The Wack Attack

i ain't gonna lie

2010-10-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

north carolina has so much talent. from j.cole and little brother [and all their former/affiliates, including 9th wonder, joe scudda, kaze, etc.] to anthony hamilton and ski beatz..you're wrong if you think petey pablo was the only artist to break from NC. you can even go back to nina simone and james taylor -- the point being, don't ~~mis~~underestimate the carolinas.

on that note, if you haven't copped 24 Hour Karate School yet, you're missing out on some of Ski's illest production since Reasonable Doubt.

serious talk. since camp lo isn't exactly everyone's cup of herbal tea [although it should be - they're on my list of top 5 - yes 5 - rap groups of all time], and curren$y mixtape fans were slightly let down by the short & sweet pilot talk [i happened to love it], 24HKS seems to have something for everyone. note guest features:: wiz khalifa, jean grae, jay electronica, tabi bonney, cool kids, rass kass. though as an album it's not as coherent as many may have liked, the production is SUPER DUPER on point and there are some definite BANGERZ.

naturally i had way higher hopes for this video when i saw it in my head, but, ah, such is life. in any case, you can't deny the potency of this track.

as part of the campaign for the album, Ski is also teaming up with Elefante's friends at venice beach, The Ave sneaker spot, for 2 different custom pairs of custom Chuck Taylors with the ill album artwork.

i'm a nike head myself but i'm not mad at these at all. cop'em here.

in other, slightly more independent news, AOG affiliate ricky ruckus has dropped an official remix of the 50 Tyson SMASH hit single [uh-huh] [which, although still hilarious, feels slightly more wrong after learning 'Tyson is autistic =/]. anyway, check the remix - you'll feel less terrible for liking it OR hating it as political correctness won't be a factor.

happy sunday folks!

fuck jordan tower.

hunnid =]

these days

2010-10-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

if i have time to kill [doesn't happen too often],

i hop onto worldstarhiphop.com for the latest in WTF-ery.

see as follows:

kinda dope though right ? i love shawty lo's scene. mine woulda been something similar

on another note,

SIT DOWN DIDDY

& count yo money.

out

dam funk x elefante entertainment

2010-01-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

here's a piece i just completed for stones throw recording artist, dam-funk.

coolest.dude.ever. i was amazed by how he was received at cinespace and impressed by the hollywood crowd he drew.

let's continue the funk, ya feel me ?

props to jeff weiss and LA Weekly for the opportunity. and of course to the funkster himself.

blogs are less frequent as i've been focusing on my videography. similar stories to follow !

<3rew

shorty get it in

2009-12-19T14:20:00.000-08:00

the latest from the homies, taylor & blake engel.

and so, the takeover countdown begins.

speaking of going hard, i'm most likely attending

chyeahh man. let's get it. yezzir.

oh boy, how much '09 slang can i use in one post?

if i still have any followers/readers, the happiest of holiday wishes to you. hunnid.

;] rewface

a day trip and an artist - remembering why i love LA

2009-05-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

so i've been working on a real blog post [one where i actually WRITE something as opposed to just posting random shit i come across] -- alas, work and extracurricular activities come between me and the part of my brain that can focus enough to write. in the meantime, i'm recommending a sweet ass hike/day trip if you live in the LA area [or if you come to visit, definitely check it out] - the abandoned LA zoo. it's a bit difficult to find, but once you do, make your way inside the back cages/feeding area for a graffiti lover's dream. check the pics::

all photos courtesy of t.s.a. 2009. here for more.

on another recent day trip i hit up topanga days, which can best be described as a 3-day hippie fest, complete with music, art, and rad local vendors. it's relatively small scale when you compare it to coachella - but it's also significantly cheaper:: 20 bucks/day, or you can also try your luck at sneaking in [like i did] or work the event for a few hours to earn free admission. everyone is in HIGH spirits and there's no way you can leave without meeting a few memorable characters. also be prepared to fall in love with some art - i met a cute vietnamese/chinese artist named john hung ha whose japanese-inspired prints are off the chaains. i regret not buying this set

[sorry it's so small. go to his website to see full-size prints.]

here's another

dope, right? then again, anything involving pandas and/or koi is guaranteed to spark my interest.

if my readers haven't all abandoned me, i promise to have a real post soon!

happy summer, haterz. =]

suddenly i want to buy furniture

2009-05-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

stolen from some DX heads, here are my favorite commercials at the moment - authenticity not guaranteed::

youtube never ceases to kill my brain cells.

speaking of which, just saw:

which was really dope in theory, story-wise was executed terribly. great cast, great set/costume design, but alas - did NOT work. check the trailer, IT even sets it up to be tight -

many a moviegoer left the theatre claiming it was the worst movie they ever saw, but i challenge them to sit through THIS:

arguably the worst film of all time. the trailer isn't even worth watching.

i know this post lacks any real substance - my apologiez, i'm in the middle of moving, finding a new job, and caring for a sick significant other...life stays full.

in the building and i'm feelin' myself...

2009-04-24T01:22:00.000-07:00

so, i made a rap video. and i'm posting it everywhere.

god, i love editing, for rilla.

ps. watch in HD> youtube doesn't quite do the video justice in normal quality.

feel free to share. the fakehunters are way dope and vet & e are definitely going somewhere. ...go ahead and unbelieve me

eye.love.sasha.grey

2009-04-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

trailer for the girlfriend experience just up.

NY magazine did an interview with sasha about the film, her first non-adult role and collaboration with Steven Soderbergh:

Steven Soderbergh’s largely improvised film The Girlfriend Experience is about a Manhattan call girl and the many men who want a piece of her (including New York writer Mark Jacobson, who plays a version of himself). Porn star Sasha Grey, in her first mainstream film, plays the high-priced escort who lunches at Craft, shops in Soho, and listens to her wealthy johns complain about the plunging Dow.

How were you cast?
One of Soderbergh’s writers, Brian Koppelman, contacted me through MySpace. I thought it was a joke, because I get a lot of fake offers on MySpace. Then Steven left me a voice mail.

What, as they say, was your motivation?
Steven was really secretive about the character, but he wanted me to bring a natural, uninhibited quality to the film. There’s a lot of scenes where I’m improvising. I sat at home, writing a lot, figuring out who she was. I’d take my notes to Steven.

Your character keeps a journal of everything—down to the brand names of each item of clothing.
One of the escorts I met keeps in-depth records of everything she does, to better learn about her clients and analyze her date—and make sure she’s not wearing the same thing twice! I used that. For my character’s clothes, we got to pull from Michael Kors. She’s not on a street corner with a wig.

You don’t actually have sex onscreen.
When I had the first meeting I assumed I would be naked and do a sex scene. Did I think I would do five, like in my adult work? No, but even up to the point where we were shooting, I thought there was going to be at least one sex scene.

That’s usually the first thing actresses clear up in their contracts.
The contract did say that I would be nude. But one of the clauses was [laughing] “You cannot have [real] sex.” To me, that was a pretty funny legality.

I imagine you’d never seen that before?
It was pretty weird. But it was great not to have sex—that would have been too easy. If you want to see me having sex, you can do that! Not doing it shifts the focus, because a lot of clients are there for more than the sex.

The men are all obsessed with the falling stock market.
It takes place in one week of October 2008, and that’s what we were reading about while we were shooting. The market crashing brings out her natural hustler in terms of figuring out how to stay on top.

What’s your plan?
I’ve got to diversify myself. Do I want to be 35, having sex on-camera? No. I want to be sitting on a fucking porch at my beach house with my own successful company.

[article by Logan Hill]

stoked for this. for rilla

flow make her fatty shake, patty cake

2009-04-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

so wendy & i hit up the sakura matsuri [cherry blossom fest - although there were no cherry blossoms in sight ! go figure, california] today in monterrey park - a fun little excursion it was. amist all the manga and quasi-japanese souveniours i came across a SUPER cute up-and-coming clothing brand that i was this close to spending money i didn't have on. a brand after my own heart [funny, it's actually quite similar to a nickname an ex had for me] fat rabbit farm specializes in overweight farm animal characters that are somethin' like pokemon but like 42 times less annoying. and just why are they so fat, you ask? ice cream. genius.

i was ridiculously tempted to buy this shirt [in purple]

they're on blogger, too. check it.

enough cuteness for the day? okay, okay.

here's some non-cute news: did you get the new skyzoo / dj drama mixtape?

available fo'free on okp. or here.

not much blogging here tonight, lo ciento. lots going though the head, and it's 3 in the morning.

HAPPY 4/20 !!!

on second thought, sky's actually kinda cute.

bells n' whistles biatches

2009-04-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

a short but important post. '09 lineup:

stoked for MOP & reflec eternal reunion =]

have you heard of badpaintingsofbarackobama.com ?

endless lawlz.

&while i'm at it, here's my favorite anti-weed commercial ever:

can't really comment on its effectiveness [how could you say anything bad about weed, honestly?], but that ish is mad funny.

especially high.

it's always sunny in st thomas

2009-04-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

so after a long hiatus of not writing in attempts to focus LESS on pop culture and MORE on straightening a few key components of my life out, i'm posting only to let my faithful readers [if i have any] know that i'll be going on vacation for a wonderful week.

anyone who knows me is aware that i'm most comfortable in warm weather, and i've always said that i want to end up living somewhere where the temperature is perpetually 78°. now i'm pretty spoiled with the weather here in LA but check out the virgin islands [where i'm headed in T-6 hours]

no joke, dude. life's good sometimes.

on to more serious things - and by serious, i mean cute but entirely practical -
tokidoki has teamed up with mimobot for a designer USB flash drive:

brill.yance. did they make this for me?

i'm not going to post a link of where to buy them because i don't wanna see "SOLD OUT" next to it when i buy it [which will inevitably happen soon]. google your own damn self.

on the music tip, if you haven't heard the new DOOM album [all caps when you spell the man's name], you're seriously slipping on banana peels. i can't stop listening to it.

classic, predictable MF - but i love him for that. album artwork is waay dope, too - spend your 13 bucks on it.

see ya suckas, i'm off for a week of paradise before returning to my reality of changing TP rolls on the daily.

...and you thought i was ballin'.

bros, hoes, and hip hop shows

2009-02-20T14:08:00.001-08:00

i'm such a stan, man...
evidence is hella cute in person. i had him sign an old dilated album i had - both weatherman & layover i've downloaded, not bought. how am i gonna look asking him to sign a burned CD?

i'm thinking abt seeing blu & ex on sunday.

[don't know if i wanna go all the way to long beach, though. spoiled, aren't i?]

i may opt just to see them instead of spending 40 bucks on a paid dues ticket -

which has a line-up that i'm only semi-stoked about. tech n9ne? womp womp.

i'll see, though.

i am america, and so can you

2009-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

man, what's up with america lately? can we get any good news, ever?

my sister wrote this poem about the state of the nation, and it's pretty dope. accept the irony of the style of writing and you'll be able to appreciate it more.

fuck the worlldddd
conomy's a crashin!
wut? fox still obama bashin?
so cancers a killin n bin ladens jus chillin
u watchn myleyfuckin cyrus?
crisis? crisis!
politics schmolotics
global warmn dont mean shit.
lets all c u prove it.
numb3rs dont mean shit
facts aint facts bitch.. ?
wuddafuxup w ur kids man..
toddlerz textin n bein hoes?
lil girls b givn blows?
naw they aint my kids man
gotta stop sumtime
da plate's full but we stil pilin?
gotta eat it sumtime
or we gunna keep geetn fat.
gotta start sumwher
stallionare? billionare!
ill find some1 that cares
maybe some guy upstairs?
idk anymore jill..

hello kitty x MAC = cuteness attack!

2009-02-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

through a very unlikely source, i found out about the hello kitty / MAC cosmetics collab that hit stores yesterday and i'm about to die from a cuteness overdose.

can i have all of them, please?wanna hear something really sad?

the girl in the sanrio store knows my name.

i'm so lame.

aubrey does playboy:: GTFO.

