so good is that they play such super fast riffs all together and never mess up haha. They play really simple stuff but they do it so effectively over Tom Araya's bass and vocals. Kerry King has become a legend on the guitar too. He's gotten better at guitar since their early recordings, but he's no guitar god. I really like the albums Reign in Blood and South of Heaven, from the early part of their career.
     7) Metallica, to be honest I never really liked Metallica but I have to give them credit where credit is due. They are one of the biggest metal bands of all time and they've written some great songs and records in their career. The main reason I don't like Metallica is because they aren't consistent with great songwriting or staying with a particular style. They like to experiment a lot in their music. They're kind of like the pop metal fan's dream band because they change their style to what is popular and they play that because they know it will sell. In some ways I think Metallica has sold out but that doesn't change the fact that they've written and recorded some great shit. I think Kurt Hammett's guitar playing is garbage, especially when he overuses the wah pedal, his favorite pedal.
     8) Van Halen, this is another band I picked because they had a huge influence on me, especially when I was in high school and the very short time I spent in college. Eddie's guitar playing just blew me away. Not only did they have great guitar playing and technique, but the songs were super catchy and memorable. The first time I heard Eruption was when I was in high school. It changed my life because it changed the way I viewed guitar. Before that I thought guitar was all blues licks, Hendrix, and Eric Clapton. Eddie showed me the way to 80's guitar god mode. He's still great but he went through a great ordeal in his life. At his peak he was probably the greatest guitarist since Hendrix.
     9) Kiss, while I think Kiss's music sucks and they don't play very good music at all, I do like how catchy their songs are, the costumes and facepaint, and Ace Frehley's guitar playing. Ace showed me that you don't have to be Hendrix or Jeff Beck to be a guitar god. All you need to do is master the pentatonic scale and master a few good licks and make them your own. Anyone who can do that can play in a band really. I loved how Ace always stole the show in Kiss videos. He's one of my favorite guitarists mainly for the way he looked, and how he played his shit with emotion and bravado. Not a great technician but someone who makes due with what skills he has.
     10) Well, the last band has to be a great band that everyone knows about right? I'm going to have to go with a newer band and say Steel Panther. They rock! Satchel (lead guitar) is one of the best guitarists in the business. His playing rivals Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Eddie Van Halen at their peaks, it's really amazing. Not only that but Steel Panther are a funny parody band of an 80's metal band. I really like their song Asian Hooker. This band doesn't take itself seriously. Sometimes you don't need all the Satanism of Black Metal in your metal, although I do like some black metal bands, like this one called Ghost. Anyways, that concludes the list. Comment and tell me what metal bands you love.

So you want to be a Pro Gamer?

     Every kid that has a console or PC wants to be go become a pro gamer. The fact of the matter is that most people just don't have the time to go pro at gaming because of work and school, and just because of life in general. Here are the games I wish I could be a pro at in order of my favorites.
     1) Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm, this is easily one of the greatest games ever made, and clearly one of the greatest E-sports as well. What makes this game so great? It has a great single player campaign for casual gaming, as well as an amazing multiplayer experience for people who are competitive gamers. The joke is that the only good Starcraft players are Korean pro gamers, but there are many great American and European players as well. I used to follow all the pros. My favorites include MarineKingPrime(Terran), Scarlett(Zerg), Rain(Protoss), Jaedong(Zerg), Innovation(Terran), Maru(Terran), Flash(Terran), and Forgg(Terran). That's MarineKing in the picture, my favorite pro gamer. I used to play competitively but I ended up losing heart and giving up for about almost a year, which is where I'm at now. The highest I ever got in the online ranking system is top 8 Gold League. The rankings are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamon, Masters, Grandmasters. I don't think it takes much to progress but it does take a lot of skill to be in Masters and Grandmasters league, in my humble opinion. The cool thing about Starcraft is that there's humans (Terrans) and two alien races(Zerg and Protoss), and they all play very differently. All my current California friends said that "its not my type of game", but we all know that they just say that because they know they won't be great at it. Anyways, this would be my number one game I wish I could be a pro at. Could you imagine a pro Black American player going up against Koreans in Korea? It would be amazing and life changing in the E-sports community, like when Scarlett(a transgender girl) was going up against Koreans in the pro tourneys. I watch a lot of pro starcraft Korean tournament streams-like almost every night. My dream in life is to be a musician but sometimes it feels like my dream is to be starcraft II bonjwa(a player that dominates an era, winning a number of titles).
