James Andrews

Tonight I did something I wish I had done a lot sooner. I went to see a band that has been a part of my album collection for 30 years. I first started listening to W.A.S.P. when my uncle introduced me to their debut album. Being an impressionable 10 year old I instantly fell for “School Daze”, a song that compares a child’s need to go to school to that of a person imprisoned for no reason for just being what they are and what they have no control over. With introduction W.A.S.P. seeds were sown. Seeds of free thinking, of rebellion, and of personal desire to make something of myself.

I arrived at Showcase Live at 5:15pm, early enough to grab my spot in line with my friend Laurie who had been waiting for me there. The doors opened and we were offered a place to sit. Stage right. The venue is INCREDIBLE. Being able to sit at a table, order a gourmet burger and fries, or a New York Sirloin steak to eat while watching the opening act. Having a spectacular view of the stage. It blew my mind.

The opening band was War Machine. The singer/guitarist reminded me of Dio for some reason. They had a solid sound, and were enjoyable to listen too. If I were more familiar with their music I probably would have gotten more involved in watching them. I plan on give them a fair listening too, and maybe if they are around again I’ll go and check them out.

The lights were down low. One by one the members of W.A.S.P came out onto the stage starting with their drummer, and soon the stage was set. Blackie started off the show with “On your Knees”. A classic from their first album. Starting the show off right. They ran through a series of songs from that album. The ones I influenced me as a child and drove my mother mad. Blackie though looking his age, sounded exactly as if it were straight off the CD.

Now I have to admit over the years I have lost touch with many bands I had once listened too. W.A.S.P was one of those bands. The songs I was unfamiliar with, like those from “The Crimson Idol” showed me that Blackie’s writing style had grown in a way I wouldn’t have expected. One example is the song they opened their finale with “Heaven’s Hung in Black”, which is a modified quote from Abraham Lincoln. Behind the band on a screen shown images of dead soldiers from the civil war, slowly the images moved to a more recent time period. The lyrics talking about the loneliness on the battlefield waiting to die. It was very touching, and it has been a while since a metal song has moved me so. It was highly unexpected. At the end, Blackie actually looked up to the sky and said a prayer. I don’t know what was said as he wasn’t mic-ed at the time, but he ended it with the symbol of the cross, which was equally unexpected.

The final song of the night, was also my favorite W.A.S.P song. A song about alcohol and debauchery. Blind in Texas. It was so wonderful to hear it live.

If you are a metal head and have never heard W.A.S.P. you should give them a try, they are a fun band to listen too. If you get the chance to see them live, I recommend you take it.

Tonight I ventured over to Movie Stop and grabbed a disc I have been waiting to be released for months. It is the latest Hayao Miyazaki’s Chibli studios film “Ponyo”. A story inspired by “The little mermaid” (or so Disney has put on the outside box) of a little sea creature who is found by Sasuke a 5 year old boy who mistakes her for a gold fish, and takes her home. Ponyo however is the daughter of the sea goddess, and once she gets the taste of human food she uses her magic to transform herself into a human. With her transformation brings on strange events and their adventure begins.

Much like many of Miyazaki’s other films it is hard not to fall in love with the characters. Ponyo’s innocent playful manner. Sasuke’s serious undertaking of the job that he’s set out to do, along with the incredible character design and story makes for great family fun. Highly recommended.

Today I was browsing through my tweeps when I saw that @liza had an announcement. A project she’s been working on for some time has come to life, and is viewable for all too see. This project is Ibis Reader, and HTML5 based ePub reader, which allows you to read ePub applications on any mobile devices who’s browser supports HTML5.

I decided to take it for a test drive. I grabbed my iPhone was went to Ibis Reader where I was redirected to the mobile version, and to where I was given instructions on how to setup Ibis Reader on the iPhone. One of the things it asked me was if it could use 50MB of storage on my phone. I agreed, and next I found myself in an area where I could browse books. I scrolled through a couple pages until I got to one called “Japanese Fairy Tales”. I’m a big Nipponophile (Japanese nut), so I decided to grab that, and start to read.