2009-02-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

though i love to hate ms o'day, i have to admit she's looking gorgeous on the cover of march's playboy, which hit news stands tomorrow. jumping on the bandwagon with pals jenna j. and kim k. [whose spread was also stunning], aubrey's crutch is "being able to feel comfortable with that and show that sex can be a beautiful, comfortable — your sexuality can be a beautiful, comfortable thing — is going to be empowering for people." empowering? okay. like porn stars, strippers, and street-walkers sell their body because they feel empowered?...sure.

fans, former DK "band"-mates, and diddy obviously all have their panties in a bunch but honestly, who didn't see this coming? check the rest of the pics here && note her nonwavering facial expression. think she noticed? LOL.

i'm just looking to see if one boob is really smaller than the other - her "biggest insecurity," she claimed during this interview.

ahh boy. the day aubrey stops trying to please everyone is the day i stop talking sh*t.

dopeness/wackness 1st ed.

2009-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

in response to my recent viewing of the wackness [yes..the film; not..what surrounds me on a daily basis] i'm going to try to periodically post stories/blurbs/events that are both dope AND wack. [that's roughy equivalent to good and bad, for those not up on their 90s slang.]

first item up:

THIS SHOW-

M83 to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

M83 have announced a co-headlining performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Los Angeles in March.

The musicians are set to perform at Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall on March 7. This will be M83's debut performance with an orchestra, and at the Disney Hall.

The concert will pair M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez in a programme that features three sets: the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing orchestral pieces chosen in collaboration with M83; M83 performing solo material; and the Philharmonic performing a selection of songs with M83, featuring orchestral arrangements by Sean O’Loughlin, who also wrote the arrangements for the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Belle & Sebastian and The Decemberists.

M83 recently wrapped up a tour of the UK with Kings Of Leon, as previously reported.

--By our Los Angeles staff.

from
http://www.nme.com/news/m83/42318

is going to be DOPE.

who wants to come with me??

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

but THIS ?

Two-Buck Chuck Could Potentially Get Pricier
Posted Jan 22nd 2009 4:05PM by Marisa McClellan
Filed under: Wine, Stores & Shopping, Food News
Californians, I'm sorry to say this, but it looks like soon you're going to have to pay more for your Two-Buck Chuck. It already costs between $3 and $4 dollars in many of the other states where it's available (sadly, you can't get it for love or money here in Pennsylvania, where the Liquor Control Board regulates our booze purchases with puritanical zeal) and in light of the proposed tax increases in CA, soon there won't be a bottle of red to be hand for just a couple of singles.

For those of you not in the know, Two-Buck Chuck is a wine that is officially known as Charles Shaw and is sold exclusively at Trader Joe's stores. It's surprisingly drinkable for something so inexpensive and has become the tipple of choice for all your better college potlucks and backyard pitchers of sangria.

The price will only rise if a newly proposed tax hike, charging $.05 per drink in the state of California, goes into effect. The state calculates that there are approximately six servings of wine (at five ounces per serving) in a 750 mL bottle of wine. This would increase the state tax per bottle from $.04 to nearly $.30. Two-Buck Chuck works with a very narrow profit margin and this increase would effectly eliminate it.

The good news is that the wine would still remain fairly cheap and the state of California might be able to stave off impending budgetary catatrosphy.

straight WACK.

easy enough, right?

S.A.D. times call for desperate measures

2009-01-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

i wish i had something to write about other than the fact that lately i have nothing to write about.

LA's gotten colder, and i've convinced myself that's why i'm in such a slump lately. [granted, it's still like 50-60 degrees outside].

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues, is a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or, less frequently, in the summer,^[1] repeatedly, year after year. The US National Library of Medicine notes that "some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up."^[2] The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder, and can also include heightened anxiety.^[3]

on top of this, christmas has come and gone
[unfortunately for me, since this dope ass new kid robot quasimoto is hitting stores soon - damn you brokeness!] and i'm working a dead-end job in which the only highlight of my work day is when sabrina bryan [yes, the cheetah girl] remembers my face at the checkout counter. [cool chick, btw. and you best believe that lil' ho can curse up a STORM. no joke.]

oh, and by the other way - just to clarify, i do have at least two (2) voices in my head at all times, clearly illustrated through my frequent use of brackets ( [] ).

the world is on its head right now, i swear. obamanation is in full effect [is it bad that word isn't coming up as a misspelling? that's not really how you spell it, is it?] - good thing i don't have cable or CNN would be consuming at least 6 hours of my already short day. not to mention, i'm kinda tiring of hearing about dude. and seeing oprah's face. it's a big deal. i get it.

smh. crazy times, son.

and i heard our favorite rappers least favorite rapper is venturing into a new music genre: rock.
peep the article here or just hear this ish like i know you want to below:

ordinarily i'd be flabbergasted at such a notion but for whatever reason not much surprises me anymore, especially anything having to do with the weez.

on a kinda related note, did i tell you joaquin phoenix became a rapper?

Yahoo Movies: Joaquin Phoenix Shocks with Retirement Announcement

according to the article above, "Phoenix is apparently giving up acting to pursue music, a passion of his since he learned to play guitar to play the role of Johnny Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line." According to Billboard, Phoenix is working on an album with Tim Burgess, frontman for the UK group The Charlatans."
guess no one thought it'd be a rap album.

hardcore method actors, i salute you [*wink* you're not fooling me, joaquin].

crazy times, son.

not much else going in my world other than lots of cake and lots of movies. i just got word today that a sage francis song plays during the end credits of pride and glory. that's pretty dope news for the [pretty deep] underground hip hop community.
i love hearing hip hop in non-hip hop themed movies. [to paraphrase: movies made/with white people!] btw, do yourself a favor and see the wackness - soundtrack of the year for me.

in more hip hop news, tyler's production crew just finished shooting a video for ohio rapper blueprint, who i recently realised is the same blueprint who is signed to rhymesayers and who was recently featured on the jake one tape:

will post as soon as i get it, as i may have something of a cameo in it. say wha?

not much else going on here, folks.
my comfort food of choice lately is

mmm. take that, lactose-intolerance!

and my comfort tunes are zion i's latest and some guilty pleasure kid cudi cuts [who woulda thought?]. don't hate, try to play this

and try to make it through the day without singing it.

impossible.

new years ramblings

2009-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

this job is reminding me why i went to college in the first place - so i wouldn't have to do jobs like this.

why? too many reasons to list, really.

since i'm an optimist though, (GTFO), the gig does have its perks: meeting tons of cool people everyday, free film screenings, lots of hours [aka lots of mindless work].

and seeing tons of celebs. if that can be considered one. here's a partial list of celeb spottings since my landing here in LA:
-janine garafalo (shopping in fairfax district)
-tom green + asian girlfriend (seeing yes man: walked out of theatre early- was the movie really that bad?)
-donald faison + maya rudolph of SNL with their signif others & kids (took kids to see tale of despereaux)
-dustin hoffman (seeing his film last chance harvey with moms & pops)
-john voigt (eating at PF Chang's in sherman oaks)

cool shat, yah?

oh, and tyler and i went to see slumdog millionaire the other night. personally recommending it.
be sure to stay through the credits to catch the badass dance sequence at the end.

-----------------
adjusting to this whole 40-hour work week shit has been a challenge, so comfort food = my crutch lately.
lots of cooking.
and when i'm not?

KFC HBQ's ftw.
------------------
my intent for this post was to write new years resolutions, but it instead turned into complaints, movies, and food. story of my life, though.
i'll just post those resolutions later.

*note to self: resolution #1: stop procrastinating.

i got family in high places like jesus' niece...

2008-12-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

not really. but i like to think that i do.

my pops is quoted on wikipedia. i can't imagine that anyone would be so bored as to care, but see if you can find the quote on the article here. i guess you may enjoy reading the it as well, if you happen to fancy unmanned aerial vehicles.
[say wha?]
yeah, that's what i said.

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

so the past few days at my new/temporary/godawful place of employment [that i won't mention, for ~~self-esteem~~ security purposes], i've come into contact with one of the world's most famous walking plastic surgery disasters, jocelyn wildenstein.
now i'm all about giving people the benefit of the doubt. if a mo'effer cuts me off in traffic, i'm likely to assume that his wife is in the hospital giving birth, or his cat is dying, or whatever, instead of throwing a cursing fit. [unless, of course, i'm already 5 minutes late for work -- then all bets are off.]

so upon first hearing about this socialite dubbed "the cat woman" who's gone under the knife countless times after her husband left her in attempts to win him back, i kinda felt sorry for the broad. i mean, she's gotta have some serious issues to think she looks okay like that. and it's gotta suck to have your husband leave you for someone younger and better looking [not like he has to look that far, though. her pre-knife face in the 70s certainly wasn't anything crucial].

but let me tell you...this bitch? THIS bitch - HAS to have the stankest personality of ANYONE that comes in my place of business, all jokes aside.

maybe it's because it's so hard to look at her without scrunching up your face. i guess if that happens with EVERYONE who looks at you the whole day, you're gonna be an automatic bitch.

what am i saying? no more excuses for this hoe. how can you look like that AND have a stank ass personality? she must have a midas pussy or something.

LA's a trip, man.

murs was wrong...

2008-12-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

turns out you DO have to worry if you're staying north of wilshire.
[if you don't get my reference, hit that play button above.]

night before last, someone busted my window and took my GPS from my center console [my new one !! :: see previous post] sometime between the hours of 2 AM and 2PM. on the street right outside my apartment.

WIGGEDY WIGGEDY WELCome to LA!

actually i'm not entirely sure if this is my official housewarming gift, OR simply bad karma for having cheated the system on *~~coppin'~~ acquiring that GPS.

either way, that shxt blows like taryn manning.
for rilla.

i mean damn, where's rick ross when you need him?

on a lighter note, i've got a job intvw monday [chhyeah!] and the new common CD has leaked.haters gonna hate, lovers gonna love [word to dave chapelle channeling kels]. but i'm digging this CD.
he's definitely not the com we know from the classic LWFC, nor is he still riding off the success of BE & FF. the album's almost entirely produced by the neptunes, and its 'electro-infused' sound takes a pinch from kanye's 808s formula to add to com's default soul -- and it works. this album seems to achieve what electric circus attempted [and failed]. that one had a few neptunes tracks too, didn't it?

that one i'm sure you were trying to forget about tho. [sorry]

have a pleasant december weekend! =] and keep an eye on your whip at all times. that is all.

*note to self: never use that word as slang again - the cops deserve no shout outs for their failure to witness this occurrence. and on TOP of that redirecting me, when i dialed 911, to LAPD hollywood branch office's VOICEMAIL.

and the scammer of the year award goes to...

2008-11-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

so, lots of friends and family members had been super stoked about the mega ultra extreme black friday sale at wal-mart today. and though i loathe wal-mart, they did have some hella decent deals [a 500 gig external for 70 bucks? gtfo.]

i'm relatively set in the electronics department, although of course i'd love to upgrade to an iphone, a macbook air or a 42" HD LCD TV. but the way things are going financially right now, there's no need for me to be superfluous.

the only gadget i could have possibly needed was a new GPS system, as my garmin c330 was outdated as hell and wouldn't mount nicely in my car anywhere. wal-mart happened to have the magellan roadmate 1412 as one of their black friday 5-11am specials for $149 [normally $199]. the only problem is, i don't like the magellan software. pain in the arse.

i'd been eyeing the garmin nuvi [255w] for a while, but wal-mart didn't have those on sale, naturally. what's a girl to do?

i'll give you the play-by-play.

-bought the 1412 at walmart for $150 [at 11:30 son, no 5:00 for me]. paid cash, so i didn't leave a paper trail. they were in such a rush to get the customers outta the electronics dept., they didn't ask for any info. actually i'm not sure if wal-mart ever does anyway.

-checked the sales at office depot. 1412 going for $199 [womp womp.] nuvi also going for $199. can you guess what i did next?

