Latest Photographies

Here's my latest set of amateur photography photos that I've touched up a little bit. These photos were taken at various locations: Seattle Center, the University of Washington, Dublin, and Prague. Click on the link for larger images and to download. :)

From Photography

From Photography

From Photography

From Photography

From Photography

From Photography

From Photography

Cut from the Team - Top Records of the Last 7 Years

Here's the almost made it but not quite on the Top 100 Albums of the Last 7 Years. What started as a huge list of albums, I had to narrow down to just over 200. Then I had to make very, very tough decisions on cuts. These were the hundred or so albums that almost made the list.

Handsome Boy Modeling School	White People
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness	Fear is on our Side
Kanye West	Late Registration
Air	Talkie Walkie
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead	Worlds Apart
Apples in Stereo	New Magnetic Wonder
Arcade Fire	Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am
Asobi Seksu	Citrus
Autolux	Future Perfect
Bang Gang	Something Wrong
Battles	Mirrored
Besnard Lakes	Besnard Lakes are the Dark
Blonde Redhead	Misery is a Butterfly
Blood Brothers	Crimes
British Sea Power	The Decline of the British Sea Power
Buck 65	This Right Here is Buck 65
Calexico	Garden Ruin
Coheed & Cambria	Second Stage Turbine Blade
Cold War Kids	Up in Rags
Cut Chemist	Litmus Test
Danger Doom	The Mouse & The Mask
Delgados	Universal Audio
Depeche Mode	Playing the Angel
Digitalism	Idealism
Dinosaur Jr	Beyond
Drive by Truckers	Dirty South
Elliott Smith	From a Basement on the Hill
Emiliana Torrini	Fisherman's Woman
The Faint	Wet From Birth
Faithless	No Roots
Feist	The Reminder
Flaming Lips	At War with the Mystics
Franz Ferdinand	You Could Have it So much Better
Frou Frou	Details
Fujiya & Miyagi	Transparent Things
Futureheads	Futureheads
Ghostland Observatory	delete.delete.ilikemeat
Ghostland Observatory	Paparazzi Lighting
Girl Talk	Night Ripper
Gnarls Barkley	St. Elsewhere
Gorillaz	Demon Days
Gotan Project	Lunatico
Graham Coxon	Love Travels At Illegal Speeds
Headlights	Some Racing, Some Stopping
Helio Sequence	Young Effectuals
Hope of the States	The Lost Riots
Hot Chip	Made in the Dark
Idiot Pilot	Strange We Should Meet Here
Interpol	Antics
IQU	Sun Q
Iron & Wine	The Shepards Wife
Junior Senior	Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Keane	Hopes and Fears
Kenny Chesney	No Shirts No Shoes No Problem
The Killers	Hot Fuss
KJ Sawka	Synchronized Decompression
Love as Laughter	Laughter's Fifth
Low	The Great Destroyer
Lupe Fiasco	Food & Liquor
MIA	Kala
M83	Before the Dawn Heals Us
M83	Dead Cities
Mars Volta	De-Loused in the Comatorium
Maximo Park	A Certain Trigger
MGMT	Oracular Spectacular
Michelle Branch	Hotel Paper
Modest Mouse	We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Mogwai	Mr Beast
Mono in VCF	Mono in VCF
Muse	Black Holes and Relevations
My Morning Jacket	It Still Moves
My Morning Jacket	Z
N.E.R.D.	In Search Of…
New Pornographers	Twin Cinema
The Pale	Gravity Gets Things Done
Peter Bjorn and John	Falling Out
A Place to Bury Strangers	A Place to Bury Strangers
Polyphonic Spree	Together We're Heavy
Portishead	Third
The Rapture	Pieces of the People We Love
Rihanna	Good Girl Gone Bad
Rogue Wave	Out of th Shadow
The Roots	Game Theory
The Roots	The Tipping Point
Sage Francis	Personal Journal
Sarah Mclachlan	Afterglow
Secret Machines	Now Here is Nowhere
Sigur Ros	()
Snow Patrol	Songs for Polar Bears
Something Corporate	Leaving Through the Window
Sondre Lerche	Two Way Monologues
Sparta	Porcelain
Spoon	Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stars	Set Yourself on Fire
Starting Line	Say It If You Mean It
Streets	Original Pirate Material
Sufjan Stevens	Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens	Greetings from Michigan
System of a Down	Hypnotize
Taking Back Sunday	Tell All Your Friends
Thievery Corporation	The Richest Man in Babylon
Thievery Corporation	Radio Retaliation
Tool	10000 Days
TV on the Radio	Return to Cookie Mountain
VHS or Beta	Night on Fire

