Almost A Yard Shy

the only thing awesome enough to get me out of blog retirement

2010-10-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Some people might say this is offensive; those people are probably right. Me? I say this is hilarious. Also, special thanks to "Anonymous" who commented on my last post with "sex [url=http://pornushi.ru/english-version/full-free-porn/site-540.htm]ndian sex[/url]". Thanks, probably couldn't have found that on my own.

MP3: Baracka Flocka Flame - Head of The State

Lazy Penn State Reporting Fun

2010-04-02T22:20:00.001-07:00

I'd like to summarize every bad article you'll read about Penn State and Joe Paterno this off-season in one picture:

Joe's old. We get it. Derp-a-derp-derp.

I love reading Doc Saturday during the college football season but guys like this tend to put up a lot of BS in the off-season to fill space with little to no effort or actual reporting being done. On Thursday, he decided to put up an article exactly like that, filled with every Penn State cliche that's ever been written.

With that being said, I feel like it's my job to ether this guy's article.

"In reality, the Lions still belong to Joe Paterno, who hasn't yet entirely resigned himself to the fact that true freshmen are eligible to play at all, much less ready to pick up the reins as the starting QB."

Tony Sacca started as a freshman QB in 1988 and many other freshman have started before and since that happened at other positions. This is dumb and a Google search would have disproved this.

Then there's this gem:
"And Penn State has never started a true freshman quarterback, even for a game."

Tony Sacca, Wally Richardson, and Zack Mills. All three of those guys have done that, and I figured that out after a quick googling. I'm sure there's more.

After writing an almost completely factually unsubstantiated article, he tries to throw a little dig at Joe at the end:

"If the rest of the staff decides Jones (or Bolden, when he gets there) can play, they'll throw him into the ring, and the head coach will just have to feel that much older."

"Joe's old. Starting Freshman players is something he is against, and he can't change. The game has passed his old man face by. Etc." I swear there's some kind of stock article about Penn State that every wannabe Sports Guy around the nation gets as soon as the off-season starts. I don't feel like going through the effort to show you how lazy it actually is, but people have been calling Joe old and out-of-touch since the 90s. That was ten years ago at minimum. The reason Joe is still great at what he does is because the key part of having a college football team - the kids - never ever changes.

The game might change strategically over time, but young college age kids have always had the same concerns since the beginning of time, and over half of Joe's job is motivating them and relating to them. He's really good at it, too. I'd rather have someone who's wise with some brains influence my life rather than some manchild like Lane Kiffin try to motivate me with whatever B.S. he used that led the Raiders to go 5-15 during his tenure and the Vols to barely go .500. But that's just me.

Haven't I Heard This Song 500 Times Already?

2010-03-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

So I've been a little hesitant to write anything since I got owned in an English class this semester, but basically what happened was this: I grabbed a couple articles off my blog to write from, the person in charge of the newspaper (also the professor of my class) googled a couple sources, found my blog, and then found a section of my blog where I talked about falling asleep in his class. Hilarious for everyone involved. Anyways, I hope you're reading this Dr. Dendle and I hope I made a fan out of you.

I was listening to the radio and found out that these three songs are by three different people, which isn't all that amazing until you figure out that they all sound almost exactly same.

Iyaz - Solo
Jay Sean - Do You Remember
Jason Derulo - Watcha Say

And then those three all suspiciously sound like Sean Kingston, who suspiciously sounds like Akon without the annoying accent. I didn't realize that Replay was actually not Sean Kingston, but was Iyaz instead. The formula for getting a number one song is something like: Decent Singer + these auto-tune settings + nice synth. I don't want to single these guys out. Daughtry's new song sounds like he's trying to audition for a Nickelback cover band.

As much as I make fun of this stuff, though, people love it. Because people love it, the people funding behind musical things that sound different is a lot less, and because they don't fund the different stuff, we get derivative crap on the radio. Next time you turn on the radio and wonder, "Haven't I heard this song 500 times?" The answer is yes, yes you have, and you will continue to hear songs that are exactly like it.

NFL Drafting With Penn State: Josh Hull and His Rocky-Like Dedication To Football Success

2010-03-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

Alright, I'll admit it. I was one of the many people in the stands last year PSU football games blaming Josh Hull for most of the bad things that happened on defense in 2008; and for most of the year, I was right. Towards the end of the year, he started improving dramatically and was at the point where I felt like he was beyond adequate. I could tell that he was at least working hard at getting better, and it showed.

After a hard off-season of work, though, he came back even better in 2009. I still had my doubts but Hull proved me wrong again, turning in 116 tackles and 2 interceptions to finish off his senior year at Penn State. Again, Hull proved me wrong using his Rocky-like dedication and growing an 80s style mustache that perfectly complemented his work style. I will say that in pass defense, he appeared to be bad or lost at times (although there's lots of factors that contribute to that that maybe aren't his fault), but I thought, hey, good for him. He walked-on at arguably one of the best football schools on the planet, one renowned for its linebackers, and started off and on for two years. That takes a lot of hard work to accomplish. I figured, like many other people, that his football career was probably over post-PSU.

Hull proved me wrong again, though. He turned in the best 20-yard shuttle, 60-yard shuttle, and 4th-best 3 cone drill of all linebackers at the NFL combine. This includes all the SEC jabronis and all the linebackers that are supposedly more physically gifted that Hull. I don't know what those numbers means in terms of draftability, but I do know this: you have to be legitimately fast to get good times in all those drills. The same cannot be said of the 40-yard dash, which is mostly well-taught technique. Another thing I know is that Hull has only gotten faster since he left PSU. The reason why is because of the same work ethic that made him a starter, and eventually, one of the best walk-on LBs that PSU has ever had. He will take this same work ethic to whatever NFL team that is smart enough to draft him, I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Patriots (or some other usually smart football team) pick him up.

Spring Break/XV/Hockey

2010-03-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

I have one week til Spring Break. For most people, this is just a week to relax and then get really drunk at some point before they leave. I have only one goal this week. Destroy my Physiology test on Wednesday. If they were to make a Rocky-style montage of my life in the past week, it'd be like going to class montage, study montage, sleep montage, and then run on the treadmill montage all with this song playing in the background:

Other than that, I've just been busy listening to new music. I'm really digging this album, which is a new mixtape from XV: download here. XV takes this song and makes it even better/interesting. I don't claim to know anything about XV but he is clever and definitely worth a listen if you're tired of BS rap.

On another note, yesterday was the only time I've ever cared about hockey on the same level as a football game. It's too bad the U.S. had to lose, but to put us in their shoes, it'd kind of be like if the U.S. played the French in a football game that went into overtime, and then Troy Polamalu came around the edge and decked their pussy QB and scooped the fumble for the winning touchdown. That would feel amazing. So good for Canada/America Jr.

Plastic Beach Impressions

2010-02-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

So I got ahold of the new Gorillaz CD, and I love it. If you took the best movie soundtrack songs of all time and combined them with the monkey lead singer of the Gorillaz, you'd get something like what "Plastic Beach" is like. Lead singer Damon Albarn was on a beach in Thailand and noticed the way the animals were interacting with the trash on the beach. "I've always felt, I'm trying to get across on this new record, the idea that plastic, we see it as being against nature but it's come out of nature. We didn't create plastic, nature created plastic. And just seeing the snakes like living in the warmth of decomposing plastic bags. They like it. It was a strange kind of optimism that I felt," he said. This is where the name Plastic Beach comes from.

Anyways, it's awesome. I'll probably write up some kind of review later, but here's the video teaser for the album.

Slightly Faked Tweets Vol. 1

2010-02-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

http://twitter.com/andyrooney90/status/1953462549

Chat Roulette!

2010-02-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

I recently was introduced to a website along with a couple friends called chatroulette.com. Basically, you get on your webcam and talk to anyone of thousands of people on the service. There is a "next" button that sends you on to the next stranger. If this sounds creepy, well, sometimes it is; but truthfully, it can be a lot of fun too. Chat Roulette is a lot like Russian Roulette; when you hit the next button, you're never quite sure what to expect. Sometimes you have a nice conversation and move on with your life; other times, you get shot in the head with a penis.

We talked to a dude from Chile, and later, two girls from Wales. The girls from Wales asked us to play something for them on guitar. If picking up girls with guitars over the internet is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I think part of the fun of Chat Roulette is actually finding decent people to talk with, because in between guys looking for boobs and guys showing their penises, these people were few and far between.

Fantastic Intramural Soccer Update Of Awesome!

2010-02-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

So I've been playing intramural indoor soccer at college and playing my least favorite position: goalie. Goalie sucks because I used to play soccer and I know what it's like to have a goalie let a goal in after all the running around everyone else on the field does. We used to have a goalie in high school that would sit down at practice and sip on Gatorade. It was kind of like watching a kicker in any football practice ever; they attempt a couple kicks and go back and act busy. Maybe they count the grass; maybe they write a blog. I don't know. What I do know is that your mind immediately flashes back to that moment when he lets a goal in, with his obese body sitting there drinking Gatorade. You hate the goalie after that.

(a pic of our high school goalie in 20 years)

We've played 3 games so far and our record is 1-2, which is the best start any intramural team I've ever played on has gotten. Keep in mind I played on an intramural basketball team last year that went 1-10 and was named after something Peter asked Lois on Family Guy when he was posing as a prostitute. The scary thing about intramural sports in general is that everyone takes it five times more seriously than they would in an actual game, which I don't really understand, but whatever. Last game I made a save and was on top of the ball, and someone had the gall to come up to me and kick me while I was down.

I'm not sure this kid was aware that, at one time during a game in high school, I was so pissed off at a call that I did some kind of crazed roar and threw the basketball at the scorer's table. Or the time I was playing football and was so pissed off at a guy for trying to punch me that I found him on the next play and blocked him out of his shoes. Those are just a couple examples, but the point is: I have a temper. Being that this kid probably played soccer his whole life, he's not A) tough or B) muscular at all beyond his legs. It was a bold move from a person who plays the most wussy sport there is outside of bowling, and I immediately got in his face. He backed off and then muttered something about my sexuality on the way back. I should have destroyed him, but I like being in college more than I like fighting guys who are vaguely heterosexual. When we play them again, it'll be like Rocky v. Ivan Drago all over again.

I Have A Bonneroo For Bonnaroo

2010-02-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

Watching the live announcements of acts that are going to be at Bonnaroo 2010, I decided that I have to go because of the following acts:

One name on this list absolutely made up my mind that I had to go though: Stevie Wonder. Watching the live announcements with a friend before Stevie popped up, I said: "If Stevie Wonder goes, I'll buy a ticket and drive down." Well, he popped up on the list 5 minutes later. This Stevie Wonder Live DVD that recently came out is great; I've watched it a ton of times and I still love it. Stevie doesn't do a lot of live performances, and the ones he does do are usually at small festivals or worldwide tours that don't come all that close to where I live. I would absolutely drive to Tennessee just to see him and the acts above, though; not to mention that there's a ton of other bands on the Bonnaroo Set List that I love.