-came back to office depot a few hours later with my unopened 1412. told'em i had got the system as a gift [which is partially true - i bought it with gift money], but it wasn't the one i wanted [which is also true]. i didn't have the receipt for it [which is true - i didn't have a receipt from office depot] so could i please do an exchange for the one i wanted?

-boom boom bap. would you grab the item off the shelf for the exchange? let me just scan them both. okay sign here please? cash register reads: $0.00. now that's what i like to see.

hustle harder, homie.

rewface does not condone cheating the system habitually. once in a while though, if you catch'em slipping... ;]

one take? PROPS.

2008-11-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

the homie taylor engel made a dope ass music vid for charleston, SC emcee righchus.
both seem to be on their way to doing very big things.

Ridin' - Music Video from Taylor Engel on Vimeo.

hella catchy little junt, don't you think?

oh yeah, and did i mention he shot the whole thing in one take - no cuts - russian ark style?

videographer to videographer - you gets my respect.

mid-november updates

2008-11-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

so, lots of great stuff has happened since the last time i updated.

obama won - pretty much by a landslide.

i signed a lease on an apt in hollywood.

had a minor collision in WeHo [my first one!]

looks bad right? but don't have to shell out any cash for it.

explored LA with erica [who took some great pics]

OH YEAH,
seeing my husband on dec 11[i thought i missed the tour but i'll catch his final show!]
front row? you best believe...

and hella stoked for this:

khrysis & alc on production -

feat. guest appearances by phonte, blu, will.i.am, & elzhi ?

makes me a happy rew

=]

superrad shit

2008-11-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

how'd i forget to up these pics?

the other week mr. fields happened to happen-upon sam flores and alex pardee painting a mural for the sparks x upperplayground tour in phoenix. [yeah, i'm sorry you missed it, too.] anyway, it's over, but he hooked me up with some exclusive ~~hi-def~~ sidekick-quality pics. check it:sam=the man

the man at work

alex pardee=on some other sh*tooh, but it works so well.finished product

pretty damn cool, right?
there's a mini-doc too. notice drew's tat makes a cameo appearance at 3:23.

and while i'm just friggen plugging everything, go buy some alex pardee hurley gear.

i don't even eff with hurley like that, but these shirts:

kinda dope. wish they didn't have the brand-name plastered all over, but whatevs.

[BARACK THE] VOTE TOMORROW!

a concert you should attend, and a man you should pay no attention to

2008-10-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

calling all bay area heads!
earlier today, the lovely and talented amanda bassa of hiphopdx hit me up with some info on an event thats going on nov. 20 in san francisco. it happens to be pretty cheap and for an incredibly worthy cause - check it out.

i'm not even an immortal tech fan but i'd definitely be there if i were in the area.
yay areeeaa!
okay, i've gotta stop.

on a semi-related note, Joe Wurzelbacher can go to hell. or at least, he can be kidnapped and held hostage in someone's basement for the next 6 months [or however long it takes for people to forget about him]. or 6 years, whatever. keep in mind that i can't STAND shepard smith, but this was the only clip i could find. although if you're tv's been on at all in the last 12 hours, i'm sure you've caught most of this story already.

a vote for obama is vote for the death of israel? i'm not even jewish but this has me heated. shut your ig'nant ass up, for real.

in short, eff joe dubb, eff fixed news, and long live immortal tech and the children of afghanistan. that is all.

posted up at the finish line..not quite yet

2008-10-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

my future husband jay smooth of illdoctrine.com's got a few words for the young voters:

i hate to sound like a broken record, but VOTE. please. don't make me look up your IP address and corresponding home address. i'll be on the next flight outta LAX. circle yo crib.
~~do me one better and vote for obama. oops. cause, you know that's what everyone REALLY is getting at when they're telling you to vote.~~

here's another voting PSA from a homie righchus outta charleston, SC. a former media arts colleague taylor engel did the video. check it.

righchus doesn't know i'm shouting him out, but who'd be upset at a free plug?

on another note,
F*%k the state of virginia.
first time voters can't vote absentee? you gotta be shitting me.
i'm not really upset at the fact that i can't vote this election - due to circumstances beyond my control - but just that i won't be able to complain if a..uh..certain less desirable candidate wins. dammit.

all the more reason for everyone else to get out and vote.

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

rosco rew approves of this message.

my day's already been made...

2008-10-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

and it's not even noon yet. check this brilliant little piece of after effects craftsmanship..
i'd say this trumps the editing skills behind the obama "stronger" video. yup.
stolen from the homie colby on the 'book.

5 unexpected south carolinians

2008-10-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

there are certain places that - for whatever reason - no one ever seems to leave.
for example, i'm TOTALLY convinced that if i was a native hawaiian, i'd have no problem working a mediocre job there, setting up house and home, and kicking it on the beach sippin' sangrias [or, perhaps another more authentically hawaiian mixed alcoholic drink] for the rest of my life.

though i definitely don't feel that south carolina is on the same playing field [for me] as hawaii, some people sure do think so.

maybe it's that carolina girls really are the best in the world, or maybe it's the diversity of the landscape ranging from "beaches" to mountains, or maybe it's the fabulosity of charleston or the carolina cup, or maybe it's the year round [unbearably] warm weather. i'll never really know.
whatever it is, i think it's pretty much safe to say that there aren't all that many south carolinians who leave, and if they do, they generally don't aspire to make it big in "the biz". granted, lots of lawyers, doctors, and small business owners make bookoo bucks in the state, capitalizing on the winning combination of folks who have too much'a that old, southern dough and too much trust in fellow native south carolinians to handle shit for em. it's all good, though. that's the backbone of the american economy, right?

back to my point. whenever i hear about someone from SC who's making big moves in TV, film, or music, i get kind of stoked. there's a sheer moment of excitement and a little voice inside my head that says 'one more made it out!!'

so from the list-obsessed partial south carolina resident comes 5 people who you probably wouldn't expect to be from SC.

#1 vanna white
she's not a huge celeb, but the wheel of fortune letter turner has always had a special place in my heart. her status as a tv game show icon was solidified when i was around 5 years old and i found an authentic vanna special edition barbie in my grandma's closet. thinking the doll was an early christmas present for myself [in hiding], i asked if i could have it early, only to be denied. furthermore, i was informed the doll would never be in my possession, as it was a sacred collectors item that would be worth tons of money someday.
vanna was an exclusive doll. she was fabulous. she never wore the same dress twice. and she never aged.
not to mention she became famous from turning letters over on a big board [which is now electronic, relieving her of any duty whatsoever]. go vanna go.

#2 charlotte from sex & the city
charlotte was never my favorite - i'm a carrie, cliche much? - but she's just so darn lovable. every one of us likely has a bestie whos got a little bit higher moral standards than the rest of the crew [mine happens to have the same first name i do ;], and i think that's a necessity. someone's gotta bring you back down to earth when you're speaking of crazy, off-the-wall antics and do need to be reminded that they may - in fact - be illegal [in arkansas] and maybe you should reconsider. and it'd only make sense that that character on the show was played by a south carolina girl. look at her ralph lauren game and tell me it all makes sense now. charlotte went to AC Flora and her dad is a psychology professor at USC. yep! a columbia resident. stay classy, girl.

#3 masta killa from wu-tang clan
i don't know much about masta killa, besides the fact that he's one of the later [less-talented] additions to the wu-tang clan. i used to brag that i could listen to a song by the wu and be able to identify who was spittin' at any given time, but honestly i'm not sure if i could pick out MK's voice - he just really isn't all that dope. but back to the matter at hand - wu reps the HELL outta NY ("shaolin"=staten island, in case you missed that), but masta killa's a straight sumter, SC boy. yup! born in brooklyn, okay, but raised in SC? and your moms lives there? maan, i've seen your mom. she wants you to come home.
<-[ps. click to enlarge this pic. you just might get a kick out of it.]

#4 chris rock
another dual brooklyn/SC native [hey, maybe i'd fit into that category too?] is stand up legend and comedic actor chris rock. i actually wasn't aware of his carolina roots until fairly recently, when i learned a close friend of mine used to live next door to chris' moms in georgetown [beach area], SC. random, huh? i've been told in chris' stand up he occasionally references a small, southern town, and it's pretty obvious that's where he's talking about. SC has probably served as more of source of inspiration for his stand-up material than most people realise, though. i'd imagine noting the differences in racial tolerance between bed-stuy and georgetown neighborhoods are pretty ironic, and his frequent racially-themed [and often brilliant] sketches are a testament to this.

#5 nancy from weeds
or, mary-louise parker, arguably the #1 milf on television. the first time i saw nancy was in one of my favorite movies, saved!, [yeah, i didn't remember her from fried green tomatoes, my b] as a horny christian mom of a pregnant teenager. i found her to be incredibly witty and sarcastic, but still super classy. similar to her role on weeds, i guess, if you add on the fact that she becomes a suburban drug lord. and that just makes her infinitely cooler. an army brat who was raised on the streets on fort jackson, SC, MLP is a girl after my own heart =]

...that about sums this list up. & no, i didn't include stephen colbert, since he's been pretty vocal about his chuck-town upbringing.

any other additions?
*sarah palin wink*

oh yeah, me =]

sunday=funny youtube vid day.

2008-10-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

feeling like re-uppin' some oldies.

shouts to d.omen back in DC!

this one provides ENDLESS ROFLCAKES for all, promise.

&here's a new one - HEARTS to my future husband jay smooth at illdoctrine.com

that's all for now.
gotta couple blog entries on deck- nothin' super current, just random shiz.
ps. don't miss a night of reality TV goodness on VH1: charm school @ 9 and pickup artist @ 10.

my love/hate relationship with wal-mart

2008-10-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

growing up a military brat, i kind of missed the boat on the whole wal-mart phenom. the BX (or PX, whichever you prefer) was my military wal-mart equivalent, minus SALES TAX, the awful smell, and clueless 'customer service' employees.
[shouts to AAFES employees! i did my time as a cashier the year i lived in japan. whatup powerzone and c-area?]

it wasn't until i was 13 years old and living in rural northern louisiana that i discovered the importance and social significance, if you will, of the multi-billion dollar franchise that is wal-mart. a few years before i moved to that small town in louisiana, a wal-mart had opened (edit: a super wal-mart), creating not only a place of one-stop all-night shopping, but also a social hub where you could, at any given moment, get hit on by questionable looking dudes, asked for 5 dolla by someone with a bootleg louie-V purse, see 3 ex-boyfriends and 2 ex-pastors all in the same place - awkward! (especially the exes and pastors, when you're there in sweats with your current boo at 11:00 at night. but that comes later.) having no other choice, my family gradually accepted wal-mart as one of the world's evils: i mean, they did have the cheapest groceries and housewares in town.

we later moved on to places with bases, usually opting for the power BX+commissary combination over wal-mart. even during my college days, i found myself avoiding the stench of wal-mart if at all possible.

to add insult to injury, a few years back i saw what would later become one of my favorite documentaries "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." [netflix that shiz if you haven't seen it.] though it's a little long and the production isn't stellar, the message is clear: DON'T SHOP AT WAL-MART. i learned that not only are their employees (managers and supervisors included) disgustingly underpaid, the cheap chinese labor it takes to make those 3 dollar train toys (probably covered in lead) that your baby puts all in his mouth is keeping 13-year old chinese girls in flats half the size of USC dorm bathrooms. not to MENTION the fact that small businesses suffer immediately and irreversibly when wal-mart comes to town.
with regards to the low prices, [word to my grandpa] if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

all that being said, there's no doubt that times is hard. times is reaal hard. and, to put it bluntly, i'd rather that chinese girl stay living in that flat than me be out an extra hundred bucks for having shopped at whole foods rather than wal-mart solely on principle. without a BX around, the cheapest grocery shopping option is..*ding ding ding*..yup, wal-mart ftw.

yet i now find myself in a land that knows not of wal-mart. remember paris hilton on the simple life? "what's a wal-mart?" yeah, they don't exist in LA. unless of course you want to make your way down crenshaw, to probably be met with countless cops holding up traffic on (conveniently) the very side of the road you're trying to drive down. not my cup'a boba, if you ask me.

so now i find myself broke, but in an even stranger place: fiending for a wal-mart. who would'a thought?

f*ck wal-mart, though.

whatup, washington?