Anthony's Top Albums of 2008

I'm going to be honest, I am very out of touch with the latest and greatest music. Most of 2008 for me was listening to my favorite records of years past and catching up on music of the past couple of years more than listening to the newest thing out there. I think there's reason for that; I think that this year's crop of music is a bit lacking compared to other years. With that said, here's my short list of my favorite records of the year... only Top 10 this year... instead of my normal 25 to 50 records of the year.

#10  Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

solid indie rock album from John Darnielle and company. it's amazing that this band has so many albums... 

#9 The Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping

another good low key indie album... check it out!

#8 Portishead - Third

a bit disappointing for me as this was a very long anticipated third album from one of my most favorite groups... but it does show that even after an 11 year hiatus, they still can make high caliber music

#7 The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

this one really grew on me. another huge favorite band of mine, the notwist, come back with an anticipated return following a semi-disappointing 12 record which followed their masterpiece, Neon Golden. Anyway, this record is solid.

#6 Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

British dance group Hot Chip return with another fun dance album that'll get you "ready for the floor."

#5 Mono in VCF - Mono in VCF

Tacoma, WA band Mono in VCF's moniker sounds a lot like VHS or Beta but that's about the only thing they share musically. This band produces some extroardinarily epic music backed by Bond-like vocals from Kim Miller.

#4 Ladytron - Velocifero

One of my premiere indie electro-rock bands and while this isn't any step forward from their previous album, Witching Hour, being on the same level of quality isn't a bad thing.

#3 TV on the Radio - Dear Science

This NYC band continues to improve with every album. Their style has refined quite a bit and each one of their records has its own flavor. This one might be the most accessible of them all.

#2 The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust

This might be a questionable high ranking album for many, but I just love this Danish band's total self-admitted rip off of Jesus & Mary Chain / Sonic Youth / Velvet Underground. While they share so much of their success and musical direction to those great bands, they do have their own unique character and I just love the simple, poppy, yet melodramatic and engaging sound of each and every one of the songs on this album.

#1 The Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark

Here's my surprise pick. A southern country rock gem from Georgia's Drive-By Truckers. This band has consistently produced good to great records, and they continue that with this album, which I think explores a bit more and has so many different sounds to it that it's comparable to a You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene type album, where no song sounds the same, and there's something for everyone. That is, of course, if you can tolerate the deep southern accents of the 3 vocalists on this record.

the sort of real #1 by technicality --- Radiohead - In Rainbows

This was released with no label on the interwebs in October of 2007, however Radiohead released the official CD-format of this album on January 1st of 2008. Whatever the case, this album is fantastic and another worthy record for the greatest band on Earth.

Music Television

All I have to say is... the best music tv channel is Palladia. There's a ton of great live concerts and all in High Def. It's crazy to think its also owned by MTV because... well... they actually play music!

That's all. Check out that channel if you have it. :D

Commentary on Black Friday

I'm pretty sure I sound-off on this every year for the past couple of years, but this year takes the cake. I've been looking through these black friday ads and wondering, where's the deals? How are any of these deals worth not sleeping and getting up super early, waiting in a massive long line, to save a few bucks?

Better yet, are these deals even worth it? Almost every deal I saw, I've seen the same selling price on various online retailers, including the massive Amazon.com. Amazon has their own Black Friday sales and they kick the butt out of any of the local retailers. So I ask you, why are people frantic about getting to the malls and shops early?

Exclusive deals? Return policies? What? I guarentee you can order 90% of the advertised specials on the store's website at Midnight Thursday night, or even as early as Thursday morning. I know this for a fact as I've done in the past and I did it this year. In fact, I can sleep in to my heart's content, wake up, roll over to grab my laptop, and press BUY NOW... and then roll back into bed and sleep some more. :D

This and you can avoid the crazies! The perfect, tragic, case... A Walmart employee in Long Island was trampled to death today because he manned the door at store opening. What the heck is wrong with this? Why? To save a few bucks on some crappy china-made products? This is Walmart, they dont sell anything that'll last you more than a few months. A $139 Blu-Ray player? Uhh go look online, you can find Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray players for $149-179 easily, and free shipping and no tax? What more do you want?

