After fighting traffic every day in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, this is a dream come true. A (somewhat) affordable flying car!! Think of how cool this would be to have in your garage! Fly to the lakes and then go for a drive..all with out leaving your car. Check out the full story with pics here.
This is an unbelievable chance for a local band to open for KISS! KISS has had such bands as AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Rush, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motley Crue and others as opening acts. KISS will be at the ND State fair July 24th and the MN State Fair September 4th.
I am a huge gadget fan and I spend about half my day reading up on the latest high tech devices. Yesterday Google confirmed they are taking over the world when they announced the coming of Google TV. What is Google TV?
Trust me, you don't want to watch TV with me. I'm the guy who rewinds TV commercials and documentary's just to hear the voice over. So, yes, I hear voices, but in a good way.
What is a voice over? Well, it can be anything from a radio or TV commercial, a phone greeting, a movie trailer, a sales presentation, the background voices in movies etc. I'm fascinated by voice actors. There are thousands of people working in the field of voice overs but there is only a handful of recognizable names and voices. Can you make money doing voice overs? Yes! The top voice actors make well into the 7 figure range. Why do you think Morgan Freeman (Visa), Kiefer Sutherland (Bank of America), Tom Selleck (Florida Orange Juice) and many other big name starsl do voice overs?
Getting voice work isn't easy but it can be done. Dave Jacobs, from the Fox Morning Show, was hired to do 3 voices in a "Lord of the Rings" video game, Robbie Daniels does Verizon Wireless commercials all over North Dakota and I have voiced such diverse projects as an informational kiosk in the Scheels Sports Store in Reno, Nevada, a documentary for MTV and a training video for a bottled water company in Iowa. In the end, we get turned down for more jobs than we get, but that is all part of the game.
Voice overs aren't as easy as they seem. You often have to tell a story in :30 seconds or less. You have to somehow get inside the writers head and understand what they are trying to convey and often times, just like a movie, you are working with a director. I know voice actors who are very successful and to this day they still attend acting classes and seminars whenever their schedule will allow them. While living in LA, I studied acting weekly for 3 years and took voice over classes for 2 years. It was expensive but a great learning experience.
So, next time you hear a commercial, a greeting while on hold for the pharmacy or sit through a sales presentation, think of the person behind the mic.
Here are some of my favorites, including the late Don LaFontaine who is known as the voice of God!
I love it when stars are cool enough to make fun of themselves and not take this whole celebrity thing to serious. Jimmy Kimmel said he didn't like the new version of "We are the World" and wondered why none of the big stars from the original were asked to sing on the new version.....but one star decided to take matters into his own hands. Check out the video below.
Not only am I gadget junkie but I also love cars...so when you take a cool car and add some gadgets I really get excited! In years past, most of the great gadgets were only available in high end cars like the Mercedes Benz S Class (which starts at a $87,000), but because of user demand and more affordable electronics these gadgets are finally making their way down to cars the average American can afford. Some makes of Ford vehicles have had the "Sync" system for years. Sync is a voice activated system that allows your mobile phone (among other things) to become a part of your car. Using your phones Bluetooth connection, you can search music, make phone calls and hear audible txt messages. I once had an Audi A8 for a few days while my car was in the shop and it was equipt with a similar system. It was amazing to be driving down I94, hit a button on the stearing wheel and say "call Moose Johnson, mobile" and seconds later the phone was ringing through the cars stereo.
Now KIA motors is uleashing a system powered by Microsoft called UVO. Check out all it can do below.
Being a guitar player it's nearly impossible not to be in awe of Eddie Van Halen. Sometimes it's hard to believe we even play the same musical instrument. So for me, and many others, the closest we are ever going to get to duplicating Eddie's guitar playing is with Guitar Hero Van Halen which arrives in stores on December 22nd (just in time for Christmas...hint, hint). Below you can find a couple of trailers and full song list.
Van Halen Songs
“Ain't Talkin Bout Love”
“And The Cradle Will Rock”
“Atomic Punk”
“Beautiful Girls”
“Cathedral” (solo)
“Dance The Night Away”
“Eruption” (solo)
“Everybody Wants Some”
“Feel Your Love Tonight”
“Hang ‘Em High”
“Hear About It Later”
“Hot For Teacher”
“Ice Cream Man”
“I'm The One”
“Jamie's Cryin”
“Jump”
“Little Guitars”
“Loss Of Control”
“Mean Street”
“Panama”
“Pretty Woman”
“Romeo Delight”
“Running With The Devil”
“So This Is Love”
“Somebody Get Me A Doctor”
“Spanish Fly” (solo)
“Unchained”
“You Really Got Me”
I am a giant gadget and computer nerd and recently purchased one of the most anticipated new gadgets of the year….the Motorola Droid. It’s a cell phone that acts like a computer.
