The musings of a madman...

Question time... Today's question came from a discussion The Katie and I had over something that had come across the television. In a nutshell, the question that came of the conversation was as follows, which I posted to FaceBook, of course. "Question of the day... At what point does a woman assume, not assume or hyphenate her last name to her husband's upon becoming married?" Basically, she had asked me "what IS the point of hyphenating a last name?" and questioned the basic protocol. My explanation as I have understood and usually seen it happen will be in my response at the end. I knew I would have at least some good conversation over this one... First response came from Tiffany, with... "I think this is one of those questions that could produce hundreds of answers, it really depends on the woman and her personal attachment to her last name. I have NO attachment to my last name, so I would have no problem ridding myself of it. I th

You know, I don't know how I feel coming into this one... While Dancehall Reggae and rap make for a more natural combination -- as evidenced by BDP and the legendary commercial debut of the not-quite best ever Biggie on a SuperCat remix -- I was not too sure with how a more Roots Reggae/Rap hybrid would come across. Hell, even Capleton leaned to his own Dancehall sensibilities when Lil Jon (yes, that same one) gave him a beat to remix Wings of the Morning with Method Man. Knowing that Nas desparately needs money from an ugly divorce is needing a new creative outlet, and that Damian Marley is criminally slept-on, perhaps in his father's legendary shadow, we are to expect that this is a case of like minds coming together. For the sake of me, I am PRAYING that this shit works. And for those who doubt me, I did not become the dude to own/download literally thousands of albums because I wanted to hate on shit. Yes, often I come across an album that is an absolute fucking stinkfes

The jokes on this season are showing their age. Rappers going broke started LAST YEAR, and the Soulja Boi/Ice T thing was just a bit fresher then than now. Sure, last week's show was marginally funny, what with the light it drew to both sides of Obamamania, showing just how little sense either side makes, but it too arrived 12 months late. It is OBVIOUS that these were written a year or more ago, the pop culture references are so old that they've gone stale. With this much of a pushback, these should have been cutting room floor relics, bonus material on a DVD somewhere. Locked away in a vault somewhere and only rumored about, not on television making for way-too-late jokes. Really, I am expecting someone to yell "SIIIIIIIKE!!!" after fooling someone, or something like that. Hell, I may even see a bootleg Bart Simpson T-Shirt . [ Phlip note - 2 links, that] Anyone who knows me knows how much I Stan for The Boondocks, what with every daily comic strip on my comput

I have come to the conclusion that "I have a headache tonight" is the most bullshit excuse for not wanting to make sex employed in the world. Blame this post on the whole "The Katie and I were talking" aesthetic... We were actually talking about the science of headaches and what I learned from my own (to-be-discussed) experiences about them, then jokes were made and next somewhere during the exchange was one of my "this WILL become a post" declarations. Sex -- at least good, or even just decent sex -- is cardiovascular activity, which promotes increased bloodflow in 2 ways. Getting to moving ups heart rate, and... The redistribution of blood to create an erection, or wet up her "area," or ESPECIALLY to make those muscles she has there (yes!!!) work do the same. As an individual who on occasion goes to bed drunk, is terribly stressed by his current employer, and has suffered 3 skull fractures and a broken jaw all at once, it is sufficed to say

Been a while since I did one of these. Fact of the matter, though, is that this one was presented as an idea by The Katie. Initially, I shot it down, since people already see me as some kind of raging homophobe and sexist, but what have I to lose? Not like I have many people left to offend these days. The question, as I present VERBATIM from the Book of Face, is... "Time for a new question of the day. Please be mature AND HONEST when answering this one... Would your opinion of someone -- like a close friend -- change if they revealed to you that they were gay?" [ Phlip note - the lead in was VERY necessary, as I have friends who are more immature than I am known to be] First respondent was my cousin Gloria, with... "No. For the most part u already had an idea they were...I do have a lil cuzzo that did shock the fam. But I love her no matter what." Next was trapped-in-New Englander, Joe , with... "No. I've had a couple come out and I said "well i

