Ryan Leslie: A Truly Moving Musician

Ryan Leslie.

If you haven't heard of him by now, and it's been quite some time he's been floating just under the radar as his live production videos on YouTube have become instant classics, you need to throw away any hesitation and hop on the train.

This guy knows music. And, many people can attest to his success in the domain of music as I have seen numerous comments on his videos that have only jocked on Leslie's ability to put music together so seamlessly, and even under the watchful eye of a video camera. Talent. Genius. Crazy. Whatever people want to call him, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that we like what we hear and see.

I mean, you're a beast if you can take Lollipop and overlay a sense of somehow classical beauty on top of it. I'm not exaggerating when I say it made me cry because it was so beautiful. The only other way I can put it without being too sentimental is this way: It's simply amazing, man.

Live Nation Interview with Jay-Z

So, throughout my music listening career, which started probably around middle school as far as deciding which pieces or artists I especially liked, I have been a slow adopter to Jay-Z. Yes, he has topped charts and sold incredible amounts of music. Yes, he has a way with his words. Yes, he's a model of hard work and persistence.

But even with all his accolades and achievements, my respect for him was never as whole-heartedly passionate as, say, Lupe Fiasco, or Ryan Leslie, both of whom strike me as creative and amazing people with very little or no restrictions. I had never seen Mr. Carter in plain conversation, and self-disclosing himself and his experiences until I saw the following interview.

This post reveals a "if I haven't seen it, it's new to me" type of stance, I know. And, I'm sure that there are countless biographers of Mr. Carter that would probably like to school me on what else I don't know about their home town hero. But, let me just get away with this: I was slow to accept him as a truly articulate person with depth beyond how he came to be the shit. But, this interview has cultivated a new found respect for his conversational knowledge, and his understanding of culture and art.

It's a chill little interview. Nothing too flashy. But, it consists of some legitimately synthesized knowledge about culture. Credit Hiphopdom.com

Ambient's Orb: An Innovation With Potential

This past weekend, I was up in El Dorado Hills sitting in a Mercedes dealership waiting room and had some time to kill. So, I picked up one of the many magazines they had laying neatly arranged in eight columns and four rows beneath a large screen LCD TV that was broadcasting horse-racing, or whatever the hell it is that typical Benz consumers enjoy watching, and I turned the page to this neat little innovation dubbed the "Ambient Orb".

Apparently, I and many others are way behind with the news as Ambient released this thing back in 2004, and it was dubbed one of the five ideas to watch in June 2004 by INC. This orb is bad ass, and the idea has a lot more potential than what has manifested. The Ambient Orb changes color with the weather, stock market, or traffic to let you know if it's going to rain today (the orb turns blue), or if your stocks are up (the orb turns red)--the orb changes colors throughout the color wheel. Right now, the biggest downside is that it runs on the same frequency as pagers do. So, updates come half-hourly--but, this simple orb is bound to amass new technologies and partnerships to create extremely useful key chains that offer real time traffic or weather updates, rising and falling stocks, or maybe even hurricane and tsunami alerts. The possibilities are numerous, to me.

Check out this company and their goodies "dito".

P.S. If anyone can offer any input on whether ResistAll treatment from the dealership is worth it--holla at me. I'm trying to streamline expenses on as many fronts as possible.

*Edit: After a little looking around, ResistAll seems to be nothing more than overpriced exterior and interior protection. If you're faced with the opportunity to purchase a ResistAll package, you'll probably want to reconsider and just go to a professional detailer. Or, you could apply a good coat of Zaino, and just Scotchgard your interior fabrics yourself.

Need a little perspective on the situation?

Pharrell Williams whipped up a chair to help:

"I had often wondered what it's like to truly be in love, not lust for once.. So I decided not to ask what it was like in someone else's shoes or what it was like to sit in their seat.. I decided to sketch out my own experiment; the perspective chair."

Domeau & Pérès, a design duo who joined forces in the mid 90s to produce an exquisite portfolio primarily consisting of seating, teamed up with Williams to produce an interesting piece of furniture that is said to represent the love between a man and a woman.

While, Williams asserts the inspiration for the chair was the contemplation of the 'love experience' and not lust, the design seems to enliven my loins. I mean...maybe I'm crossing the line, and I've got a mind in desperate need of soap. But, take a thorough look at the stilts, and tell me you don't contemplate the quality of the sex position.

Irregardless of the intended function, "Perspective" is certain to help people concoct new perspectives for the function of the seat--and, the traditional utility is not what I'm thinking about, here.