2008-10-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

not DC, i'm referring to seattle's KUBE 93 FM radio station. wait...wtf am i talking about? i've never been to washington (state), you say? [actually i think i had a layover there on a flight back from japan, but can you really count those layover states as "states you've visited" even if you only saw the airport? i know some mangy-ass mugs probably do, though.]
anyway. here's a tracklisting for the station's sunday night playlist. this was last week's:

Show #174 (9-28-08)

Strong Arm Steady – “Can’t Let Go”

Royce The 5’9” ft. Canibus & Elzhi – “Royal Flush Freestyle”

Heltah Skeltah – “Insane”

**INTERVIEW WITH RIK RUDE**

Jake One ft. Elzhi & Royce The 5’9” – “Glow” (Local Artist)

Black Milk – “Give The Drummer Sum”

Johnson&Jonson (Blu & Mainframe) – “The Oath”

88 Keys ft. Dilated Peoples, Alchemist, & Aceyalone – “Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Anthem”

**INTERVIW WITH THE KNUX, PT. 1**

Lupe Fiasco ft. Pharrell, Q-Tip, & Sarah Green – “Paris, Tokyo (Remix)”

U-N-I – “Yesterday”

**INTERVIEW WITH THE KNUX, PT. 2**

The Knux – “Bang! Bang!”

Janelle Monae – “Many Moons”

Raphael Saadiq – “Big Easy”

Kardinal Offishall – “Bad Like We Bad”

**INTERVIEW WITH THE KNUX, PT. 3**

The Knux – “Cappuccino (Remix)”

Shyan Selah – “Hollywood Blvd” (Local Artist)

Ike James ft. Jadakiss & Jazze Pha – “Callin’ Me” (Local Artist)

Murs – “Think You Know Me”

Foreign Exchange ft. Muhsinah – “Daykeeper”

**INTERVIEW WITH THE KNUX, PT. 4*

like, say wha? are you serious? did someone hack into my computer and jank a random playlist from my itunes?
i'm thinking i either need to ~~move to seattle~~ or get HD radio. ASAP.

oh god. here's one more.

Show #173 (9-21-08)

Robin Thicke ft. Mary J. Blige & Wale – “Magic (Mark Ronson Remix)”

Devin The Dude – “I Can’t Make It Home”

Jake One ft. Little Brother – “Bless The Child” (Local Artist)

Foreign Exchange ft. Muhsinah – “Daykeeper”

Pacific Division – “Wake Up”

Consequence – “There Can Only Be One”

88 Keys ft. Dilated Peoples, Alchemist, & Aceyalone – “Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Anthem”

DJ Revolution ft. Styliztik Jones & KB iMean – “Willie Lynch”

Johnson&Jonson (Blu & Mainframe) – “TheOnlyWay”

**INTERVIEW WITH COOK CLASSICS, PT. 1**

Ike James ft. Jadakiss & Jazze Pha – “Callin’ Me” (Local Artist)

**INTERVIEW WITH COMMON #03, PT. 1**

Common ft. Pharrell – “U.M.C. (Universal Mind Control)”

**INTERVIEW WITH COMMON #03, PT. 2**

Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”

Tonedeff – “Warden (Love Lockdown Remix)”

**INTERVIEW WITH COOK CLASSICS, PT. 2**

TiRon ft. Ayomari – “Sydney”

**INTERVIEW WITH COOK CLASSICS, PT. 3**

Avriel Epps ft. Knox – “Don’t Tell Me To Go”

Shyan Selah – “Hollywood Blvd” (Local Artist)

Black Milk – “Give The Drummer Sum”

Diamond D – “D-I-A-M-O-N-D”

Janelle Monae – “Violet Stars Happy Hunting”

John Legend ft. Andre 3000 – “Green Light (Diplo Dade County 1988 Mix)”

two questions:
1)who is this DJ?
and 2) why aren't we married yet?

more orgastasic goodness here [they give mediafire/zshare links for the playlists!! =]
or peep HD radio info here.

stay superrad, seattle.

OS bipartisanship

2008-10-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

this Mac vs PC beef has gotten out of hand.

i'm sure many of you have seen windows' new life without walls ad campaign & the commercials with the message "..i'm a PC, and i've been stereotyped." much like my favorite gold kit commercial[see: hella excited black lady@ 0:18], i get a damn good laugh outta this one - the drama couldn't be set up more like an SNL parody!

i mean, i get it though. that's the point - they're trying to be ironic. but it comes off like they're butt hurt and are now being cynical to the point of dick-headed-ness.
mac had a brilliant ad campaign, admit it.
admit it!!

don't try to combat irony with more irony!
bill gates has gotten his panties up in a bunch, for rilla.

just more proof that republicans can't take a joke!

DWTS aka kim k's sexiness suicide

2008-10-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

as some of my readers may know, my biggest fem crush of the '00s [post-lindsay-lohan's dumpster diving into skandom] is reality tv / sex tape starlet kim kardashian. similar to yours truly, kim is hailed for having an amazing ass, impeccable taste in clothes, and a serious affinity for attractive black men [okay, okay -- maybe only the last applies to me]. kim busted on the scene around 2006, gorgeous as all get out with some ray-j d*ck in her mouth and quickly became somethin' like a sex object; kicking it with fellow sex tape star paris didn't help, either.

E!'s "reality sitcom" keeping up with the kardashians was developed [probably] primarily so kim could gain back a bit of wholesome-ness by showing herself in a loving family-type atmosphere (funny how easily that purity can be gained back nowadays..whatup vanessa hudgens?) in the hopes of one day becoming a legitimate celebrity. however, try as i might, i can only stomach so much of this show; and not because of anyone or anything in particular - the shit is just mad boring.
Edit: [kim's mom] chris's desperate attempts at post-40 stardom are beyond godawful, too.

ANYWAY, when talks came this summer about kim competing on dancing with the stars, a show that actually had some substance - little though it may be - i had to admit, i was kind of stoked. maybe kim could be the next carmen electra! a gorgeous brunette (who also had a thing for ~~black~~ men like prince and rodman ) who can't act or sing, but just when you're about to write her off as talent-less you remember: this b*tch can dance!

unfortunately, this notion was immediately shot down the moment i saw kim's rehearsing for the show. and it's not even like "dang she sucks, but she's trying, she'll nail it on performance night..." no. its like "dang, this chick is hopeless." and what's funny is, she's the first to admit it! she's so cute about it - confessing that everyone thinks she can dance but she really can't [as if it needs to be said!]. but confession aside, i think this is just unforgiveable. how you gonna be famous for being a sex object but you're TOTALLY not sexy in ANY way on the dance floor? this saddens me, kim. you really let me down.

needless to say, kim was sent home last week, after another wack performance.
i probably WON'T be tuning in to DWTS tonight. i'm still mourning. [watch a clip of this disgracefulness below.]

RIP to kim's sexiness - it'll forever be a figment of americans' imaginations.
note to kim: if i see you at any clubs in LA, you better be hosting or posted at the bar. i don't wanna be embarrassed for you, anymore.

eagle eye hear voices: damn, i'm old.

2008-10-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

in the spirit of my pleasant MF DOOM experience at best buy [see previous post] and my most recent trip to the movies to see my future ex-husband in eagle eye,i'm posting a DOOM music vid i was reminded of when i saw the film. except maybe, take whatever eagle eye's budget and divide it by a million - that's roughly the budget of this vid.

it's still cool as hell, though. you think that "tracking" at the beginning is part of it, or it was actually on screen when someone recorded it on their VCR? heaven forbid the latter - what ya'll kids know about TRACKING on a VCR? i used to have to adjust it for moms when she wanted to play back tapes she had recorded of the young and the restless when i was like, 5 years old.

isn't it funny how quickly technology becomes obsolete? it's crazy to think that the next generation of american youth won't know of VHS tapes, or audio tapes [although my kids probably will, bc of my 'profession'] , or floppy disks, or zip drives, or mini-disc players, or pagers, or tamagotchis, or game-boys, or brain warp, or any of that other shit we thought was so dope back in the day (okay, brain warp was only half-way dope).
it all kinda reminds me of an article i read in the washington post a while back, check it here.

dang, i'm not normally so nostalgic, but starting to feel old is hella weird.

*completely loses train of thought - must...scroll...back...up...*

oh yeah, eagle eye. go see it. shia's incredibly magnetic on screen, and the supporting cast is equally as enjoyable. sure, it's a little far-fetched, but unless you're my dad, it shouldn't be a problem.

mm..goodies!

2008-10-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

rewface got her copy of murs for president. did you?

in fact, i copped the last one off the shelf from best buy. hopefully this means everyone else bought the other ones, and not that they received only a small number to sell. i'll assume the former.

they didn't have the johnson&johnson CD. i wasn't really expecting them to, but i looked anyway. gotta support my favorite LA rappers.

just for kicks though, i thought i'd check the shelves to see if they had any previous murs albums. [they didn't.]

but guess what i found in a shiny silver wrapper under M?

!!! i know, right? since when does BB sell DOOM?
i already have this album, of course - but i don't have it have it. and i couldn't just let it chill there.
best buy ftw!! =D

the end of an era..

2008-10-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

RIP

BET's Rap City
1989-2008

*cue nas: hip hop is dead*

people get into hip-hop in different ways. i, for one, wasn't introduced through friends (early on) or even family members; i didn't have a big brother or badass uncle to put me on. in fact, it was quite the opposite. moms caught me listening to some warren G i had recorded onto an audio tape off the radio back when i was 8 (damned if i can't remember the name of that radio station!) and just about sh*t a brick. so naturally, i knew i was onto something.
then there was "gangster's paradise" in 1996 - a song with a beat so haunting and lyrics so far beyond my pre-teen comprehension that i just HAD to dig that shit. while my peers were bumping spice girls and jock jams, i was staying up trying to hear that new ma$e song on the radio. oh, but i wish i was joking.
i guess you could say the rest is history. listening to rap music became a completely covert operation. radio recording onto audio tapes was my main method. then after we moved to japan for the first time, and i was left with craptastic radio, a new opportunity conveniently presented itself in the form of one of my BFFs, danielle. she had an extensive CD collection and somehow, had ALL the parental advisory CDs (i was so jealous!). old puff daddy, nas, DMX-- and i had access to 'em, pretty much whenever i wanted. around that time ['98-ish] came the advent of napster and my having free range to cop any song i chose (provided that i waited 45 to an hour to download it! -needless to say, i chose wisely). napster was totally the shit because my parents had no idea what mp3 files even were, back then.
but when they found out... (a quick tangent)
i'll never forget that fateful day when dad discovered my HUGE folder of rap music on the family computer. i remember awkwardly sitting with him and listening to 3-6 mafia's "slob on my knob" in addition to something equally as misogynistic by project pat, and the following discussion abt how i was degrading myself listening to "garbage like that". (what the eff tho, really? i didn't even listen to project pat and 3-6. why couldn't he have pulled up common's "the light" or something?)
after the rise and fall of napster, i somehow acquired membership to that BMG music club (remember those things you'd get in the mail? 12 cd's for $1?). now that i think of it, i really have no idea how that happened. all i remember is i was getting like 2 or 3 cds a week, anything i wanted, coming straight to the mailbox, no parental filter, paying for those junts with my babysitting dough. this is probably what planted the seeds for me to have my own insane CD collection now [that's really just sitting taking up space in my garage]. i have some classics though.
but, you ask, how was i even up on what to order? backstory to follow:
starting in '00, when we came back to LA from japan, i discovered MTV and BET. we hadn't had cable before then, so my exposure was limited to the radio. all things considered, BET was like crack for my 13 year old fix. i got outta school at 3. mom's worked until 5, got home about 6. and 2 out of those glorious 3 hours i had of total freedom every day were filled with the 4-6 timeslot of BET's rap city.
yupp, back in the days of "tha bassment". big tigger. guest appearances from jay. DMX. meth. etc. i fell in love with rap music and all its (supposed) blasphemous, narcissist, gun-slingin' and bling-blingin' ways, even if i only half-understood 'em. i learned the art of freestyle. battle rapping. old school jams. learned to distinguish between NY shit, southern shit, and west coast shit. learned what i liked. learned what i didn't like. learned of up-and-coming artists (who've now come and gone). learned of the legends, pac and big, and what they contributed to the game. moms was downtown in vegas the night pac got shot. 4 years later, i discovered why it was such a big deal.
rap city was my after school schoolin' on what would later become the love of my life.
sure, i listened to other stuff too. i was heavy into rock/metal in 8th-9th grade and i can listen to alternative rock any day of the week. but rap, well, rap was always there. always something i had, that was personal, individual, private. my own pandora's box of sorts. and rap city helped shape that. it was, for a few years, my own block of time to chill, feel like i was being rebellious, (cause i was a pretty good kid, for the most part) and soak up all that'd been sheltered from me as an upper-middle class white military brat.
so now, it truly feels like the end of an era. according to hiphopdx, rap city will be replaced by a music video show with a format similar to that of vh1's "pop-up video". truthfully, i haven't watched rap city in a good two years (at least), and i probably couldn't even tell you who's hosting now or what time slot it comes on. so i guess it's appropriate to lay it to rest.
school's out.

idiocracy 101: cowz > pigz

2008-10-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

lmao lmao lmao. look at this bitch. i wanna party with her. now.

