mightypotato

WEEDLY DEEDLY DEEDLY DEEDLY WEEDLY DEEDLY DEEDLY DEEDLY DUM DUM

Me too. The heavy metal world and music in general has lost a legend. He had one of, if not the greatest voice in all rock. This is the first time in a long time that a celebrity death has actually made me sad. I'm glad I got to see him with Heaven and Hell back in 2007. RIP, Ronnie. \m/

Luckily, Ronnie has not left us just yet. He's still hanging tough. This whole thing seems to be a terrible hoax someone pulled. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=140115 From Dio's Twitter feed,

For the most part, fans at death/folk metal shows are fairly responsible and all around nice (see my post about Finntroll on the last page). It's the young kids who go crazy and whatnots. I saw Lamb of God open for Metallica back in October. I didn't know much about them, but they did put on a fairly good show. Defintiely worth checking out.

Amen to that. I don't know of many parks that have a frisbee, top spin, top scan, Jump 2 (none, lol) and an Intamin drop tower. It was one of the things I would talk up about Wonderland pre-Behemoth. Personally, I would rather see a Splashworks expansion for 2011 rather than a new coaster. The water park has been neglected for a looooong time and needs something new. Though, I am in favour of tearing down Wild Beast in favour of a new wooden coaster. Or floorless coaster. Or parking lot.

I was at the season pass preview night last night and was pleasantly surprised to find Sledgehammer back operating. Tragically, the cycle is as lame/boring as ever. It seems like there is so much potential for awesomeness with the ride, but it's ruined by not really doing much of anything. That said, it still looks awesome in operation.

Like I said a few posts up, I had a few more concerts to attend last week. I was originally going to see both Gogol Bordello and Amon Amarth on consecutive days. However, I came down with an extremely nasty head/chest cold that left me void of energy. I basically had a choice, go to see Gogol Bordello and miss Amon Amarth or vice versa. Since I'm a much bigger fan of Amon Amarth than Gogol Bordello, I sold my Gogol Bordello ticket and went to see Amon Amarth. Kind of sad, but the good of my body will win out over a concert. So, Amon Amarth then. For some reason, they were playing at The Opera House in Toronto. The last time I had seen them, they played at a much larger venue and I was puzzled as to why they weren't playing there again. I don't think I've ever seen the place as full as it was for this concert. While The Opera House is a decent venue, it's way too small for the band. On the plus side though, the sound equipment troubles I mentioned in my Finntroll review didn't happen. I could hear everything more or less equally...nothing really overpowered. I arrived late at the venue because of work and had to work my way through the crowd during the opening band, Holy Grail's set. Holy Grail is a power metal band out of LA that was....interesting. It was like a mix up of 1980's hair metal, thrash and Dio-era Sabbath. Some of their music was pretty awesome and they definitely have some skill, but their stage presence seems to be done in an ironic way with how 80's they look. It kind of distracts from their music. Eluveitie came on next. I was almost as excited for this as I was for Amon Amarth. Eluveitie is a folk metal band from Switzerland and one of my favourite bands out there. They play music with more a Celtic feel to it, and have some of the more interesting instruments I've seen from a heavy metal band. For instance, tin flute, violin and hurdy gurdy. Yes. You read that right. They have a hurdy gurdy player (she's also quite hot, but that's neither here nor there). Their set seemed to be quite short, and I was a bit disappointed in that, but they did play two of my more favourite songs, Sublime Grey Archon and Inis Mona, so that made me happy. If the crowd wasn't already packed in tight enough during Eluveitie's set, it got 10x worse when the lights came down for Amon Amarth. I managed to situate myself closer to the front, but got rocked around quite a bit during the initial push when the band came on stage. I've got a lot more to say about that, but that will come later. As for the band, awesome. Amon Amarth is a viking folk metal band out of Sweden that is all sorts of awesome. I'm a huge fan of Norse mythology, so the combination of that and heavy metal is an instant win in my books. Amon Amarth has been touring for quite some time in support of their 2008 album, Twilight of the Thunder God (this is their 2nd or 3rd tour for the album or something to that effect). Naturally, they played a lot of stuff off that album, like Guardians of Asgaard, Twilight of the Thunder God and my favourite, Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags. They also reached back a few years to some of their older stuff like Versus the World and the amazing album With Oden On Our Side. While they were awesome, some of the guitar work was noticeably sloppy, especially during Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags and Cry of the Black Birds. But, aside from that, they played a good set with a decent hour and a half length. Unfortunately, no pictures at this time, but I might get around to posting a few. Now, an open letter to all 15-17 year olds who go to heavy metal concerts: Dear 15-17 year olds at this concert, I am glad you chose tonight to be your first heavy metal concert. I can see you're really excited and even a bit nervous. Oh, it looks like you also tried marijuana for the first time tonight too! Wow, you're growing up so fast! But you know, you can stop jumping around and screaming like an idiot between sets. You don't need to attempt to start a mosh pit during sound check in an effort to be "hardcore". Because you're not being hardcore. You're being an idiot who is ruining the experience for the older/more experienced crowd. It's fine to get excited and whatnot for a band you really want to see, but tone it down a bit. God dammit. SUPER DVD BONUS FEATURE! On Friday, I went to go see Craig Ferguson perform stand up comedy in Toronto. For those who watch his show, he's as funny if not funnier in real life. And he brought his two dancers with him. No pupppets and no Geoff unfortunately. But it was super funny. Definitely worth checking out if he comes down your way. Coming up next: a well deserved break from concert going of any type for a while. The next show I'm going to see is Dave Brubeck as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. Dave. Brubeck. Holy crap.