The only (and biggest) catch to me going is money. I have to have $250 ready to drop when the 4th line of ticket sales come up, and being a broke college student (and ex-Walmart employee), I don't have that right now. This blog is actually making out decently, money-wise; the trick is just having the $200 or so ready to drop when the tickets come up. We'll see. I'm pretty determined to go, though.

People Actually Want To Imitate This?

2010-02-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

So apparently the Guido look is getting more popular. As a white male, this crap just makes me ashamed of my Caucasian claim. I'm trying to think of an equivalent in another culture, any culture, where turning yourself into an effeminate roided out weirdo makes you more attractive, but apparently this is the way things are now. If every black guy tried to look like Kat Williams because they liked his comedy it'd be just as idiotic. To quote the article: "Another plus, according to Zach: girls like it."

This is what girls are into now? If my great grandpa saw this dude back in the 30s he'd probably stick a boot in his ass. We need more Red Foremans for fathers so not everyone grows up looking like confused lesbians.

The Super Bowl Commericals (..And The Game Was Good, Too)

2010-02-07T23:46:00.000-08:00

So the Super Bowl (commercials) were alright.

I didn't make any predictions about the game because I didn't care a whole lot, (I'm a Steelers fan) but I do love football.. so I watched it. I thought the Saints played incredibly gutsy and the Colts played it close to the vest. In other words, I thought the Saints played to win it and the Colts played to not lose. In life and football, big risks = big rewards; so I thought it was great when the Saints kicked the onside kick and did the double-reverse (even though it didn't work) and all the other gutsy play-calls the team made on offense and defense. Don't forget the game-changing interception by the Saints, and the fact that it was their first Super Bowl win in franchise history; add it all up, and it was a great game.

Someone needs to update Manningface.com. I wasn't looking all that closely, but I'm sure he put on the Manning face at least once or twice after A) losing the game and B) throwing that interception.

The Dave, Oprah & Jay Leno commercial for Late Night was perfect. You can watch it here. I always wanted to see Letterman live and always thought he was the best late night guy next to Conan, but I heard he was kind of a jerk so I don't know. I'll probably write more about how much I love Letterman later, but I grew up on him.

What Happened To The Cast Of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers? Pt. 2

2010-02-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Richard Steven Horvitz, the voice actor for Alpha, ended up getting a ton of work after Power Rangers. This makes sense because he was one of the best characters on the show, other than Tommy. He was the voice of Dag on "Angry Beavers" and the voice of all the enemy soldiers in Metal Gear Solid 4, plus doing work on almost every animated anything in the past 20 years.

He was on an episode of "Static Shock", in the movie "Mulan", and later, in the movie "Shrek". Good for him.

Zordon, played by David Fielding, was one of my favorite characters on the show growing up. If my grandpa had a Facebook and was doing the "make your profile picture a celebrity month" thing, his would totally be Zordon. I think this is why I liked Zordon growing up; not only was he a total boss, but he looked like my grandpa. Zordon didn't get much work other than Power Rangers, only doing voices for the video games Sanitarium, Anvil of Dawn, and Zeus: Master of Olympus.

Because these guys were actually best friends in real life, I'll do their paragraph together. Paul Schrier, aka "Bulk", mostly did "Power Rangers" stuff his entire career, only doing one movie outside of the series, "Wicked Game". "Skull," aka Jason Narvy, was in a TV show called "Masked Rider", and also starred in a made for TV movie with Bulk called "The Good, The Bad, & The Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk & Skull". I imagine the TV movie was something like this.

Barbara Goodson, aka "Rita Repulsa", has done a lot of stuff outside of the "Power Rangers" series. She has done voices for everything from "Digimon" to "Naruto", plus countless other video games and Japanese animation shows with names I can't pronounce.

I don't want this to get too sad because this is a kind of non-serious post, but the actor who played the Yellow Ranger, Thuy Trang, is dead. She worked on the sequel to "The Crow" shortly before dying. In the original "The Crow", Brandon Lee got injured doing a stunt and later died from his injuries. People should stay away from those movies, man.

Amy Jo Johnson, the Pink and arguably the hottest and most successful Power Ranger, has played in: the TV show "Felicity"; the ABC Family Show For Girls Who Like Horses, "Wildfire; and most recently starred in the show "Flashpoint", which according to IMDB is about "a special tactical team that rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, and takes on other tough cases." You can watch Flashpoint online here.

What Happened To The Cast Of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers? Pt. 1

2010-02-01T00:22:00.000-08:00

Why write about the Power Rangers? Because my last write-up about what happened to the cast of a show seems like it's pretty popular. Because any time you hear the words "Power Rangers" the theme song plays in your head. Because one episode, Zack tries to teach Alpha "hip-hop-ki-do". Because reading "aie-aie-aie" makes a robot voice sound in your head. And most of all, because they're awesome. Let's start with Billy.

Billy Cranston, the Loser (Blue) Ranger, ended up playing "Playboy Photographer" in an hour long made for TV movie called After Diff'rent Strokes: When the Laughter Stopped. I don't know what a Playboy Photographer does in a movie called "Different Strokes", but it clearly can't be anything good. Billy always struck me as the "skeevy perv" type, so this is the perfect role for him.

This seems to be his only serious work besides being a producer on "Temptation Island", one of the worst reality TV shows ever made. Who would've thought that playing a gigantic, awkward nerd on a kid's TV show wouldn't get you more work? If he was faking "Billy" from Power Rangers all along and he is actually the coolest man on earth, he deserves an Oscar for his work; but most likely, he actually is a giant nerd.

Tommy, the White Ranger, ended up playing in a movie called "Fall Guy: The John Stewart Story". If you ever wished Tommy would spontaneously combust and fall out of a building and die, you can watch that here. The scene I'm describing is probably something Billy Cranston wished on Tommy numerous times while on the set of Power Rangers.

Walter Jones, the Black Ranger, is missing the middle finger on his left hand, so if you're going to cut-off Walter Jones on the highway, make sure you pass him on the left side so he can't flip you off. Feel free to take both hands off the wheel and wiggle your fingers towards him while you'e passing, too, to show how many more fingers you have than he does.Walter Jones actually has had a very successful career, being on several TV shows (like CSI) and co-starring in a movie called Love and a Bullet. So good for him.

Austin St. John, the Red Ranger, was in the movie Exposé in 1998 and really hasn't done anything outside of Power Rangers. He made a cameo in Power Rangers Wild Force in 2002 as the Red Ranger, and I can only imagine how depressing it is to dress up as a robot man that fights putty monsters when you're almost 30 years old and trying to be a serious actor. I imagine it'd do something like this to you, probably.

In this picture, he looks like he's approaching mid-life crisis. He's only 35. The rest of the cast, I'll do later.

NBA 2K10: Last Name Ever, First Name Greatest

2010-01-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

NBA 2K10 is an amazing game if you like basketball and have friends, but the Career Mode is especially awesome. I decided to make a 6'7" Point Guard that has a giant afro and tons of tattoos. Because I like all my create-a-players to be cocky, I named him "Greatest Ever" with the #23. You can pick a nickname for the announcer to call your dude, so I picked "Mr. Perfect," which sounds awesome but seems sarcastic when your guy misses a lay-up from 3 feet away for the 5th time in a row. After a while, it almost seems like the announcer's mocking me.

But then, your guy gets awesome. I dropped 30 points on some jabroni team (I think it was the Knicks) so my retard zombie coach decided to start me. I should clarify that by saying that Erik Spoelstra isn't actually a retarded zombie in real life, but in the game he kind of looks like this:

So that's what I call him. If you didn't know by the name of my coach, I chose to be on the Miami Heat after training camp. I like Dwayne Wade and played with the Heat a lot in 2K9, so I knew the team somewhat.. but that turned out to be a big mistake.

Dwayne Wade sucks and averages about six points a game in my NBA2K10 career mode, so I have to carry the team. The only problem with this is my shooter is incredibly streaky and zombie retard Erik Spoelstra decides to yank me the second D-Wade misses a shot, because digital D-Wade is a diva who won't pass to me, the star. Other than that, I love the game. I hope I either get traded or my zombie coach gets fired, though.

Keep Your Man-Boobs & Dongs To Yourselves, Please.

2010-01-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

So there are naked pictures on the internet of Greg Oden and shirtless pictures of Terrance Cody. I'm pretty sure one of these two were the reason that guy's face melted off when he opened the Ark Of The Covenant in Indiana Jones.

For anybody who doesn't know, Greg Oden is the guy above. Face-melting pics of Terrance Cody are below. They might make you vomit. Don't say I didn't warn you..

This is what I imagine the maid from Billy Madison (RIP) looks like shirtless, unfortunately.

Ignorance Is (Sometimes) Bliss

2010-01-26T17:08:00.000-08:00

I hate when people make generalizations. Example A: People who say all rap music sounds the same. What does this even mean?

If I had to break down their argument, I guess I would say that ever rap song has two things: a beat and lyrics. But can't the same argument be made about rock or any other type of music? The relationship these people have with rap is probably similar to the relationship I have with your mother: we just hit each other up when we go to the club. Club BS like Soulja Boy and Flo-Rida is great when you're dancing, but it certainly isn't a good representation of what makes rap great.

Rap is way more than just money, cash, hoes, etc, though. Some examples:

Lupe Fiasco - Daydreamin' A song about a giant robot.
Atmosphere - Say Shh A song about how Minnesota is awesome.
A.D. - Mr. Wendal About a homeless guy the rapper feeds and who gives him advice in return.
Kanye West - Diamonds Are Forever About conflict diamonds.Wikipedia will tell you more.

There's many more examples of great rap if you look hard enough. Since most people pick on Soulja Boy and Flo-Rida when they say all rap sounds the same, I went to the equivalent in rock: Nickelback. Listening to this with headphones on will make your head explode: All Nickelback Songs Sound The Same. The broader point is this: that all bad music sounds similar, regardless of genre. If I want to make a derivative rap song, it's not that hard: I can talk about how I made it rain last night when I saw your mom onstage, etc. The same argument is usually brought out when people want to complain about any genre, like how country music is about losing your dog, wife, truck, and all that crap. To that I say, there's good country music too. If you don't like rap, that's cool, but don't keep blaming it on the fact that it all sounds the same.

My Dream Superbowl

2010-01-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a football-related post in a while, so here it is.

