Breakbot - One Out of Two

Great tune. Great Video. Dance!

USA! USA! USA!

In 2011 at the Greco-Roman Wrestling Junior World Championships in Bucharest, Romania...


Ellis Coleman

Tabio Slide Show

I recently saw great pairs of Japanese socks on the uber-hip Jake Davis blog. I'm hitting the books hard this next month then heading off for a very brief stay (a.k.a. strategically planned /extremely long layover) in Tokyo on my way to Beijing this summer. I've been looking desperately for these Tabio socks in recent weeks and today Google's creepy marketing wizardry conveniently placed this video on the side panel of the Youtube homepage for me. I guess the future of AI isn't as grim as Sarah Connor predicted after all!

Contact High

Here's a hit by Allen Stone via my cousin -- a talented musician and member of a soul/garage band. This song has been in heavy circulation serving as a soundtrack to my Saturday morning memo-writing sessions.

Enjoy!

El Fatom

I met the Phantom Street Artist when I was 14 years old. Few people may know that the street artist, widely known for his iconic album cover artwork for Rage Against the Machine's Battle for Los Angeles, is also a talented wrestler. He was one of my first wrestling mentors. We trained wherever we could - frequenting wrestling rooms and gyms in and around around East LA and the Greater San Gabriel Valley year-round. Over the years the Phantom has remained a close family friend.

Here's a video of one of his latest performances, "You Don't Know What Art Is."

In recent years the Phantom has incorporated live performances into his exhibitions. Using an almost obsessive attention to detail, his performance creates an undeniable aura. Initially I found the homemade aesthetic of the props and lighting captivating -- almost like I was watching a school play. Then the camera work and monologue intensified while the noise on the film a gradually evoked the morbid feel of 1990s crime scene footage. This bold critique of the politics of the art world is a breathe of fresh air. Enjoy.

Steven Seagal

He's easily one of my top 10 action heroes (a list which I will share in the near future). Mr. Seagal is quite the conversationalist and has great taste in music. Enjoy.

Driving To Rehoboth!

This song instantly makes driving to the beach feel 10 times more fun!

Bag Raiders - So Demanding

Rule #50

Don't smell your wine unless you're being paid to do it

Conan Goes To Dinner

If your flash players aren't working for the video CLICK HERE

In 6th grade I took a computer science class with a nice lady named Mrs. Rafacz. I had her class right after lunch so we would often run late as we waited for kids to trickle in. She had a teacher's assistant -- far from an image of a typical college TA (i.e., attractive brunnete), he was an elderly man -- who was an expert on the boxy, floppy-disk-eating, Macintoshes that filled the computer lab.


One day I came to class and the TA was telling jokes to kill time. I listened half-heartedly as I dug around my cargo shorts for a pen, but I noticed that the joke sounded very familiar. I had no filter in sixth grade (like most middle schoolers) so I immediately blurted out, "Hey! You heard that joke last night on the Tonight Show!" He looked a little stunned and cracked a smile as he took back his seat. Before I left that day he asked, "Byron, what are you doing up on a school night watching Leno?" and I told him, "I don't watch Leno. I was just staying up for Conan."

Morning Motivator

Win Win

There are few places in film and television history that have highlighted collegiate/folk wrestling in all of its potential drama and glory. It seems the best of those moments died in the 80s somewhere between Loudin Swain's last minute lat-drop against Shoot and A.C. Slater's match against Valley High's Marvin Nedick.

Hitting theaters on March, 18, Win Win has the potential to dethrone Vision Quest as a cult wrestling favorite. Tom McCarthy, the writer behind Up (2009) and The Visitor (2007) gives us the story of a struggling attorney, Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach. Flaherty serendipitously stumbles upon a star wrestler (played by Alex Shaffer, NJ State Wrestling Champion) and sees an opportunity to help his team and his career.

Go see it.

Rule #49

It is impossible for a great athlete to resist shifting his/her feet while standing for the National Anthem.

Crab Shack

There's a show on Food Network called "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." The program asks Food Network stars to recall the best things they've ever eaten. They describe in great detail every bite, every ingredient and flavor that made that particular dish so memorable.

It's possible (and very likely due to the over consumption of Warheads as a kid) that my palette is incapable of experiencing such profound bliss from a bite of food. But like a crutch, I depend, or better yet, relish in the collective dining experience that accompany what would otherwise be just a meal.

Last weekend I went to Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis, MD. This is the quintessential crab shack. It's a local gathering place nestled in a residential area a few miles away from downtown Annapolis. The Riverside Inn sits on the edge of the still waters (I guessed it was the Chesapeake). The gravel parking lot was packed when we pulled in around dusk. There was a festive atmosphere between the foodie tourists and young midshipmen with their families. The patio overlooking the docked boats and the river was bustling with laughs and the sound of wooden crab hammers hitting the picnic tables. A man with a cooler set up a make shift cash bar and supplied the crowd with Miller Highlife tall boys and Arnold Palmers. We follow a group down the stairs to the dock where crab boats unload crates of fresh caught Maryland Blue Crabs directly into bins. Although the crabs and especially the clam chowder were better than average, I won't remember Cantler's for the food. The two hours spent waiting to be seated on the dock, sipping a spicy bloody mary from a Solo cup were equally as satisfying to me as the 1 hour we spent eating on the patio. The night reminded me that as much as I love tasty food, the food alone does not make the meal.

