Can I Get My Mercury and HFCS On The Side Please?

So not only are processed foods laced with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), but Mercury is hidden in there as well. But what baffles me is how the FDA is declaring HFCS as "Natural". Um, last I checked mommy was not planting that in her garden and it was not the latest obsession amongst me and my organic food crazed posse. They trying to kill us ya'll! You better strap up with weapons of mass fitness!

Get some knowledge on about it here

And Check out this commercial (Good for us? Please!!!)

Operation Vaginal Power Outlet Now in Progress

(Photo Via Current and Article Via Jezebel)

I'm all about original designs even those coming from left field as long as there is a lucid explanation behind its creation. But this is such a man thing to do!

According to designer Bob Turek, he created this "innovative" speaker system to show that it "is focused on transforming the way we view the objects we make music with."

So let me get this straight. I have to plug my I-pod into a vaginal outlet which operates by the music blastin from her breasts?! Not to mention she is headless, so that goes to show that her brain and face is insignificant to sharing the beauty of music. AND, once again the female's body is classified as an "object" through music...
Lord HAVE MERCY!!!

Nah I ain't feelin this one people!!!

PS- I guess my male exploitation version needs to debut asap!!!

Washing Out My Dandruff Thoughts: Rinse 4

Ok I don't if it's just me and my mommy but is Erectile Dysfunction/Enhancement a pandemic on the dl ?! I can't go 1 day without seeing dozens of commercials of old geezers or creepy looking middle aged men talking about their "problem" and how it was resolved with some sketchy pill that helps them perform better and/or enlarges their penis size. The radio is not exempt either! Is it really necessary for me to hear 3 ads in 20 mins in the middle of the day?! I think I would rather hear about the latest gospel play in my city... nah not really!!!

But seriously I did not know Erectile Dysfunction/Enhancement was prevalent amongst the older men for these commercials to be airing CONSTANTLY!!!

(PS- Is it just out of the fear of embarrassment to a possible truth or how come we never see men of color in these ads?)

The Mellow Happenings Of R.J: 3 Day Wrap Up

So this is what done in my life the past 3 days:

- Hung out with my peeps in Harlem and saw Notorious. It was a pretty decent movie even though some scenes were a bit embellished and Lil Kim's portrayal was kinda along the lines of being Big's "jumpoff".

- Went to a nice bookstore/cafe a few doors down from the theater that had the best cherry/strawberry/red cupcakes with cream cheese icing ever! Even though they should have been cheaper or larger in size considering they were $3.50!

- Spent the night in Bk with friends and watched the life and times of Mutulu Shakur on American Gangster. It was very enlightening considering that I did not know too much about him B4.

- Hung out with my people today in Queens. I realized that my friends obsess over Indian and Asian men more so than black men but hey I ain't knocking it!

- Perused Craigslist laughing at the "personal ads". Okay, when men are seeking to find a jumpoff for the night on there do all their photos have to be of their penis?!?!?! Can I get a real photo of the actual dude?!?!

- Just found out that my student teaching may take place at a middle school. I really do not care at this point, I just want it to be over with, however I BETTER NOT TEACH 6TH GRADERS!!!

- Embarked on writing two pieces, "Fear of the Black Woman Vagina" (remix to Nas's "Fear of Mandingo") and about the true purposes of Fiber Optics. Be on the lookout on those.

- Spent all Sunday night/early Monday morning watching "Soul Train" from the 70s on Youtube.
(I should have been born 30 yrs earlier)

Scrumptious Tunes Overflowin the MP3 Plate

This is the new album by dope producer, Exile. If you are the kinda person who digs strictly beats no lyrics, then check this out. I'm all about it!

Shouts to My Girl Jill...

So Jill Scott is expecting a baby boy this April. I'm so happy for her considering that she was told she would never conceive a child and the fact that she's 36!
I know her future music will be amazing with such a great source of inspiration!

Read interview about her pregnancy here

Operation ill Tee Now in Progress

(photo via Digital Gravel)

I gotta thing for Sam Flores.
This tee is fly... it shall be mine.
Soon.

