Some Raps in 2014

2014 was a bit a stinker, not just for games and rap, but on many fronts. Not sad to see it go, but I did listened to some fun things along the way...

Songs

A$AP Rocky - Multiply

Wish there had been more from Rocky or the mob this year, but this track got me excited for 2015.

Jay Electronica & Jay-Z - We Made It (Remix)

Crushed the original track and Drizzy.

Hail Mary Mallon - Whales

My favorite video of the year, maybe? Most creative lyrics of 2014? 

Rae Sremmurd Ft. Nicki Minaj & Pusha T - No Flex Zone (Remix)

And my 2014 Ear Worm Award goes to...No Flex Zone! Dammit they are not good at rapping, but I dig the beat and hook so hard. For that plus good rap, skip to 3:20 and hear King Push murder it.

Montana Of 300 - Chiraq (Remix)

Drill rap is impressive, but not always the best quality music. This is the exception to the rule.

Bobby Shmurda - Bobby Bitch

The runner up for the Ear Worm Award. Free Bobby!

NehruvianDOOM - OM

If only the rest of the album had been as good as this track.

Vince Staples - Blue Suede

Another in the I wish the album was this good category.

Albums

Run the Jewels - Oh My Darling Don't Cry

I loved the second outing almost as much as the first and seeing them live was one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Harold's

All of Piñata was great, it was hard to pick this track as my favorite.

YG Ft. ScHoolBoy Q & Jay Rock - I Just Wanna Party

Most all of My Krazy Life was great, it was hard to pick this track as my favorite.

SchoolBoy Q Ft. Kendrick Lamar - Collard Greens

4-5 solid tracks on Oxymoron, this track stood above the rest.

Best Raps of 2013

I made the bold resolution to try and listen to more than just rap in 2013. Well that went sideways real quick. I ended up doubling down on rap and was mostly rewarded for it. 2013 was a great year for rap and below are my top 10 albums. Below that are albums I need to spend more time with before passing judgement and further still are the disappoints of the year.

1. Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels
From front to back Run the Jewels is a work of perfection. It is supremely rare to find an album where every track could be a single. EL-P and Killer Mike balance each other well and reign each other in from the mild hang ups I've had with their solo work. Album of the year hands down.

2. Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
I slept on the Clipse through the early aughts, much to my dismay. I think it is fair to say that it is never too late to discover Pusha T though. MNiMN has some insanely good beats and raps. I can't wait for King Push.

3. Spark Master Tape - The #SWOUP Serengeti
I still have no clue who Spark Master Tape is, but that had zero impact on the number of times I spun this tape. The beats and raps are grimmy as hell and I loved it.

4. Problem & Iamsu! - Million Dollar Afro
This tape came out of no where for me and I ended up banging it all summer. It has a distinctly West coast feel, during a period in rap where styles are blending together more and more. Bumpin' bass and a feature from Juvenile, who knew I wanted more Juvenile?

5. Big Boi - Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors
Even though it came out in late 2012 I found myself returning to VLaDR all 2013 long. It has great mellow tracks with indie rock bands I have very little familiarity with, but also bangers like the video above.

6. A$AP Rocky - LONG.LIVE.A$AP
The follow up to my far and away favorite tape of 2012 was a bit of a let down. Not so much that it didn't make this list though. Plenty of good tracks, but a few stinkers too.

7. Action Bronson - Blue Chips 2
Action's follow up tape with Party Supplies is loaded with over the top party tracks. But didn't even contain his best track in 2013. Taken as a whole though, Blue Chips 2 kills it.

8. Tito Lopez - Y.O.U
A great radio clip of Tito Lopez from last year got me up on his mixtape from this year. From the opening track (above) all the way through he really shows off his rap talent. I just wish I liked the beats a little more.

9. J. Cole - Born Sinner
The internet hip hop hype train left me way behind on this album from J. Cole. I dismissed it as hype for most of the year and was then surprised by most of it this Fall. A lot of the tracks are hit and miss for me, but over all I dig it.