While I don't really care about the Super Bowl a whole lot this year, I will watch it just because I will watch football of any type and be satisfied. I even went to a Harrisburg Stampede game (who, by the way, have the balls to charge $30 for a hat and mini-football..) and thought, "Well, at least I'm not watching the WNBA."

Oooo! Fundamentals!

Speaking of the Super Bowl, can you imagine a match-up worse for football than the Jets and the Saints? It would combine two of the most annoying things of our times: Mark Sanchez and Kim Kardashian. Sanchez comes across as an annoying douche, and I imagine the media would be on his manhood tighter than some Lotrimin on a jockstrap if he won. Derp derp.. he's a rookie! He won! Etc.

..And then imagine the camera cutting to Kim Kardashian every time Reggie Bush scored or even gained a couple yards, which they did approximately 50000 times in last week's Arizona-New Orleans game. Why not just go the extra mile and have her commentate the game? She'd probably have at least as much of an idea of what was going on as Joe Buck.

I just want an Indianapolis-Minnesota Super Bowl. Is that too much to ask? I'd watch Indianapolis-New Orleans, but I think watching Brett Favre make Peyton do the Manning Face all night long would be pretty sweet. So in following, here's exactly what I want to happen at this year's Super Bowl, with all the explicit details intact.

Dream Game

Dream Announcing Team

Dream MVP

Can you imagine this scenario? Madden comes out of retirement to announce (probably) Brett Favre's last game in pads. Brett Favre throws for like five touchdowns, five hundred yards, and runs for two TDs while showing us all how much he loves this game. Madden comes down from the booth and runs into Brett Favre's open arms like Carlos Ruiz and Lidge did after the Phillies won in it all in '08. You think what Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake did was explicit? Wait til you see..

Madden. Favre. Together.

The way it's supposed to be. Frank Caliendo would have material for the next twenty years if this happened.

no homo

2010-01-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

Why do people who act like they're straighter than a chain-smoking redneck from Perry County always end up acting the gayest? I don't mean gay in a derogatory way. I mean, if you're going to be heterosexual like most people, can you shut up about it? I'm straight too -- and I don't have to say no homo after every single thing that might be considered gay (like having feelings, cuz feelings are gay).

I was at a birthday party this summer where I was accused of being gay because I knew something about a Disney movie when I was playing Catchphrase. We'll call the dude who called me gay Blevin because it rhymes with his name. Anways, these same dudes who accused me of being gay challenged each other to a wrestling match and then proceeded to ask each other to take their shirts off "so they didn't ruin them with each other's sweat" (...sure) while they were stuck in the most "homo" positions imaginable, wrestling for who would be the gayest of all. It ended up looking like a scene out of Queer Eye.

Seriously, I wish those guys were forced to watch this on a loop for the rest of their lives.. but then again, they might enjoy it too much.

Mrs. Nelson Taste Tests Dad's Dog Food

2010-01-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

I went to the PA Farm Show today and was confused because there was "taste-testing" for Dad's Pet Care Dog Food. This confused me because either dog's like to eat something or they don't, and they show me this by eating it. The only time my dog has ever turned down food was when I brought home meatloaf from my grandma's house. She sniffed it, took a bite, and I assume her mouth was like "This is not food."

Another thing I saw that confused me was a sign about taking on the risk of equine activities pursuant to Pennsylvania law, which I assumed was something having to do with equine-on-human love. What I found out was that PA law covers the owners of the horses for negligence in all cases. If a horse kicks you in the face, violates you, and then takes a dump on your chest, the owner's of the horses are protected under PA law.

Kobe + Lebron Fight To The Death

2010-01-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

Well-known writer + fan-fiction about Kobe and Lebron fighting to the death = genius.

Haywood Jablome's New Year's Resolution

2010-01-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

My choices were either update my decrepit blog or go bowling.

The inspiration for the drawing above and the semi-awesome story of Haywood Jablome digging out a car is available here. (via nowpublic.com)

So my NYR for this blog is to post at least once a week -- this will not be hard, as there are only 52 weeks in a year. I'm probably going to do more, but shorter, posts, and just say things when I feel like it. So instead of just grabbing the latest Lil Wayne song or mixtape or whatever he puts out the second it's on the bigger hip-hop websites, I'm trying to only put up things that I'm interested in or listening to regardless of when it came out, etc. I'm also probably going to do more art like the stuff I put up yesterday and today because I have a sweet Wacom tablet now.

Penn State won today, which was sweet, and Bobby Bowden won too, which was also sweet.

The Duel In D.C.

2010-01-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Pulling guns over a bet? Who does Gilbert Arenas think he is, Michael Jordan?

(via Bullets Forever)

Third Eye Blind's New Album..?

2009-08-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I was on Amazon today looking for books for school and came across this, which I had no idea was coming out. Third Eye Blind hasn't come out with a real album since 2003's Out Of The Vein which had "Blinded" on it and not much else that I really remember. I may do some kind of write-up or review on it at some point if anyone's interested, but check out this quote from the lead singer about the album name:

"We’ve been hibernating and now we’ve awakened and we are hungry for spring and we want to feed and we want to thrive."

You can't get more rock and roll (or creepy) than talking about feeding on human flesh with your powers of rock. Hopefully the CD is decent - I've only heard the 30 second snippets that Amazon has but I really like "Monotov's Private Opera" and "One In Ten" so far. Third Eye Blind is the reason Yes Man stopped being horrible for 3 and a half minutes.

Penn State Scrimmages: Now Featuring More Knee-sploding Action!

2009-08-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

There was a scrimmage at Beaver Stadium yesterday, and stuff went down:

1. Michael Mauti hurt his knee and will probably be out for the whole season because he tried to catch Brandon Beachum on a cutback in the backfield.

2. Jay Paterno described the scrimmage as "a little inconsistent" but said that it was "typical of scrimmage number one". There was also two TDs thrown with zero interceptions/fumbles.

Mauti getting hurt is a big deal because it means we're stuck with Josh Hull somewhere in the mix. I'll give Hull some credit - he was 2nd in tackles on the team last season and worked very hard to come from being a walk-on to starting LB at Linebacker U; but unfortunately, he's not nearly as talented as Mauti is. Nate Stupar was an absolute beast on special teams last year and would probably make a decent replacement for Mauti, but I can't help but think Hull will play way more than I want him to. We'll see.

What Happened To The Cast Of Boy Meets World? Pt. 1

2009-08-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm definitely not alone in this, at least not within people near my age bracket, but Fridays as a kid were probably some of the best ones on TV the entire week. ABC made Friday Night TV into something amazing with TGIF. If you didn't enjoy Salem's goofy cat talking antics on Sabrina or Urkel's goofy nerd antics in his attempts to get with Laura on Family Matters, I'm pretty sure you don't have a soul. But the best out of all the TGIF shows, in my opinion, was Boy Meets World. If you always wondered what happened to Minkus between the first season of Boy Meets World and the last episode of the College Years, this article is for you.

Corey Matthews (Ben Savage)

Did you know that Ben Savage played Corey Matthews in an episode of "Teen Angel" in 1997? Since "Boy Meets World" ended, Ben Savage hasn't been up to a whole lot. Oh, if Mr. Feeny saw that his young pupil would grow up to make movies like this..

I'm pretty sure Topanga wouldn't approve of this..

So depressing. IMDB tells me he's been in a couple random episodes of different TV shows, like "Chuck" and "Still Standing", and that he's working on a movie called "Doesn't Texas Ever End?". Surely Topanga's career after "Boy Meets World" is much less depressing..

Topanga (Danielle Fishel)

I found her.

Topanga actually has been doing alright for herself, despite being in the movie above and the sequel to it. She's stars on "The Dish", a Style Channel knock-off of "The Soup" except with fashion faux pas's instead of Law and Order: SVU jokes. If you wanna catch an episode, it comes on tomorrow at 10pm on The Style Channel.

Sean Hunter (Rider Strong)

There he is! This ad, directed by Rider Strong, placed in the top 15 of Moveon.org's Ad Contest For Barack Obama. Recently, Rider Strong was in H20: Extreme playing the character "Greg"; he also played a voice on the Disney cartoon show "Kim Possible", was in "Cabin Fever" as "Paul" and will reprise his role in "Cabin Fever 2", set to come out sometime this year. Not bad, Mr. Hunter.

Eric Matthews (Will Friedle)

Will Friedle has done a ton of television work since the end of Boy Meets World. According to Wikipedia, he has done voice work for the following cartoon shows: "Teen Titans", "Kim Possible", "The Batman", "Static Shock", "Batman Beyond", "Ben 10: Alien Force", & many many other cartoon shows.

Stuart Minkus (Lee Norris)

Appeared in the first season, and then was never heard from again until they graduated high school. In between the two appearances, Minkus appeared in a couple made for TV movies, like "A Mother's Instinct" (Minkus would appear in a movie called "A Mother's Instinct"..) After that, he was on "One Tree Hill" for like 100 episodes and was one of the main characters. Wow. More tomorrow!

So close...

2009-08-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

18 days until football. Crazy. Here's a pic of Joe addressing the team after practice, courtesy of the laschgopsf twitter. If you're on Facebook, here's a video of the freshman mixing it up with the upperclassmen in practice. Justin Brown looks like he's going to be an absolute monster; I wouldn't be surprised if he played right away. Here's a nice little excerpt from a USC preview about their OOC schedule:

Technically, anything worse than a one-loss season won’t fly at Troy, even with a nasty road schedule that includes trips to Ohio State, Oregon, Cal, and Notre Dame.

Notre Dame. Really? I bet USC has their third-string five star kicker in by the second half. The Oregon score probably ends up being something mildly close, like 35-21, and the Cal score will be like 21-10. I've seen USC. I know how they are. I say they drop one game somewhere but it won't be to Ohio State, unfortunately. If OSU wins, PSU's National Championship hopes (if they were to go undefeated.. and that's a big if..) go way through the roof. They'd have to beat OSU too, which is also another semi-big if. We'll see.

PSU fam first we never change mayne

2009-08-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic from the Gopsf.com Twitter of PSU's opening practice schedule - pretty basic and I'm sure everyone would probably be more than ready to go to bed at 11pm after practicing all day long.

Joe Paterno hasn't changed for in 44 seasons of head coaching; just ask the Ahrenhold family. Frank Ahrenhold played for Joe Paterno during the late '60s, and now Frank's son, Tyler, is a safety on the team. There have been 838 head coaching changes since 1968, and absolutely none at PSU. Crazy.

From The Collegian:

"I get into the airport in the lobby, and as I'm walking in there I'd forgotten to tie up my tie," Ahrenhold said. "I heard a loud, nasally voice: 'Ahrenhold, you look like a bum. Tighten your shirt. Tighten your tie up.' He could always catch you that one time, when you weren't ready. He likes to lay in the weeds for you."

