Cultural Invisibility

Do These Belong to You...?

2008-04-16T00:16:00.001-07:00

Do these belong to you?

Hello...we the JB Bonifacio's....

have your Kanye West tix in our possession...

If our demands are not met, we will burn one ticket every hour on the hour starting at 7:00pm on April the fifteenth, 2008 until said demands are met.....

.....Just call me tomorrow on my cell or gmail me and we can arrange an exchange of sorts...

have a pleasant tomorrow.....lol ;)

jb's recap...BEST. WEEK. EVER.-style.

2008-03-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

Currently reading: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Paperback)by Daniel Goleman

Currently (Re)Watching: Battlestar Galactica: Season 1 ---- BEST. SHOW. EVER....A sci-fi allegory of the war on terror? sign me up :) (I don't think Dustin is ever going to relinquish my DVD set either.....:( )

% of taxes Done: I have relied on Future-JB to do my taxes (Present-JB got wasted this wknd) and either Future-JB did it right, ooooorrr Present-JB is going to jail.

Current Pet Peeve: Why the frak won't www.penny-arcade.com open at all?

April Fool's Jokes planned: 2; they don't know what hit them ;)

# of times JB deserves to be slapped: Yeah I'm thinking 2.

What DIDN'T JB eat this week: healthy food.

Life Lesson learned: My XBOX 360 is many things, but a love doctor it is not, alas.

Biggest Poker Accomplishment: Accepting a nice contribution to the "JB-needs-money-for gambling" charity fund, courtesy of www.zoji.com

Influences: I'm under one right now ;)

Most contested word on Scrabble: smad.

On a scale of 1 to landfill, our condo is a: landfill.

Current conspiracy theory: Don Nguyen is, in fact, the 12th and final Cylon model.

Finish this sentence: This Thursday, I'm going to (EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT for Free admission Thursdays)

Quote of the week: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes...you might find....you get what you need. ---- The Rolling Stones

222-666-3-33

2008-03-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

444333

999666888

44288833

3332226663333

8444447777,

8444447777

6332667777

999666888

833998

929999

8666666

68822244 :-P

Its a party in my mind, but no one accepts the evite...

2008-03-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

To anyone that yearns for the days of yore when friends & acquaintances were available at a moment's whim to hang out.....To anyone mortified by the notion of scheduling get-togethers, shindigs, hootnannys with the same cold efficiency commonly reserved for, say, updating your Microsoft Outlook acct. at work....To everyone compelled, deep down inside, to ascend the clocktower, screaming "Where's the time gone?".....

I give you....monday's edition of Penny Arcade (btw, Penny Arcade is a popular webcomic; think The Daily Show, but w/ videogames instead of News)

click here for a bigger version.

...The Greatest Hits

2008-03-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

JB: "you know what the best album of ALL TIME is, in fact?"

Dustin: "...what?"

JB: "...my hard drive."

I feel like the time is right (actually, its just a slow Friday at work...hee hee...) to compile my top 10 list of favorite albums ever...but first...a little perspective.

Not alot of ppl notice this right away (being the self-proclaimed music connieseur I make myself out to be), but I got into music relatively late (at 17-18 years old, in fact. I know...pretty n00b). However, between Napster (ok ok, Nirvana, check. Weezer, check. Smashing Pumpkins, check. No Doubt, check. Green Day, check.) and my too-hip-to-be-square parents (mom was a dj in college...true story. And my dad wore his hair down to his moneymaker, so you KNOW he had to listen to some tunes) I was scooping up entire discographies like gold dubloons from the Marianas trench (hmm...i see now why its called 'pirating.')

Back to the subject at hand....Top 10 list of favorite albums. Now, this isn't a list of the "BEST albums ever" cuz those are pretentious at best (btw, mine isn't ;) ). One of the allures of music is that its a strictly subjective experience; certain sounds are going to resonate more with certain ppl, I say.