10. Trinidad Jame$ - Don't Be S.A.F.E.
This tape came out in the fall of 2012 and I dismissed it out right. Some how the Goldeneye 64 laced beats of All Gold Everything ended up getting trapped in my head though. Turns out the rest of Don't Be S.A.F.E. was pretty good too.

Needed More Time
Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap
Isaiah Rashad - Welcome To The Game
Travi$ Scott - Owl Pharaoh
Nipsey Hussle - Crenshaw

Disappointments
Kanye West - Yeezus
Trinidad Jame$ - 10 Pc. Mild
Flatbush ZOMBiES - BetterOffDEAD
Ka - The Night's Gambit

Weekend Review: Post Thanksgiving 2013 Blow Out!

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Work has been hell of busy, but I've been doing a lot...Everything must go!

Games
Orcs Must Die! 2
I dig tower defense games, but they are usually top down, mobile and solo affairs. Orcs Must Die! takes the tower defense concept and puts into the third dimension. Instead of towers you place traps and control a war mage that is part of the battle as well. The controls are a lot like playing WoW and by that I mean I jump unnecessarily every two seconds. The later levels get hard and thankfully there is two player coop to solve for that.  It is part of the latest Humble Bundle (which tomorrow). You get the first game too, which I might up playing as well.

Magicka
I jumped on this game when it first came out in 2011. It was awkward to control (but fun), quirky in it's presentation and a good laugh to play coop.  The initial group didn't make it far. I'd call them casual gamers and mean it in the nicest way possible. I tried to continue playing it on my own, but the game gets brutally hard pretty quickly. Jump to this month in this year. The most recent Humble Bundle came with Magicka and all it's DLC. I got Skip and my brother to get copies and we've been playing it every night. The challenge for three players is perfect. We struggle through boss fights and laugh our asses off when we blow each other up.

COD: Ghost
This franchise feels like it is on it's last leg. It is the tenth proper game in the series that remains a cash cow, so they keep making one a year. The multiplayer is still fun, but it might as well be a map and gun pack DLC. Save the fact that the leap frogging developing cycle sees gaps in the feature set every year. They made a huge deal out of the pick ten system in BLOPs 2. It was going to revolutionize the game. So of course Ghost made their own watered down/less good version this year. I still enjoy playing COD with my buddies, but there is nothing new or special about it anymore. Titanfall can't get here soon enough.

Tilt to Live 2
Tilt to Live was the first mobile (smart phone) game I spent an extraordinary amount of time with. The longest a game would take, if you were really crushing it, was 3 minutes tops. You control an arrow that is trying to avoid and destroy red dots. It plays a lot like Geometry Wars, but replace the dual sticks with tilting your phone. Your next high score is only a game away so keep playing forever! Or as long as you are in the bathroom. Sadly the follow up game doesn't introduce enough new stuff to make me want to play it like the first. That or I had my fill the first time around. If you've never played it, give it a shot. If you played and liked the first, this is more of the same.

Max Payne 3
The matrix and more importantly the public's introduction to bullet time came in 1999. Sadly the movie tie in games that followed were shit. In 2001 Max Payne released with a gritty noir story and game mechanics that captured bullet time in a way that was fun. Not a small feat. The sequel that followed in 2003 only added to that formula. Nine years, a terrible movie and a troubled development cycle later and Max Payne 3 came out. Gone is the noir feel, the semi understandable story and the bullet time. Cover mechanics killed what made the first to games distinct. Now when you jump out from cover and slow down time you will very likely land on the ground and get shot to death. Without interesting game play one would hope the story did some heavy lifting. Nope, the story has got better things to do.

Music
Clipse 
After really digging the new Pusha T, I went and bought all three of the Clipse albums. I was late to the party, but now understand were all the admiration comes from. There is some incredible music to be unearthed here. A lot of Neptunes produced tracks that I was already familiar with, but didn't know were Clipse songs. Bravo!

