Never filled out an application, got plenty work.

“You broke it, you pay for it. You owe us $35 million.”

- Bad Break: Talk about catching a “bad break.” ZIIIIIIIIIING! What a horrid pun. Anyway, I’m glad this wasn’t my bad. It’s like something out of Punk’d, huh?

- Saul Williams: Man, if Saul Williams would actually make rap music, I’d probably be really into it. That “Twice the First Time” shit is amazing. He’s got a new book though for those that are interested.

- Don’t Draw Muhammad: Call me stupid and/or ethnocentric, but I didn’t even realize it Islam banned the depiction of the prophet or Allah himself. Frankly, I think it’s a pretty cool rule: it seems to capture the notion that “representation” in art is always and necessarily a form of violence done against the referrant—in other words, art can never truly capture and/or accurately “represent” what it is attempting to refer to. I think it’s kind’ve a beautiful sentiment and a rather interesting way to show respect. But, regardless, this whole Danish newspaper cartoon thing is pretty nuts. It brings up a lot of fairly serious issues about freedom of speech/expression as well as folks’ rights and/or duty to respect other folks beliefs and values, regardless of how strange they may see. One thing’s for sure though: in today’s volatile religious climate, it certainly wasn’t smart for those idiots to do some shit that was almost definitely gonna incite a certain ire amongst Muslims. I don’t want to argue that dude didn’t have the right to draw the cartoon, but (a) it certainly wasn’t very smart and (b) it really wasn’t that funny and/or insightful. Perhaps if the cartoon really had some sort’ve important point I’d be more willing to stick up for it, but it was a picture of Muhammad with a bomb under his turban. That’s a cheap laugh, not important socioreligious commentary.

-e

I been had strength, now I just got the muscle...

Ron-Ron’s Favorite Album?

- Ron Artest vs Souls of Mischief: This is why Ron-Ron is so beloved:

He celebrated his fresh start by christening a new jersey number. After wearing Nos. 15, 23, 91 and 15 again in his stops in Chicago and Indiana, he went for 93. The inspiration for it came from a hip-hop album by the group Souls of Mischief called "93 'Til Infinity." For Artest, the number symbolizes an unlimited future and a release from emotional burdens.

Reminds me of this. Amazing. God speed, Ron-Ron. God speed.

- GQ’s 10 Most Hated Athletes: Y’all see GQ’s 10 Most Hated Athletes yet? Shit is funny. Kobe is on there (duh) and, not surprisingly, TO takes #1. Some of the others are interesting, too. The best part though is from the “5 Who Just Missed the Cut” segment about Rasheed Wallace. Peep the blurb:

In Portland, Rasheed, the Blazers’ best player, pissed off teammates by getting kicked out of games so often. Along with Bonzi Wells, he would at times engage in less-than-professional behavior as well, making headlines on one occasion for playfully firing a basketball across a practice court and directly into the nuts of Blazers center Ruben Boumtje Boumtje. “Bonzi and Rasheed ran off the court laughing. They thought that was the funniest thing,” says Jason Quick, of the Portland Oregonian. Freed of Bonzi’s influence, Wallace won a ring in Detroit.

I’ve been laughing hysterically in my cubicle for three minutes now.

- Pimp of the Year Busted: Pimpin’ ain’t easy. Or so I’ve been told.

- Man = God: A Reading, PA man signed his name as “God” on his voter registration form. He claims it’s just his signature. That’s pretty funny.

-e

Even a flea has an opinion

Cam& Jimmy& Juelz& Writer.

- Don’t Fool with the Dips: Want a Dipset shirt like the one above? I’m selling ‘em for a cool $20. Paypal your boy (emyndandbobliz at gmail dawt com). They’ll be in some online stores soon, but if you wanna beat the rush, holler at me! S, M, L, XL, XXL. GYEAH!

- METRO LOUNGE TONIGHT: Bo and I are holding down the downstairs at the Metro Lounge (at Front and Fairmount… a block over from the 700 club) for that new Philebrity and Paperstreet party "Absolute Beginners" (flier here). Thems upstairs are rocking the Northern Soul, Mod, 45s, and random rock jams while Bo and I are finna hold it down on the ground floor with ‘nough Stevie Wonder, MJ, Prince, bmore, 80’s, hip-hop and reggae classics, and all that other party shit. Tonight’s gonna be fun.

- Dave Chappelle’s Block Party: Just the other day, I was wondering what happened to this project. Looks dope! Can’t wait! I just realized that the best thing Chappelle could’ve done to get people to see this movie was withhold a season of Chappelle’s Show from them. Hmmmmmmmm….Makes ya think, doesn’t it? Anyway, Gondry and Kuras on the boards is always a good thing. This shit should be hot.

- Album Covers in Paint: I love this stuff. Some are better (1, 2, 3)than others.

- Yesterday is only a day away: Apparently, two days ago was the worst day of the year. If you’re like me and you didn’t even notice, that’s a good thing! The rest of the year should be pretty good if two days ago was the worst it’s gonna get. GYEAH!

- For Those Disappointed in Ingesting Alcohol the Old-Fashioned Way: The AWOL Machine, “a fun, new, legal way to take alcohol”… as opposed to what? The boring, old, illegal way called “drinking” it? You really can’t take anyone seriously if they refer to drinking as “taking alcohol.” I suppose this isn’t really “drinking,” but still.

- JR Rider: The troubles continue for Mr. Isiah Rider. Boy could dunk, couldn’t he? He was one of the many touted as “the next Jordan” coming out of college. Frankly, the only reason this dude is relevant to me at all is because JR Writer named himself after him… which is hilarious in and of itself: naming yourself after a mildly entertaining but certainly not great basketball player who could really only do one thing: dunk.