[janked from http://news.cincinatti.com]
Woman in Cow Costume Arrested

MIDDLETOWN - A 32-year-old woman was sentenced to a month in the Middletown Jail Monday after she was arrested and charged with chasing children, blocking traffic and yelling at police - all while wearing a cow costume.

Michele Allen pleaded guilty Monday in Middletown Municipal Court to one count of disorderly conduct, court officials said.

Middletown police said she chased children in the 3100 block of Wilbraham Road and urinated on a neighbor's porch Saturday night. An officer ordered her to go home and stay there.

About 11 p.m., police were called to the 2400 block of North Verity Avenue after receiving a report that a woman in a cow costume was blocking traffic.

Allen had alcohol on her breath, slurred her words, was belligerent and swore at the officer, a report states.

***just me thinking a little too much:: wouldn't it be difficult to pee in that thing?

ish i'm on lately: antioxidants + intoxicants

2008-09-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

being that i'm of age now, i've been indulging in, well, the finer things in life, and considering i was pretty law-abiding up to this point, i don't feel too bad for treating myself to some good'ol liquid courage every once in a while.
luckily, right in time for my 21st year of age, smirnoff has released this fabulous mixed drank that i've SO been enjoying lately-
the pomegranate martini.
and this is pretty friggen sweet for someone like me, who would never have the time or patience to follow oprah[ahem..rachael ray]'s recipe.
$2o-somethin bucks at the ABC store ; which is..shieet, like 2.5 mixed drinks at the bar , minus all the ice they give you in those effers, so you can get this for the price of maybe 1 full drink?
uhm, yeah. good stuff, ya heard it from me.

on movies: BRICK and the essence of COOL

2008-09-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

you ever watch a movie and afterward, you just feel so damn cool?
i've been trying to figure out this transfer-of-coolness phenom. you'd think as a film school grad, it'd be easily explainable. but i guess terminology for this hasn't exactly evolved yet.
so a goal of most movies is for the viewer to be able to see himself in the role of the main character/a supporting character. sometimes, however, this isn't easy, even if the movie is really good. ie. who the eff would i be in fight club? some movies you've just gotta take for what they are and not try to insert yourself into them.
expanding on that, some characters are so cool that it is, in fact, hard to see yourself as them. these are main characters who follow the "hero" archetype - most notably your superheroes, james bonds, indiana joneses, lara crofts, etc. personally, i'm not a huge fan of these movies, but alot of people are. i like my character to be a little more relatable, and unless, of course, you're a cocky biznatch, it's hard as hell to put yourself in the role of superman.
and then there's that unexpected cool. that swagger of the kid who owns the playground, but he wouldn't look it. your average joe who gets EVERYONE's respect. your ferris bueller. your literal T.J. from recess, as opposed to your king bob, who may be at the top, but isn't internationally respected. (shout-outs to recess!!) that cool, i feel, is attainable, and after watching a movie with an unexpectedly cool character, i feel cool myself.
so, back to the film at hand. BRICK. i meant to see it a while ago when mr. fields put me on, and then i forgot about it. and then i remembered it, and got it on netflix, and then got busy. finally watched it the other day, and trust, i'm just now losing my post-brick swagger. joseph gordon-levitt (of stop-loss, or, best known as the cutie from angels in the outfield back in the dizzay, if you're my age) plays brendan, a seemingly average joe who turns into a supa-dupa-fly detective -reminiscent of sam spade in the maltese falcon, think 1940s b&w detective ish- when his sometimes girlfriend is murdered. in between high school classes (if he ever went to class at all?) he attempts to solve the mystery of her death and devise a clever homicide setup plan to avenge those responsible for it. i knew the film was most noted for being a fusion of film noir with a teen flick, so i proceeded with caution, preparing for some continuity issues. but for the most part, the storyline was surprisingly believable. the fact that the characters are still teens makes the situations more believable in a current context - ie. they don't have cell phones or cars, which wouldn't be too believable for adults in a current context, yanno? so it kind of HELPS with continuity in that regard.
oh, and did i mention the slang? (if you know me, you know i have an affinity for slang) i'm talking cool '40s slang - or maybe, totally contrived slang - either way, it helps to have a remote so you can go back and turn the subtitles on.
the off-the-wall slang, combined with brendan's unexpected rise in the proverbial high school hierarchy [from the kid who "ate lunch alone behind the portables" to pretty much having the kingpin of the school drug community and the most popular girl in school eating from the palm of his hand] all in a few days, nonetheless, is what makes this movie so damn cool. and oh, did i feel cool watching it.
check it!

a moment of silence..

2008-09-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

and now,
i'd like to pause for a moment of silence to honor those who, when re-upping a diminishing supply of toilet paper, take the extra effort to put it back on the roll instead of leaving it on top of the old one like a lazy d**khole.

people...i swear..

and even MOAR POLITRIKS

2008-09-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

these are totally rad, and totally stolen (big upps to DC blogger jason rodriguez, peep his page)
but they were too funny not to share! XD

rewface on mindfreak

2008-09-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

filmed summer '07, finally found that shit.

ok,so if you ever question the "realness" of the show, consider this:
1) WHY would i ever tell criss angel that i was a general's daughter?
[i try to avoid that subject with pretty much everyone, so i'd definitely not tell him.]
2) have i EVER worn a damn pin???
staging is necessary for good tv, folks.

my worst little dirty habit...

2008-09-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

is something quite harmless, and REALLY obvious, if you know me well: list-making. [which is, in fact, part of the reason why i created this blog. although only like 1/42nd of all the lists i make end up here. that might tell you how crazy i am about list-making.]
so, today's list is brought to you by the month of september, because so far this month's music releases (and leaks) have wreaked of scrotum sweat. (&no, i'm not downloading paper trail, good looking out though). but apparently this music drought should be over soon. so, without further adieu, here are, in no particular order:

5 Upcoming Albums that I'm Really Freaking Stoked For:

jakeone - white van music
now, i know i'm not the only one ready for this one. word has been circulating on hip-hop forums for the past month, and i bet there's an assload of people steady googling waiting for the leak. check the tracklisting. self-explanatory.

1. I'm Coming feat. Black Milk, Nottz
2. Gangsta Boy feat. M.O.P
3. The Truth feat. Freeway, Brother Ali
4. Turn It Down (Interlude)
5. God Like feat. D. Black
6. Bless The Child feat. Little Brother
7. Oh Really feat. Posdnuos (of De La Soul)
8. Hi (Interlude)
9. Trap Door feat. M.F. DOOM
10. Dead Wrong feat. Young Buck
11. Kissin The Curb feat. Bishop Lamont, Busta Rhymes
12. How We Ride feat. Freeway
13. White Van feat. Alchemist, Evidence (of Dilated Peoples), Prodigy
14. Big Homie Style feat. Alchemist, Evidence (of Dilated Peoples), Prodigy -
15. Scared feat. Blueprint
16. Great Sound (Interlude)
17. Get 'Er Done feat. M.F. DOOM
18. Feeling My Shit feat. Casual
19. Soil Raps feat. Keak Da Sneak
20. Glow feat. eLZhi, Royce da 5'9
21. R.I.P. (Interlude)
22. Home feat. Vitamin D, C Note, Maine, Ish

the foreign exchange - leave it all behind

another phonte & nicolay collab album? jesus must love me.
no tracklisting yet, but here's an album sampler janked from 2dopeboyz.com ..

DL via Z-Share:
The Foreign Exchange - Leave it All Behind (Sampler)

mf doom - born into this
in true doom fashion, i really know very little about this album. obviously, no album artwork or tracklist has been released yet. i'm not sure if any tracks have even leaked yet. but here's what i do know about the new one from viktor vaughn:

supposedly being released october 21st,

supposedly featuring production from J Dilla and DJ Dangermouse

supposedly "features some of DOOM's brightest and brilliant rhyme skills and production ever"

supposedly features ghostface and raekown (nothing to get too excited about, but i'm not mad at it.)

regardless, i'm already excited for this. it feels like it's been years since i've heard anything really new from doom.

robin thick - something else
okay, so i AM kinda mad at r.thicke's recent hissy fit over the fact that vibe magazine didn't slap his white ass on the cover, [but c'mon, ciara was offering to pose naked, can you really blame them?] but i'm really looking forward to his new one. dropping sep 30.
Evolution of Robin Thicke was just too good.
and i'm REALLY feeling that "magic" song.

but real talk, stick to your day job robin. there's no need for you to boycott the white man's rights in R&B music. something seems really backwards about that, anyway.

murs - murs for president
i bet you were expecting this one on top of the list. fooled you, huh?
no explanations needed for this one either. my favorite rapper is putting out a new album. i'm going to go back on xanax if this album sucks.
but since i really don't wanna jinx it i'm just gonna shut up for now.

sep 30th

go murs go

i'm personally advising

2008-09-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

that you don't get the theme song from RENT stuck in your head.
you know which one i'm talking about.
that "five hundred sixty five thousand four hundred minutes" or whatever incredibly long increment of time makes up the chorus.
no joke. it'll be there for DAYS at a time. it will be especially bad during inconvenient times. (doctors office, bank, elevators, etc.)

good luck, seeing as how i probably just got it stuck your humming that shit.

;]
ps. for the sleeping heads, here goes

go ahead, make my day..

2008-09-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

i had a shoot at a big office building in DC this morning, and i came across a brilliant little invention that totally made my morning 42 times better. it's called flavia , and it makes a custom-brewed cup of caffeinated goodness in less than a minute. how effn' cool is that? it can make cappuccinos, espressos, even teas, and all in individual servings. look which flavor i had this morning. =D =D

i'm in love. i almost wanna start my own company, just so i can get one'a these things. for rilla.
<3

aubrey from DK on wendy williams: i adore black men, too

2008-09-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

why do i LOVE LOVE LOVE aubrey o'day? [even though she's so deliciously hateable?]
almost like, opposite-mariah-carey-syndrome. [enh, more on that later.]
i mean, i hate that she's so obviously lying ab her boob job, [not like its anyone's business]
and how she's trying to appeal to everybody, [best way to encourage a wide fan base, i guess]
and how she was THIS CLOSE to going along with wendy, who dissed the sh*t outta the rest of DK.
[but then again, it's wendy. she tends to bring out the something in people.]

oh yeah. UC irvine? & you didn't come from money? c'mon now.
it's okay though. i still hearts you.

more politriks

2008-09-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

vote for ROSCO on icanhascheezburger!
click here to vote!
do it!

moar funny pictures

presidential news

2008-09-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

MURS TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!
MURS TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED!