This just furthers my theory that Joe is all-knowing in some way. Another story from the article was how Matt Millen (yes, the same Matt Millen who was Pres. of the Detroit Lions) used to fight in practice. Joe tried to throw him out and Millen said no (!), which was odd because no one ever said no to JoePa. If only Millen could've shown that much of a ball-sack when he was in the NFL.

Interview With Central PA Rapper Gran Jota

2009-08-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

First, some background information on the artist: Gran Jota is an artist who hails from York County and who flows in the reggaeton vein of rap, much like Big Pun and Fat Joe. He recently won an award for Best Latin Rapper of Central PA, which you can check out here at cphiphopawards.com. You can also check out his MySpace here. On to the interview:

Being named Best Latin Rapper of Central PA must have been pretty sweet. Did you think your work would get widespread recognition when you first started out?

To tell you the truth no, when I first recorded a track it was just for fun; but when I started hearing all the positive feedback, I discovered how much I love making music. Now I'm Central PA's Best Latin Artist & still climbing.

I loved that you used the beat from one of my favorite Lupe songs, "Sunshine", on your song "Munequita". Who's your favorite rapper doing music today?

I really don't have a favorite rapper, but I love Eminem's work in the English Industry. Now, in the Spanish Industry I love Wisin Y Yandel's work.

On the opposite note, if you could diss any popular rapper rapping today, who would it be and why?

I really would not diss anyone. I have respect for all artists, famous or not; I just don't agree with most of the music out there. I believe, like I once read on my brother Phene's MySpace, "change the music - change the world".

We've interviewed a couple local rappers on this site and I was wondering: who's your favorite Central PA rapper?

My favorite Central PA Rapper of course is me.. just playin' but like I said I don't have a favorite rapper. My vote is balanced between Vision & Phene; even though Vision is gospel and Phene is not, they're both reaching out to the youth & delivering positive messages.

One of the better Latin rappers out today, in my opinion, is Toby Love. What was it like opening for him and did you get a chance to meet him?

Well really it was like any other performance. I always go out there and give 100%. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him, but I loved his performance.

If you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would you work with and why?

Hands down it would have to be Big Pun. His work was just amazing & he is the one that started the Spanish movement in America. R.I.P, Pun.

Can you talk a little bit about any upcoming shows or songs that you're working on?

Well all I can say at this moment is look out for Oorah Entertainment anywhere you see. Oorah is bound to be off the chain, & you can be expecting my single soon. Oorah!!!!

Realistic PSU Preview, Part Deux

2009-08-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

2008 Total Defensive Rank: #8 (#1 Big Ten)

A couple good things about this year's defense: 1) PSU still has the best defensive line in the Big 10, even after losing Maurice "Smoky" Evans and Aaron Maybin, ham-chest extraordinaire; 2) The linebackers should be amongst the best in the Big 10 as well, with All-Everything Linebacker Sean Lee coming back and Navorro Bowman evolving into LaVar Arrington Jr. last season. The only thing left on the defense to preview is the secondary, which got completely torched in the USC game last year to the tune of like 500 yards and 4 TDs. PSU lost corner Lydell Sargent to the NFL and returns everyone else from last year's torched secondary, which is semi-worrisome.

For Penn State's pass defense not to suck, they have to get some kind of production out of A.J. Wallace, who has had all the tools to be great since his freshman year but hasn't really put it all together yet. He has the most depressing Google Images results of any player I've ever looked up (see: loss to Iowa reaction, loss to USC reaction, Jerome Hayes knee explodin' reaction), but hopefully he'll have a great senior season and end up getting drafted/having a nice NFL career. We'll see. D'Anton Lynn is the new guy in town, having only played in two games last year according to CBSSports.com. I would be remiss in not mentioning DB/Monster Gerald Hodges, a freshman who will more than likely see time right away to see what he can do. One plus is that all the secondary this year will be above 6'0" (with the exception of the safeties). Another is that nobody on the schedule can pass the ball and we won't play anybody who can pass the ball until the bowl game. That's not to say that PSU's pass defense will be all bad; Mini-Me Safety Drew Astorino did great in his first year starting and seems reliable - it's the other guys we have to worry about.

Bowman doing his best impression of the LaVar Arrington hit that ended Troy Aikman's career

Much has been said about the great linebackers, so I don't feel the need to expound, but it'll be interesting to see who leads in tackles of an LB unit consisting of Sean Lee, Navarro Bowman, Nate Stupar, Josh Hull, and Michael Mauti. Stupar did an excellent job in special teams work last year, finishing with 21 tackles, and Mauti had a lot of great hits and seems to be the next in line for the Paul Posluszny Jr. spot behind Lee/Bowman. I think Bowman finishes tops in tackles amongst the LBs and goes pro a year early.

I say the defense finishes in the top ten in the nation for the sixth year in a row and we end up going to a great bowl game, maybe the national championship (at the Rose Bowl this year) or just the plain old Rose Bowl, which would still be fine with me. If USC ends up back in the Rose Bowl, expect to see a much different game, I think.

UFC 101 Results

2009-08-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Why does Kenny Florian look vaguely like WCW Wrestler Disco Inferno?

UFC 101 Results:

Main Fight Cards

Lightweight: Kurt Pellegrino wins by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) vs Josh Neer
Middleweight: Ricardo Almeida wins by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) vs Kendall Grove
Welterweight: Johny Hendricks wins by TKO vs Amir Sadollah R1
Light Heavyweight: Anderson Silva wins by TKO vs Forrest Griffin R1
Lightweight Championship: BJ Penn wins by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) vs Kenny Florian R4

Thoughts

Anderson Silva got what he was hoping for and knocked out Forrest Griffin in Round 1 (!) with a nice one-two punch right in the face. It goes without saying, but Silva controlled the fight. BJ Penn choked out Kenny Florian "Wayne Brady" style in a semi-entertaining fight. I'd rather call it a "Wayne Brady" style choke than a "Rear Naked" one; I mean, seriously, is there a wrestling move more homoerotic than "Rear Naked Choke"? Anyways, Florian looked scared for the majority of the match and kept trying to do his dangerous left roundhouse kick, which might have looked like this if it had ever landed.

BJ Penn controlled the fight like he has controlled every single match in his division for forever. I never felt like he was in danger of losing, similar to how I know George St. Pierre was going to dominate in the last UFC event. Silva and Penn were easily the best fighters featured and probably two of the better fighters doing MMA today, so appreciate them while they're around.

Realistic PSU Preview, Part Uno

2009-08-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Offense:

Obviously, QB Daryll Clark is going to be phenomenal and may even have a better season than last one, if that's possible. Two things will determine that, though: 1) the offensive line and 2) the wide receivers. If the offensive line is great, we'll have a great offense. I'm not really worried about our receivers, because if Purdue can run a decent spread O even with an immobile white QB and average receivers, we should be fine with what we've got. Speed & size shouldn't be a problem either, as incoming freshman Devon Smith (4.19 40yd dash) and Christian Kuntz (6'4") have both. As long as the offensive line isn't 'holy crap that large man just murdered two of our QBs because of a missed block!', we should be alright.

Mobile QBs have a way of making bad offensive lines look competent. Evan Royster and Stephon Green should have plenty of room to run whenever they want to - I expect the offensive line will be alright. Look for Clark to surpass his rushing total last year (282 yards) and for new hotness Kevin Newsome to get some time at QB/WR/RB with some trick play madness. More on the defense, and part deux, coming tomorrow.

"I thought Jews didn't like being on lists..":

In one of the more bizarre lists or things you will ever see on the internet, somebody compiled a list of all the Jewish athletes in the NCAA. The site has been taken down or is down as of July 29th, but apparently Former PSU WR Mark Rubin is Jewish, along with PSU Basketball Players Ben Luber and Dan Adler. Weird list, right? If you get bored with that, feel free to move on to Jews in the NFL, which is a much shorter list but still weird.

I Will Run A Marathon In A Large Bear Suit

2009-08-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Not really, but it is a possibility. The ING (because everything is sponsored by something now) NYC Marathon is in 84 days. At least I wouldn't be running as this or this creepy little number. I was thinking about running a marathon anyways, but if I get 200 hits in the next three days I'll run it in a costume of somebody's choosing. It would be my first marathon, so chances are I would give someone the chance to go all Tony Harding on my legs so I wouldn't have to run past mile 12, but I will definitely do this if I get the hits.

Vince Young Isn't Dead, If You're Interested

2009-08-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Pretty sweet: The picture above is from the inside of PSU's new playbook, which uses video captures/frames and telestrators instead of Xs and Os (similar to how John Madden's subconscious draws semi-questionable things on live TV over football players). This reminds me of a story a couple years back that described Jay Paterno using NCAA football to teach the playbook to players. Pretty sweet if you ask me, and a great compliment to our HD offense.

Vince Young On The Rose Bowl: It was fourth down and five. Twenty-six seconds left. The national championship on the line. In the huddle, I just wanted everybody to stay loose. So I said, "Look at how ugly they are. Jesus, they're ugly." And then I said, "We're gonna win this game." And I looked at each of my teammates and said, "One more down. Everybody do their job." [Esquire Magazine]

What The Blueprint III cover means, Mixtape Messiah 7, & Electro-Hip Hop

2009-08-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

Summary: Jay-Z says the instruments on The Blueprint III cover stands for the fact that hip-hop is about music - it's not about radio, street cred, etc. but about the music, and that the three is an old style three. If you make three lines and connect them all on the right, that makes it a newer three but the point is that he used the three lines because he wanted it to sound like the old classic records he grew up listening to but to be a new classic. Or something like that.

Speaking of The Blueprint III's cover, I was at the mall today and heard a song from The Renaissance by Q-Tip called "Gettin' Up" that's pretty sweet. The Renaissance is the album cover I first thought of when I looked at The Blueprint III's cover.

Chamillionaire's final mixtape, Mixtape Messiah 7, is out today. My friend over at FMC should be pretty happy about it because he's a big Chamillionaire fan. I haven't listened to it, but he does rap over an older Fabolous song I talked about in my review of Loso's Way - "Breathe".

Kid Cudi apparently is going to have MGMT (Banjo Cover of "Kids"), Ratatat, Travis Barker, & Kanye West producing on his new album, which is due out September 15th. Ratatat is an electronic music style band from NYC and you can check out their song "Loud Pipes" here. [Examiner]

The song pretty much already sounds like a hip-hop instrumental so it really isn't too far of a jump to imagine Kid Cudi rapping over it - if I had any remixing talent whatsoever, I would mix that song and something Cudi and checked out the results. I think getting electronic-like music on hip-hop records is going to be a new trend - if you saw The Blueprint III tracklisting, you would notice that another electronic band, MGMT, is doing production on one song, "Unforgiven". I think Kid Cudi is going to sound fantastic over electronic style music. He leaked a song a while back that sort of sounds like a Tears For Fears song, "Mr. Solo Dolo". Anyways, peace for now.