     2) Super Smash Brothers 4 for Wii U and 3ds, I chose Sm4sh over Melee because I haven't played Melee since I was in high-school. Let's face it;Sm4sh is just the better game. I feel like there are too many Melee fanboys who just haven't realized that its a dead game. I still love the game but I think Sm4sh has it all: more and better characters, better stage recovery, less edge guarding, better graphics and music, and dlc that patches the game as well as adds new content. Its the perfect Smash game at the moment. I'm a super competitive player and I main Fox, Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Shulk, and Diddy Kong. I'm reaching that point where I'm getting better than my friends because I play it more than they do, even when we're not hanging out. I'm even going to be starting to go to weekly tournaments to test my skills. My win rate ain't amazing but its sitting at a cool 50% right now, which my friends say is good, but I've seen people online with like 67% winrate, which still isn't amazing but I think that's really good for just playing online in the ranking system called For Glory. My friends are still a good challenge for me at the moment but the more I play without them, the better I will get, and eventually I'll surpass them. Maybe I can even start placing at tournaments. I would say for me that right now, Sm4sh is my favorite game. It's only been out for a little while and I feel like the pros haven't figured out everything in it, so its a game that I have a chance at being great at. I have a bunch of favorite pros like ZeRo and M2K. This is my favorite game out right now.
     3) Heroes of the Storm, this is Blizzard's newest game, and arguably one of their best games ever made. I love how competitive it is, and how it lacks items, because that's mainly how it differs from other MoBa's like League of Legends and Dota 2. Another thing that makes it different is that experience is shared rather than just your experience that you get from killing minions and players. It's pretty nifty. You'd think these ideas would make for a rather casual experience but once you get to level 40 you can unlock ranked matches, which is super competitive. I would say winning in this game is an art and takes a lot of teamwork to make things happen. You can't really solo anything in this game. It's not like in League where you can solo lane stuff for ten minutes. The main thing I love about this game is the characters that come from World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and the Starcraft universe. It's awesome seeing characters like Nova, Thrall, Raynor, Kerrigan, and Illidan all fighting in the same game-almost like a Super Smash Brothers mash up, they probably got the idea from Smash. Blizzard has done it again! They've made another great game. Did I mention this game is free to play?
     4) Marvel Vs Capcom 3, this game is just one of those all time classic fighting games. It improves upon Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (which I have for Playstation!, its a collectors item),  because of enhanced graphics, and different/more characters. Also, the specials are a lot easier to perform in the third game, especially on Xbox360(which is what I have it for). I bought this game maybe a year ago and first I did was try to play it online. I got schooled. Once I realized I would have to work at it to get good I kind of put it down, only playing it with friends. One of my good friends is really good at it and wrecks me and my other friends mercilessly. When it comes to fighting games I know that once you know combos with one character you kind of learn how to do them with other characters very easily, but I still haven't gotten over that first learning curve. I really like this game because of the triple fighter teams. I usually go Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma, because I'm a big Street Fighter fan. Speaking of Street fighter.....
     5) Street Fighter IV Ultra, this is a game I bought on a whim because I was in Gamestop and my friend recommended that I get it over the regular Street Fighter IV game, because it comes with like 44 characters as opposed to like less than half than that. What can I say about this game? It's not like MvC3 at all because you only play as one character and when you die, you lose the fight. Specials are more complicated too. In fact, I have some trouble doing the specials in this game. I usually end up playing Ryu most of the time, but I also like Chun-Li and Ken. Again, I've only really played this game with my friends and we've had a blast playing it. I know its a super competitive game at tournaments and stuff. The graphics in this game are super up to date with current last gen consoles like ps3 and xbox360. I'm really bad at this game but I still find it amazing. I think eventually I will start playing it more, and as I get better I'll play it vs people online.
     6) Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III (coming out in November), and Ghosts, CoD is just one of those games where its do or die. You kind of either have it or you don't in shooting games in my opinion. But I do think that even if you are terrible at first, you can practice and become great at it, but you'll have to work at it everyday. In Advanced Warfare, I got to a point where I was doing extremely good, like getting first and second place in online ranked matches.The thing that's cool about CoD is that you can do all kinds of trickshots, quickscopes, hardscopes, and go ham with just about any kinds of guns that you want. Plus, the game is so unrealistic that it's just plain easy to shoot the guns, because basically they have no recoil, unlike other fps games where it feels like you're shooting something more a kin to a real gun. This is probably my favorite fps game franchise and I will definitely be getting Black Ops III this November. Right around that good ole time for turkey dinner!
     7) Counter-Strike Global Offensive, this game is also one of the biggest fps games, and one of the biggest E-sports. As it should be. Cs has been on the scene in pc gaming like since I was in highschool, so this goes back to 2004, maybe even before that with the original Counter Strike Source I believe. This game plays much faster CoD, has no aiming down the sights or scopes(except when using a sniper rifle), and maps created by the players. Another thing I like about this game is that the characters run around faster than in Call of Duty, there's no sprinting at all and it has a faster flow to it. There's a lot of big money in this game as an E-sport too, same with CoD. The most fun I've ever had playing this game is setting and disarming the bomb game mode. It's pretty neat.
