Some of my work from Fly Magazine

Monday, September 30, 2013

Government Shutdown mirrors Banker Bailout fear mongering



This sounds like complicated politics, but its not. Many people will say I am over simplifying this but plain and simple it boils down to the fact that The US is out of money, and overwhelmed with debt. The same criminals who swindled the US out of $700 billion for the banker bailout, are at it again. This time they will have to make their own followers suffer to get it.

The news will tell us that Republicans are fighting Democrats, but it's simply not true. Yes there are a small group of Tea Party republicans( only repubs for political gain, but Tea Party Activist are actually constitutionalist) who are merking up the political system because simply they are the only ones without the corporations money stuffing their pockets who can stand up to the banks.

Obamacare is the basis for this shutdown. There are those who disagree with this legislation, rightly so, who will do anything to block it. Make no mistake, Obamacare is going to destroy an economy that is already $17 Billion in debt, according to the Federal Reserve, but that number is closer to $211 billion according to expert Max Keiser who said, “If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap,” he says. “That’s our true indebtedness,” said financial expert Max Keiser.

Bottomline... this is what is happening. The White House has shown they will do anything to help their rich masters achieve their socialist goals, for example, use the IRS to harass people, steal your information for the NSA, lie about WMD, start fake terrorism alerts (google NSA's statement today), and are completely criminal. There is nothing left for the Democrats to stand on, all integrity has been stripped away, this is a last ditch effort to bring people to their cause. Obama would rather go face to face with the American people, than to repeal this horrible legislation that is not, let me repeat, NOT universal healthcare, not even close.

The second part is that we have hit a debt ceiling. We have already pushed it higher a few years ago, which allowed the White House to donate monies all over we can't afford, (check contributions to Egypt, and over $70 billion unaccounted for in Afghanistan,) and are spending over $900 billion in Defense, (only $90 on education at home). The wars, banker bailout, endless printing of money (QE unlimited) and inflation have put in-debt we will never recover from.

There are now over 40 million poor people in this country according to the census, and Tea Party activist are just taking a stand to the bankers politicians who want to put us farther into debt, and the democrats won't budge on their need for more money.

It was the Tea Party culprits who once ruined the well wishes plans of a King in England, and once again it is a Tea Party that has ruined the plans of the ruling elite, this time it is a banker plutocracy that sits on the throne. Tea Party Republicans have been labeled by Speaker of the House Harry Reid as “anarchists,” for muddling the politics of every level of government in his estimation to stop the implementation of Obamacare.

The push by Democrats for Obamacare ignores the already almost admitted $17 trillion of debt that Professor from Boston University, Laurence J. Kotlikoff said is only the tip of the iceberg, “We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt,” the professor also served on President Regan’s economic advisors, “We’re focused on official debt, so we are trying to balance the wrong books.”

Forbes published a column this week titled, “If Republicans want to shutdown Washington, they may have to get China’s permission first,” and they may be right. After all, it is the fear of the US biggest debt collector’s austerity measures that is being hung over the heads of all Americans, by both parties, and a looming threat of a financial crisis that is being used to justify more debt and more money.

So we might end up needing to close the Federal Government because we spend so much on it. We can't afford to employ a sickening amount of people for the Feds and operate at the rate of spending we are at. This White House doesn't care what is good for the country, they only care about what is good for the banks and their masters.

Consider this, if you can't afford healthcare, you get fined. Now how does that make sense? where does that fine money go to? more government bureaucrats, while the people continue to suffer and go further in debt.

Democrats who still support this White House jobs are being dangled as bait for the opposition to consider, which is being ignored by the mainstream media.

This has happened before. There are 700 billion reasons every American should be concerned about the latest partisan showdown on the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill. In 2008 it was the same fear of a looming shutdown and financial crisis that lead to bad decisions by the Congress.

Appealing to Congress on the basis of “security and creating financial stability,” then Henry Paulson pleaded to congress to avoid the final crash of the banks, later admitting guilt involved in insider trading, and fumbling his answer on his conflict of interest in 2010 in congressional hearing when questioned by R-Cliff Stearns of Florida.

The same criminals are holding our economy hostage, this time so they can implement a scientific tyranny, they can tax you on if you don't agree with.

