Friday, April 18, 2008
NEW YORK - There's another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. 'Gangsta rap' didn't exist.
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Keys, 27, said she's read several Black Panther autobiographies and wears a gold AK-47 pendant around her neck "to symbolize strength, power and killing 'em dead," according to an interview in the magazine's May issue, on newsstands Tuesday.
Another of her theories: The bicoastal feud between slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. was fueled "by the government and the media, to stop another great black leader from existing.
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Keys' AK-47 jewelry came as a surprise to her mother, who is quoted as telling Blender: "She wears what? That doesn't sound like Alicia." Keys' publicist, Theola Borden, said Keys was on vacation and unavailable for comment.
Though she's known for her romantic tunes, she told Blender that she wants to write more political songs. If black leaders such as the late Black Panther Huey Newton "had the outlets our musicians have today, it'd be global. I have to figure out a way to do it myself," she said.
The multiplatinum songstress behind the hits "Fallin"' and "No One" most recently had success with her latest CD, "As I Am," which sold millions.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Chicharrones...This Comes From Grocery Eats.com
If you’ve never had chicharrones then you my friend are missing out on the taste of magic. If you’re wondering just what the fuck I’m talking about, chicharron is pork rind aka cracklins aka pork skin. They are served in a number of ways, most often you can find them seasoned and deep fried.
You can usually cop these at any corner store. I like them but that’s is just some entry level shit into the world of chicharrones. If you really want to taste your dreams then you need to man the fuck up and get some Chicharron Tacos. Thing with them is that they don’t deep fry the skin for the tacos. It’s seasoned and and fried in a pan.
Hands down the best place in San Francisco to get chicharron is La Palma out on 24th and Florida. It’s a Mexicatessan. They sell their own lard, salsas (salsa casero is my favorite), cheeses, tortillas, carnitas by the pound, and a whole mess of shit. You can have your chicharron prepared in a variety of ways. My favorite though is the tacos de canasta. Canasta means basket. These are premade tacos that are put in a basket under layers of cloth to keep them warm. What makes these good is that since they are in the basket the warm tacos sweat in their own steam resulting in a soft and slightly greasy tortilla. Not oily, just greasy enough to give the tortilla a small taste of pork fat. The crispy chicharron becomes super tender and just taste fucking amazing.
Aside from the taco’s de canasta there are also just straight up tacos, these being Tacos Casero. As can be seen below these are much crispier chunks of pork skin. The small chunks of fat hanging on are just another layer in this awesome as fuck flavor profile.
Finally we get to the fucking beast. The chicharron burrito aka the tube of death.
excuse the budlight, I was at my boys house and that’s all he had.
This is not something standard. It’s not on the menu at La Palma but if you ask they will make. Dude didn’t even flinch when I asked for it so I knew I was about to get bodied. I ordered a regular because I didn’t want to fuck it all up with all the shit that comes with a super. That and the thought of jamming this thing full of crema and cheese was scary. La Palma uses real crema, not some bullshit sour cream from safeway. The first bite was just rice and beans so I thought to myself, fuck I coming through the back door on this shit.
This was the like my third bite and I thought shit this won’t be so bad, a good mix of chicharron and filler. A small amount of relief over came me as I realized this would actually be manageable. I was fucking wrong. I took another bite and the chicharron let me know that this shit was not a game.
This was fucking war. I fought through intense lays of seasoned fried pork skin. In the beginning the flavor just exploded in my mouth with each crack of crispy pork skin, but as I progressed I began to hear a little voice in my head screaming “NOOOOOO!!!” That voice was my stomach. I ignored that voice because this was war and I wanted to win. I fought long and hard but in the end I lost. I got to the heel and while I had destroyed all of the meat that last little bit of rice, beans and tortilla fucking taunted me. I couldn’t put it down. I could have if I didn’t put away 4 tacos prior to this battle but I wasn’t thinking. The burrito fucking murdered me.
As much as I would like to have a rematch I don’t think it’s wise. Yeah I was hungover but this shit is no joke. My stomach was working overtime on that shit. My advice to you is to just have the tacos. Unless you don’t like someone, then ask your taqueria to deep fry your chicharron burrito and ruin someone’s life with that.
in related news, after this and deep fried pancakes my wife is beginning to think that Grocery is a bad influence.