     8) Speed running games, there isn't really any E-sports potential for speed running games but there is a lot of skill and people will watch your stream if you are a great speed runner. Games that I think that would be cool to speed run are the usual suspects: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy VII, Megaman series, Sonic the Hedgehog series, Earthbound, Final Fantasy I,II,II,IV,V,VI Chrono Trigger, Xenoblade, Xenogears, Xenosaga series, Tales of Fantasia, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, Mass Effect series, Halo series, and Zelda A Link To The Past. I have a lot of mainly Super Nintendo(quite possibly my favorite system even though I never owned it) stuff I want to play.
     Lastly, that concludes all the games that I wish I was pro at. There's a lot of them. Technically speaking, if I wanted to be a master at any said one of them I would have to focus on one, two, maybe three of them at the most. Any more than that and I would be going straight into filthy casual territory, if you catch my drift. I don't think Starcraft pros play League of Legends(a game that didn't make the cut for this list) and shit like that. I think they focus on Starcraft for the most part to keep up their skills. It's like doing anything really, you do it a lot and often enough, and you become very good at it. Right now I would say I'm focusing on Super Smash Brothers 4, but I'm also playing a lot of Heroes of the Storm. Some people I know have said that they don't think competitive gaming could ever be considered a sport. To them I say they're wrong. E-sports has already proven itself to network companies, the internet, and in some aspects the world (because of the internet:Twitch, YouTube, HitBox, etc). Plus, there is big money to make in gaming because of E-sports. Without pro gaming we wouldn't have people who have quit their 9-5's just to dedicate all their time to streaming video games. And without the great fans of E-sports there would be no money for all of this. This has become one of the biggest subcultures, this being gamers. Being a gamer today isn't considered as nerdy as it used to be say in the 1980's. I think the influence of video games on movies, mass media culture, and the internet is very obvious. If only I could find work in the gaming industry doing something regarding E-sports, being a pro gamer, or working with pro gamers, that would be where it's at. Hell, I would even settle for working at a company like Blizzard. Here's a funny little video for ya-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH4w7UZV3NA.

Straight Outta Compton

     Let me first say that this movie was amazing. I really, really liked it. As a movie about a music group it takes the viewer on a great trip through the life of NWA's lens. I would put this movie on the same level of greatness as say the first Avengers film and Mad Max Fury Road. I would say its the best movie of 2015 other than Mad Max.
     Here's the basics: "Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by F. Gary Gray about the rise and fall of the Compton, California hip hop group N.W.A. The film borrows its title from the name of their 1988 debut studio album. Straight Outta Compton stars O'Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, and Paul Giamatti as N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller. Among the film's producers are Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E‍ '​s widow, Tomica Woods-Wright. The film was released on August 14, 2015, received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed over $140 million. An album inspired by the film, Compton, was released by Dr. Dre on August 7, 2015, and debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 charts." (Wiki)
     The story in the movie is supposedly the story of the how NWA came together, their rise and fall, how they break up and form solo projects, and how they come back together in the end to reform right around the time that Eazy dies from aids. It doesn't sound very exciting but the movie just keeps you in a state of wanting to know whats going to happen next. At first they are just regular black guys (albeit poor thugish black guys) living in Compton California. Eazy was a real thug gang banger drug dealer type of guy, Ice Cube is a high school student that writes great lines, and Dr. Dre is a guy who loves music that got kicked out of his moms house for not finding a job. The only guy who was portrayed as even slightly a thug was Eazy E, although there were moments where they all stood up to racist pigs (cops), and even one incident where Dre gets sent to prison just for standing up to a white cop. The way the LAPD was portrayed in this film was very realistic. I've been treated the same way even in Wisconsin, I think they're even worse out here in LA, especially back then in the late 80's. There was a fucked up part of the movie where a black cop and his white partner roll up to the group outside of the place they were recording. The black cops says,"You niggas belong somewhere?". Then, when the manager is getting the group back inside the black cop says,"That's right, go back to your master", which was all kinds of fucked up. It just goes to show you that even black cops can be pigs too. Let me remark upon some of my favorite moments of the movie, there were a couple great ones.
     My favorite part of the movie was when they were recording their very first song. They had some group of guys from New York come in to do the song. It had dope lyrics but they sent these guys in as the talent because this was before they had tried rapping for themselves. Eventually the New York guys read the lyrics and they're all like,"This shit is wack, what's a 6 4?", and then they start dissing our guys from Compton, calling them jerry-curl ass niggas. Eventually they figure they're money is wasted unless they find someone to do the song. Dre suggests that Eazy does the song because the song was about him. Eazy is reluctant at first but decides to give it a shot. Let me just say that he sounded so cringe worthy on those very first attempts at rapping. He was so offbeat and he sounded weak. Dre and the guys laughed at him, it was pretty funny. But eventually Eazy tells the other guys to get out of the other room and he gets on beat, and sings the first line with bravado. Dre responds with "great, now we only have 59 more lines to go", which makes me believe that Eazy E did all his raps one line at a time in the studio, which is very funny!
