What a cool song? – 1985 by SR-71.

The band were named after the famous spy plane.

Sr-71 actually wrote the song, but it was later covered and made famous by Bowling for soup. Here are the lyrics.

1985 – SR-71

Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One prozac a day
Husbands a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned 24
Only been with one man
What happend to her plan
She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake that ass
On the hood of Whitesnake’s car
Now her SUV has become the enemy
Looks at her average life and nothing has been all right

Since Bruce Springstein Madonna
Way Before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
‘Cause she’s still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

Woo Hoo Hooo

1985

Woo Hoo Hooo

She’s seen all the classics
at least a hundred times
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink
Fast times at Ridgemont High
She rocked out to Wham
Not a big Limp Bizkit fan
Never knew George was gay
Hope they hook up one day

Where’s the fairytale
Where’s her dream
Where’s the quarterback from her high school football team
Where’s the fairytale
Where’s her dream
How many times will she ask herself what happened to me
Ask her self what happened to (the rubber broke)

There was Springstien Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And Music still on MTV
Her 2 kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
‘Cause she’s still preoccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

Woo Hoo Hooo

1985

Woo Hoo Hooo

She hates time
Make it stop
When did Motley Crew become Classic Rock
She hates time make it stop
She hates time
make it make it make it make it make it make it STOP!

Bruce Springstien Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her 2 kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
‘Cause she’s still preoccupied
With 1985

Springstien Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And Music still on MTV
Her 2 kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
‘Cause she’s still proccupied
With 19, 19, 1985

hahahaha

Bowling for Soup do a really cool music video of the song 1985 on Youtube.com, but of course embedding has been disabled, so you’ll have to go there to watch it!

We witnessed the most fantastic, incredible, awesome Green Day concert at Wembley Stadium. We’ve never seen them live until tonight, but wow! was it worth the wait? Singing along to all their songs with the crowd singing in unison was an amazing feeling. Wembley Stadium as a venue for bands such as Green Day is just brilliant!

They kicked off their show at 8pm with four songs from their latest album “21st Century Breakdown”.

The crowd went ballastic. Then a few recent awesome songs from the American Idiot album and then Billie Joe got into gear singing some of the older songs from Dookie (Basket Case, When I come around, Burnout etc).

The three main band members – lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool were brilliant and played their part well and looked like they were really enjoying themselves on stage.

Billie Joe is certainly a wonderful showman and could easily get the crowd to sing and clap at his command. Even Tré Cool is a showman in his own right and quite a funny guy.

Tré sang a song or two while Billie Joe played the drums and there was a moment where the two of them went for some record by singing and dancing to the song “shout” made famous by the Isley Brothers. It was quite funny though.

The band even dressed up in drag and sang one or two songs while lying down on the stage.

Some people in the crowd went mental especially where we were standing. That can be a good or bad thing depending on what you are expecting from the concert. I personally don’t mind people jumping around if they think of others, but when they push and kick and punch just for the fun of it, then it can become a bit unpleasant. There were definitely a few English idiots in the audience.

There was a good mix of stage videos behind the band and on the side screens.

With the various lights going on the atmosphere was electrifying.

The concert went on for well over 2 and a half  hours with two encores. The last 6 songs were just incredible, with spectacular fireworks, fireballs, ticker tape even toilet paper being thrown up into the air.

Below is the playlist for the concert.

1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. East Jesus Nowhere
5. Holiday
   
6. The Static Age
7. Give Me Novacaine
   
8. Are We The Waiting
9. St. Jimmy
10. Blvd. of Broken Dreams
11. Nice Guys Finish Last
12. Burnout
    
13. Waiting
14. Geek Stink Breath
15. Dominated Love (Slave Tre on Guitar and Vocals, Bille Joe on Drums)
16. Hitchin’ A Ride
17. Welcome To Paradise
18. When I Come Around
19. Metal-Jam Iron Man/ Sweet Child of Mine/ Highway to Hell
    
20. Brain Stew
21. Jaded
22. Longview
23. Basket Case
24. She
25. King For A Day
26. Shout/Hey Jude/I cant get no satisfaction/Teenage Kicks/Always look on the bright side of life
    
27. 21 Guns
28. Minority
    

Encore:

1. American Idiot
2. Jesus of Suburbia

Encore 2:

1. When It’s Time (Acoustic)
2. Wake Me Up When September Ends (Acoustic)
   
3. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
   

33 songs in total made it one helleva good evening. If they were playing another night in London I would definitely go again.