Upcoming Shows

( view all )

Sep 6 2008

2:00P

The Gorge Amphiteater

George, Washington

Sep 13 2008

8:00P

Augbergine

San Diego, California

Sep 27 2008

12:00P

Los Angeles State Historic Park (Not a Cornfield)

Los Angeles, California

Oct 7 2008

8:30P

The Independent / 21 & Over

Berkeley, California

Oct 8 2008

8:00P

Tonic Lounge / 21 & Over

Reno, Nevada

Oct 9 2008

8:00P

W.O.W. Hall

Eugene, Oregon

Oct 10 2008

8:00P

Hawthorne Theatre

Portland, Oregon

Oct 11 2008

8:00P

Nectar / 21 & Over

Seattle, Washington

Oct 12 2008

9:00P

The Other Side / 18 & Over

Missoula, Montana

Oct 14 2008

7:00P

Nutty’s Bar & Grill

Sioux Falls

Oct 15 2008

8:00P

The Waiting Room

Omaha, Nebraska

Oct 16 2008

6:00P

Vaudeville Mews

Des Moines, Iowa

Oct 17 2008

6:00P

7th Street Entry

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Oct 20 2008

8:00P

High Noon Saloon / 18 & Over

Madison, Wisconsin

Oct 21 2008

9:00P

The Abbey / 18 & Over

Chicago, Illinois

Oct 22 2008

9:30P

Blind Pig / 18 & Over

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Oct 23 2008

7:00P

The Basement

Columbus, Ohio

Oct 24 2008

8:30P

Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

Cleveland, Ohio

Oct 25 2008

9:00P

Shadow Lounge

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Oct 28 2008

7:00P

Paradise Rock Club / 18 & Over

Boston, Massachusetts

Oct 29 2008

8:00P

Bowery Ballroom / 16 & Over

New York, New York

Oct 31 2008

9:00P

North Star Bar / 21 & Over

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Nov 1 2008

7:00P

Rock and Roll Hotel

Washington, DC

Nov 2 2008

8:00P

Bedrock

Baltimore, Maryland

Nov 3 2008

8:00P

Cat’s Cradle

Carrboro, North Carolina

Nov 5 2008

8:00P

Casbah at Tremont Music Hall

Charlotte, North Carolina

Nov 6 2008

8:00P

New Brooklan Tavern / 18 & Over

Columbia, South Carolina

Nov 7 2008

8:00P

Mercy Lounge / 18 & Over

Nashville, Tennessee

Nov 8 2008

7:00P

The Masquerade - Hell Stage

Atlanta, Georgia

Nov 10 2008

9:00P

Cafe 11

St. Augustine, Florida

Nov 11 2008

8:00P

Churchill’s Pub / 18 & Over

Miami, Florida

Nov 13 2008

8:30P

Platform 809

Tallahassee, Florida

Nov 14 2008

7:00P

The Social / 18 & Over

Orlando, Florida

Nov 15 2008

9:00P

Common Grounds / 18 & Over

Gainesville, Florida

Nov 17 2008

9:00P

One Eyed Jacks / 18 & Over

New Orleans, Louisiana

Nov 18 2008

9:00P

Emo’s Alternative Lounging - Inn

Austin, Texas

Nov 19 2008

9:00P

Hailey’s

Denton, Texas

Nov 21 2008

9:00P

The Record Bar / 18 & Over

Kansas City, Missouri

Nov 22 2008

8:00P

Fox Theatre

Boulder, Colorado

Dec 11 2008

8:00P

El Rey Theatre

Los Angeles, California

new brookland tavern? get the eff out! support murs in your city!
http://www.myspace.com/murs

lmao, his presidential address^^

USC homegirl on ANTM

2008-09-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

my girl clark gilmer, a USC student who we had as a host on SGTV's comedy show "chicken and toast" back in the dizzay, (a show that i produced) has made the cut on cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model!

yeah, so she doesn't know what bureaucracy is. if i was that pretty, i may not either. kidding. kinda.

best of luck, hun!

and, just cause i can,
Old Chicken and Toast shiz (clark's not on this one though), courtesy of frosty palm studios and youtube. won't let me embed for some reason. but check it.

the dark knight of the music game, and the jonas brothers

2008-09-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

you've heard it before. everything is the new version of something else. in other words, social trends and fashions happen in cycles (as my parents have informed me with every "new big thing" i try to create or adopt), and i've finally lived long enough to start seeing full cycles.

case in point.
mom used to make me wear stirrup pants and colored jeans.
both are being sold in H&M for $6.50 and $18.50, respectively.

case in point #2.
stilettos are in.
chunky heels are in.
stilettos are in again.
[sh*t, and i just dropped my stilettos off at plato's closet last week.]

fashion, however, isn't the only thing that is cyclic. not being an avid disney channel watcher, i hoped i could remain ignorant of this new 'band' with a teen girl following comparable to that of the beatles (lord forgive me for typing that) - the JONAS BROTHERS. after some half-ass googling and consulting with some pre-teen acquaintances, i learned that bros. inc. are 3 "totally hot rock star brothers, and the middle one's the hottest". erm, wtf. hanson, anyone? (i mean, certainly, no disrespect to hanson or the beatles.) shotty music aside though, joe j. or taylor h. can get it any day. no homo.

and though global warming may really be global climate adjustment (cyclic change of earth's climate over time), there's no reason to not recycle more and drive less. and maybe as a result of that, "green is the new black", but this is just resurgence of concern for the earth-it certainly isn't anything new. the environmental movement began in the 70s (whatup, greenpeace), and boasted several accomplishments that should get head nods from hippies and non-hippes alike, most notably the clean water act, the endangered species act, and the clean air act. OT but, sorry hayden panitierre, save the whales is super old school too. maybe you're too young to remember free willy.

and speaking of willy. remember when big asses were "in" a few years ago? dang, i thought i was pretty hot for a minute. started embracing my german heritage and everything. but thanks to superfab stylish 12-year-olds like nicole richie and the olsens, 'waif is the new thick'. looks like i'm SOL.

and what of hip hop? my favorite of the world's evils? my husband said it best on "the biggest lie" :

the problem with hiphop? ...nothing at all--
it's an artform that ranges and it changes; it evolves

enh, im not too sure what to make of mainstream hip-hop nowadays. if the genre of hip-hop is cyclic, with the most thought-provoking and intelligent emcees spitting verses at the top, many would argue radio rappers are at the bottom.
but you know what? in taking two steps back from america - which i'm more easily able to do thanks to the well-rehearsed speeches at the DNC and the RNC - i can kind of understand why we are where we're at (pardon my alliteration) in music right now. times are hard, homies. people got no health care, it costs like 80 bucks to fill up the escalade, mo'effers rationing the amount of rice you can buy at costco and sh&t. and in times like these, you can either talk about your problems, or run from 'em.
celebrity entertainment news is more popular now than it's ever been. and hip hop? i guess it's the general consensus that no one wants to hear some 'conscious' BS that'll further sink them into depression about their current situation.
i mean, i wanna snap my fangaz and 2-step and party like a rock star. don't you?

ignorance is bliss, after all.

real hip hop=
the hero our culture deserves, but not necessarily the one it needs right now.

i get it.

haterade 101: please don't say the baby

2008-08-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

a week or so ago a fellow hip hop aficionado / long time friend of mine j-squeeze hit me up on AIM, asking me my honest opinions of the carter 3, and for the first time, i couldn't give a proper album review. he was incredibly surprised that i hadn't given it a listen, being that i generally don't turn my nose up to ~~downloading~~ any artists' albums (that is, unless your single is crank dat _insert random animate object here_). after all, i consider dirty money a hip-hop classic. yeah, its on my same top 10 list with reasonable doubt, reflection eternal, madvillainy, and college dropout. so? i'm an equal opportunity rap lover. i mean, the carter was pretty good. carter 2 was better. and i even listened to a handful of those 42 or so mixtapes hes put out in the meantime. so why wouldn't i take the next logical step and jank the weez's latest from the internets?

the reason, folks- well, i could say its because i'm 100% positive that lil weez and baby are butt buddies, but then again, sexual orientation has no bearing on an artist's relevance/skill/legitimacy

in my book. i could also say its because the cover was just plain godawful- real talk, when i saw it, i thought it was a 14-year-old's photoshop project for computer class. but honestly, there's no reason, none having to do with the weez anyway. it's just a personal endeavor of mine. i wanna be the only person in the guinness book of world records to have NOT heard/downloaded/bought (bought?) the carter 3, right up there with the only person who hasn't seen ANY of the LOTR movies (true story).

so the past few weeks while i've had plenty of free time NOT listening to the carter 3, ive been trying to decode the key to bmjr's success - and i'm convinced, there's gotta be some genius marketing-yourself-for-rap-greatness formula he's following. and he must be following it in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time in music history. despite all my efforts and conversations with weez fans/haters/closet fans, the only equation i could come up with is as follows:

jay, pac & everyone else hes compared himself to> lil wayne >than hip hop elitists give him credit for

^the first part of my equation should be a given. the next is true, weezy gets hella hate from the underground community, myself included. but say, i can recognize, dude's good, he's damn good. hes clever, hes somewhat intelligent - his doodoo metaphors are off the chain! - although not exactly conherent off the mic (to me, at least). he's a comedian, though - he's not a real g. (i see that ish on his face, but i promise, he DIDN'T KILL ANYBODY.) he's not particularly attractive, and technically not over-exposed in other realms of media outside music vids- ie. film, tv, clothing lines, etc. (yet, but lets cross our fingers he doesn't show up in 'step up 3: the carter'). take that back though, if youre like me, and you keep your audial passageways to the streets, hes about as exposed as lindsay lohan's fire conch, or mariah careys 40 year old legs. but i digress-

a few days ago i watched what i think was the weekend edition--aka, music vids, sans rocsi and that-dude- of 106-and-park (which i ~~never~~ watch, promise) and weez was featured on something like, 3 outta the top 5, out of ten? re.dick.you.less. granted, it is 106 and park. but his pop success has reached epic proportions. i asked my dad to name 5 rappers, no wiki-time was allowed. his list went something like this:

eminem..snoop dogg..ice cube..flavor flav*.. little wayne.

*yeah, he said flav. that just comes from watching too much tv.
but how did wayne get on that list? you know your ish is serious when 50 year old military generals know your name.
i wonder how long this phenom will last. and i hope he makes his millis. and i hope he invests in some US savings bonds or some shit.
cause i have a feeling in about 10 years fools will be looking back on this period of rap history with an eyebrow raised.

OLD POST: on living cheaply, tips from a broke b*tch..

