The La Parola

Hey, its been a while (yeah, what else is new!). Today we had an oppurtulity to do a little on site pre-nup photoshoot with me and my gurl here with the help of the expertise of iStudio Photo Services (all the way from Valencia, Bukidnon). Don't get me wrong here but I'm not the dramatic romantic dweeb effect kinda guy with me having a metal band and all and donning black shirts all the time and mostly favor the darker side of life (heheheh), I did this at my partners persistent request and much to my amazement, I yielded to her whims. Actually, just between you and me, its always 99% of the time, shhhhhhh. What the hey, its always a first time for anything, right?!. We did it hastily at La Parola, Liloan, Cebu based on a friends suggestion to do it there because of the unique view plus I like lighthouses. It was all in all a first hand experience doing all the drama of doing a little photoshoot. Here's a quick pick of the La Parola and by the way, it is taken from my meager point and shoot camera that I happen to have at the moment and not the expensive and elaborate ones' that the iStudio team was using during the event. Mebe I'll post the ones' they did when I get hold of the file copy. Soon enuf.

The Watchmen is Coming

I am also excited when a movie adaptation of a comicbook series or character comes along like them Batman, Xmen, Spiderman and Hulk franchises and some one shots like 300 and V for Vendeta or the Crow even. And from watching this Watchmen trailer awhile ago it gave me goosebumps all over. Wow, so true to the comic book and so cool was it even this early on I can say that it will be a winner. Im looking forward to it, although its still on 2009, good things come to those who wait, as they say. A classic just like its original comicbook version. Hope so. Watch it and tell me what you think. If anyone one wants an ebook version of the comicbook to go read and enjoy, I can gladly pinpoint you with the appropriate download links (is this legal?!!). Hehehe...

Im Hacking Again...

Thats right, Im up to no good again. I was bored, pretty bored to the extent that I wanted to buy another Motorola to hack and modify but the voice of reason, i.e. my fiance, reminded me that I have obligations of a more pressing matter to do and that buying another phone would capsized my already meager savings. As for the one's who read my previous post, the fate of my still bricked (dead)  Motorola L7i was still bleak and am still hoping to revive it someday when I have thorough knowledge on how and the financial capabilities to do so. I was guilty of hacking and modding it to death and the repercussions are still felt. But yes I was bored, and then their's my still soft modded P1i which was still under a warranty and still has 4 months to go till it expires which made me apprehensive to hack and mod its file system and which eventually, I did a hack what I have always wanted to do since I bought the phone and reading from SE-NSE and IPMart Forums (their forums for the hacking mobile community, specially to Sony Ericsson Users) and Sony Ericsson blogs here and there. So far, I have only done some soft modding to it, like changing the CDA to Generic World 1 so that I can make the SEUS Update my phone to the latest software or do some themes or changing the font of the phone or installing new applications, small stuff actually. And only recently, I had the courage to succesfully port the Walkman v3 player which is only available in Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones lineup which my P1i is not a part of. Its really a cool application to have. Makes me wanna ditch my Ipod. heheh. Ive also ported updated versions of QuickOffice and PDF+ and the Torch application which is originally from the newer Sony Ericsson G900 and did change some of the Menu Icons . All in all, my interest is reinvigorated. If someone is interested on how I did these things (thanks to supermodder SWMail and other active modders in the UIQ community for sharing the files and the know hows) just email me and I'll provide you with the links. I'm a UIQ3 and Motorola hacking fanboy, I can't help it. hmmmm.

Article: Blood Mutants

Just want to share the link to this very informative blogpost by Sunstar Columnist Insoymada, one of my favorite columnist, click here and read the article and help spread the er, uhmm, love?!.

KASAKIT E.P. Launching @ NUVO, 7/19/2008

Hey, just wanna spread the love and inform all of YOUs that tribal/thrash/death metal band KASAKIT will be launching their E.P. entitled "Perpetual Pain" at the NUVO (formerly Kasadja Bar), Salinas Drive, Lahug Cebu City this coming July 19, 2008 and me and my band will be opening for them (along with 12 other local extreme metal bands). Click and read the image attached for more info. Support the underground, bang the head that does not bang..hehehe...We will be seeing YOU!!!!

