The media...

I don't usually blame shit on the media, but I had to take a step back and think about this one... and we wonder why this bling bling culture continues to thrive amongst our youth...

So, Terrell Owens lifts weights on his front lawn in the middle of a contract dispute.

Who shows up: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports.

Rodney Peete renews his vows to his beautiful, talented, wife, takes care of his beautiful family, and provides a role model for young men of all colors for how to carry themselves with dignity on and off the field:

Who shows up: Ebony Magazine.

I rest my case.

~C

CD of the moment: Rewind! Volume 4

My Cable 'Hook-Up'

There is an urban legend about a woman named Keisha who was the first African-American to be employed by a Kentucky Fried Chicken. She worked dilligently and moved her way up from cleaning tables and floors, to cooking chicken, to actually working the drive-thru window. Well one day Keisha's boss was giving her hell, which she expected from whitey, but he was really laying it on her thick that day.

Just at the moment when she was about to snap, some friends of hers pulled up through the drive thru to order some food. Rather than yell at boss man and risk losing her job, Keisha found another way to release her anger on the boss and on that day, Keisha invented "the hook up". Keisha's friends had enough chicken to feed the neighborhood all for the price of a 2-piece meal.

So I decided to step it up a notch and get digital cable... mainly because local news is less than stellar... not that Foxnews, CNN, or MSNBC are tons better, but at least I can go and get some news when I want it and not have to wait until 11:00pm..

So I called Comcast and received a flirtacious lady on the other end who I am assuming because of her speech was of the darker persuasion. Sensing this, I dumbed down my speak a bit to let her know that I was as well... am I ashamed of this? kinda. The bad part about it is that I could tell that she was forcing herself to speak proper English and it just wasn't natural for her so she'd slip up here and there and throw in something like, "...so here is what I'm finna try and do...." to which I replied, "... work that shit out playa....." she giggles......

Now one could assume that the specials actually DID exist already, but my girl worked it out and I could hear her working the calculator trying to find me the best deal she could. Layering promotion on top of promotion.

I previously had high-speed internet ($42) and the most basic of cable services ($15) for the sum of $60.70 per month. By the time my girl was done with me I had the following:

High speed internet at $19.95 for 6 months
Digital Cable Plus at $34.95 for 6 months (about 180 channels)
40+ music channels (you know I wanted the music joints)
Reduced cable box / remote rental fees
Free HBO
Free showtime for 3 months
Free Starz! for 3 months

.... all for the price of $61.93 and her direct line so I can call her back and hook it up again after my 6 months is up.

Thanks Keisha for inventing the hook-up, your actions from back in the day saved my over $40 a month on my cable bill and for this I tip my hat to you. Here is to you and cable guys / girls around the world that go out of the way to keep the cable bills of brothers and sisters as low as possible.

~C

CD of the moment: Platinum Pied Pipers - "Triple P"

if you're in new orleans...

GET THEE HELL OUT... NOW!!!

THIS is a scary ass read... from the national weather service......

~c

------------------

WWUS74 KLIX 281550NPWLIXURGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINAA MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. ATLEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE. HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATEADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK. POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING... BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEWCROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BEKILLED.AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEARHURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE OUTSIDE

so let me get this straight...

If I have you in my gmail contacts, then all I have to do is click on a button and then we can actually talk to each other through our speakers as long as we both have a gmail account???

Word.....

still need a gmail address??? .... get at me..

~C

CD of the moment: Jazztronik - "Inner Flight" (import)

I received an e-mail saying - "What in the hell do you listen to?? I've never heard of any of these groups!!?? How am I supposed to buy a recommendation of yours if I have absolutely no freakin clue what kinda music it is??"

ssssssooooooooo, I'll try to give a little description of the album to help you get the idea of what its all about...

This jazztronik album is their release from 2001... Fantastic UK collection from this Japanese group furthering the smooth house/nu-jazz/latin sound. All of the tracks collected here are lifted from many of their Japanese only 12 inch pressing which are long deleted. Higly recommended..

the bitch in me...

Back in November when I was in northern Switzerland, I was forced to buy some lotion since I left mine behind in either Salzburg or at my girl Karin's house in Munich. So I picked up this lotion with chamomille and just fell in love with it...

Yeah, I fell in love with this lotion... then once I returned to the states, in order to make it last longer, I delegated this lotion as 'face lotion' but too precious to be used over the rest of my body.. Then I started using it every 3rd day on my face, then only when I would be going out... you get the picture.

I finally was coming down to the end, when I decided that I had to have it and needed to know how much it would cost to have it shipped overseas...... Well the internet is a beautiful thing and I found a company that is based in Chicago of all places that actually carries my shit. Even though I had to pay twice as much for it, I bought three.

I wouldn't share these types of secrets with just anybody you know, so because you read the blog, I'm giving up the secret for my silky soft baby's booty skin...

You owe me for this one...

Intensive Schutzcreme available at smallflower.com (Larger size also available)

~C

(SHIT!!!!! update....)