     Some of my other favorite moments where just some random scenes where they were in the studio and Dre was playing a keyboard on the track, and it sounded hella dope. It was cool that he's the only real musical one in the group. There was a scene in the beginning of the movie where we see Dre doing sick turn table scratching inside of a friends house. Also, we see him working as a DJ at a club, but the club owner kept telling him that he didn't want him to put on any of that rap shit. And that he preferred those slower songs, like dance music like rnb and soul stuff. Not only was Dre more musical in the studio than the other guys but he also rapped too. I liked him the best although Ice Cube wrote most of NWA's shit, and the other guys just performed the songs onstage.
     One last funny moment that was interesting was when this one guy knocks on the hotel room door of NWA while they're having this wild crazy party where people are having sex and stuff like that. He comes to the door, Ice Cube answers, the guy says,"I heard my girl Felicia is in one of these rooms, do you know where she is?". Ice Cube yells at him no and slams the door hard as fuck on him, but the guy holds the door open and shows him a gun. So Ice Cube runs back inside, looks for Felicia, and she's inside the bathroom sucking off Eazy! Eazy hears the news about the guy, grabs a shotty, and the group all grabs their own guns as well, and they head into the hallway walking towards the guy with all their guns to the ready. The guy just runs away scared. They all laugh and head back inside. Ice Cube slams the door on Felicia, sayinig "Bye Felicia, leaving her in the hallway wearing only a bikini. Pretty hilarious. I've heard some song about a Felicia and I guess this is the girl that inspired the song.
     Now, was this movie entirely realistic? No, I do believe that they took some liberties with the characters, and sanitized them in some ways. I believe they were all a bit worse people than they appeared to be in the film. A friend told me that Dre used to beat up women. And my dad told me that Ice Cube was much more the criminal than the regular high school kid who wrote rap lines. And also Shug Knight was also a ruthless motherfucker. I think in real life he might have even been charged for murder or attempted murder, not sure about that one but my brother told me something like that. So yeah these guys ain't saints. They were real mother fuckin' og's son! Haha, but seriously in the movie they appeared to be a lot better people than they actually were.
     Also, I feel like this movie has been accepted by the masses because rap has become accepted by the masses. By the masses I'm mainly referring to white people, because they control Top 40 Radio, Pop Music, and what's left of the music industry regarding record sales and stuff like that. In some ways Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop have all sold out. They made it and that's it, they've become the establishment. They ain't real mother fuckin' og's anymore. To me they're kind of a bunch of sell outs, but that doesn't mean that they aren't brilliant masterminds, great businessmen, and good rappers. I mean Dre has some headphones that sell for $300, ain't that a bunch of bullshit? But for me they aren't what real rap represents anymore. Now rap represents corporatism, fast cars, money, bitches, smoking weed, having life made, etc. Back then when rap was real they were actually talking about what was happening in the ghetto, people getting shot, and what it was like being an actual gangsta. This is the main reason why I'm not a rap guy. In some ways I'm against rap because most rappers represent something that they're not. This is just my opinion. I choose instead to listen to Jazz because its not a part of all the corporate bullshit, record companies, and now streaming services companies. To me Dre, Snoop, and Ice Cube have become like white people-successful, rich, and living in houses as far away from black people as possible. Just a thought.
     With all that being said, I really enjoyed the movie. Its definitely one of the best music movies I've ever seen and I'm not even really a rap fan. However, I did know about NWA and Eazy E especially before I saw this. I knew a lot of the songs too. It was awesome hearing the songs on the big screen at a movie theater with all the people around me. I think that was the best part of the movie really. Just the music in general. If I had to give this movie a rating I would give it a 9 out of 10, fucking amazing! It gets the Bad Ass Stamp of Approval.

American Ultra

     I went to go see American Ultra today with two friends. We meant to go see Straight Outta Compton but we ended up seeing this movie instead somehow (why!). What I expected: a stoner comedy action sleeper agent film. What I got: a moody, drama focused sleeper agent film. One of my friends said it best when he said,"It was kind of fucked up. I wouldn't want to see it when I'm high." I wouldn't say that its quite that fucked up but it was intense and moody, which was weird to us because the trailer shows the movie as more of a stoner comedy action sort of flick. We totally didn't see the drama incoming! I'm going to give you the good, the bad, and the nerdy. 
