Article and Review, Foo Fighters Rock The Great Western Forum October 14th 2011

—-See below article for LIVE VIDEOS!!!!—-

Foo Fighters
October 15th 2011
Great Western Forum

It was a cool 70 degrees in an Inglewood parking lot where i waited in eager anticipation to see one of the greatest rock bands of my generation.  The Foo Fighters.  As I sipped my lemonade and tin flavored alcoholic beverage I thought to myself.  Have I really been listening to the Foo Fighters for 16 years…Since I was 14 years of age.  And here I was with my 15 year old brother (Turd Ferguson) about to see them for the first time and my older brother Jett Dunlap.  How time flies.  However, when a band has been playing together for 16 years and still enjoys playing together.  Then you have something very dynamic and special.  This tour was to kick off the Foo Fighters 7th studio album, “Wasting Light.”
The opening act was “Mariachi El Bronx.”  They played to a mostly empty arena with a few loyal fans who know the words.  The lead vocalist seemed like a very white washed cholo from Van Nuys, CA. who mostly did a Mexican two step shuffle.  In his baggie mariachi outfit he sang somewhat bland music which was very hard to understand.  At one point I asked my brother…”Is he singing is Spanish or English?”  But then again, it didn’t really much matter.  The next band was “Cage the Elephant.”  Their energy reminded me of the Black Crows and they had a very indie rock “White Stripes” kinda thing that worked for them.  In an awesome turn of events their drummers appendix recently exploded, (“sorry dude”, and he is o.k.) so Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters filled in.  We’ve seen him drum for “Nirvana”, “Queens of the Stone Age”, and now in person again with “Cage.”  Dave Grohl beat the living piss out of those drums.  It was epic!!!!  “Cage”‘s front man ran all of the stage and dove into the crowd like a human missile.  He also sang like a maniac as fans hoisted him into the air.  Playing such radio jams as “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and “Shake Me Down” got the crowds juices flowing for the main act.

And then there was Foo…Again, what can I say, they brought down the house.  Foo Fighters opened with “Bridge Burning” off their new album and jumped right into “Rope” one of my personal favorites off the new “disc”, or more correctly “downloadable media” I suppose.  Dave Grohl is an awesome front man who knows how to MC a crowd and put on a great show.  With face melting sound blasting your body and Dave’s screams, my eyes and ears were glued to the stage.  After a handful of songs Dave Grohl asked the crowd “How long do you want us to play?  Two hours???  (crowd cheering!) That’s easy…we gotta lot of fucking songs…How about as long as we can!”  The crowd erupts in applause and shouting.  A band really at the top of their game and masters at their craft is what I witnessed on Saturday night.  They rocked tons of my favorite songs like “Pretender”, “Learn to Fly”, “Breakout” and “Monkey Wrench.”  After two hours of amazing rock music the “Foo Fighter” finally exited the stage.  With a cheering crowd they dropped the lights in the arena.  Moments later you see Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins backstage through a night vision camera.  As Dave Grohl pantomimes that he can’t play an encore because of his throat. Taylor, with the crowds support slowly convinces Dave to play an ever growing number of encore songs.  Taylor hold up three fingers to the crowd.  Dave Grohl shakes his head and holds up two fingers.  This goes back and fourth until they agree to play seven more songs and Dave makes his way back onto the stage.  On an elevated platform Dave proceeds to play some songs acoustically under bright spots.  As the enamored crowd gets lost in the music it’s just Dave and his guitar.  The band joins back in to wrap up the concert and I couldn’t have been more satisfied.  As far as rock bands go, the Foo Fighters are in a league of their own.  I have no doubt that they will one day be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  With lots of history left to be written, I say “Rock on Foo Fighters!!!” and L.A. and myself hope to see you soon.

A concert review by,
Step Rocket.