The Federal government is too big already and needs to be reduced, not all Republicans and Democrats really are opposed to each other, they just argue about small details. Follow the money, its in all of their pockets, they are not even considering how much Obamacare will put this country in debt and they are not protecting Social Security.

Imagine someone owes you 100 dollars, and haven't paid off one dollar, and wants to borrow another 200 without paying off the first debt. That is what is happening in a nut shell, Obama wants us to pay for his bad legislation, and raise the debt on the country. There are people who think enough is enough.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/18/news/economy/bailout_hearing/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2013/09/29/if-republicans-want-to-shut-down-washington-theyll-have-to-ask-chinas-permission-first/
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISIS/recipients.html
http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/09/17-trillion-u-s-national-debt-try-211-trillion/#0K6CWXyFgB0Zu4Lf.99,
http://www.infowars.com/doomsday-rhetoric-surrounding-government-shut-down-mirrors-bailout-fearmongering/

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

5 Interesting Women in Colorado music

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Amanda Hawkins

Amanda Hawkins - Vocalist, Songwriter, Musician

The sultry voice of Amanda Hawkins is with a new label, Strictly Rhythm, a move she hopes will be the next step in her career. Hawkins new project is a collection of new tracks, and reworked songs from "Who is Jane Doed," mixtape, a moniker she has decided to drop.

"I wanted to be myself," said Hawkins, explaining, "One of the reasons I came up with the whole Jane Doed alias is because I wanted to keep my personal music to myself. Then I realized I needed to speak out, as Amanda."

Hawkings first single, "Get Back in Line," an uptempo pop song about her potential love interest, "We are definitely aiming at a Top 40 format," says Hawkins.

"I just want to uplift people like the people I grew up listening to did for me," says Hawkins, emphasizing how much she yearns for success, "I want to travel the world and perform for people across the globe."

Unfortunately, Hawkins reveals that her group, Della, who performed at the Westword Music Showcase in 2011, is no longer together, "We are still great friends, our parents used to jam together, we will always be friends. People just had kids, marriages and we just had a mutual agreement to part ways."

Hawkings is not scorn at Simon Cowell's scorching criticism, calling her talents, "a waste of investment by her parents," during her American Idol appearance, and gracefully replies, "I disagree." Also her alleged collab with Cee-Lo green never materialized for reasons she didn't want to reveal.

The Colorado native found her love for singing at the age of ten, and with the support of her parents, began to take vocal lesson by age eleven, "my parents were very supportive from the beginning, and still are my biggest supporters" said Hawkings.

Hawkings credits her parent's love for music as the influence on her diverse musical tastes that helped the soulful nature of her voice, "my mom would be playing Janis Joplin and my dad Luther Vandross, it was very diverse in our house, artists who really brought soul to the music."

She certainly embodies the soul of music and often surprises people with her strong voice, "I am a very shy person, so I think people are kind of surprised when they see me perform because I'm a different person on stage. I really believe it comes from somewhere else."




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Mercedes Howard
Ya Girl Cedes

Ya Girl Cedes - Radio personality KS 107.5FM, host, event coordinator

Mercedes Howard, known as Ya Girl Cedes, hosts the night shift on KS107.5 comes from generations of radio personalities in San Diego, but her desire to grow and branch out from a family legecy in radio is what brought her to Denver.

"I was literally getting on a plane back from Milwaukee when my mentor, Tati, called me and told me I should apply for this job in Denver," Cedes said, but she was reluctant to do so considering she has already verbally committed to a job, "she literally got into my email and sent my demo tape to KS 107.5."

Program director John E. Kage was in contact with her almost immediately requesting an interview for the night slot, but either way Cedes was determined to take a job in another city, "I had to grow from out of my dad's name. I needed to branch out and build my own name," said Cedes.

In San Diego Cedes father is known as Tayari, working for 98.1FM Smooth Jazz and although appreciative Cedes had her own reservations, "I just don't want people to be like yeah hook her up that's Tayari's daughter, and do things for me, I want to do it on my own."

Howard started off in radio by taking a traffic reporter internship, that eventually lead to a full time position at the station. She continued to grow in San Diego and, "It was actually unheard of but I was working at rival stations at once," laughed Cedes.