Cheap TVs for your family? Mad rush to the stores? Stupid. Just look at amazon.com's specials or their marketplace for the best deals.

What, you want cheap clothes and shoes? Ever heard of just buying the same thing on a website? Macy's has all their sales online. Foot Locker etc, same thing. Better yet, you can use microsoft's Live.com cash rewards program and get even more money savings on top of your Black Friday Deals.

And finally the kicker... Cyber Monday. Check it out, it's coming and the deals there are just as good.

Nutritional Labeling to Appear in King County Restaurants

Well, King County is going to be enforcing nutritional labels for menus at chain restaurants next year. Pretty interesting idea, which NYC apparently has already adopted. While I wouldn't mind reading a label on certain items I eat, I just can't see it affecting a significant percent of our population in general. They'll just eat what they eat.

I think people already do understand that McDonalds or Taco Bell, or even Claim Jumpers is absolutely horrific foods, but they eat it regularly anyway. I do see some benefits to show how really bad a Starbucks latte or mocha, or even worse, a frappucino is for you, and why you should stick with just americanos and espressos, but people still won't care. It's a good cause, I just think the benefits won't see action for a while.

The perfect example is the grocery store, where there's nutritional facts everywhere. People still line up the junk food aisles and buy to their heart's content. Im not denying that I do the same. But I have been a bit more wary of what I choose now at the supermarket, trying to eat a bit more healthy and whatnot.... anyway, pretty interesting change.

Nutritional sticker shock from restaurants

As of Jan. 1, most chains must post data

By REBEKAH DENN
P-I FOOD WRITER

Starting Jan. 1, customers at most chain restaurants in King County will get a full plate of information along with their food.

TO LEARN MORE

For full information, see goto.seattlepi.com/r1777. For more comments on the new labeling law and links to some restaurants that already have nutritional data online, visit Rebekah Denn's blog at blog.seattlepi.com/
devouringseattle.
- Local chains prepare their nutritional data

They'll be faced with the 1,000 calories (and 85 grams of fat) in their BLT Salads at The Old Spaghetti Factory and the 1,910 calories in the Jack Daniel's Ribs & Shrimp at T.G.I. Friday's. At Starbucks, they'll be able to judge not just whether they're in the mood for a tall latte or a mocha, but whether they want to take in the latte's 150 calories or the mocha's 270. At Taco Bell, they can decide if the benefits of ordering a 600-calorie Border Bowl are outweighed by the 2,120 milligrams of sodium it contains, nearly an entire day's recommended allowance.

The nutritional sticker shock will be prominently displayed at those and other eateries as part of trailblazing regulation passed by the King County Board of Health earlier this year -- and restaurants have been busy getting ready for the change. The law, which goes into effect on the first of the year, requires restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide to post calorie counts directly on, or in some cases next to, menus and also to prominently list the grams of saturated fat in each menu item, the milligrams of sodium and other markers of nutritional value.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387456_menulabeling12.html

Washington Ski & Ride License Plates

The Washington State Department of Licensing has new SKI & RIDE license plates out now! For more information, check out the DOL website: http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/spskiroad.html

Please Register and Vote.

2 days left to register for voting for the upcoming ballot.

Washington residents:
https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/secure/pages/Onlinevoterregistration.aspx

Amateur Photography

Here's some of my recent amateur photographies. :)

EuroBlog 2008 - Wrap-up

Going back to reality sucks. I spent today cleaning up, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and other household chores, including paying bills and grocery shopping. I rather be back in europe!

I stopped blogging half way through the trip and that's mostly cause I didn't have time or I was just being lazy. Anyway, we did go to Dublin, Ireland and that's a wonderful city. There, we spent the first day walking around the city trying to get lost and stumbled upon the Dublin Castle and the Jameson Distillery. While we didn't go on the tour, we did enjoy an Irish Coffee in the bar there. It was pretty one great tasting treat.

The next day we spent the majority of the day at the Dublin History Museum, called Dvblinia, and of course, the Guinness Store House museum. Let me tell ya, the Guinness tour is a total must-see. It's 7 stories that are full of interesting things from the brewing process to history of the beer, and so much more.


