David Stern (NBA Commissioner) Fixes the 1985 NBA Draft

After watching the following video, I have little doubt that the NBA commissioner David Stern would not hesitate to help ensure the "success" of the NBA via illegitimate means if he deemed it righteous and worthy (of course in compliance with his own twisted sense of justice). Most major sports have their shady dealings and stories, what bothers me is that the man who runs the NBA has been allowed to do so for such a long time, he helped take away NBA basketball from the city of Seattle (a whole other travesty) even though he claims to want to protect NBA franchises, thus allowing them to flourish in healthy NBA cities (Seattle had a Championship and a healthy fan base). The mind cannot help but wander into the depths with which David Stern has hinder other, smaller franchises, in the name of "growth" for the NBA. Booo to David Stern, a corrupt individual on the day that marks the beginning of the NBA Finals (which nonetheless should be exciting).

Gasp!

Via Youtube user TRJ22487:


"What the NBA doesn't want you to know -

In this version of the video I cut out all the crap and cut straight to the fix.

00:00 - Jack Wagner is instructed to "gingerly" place the seven envelopes into the drum. The fourth envelope he holds contains the NY Knicks logo. The material of this envelope is much flimsier than the rest.

00:06 Wagner slams it against the side of the drum, much differently than the way he places the other six envelopes into the drum, visibly bending the corner. He has likely practiced this dozens of times to ensure he can bend the corner on cue when the time comes

00:25 The drum is rotated several times to mix the envelopes. Sterns eyes are intently searching for the Knicks envelope the entire time

00:38 Stern unlocks the drum himself, taking time to look through the drum and try to find the envelope. It is no coincidence that Stern unlocks the drum himself. This gives him valuable seconds to examine the contents. Before reaching in he takes in a deep breath. He spots it. Luckily the bent corner is sticking straight up in the air when the drum stops, however he sees that two other envelopes are laid on top of it

00:45 Stern wades through the envelopes of the likes of Sacramento and Golden State, to find the bent envelope of New York and complete his magic trick in front of a dimwitted audience of writers giddy at the newborn concept of the draft lottery. In his head Stern is surely a nervous wreck, and possibly seems a little shrill by the awkward way he is forced to grab the envelope by the way it is covered. He flips the envelope upside-down, perhaps to hide the bent corner the best he can from the cameras closeup view

00:48/00:49 Pause the video here. David Stern is clearly looking at the bent corner as he flattens it with his thumb as best he can

00:50 Watch Sterns LEFT HAND very carefully. This is the part you couldnt see in the old Youtube video. Watch him stroke the corner with his index finger repeatedly, over and over, attepting to straighten it out, as he holds the envelope up high for the world to see. Clearly he is trying the smooth out the overly bent corner.



The rest of the video is history as Debusshere celebrates and holds up the #33 Ewing jersey that we would become so familiar with for the next 15 years. Though a championship never came out of it, it enabled New York back into playoff contendership after the career ending injury of Bernard King, and led to the massive streak of sold out games at Madison Square Garden throughout the 1990's and 2000."


Full Video after the break:

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band - More Than Complicated

"Preservation Hall is located in the French Quarter, just three blocks from the Mississippi River. The Hall has served many functions over the years. Originally built as a private residence in 1750, the hall has evolved into a tavern, inn, photo studio and an art gallery. The inside of the hall contains portraits of the musicians who first filled it with the beautiful sounds of New Orleans Jazz.

Preservation Hall opened its doors in 1961. The hall was created as a sanctuary, to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock n roll. Allan and Sandra Jaffe, the hall's founders, wanted a place where New Orleans musicians could play New Orleans Jazz, a style, they believed, should not disappear.

Today, over 40 years later, the hall is still going strong. On any given night, the hall is filled to capacity with people eager to hear New Orleans jazz played by veteran musicians in their 70's and 80's and younger musicians learning and embracing music that is both sweet and very beautiful." - PreservationHall.com

Props to Todd for the video feed.
Via Youtube: Originally written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, [Complicated] is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Clint Maedgen on vocals. Filmed mid-2005, this music video features Clint Maedgen, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a guest appearance by the New Orleans Bingo! Show.

Also be sure to check out the photo gallery on the Preservation Hall webpage as there are some gems.