Action Bronson - Blue Chips 2
My first listen to Action's new mixtape was mixed bag of good tracks and some stuff that was really off putting. I stuck with it though and it grew on me in the past month. Party Supplies produces tracks that are just plain fun. The result of which is Action taking that fun vibe and putting together raps that are creative and light in their flow. A great pairing. Starting out thinking I'd remove it from my phone and taking a turn to liking it has been great. It is somewhere in my mixtapes of the year now.

Reading
Storm Front (Dresden Files)
It is a bit daunting to start up long running fiction series. The Dresden Files will be up to fifteen books next year. Thankfully the first book is only 300+ pages, which for me is only 8 hours of audio. In audio Storm Front plays a bit like a radio narrative. The first person hardboiled P.I. story blended with the super natural (magic) world played great in 20-40 minute chunks. I can't wait to start the next one.

Avengers Arena
Another great comic recommendation from Ethan. AA stands on the shoulders of Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale, and Hunger Games to tell a similar story in the Marvel universe. It is a silly premise that is well executed. I wasn't familiar with any of the characters on offer, which I think made it better. The characters get quick, but meaningful introductions and then are set to surviving and killing each other. The writing is on point and it looks great too.

Weekend Review: Nov 2nd & 3rd

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Sawbones
Last years late September weekend review, included a podcast called Satellite Dish. A show about television from a husband and wife duo I was already familiar with. The show was rough around the edges and inconsistent when TV was inconsistent. Which was often. Thankfully the pair is back with a new podcast about medical history. This time around the humor is still very high and they have the content to match it. Focusing every week on a new subject they poke fun at often wild path that we have taken to get to modern medicine.

Pusha T - My Name Is My Name
Probably the biggest gap in my hip hop knowledge and appreciation is the Clipse. Their music is a total blind spot and they are from Virginia Beach. After just under a month of listening to the fantastic debut album from Pusha T, I am bound and determined to get up on the Clipse now. It is that damn good. Lots of great featured artist and an all-star listing of producers and beats. I posted the song Nosetalgia back in September and the full album lives up to it's potential.

Cycloramic
It is extremely rare these days for me to be surprised by technology. I'm increasingly becoming a cranky cynic in the space, especially when it comes to phones. Sure I will get a wow moment from the latest Boston Dynamics video, but what is surprising about more cores and higher megapixels? This weekend I saw something that actually blew my mind. If only a little. Cycloramic is an iPhone app for the 5 and 5s. It takes panoramic photos/videos and can do so completely hands free. Set your phone vertically on a smooth surface (e.g. dinning room table) and it will use the phones vibrate feature to rotate it around 360 degrees snapping photos along the way. What you get is less impressive. There have been apps for stitching together panoramas for years now. The novelty of seeing your little phone come alive however is totally worth sharing.

Eminem - Rap God

I stopped paying attention to Eminem a long while ago. I kind of know what he is. That doesn't mean what he does is any less impressive. The beat on Rap God is good, but it takes a major back seat to his incredibly impressive writing and ability to spit fire on a song.

Pusha T – Nosetalgia Ft. Kendrick Lamar

Dope beat and rhymes.

Big Boi - Thom Pettie

Did folks sleep on Big Boi's Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors earlier this year? It feels like it was here and then gone in the media, but I've been on that jam. It is one of the best albums of the year for me so far. Thom Pettie is particularly good and Killer Mike is the dopest MC.

Weekend Review: Aug 24th & 25th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Theft of Swords (redux)
I wrote briefly about this series (The Riyria Revelations) back in 2012. I finished book one and was a bit underwhelmed by it. I'm pretty green when it comes to fantasy novels. I spent high school reading classics for class and John Grisham for me. A bit of Redwall in 6th grade, but when I actually picked them up I started with ASoIaF and then Name of the Wind. Heavy ass hitters in the genre. So my expectations were fairly high. Seen through that lens ToS feels more like a dungeon master turning his pen and paper game into a novel. I gave up on reading book two on my kindle, but recent saw the series on sale at Audible and picked it up. This time I approached it by taking it for what it is, not what I wanted it to be, which was Rothfuss or Martin's next work. I enjoyed it. The characters are too black and white and the plot leaves nothing to the imagination, but it is great motivation for my own pen and paper planning (Dungeon World).