All photos taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 and belong to lookatbowen.com

There are not many bands these days that can belt out 25 songs with such pace as Bon Jovi did on Friday night. Throw in the fact that they have been around for over 26 years, have released 11 official albums, two compilation albums and 1 live album, and have sold over 120 million records, then you start to see what an incredible feat they have achieved?

This was the second Bon Jovi concert we’ve been too in the past 5 years, the other one being in Hyde Park a few years ago.

The opening act was very disappointing to say the least (The last republic), apparently hand picked by Kerrang! Radio. We don’t listen to Kerrang! Radio because they are crap and their choice of band was proof of that!  At the Hyde Park concert ‘LIVE’ were the opening act, and they were absolutely awesome, playing loads of classic songs that they have become famous for. We have all their albums so that was very special.

We went to the Bon Jovi concert on Friday night with Mike and Kerry of  Wrightaboutnow.com who are also massive Bon Jovi fans. We had seats in row Q of block 106, which were directly in line with the stage but raised over the crowd. The position and location was perfect for seeing all the action and worth the 16500 pennies in my opinion. The O2 is a truly amazing venue for concerts.

The opening scene showed the band walking in a tunnel, similar to the cover of their latest album The Circle. The build up was immense before they lifted the electronic screens and Jon was standing there with his arms in the air singing “Happy Now”.

The two opening songs came from their latest album “The Circle”, before they launched into “You give love a bad name” and “Born to be my baby” from the Slippery when wet & New Jersey album. There was a really good mix  of music from their various albums. It must be quite tricky being Jon and deciding which song they will sing considering they have hundreds to choose from.

There were quite a few songs from the New Jersey album as this was one of their most popular albums with so many classic sing a long anthems, “Bad medicine” was awesome and part way through the tempo eased and Jon and one of the guitarist broke into a rendition of “Pretty Woman”.  Afterwards Richie Sambora sang “Lay your hands on me” by himself and then him and Jon sang the classic “I’ll be there for you”, which had the crowd going nuts and singing the chorus over and over again.

Then Jon called David and Tico onto the mini platform and they sang a few songs from “These Days” and “100 000 000 fans can’t be wrong” with only acoustic guitars, and an accordion. Tico has some sort of a box he was hitting and also had what looked like a rattler. They showed they can sing without the heavy equipment, but any die hard fan would have known that already.

I am not sure if the fancy electronic screens were theirs or part the O2 Arena, but they were cleverly used throughout the concert. There were platforms that moved up and down and the screens could be broken up into different segments and moved independently of each other adding to the atmosphere.

Below is the song list they managed to get through with ease.

1. Happy Now (The Circle)
2. We Weren’t Born to Follow (The Circle)
3. You give love a bad name (Slippery when wet)
4. Born to be my Baby (New Jersey)
5. Radio Saved My Life Tonight (100 000 000 fans can’t be wrong)
6. Lost Highway (Lost Highway)
7. When We Were Beautiful (The Circle)
8. Raise Your Hands (Slippery when wet)
9. We’ve Got it Goin On (Lost Highway)
10. Sleep When I’m Dead (Keep the faith)
11. Bad Medicine /Pretty Woman (Slippery when wet) / (Roy Orbison).
12. Lay Your Hands On Me (Richie Vocals) (New Jersey)
13. Open All Night (Bounce)
14. Diamond Ring (These days)
15. I’ll Be There For You (New Jersey)
16. Something For The Pain (These days)
17. Someday I’ll be Saturday Night (100 000 000 fans can’t be wrong)
18. Let it Rock  (Slippery when wet)
19. It’s My Life (Crush)
20. Working for the Working Man (The Circle)
21. Who Says You Can’t Go Home (Bounce)
22. Keep The Faith (Keep the faith)
23. Have A Nice Day (Have a nice day)
24. Wanted Dead or Alive (Slippery when wet)
25. Living On A Prayer (Slippery when wet)

One particular moment I will remember well was at the beginning of the song “Wanted dead or alive”. Jon started talking about watching the football world cup and then he asked the crowd if there were any cowboys in the house? Richie and Jon then started playing the intro of the song and the crowd sang the entire intro of the song. It was a goose bump moment hearing everyone sing in unison and seeing a beautiful sun rise sillhouetting the band from behind the stage.