2008-03-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

you don't have to be jewish to be frugal.
nor do you have to be black to acquire habits that your peers may consider "ghetto".
people may look down on penny pinchers, but in the long run, it pays to be cheap, trust me. rent not included, i could (and often do) live for a month off of $200. that means spending less than $50 a week. and that's me, living solo, paying for food, gas, and anything else i may spend money on to occupy my time. how do i do it, you ask? well, it seems to me as though the very fibers of frugality have been carefully woven through my prefrontal cortex, starting with my earliest of childhood memories..
here are my recollections of family traditions - which to me, growing up, seemed so normal, ingenious even - that others have deemed "stingy". perhaps they may be of some advice to you as a young and most likely broke adult, venturing from the nest into the so-called 'real world,' trying to sort things out and live paycheck-to-paycheck on that entry-level salary...

tip 1. FAST FOOD KILLS. didn't you see supersize me? not only does fast food kill your organs, skin, waistline, and mental well-being, but anything higher quality than mickey-d's kills your wallet, too. growing up, my parents rarely, if ever, took us to eat fast food--and if they did, it was subway.
bottom line: fast food is expensive! if you like deli sandwiches, go to the store and buy all the deli shit, and make it yourself. i can make some KILLER wraps, no joke.
added tip: fast food stops on road trips? why do it? it's been proven that burgers and fries cause an energy crash and intense hunger an hour or so later. pack yourself a few pb&j's, crackers, fruit, granola bars, and a few bottles of water..save your money, spare the lovehandles.

tip 2. DRINKS. ever wonder why the 12-pack is so much more expensive than the 2-liter? packaging, bitch! so why spend that hard-earned dough on individually bottled or canned drinks if you're just going to be vegging out on your couch at home? buy a big bottle of soda, juice, etc, get a cup, put some ice in that bitch, and you're good to go.
added tip: buying the powder (& mixing it yourself with water) is almost always cheaper than the premade stuff. whether it be gatorade, lemonade, or even kool-aid, mix it yourself with some water from your filtered pitcher, and save a few bucks.

tip 3. BROKE FOOD. my parents made the cheapest meals. EVER. as an example, my favorite meal from ages 4-17 was..wait for it..ramen! soup, we called it, as it was a treat in our family. my second favorite meal..spam! don't laugh, we eat it every sunday, it's a family tradition. what's so great about these meals? well, depending on the brand, ramen goes for about $0.20 and i think a can of spam that can feed 4-5 people is $1.50 or so.
i'm definitely not advocating eating foods this high in sodium on a regular basis, but if you're REALLY broke, go to the grocery store with a few bucks and some of these might hold you over until your next paycheck:
-ramen. -spam. -tuna. (get a box of tuna helper while you're at it.) -oatmeal. -rice. (if you have a rice maker.) -hot dogs. (look for the turkey dogs or low sodium ones, chances are they're the same price.) -kool-aid packets. -fresh fruits. (apples, bananas, oranges, pears, get'em when they're in season, and they're even cheaper.) -generic brand crackers. (if you're into snackies.) -refried beans. (my personal fave.)
**just to clarify,
let's dispel one myth about saving money. COUPON CLIPPING. there's no point in clipping coupons if you buy a whole bunch of ish you don't normally buy. when coupon flipping, ONLY save and cut what you would buy, regardless of how much you can save! that's how they get'ya! duh.

tip 3. AGUA. order water at restaurants! soda's bad for you, but besides that, you never know how much they're gonna charge you for that 3/4 ice, 1/4 soda, dirty plastic glass of coca-cola. and they'll probably give you a refill you didn't ask for, whereby making your DRINK total upwards of $5! no thanks, for that much, there better be some jack daniels in that bitch.
bottom line: here's what my grandma taught me when i was 10, a trick called "sweet-n-lo lemonade". order a water with lemon and then steal someone else's lemon, too. squeeze the lemon juice in and add 1 packet sugar from the table and you've got some free lemonade. word.

tip 4. STAYING FLY. now let me get off the food tip for a minute, cause if you're anything at all like me, you wanna be the baddest looking broke mo'fucka people know. this is perfected through many years of shopping the sale racks and winning obscure ebay auctions at all hours of the night. but, for amateurs, it helps to shop at discount stores, namely- burlington coat factory, tj maxx, marshalls, ross, etc. tj maxx is my preferred, but go to as many as are in your area, and you'll find which one best suits your style.
another useful tip: if you're shopping online, always, always do a google search for "promo code for (enter store name here)" before you hit buy! i've found some 20% deals for that very day, even a 50% coupon for karmaloop.com that saved me 30 bucks.

tip 5. CHEAP DATES. dinner & a movie is played out. did you know in LA you pay, like, $25 for a movie ticket? for one person? holy piss. and dinner at anywhere worth taking someone is likely to run you more than that. if you wanna kick it with your boo, there's cheaper ways to spend your time together. for example:
-art museums, if you're an artsy kind of fellow or she's an artsy kind of gal. they're usually cheap, and at least a few pieces are bound to be good conversation starters.
in most cities larger than columbia, there's other kind of musems too. car museums, science musems, ripley's museums..it all depends on your interests.
-art house theaters! the nickelodeon is one of the coolest places to chill the eff out in columbia, and you get in for what, 4 bucks? google it, there's probably an art house cinema in your neighborhood. watch foreign/classic/indie/cult films with your significant other, which is super-fab if you're a movie junkie like me. sometimes these places even serve alcohol or real food, too.
-picnics are not played out! kickin' it in the park and people-watching can be a definite form of entertainment.
-hiking or camping, if you're into that sort of thing, can be a cheap and fun way to spend time...alone with eachother. just cross your fingers you won't end up like in the horror movies and you'll have some INtimate bonding for sure. (think brokeback, but hetero, mmhm!)

tip 6. RENTALS. growing up, we rarely bought books from the bookstore. the only ones we had were gifts. BUt considering the avid reader i was/am, we frequented the library! don't hate, they actually have some cool, up-to-date ish in the library. most libraries even have a badass video/dvd rental section, and guess what, it's free! yup, paying $4.50 for a block buster rental seems ludicrous now, doesn't it?
as a general rule: invest in things you enjoy. if you enjoy new music, invest in some more RAM for your computer, a high-speed internet connection, and a pack of CDs so you can get torrents of new albums before they hit stores. illegal? maybe..but cheap? hell yes. if you enjoy movies, invest in netflix..but only invest in them if you rent alot of movies. the same thing for games, i think it's called gamefly. invest in a library card if you like books (although usually membership is free). invest in a gym membership, if you like to workout, and do so quite often. invest in a costco or sam's club membership, but only buy food you KNOW you're going to be able to eat up or stuff you're sure you will use. yanno? don't be paying monthly bills on priveleges you're not taking advantage of.

all in all, it definitely doesn't hurt to live cheaply. they say you have to do something 7 times before it becomes a habit, and they also say that the habits you form in your early 20s are ones you are most likely to keep for the rest of your life. so start making some cost-effective habits! you may get some raised eyebrows, but who gives an eff. it's every man for himself, especially in america, where they don't give a damn if you're below the poverty line! thanks g-dub. but before i digress, i offer this advice: live cheaply and live simply, cause "love don't cost a thing", right j-lo?

a public service announcement to our favorite "clocker"

2008-02-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

there comes a time in every man's life when he's too old for braids. when your braids start at the TOP of your head, and you only have like 4 of 'em, it's time to let go.
sorry billy drayton, jr., you're 50 next year, give it up.
people kill me.

naked celebs! no homo, though...

2008-02-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

i haven't been up on my e-news lately (lately as in today, for some reason i've had it on CNN, yay for college!), so i had to learn from TVGUIDE.COM that la lohan's got some nudey pics out. you can check em out here, and by the way, they're NSFW. i was pretty curious at first...ALAS, my verdict on these photos is:
i'm so confused. who told lindsay she looks like marilyn monroe? who even SUGGESTED this photo shoot? someone needs to be swiss cheesed...seriously.
where can i start ? the freckles, the tramp stamp?, the sagging tig-ol's, the freckles, the MAKEup (dreadful), the HAIR (blonde is not her color, i just can't believe it). at LEAST, in her defense, she's not nicole richie (ca. 2006) skinny. i guess when celebrities started getting pregnant, maintaining a normal size body became cool again?
oh lindsay. i understand this is a classy playboy alternative, but really, i think playboy would have been classier. i mean kim's pics were gorgeous.
so! disappointing as these pics were, i must say they served as a sort of confidence booster for me - i look WAY better naked.

6 degrees of bomb ass producers

2008-02-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

in a world of recycled beats, i propose the question,

which is hotter:
the remake...

or the orig?

cause, one of 'em is a hit. that beat is too hot not to be a hit. kanye and will.i.am both love ripping daft punk the hell off, don't they? i hope those crazy ass white boys are getting paid.
i'm seriously on the fence on this one. & whats really sad is i wish kanye was rapping that whole song, instead of estelle singing. fiending for a kanye rap? on a non-kanye beat? he obviously has stepped his game up from the days of his "meeting oprah winfrey" freestyles. [though, he does still re-use hella old verses from his freestyles, ie. that song homecoming, he did with coldplay dude? that song's like 5 years old..the original had john legend on it, and was 20x hotter.]

BUT, i digress..well, while i'm at it, why did i just see this ad ?
i'm sorry, umm..they're remaking thriller?

i'm sorry, umm..fergie's on it?

what kind of fuckery is this?[word to amy winehouse.]
------------
i'm reading the tipping point right now, and in it m. gladwell's theory is that everyone in the U.S. of A. can be linked to everyone else in the same idea as the game "six degrees of kevin bacon". i'm not very good with connecting people in movies, but it looks like i've just done it in music:
will.i.am produced "impatient"
which was used again on estelle's "american boy",
which features kanye west
who is apparently working on the remake of michael jackson's thriller album
which will also feature fergie
who must have given massive amounts of brain to will.i.am to be part of the formerly respected rap group known as the black eyed peas

...*insert crowd "oooooooh" sound here*...
did i do it right? mostly likely not, but what can i say? i saw a fergie-bashing opportunity and i ran with it. try it some time, i swear to god, it relieves like 300 mg of stress.

my love for you is as obvious as bret michael's receding hairline..

2008-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

facckk. haven't updated in forever, yo. my sincere aporogiezz..

excuses for this are many. one (1) being, my post-christmas state of brokeness and my attempts to "stack that cheese" [word to lupe] without getting a real 9-5 jay-o.(check my stereo on craigslist, trying to sell that mug). two (2) being, 2 documentaries that are currently in production, one which is entirely my own, another of which is a collaboration w/ a few other usc media arts colleagues (i'll post a link as soon as our webmaster returns from being AWOL). three (3) being some personal drama lately, none of which is worth mentioning anymore..i believe i've talked all my friends' ears off about this situation (sorry if you had to endure that venting, btw). but four (4), most IMPORTANTLY, being the fact that TV effing sucks this season! for rilla..

i mean i'm waiting patiently for flavor of love 3 (they're milking the hell out that junk, aren't they?), while still a sucker for rock of love 2 (kristi-jo and daisy are my girls right now). and somehow i always seem to miss making the band! [it's not intentional, i promise...even though i do still hold a grudge against diddy for not making me the 6th member of danity kane.] ----------->

on another note, the music world has been pretty dead lately too (sorry for that ridiculous pun.) i can't remember the last good album i copped (from rapidshare). however, there is some super good shit thats been on repeat on my ipod for the last few months. since i love list making, here they are, in no particular order:

Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

after years of convincing myself i was no aesop rock fan, i finally caved and dl'ed this album, forever changing my mind. this CD is unbelievably good. and the title single is probably the weakest on the album, just to give you a gauge of HOW GOOD this ish really is. i must have listened through 25 times already. faves: "coffee", "getaway car", "citronella", "5 fingers", hell..all of'em

Foreign Exchange - Connected

i've had this cd since it came out and i've played through it a few times, but lately, i'm SO hooked on it. not one track is skippable. the beats are hella chill & a few songs are even (!) kind of uplifting? phonte is rad too, my favorite north carolinian, for sure. wasn't sure i'd like 'te without 9th wonder, but nicolay doesn't disappoint. faves: "raw life", "nic's groove", "happiness", "the answer"

Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens

a friend put me on this junk in december..and i was reluctant to listen because i had never heard of either blu or exile, but talk about some rookies of the year! this album is close to perfect. word on the forums is that exile's beats are reminiscent of primos --now i wouldn't go that far, but..this dude got beats. & i ♥♥LA mc's. faves: "blue collar workers", "dancing in the rain", "my world"

Honorable Mention (mixtape)

The Re-Up Gang - We Got it for Cheap Vol. 3

for the sleeping ass homies, the re-up gang is the clipse, ab-liva, and some other dude i don't know. maybe i'm sleeping too, but i don't care enough about anyone other the thornton brothers to figure it out. this album just goes to show that, when lacking a good subject matter to rap on, cocaine never fails ! the metaphors a/b cooking crack are endless, i swear..but i'm entertained off my ass. good beats on this one too, pick it up from your mix-tape man.

that's all for now folks..i'm praying flav-3 saves me from this bad-reality-tv (is that redundant?) drought, as for albums, i'll have to jam to old shit. or, (who knows?) i might just go pick up that souljaboytellem.com. SIKE!

