So after a long day at work, the Bus ride home, some visiting with my incredible neighbors, and dinner, I sit down to watch TV before dinner. As I flip through, I find myself watching the BET Hip Hop Awards just in time to see Pharrell and Common perform Universal Mind Control. I'm absolutely hooked on this song. Does anyone else think they should do an album together right after Common does the Album with Q-tip and CRS finally drops an album?!
So as I am about to shut the TV off and go to bed, they announce the "Lyricist of the Year." The nominees are Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, Nas, Kanye West, and T.I. The winner you ask? Lil' Wayne, officially making the award, not necessarily Lil' Wayne, a joke. Lil' Wayne is a great many thing but a lyricist, at least in what I would consider the classic sense, he is not (especially when you're against the likes of NAS).
Now I'll say what you're thinking, "HATER!"
On a lighter note, it was great that BET focused on voting and giving back to the community. They also had some DOPE world wide cypher sessions which you can see below
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Lil' Wayne Takes Home BET's "Joke of the Year" Award
Don't Sleep...
If you haven't already copped it, you. are. missin. out. Get up and get the new Foreign Exchange album, Leave It All Behind. Seriously, don't sleep on this one.
Check out the video for the first single off the album "Daykeeper" featuring Muhsinah.
spotted on okayplayer.com
<3.
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Q-Tip Update
The blog needed something fresh and new so here's a quickie before I finally leave work.
A new Video from Q-tip entitled Move. With a beat by J Dilla and a video reminiscent of Michael Jackson's classic Rock with You, what's not to love?!
Enjoi your weekend everyone!
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I Prefer No Reservations
About a month ago I got into a nasty accident that has resulted in me being on a liquid diet for about 2 months and unable to work for the time being. This means 2 things: I have gotten pretty creative with smoothies and soups, and I watch more TV than I would like to admit.
On the surface, these two things seem completely separate, but after 2 weeks of eating through a straw, even Homer Simpson chowing down on some fried chicken can make your mouth water. Around this same time, you begin having what I call SNACK ATTACK!! This is the complete yearning for something crunchy, sweet or savory, and all too satisfying. By week 4, an ad for a "complete pot roast" microwave dinner that doesn't look fit to be sold at Walmart can begin to look like a gourmet meal.
Knowing this, channel flipping can prove to be an excruciating task but Vicodine gives me a short attention span so I don't have much of a choice. One thing is for sure, the food network is off limits. Personally I have never been big on the food network or travel channel which is surprising since I love to cook almost as much as I like to travel. I think the reason is because I don't like cooking like Rachel Ray and I don't like travelling like Samantha Brown. But channel flipping through different times of day has led me to discover many new shows I wasn't aware of. One which I have become a big fan of is No Reservations.
No Reservations is a travel and food show by Anthony Bourdain, a long 
time cook, writer, and traveller from New York. What sets this show apart right from the start is its parental warning at the start (at least for some shows). If this doesn't set the tone of "This isn't your average travel show" (or show how conservative US TV censorship is), I don't know what does. What I enjoy the most about this show is that it focuses on the local life and the unbeaten path. Bourdain goes to many countries that most people wouldn't, such as Laos, and when he does go to a big cities, he ventures into the backstreet local markets and small towns just outside the big cities. He talks with a variety of people, from local film makers and musicians, to researchers, to cultural icons, to local icons. While the show is a travel shows and he talks about things to do and places to go, the focus is on the food.
While I have been sitting at home and healing, this show has been a blessing and a curse. While I enjoy watching the show with his witty and insightful documentation of far off places I wish to visit someday, my mouth can't help but water as he wanders down the spice market in Egypt, downs fresh oysters in homemade hot sauce on the beach in Jamaica, or chows down on a spicy local taco after a night of drinking in South Beach, Florida. Bourdain gets hope from the locals in finding the best places to eat, but what I enjoy the most is when he is invited to eat a meal with a local family. He is able to see who in the family cooks, what they eat, and their local dining traditions.
Bourdain shows an appreciation for the cultures and people that are different than his own and is genuine in the way he interacts with each human being he meets (or atleast acts like it on TV). His ability to show the inner beauty, if not, simply, the beauty that most pass over, in a country along with his knowledge of food and willingness to try new and differeent things makes this show great. While I am not one to sit down and follow a show, I always check to see if No Reservation is on when I sit down to watch TV.
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Art For Obama
Without the ability to make, what they thought to be, a significant individual contribution, 5 artists (Ahndraya Parlato, Elizabeth Moy, Gregory Halpern, Whitney Hubbs, and Dru Donovan) came together and formed Art For Obama.
Art for Obama is an online auction of photographs from over 50 artists. All proceeds go to MoveOn.org to support the Obama campaign as there are limits on proceeds to an individual candidate. The above shot is one of the shots for sale. You can peep a couple more after the jump but check out the website for all of the photos.
Shout out to Mike for the heads up
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I Can't Handle 4 More Years Of The Same...
Tonight was the Vice Presidential Debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. I thought Joe Biden was Strong and Palin held up better than I expected. Random ramblings of off-topic talking points and inappropriate winks aside, the thing that got to me the most about Palin was her use of the word "Nucular."
As a person who works in the science field and would consider myself half-way intelligent, I have cringed every time, in the past 8 years, that Bush has used the word "nucular" instead of the proper word "nuclear." It doesn't help that Bush seems to give a stupid grin whenever he mispronounces a word or misspeaks, but every time he says the word "nucular" he appears even less intelligent (if that's possible). It's one thing to pronounce a word like "potato" differently because of your accent or drawl but when you begin saying "nucular" you are cognitively changing the word and it makes you sound ignorant.
Now while Palin is trying to appeal to Joe 6-pack with her winks and referencing her middle-class status, which is questionable, I strongly believe that it is possible to do this without sounding ignorant. I believe you can be elite enough to run a country and still be able to empathize and understand what the lower-middle class American goes through, whether or not you were in their situation or not.
With Bush, it's been 8 years of no science (in government or schools), actually, more like 8 years of an eradication of any scientific consideration or thought. For me, "nucular" was just the icing on the cake of why I didn't like Bush. 8 year's has been plenty of scientific ignorance, I don't know if I can handle 4 more, the only positive thought that I can think about McCain getting elected is that at least he pronounces the word correctly. That being said...
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