What the hell is goin on with all these people talkin real wreckless these days? The old folks always said, it's better to be seen and not heard. Conan O'Brian needs to heed that advice. He said if they push his show, The Tonight Show back 30 minutes to let Jay Leno in following the local news he's gonna walk. I said from the start that he was not the one to host that show once Jay said he was trying to give it up. But since I'm not an exec at NBC, I had no say so in the matter. If Conan does leave the network I'm pretty sure that he can always land his offbeat humor somewhere else.
Present, former, and hopeful political figures let words fly out of their mouths without processing what's gonna come out. Harry Reid of Nevada said the President was light skinned and didn't speak with a "negro" dialect, and that was key to his successful bid for the White House. Oops dummy! Luckily he was excused by the Oval office for his words of stupidity.
Former Illinois Govenor Blegojevich said he was "blacker than the President". Now that sounded like a skit from The Chappell Show to me. What made him open his piehole and say that. Matter of fact why is he even in front of tv cameras and microphones anyway? He had his 15 minutes when he got kicked out of his office for an assortment of dumb stuff he did.
All this nonsense has spawned a website, www.theconversationonrace.com. Voice your opinion if you care to.
Closer to home, Mayorial hopeful John Georges was quoted twice saying dumbshit. One statement referring to the new LSU hospital in downtown New Orleans, would make the footprint of the city look like that of a plantation. A plantation? Are you serious???? Then turned around a said he was an African American candidate, I mean a candidate for African Americans, I meant a candidate with the support of African Americans. What an idiot. In a campaign commercial he said he would re-open Charity Hospital. He doesn't have the authority to do so as Mayor, cause it's a state facility. Oh well, stupid is as stupid does.
Oh well...it is what it is. I'm Finns head out and just spew non sensical foolishness for the hell of it and see what happens. BTW, even though this is off topic, Moral Oral on adult swim is the craziest cartoon.
Happy holidays to everybody that follows this blog. I'm trying to figure out how to blog from my iPhone, so give me a second, but my resolution is to blog more. Especially since my life and the things I see on the regular are so interesting. But in the meantime...check out some of these pictures.
Well that ain't work soooooo... First fail of the new year (that Ima tell y'all about)
shout out to Greg Square.
Aiight, I've waited far too long to blog and to respond to the Tiger Woods "story", so here it is...
I have mixed views and emotions about Eldrick "Tiger" Woods and the recent media attention that his PERSONAL life has gotten recently. We all knew that it would be a matter of time before his "squeaky clean" image would come into question. Last Friday there was an accident in the driveway / next door neighbors house, where Woods was leaving his house (as one of the neighbors saw it) barefoot at 3 am. He banged his LEASED Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and then a tree. Reports say that he was injured and his wife used a 3 iron to get him out of the vehicle. BLAH BLAH SKIPPY (you all know what was reported). He went to the hospital, got treated, was released and returned home, straight into seclusion. There were statements on his website, making references to "transgressions against his family that he was ashamed of". That should have been a wrap, but NOOOOOOO... Now all of the sudden there are women (all Caucasian at that) that are coming out of the woodworks saying that they have had relations and rendezvous with the PGA's shining knight. All this being said his "image" is being questioned and I have a something to say about it...
First of all...We (Black people) are at odds with Tiger. He has described his ethnicity as "Caublasian", a combination of Caucasian, Black, and Asian. Now it is known that his mother is an Asian woman and his father was a Black man...Where does the caucasian come in at? The human ethnic equation always has interested me, especially when people say they are a "quarter" of this, or part that. Is that some new math or something, cause where I come from if you got a drop of "Nigga Blood" in the mix, YOUZE A NIGGA! Strike one bruh.
