Cool Japan Festival

Here are some photos I took during the Cool Japan Festival on July 17, 2010

This was part of NY JapanTown Festival

Love Parade now longer...

Love Parade, the longest and popular electronic dance music festival held annually in Germany, was struck with tragedy this year when a stampede broke out in the tunnel entrance to the festival killing 19 and injuring 342 festival goers (as of this writing). And now, the organizers has announced that this was the last Love Parade that will be held.

So another EDM festival has been struck by tragedy this year. The blaming game has started with the city and police officials at Duisburg, where the festival was being held, blaming it on the organizers and vice versa. But would this solve any problem?

Investigation is still on going on who really is to blame. What will happen now to the other Love Parade spin-offs?

This is an awful tragedy but will canceling future Love Parades really solve this problem?

Movie Review: Inception

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dominic "Dom" Cobb, a professional thief that steals secrets from within dreams, a method based on sedation. He works with Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as they try to steal company secrets from Saito (Ken Watanabe). But Saito knew what was happening and thus they failed the mission. But Saito decided to up the offer to Dom. He would be able to get back to the United States if he can successfully plant an idea on Robert Fisher's (Cillian Murphy) mind to break up his dad's company when he takes over. This is also known as Inception. The objective is to prevent the business empire that Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite) created from monopolizing the energy business. He then started hiring new team members. He hired Adriadne (Ellen Page) as the architect, to create the layout and buildings of dreams. Then seek out Eames (Tom Hardy) to become the forger who can shift identities inside dreams. And Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who can concoct a sedative strong enough for them to penetrate several layers of dreams. Together, they set out to accomplished the mission, fighting their way through obstacles and a saboteur Mal (Marion Cotillard) who is Dom's wife.

This movie is quite interesting and intriguing - a forte of director Christopher Nolan. You have to really watch the movie from the start till the end or else who will be lost in the maze of the movie. Leo was again at his best and would surely be nominated for an award. Even his co-actors where great - Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellan Page - played their roles really well. The special effects were unbelievable and just out of this world for a movie not billed as a real sci-fi. Overall, Inception will have your thinking until you leave the movie house. Was it a dream or reality?

Inception's website

This is my first post - again

Ok, I started a blog (click here) last September thinking I will be able to talk about stuff but the last few posting I did on that blog (if you haven't seen it, click here again) were tracklisting to the radio shows I listen to (ASOT, TATW, Corstens Countdown) or music videos and lyrics of the tunes I'm liking.

So I decided to create a separate blog. This one will have postings other than music (or at least I will try)...

World Cup Champions: Spain

Update: Spain wins the 2010 World Cup after Iniesta scores in the 116th min with a nice volley from Fabregas. The game was marred with 13 yellow cards and a red card against Netherlands that allowed Spain to play with a man advantage that led a great goal by Iniesta. Congratulations to Spain for their 1st World Cup.

After 30 days, its finally here.. the culmination of the 2010 World Cup. Its Spain against Netherlands, two teams that are chasing that elusive dream of finally holding the Worldcup. So how did these two teams manage to get into the finals of this year's worldcup instead of the favorites Brazil, Argentina or Germany?

Netherlands

The Dutch or Oranje, ranked 4th in the FIFA World Rankings, were the favorites to win Group E and sure they did by winning all their matches. The Oranje beat Denmark 2 - 0 with the help of Daniel Agger's own goal in the 46th min. They followed that with a 1-0 win against Japan on a strike by Wesley Sneijder in the 53rd minute and 3 - 2 win against Cameroon getting inspired by the return of Arjen Robben from injury. The Dutch were ahead in the 1st half when Robin Van Persie scored in the 36th minute. But Cameroon answered back when Samuel Etoo scored on a penalty kick in the 65th minutes. The Oranje would eventually win the e match on a rebound score by Klass Jan Huntelaar in the 83rd minute to barge into the Round of 16.

During the knockout stage, the Dutch easily beat Slovakia 2-1 with Robben (18') and Sneijder scoring (84') before Slovakia got a consolation on a penalty kick by Vittek in stoppage time. The Oranje then surprise everyone when they beat Brazil 2 - 1 scoring two goals in the second half as the Samba Kings lost their composure. Wesley Sneijder keyed the comeback with a strike that was deflected by Felipe Melo in the 53rd min and scored on a header in the 68th min. This set up a match against Uruguay which was a pretty intense match that saw both teams scoring 1 a piece in the 1st half. The Oranje then scored two goals in the 2nd half courtesy of Sneijder (70') and Robben (73'). Uruguay did scored during the stoppage time courtesy of Pereira but that wasn't enough and the Dutch gets into the finals, winning all their matches.

Spain

The La Roja were ranked second in the FIFA World Rankings but never played like they deserved the ranking. Spain was heavily favorite to win Group H but lost to the Switzerland on their first match of this years world up when Gelson Fernandes scored on the 52nd minute, which during that time, was the biggest upset of 2010 World Cup. Spain regroup and beat Honduras 2-0 with David Villa scoring both goals in the 17th and 51st min. They beat Chile 2-1 to get into the round of 16.

Spain's knockout matches weren't as high scoring as the Oranje. The La Roja relied on the heroics of David Villa to beat Portugal and Paraguay 1-0 to setup a semi-final match against heavily favored Germany. The match was easily won by Spain as Germany looks out of sync with Muller serving a suspension following a yellow card during their match against Argentina. Puyol scored on a header in the 73rd minute to set up a showdown against the Dutch for the World Cup.

So who will win?? We will know in 45th minutes of play.. or more