Smart Things People Say, Pt. 2

A small group of people leaving a bar pass by

A: Your people are loud

B: I take it by my people you mean Koreans

A: Yes



nioce!

Groupthink and the Spurs

I don't understand why everyone thinks the Spurs are boring. Say the Clippers or T'Wolves are boring, then I will absolutley agree with you. But the 4-time NBA Champions? I understand that Tim Duncan is not exactly TO or Ocho Cinco when it comes to handling the press. But how can you NOT marvel at how easy he makes it look when he banks in his little 7 footers? And aside from Tim Duncan, the Spurs also have Tony Parker and Ginobili. Personally, I think Ginobili is one of the more exciting players (especially this season) to watch in the league.

Seriously, the Spurs give you more than just jacking up 3s (AHEM GOLDEN STATE AHEM). They have slashing drives to the basket, laser guided missle passes, and those pretty little floaters that make them a rael pleasure to watch. It's true that beyond TD, Parker, and Ginobli (and POSSIBLY Horry), they lack any real starpower. But then again, look at the biggest bandwagon around, the Warriors. Imagine Bob Costas doing the intro for game 7 of the WCF sans Baron Davis and maybe Stephen Jackson.

"TUNE IN TODAY FOR AN EPIC SHOWDOWN. AL HARRINGTON, ANDRIS BIEDRINS, MONTA ELLIS AND PATRICK O'BRYANT! YES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PATRICK O'BRYANT! THEY WILL TAKE ON THE MIND NUMBINGLY BORING SAN ANTONIO SPURS! YES THE SPURS SUCK BECAUSE THEY ARE BORING AND SUCK AT EVERYTHING! WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TIM DUNCAN AND A QUADRIPALEGIC? NOTHING! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"But Ginobli's a flopper!!!!"

Part of the game buddy. If you get the call, you get the call. I don't see how flopping is preferrable to whining to the ref for the next minute after the play has already ended.

So think to yourself, are the Spurs really boring are you just saying that because it is the cool thing to do?

For your consideration:

Nicomachean Heller

After busting my head over the Nicomachean Ethics, eupraxia, prohanesis, and other borderline incomprehensible subjects, I found myself thinking back to this short quote from Catch-22. It's one of my favorite quotes from the book and one thing I noticed is that the very last line is written in a way that makes it seem that it is directed specifically towards the reader.

"Well, maybe it's true," Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. "Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?"
"I do," Dunbar told him.
"Why?" Clevinger asked.
"What else is there?"

Being Immature Does NOT Serve as a Bully Pulpit

Life is a very easy thing to generalize. All lawyers are liars, all Muslims are terrorists, all Jews are stingy, all of the Patriots are cheaters, all Indian food is digusting. Why do people have such an affinity with the claim of the type Vx(x -> y) (for all things x, if x then y). Furthermore, why do people like to use this childish thinking as a basis for voicing their narrow minded opinions.

Obviously, there is a theme going when we use claims of this type. We use these types of claims to generally talk about people. People of other religions, races, socio-economic backgrounds, hair colors, and anything else that falls into the plethora of characteristics by which we distinguish one class of people from another. It seems that it is so easy to say "all Mexicans are lazy". Notice a distinction here, I am talking about SPEAKING rather than THINKING. Am I saying that it is right to have these thoughts? Of course not. However, remember the axiom of our childhoods, "if you have nothing nice to say, then don't say it at all". I think for the young-adult, it should be "if you don't have anything meaningful to say, then don't say it at all".

I am almost positive that we never think about how this kind of claim reflects upon ourselves. There is no way that someone with any sort of self-awareness or human understanding can think that to make a claim of this type is to present themselves as eloquent and intelligent. The image I see in my head when I hear someone say something along these lines is of a kindergartner playing with blocks, and the only way he can understand where each block goes is by brutally smashing it against the orifices on a board until one fits. This may be OK for children barely leaving the stages of infancy but for people in college, it is incredibly disheartening that a lack of understanding serves as a basis for firing off false dichotomies and just plain idiotic remarks.