     Here's the storyline:"Small-town stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) spends most of his time getting high and writing a graphic novel. What Mike doesn't know is that he was trained by the CIA to be a lethal killing machine. When the agency targets him for termination, his former handler activates his latent skills, turning the mild-mannered slacker into a deadly weapon. Now, the utterly surprised Mike must use his newfound abilities to save himself and his girlfriend from getting smoked." (google.com) 
     It's a pretty cool plot and it seems like you can really go anywhere with this premise. But it doesn't really go anywhere, like at all, other than just the mindless killing (a lot of action, gun shooting in this movie). The acting by Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stweart (the girlfriend/CIA handler of Jesse's character) was what was so great about this movie. You get the feeling that they are the perfect fucked up couple. We've all seen these kinds of fucked up couples in real life and they acted it out really well. I really 'felt' their characters so to speak, they were believable. Eisenberg's character could be many people in real life. In fact, I've met people exactly like him, and I've met girls that are just like Pheobe Larson (Stewart's character). 
     Another thing that was great about this movie is that if you like gun shots, action, and people getting wasted you will like that aspect of the film. It was pretty cool but for me it gets old after maybe the 20th gun shot. Guns are kind of boring to me. I also hate how they're so popular in American culture. Every douche-bag sports all kinds of guns from assault rifles to pistols, we get it. It would have been more interesting if he used more of his hand to hand combat skills, or if he knew kung fu or something (that would've been awesome). 
     There were two greatest moments for me in this movie. The first was when Eisenberg was about to kill an agent sent to kill him. He was a former mental patient who went through the same CIA training program that Eisenberg went through, except he was a failure in most aspects. The failure, named Laughter or something like that because he laughs crazily, said that Eisenberg was 'better' than him. Then he proceeded to ask him who controls him. Eisenberg answers with nobody. Then Laughter says, "that must be nice". To me this was moment in the movie that stood out. In the end Eisenberg lets him live. 
     The second and best moment of the movie was the ending.. Its cheesy but I still loved it. At the end the government decides to use Eisenberg as an undercover agent. We see him and the girlfriend in the Philippines at a fancy hotel. She kisses him, and then he goes into an elevator.  Then, we see a group of Chinese men in the elevator proceed to throw a bag over his head. Once he's captured, the Chinese gang lord starts talking in Mandarin saying stuff about how this guy is pathetic and unarmed, this is all they're going to send against him. Then Eisenberg laughs and the gang lord says in English,"something funny?". Then Eisenberg answers him in Mandarin,"I didn't know I could speak Mandarin". Then he punches him and it goes into this really cool gorilla ape comic strip type thing, going into the credits with that. Great ending mate. If I could rate that ending it would be a 10 out of 10, just awesome. 
     Now, for what was bad about the movie. The biggest thing was that the story doesn't really go anywhere, and on top of that, as the story goes on it gets progressively more drama focused-resulting in what my friend called a 'fucked up' movie. Its just kind of depressing because he finds out his girlfriend is just a CIA handler and that maybe she doesn't even love him, but later another CIA woman tells him that she quit the CIA just to be with him and start over, so I don't know which is which but in the end they ended up loving each other, Eisnberg even giving Stewart a Wedding ring, and he shouts out to the cops and government officials,"she said yes!", before they taser the fuck outta both of them. Also, it sucks that we were mislead into thinking it was a stoner comedy. That's the way they are marketing it. But in fact its its own thing. I'd like to think of it as action drama-something like the Bourne Identity or something like that. The movie has almost no laughs except maybe one stoner moment where they're talking about a tree and a car, and how that represents their relationship. It seemed funny at first but then you realize its not. In addition, it starts out as very stoner-ish so you're kind of expecting it to be that way but it just slaps you in the face with drama instead. 
     And now for the nerdy. Its awesome that this movie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristan Stewart. I only really know about Eisenberg because I know he's going to be playing Lex Luthor in the Superman V Batman movie. And of course I know about Stewart because of Twlight, something that I guess used to be popular and maybe isn't now? Not sure but I haven't heard about it in years, at least since that last moving Breaking Down or whatever it was called. I read a couple reviews for this movie and most of them said the movie was bad, but don't let me or the critics decide. Check it out for yourself. I would say this is a good movie to see with a girlfriend because there is a love factor in it between Eisenberg and Stewart. If I could give this movie a rating I would give it a 6 out 10 because the movie gets boring and it doesn't get weird despite the fact that this is a young stoner couple. Some parts of this movie were hard to enjoy. It doesn't really go anywhere other than just action action action on repeat with some lame dialogue like,"who are you, what is going on with me?", kind of crap. Also, stoner couples should be funnier than this. There's not enough jokes or laughs from all the characters in general. The baddie that laughed a lot wasn't funny, he just seemed like a psychopath. The director is an Iranian named Nima Nourizadeh who is only 37 so he is still young and has time to learn and make better films. I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 solely for the acting skills of Eisenberg and Stewart, they were good but the movie was bad.  It doesn't get the Orlando Figueroa Bad Ass Stamp of Approval.