Rather, the following 10 albums help to forge my musical spectrum; I acknowledge that there are greater ones....but hey....why don't you blog about it if you disagree!

10. Ray of Light, Madonna --- Electronic music with a heart. Madonna's most inspired album to date.

09. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah --- Frank Black's + Sonic Youth's power chord opuses = my #9 pick.

08. Silent Alarm, Bloc Party --- You could listen to Joy Division, Gang of Four, New Order, and all other artists of that ire....or you could listen to Bloc Party and hear the sound of 20 years of rock & new wave funneled through the band's capable & rock n rollin' hands.

07. Doolittle, the Pixies --- There'd be no "alternative music" without them, imho.

06. Play, Moby --- Moby's Play is more than an album, its a spiritual epiphany that coalesced into an album.

05. Absolution, Muse --- You won't find a sound that superbly combines Opera, Queen, Radiohead, or Metallica so deftly.

04. Dude Ranch, Blink 182 --- Everybody should know the words to at least ONE Blink 182 song. They're like the KISS of my generation.

03. Achtung Baby, U2 --- In Bono's own words, "Achtung Baby is the sound of U2 chopping down the Joshua Tree."

02. Joshua Tree, U2 --- No religious experience has yet to match the euphoria that I get from listening to this album, start to finish.

01. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan --- The fact that ppl continue to emulate him to this day is testament to his legacy as a musican, a poet, an engima, and according to 2007's I'm Not There, a black kid from Tennessee, an androgynous woman, an retiring Billy the Kid-esque deity, a movie star, and apparently, a communist to boot.

Is that a rutabega in your pants?

2008-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

March 14th, 11:00 AM. Gmail.com..........My friend from Vegas, Sarah S., drops with a tidbit of news...

Sarah: oh yeah. well...my sister's taking a part time job at this place: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/vegan-strip-club.php

11:02 AM me: as?

Sarah: a stripper

11:03 AM me: a carnivorous stripper?

Sarah: a VEGAN stripper

me: sarah, can i blog about this? lol

Sarah: sure. enjoy

me: i'll leave last names out

Sarah: np

me: no no i'll put in fictional
ones

11:04 AM me: like sarah skywalker.

Sarah: hey. i'd do it if it were in vegas. but that kinda thing only works in a city like portland.

me: you mean eugene, oregon right? Vegan strip clubs scream "Eugene."

Sarah: no, i mean portland.

Vegan strip-club, eh? Kinda reminds me of how the braintrust behind 2004's "Reign of Fire" must have felt when greenlighting that piece of sh---er, "creative synergy."

I can see it now.....

Person A: Hey i have an idea for a movie.....

Person B: I'm listening.

Person A: Its a science fiction post-apocalyptic movie....

Person B: zzzz zzzz zzz.....

Person A: .......WITH DRAGONS!

Person A: Sold! It'll be just like your future investment into vegan strip clubs. Synergastic!

Red Vs. Green

2008-03-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Show of hands....anybody know what's wrong with this picture?....anybody?

What you just saw is referred to as a "red band" trailer. Traditionally, the previews that appear before every cinematic feature look like this:

As your psychic prowess (coupled with your ability to read) have no doubt surmised, the "green band" trailers are more...family friendly (I abhor this concept as of late, since my 12 year old cousins have proved to be equally, if not more so, densensitized/hip than my relatively square ass). In other words, the content has been MPAA'ed by the MPAA (sorry kiddies, no graphic violence, sexual content, or objectionable imagery for ya).

Understand this first....I LOVE TRAILERS. They were half...no....2/3rds the fun of going to the movies....to catch what was on the horizon. Yes, we can all remember being burned by that "one movie with the awesome trailer" *cough* Episode I *cough* *cough* Hitman *end cough*. However, at their best, trailers...for a lack of a better word...."swede" their own movie, leaving in its wake, an unabashful sense of anticipation and enthusiasm for said movie.

