Saturday, September 26, 2009

Free Period: Friday Random Ten*

Let’s be real about this: there’s no Genius involved in sorting through this list. So it’s all random from this point forward.

My only submission for this week's list at PostBourgie was "Here I Come" by Barrington Levy:



Which reminds me that, once upon a time, I really liked this song. A lot.

Other songs worthy of some quality burn this weekend: "Whistle While You Twurk"(sp?) by Ying Yang Twins; "Just Like Compton" by DJ Quik; "Time Will Reveal" by DeBarge; and this:



One of my all-time favorites. Back in the day, I loved this so much that I had a deejay play it at a friend's wedding reception. Might have been the funkiest moment in Minneapolis since Prince caught the first thing smoking out of town.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

* On False Hustle, this list almost never makes it to 10 songs. Sorry. Continue Reading »

Player's Ball

For those handful of people who were reading this blog in its earliest days on the Wild Wild Web, I have a treat for you or something you will ignore altogether. There really is no middle ground.

Though you might not have noticed, I am a huge sports fan. Huge. I can understand why you might be confused since I blog here at False Hustle about as often as I shave these days.

Anyhow, I'm going to restart weekly feature that I once uncreatively dubbed "Sports Saturday." It's just a short roundup of sports links that I've been compiling throughout the week. Nothing too special.

Hope you enjoy:

1. Though I realize empathy is unpopular in some precincts, I can't help but feel sorry for Plaxico Burress. "'He will be separated from the inmate population at all times and confined to a single cell,'" Foglia said. He'll only get out for three hours of recreation per day, plus his required meetings with counselors and medical and mental health staffers. He's allowed three showers a week and one visit per weekend, Foglia said. At 11 p.m., it's lights out." As PB blogmate Universeexpanding pointed out, three showers a week seems particularly inhumane. I can't imagine the reason why inmates are limited to a shower about every other day. ... Also, this story raised an interesting discussion between me and an old prosecutor friend. In short, he thinks Burress' sentence might act as a form of deterrence. I'm not so sure that I believe in the theory of deterrence. And as we already know, I'm already peeved at the thought that prosecutors worked hard to make an example of Plax.

2. Amanda Hess points out a The Washington Post item that recently asked its seven resident football bloggers to consider whether cheerleading should be disbanded because of its misogynist roots. They had something less than progressive responses. ... Since you all don't know me, you'll have to take my word for it: I've always told the First Lady that I would strongly discourage my unborn daughter from being a cheerleader. I'd much rather she be an athlete than root for one.

3. The best college football player of the past decade is ... Matt Leinart? Hmmm. Maybe. But any of the following is acceptable: Tim Tebow, Vince Young or Reggie Bush. I would even add Darren McFadden into the mix.

4. No matter what happens from this point forward, I hope Michael Beasley is getting the help that he needs. Rehab or no. At the least, sounds like he needs a better p.r. agent.

5. If you want to know why the Oakland Raiders have won fewer games than any other NFL team (even the Detroit Lions!) since 2003, this story is as good an explanation as any.

6. So, Zabeth's Corner thinks Khloe Kardashian is sending a strong message to all those baby mamas out there with her impending nuptials to NBA star Lamar Odom: "She's playing her part right. She's making him marry her and, has decided to opt out of the role of baby mama as baby mama and wife are not synonymous." This is so silly. As if getting married and becoming a wife after only a few weeks of dating is indicative of some sort of virtue. Kardashian is "making" Odom marry her. Well, I guess everything will turn out alright then, huh? (h/t Booker Rising)

7. Former boxing champion Evander Holyfield, who has suffered through a number of financial difficulties in recent years, is putting his money into a solar energy farm. Uh ... g'luck with that.

8. Legendary street brawler Kimbo Slice will get his chance to fight in the UFC after all.

9. Tasteless.

10. And finally, a link to a good Washington Post story about formerly troubled, ex-NBA point guard Kenny Anderson. When I was a kid, I told friends that Anderson was my cousin and when I played pickup hoops, if I ever made a nice crossover, I'd almost always yell "Kenny A!" as I drove to the hoop. So it should go without saying that I wish him well.



Burress pic via Smoking Gun.

post-script: Is that title too corny? It's never too late to change.
Continue Reading »

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Finding Ms. Right

Based on his life and experiences, Jozen seems to think it's a breeze:

These guys, who complain about not finding a good woman, just aren’t trying hard enough. Too much talking not enough action. Women are everywhere, high and low, big cities and small towns, clubs and bookstores, outside and inside. Everywhere. Unfortunately, these guys, who say, “Man, where are all the good women at?” are probably screaming this question from their mother’s basement. They live in the same place where they grew up all their lives, and all the women they want have either left or aren’t interested anymore, because they already tried to get together in high school once and it didn’t work out.

These guys, who complain they can’t find a good woman, are lames. Yeah, I said it. Lames. Not because they can’t find a good woman, but because they can, and they have, but only have done so by lying to women about how they haven’t found any good ones. They’re lame because they want to place the blame on women as to why they aren’t in a relationship, when really it’s their own fault. Their problem is not being unable to find a good woman, their problem is finding too many good women - at the same time.

These guys need to stop sounding like these women who complain about how they can’t find a good man, because when push comes to shove, the women have a much stronger case. I have always said, there are a lot of women out there, no matter what type of woman a man likes. Asian, Black, Brown, White, it doesn’t matter, the world has more women than men, so by default, these guys shouldn’t have a problem. I’ve seen guys with one arm, one leg, one eye, walking down the street with women who have two arms, two legs, and two eyes. Half a guy with a whole woman.