Here are a few selected songs by the ever changing Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The Sweet Emma is a good one, tough to track down though, so if you come across it, hold onto it as it may be awhile before you see another one. Enjoy the beauty of New Orleans Jazz! 

Hee Haw!

I mean neigh.
Hey.
Hey.
Hay.

You gallop.
I trot.
We Bop.
Go!

A Stone and a Pearl . . .


Pee Jays . . . not for use in beds . . .

From Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia
No wait, for use in beds with subconscious discussions.
Give or take some Freudian theories.
You choose.

You need the girl? Here's her live, all hangin' out and shit.

Bop.
Again.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Maybe mommy is the one with the issues? 

Maybe mommy and daddy need to believe in their daughter, 

maybe then she will believe in herself

or maybe mommy and daddy need to talk with their daughter

and maybe better understand her, thus minimizing their fears

or maybe mommy and daddy need not be so critical of their daughter
and allow her to become a mature young lady

or maybe their daughter is just a psychopath.
in either case I say,

Good luck young lady. 

A Song For Tuesday - Piano

Relax

James Booker's Angel Eyes off of the album Classified.

I gotcho back.

Just in case you're having the blues . . .

The yesteryears:


And then they grow up:


Aaaaaaaand:
Fetch!
Nose!
Love!
Cats! Stupid Cats!
Jump!
Belly!
Slow!

Enjoy, You.

MHC

white trash style . . .

New kinda Kiddo:


Originally Bad:

Bop.

Zion I - Infatuation with the Bad News Bear Super Gigzzzzz

For those who do not know, Zion I is legit, quality hip-hop coming out of the Yay-Areaaa.

Here is their latest video off the recently released Atomic Clock album entitled Infatuation. 

Enjoy! 

Bad news bear fell asleep, and was dreaming he was Skittles, the famous dancer from the itty bitty city by the water. Vallejo Ca.

Zion I X Mac Dre-Roll On Out (Dancing Bear Video)

"Bad News Bear Super Gigzzzzz"

Pejazzle

Happy Birthday Jones!

With her tunes still playing in dance clubs today, the woman exemplified the so-called "flat top" hairstyle in many of her concerts in the 1970s, which would become popular among black men in the 1980s. More whicking . . .

Update:
Thanks Unicorn Booty!

19th c. Cinephile Compilation

20 Films Before 1900. Here are 3, the other 17 can be found here on BuzzFeed.

Probably not a good idea to watch this while inebriated, I'm sober and I'm still spinning.


Don't you just want to hug him?


How's about that 19th c. film splicing?

Neddy Teddy Potty

11m 41s



ELEVEN
MINUTES
AND
FORTY
ONE
SECONDS . . .

Did you have the patience? Hopefully you did, the kid grows on you. And me.

After my euphoria and nasal passages got a hold of themselves, I spotted this video on his channel as well . . .



Just so happens, I also have this infamous rice cooker. And yes, it sends off the cooking journey with a tune, bee bop doowop be bop, bop, bop, bam. Little did he know that he had already won me over with those nostrils. Kin, me and him, him and me, us.

Bop.

No but seriously, I don't like him.

Tree of Cacao

I mean Cracow.

"It’s not too far-fetched to describe the circulation of information in 18th-century Paris as a kind of blogosphere. But I admit that this is an outrageous anachronism," said The Harvard Man.

Last month the Getty Center featured a new exhibition Paris: Life & Luxury, which traces the refined activities that took place inside a luxurious Parisian town house of the mid-1700s. On the streets outside such a house, however, occurred one activity a bit less refined: trade in gossip with remarkable parallels to the blogosphere of our own day. Historian Robert Darnton gave a free talk last month about this 18th-century blogging culture and the scandalous tidbit—known in centuries past as the anecdote.

Why is a renowned historian of the book talking about commenting, clouds, and Twitter? He explained during a break between teaching classes as Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard, directing the world’s biggest university library, and writing books on his favorite century, the 18th.

You say there was a blogosphere in the 18th century. Explain.
It’s not too far-fetched to describe the circulation of information in 18th-century Paris as a kind of blogosphere. But I admit that this is an outrageous anachronism.