So it comes with grrrreat pleasure to announce that Regal Cinemas has just announced that starting this year, they'll run the aforementioned "red band trailers" in theatres nationwide (hey come back kiddies, j/k. We'll put in the graphic violence, sexual content, and copious amounts of objectionable imagery).

Want proof that "red band trailers" work?

Watch the regular trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall....then the Red Band version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and ask yourself....which movie do you want to see more?

And 2009's Best Actor Oscar goes to....

2008-03-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Any emotionally and morally stable man can become insane after having "one really bad day." -- The Joker, The Killing Joke, 1988.

Already, there is considerable internet buzz surrounding recently deceased Heath Ledger's final complete role as...drumroll please...The Joker. So much buzz in fact, that everyone, from film critics to established comic geeks everywhere praised Mr. Ledger's brief appearance in the latest trailer release, citing a possible post-humous Oscar recognition for his work in the sequel, in spite of the fact that the much anticipated sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins" has still another several months before its July 18, 2008 release.

For going on about a year now, myself and the rest of the internet forums were abuzz whether up and coming actor Heath Ledger had the panache' to contemporize and portray the Clown Prince of Crime in a manner that was more in tone with the "grounded" and "real-world" feel first established in "Batman Begins" (read: not chessy).

Well....I'm here to sell to you the prospect that here is a role that I'm convinced would do for Heath what the role of Capt. Jack Sparrow did for Johnny Depp (for the record, Depp DID get nominated for Best Actor for his role in Pirates). Trust me when I say this ladies and gentlemen: This IS the performance to watch this year.

And in true High Fidelity fashion, I have a short list on why:

1) Ledger's take on The Joker: "a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy." --- Ok, forget what you've seen in the past. Caesar Romero as the Joker in '66? campy? yes. But that was the '60s. Campy to a fault? absolutely. Jack Nicholson as the Joker in '89? A tad overrated in my opinion. Now, I love Jack's work to death, but his portrayal was less menacing sociopathic and more...old perverted uncle Cletus, if you know what i mean......On the other hand, Mr. Ledger has done his homework, citing inspiration from definitive Batman titles such as The Killing Joke, as well as cues from the Sex Pistol's anarchistic frontman, Sid Vicious, and Malcolm McDowell's Alex in A Clockwork Orange (and for the uninformed....think Tyler Durden in Fight Club when you think A Clockwork Orange).

My point: Ledger was dead set on re-interpretating the Joker as it should be portrayed: as an entity, believing only in unbridled anarchy.....which leads into my 2).

2) The Oscar academy rewards actors who play characters that are, ahem, morally bankrupt. --- In recent years, the Academy (and i think the public as a whole) has since equally embraced both the role of the antagonist as well as that of the protagonist....

To put it another way, "villains drive the plot. Besides, who do you think causes all those explosions?" lol (thanks to The Venture Bros for this quote). Need more convincing? ....ok, courtesy of Wikipedia:

2007 Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood as "Daniel Plainview"
2006 Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland as Idi Amin
2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day as "Alonzo Harris"
1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good as It Gets as "Melvin Udall"
1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs as "Dr. Hannibal Lecter"
2007 Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men as Anton Chigurh
2000 Benicio del Toro - Traffic as Javier Rodriguez
1995 Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects as Roger 'Verbal' Kint

3) Well....He also died recently. --- Now, I don't mean he deserves a pity award for dying and all. What I precisely mean by that is that it'll be nigh impossible to draw parallels between his anarchic performance in the Dark Knight and that of his own inner turmoil during his final months. In other words, whether this is simply art imitating life, a eerie portent of his evidentual downward spiral, or simply the public's fascination with conspiracy theories, it is intriguing to ponder nonetheless.

4) Mr. Ledger's future in acting had legs. Like a catapillar has legs. Well, at least the female percentage of his viewing audience thought so. But I'm comfortable enough in my manhood to acknowledge that the man had acting chops. If you've seen him in 2007's I'm Not There, then you know he has the chops to pull this off, with panache' no less.

