At the end of the year I have figure it out that the true meaning of the holidays at least my meaning, is that spending time with your family or friends is the meaning of happiness, simple moment are the best (even if the people around you, can turn you crazy) but at least you know you are having a good moment when you can laugh to almost anything, even if the joke is extremely lame.

Sometimes is good to think that holidays are related to commercialism, in some way now they are, but also there are a good times to be around the ones you really like. I guess after a year, I learn it how to appreciate society a little more and to value good company, because you don’t know what to have until you lost it and then you will miss it.

My experience with 2008 is that you will grow with every experience and you will learn to appreciate the simplest things because at the end if you are shallow, then what the heck? You won’t have any friends or anyone, even if you are surrounded with people, you will be alone inside of you all the time. So maybe for next year… I don’t know, I will try to apply what I learned.

How the hell wants to be friend of this “human being” Brody Jenner?, they have to be famewhores because if you want to be friend of an individual with such a dobius reputatiom then you are a famewhore or the producers paid you to be simulate being friend of a talented scumbag like Jenner. Now I know this days MTV is a shadow of what it was, a puppet of the capitalism rebeldy and a place where even the lamest individuals i.e.- The Icky twins or Tila Tequila can have their own show… I guess at the end there is voyeurism because people like to see who are laying a pair of bisexual twins.

Bromance is just another pathetic excuse of a show made  by MTV to boost ratings, because nobody it’s watching that channel anymore, and now I can guess that MTV thinks that people will see a show of who wants to be friend’s of Brody Jenner, like if Brody Jenner is an interesting individual, he is only famous for being famous and the only thing he knows is being the son of famous parents.

But I guess at the end, everybody wants their 25 minutes of fame.

There are ten things in this world that I will never understand, some divine misteries of human kind that can brake in half the greatest philosopher ever.

1) Why women have to go to the restroom together?. I don’t understand that, if you have to go, just go, a restroom is not a place to chat while you defecate.

2) Why women have to cry in drama movies?. This is probably the biggest mystery ever, it’s only a movie, is not real!.

3)  Does someone care about Lindsay Lohan or her man Samantha Ronson anymore?. I don’t, I don’t understand Perez obsession about her.

4) Why Emo’s are so hypocrite?, if they want to die why don’t they jump over a cliff and end their annoyance to the world.

5) Why in Black Friday people went in a shopping frenzy if the economy is in a terrible shape?

6) How people bought all those X-Mas presents if they can’t afford them?

7) Why Youtube Robotnick is so cool?

Why there are urinals?. Talking about seeing unwanted things when you enter a restroom.

9) How Bush could get reelected? He is just a chimp!.

10) How could read my entire list? go and do something else.

Thank you.

So Christmas Eve is near, and as Buddhist (Theravada Buddhist) I don’t feel strange around Western holidays, I have to say that I enjoy them; I find intoxicating the spirit of Christmas, all the color, the sounds, the joy in the air, the sum of all these elements make this time of the year special to almost anyone, even me but I don’t celebrate this days in a secular way, but rather in a commercial way because it’s fun.

There are different precepts in the ethics that everyone can live happy, although there are some ethic precepts that are applied to monks but not specifically to the followers, although the common folk are encouraged to live in a virtuous behavior to achieve happiness. I guess I am little rebel to some customs as restraining for luxuries as I give sometimes to my impulses but I respect on taking another life in my hands.

I guess, to not be redundant, at the end is ok to enjoy different aspects of human life and enjoy the different celebrations that are in every culture.

Ok, I’ve been wondering lately where is the Christmas Spirit?, if its dead or is just in a coma?, I guess is just in a coma because many people measure Christmas and other holidays in the quantity of gifts they receive, many people don’t see that the true spirit of the holidays aren’t the gifts but rather how you celebrate it.

I guess when you are little, you don’t realize about the meaning of Christmas or Hanukah, or whatever celebration you observe, you see this time of the year as the time you get free gifts, but when you get older the gift are the things that don’t matter at all, I can go to the mall and wonder for hours without buying something, probably I see a couple of things that I want but I always postpone my acquisitions for later. I don’t see this time of year in a religious way, as for me I’m not religious at all but I see it as a time where you can spend a good time by doing something simple.

I see many people with big shopping bags, I wonder if they really value this time of year, I think… I know this time of year is moved by capitalism as companies try to appeal to peoples feeling, but I don’t complaint that’s part of economy. Where I used to live my landlord she was extremely pessimistic and she loved to see the times when people spend time with their family as a time that is an obligation to buy things so you can gain the affection of the people, you won’t gain the affection of the people by buying things you gain the affection of the people by being nice and gentle.