The next few days back in Prague were more of trying to be a normal Czech citizen than anything. I still went to do sight seeing but ended up mostly just hanging out with Scott, Cecilia, and their friends. Scott and I went to the home opener of HC Sparta hockey match and that was alot of fun. It's suprisingly cheap for beer and hot dogs. Really, really, really cheap.


Other than that, there was alot of walking and walking and walking.

Here's some other random tidbits from the trip:

• Coffee Heaven - enjoying a cup of coffee in another country is pretty much the same universally. There are people sitting around on their laptops on wifi, people reading books, and people just conversing with one another. It's a beautiful thing.
• Prague itself - for a city that was under communist control just under 20 years ago, it's quite amazing how far they've come and quickly they've been able to adapt out of it.
• Food - In both Dublin and Prague, food is heavy! Lots of meat and potatoes and bread. Carbs crazy! It's like thanksgiving at each meal!
• Beer - I think I went to the beer capitals of the world. Dublin of course for Guinness, Smithwicks, and the like, but Czech/Prague is also home of the original Pilsner Urquell, which actually is in Pilsen, nearby.... and beer in Prague is dirt cheap! Cheaper than water!
• Airport security - Heathrow security sucks, but not sure if its worse than Sea-Tac. On the other hand, Prague and Dublin's airports were reasonably quick and painless.
• Disneyland - Prague looks like Disneyland... or should I say... Disneyland looks like Prague. Just take a look for yourself.
• They like their sports. I only made it to one hockey game and while the game crowd was fairly tame, they went pretty crazy after the victory, especially on the subway train. I have video / audio clips of the crazyness.
• Prague has some of the most technically amazing shopping malls I've ever seen. The Palladium, which has 200+ shops in Old Towne Center area, is a visually stunning and ultra-modern piece of work. While it looks pretty normal on the outside, the inside is just eye-pleasing. The top floor restaurant level is super-swank, and the mall in general has a very modern decor to it.
• Our hostel in Dublin had no hot water. That sucked.
• KFC is very popular in Prague. On the other hand, Burger Kings were everywhere in Dublin.

More photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen or on my facebook.

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 2 / 3

I think this is Day 2... or Day 3. Whatever the case, I'm now on my 2nd night here in Prague after a very long journey which took me to Heathrow and a 30 minute delay. The first night here was just relaxing at Scott's place outside the old town area, while today was spent walking, somewhat aimlessly, around with Scott and Cecilia. We had lunch at a pizza place that was really good and just walked and walked thereafter.

The city is beautiful, though very well covered in graffiti, which is a bit unfortunate. It rained off and on all day, somewhat like Seattle. :) Anyway, I posted over 320 photos on picasa... so check'em out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1 - Part II

I never thought I'd be so happy to board an 8 hour flight, but I am! I have been sitting at Denver Airport for what seems like forever. I tried to do everything extra slow, and I still manage to have way too much free time. I sat around on the internet, then tried to extend my lunch longer with a couple beers and read the rest of photography book I bought and then walked around aimlessly.

By the time the ticket counter opened, I walked myself out of the concourse and took the tram to the main terminal to get the tickets (even though I could have just gotten them at the gate) and then thought I'd have a good time wasting wait at the security gate, except the line was practically empty, so I was back into the concourse a lot sooner than I had thought. So I proceeded to walk around again, and then back on the web, and then umm well repeat that over and over.

Now I'm less than 1 hour from take-off, so I'll be active for about 10 minutes and then followed by absolutely nothing for another 8 hours. Yay!

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1

Day 1 - Travel Day (feelin' like the movie, The Terminal)

I left home just after 5AM PST to Sea-Tac Intl Airport and took my Alaska 737-900 flight to Denver. And now.... I sit. I arrived just after 11AM MST and my flight out of here to Heathrow isn't until 8PM MST! Yea, that's right, I have a 9 hour lay-over.

I really was considering leaving the airport and going into the city, but... the airport isnt that close to the city and I really need to conserve money for europe. Speaking of money, I have over 150 euros in hand from previous trips, and the countries I'll be visiting don't use Euro, even though they're part of the EU. Argh, I still have to deal with the hassle of converting cash. I guess if I make it to Vienna, I can spend my euro there.