Describe this blogosphere.
If you wanted to know about current events in 18th-century Paris, you couldn’t just read a newspaper—censorship and the absolute monarchy prevented that. So you went to a certain tree, known as the Tree of Cracow, in the garden of the Palais Royal. Newsmongers would get oral reports of the news, write it up on little bits of paper, and share it. Some of these bits of paper were confiscated when the police arrested people for sedition. I’ve worked in the papers of the Bastille prison and come across them.

This is an ecology of information not all that different from blogs, in which a snippet of information appears, and then there are comments, and comments on the comments.

An 18^th-century information society?
It bugs me when people say, “we live in the information society,” as if ours is the first one that ever came into existence. Every society is an information society, according to the technologies of the time.

What were the topics of the news?
A lot of it had to do with sex in high places, but there were other topics, too. I’ll begin the lecture with modern blogs and show tidbits of information of this kind from today and the 18th century. The parallels are quite striking.

If these plucky 18th-century newsmongers were working today, what would they be doing?
They’d be blogging, for sure—as people are doing in Cairo, and Syria, and China, and everywhere. Trying to communicate nuggets of information rapidly, and in brief format.

In London, so-called “paragraph men” would reduce a bit of news to a sentence or two. Newspapers consisted of a succession of paragraphs, with no headlines, each of which was autonomous and operated sort of like tweets.

Twitter, 18th-century style. Can you give an example?

“The lieutenant general of police has received an order from Mme D… that no police officer should set foot in a brothel. Mme… still feels loyalty to her former colleagues.”

It’s saying that Madame du Barry, the mistress of the king, used to be a whore.

And this information made it into books, too?
There was a large corpus of printed works that were the result of all this information circulating in Paris.

The Private Life of Louis XV, a four-volume scandalous version of contemporary history, was totally illegal, but a big bestseller. I’d be reading a section and say, “I’ve read this somewhere before”—it was a case of obvious plagiarism. The writer of Louis XV was simply quarrying anecdotes from other sources and cobbling them together. Of 50 pages, 75% is plagiarized. We’re not looking at a book, but a kind of amalgam of blogs. A cloud, you could even call it.

How does a historian of the book come to be interested in blogging?
I think of myself as studying the history of communication. As soon as you really look hard at books and understand how they came into being and were circulated, you realize that they’re part of something much larger: an information ecology.

That’s the point of my lecture, how a well-known book is a product of oral modes of diffusing news, and tidbits assembled by anonymous hack writers in garrets, that eventually acquired the form of a book. The notion of “book” is not adequate to describe that.

You’ve stated that blogs intend to provoke, vent, and gossip. But surely not all blogs…
I wouldn’t pretend that all blogs are like that! The New York Review of Books wants me to blog more for them, because they’re trying to develop a highbrow style of blogging. And why not? I’m not claiming to cover all blogging by any means.

This lecture at the Getty grew out of a blog post for the Review, which drew on “The Devil in the Holy Water,” a thick academic book no one will read. It was nice that I could get the same ideas across rapidly in the form of a blog.

The lecture that was a blog post, that began as a book?
Exactly!

Your lecture complements the exhibition Paris: Life & Luxury, which traces a day in an 18th-century Parisian town house. As a historian of that century, do you feel we can ever get close to how people really thought, or felt, at this time?
I’m a true believer in the importance of seeing other worlds in the past as people saw them at the time—but it’s much more easily said than done. A really good exhibition can help in the mental effort to “think yourself back” to a different world. If you can surround yourself with objects, pictures, articles of furniture and dress, and things people used in their daily lives and try to imagine the way they were used, you’re already moving into another mental universe. I’m really looking forward to spending time in the exhibition.

Interviewed by Annelisa Stephan for The J.Paul Getty Museum. Because I cite things. Although I heard through the grapevine that MLA is now defunct? And the SAT's are now 2400? What? 1600 was high enough on the number count, I only have so many fingers, and so many toes. I guess I'll throw out my (dusty, ssshhh!) MLA handbook. Later alligator! (Here's where you say "In a while crocodile!" with enthusiasm, because you'll miss me.)

Bop.

Oyoshe ft Blaq Poet - Deal With It

It is good to see Europe and N. America creatively coming together. 

