a wonderful place called LA!!

Have you ever traveled to a different place and felt more at home there than you do in your actual home town or city. Well that’s exactly how I feel about Los Angeles.

I have always known that the city of LA was where I wanted to eventually end up but a recent trip to the west coast truly confirmed that it is where I belong.

In California you can get a mixture of city life and suburban life. You can live out in the mountains and get away from people and travel back and forth from the city and still get the full experience of city life. You could even do the reverse and live in the city and travel out to the mountains and country to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.

The people here are like anywhere else. You have your snobs who look down on everyone that passes them, your crazies that scream and yell gibberish from the street corner, and then you have your average everyday person who is just trying to enjoy the little things in life.

In this town you have the opportunity to become anything and everything. If you are comfortable with living a modest lifestyle then you can do that, and if you want to be high class, driving exotic cars, attending exclusive parties, and having fun every chance that you get then the sky is the limit.

Ofcourse every place has its good and bad, that’s just a fact of life. But the one thing that I really could go without is the jet lag.

this generation's music

I have a question for you. Do you still listen to the radio? Do you notice the direction that hip hop is going in? Does this direction concern you?

The music of the past took on a life of its own and could live on forever. The music that my parents and grandparents listened to can stilled be listened to today and they still enjoy it just as much as when they heard it many years ago.  The music of today has at the most a two month life span. There is so much music being released so quickly that you don’t have time to really listen to the tracks and absorb the content before you are bombarded with the latest single.

The life of the music that my parents listened to was so connected to the artist that you could truly feel what the artist was feeling when they wrote the track or even when they were inspired to write the song. The music of today lacks that connection from artist to song to audience. It lacks that intimate connection between the artist and the listener.

These are some questions that I have been asking myself for the past couple of years as I sit back and listen to the utter garbage that hip hop and rap artist are releasing out into the air waves. If were a hip hop artist I would be embarrassed by this sad attempt at music.

I grew up listening to the likes of Earth Wind and Fire, RunDMC, Doug E Fresh, Slick Rick and many other fantastic, creative, soulful, but most importantly relatable artist. These artist put out music that spoke of things that were going on in the community, relatable situations that almost everyone has experienced, or even just about having a good time with those around them. The artist nowadays are stuck in a box that consists of only money, girls, cars, jewelry, liquor, and awkward dances.  It’s as if these artists forget that the people that listen to their music can not relate to that situation. They seem to forget that the mass audiences that listen to them are not even close to being in the same situation as them.

Yes you could make an argument that some of the rappers that are out there talking about life in the street are relatable. My response to that would be instead of these artist illustrating the frivolous use of guns and gratuitous violence, why can’t they advocate using other more positive outlets and avenues in order to escape the harsh realities of the streets.

Back in the day rebel groups such as Public Enemy would go out and point out political, social, and personal issues that affected the community. No their message was not always the most positive, but what was positive was that they were trying to enlighten the youth of the community to go out and get educated  and learn all that they could so that they could eventually make a difference in this world. They had a message of fight the power, not go out and party, drink, use drugs, and shoot guns.

I just don’t feel that artist such as soulja boy are really doing anything to lift up and further the culture of hip hop.

Some artist that in my personal opinion are doing positive,  creative, influential, monumental work within and outside of hip hop are artist like Common, NAS, Pharrell, Outkast , Clipse, Jay-Z, Ludacris, The roots, and many more. These artist are staying true to the overall message of hip hop which is to lift up and inspire the community to do good through the creative means of music, dance, art, and so much more.

I would just like the artist of today try and put a little more thought and feeling into their work instead of quickly putting together a piece of work.

Tiger Tiger Woods yall!!

Ok, so of course everyone is going insane over the whole Tiger Wood’s sex scandal.
It is hard for me to understand what the fascination is with other people's lives, just because they are rich. This is the greatest golfer to ever play the game and we are more concerned about wwhat he is doing off of the course.