And 5) come on, this poster is...morbidly cool....lol.

Tuesday Geek Test

2008-03-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

JB (using hands to recite): "Oh god, lemme think....'frak,' 'Joss Whedon,' 'Penny Arcade,' 'Kitty Pryde,' '12-sided dice,' 'Death Cab,' 'Master Chief,' 'Picard > Kirk,' '4-8-15-16-23-42,' and 'Kirsten Bell is hot...' OH GOD, i'm a huge nerd!"

I can't quite articulate how this geek test works, but heres my two cents:

If the following picture doesn't....um....mind-orgasm you two ways from tuesday, then unfortunately (fortunately?) for you, you are not, i repeat, NOT a geek.

Happy Hour...needs...YOU!

2008-03-11T00:05:00.000-07:00

My engineering mentor from Parsons Transportation Group recently left his job for a position in Middle Earth itself, New Zealand. I'm actually quite saddened...well, as far as one man can lament over another man's absence.

However, he has left in my possession something which I have now come to affectionately refer to as "the chick-tionary." And by "chick," I mean "an Excel spreadsheet containing a VERY comprehensive list of Happy Hour places in Seattle." (original credit goes out to Karen Rogers for first establishing said spreadsheet)

It truly is a powerful tool in that it breaks down the 150+ different restaurants by region, foods, prices, times, location, phone #, and most importantly, rating.

And that is where y'all come in.

As you read this, I'm sending the "the latest and greatest" copy of said Happy Hour Guide to every frakkin gmail /hotmail / .edu address; I'm taking it on faith that if enough ppl provide their own input on said spreadsheet (updates, add'tl locations, etc.), together we can distribute a fairly definitive list amongst our fellow peers ....

OR you can pawn it off as your OWN work and take ALL the credit (lol, I was totally going to do that, but Lan convinced me otherwise....curses...).

Besides, I am but one man, and the Seattle Happy Hour scene is NOT but JUST 150+ restaurants, total. If left to its own devices, the guide will surely atrophy and dissolve into irrelevance (if it hasn't already...lol).

If you are reading this directly off my blog & you don't have my email, contact me at bonifaj@gmail.com & I'll send u a copy.

Reason & Accountability

2008-03-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

Ladies & Gentlemen....Happy iPod Day (honestly, March 7 2008 marks the two year anniversary of the day when Apple officially patented the iPod) !!!!

Ashamedly so, I've been complacent in my blogging; I'm sitting on an ever-increasing queue of blog topics. And with each day, they become ever-increasingly irrelevant. Que sera sera...

......SO WHY STOP THERE?!!!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring u....Cultural Invisbility: Sex and the City edition.

....Guten Tach, her true believers! My name is Jan-Nil A. Bonifacio....I go by alot of names though....JB. BJ. JD. PJ. People call me alot of names (a couple even to my face...lol). But today...you can call me Carrie----er, no, Carl Bradshaw ;) .

Everything that I know about women can be summed up from a scene off of one of my favorite movies of all time, the sociolinguistical masterpiece....

White Men Can't Jump.

...In this exchange of dialogue, Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) explains to Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) about (one aspect of) the difference between rapport talk and report talk:

Gloria: Honey? My mouth is dry. Honey. I'm thirsty.

Billy: Umm... [ Water Runs ] There you go. honey.

Gloria: When I said I was thirsty, it doesn't mean I want a glass of water.

Billy: It doesn't?

Gloria: You're missing the whole point of me saying I'm thirsty. If I have a problem, you're not supposed to solve it. Men always make the mistake of thinking they can solve a woman's problem. It makes them feel omnipotent.

Billy: Omnipotent? Did you have a bad dream?

Gloria: It's a way of controlling a woman.

Billy: Bringing them a glass of water?