Via Youtube's description:

First official debut video of the neapolitan beatmaker Oyoshe feat Blaq Poet with the song ''Deal With It''(cuts by Dj Snatch) From the Album ''Bring Da Noise 2'' out for Soulspazm (u.s.a)Subway and B.M. Records (eu).

Cinematography by NelloGiordano.com & Simone Esposito.

Shot In Naples,Italy from Bring Da Noise 2 Release party in Naples

Blaqpoet is coming out of Queensbridge. 

Oyoshe is representing Naples, Italy and he has an EP of which, he is giving away for free. The download link is here.

bopNEBULAbop

Beep.

Boop.Bop.

Everybody is Doing the Irish Dougie

Have you given the Irish Dougie a try?

Boyz Gone Wild Nude Irish Breakdancing In Public

Tosh.O

I need to find a way to see Da Tosh live. 

Daniel Tosh - Feeding the Baby Birds

Absolutely hilarious stand up from Daniel Tosh. His mind is ridiculous! No one is safe. Completely Serious:




Click through for the remainder of the routine.

Owe Owe Owe Owe OWE!

Woof!



Bop.

Stand Up and Listen- Immortal Technique has Something to Say

...While in Kabul I read an inscription on the tomb of a Mujahideen Leader, Abdul Haq. It read “War is easy. You just shoot the enemy. Politics is difficult you have [to]convince people to do the right thing.”

Via YouTube: Thanks to http://www.ViperRecords.Com we can bring you this animated short film set to Immortal Technique's underground hit "Dance With The Devil". This was created by a German film animation student called Viola Baier, It has been screened at more than 20 festivals all over the World and won numerous awards.

Click through to see and here more from Immortal Technique including the official video to Dance With The Devil with the original lyrics. 

Yes, Those Are In Fact Rockets

"Dancing like Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel Air on top of a M1068 in full gear, 
while MLRS rockets fly behind me."


The username of the original video (#2) is saddening. 

Something Saadiq with which to Chill

In Case You Don't Already Know (Click). 

In The 2011 Beastie Boys Still Fight For Your Right

Here is an Unbelievably badass video with so many damn cameos it will make you pull out your autograph book and get to looking for a pen. With Regards to their New Full Length, In this Blogger's opinion, Dope. Buy it and don't look back.


Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right (Revisited) Full Length. Sit back, relax, and prepare to receive a heavy dose of enjoyment:

        Doin' the Beastie thing.

Phil Andelman

Click Through To Listen To The Full Album

SEALbopTHATbopDEAL . . .

. . . bop

Just for the record, this Bop Bop is no cowgirl. But, Dan Seals is a boy-cowgirl who really understands the bop within.


Within Me.

Wikipedia, you sadden this Not-Cowgirl Cowgirl by not only throwing it out there, but also by sealing (I laugh) the deal with providing the link to slap me in the face for a second time. To-the-max slap, complete with the whole he-passed-away-looking-off-into-the-distance-cyanotype-man-of-integrity portrait. Oh, and then this gut punch:

'He will forever be remembered for his gentle smile, easy going demeanor, his enduring faith and endless generosity.'

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be a temporary Cowgirl,

Ham Bone Soup

As I do quite often, I got the following recipe from the New York Times. Post Easter equaled a lonely ham bone and I finally got to try it out as I had been sitting on the recipe since January of this year. I followed the recipe to the T, yet let it stew for a bit longer than suggested as I wanted a very flavorful broth. It turned out great, broth was very good, I am still deciding weather or not I liked the navy beans (I tried navy and pinto mixed) or would potentially leave them out in favor of just kidney beans. I also chose the red wine vinegar over the hot sauce as I peppered to taste and did not feel a need. Enjoy! 

• 4 strips bacon, thick cut, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 celery stalks, trimmed and sliced
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 ham bone (1 1/4 pounds), cut in half or in thirds (ask your butcher to do this)
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus additional to taste
• 1/2 head green cabbage, shredded (about 8 cups)
• 3 cups cooked beans (rinsed and drained if canned), such as cannellini, navy or pinto
• 1 small bunch kale, ribs removed and leaves chopped into bite-size pieces (6 cups)
• Black pepper, to taste
• Hot sauce or apple cider vinegar, to taste.

1. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate.