Spark Master Tape
Spark Master Tape is an enigma. He's dropped two fantastic mixtapes (Syrup Splash  & Swoup Serengeti) in the past year and no knows who he is.  He rhymes over really grimy beats with vocals that are chopped and screwed into anonymity. I've been listening to both tapes for going on three weeks now and Swoup is right up there with Run the Jewels for mixtape of the year. Give it a listen.

Plants vs Zombies 2
When I wrapped up the original PvZ I was a bit surprised at how abruptly it ended. It felt like it was just becoming a challenge and I expected and wanted it to go on for 2-3 more hours. That was three years ago and for three years I've operated under the assumption that I wanted more plants and zombies. In that time though I've played some stellar tower defense games (e.g. Kingdom Rush) and got slightly burnt out on the genre. So when PvZ 2 dropped last week and was almost entirely the same game play wrapped in new aesthetics I was disappointed. I don't want to start from the beginning of the difficulty curve and build my way up again. I have a skill set that makes these early levels tedious and joyless. No thanks.

Trinidad Jame$ - Ea$tside

I luh me some All Gold Everything, it is dumb, but there is a special place in my heart for dumb rap with good beats.

Nashville Part Two

Crystal has been talking a about visiting her family in Nashville for two years now. Between week long trips to the beach every summer and my desire not to spend large portions of time with small children in cars, we had not made it out yet. This summer Crystal and her cousin made a plan and last week we set out to do it.

Friday morning we woke up and got out to the Adventure Science Center after breakfast. A science museum jam packed on every floor with kids activities. A giant representation of the digestive system, moon walks, mazes and at it's center, a tower that you can climb while learning new things on every floor. I think I had as much fun as the kids. Before dinner that evening we went out to Centennial Park and walked around the lake in the shadow of the Parthenon. Before we left for Nashville I got two recommendations. Visit the Grand Ole Opry and see the Parthenon. We missed out on the former sadly, but the latter was a pretty cool sight.

Saturday morning took both of our families out to Radnor Lake State Park for a hike. On the way into the parking lot we got to see a ranger with a hawk on his arm. Pretty cool way to start the nature walk. On the trail we saw 5-6 deer and listened in as the forest canopy played a tune for us when it started to rain. When the rain finally broke though we decided babies are not at their happiest when soaked. So we headed for lunch at Hattie B's Hot Chicken. Apparently hot chicken is a Nashville jam that has blown up in recent years. As far as I could tell it was just fried chicken with loads of heat, but that heat came with tons of flavor and juicy chicken. Where do I sign Richmond up for that?

Saturday evening we kissed the babes good night, said farewell and good luck to the baby sitter and took off to a concert. Modern Pop Six generation country is not my thing, but I can at behind some folk and/or bluegrass once in a while. Old Crow Medicine Show scratched that itch perfectly. We took two vans with drivers to a show in the woods with 8 other couples. Kid-less and without fear of a DUI we pregamed the hell out of the van and grassy parking lot. By the time we got into the show we were all floating on a sea of alcohol infused Caucasian dancing that I am pretty sure made the event 10 times cooler. We only had two bad cases of throwin' up in the van and in our household two nasty hangovers the next day.

Sunday morning sadly found me with one of  hangovers and I was all teed up to drive 10 hours home. We bid our host fond farewells, promised to visit soon and went for breakfast. Crystal surprised me with the best gift a girl could ask for. Letting me sleep for the first leg to Knoxville. When I woke up refreshed and more human I kicked into drive mode and hauled butt back to Richmond.

Beer Notes
I've been tracking ever beer I drink in 2013 for my end of the year Annual Report. On the trip I tried 13 new craft beers and did so while consuming 23 pints. We made almost daily trips to a shop called Craft Brewed that I wish we had here in Richmond and highly recommend for a sample of Tennessee's finest brews.