My Top Five Metal Album List of All Time

I've just recently observed that I am an album lover rather than a song lover. Meaning, I much prefer, unconsciously, to like a band or an artist by his/her album (overall output) rather than individual songs of the album. Which relatively kicked off this post into letting me make a list of the top ten metal albums of all time.

When a typical band comes to mind, I always associate them on what album that I liked that they did. An example of which is posted on this blogs sticky sidebar entitled "Musick: There's No Accounting for Taste", a ripped-off title from a the quintessential Metal Maniacs Magazine which I frequently read and borrowed from a metalista friend to update myself with when the Internet was still scarce or steep. So, as an update of this sidebar and a little bit of background on why I picked such and such, the top five (not ten like the usual list because I'm too lazy to do a ten item list, hehehe) list thus far:


1. Slayer-Reign In Blood (1986)

This album started it all for me as a jaded metalist. Tom, Kerry, Jeff and Dave nailed it on this one and this was their 3rd official release. From the first track down to the last, all the tracks are flowing and are filled with all the essentials of brutal punishing metal music, fast and steady and full of kick ass imagery. All this lasted only for a mere 30+ minutes, purely perennial dude. Funny that I only bought the tape because a High School classmate of mine said that the Goat Lord cover looked evil and cool so I checked it out and wham! It hit me.


2. Metallica-And Justice for All (1988)

Although at present they suck big time (still hoping the new release this year would be a killer now that Rick Rubin is producing it) there was a time when I liked them and ..And Justice for All was I think is their best offering so far and I still am fond of listening to it up until now (thats why its part of this list, stupid me). James' vocals here were heavy and angst ridden, not the lousy bluesy wimpy type nowadays and the guitars on this album were so heavy on the mix that the bass parts were veering to non-existence.  A very heavy album and their heaviest even.

3. Death-Symbolic (1995)

Main man Chuck Schuldiner's second to the last offering before forming the band Control Denied. It is by far the pinnacle of the bands tight heavy musicianship. Death is a band not only focused on brutallity, hard and fast playing but are more into the technical precision and dynamics and the possibilities of the genre. They are even dubbed as progenitors of the Progressive Death Metal genre. This album is by far their most melodic yet still brutal, albeit even catchy at times, so musically refined that Chuck's lyrics are at its most profound and thought provoking. When I listen to this album, it takes me to another place, its not trippy but like when your reading a good book, you get entranced. Chuck Schuldiner is a true metal hero in my book, it is unfortunate that he died too soon.

4. Morbid Angel-Covenant (1993)

Hail the Ancient Ones!!! Blasphemes David, Trey and Pete as they always do on there releases which makes this the 3rd official release and can be vindicated by cleverly imposing the letters of the alphabet on each subsequent release they make starting with the letter A for Altars of Madness and so on and so forth. If Death was technical and melodic, these guys are technical amd melodic but more sinister and evil and brutal. This one and their Blessed Are the Sick release I considered to be there bestest bet but I had to pick only one and this one I decided, I much prefered this over the other based on feel and vibe of the album its much darker, but both can be considered still. I'm a bassist as some of you know and Morbid Angel's bassist and frontman David Vincent was what I aspired to become until laziness caught up with me. He is like Sting of the Police is to Death Metal when he plays his instrument and sings at the same time without breaking a sweat.


5. Napalm Death-Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)

They're dubbed as the Godfathers of Grindcore and they are still grinding today and making their fans wriggle into the moshpit and making ears bleed but this release up until Words from the Exit Wound were more deathmetal laden but still with some grind tossed here and there. This release is even more deathmetal and even hints of Industrial Metal among the bunch. When you get to listen to this one the title cover of the album really resonates in every song into a very effective theme. Fear, emptiness and despair oozes out in every track in this one that you can almost taste it (yeah right, poetic me). Barney's hate call coupled with drooning guitars and bass courtesy of Shane adds to the mix with misery, alienation and discordance. Over all a very heavy album and I'm still happy (so ironic, isn't it) listening to it through all these years.

Well, that's a wrap. It's just my list, whats yours?...