Here are my thoughts after using it for a little over a week. I love the way the touch screen works. It has little or no lag time and the screen looks amazing. It’s like looking at a little Hi-Def TV. When surfing the web, it’s incredibly fast (on the 3G network or Wi-Fi) and the web sites look just like you are looking at them on a computer. The keyboards, yes there are 3 of them…one pull out physical keyboard and 2 touch screen keyboards, are a little difficult to get used to but I found that I was able to type out email and txt just about as fast as on my Blackberry. The sound quality on phone calls and the phone software is very intuitive. The free Navigation software from Google works well too. It’s very handy while driving to use the “voice search”. I just say “Navigate to O’kelly’s”, it automatically searches for O’kelly’s, pulls up a google map and starts the navigation.
There has been a lot of talk about the Android operating system and its lack of applications (there are about 10,000 applications at Android market) when compared to iPhone which has nearly 100,000. As more and more phones switch to Android the number app’s will grow. So what are app’s? Little pieces of software that do cool things. Since it’s getting close to Christmas I downloaded a free application called ShopSavvy, using your phones camera it will scan a barcode and compare prices with online stores and other stores in the area so you can make sure you are getting the best price. Another app I love is called Shazam, when I hear a song I don’t recognize the app will record part of it and compare it with its large database. It gives me the artist, the name of the song, a link to their Myspace page and a link to purchase the song at Amazon.com. It’s truly amazing!
I could go on and on about all of the features but if you are a gadget freak like me….I think you are going to love this phone.
It was 1987, I was living in Los Angeles and immersing myself in the Sunset Strip music scene. Back then, It was not unusual to see Bret Michaels, Taime Down of Faster Pussycat or a host of other Head Bangers Ball regulars walking the Strip in search of a cool band to check out just like everyone else. The streets were filled with people who looked like they just jumped out of a Poison video. As a friend and I walked the strip handing out flyers for his bands upcoming show at Gazzari's (now the Key Club), we overheard some people talking about a guitar player named Michael Angelo Batio. They said it was like nothing they have every seen before. Intrigued, we stepped inside Gazzari's to see for ourselves. They were right. He was like nothing I have ever seen before....or since. Check out the video below from his "Speed Kills" guitar lesson DVD.
I'm such a gadget geek. I have been trolling the techie blogs in search of info on the new Blackberry Storm2 cell phone for weeks now. I didn't buy the original Storm when it came out, mostly because I was afraid of the problems usually associated with a first generation cell phone, but I have used a Blackberry for about 7 years now and can't imagine not having one. Then....I saw something that caught my eye...the Droid. Have you seen the cryptic commercials for the Droid yet? Some people have called it the "iphone killer". It's supposed to be everything that's good about mobile technology. Check out the commercial below...another cool thing about the commercial...they used my friend Mozzela's song in it.
From Pulse Of Radio....
AC/DC officially announces a limited edition box set called Backtracks on Tuesday (September 29th). The set, which comes in two versions, will be available on November 10th only through the acdcbacktracks.com website. As previously speculated, the “deluxe” package is housed inside a fully operational AC/DC amplifier and will come in a limited, autographed run of 50,000 copies. Included in the set are three CDs of live and studio rarities, two DVDs, a vinyl LP also containing studio rarities, a 164-page coffee table book, fine art lithographs of rare photos, a reproduction of an early AC/DC concert flyer and other memorabilia, including a button, guitar pick, and more.
A standard edition will feature two CDs of live and studio material, a single DVD plus bonus videos.
The first DVD is the long awaited video compilation Family Jewels 3, which rounds up the group’s music videos, live performances, and promotional clips from 1992 to 2009. The second DVD, Live At The Circus Krone, captures a complete club show that the band played in Munich in 2003.
Among the studio rarities included in the set are alternate versions of a number of early AC/DC tracks, as well as the never-before-released “Love Song,” possibly the only ballad the band ever wrote with original singer Bon Scott.
You can pre-order now here….and be sure to check out the video of Angus rockin’ the amp that comes with the box set.
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Nikki Sixx