Here Is West Coast Rapper The Game...Pontificating On The Geo Political Ramifications Of Voting For Barack Obama.AllHipHop.com: Who you got in the election? Who you going for?
The Game: Man, I’m goin’ for the n***a man. Obama. Man I don’t give a f**k what he talkin’ bout I ain’t heard Obama say nothin’. I just know that n***a black and he about to win this s**t. Hillary need to fall back man. I’m going for Obama man, that n***a could say I’m going to kill every n***a in the hood when I get in there – I’m going for Obama man. That’s it. Gotta see a Black man, man I’m biased man. I’m biased.
AllHipHop.com: So you have no other reason than that?
The Game: No, I’m following the n****s. Goin’ in.
AllHipHop.com: Alright, but you know you got kids now you –
The Game: N***er. N***ers, following the n***ers, man, to the underground railroad ‘til we find the light we goin’ all the way to the White House man, gotta see that. If you Black and you don’t vote for Obama you just need to find a revolver spin that b***h and pop ‘til your noodles’ on the f***in side of the bed man. That’s just a no brainer man. That’s so big man! A Black dude running [for president] – where the f**k did Obama come from man? You sure he ain’t Osama’s nephew or son? Like Obama just out of nowhere - just Obama. We’ve been knowing about Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton all of a sudden, n***a, like a year ago [a] light skinned n***a lookin’ like Tiger Woods’ brother just runnin’ for president and I don’t know man it’s a conspiracy. [Laughs]
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Baltimore Brunch
March 7, 2008Last month DJ Bo Bliz, some ladies, and your’s truely decided to eat off our hangovers after a night on the town in Charm City. The results - Bliz’ chili cheese filled omlet over pankcakes, topped with onion rings, bacon and syrup.
My 3 eggs, steak, potatoes, bacon, onion rings, and oysters order crushed it in sheer magnitude, but lacked in the ingenuity department. +1 Bliz
-matt brains

A game set in Africa where disease infected people turn to zombies and is being mowed down by an army fatigue wearing white man. Is this racist or not that is the question on the minds of many who are awaiting the new game by Capcon called Resident Evil 5. Most of us know this game by now at least from the last two movies and the new one set to release here soon. Nay Sayers are pointing out the fact that the game has already cast whites from the U.S. and Spaniards from Spain as the zombies and worthy of killing so why not blacks from Africa?
We should look at it from all sides. I can see where they are going when they say that it wasn’t “inherently” racist. Since the people who designed the games were Asian and the game had previously profiled a couple of other nationalities as the diseased creatures being blown to the after life by the hero or heroine. Did Capcon deliberately pick Africa, or the fact that the hero was a Caucasian wearing army fatigues, or know that people would be sensitive and complain. The answer is of course they knew.
There had to be a team of people who went through the fine tuning of the game, picking location, plot, etc., which means that they probably went over every aspect of the game. To say that the Asian designers are unaware of the problems associated with Caucasians and Africans is just plain ridiculous. I think that slavery and the American condition is extremely prominent point in American history. We study world history and I would have to believe that Asians and others do as well.
The problem with the game is not that it takes place in Africa, that is fine and worthy of a game. The problems are that:
This game portrays the Africans as diseased, when we know that there is Aids which is a real problem there and the world seems to be ignoring the situation.
The game portrays a Caucasian in army fatigues as the so called hero or “savior” who is let loose to run roughshod over those diseased Africans. We know that there are people in the U.S. who are touting that in order to stave off AIDS we should start “exterminating” those with the disease in Africa.
The fact that they don’t give you any other choices for a hero except that of a white man. This is a very sensitive issue since the fact is that whites raped Africa of its people, land and natural resources. In fact they continue to rape and pillage Africa as we speak.
It doesn’t matter that they had already used whites and Spaniards as the zombies. There is no stigmatism in using white on white crime in a game. There is a sense of propaganda when young white children are exposed to the wonton killing of blacks or Africans for fun. The problem is that there is already a sense of privilege and the “I’m better than them” attitude that is instilled from early on by seeing the abhorrent treatment of blacks on television, movies, news and life in general.