Weekend Review: July 6th & 7th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Ginormous 4th of July long weekend wrap up incoming I've been heads down on work and home projects for two weeks now and dipped out on writing here as a result. So without further ado, the weekend review...and most of June too:

Games
Dead Ahead (iOS)
Another game I fell in love with in the endless runner genre. I get really wrapped up in the repetitive nature of "just one more run". Dead Ahead is a 2D side-scroller set in a zombie apocalypse. You play a protagonist on a dirt bike running from a zombie hoard. The only way to keep them back is to accelerate or shoot (risky) them (limited ammo). The obstacles ahead of you include more zombies (that will slow you down) and cars (that will end your run). The mechanics and controls are solid. The pixel art and animation has a chibi look and is quite pretty. All that and it is free. It is ad supported though, so I dropped the $0.99 required to remove them. Well worth the price.

Deep Dungeons of Doom (iOS)
Triple D looks a bit like the combat portion of a JRPG. You control a hero on the left side of the screen and the creatures you face appear opposite you. It is real time and all you can do is block and attack. That sounds basic and it is, but the beauty is in the timing. Creatures can block and attack as well and learning their tells is a big part of the game. That is made easier by the fantastic pixel art and animation (noticing a theme?). This is a another free one, but unlike Dead Ahead the model for profit is not based on ads. After 5-6 dungeons D3 presents a pay wall. Pay $1.99 for 6 additional dungeons in not one, but two instances. Each dungeon took me maybe 4-5 minutes to complete. At that rate, I was good with the hour I spent with the game, but did not continue.

Block, Block, Block (iOS)
Block x 3 is a simple and beautiful concept. It takes the match 3 puzzle genre and places a hard emphasis on the puzzle element. You presented with multiple squares in pastel tones and are asked to solve the puzzles by matching three. The challenge comes in when you are presented multiple colors and a limited set of moves to complete the puzzle. Crystal and I both spent multiple hours stumped on various puzzles over the weekend. Another free one by the way.

Don't Starve (PC)
Klei Entertainment, makers of Mark of the Ninja (ma jam!) made ma new jam too. Don't Starve is a 2D-ish (it's a 3D engine with 2D assets) open world game in the vein of Minecraft. That is to say it is a survival game where the environment you are in provides the materials you'll need to survive. What makes the game intriguing beyond being another open world survival game is the amount of trust placed in the player. The game opens with an unnamed man who instructs you to find food before night fall and poofs away. From that point on there are no instructions. The tool tips provided for left and right clicking different things in the world are all you have. What is good for you and what can kill is a trial by error process. The reward is mastering the consistent systems in the world, not starving and ultimately thriving. Bonus content: Great article and video about Klei

Card Hunter (PC)
I got into the beta of Card Hunter mid-last week and spent two plus hours with the tutorial and a handful of encounters. The game's concept is a novel one. RPG video games originated from the tabletop and quickly did away with any of the tangible elements related to it. Dice rolls where under the hood and the character sheets turned into UI elements. Card Hunter is a game that brings the tabletop back to the screen. Your powers are actual skeuomorphic cards and your party looks like character tokens stood up on a grided map. The narrator is a geeky DM who makes references to snacking while laying the story elements on really thick. It is great and the beta is free, after a short wait to get in of course. How long I play it will hinge on how much the multiplayer hooks me though. My kingdom for some co-op.

Music
Run the Jewels
Killer Mike and EL-P are two artist I can take in small doses most of the time. Too much and I go elsewhere with my musical taste. Combine the two though and you get a Reese's Cup of hip hop. Beats and raps from EL-P that are less experimental and a Killer Mike that is more consistent. I've listened to it on repeat for two weeks now and there is still a ton to love about nearly every part of this record.

Yeezus
My first listen to Kayne's much hyped and long anticipated new record was a good one. It was mostly listening to the beats and less so the lyrics. That is typical of how I usually consume music. I really liked what I heard at first. After three to four more plays though I started to focus in on the lyrics. What some might call controversial lyrics I found to be whiny. At this point he is a person of privilege. He certainly didn't start that way and he worked hard to make himself what he is now. There is a lot of complaining on this record for someone who has much more than probably 99% of those listening to it.

