Obsession + Corrupted files = Pissed off
February 9th, 2010Street Kings
February 7th, 2010
Okay, so you’re saying, that should be the end of it: Keanu? Right. But sometimes, with my tendencies to hope better for the underdogs or outcasts, I like to check out movies with the notoriously bad actors to see if their reputation always preceeds their actual performance. Two minutes in, I was pretty sure that was the worst casting ever. I mean, Keanu with his flat inflections and empty facial expressions leading a a crime thriller?
But the issue isn’t really Keanu. Sadly, this whole film seems off. I’m writing this as some of the twists and actions are unfolding. I’m watching more for the train wreck. There is dialogue that seems wholly overboard or pretentiously too cool for school. You add those pieces into the mix with Keanu’s inability to save the material and you get a steaming pile of the not so good stuff that could either make you sick or worse not even care. If you’re creating a piece of art, you’d want people to connect right?
One major piece I couldn’t ignore was how the treatment of street informants and snitches was covered. Cedric the Entertainer plays Winston aka Scribble who is strongarmed into informant duties by Keanu’s Lublow character. Basically, they wrote the Scribble character into an inexcusably clunky and unrealistic role. Look, plot can get crazy – it’s a movie, but character motivations have to be spot on right? If he was indeed so close to any crime leaders, then what he did would’ve left his ass dead before he could light up another swisher sweet. He worked with police officers in broad daylight and broad moonlight in a parking lot at the projects. The detectives weren’t undercover. One was flashing his badge while the other was wearing his police polo. Informants and snitches are key in crime stories like these, and this was extremely clunky and flat out stupid.
I checked wikipedia to see which creators were involved in the piece. It had two very experienced crime story people working on it: David Ayer (Training Day scribe, director for this movie) and James Ellroy (crime author). I also saw that this film’s been in the hollywood network’s hands since the 1990s. Ellroy started the drafts of the script for a film named “The Nightwatchmen”. Spike Lee was supposedly directing this in 2004, then there were denied rumors that Oliver Stone was going to work on it, and it somehow ended in David Ayer’s hands. Guessing at what happens at studio’s, I’m assuming the lameness of the film more involved studio heads than the actual original material. It rarely ends well when films are moving into numerous creator hands and especially when scripts are over 15 years old before they finally make it into production.
The City, Sun, Baseball, Art, Hemi, Grub, and lots of Weed Jokes. And Love.Hiphop
February 7th, 2010
As a quick rundown, I’ll just list out some of the places we went and get to a more deeper discussion.
The places:
Red’s Java: breakfast. I got the corned beef has (with two eggs over medium). She got the breakfast sandwich with eggs, bacon, cheese, on sourdough.
AT&T Park: Giants fanfest and in particular a few rows behind home plate to watch some of the KNBR interviews (Gary, Dible’, Fitz, and Brooks – Boche, Righetti, Flannery, and Pablo)
The Sunset: Happy Cafe for some quick eats of dim sum.
The Haight: Lots of roaming, Giant Robot, Kid Robot, Haight Ashbury T-Shirts, SoMe. More on this later.
Lower Haight: Upper Playground, eats at Memphis Minnie’s, D-Structure. More on this later.
The Mission: Mission Comics and Art for a show of pieces by Joshua Ellington.
Lots of places, right?
The Weed Jokes
There were more than just jokes, but actually people smoking out within our vicinity.
- The jokes were basically at Tim Lincecum’s expense.
- The Lincecum jersey is so damn expensive. Why? It’s made out of 100% hemp.
- Did you see him? Yeah, there was a bunch of giggly teenagers behind me. I think they were high.
There was a roach at one of the restaurants. You know who else has a problem with roaches? Tim Lincecum.
Those were the best, I believe. Other weed stuff:
- Peeps were smoking in front of a store that we walked past in the SoMa on the way to Rob’s car.
- Peeps were smoking in a room at one of the aforementioned establishments.