Last Monday, I went down to Toronto to see Finntroll. Finntroll is a folk metal band out of Finland that sings about trolls. Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds. There were four bands that played that night (Finntroll included). Here's a brief recap of the concert: I got to the venue at around 7:30 or so, and the opening act was about half of the way through their set. Nothing really spectacular, especially since I can't remember their name. They were a local metal band out of Toronto that were fairly mediocre. Granted, I did enjoy one or two songs they did, but nothing really stood out for me. ^ First band who's name shall remain unknown to me. Next up was Swallow the Sun, a doom metal band out of Scandinavia (where the best metal comes from, btw). Ugh. More like Swallow the Suck. Normally, I'm not a fan of doom metal, and this really reminded me why. Slow, plodding and a real mood killer. They had one or two heavy guitar riffs that were pretty nice, but whenever something good happened, their tempo went right back to slooooooow and booooooring. I don't think I've ever been as happy to see a band get off stage as I was to see them off. ^ Swallow the Sun....boring. Enough said. After the drudgery that was Swallow the Sun, some redemption was offered in the way of Moonsorrow, a folk metal band from Finland. All the energy that Swallow the Sun drained out of the room came right back during their first song. Fast, energetic and heavy. All things I love from a heavy metal band. At this point, the crowd started to get really into it, forming a few rough (but always friendly) mosh pits. I hadn't heard of Moonsorrow before, but I'll definitely be picking up some of their stuff now. It pays to go to concerts just to discover new bands. Awesome set. Also, their keyboardist looked disturbingly like Will Ferrell. ^ Moonsorrow was awesome. So very very awesome. Finally, at about 10:45 or so, Finntroll, the reason we're all here came on stage. The band opened the set with a few songs of their new album, Nifelvind, much to the crowd's delight. As soon as the guitars started, the entire floor area went crazy and turned into awesomeness. They played some of their more well known songs (Trollhammeren, Solsagan, etc). They even played my favourite song of theirs, Födosagan off the Jaktens Tid album. They played until 12:45, leaving the crowd with no energy left. It was a great show by an awesome band. ^ Finntroll, ftw. Now, for a few general comments about the whole experience. I don't know whether it's an issue with the venue, the sound crews or whatever, but whenever I see a band at the Opera House in Toronto, the vocals are always really low. Either that, or they're just overpowered by the guitar/bass. It's a nitpicky type of thing, but it can really bug me if I can't hear a specific instrument or vocals. Kind of ruins the whole reason to see a band. A huge commendation has to go the crowd who showed up for this show. I've been to a lot of metal shows and concerts in general, and this was the best crowd I've ever been a part of. Everyone was super friendly, happy to be there, polite and energetic. Not exactly the thing you would expect from a metal crowd, but its more the norm that you'd think. With shows like this, the people that go know the music, know how to behave during concerts and they know that well. I've been to shows where the crowd has actually ruined an otherwise decent concert (e.g., Motorhead). This crowd however, just elevated everything to a higher level. Just a blast to be part of it. All in all, it was a fun night, though driving the hour home was definitely not very good. I'm going to two concerts this week (Gogol Bordello on the 20th and Amon Amarth on the 21st) so I'll probably be posting something from those shows too.

Behemoth had the same problem with the single rider/assigned seating thing during its first season. I guess enough people thought it was lame/stupid because in its second season, there was no more assigned seating. You just go where you want now. I wonder why I232 still uses it?