Call of Duty Black Ops III beta, Starting guitar lessons

     I got into the Call of Duty Black Ops III beta on PC today. I'll tell you a little bit about it. From just loading the game and checking out some of the new features, it seems that all fps games are trying to copy each other. For one thing, BoIII has hero characters that you can pick, and they all have unique abilities that only work with that chosen hero. Sounds kind of similar to what I was playing just the other day, the Dirty Bomb beta. Another thing that BoIII has that all fps games already have been doing is the whole parkour running on walls thing-which I believe came from this game called Brink, a game that kind of flopped as a major fps sell. I don't consider myself a fps gamer by any means, and I really suck badly at them but I do have a lot in my pc game collection: Battlefield 4, Titanfall, Cod Advanced Warfare, and Cod Ghosts. What I can say about BoIII is that it is way better than BoII because of the heroes and the way the unique abilities work. It's really like a brand new Call of Duty game even though its really just the same old style gameplay of run and gun, and with people going in like little Rambo's, even on team deathmatch, which is the only gametype I played today. Let me give you the good, the bad, and the nerdy (thumbs up if you get that reference).
     First of all, team deathmatch is a joy to play. It's really really fun. Probably the most fun I've ever had playing a fps game ever. I played for maybe an hour, an hour and a half and I never got bored. I played this hero where after a while you get to use this ability where you use this electric gun, when you shoot them, they get electrocuted. In addition to him I played this female hero who uses a bow and arrow as her special and the arrows explode when they stick to anything. Pretty cool stuff. The guns seem pretty unoriginal and boring. And my biggest complaint about the guns in every CoD game is that they have no fucking recoil. You can go full auto all day and you just don't 'feel' it at all. I like to have some kind of realistic ideas in my games. Its a total fantasy gun game, I get it, but it would be a game changer if the guns worked just a tiny bit more like real guns. In Dirty Bomb, there's a bit of a kickback to the guns, which I definitely prefer. It makes you aim your shots a little bit different, its a better way to shoot in my opinion. Now, if you're looking for a major graphics upgrade you will not find it here. The beta graphics look just the same as Advanced Warfare, maybe only a step up above Ghost, albeit a little bit more colorful because most of these maps in the beta are all outside for some reason, and Advanced Warfare was kind of gun-metal gray for the most part. All I played was team deathmatch so unfortunately I can't really say anything else about the game. But from what I played I am very happy with the game. It's the same CoD gameplay that everyone knows and loves, but there's the twist with the heroes. Also, they didn't go crazy with the futuristic stuff they did in Advanced Warfare. Instead, you're mainly using standard guns, maybe a little bit more advanced than real life weaponry but not complete crazy like the lasers from Aw. I think this will the best CoD to come out in a long time, they've always done a great job with the Black Ops part of the series. Looking forward to participating more in the beta and seeing the finished product in November, the 6th if I recall correctly.
     Also, starting on Sunday I'm going to be taking guitar lessons from a jazz guitarist that comes to the store I work at. I got to talking to him and I mentioned that he should give me lessons because I'm having a rough time trying to learn how to play jazz on my own. The truth and best idea I think would be for me just to go back to college, even if its just community college. I'm sure I would learn more if I got to play with a band instead of just playing solo guitar, which can be a bit hard to improvise over changes because I can't hear the changes as I'm playing over them. It's a real conundrum for me. I think I will eventually just go back to college because the only way to get better is by playing with real jazz musicians, and I'll find other young musicians like me at schools. Going back to school is something I should've done a while ago but I keep holding off. Anyways, I'm looking forward to the lessons and I hope I can learn stuff and put it to good use. By the way, that's Marty Friedman, the guitar sempai with a bunch of cute Japanese girls. He's one of my favorite guitar players. Not necessarily a jazz guitarist but he does do a lot of jazzy stuff in his playing. 

Update 1.05-Competetive Gaming, New Headset, Dirty Bomb Beta, Plans

     Lately, things have been fabulous. I had the weekend off, went to a concert, hung out with a friend, did a lot of gaming, and hung out with my older bro. It was so fantastic that it kind of changed my outlook on life at the moment! Spent the day at work thinking about plans for the future, things I wanted to get for my birthday next month, stuff like that.
     First of all, I got a brand new gaming set from Gamestop, my favorite store. It's a HyperX Cloud pro gaming headset endorsed by ESL, MLG, and Intel Extreme Masters. It's pretty nice, I've only had it for 3 days and I can honestly say that I got my moneys worth. It wasn't cheap either, it came at a price of $69.99, which is a steal because online they go for $79.99. I gotta say that these are the best headphones I've ever had. When I'm playing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, I can actually hear people's footsteps coming up behind me as I'm running around. Pretty sick. In addition, the headset is great for music too, I listened to a lot of music today and it works well for that as well. Not too shabby. The thing about gaming headsets is that the price range can go from $100-to over $300 but when you're going that far you might as well just get great regular sounding headphones that audiophiles use, and not just stick to just gaming headsets. Anyways, it was expensive because its a brandname (HyperX), which is part of Kingston technology, they do everything from computer memory, ssd, usb drives, headsets, and mouse pads. Here's a little info about the headset here if you're interested-http://www.kingston.com/us/hyperx/cloud#h3cl. Basically, the best thing about this headset is that I can game without that feeling that I have something on my head, sometimes it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all, nothing at all (thumbs up if you got that reference).
