The Elite Eight

The Snack Hall of Fame - A List by Puff

• Edy's Tollhouse Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Klondike Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches (long time favorite and on the list For Life)
  
• Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Kiwi Swirl Sorbet (The Generalist put me up on this one, and i willingly drive cross-city to find it in stock.)
• Cheetos Puffs (better than the original. so fluffy and cheesy.)
• Laffy Taffy's (especially the green and purple ones. 50% of one of my friendships is based on our mutual enjoyment of laffy taffys.)
• Godiva Vanilla Caramel Pecan Ice Cream (phenomenal.)
• Oreo Minis (the cream-to-cookie ratio is juuuuuust right.)
• Starbuck's Hazelnut Soy Latte

52 Books, Week 27: 1984

Orwell's 1960 ish- novel about a totalitarian distopia, is the most disturbing book i've ever read.

I don't even think the phrase totalitarian distopia accurately conveys how sick this "new world" is. It holds up over time suprisingly well unlike other "classics" (cough, cough, the great gatsby, cough) I know. The first two-thirds of the book were an absolute freaking masterpiece. The final third drifts into a bit of a polemic, but the complete novel still rounds out into serious smart social commentary. Earlier, I heard that novelists make the best sociologists and this is a powerful testament to that notion. The story follows a guy who's struggling to exist in a society that is seriously fucked up. The world as he knows it is almost completely antithetical to his very being, and the story is his journey to address this dissonance. If you can imagine a totalitarion society (that also spawned the universally panned tv show Big Brother) in which privacy is nonexistent, war is omnipresent, and torture and other forms of subjugation are regularly used, then you're starting to get the picture. Welcome to Oceania, where freedom is slavery, war is peace, and ignorance is bliss.

52 Books, Week 26: The Socipath Next Door

I believe this is the first "pop psychology" book to make the countdown this year. How could you not read a book called the socipath next door?

Stolen Blurb: We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience.

Why I read it: To ensure that I wasn't a socipath (i'm not), although I'm fairly certain that some part of the DSM IV applies to me (hint, hint).

Should You Read it: Honestly, this isn't really that good of a book. I suppose the phenomenon of socipaths is adequately described, but none of the stories really hook you, as you would expect. I kept waiting for some parts of the book to resemble a bad lifetime movie, but it never came. The notion of people who operate through society without a conscious, is a compelling enough topic, but it never quite makes the jump to being riveting reading material. Maybe i'll wait for the movie.

Bookslut Book Review

Motivation Number: 8/27/2006 .32%

High Schoolin'

Firstly, if you read this relatively soon after it's posted go to SI.com and scroll over Maryland on the "H.S. Football: Best Across The Nation" feature. It's ok, you can do it for me.

Secondly, as I've told many of my uber-football-interested friends, if I ever coach a High School or Little League or Pee Wee football team - basically, anything below College Level ball - I would run a Fun-N-Gun, Run-N-Shoot, Pitch-N-Catch - basically, anything where I'm throwing the ball all over the damn field - offense. Obviously, it's good enough to make Hoover High the #1 preseason high school team in America (according to SI.com). I just wish I had done it first.

A Day of Maddeness: 07 - Part II

I had originally planned to take the day off (yea right, wishful thinking) but it was supplemented by what may go down as The Greatest Lunch Break of All-Time. First, a co-worker who recently started working with me and previously worked at TimeWarner Cable, was able to move my HD Cable Box (more on this in a later post) installation up three days. Then, I made my way to Circuit City to, of course, purchase both Madden 07 and OutKast's Idlewild - both at "New Release" prices, $47.99 and $9.99, respectively. Without my initiation and to my absolute delight, I was given a free sampler of none other than Lupe Fiasco, specifically DJ Envy Presents: Chi Town Guevara Mixtape.

THEN, just a block away from the Circuit City, I peeped a man on the corner with a huge Quizno's sign giving away $2 coupons for regular value meals. Quizno's conveniently was on my way back.

New Madden, New OutKast, Free Fiasco, and a Reduced Classic Italian Meal in one trip. Yahtzee! I might be ready to leave this life now...well after I play Madden and listen to my new CDs - the sandwich is long gone.

A Day of Maddeness: 07 - Part I

"If people are going to keep passing me on the streets without knowing who I am...mistake me for that guy in New York...and spelling my name wrong in magazines - then I guess I'm going to have to keep re-introducing myself. Hi, I'm Shaun. s - h - a - U - n."

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Pick a reason.



Now Playing: Jay-Z - Public Service Announcement (Interlude)...(even if it is the wrong kind of "Shaun")

Things I Should Have Blogged about this week, but didn't...

Almost taking Ashy Larry's clothes in Century 21 (he was cool about it)

• Going to San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York City in one week.
• Van Hunt's acoustic skills (find Hidden Dreams if you can)
  
• Mae's incredible CD
• How great XBOX 360 is (currently playing Dead Rising)
  
• How sad New Orleans is (even though the ladies are sick)
  
• How New York shows me undeniable love (seriously, damn)
  
• Why you should be watching The Wire, 30 Days, City of Men....
• How Outkast is officially done (which greatly saddens me, but they had a great run)
  

Ode to Cornell: The Aftermath

Well, I'll just say that (obviously) this was a tad disappointing:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/08/18/college.rankings.ap/index.html

A certain school from Ithaca didn't necessarily gain ground; the school with which it now sits on an even plane seems to have "lost" a little.

"The one school they cannot BELIEVE they are behind..."

