life: CRIBS (PACE UNIVERSITY DORM EDITION)

Five footlockers, two boxes, six bags, and 4 hours of driving later my roommate and I have finally reunited for move in at PACE UNIVERSITY. I had seen the pictures of the rooms at the hall we were staying at but that never does justice for me unless its food. So I was more than excited to finally leave the DMV  for good and come up to NEW YORK to start the beginning of the rest of my life. FYI - that message board I bought for people to leave messages on it for us and so far we've gotten numbers and lots of sweet messages such as the one above :) Here's some visuals of my new residence:

Our friend Ijeoma sitting on my roommates (Saidah pictured above) bed.

Still have a few more things I want to order for the room (mirror, trash bin, record player). But I love our room the cute tv I got from WALMART for the LOW and dvd player from home our my favorite parts of the room. But the highlight is the string lights I got while shopping with my aunt and my at IKEA. I've had that vision for my room for the longest and I absolutely adore turning it on at night.

Anyways, there will be an updated version later on in the year when I put some more stuff in here to spruce it up.

life: "PACK'D MY BAGS" PART 1

Almost done packing for school, until Fez decided hop in to join the shoes trunk :) 

Guess he didn't want me to go to college without him. I'm going to miss him so much..

Anyways, back to packing my life away.

life: MGMT CONCERT + FRIENDS (8/14/10)

First and foremost, I would like to apologize the utter neglect shown towards my little baby. Otherwise known as my blog! I would say i've been busy working, which I have been, but I needed a break from documenting some things going on because something very huge is on the horizon for me. Something that will make up for the month lost. Hopefully my time at the MGMT concert will make up for the lost time. I can't really provide a caption for a lot of these pictures because some just don't really need them. They all pretty much some up the highly inebriated and substance abuse-ness of the night. Definitely the best night of my summer:

This final picture rounds out the evening pretty well: grass, grass, girls in too little skirts/dresses, random guys with ties wrapped around their forehead, friends, MGMT, and relaxation.

watch: "THE FIRE" MUSIC MOVIE - THE ROOTS FEATURING JOHN LEGEND

The return of the conceptual music video has got my mind doing back flips and irish jigs of insurmountable joy. While this was not my favorite track off of HOW I GOT OVER (which is a hip-hop masterpiece of all glorious and eargasmic shades that should be bought by whomever is reading if not already) they really brought out the big guns with the direction, concept, treatment, and overall quality of this visual. I love music videos like these because it gives a more in depth look into the meaning of the song. "The Fire" addresses the desire within us that gives us the strength to keep pushing forward to what we feel is our destiny, our dream. That little voice within us that keeps us from giving in when running that 3 miles in the morning. Rather than removing the reason for why you should watch the video, i'll just let it do its job. Figure it out, love it, jam to it, and be in utter shock by it. It is shocking, but it is moving and refreshing as is everything that reaches this side of the webcoast.

art: JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

So much can be said about Basquiat as an artist. There are lectures, classes, books and more dedicated to understand the whisk of every brush that landed on any piece he ever created. He was so much more than a BLACK artist; he was an artist, he was part and a leader of an art movement during the 1980's and often starved or was homeless all for the sake of his passion that would eventually lead him to have the opportunity to paint in Armani suits and travel the world so many could see the beauty that is a Basquiat work of art. He made a mark on art history achieved in 9 years that took many of his contemporaries decades. I say all of this to say that no one ever really looked into who he was as a person. How all of the fame and recognition he received ultimately destroyed him because if you don't love yourself enough to press on during difficult times, the respect and love from others is never going to be enough. Thankfully, the movie documentary RADIANT CHILD (click here for trailer) gives a deep look into the person and not the "occupation" per say. Unfortunately I won't be able to give it a look see until it releases on DVD because I won't be here when it comes out for the Chesapeake Film Fest and the showing in New York ends in August. 

"Jean Michel Basquiat first became famous for his art, then he became famous for being famous, then he became famous for being infamous - a succession of reputations that often overshadowed the seriousness and the significance of the art he produced."

I always admired his pride and daring approach to his art. The colors, the dimensions, the visionary, and the underlying messages that hide deep under the cluttered cluster of images makes you think; his art had substance. Anyhoo, here are a few of my favorite pieces from the one that is JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT. VIVA LA BASQUIAT!

funny: YAHOOANSWERFAIL EATS UP MY SPARE TIME, AND IT SHOULD EAT YOURS TOO

Yahoo Answer Fail has got to be the best thing that has happened to the internet next to Google; yeah, it is that funny and you need to check it out if you are ever down in the dumps or feel stupid. 

A constant reminder that just when you think you have asked a dumb question, there is someone else out there who asked an even dumber one - and to more people. I thought roaming craigs list for creeper ads was funny, but this absolutely takes the cake. Just for the record though: I absolutely detest dumb questions because they are almost always asked in the most inconvenient, patience testing times and have already been answered or are just common sense. But these aren't just dumb, they're bizarre, other wordly, and every other adjective in the thesaurus that relate to those words.

I screen shotted some of my favorites from Yahoo Answer Fail down below including some even funnier answers:

throwback: BILL EVANS - NARDIS (1969)

Today's throwback is EXTRA, EXTRA SPECIAL because while I stumbled upon this BILL EVANS tune I was also taken aback because it sounded so familiar. I kept rewinding back to 1:11 and playing saying to myself "I know who sampled this.... I KNOW WHO SAMPLED THIS" and being the sample nerd I am I was able to search through the nooks and cranny's of my mind, went to my iTunes and VOI-MOTHERFREAKING-LAH I found the sample. 

So not only do you guys get to enjoy a jazz high quality visual (something that will frequent this blog plenty) from the late great BILL EVANS but you also get to go crazy trying to find out who sampled it. If you want to cheat because you can't figure it out then i'll bless you with a snapshot of the comment I left on the video JUST NOW that gives it away and a link to the song that sampled it that did some pretty nice crate digging if you ask me. Not so surprising because this particular artist always finds some solid samples that nobody really knows of unless their taste is as broad as his (hehe). I will admit I got really lucky but I guess it was fate! Everytime I find a sample by accident that a producers uses I begin to understand how they feel when they find a really good one; it's addicting! To whomever figured it out: MAJOR props to you fellow sample nerdite!

FOR THE CHEATERS:

1) CHEAT LINK ONE

2) CHEAT LINK TWO