Secondly, your wife is a white woman. I dont have a problem with it cause thats your thing and I know plenty brothers that rock with Snow Bunnies, regularly, consistantly and exclusively. Though there are plenty sisters that give you the side eye, cause they dont have their hooks in you (and your bank account), many of them give you the other side eye, cause she aint that hot son. The dude that hooked yall up is a herb, cause she was his "nanny", before he got tired of smashin her, and his "transgressions against his family" were revealed. Even though her family is of some government capacity in her native SWEDEN! (dude who really gets down with the Swiss, besides other Sweeds, maybe some ham or turkey) She is the Webster's Dictionary definition of Euro Trash. Then the women that you creeped with were white women. When are you gonna figure it our? Or maybe I'm slow. Its my understanding that the woman from New York, is some sort of "party promoter" (read:HO) and denied having a physical relation with you, then changed her story and said that she did. So she is probably trying to cash in on your status / situation to get her 15 minutes of limelight. Steeeeerike twooooooooooooo
The PGA has been waiting for you to slip up. You really are the anti golfer, even though you have brought a resurgence and exposure to the game of golf, you aint nothin but the brunt of plenty jokes. What do you call 300 white guys chasing 1 black guy? The PGA tour... (insert canned laughter here). Conan O'Brian, George Lopez, Jay Leno, and even the poster child for cheaters David Letterman all have cracked on you this past week and with your wife and her mother rushing to the hospital followed by Harvey Levin and the TMZ people, the Woods' have given them more ammunition to hit you with more jokes for the next couple weeks til something else pops up. Even D-list syndicated radio morning show host Big Boy from Big Boy's Neighborhood had a parody on you using the Jay Z song Empire State of Mind, called Dork State of Mind, They even used a sampling of one of those voice mails (now how those get released?) Not to mention the thingy during the Jacksonville Jags game where there was a blonde woman chasing a tiger with a golf club...and your popularity amongst Americans is down to 39%...And thats strike three kid, Sit on it Potsie
All your major sponsers (Nike, Gatorade *who pulled your drink*, AT&T, Gillette, and EA Sports) are standing behind you, so far they havent completely backed out on you, cause you make THEM money at one point or another. Even though none of your ads have run on primetime television since November 29th. ESPN analyst and former athlete / coach Herm Edwards said it doesnt even matter if you lose your endorsements, you dont need any extra money, cause youre the GREATEST GOLFER OF ALL TIME. This from a cat that has been fired twice for sure and has never won a major ANYTHING.
Im gonna give you a plausible solution that can either get you off the hook or deeper in the fire, depending on how you pull it off... Being that you are a BILLIONAIRE, write a check dude... Start introducing yourself to African American women, they NEVER turn down large amounts of money... maybe a combination of the two. If you continue to deal with white women, you may want to write a check first and get some kinda paperwork stating that they gotta keep their mouths shut. Additionally instead of "hiding" behind your computer in your khakis, get you a pair of Jordans, some jeans, a white tee shirt and be the nigga they callin you. Staying inside only makes things worse. Get it off your chest, speak on it... call the homie Terrell Owens and get explicit instructions on how to tell it like it is.
"Who dat said they gon beat dem Saints?" - Everybody in the city of New Orleans at some point today after the Black and Gold beat the Miami Dolphins 46-34
Alrighty, lets see who rode with the Saints today? Mike Ditka (former coach of the team, current ESPN analyst) NO... Marshall Faulk (former NFL MVP and NFL Network analyst, did I mention he is from New Orleans and prepped at GW Carver High School) NOPE... Michael Strahan ( Fox Sports analyst and former New York Giant who guaranteed that the GiANTS would beat the Saints two weeks ago) Hell naw! The only cat on television that has been riding with the Saints the entire season is Terry Bradshaw from Fox Sports. In his playing days he was considered a dumb quarterback, even tho he has won 4 Super Bowls, seems like an Einstein compared to his "smarter", more "knowledgeable" counterparts.
ESPN is dying over there in Bristol, Connecticut, cause they have not given the team its props at all. First it was they aint play nobody, then after they crushed Mark San"chise" and the Jets it was aiight they had a good game and the new poster boy for the NFL didnt have a good game. Then when we beat the snot out of the Giants, their number one ranked defense and homeboy Eli Manning, the excuse was we had a bye week and extra time to rest up and blah blah blah. This week they were talkin about how are they gonna stop the "Wildcat" offense, Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown, and how Joey "Mr Big Mouth" Porter and the Miami defense was gonna shut us down. Well after a 24-10 first half, everyone wrote em off, except Bradshaw and the Saints came out and put on a show for the NFL and they better take notice, cause its on.
Drew Brees took care of business dispite throwing 3 interceptions and being sacked 5 times. Brees thew for almost 300 yards and ran for two scores. Reggie Bush ran a reverse and hurdled himself 7 yards for a touchdown. Jeremy Shockey (who played college ball at the University of Miami) had over a 100 yards receiving (first time in 3 years might I add), Mike Bell, Marques Colston, Devery Henderson and that awesome defense did their thing too. Darren Sharper and Tracy Porter both picked off Chad Henne and took em to the house for pick 6's. Sharper is one short of Hall of Famer Rod Woodson for the career lead in interception returns for touchdowns. What more can they do? Will they have to win two games in one day to get some respect from broadcast media?