- Warning: This is a warning to girls I might’ve known in the distant past: I’ve been googling and myspace-searching for girls that I had crushes on in 6th grade and throughout highschool. If you don’t want me to find you, change your name! Frankly, I’m surprised how many of these girls aren’t on myspace. I thought everyone was on that shit. They must not be very hip. Just out of self affirmation curiosity, do we all do this “search crushes from the past” or is it just me? I’m hoping thinking we all do it.

-e

Dissent

- Worth an Update: This is most definitely worth a mid-day update. So real. My homegirl Nat**hia is probably pretty proud of this display of civil disobedience.

-e

You can look at it, as long as you don't grab it.

- Already Falling Off: I picked a bad week for my glorious comeback. I’m swamped at work. I’ll give a you a few things to chew on while I get my grind on. I WILL NOT FAIL. I WILL NOT FALL OFF MY SECOND DAY BACK. I WILL PREVAIL! RIDE WITH ME!

- TWNW: Bo's DJing at Medusa's Lounge at 21st and Chestnut for that Wednesday Night Weekly jawnathin. Schitt'll be fun. $3 well drinks, $3 Jaeger shots, and I think they've got $3 lagers, too. Whatever the case, cheap drinks, good DJing, and some extremely cute ex-drum-n-bass girls in the building. Can't be mad at that.

- Esquire: This is old news now, but last month (December) Esquire named Bansky their artist of the year (pdf here). I can’t say I keep up with the contemporary visual arts world to say anything particularly interesting about this nomination, but I do know that pretty much everything I’ve seen done by Bansky this year has been phenomenal. It’s all been very technically sound, politically interesting, and always provocative. Whether you agree with the sentiments he is expressing or not, I don’t think you can ask much more from an artist. Congrats, dude.

- Kobe’s 81: Here’s Bill Simmons on Kobe’s 81 and Scoop Jackson on it as well. I don’t really agree with either piece. Peep Free Darko in a few days for extrapolation.

- Cassidy: Absolutely guaranteed Cassidy is gonna sell more albums now that he’s got that previously lacking street cred. Sure “involuntary manslaughter” is no “murder,” but still, it’s probably enough to convince a few terds that he’s “real” (even though he’s totally not). I think I’m overstating the hate Philly has for Cassidy because I’m pretty sure a lot of terds like his dumb-ass (though God only knows why) and there’s certainly a hell of a lot of little dude rapper kids that sound just like him, but I’ve gotta say that the only kind words I’ve heard spoken about Cassidy from a resident Philadelphian come from a gay Puerto Rican kid from North Philly that went to highschool with him who expressed that he would like to “hit that” (or whatever slang it may have been).

- RIP Chris Penn: Random as shit. R.I.P..

-e

Back to the grill again... the grill again.

- Been A Long Time: So, yeah, it’s been quite some time since I updated here. I’m finna get back on the grind. Real life often gets in the way of this whole writing-on-the-internet thing and when real life bogs me down, I don’t feel particularly inspired to talk about much of anything on my blog… so, I don’t. But, I’m back for now and I’m going to make a legitimate effort to update every day. Bear with me if I miss a day or two.

- First of all: Thank god Bill Simmons bet against the Seahawks! My dudes might actually take it this year! Who would’ve thunk it?

- Huh: Do we have any idea why the hell Sundance takes place in Utah? I mean, I know the name of the resort area is “Sundance,” but why the hell are they having a film festival there? France I can understand, but Utah? Anyway, I wish my job was this cool.

- Luke vs 50 Cent: Recently, a story was published stating that Luke was suing 50 Cent for copyright infringement for apparently biting some 2 Live Crew song when he did his little “Go shorty, it’s your birthday” spiel at the beginning of “In Da Club.” Ridiculous, right? Well, thankfully Luke has distanced himself from the law suit saying that “Let the record reflect that Joe Weinberger and [Weinberger's attorney] Richard Wolfe are the individuals who are suing 50….They are not suing on behalf of me or any member of the 2 Live Crew.” Say what you will about 2 Live Crew’s music, but Luke did a great deal for freedom of speech as well as for black music and I was quite disappointed to hear that dude was suing 50 for something so ridiculous.

- Euroguide for Beginners: Believe it or not, I also write for the best NBA blog out there, Free Darko and they’ve recently posted their unfuckwittable “Euroguide for Beginners” equipped with a bevy of incredible sketches to accompany the anecdotes and useful information (i.e. “Do they have black people?”). Shit is priceless.

- Promoters: Most promoters (and club owners) make no real effort to disprove the stereotypical coke-head/misogynistic/racist/money-grubbin’ jack-ass image that we’ve all grown to love over the years, but the dude Jeremy at Winged Lion Productions seems like quite the good dude (and he’s dudes with my dudes simple fly and nothing fancy) doing good thangs for the community.

- Truth: Some interesting commentary about the Cam and Jay-Z ish that’s about to bubble. I don’t agree with all of it, but I do agree with this: We should have a day set up every year where we can all breathe out and remind ourselves how badly "Takeover" stomped out "Ether.” I say this often and it’ll probably start up another comments section war, but I really can’t believe that there are people that think “Ether” is any good, let alone better than what is possibly the best diss song ever.

- Embarassing Heart Ache: This dude has a cardiac arrest at a cardiology ball. That’s the kind of ish that is only funny because it’s real. If it were penned in a fictionalized novel or movie, it’d be pretty damn stupid, but this guy REALLY had a heart attack and we all know that real heart attacks are hilarious.

-e