Ball Ball

They're playing basketball~

Inside of the Coors Event Center

Last home game of the season for CU and they ended it with a BANG! CU Buffs won againts Cal Bears.

You're supposed to see the words "Buffs Win" on the lcd thingy

My first live basketball game and because it was the last game of the season, the stadium was packed. Everybody was loud, and you can't help it but to join in the fun.

It didn't feel as long as it seems if you were to watch it on tv. Maybe no commercials. During the timeouts and halftime there were cheerleaders, there's a dance group and there's even some aunties shakin' it on the court. Then there was a kiss cam, fan cam and stuff like that.

Since this is the last home game of the season, everyone honored the four seniors who has been playing for CU for a few years now. Their parents joined them on the court, they gave a speech and they had posters of themselves. Now CU is quite high in the PAC-12, Wonder how we gonna do next season.

And here's a song about basketball:

Jazz Jazz

I'm taking History of Jazz this semester as an elective, and to get credits I have to attend some jazz concerts and write a report about it. So this is my first concert, the Spring Swing in CU.

Macky Auditorium. Where the arts happen.

The CU Jazz Ensemble 1 did a great job playing classic jazz songs. To me the drummer was the most stylo, moving his whole body to music while playing the drum. His solo to Sing Sing Sing was especially good. But one thing you can't help but to notice was that there were a lot of very old people there. A LOT.

The Stage before.

The stage during.

Anyway, what did I learn in my Jazz class? Mainly about the people places and different style of jazz. There's the Minstrel and Vaudeville shows, the Blues, Ragtime and Swing plus others that we haven't talked about in class.

This is Glenn Miller, he was a CU student back in the day, and now there's a Glenn Miller Ballroom in CU. Check out one of his famous song, In the mood.

Glenn Miller

Btw here's a video of Swing dancing in the early 1900's that I thought you should see. One word I'd use to describe it is IMBA! seriously imba. The dancing starts halfway through so you can skip the early part. Again, damn IMBA!




Finally some classic jazz songs you might wanna listen to:

Sing Sing Sing
Singin' The Blues
Weather Bird
The Entertainer
Blue Skies
It Don't Mean A Thing
West End Blues

Dance Dance

I went for Dance For Hope tonight, its a salsa event to create awareness about sex trafficking. And it was really well received. Dapat sambutan hangat. The ballroom at CU was full.


There was a live band there that night called "Quemando", one of the top salsa bands in Denver. Actually Boulder-Denver has a really happening salsa scene. In Boulder itself there are 6 regular salsa events every week. So might as well do what the locals do.

The event. My camera's night shot is bad. haha

We mainly did some partner dancing, or regular salsa as you would call it, and also one round of Rueda de Casino. Rueda is a group salsa dance where you form a circle and dance with a partner for a while and then switch partners every few seconds. While dancing a leader will call out some moves so everyone has to do it together. So by the end of the Rueda you get to dance with everyone. That's the lessons that I've been taking last semester. Really fun especially if its dancing to a fast tune.

Check out this video, gives you an idea of how Rueda is. And btw, Happy Valentine's day!

Monster Monster

This is my second time at the Pepsi Center, this time its for Monster Jam!

A panorama shot of Monster Jam Denver. Click it. I used Microsof ICE to combine a few images into this one shot.

What comes to you mind when you think of a monster truck show? For me its rock n roll, beer and rugged men. But I was wrong. Actually, there were more cotton candy, superheroes and screaming kids! I'm serious. They even have hotwheels versions of these monster trucks. Here are the six trucks that took part:

This one is called The Gravedigger

Monster Mutt, it has a tongue, ears and a tail.

Ironman

Monster Energy monster truck

Spiderman... spiderman~

Batman at the monster jam.

Anyway, the Pepsi Center is meant for basketball or hockey so the "track" was quite small for these big trucks to run around in. There were a few categories for the competition. First, vertical jump. Second, race. Third, freestyle. But most of the time, we just waited for the trucks to park, or for the crew to clean up the place.

Part 1. Spiderman got the most vertical jump..obviously..

Part 2. Monster Mutt vs Spiderman

Part2. Ironman beats Monster Energy

Part 3. Freestyle. There were jumps, vertical airtime and drifting

And then there were some filler shows with some other vehicles.

Quadbike race. Team Detroit vs Team Denver.

The little golf kart that could. Its a golf kart with fire spitting exhaust.

The golf kart in turbo mode, all the fire from its exhaust pushing it forward.

And then there is Megasaurus who likes to eat cars.

Oh, and he breathes fire too.

The crowd was loud mainly because the commentator was really good in putting everyone in the mood. Respect. And also becasue they threw a lot of free stuff to the crowd. In the end, Monster Energy won top spot.

So, for me I think experiencing this highly "commercial" sport one time is enough. Next time I go to the Pepsi Center maybe I should watch a basketball game, that's what this place is meant for.