Not even Reggie Bush's out the blue statement that theSaints could go undefeated, could get the team more than 2 minutes on PTI this afternoon. What is really goin on with the sports channels and my city? They spend more time talkin about Brett Favre goin back to Green Bay to play against the Vikings and Sherm Lewis calling plays for the Redskins 2 weeks after calling bingo numbers in a Detroit Retirement Center, than on possibly the team that can shatter all types of yardage and scoring records this season. I really hope that on February 7th they lift the Lombardi trophy in Miami and the renegade Jeremy Shockey shoots the bird at the camera while poppin a bottle.
Posted by the Insomniaq doin the Benson Boogie in the end zone
Aiight, I was tryin to blog last night, but there was an error (BLAME GOOGLE...wow that hurt my heart to say that). So at any rate I'mma give yall the rundown on some of the foolishness that has gone on during the past week. And taking a page out of the Ed Lover book...we gon rock the "C'mon Son".
First off in the world of Sports... Isiah Thomas gets called out by Magic Johnson (his close friend) because of some things that Zeke said about Magic in a new book by Jackie McMIllian. There was some conversation with Isiah and Thomas was said to have been spreading rumors that Magic was gay. C'MON SON! You kissed the man on the cheek in front of Michael Jordan, God, and the entire world at the 88 All Star game, that YOU lobbied to get Magic in...what a buster.
Richard Seymour of the Oakland Raiders went on record, during a Cincinnati radio show saying that the Raiders were gonna make the playoffs. Clearly he hit his head on something cause JaMarcus Russell is NOT Tom Brady, Tom Cable is NOT Bill Belichek, and they play in the AFC West where the Denver Broncos are 6-0. C'MON SON! You are not in Boston anymore. You not even the best defensive player on your team. So what you got rings, but that cat wearing number 21 is the TRUTH.
"The best rapper alive" Lil Wayne pled guilty to gun possession stemming from a 2007 arrest in New York city after his first headlining show in the big apple. His sentencing date is in February and it has been noted that as part of his plea agreement, he will do a year in prison. Sounds familiar, (sorta). C'MON SON...you are NOT T.I.! You got 4 months...get in the studio and put it down, of course you aint gonna lose any momentum. But just know that Jay is still out there and Blueprint 3 is still the hottest joint out right now...
Keepin with the hometown, Louisiana State Representative Austin Badon, is expected to drop OUT of the 2010 New Orleans Mayorial Race. Now here is the catch. He is expected to also announce he is going to run for New Orleans City Councilman for District E (New Orleans East)...C'MON SON! Make up your mind. I have on good authority that you arent the sharpest pencil in the box, but did you have to do it like that? What were you thinking about? Also Troy Henry has announced that he WILL throw his hat in the ring for the Mayor's race. Dude has NO political background...but as he puts it, his professional background and knowledge of corporate America will make him the obvious choice. (Sounds like Ray Nagin)...but dude C'MON SON! You used to work for Enron!
And just for the haters...The Saints are 5-0 and goin to Miami this weekend. They gonna win the game... I sure wish that ESPN would stop suckin up to Brett Favre and give Drew Brees and the Black and Gold some respect. And basketball season is a week awway...Let's GEAUX Hornets!
"Def Jam...tells you who I am" - Public Enemy
Tonight, I got the chance to watch the 2009 VH1 Hip Hop Honors...Def Jam Records 25. So for those who didnt see it, wanted to see it or saw it and didnt really feel it (and how couldnt you), Ima break it down with the real. You already know I got issue with the way some of this shit was done.
Being a real hip hop head, I was kinda hyped up to see the show. I mean think about it, from 1984 until the day the show was taped Def Jam (as was stated in the program) is the longest and most established rap label of all time. The catalogue has got to be the best collection of music outside of the complete Motown, The Beatles and Michael Jackson. With a line up that reads like the New York Yankees of Rap, Jay Z, LL Cool J, Ludacris, DMX, Ja Rule, Chrisette Michelle you would expect one of the greatest shows ever created and broadcasted. Well Ima give you the Good, Bad, and the Ugly of it all.
First of all.... THE GOOD.
Public Enemy - Chuck D still got it, the energy was high and the funny part about it (which could be listed under the bad) was they were the second act to perform. Flav did his usual and even though he has done many reality shows from The Surreal Life to Flavor of Love 1, 2, and 3 his real love is the stage, and he was all over it.
EPMD - Even though they only did one verse of "The Crossover' it was hella good to see these guys on stage again and gettin so much love from the crowd. During the performance you could see Russell Simmons' face and he had that "Damn, we need to put those cats back out" look on his face. PMD still rockin a fisherman's hat and it was all Business As Usual.
ONYX - Yes, these dudes reunited for the event and did their biggest hit "Slam" and went clean off. Freddro Starr, Sonny Cheeba, and Sticky Fingaz threw down like they had just released that song and hadnt been on TV Shows from Moesha to Law and Order. And when Sticky did his verse standing on top of a speaker just sent it over the top.