Great Western Forum October 14th 2011
Dave Grohl Foo Fighters “the pretender”
http://www.foofighters.com/us/home
http;//www.jd247.com

Cage The Elephant 2011

Great Western Forum October 14th 2011
Shake me down
Front Man Matt Shultz, Dave Grohl on drums
http://www.foofighters.com/us/home
http://www.cagetheelephant.com/

Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II, which were known collectively as foo fighters. Prior to the release of the Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut album Foo Fighters, which featured Grohl as the only official member, Grohl recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as fellow Nirvana touring bandmate Pat Smear as guitarist to complete the lineup. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon. Goldsmith quit during the recording of the group’s second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997) when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself. Smear’s departure followed soon afterward. They were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group’s third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999).

The band briefly continued as a trio until Chris Shiflett joined as the band’s lead guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band released its fourth album, One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc In Your Honor (2005), which was split between acoustic songs and heavier material. Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007. In 2010, it was confirmed that Smear had officially rejoined the band after touring with the Foo Fighters as an unofficial member between 2006 and 2009. Over the course of the band’s career, three of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album, and all six albums have been nominated. The band’s seventh studio album, Wasting Light, was released in 2011.

This is not a sentimental tribute to a man who died with a net-worth of 8.4 Billion dollars. Steve Jobs lived his life his way.  From  the time he started Apple to when they fired him and all the way to now.
I am sharing this video from his speech at Stanford in 2005 simply because it is spot on, and has more power with his passing. Now Steve Jobs lives in the iClouds looking down on us all, his time on this earth has passed(or not he was a Buddhist after all).
This I do know however, with the passing of one revolutionary the task for changing the world for the better falls now on our back.

Press play take notes and make it happen!!!

(If you don’t have time to watch all 15 min at the very least watch from 9 min to the end. Very worth it)

Transcript of Steve Jobs’ address:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Stanford University channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Many people try to get a chance to be a part of the RH/JD team, and almost no one makes the cut. We are a lucky to have this gentleman, plus his aunts sister is my mother.

Enjoy the man the myth the legend.

Mr. Stephen Dunlap AKA Step Rocket

So at long last the third and final installment of the Gears of War franchise has been unleashed to gamers everywhere.  Nearly 3 years after the last “Gears” game fully disappointed its loyal followers, it was time to wrap up the saga.  This final game was critical to see if it can win back its core audience that once lived by their Lancers and died by their Gnashers.  But one must ask himself (and yes I chose to say himself, because 99% of gamers are dudes).  Can a 3rd person shooter like “Gears” still compete in a world of much more popular shooter franchise like “Call Of Duty”, which has become the standard???  I would argue, AbsoF’ingLutely!!!

The developers took their time with this game.  Often times, sequel games can be rushed because the game companies see dollar signs after a successful first.  This being the case with Gears 2, the developers weren’t going to let this happen again.  The original release of Gears of War 3 was set for April of 2011.  They were unable to hit this mark and didn’t want to hurry their final product, so Epic games decided to release a multiplayer Beta version instead.  This bought them time and gave the users an opportunity to give feedback to strive for a better product.  Since I feel that most first person shooter are now purchased primarily for their online play.  That is what I am going to focus on.  Gears of War 3 was released September 2011 to play its swan song.  And here are The Rockets thoughts.

Graphics:  The graphics are sick!  They were able to retain that grittiness from the first “Gears”, while polishing the colors, shadows and contrast.  They added maps that have daylight so when you play for extended periods of time you don’t feel like you’ve been locked in a cave.  The gore is uber clean, detail is off the chain, and there isn’t’ any kind of pixelation or hiccuping with how fast it plays.  There are tons of “skins” for your weapons in “G.O.W. 3″.  The customization makes your weapon and player unique and looks just brilliant.  I for one, am using a custom pink Hammerburst, with a flowing rainbow colored Gnasher as my weapons of choice.  I know…very chic.

Sound:  The sound as usual is very high quality.  The guns really “pop” when you shoot them.  If you have a quality sound system, I recommend cranking it up!  The Gnasher shotgun is very bass heavy along with its sawed off counterpart.  The Lancers and Hammerburst add to the intense firefights while you hear bullets whizzing by your dome.  Your heart beats fast and out of rhythm with your avatar counterpart, just before you are downed and see red.  The developers also scored the original “GOW” map “Gridlock” with the
song from the “GOW 1″ trailer if you can remember back that far.  Some might grow tired of hearing shotguns blast, heads pop, flesh tear and Locusts grown…but I do not.

