Chris, Author at Chris Ullrich dot net - Page 28 of 92
All Posts By

Chris

David Lee Roth Interviews Eddie and Alex Van Halen

Posted on February 7, 2012

I can’t remember the first time I heard a Van Halen song or what song it was. It may have been something from Van Halen II like “Bottom’s Up” or “Beautiful Girls” or it could have been from Women and Children First and been a song like “Romeo Delight” or “Everybody Wants Some.”

Whatever song or album it was, it was certainly a log time ago. A simpler time to be sure. A lot has changed since that time. I’ve aged and gotten a bit slower but I think, in some ways, a bit smarter.

Over the years I’ve also tried to stay current with Van Halen and their music. That wasn’t made easy by the fact that their last album, Van Halen III, came out in 1998 and, to be fair, wasn’t really all that great.

It seems things are looking up a bit now with the band’s new album A Different Kind of Truth. It’s out today, I’ve listened to it and so far, I like what I hear. Also, it’s nice to see David Lee Roth back where he belongs.

Speaking of that, I came across this video of Roth interviewing Eddie and Alex Van Halen. It’s pretty interesting and contains info I didn’t know about the band and it’s history.

Also, it makes me worry a bit that Eddie isn’t long for this earth. The years (and the other stuff) have not been kind to him.

Enjoy.

[vimeo 36240409 w=500 h=319]

Sunday, Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on February 5, 2012

Today is the Big Game. Although, to have to call it that because of some copyright or trademark deal is a bit stupid. So, let’s try that again. Today is The Super Bowl. Let ’em come after me.

This means, of course, people are going to be getting together to watch the game at various parties and such. It also means we’re probably going to get some interesting new commercials today.

I like the commercials during The Super Bowl. In fact, this is pretty much the only time during the year I actually watch commercials. The rest of the time I usually fast forward through them like most other people do. Thank the gods for the DVR, amirite?

So far, I’ve seen a few commercials already that are going to be shown during the game. One of them features Matthew Broderick shilling for Honda and sorta pretending to be his character from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve included it below. I’m not sure how I feel about it but I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s done. Besides, maybe he needs the money?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhkDdayA4iA?rel=0&w=500&h=281]

For more selections and highlights of commercials shown today as well as those of the past, I’ve been looking at this website. It’s got a lot of good ones and reminds me that at one time, the commercials were very good.

Oh, I’ve also included one other commercial that’s being shown during The Super Bowl. It features Victoria’s Secret model Adriana Lima. I’m not exactly sure what she’s selling but really, who cares? It works.

You’re welcome.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWrJgFjxlS0?rel=0&w=500&h=281]

Ups and Downs

Posted on February 1, 2012

Well, so much for the great “let’s post my Instagram photos to my blog automagically” experiment. If you’ve been following this site the last couple days, you know it went horribly wrong and resulted in lots of the same thing being posted over and over again.

Not good. Made even more not good by the fact that this site is setup to automatically update my Twitter with new posts and that’s set to automatically post to my Facebook. Not good times a hundred thousand.

So, that meant a lot of extraneous posts and a whole slew of bullshit I needed to deal with today in addition to the ever increasing pile I already have allotted to me. But I’m not unhappy.

However, to read this site or my Twitter or Facebook you might get the impression I’m disgruntled, angry or otherwise unhappy. Not at all.

In fact, I’m not disgruntled, rarely angry and thousands of miles away from unhappy. Just ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Welcome back. I tend to go the opposite direction of angry and in most cases, I just keep on being happy. I’m not saying I never feel down or sad, I do. Everyone does. Well, most everyone anyway. Probably not sociopaths. But they’re just weird.

Anyway, the truth is for a vast majority of the time I feel happy and I think life is pretty good. It has some ups and downs, sure, but to me that’s what makes it interesting.

Of course, I say this as an educated, white male living well above the poverty line in a city with great weather, great people and with a lot of opportunities for work, fun and to live life to the fullest. Yes, luck may be a factor too.

However, even with a lot of luck you still need to do something with the opportunities presented to you. You can’t just sit back and expect the world to come to you. It doesn’t work that way and at some point, if you’re still waiting, eventually you’re going to be disappointed.

The trick is to get out there and do something before that happens. That’s why I make sure I’m as busy as possible doing a variety of things that a love. I don’t want to look back later at my life and be an old man filled with regret (apologies to Christopher Nolan for cribbing that line).

That’s what helps me stay happy. It might not work for you but hell, it’s worth a try, right?

Let me know how it goes.

Photo Friday-ish

Posted on January 28, 2012

As you are probably aware, I’m in Las Vegas. Being in Vegas makes one a bit lazy about certain responsibilities. One such responsibility is updating this here website.