These guys are just like me but want to act like they aren’t. In my lifetime, I have found good women by accident, and trust me, I’m no rock star, no athlete, no model, no Obama-like man of prestige. But I am a social animal, who has traveled the world, lived on both coasts and visited cities in between and in my travels, women have been as constant as the sky above.
I think Jozen makes a valid point. I, too, roll my eyes whenever I hear a man - any man, really - talk about there not being any good women out there, somewhere. And to a lesser extent (not so much professional black women), I feel the same when I hear the ladies say it too.

Whether you want to call it a blessing, luck or extremely elaborate deception, I've had the pleasure of keeping company with lots of high quality women since I graduated from high school. I even convinced the best of them (for me, of course) to marry me.

But it's possible that the complaint about not being able to find good men or women comes from another place. Maybe it's a little more personal, a little more narrow and harder to articulate than simply being unable to find your soulmate - or a mate, period - at Barnes & Noble, at yoga class or the Publix down the street.

Because if people are truly seeking a monogamous relationship, that’s where things get hard. Finding someone that can tolerate your flaws, is comfortable with their own, gets along with your family and friends, has the same interests, has a sense of purpose that's different from yours, gets your silly jokes, thinks about your best interests, isn’t disgusted by the sight of you outside of your clothes, gets down in the bedroom the way you like to get down, etc., … all that can be difficult.

The odds are against you, in fact. Not finding a good woman. But finding a good woman for YOU for the long term. And that's before we even start to throw in the baggage of race, religion, waist size, whatever.

Any fool can find himself some women. That's no great trick. Even Mark Sanford did it.

But what if you want more than that? What if you believe in soulmates and other fairy tales? Then you really might start to believe that there's no good women (or men) out there.

And to a certain extent, you might be right. Continue Reading »

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Free Period: Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup

Today in my office, a pimp and his prostitute came looking for advice on where to score some blow and advice on how to fill out their W-2s. When I told them what they could do, they accused me of encouraging them to engage in public masturbation. I hope Beck and Co. don't get hold of the video:

pimp

It's hard out here for a pimp. No, really. James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles (not pictured above) risked their lives, limbs and a camcorder to infiltrate the den of "thug criminality" that is the largest organization of poor and working families in America.

This is a time for us to appreciate their deep commitment to maligning ACORN, which clearly is an issue of utmost importance in these most troubled and divisive of times. I am sure their hearts and motives are pure.

In the meantime, we posted Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup over at PostBourgie. On Monday! Really! In this week's edition we covered: health care (again); Texas Fail; the very entertaining Values Voter Summit; lots about porn; various bits about feminism, sexism and rape; and the Dallas Cowboys.

Is that something you would be interested in? Continue Reading »

Free Period: Friday Random/Genius Ten

Ever had one of those weeks where you were running on fumes by Friday morning?

Yeah. Us, too.

As a result, we put the random in the Friday Random/Genius Ten. Forget about the genius.

It was just a list of whatever is getting regular burn on our iPods or CD players or (insert music-playing device that I can’t afford here) as we went into the weekend. Thinking of a coherent theme, at the time, was just much too hard.

My only contribution to the list was "Good Morning" by John Legend. I only became aware of its existence a few days ago, when my blog cousin Ave T dropped a note about the song on my Facebook page.

Needless to say, every spare moment since then, I've been giving it a spin:





Also, because he had a particularly rough week, I figured I might put together a list of my five favorite songs from Kanye West (I reserve the right to switch this list up, if I ever expand the idea to a full post):



5. Can't Tell Me Nothing - As much as anyone in the hip-hop industry, Kanye seems unafraid to confront his demons in a brutally public way. There's a lot about him that is all showman. But that doesn't mean he's inauthentic.

4. Jesus Walks - I first heard this song on a mixtape, probably in early 2003. And that's when I knew, I mean, I knew, homeboy would make a splash someday. Helps that the beat was bananas too.

3. Late - A playful, breezy close to the Late Registration album. (I might add, "Last Call" on The College Dropout was another great album-closing song.)

2. We Major - A seven-minute masterpiece that, in its way, ended the silly feud between Nas and Jay-Z. It's different from other great hip-hop songs in a way that is tough to pin down.

1. Through the Wire - I agree with my PostBourgie blogmate, Jamelle: this is Kanye's first and, still, best song. Love the video, too.

If I had to expand the list to 10 songs, somewhere - in no particular order - I would probably add "Heard 'Em Say," "Two Words," "My Way Home" (though it's really Common and the Gil Scott-Heron sample that get me). I'm still thinking about the other two.

In case you can't tell, I'm no fan of 808s & Heartbreak.

And no, Kanye: you can't talk your shit again.

More later.
Continue Reading »

Pretty, pretty, pretty good

Actually, even better than that. Really, I can hardly contain my excitement about tonight's season premiere of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

My only wish for this season is that Larry either: a. stays with Loretta Black (which seems very unlikely) or b. never even entertains the thought of getting back with his estranged wife, Cheryl.

While watching re-runs over the past few months, the First Lady and I have developed a deep disdain for Larry's ex. Honestly, we don't see what Cheryl brings to the table besides her generically perky good looks - something Larry could obviously replace in quick order in Hollywood. We find Cheryl to be disloyal, selfish and perpetually dissatisfied.

Weird to say, but Larry could do better. And he certainly can do worse than Loretta (played by a suddenly rejuvenated Vivica Fox):



Also, I really can't wait to see Michael Richards (formerly Kramer on "Seinfeld") make his return in to the small screen. Given his highly publicized on-stage meltdown a couple years ago, I fully expect Leon to get all in Richards' ass.
Continue Reading »