So be a citizen of the world and exercise rationality. Preconceived notions might be a scary thing to throw away but it takes some real intelligence to be cognizant of when what you always believed may not have been quite right. There's room for self-improvement in how we relate to others and the only way we can do this is by realizing our embarrassing lack of ability to differentiate. So the next time you think it's funny to say "oh it's just a Korean thing", remember that even donkeys can make sounds, but it takes some minute form of intelligence to make a sound worth hearing.

Cheers.

The Internet Has A Flavor

All posts with this title are going to just be random things on the internet I read that I wanted to share.

Dynamo Kiev Death Match - An interesting article on the trials the memebers of Dynamo Kiev faced during WWII. Very thought-provoking and poignant article

Jay-Z's American Gangster is an album definitley worth checking out. Here's pitchfork's take on it.

Too much Erykah Badu exposure? Seek help NOW.

151 Proof Nostalgia

People say the darnedest things when they are drunk. A generic, cliché, but valid claim.

However there is one thing I noticed (and recently reaffirmed) was that something you always hear at whatever kind of soirée you attend. For demonstration purposes, take a look at the following:

Jill: Oh my God Claire, we have known each other for so long. We went to elementary together, we had our first experience of the menstrual cycle together, and we're going to have hot flashes together. I love you so much!

Claire: I know! Hey everyone! I have known Jill forever!

So from this (somewhat hypothetical) case, we can see that alcohol provides as a means to reaffirm the history of our relationships. A higher BAC level turns that kid that you barely talked to in middle school to the one you "omG KNEW foReVA 637!" Now alcohol messes with your judgment and it's only understandable that we might trip over how close we were with people after a few rounds of shotgunning. I just find it funny that given the wide range of things people can say when they're intoxicated, they always seem to turn to how long they've known someone. Especially girls. Damn females.

Just kidding, cheers to you!

Smart Things People Say Pt. I

While I was walking back from campus through Westwood Village...

Guy: ...and their actions make them seem very anti-institutionalist.

Girl: What is an anti-institutionalist?

Guy: ....

Girl: You don't know huh?

Guy: Well you know people who are for an institution? Anti-institutionalists are against those people.

Girl: Wow that was so profound.

Back in Effect

Hello everybody :)

I changed up this blog because I really didn't like the direction my other blog was going. It was turning into a commentary blog and I wanted it to be more of a xanga-ish personal thing. Also, the theme of the blog felt too restrictive. Finally, it looked like crap and (I'm not saying that this one is 1,000x better but I think it is a cleaner set up. I hope to update much more frequently so please check back often.

As far as the title of this site goes, it's from a line of one of the first Wu-Tang songs I fell in love with, "Triumph" by one of NY's finest, Chef Raekwon! It goes with the idea that the things I write in here are as disjointed and a medley of crap and steel as if someone held a gun in my mouth.

Ayo that's amazing, gun in your mouth talk, verbal foul hawk
Connect thoughts to make my manchild walk
Swift notarizer, wu-tang, all up in the high-riser
New york yank' visor world tranquilizer
Just a dosage, delegate my clan with explosives
While, my pen blow lines ferocious
Mediterranean, see y'all, the number one draft pick
Tear down the beat god, then delegate the god to see god
The swift chancellor, flex, the white-gold tarantula
Track truck diesel, play the weed god, substantiala
Max mostly, undivided, then slide in, sickenin
Guaranteed, made em jump like rod strickland

For those that don't know, here's a youtube link.



Thanks for reading and I will have a real update soon. I am still working on this so it might look different over the next few weeks.

-henrO

The Case Against Tupac

Tupac Shakur is probably the most recognizable face in hip hop. Quotes from "Me Against the World" can be found in high school freshmen profiles everywhere and many are quick to say that Pac was the greatest rapper period. However, I see a lot of problems with this claim and I hope to give everyone a few reasons as to why I think Pac can never touch Rakim, KRS, and even Biggie in terms of greatness. So in the words of Slick Rick...hereeee we goooooo!

