Random Stuff 12.6.2008

- The first post I made on this blog was over a year ago, in October 2007. Of course, you remember every word of it anyway, but here's the link to it. At that time, Side Bar (of Where's Luke superstardom, of course) predicted that Teaneck's Five-Star Cafe would go out of business quickly with a Dunkin Donuts across the street. Well, lo and behold, Five Star is fully operational. Infact, Sunday 11/30 I enjoyed a Hobo Con Queso to go. Of course, arriving home an hour and a half later, I had to pay the price on the toilet for a few minutes, but it was well worth it. Delicious breakfast and a laxative in one, can't beat it.

- Back in the 90s, a guy named Darcy Frey went into Coney Island (apparently, very ghetto there) and followed around three basketball players and chronicled their struggles to make it to success after high school basketball in a book called The Last Shot. (Joey may have gotten this as a gift for me.) Anyway, the story also touches on a cocky freshman who was on the team with this group of seniors named Stephon Marbury. After recalling his background, I'm not that shocked that "Starbury" self-destructed eventually when he was not having his ass kissed from all angles. Consider an excerpt from this review that touches on Steph:

The book does contain a fourth player, less involved in the central events of the book than the other three, a tiny freshman phenom of a point guard and basketball savant, with blazing speed, a yo-yo handle, otherworldly court vision, and a deadly shot. He is the most cocky and the most jaded of the four, always flapping his mouth and even deriding Tchaka's abilities to his face. He had not one, not two, but three older brothers show promise in high school but ultimately fail to make their 700 and end up in some sort of juco purgatory, and the experience has clearly impacted his family; his father approaches Frey directly and asks him how much he's going to be paid for Frey's book, having seen too often how young players are chewed up and spit out by those looking to profit off them and left with nothing. Unlike the other three, the freshman is shameless about hitting up Frey for meals at McDonald's and soda money, and is clear about his intentions to get his from college recruiters, admonishing the other three for not asking for any illegal gifts; he dreams of getting hooked up with a white Nissan Sentra, which are, in his own words, "milk." But he also benefits from his loss of innocence -- he vows that he won't turn out like his brothers, and puts in hours with tutors every day so that he can live up to that vow. He turns out to be the book's lone success story, propelled out of Coney Island by immense talent and confidence and a drive forged by the crushing failure that had preceded him. His name? Stephon Marbury.

- Man, I can't stop (re-)listening to Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere album. My current song du jour off of it is Necromancer. Just weird, quirky, and clever music. Has anybody heard that song Big Brother on Kanye West's Graduation album? Interesting description of his feelings about Jay-Z. Any thoughts on that?

- Just rented the Muppet Movie. It was ahead of its time and a lot of fun.

Random Video Links 9.23.08

1) Ok, you know the big deal that's made out of censorship in our country from time to time (like, the Janet Jackson fiasco? The Imus fiasco?) I wonder if stuff like this Lil Kim video, edited (presumably) for airing on things like VH1 or MTV, actually ever made it there. To me, even though this is edited for content, this is less "airable" for kids than just somebody saying "fuck" or showing a nipple on the air. It's not like kids can't read between the muted words.



The song "Drug Ballad" by Eminem (which I personally enjoy) is another example of a song without much profanity - or, let me rephrase, even with the actual curse words censored, it's a song which I would think most parents would not want their kids to listen to, even if the curse words were bleeped. On the other hand, Eminem says "faggot", it's taken out of context, and he is slammed for it.

Anyway, on to the next video...

2) For you Hadron Collider people (I'm looking at you, ChuckJerry)... Check out the name of this link, click there, then view this:



Who the hell took the time to record this? I got bored trying to watch it through.


3) The teachers' union supports... guess who... Barack for president. Here he is talking about it... (again, I didn't make it to the end...)

Random Links 12/17/07...

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you
Without a dope post to step to...

And, as per ChuckJerry's recent request, I've disabled comment moderation. So everybody can feel free to comment away!


- The city of Camden sucks. It makes Paterson look like a nice little urban burg. Read this.

- So does a certain school district in South Jersey.

- Although many of us have probably browsed this or similar sites out of sheer (morbid) curiousity, I still don't see why the public really needs to have access to the criminal records, names and profiles of most criminal offenders.

- Jeremy Shockey is a badass. He broke his leg yesterday, and the highlights at least showed him slamming down his helmet in disgust, presumably because he wouldn't be able to play anymore (I didn't get to see the game). I would be crying like I blew out my knee. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

- Brian Westbrook is underrated. I think he's one of the premier players in football. It's great to get to see him play every week. The Eagles beat Dallas and that homo Tony Romo.

- And for those looking for last minute holiday gifts, feel free to print out the following...

Random Links 11/21/2007

1) Shaq's said some good stuff over the years (for Daffy).



2) I found this blog written by a NYC bouncer about the clublife through following one of Open Bar's stories through and got caught up in a random string of links (for all the still single guys trying to do it in this cold cold world).



3) "Staging a legendary duel for the ages..."



(for MMG)