Google launched Chrome on Tuesday September 2nd, it’s their new browser in their ongoing effort to take over the online world. Check it out here. Though it lacks the bells and whistles of Firefox and Internet Explorer, it may just be the Safari killer in the PC market. Apple recently launched its traditional browser for Mac on the PC world, and I’m sure they’re cringing right about now.
Google Chrome is probably the fatest browser on the market, the advantage of not having those bells and whistles clogging up system resources, (Safari is a close second). Since I downloaded Chrome, I found that it handles YouTube videos with ease. You don’t get the fancy AJAX whirlygig while the video is loading. I really don’t know if Googleopolis optimized the browser for their products or not, (Google owns YouTube, if you don’t know, now you know).
So check out your favourite Hip Hop videos on YouTube in Chrome, I highly recommend it. Be the first kid with the high tech floss in your neighbourhood. Just be careful of where you surf, apparently there’s an exploit in Chrome that will automatically download executables. So stay away from those sites your mama warned you about!
After you’ve downloaded Chrome, come back and check out The-Dream - Falsetto, here. You feel me?
I think that it’s about time that MuchMusic’s RapCity gets a new theme song. Not that I tune in that often anymore, I’m a man with responsibilities now, and I tend to miss the timeslot, but that show has me wondering how much mileage can a network get out of one show’s intro/outro/and theme?
With Chum being bought by The Globe (my-tongue-in-check) recently, is there change’a'coming for shows like these? Is this the end of such programming for good? Stay tuned…
All it really needs is a makeover, they’ve been using that same music since before your mama’s born. I mean, if you are going to run a hostless ghost ship, you better spend some money on production. With the recent buyout, I think they can afford it.
Just make sure to keep it Canadian, only without the cold Canadian budget aka low budg. production values. I mean, really make it, “The freshest rap videos you want to see every week.” - Don’t just say it.
Who’s in charge of SS MM/MMM anyway? I want to see more Rap Videos on my music TV.
Grilled. You guys and girls at MuchMusic make it too easy.
Revisionist hip hop history is a hot topic lately, revisionists are coming out of the woodwork like crazy, and it’s not just ill-informed journalists riding the media mogul wave of big cash bags that are propogating the myths of hip hop, which I recently found out for myself.
Everybody has an opinion about hip hop, some love it, others hate it, some grew up on it.
I’m not sure if I’m falling into the reactionary trap, but if I am, I’ll just chalk it up to another blog post and leave it at that. I know that those from the last category are very passionate about the subject of hip hop, and there’s no crime in trying to open a younger audience’s ears and eyes on what the love of hip hop is all about.
Where we tend to go astray is in using our opinion to define the culture, this can turn into a dangerous excercise. There’s a difference in telling your audience what your personal preferences are, and using that as gospel, than giving the facts of how a generation moved through the music and culture. If we are doing the latter, we are empowered because we are empowering others with information. If we are doing the former, than we are on that slippery slope with the devil laughing all the way to the bank on a nation divided.
We are free to discuss and editorialize, but make sure that you tell your audience what you’re doing by using your words, we must refrain from editorializing opinion as fact.
I have made it known on this blog that Vanilla Ice (heralded by today’s revisionsists), was rejected by true hip hopers. I didn’t use my opinion, I used the voice of a generation, and I paraphrase here, “Rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop” - Check The Rhyme, A Tribe Called Quest.
So just what is Kangol, a very well respected and talented man of the culture, one of the members of UTFO, about on his new piece in AllHipHop.com?
“Soldier Boy and Ice T is an example of Hip-Hop communication gone wrong” - Kangol, 2008
I’ll leave Soldier Boy alone for this blog post, since we’re talking about the history of the culture. I do want to hear what he has to say about Ice T, in regards to this however.
So before I get caught in the reactionary trap, let me just say that we need someone like Kangol out there, this man is credible, and that my message to Kangol is, the children of hop hop are listening, use your voice wisely.