It was an awesome night. I’ve uploaded a few photographs into our gallery. Videos and photographs taken with our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7. Videos shot in High Definition AVCHD lite format. Videos owned by Lookatbowen.com

The Mede8er has a new firmware out today. Version 3 has finally been released and there are a whole host of new features making this awesome media player even more incredible. By the looks of things, it has been worth the wait.

I have only had the Mede8er high definition multimedia player for a few weeks and have played all types of media on it without fault and with extreme ease. I am very impressed, so to see the new features available today is just testament to the guys behind this media player.

You can download the latest firmware from the Mede8er forum. They have instructions on the site which are straight forward to follow. I have included a change log, which I got from their website.

Mede8er Change Log V3.0 — 1 June 2010

1. Added: Updated SDK
2. Added: BDISO and BDMV chapter support (No Menus)
3. Added: Icon based screens — Menu – Goto – Subtitle
4. Added: Lock feature for Folder / Delete / File Manager/ HDD Format protection (Default password: 0000)
5. Added: Pin Protection on/off setting Setup Menu
6. Added: Folder Protection on/off setting Setup Menu
7. Added: Watched Indicator on/off setting Setup Menu
8. Added: Watched movie status indicator
9. Added: “A-B” button provides about.jpg in-folder zoom functionality (same as “SLOW”)
10. Added: Play video directly from in-folder about.jpg preview (press “ENTER” or “>” to play movie)
11. Added: Play video file folder — Play button
12. Added: Browse cover art “about.jpg” up/down nav
13. Added: Video Screen Transparency — Setup Menu
14 Added: File or Folder rename — Pre-populate text window
15 Added: Change System Font — Automatically picks up font.ttf on boot up.

– Place font.ttf in folder called “Resource” on HDD or USB or SD Card on root

16 Improved: GUI updated
17. Improved: Media Library Menu now remembers last state when returning
18. Improved: File Manager on-screen prompts
19. Improved: Screen size configuration in Setup menu determines about.jpg display area
20. Improved: Filter about.jpg and folder.jpg under “All” tab
21. Improved: SAMBA stability & performance for streaming & network copy
22. Improved: NAS startup after reboot
23. Improved: Music player
24. Improved: Language issues
25. Improved: Navigation of video files in the Media Library with preview “on”
26. Fixed: “Autoplay” from HDD or USB or SD CARD — removed stop & start icons during autoplay
27. Fixed: Issues related to no internal HDD / no Mede8er-formatted HDD
28. Fixed: HDD format issues
29. Fixed: Mirrored MP3 tags issue
30. Fixed: DVD eject
31. Changed: In-folder JPG permitted display size increased to 5MB
32. Changed: Plasma Mode now only adjusts GUI transparency and not Screens during Video Play

Known issues:
o Network (SMB) write not available to Non-Mede8er-formatted HDD (NTFS-only) — Under investigation
o DVD resume on VIDEO_TS structure – Not working — SDK
o Repeat A-B on BDISO — SDK
o AAC 6 channel passthrough – only stereo — SDK related
o Restore from v1.x or v2.x backups — not restoring all fields correctly
o On certain 16:9 DVD menus – selection highlight is misplaced — SDK issue
o Simultaneous audio output via both HDMI and SPDIF — SDK restriction
o Extension .divx unsupported — SDK – temp fix rename file to .avi
o Resume dialogue DVDISO — SDK
o Resume play DVD VIDEO_TS — SDK
o File format: .ogg unsupported — SDK

Related Web Links:

• Mede8er MED500X Firmware Upgrade from v1.2.1 to v2.1.0
• Mede8er MED500X unboxing.
• Mede8er – made in South Africa.