MMA
UFC 162 (Spoilers)
Anderson Silva finally got caught fucking around. He is an amazingly talented fighter. Arguably the GOAT in a very young sport, but he likes to openly mock his opponents. Most have no where near the talent as him, but instead of putting them away he sometimes extends rounds and whole fights just screwing around. It was disrespectful for sure, legitimately impressive and made for some awful main cards. Either age (he is  38), the level talent or luck caught up with him Saturday night. A moment after he pretended to be wobbled by a punch, he bobbed and weaved his way back into left hook from the young and talented Chris Weidman. The now former champ went limp to the mat, eyes rolled back in his head and saw an embarrassing end to his 10 fight title defense.

Flatbush Zombies - Palm Trees

New Zombies...

Travi$ Scott – Owl Pharaoh

Pretty dope mixtape from Travi$ Scott. He is a producer for Kanye and signed to TI's label as an MC. So far so good, I've been listening to it a lot in the past week.

Joey Bada$$ - Word Is Bond

First single from album coming this summer. Don't sleep!

Y.N.RichKids - My Bike

It's no Hot Cheetos & Takis, but they're back!

Weekend Review: May 11th & 12th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug
For the past three months we have been drinking tea, with splash of honey, every morning and have been doing so out of ultra cheap mugs. They are stained, don't hold their heat and hard to get clean. So this past week I sprung for two really nice mugs from Zojirushi (say it with gravel in your throat). Locking mechanism on the flip top lid, two part spout for easy cleaning, stainless steel body and 6 hours of hot or cold liquid. I had three cups of hot tea every day at work last week and it was fantastic. That is the only downside of course, it keeps the tea so hot you can't actually drink directly from it. So I pour a bit in a cup and enjoy. Which is better than the old mug that would offer up a third of it's liquid as lukewarm swill. Oh and I should have ordered the Japanese one.

Joey Badass
For some reason I slept on this MC for almost a year now. Watching him show up on collaborations I really enjoyed and never following up. This week(end) I grabbed his mixtape and put it into heavy rotation. The title "1999" is apt given how much of a throw back the beats and Joey's flow is. It evokes a lot of Wu Tang and MF Doom (he produced a few tracks) for me. 90's and early oughts staples that scratchs an itch I didn't know I was missing. Really looking forward to his album this fall.

Vice
After catching Game of Thrones every week, I usually stick around to watch a new documentary show from Vice magazine. It is often disturbing, usually covered with some amount of tact and always compelling. Each show is split in to three stories that all center around a theme. From different parts of the world topics are introduced, covered and don't usually get resolved. It is good, but Vice is actually to short. Many of the topics feel important, like they need room to breathe, time to tell all sides of the tale. It is only a half hour of television though and it covers three stories. Still worth a watch.

Ace Hood – Bugatti Remix (NSFW)

So many dudes on this jam: Wiz Khalifa, T.I., Meek Mill, French Montana, 2 Chainz, Future, DJ Khaled & Birdman. Admittedly I am doing a piss poor job at number thirteen, but man do I have a guilty soft spot in my heart for raps. Conscious, ignorant or otherwise, I'm usually all in.

Weekend Review: Apr 27th & 28th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Hardywood Twilight 4 Miler
Post 10k I have been lazy piece, not exercising, not stretching and subsisting on a diet of beer and sweet sweet pastries. As a preventative measure I signed myself up for a trillion events this Spring and Summer. The first of which was a 4 mile run out from Hardywood and back by way of the Fan. It was a fun run so the pressure to finish quick was only in my head and the reward afterwards was beer. Specifically the Twilight Weiss, brewed for the event. The whole thing was a blast, it seemed like all of Richmond was there, well except for the angry Richmonders on Broad St. That mess was blocked for an hour plus for the run.