<---

how i sometimes feel about life.

finding your sexual preference with tila tequila..

2007-12-11T18:05:00.000-08:00

VS.

who's it gonna be? is tila more gay, or straight? oh lord, the anticipation is killing me.

BUT, in true MTV fashion, tonight is the recap episode, the finale is next week. they've gotta keep us on the edge of our seats, fools!

okay, okay. honestly, has ANY one of these MTV/VH1 reality dating competition show couples actually stayed together past the reunion special? don't answer that, it kills the excitement of FINALLY finding out tila's true sexual preference. !! oh and yeah, this show was DEFINITELY her first time coming out in public, even though her sexual status on myspace has been "bi" for 4 years.

OT but..doesn't bobby look decent in this pic^^? he doesn't look like one of the extras off the breakfast club, for once.

on another note, a recent dilemna of mine has been trying to figure out WHAT tila looks like. i've already stated my claim that new york favors janice the muppet; and the list of small rodents that flavor flav resembles is pretty much endless.

as for tila, i've heard bobble-head, but that's not very original, since theres an assload of people in the world with ginormous heads. tila's issue is different; the spacing of her facial features is like a 2 year old kid intentionally fucked up on a mr. potato head.

on another blog posting, someone compared tila to a character on the movie Antz, and i've gotta say it's the most accurate comparison i've seen to date. love it!

honestly though, bloggers can hate on tila tequila all they want, but what's she done wrong? shes a hot little import who loves to get naked and rap and make out with chicks. i mean, sounds like the american way to me.

oh tila, i do hope you find love.♥♥

think outside the bun.

2007-12-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

ok, so everyone knows i'm a big hip hop head. BIG. but you're underestimating me if you think that's all i listen to. what kind of a flat mo'heffa would i be?
i mean, some days when i roll outta bed (at about 10am), i REALLY don't feel like pumping some overly-politically-conscious cuts from pharoahe monch, some no-girls-wanna-fuck-me cuts from murs, or some lets-see-how-many-5-syllable-words-i-can-fit-in-a-bar cuts from del.
so what do i listen to, you ask ? i'm big sucker for 90s alternative/grunge rock, and if in a really nostalgic mood you'll most likely catch me listening to nirvana, pearl jam, the smashing pumpkins, alice in chains, rage against the machine, sublime, metallica, or the chili peppers. after all these bands stopped making music, i pretty much stopped listening to rock, period. but that's another story.

if you're not a big alternative fan, or wanna expand your musical horizons without being yelled at on a track, heres my current non-rap faves. i suggest you get on these albums.

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black.

don't sleep on this album, it's ridiculously rad. the first few tracks and the singles can be skipped over, but the old soul beats on tracks 7-10 are phenomenal. not a bad voice on this likkle crackhead, either.
***if this album doesn't win a grammy, amy better pull a kanye and make a SCENE!!

notable downloads: the whole album, but if you don't feel like skipping over rehab, download tears dry on their own, love is a losing game, he can only hold her, and wake up alone.

The Go! Team - Proof of Youth.

so i'm not sure what music genre you'd put the go! team in, but on myspace they consider themselves "pop/indie/hip-hop". i'd say theyre a very eclectic electronic sound, merging punk, techno, and old school hip-hop (not chingy old-school, REAL old school, taking it back to sugarhill &shit).
there's a few skippable tracks, but this album will make you feel like you're part of a british revolution or something. very, very cool jams.

notable downloads: grip like a vice, doing it right, fake id.

Under the Influence of Giants - self-titled.

utiog is definitely funky shit. i could classify them as a modern day queen/bee-gees blend, with certain alternative, electric, and jazz elements. my bgf put me on them, and i'm eternally grateful. oddly enough, i haven't found any straight men who like utiog, but they are super effin' fabulous, so who cares.

notable downloads: in the clouds, a ha, stay illogical, can't stand.

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork.

i discovered chromeo months ago when i saw a really sick video for their single "bonafide lovin'" on mtvU. not sure if they play it on mtv2, most likely not, but you can find it on youtube here. so even though chromeo sounds like they should have come out in the 80s, their synth-punk-disco sounds are a nice change from "electronic vocals" we hear now from the ever present t-pain, among others. not amazing, but this junk will get you dancing in your spinning computer chair, word up.

notable downloads: tenderoni, fancy footwork, needy girl.

expand your horizons! you know what happens when you live inside the box?
you become a square.
(&yeah, you can quote me on that.)

TILA !

2007-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

new tila & ILNY this week! i'll post tommorrow, with updates from my reality faves including tila, ilny, top model, and real world. still waiting to see if trisha goes home, cross your fingers.
in the meantime, be entertained by a kid who does a very realistic ashley impression.

too cute.

Beckham 101: how to be like posh, but not out-do her

2007-11-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

That Extra Half an Inch

ok, so v.beckham's got a new book, and i have to admit it's on my christmas list this year.

i didn't waste my money or time on her autobiography...i mean, how interesting can being raised rich, becoming famous, and marrying the sexiest man in your country be? but this one i sat at barnes & noble and skimmed through for about half an hour. (the book is thick--close to 400 pages--although it's padded with stupid "note-taking" pages in-between every chapter. please.)

the book is definitely a huge step up from KLS's Fabulosity, (which...i started reading, got through a few chapters, and then used to roll a blunt on) in that instead of a being a how-to manual on making everyone around you feel inferior and uncomfortable, it's like an extension of a beauty magazine. every page has color photos, lists of her preferred products, and a little bit of wit (that isn't forced, like kimora's). i've always respected posh, despite her fairy-tale existence and her incredibly enviable body, and her little "coming to america" special over the summer cemented her decency in my book.

as for her book, it's definitely not timeless, but it's a glimpse into her material world in 2007. i'll most likely pick it up to have as a reference for my next trip to sephora. whatever lip plumper she's using ..i SO need to get my hands on.

ILNY2: i wish i had hair like real.

2007-11-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

I Love New York 2
our favorite duo from the first shockingly successful (and entertaining) season of i love new york 2 came back last monday. but audiences were fooled - as planned- when producers did NOT pull a flavor of love and have chance re-enter the competition. my response: VH1, it's your loss! i'm not sure how ratings are this season, but considering the mass of relatively bland characters (it got send home, but at least they brought buddha back), i would assume lower ratings than its predecessor.

RANDOM
RANTS:
punk's voice is killing me! doesn't fit him at all.

my roomate thinks that whenever he's in the "confessional" style interview, you know, the one with the pink background, he's got hella fuzzy eyes and looks like he's about to cry. word. at least his nickname makes sense now.

white boy part 2. how many times do we have to see the sensitive thug-life jew who's down with the brown ? NEXT...

chance finally asked what's been on my mind all season. WTFFF does the entertainer do? besides shout real loud and act rowdy? is that entertaining?

buddha's pretty effing sexy, but those spaghetti strap wife beaters are not. at least he doesn't wear those fruity g-unit ones with the rainbows on the straps, ew.

pretty left not because he was gay, but because he realized he could pull bitches who look 10 TIMES BETTER than new york.

*************************
on a sidenote,

real has the most gorgeous permed hair i've ever seen!!

white boy or the entertainer up for elimination tomorrow. place your bets.

SAM FLORES: 戦争と平和(Senso to Heiwa)

2007-11-25T16:04:00.000-08:00

戦争と平和(war and peace) by Sam Flores

i can't WAIT to go see this lineage gallery of sam flores' latest work. Preview images on the lineage gallery website show some mad cool shit already...

if you can, get your ass to philly to see the show! it's going to be superrad.

the search for the next doll

2007-04-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

i'm ashamed to admit i watch this show, but any show the CW reruns right after top model i'll probably end up watching because i'm too lazy to switch the damn channel. entertaining-though it's sans diddy-I can't help but find a degree of hilarity in the concept of the show. the pussycat dolls are pretty girls, i'll give them that, but talented? hmm..so the idea of a talent competition to find the girl who would best fit in the group is a little ironic. all of the finalists, with the exception of mariela (who looked a little she-male ish?) performed better that the pussycat dolls themselves. and melissa s, damn! they just don't want to put her in any kind of girl group, do they! rejected from danity kane AND pcd on live tv? jeez. melissa r.-pretty girl, but i honestly believe the only reason she didn't get picked was because she favored nicole a little too much. chelsea was my fellow fat-face girl i was rooting for. such a cutie and a really great voice. i wanted her to win. oh well.

the judges kept saying they wanted an "overall performer" but in doing that i think they forgot what the pussycat dolla is really about: sex appeal! asia is a great performer, sure, but she doesn't exactly ooze sexuality. sorry, and i can't stand people who pronouce "especially" with an X! "ecspecially" ooh! major pet peeve. whatev, she won, now she'll be able to provide for her daughter and whatnot, although chances are she won't get to see her much. for chelsea, i guess, there's always the next season of making the band. after all, aubrey is aging 10 years by the o'day.

Donatella, anyone?

chels, if diddy calls, pick up!

adventures in hollyhood

2007-04-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

now you KNOW your accent is crucial when they gotta subtitle your ass.

MOVIE REVIEWS: Gwoemul/The Host

2007-04-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

movie reviews:

The Host (Gwoemul)

i'll admit that this was by far the best korean monster movie i've ever seen, albeit the only korean monster movie i've ever seen. amongst my snobby film-critique-extraordinaire peers the movie got bad reviews, accused of a weak storyline and overused, non-believable CGI.

being one who naturally extrapolates, however, it was easy for me to see the current political/social significance the film holds--and surprising to see that such a direct and intentional statement would come from a korean filmmaker.

the premise of the movie is similar to godzilla: a monster emerges from the ocean as a result of a biological/chemical pollution. the film follows one estranged family who is reunited with the loss of their beloved niece to the monster and the media following that has taken over the city. when they discover she's still alive, they must challenge authority and "face all odds" in order to find her.
while the cinematography is fantastic and the characters quite lovable, the significance of the american military in the movie is what drew me in the most. the movie isn't really about a monster or the fact that it's supposedly a host of a deadly virus from which a city must be protected. it's symbolic of the war and propaganda...intentions that go astray...fooling an entire public into supporting a false cause...and the overall incompetance of leaders...sound familiar? in the film, the government puts the city on lockdown, basically, when no virus (WMD, anyone?) even exists. the monster (OBL), who they originally sought out to find and destroy, is completely forgotten about. Well, this was what I took out of it anyway. In addition to the commentary on the world's current state of affairs, the movie also touched on issues such as national security/privacy and environmental pollution.
for what it's worth, i give The Host 4 outta 5. take away the korean monster movie label and look at the piece as a social statement, perhaps even a satire. and a timely one, at that. too bad those who the movie is aimed probably don't watch foreign films.

[i can't help but think it's ironic that the day i saw this film, last tuesday, was the day it was revealed that the student involved in the shootings at virginia tech was korean. make your own connections there, but perhaps our so-called "minorities" have more of a say about the decisions of grey-haired rich white men at the top than we give them credit for? ]

yay

2007-04-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

MY FIRST BLOG POST!
how incredibly EXCITING!
after abandoning my livejournal and neglecting my actual journal, i still feel a void that can only be filled through some sort of written expression. seeing as how i waste waay too much time keeping up on "that new shit", i might as well share it all with the world, ya know? living in the south, you see and experience some pretty crazy stuff--honestly, i consider my time here a cultural/anthropological experiment. living in a place where i understand so few lends me to multiple hours watching the tube, reading, internet browsing, and illegal music downloading. when i'm not doing that, i'm studying my surroundings and trying to figure out the reasoners southerners do as they do. and so! here i am, in the midst of a joint societal/entertainment fascination, spilling my proverbial GUTS, ya feel me? let the wack attack begin.

MISS that show.

by the way,
wtf is an aggro-crag?

i mean,
who came up with the name for that ish?