So I'm thinking to myself, so now that I got mine, I can let others know so they can get theirs... well they just called and don't have my shit in stock and said it will take two months to get it......... sonuvabitch... so now I'm still without my face creme.... man, fu*k those hoes over at smallflower...

(A-HA!!!! UPDATE #2)

I just obsessed over finding this creme and finally found it (in texas of all places?) to order from, but had to pay EVEN MORE for this shit!!! dammit.... not I'm really starting to act like a little bitch about some gotdamn lotion... but i gotta have it man!!! i gotta have it!!! So now on second thought, I ain't sharing that info with you no more... you know what the product is, but you'll have to find a place to get it on your own...... Originally it was 4.40 Swiss francs ($3.50 US) when I bought it over there... I had to pay $6.50 + shipping over at sunflower.com and NOW... NOW.... Freakin $8.95 + shipping.............

gotdamn shame... over some lotion.... these obsessive / compulsive fits have got to stop..

work

Have you ever had so much work to do that you just quit trying to get it all done?

I almost reached that point last week. It just seemed like there was absolutely no way everything would get done so I just kinda shut down and hit the internet for a couple of hours. I am completely fascinated by the internet and always seem to find another site to explore. I have over 200 bookmarks and anytime I find an interesting site, I hit up the links page and find 2-3 more.

Here are a few I've been visiting lately: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

So in the midst of all of this craziness all around me, I find calm in my moments of nothingness, watching strangers on message boards bicker at one another, watching people take themselves way too serious and get offended way to easily. I find the people that go around and offend people online just as interesting because they recognize that it doesn't take much to get a group of people's panties all in a bunch, and actually enjoy starting shit. All they have to do is make some general statement like, "Tupac was wack, deal with it." and watch as the hilarity ensues. People will come out of nowhere to espouse the virtues of West Coast rap and retort with a commentary on Biggie...

I'm still working on developing a new site, but I can't decide on a name... Should it be funky? should it be professional? should it be ........

I actually have 2 website ideas currently, one for me personally where I can put my portfolio, DJ mixes and stuff. The other where me and all my architecture buddies can talk shit about the profession and do a little self promotion in the process...

School starts next week and I'm teaching a class I've never taught before so preparation has been pretty intense with lots and lots of reading going on.... I've spent more money on books than clothes and music combined this summer which is a new development in my spending habits.... but I end up with stacks of books to read which although ambitious, rarely would be more fun than a new pair of shoes...

~C

CD of the moment: Danny Krivit - "In The House"

The sexy optometrist said: "you need glasses..."

".... for driving in the rain"

So I haven't been to the eye doctor in something like 7 or 8 years... My vision has always been "almost" perfect as a kid so I never really worried about it, but increased hours, increased headaches and the occassional eye palpitation from lack of sleep spawned an eye doctor visit.

After going through the headache of the insurance verification and finding a provider 'in my program' (which I ended up just asking people in the office who wear glasses), I made my appointment.

A Lebanese-esque woman appears and looks at my address and immediately says, "I live near you!" (racial stereotype of the day: I only sais she is Lebanese because she loves a restaurant in the neighborhood called Lebanese Taverna... sad isn't it). All this smiling in my face and genuine concern for the health of my eyes had a brotha's guard down. I'm not saying she was flirting, but she was just friendly.......

Don't get me wrong, I've got my ladyfriend at home so it's not like I was looking or nothing, but I wasn't voted biggest flirt in my high school Senior year book for nothing right??!! Then just drops the M bomb on me.... "yeah, my husband and I LOVE living up in that area..."

I'm like, "Sexy Palestinian girl, you coulda dropped that earlier before all this smiley smiley business." In any case, she thinks I have a slight stigmatism and should wear glasses for driving at night... and for driving in the rain. I'm not an optometrist so what does mama nature needing to take a piss on the earth have to do with this?

Then she says, "and if you want, you can try wearing them during the day to see if they help reduce the strain on your eyes while you work..." I woulda bought the argument if she said, wear them when you're at the computer and it will improve your eye strain or something like that, but wear these when you drive in the rain?? I guess it's some far-sighted mumbo jumbo I don't understand.

So now I have a MAJOR aesthetic decision to make for my face.... the disappearing frameless I'm in denial that I have to wear glasses joints, i.e. the anti-glasses glasses or on the other hand the designery big bold framed, "hey look at my face I'm an artsy fartsy architect" type of glasses... to choose anything in between would be a waste of time I believe...

I found this article that says certain frame types make certain face shapes look better, but who would have the balls to classify their own face as an upside down triangle when the article states that an 'oval' shaped face is the optimum face shape? Well if oval is optimal, then my face is oval gotdammit..

all this shit to think about... like skin tone... check this out from the article:

"Skin tone is the prime element in determining coloring. All complexions fall into one of two color bases — blue (cool) or yellow (warm). A cool complexion has blue or pink undertones, and a warm complexion has a "peaches and cream" or yellow cast. Olive skin is considered cool because it is a mixture of blue and yellow. (In the United States, cool, blue-based complexions are more common than the yellow-based warm complexions. About 60 percent of the population are "cools.")"