Seriously... With respects to Tony Grands on this one. Thought of this while reading his post from the other day just now. Don't judge me, I been catching up on my reading since I got back in town, RSS reader is STILL kicking my ass. As I think about this, how exactly WERE Biggie and Tupac any better than Guru? It seems that as Hip Hop observers, we neglect to say that people are what they claim they were while they were still alive. I mean that to say that EVERY rapper claims that they're the best, and as a competitive marketplace I can't say that I blame them. Parlance on the subject serves it that we would be miss to not stop and think about what it is that qualifies these claims and properly assess what it is that makes them so or refutes them. I have never been a Tupac Stan, but that is more related to my having been turned off of him by the deluge of 'Pac Stans in my high school. The experience was basically ruined on me, I just couldn't see how they could b

When I search for the images to use in these things, sometimes I happen upon cars to use in future ones... In such, this one was searched, written and images attached 3 weeks ago when I actually did the one on the Benz SLR. Sue me, I think ahead... Anyway, Aston Martin is more than just the "James Bond cars," even though they very much ARE the car that Daniel Craig is very much wheeling as 007 these days. In fact, there was a time that they were quite heavy in the sportscar game. This one was no different, coming in proper coupe and convertible configurations. The GT version, which you will see more of than others in this were the racing version, and Lord knows that they were taken that way, with the Zagato specifically, lighter weight and brisk performance, with 6ish seconds to 60MPH and a top speed of around 155ish. You've seen one in movies if you have seen The Italian Job or Goldfinger. On to the images, now. Gallery can be found here .

I have always been of the opinion that April is given something that other months do not, in the whole "April Fools" prank day... Me being the jerk equal-rights advocate that I am, I am declaring that the first of every month except for January and July "[...] Fools" day, and you are thence allowed to run about pulling pranks on all your friends and family members. January 1st is not to be changed because it is a holiday already, and New Years is kind of a big deal already. July is off limits because it is my birthday and ain't NOTHING foolish about my birthday. As with anything, it is expected that this will not be universally accepted, likely even shunned by some, but that will be the fun of it. Seriously, how many people get pinched EVERY year on St. Patrick's? How many people ALWAYS seem to get caught the fuck up in someone's April Fools prank every year? How many of you are the latter of those two? WELL NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!!! The advantage for you h

Double star bonus coverage this time, legendary people weren't supposed to die in the middle of my month, dammit. Sometime in the middle of March, I decided that in April I would set about the task of posting EVERY day for a solid month, just to see if I could pull it off. I'd have my go-to moves, what with talking sports and music, cooking a time or two if it comes to that and there is always crossing my fingers and hoping some shit pops off in the news. I used the birthday of a favorite musician of mine as well as my disdain for a purely American (and wholly fucking BORING) sport, as I have time and again. Anyway... Taking a cue, or just lifting the name from what has become one of my favorite documentary series of the past several years -- like since Ken Burns' Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson -- I went on a tear of 30 for 30; to get at least one post up every day for the 30 days of April. Simply put, I made great use of my drafts a

Keep in mind that this has been a project that has been months in the making... While I have been infinitely excited about getting it done the whole time, I am sometimes lazy and always busy with life. In such, I am only now completing the project. As it were, you will see mention of things that happened months ago over the course of this... Since the last desk and a few months (well, now 3 years) following. I have been kicking around the idea of doing something new as far as my workstation. In the old house, it would surely have been a corner workstation, as I was sitting in a corner to the right-hand side of the room with no interference from the heating/cooling vents. Since moving, however, I am working to my left and I do not have enough corner over here to be able to do a corner workstation, so my original plan was thus scrapped. Tears will be shed in its having been jettisoned. [ Phlip note - not really, but it was fun to type that] Anyway... Dicking around in my RSS