Download: Chamillionaire - "Breathe"
Chamillionaire's Mixtape Messiah 7 Download Link

"If you're good at something, never do it for free."

2009-08-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment!

Apparently people have been putting pictures of Obama as the Joker around L.A. because they don't like his health care ideas; I figured I'd try the same thing with Jim Tressel because I don't like his football ideas. (Actually, Tressel's not so bad.. It's Rich Rodriguez that's the real evil one.)

If you're curious, here's the odds on Aaron Maybin winning the 2009 NFL Defensive Rookie of The Year Award according to thespread.com. A friend saw him getting out of the shower at his dorm during his Freshman year and described Maybin's pecs as "two nicely shaped hams (no homo)".

Aaron Maybin (BUF) - 15/1

Not bad.

Big 10 Football Commissioner Jim Delany, when asked about the Big 10's record in bowl games last year (1-6) responded with this:

“In any particular time frame, could be three years, could be five years, could be two years, you could get your ass kicked, OK?” Delany continued. “It can happen. We’re not playing Little Sisters of the Poor. We’re playing the best football teams in their region. [Dr. Saturday].

Little Sisters of the Poor? You mean this Little Sisters of the Poor? I can't believe he used this comparison (which I suspect is a metaphor for Notre Dame) but this is hilarious. Peace out for now.

First & 10: Link Roundup

2009-08-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 cover has reminded people of a lot of different things: The album cover on the top left is the Secret Machines' 2004 album Now Here is Nowhere because of the white instruments; the one on the right of that is Q-Tip's The Renaissance which I mentioned I thought it looked like; on the bottom left is U2's new album cover No Line On The Horizon; and to the left of that is Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak. I personally think it looks like the Q-Tip album just because of the drum machine (I think) that's in Q-Tip's hand/the instruments on Jay-Z's and the grey color overall, but I could definitely see any of the other four mentioned. OG Article: [Idolator.com]

Plaxico Burress is probably going to jail [NY Times]

The Arena Football League is probably dead for good [Newsday]

Former PSU WR and Detroit Lion Bryant Johnson got hurt in a golf cart accident but will probably still play this season [Shutdown Corner]

The Blueprint 3 Album Cover + Tracklist

2009-08-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of nahright.com + the smoking section, here's The Blueprint 3 Album Cover + Full Tracklisting:

1. What We Talking About (Produced by Kanye West)
2. D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune) (Produced by No I.D.)
3. Weigh Me Down (Feat. Kid Cudi) (Produced by Kanye West)
4. Unforgiven (Produced by Kanye West, Additional Production: MGMT)
5. Run This Town (Feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) (Produced by Kanye West)
6. Empire State Of Mind (Feat. Nas) (Produced by Kanye West & No I.D.)
7. When It Comes To This (Produced by Timbaland)
8. Always (Feat. Drake) (Produced by Kanye West)
9. Scenes From The Past (Produced by No I.D., Co-produced by Kanye West)
10. Everyday A Star Is Born (Feat. Mr. Hudson) (Produced by Kanye West)
11. Already Home (Produced by Kanye West)
12. Forever Young (Feat. Mr. Hudson) (Produced by Kanye West)
13. Thank You (Produced by No I.D.)

Bonus Tracks:
14. Sound Of The 70s (Produced by Kanye West)
15. We Made History (Produced by Kanye West)

A couple things: one, MGMT co-producing a track with Kanye on the album is pretty sweet. They did a couple songs I really like and I'm not even into electro-sounding music - Check out "Electric Feel (Justice Remix)" and "Kids". I'm really excited to hear the track with Nas, especially considering one of my favorite Jay-Z songs is a Nas diss. This is probably the biggest hip-hop release within the last couple years. The only thing I can think of that was close was probably "The Carter III" or "Graduation".

Also, Jay-Z filled in for The Beastie Boys at The All Points West Festival because Member Adam Yauchs was unable to perform after being diagnosed with cancer. Jay-Z did something pretty classy and covered "No Sleep 'Til Brookyln" to open his set, which you can check out here.

Joe Paterno is Omniscient & Animals Are Totally Sweet

2009-08-03T08:01:00.001-07:00

"KJR-FM: Two questions about Joe Paterno: 1) Have you ever seen him with his glasses off and 2) How much coaching does he actually do during the practice week?"

"Deon: I saw him without his glasses for about a second the entire time I was there (laughs). He was doing a team speech. But as far as coaching he actually does a lot more than people realize cuz he's one of those overall coaches, you know, he lets his assistants do a lot within their positions but he's just one of those guys that can be talkin' to the defensive line and I'll drop a pass or run a route the wrong way and he's running over across the field after me and now he's coaching the wideouts and he kinda just pops up whenever you don't want him to. He sees everything, so anything that's done wrong, he just runs over and starts coaching your position. That's why I say he's still really the overall coach and does more than you think.

Listen to the whole interview between former PSU and current Seattle Seahawk WR Deon Butler and Seattle radio station KJR-FM here.

Also, woah at this video from the 2nd largest aquarium in the world, located in Japan. There's 3 (!) whale sharks in the tank, which is one of the largest types of fish in the ocean. The silhouettes of the people standing front of the tank should give you an idea of how big it really is. Ever find out who would win a fight between a tiger and a lion? You can find out that answer to that here. Crazy how fast they fight..

Download: Cookin' Soul's OJAYsis: Jay-Z vs. Oasis Mixtape

How You Found Us, Local Hip Hop Updates, & "Loso's Way" Bonus Tracks

2009-08-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

This play should be blown dead because Rich Rodriguez's wizard hat came off.

Here are the top keywords that led you to this site (if you googled to get here):

1. "almost a yard shy" 3
2. "almost a yard shy." 3
3. "apollo`s sun the happy masochist + blogspot" 1
4. " if the big ten season was sitcoms" 1
5. "rihanna run this town mediafire blogspot" 1
6. "tina fey" 1

While the site is a little new to Google Search it is the first three results if you ever google "almost a yard shy". Pretty sweet. The list above shows how people found me last month through Google search. The "Tina Fey" one confused me at first but I figured out it's from this photoshop.

Anyways, on to the local hip-hop updates:

On Apollo's Sun's website you can listen to an early leak of Eyes Open off his upcoming LP, Falling Becomes Great, due out in 2010. He actually gives me a shout out on his main page about the interview I had late last month with him, which you can check out here.

JMC, who we also interviewed last month, is releasing a video for his song iHipHop on August 8th.

Vision, another artist we interviewed last month, is writing a song for his new album, "20/20 Vision" called "Church Swag". You can check out more of his music at his MySpace and also an instrumental from one of his friends, Big B.

Also, check out a couple bonus songs off Fabolous's new album, "Loso's Way". Our review of the album can be found here.

Listen: Apollo's Sun - Maybe (Remix)
Fabolous - "Loso's Way" (Bonus Tracks)

Part II: "If Each Big Ten Season Was A Sitcom, What Would It Be?"

2009-08-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

You can read Part I of this article here, but the idea was that every Big Ten team's football season synced up with a sitcom in some way, kind of like if you play Dark Side of The Moon together with The Wizard of Oz and get a result that kind of matches but deviates in places.

On to the comparisons:
Indiana - "Becker"

Holy crap, it's Hurley From Lost! Maybe Becker didn't suck after all.. no wait.. it did.

One time when I was really sick three episodes of "Becker" came on back to back to back and I couldn't find the remote. I think there's something in The Geneva Convention against this happening but I couldn't find it because I'm a blogger. Anyways, out of the those three episodes that I was forced to watch, I'd say about one of them was decent.

It's the same thing with Indiana, I think. Two seasons ago, they were alright and actually made it to a bowl game for the first time in 13 years, but last season they were pretty crappy and went 3-9.

Kellen Lewis, probably their only playmaker, got kicked off the team in the spring at some point. This is the equivalent to losing the cool blind guy from "Becker". If the Law of Crappy Becker Episodes (two crap to one good) holds true, they probably won't be very good this season. We'll see.

Michigan - "The Simpsons"

Rich Rodriguez seems to have traded in his Wizard Hat for this little number..

"The Simpsons" were great until Maude died. This is fact and maybe more true than the Law Of Gravity. After Maude died, Homer turned into an idiot and the whole show turned into What Will Homer Do Dumb This Week? However, it's starting to come back around. There were a couple decent episodes last season and it looks like maybe there will be a couple more episodes this season that won't suck.

I'd say Lloyd Carr's Michigan was probably "The Simpsons" until Maude died and Post-Maude death episodes (PMD) was the start of Rich Rodriguez's Regime. It seems like this year Michigan will start coming around, (like last season of "The Simpsons") and they'll get a couple more wins than last, but hopefully not too many more.

Iowa - "JAG"

Name one person you know who used liked Jag; you can't, because they don't exist. In its 7th season it had 14 million viewers and I knew like two people who had ever seen an episode. In the same way, I know there's Iowa fans but don't know how they could ever like Iowa. I may be a little biased on this one because of the horrible pass interference call that kept their upset drive going against PSU last year, but how can you like this?

(Straight-Cash From Someone's Stolen Credit Card Only, Homey)

Not having All-Everything RB Shonn Greene back could be a problem for Iowa, but they should do alright with an experienced offensive line and a QB who vaguely looks like a certain former Michigan QB who shall not be named.

Northwestern - "King of Queens"

I don't care what anyone says, "King Of Queens" was a great show. It wasn't the best sitcom out there, but it had a good formula for a long time and didn't deviate from that: Doug was fat, Carrie was whiny, and Arthur was crazy. In the same way, Northwestern has been doing things the right way for a long time. You get the same thing every year from them; a scrappy spread team that is well-coached and smart. It should be the same this year, with Generic White Mobile QB Mike Kafka behind a decent offensive-line. Look for them to get about 8 wins.

Drake Trys To Do Impression Of Wheel-Chair Jimmy, Succeeds

2009-08-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Yowch. Drake tore his ACL about a month ago now and fell on-stage at a recent concert at Camden, NJ. I feel bad for him because I know how bad knee injuries can be (I sprained my MCL about two months ago), but Lil Wayne's reaction was hilarious:

Speaking of Drake, I've been listening to the guy who plays his outro on "So Far Gone". His name is Gonzalez, and judging by his MySpace he is very French. He's from Quebec, Canada, which makes sense because Drake's from Canada too. Anyways, the real name of the Drake's Outro is "The Tourist" by Gonzalez, which you can check out below. Peace out y'all. Did you know 35% of music on Canadian radio must be Canadian by law?