I think that Christmas is not dead at all, it’s just in a recession as the economy is, but at least is not dead as many of us we value this time of year as the time of year where the simple is the best.

Moral Orel was probably one of the most avant-garde shows in Cartoon Network, way more than The Boondocks and The Simpsons. Moral Orel pushed the limits with his critiques to “the political correct” side of North America, where a certain equality is trying to be reached but at the cost of certain liberty of speech.

In my year living in the States, even with all the respect and tolerance I have found that some people still see legal residents as second class citizens, because I wasn’t born in America, is terrible to see ignorance and I can mention a few examples toward my persona, but I am afraid that I can be sued if I say something.

Moral Orel touched a sensible fiber that many people prefer to ignore, because they are scare of offending someone, we can’t live in a utopia were everyone try to acts as equal when in the end there are complex toward genres, religion and sexuality. Masses will always see people inferior to them, because they don’t want to see their mistakes and weakness.

MoralTown is an utopia in many senses, almost everyone are Protestants, they see them as superior to everyone else and everyone who don’t share their values will be seen as an enemy, technically MoralTown is a parody of a town populated by WASP, and even with all the serious aspect of the show there was something funny about the point of view of every character.

There is one truth with the Boondocks, and that is not as commercial as many other series and is sincere compared to the many television shows that are today.

The Boondocks tells the story about two African-American brothers Huey and Riley Freeman; both as different from each other, but not as different as the sides of the African Community that they represent. Huey been the radical, political active who looks for a better future of the community; and, Riley, the side of the community that is influenced by the negative side of the mass media (such as the rap industry and the stereotypes many rappers portray).

The paradox of The Boondocks is that both brothers even if they are completely different, as far as they can be, they show mutual compassion to each other, which is a message that can be followed by almost any community in the world, that even with our differences we are the same deep in the end and just the color of the skin and dogmas are just a small fraction of what men really are.

Huey is probably the most complex character from the entire series, as he is the only one who shows a complete creed about how cruel but yet intricate society is. Although that serves as a “vehicle” to Aaron McGruder political dogma, which isn’t that far as the one given to Huey, but still we can see how McGruder sees contemporary society.

Riley in the other hand, is what in Mass Communication is called a “Mass Man”, someone who don’t have a self-identity but an identity taken from the Mass Media, used to fill the void of not having a self-identity. Riley can be portrayed as the classical individual who believes in everything that is seen in television and in the Rap Doctrine (a doctrine that today is more commercial rather than spiritual or personal) and he follows’ it with passion, even if most of his heroes are just manufactured products.

The deal with The Boondocks is that is appealing to many audiences, as it was said previously because the show is fresh and real than many today shows.

I guess Celtic Woman, they sing with more harmony than Celtic Thunder, and in my opinion Celtic Thunder is just a “clone” of Celtic Woman but with an ensemble of male singers, even both groups have underage singers’ i.e. Chloe Agnew and Damian McGinty, which the formula was used first with Celtic Woman since Celtic Thunder appeared about three years later than their women counterpart.

Both groups sing almost the same songs, and if I’m not wrong neither of the groups sing original songs, instead they cover several artists such as Enya, or classical songs as Caledonia… in terms of originality, Celtic Woman is number one because it came first, I think that Celtic Thunder came to copy the success of Celtic Woman just to enjoy a little piece of the market.

The answer is simple, because he can draw with such realism that none other comic book artist can, if you check his works in the D.C. and Marvel Universes you will see that he is the only one who uses photorealism in his work and that why is works are in high demand right now.

One of his most notorious works is the series Kingdom Come along with writer Mark Waid; which some people credit Alex Ross paintings as the key of the success of Kingdom Come as the story is a little boring and filled with classical clichés which we are not going to discuss right now; Alex’s style is Photorealism, a style which the artist will make the traces of his work as realistic as the details that can be found in photos.

An early work of his along with writer Kurt Busiek entitled Marvels, put Alex on the map as many fans were impressed with the details of his style as they are today. Marvels one of the best miniseries of publisher Marvel was released in 1994 and today it can be found in paperback covers, although is really difficult to find any edition in paperback as they are really popular among fans, and they are scarce around the globe.

Secret Invasion Finale

By: Gustavo Lequerica
As I predicted, Avengers won and Skrulls loose, but still the 8 month arc was cool to read, and we had different theories about the infiltrated agents, and how it was going to win, I guess it was a little obvious that they won instead of the Skrulls, that could had been more fun to the eyes of the readers, but not complains after all.