- I thought some dude at the Haight was trying to sell us some.
- And, to cap it off, Cypress Hill in the car.
And the Get to it Later:
It’s intoxicating, weed-reference not intended, when being immersed in such a vast collection of art. Practically everywhere we went was oozing creativity – from the music, to the decorations, to the art itself. We hopped into shops of galleries, t-shirts, toy art, an culinary art. But, what I’m most intoxicated with are the visual arts pieces and music.
On the way to Sunnyvale and up to Daly City, I was bumping the Reflection Eternal mixtape that’s publicizing their much much much expected 2nd album. In Rob’s car, Sirius’ pop2k or better known as backspin, kept rotating some great records of the past. Stores we walked into or past were playing hip hop. In one store, a toddler was dancing with his mom. The art were hip hop based if not hip hop outright. And on the way home, it kept playing on my sound system.
As I was listening – or moreso just vibin’ – with the lyrics and the beats and the breaks and the samples and the cuts my mind started running with story ideas, comic strip ideas, painting ideas. I was being driven to create in my mind. And, this is why I believe it hit.
Hip hop is a very people based culture and music. It’s social. It’s our post-Baby Boomer and pre-internet social networking system. Hip hop is best served at a full table – family style. Everybody gets a taste of something new, something familiar, and something unique. I remember conversations discussing favorite emcees and tupac’s influence. It was also meant for grooving on the dance floor, dressing up collectives of spoken poetry, defining identities, reinforcing ideals, sharing concepts, and infusing creativity. Why haven’t I written poetry consistently in such a long time? I haven’t listened to hip hop in a long time – I mean as a prime musical background of the daily ongoings. Now, I have a greatly diverse palate of music, but none have launched my imagination and wit into hyper drive that hip hop always has.
At some point, I thought that it was my first love. Then, I realized the ability to imagine was it. But hip hop might’ve been that more substantial love just because it fueled my social commentary, my style, my words, my literary conventions. And, I need to welcome it back to the fold more intentionally and more frequently. 2010 is the launching pad for reconnecting and reviving my creative self – and it can’t happen without hip hop. It never has.
Love of my life.
POSTSCRIPT:
Every last Tuesday of the month for the last 43 or so months, 111 Minna has sponsored Sketch Tuesday. It gathers local artists to sketch and create live with the backdrop of a full bar. Art is available at supposedly reasonable prices. Guess where I’ll be on Feb. 23rd?
Where: 111 Minna Street @ 2nd St., San Francisco, CA 94105
When: Tuesday February 23rd, 6:00 till 10:00.
Admission is FREE, but 21+ (we have a full bar here.. mmm)
Gallery#: 415.974.1719
Throwback to 03: CD Comp of Life (to that point)
February 5th, 2010Peep the producers of each song to match the mood. I’ll come in with a Vol 2 to cover the last 7 years of my life.
1 compilation.
2 discs.
1 emcee.
various producers.
who would compile your biography via double-cd?
you can only pick one emcee and why.
you can pick various producers – but who and why?
songs?
beats?
etc?
~*~*~*~*~
for me… just some:
emcee: Talib Kweli
“flying tigers”
about the journey from the p.i. to new york
producer: kayne west
“queens logic”
about queens and that ps 115 shit.