It seems to me that Asian kids always have had a strange affinity for Pac. From my perspective, it seems odd for kids who grew up in safe, homogenous, subruban communities to be able to relate to lines like "my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch". So what is the correlation between Pac and us? It was said that Tupac was introduced to violence at an early age while growing up in Mahattan. But the closest we have seen to what Tupac might have seen would be Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. What seems to be the selling point of Tupac is that he is the image of the black man that exists in our fantasy worlds. What Tupac sells us is an image of a 40 drinking, bandana wearing, buddah exhaling, middle finger pointing, tatted, irate, "fuck-the-world" mentality, rep LA til I die black man. It is the thug appeal that makes Tupac so influential and so marketable. I think it is a safe guess to say that Tupac didn't give a shit about the slew of Asian kids who live in Rowland, Diamond Bar, Cerritos, or even places like Alhambra and Glendale. But these same kids are drawn to Tupac because he is the image of "the hood". However, I think Murs says it best; "Any white boy who thinks he knows my struggle because he listens to Pac and his adrenaline doubles".

But can we really say that he is one of the greatest rappers because he was and continues to be such an influential image? Tupac was not one of the greatest lyricists to ever live. Nas' Illmatic runs circles around every album Tupac has released in terms of flow, wordplay, and composition. There is no intricate rhyme structure and no killer punchlines in Pac's rhymes. "Picture perfect, I paint a perfect picture" is not a GOAT verse and neither is Pac repeatedly dropping F-bombs to his rivals on the east coast. It can be said very easily that KRS-One, Rakim, and even Eminem are true lyricists but there seems to be very little we can work with in stating Tupac's ability to rip the mic apart. He was never much of a storyteller either (at least nowhere near the genre that Slick Rick perfected).

It can't be said that he created the gangsta rap genre since NWA was saying "fuck the police comin straight from the underground" two years before 2pacalypse Now was even released (2Pacalypse Now would be a moot point anyways since it wasn't even at this point where he started making waves in the music scene). Cali love was well in place before Pac ever signed to Death Row.

He wasn't the first to make beef tracks either. LL Cool J's mama alraedy told him to knock you out before he was asking Mobb Deep if they had "sickle cell or sumfin". Maybe it wasn't as heated as Tupac made it but can that really be a positive point for him? Nowadays, everybody's starting beef with everyone and releasing all these downright AWFUL "battle tracks" featuring weak punchlines from wack crews. (It's times like these I wish Big L was still here to rip some of these guys to shreds).

So all in all, it can be said that Tupac never really contributed anything brand new. What he did contribute is the outspoken antagonist, fighting a revolution for a cause that didn't exist. Tupac is not Chuck D, and he is not Ice Cube. It seems silly to say that Pac was a martyr because what was the cause he died for? He wasn't throwing his fist in the air and demanding change in politics and society. What resulted from Pac was a further stratification of the black man. Pac was the black man that we conjure up images of when we hear the 10 o' clock news gone 9x platinum. He was the quintessential "n****r".

I am not saying that Tupac was a bad artist. I still love to hear I Ain't Mad Atcha (whether or not COC had that beat first) and California Love. But he is absolutlely not someone I would consider one of the greatest rappers of all time. Like John Lennon, he is one of the biggest icons in music without a doubt. However, John Lennon was a part of the goddamn Beatles, who changed the face of not just rock, but music forever. Just because Pac was murdered doesn't martyr him for the same reasons as why Cobain isn't a martyr either. So the next time Tupac comes up in your iTunes (full of Tupac songs that you probably downloaded illegaly), think about what Pac and his lyrics are to you. Because like Q-Tip said, "hip hop can never be a way of life / it doesn't tell you how to raise a child or treat a wife". To look at Tupac in the most objective manner is to look at him in respect to the genre of hip hop. Sure he went platinum multiple times. But MIMS is about to also...