Monday, February 9, 2009

Top Five: Week 3

Wow, four weeks in a row posting on time, and three top fives. I am doing a lot better than I ever expected. This weeks top five is in honor of February, Black History Month. I picked five black people who have had the biggest impact on my life. Whether they are actors, musicians, family, or other, without these people, my life would be a bit more dull.



5) Dead Prez: Yes, this isn't one person... it is two. Oh well. They are a politically drawn Hip-Hop group that resides in New York but got their start in good ol' Florida. Some of their lyrics focus on veganism, institutional racism, governmental repression, and corporate control over the media. The first song I ever heard by them was "Hip-Hop" which is on their 2000 album Let's Get Free. I'm sure a lot of people have heard this song and group and don't even know it. Anyone who watched The Chappelle Show has heard it, or at least the instrumental version which is the show's beginning theme song.
Later, I heard it again with Static-X making me fall in love with the song once again. Recently, they released the song "Politrikkks" which is off their next coming album, Information Age. This will be their first album since...2004... damn. The track is about... well, as the name says, politics. It's a pretty good song with an interesting message for anyone who wants to hear it. I just hope stic.man and M-1 haven't made their fans wait years for nothing, like other musicians do...

4) Phil LaMarr: Born on the greatest day of the year, this actor/voice actor comes in at number four. Phil got his start as small roles, one being Marvin in Pulp Fiction... anyone remember that guy? The scene was awesome. Later, he landed a role on MadTV and got to reprise the role of Marvin in a parody of Pulp Fiction. He was with MadTV up until 2000. During which time, he appeared in Bio-Dome and did voice acting for shows, one of my favorites being Hermes in Futurama.
This man voice acts so many characters from shows I love it's amazing. I absolutely love sharing a birthday with him, January 24th is a day for funny, amazing people. I wish I could have dinner with him and another great comedian who I share a birthday with (John Belushi)... but if I did... he'd be a zombie and I'd feel awful if he ate Phil for dinner and I killed an actor I was impressed with who killed another actor I was impressed with... then I'd go zombie hunting and look for another great black actor to help me out... Vingh Raymes.




3) Grandpa Ellis: I don't know as much about this man as I'd like, what I do know is he was a father figure to my father, and is my grandfather. Through most of my dad's life, Ellis was there helping him through it. And throughout my life, he was here to tell jokes, as hard as it is to understand sometimes with his thick Jamaican accent, cook some amazing food, and let us hang out in the swimming pool on our visits. He is a very interesting person and the only reason I do not know more about him is I am barely around him and sometimes it is hard to understand him, but I love him a lot none-the-less.



2) D.H. Peligro: Born in St. Louis, Missouri, real name Darren Henley, D.H. was a drummer for the band Dead Kennedys back when Jello sang, and years later too. He tooka hiatus from the band in 2008 saying he wanted a break from touring. Being one of the first black people I ever knew in a punk band, I instantly fell in love. His drumming was, and is, absolutely amazing! Being a political band just helped fuel the fire in my heart. He spent most of the 80's in DK, from 81-87. Also, after the untimely death of Hillel Slovak, guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, D.H. briefly took over on drums while Jack Irons quit to grieve.From 2001-2008 he was back in DK minus frontman Jello after some court battles, which awarded D.H. and other DK members 100,000 dollars each. D.H. also leads (backs?) a band called Peligro. Playing the drums while doing lead vocals. I remember being in high school listening to Too Drunk To Fuck during a Calculus exam, sharing headphones with my friend, later he told me how at a DK show he went to, there where some Nazi-punks that just stopped in their tracks at the sight of a black drummer on stage. To this, the crowd began screaming, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" and jumping around as the band played. What I wouldn't have given to see them live. D.H. will always be one of my favorite, most energetic drummers, hands down.



1) George Washington Carver: Born in January of 1864, Carver was dubbed the "Black Leonardo" by Time Magazine in 1941. He was a genius... he was a poet, an artist, a botonist, he mentored children, and more importantly, he underminded the stereotype that the black race was intellectually inferior to the whtie race. The reason he's my number one though, is well-known amongst people who know me, his 145 peanut products. I am a lover of peanuts and peanut butter, and a lot of that wouldn't have been possible without the help of this genius, this... "Black Leonardo".

He did so much for agriculture, helping white people realize we're not intellectually superior to anyone just because of our skin color, and finding me my comfort food.