So if we put this all together we can see full well that this game is going to be perceived as racist. Did Capcon bank on that to make controversy surround the game thereby causing it to get a lot of media attention without having to dig into the coffers for advertising? That is a real possibility, but that still leaves open the fact that using racism in any fashion is wrong and insensitive. I personally believe that regardless of who the game creators were; this game is blatantly racists. I do not believe that we are being too sensitive because unfortunately the scenario happens way too often which causes a heightened sensitivity to the issue.
These types of issues will rise up time and time again until people either stop being racist or stop being so insensitive about others painful pasts, present and future.
Resident Evil 5 ControvesyAn Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is the published (and amended) version of the second Chancellor’s Lecture given by Chinua Achebe at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in February 1975. The text is considered to be part of the Postcolonial critical movement, which advocates considering the viewpoints of non-Westernized nations, as well as peoples coping with the effects of colonialism.
In An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Achebe attacks Joseph Conrad’s text as racist. According to Achebe, Conrad refuses to bestow "human expression" on Africans, even depriving them of language. Africa itself is rendered as "the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization", "a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest."
Contents[hide] |
[edit] The essay
Achebe moves beyond the text of Conrad's Heart of Darkness in advancing his argument. Achebe quotes a passage from Conrad, as Conrad recalls his first encounter with an African in his own life:
A certain enormous buck nigger encountered in Haiti fixed my conception of blind, furious, unreasoning rage, as manifested in the human animal to the end of my days. Of the nigger I used to dream for years afterwards.
The Nigerian author concludes that "...Conrad had a problem with niggers. His inordinate love of that word itself should be of interest to psychoanalysts. Sometimes his fixation on blackness is equally interesting..."
Achebe asserts that while Conrad was not himself responsible for the xenophobic “image of Africa” that appears in Heart of Darkness, his novel continues to perpetuate the damaging stereotypes of black peoples by its inclusion in the literary canon of the modern Western world. His searing critique is sometimes taught side-by-side with Conrad’s work, and is regularly included in critical editions of the text.
The question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No, it cannot.
[edit] Counterpoint
This critique has been attacked by some as short-sighted or political,[1] or as an example of political correctness run amok. Conrad has frequently been defended on the basis of the historical context in which he lived, or on the grounds that his writing is nonetheless "beautiful".[2]
Many critics have attacked Achebe himself, for his criticism of Conrad. A popular rebuttal of Achebe's essay is that of University of Sussex English professor Cedric Watts, who believes that there is in Achebe's stance "an insinuation... that whites are disqualified on racial grounds from judging the text."[3][4] Watts has stated that he believes Achebe's perspective is directed at the "White-American Establishment".[5]
When questioned about his view as to the "artistic merit" of Conrad's work, Achebe responded:
I never said at any point that you should stop attaching artistic merit to Heart of Darkness, if you want to you can. There are all kinds of sophisticated readings of Heart of Darkness, and there are some people who will not be persuaded there is anything wrong with it. But all that I'm really demanding, I'm not simply putting it, I'm demanding that my reading stand beside these other readings... Although he's writing good sentences, he's also writing about a people, and their life. And he says about these people that they are rudimentary souls... The Africans are the rudimentaries, and then on top are the good whites. Now I don't accept that, as a basis for... As a basis for anything.[6]
| 1Up's Dan "Shoe" Hsu Resigns | |
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| By Kris Graft | Print | Send to a friend | Email the editor |
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| Longtime games journalist Dan "Shoe" Hsu has announced his resignation as editorial director of Ziff Davis' 1Up Network. | |
He'll officially depart on April 25. Taking his place will be 1Up site director Sam Kennedy, who was also formerly editor-in-chief of 1Up.com. Kennedy will report to VP of content Simon Cox. Hsu said in a blog entry that 1Up will be in "excellent hands" under Kennedy. Hsu added that he is leaving on his own volition, and is "not being forced out or laid off or anything like that." He also said that his departure is not related to the recent canning of the print edition of Games for Windows Magazine. Hsu has been with Ziff Davis Media since 1996. "For better or for worse, you'll hear from me again in the near future. I love the videogame business too much to stay away," he said. For now, Hsu said he'll be taking some time off, and plans to beat some games, get some Achievements, and possibly try World of Warcraft. | |
Punch,Punch Baby!Rapper turned rocker Vanilla Ice was charged with domestic battery for allegedly assaulting his wife last night (April 10).
