Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Birthday

It's the end of my birthday, what a great day it's been. My mother and grandmother in law stopped by for a visit and I went to Todai with my wife and my mom. We later went shopping at that outstanding mecca of upscale media, Borders. I'm still stuffed from all you can eat Japanese food! Big "thank you" to my family for making this day great.

In other media news, Journey has announced that Arnel Pineda is now an official member of the band and have begun recording new material. Pineda is easily the strongest voice in terms of power to join the band since Steve Perry's departure and brings some much needed soulfulness to the songs. I'm looking forward to hearing brand new songs with Pineda and am happy Journey did not back down from racist pressure from some fans to not hire him. Of course, I still think Kevin Chalfant would have been great or they could have gone a different direction by trying to nab Michael Bolton but Pineda sounds great as well.

Well, my birthday is almost over. It's been fun!

4 comments:

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

I never was much of a Journey fan, I was more into the heavy metal scene (besides, my sister just wore me out on them), but it's great that they are still out there working it, and that they are planning new music. Perhaps I'll appreciate them more, now that I'm older (and my sister won't be blaring it on the stereo 24/7).
Belated Happy Birthday to you, Mr. Mike. Sounds like you had a great time.

Mr. Mike said...

Thanks Some Kinda Wonderful! I did have a great birthday thanks to my wonderful wife.

Compared to Metal, Journey doesn't rock as hard and sorry to hear your sister wore you out on them. I once had a friend who worshipped John Mellencamp to the point I couldn't listen to his music either. My friend had a five foot record standee of Mellencamp in his room and would talk about the guy like he knew him. He would say things like "John is planning to take some time off after the tour to spend time with his family. That heart attack really scared him." I haven't seen this person in 8 years, it's just recently that I can listen to John Mellencamp and actually enjoy a song or two.

Anonymous said...

I read this post and checked out Arnel Pineda on youtube. He's got some great pipes. I heard that Neal Schon wants to recreate the old Steve Perry sound. I hope Journey fans can get past Arnel's ethnicity and give him a chance. great singer.

Mr. Mike said...

I hope fans give him a chance too. He definitely has his defenders, I wrote an earlier post about concern he may not have his own unique style and received some responses that felt I wasn't giving him a chance. Pineda does have a great voice and it would be cool if he can resurrect the band.