This week, rather than make a Lame of the Week, which would be Obama... although his speech was grand he interrupted my favorite two shows, I decided to show my love for close contenders. Mostly, they are Whole Wheat Bread. These people make amazing music and are from an amazing city, Jacksonville. No matter who they have on bass, and for whatever reason the bassists left, even for incarciration, this band blows my mind with each record. Their newest one, Hearts & Hoodlums is out now and their video for "Bombs Away" is pretty awesome. An all around great album from a band that's basically described as, "Dirty South Punk Rock". Check them out, and learn more about tons more black people this month. Famous or not, hell, just go out and strike up a conversation with someone, learn their family history, they're history, or even their dreams for the future. Because, eventually, their future will be their past, and maybe they'll be a part of history too.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Top Five Week 2

I'm actually being thrurough. Two Monday's, two weekly top fives. I am impressed with myself, it's sad to say this IS a good start.

Sitting here at 1 in the morning listening to Authority Zero and having online discussions with my best friend, it was decided this week's top 5 would be dealing with events that occured yesterday. Super Bowl. No, not the top five plays, or dumbass moments, my favorite part of the Super Bowl is... commercials.

5. After much thought, I decided last place for me was tied between two Pepsi Commercials.

Pepsi: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51557557

Pepsi Max: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51559196


The Pepsi commercial is just showing two different generations of Pepsi lovers and how even though so many years seperate us, much of what we do has many similarities. Showing a lost connection many people didn't know, or didn't want to know we shared, with other generations. Great music, great concept, great overall commercial.

The second commercial I just find funny, showing stereotypes of how men are. Too awesome to be caught in a show of pain, and of course to amazing to be caught drinking a diet cola. It's a great show of physical comedy. Alright, I lied... my favorite part's when the one guy just "mistakingly" drops a bowling ball over the other guys head and goes "... my bad". It just seemed like he was curious as to what would happen if he did that. Awesome.


4. A quick replacement. Originally, I wanted the Pedigree commercial to be number four, it was close to my heart as an animal lover, and had a silly nature with a good message. Today though, I saw a commercial I missed yesterday for General Electric. Yeah, it wasn't the best commercial, was showing a good idea and how GE is trying to improve everything they do, but what caught me, was the modern day Scarecrow and the music from Wizard of Oz. I couldn't let this NOT be in my top five mostly out of bias since I am still in love with that movie to this day. If everyone hates me for this, oh well. I'll still have the Cowardly Lion.

GE: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51568571

The last three of my commercials are all humorous, though two of the others were just beautifully done, these took the top three for just making me laugh out loud and continue laughing each time I saw them, second place at least still makes me laugh.

3. Dorito's. It was tough choosing between the two Dorito's commercials I saw, but I found this one to be sexier, which Super Bowl commercials usually lack due to not wanting any legal matters, and pretty funny. It shows a guy, everytime he eats a Dorito, something happens most men would love. Money, cops disappearing, women losing top layers of clothing. And then the end makes me laugh so hard it's pathetic. The guy's facial expressions, how he jumps for joy, and the monkey really made it for me too.

Dorito's: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=51559011

2. Taco Bell. Oh man, everytime I see this commercial the same part cracks me up each time. Women always complain about men moving too fast. Hopefully, after this no girl will say that for a while... unless there really is a guy like this out there. Tragic. However funny it may be, it's still tragic. This would've been number one hands down but the next one had a very important message I'd like everyone to see. (I'm glad this blog is posted on Monday's)

Taco Bell: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=51568814

Haha, holy hell. I just watched it again and am laughing so hard. he just... stands there a few seconds. Brilliant.

1. Here's this week's number one. It was worthy of the top five, but not really number one spot. Until... the message at the end. This blows Taco Bell's Tuesday idea two weeks ago out of the water. Even without that, it's a pretty funny commercial. Three, "wise guys" talking business and can't get any words out. Awesome.

Denny's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oq-dDxS0AU

That's it for this week's top five. However, I do have something else in store for everyone. Something I might do from now on, or I might be lame and do it seldomly. It is, the Lame of the Week.


Lame of the Week!:

This week's Lame of the Week coincides well with the Super Bowl commercials. It is peta's banned commercial. They say it was banned because it was too sexy. Women humping pumpkins and broccoli. Under normal circumstances, I would cheer them on for weeks... or until they grew tired... more likely until the vegetables became dried up and withered. The thing that bothers me though, is this is a commercial showing people they should go vegetarian. I have no problem with that, I was a proud vegetarian for years, but this commercial makes it seem like demoralizing women is a great idea compared to saving animals. Is peta really that obsessed? I mean, I love animals and watch my meat intake so it's barely anything at all, but someone who is so out there to be morally correct at every turn. No meat, no dairy, no fur coats, those are bad for the animals. What gives them the right to show women in a rather pornographic nature? Are women less important in their eyes than our animal friends? Or is it just people in general? I don't know, I just found this commercial to be morally outraging with a side of sexy... is that hypocritical? Honestly, I'm glad it was banned. (Also, I won't deny the point of the message... from what I remember, it's true!)

peta: http://www.peta.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove/Default.aspx