Washing Out My Dandruff Thoughts: Rinse 3

I caught this last night.
Twice actually.
The best word to describe it all is bittersweet.
McCain will forever be bitter about his embarrassing defeat.
And in the words of Marvin, "How Sweet It is"!

I'LL BE IN THE BUILDING! (HOPEFULLY)

Operation Potentially Dope Show Now in Progress

Inner City Truth's 2009 Procotol

It's better to be a lil tardy than sorry. I allotted extra time for myself to thoroughly think about what must get done for 2009. This may for into the resolution category, however it's more so my to do list, protocol, or chores that I would like to complete...

Care to know what they are?

BAM!!!

1. Continue abstaining from red meat and pork
(For some reason I do good for months but then bacon sweet talks me, BUT NOT ANYMORE!!!)
2. Cut out fast food joints (I'm so too good for them)
3. Continue boycotting ALL unnatural juices (Sorry Kool-aid)
4. Only eat when hungry (Gluttony is for the weak)
5. Graduate with Honors this May! (Actually graduate period.)
6. Continue improving my skills in Espanol
7. Take the GRE's this year and do a decent job on them
(not the greatest the test taker but that won't stop me!)
8. Apply to Grad school for Spring 2010 (NYU is my #1)
9. Save money throughout the year (work hard. but not to death!)
10. Reduce my TV intake (It needs me. I don't need it.)
11.Go back to the gym (while it's still free for students!)
12. continue walking to close locations
13. Pay off my Nicaragua trip 2008 debt (no biggie)
14. Read more (the mind not my body needs to pack on more pounds)
15. go to more cheap/free concerts, shows, plays, etc
16. attract more visitors to my blog
17. showcase my poetic talents at open mics (peace out timidity!)
18. eat more fruit
19. go to more rallies and social action meetings
20. spend less money on dumb ish
21. go to church more (actually find a place that I like)
22. work at an ill job either summer 09 or fall 09
23. continue my hustle as a proctor for the SAT's ($100 a month= oh yea!)
24. be more active on campus (show them fools R.J. got something to say!)
25. do my thing with student teaching even though I know for sure I do not want it to be my career
26. cook more (next life I'll be a world class chef so why not begin during this one)
27. actually get my license and stop letting my permit expire
28. make use of the ill events posted on Fusicology
29. Visit Chicago and leave the country again
30. continue being more assertive and self confident but never reach obnoxious levels

The Mellow Happenings Of R.J: Dia Uno

New to Inner City Truths... I usually post musical, social, political, fashionable, and sometimes poetic truths but I think I can get a bit more personal with the people who stop past and read...

So on 1/21/09 this was my life:

- woke up dumb early (7ish) b/c was I was supposed to get my fingerprints done for student teaching but I was too tired and sore from the previous stomach virus I recently got over and from moving mad luggage back to my place.

- So I had student teaching orientation from 12-2.

- I find out my 3 placement choices fell through. Damn.

- So I may be placed either at Jamaica or Hillcrest or possibly Thomas Edison. These are all walking distance from my building so I have no quarrels.

- Hung out with my pal J Dot (simple and straightforward convos are always awesome)

- 1st day at my Writing for Social Action Class. We watched videos pertaining to activism and protest and did some free writing (note to self: supply new songs to professor's list!)

- Hang out with my buddy Misha after what felt like a 5 yr hiatus.

- We bought chinese food (the only "fast food" I can eat since I'm abstaining from everywhere else!)

- Fell into a very acute slumber from 7:30-10:30 (I was dumb tired since I got minimal rest last night)

- Enjoyed Top Chef but missed my embarrassing guilty pleasure... Real World BK

- Perused the blog circuit and found some gems.

- IS REALIZING NOW THAT THIS IS MY LAST SEMESTER AS AN UNDERGRAD--- !@#$

Mandatory Double Take

The guy to the right is Indonesian photographer, Ilham Anas.

Read about him here

PS- Let the Obama Years begin!

Scrumptious Tunes Overflowin the MP3 Plate

"Quiet Dog"- Mos Def

Flaco's flow and the accompanying beat are simply RIDICULOUS!!!

