Kanye West Hawaii Concert Review

Well, I saw the Kanye West show last night in Hawaii and boy was I entertained. I am not his biggest fan but I decided to go as part of my "try new things" campaign. I was really pleasantly surprised and I really enjoyed everything even though I can't hear very well out of my right ear. This is all told from a R&B concert newbie POV.

I have no idea how to dress for something like this so I was apprehensive at first. I don't know if Kanye is a shorts and T-shirt act. I also figured he wasn't an aloha shirt act either. Well, I was thinking about buying a new button down shirt of the concert but ended up going with a regular collar shirt and cargo shorts thing. It seemed like a good choice since almost everyone was wearing pretty much the same thing as me. Just an A&F shirt and jeans or cargo pants.

There was a massive line the stretched out past the parking garage but lucky thing we got in about the middle of the line since it was General Admission. The people waiting in the line seemed to be a mix of Army guys with short hair, college kids with preppy clothes, and groups of teenagers, and 20 something girls in pretty conservative clothes. For some reason I thought it would be more girls in club clothes (ie low cut and tight) but I was wrong.

Well the concert was set up with risers along the sides and a big open space in the middle. You couldn't bring food into the general admission floor but I smuggled in some macadamia nuts and pecans that I bought at this Fresh Roasted Nut stand. I ate the pecans and immediately felt thirsty. Luckily my friend had some gum so it wasn't so bad. We sat on the risers on the right side so we were stage was to our right. It got packed quick and I felt lucky that we got there early to get decent seats on these risers.

The opening act sucked monkey nuts though. They were some local Hawaii rap band called Extreme or Immersed or something. They could have been called Submerged for all I care. They pretty much ran at top speed around the stage and shouted rap lyrics at the top of their lungs in a barely intelligible manner. I don't mind rap if it has a good beat and the lyrics are easy to understand but this was just a joke. I really hope I never have to hear this loud, obnoxious band again.

Well after that audial assault I was really looking forward to Kanye. I pretty much only heard his Golddigger song but I really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to it. He started off fairly quickly with hard rapping songs that got the people in the right mood. Everyone was flashing the Diamond Dallas Page sign for some reason. I guess that is somehow connected with Kanye but I'm not sure how.

He goes into quite a few songs that I never heard before but were very up tempo and cool. He also ran around the stage and mostly delivered his lyrics with his left hand back and his body facing sideways to the audience while kneeling with his head down. He looked like he was bowing low to the audience or he just needed that stance to get out his pretty rapid fire songs. I was also struck at how big his body and head were. He had a giant melon and had monster hands even though he looked about 5'8" or so. At one point he jumped on top of a speaker and the crowd went wild.

He was backed up by an all-woman classical instrument band with one woman wearing white and playing a violin like a crazy person. He also had a very talented DJ that played his turntables in a very good solo to a Lil Jon song. Kanye played various songs from his albums one after another mostly playing older stuff at first. During the show he ran off the stage 4 times and changed clothes. I guess he sweats like Patrick Ewing and needed a fresh shirt every now and then. He also towled off several times with a black towel that he threw into the audience.

He also had a part where he rested and played some songs that inspired him. He even played "Take on Me" from Ah-Ha and even did the dance from the song. That got the crowd laughing pretty well. He also played some songs where that he wrote the beats for and performed parts of them. That really got the crowd cheering as well.

Finally his 3rd to the last song was Golddigger and the entire crowd went ape when he started singing it. They also sang along to every part of it and the sound was quite deafening. He then sang a newer song Touch the Sky. Then he sang Jesus Walks for the encore. Everyone had a great time and were leaving with big smiles on their faces. As we were leaving we saw several groups of people passing out flyers fro Junior Marley, for a Ultimate Fighting thing, and for some Lounge or something. I think that was a pretty good idea since you have all these similar people all together at one time so you can promote your events fairly easily.

Footballers Wive$

I have recently borrowed this series from Netflix and I am really having a good time watching it. I was supposed to go to bed early last night after I finished my Federal Taxes but I just wanted to watch one episode before I went to sleep but ended up watching 3 of them. This show is really addictive and I am glad they are still making it in the UK. Also Zoe Luckner the main character is one hot Brit:

Inside Man Movie Review

Well I went to see this Spike Lee film and I have to say that this one is his best. I liked Malcom X too but this one is better. It follows Dog Day Afternoon fairly well with a group of bank robbers dressed as painters go into a very upscale bank and take everyone hostage. The opening scene kind of made me think of that scene in Heat where they knock over the bank. I have to rewatch it to find out why it made me think that way.

We are then introduced to Denzel Washingtons character and I was blown away by him. He was dressed like a Fancy Dan with a fedora and a starched suit. Kind of a quirky detective that I guess New York seems to create. He has a great interplay with his partner the same guy that was the interpreter in Amistad. The scenes with them together are outstanding. Denzel's character is fighting some kind of bribery rap so he may or may not be crooked. He seems like an okay guy and this hostage thing is his big chance.

So we go through the plot and you are thinking who the bad guys actually are and how they are going to get away with it. In the course of events we get introduced to a bunch of Spike Lee style characters. There is a Sikh guy with a turban who is released from the bank who is humliated that he is though of as an Arab and his turban is taken. We also have a Brooklyn style guy who is grabbed off the street that knows Armenian which is what the cops are picking up from the bank on a bugging system. We then see his wife who trades her bag of parking tickets in to help the cops. There is also an obnoxious Italian girl (who I thought was pretty hot), a Jewish woman who would rather be shot then disrobe, and another Jewish guy who is a diamond merchant of some kind. Just a melting pot, slice of life, New York style.

We also get introduced to Willem Defoe and Jodie Foster. Defoe is kind of underused and is pretty much just a cameo role. But Jodie Foster does a great job as an ice-queen bitch corporate fixer who is working for the bank president. She exudes a menace and polished confidence in everything she does. It is a great roll that I wanted to see more of in the movie.

There are a bunch of twists and you can see that the plot is very well developed with the acting performances holding everything together. There is a nice twist at the end that I really liked and has the "fight the system" vibe that most Spike Lee movies give off. All and all it was a very well done movie that I will probably end up buying the DVD of.

Larry the Cable Guy Movie Review

I went to see this movie with my Dad and I found it alot better then I thought I would. It is basically one long fart joke with Larry acting like a big slob throught the movie. The humor was my kind of thing with lots of sight gags and Larry acting like the same Redneck character from his comedy act. If you like his act (which I do) then you will probably like this movie.

The plot is basically some stuff about someone is poisoning the contestants at some kind of Food Festival, Iron Chefs type of thing. You think it might be the Mayor played by Joe Pantoliano with wierd-assed eyebrows. Larry is matched up with an uptight partner that looks like of like a man and who Larry thinks is one throught the movie. You get introduced to various goofy characters but Larry is pretty funny throughout. There is an extremely funny blooper reel at the end similar to There's Something About Mary . All and all the movie is funny if you like Larry the Cable guys comedy act. If you don't then it will probably suck ass.