After interviewing for KS107.5 Cedes decided to take the job in Denver, spending most of her time the first year at the station before she decided to continue her father's legacy of community involvement, "he is the face of radio and in the black community at home, and you see a lot of personalities take a job and are not very community oriented, I just had to go out touch the community, I wanted to be part of something."

DJ K-tone had been reaching out to her to get out and network , finally she accepted an invitation to the 2nd annual 5280 awards in 2011, "360 compared to San Diego, an award show, it was insane, Park hill, Bellos, Aurora, everyone was in the building," she said noting taking notice of Rockie, who is now Trev Rich, Pries and Mr. Midas, astonished at the support they received.

She has heard some local animosities for the station by disgruntled rappers, she is encouraged by the artists who have been played on the radio and has advice for those who want to get play, ""Do your research on the process to get your song on, before you do anything, eyes are always watching and be educated on how to submit something for radio," said Howard.

Cedes is now a full on member of the greater community, currently working with the Mayor Hancock's wife Mary Louis on the event "Bring Back the Art," March 24th, at the Bluebird Theater. The event is a musical contest, only available to DPS students, where the contestant with the best original music gets $1000 dollars.

Howard also started her own annual event,Ya Girl Cedes presents "Jam in the Gym," starting last year at Thornton High School, with special guest Baby Bash, "I have been fortunate enough to make a lot of good relationships with big artists who support the idea because they know it is important to give back to the kids, that come and rock out," said Howard.

Supporting the kids is passionate for her because, "I really am just still a kid at heart, I haven't lost the kid in me, every day I feel like a big kid," she said. Which is so apparent after watching her video series on the KS107.5 website, "Cedes Dance Off," where she surprises her fellow DJs and makes them bust a move with her, which is pretty hilarious.




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Nikki Rush
Melissa Ivey playing her guitar

Melissa Ivey - Musician, Songwriter, Vocalist

Melissa Ivey is one the rare artist who has held on to her independence and therefore has nurtured her artistic flow, while still being able to cultivate interest in her music on a noticeable scale.

There is a tough decision all artists must eventually face in the music business, try to make music tailored to a format palatable for radio, or stay true to their artistic nature until it catches on to a larger group of people.

Many opt for the first option in hopes it pays off faster but sacrificing their musical integrity.

Now, 10 years after being thrust into the music scene by surprise, she is working on all new material with a solid team of people she has built around her, "Everything has changed, about a year ago I was trying to figure out how to reignite my career and how to relaunch my artistry," said Ivey. She recently started working with project manager from NYC, who is helping her put her new material together.

She is currently visiting Seattle and recording with Xolie Morra, who is helping her to shape her music into a more palatable form without compromising her art, "I feel like people have wanted to mold me and make something that I am not, but I am evolving into this artist, from punk rocker, to a more of that electronic Scrillix meets Tegan and Sarah," said Ivey.

A stark contrast from the nine year-old who learned to play the bass with her mother to Nirvana's "Smells like teen spirit." Then after receiving an electric guitar for Christmas one year, her skills landed her a surprise gig as the lead singer of a punk band, "Manic Notion," overhearing them play while cutting class, she just walked in and sat with them.

"I never saw myself as a singer but wanted to be in the band, so I went to my car and got my guitar, and by 15, we ended up opening up for national acts in the San Jose area,
she reveals, adding, "We couldn't even get into the bar we were packing and selling out, we had to sell merch in the van outside."

Fast forward ten years and Melissa Ivey is at new place in life but appreciates the journey she has taken, especially getting to cultivate in Denver, "I have been fortunate to work with people like the Flobots, and work on creating that collective consciousness," she says about the local music scene, " if you can create that artistic space somewhere in a bigger city great but Denver is a little bit smaller and you can really get your act together and then go on a bigger tour. If I had to pay rent in NY or LA I wouldn't have been able to afford to do that."

Ivey is really focused on using the music as a bridge to connect to other communities and to help to uplift the next generation with her talents. After finishing recording her EP with Morra titled, Speed of Life, she will be performing in Berkeley, CA. Before returning to Denver for her next venture with Her Many Voices, a non-profit, "they hired me to be the Art and Education Director," said Ivey.