The track is ill, nuff said. Taking me back to the Black on Both Sides days, good ones indeed!

Listen to it here

Also Peep...

"Pass The ROC (Demo)"- Jay-Z

I gotta thing for an MC's demo tracks. I'm not a Jigga male groupie but this is pretty iight.

His flow is tight plus the Roy Ayers and mid 90s vibe is so smooth and head nod worthy which means I mess with this song!

Check it out here!

Operation Funky Chic Fashion Now In Progress

(photo via Ladybrille)

Zulu Rose: I am always on a quest for another bold original t-shirt (to add to all the rest) that no one in my vicinity will be rockin as well. So that only means that this label has definitely grabbed my attention. These pieces are very exotic, chic, wearable, and very affordable. The African influenced prints are translated onto organic fabrics which can be worn by both men and women. I plan to pick up a shirt cuz Mel O. supports the local designers and businesses Plus how can a label with the name, Zulu Rose, not be dope?!

Zulu Rose on Myspace

Zulu Rose Website

New Music From The Kid From The Bridge Named The Rapper NaS

This track is iight... it may have to grow on me tho

NaS- "The World" (Prod. Kanye)

Washing Out My Dandruff Thoughts: Rinse 2

So I was in the car last night listening to a D.C. station that was playing this ILL MIX called the "middle school mix". Throwback Mary J., City High (I know right), Eve, Nas, and some L-Boogie along with some other tunes that escaped me.

So all the ill songs from '96-'02 back when I couldn't live w/o the radio put a huge grin on me and my homie Uni Q's face on our way to Red Lobster.

However...

In the midst of the the 808s blastin "Lost Ones", I turned to Uni and said to her...

"She's never coming back, is she?"

Even though I read this random article in the New York Post that she unexpectedly walked into a equestrian club and rode a horse and took her kids to a Martha Stewart book signing a few months back, this fly lady is gone ya'll... 4 NOW

But I'm optimistic that she will make the most phenomenal resurgence to wax, my ears, and musical history

-PeAcE

Possible Birthday Gift 4 Yours Truly?

"Spidey Meets the President" feature in the Amazing Spider-Man #583 due to be released Jan. 14, 2009.

It's $3.99 so get on it if you want a copy!

I TOLD YA'LL OBAMA AND SPIDEY WERE COOL LIKE DAT!!!

-PeAcE

Washing Out My Dandruff Thoughts: Rinse 1

MTV needs to resurrect this classic and bring it back on the air. Or will 90s cynical humor go over the air filled heads of the reality show addicts of my generation?

The FCC Can Not Censor True Life Even If They Tried!

Song lyrics, video games, and Hollywood movies do not light a candle to the gruesome realities of the ongoing violence in our society. People can argue that the media promotes this but what about areas in the world where these forms of entertainment are an unattainable luxury rather than a superficial necessity like they are in America?

New articles, radio reports, eyewitness stories, that's more horrific than any game of Grand Theft Auto or Hip-Hop lyric, and I don't care what anyone says. The gruesome accounts of what's going down on the Gaza Strip, that ish is crazy son!

So I read an article today about a doctor in Gaza City on his way to the hospital, but not to work. He and his daughter needed immediate medical attention due to the fact that their apartment was bombarded and remodeled by Hamas militants. His wife was ripped in half and his one year old son was now in pieces.

A militant of the Islamic Jihad insisted that he be treated and released so that he can return to the battlefield. Doctors say to him why is he so happy about the lives being lost and this gruesome battle in general. He says to them that these people in the hospital and throughout the city lost loved ones who are now martyrs.

And this is his personal aspiration.

Read about it here! Think about it! Pray about it!

"Real World" Brooklyn? (Gentrified)

I had to watch it. It was imperative that I witnessed the acutely melanated cast travel to one of the most gentrified parts of BK. Even though I was almost certain that Williamsburg would be their residence, I knew it would be another homogeneous part if I was wrong. So check it: they reside in this converted warehouse in Red Hook, an area that definitely underwent a socioeconomic/physical transplant. Way back in a poetry class I took, I was listening to some white kids' recommending bar spots to each other and a couple were in Red Hook. The one dude said Red Hook is a very rough spot. My professor who is a 30 or 40 something hippie white woman even said please that area is so gentrified. Enough said.