     Next, with the addition of the HyperX Cloud of course I got into some major gaming, some might call it major league gaming (ha, get it?). I haven't tested the headset on all my games but I did test it out on the ones I play the most. Mainly Heroes of the Storm. I've gotten so into Heroes that in some ways I've become a god at it. I mostly play competitively but I'm still in the unranked stage in the ranked matches ranked thing. I really want to get a team and play on it exclusively and talk through vent or teamspeak and really enjoy the game that way but I don't know enough players who play it as much as I do. My favorite characters to play in Heroes are Novazon Nova (Nova w/ the Amazon skin from Diablo II), Leouric (from Diablo III, that's a cosplay of him in the picture), and Kerrigan (from Starcraft II). I'm honestly great with all three of those characters but I do play them all to do those quests that the game has. When you complete quests you earn in game gold that can be used to buy characters, mounts, and skins. I've unlocked most of my characters that way, although I did finally break down and buy a Blizzard card to buy the Novazon skin. I still have $10.01 left but I'm going to save it until there's something really cool that comes out in the game. Anyways, I've been playing Heroes really competitively and so far I've been pretty successful. I didn't think I'd ever be good at a moba. League of Legends and Dota 2 are way harder than Heroes but that still doesn't make Heroes an easy game for noobs. No filthy casual here.
     Also, I've been playing competitively in Smash 4 3ds. I figured out that I will be using 3 mains: Fox as my number 1 character, Zero Suit Samus when I can take things easy, and Sheik when I want to try to throw my opponent off. I usually play late online on For Glory. I've gotten so into Smash 4 that I've been thinking about saving up and buying a Wii U for my birthday next month. Might have to save up a little and spend less money because even used Wii U's go for $260, and that's the one with the smallest storage space. I don't need the Wii U but it would be nice to play online against people with better graphics and not having to look at a tiny ass screen. Sometimes the stages are so bright on that tiny screen that I can hardly see when I'm in battles. In addition, it would be a good investment because I'm thinking about going to Smash tournaments with my friends in the future and for the most part everyone plays the Wii U version at these tournaments. It's a great game and a fantastic E-sport as well. My favorite Smash pros are Mew2King, Zero, Mango, and Korean DJ, I'm the stereotypical Smash Brothers fan xD. By the way, I can beat most people online with ease but every once in a while there are people who are just on a different level than me. I have a win rate of about 50% at the moment in For Glory.
      Next, I decided to partake in this fps (first person shooter) beta called Dirty Bomb. This is a great tactical, objective, and team-based fps game where you choose from about 12 hero soldiers that all have special abilities; like orbital strikes, healing, and throwing out ammo packs to your teammates. I only played it just yesterday and I can honestly say the game is amazing. It's only in beta so it can only get better. The only bad thing I noticed is that even though its still in beta, there is a cash shop, which sorta makes it pay to win in my opinion. The thing that I like about this game is that it isn't about who can get the most kills or headshots, its about working as a team to complete the objectives. Without the objectives you can't win, which is an awesome idea for fps's. I heard about the game because steam emailed me about it telling me to participate in the beta. For the longest time I held off because I am not particularly into fps's. But I saw TotalBiscuit's review for it on the youtubes and I was pretty impressed with it. It can only get better with this winning formula of objectives over kills or team deathmatch stuff that is prevalent in fps's.
     Lastly, I'm waiting on the next Starcraft expansion to come out. My pre-order for the deluxe edition says its coming out on December 31st, so it will be after Christmas. I'm thinking about starting to play Starcraft II again competitively so I can gain my skills back and get back where I was, maybe try to get higher in the online ranking system. Last time I left off was in Gold League, at number 1 or 2, so I can easily get into Plat, if I try hard enough. The ranking system goes like this-bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, masters, and grandmasters. Koreans are all grandmasters. Us Americans have to work harder at it haha. Also want to work on playing Warcraft III, I've always loved the game but I've never played it long enough to understand the mechanics, especially online in 1v1 matches. When I did play I mained the Undead race because of the Death Knight hero. Also, in November I want to get a BlizzCon virtual ticket so I can follow everything that happens, especially the Starcraft tourneys, I know some sick Korean players will be there. One day I'll have to go to BlizzCon with my bro, he's gone once with his buddies. It's always in Anaheim, here in California. As you can tell, I am a huge nerd, haha! Then, there's going to the jam sessions for the Baked Potato on Mondays as well. So I'm really stepping up my guitar game as well as competitive gaming skills. Also, there's anime that I want to watch too; JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. So many plans! I hope you all had a great summer and enjoy the fall coming up soon here in September, my favorite month because of my birthday and my step-dad's birthday. Figueroa out.