To the readers from the latest generation, take the advice from a previous generation, don’t believe everything you hear, ask questions, and be informed.
Well well, I’m back after a couple of Earth disasters. My heart goes out to Burma and China, stay strong!
So what has me crawling out of my proverbial cave, this time?
An incident that’s close to home.
I was at the lcbo (that’s the booze store to you U.S. based citizens) picking up some… well, beer (Boris and St. Peter’s, if you must know), and I was in the line to pay. Being Friday night after work it was busy, so as us Canadians are apt to do, I line up, silently and politely, waiting to pay.
Rewind that a little. When I arrived, there was a cute girl (like who else?) giving free samples of Bavaria. Smooth beer, I said cheers soon after she gave me the mandatory shpiel and I went bottoms up. She was a clever one, she identified me as the guy to bring other people over to her, and, truthfully, I recognized this too. Sometimes it can even be lonely for cute girls giving away free beer. So after taking the obligatory sample gulp, I thanked her and went on my now merrier way.
Fast forward to the line up.
Preamble.
After having worked at a grocery store I am fairly adept at picking the fastest line at the front.
Back to the story.
This time I seemed to have stymied myself as I ended up in one of the slow movers. Just as I was about to change up the check out lane, something in me stopped. At the front, some alpha male dude was buying cheap white wine with his credit card. I mean, I couldn’t see the writing on the label, but the bottles were those twice-the-regular-sized ones, 1500ml maybe? …and they looked cheap. They probably were cheap. …and… he was the reason the line was at a standstill.
Stop here for a second.
I’m not one to boast, but I can size people up pretty fast, dudes more so than the ladies, just because the ladies are so complex (I love you ladies!), and dudes are well, dudes.
Back to the front.
So this guy wearing expensive shirt and jeans, but no style to speak of, with his big ole’ bottles and idiotic smile on his face signs for his with an over dramatic scribble and thinks that’s it, asta la vista liqour store! But wait! The clerk asked him for I.D.!!! Oh me oh my, was I soaking this one up! So dude, with a complete blank look on his face now, whips out his I.D. to prove he is who the name on the credit card says he is. The Clerk checks it out, for what seemed to be a half minute, and gives him the O.K.
What happens next, in typical obnoxious alpha man, passive aggressive fashion is, he mutters a few expletives at the clerk, but looking at me, not the clerk, and which no-one can really hear, but maybe the clerk… and leaves. I see him mouth *whatever* *whatever* (I’m sure you can guess what he really said) and his look to me was a look of someone asking for help.
So I see this go down, and I see him walk out, and I wonder what porche/bm/audi he is going to get into… and sure enough… it’s an audi, and he drives off. Man am I enjoying this! It’s not everyday that you see these obnoxious alpha males get served, and in typical fashion, their response to these types of situations was, shall we say, less than heroic.
I must make the reader completely aware that I definitely have a chip on my shoulder about these type of guys, the charmers, the showmen, the nothing really under the hood men. I need substance from this world, and dudes who give the world none are wasting our air, and time. I’m not using the same brush for all alpha males, just these idiot ones (and they seem to be in abundence).
Money + Lack of love = Dellusions of power and respect.
I mean, if the dude couldn’t even see that the clerk was having some fun with him, then he most definitely is a grade “A” knuckle dragger.
When I got to the front, the clerk asked me if I had air miles. I said no, and he said he’d have to charge me an extra dollar!
Firstly, let’s get the personal bias out of the way. I am pro China and pro Tibet.
What?
Can it be that I think two nations can exist together, side by side? Absolutely. AND, a real life example exists! Look no further than Canada and the U.S.A., the longest undefended border up until 2001 (but that’s another story). Need more? What about the EU, which (interestingly enough, as they are always so fashion forward), have been removing barriers of access between nations.
So, what does the IOC have to do with any of this?
Although their rhetoric and double speak will tell you otherwise, plenty.