Method Man and Redman - The Cheech and Chong of Rap did their hit song "Da Rockweiler" from the Blackout cd and were really on some high energy, the only thing that pissed me off was since the song was so short, I would have perferred to hear "How High" either as a capper of as the main joint... but I digress. Reggie Noble still knows how to command the stage and the mic. He shoulda done a solo song too. LOL
The vignettes were hot and they put a lot of historic perspective to what the idea behind the label, the hustle in the label, and who and what made it as successful as it is.
THE BAD
The Gym Class Heroes and the Legendary Roots Crew were the "house band" and even though they held it together, IMO it was overkill. GCH should have just made an appearance and got ghost. I do understand that alot of the early Def Jam songs were guitar driven, but dude was way extra....sheesh
Tracy Morgan...VH1 needs to find another host for these joints. Nothin about him says hip hop except his New York accent and if you ask me I think its overdone. He tries to hard. I would have rathered LL Cool J being the host, especially since he was the labels first HIT artist, but he sorta had to be there to host...which brings me to this.
NO SHOWS! No LL Cool J, No Slick Rick, No Kanye, and No Jay Z. You mean to tell me that your biggest and best known acts dont perform. LL was in a video clip, recounting how he got in with the label. It was a humorous story and laid the foundation for the night (cause it showed hellafied hustle and perseverance) The shitty part was that Black Thought from The Roots and Eminem performed Radio. WTF!!!! Fabolous performs "I'll Be" with Foxy Brown (who looked like she had a breast job and robbed Lady Gaga off stage) and Wale does Kayne's "Touch The Sky"...I was waiting on him to jump on stage and holla..."Wale, Ima let you finish, but I had the greatest version of this song of ALL TIME...I know wishful thinking. If you can get Proffesor Griff and the S1W's, Ghostface Killah, and Ja Rule to come out of witness protection then why not have Jay, LL, and Kanye to show their faces, and Slick Rick was just honored by VH1 last year or year before last so I know they still had a contact number....
Warren G and Trey Songz doin "Regulator" it really is a classic with NATE DOGG on it, not Trey Songz... and Rick Ross doin "Hustlin'" like it came out yesterday. White folk are so gullible. He really had them rockin like he just released that song and nobody knew that was his first single.
THE UGLY
The outfit Foxy Brown had on...dont get me wrong I have been appreciating Inga's style and her figure since day 1, but she needs to sue whoever ruined the best set of breast in hip hop, (whether it was a plastic surgeon, a baby, or some wack dude) and whomever decided to put that ugly ass outfit she had on. The top looked like a matador cape on top of a BBW swimsuit with a Daffy Duck feather skirt.
Rick Ross' outfit... when you that big and that dark, you shouldnt wear red, and definitely not a floppy red Kangol hat either. He looked like Grimace from McDonald's evil twin or something.
VH1 played the guess who card to the hilt too. How many times did they mention Rihanna?? Where was she? NOT THERE...thats her label too. Chris Brown was nowhere close to being in the building. Whats up with that VH1? You pulled a BET crackhead move with that one. Then they kept movin Rick Rubin in the balconey. First he was sitting next to Russell Simmons, then he was sittin next to Lyor Cohen, and Kevin Lyles moved next to Russell. Then they had him sittin in between Chris Rock and some former EVP chick. What in the hell was Chris Rock doin sittin on the first row anyway. What the hell was up with Eve and her outfit? Lil bitty black dress that rode up erytime she took a step.
All that aside it was a good show...
Posted by the Insomniaq, chillin in a B-boy stance
"Hey you! Get off my cloud/ you dont know me and you dont know my style" - Wu Tang Clan "METHOD MAN"
Today's blog is really a rant... Those who know me, know that I dont really get down with foolishness. Especially when whomever brings the foolishness my way are supposedly close to me. The operative word there is "supposedly". So with that being said here is the deal.
There is this person that I am (even though, Im fussin about it) very fond of. We have some mutual friends and somewhat know each others families. At anyrate, she tells me that she wants to chill with me somewhat on a personal relationship tip. As I said I am somewhat fond of her and I was down for whatever. We have had conversations on the phone, in person, and what have you, and it has even gotten physical (not what you thinking, but a kiss here, a hug there). She has on several occasions said that she wants to take whatever it is we have to the next level, to which I have once again agreed to work with it...