Gloria: Yes. I read it in a magazine. See... if I'm thirsty.....I don't want a glass of water. I want you to sympathize. I want you to say. ''Gloria. I. TOO. Know what it feels like to be thirsty. I. TOO. Have had a dry mouth.'' I want you to connect with me through the sharing and understanding the concept...of dry mouthedness.

Billy:....This is all in the same magazine?

Pirates of the Caribbean

2008-03-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

"Not all treasure in the world is silver and gold, mate." --- Capt. Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean

Every so often Dustin (Parsons Brinckerhoff) and I (Parsons Transportation Group....we're not related) have lunch at Zum-Dum (the actual spelling eludes me...my bad) Indian Cuisine on 3rd and Spring. Between our Obama / McCain free-for-alls, we take notice of the TV monitor playing Indian music videos.

Yes, the women depicted are disgustingly attractive. Yes, the strong sexual content is strong, indeed. And yes, Bollywood...imho, hinges on abstract craziness to get by.

However, what intrigues both of us most is that many Hindu lunar new years ago, "artistic expressions" of this nature were taboo, to say the least. Since then, India has gradually opened up its markets through economic reforms and reduced government controls on foreign trade and investment.

Suffice to say, we love their hot music vide----er, "cultural exports." On some levels (now humor me for a spell), the actors/actresses depicted are cultural freedom fighters, rebels against a chaste society, etc. etc., fighting against cultural invisibility.

Now, to my point.....in this article in the New York times , young men and women sustain a vast underground black market of information (everything from the newest episode of LOST to say, video feeds depicting Cuban govt. draconian-ism) amidst a overbearing communist climate, all in the name of cultural visibility (I rather not paraphrase more of the article, it really is a good read ;) )

At the risk of over-romanticizing, I think thats pretty effin' cool. Keyboard cowboys, armed with only stolen passwords and an eager memory stick, whose only crime is curiosity. I mean, I love the Internet; its like an umblical cord I dare not cut. But I wouldn't say, risk gov't persecution to prove my devotion. Not like these ppl do. Like the aforementioned "cultural freedom fighters" of India, these young, incendiary men and women are themselves, cultural freedom fighters, the "real" pirates of the Caribbean.

Now...where are those Cuban music videos, again?....haha j/k ;)

Exaggeration Theatre, revisited.....

2008-03-04T11:33:00.001-08:00

Monday, 3.3.2008 2300 hrs....5 min. into the "season finale" (I use that term loosely since its more likely its the last episode before 'the strike') of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles...

JB: "This is a surreal world we live in...a world where Brian Austin Green (of 90210 fame) can actually impress me with his portrayal of (spoiler alert) John Connor's uncle & Kyle Reese's bro,
Derek."

Denis: "Yeah....i concur. Anyways, shouldn't that chair collapse when that Terminator sits on it? The thing must weigh 1300-1500 lbs."

JB: "Au contraire', mon frere."

JB (putting his BS cap on): "Cybernetic physiology is alot more sustaining than say, our physiology."

JB (cranking up his BS to 11): "The servo-motors that outfit its limbs and its chassis probably could assume the sitting position and hold said position, with or without a chair."

Denis: "So the sure-fire way....the only way to determine if one is a terminator, by your logic, is to pull out a person's chair (laughs)."

JB: "Totally. Its our equivalent of the 'Salem Witch Trial' test."

Tom (looks at JB): "Don't you dare...."

Denis: "If it falls, set him tall. If it stays, run and pray."

JB (paying more attention to the HDTV): "Oh snaps....that Red Shirt is having sex with said Terminator!"

Tom: "You'd think she'd know the difference."

Denis: "I don't think she cares. Look at that robot go!"

JB: "touche'."

Exaggeration Theatre

2008-02-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

An exchange between roommates @ "CTU Northgate," aka, casa de Denis y JB.....approx. late afternoon Wednesday....

Denis (looking up from playing World of Warcraft): "So did you hear about the thing
with Hilary Clinton & Dimitry...Ram-bama-*&$%! (imitating gibberish)?"

