got bored, so I'm blogging, not much to do in our small town ...
-it's been real cool getting to spend time with fam ... all my aunts and uncles together, under the same roof ... as far as my generation, it's myself, my sis and my cousins: giggs, kekkle and c-bear ... if Zona is my little bro, then Giggs has got to be my big bro ... we spent a lot of time bonding as when we flew, we sat next to each other ... we haven't spent this much time bonding since before he got married and had kids to that was cool ...
-we've also established the D-Mac Military ... we're still trying to clearly define each member's rank, but as of now, Giggs is a Lieutenant, myself a Corporal and that would make Zona a Private ... Thus, the birth of J-Smooth's alias, Corporal Santiago ...
-I found out, that I'm going to be the godfather of my cousin's baby girl ... she's such a cutie ... I'm extremely honored that they chose me ...
-I've also been chosen as one person (my uncle, the other) who will deliver the eulogy at the funeral ... I had a feeling since last week that I'd be asked to do this, so I've already had things in mind that I'm planning to say ...
-pretty irregular eating and sleeping schedules ... it's pretty much eat, sleep and socialize at your own leisure ...
-bought myself another pool cue at the mall the other day ... later I got a mini-tutorial from my uncle and cousin ... Anthro, be forewarned ...
-the only downer of the trip so far has been my immature aunt (my mom's cousin) ... Now, I've never been close with her, quite frankly never thought too highly of her ... thus, I cringed when I found out she was coming along, but whatever ... we were all sitting around, talking and joking, the other day ... then she mispronounced a word, which I pointed out ... then she got upset, just like a 4-year-old would've, got up and ran off ... the next morning, she was talking a bunch of garbage, telling my aunts and uncles how I always do that to her ... man, was I pissed ... I've never wanted to smack or reem someone out as much as that moment ... we're here for a funeral for G*d sakes, and she makes a complete a** out of herself ... because of the funeral, out of respect I bit my tongue ... but when we get back to Canada, she's completely cut off ... she's not my aunt, she's an embarrassment ...
-on a lighter note ... we had a surprise guest to our house yesterday ... the mayor of one of the Philippines' major cities came by the house to pay his respects ... apparently he's one of my mother's cousins ... wow! ... the only drawback was, nobody woke me up when this all took place ... ughhhhh! ... Apparently he showed up with a police blockade, armed security officers and bodyguards, they even shut down the block when he was here ... I'm kinda upset because it would've been nice if I could've had a picture taken with him and/or his security staff ... he was also a former congressman as well, thus is well known in the Philippine political community ... my uncles, aunts and parents said he was a nice guy, even invited us to play a round of golf at an exclusive hotel and resort ... damn, major political figures in my fam, who would've thunk! ... I'm wondering who'll be next to walk through the door ... President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo? Apl.de.ap? Manny Pacquiao? ... I'm hoping for the latter, LOL ...
All for now, if I get bored again, which I'm anticipating, I'll check in once again ...
UPDATE:
-I've been assigned a bodyguard, for my protection ... don't ask ...
-I went into town today to get my head shaved ... before this, I asked my uncles and dad how much they paid, they said 40 pesos (equivalent to about less than 1 Canadian Dollar) ... So I went to the barbershop they went to, it took less than 10 minutes ... and they still charged me 40 pesos ... what a rip off!!!, it was just a clean shave ... and I could get an even closer shave with my razor at home ... but whatever, people here need to make a living, so that's my donation to charity ...
-checking facebook ... Zona's bein' sketchy on his encounter with Esco, so I've christened Zona with a new hip hop alias ... The Notorious P.L.A.I.D. ...
-as part of J-Smooth's comeback into "The Game", he's gone back into training ... picking up random girls at the mall ... starting out on his home turf ...
Peace!
~J-Smooth~ a.k.a. Corporal Luiz Dominguez Santiago, J.A. DeVilla 1st Platoon, San Jose, Philippines
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Recap of a whirlwind few days
Since I'm in the Philippines, a Filipino jam for all your listening enjoyment, courtesy of the Black Eyed Peas' Apl.de.ap
-First off, I'd like to thank everyone that made their presence felt, for J-Smooth's birthday outing this past Friday ... It meant a lot ... It was cool to have pretty much everyone I was close to, there to celebrate with me ... Among the notables: Zona, his sis AVAD, Anthro, Prophet, Octal, my sis & her man Romeo, cousin Juddimac and his girl, Dumpling, Chipy, cousins Kekkle, C-Bear, cousin Tatsu and of course Carteron ... We hit up this place that has become a usual hangout ... It was all-in-all a good time ... my only beef being the music ...