This past weekend, we were supposed to get together and when I called to confirm that we are meeting up, I got no answer...I got voice mail...and once she picked up the phone and played like she couldnt hear me on the line. (That really pisses me off cause we share the same phone company so that shouldnt have been an issue). I gave her a call today and it went straight to voice mail, I called back and the phone was cut off. WOW at that.
The moral of the story is that if you gonna start some shit, finish it, if you cant finish it at least "woman up" and admit that you cant deal with what YOU started. I could see if I was the one that initiated the whole thing, then I could see all that foolishness. Well needless to say, maybe she got some issues that she has to take care of on her end and Ima still be cool with her and whatever she wants to do. But you can best believe I'm not gonna act like a damn fool on her ass...she got it comin to her. In the words of my man Keshawn Johnson "C'MON MAN!" get ya shit together....
"and im OWT bitches"
Peace to my dog Greg Square...he been tellin me to blog for about 2 weeks now, so here it is dude
"Just like that I cram to understand you" MC Lyte (back in the days)
I am trying to understand what it is that people want from a small business. Being the owner of a small business, I get approached by all walks of life, inquiring about my services. Recently I have heard "complaints" about my prices, which I feel are so low that I am actually LOSING MONEY in a sense. Im gonna keep it real with my cyber family, just as I do with the cats I meet and talk to on a daily basis. I shoot "instants" at a bar that I frequent...at the insistance of the owner of the establishment (we cool like that...) I charge $10 for a 4X6 print. IMO thats not a bad price, because when I shot at another venue in the city, I was charging $20 for the same size picture and well the results were different (more in my favorite). Tonight a dude came up to me with all kinds of "bling" on, fronting buying bottles, food, and what have you. He asked what the pictures were goin for, and I told him. He jumped fly right quick saying that $10 was far too much. I told him that I would cut him a deal if he took multiples or if his crew wanted copies of the photo. He told me that I was outta my mind and he wasnt gonna take a picture. I was like cool, your loss, cause Im a beast with this thing and can even make YOU look good. He then commences to tell his folks not to do business with me (once again, im cool). While all that nonsense was goin on, I counted up how much money he had spent on food and drinks and realized that dude was fronting really hard and prolly only had $5 left in his pocket. (Sounds like a refund check baller to me).
I spoke with a close personal friend of mine, who is the point person for her soroities line reunion. She told me that they wanted a photographer to shoot pictures of the sorors and their friends and families during their reunion weekend. I was down with it, cause 1.) It was an oppertunity to make a nice piece of change 2.) I can promote my business and lock in on future work 3.) she has been my friend for some years and I would do damn near anything for her (as long as it was legal). I have gone as far as reaching out to an artist to get some custom work done that I can use ONLY for their event. **wink wink** and during the conversation realized that I have to set up good package prices to ensure that I walk away from the weekend with a profit. This conversation happened the other day...
me: Hey K, how you doin?
K: Great, I had you on my list of people to call this weekend
me: whats goin on? is something changed from our last convo?
K: No, we are still good to go, even though Soror R said that $20 was too much to spend on an 8X10 photo...
me: are you serious???? do you know how much its gonna cost me to print 1 of those up for? I'm not making much from it.
K: I know, dont change your price...this hoe (her words) is just cheap as hell, and I think she is tryin to pull a fast one.
me: thats cool...I aint sweating her, she wont be buying any pictures, but when she sees the rest of em, she'll be looking for me in the daytime with a flashlight...
By the way Soror R...is a doctor here in the city and makes enough money to pay for all 20 packages and wont even miss it. Thats sad...
Finally,
I shot a wedding a couple of weeks back, and considering that dude and his wife were on a strict budget (in other words, they spent too much money on bullshit) I cut them a hella good deal, one in where again I was gonna end up making a profit, but not what other photographers in the area were making. Dude had the audacity to want to make installments...i agreed, cause at the time I didnt really have a side hustle at the time. The week before the wedding, he shoulda been completely paid in full (mind you I was out of town 5 weeks and he could have been paid for the services), he comes up with this. "Dude, Ima pay you $100 today and the balance after you get us the pictures and the dvd." I was like "WHAT??? What kinda bullshit you tryin to pull potna?" I told him that I was a professional and that I wasnt thinkin about this nonsense. So instead of refunding the monies I already had collected or cancelling on him, I went ahead and shot his wedding. I have yet to see the balance and he has yet to see his stuff, but calls me twice this week and wants to talk smack about, where his shit's at. I told him that the next time he calls me he better be calling me to say, "Gus, I gotcha money" to which I will say, "I gotcha stuff, where we gonna meet?"
Why do my people always think that a black owned business has to cater to their needs as opposed to a white owned business who they pay upfront, with no hassle, no haggling, no foolishness? I really cram to understand.