Not gonna lie, I'm actually a little disappointed that SoB won't be reopening this season. I'm finally heading to Kings Island for the first time this summer, and for all its faults, I was sort of looking forward to riding it. Mainly, just to say I did, but whatever.

If you're talking about pandering to the Academy, look no further than The Blind Side. An affluent white family takes in a disadvantaged black kid who is a football player? That's got Oscar bait written all over it. And that's 90% of the reason I didn't want Sandra Bullock to win her Oscar, it was blatant Oscar pandering. Gabourey Sidibe put in the performance of a lifetime and deserved it way more than Sandra Bullock. Just my $0.02

I picked up Final Fantasy XIII on my lunch break at work today. The wait until I get to play it is killing me right now.

First park: Canada's Wonderland First coaster: Behemoth First new park: Holiday World First new coaster: The Voyage First food bought: Let's say the Canada's Wonderland buffet. Best thing ever.

Usually the action movies will win Best Sound Mixing/Editing or some of the othr technical awards. It's pretty much the only way they even get nomincated for an Academy Award. That said, here are my early predictions for the main Oscars: Best Picture: The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r Best Actor: Jeff "The Dude" Bridges (Crazy Heart) Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious) Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r) Best Animated Feature: Up I just want to take this time to point out my awesome prediction skills. Got all of them right, except Best Actress. Go me.

You have excellent taste. On the rare occasion where I do smoke a cigar, I almost always go for a Montecristo #2. I find that they taste better and are smoother than other brands. When I used to work night shifts, I would work 7 in a row, then have the following week off. When I would get back to my apartment after my 7th shift, I would smoke a nice Cuban cigar and drink a cold beer. It was the most satisfying thing ever.

When I went to Darien Lake last summer, Predator wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It was running slightly better than it had previously. Mind you, that's an upgrade from "OMG worst coaster ever!" to "OMG bottom 10 coaster ever!". That said, Ride of Steel alone makes the visit worthwhile. Well, that and Fascination.

Seeing the pictures of River Country made me both nostalgic and sad at the same time. My family used to go there all the time when we would stay at the Camp Wilderness Campground. The water park was great as it was easily within walking distance from our campsites. I would spend all day just messing around in the lake and on the slides. A lot of good memories there. And Discovery Island I remember being pretty cool. I remember there being a lot of birds and whatnot.

Yeah, but they played Norway today. Not exactly a powerhouse in the world of ice hockey. I'm going to reserve judgement on a Canadian team with great potential until they play a real opponent. Canada's curling teams pulled through against some tough opponents today. Kevin Martin looks strong as always and should be competitve to defend Canada's gold in men's curling. Yes, curling is a sport we take seriously up here. Hurry hard and whatnot.

As a Canadian, I am legally obligated to be addicted to Tim Hortons' double-double (2 cream, 2 sugar). I quite enjoy coffee, but rarely spring for the more upscale "gourmet" coffees available at a Starbucks or Second Cup. Usually, I just end up drinking the relatively gross coffee that is provided for free at work.

Usually the action movies will win Best Sound Mixing/Editing or some of the othr technical awards. It's pretty much the only way they even get nomincated for an Academy Award. That said, here are my early predictions for the main Oscars: Best Picture: The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r Best Actor: Jeff "The Dude" Bridges (Crazy Heart) Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious) Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt L-o-c-k-e-r) Best Animated Feature: Up

I hear they have the internet on computers now...

I've been a fan of Conan for many a year. His trip to Toronto after the SARS outbreak was an extremely classy move. He's paid his dues by staying at the 12:35 slot while Jay was at 11:30. Jay is coming off as a douchebag who doesn't care about anyone but himself. All in all though, Craig Ferguson is way better.

I'm all for innovations with technology and trains and whatnot, but I really have to wonder what Vekoma was thinking with this one. I mean....why?

I've never noticed a speed difference between the two. But, then again I don't play on medium. I would suppose at the expert level, its the same. Although the one thing that I find missing from Rock Band is the hyperspeed mode that GH has. The only "new" game I've gotten into recently was the God of War III demo for PS3 since I bought District 9 on Blu-Ray. It was immensely fun and I now have my pre-order placed. I'm also still playing World of Warcraft in the never ending search for better gear. My relatively undergeared warrior

I wasn't sure if I was going to put my tree up at home or not this year. So, I decided to forget all that and put it up at work! Somehow, I still lost the desk decorating contest this year.