Fort Harrison Loop
In preparation for my next event (Cap 2 Cap), I needed and still need cycling miles on my legs. Sunday morning Mike and I met at my place and spun our way out to Rocketts Landing to meet Whitt. From there we made our way East to Fort Harrison, where we turned around and crossed the river to Whitt's place for bottle fills and a cold beer (best idea ever). We departed Casa Clements and crossed the river again to head home. Less than a mile from my house, Mike and I were singing our victory hymnal when he hit a painted line that was not a painted line, but a 6 inch tall concrete strip. I watched as he tumbled in slow motion. His body fighting gravity at every turn and ultimately losing. It looked painfully, but hope the worst of it was scrapes and bruises. We limped our way back to my place for scones, beer and band-aids. Not a great way to end a good ride, but them's the breaks.

Problem & IamSu!

Mixtapes are the best. They are free, come out more frequently than full studio releases and are great exposure for new artist. For the past three weeks I've been listening to Problem and IamSu's Million Dollar Afro. It super heavy on the bass and features Juvenile of all people. Pretty dope all around and no barrier to entry. Give it a try.

Weekend Review: Feb 9th & 10th

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

Mistborn : The Final Empire
In late 2007 and early 2008 I discovered Audible and rediscovered audio books in the process. I churned through a massive collection and then stopped. This week I went back to the audio book with a recommendation from Ethan. I dropped my podcast habit cold turkey and dedicated that listening time to Mistborn. The Final Empire is more or less Dark Sun, but with cooler magic system. Setting does not make a book though. The story told is one of intrigue and character arcs that really drew me in. So much so that I started the second book the day after I wrapped up the first.

NIKE Men's Element Half Zip
Getting nice gear for my bike has always been secondary to my other hobbies. I still make do with a cheap windbreaker I bought 7 years ago when Winter riding comes round. Picking up a long sleeve Road Holland this Summer taught me the value of good gear this Fall though. Now that I am dedicated to running this year more than ever before it was time to gear up there too. My first and best purchase was the long sleeve shirt above. With a short sleeve base layer and it I have braved low 20 temps and windy evenings. It is super light weight, minimal seems and keeps me toasty. I forget it is there, which is exactly what I want from my athletic gear.

Nardwuar
I visit a number of different resources while hunting down new raps (e.g. stereogum and rapgenius). The Reddit /r/ hiphopheads is the most recent as of the Fall. Last week I saw a number of links to interviews by Nardwuar there. He a loud, awkward, but self confident interviewer dressed like an eccentric golfer, interviews some of the biggest names in hip hop and brings along gifts (usually vinyl) that speaks to their origin and musical influence. It makes for some really candid moments, something usually not seen in music interviews. His rap interviews have been collected in this Google Drive doc, but the link above is enough to get started with.

Weekend Review: Feb 2nd & 3rd

Every weekend there are new sights, sounds, and taste to consume. There are other sensory inputs that tickle my brain too, but saying there is stuff to feel sounds creepy. This is a weekly journal of my weekend endeavors. Enjoy!

White Chicken Chili
I had no real rooting interest in the Super Bowl yesterday. Apart from rooting that Ray Lewis not win another in the year he plans to retire and also that the 49ers not win six and tie the Steelers. Either way I lost, but I decided to dull that phantom pain with chili. It is a recipe that I have made at least ten times, it is Slow Carb friendly (see the link above) and taste good. The prep time to break down a whole rotisserie chicken is the only aversion I have to not make it more often. Sundays are for lounging about and cooking long/slow meals though. The chili was great and the game turned out to be not so bad either.

Hardywood Craft Brewery
Saturday night my brother and I went down to Hardywood to see my friend Mike and his band (RPG) play at their record release party. It was a kick ass show and a great venue for it. RPG killed it after debuting their new music video. Being there for the show reminded me just how far Hardywood has come in only a  year. They seem to keep making great business decisions while standing on the back of some of the best beer I have ever tasted.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
In third grade I owned all four ninja turtles, a slew of bad guys and my prize possession was the party van. Two decades later, my three year old ranks TMNT right behind Adventure Time in his favorites shows to watch. Thursday night he completed a long standing agreement that if he learned to write and sound out the alphabet unassisted he could pick out any big toy he wanted. He went with the shellraiser, a turtle van that puts my party van to shame. We spent an hour before bed Friday night assembling it and then having the door bust open for the turtles spill out to stomp the foot clan. It was great!