Michael Landau Group at the Baked Potato

     Saw a pretty cool concert tonight at the Baked Potato. This is my third time there. This wasn't as good as the last show I saw there, but still better than the first show. I saw the Michael Landau Group, which consists of Michael Landau on guitar, Reggie Hamilton on bass, and Gary Novak on drums. I gotta say first of all that Landau is a great guitar player but I can see that most of his skills come from being a session player, and that perhaps he doesn't really have much of a career going for him in terms of the performer context. The one thing that surprised me was that he has such an amazing rhythm section, why don't they get to play any solos? The obvious answer is because Landau is the leader but with a bass player and drummer that good, its a bit wrong not to feature them. The style of music they play is more akin to blues-rock and progressive-rock, but most of what they played was based on the blues. There are moments where he adds some spice to the chords, maybe playing some slightly jazz sounding chords but I wouldn't call Landau a jazz guitarist. I noticed his favorite chord is a simple bluesy 9th chord. However, Reggie Hamilton sounds like a jazz bass player to me, I could see him playing jazz fusion or standards. Same with the drummer. When it comes to improvisation I'd say that Landau is great when it comes to great rock and blues licks, and he adds a lot of chromatic jazzy licks in there as well, but his improvisation only goes so far. However, he does have his moments and those moments were amazing! There were times when he pulled off these great blues licks that sounded just like stuff Jeff Beck would play. Another great thing about Landau's guitar playing is that he has a great guitar tone. He sounds like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Johnson, all great players with great tone. Do I think he has his own sound and personality? Sound, probably not. But I do think he has his own personality and unique sound as a player, one of the all time great achievements in being a musician. Part of his own voice is that he rarely ever 'goes for it' when he's playing solos. By that I mean he never gets into a show off-y kind of thing, he's very relaxed and he's always holding back until just the perfect moment to cut loose with a flurry of blues based licks. It's actually amazing how he never overplays. If anything, he underplays, which me and my friend both agreed he did that.
     Now, let's talk about the rhythm section. Reggie Hamilton is an amazing bass player but he played much better bass just warming up before the show started testing out his 12-string bass with a huge neck. He played some jazz stuff on it but when it came to the band playing together, he was confined to simply playing root notes and background, not even really playing fills. He is another great example of not overplaying. But when you don't overplay to the point where everything you play is very simple, you run the risk of underplaying, which I felt happened for sure. I don't think regular people notice it that much but musicians can definitely tell. Its a shame because he sounded like a monster bass player when he was testing out some jazz stuff on his 12-string bass but when he was playing it with the band he was just playing single note stuff. A little underwhelming but he did have a great sound. It's hard to say who he sounds like as a bass player because I'm not familiar with enough great black bass players to say who's who, but he does sound like a funky bass player from the 70's, that's for sure. I think Hamilton is probably the most talented musician in the band, especially judging from the jazz stuff he was playing just testing out his bass before the show started.
     Next, Gary Novak is a good driving drummer. Again, he kind of underplays. I would say he had maybe one moment where he sort of kind of had a drum solo, but I don't think I can call it a drum solo because it was just a flurry of great fills, but it only lasted like 30 seconds. They could've let him stretch it out a little bit longer than that! His style is really good. He's a great all around drummer and he can even do a bit of that fusion stuff, he sounded great on the more moody jazzy sounding stuff, especially his cymbal work. I could see him working in a fusion context for sure, he would probably sound better than doing simple blues-rock stuff. He sticks to the rhythm mainly, and he doesn't really add too many fills, a great drummer for a leader who doesn't want a a drummer who shows off. He was really good.
     Lastly, it was a bit hard to enjoy the show because I was standing in the back. However, I was able to see all of the musicians clearly, especially the guitar so that was cool and satisfying for the money I paid. It's become a hang out place for me lately, but it isn't cheap. It was $25 at the door plus 2 drinks that came out to $14, not exactly cheap for me because I only work part time. However, it is worth the money and I did enjoy it. Even my friend had a good time. The sound quality was terrific too by the way. Everything in the mix was clear and sounded 'tasty', as they say. One thing I have to say is that every tune he played sounded the same. They all sounded like some kind of blues-rock jam with some quiet jazzy parts. At that point, he's not really playing songs, he's just playing an outline of a song just for the purpose of extended solos. Nothing wrong with that because I love solos, but this isn't really a band that plays 'songs'. Every time I go to these concerts I feel like I'm learning something on the guitar, and as a musician in general. Came for the fun with friends. Left with some great blues-rock guitar sounds in my head.