I’m not actually sure why. It’s just another celebrity who strayed from the path of monogamy. Not to say that all guys cheat, because I surely do not, but it really should not surprise anyone that a successful, good looking, rich, athlete, who is constantly chased by above average looking woman, guy found it hard to remain faithful in this day and age.

Although if I were placed in the same situation and had someone who loved, supported, and stood by me it would be beyond impossible for me to even conceive the thought of cheating on that person.

Tiger simply caved in to the temptations that have been put forth by today’s society. He has become scraps for the vultures of fame who desire the flesh of celebrities. Not to make him seem like the victim, because he definitely is not. But don’t you think that if we did not give the porn star so much attention even after the fact that the process of moving on for this man and his family would be a little be easier.

This woman is a porn star and obviously has no problem with doing out of the ordinary things, so why is it now that she is on television crying and sobbing on camera over a couple of nasty text messages. I am sure she has done much worse in the course of her career. But society wants to sit back and blame everything on Tiger. All of those women knew that he was married, so automatically you should know what their intentions were.

You can’t sit there and tell me with a straight face that any of those women really and truly wanted to be with Tiger because they had feelings for him or thought that they “loved” him. I would without hesitation laugh.

Why do we even waist the time in our day paying any attention to these people. We all know what they are trying to do. Anyway I would much rather watch the man play golf and could care less what he does in his private life.

cartoons nowadays, a sad sad story

Thundercats, Dark wing Duck, Alvin and the chipmunks, the Real Ghost busters, Duck Tales, Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles, Tiny Toon Adventures, Mighty max, 2 stupid dogs, Johnny Bravo, Animaniacs, Sonic the Hedgehog, mega man, Aaahh! Real monsters, Dexter's Lab, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Ed Edd and Eddy, I could go on forever but Im sure you already know what Im about to say. I was born in 1988 and Im sure that all other 80's babies can say without hesitation that we had the best cartoons. We definitely had cartoon programming that was fun, interesting, and timeless.

I could go on naming every single cartoon that i used to watch when i was little because they were memorable and had a significant impact on my life. Im sure that I am not alone in that statement.

The cartoons of the 80' and 90's are shows that ran for 6,7, and 8 seasons. These shows grew up right along side the generation that watched them and in some ways developed an individual relationship with each child and tween that enjoyed them.

The cartoons of my younger years encouraged adventure, exploration, imagination, and creativity. The cartoons spoke to me on my level and made you want to get out and experience life. I feel sorry for my little sister who has to grow up watching the Backyardagains, Chuggington, Handy Manny, and pretty much all the other cartoons on television nowadays with one or two exceptions.

The cartoons today don't have the same substance that our cartoons had. They lack that connection and relationship with the child. they are so focused on teaching manners, letters, colors, and all the stuff that they should be learning in school or daycare and lack that story that children so dearly crave. Even within the actual animation of the of our cartoons back then and the ones now, the cartoons of yester year had a true sense and feeling of actual intimate animation whereas the cartoons of the present have this new age, 3D, computer generated feel that really takes away from the cartoonness of the show.

My favorite part of watching cartoons was the story. Whether it be Tommy, Chucky, Phil, and Lil going on an  adventure in their basement in search of some ancient treasure or Oblina and the rest of the monsters from Aaahh! Real Monsters going out in attempts to scare humans but failing most of the time and ending up in some bind that they would have to work their way out of without being discovered. The show Hey Arnold made you feel as though even if you are a kid you can still do amazing things and have crazy fun with your friends without literally saying those words.

The shows I watched were able to portray all those essential nuggets of knowledge through captivating adventure and story line and not through corny animation and cliche baby book psycho babble BS. The shows now talk AT the kids instead of telling them a story and showing them adventure and exploration. I encourage you to sit down and watch some of these cartoons and realize that they are stripping your children of their creativity and sense of get up and go.