According to South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, Vanilla Ice, born Robert Van Winkle was originally accused of striking and kicking his wife, Laura Van Winkle during an argument.
Vanilla Ice, 40, told police that he and his wife had been arguing since Wednesday, when he left there house to avoid an altercation.
He returned sometime last night and the married couple fought again.
By the time the police arrived at the Van Winkle’s home, the rapper’s wife told police she did not want any media attention and that he only pushed her.
Vanilla Ice was charged with domestic battery. He denied pushing or striking his wife.
The rapper served one year’s probation, after pleading no contest to a domestic violence charge in 2001, after he allegedly pulled hair from his wife’s head during an argument on Interstate 595.
Vanilla Ice is best remembered for his 1990 smash single "Ice Ice Baby."
racist casting and 21 You see, in real life, the blackjack team was a group mostly made up of Asian American students. This was actually advantageous to their strategy, as it happens, because Asian dudes winning big money at the casinos apparently aren't quite as conspicuous as white dudes who win big at the casinos. That's just the way it is. Anyway. As we all know, Hollywood studios seem to have a great of resistance to creating interesting, fully-fleshed, three-dimensional roles for Asian American actors. They seem to think we can't carry a movie, and more often than not, will instead create roles and stories for pretty white people instead. I know this, you know this, we all know this. Hell, they know this.
Case in point, 21. Except here, we actually have a true story that involved real living, breathing Asian Americans, who have been magically switched out on celluloid into—you guessed it—pretty white people. Namely, Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess. This has pretty much been the plan since the beginning, and now, the movie finally hits movie screens this week. Business as usual. That's racist!
AICN has an interview with Jeff Ma, the guy who Sturgess' character is based on. He doesn't seem to mind that they've changed his character's ethnicity... I guess he's entitled to that. It still doesn't change the fact that this movie was born out of the stereotypical Hollywood casting process. This is from an article on author Ben Mezrich and Bringin Down the House from 2005:
This view is brought about in part by Hollywood, with films like "Ocean's Eleven,"in which gambling is made to seem exotic and sexy. Incidentally, Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House" is now being turned into a feature film by Kevin Spacey, who will play the MIT professor who trained the blackjack team described in that book. During the talk, Mezrich mentioned the stereotypical Hollywood casting process--though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film's actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female. Even as Asian actors are entering more mainstream films, such as "Better Luck Tomorrow" and the upcoming "Memoirs of a Geisha," these stereotypes still exist, Mezrich said.I must note that the movie's cast includes a couple of Asian American characters, played by Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira. They're part of the blackjack team, and do have a (less prominent) place on the movie poster. It counts for something. I really am glad that these two are in the movie, apparently added later to mitigate some of the initial controversy stirred up by this casting nonsense. Sure, it feels like the producers are throwing us a bone. They are. What they're crafting is pure Hollywood falsity. But I'm happy to see that these two rising stars will get due exposure in a high-profile movie a lot of people are going to see. I'm okay with that. (I might have to take these statements back if/when I actually see them in the movie.)
Now, there's a pretty vocal anti-21 movement that's been growing over the last few months. This movie has got a lot of people angry. There have even been calls for a an all-out boycott of 21. I'm going to put it out there—I'm not necessarily in favor of a boycott, nor am I against one either. I'm not sure where I stand on that. But I'm certainly in favor of anything that draws attention and educates people on the issues at hand. This is a good one, because it brings scrutiny to the nature of Hollywood's racist casting processes, with a very obvious, high-profile example. People are interested in this movie, without a lot of background knowledge, but this is an opportunity to create dialogue on a general practice that has systematically shut out Asians in Hollywood for years. I hope it prompts folks understand what's going on here, learn the details for themselves, talk about it, and perhaps approach 21 (and future Hollywood product) with a more discerning eye.