Listen/Download: http://www.box.net/shared/fymb16l8y9

Part I: "If Each Big Ten Season Was A Sitcom, What Would It Be?"

2009-07-31T06:22:00.001-07:00

You can use sitcoms as an analogy for anything; like, when something "jumps the shark" and becomes irrelevant, people are talking about this from "Happy Days", or when something is horrible, you can compare it to the best episodes of "Two And A Half Men". I started to realize that every Big 10 season this year can be summarized by a sitcom.

Michigan State - "Arrested Development"

The only reason I picked "Arrested Development" for Michigan State is not because it's a great show - it is. The reason I picked "Arrested Development" for Michigan State is because Mark D'Antonio is an a-hole, just like George Bluth on "Arrested Development". Why do you think that, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. PSU was up 564-5 or however much we were beating Marky Mark and there was 4(!) seconds in the game in single digit temps and whipping snow, and this a-hole calls a timeout.

Mark D'Antonio, Convicted Rapist

You may say, well, you could just leave! Nope. I couldn't leave because I wanted to see Penn State win the Big Ten Trophy and bring it out on the field, something I hope Mark D'Antonio never has the chance to do. But it takes a true a-hole to call a timeout with 4 seconds left when the majority of the fans were staying to watch something special. Oh, and I guess MSU will be alright this year, and may beat Michigan for the 2nd year straight; they have to replace Javon Ringer first, though.

Wisconsin - "Joey"

Wisconsin's seasons hinges on the performance of the coaches, where Brett Bielema, or "Joey" must prove that he was the one that really made "Friends" great by not sucking; and honestly, former Badgers Coach Barry Alvarez (Jennifer Aniston) is probably the reason "Friends" was so great in the first place anyways. Wisconsin can be a decent team, but they have to get a great season out of Dustin Sherer, who so far has been the definition of meh.

Purdue - "Walker, Texas Ranger"

You can't hide from me, Wilford Brimley (of Diabeetus fame). Why does Purdue keep hiring Wilford Brimley impersonators as their coach? Anyways, I guess senior RB Jaycen Taylor will be playing the role of Chuck Norris, since he's the only really good person on the team that I know of. Caleb TerBush is the new hotshot QB in town for Purdue, while Joey Elliot is the old senior who plays adequately. Justin Siller was kicked off the team Walker Texas Ranger style, which means he was kicked out a 2nd story window by Chuck Norris, landing by a nearby gasoline tank, which then inexplicably catches on fire and explodes. I can't find a clip, but this actually happened.

Minnesota - "Coach"

I don't know why I bothered photoshopping Brewster's head in here - you guys don't know what Craig T. Nelson looks like anyways

Alright, I'll be honest - I know absolutely nothing about "Coach" except for the scene in "Family Guy" where Craig T. Nelson knocks on Peter's door and hands him a gun, saying "make it quick". Peter had sent a letter that made it look like he wanted to kill Craig T. Nelson. The only B10 coach I could see getting to this point is Tim Brewster, and here's the reason why:

If you had to spend the next 40 years in Minnesota, you'd ask someone to kill you at blank gunpoint too. The sitcom "Coach" was originally intended to reflect the University of Minnesota, so this is a perfect analogy. If you aren't following Tim Brewster on Twitter, by the way, you are missing out in a big way. Here's an example of what I mean.

Illinois - "30 Rock"

Secretly, "30 Rock" is a really good show, but the problem is that no one watches it. I have a feeling Illinois is probably the same - no one expects them to be good, but they have the exact type of team that is great at upsetting unsuspecting teams, and a crazy coach. In this analogy, Juice Williams will be playing the role of Tina Fey, trying to get his team recognition by being really good - Illinois's performance this year all rests on Tina Fey. They have the people around them to be really good, though.

Ohio State - "That 70s Show" (After Eric Leaves)

"That 70s Show" was a great show; that is, until Eric left. It had its moments after that, but it was never the same. Who knew such a little wuss boy (as Red would put it) was carrying the entire show? In this analogy, Eric is played by James Laurinatis, Beanie Wells, & Marcus Freeman and Terrelle Pryor is playing the role of Kelso or Jackie. They've all left and gone for semi-greener pastures in the NFL, and everyone expects them to be just as good as they were last season, until they watch and they're like "hey, where's that little wuss boy?" after watching Kelso do something stupid for the 100th time, and then the show sucks.

Penn State - "Frasier"

"Cheers" is a metaphor for Penn State's '09 season. It was awesome, had lots of star power, and everyone loved it except for the finale (..ugh..USC). Now that most of the "Cheers" gang has split up and got their own gigs (NFL), Daryll Clark is playing the role of Frasier and trying to make another hit with his little dog, Brandon Ware (or Graham Zug). PSU may bring home another Big Tent Title with the help of those two and will probably end up with about 11 wins. Need I remind you that "Frasier" won a record 37 Emmys in its entire run? I rest my case.

Behind The Music With Burg City

2009-07-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

This whole "Behind The Music" thing might be a one-off thing as far as the naming of my interviews goes, but this Behind The Music is with Burg City, a group of local rappers from Gettysburg, PA. You can check out their MySpace here. I think their best songs are "Weatherman (Remix)" and "Game Can't Catch Me", both of which you can check out on their music page on MySpace. Anyways, today our interview is with Dub of Burg City:

Can you tell me a little bit about how you and your group together?

We used to have a four man group with Dub, Third, Trigga, and Skip, but we went our separate ways. Dub and Third (which is now Burg City) are makin a mixtape, while Trigga and Skip (which is now The Undisputed) are makin their own mixtape, but we are still collabing with each other. We all go to the same school though, so that's really how we started rappin together..it was like freshman year.

In your opinion, what's your best song?

Money Over The World!!!! That song bumps, haha.

Who did you listen to growing up and what are some of your influences?

Dub >> Wayne, nobody else got me rappin like Wayne did.
Third >> couldn't tell ya...maybe T.I., but I don't know.
Skip >> Bone Thugs and nobody else
Trigga >> Wayne and Nas

If you had to make a top 5 rappers of all time, who would be where?

This is just Dub's opinion, but it would go:
1. Weezy
2. Nas
3. Murder Mook
4. T.I.
5. Drake (I guess)

Can you tell me a little bit about any of your upcoming projects?

Well the Burg City mixtape only needs 7 more songs to be completed and that is probably droppin late September, or so we hope. We are featuring other local artists, like Trigga, Mino, Prolific, AJ, and maybe some CEO. We got a lotta singing on the songs as well, and they all are fire. The Undisputed are dropping an 8 song demo type CD in late September as well... I don't know much details on that tho.

How do you make your beats?

We don't got the ability to make our own beats...we gotta download off of websites for now, til we get a lil' more cash.

Finally, if you could sign with any major record label, who would you sign with and why?

To be honest, I don't even care, we just wanna be up there with the rest of the top names in the industry...if I had to pick, it would be Young Money, but I really don't care.

What Penn State's Daryll Clark Thinks of Loso's Way & More

2009-07-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

You may have read my review of Fabolous's "Loso's Way" the other day where I gave it 3 out of 5 Bo's; unfortunately, that can't compare to what my fav. PSU QB said about it:

“(Daryll Clark) has got to put (reviews of mediocre hip-hop) on those things -- what do you guys call those things, Twittle-do, Twittle-dee?” - <3 Joe Paterno

Vision wants you to check out his boy, Big B:

And you can do that here. Pretty decent instrumental. I may be back later on today if we aren't doing anything (we are on vacation at the beach, woot woot) but if not here's a song by Triple C feat. Young Jeezy to tie you over.

Listen/Download: Triple C. feat. Young Jeezy - Everyday

So now that I'm not a "noob" anymore..

2009-07-29T22:50:00.001-07:00

..things will be changing a little bit, which you may have noticed by the layout change. I'm going to be regulating my content a little more, a.k.a. interviews will be put up on Friday and only Friday, unless I have a good excuse to do otherwise. I may start making football posts in the near future as well.

I changed the layout literally five seconds ago and I don't know how I feel about it. The old layout had a little something going for it in compactness but I didn't like how it looked like any old blogspot you might find. I think I want more of a "site" feel, and I might get a site depending upon where this goes. For now, this is aight.

Love,

Aaron

P.S. I have cool things planned for tomorrow (I think) but for now, I'm going to bed. Peace out.

Lil Wayne - "Million Dollar Baby" & Other Things To Get You Through Work

2009-07-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

(Courtesy of Paste Magazine)

You can check out more awesomely bad MS Paint album covers here.

Well, since I'm on vacation, my update will probably be a little light today. On a related note, you can check out a new Lil Wayne song here, called "Million Dollar Baby". It's produced by Just Blaze and is the first Lil Wayne track that I can remember in awhile where he isn't using auto-tune to rap. It's not that Lil Wayne can't do great auto-tune things (him, Kanye, & Drake are some of the only rappers who can), but I miss him rapping like he did on "Tha Carter II" which is what he sounds like here and on the Fabolous track I reviewed yesterday.

If you're bored at work, check this out: Play Tecmo Bowl Online and this, which tells the origins of a ton of modern band names. Gnarls Barkley took their name from a fantasy football team apparently. Gym Class Hero took their name from the lead singer protecting the drummer from being bullied in school; he was his Gym Class Hero (lol). I really like the story behind Led Zeppelin's name, too. Also, since I'm a big Penn State Football fan, you guys should head over to Hail To The Orange and check out their Joe Paterno Story. I might post something later today. Peace out guys, I'm goin to the beach!

Track-By-Track Review of Fabolous - "Loso's Way"

2009-07-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

1. "The Way (Intro)" - The first couple second of the intro are painfully cheesy but after that, it gets pretty decent. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only person I know of in rap who can do a really great intro song is Jay-Z so it's not really surprising that this is just kinda meh. I like his verses after the awkward beginning, though. Sounds a lot like "The Recession (Intro)" by Jeezy.

2. "My Time ft. Jeremih" - I like this song and feel like he might've been better off just making this one the intro instead of the awkward pain-skit in the beginning. This song has at least a little bit of radio hit potential; Mr. Birthday Sex himself is featured on the hook and actually does a pretty good job contributing to the vibe of the song. One of the better songs on the album.

3. "Imma Do It" - Hook is so so catchy on this one and Fab's verse is pretty hard in the beginning. I could see this being one of the singles off the album that gets big, but we'll see. I love the hook and I think this is probably one of the better songs on the CD.

4. "Feel Like I'm Back" - Song feels like a weaker "Breathe" (awesome song which you can listen to here). Don't really like this one at all.

5. "Everything, Everyday, Everywhere" - This is probably going to be huge on the radio, and deservedly so. It has a pretty nice video gamey beat and a Keri Hilson hook, so it's pretty much guaranteed at least some kind of mainstream success. I like it.