JB: "Whabua-who?"

Denis: "Thats the thing...I can't pronounce the second party's name, though for the record, they WERE talking about international rel-"

JB: "Be Kind, rewind...."

Denis: "Hilary Clinton got slammed during a democratic debate for mis-pronouncing the Russian presidential candidate's name."

JB: "I'm guessing Obama sidestepped the whole debacle simply en-nobling him as just "Mr. Russian Guy-ovitch."

Denis (points to his secondary laptop): "Yeah, heres his name."

JB: "Um, Dimitri...Me deeve deeve?!?"

Denis: "My best guess is Dimitri Me de vee de vee!"

JB: "...Dimitri dev...dev...frak! My goal in life now is to get this right."

Tom (Denis brother, intervenes): "heres an audio sample..."

JB, Tom, Denis (all together): "Dimitri MeDEVDEV"
Computer: "Dimitri MedVEDEV"

JB, Tom, Denis (all together): "Dimitri MEDVEDEV...."

JB: "PHEW...Seriously, his name is a international incident waiting to happen....BURN!"

JB: "no no no. His last name is the little palindrome that could."

Tom (laughs like a little girl)

Denis (World of Warcraft character suddenly gets AOE'd to death...)

Here's the official story:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/02/28/012.html
And the Audio Sample that set the story straight:http://names.voa.gov/DailyAction.cfm
And...some info on the future (well not yet), on Dimitri MEDVEDEV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev

Why not "Step Up with a Vegenance" OR "Step Up Forever?"

2008-02-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

“Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl.” - Bill Peterson, football coach.

An excerpt from VARIETY, movie site:

Disney will proceed with a third installment of its hit dance franchise "Step Up," tentatively titled "Step Up 3-D."
Pic will become the latest 3-D live-action film from the Mouse House, with "Step Up 2 the Streets" director Jon Chu in talks to reprise.
Offspring Entertainment partners Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot, who have reupped at Disney for three years, will develop the film; the pair produced the first two "Step Up" pics.

....hmmm. What else can I say about this that hasn't already been said about...say...Britney Spear's "comeback?!?" -end quote.

I don't think I'm going to dignify this with any further comments.....lol.

...that makes total sense, Dad...

2008-02-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

"....the trick is to stop thinking of it as "your money." --- IRS auditor.

Parsons Seattle Office, bottom floor, 11:00 a.m.

Nilo Bonifacio: "hey son, I just came by to give u some work clothes I bought on clearance."

JB Bonifacio: "cool beans! So...how much does this all cost ya?"

Nilo (looking embarassed): "...thats the thing. I need $300 from you."

JB (flabbergasted): "...WTF?!"

Nilo (looking apologetic) : "....the thing is...I actually need $300 to buy this really good golf clu-"

JB (in standoff mode): " the clothes were a peace offering, weren't they?"

Nilo: "...yeah lol. I don't know if you know this, but if your mom sees the February bank statement and sees '$300 for random impulse buy,' she'll totally go sickhouse on your old man. I want to avoid a paper trail."

Nilo: "...and I love u."

JB: ".........."

The Rat and the Vampire

2008-02-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from HOUSE M.D. -

Dr. Cuddy: "House, how is it that you always assume you're right?"

Dr. House: "I don't. I just find it hard to operate on the opposite assumption."

Happy Friday!!! (I say happy b/c I finally tracked down a Green Lantern Tee to wear for St. Patricks day...shiny...)

Anywhoo, I have EVERY confidence in my granularity for queueing up new, buzzworthy music... often, in fact, before MTV and Rolling Stone attempt to quote their own precedence (Silversun Pickups, Rocky Votolato, Blue Scholars, Rodrigo y Gabriela come to mind....not to mention U2:3D ;) ).