Newzbin is no more after losing a battle with the courts. They have now been put into administration because they couldn’t pay their debts. I always said the subscription to the site was too low. It was ridiculously low (as in £2 for 8 weeks worth of downloads).

Word is that they owe the Motion Picture Association (MPA) £230,000 just in interim costs, and that’s without a full costs ruling or a decision on damages. Apparently they also owe a software development house over £500k.

Newzbin is one of the original Usenet indexing sites and the creator of the immensely-popular .NZB format, which opened up simplified Usenet downloading to the masses.

While the major BitTorrent sites were in Hollywood’s spotlights as the major source of copyright infringement, Usenet sites such as Newzbin remained untouched.

This changed, however, when the MPA, the MPAA’s big brother, sent a threatening letter to the site’s operators in 2008.

This letter was followed by an official announcement of a lawsuit against the Usenet indexer early 2009. The case eventually went to the High Court in February of this year where Newzbin was found liable for copyright infringement.

Let’s hope a clone site can open in it’s place soon else websites such a Giganews and Grabit will suffer as a result.

Have you ever heard of Joe Purdy? I hadn’t up until the point of listening to Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack. There is a song called “The City”… Awesome!

Here are the lyrics of the song

It has only been three days since I ordered the Mede8er from Digital Era and  when I got home today, there it was on the table alongside my repaired Xbox 360.

So this post will be an “unboxing” since it seems to be “the thing to do” these days for gadgets. There will be no video, as I am not vain enough to hear my own voice, so you are only getting a few photos.

Box contents:

• Carry bag (nice touch),
• Full colour manual,
• Euro Adapter plug, power plug with fuse (wow),
• Batteries, Remote Control,
• Screws and vibration sponges,
• Stereo RCA cables (video, audio),
• HDMI cable (nice),
• Composite video cable,
• USB cable, extender cable for USB hard disks or USB keys,
• Mede8er with removable under cover, SATA power supply cable, SATA data cable.
• Western Digital 2.0TB SATA II Hard Disk (not included but displayed).

The box is fairly colourful with a lot of it’s features scattered on the front, back and sides. (a lot more visual than most commercial devices would show on their boxes). There are also colour photos of various screens, the remote control and the mede8er case. There are six languages listing the features as well, so it’s aimed at quite a broad international community. With the box open I can see two sections. The media player itself is wrapped in plastic and is surrounded by a protective sponge thingy and there is a half sized box containing all the cabling, remote control and manual as described above. I would give the packaging 10/10 as it perfect.

I’ve taken a few more photos of the box contents. They can be found in my photo gallery or by clicking on the image below.

Related Posts:

• Mede8er – Made in South Africa
  

After reading many reviews, comparing dozens of media centre devices, and waiting for over 2 years for the ultimate media centre to arrive, I have finally settled on a product made in South Africa of all places. It’s called the MEDE8ER. I will be blogging and giving my opinion of the device as soon as I get it! I just ordered it from Digital Era.

Some of the highlights that ticked my boxes was that it supports the latest 2TB SATA hard disks, is HDMI 1.3, has SD card support, NTFS / FAT32 file system support meaning connecting to will be a breeze from any PC in the house. It’s got a remote that exists in the Logitech Harmony One database and has some awesome recommedations from the likes of MPC Club.

Specifications
Processor: Realtek RTD1073 – 128MB SPI Flash – 128MB DDR2 SDRAM
Video Codec Supported: MKV, H264, DVD (VOB – IFO – ISO), DIVX, XVID, DAT, AVI, MPEG, HD MPEG-2, TS, HD MPEG-4, SP, ASP, AVCD (H.264), MTS, M2ts, WMV9, FLV, VC-1, Real Networks (RM/RMVB) 8/9/10, up to 720p

Audio  Codec Supported: MP3, MP2, OGG Vorbis, PCM, LPCM, AAC, RA, Dolby AC3 Passthrough, Dolby AC3 Downmix, DTS Passthrough, DTS Downmix, FLAC, WAV,
WMA Standard (DRM, & Advanced Profile not supported)
HD Audio support
Dolby digital                  – support decode & bypass
Dolby digital Plus            – support decode – bypass is in testing
Dolby digital EX              – support – compatible up to 5.1
DTS digital Surround       – support decode & bypass