Ivey also will us that as a platform to keep working on youth empowerment in conjunction with touring, going to schools and talking to kids to "activate and elevate their mind and create communities everywhere where I tour."

She will be soon headed to NY to work with Fab Dupont from Flux Studios who has worked with the likes of M.I.A. and Les Nubian and so forth, which she believes will help bring her next big break through.


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Timeko T

Timeko T- Coast to Coast, Fleet and Definition DJ, KGNU, Soulstice Radio

Timeko Tubaya is well known as a DJ through her many affiliations, but she recently was diagnosed with diabetes, and it changed her relationship to her own health and gave her a new found perspective on how she should use her talents.

"I was so focused on the music, I wasn't focused on myself; eating hot wings at 4 a.m. in the morning. My mentor Beverly would say 'You need to take care of yourself,' and I would brush it off," said Tubaya. Beverly Grant is the founder of Mo Better Greens Market Place on 25th and Welton St.

Known in the scene from her time with Live Wire Urban Radio, Timeko developed a hard work ethic mixed with a childhood curiosity into a life as a DJ, "I felt like with Live Wire I had learned so much, I was devastated when Q,(the owner) said he wasn't gonna do it anymore," Tubaya said of the radio station. She had learned everything about the functionary operations of the station from top to bottom, thinking,"It would be an injustice to learn this stuff and not continue it."

So she went to work building her own career. "I'm very active," laughs Timeko. She is part of three different DJ affiliations, that she has made through the country. Coast to Coast being the biggest of the groups boasting over 200 million downloads of their mixtape series.

Tubaya also is a Fleet DJ, a more East Coast based DJ affiliation that she host a radio show with every Wednesday from 1pm-2pm. She also works with a Dallas based DJ group called Definition DJs, and just came back from working with then during the NBA All-Star Game in Houston.

Timeko's heavy schedule is a testament to her work ethic and dedication, but she was most excited about being the face of the Mo Betta Greens Farmer's Markets this year, saying, "That's why I was chosen to be a spokes man. I know all those people, my personal testimony is more unique, people know me not to be all healthy like that and for me to transform, to have to go back and say, you guys are right, and saying health is important is powerful."

Tubaya was immersed in the hip-hop scene, revealing, "All these things I was putting before my health now are put on the back burner." But she also says there is a desire to merge both cultures, of the health and music scenes, "Now I have to put both together. as a DJ you feel like you have to play what the people what but It seems like it is my responsibility to give the people something else sometimes too and get them interested in their health."

She does recognize that people like DJ Cavem, Mike Wird and many others like them have been talking about health problems in their music for sometime, "Cavem was sending me stuff like that for years," she says emphatically, "now I really am paying attention."

Tubaya also has a new perspective on her role in other areas in the community, "I realize now that I have to sometimes take a gig that may be for less money, at the end of the day I could say I helped out some young girls instead of saying 'Oh yeah she had that place cracking."

She also talked about how the music played in the club and the mixtape scene sometimes cultivates a culture of people who are not creating healthy messages, "I think it's a copycat mentality, they don't like anything unless they see someone else like it, bandwagon mentality, everyone wants to be liked and want to be accepted.
I have an 16 year old daughter and I don't want her listening to that are derogatory. Songs stay in your psyche and become who you are."

Timeko is certainly active with a show on KGNU Sunday's from 12am- 4am with DJ Holiday Sparx. She also posts her podcast every at 2pm on www.Soulsticerado.com.


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Lady Speech

Lady Speech - Poet, Songwriter, Artivist, Radio Host

Quianna Ray aka Lady Speech, or Speech by her friends, is one of the most vibrant, free-spirited and fiery people in the scene. A vicious poet, and member of the cover group Lady Wu, she pushes progressive topics, speech is known for dropping poems about sex and is not afraid to say anything.

Speech often performs a poem called, "Pussy," drawing surprise of the crowd, some more than others, depending on the show. The Panties Sex Positive Talk Radio hosted by Lady Speech airs every Wednesday on www.Tradiov.com and pushes the boundaries of acceptable topic matter on sex, feminism, acceptance and whole lot more.

