Belichick Is a Ballsy Little Weasel

By Jericho Symes

Bill Belichick is a weasel, but after years of weasel-dom I find myself rooting for the guy.

Let me explain.

Future Friday 02: Five Futures for Hip-hop

(two in an intermittent series of very quick thoughts about possible futures; see the other one here)

Since hip-hop has repeatedly been declared dead for at least a decade, I decided to widen the terms of debate a little and put together five variations of where hip-hop might be headed. Go with me on this, and see if you think I’m not entirely full of shit.

Back In Love With Mystery

By Secret Lion

This is the test you weren’t prepared for. This is the love of your life leaving you.  This is your life following close on love’s heels, ducking out the back door. This is the end of the world.

War Might Be The Answer

By Secret Lion

So today I’m walking up the street from the beach (gorgeous Indian Summer day in SF) and I run across this bumper sticker that says WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER.

This strikes me as being, at best, premature. After all, how can you say that without being absolutely sure of the question? At worst, the sticker, dating from the beginning of the Iraq War, assumes that the legitimate question is one that the government supplied regarding the use of military force.

TWIL (Don’t Do Drugs Edition) – Week of November 1, 2009

Another week another TWIL.  Make sure you read it or you might turn out like this guy, then you’d feel pretty silly.

Goodnight, Sweet Prints

By Secret Lion

This story, posted yesterday in Techcrunch, shows the scary dropoff in readership for the top 25 newspapers in the US. For example, USA Today, the McDonald’s of newspapers, dropped a stunning 17% in the past six months. The only paper to show any growth was the Wall Street Journal, with 0.61% over the past six months.

The Heenes Should’ve Totally Watched “Heat”

By Jericho Symes

Heat is one hell of a movie, the kind where if you come across it flipping channels, you have to linger for a bit just to appreciate the awesomeness.  There’s the obvious:  Pacino and De Niro finally on screen at the same time and the quintessential bank robbery shoot out.  What really makes the movie, though, are the little things: 

Black Poh-Tus*

By The Philosoraptor

I heard it again last night on the radio. Some talking head was waxing stupid on Barak Obama’s surprise Nobel Prize when he dropped that old self-deprecating line, a line that has nearly become obligatory for white media types. Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here it is: “When white people say Barak Obama is an articulate man what they really mean is, ‘He talks like us.’” 

Future Friday 01: Lone Star Status

by Secret Lion

(one in an intermittent series of very quick thoughts about possible futures)

One star, shining in the sky for freedom, yes? Or no? This future assumes that Texas decides to secede from the Union, and, rather than kill off the rebels, for some reason the U.S. Government comes to an arrangement with them. Immediately, of course, a number of other U.S. states begin to talk about the same thing, and it seems like the United States is going to fall apart.

Animating Ali

by Secret Lion

A few years back, when I was still in college, I went to EA’s College Day. Bunch of 3D and design students shlepped down to EA’s campus for recruitment purposes. I was pretty much the only black person there, and I rode with pretty much the only Mexican guy there.

They were previewing the first Fight Night, talking about the unique control system, but what stuck with me was watching the historically famous boxers that were in the game, especially The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. It was just odd to think that the person or people who designed and animated him, in other words performing the legendary Black activist, were most likely not Black.