52 Books, Week 25: The Stranger

Albert Camus makes his first appearance on my year long journey through the world of books. I'm very surprised that existentialism (aka it doesn't matter anyway, so fuck it) didn't make it to the countdown until week 25, but I guess its better late then never. Looks like I've been reading in some good company....

Anyway, on to the text.

Blurb: "The plot is simple. A young Algerian afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable."

Why I Read It: Primarily, because I dig existentialism and it sorta works with my personality. The story probably wouldn't be that engaging unless you go in for alienation, detachment, etc., etc. This will probably be a book (like Siddhartha) that I'll read again.

Should You Read It: Not unless you were a philosophy major (or minor). If not, I can't imagine this would do it for you...

Mr. Pryor

I wanted to put something up other than a YouTube clip but when you find something that mixes ridiculousness, cocaine, humor, and truth as truth...well you must show it. Plus, no more week long lapses at Les Musings. I can't point to why this is compelling but it's just something that I couldn't not finish - and it's oh so quite obvious to me how much of a trailblazer and inspiration Mr. Pryor was to future comedians of his lot.



Not directly related in anyway, but since this clip was peppered with "racial commentary," here's an article on HBCU recruitment that I literally just read.

...wow

52 Books, Week 24: Horizontal Society

Wait for the movie. Better than urban tribes, worse than the world is flat... The horizontal society is a look at the way modern societies are organized (i.e. Horizontal connections between peers and associates vs. Patriarchial vertical relationships which confer direct authority). He describes contemporary celebrity culture and other forms of media, speficially how television provides the "illusion of knowning something, while actually pushing actual knowledge further away from the viewer"

Stolen Blurb: Lawrence M. Friedman introduces the idea of the 'Horizontal Society', a society that has been created by mass media, modern forms of transportation, "by modernity itself". He suggests that, through the above mentioned developments, the world and the people in it succumb less and less to the "vertical" constraints that prevailed decades ago (constraints such as the patriarchal society of Masters and peasants, or the traditional role of the father in the family). The Horizontal Society is one in which individuals start on an equal footing.

Why I Read It: Cause my first true love is sociology.

Should You Put it on your list: Feelin' like 50 cent... Eh, not likely

Snakes on a Plane

The most anticipated movie of the year.

Seriously.



... and folks have already started brainstorming the sequels. My personal favorites: Sharks on a Roller Coaster and Monkeys on a Cruiseship

Speaking of sequels, your boy offers one of his own. Most of this is intro, but the last line gets it.

"Me And The Boy...

..Pharrell make beautiful music." But he won't make this list - and wouldn't in any case - but it's appropriate Pharrell's CD dropped the last week in July.

As its the first day in the last full-month of a summer that has went by way too fast, I wanted to shoutout and preview what-looks-to-be a very good - and potentially great - month of music. Assuming all of these release dates stay true, which given the Hip-Hop industry isn't likely (in fact most of these albums have already been delayed two/three/four times over), your boy-boy will be hitting up Circuit City or DeepDiscountCd.com to get his purchasing support on.

• Second Round's On Me by Obie Trice (8/15). I've slept before but I've enjoyed all of his recent singles. I'm still not expecting too much here but if I got five quality tracks, I wouldn't be mad. No gimmicks. (No guarantee here.)
• The Shining by J Dilla (Jay Dee) (8/22). The featured artists need to do my man right, posthumously, and given the projected lineup and their respective respect, I'm not worried.
• Idlewild by OutKast (8/22). If you know me, OutKast could probably put out a CD that simply repeated an André 3000 drum-loop and I would find a way to justify why I enjoyed it. They've earned unconditional support from me. Yet and still, just as I was able to purchase their last double-disc album for $9.99 featuring ohhh approximately 35 tracks, the previewed (and interesting) track listing features another 25 for this go-round. Like the current them or not, the Two Dope Boyz put out material. See for yourself at my frequented website friends at spinemagazine.com (July 28 entry).
• Till the Sun Turns Black by Ray LaMontagne (8/29). If you don't know, ask about him.
• Game Theory by The Roots (8/29). Yes, I already have the album. I like it very very very much but I will let the test of time pass. It might be the first Hip-Hop album where I can truly listen from start to finish with no strong impetus to skip a track. ATLiens and Aquemini are close calls, of course, as well as K-Os' Joyful Rebellion (which would probably be a disservice to simply call Hip-Hop). In fact, I don't know how many albums of any genre pass that test...off the top: Eric Clapton's Unplugged, Three Mo' Tenors, disc two of Petals: The Minnie Riperton Collection, and The Sinatra Christmas Album. I'll probably update that list for my own mental satisfaction later.
• Food & Liquor by Lupe Fiasco (Coming Soon...right?). Obviously, Lupe is very bitter about his "original" CD being leaked so I want him to get the album out in whatever form so he can get over it. About.com nicely summed it up by saying, "What Lupe may or may not realize is that album leaks are not necessarily synonymous with lackluster record sales. Jay-Z's Black Album was reportedly leaked two months before its official release, but the album still attained double platinum status. Common's Be was heavily bootlegged, yet the album was certified platinum, and was still brandished as a "must-buy" by various media outlets." Folks will cop your album, playboy. Put it out there. And to keep it real...I listened to both of the aforementioned albums previous to their release and they sit in the "official collection."

Plus, it would be nice to consume some worthwhile media this month after I donated money to AMC and all the other folks that benefit from attending a Miami Vice screening at the end of July. I won't even rail-on-it, it just wasn't a good spend. These things happen.