The interface is very simple. touch the right side of the screen and you advance a page, touch the left side of the page and you go back a page. Very easy from the get go. The text displays at a nice readable font size, with a font that’s easy on the eyes. Flipping the iPhone on it’s side, Ibis Reader knows to change the size of my page. The only thing that doesn’t seem to work here is the cover, which is a graphic, and not a huge concern in my opinion.

Since Ibis Reader takes advantage of local storage space the book reads fast. Page loads take only rendering time, and since it’s text, that’s no time at all.

I am very happy with how simple and easy this application runs. If I didn’t know better I would think it was a native app that ran locally on my iPhone. Bravo @liza, this is work to be very proud of.

Photography is one of my hobbies. Sometimes I’ll do a wedding for a little extra money, sometimes I’ll shoot models. Trying to keep track of everything is a pain. Last night I was organizing apps on my iPhone and decided to look for some new ones while I was at it. I came across one called “Photographer’s Workflow”. From the images in iTunes App Store it looked like it did pretty much everything, and it was $3.99. Cheap enough for me to want to give it a try.

I downloaded and synced the app to my first generation iPhone. The first thing I noticed was that it requires use of Google Calendar. I give it my gmail account and password and it connected. Fulfilling that requirement, I attempted to add a project.

I add my project and the app crashes. I go back to the app, and enter the project. None of the information is there, and there’s no way I can see to delete the project and start again. I add another project, and wouldn’t you know it happens again. App == FAIL.

This app looked so very promising. I was really upset about the requirement for Google Calendar. I don’t want all my business information on the cloud, I’d rather have it sync to iCal through iTunes, or at least have the option for it not to use Google, and just keep it on my Phone. I couldn’t get a project to work at all which means that the application was totally useless to me.

I have contacted Apple for a refund.

Don’t waste your time, the app needs a lot of work.

I am in Toronto International Airport. In the wing that contains flights heading to the US. My flight is at 6:40PM EST, and I am departing for Boston. I am writing this blog entry in Textmate a simple text editor for the Macintosh operating system OS X. Why am I mentioning this? Well you would think that with access to Wireless internet, I’d be able to just up and connect to the internet open my blogging software and go go go go go… That however is not the case.

I sit down at my gate, and find the wireless access point I need to connect too. Boingo uses special software; for unknown reasons, the allow you to log into they system. My computer is new, and this is my first trip to an airport with it so I go ahead and download the software. I don’t travel enough to warrant hthe $12/month charge, so I use Boingo’s as-you-go which is $10CAN. The problem, there doesn’t seem to be a way to charge me for the service. I’m logged in. AIM is working, but the web browser isn’t. Was I charged for the access or not? I have internet yet I don’t have internet, and I am really confused. I think maybe I am charged for internet, but something is wrong with DNS so I manually change my DNS IP to GTE’s public server. No change, so I change it back. I log out of Boingo’s application and log back in. Still nothing. I am frustrated. Maybe my account hasn’t charged a credit card, so I create a new account. Finally a connection. I send a Facebook message, browse a couple quick websites, and then suddenly. Nothing. Gone. WTF. I go through the sequence again, even going as far as rebooting my computer. Nothing.

It ends in futility, and me calling Boingo for a refund. Where does Boingo go wrong. First is this “application”. Why do I need to run their stupid little app in order to connect wirelessly. I go to coffee shop after coffee shop, just create an account, and pay for the service. When I return, I log into the account, and pay for the service. I fly Airtran, and I create an account and have internet as I fly, using the same kind of interface that the coffee shop uses. Boingo tries to make things easier with a little application, but instead they fail.

I give Boingo 0 of 5 wifi bars.

Please fix the problems so I can not be bored during a 3-4hr lay over…..