I am going to remedy that now. In fact, as I said previously, I’m going to try and post a few photos here on Fridays. Yes, I know it’s Saturday already, no need to write in.

Let’s just pretend it’s Friday for a minute and say I got these posted a couple hours ago, okay? Thanks. You’re a sport.

Also, I don’t know what any of these photos mean. I just took them when the mood struck. Plus, I’m always trying to improve and take photos using pretty much only the iPhone 4S.

Oh, on that subject, I picked up one of those lens attachments today (Friday) for the iPhone 4S. It’s the one from Olloclip. Haven’t had a chance to use it much but will be over the next few days/weeks. Stay tuned for a full report and the resulting photos.

In the meantime, enjoy.

Vegas, baby. Vegas!

Posted on January 26, 2012

Sorry, couldn’t resist with that title. Of course, if you’ve never seen the movie Swingers, you probably won’t know what I mean. At any rate, as you might be able to tell, I’m currently in Las Vegas.

Yes, I know I should be in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival or in San Francisco at Macworld, but I’m not. Instead, I’m out in the desert.

Don’t get me wrong, I sorta like Vegas. I used to like it more when I was younger, thought I could do anything and had no real responsibilities. But those days are behind me now that I’m so responsible and stuff.

That’s what happens when you get older, you get more responsible too. Even if you don’t want to be. It just happens.

But that’s okay and here’s why: I don’t have anything to prove to anyone. I know what I’ve done in the past, pretty much who I am now and where I want to go in the future. It’s a great feeling and one you can’t really appreciate until you have it.

I’ve already had my great Vegas adventures and done a whole bunch of things (most good, a few not so much) and I don’t need to do it again. Now I “do” Vegas in a different, more mature and respectable way.

It’s time for new people to take over and have their own adventures here. That’s the way things work.

I’m not upset about it in the slightest. In fact, I’m happy the burden has been passed to others because my back is killing me, it’s after eleven and I need to get to sleep.

—

Oh, before I forget. As I said before, We are staying at The Palazzo and it’s pretty great. The suite is nice and the staff is very friendly.

Plus, and this will only concern some of you (especially those who’ve traveled with me), they give you a power strip to plug things into. If you’ve ever traveled for business you know the lack of a power strip in a nice hotel room is especially annoying — particularly when you’ve failed to bring one.

They also have, wait for it, an actual fax machine . . . in the suite. Come on, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Monday Blues

Posted on January 23, 2012

It’s Monday. To most people that means heading back to work after a weekend that was too short during which they probably didn’t get to do what they really wanted to do and instead had to clean out the garage or (insert chore you’ve been avoiding for months here).

For me, however, Monday is pretty much just another day of the week.

Why do I say that? Well, I’m a person who works “freelance.” As in, I go from project to project, job to job, gig to gig and get paid for that gig. Once it’s over, I’m done and I move on. Or, hopefully the same people hire me again to do something else for them or, in some cases, more of the same.

I’m also a person who, if I don’t have someone paying me to do something right that moment (which happens, believe me), is probably doing something anyway. That means I pretty much work every day. I’m not complaining, mind you. I chose this way of life long ago and I’m sticking to it.

Monday, Friday, Thursday, Sunday, it doesn’t really matter. Chances are if I’m even marginally awake, I’m doing something. These days, most of that time is spent writing.

That doesn’t mean I’m sitting at the desktop or with the laptop pounding on the keys and actively writing a story, script, comic, blog post or whatever. To me, writing also encompasses all the stuff I do before and after the actual process of inputting the thing.

Outlining, breaking a story, thinking about characters, brainstorming, research, pre-writing, whatever. I don’t really have an “official” name for that time, I just lump it in with writing. That, in turn, I consider working.

I’ve heard a saying that goes something (or exactly) like this: “If you love what you do, you work every day of your life.”

Yep, that pretty much covers it.

One More Thing

Posted on January 20, 2012

Well, it’s really more than one. Occasionally when I’m bored, or avoiding work, writing or whatever, I check out a site called The Chive. If you’ve seen it, you know what it is. If not, maybe you’ll check it out sometime.

For those of you who don’t know and don’t want to check it out, let’s just say I like to go there sometimes because once in awhile a guy just wants to see pictures of girls in yoga pants and random people doing random, and often strange, things. And did I mention the yoga pants? I think I did. Okay.

Case in point on the random tip are the photos below. I had a distinct reaction to each of them. I will leave it you you to guess what that reaction was.

I also included these photos because I may start highlighting some random photos here every friday. Or, who knows, maybe more often.

Okay, continue with enjoying your Friday/Weekend.