Another semester done...

...closing another chapter of my life while simultaneously opening new ones:

1. Instructor Lue Cobene, my humanities professor at SCC, has opened my mind to new complexities that have reinvented my mentality, and have re-enlivened my child-like appreciation for life and humanity. For a greater part of my life, I'm certain.

2. After much silent deliberation within myself and some deliberation without, I took the leap for living more environmentally conscious and being more "stream-lined" by letting go of the Subaru for one of these marvels of technological creativity (As a matter of fact, the fam took the plunge to pick one of these up for themselves. So, we actually have a pair of HCH's =D):


More info here: +

The 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid + Satellite linked navigation package (Special thanks to the fellas at El Cerrito Honda for hooking it up below MSRP, and with an exceptionally low interest rate with no money down. Not to mention the 100,000 mile/8 year warranty with Gap Insurance!)

3. The summer countdown towards the Fall of 2008 Nursing Program initiation in August begins! After a week of allowing myself to become quasi-useless, I will be asserting upon myself a regular schedule of review and preparation for the program. The days are TBD, but I want to keep my time management skills sharp.

4. And, finally with the excess in free time, I am allocated the opportunity to keep up with my fitness as well as exercise the creative juices that have been dying for attention. I will be experimenting with media that I have been able to experiment with only sparsely. Not to mention, I will be hitting up Vegas, and the East Coast. Rock out, fellas.

An ode to the Subie:


I will miss your rumble.

Did I mention to check out my brother's photography?

You had no idea.
There's more where that came from! *

Keeping true to the blog's name.

Linked from e90post.com

Disregarding the poor lighting and composition, this picture is pretty badass. I'm probably just hardcore jocking the Lambos (It's three fucking Murcielagos). Even the helicopter pilot's in it.

I was supposed to be reasoning as to how Hung Liu, a Chinese painter who immigrated to the US in the 1980s, is an example of the highly experienced dancer, Twyla Tharp's, theory of creativity. But, pressing the Stumble! button on my tool bar was much easier!

And, I saw this clip, yesterday: the artist's name is Blu, and he was able to produce an animation by seaming together his paintings on public walls. It's a trip considering the vision, and his success in executing it. Check it out, it's entertaining to say the least:

Muto

Anyone else craving some Chutney's?

Iron Man: Holding it down [A Spoiler-free Review]

I caught a later showing of Iron Man last night at the AMC in Emeryville, and left the theater with dry contacts, an Icee-filled gut, and a re-enlivened desire to examine the comic book universe.

First impressions of the movie as a whole: Memorable, and of "I-would-buy-that-as-soon-as-it-releases-on-DVD" caliber. The movie successfully adapts the comic book to the big screen as the film is able to give a sense of realness to the fantastic story.

Iron Man succeeds in drawing the audience into the story from the beginning as the opening scene gets viewers to ask themselves, "How did it get to this point?" The cause of the initial problem is cleverly revealed and the loop is closed, creating a segweigh(sp?) into another conflict that is able to come full circle, itself--the movie does a good job at tying up ends that are opened up, and is as mindful as possible to real world limitations and possibilities.

The effects are incredible. Industrial Light & Magic maintain their reputation of producing, might as well be pissing, excellence and are able to make the cutting edge technology within the movie's world come to life. Forget about the explosions, the more subtle effects that involve Tony Stark's use of design tools elicit just as many "aw, shit" moments, if not more.

Besides the effects, the use of pretty people, exotic cars, and the latest gadgetry keep the audience clinging on to their seat with one hand, and wiping the drool off the sides of their mouths with the other. I found myself practically raping Tony Stark's workspace with my eyes; Stark dabbled (at least, the movie made Stark's work seem like play) with his projects in a designer/engineer's wet-dream of workspaces: artificially intelligent bots and computer programs that aid Stark's implementation and troubleshooting, seemingly limitless amounts of the highest quality materials, and the sweetest 3D drafting process ever (!!!!!!!!).

Iron Man even tickles the comic book savvy viewers pink with a couple lines that hint at possibilities of future film developments from the Marvel Universe.

Iron Man is worth your time and a non-matinée price. It is engaging (my Icee was doomed to last no longer than 2 minutes, I was so engaged)and entertaining (so much so that I probably didn't blink often enough to keep my contacts adequately lubricated), and will probably have you sifting through your old comic books wishing you could have that much more Iron Man in your life.