6. "Throw It In The Bag" - I love the remix of this song, which I talked about here. I prefer the remix but this is just as good and catchy.

7. "Money Goes, Honey Stay (Remix)" - I liked this song when it first came out, but I hope this song doesn't make "The Blueprint 3". I don't know if it's really even fair if I even review this song because I'm really sick of hearing it, but Fabolous actually does a decent job with his verses and only the Jay-Z hook makes me want to switch songs. They should've just done a new song together but this seems like the kind of song I'll find a year from now and be like "hey, this isn't bad" but for now.. eh.

8. "Salute" - I love the beat on this track for a couple reasons: 1. It doesn't have a predictable drum beat sounds and 2) The offbeat drum hits in a couple places that give it more of a live drumming feel. I had no idea Lil Wayne was on the track and then BAM his voice comes in the chorus and this song becomes awesome. The offbeat of the drums in the beginning sounds really sweet and Fab's verse is alright but after Weezy's "Salute Me" part the whole track gets really sweet. Love this one.

11. "Makin Love" - This sounds like it came out of a machine that makes generic R&B songs, but if you like that, then this is great. Doesn't really do anything new.

12. "Last Time" - I don't have much to say about this other than I like it - it's a pretty decent song. It kind of sounds like it belongs on a Bow Wow album, which I think could be considered a diss but is actually a complement.

13. "Pachanga" - This song is about people betraying you I guess and it's okay but I have a hard time buying Fabolous as a gangster which is probably part of the reason I don't like this CD as much as I should. Anyways, this song is alright and has a couple clever puns.

14. "Lullaby" - This has an interesting beginning but feels like filler to get to the next song, which is probably one of the top two or three on the CD.

15. "Stay" - Marsha Ambrosius kills this song on the hook and Fab has some cool lyrics about being a dad and his own dad. I like it, but not the best song on the CD.

16. "I Miss My Love" - I didn't really like this one too much and felt like it could've been cut about a minute shorter. The beat is really repetitive and the lyrics are just kinda meh but maybe I'll grow to like it.

Overall decent. I can't buy Fab as a gangster at all but I like the CD. Overall, I think I'd give it..

3 out of 5 Bo's

Check out:
1. My Time
2. Everything, Everyday, Everywhere
3. Salute

Monday Interview With Apollo's Sun

2009-07-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

First, a little background on Hip-Hop/Soul Artist Apollo's Sun:

Armed with an MPC2000xl, a handful of talented musicians, and a cunning live DJ, Apollo has been performing live since the age of 16. Opening for hip hop recording artists: Louis Logic, Listener, The Pharcyde, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, Hieroglyphics, Blue Scholars, Black Sheep, KRS-ONE, and Mr. Complex, Apollo's live set incorporates live instrumentation and back up vocalists ultimately funking up misled hip hop heads all over Pennsylvania. Apollo has performed with underground hip hop acts such as: Phynite, Artists Over Industry, Unit 13, The Visiting, Name, Actual Facts, Pluto (and The Avengers), Alpha Rhythm, Paradise Movement, Image and Steele, Repeat Offenders, Death Before Dishonor, L.E.S. Crew, Elakwents, 8 BZA G, The Nothing, Bliz, and Dante among others. Apollo has rocked stages ranging in states from New Hampshire to Ohio and south in Maryland. Not a stranger to multiple media outlets, Apollo has been featured numerous times in local newspapers and has made an appearance via a video clip on MTV's very own Direct Effect.

In 2006, Apollo released his first commercially available EP titled, "The Happy Masochist." The album features an eclectic mix of talent in the form of VanArsdale & Platts and has gained critical acclaim from local press. Quoted as being "haunting,'' The Happy Masochist was the foundation for a still unsure future. One year and nearly one hundred shows later, Apollo's Sun recently released his sophomore EP, "Rust." in November, 2007. The album is a sequal of sorts to "THM" and is his most personal effort to date. Heart wrenching stories of life and loss with glimpses of hope create a balanced listening experience for "Rust.".

Apollo's Sun is a breath of fresh air to the cluttered genre known as hip hop, offering an alternative perspective to the usual anthems currently tormenting radio listeners all over the world. His live show is as intense as his recordings and he plans on continuing this trend for 2009 and beyond.

You can check out his MySpace here.

On to the interview:

I really like the song Finding Sunshine with Davis Love because it's got such a great old R&B Soul sound. Can you tell me some of your influences growing up?

Thanks man. Finding Sunshine is one of the more popular songs in my short catalog.. well, I grew up on classic rock and some funk due to living under my father's roof. Late 60s and early 70s. I was more influenced by groups like Creedance Clearwater
("Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"and The Grassroots ("Live For Today"), Sly & The Family Stone ("Higher"), stuff like that. I started writing when I was 13 and my influences have grown and changed as I have aged as well.

You've opened up for a ton of hip-hop legends, from KRS-One to The Pharcyde. Can you tell me what it was like meeting some of them and which ones were your favorite?

I didn't have the opportunity to meet them all, but, when I did get to meet them, all have been surprisingly humble. All the guys from the Pharcyde ("Passin Me By") were great, even apologetic for not making it in time to see my set. Dres from Black Sheep ("The Choice Is Yours") was a cool dude, even grabbing my albums to add to his tour scrap book. Louis Logic ("The Ugly Truth") is the most down to earth dude and one of the funniest kids I've met so far. I'd have to say though, when A+ from Souls of Mischief ("From 93 Till Infinity") gave me daps and told me "you got soul, man" was the illest compliment I've ever received.

Apollo's Sun is a really great unique name to rhyme under; Why did you pick that name and not like A-Pac or something?

Apollo was a god of music, so I wanted to have the influence behind me. By no means do I feel I'm a god of music, though. The "sun" was originally "son" so as to represent me being a distant relative of somebody gifted with music, but changed it to Sun to represent the energy it conveys. The sun is our Earth's natural battery, and that's a beautiful thing a lot of people take for granted.

I was really impressed with a couple of the beats behind the songs on your MySpace, they have a great hook. How do you make your beats?

Well, I do work with other producers and musicians as well from all over the world who are gifted with theirs. As far as my beats go, I use an MPC2000xl and vinyl. Once in awhile I may sprinkle a keyboard in there, but I try to keep it dusty. I like my sounds simple and dirty. I also enjoy using live instrumentation as much as possible.

If you could work with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be? On a similar note, could you give me your top 5 MCs of all time?

Well, there are tons of people I'd love to work with. BUT, if I could get down with anybody to produce the music on an album for me, it would be Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. Have you ever heard his hip hop album, Fort Minor ("High Road" Feat. John Legend)? That guy is a GENIUS behind the boards. My top 5 MCs..wow, well, I can give you my favorite. My version of what makes an emcee ill may be different than the next man. I personally am more in favor of the poetic type. My favorite artists are (in no order): Blueprint, Atmosphere ("Sunshine"), Cage, Outkast (Aquemini and earlier work), and Aesop Rock ("Daylight"). I'm a big fan of early Wu Tang solo records as well.

What's, in your opinion, your best or most favorite song of yours to perform?

It's a cross between a couple different ones. It would either be Tattoos of You, Finding Sunshine, or Break Free. Tattoos I like to do accapella style, because it forces people to really focus on just the words. Finding Sunshine I love doing in a live band setting, it really brings the song to life. And Break Free, I enjoy performing that because I feel I get to speak from a man's perspective on heart break. Women aren't the only ones destroyed and beat down by the other side, and I feel that is OFTEN misrepresented in mainstream media.

Finally, could you talk a little bit about your next album and upcoming performance at the Muddy River Jam Festival?

The next record is called Falling Becomes Great and is part 3 to a trio of themes I've followed since the beginning of my "career" as an artist. The Happy Masochist was going through the pain, but not really sure of what it was. Rust was the breakdown from the pain, the absolute collapse of the human heart. Falling Becomes Great is based on a quote I heard stating, "To become great, you have to fall first and/or go crazy". So that's the common idea for it...discussing all these crazy things that wear you down, but build your character and ultimately determine who you will be tomorrow. I think it's a beautiful thing to grow a flower from the blood of a bad situation, and I hope I can convey that with this album.

Muddy River is a weekend long festival my good friend and fellow musician Pluto hooked me up with. Originally, I was to perform in a group setting with my crew After.Words, but there were some scheduling conflicts. So, my dj, Gard, Pluto, Cristo, and I are going to head out together. Camping, bonfires, and music. You really can't go wrong with that. I've played shows all over the east coast, and will probably be heading out on my 2nd tour this fall with my good friend windchILL.

If you'd like to learn more about Apollo's Sun and his upcoming projects, check out his website here at: . If you go to the bottom of the website, you can join his mailing list and get information on his upcoming projects as it becomes available. Thanks so much to Apollo's Sun for giving up some of his time to answer these questions. If you want to catch him live, he will be playing at the Muddy River Jam Festival @ Snipe’s Farm in Morrisville (BUCK’S COUNTY), PA on July 31st, 2009, at 8pm.

Sunday Morning Wake-Up: If I Were A Rapper & Other Things

2009-07-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

If I were a rapper..

I would probably sample this song by Tower of Power called "So Very Hard To Go". If I had any producing know-how at all, I would take the horns out of different parts of the song and do something with the hook. I think it would be a nice beat to rap over, at least the one I have in my head.

A little googling turned up this which shows how many people Tower of Power have collaborated with over the years, including Bon Jovi & Carlos Santana. Reading through their collaboration list shows that somebody already has rapped over something by them: Pharaohe Monch. You can hear that song here. The trumpets give it a nice pre-boxing match sound. My first impression of the song was that it sounded like it belonged in a Madden game, and it actually was in Madden '08. Anyways.

You all should check out J.Cole, someone who Jay-Z just signed to his new label, Roc Nation. Here's a decent song by him, called "I Get Up". Not that Jay-Z signing him means anything (look at Beanie Siegel, Memphis Bleek, etc.) but I think he'll probably be big and this is proof I knew about it. Also, check out Phene, who I might interview this week. Until Monday, peace out. I'm going on vacation!

Download:Tower of Power "So Very Hard To Go"

Interview with JMC

2009-07-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

First, a little background on JMC:

JMC born in Carlisle, PA grew up a talented Basketball player with a gift for creating Music and Film. JMC graduated from Towson University in Maryland, where he studied Electronic Media and Film. During his sophomore year in college JMC began his professional acting career. JMC has performed in commercials for The Baltimore Ravens, Longhorn Steakhouse, Union Memorial Hospital, and the DC Lottery, He hosted events for Oprah Winfrey's "LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE" tour, and Fitness Magazine. JMC has been in Huge movies such as "Step-Up", "Annapolis", The Bourne Ultimatum, and the upcoming "Night at the Museum 2". JMC has had lead roles in several Independent films such as "ONE EYED HORSE" and "CONVERGENCE" which premiered in Baltimore and have won awards in Film Festivals throughout the East Coast. JMC also writes and produces my own films and currently has several projects in "Pre-Production" for the upcoming JMCproductions/REACH! Film Festival. JMC will star in all the films as well as produce and direct. JMC's music and films are as good as anything you hear on the Radio, see on MTV or see in Theaters, the difference is JMC creates quality, intelligent, thought provoking, creative and humorous content, while providing top tier entertainment. JMC's solo debut album "SWEET RELEASE" is now available for sale and on I-TUNES.