Some of the topics like masturbation, childhood sexual abuse and anal sex, are certainly considered to be taboo on a larger level in this country, yet Speech insists that dialogue on these topics is necessary to help people, and therefore their kids benefit, because of the awareness it brings, "Be open and age appropriate, study your kids and know where they are at. Read a book about it and provide the information for them, or they will get it somewhere else," said Speech then continuing, "Dictate the resources, set the tone, if you know you can't do it, find someone who can."

Speech understands first hand why these things are important, she explains, "I am a survivor of horrendous things, we need to speak in order to heal. We are in so much pain, we carry it every day , and I speak these things to promote healing."

The true confidence she exudes, so apparent, it's too authentic to be superficial, built through overcoming great walls of pain in her past.

Drug abuse of her mother ended with her mom landing in critical care, so Speech was sent to live with her father at an early age, a move that she says took a turn for the worse. "It started off good for the first few years but then the abuse started," said Speech.

She was physically abused for years, this is where she found her solace in writing, "One day I just picked up the pen and started writing. I cried the whole time and when I was done the pages were soaked, almost unreadable," said Speech.

She continued the writing, and in high school she began to hone her skills in debate class and through poetry. Although she lived in Aurora, she would make the journey all the way to East Denver, spending lots of her time at Brother Jeff's Cultural Center on 22nd and Welton St., and "The Spot," on 21st and Stout.

Speech was also highlighted by The Source magazine for her work with "The Spot," and the community, before she ever first graced a stage, an act that empowered her to break free from the abuse, "It was a freeing experience, it was a liberating space, it gave me confidence and strength."

Ego-Tripping is the name of the event put on byBrother Jeff in 1999, she went home and faced her father. That night she ended up getting kicked out of her fathers house but the love of the community and her new found strength in performance based poetry left her feeling strong enough to face the world.

Her latest lengthy post on Facebook is the essence of who she, starting with the powerful statements, "I am a creator. I am boundless." This is the norm for someone like Speech who lives without the chains of ego and guilt for her actions, "Silence is a killer. Often the story of women of color, especially black women, goes untold. That's why I'm Speech and I vowed I will never be silent again."

She will have a website up in April, and is working on her second published book, titled "Love, Guns and Other Things: A Book of Poetry."




Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dating: dysfunctional imbalance



I remember being a 17 year-old young man, testing the waters with potential women I could date, trying to find someone who would make me feel better about my life.

I also remember being in a healthy relationship, and how much it revealed about my dysfunctional social behaviors.

now 29 I can honestly say, I don't seek anyone. I am content with myself and have come to grips with the fact: I would rather be alone than in something emotionally draining or dealing with someone else's insecurities.

This was no easy task. Obtaining this point of view took going through a lot of reflection and soul searching over the last five years.

I, like most people, was only searching for something to fill the void in my life, instead of understanding the void and repairing it.

You have seen it.

A woman who lives and dies by the bar. She loves her life when she is out with her friends but hates being home alone, so she scours the bars every weekend (sometimes during the week day) and finally finds a man to lean on. Unfortunately people can be like leeches, searching for someone they can live off of; emotionally, physically, financially or whatever be the dilemma.

So we see this with our friends and family members way too much. They search for someone, anyone, they can exercise their relationship behaviors with and often end up with someone who beats the, or abuses them in other ways, stealing the joy from their life. Unfortunately it happens to them over and over, leaving them asking.. Why Me?

The fact of the matter is, you can only attract what you are giving out. If you constantly look outward to find happiness, you will only find super-fiscal short term happiness.

I understand now that the only way to find that person who balances you out, is to be comfortable with yourself, and also honest with yourself.

I laugh when I think about the women who say, "I want a tall, handsome, rich, funny guy with a good job, family and a nice car." She has instantly set herself up to lose. Yes it is good to have standards, but this guy number one is not real, it ignores all the other aspects that a woman needs to have; compassion, patience, integrity, honesty and so forth. so typically she will find someone who meets most of these requirements, but lacking several areas she didn't think about necessary in a husband, eventually resulting in a divorce or a dysfunctional relationship.

Search yourself, understand your strengths and weaknesses. Know you value and be realistic with yourself. Shoot for something that will make you happy not overshooting for something that is bound to fail.