Ever since occupation of Tibet by Chinese forces, Tibetans have been seeking independence, a return to self governance. On their part, China has been unrelenting in this regard.
That’s the history of it in one sentence.
Now, the IOC “awarded” China the Summer Games of 2008. One of the side notes here is that China made a promise to be more open and less a closed society (my words). “Everyone” thought that China had turned over a new leaf.
So how far does the IOC have their heads up their ass to not have seen the present situation of protests along the torch route? Everyone knew the history of Tibet was turbulent. Where do they come off being “sick to their stomachs” about this? (Really VANOC, who’s going to protest Whistler?) Can they not see that freedom for Tibet is an emotionally charged subject? Can they not even allow this?
“We’re very disturbed and disappointed that there are people who want to disrupt the process. We understand peaceful protests. We understand that in many democracies. But we don’t condone people who want to disrupt and be violent and run the risk of injury.”
Says one IOC member, Kevin Gosper, IOC vice-president.
Emotionally charged subject? What emotionally charged subject? This dude may as well be Alfred E. Newman. The IOC is a joke! Oh and, Dick Pound, don’t you have a sport to clean up before you pontificate about these quote-unquote unruly protesters? C’mon, give me a pound.
Memo to the IOC: Your Olympics have become a drug-induced joke of a “human spirit” sitcom. News at eleven.
China, you can peacefully exist with a self governing Tibet, this isn’t just me telling you, it is the world. Don’t even get me started on Darfur.
Recent events seem to have sobered up the IOC. Apparently, not enough as they continue to live in their own harp-playing dream world.
Man, sometimes governments can really cheese you off; and this one is no exception. I am the grandson of two WW2 vets, and though I have never served myself, I feel honoured for what our soldiers have done and continue to do for us. It is with great disappointment, I learn today that the people in charge up on Parliament Hill want to reduce the honorary half mast ceremonies even further than they already have.
Sure, they can blame “that committee” all they want, but I call and raise the smoke that’s coming out of their ass. What do I care what some old fart with medals says about the specialness of a half mast ceremony. Dude, we get it. What we don’t get is your obstinance not to honour the dead. What, to save some bucks? To save face about body count? What a bunch of tactless paper pushers.
Vimy Ridge doesn’t count as a “special day” at the Peace Tower? You politicos aren’t willing to shut your traps for a few minutes in parliament? To honour the fallen? To honour the families of our strongest women and men who give the ultimate sacrifice?
You see, it’s not about you penny-pinching-office-on-Parliament-Hill types, nor is it about the medaled, but jaded old men.
It’s about the nation and the families of our sons and daughters who risk it all.
If you’re not man or woman enough to respect that, then you are not deserving of the freedoms that our soldiers fought so valliantly for all that we cherish today.
Vimy Ridge Deserves half Mast Protocol, Morons.
The very least you can do is to cough up the coffers to give us our remembrance.
“If you’re havin’ girl problems I feel bad for you son
I got 99 Problems but a Bitch ain’t one”
-Jay-Z
Every dude has girl problems, even Jay-Z. Actually, maybe I should preface that. Every dude who is dating or has a relationship with a female has girl problems, at some point in their lives.
I can say, from personal experience, that every single female that I have dated, related, often syncopated, had relations with, has given me problems.
So what truly is it about the opposite sex that causes such strife in our lives?
I won’t call this a theory, because I am not going to work it out enough to call it so, but let’s call it a hunch, a feeling. I think it has something to do with that whole forbidden fruit thing. I’m not sure what this is called in other religions, but the most private sanctum of womanhood has some serious strings attached. I think the apple metaphor holds true.
Consider this; do you ever get into any real arguments with females that you have a friendly, yet strictly plutonic relationship with?
Think about it.
Once you get to know a woman intimately problems do arise.
I understand though Jay-Z, the number 100 doesn’t flow like 99 does, and this post should not take away, in anyway, that hot track.