Gameplay:  F’ing Rad!  And I’m not just saying that.  This game plays quick and accurate.  Gnasher battles are back!  The developers truly fixed everything that they ruined in the second game, and improved upon everything that was right with the first.  All of the classic multiplayer game modes are back:  Warzone, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader, King of the Hill, Wingman, Horde and my favorite Execution.  They introduced a new game mode called “Beast” as well.  This mode is similar to Horde, but you play as a variety of Locusts, battling an ever-growing number of COG squads.  Fun game mode to mix things up.  Coming back to Execution mode…There are plenty of them.  You can still curb stomp an enemy, punch his face off or saw him in half with your Lancer if you’re feeling old school.  Now you can also rip off an opponents arm and beat them with it and Lancer someones chest open.  It is these little touches that make the game really shine.  The small five on five squads are great for using the headset if you like working as a team.  And the small teams also add a very intimate quality to the first person genre.  In addition, I still love the paintball style cover and thoughtfully laid out maps that we have come to know with Gears of War.

Overall, I give this game a 4.8 out of 5.  This game is all that and a big bag of replay value!!! I could explain further, but if i did i would be doing the game an injustice.  Just buy it!

A Game Review by, Step Rocket

You saw it on http://jd247.com

Gears of War 3 Ashes to Ashes Trailer [HD]
Developer: Epic Games
Release: 4/2011
Genre: Action/Third-Person
Platform: X360
Publisher: Microsoft
Website: http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/

Well, Check it out!

Find out with Host Jett Dunlap

The Show looks a little like this…..

Press Play on New Video Below.

Just Some of the Stars

Eric Roberts

Traffic

The Expendables

The Dark Knight

But Most of all Sharktopus

Aldis Hadge

Friday Night Lights

LEVERAGE

Matthew Underwood

Actor Star of

Zoe 101

Luenell Campell

Borat
The Rock (1996)

Photo is of Jett Dunlap and Jane Fonda

So about a month ago I was going to my local Subway and I was getting my standard $5 Footlong and they tricked me into getting my bun toasted. How was toasting the bun being fooled? Well, I asked the check out Sandwich-arista  why they were charging me tax since I was taking the sandwich to-go?(side note: you are not supposed to pay tax if you take food to go, but you are charged a Diners Tax if you eat in). I asked why the tax, and he informed me that there is tax if you toast the bun. There is a ton of BS we can go off on just about the fact that Toasting constitutes TAX, but I learned my lesson and from that day I avoided tax by toasting my bun at home.  But wait, there is more! So I go to Subway yesterday and I get the Meatball sub, and when they try and trap me into the Toast-tax I did not fall for it; but then I get to the check out and they tell me the price and it includes tax!!!!!! So I ask, what is going on? Why am I getting taxed if I did not toast and it is to-go? So the girl tells me that with meatball, they tax no matter what because it is supposed to be toasted. So even though I did not get mine toasted,  she tells me “that does not matter on meatball”.

So the point of this story is not that I am very cheap… it is that this TAX system at Subway is BS!!!!!!!!!! No sandwich purchase should ever be this complicated.

What are your thoughts?

The HMMA was contacted over the weekend and asked to facilitate a video shoot of Smokey Robinson, Motown’s legendary singer and songwriter, for the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.  The video will be used on the MDA’s telethon this Labor Day (Sept 4th) to introduce another songwriting legend, Jimmy Webb. Jett Dunlap, HMMA’s official media correspondent & video host, rallied at the last minute to pull together the crew for this shoot. A Public Service Announcement video was also shot, promoting Smokey Robinson’s upcoming celebrity golf tournament benefiting the foundation, Save Africa’s Children.

