Hip-hop is still kind of the Old West. It's a reasonably unsettled territory and truly the cutting edge of blues. They're still trying to put hot sauce in a milkshake. No one is going to pull you over and give you a ticket for it because it's still defining itself.
From an interview with the Chicago Tribune... at the 2006 Seattle Marathon. Oh yeah - and booze. Lots and lots of booze.
Let's let the photos do the talking, aiight?
Yup, that's what running twenty-six miles'll do to you. Also crazy gross - the guys with bleeding nipples. Uh... ewwww.
Two of the most hardcore people of all time. Seriously - these two are my heroes.
Hey! It's the Beckstar, rounding out the contrived post title during a ridiculously hung over viewing of Prime on the hotel TV Monday morning.
And the debauchery continued all weekend. Some of the most delightful memories weren't caught on tape... a fact for which my blood-relation readership will be grateful I'm sure.
As if! The Marriott supplies this enlightened text along with the bible and book of mormon.
Round one: Post-race mimosas and bloody marys in the hotel bar.
Round two: A celebratory bottle of Cristalina up in the room.
Round three and four: free-pour highballs and tequila shots in the red-lit Mexican bar.
Round five: te-quila! Shots with strangers are always fun.
Round therve... Seriously. No SERIOUSLY. I love that hat on you soooo much. Shut up! For se-rious!
And here we are at the Drunk Girls in a Gay Bar series. Make sure you click the link - it's a photo essay unto itself.
By the way, it snowed.
And to me the drive home, although long and hungover, was absolutely majestic.
This Saturday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. A clearly worthy cause.
Here is a impactful campaign done by J.W.T.'s Lisbon office, promoting awareness of this day.
The tagline is: As you can’t feel what they feel, see what they see.
Not to bum you out or anything, but the following statistics are sad and scary:
- 700,000. Women raped or sexually assaulted each year in the U.S.
- One in Seven. U.S. women reporting having been raped before the age of 17.
- One in Five. Ninth-grade girls reporting at least one incident of physical sexual abuse, in a randomly selected study of nearly 1,200 ninth-grade students in Geneva, Switzerland.
- 50 percent of the women who die from homicides that are killed by current or former partners.
- 130 million. Girls and women alive today that have undergone female genital mutilation. Although the Raelians are doing what they can with Clitoraid, it's still an important issue.
- Half a million. Women raped during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
So yeah, I've been a bit remiss on the ol' blogging this week. Why you ask? Partly because I've been buried neck-deep in work, and have been forced to use my nightly laptop hour for job-related tasking. Partly because we bought a wii on Tuesday, and it's sucking our lives away in a glorious flurry of Nintendo magic.
Or... could it be that I am stuck down a hole, rubbing lotion on my skin?
...or else it gets the hose again.
... to someone that I love a lot, and who really doesn't need the drama.
Life's hard when you're a glorious creature of magnanimous love.
What insights can Chi-Ali offer? Let us see.
No comment required.
That's right - it's time to shake it off girl.
You said it Nancy.
And the longest inside joke post ever [dick]whips to a close.
...I love it!'
Where has this totally rad video been all my life?
Let me get this straight, people. You knew there was a white reggae version of R Kelly, and you didn't tell me? You know who you are, and you're on my blacklist forever. No wait.. you buy me fun toys and dance in snakeskin bras. Actually, I ain't mad atcha.
Plus, Friday reggae night at the Anza Club? Mad fun boi! This is a dedication to all the old friends I saw winding it down there this week. Boo yah!
So the Wii, Nintendo's newest hottest console launched today.
Scott and I were going to line up and buy one, but he had to work so we didn't have a chance to. We probably will, despite KT's strong resistance, although since finding out Super Mario Galaxy isn't launching until March, the Beckstar isn't so sure she needs to get down on it immediately.
So yeah... I have a bunch of other reasons that this gaming system is totally rad, and why Nintendo rocks, but frankly, I've been loading content into a website for about 9 hours now. Let's call this a placeholder until my hands are no longer hardening into qwerty-claws.
Okay, so you know you are living in a pampered first world nation when a mere boil-water advisory can induce fistfights among grown adults.
It's so ridiculous. I fear the day when we face a real emergency.
Although, I must say that the slob in me is greatly enjoying the 'guess we can't do dishes or laundry' perk of the whole situation.
Bottle on right: filtered and fresh. Bottle on left: EBOLA! HIV! MALARIA! PLAGUE! TYPHOID FEVER!
Guess which bottle is the demented homocidal maniac!
