art update

in preparation for my upcoming show, i've uploaded 6 more pictures of painting on my art blog. i'm really trying to make it a functional showcase of my work & where i'll be showing. so, click on over and see 18 of my pieces with more to come. sadly, the newest stuff isn't up there yet, as i've not had the chance to photo it.

they're watching you

watched an interesting documentary today on bet. it was called black and blue: legends of the hip hop cop. it was about the nypd's rap unit, a group w/in their force that profiles and tracks hip hop artists. or, i should say, it was a doc that attempted to look into whether or not police profile and track hip hop artists.

the documentary was interesting because new york says that it doesn't have a unit like this. but, there is confirmation from the miami pd that they have a unit of their own and were trained by nypd. and, there is this binder, from the nypd, that catalogs a ton of rappers. it had rap sheets, business ties, and on and on. and the documentary showed the binder. nypd, nope, we didn't make that. the doc also interviewed the nypd cop who basically was the main guy for this unit. but, no, we don't have a unit like that.

(a funny note, the documentary had commercials during it. i was watching and started thinking, there sure are a lot of black people in these commercials. that's odd. and then i remember, oh yeah, i'm watching black entertainment television.)


(i wrote this on sunday, but forgot about it. so, i'll post it now.)

a link for lefty

hey lefty,
have you heard of/read this graphic novel? it sounds pretty cool to me, just wondering if you have input.

a link for justin

check out this window. very, very cool design.

free and freaky

the stooges have a new song

*i saw this on stereogum

monday afternoon briefs

some days i think i shouldn't leave my house with a wallet. i'm not a huge impulse buyer, but sometimes i'll just do it. this counters a lot of what i believe about frivolous consumption, and i realize that. but still, sometimes i just buy stuff. fortunately, most of these purchases aren't huge. the little things add up though. anyway, i used to buy lots of shoes. every couple of months i would buy a pair or two. that's mostly changed, and now i usually buy a pair or two a year.

but something else has taken it's place...hats




so, i saw this hat the other day @ retro rag as i strolled by. today, i was out getting up flyers for my upcoming art show, and just stopped in to see how much, selection, etc. and then i bought a hat. fortunately, i'm out in the sun a lot and have the need to wear something to keep the sun off my head and face (i really don't want skin cancer). sure, this little fedora variation isn't the ideal sun protection, but it will do.


in other news, our cat has decided that it likes the tower adam made. she sits on it frequently now.

look out

holy cow. or, if you use this property, maybe it will be a hole-y cow.


oh, and click on the picture to watch a video that loads really slowly.

ladies needed apply

could female clerics counter the rise of radical islam? this article from the bbc talks about this very recent appointing of fifty female clerics in morocco. now, i don't know enough about the culture in morocco to know if they are progressive across the board, but i'd say that this is an interesting step.

a little bit of shhhhh

adam should love this story. it's about his favorite car part.

in other news, rainn wilson did a great monologue for snl




finally, i set up my show for the rogue festival today. now i need to make my title cards. hey, did i mention i have a web page there, too? it's a little something they did for all the artists. that's right, i did.

how you killed your brand

so, i'm still a playstation fan, but this is a funny video

my life as a soundtrack

so, i'm taking on a meme i saw on lefty's web

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool...
7. When you're finished tag some other people to do it!

Here are the areas that you need to fill out:

Opening credits:
Waking up:
First day of school:
Falling in love:
First song:
Breaking up:
Prom:
Life:
Mental Breakdown:
Driving:
Flashback:
Getting back together:
Wedding:
Birth of Child:
Final Battle:
Death Scene:
Funeral song:
End Credits:

and the results are:

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend your cool...
7. When you're finished tag some other people to do it!

Here are the areas that you need to fill out:

Opening credits: ain't no other man - christina aguilara *
Waking up: davis stoutmeyer - LA symphony
First day of school: half jack - dresden dolls
Falling in love: lurgee - radiohead
First song: dreams - the allman brothers band
Breaking up: johnny 99 - bruce springsteen
Prom: sektor five - mix master mike
Life: work - bob marley & the wailers
Mental Breakdown: hype talk - dizee rascal
Driving: collapse - sparta
Flashback: warm - nofx
Getting back together: respect me - dizzee rascal
Wedding: a day at the races - jurassic five
Birth of Child: who's to blame - ozomotli (now that's funny)
Final Battle: midnight - a tribe called quest
Death Scene: every little thing she does is magic - the police
Funeral song: helicopter - bloc party
End Credits: - rock the house - gorillaz

meh. some work out funny or could be fitting, others seem to be out of step. oh well. who's next?