I have had the pleasure to be with lots of smart women, who made me examine my own behaviors more. although they didn't last, I understand better now that anything worth lasting is not easy, and takes patience and commitment.

As men we need to stop trying to be the dominant party in a relationship and share a 50/50 stances in all aspects, be it holding a conversation, choosing dinner, finances, making decisions or putting blame on each other. We need each other to help balance out the places we are weak.

Search for an equal instead of a crutch to support yourself, in order to do that, you must first clean up yourself to find that person.

my 2 cents

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Mixtape Report



Sp Double – LHRII (The Prequel)

SP Double follows up his release Loyalty Honor Respect quickly with LHRII (The Prequel). SP still hits with the same tenacity and vivacious rhymes, yet still delivers introspective joints like “Starlight,” where he speaks about his new positive ambitions for the New Year while using President Obama’s audio clips regarding hip-hop as a backdrop. The production is handled by Sp himself along with C. Ray and Focus, as SP makes bold declarations against anyone disrupting unity in the local music scene on songs like “Weather Change” and, “The Mission Statement.”



Qknox - Qknox

The wonderfully skilled pianist and production specialist Qknox drops a self-titled gem filled with ear pleasing unique-samples, quirky ambient sounds, and overall interesting tracks. The project is mostly instrumentals but does have a couple songs with accapellas laid over his unique abstract production, like “The Beginning” that features Mystikal and Krayzie Bone, or “Rockstar” that has Danny Brown. Qknox has perfected blending different types of music together, be it strange guitar leads over eclectic drum patterns or classical style piano riffs over soft synthesizers, that is ear candy delivering a superb listening experience.




Aurora Borelius – Jomeezius the Genius

The enigmatic persona Jomeezius the Genius drops a delightful palate of instrumental goodies for his fans in Aurora Borelius. Never failing to surprise, Jomeezius mixes odd samples, blitzing drumlines, machine gun like snare hits and infectious leads leave an overall tone of a meticulously orchestrated production. One of the brilliant tracks, “Shunned” features a soft harp riff over a lightly tapped snare before being joined by a scratchy rhythmic lead that quickly draws your attention. The project showcases Jomeezius’s ability to harness a variation of diverse sounds yet still delivering street worthy anthems MCs will be clamoring to bless with rhymes.



Cheff Premier – Instrumentals with Hooks

Hypnautic, King Tef, Black Pegasus and Johnny Rocketz, aka the Council are backed from their in house producer Cheff Premier, who delightfully cooks up radio palatable production for them to showcase. Cheff’s aim is clear and focused; he is trying to eat off the hard work he puts in his production. Therefore his instrumentals are radio friendly, delivering high quality trap like the aptly named “Trap Shit,” or “Murda,” or R&B with “Heartbreak” or even hip-hop sample driven “Love You,” Cheff shows his versatility within the confines mainstream sounds and an overall theme.




Down South Hustlers 2013

Master P became a hip-hop mogul by selling millions of copies of compilation albums like the original Down South Hustlers in the mid ‘90s, along with a slew of artists and his own albums. It’s been eight years since his last release, and since then there has been the rise of the mixtape circuit. So fittingly, the businessman, actor, and self-made entrepreneur returns his highly successful franchise back with a version for 2013. Hosted by DJ Ernest GQ, Master P buries old feuds with Cash Money Records, who has several tracks on the project and builds new relationships with Trill Entertainment with appearances from Mystikal, Lil Wayne, Mack Maine, Turk and many more.



Raekwon - Lost Jewelry

The Chef of Wu-Tang releases a 12 track mixtape to suffice those Wu lovers until his next album. With production from Scram Jones, Buckwild and Statik Selektah Rae drops his signature style and stories. The project lacks the usual kung-fu movie samples and intros, but the project is consistent from track to track with memorable songs like “New Day” featuring Freddie Gibbs, or the melodic Faith Evans assisted “Hold You Down.” This mixtape could have been an album and easily outshines his last mixtape Unexpected Victory.