Photos of: Jett Dunlap, Smokey Robinson & master camera man Chris Coy

[Show as slideshow]

http://www.hmmawards.org/?news=smokey-robinson-video-shoot

My dad’s father was highly decorated and was on a PT boat  in WWII. He taught my father the way to be a MAN, as his dad had done with him.
This is how it looked as I saw it:
Don’t show emotion unless it is anger or strength. Be physically strong. Play sports. Be good to your elders and your mother, and a gentlemen to all women.  Keep your honor, never back down, be number one and always win; do not ever talk back to your mom, and if you even try to talk back to your dad you will never do it twice. Never let “them” get you, know how to fix everything, do it yourself, be self-confident, know how to talk to women, know how to throw and catch a ball, be intimidating to other men. But most of all, have strong sons and repeat this system that has been going on from the beginning of time.

So I was raised like this, and so was my brother. We have gotten in many fights, we have opened doors for girls, and we have managed and lead men. We win. We weight lift every day, we know how to talk in public situations, we ride motorcycles and work on them. We climb tall mountains and when a woman is with us in a dark alley, that woman feels safe.

So what the hell has happened? I see boys today, nothing but boys. They play video games and text message; they are afraid of talking to girls, and if they do it is on some form of impersonal way like instant message or Facebook. They think that being physically strong is not cool.  They look for the easy way out of situations 9 times out of 10 . There mom and dad never told them no because they were afraid that it would hurt their feelings. This has made for a large group of early 20-somethings and teenagers that rarely respect there parents. They are weak both physically and socially.
(this is my experience and I have collected it over the last 12 years of working with thousands of men of this age in sales retail education and the fitness industry)

Now here is the question:
Am I crazy?? Or am I just an old fashioned guy raised by an even older fashioned man?
I have a video that presents evidence to my assumptions, with facts to back up my observation.
This is more of what I hope would be the start of a conversation.

I will however end with this, if you were able to pull a generation Y kid away from there Xbox long enough to ask them “what is it to be a man?” i would be very curious to see what they would say, if anything…

Luke Exley, writer for RunHollywood.com

NOTE
((There is nothing wrong with video games, Facebook and text communication, it is only when it is used to replace face to face interactions that i feel it becomes a negative factor. ))

TED Talks Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, “Why are boys struggling?” He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons — and he asks for your help! Watch his talk, then take his short 10-question survey: http://on.ted.com/PZSurvey

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Amy Winehouse found dead in her London home

The album and its singles were the recipients of numerous accolades at the 2008 Grammy Awards, including song and record of the year for “Rehab.” Winehouse was named best new artist at the ceremony. Just before the 2008 Grammy Awards, Winehouse was the subject of much speculation as she had entered a rehabilitation facility and was denied a U.S. visa. She performed on the live Grammy telecast via satellite from London.

A third album was long rumored but never materialized, and much of Winehouse’s post-”Back to Black” career was mired in sudden stops and starts and troubles with abuse and the law. She was due to be a headliner at the 2009 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival but was forced to cancel after being charged with assault for allegedly attacking a fan week before the festival.

Winehouse has recorded a song for Tony Bennett’s “Duets II,” which is scheduled for release in September.

Full Article

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/07/amy-winehouse-reported-dead.html

Carmageddon: 405 Freeway closed LIVE report with Jett DunLAp (well, it is not that live)

Funny, exciting and dramatic live view of the 405 freeway closure to tear down Mulholland bridge on July 16-17, 2011. Some great shocking footage pay close attention !
We had a better spot than CNN, KTLA, FOX, CBS, NBC, MTV, TELEMUNDO, well I am not sure Telemundo was on location.

Best Video YET!! Press Play and fall in love!!

A very special thanks to Bobby L. and Brendan V.

http//:www.jd247.com
http//:www.runhollywood.com

How to make it in the Hollywood Music Business. Indie Thursday Showcase July 7 @ THE RENAISSANCE HOTEL & SPA HOLLYWOOD
Interview with singer / song writer Mr. Byron Gore
We talk about the Revolutionary War, who should be able to say “Cheers” and how American Idol is run by Satan. Oh yeah, and some Music stuff.

Press Play and Enjoy!! (There are two videos, both are the same, they are there for iPhone & Android formats. )