You can check out his MySpace here along with a couple of songs off of his album, "Sweet Release" which is now available on iTunes.

1. I saw the commercial you did for the Ravens and it reminded me of the way I dance (lol) but obviously you have some real talent dancing. Who was your biggest inspiration in studying dance?

JMC: I never danced growing up, nothing against it, I just didn't do it. I was a "DUDE" totally into sports, weight training and all that stuff, but if you get over yourself, try something new and stop being afraid, you can accomplish anything in life. Jason Reed (my manager and Dance Trainer extraordinaire) thought I would perform better on stage with Dance training, so I busted it hard 6 hours a day for a year and a half and now thanks to Jason, Elijah Morton, My backup dancers DNL and my own work ethic, I have the hottest stage show around!

2. Some rappers like to write their lyrics down, e.g. TI's approach on "Paper Trail". Do you write your lyrics down or do you go Jay-Z style and try to hear what the beat itself is saying?

JMC: I have done both, usually the best stuff comes from writing your ideas down and then letting the beat facilitate what you ultimately do, but even tho I love JAY-Z I don't think ANYONE really 'freestyles'. Especially when you see Rap battles on TV and everyone is making these ridiculous rhyme schemes, they always know what they're going to say coming in , the human brain just doesn't function fast enough to make things up on that spot that are so complex. And just for the record, because you 'don't write your rhymes down' doesn't mean they're good. Actually, Jay-Z is sloppy at times with his rhyme schemes, and he is one of the greatest of all time, if not THE greatest. So I just think it's lazy to not write anything".

3. What programs do you use to make your beats?

JMC: "I either purchase beats online or my producer JASON SHAFFER (Jason Shaffer Myspace) is amazing and can create anything musically that I explain to him."

4. Random Q: I was trying to figure this out with a couple friends the other day, but what celebrity sports death would equal Michael Jackson's in terms of media coverage?

JMC: I honestly think people put too much emphasis on Famous people. Most famous people I met aren't necessarily any more talented than normal people. Usually they just have a lot of money to promote themselves or more commonly, they know someone who can put them in a position to be famous. Michael Jackson was amazing, but lets face it, he was NOT the role model he portrayed himself to be. It takes a lot of $ and promotion to build an image for someone. I would have to say the biggest media blitz I've seen compared to Michael's Death was the O.J. Simpson trial. That was HUGE too, and for what reason?! what did it accomplish? Nothing, people just have nothing better to do with their lives! Haha. (Yes, I watched it too!)

5. Really broad, but who is THE greatest rapper of all time in your opinion?

JMC: The best rapper of all time other than the MIGHTY JMC?!?! Just joking, well I am pretty good but here's my top 5:

1. Jay-Z (has over 10 albums, good lyrics, and still radio friendly)
2. FABOLOUS (my favorite rapper, and best CURRENT rapper)
3. Lloyd Banks
4. Jada-Kiss
5. Eminem

I never thought guys like 50 Cent or Souljah Boy were talented AT ALL! 50 can at least make decent records, but his lyrics are stupid and ALWAYS about the same things over and over. How many times can you tell the world how "FLY" you are or how many ladies you have or why your car is better than mine? It gets old and it's not creative. I also think 2-PAC is very overrated and one dimensional. Notorious B.I.G. was great but only had 2 albums so I can't say he was consistent with good rhymes because there is no way to know that.

6. Finally, who would you most like to work with alive or dead and why?

JMC: I only work with select people right now, because I know I can trust them to bring quality every time. I work with "MACKLISH" aka Evan Mack ("Macklish" MySpace) on my new record coming out soon and we did 5 amazing tracks together! I would love to work with JOJO (yes the White girl who sings! ed.: Here's Jojo covering "Houstalantavegas" by Drake) she turned 20 recently and I have always had a crush on her! Why? I have NO IDEA! I was also fortunate enough to do a song with TRACIE THOMS from "RENT" and "DEVIL WEARS PRADA" "RENT" song. She is an amazing singer and the song we did called "WHAT IF" is going to be HUGE on my new album! Coming soon!!

Thanks so much to JMC for giving up a couple minutes of his time to answer these questions. You can buy JMC's "Sweet Release" on iTunes for $9.99: Proceeds go to the Reach! Charity, which you can read about here.

Run This Town ft. Kanye West & Rihanna

2009-07-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

New track off Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" called Run This Town ft. Rihanna & Kanye West. Jay-Z's verse is semi-forgettable but Kanye completely rips it and Rihanna has a great lilt on the hook. I'm incredibly hyped for "The Blueprint 3", especially after hearing Death Of Auto-Tune and a couple other tracks. Death of Auto-Tune is sweet because everyone's trying to do it now, including Diddy who I kind of feel bad for when he got Twit-dissed. When you get dissed by something with a name as effeminate as Twitter, you know there's issues.

Anyways, good song. Excited to hear more.

Listen:http://www.mediafire.com/?mdmriyoqmi2

Interview with Central PA Rapper Vision

2009-07-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

I think this is probably the first original content I've had on this besides the last two posts which were really me rambling out my thoughts, but I got an interview with a local rapper named Vision which basically consisted of me messaging him a couple questions over MySpace. Very nice dude. Here's a little background information on where he comes from:

"EC Holmes a.k.a. Vision was born in Scranton, PA December 5th, 1986. Moving from town to town until his Mother and five siblings settled in York Pennsylvania where they would stay until today. Life was hard on the Holmes household since Mother, Gigi Holmes, was a single parent raising an active bunch of girls and boys. Since his humble beginning in 06’ he has released the mix tape entitled “A Ghetto’s Gospel” in the fall of 07’, a collaboration of secular urban instrumentals with a Gospel twist. Also dropping his first full-length album in October of 08’ entitled “The Great Commission”. Vision currently tours locally wherever he can spread the Gospel of Christ, and is currently working on his sophomore album "Beyond Twenty20". Shining his light and writing his rhymes he continues to not only be an inspiration for his brothers and sister but also for the world. Praise God! Check out www.myspace.com/vision04 and www.youtube.com/visiononduty email- ycvision@yahoo.com"

On to the interview:

I noticed one of your mixtapes is called Ghetto Gospel. What's your favorite Tupac song?

V: Its titled "A GHETTO'S GOSPEL" but close enough, haha. But probably "Dear Mama") because you can't come from the heart anymore than that.

Who's your favorite gospel artist?

A: Rapper Da Truth
"My Story" by Da Truth

Obviously winning a Central PA hip-hop award and getting your work recognized was pretty sweet. Did you think your music go as far as it has?

Yes, Simply because I know that I can do anything I put my mind to. The Bible says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and I truly believe that.

If you could collaborate with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be?

There too many that I like. But just to throw one out there it would be Lyfe Jennings. (Ed: Pretty sweet Lyfe Jennings track, if you're interested "Never Never Land") I love colabing on R&B/HipHop tracks.

Your style reminds me of Cassidy a little bit - Do you listen to him at all?

A lot of people tell me that. Not really, but I used to listen to him a lot not too long ago. Maybe that's where the sound comes from.

Can you tell me a little bit about the name you chose to rap under?

Just because Vision means "Not seeing things as they are, but as they will become." So I would like my music to not just bring conviction but more importantly hope in the God who cared enouph to send his son to die for us.

Thanks so much to Vision for being so nice and giving up a couple minutes of his time to answer these questions. If you want to see him live, he's kicking off the "High Off Life Concert 2009" @ York Fairgrounds in York, PA with another local rapper, Phene. Here are some Vision related links:
Vision's Myspace
Vision's Youtube

Listen: It's The God In Me Feat. Vision & Mary Mary

What's keeping you from your dreams?

2009-07-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting in the same seats for 12+ years at Beaver Stadium, the House of Penn State Football for the last 50 or so years. For at least half of those years, my grandpa sat with me. We saw Mr. I am Legend himself, LaVar Arrington, block the field goal that gave Penn State its narrow win over Pittsburgh in 1999; we also saw Joe Paterno win his 324th game in a dramatic second half comeback led by Zack Mills and a 340 lb+ Jimmy Kennedy get up and block OSU's potential game winning FG. There have been many great memories since then like the Ohio State game in 2005, the Michigan State game in 2009, or Penn State dismantiling Notre Dame in front of a near-record capacity crowd. These moments are bittersweet to me because my grandfather no longer attends with me.

I asked him if he would want to come to some games this year with me. Usually, when I asked him why he couldn't go anymore, he would tell me the reason was the steps leading up to our seats in the stadium - in recent years, grandpa has had problems walking and has not attended a game since at least 2003, if not '02. My Grandma interrupted him almost before he could answer, saying that he wouldn't be able to walk that well by then even with physical therapy. His expression on his face changed, and the next words he said were "I believe I can go." She said again about the steps, and then my brother kind of sheepishly said "Well, we can help him up..." and Pap (typing "grandpa" was weird to me) seemed completely changed on his opinions of being able to go or not. "That's right, I believe you guys could help me get up the steps."

I think a lot of the time we look at the obstacles in between the things we desire rather than the things themselves. It's human nature, I suppose: Peter tried to walk on water with Jesus and actually did so until he "saw the storm". Sunk. Rocky ran the steps up the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a young, hungry fighter, and many years later, sees past his age and flys straight up the stairs again.

What are your steps and how will you overcome them?

Blogbarrassment

2009-07-12T22:57:00.001-07:00

"I feel embarrassed telling people I have a blog. I read some blogs and there's one post that's like, 'Today I went to J.C. Penney's!' and then there's one comment that's like 'J.C. Penney's, eh?'." - Mike Birbiglia

Hopefully this blog is more than a post with a quote about J.C. Penney's, but only the future will tell. I'm a Communications major at Penn State and my advisor's only advice to me the entire two semesters was: "You should start a blog!" & "Take a class on Jewish Studies!". I'm probably going to write about sports, movies, and music of all types, or just stuff that interests me. One of the more major focuses of my writing on here will probably be local hip-hop - I love rap and the local scene is something I'm kind of unfamiliar with but would like to get to know better.

This blog hopefully doesn't become one of these:
http://1post1der.blogspot.com/