-Saturday was spent with Zona and AVAD, much time spent shopping ... Square One, Eaton Centre, Queen Street ... later on in the evening we were joined by my sis, Romeo, Juddimac and his girl to watch The Dark Knight ... on to the movie review
The Dark Knight:
This was the first movie that I've watched in the theatre in over two years ... on top of that, it's probably the first opening weekend that I've gone to see a movie ... My take, in one word, confused ... because that's how I was left feeling after it was all over ... I don't know whether to call it a great movie or a victim of overhype ... I'll probably have to watch it again ... everyone who I was with gave completely different reviews ... my sis and Romeo said it was "great", Juddimac's girl said it was boring, Zona said it was "horrible", while Juddimac, AVAD and myself all shared the same "confused" feeling ... What I will say about it is, Heath Ledger who played the Joker definitely carried the movie with his performance, and he was only in 1/3 of the movie ... the critics were bang on with that assessment ... My score: unscored ... I'll have to see it again ...
-Sunday was spent again with fam ... it was my last day with Zona and AVAD ... I've been anticipating hanging out with them for over a year and a half now, and it was over in a heartbeat ...
-Monday morning it was off to the Philippines to pay respects to the original D-Mac ... but again, I will devote an entire entry as a tribute at a later time ... I'll probably have to do it at home, I'm at a busted *ss internet cafe typing as we speak ...
-the plane ride, I will say is not as "great" as Anthro described ... I couldn't sleep a wink, I was really uncomfortable ... I was on a 777 Boeing, but sitting in economy class ... on the way in and out of the plane I got a look at first class, can you say BALLIN' !!! ... full reclining seats, foot rest, separate pods, with a floral display ... However I'm hearing 5 grand for a single seat, FORGET THAT! ... my time was spent watching movies On DEMAND ... which I will give the airline credit for, they really know how to keep passengers entertained ... now the movie reviews ...
Jumper:
-By far one of the worst movies I've seen in my life ... storyline was garbage !!! ... my score 0.75/5 ... but I'll mark on a curve due to the Rachel Bilson factor ... thus, 1/5
Street Kings:
-now, I didn't mind this movie at all, it was actually pretty entertaining ... intriguing storyline ... but the ending was a little "overbooked", but overall, solid ... score: 3/5
Vantage Point:
-the entire plot was surrouding events within, from what I remember, a 30 minute timeframe, told from different "vantage points" ... It made complete sense why they produced that movie in that matter, so many different things going on that contributed to the main storyline of the attempted presidential assassination ... again, solid ... score: 3/5
Cloverfield:
-Not as bad as Jumper, but completely unrealistic as well ... think, Blair Witch meets Godzilla ... Score: 1/5
-For the past few hours I've been here, I've just been spending time with Fam, cousins, uncles and aunts, just catching up ... For the most part, the mood's been pretty loose, just preparing for the funeral this Sunday ... This may be my final entry here before I go home, because there is little to no privacy here in this internet cafe, plus it's kinda dingy ... LOL ...
-One last thing ... Zona, I see that you met my favorite artist right now, Nas ... you owe me an explanation ... details?, where? how? when?, the whole 9 ... First Agent Zero, now Esco ... I'm depressed ...
Peace,
~J-Smooth~
Thursday, July 17, 2008
200TH POST!!! & 1 YEAR ON BLOGGER!!!
Certainly a momentous occasion for J-Smooth and his readership ... First off I would like to say thanks to everyone who's hit up my blog over the past year, whether you be a regular, semi-regular reader or just pass by randomly, I really appreciate it, and believe me it's been a pleasure ... A big damper put on this, due to tragedy in my personal life, but I will address that in my next entry, which I hope to finish by today ... on a lighter note, to commemorate this special occasion, a lot of new features to the blog, a fresh new look, so enjoy ...
Now something familiar, a regular feature on my posts, some "Random Shots":
-I've read reports that Busta Rhymes was dropped from Aftermath, after a dispute with the "suits" at parent company Interscope ... this upsets me because Busta was set to drop his next album, apparently called "Blessed" ... with him gone from the label, who knows if it gets released ... I told Prophet this just the other day Busta Rhymes and Nasty Nas are the two best in hip hop today, period, or what's left of hip hop ...