The story itself it wasn’t disappointing in my opinion, really well written, the narrative gave to the reader a certain sensation of paranoia because you wouldn’t knew who were the Skrulls from the heroes and everyone could be a Skrull, even I thought that Secret Invasion was only a simulation of the Skrulls to invade Earth due certain clues that I won’t going to mention, I mean there were a lot of possibilities that everything could happen… I guess ones of the things that I wanted to see more is the Skrulls role on the House of M; you can make a complete side story of that, to see the Skrulls acting in the House of Magnus.

Speaking about another positive aspect about Secret Invasion, and I don’t mean the tie-ins, the art was really cool as the narrative, you felt like been watching an animation in those pages, it was something positive that I expect to see in Dark Reign, and not some “boring” art like the one in X-Factor, nobody wants to see a square jaw character with little fluidity.

What revelations were shown in the arc of Secret Invasion?, I guess not many, the biggest surprise was the dead of The Wasp; I thought her “comic book dead” was more like an deux et machina rather than anything else, I mean Bendis killed The Wasp just because it was needed, and it wasn’t given any explanation about the method Skrull Henry Pym used on her, only one book before; I found that kind of lame coming from a talented writer as Michael Bendis, of killing one character just because he wanted.

Overall, the arc was cool, I give it a ten in both writing an art, and if you couldn’t buy it before due any given problem I recommend buying the graphic novel as soon is on the market, as it’s something worth of reading.

P.J. Rios a Voice with Passion a Voice with Soul

By: Gustavo Lequerica

P.J. Rios is a New York musician, which probably you have heard in the past before in the hit cartoon show Pokémon as the singer of the third season of Pokémon theme Johto Journeys, one of the most popular songs of the entire series due P.J.’s melodic and jazzy voice, made the third season song one of the favorites between fans; but P.J. has evolved more beyond the days in Pokémon and even beside the Pokémon experience P.J. is an accomplished musician who writes melodic poetry based in his life experiences and he sings jazz, R&B, pop and other rhythms,  also P.J. can play piano and other instruments as well, and as a bonus he is also an accomplished theater actor, thus making P.J,. a polifacetic entertainer.

But not only P.J. is a musician, most of his family are musicians, his father plays in a band, his niece Nicole is a musician as well in a Jazz band, so is practically a family business; recently we had the opportunity to interview P.J. where he spoke to us about how he started, his favorite genres and about his recent collaboration with Elliot Willensky.

1) When do you start to sing?
I started singing around 4 or 5 years of age.
2)Who are your favorite artists? And genres?
I have a few favorite genres, but mostly pop Dance and Jazz. Some of my favorite singers/artists have been Take 6, Billy Ocean, James Ingram, Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston.
3) Do you write your own songs?
Yes I write my own songs, and also sing other people’s songs. My own life experiences and the lives of my family/friends inspire a lot of the songs.

4 )Who did encouraged you to follow an artistic path?
My piano teacher when I was little, also my parents and brother encouraged me a lot.

5) Have you done theater?
I’ve done theater in the past, but don’t enjoy acting as much as singing original songs. It was fun, but just not exactly what I wanted.

6)  How was the Johto experience?
Johto was a lot of fun. I have a very child-like personality, so I’m always joking around, and there were a few others that were the same. We had a good time, and made a great team.

7)      What can you tell us, about the song You’re Missing? And the song video? Did you could work with families that have lost a special one in war?
That song was written by Elliot Willensky, and the video was filmed in NYC. It was a freezing cold day out on the street, but it was a lot of fun. It was great working with Bravo studios, and the make-up artist. The song was inspired by the families that have lost loved ones in the war, and how their lives have been affected afterward. I have met some of the families that have lost people in the war, and many of them felt like the song helped them with their grief and their path to healing.

Hello to my few readers,

So December came, and practically another year passed by, it wasn’t a bad a year… well in terms of entertainment it wasn’t a bad a year, the strike ended and several of our favorite shows returned and other rest in peace in the graveyard of TvLand, for me it marks the first year I live away from home in my new home, a year that I have grew, a year filled with experiences, and a year that I don’t regret.

We can say that 2008, has been marked with several changes probably the most significant one is that the first African American was elected president of the United States, Marvel revitalized his franchise and D.C. sucks big time when they decided to killed Bruce Wayne the only good thing left in the franchise, as I say Batman is not Batman behind Bruce Wayne, but well I don’t care I don’t read D.C. main titles (as my friend Salima says Vertigo Rules D.C. drools) as well many other things, one thing that I am excited about is the new arc in Marvel Infernus, but you probably had read it by now the small recap in Wikipedia, yes I am going to buy it but not all the only that seems to be promising are the X-Men related titles…

I guess is late and I am going to bed, see ya later everyone.