Well, we're barely into the 2008-2009 fiscal year and already, two buzzworthy bands have fallen into my oh so enthusastic lap. And just how buzzworthy, you say? Well....I'd vouch for them motherfrakkers; like my previous finds, they're WAYYYY too good to just wallow in obscurity.

Enter: Ratatat and Vampire Weekend

RATATAT

--- To simply write them off as over-indulged video game music would be a weak (and ultimately narrow) label to give this eclectic New York duo. Their repetoire is blissfully simple (guitarist Mike Stroud and synthesizer savant Evan Mast) , yet they get alot of mileage out of said accoutrements. And by mileage, I mean to the moon, Alice. We're talking f*ckin vignettes of simple wonder: somber, sonically harsh melodies played on synth and guitars backed by electronic percussion. Add a dash of hip hop and funk, call it 'Ratatat' and you're off. Surprisingly, they're being groomed to be the apprentices to the Neptunes (I don't actually know the protocol on how this particular form of apprenticeship works lol).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatat

Definitely D/L:
Lex
Gettysburg
Germany to Germany
Everest

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

--- Think 'Graceland' on steroids. Think 'The Lion King' meets 'The Specials.' But for the love of your God, think something, at least...it'll be worth your 15 seconds. Anyways...not since Paul Simon has a band, let alone an indie-rock band, bring Afro-pop back into the spotlight. While frontman Ezra Koenig may be playfully coy about his other musical influences, by contrast, their word-of-mouth is anything but. Already fueled by frenzies of the youTube & MySpace variety, Vampire Weekend seems poised...no no....expected to make a BIG SPLASH (i'll put hard money that this actually pans out) with their plinky keyboards, ska-like guitar lines, and Congo drum beats @ a jungle near you.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/48053-vampire-weekend

Definitely D/L:
Oxford Comma
A-Punk
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Bryn

Final Note: Brent, like Axl Rose once said...all you need is...a little patience. I too want Blazin Chicken on this blog in one form or another.

U2:3D --- 01/18/2008 to 02/20/2008 (updated)

2008-02-21T11:14:00.000-08:00

phew.....It has since migrated to AMC Pacific Place theaters.

Fandango it.

U2:3D --- 01/18/2008 to 02/20/2008

2008-02-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

February 21, 2008 --- approx. 7:24 pm, Greenlake, under a blood red sky....

Gladys D. --- So, JB....just how many times HAVE you seen U2:3D?

JB B. --- Lemme put it this way...I'd be unable to count the number of times....on one hand.

(Thanks to Joss Whedon, comic book /TV show idiot savant...haha j/k for providing the "template" that i'm now COMPLETELY plagarizing....)

Hi, my name is JB Bonifacio. Before we begin this special blog, I have a little story I want to tell you. It's about a film called U2:3D(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_3D. U2:3D premiered on the silver screen a few weeks ago and was instantly hailed by critics as one of the most un-seen shows of the year (at least in MY immediate circles). It was ignored and abandoned and the story should end there...but it doesn't...because the people who talked about the show and the people who saw the show (which is...roughly...the same number of people) fell in love with it a little bit...too much to let it go, too much to lay down arms when the battle looked pretty much lost. In Hollywood (and in life, as I am reminded....constantly), people like that are called 'unrealistic' ... 'quixotic' ... 'obsessive'.

In my world, they're called 'fans'.

Whether you've watched U2 before, or saw the DVD's, or whether you've never set foot in their universe before now, the fact is they've been rocking their anthemic sound in upwards of 30 years; that is a little bit remarkable. This movie should not exist. Aging rock stars don't get major motion pictures unless

the creator, the band, and the fans

believe beyond reason. It's what I've

felt....It's what I've seen...

And yet it is, in an unprecedented sense, up to the non-fans to see this movie get its deserved national exposure...which means, if it fails, it's your fault....lol.