I was five when I first visited Medieval Times: Dinner and Tournament. Today I skim the website and see a kitschy roadside castle, its cartoonish and historically inaccurate with costumes that rival those of a middle school drama production and a menu that could double as the Sunday Senior Citizen special at Denny's. But in my mind's eye I remember a wildly different experience. Twenty years ago I recall walking across the parking lot-- a dark sea of boxy cars I couldn't see over. I spotted the torch-lined draw bridge at the entrance of the fortress and the silhouette of the facade slowly revealed itself. It was as real of an adventure as I could imagine. Moments later I knelt on a paisley pillow before a King to receive my knighthood. Just as his majesty's sword touched my shoulders I snapped my head towards my dad's camera with a look of pure amazement. I wore a red and black cardboard crown. The contest that ensued in the arena-style stadium was an epic story of pageantry and drama. At the end of the night my brother and I ran across the parking lot flailing our souvenir wooden swords and shields-- mimicking the choreographed battles from the show.

Not to be overly sentimental, but when I try to think of the best meals I've ever shared they don't always include great food-- but the one thing never missing is great people.

Tiny Desk Concert

From behind my own tiny desk I present to you people doing much more amazing things from behind a tiny desk. This NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert features Raphael Saadiq performing three tracks off of his 2008 album "The Way I See It"

For his Tiny Desk Concert, Saadiq brought a remarkable accompanist in guitarist Rob Bacon. The two had just gotten off a plane, but in their impeccably tailored suits and their grand smiles, they looked fresh and played an inspired acoustic performance. As you watch, keep an eye on Saadiq's guitar work: You'll see how his years as a bassist influences many of his licks on his Taylor acoustic.

I guess there isn't enough room back behind the desk to do "It Feels Good", a personal favorite of mine.

Check out NPR Music's channel on Youtube for the latest performance.

Enjoy!

Don't Call it a Comeback

Eldra "El" DeBarge, leading vocalist for the 80s sibling group, "DeBarge", is back stronger than ever! After being released from prison in 2008, El was making rounds at the Conga Room and playing small venues in LA and Washington, DC. But his triumphant return into the national spotlight came the night of the 2010 BET Awards where he performed to a packed house.

DeBarge is best known for their 80s dance hits and ballads such "Rhythm of the Night" and "All This Love." But their sound has influenced hip hop and has been sampled for such iconic hits as Biggie's "One More Chance", and most notably El's ubiquitous piano hook made famous by 2Pac's "I Ain't Mad at Cha" and again by Blackstreet on "Don't Leave Me."

Here is a recent interview with El performing one of my favorites "Time Will Reveal". Perhaps this song choice is fitting as surely only time will tell what he has in store for his comeback album.

Why I Love Norah Jones...

Matt and Kim - Daylight (Troublemaker Remix)

Straight off the FIFA 2010 Soundtrack here is Matt and Kim's bright and catchy 2008 single remixed featuring a few verses from De La Soul.

Enjoy

Summer Libation Series 2010: Square One Organic Cucumber Vodka

Founding Farmer's eco-friendly restaurant in DC is one of the few places that features a cocktail using Square One Organic Vodka. Their Cucumber Delight is garnished with a cucumber wheel and two perfect honeydew and canteloupe spheres.

If you're like me and don't have the appropriate bartools to scoop perfect balls of melon into your collins glasses then try this recipe:

2 oz. Square One Cucumber
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. of powdered sugar
1 cucumber wheel and mint sprig for garnish
Combine ingredients in a cocktail tin and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Strain into a glass, fill glass to top with club soda, stir once and garnish with a cucumber wheel and a mint sprig.

World Cup Pick

I could care less who wins the World Cup. Let's be real. Soccer is not America's "thing."

Don't get me wrong, I happen to think that Soccer players are among the best conditioned athletes in the world. Just not in America. It's not our sports culture. Beyond AYSO, there is little interest in soccer for the best young athletes in our country. They usually break out and play football, basketball or baseball. Between the big three sports which typically garner the highest participation/interest at any high school across the country we also have regional preferences toward sports peppered throught the nation (e.g., waterpolo, wrestling, lacrosse). The truth is America's loyalty to the sport of soccer is superficial. Can you name who won the last MLS championship? or who won the last NCAA Div. I Tourney? How about more than 3 players on your city's MLS team? Do you even know that your city has an MLS team? I apologize, but for the millions of American's out there who don't know, the MLS stands for "Major League Soccer."

We've got the The Lakers, The Yankees,the Superbowl, and Barack Obama. That's good enough for me. I'm sure one day we'll (US) rise among the ranks of the world's greatest soccer teams (Argentina, Brazil, Italy) but untill then I think a tournament every four years is plenty of soccer for me.

As a vaguely interested soccer fan, but mostly as an overall sports fan, I will probably watch the most anticipated matchups of group play leading up to the tournament. I even filled out a bracket.

And for no reason other than I think they'll be the best dressed, I chose Italy. I'm going against the odds here and favoring the reigning champions. I also speak a little Italian.

Dolce & Gabbana designed the travel suits for the Italian team this year. Check it out.