I'll do it! You can't stop me! I'll totally ingest 1/800000th of a lethal dose of contaminants!
Now the real question here is why is my new digital camera being used for these ridiculous 2am photo shoots, and not shooting events like Friday night's off-the-hook partystravaganza, with moments like Joni dancing on stage with Kool Keith in one of the $5 bras he threw into the crowd while chanting 'Bra Adjustment'?
So Takashi Murakami, that demented disco dwarf, has been furtively putting together a totally amazing collective of Japanese pop artists, called Kaikai Kiki. Check it out:
Murakami, with part of his Balloons series, which were hung in Grand Central Station.
All of the artists in the collective are worth checking out. Clockwise from top-left:
I'm sure they love you: Rei Sato
Elephant Underpants vs. Apple Half: Chinatsu Ban
The Scene: Mahomi Kunikata
Moon: Aya Takano
Kuwanetto: Mr.
But I have to highlight one particular member of the Kaikai Kiki Krew, namely Chiho Aoshima, who does incredible, ethereal digital illustrations and installations. Her City Glow, Mountain Whisper installation, seen below as it appeared in the Union Square subway station in NYC, and the Gloucester Square station in London is totally breathtaking.
City Glow...
Mountain Whisper.
Another Chiho work, called Magma Spirit Explodes. Tsunami Is Dreadful
Finally, very cool, is this ad campaign for Louis Vuitton featuring Takashi Murakami's characters.
This is a collaboration between Louis Vuitton, obviously, and Takashi Murakami, in a pleasing little animated short based on Alice in Wonderland.
So when you saw Napoleon Dynamite, did you have any idea that ligers were real? Yeah, me neither.
The product of a tigress and a lion (a tiger and lioness offspring is called a tigon), ligers are way bigger than either lion or tiger, standing up to 12 feet, and they love to swim.
Seriously? They've been bred (usually by accident) in captivity since the early 1800's, and no one was going to tell me?
This is Hercules the liger. He lives at The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.).
Kinky nineteenth Century painting of an animal trainer with lion, tigress and three hybrid liger offspring.
These are the puppies and their mom.
And how about the other magical hybrids that are legitimately happening around the planet?
A wolphin!
A zony! Cross between zebra and Tony Danza!
Also noted: when I told KT about this breaking story, she claimed that her mom had a cabbit as a child - a cat/rabbit hybrid. Searching about, I found a persuasive case that they don't exist, and are actually cats with malformed hindquarters. I wouldn't recommend pressing the subject with her though... it's best not to mess with family legend.
Some alleged cabbits! Veeerry curious.
So here's another sweet site I found while clicking about for work.
It's an archive of flyers for hip hop shows in New York in the 80's. AKA the Golden Era. They're pretty sweet:
Who doesn't love a good shorts n sneaka ball? I wish they still had contests for the tightest shorts... I would totally win.
It's 1981. Parties are $4. Life is good.
Who didn't love The Fat Boys?
Plenty more on the site.
Okay now really.
Not only does McDonald's conduct an active campaign targeted to the black community, it does the same for the latino and asian communities.
Now I have no problem with the idea. I'm not one of those covert 'then-whur's-the-white-kid-program?' racists, although I would prefer an ordering by socio-economic or geographic group because I think it would be more effective.
Rather my problem is with the unbelievable racial stereotyping on the microsites. Seriously - check this shit out. All straight from McDonald's fun headquarters.
Drive your taxi around the city and when you see someone thinking about chicken... you know where to take them.
For fuck's sake - is this really the best they can do?
So here are two ads that are completely made by the music choices in them. Plus - they're both beautiful songs.
Enjoy these short moments of blissful escape...
You loved it in the brilliant Donnie Darko, now hear it again. Gary Jules covers Tears for Fears' Mad World in this magnificent ad for Gear of War
Spike Jonze's beautiful 'Hello Tomorrow' spot for Adidas, with Karen O. From TBWA/Chiat/Day San Fran.
P.S. Yes - I am procrastinating while working at home. Bad Beckstar! Soon I will finish that website! Hey - my bedtime suffers, my blog wins... good deal for you guys.
While bobbing my head around the apple bucket of McDonald's ads past, I found these very funny ads from the 60's and 70's. So good!
1960's Cheer Ads. These ads are beyond creepy! When can I stop kidding myself? - a classic piece of dialogue.
1970's Koolaid ad. You all know of my koolaid addiction. I get hot and thirsty riding a skateboard. Who doesn't honey?
1970's ad for Tab. Huh? Be a mind-sticker?