Consquence Movies on Demand 4

The one time G.O.O.D. music signee hasn’t let the falling out with the label stop him, as he has remained relevant through his mixtape work. The fourth installment of Movies on Demand adds to the momentum he is trying to regain. From the intro this project is soulful, sample heavy and is lathered with confidence keeping the attention of the listener as Cons rhymes, “somebody tell Floyd I deserve a title shot/ I got the hood on my back I need Icy hot,” on the opening track “Dearly Beloved.” With assistance from Raheem DeVaughn, Estelle and Busta Rhymes is sure to keep Consquence relevant for some-time longer.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Other Sweet Science



Never show up to an event an hour and a half late and expect to catch a good spot to shoot photos, but that's exactly what I did Thursday night for the 686 Charity Boxing event. Considering the extreme amount of pain I was in, I couldn't push my way to the front of the crowd for fear of being trampled, but I did catch 100 photos. At first I tried keeping my iso low, to about 400, but I have never shot at a set iso as low as 200 so it was very difficult. Like a boxer under pressure I resorted to the what I know best, eventually turning up my iso to 1000, but I tried to remember the formula Ken Visio gave us and tried to shoot all these photos at 45mm, with a 1/40-1/60 SS on manual.

The photos are something like a young boxer feeling his first time out in the ring, ruff, raw and left a little blurry. Photography is a sweet science, sometimes you get thrown a left hook in the middle of the ring (environment) and your reaction shows more about who you are than anything, can you adapt? will you be able to recover from an unexpected blow?

So I kept adjusting my SS, with imaging getting clearer, but losing some of the light, maybe something a LED attached light could have helped with? I usually perform better under pressure, but in this instance considering my weak physical state, I decided to throw in the towel for the night and try my luck on another occasion. However I did see a correlation between my shutter speed and my proximity to the subjects I was shooting. I could have went in closer with my zoom to 55mm, but I wanted to crop with my legs, unfortunately with a packed house and me not showing up early, I was punched in the face with straight reality; show up early to get a good spot and prepare your light measurements before the action starts. Until next time, Ontoneyo.

P.S. Gross moment of the night, after the second match, a bloody towel was thrown into the crowd and a observer stuck it in his mouth and shook it like a dog with a bone. To the amusement and disgust of the "referee," who looked like he was going to puke until a square glasses wearing young hot hipster offered him some champagne, or as hipsters call it, PBR. Fun night considering all the elements and long day I had previous to. Moral of the story; Stay healthy and be prepared.



Monday, January 21, 2013

Martin Luther King Day cemented in part due to another African-American icon

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If you are under thirty years old like me it's unknown to you that it was on this day in 1986 that Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed nationally, almost 18 years after his death, due largely in part to several state representatives, senators and another African-American man, Stevie Wonder. On his 1980 album Hotter Than July, which was not received as well critically as many his previous albums yet was first to reach platinum status, that the tribute song "Happy Birthday" was released and helped to cement the movement to have the third Monday of every year devoted to the infamous civil rights leader.

The bill to recognize the day was first introduced in 1979 , but came up five votes short in Congress. The progressive work and mobilization was greatly helped by the Wonder track which outlines the reasons why the day should be received. "I just never understood/ How a man who died for Good/ Could not have a day that would/ be set aside for his recognition," are just some of the lines from the song, but put it into perspective the need to distinguish the day of his birth as a significant day in American history.

Stevie Wonder along with many other leaders, actors, musicians, and activist used the song in the 1981 Rally for Peace Press Conference to gather over six million signatures in favor of the bill introduced two years earlier to petition Congress to recognize the third Monday of every January to commemorate MLK's legacy, or as Wonder so eloquently presents it at the end of the song, "We know the key to unity of all people is in the dream that you had so long ago, that lives in all of the hearts of people that believe in unity.We'll make the dream become a reality, I know we will because our hearts tell us so."

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Broncos Everything

King Tef “Broncos Everything”

King Tef is one of the most comical characters in the mile high music season, taking on a parody of Trinadad James “All Gold Everything.” Instead of “pop a molly I’m sweating,” Tef says “Passing Manning I’m sweating.” The video features Tef laced up in Bronco gear with a fake gold grill, eating cookies singing, “Broncos all on my chest, Broncos all on my screen, Broncos all on my hat… winning, winning, winning, don’t believe me just watch.” A good break from serious hip hop to salute his home team with some good laughs.