I ain't blue, and I'll be damned if I'm going to CLAIM yellow after all the high yella jokes I've endured throughout my life... And olives come in a plethora of choices so when one says, "olive" how in the hell is anyone supposed to know what that means?

choices choices choices....

~C

CD of the moment: Buena Vista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer R.I.P.

The fake black rock manifesto

... interesting discussion from over at Okayplayer, where it has struck quite a chord. I was unaware of this trend as I usually avoid all places where hipsters congregate, but apparently it is epidemic? What sayest thou, is his gripe legit or is he just hating?

~C

for the whole discussion go here: Friends don't let friends 'Black Rock'

We all have that friend.
First, they started growing out their hair, invested buying a sh*tty casio keyboard and recorded fake demos with the worst neo soul had to offer. They quit after acute incense poisoning.
Perhaps they went through their mcing phase, where their fifteen year old cousin made them fisher price beats that they claimed they couldn’t find a market because they were too real, but couldn’t find a beat if it was broadcasted in Braille.
Maybe they changed their name to Orange Moon Flower Asata Mandingo X, started writing poetry LIKE….this to be HEARD…on the localpoetryslam CAFÉ, to LET out all the POEMS theyhadabouthow GOOD their VAGINA or PENIS tastes…..*twenty second pause for inflection*
Anyway, when you go visit your want to be artist friend and there’s an Afropunk sticker on his door.. You see a Fishbone cd where you didn’t see one before. And they have a brand new Fender Stratocaster in the corner of the room.
Please, break that sh*t. Snip the strings,, scratch up the pickups, piss on their amp.
I remember back when there was a heavy stigma involved in being black and liking rock music. It still exists today, but it seems that for many it’s a badge of coolness. Considering the current crap I ve been forced to listen to, I wonder if kids getting clowned for having a Nirvana tape was a bad thing.
Today, after stumbling on the last straw of this current black rock bandwagon on myspace by one of our very own OKP, I ask you to stop the madness.
It’s a horrible assault to mankinds ears. It doesn’t rock in a Metallica way, it doesn’t rock in a Nirvana way, it doesn’t rock in a Matchbox 20 way, hell, it doesn’t hold a candle to Kelly Clarkson.
Who could I blame? Saul? Pharell? Ive got no clue.
Stop rap-rocking. Stop playing horrible ska. Stop with the two chord attack, the horrible drum programming (you should really be ashamed of this one considering your hip-hop backgrounds) the god awful pseudo angry hooks. Stop prancing around in a f**ked up hairfro cut thinking your PJ Harvey. Stop not claiming hip-hop because you think it gives you cred. You f**king suck.

**** has raged long and hard about how current rock music can hardly be called black music. And while I disagreed at the time, you f**ks aren’t helping the argument. At least buy a rock cd before attempting to tackle the genre. The funny thing is, to make halfway decent rock music you don’t necessarily need ‘chops’. Name all the good modern rock singers. Exactly. Name the last interesting riff you heard? EXACTLY. But it does take an understanding of what makes good rock music, and what doesn’t. None of us can explain what hip-hop is, but we all damn well know when we hear it. Doesn’t take a genius.
Which apparently most of you Johnny Come Lately’s don’t have.
Luckily, most of you suck enough that you won’t make too much of a buzz above ground. But, for the sake of the Fishbones, the Living Colors, the 24-7 Spyz, goddamned Bad Brains who struggled for years to apparently have the path they laid out for be filled in by no frills artists trying the current cool genre, have mercy. For fans of all music, please stop being artists period. Go back to your corporate jobs, your college classes, smoke a bowl and watch Wonder Showzen and realize while your ambition is big, your talent is nil.
The madness must stop.

on: teaching evolution vs christianity

Every year there is always this debate about whether or not evolution should be taught in public schools. The private schools get all up in arms about evolution being taught, but public schools never get bent out of shape that creation gets taught.....?

I think this is about ego. No one has the balls to get up and say, "Hey, you know what, neither one of us knows how in the hell we got here for sure." Is it too much to ask of our teachers to say, there are two widely held theories about the beginning of time, here they are.

Would our children not learn that it's okay to "not know" the answer sometimes. Couldn't they see that we are human just like they are and maybe they would be able to see that we are human just like they are. Instead, we have to be perceived as the all-knowing adults who end up banging our heads together in an argument that can only end with "I know you are, but what am I".

It all comes down to faith and beliefs (and science depending on who you ask), but the best thing we could teach our children is that there are alternative points of views other than ours and we all co-exist with one another despite our differences. These differences can create healthy debate and discussion, but it's a shame that G-dubs 'big-bad texan-american-with-us-or-with-the terrorists' rhetoric is taking hold of the rest of the country.

Kids aren't stupid, we knew when we were getting duped as a child... for example, I knew that whole noah's ark thing was some bullshit because there is no way that ardvarks, polar bears, and camels all co-exist in the same micro-climate that happened to be the loading point for the ark. I was like, c'mon playa, you expect me to believe that EVERY animal in the universe got a male and female on that boat and they just peacefully co-existed through Hurricane Jesus???

GTFOOHWTBS!!

~C

CD of the moment: Kevin Yost - "Future Flashback"