*i forgot to put in a song here, and so this was a late add, but still randomly done.

my baby turned 500!

well, actually it turned 500 (miles) earlier, i think on saturday. currently, it's @ 657. so, tomorrow it's getting its first check up, i mean servicing.

updatey do

today, i accepted another position @ the university where i'm working. it's another part time deal. one night a week, for a few hours. the pay is pretty good for what i've got to do (very little). but, it's quite a commitment: 15 months. and, since it's one night a week, that means that i won't be able to take any night classes @ the j.c. i've been working at. so, hopefully i'll be able to get morning and daytime classes there while building up my resume & experience.

and, i'm working my way further into the system where i'd like to work.

rogue

rogue is coming very soon. i'm busy as a beaver, painting up a storm. click on my art blog link (to the right) to see previous work, some of which will appear @ the rogue.

amazing race all stars

so, tonight came by and watched the first episode of amazing race all stars.

we picked teams, each of us picking two squads:
mike - rob & amber, kandice & dustin (beauty queens)
heather - charla & mirna, ozwald & danny
ed - kandice & dustin, eric & danielle

so, we're fifteen minutes in. we'll see if one of my teams gets eliminated the first night, like last time.

death for swindlers!

uhhh, i'm not a fan of the death penalty, so i generally think that any time it is being exercised that it's wrong.

i came across this story on the bbc and thought, holy cow. death penalty for running a scam. c r a z y.


and then i saw this story about youtube & mexican drug cartels. even crazier.

and a link for annthrope

check check check check check it out

interested in reading something funny i wrote?

back from the dead

no, not me. our laptop. it seems that after i posted my last blog entry last thursday night, our computer decided to take a dump on me. not exactly sure what happened, but somehow our o.s. got messed up. so, it wasn't working very well out all. at first, i could still do most things, slowly, but later it wouldn't let me on the internet. so, i knew trouble was a brewin'.

thankfully, i've got a buddy who is a bit of a mac guru. that used to be scott, but south carolina is a long way to take the computer. my buddy mark helped me get it all fixed up and working snappy. we ran several different programs to fix the hard drive, and when it was all said and done we still had to reinstall everything.

but it's working!

survivor fiji

heads up, tonight is the debut of survivor fiji. if any of you fresno folks want to get together to watch it, give me a call. and, if you want to put together a pool i'm game for it. i'll also be watching csi (please remove liev schreiber). and, we'll be recording earl, office & scrubs.

something else to watch out for is the debut of the next round of amazing race on sunday. it's all stars.

coca = good

i saw this article while riding the bus in the bee, and figured i'd try and find it online when i got home.

the article, which is about hugo chavez, president of venezuala offering to buy coca products from bolivia. pretty interesting idea, and something that could actually help to cut back on production of cocaine. the coca plant can be used for many legal substances, and has deep cultural significance in bolivia.

i've said before that i like chavez (or at least i thought i did, i can't find a blog post about it). there may be things where i would quibble with him, but this is another example of positive ways to help a country. it doesn't just have to be about funding "wars" and overthrowing governments (i'm not pointing any fingers here, don't get testy uncle sam). here's some other proposals, "Among his foreign aid programs is a promised refinery for Nicaragua, cut-rate fuels for Ecuador and continuing bond purchases from Argentina."

pretty good stuff.

now them's some cheap tickets

hey, i've only got a little soft spot in my heart for metal, but this make me excited.

so, about the tower

interested in reading an article about the tower district that doesn't really say all that much? got to love the bee.

hoaxes

so, clink on this link to see massachusett's hoax bomb law. section b is particularly interesting.

basically, if i leave something, and someone "reasonably" believes it to be a threat, i'm going to get arrested as a bomb threat. can't say i agree with that.

here's another perspective.

"To us, they're so obviously not suspicious," said King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart. "They're not suspicious devices or packages. We don't consider them dangerous." that's a different take from law enforcement.

two more perspectives
san fran


or

new york

your memories are wrong

last night, adam and kasey and i were chatting about a whole lot of things. somehow, our discussion went to fashion fair mall, and the location of one of the bathrooms. you see, there was a particular restroom that was located downstairs, next to orange julius, in front of where santa hangs out (when he's there).

anyhow, we all remember the restroom. but, do the restrooms still exist? or were they moved? two of us remembered it one way. one of us said that they were no longer there.

it didn't get heated, but a bet was placed. at first, it was just about honor. but, @ the prodding of someone (ok, me), the bet needed to be worth something. $10 seemed like a fitting amount. and i was dispatched to provide a definitive answer (i don't work too far from there).

here we go:

approaching the area. i see the sign for restrooms, pointing towards the location. looks good for someone


d'oh! this is the view from santa's spot. i see starbucks, i can see security spot, and no restroom.


a closer shot that illustrates much the same. no restroom in between santa & starbucks


sign that explains where the restroom went


the view from the other side


adam, you owe kasey $10. we should have known better than to doubt a woman about knowledge of a mall (i know, stereotype, & i'm just kidding).