It was all a dream...

I do not go to the movies as often as I would like to so when I went to see Notorious, I was hoping to be transported back to the early 90's. I am always amazed when a movie passes my expectations and I was indeed transoported. Notorious not only made me relive my college years but also made me dust off all of The Notorious B.I.G.'s cds. For anyone that is a hip hop fan this is a must see. This is when hip hop felt real.

I will not divulge any details, however I will express a few things:

Lil' Kim protested her role in the film because she not portrayed accurately. Being that the film is not about her to begin with, I think that her role in the film was really not bad. She came across as someone that loved Biggie Smalls, but could not escape the fact that he only saw her as his mistress. Regardless of all that, he respected her and her skills (on mic of course...yeah yeah and that too).

Jamal Woolard, who played Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls, was fantastic. He had it all down, the flow, the heavy breathing, even the laugh. Kudos to him for a great job.

Finally, I am impressed that this wasn't a Sean Combs show. This movie was meant to be about the greatest rapper of all time and it remained that way.

*****

Of course this movie got me to thinking, "How different would Hip Hop be today if Biggie was still alive?" While my opinions will be disputed, I am willing to defend them as well. I spent the better part of the night thinking about this and I came up with some these:

- Jay Z would not nearly be as big as he is right now. Neither would Beyonce for that matter...
- Mase would still be in Hip Hop
- 50 Cent & Lil' Kim would have better albums
- Junior Mafia would still be around (The Lox would still suck)
- This can go without being unsaid but, the state of Hip Hop would be better

Can you imagine a song with The Notorious B.I.G., T.I., Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and vocals by T-Pain? Damn, I do miss Biggie (and Big Pun).

Down to my last Ricola...

The funny thing is that I am not that sick. It is this cough that wont go away. It is that type of cough that gets worse when someone makes me laugh. I know exactly when I caught it too. It was 2 Mondays ago during a basketball game I was playing in. You would think I would catch a cold the 2 weeks I was in NYC, since I was all over the place. But no, I catch it from either one of my teammates or the other team we killed. Regardless, I am down to my last cough drop.

It is 41 degrees today and it is like summer. I love how the weatherman will remind us that is was 25 straight days of Arctic weather (I call it ball-freezing weather). I am curious to see how the students respond to this. I know some were happy that it would be above freezing. There is still mad snow on the ground. I would use my snow blower, but it has been frigid outside. I was looking at the icicles on my house the other day. Huge glacier like structures. I broke some off and it look like the crystals from the Superman Movies. I would take pics, but they are really not that pretty.

I am planning on seeing Notorious tonight. Not sure what to expect. Surprisingly, I haven't heard too much about it. Then again, maybe I haven't been paying attention. Usually by now I would have heard something on the SUBlackbook, which is a listserv that I am apart for SU Alumni (who are black...duh). I enjoy the flooding of emails about random subjects, but I do not recall anything about this movie, so I am hoping it is good. I have high hopes for movies because I don't like to waste my money. I have seen a string of good ones too (7 Pounds, Grand Torino, Milk). I would particularly recommend Grand Torino. How Clint Eastwood did not get an Oscar nod is beyond me.

Speaking of movies, I feel I must show this trailer. This hilarious and yes this is a real movie that will be highlighted at Sundance this year:

Today's number is 4. That is the number of gray hairs I have on my face between my mustache and goatee. I have not named them yet, but the day is still young...

It is just one of those things...

This economy is absolutely nuts. I had a conversation with a former student last night and she told me she was laid off on Tuesday. I am like...damn. How are they gonna lay you off on Inauguration day? It made me think that perhaps we do not do enough for our alumni. I can say this because as an alum (of color), I don't feel like I get the royal treatment.

Anyway, I feel somewhat bad about how people are losing their jobs and homes. On one hand, I look at the (formally) wealthy people and think about how many people they needed to step on and over to get all that money. The ridiculous mansions that they live in, that are cleaned by people that look like my grandmother. They lose there jobs and homes and I am supposed to feel bad? I am not so sure. I view it at as the economy balancing the wealth. The rich becoming poor? I am not sure Jesus would feel bad...lol.

On the other hand, I look at the people who are effected by the housing crisis. Those people who got caught up in some housing scheme, in which their rate went from 5% to 15% in a matter of months. I feel bad for those people because I know how excited I was to buy my home. It doesn't help that gas prices went up or the fact that food is rising in prices. Have you seen the price of rice???? Arroz con Pollo is like mad expensive to make now!

Well, enough of that. Clearly I am happy Obama is the president. I spent most of the morning trying to find the right background image for my work computer (Alicia Keys is on my laptop...sorry Mr. President). I came up with this one . Surprisingly, it was hard to find pictures of the many inaugural balls, but then maybe I really wasn't look good enough.

Well, this is my first blog in a very long time. I used to blog when I lived in NYC in 2000 and 2001. I have a few blogs on Myspace, but I don't really do the "myspace thing" anymore. But, I have been looking at some bloggers that have made me think about writing again. So, with that I want to thank Brook for her blog. I will try to update my page in general (like when I am not working...shhh).