Photo format Supported: JPEG, BMP
File System Supported: FAT32, NTFS – UI Format Feature

Input / Output
•  HDMI 1.3, Component video, Composite Video
•  Stereo RCA audio for analog audio connection
•  SD / Sony Pro Duo Card Slot
•  S/PDIF optical Output / Coaxial Digital RCA Output
•  Video output resolution – NTSC, PAL, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 1080p24hz
•  USB – 2.0 HOST port x 2 (compatible to USB 1.1)
•  USB – 2.0 SLAVE port
General
•  3.5″ SATA Internal Hard Drive Bay up to 2TB compatible
•  Built in 40mm cooling fan – TPE mounts for low noise
•  Playlist creation from remote
•  Built in NFS Client
•  Screensaver – Selectable in GUI setup
•  In folder JPEG preview feature
•  Easy navigation button use (excl DVD files)
•  Time Bar FF/FR and Time Bar jump
•  Media Library Jump To file number feature
•  Resume playback feature
•  Photo slide show with background music
•  Network – Ethernet 10/100 Mbps – Streaming MAX Samba 26Mbps / NFS 36Mbps
•  Optional Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
Achievable Streaming G router – Samba 12Mbps – NFS 18 Mbps @ 1m – unprotected
Achievable Streaming N router – Samba 14Mbps – NFS 22 Mbps @ 1m – unprotected
(Typical MKV 720p Play 10Mbps max FF/RW 15Mbps)
•  Samba server – NAS storage
•  A/V streaming via UPnP Media Server (CNN – YouTube etc via optional program such as PlayOn, Tversity etc)
•  Internet Radio (SHOUTcast)
•  File Copying – Card, USB, HDD and Network
•  Subtitle: SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI format

Here is one awesome song I’ve been listening to recently. It’s a song called “Vacuum Bag” by Stroke 9. I discovered this band on Last.FM. The song comes from the album called “Rip it off”.

Last.FM is a great site that has introduced me to many new bands I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Here are the lyrics to the song Vacuum Bag:

You’ll never know what happened to me
It’s just one of those things
I was sitting by myself
And my thoughts started pouring out
Remember that time on our trip
You asked me where we were going
I said Barcelona
You said that’s not what I meant
Maybe I’ll never get it
I just don’t think I’m like that
Don’t like planning stuff out
It never happens that way
I’m like a vacuum bag
That holds all that old dirt
Remember that time
we found your mom’s valium
and took it

Don’t hate me
Don’t regret me
Don’t ever forget me
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
Don’t say I never loved you

That summer when we wore no shoes
And we danced on the fourth of July
and we listened to your sister’s records
And Frampton came alive
Even then you knew what you wanted
Even then I had no clue
I was just living in the moment
And the moment was all about you
Remember that time in LA
You asked me what we were doing
I said we’re doing fine
You said here we go again
I’m like a vacuum bag
That holds all that old dirt
Remember that time we said
We’d be together
Forever

Don’t hate me
Don’t regret me
Don’t ever forget me
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
Don’t say I never loved you

Cause it matters to me
Can you hear me
Everyday I ask the same thing

Will you ever know what happened to me
It happens everyday
And you wonder what went on
It’s there and than it’s gone
Maybe I’m sentimental
And I start to reminisce
And every time I do
I still want to tell you this

Don’t hate me
Don’t regret me
Don’t ever forget me
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
Don’t say I never loved you

BIO: Stroke 9 formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. The band has since recorded five albums and toured extensively in the United States, Canada and Europe. Fueled by the commercial success of the hit song “Little Black Backpack,” their third album, “Nasty Little Thoughts,” went gold in 2000. The single “Kick Some Ass” from their fourth album “Rip It Off” was featured in the movie “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” The band has also had songs in other movies and TV shows including “Ed TV,” “Scrubs,” “Malcolm in the Middle,” and “West Wing.” They released the album “All In” in 2004 and “Cafe Cuts”, an all acoustic album of 11 of their past songs and 1 new song in February of 2006. Their sound is similar to that Third-Eye Blind, Lit, Greenwheel, and many of the other late 90′s alternative bands. For more details please check out Stroke9.com or www.myspace.com/stroke9