producer: alchemist
“alyssa, i miss her”
about my pinay girlfriend in 3rd grade =P
producer: hi-tek
“sunny daze”
about the move to the bay from ny
producer: alchemist
“cocao pebble”
about being that brown boy among white boys
producer: dj quik
“traumacidal”
about the girl problems in high school
producer: dr. dre
“werker one”
about being a psuedo tagger
producer: battlecat
“hot dog”
about learning about filipino american culture/history
producer: dj premier
“ate [ah-teh]”
about the guidance from my sister
producer: ?uestlove
“rhyme scheme”
about learning the beauty of writing
producer: hi-tek
“hip hop phenomena”
about falling in love with hip hop
producer: ?uestlove
“jeff villarios”
about my best friend kristine and our friendship
producer: del the funkee homosapien
“that girl cyndee”
about cyndi
producer: alicia keys
“dtown ni**as are the craziest”
about discovering college
producer: kayne west
“fliplogical”
about learning more about filipino american communities
producer: alchemist
“thursday, friday, tuesday”
about partying in college
producer: battlecat
“sweaty nutz”
about lisa and filah
producer: the neptunes
“blip squad”
about laser tag and basketball and time with the boys
producer: dj quik
“the G’z”
about the g-sang plan
producer: the rza
“break ya’ mom’s back”
about laced – intoxicating your minds to another dimension of existence
producer: kayne west
“mortal kombat”
about mk
producer: the neptunes
“family affair”
about best friend nikdawg
producer: the alchemist
“thanks artie”
about filgrad
producer: dr. dre
“broke ass john”
about not having a fuckin job
producer: fred wreck
“the place”
about finding a challenging job at “the place”
producer: pete rock
“more like you”
about understanding my parents
producer: hi-tek
“i feel you”
about understanding the kids i work with
producer: the rza
“something that wasn’t”
about falling in love again – but not receiving it back
producer: alicia keys
“the library”
about hanging out with the peeps
producer: battlecat
“subway subliminal”
about the trip to ny
producer: pete rock
“behind the music”
about my friend
producer: the neptunes
“real world”
about 20s angst
producer: el-p
“blood of my blood”
about friendship
producer: ?uestlove
“chapters vs stanzas”
about writing
producer: hi-tek
total: 34 songs (17 each disc)
not bad.
your turn
Artificial Intelligence
February 5th, 2010
While he was talking about that, the first thing that popped into my mind was “artificial intelligence.” The brain is in fact a computer just like our video games and other programs. We create scripts that translate behaviors and we’ve learn how to create infinite responses to infinite variables within these mechanized structures. That is “artificial intelligence”. We think of AI in larger scale ideas like those explored by our Science Fiction icons and how such technology is scary. It’s a key issue in the mythos in one of my favorite shows ever, Battlestar Galactica. We fear the robots that can learn to be greater than us. But, my first thought about AI and what Robert was talking about was that if we are in fact particles of evolution in the extremities of the universe learning how to better understand itself, then aren’t WE the first generation of artificial intelligence? If the universe made Earth and Earth made us, then we are that generation of being that has learned to compute data to manipulate and expand the data – just like the robots.
And we talked more about some random things like movies and how art, which is a right of cultures as a communication method, eventually became hoarded and became owned by the elite. And how, despite its flaws, I love hip hop for the simple truism that it’s music of the people. You might not ever learn how to play a harp, but you sure can learn how to scratch, how to write, and how to flow. You can grab a mic and drop a beat and have a party or start a thought revolution. You can’t grab 90 of your homies, become an orchestra, and play Beethoven’s best of. It’s easy to access (but also very difficult to master – something most haters can’t recognize).
And after 5 minutes, he had to go help another coworker. Okay, it was maybe 10 minutes. Quantam teleportation through space. Through time. Through hashtags.
Wordpressing
February 4th, 2010I’ve spent 2 nights in a row staying up til the weeeee hours working on the formatting of the new Prosemonkey.com. I also spent a lot of time this week getting the blogger ones in order. They’re still alive, but I figured it makes more sense just to focus on one place since I don’t post all that often anyway. Well, there are three joints for me to work on if I were to post:
- monkeysilog: random stuff, life, 30s, all that
- TV monkey (livin’ proof 2.0): still the tv, still the movies, still the comics
- sketchmonkey: archiving and reflecting on the daily sketches I’ve started to create
Well, life stuff will be here. TV and pop culture stuff will be here. The sketches will not. But it’s linked up.
So, I guess, this is the “relaunch”.