The milli second shot of the fridge stocked of Juniors cheesecake and MTV's LAME attempt at urbanizing the opening theme did it for me.
I'm sorry this season ain't seasoned enough for me! The only interesting thing about the show is the transgender post-opp girl, Katelynn. Other than that, the show is pretty yawntastic. The roommate selection could be way more diverse. I'm not saying where's the angry black woman, the conceited black man, but DAMN!

And c'mon a warehouse?! They could have lived in a fly brownstone in a much more diversified section of BK. I guess that's in the blueprint for the Real World Harlem when I audition.

ps- the dude Ryan, the Iraqi vet from Gettysburg, Pa who is obsessed with finding out everyone's sexuality is really PLUCKIN MY DAMN NERVES ALREADY!!!

If ya'll care to watch the season most of you will see where I 'm coming from, but if you caught the show holla at me!

-PeAcE

2009's First Tall Glass of Insight

Check out the tribute video "I Would Take the Pain Away" to former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in Dec. 2007. Bhutto's 18 yr old daughter is the MC and it just goes to show that anyone can pour out their genuine emotions with the assistance of a beat and hip-hop influences. This video makes me cry tears of sympathy and anger as to why these monsters in the the world are so f*ckin' obsessed with mutilating one another not just over there but here too!

The Middle East is greatly malnourished of peace and stability at the moment and so is the rest of the world, so people please try eliminating the unnecessary drama, hatred, jealous, and injustice of any kind PRONTO!

shouts to hiphipdx for the post!

Political Musical Chairs: Dirtiest Game Ever Played

Burris was denied his seat in the senate today. He could have the 1 black person seated in office, however the Democrats weren't having that. When I think about, he's too good of a politician to come into office in the midst of the Blago fiasco simply because he'll just be bearing the guilt of association. Damn you Blago!
But why is it that during tumultuous times, these white politcians who are the result of the mess try to pass on the job to a black man? Not like we are unable to repair these busted problems, but I'm just saying!
Anyway, Burris is considering to file a federal lawsuit forcing his seat in the senate. We'll see how that all goes.

Read article here

-PeAcE

Digital Archaeological Digs: Discovery #1

What's goin on people-

Tonight I was on this mission to find some classic Spiderman comics, yet SOMEHOW I stumbled across this lost gem... Fast Willie Jackson. Well actually, after I found what I was looking for, I went on a search for comics with African Americans as the leading hero and that's how I found Willie. Anyway, once I got a look at the cover and it's captions, it was mandatory for me to do some research. The comics were creator Bertam Fitzgerald's attempt at creating the African American version of the Archie comics, however the comics only lasted 7 issues during '76-'77.

Had this comic lived to see other decades, would there have been alterations in its lingo or would it be forever frozen in it's jive talk and funky fashion. Not that I would be opposed to it.

I definitely should have been on the writing staff playing a key role in creating a much stronger and appealing storyline, I think I could've taken it places. Sort of like the female Aaron Magruder. I can dig it!

Check out the clips below and read up on the comic HERE

-PeAcE

When it Comes to the Case of 30 Something yr old Hip-Hop, Bx you are not the Father! (word on the street)

What's goin on bloggers and visiters. Happy New Year and all that.

So I was perusing Current and I came across a video that definitely grabbed every fiber of my musical being. This clip I'm premiering in the 09 is a clip from the upcoming documentary called, "Founding Fathers". Was hip-hop really conceived in the BX or was South Jamaica (Queens) and BK already pros at it with the dope sound systems, djing, fly parties, and MC's? This is definitely a must see. I'm not gonna discredit the Bronx, DJ Kool Herc, and Grandmaster Flash cuz it wasn't as if I was in existence, but it makes you think a bit.

Why I'm so late in discovering this?! I HAVE NO EXCUSE!!!

Check it out- PeAcE