2. Add the carrots, celery and onion to the pot. Stir until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Drop in the ham bone and bay leaf. Cover with 8 cups water and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and simmer 30 minutes. Add the beans and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in the kale and simmer until soft, but vibrantly green, about 15 minutes. Season with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt (or more to taste). Add lots of pepper and a dash of hot sauce or vinegar. Serve with crumbled bacon on top.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears

If you don't know about them, get to learning right quick. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears are coming though tonight at One Eyed Jacks. Their debut album, front to back, upwards, forwards, and inwards is a great album. Fun, enjoyable, and ideal for countless situations (Tell Em What Your Name Is). They have a new album that came out mid march entitled Scandalous, of which I am just finding out about, so another album to add to the catalog and another reason to anticipate a good summer (summer is always made better with a few new good releases) Check it out and pick it up. Here is a tune, I'm Broke, off of their first album:

.

The Black Joe Lewis Bio:
Joe Lewis is stuffed into a van with his six bandmates and one stranger, as they hurtle across Texas to a gig in Marfa. Most of the guys are sleeping now, content in the knowledge they’ve just made the record of their lives. All killer, no filler, the fittingly titled, take-no-prisoners Scandalous (Lost Highway)—once again produced by Jim Eno, moonlighting from his main gig as Spoon’s drummer—is a churning slab of rock & roll, blues and funk, laced with a double shot of 100-proof punkitude.
This band has gotten tight as a gnat’s ass through nearly two years of barnstorming without a break. “We’ve grown a lot as a band, and so has our fan base,” the lanky, enigmatic Lewis acknowledges. “Hopefully it’s still going up, but it will ultimately be what we make of it. As the shows get bigger and we get bigger, we have to keep improving to meet the demand. If we can’t do that, it won’t go anywhere.” From the look in Joe’s eyes as he glances at the one-stoplight towns and endless open country of central Texas whizzing past, you can tell he knows whereof he speaks.
While on the road, they also eagerly soaked up the worldly knowledge of touring mates the New York Dolls and Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm. “The Dolls covered Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson, and so do we,” says guitarist Zach Ernst, riding shotgun in the van, as he does in the band. “That youthful, aggressive, unschooled thing is really appealing to us. That’s what we like to listen to and what we’re shooting for. We’ve had some lineup changes since the first record, but at its core, it’s still the same band, and everyone’s excited to move on to the next stage.”
Like his forebears, Lewis writes from direct, often bitter experience with unflinching veracity. The songs of Scandalous are littered with the debris of age-old issues: hard times and one-night stands, lying and cheating, redemption and revenge. Gritty, raunchy and real, his music is not for the squeamish, but experiencing it fully can be genuinely cathartic.

Check out his music as well on NPR

Click through for more. 

no big deal

mommy's doing faceups

fwomaj kaas pho mát casei ost gazta juusto käse

It's a cheesy kind of Thursday evening. Throwback, 90s style.

Frenchie brie:


Sade (insert Yoruba word for cheese) here:



Icelandic ostur:


And for those who are in a healthy and intimate relationship with cheese, check out these pearls of wisdom.

(L)augh (O)ut (L)oud

It's World Laughter Day!!!

See what the menu entails ;)

1) GIBBERISH LAUGH - make up your own nonsense language and interact with everyone with gibberish and giggles
2) ROARING LAUGHTER - raise your hands like lions claws, squint your eyes and ROAR with LAUGHTER - interacting with everyone
3) Someone will shout ROFL (Roll on The Floor Laughing) and that's what you do - throw yourself to the floor and laugh hysterically
4) PRETEND FINISH - we all carry on as if we're done playing - then...
5) SKIP WITH JOY - you take hold of a hand and skip around laughing joyfully
6) STINKY SHOE - laugh at yourself as if you stood in pooh and wave your hand about like the smell is bad and makes you laugh more
7) LAUGH FOR PEACE - we end our FLASHMOB with hands outstretched LAUGHING for the world - sending all YOUR LOVE & LAUGHTER TO THE WORLD...

And how it was carried out earlier this afternoon ;)




Brought to us by the upliftment Programme!

Which I gotta say, seems like a wonderfully awesome "programme."

South Africa, you're doing this world right. Dankie!