You let us down, but let's not dwell on your failures because the work is not done ;)

Once we are finished, we have to get people to see it. Now, obviously the studio is going to do their thing. There will be ads and trailers and all that joy, but this movie doesn't have Katherine Heigl and it isn't Step Up 2 or even

Hannah Montana 3D (ugh...). What it has is us (well, Dustin and myself, and to a lesser extent, Matt H and Chris A.), the people who believed....unreasonably.....

And now...here we are,

If this movie seems appealing to you, let somebody know. Let everybody know. Make yourselves heard. If you don't like the movie, this is a time for quiet, silent contemplation....haha.

But, when the credits / closing song finally

roll, if you still call yourself a U2 fan,

remember the millions of people who

don't...who might.

My review of the film is up at http://apps.facebook.com/flixster/review?r=792864038_770682062

U2:3D has since been removed from the Boeing & Eames IMAX theatres in favor of "The Spiderwick Chronicles: the IMAX Experience"

The Middlegame in Chess

2008-02-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

GMail, 12/20/07

JB, 3:50 PM --- so whats the what with medical school?

Sarah, 3:55 PM --- i'm doing nursing, JB.

JB, 3:56 PM --- sorry, lol. I group THOSE ppl together.

Sarah, 3:57 PM --- well....nothing much...just got my nurse apprentice license. So what's up with being an a**hole?

Sarah, 3:58 PM --- Oh wait, you're an engineer....sorry....I group those together lol ;)

Sarah, 4:00 PM --- burn!

A female confidante' (its not the aforementioned Gmail buddy btw, but they know who they are) once brought an very interesting argument to my attention:

who had it harder in life? the ugliest guy....or the ugliest girl?

White takes Black queen....she did have a point....

Point being said....well...well, allow me to retort:

What's more impossible to find: the perfect girl....or the perfect guy?

Now, I'm not saying our chess match is over by any means; I'm just saying that on behalf of the rest of the y-chromosome-inclined population, I just like to point out: Black effs up White Queen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_middlegame

Note: JB effigys are probably soon to follow...lol

1x01 - Pilot

2008-02-20T00:27:00.000-08:00

"All I can be is me...whoever that is." --- Bob Dylan.

NO, my blog won't take the form of a serialized TV show (well, maybe not literally). But part of the reason I titled this inaugural one "1x01 - pilot" is simply because, like any good pilot of any good tv show, a couple of things have to happen:

You gotta set the protagonist's background:

And with that....Hello, my full name is Jan Nil Andres Bonifacio.....and I'm an addict (lol j/k). I'm a 26 year old banana (*cough* yellow on the outside and white on the inside *cough*) and I spend an unusually (well, unusual for anyone not used to responsibility....lol j/k...i'll stop now) large portion of my day-to-day activity employed as an Associate Civil Engineer for the Seattle Branch of Parsons Transportation Group.

you gotta establish the protagonist's supporting characters:

I live in Northgate with college roommate Denis Ha, who, along with myself & his brother Tom, have made "arrested development" not just a way of life...but a survival trick (shhhhhhh.....thats fancy prose for "bachelor life" ....end quote). You can find any or all of us on XBox Live playing Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 under the clan names, "CAMP" or "CTU Northgate" on almost any given day of the week. And just so we make this clear, we aren't shy about letting loose ethnic slurs / making punk bitches suck it down during a session of gameplay.

you gotta establish the protagonist's dilemma / motive / hubris:

In the simplest terms....in the most convenient definition....I find interesting things....interesting. I can't help but SEE stories....no no no....tales.....no no no.....parables in anything and everything in my immediate surroundings. And for some inexplicable reason, I feel that it needs to documented in blog-form, at least in the short-term. I can only hope that in the end, my posts are more "blog" and less "rant."

and finally, introduce the MacGuffin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin):

To what end is this blog hoping to reach? Just what is my MacGuffin? Well, at the risk of sounding overtly abstract, I'm hoping to find "where the streets have no name." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_The_Streets_Have_No_Name)

Note: this whole Pop Culture reference motif is gonna be a recurring thing with me.