So... I am just sitting here now. I should arrive in Prague, if all goes well (unlikely given I'm going through Heathrow), at 7:10PM Czech time, which I believe is a total of 26 hours of travel time. Yuck!

I brought 5 books with me to read on this trip over, of all different sorts. Unfortunately I'm half way done with 2 of them -- Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer, Canon EOS Rebel XSi Digital Field Guide by Charlotte Lowrie, The Boat by Nam Le, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and Prague Day by Day.

The one good thing so far is that Denver's airport has free wifi, and plenty of desk stations to plug-in at. They even have built-in USB chargers. Very nice addition.

So from this point on, I won't be writing about my trip - it'll be about... stuff.

Seahawks start Sunday. Go Hawks!

ok that's really about the only important thing to mention.



That and here's my first attempt of being amateur photographer:


http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen/UnivOfWashington

First Impressions

First impressions. I never really thought much of them, but I am beginning to realize that they do mean alot. Maybe I never thought about it that hard, but they are pretty important. I'm not going to spew out a million things about the importance of all of it is, but I do want to give a first impression on a few things:

Google Chrome - the new web browser from Google has been out for about 10 hours now and it's almost won me over. It's a very simple, clean cut browser that uses minimal system memory, and runs ultra smooth and fast. This is not to say it doesn't have its fair share of start-up kinks. There are some bugs in it, but like all Google products, it's in beta! :)

Rick Nieuheisal - he's always been a solid college football coach, and he showed yet another reason why last night with a very exciting victory for his new UCLA Bruins team, as they defeated Tennessee in overtime. Talk about a turnaround second half!  He did a great job at UW and its unfortunate things happened the way they were, but he basically marks the last good to great UW teams we've had... 

Radiohead - not much of a first impression musically, but first impression of their live sonic force. i saw them over a week ago at White River Amplitheater and i have nothing but thumbs up on their performance. they did nothing to make me think any less of them, but only made me appreciate their music more. plus - they're the only band i've seen live that actually made me "move/sway" to the music naturally. no forced movements, or thought induced head bobbing - it was all instinctual and it was great!

Anyway, just a few first impressions I thought I'd share. It's these little things that keep us afloat, and sometimes I wish I could turn back time and undo some of my own first or second or even third impressions I've had on others. Although I try not to have regrets, there are certain things, people, events, etc. that still sit in the bleakest corner of my mind not wanting to leave.

Get rid of Ty

Bob Condotta's Seattle Times Husky Blog says it all. The Huskies stunk it up.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/huskyfootball/2008/08/30/oregon_postgame.html

I may not agree fully with his grades, I think he rated UW too highly, I agree that our team stinks. :)

While I wasn't expecting a win, and probably wishful thinking it'd be a squeaker, I wasn't expecting one of the most ridiculously embarrassing games I've ever seen from UW. What happened to the days when UW was a powerhouse? I grew up watching UW battle it out for the National Title and Pac-10 Title every year. Even throughout my college time, we were still going to Bowl games and having competitive teams.

Not all the recruiting has been on Ty's shoulders, but alot of it has, and the coaching definitely has. And it sucks. The only benefit of the doubt is that the UW team is very, very, very young, but the O-line is a group of veterans, and they looked like pre-school kids out there last night. The receivers, as has been the case the past couple of seasons, can't catch anything thrown at them, nor can they run routes, and just seem to give up.

The running game looked horrid, and that, as far as I can tell, is because they have about 1 nano-second to get the ball and find a hole. Jake "Purple Jesus" Locker had absolutely no time in the pocket and all of our team's offense was based on his scrambling and improv and a bunch of lucky pass interference calls. In the passes he did throw, they looked... well inaccurate and poorly executed as usual. He could the be the UW savior, but he's got alot of work to do. He just can't seem to throw a ball over 10 yards with any sort of accuracy. He relies too much on his legs, and I guess, if I had that sort of O-Line I probably would too.

The defense looked superbly overmatched. This isn't as good of a Duck team as last year's but they sure played like it. Their offense was all over the place and any sort of misdirection play would trick the UW team in an instant. Oregon probably could have just ran the ball all day and scored 5 or 6 TDs if they wanted.... Sigh.

Not very happy. Ty needs to go. (btw, the playcalling was just terrible on offense)