The musings of a madman...

This is what we're all after now... Okay, we have finally separated the wheat from the chaff and the NBA regular season has drawn to a close. Teams who did not stand a chance can spend the next 8 weeks thinking about what they will do in the NBA draft, and 2 following that making moves for the free agency boom that will see LeBron keeping his ass in Cleveland. [ Phlip note - I been saying it for 2 years now, and I will eat the proverbial crow if it doesn't happen] We can now speak of the things that one should at the end of a season, awards and playoffs and such. **Post Season Awards** I was wrong about Rookie of the Year, but I was not expecting The Clippers to be so unlucky as to have the kid Blake Griffin go down without playing a single game. As it were, and as a watcher of basketball, DeJuan Blair SHOULD win it, but Tyreke Evans or Brandon Jennings will win it, I am thinking Evans personally. Defensive player of the year is a no-brainer. Dwight Howard leads the league in

BEST RAPPER ALIVE!!! Speaking of Lil Wayne... Well, no we weren't, but guess where this is going? Anyways, we know the serial paternalizer is locked away for what is slated to be a year in the pokey. We're not here to talk about that either, though. Well, not necessarily, though it might come up. While it might be easy to hate ON the little tattooed gremlin-looking fellow, it requires a little more effort and perhaps a bit of pretense to actually hate him when time is taken to separate real life from entertainment. What some of us may not know is that Vh1 does have a couple series worth watching other than reality TV shows, which is in itself only barely worth watching sometimes. [ Phlip note - but damned if many of us can look away... Don't judge me] Back around his birthday, he was profiled on Vh1's Behind The Music , which you should probably seek to watch if you've not seen it yet. My sister happens to be one of the most fickle and stubborn people I know -- yes

Next Tuesday is the scheduled release of NC duo Little Brother's final-as-a-duo album Leftback , and I am not sure how I felt about that fact when I read it on Okayplayer a few months ago, all I know is that it was not a good feeling. That being said, and knowing how these things normally transpire, about as soon as I heard the lead single, I kept a keen eye on my RSS feeds for the day the entire album leaked which I would then use as my front-loaded and usually preconceived feeling as to whether or not I would be making a retail purchase at my local FYE for $9.99 or less for single-disc albums (c'mon, man... somebody cut me a check!) ... I say that to say this: I am a fan of Little Brother and they have not yet dropped a retail release that I found anything less than enjoyable enough to not be pissed that the player in my car is being a bitch right now after 3 years on the playback of random MP3 discs, indicating that it is likely near life and close to replacement before my b

Today marks the anniversary of Herbie Hancock's 70th trip around the sun, give or take the amount we lose to the idea of time being a still inexact science, thus necessitating leap years. As some of you know already, I happen to be one of the biggest fans of Herbie you'll ever come across. I happen to very much dig how easily and effectively he blurs the lines between genres of music without cheapening anything he should happen to involve himself in. Need someone to play a concert piano? You got it! Need someone to master the not-so-much-used clavinet? Yep! Hip hop is taking influence now, could you learn the 808? Damn skippy! As one of the ones tapped to play in the youngest of Miles Davis' famous quintets -- known as the "second great quintet" -- we saw Herbie come in on what SHOULD have been the coattail of an even-then careermaker in Jazz music, but still find his own right there, using things rarely if ever seen in Jazz music. Not only "Miles' piano

You know what? I am not at all angered by "negro" being on the census form that The Katie filled and returned for us. I am actually more "okay" with that than I happen to be with "African American," because "negro" is Latin and Spanish, and relatable in damn near every other Latin-Based (think: most of the European ones, and the one you're reading now unless through a translator or are skimming for pretty pics of cars) language, with the exception of English. See, I have NEVER been to Africa. As presented, I have no designs on ever even going, at least not until someone does something about the issues presenting it as difficult to live in, thus making it hard to even WANT to visit. You don't plan to visit somewhere that is largely uninhabitable to even those forced to try to inhabit it unless you're there to try to change shit. I am an American. My parents, their parents and THEIR parents were all born in America. None of them, to th

Ahh... The good ol' "friends with benefits" thing. It is where two individuals are not in a relationship and are free to do what they will separate of each other with other people if they choose, but are casually making sex here and there as well. See, they're "friends," per se, in that they're acquainted and familiar. The "benefit" is naked time. There has always been a question as to whether or not this arrangement actually ever WORKS for the better of any individuals involved. It is hotly contested, actually, and is usually split right down gender and/or age lines. Ever the one to incite a riot get people talking, on Tuesday I presented the Book of Face with today's Question of the Day: "'Friends with benefits'... Can it work, and if so/not why or why not?" And waited to let the people slug hug it out... As usual, all responses are presented with no editing on my part, other than for the proper use of quotat

(no parenthesized numbers in this title... more on that another day) Wanna see some shit that was just uncalled for? Click here for video , then return to continue... THAT shit was uncalled for... If the video did not imbed properly (I'm at work right now), what Billy Payne said was... "Finally, we are not unaware of the significance of this week to a very special player, Tiger Woods. A man who in a brief 13 years clearly and emphatically proclaimed and proved his game to be worthy of the likes of Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. As he ascended in our rankings of the world's great golfers, he became an example to our kids that success is directly attributable to hard work and effort. But as he now says himself, he forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility. It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, o

What I do know is that Zenovo is a Danish automaker, specializing in supercars... What I do know is that at some point, likely while I was drunk, I saw the car you will be seeing today and typed it's name in a blog draft to come back to when sober... What I do know is that this car sports a 7.0 liter V8 engine with a supercharger AND a turbocharger and makes 1100 horses as a result. Overkill much? Not when they only made like 15 of them and sold them for some still undisclosed, but wholly ridiculous amount of money. The secrecy under which this car comes is the catalyst for intrigue, and lord knows I am feeling it. Because of the exclusivity, not as many pictures as you're accustomed to in these blogs exists, but I am presenting what I have, and trust that all known and pertinent information is as presented above. Picture time, and I apologize for any duplicates, I am feeling lazy today...

I was thinking for a while, that I could probably pull off being homeless for a few months... I would need: A post office box. A storage unit for all my "stuff" My car. A job (but not necessarily) A membership at a 24-hour gym Now that we have established those things, let us look at how this might work... See, my mail would come to the PO box, simple as that. That way I am still getting my stuff from work and the people with the storage unit, as well as the bill from my insurance company. Now, the way shit goes in NC, the only time you could pull this off would be from late March to September, when the night time weather allows you to live comfortably like this. Now, you sleep every night in the car outside of the gym, when bothered by any fuzz, just go IN the damned gym, workout for a couple minutes and all should be fine. Worried about smelling? Take a shower before you leave the gym, the showers are there for a reason. When the heat is off, camp out on one of the couch

Do you know what happened today in 1933? If you're like me and you love beer, then you do. Today marks the day that Prohibition ended in the United States of America . Recently, as in from the day after Fat Tuesday until this past Sunday (Easter), I gave up Beer for Lent, against the expectations of those who might want to think I am what they want me to be instead of allowing me to be who I am... Anyway, the utter silliness of Prohibition compared to the revenue it created/creates, compared to money made in a flourishing bootleg market that brought us what is now NASCAR racing, oddly enough was eventually brought to a close on this day. One would think this to be kind of a big deal, but apparently no surprise to Frank Yuengling -- the son of the "Son" in the D.G. Yuengling & Son -- who sent a truckload of his "Winner Beer" to FDR to enjoy in the White House. Noteworthy is that Yuengling beer took 3+ weeks to brew and age at the time, not to mention that it