I agree

the women throw bananas in the street
moments later they are gray and flat and lifeless
beyond all recognition
some say the most powerful force on earth is water
but from my second story window
it seems to be the cars

-Dan Bern

Pretty insightful look at how humanity has changed the planet for the worse.

This isn't funny...

Or is it? Losing an apex predator that was already on the decline is detrimental to the overal health of the ocean. The gulf is/was responsible for several record Hammerhead shark catches, over 18 feet if you're feeling like a swim. I hate to think about what is really going on out there.

Ok it's funny... but just the cartoon.

get pumped up

Need to get pumped up this morning?



"we keep our hands warm with the damn patriot act"
If there was more hip hop that had something to say the world would be a better place. P.O.S. good on yah my brother...

SIMS is one of my darkhorse favorites:


Come on, the dude uses "hegemony" in this track. Give credit where it's due, SIMS is the man.

Both of these artists are from the Doomtree collective. Get on it people, this is what hip hop should be.

Matt hates the world cup...

I have to disagree, I enjoy it. Do I set my clock by it or have any "Must see" matches? No, but I do appreciate a game that is played by the entire world which is largely misunderstood by the citizenry of the USA. Maybe it's because all the kids on the soccer team in high school were affluent douchery? There's got to be more to it than that, the football team was always filled with douchery of all sorts (and still is Rothlesberger, no I don't care if i misspelled it).

The main reason I think it's misunderstood is that way that it's shot for tv. Long lens from a distance, all the players look small and the action is hard to really discern. When you are able to watch the replays and the camera is zoomed in tight you can see how much action there really is. How physical the ball handling is and how brutal some of the challenges really are.

I was surprised when I first started playing soccer at around age 20 what a great game it is. I relied on physicality to make up for my lack of ball handling skills since I grew up playing baseball. The problem was the good players were just as physical and rough as well as being able to dribble circles around me. Don't tell me there isn't toughness in soccer, I had an incident after muscling in a goal on a player who was much better than I at the indoor facility in Tampa. Sure enough the next time that guy touched the ball he put it straight for my head as hard as he could. Luckily for both of us he missed but his point was made. "Don't come into my house and show me up, you got lucky"

Soccer remains misunderstood because of the way it's presented to us, with or without Hank Willams Jr doing crappy intro songs pregame.

Animal Kingdom

It's pretty hot in the summer on the train back from the petting zoo.

Just add ice creamEveryones happy!
Parenting ain't easy.

LSD NO NO

I'm starting to feel bad for ripping things off from my friend Matt's blog. He just keeps finding interesting stuff that I think my 4 followers that aren't Matt would like. It's baldwinsworld.com if you're interested in checking it out. (there's videos of waterboarding too)

But anyhow, Doc Ellis threw a no hitter in 1970 while presumably "catching trails". I knew the story but never heard this interview. It's so worth the few minutes to check it out even if you're not a baseball fan. A no hitter is so difficult to achieve as a pitcher and to do it while "trippin balls" is well... amazing. You've probably noticed that I love using high speak, you probably think it's annoying but I enjoy the irony.

From No Mas -In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas and artist James Blagden proudly present the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter. In the past few years we’ve heard all too much about performance enhancing drugs from greenies to tetrahydrogestrinone, and not enough about performance inhibiting drugs. If our evaluation of the records of athletes like Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, and Barry Bonds needs to be revised downwards with an asterisk, we submit that that Dock Ellis record deserves a giant exclamation point. Of the 263 no-hitters ever thrown in the Big Leagues, we can only guess how many were aided by steroids, but we can say without question that only one was ever thrown on acid.
Sadly, the great Dock Ellis died last December at 63. A year before, radio producers Donnell Alexander and Neille Ilel, had recorded an interview with Ellis in which the former Pirate right hander gave a moment by moment account of June 12, 1970, the day he no-hit the San Diego Padres. Alexander and Ilels original four minute piece appeared March 29, 2008 on NPRs Weekend America. When we stumbled across that piece this past June, Blagden and Isenberg were inspired to create a short animated film around the original audio.
www.nomas-nyc.com

it's too easy sometimes

I grew up in a small town so I can usually predict a small town mentaility a mile away. This time it came at the local gas station. I probably didn't need to mention that, it would probably be a given.
The guy had no shirt on and there were plenty of faded tatoos that included things like pot leaves and I'm sure a grim reaper somewhere (although I didn't see it there was probably a rebel flag too). He was complaining that there was no Sparks left and something about how the manager always saved a case for him. He was the gregarious kind of redneck which talks with everyone for no real reason which I guess comes with the territory of being gregarious.
The man behind the counter asked him if he was the guy who pushed Gary Coleman down the stairs. So you know what's coming right? Or did you not grow up in a small town... the countdown had already started in my head.
"that was the little guy in diff'rent strokes right?" I was surprised it didn't happen in this line but it didn't.
"yeah it sure was" said the man behind the counter as he was getting a brown bag for the can of Sparks. The guy grabbed his stuff and as he was turning to walk out the door he said "little nigger" with a smile.
You knew it would happen right? You had to... some people are that easy to read. It's times like that where I wish I was about 6" taller and built like a tank, because I would have said something. But I'm not, so I just stared blankly back. I guess it wouldn't have proved anything anyways, you can't change deep seated misunderstanding with fists, only life experience.
Although this guy probably has a black friend somewhere and refers to him as "the good kind" or "not like the others". Or not...