Just a nasty flush from my boy T-Mac
Let me start you all off with one of my all-time fave tracks, this will probably be a new semi-regular feature on my entries, so you can listen to music while reading:
Now something familiar, a regular feature on my posts, some "Random Shots":
-so the iPhone had it's worldwide release this week, so many people buzzing about it ... but J-Smooth is his usual critical self ... I don't give a f*ck about the iPhone and the hype it's getting ... society has become a slave to technology, commercialsm, materialism and advertising ... someone should come up with a word for that ... oh I got one, idiotic ... don't these people realize that the release date will not be the only day the iPhone will be on sale ... I've never understood the urges of some people of "have to have", "have to be the first" ... I don't have an iPod either, I'm a Sony snob, I'm considering getting myself a Sony walkman, but I'm taking my time on that
-so the Order of Canada was given to Dr. Henry Morgentaler ... for those of you, who don't know, he's an advocate for abortion ... it really sent shockwaves through Canadian society, especially pro-rights activists and the Catholic Church ... At mass a couple weeks ago, my priest was absolutely disgusted, calling for all parishioners to sign a petition to have Dr. Morgentaler's award revoked ... I didn't have the patience to stick around at the end of mass to sign ... I really don't have a strong stand on how I feel about abortion, that goes for most controversial issues, ie. euthenasia ... I try not to give one generalized answer on controversial issues such as this, because you really need to take a look at the individual case ... my thing is, as long as I can justify my decisions to myself and to God, then I have no problems looking anyone in the eye after my decision is made ...
-Probably the most hyped movie in recent memory is now out ... The Dark Knight ... I guess the biggest subplot surrounding its release is how the flick is Heath Ledger's swan song on the big screen in his role as The Joker ... From what I've been reading from critics, the movie and Ledger's performance are absolutely spectacular ... but f*ck the critics, I wanna see this for myself ... It's definitely the next movie I plan to see ... The one thing that I'm slightly disappointed about is that Katie Holmes was unable to be in this movie due to a scheduling conflict, ahh well, maybe she'll be in the 3rd film in this series ... As for Batman, Christian Bale, he's slated to appear next in the upcoming fourth Terminator film ... Bale's apparently gonna play John Connor ... should be interesting to see his interpretation of the role ... so first Batman, now John Connor, Bale better be careful of being "typecast" as a strictly a superhero-movie actor ...
-a recent study came out saying that it's hard for people to quit smoking if they started in their teens ... I've always laughed at people who say they wanna quit and never can ... It's funny watching people's lack of will power ... but then again, you never know unless you're in that situation ... now I've done the drinking and even experimented with marijuana, but have never smoked a cigarette, and I don't plan on it ...
-uh oh, The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC, and owner of The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters) has been sold to an American Company ... lost another one to the darkside ... I heard a couple years ago that Target was planning to purchase HBC, I guess that fell through ... Big Box companies have really left their stamp on the Canadian economy ...
-I was watching Student Bodies on Showcase the other day and saw a commercial for another show on the channel called, Big Love ... the premise is a polygamist family, trying to live in normal society ... hmmmm, interesting ... LMFAO ...
-so Angelina Jolie gave birth to twins ... congrats are in order, I guess ... apparently, her and husband Brad Pitt have put a price tag on first rights to baby photos, the last number I heard exceeded $10M ... hell, I'll sell all my embarassing photos for a quarter of that amount ...
-did anyone catch that news story about the video of the Canadian detainee in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, being interrogated? ... It's been in the news lately, but I was too lazy to pay attention ... I've always been curious to know what those interrogations are like, see how they break you down mentally ... I consider myself to be really tough mentally, not many things phase me ... I wonder how long it would take to break me down ...
-there was a road rage incident in Milton, just over a week ago, I'm sure you GTA readers heard about it ... this resulted in one man being ejected from his vehicle, ultimately losing his life ... Do I get mad at other drivers on the road, certainly ... but do I try to run them off the road?, hell no ... for many reasons, one being insurance, I wouldn't be able to afford an increase in rates with this ridiculous fuel prices and second of all "is it worth it?" ... I love life too much, and those "other" drivers, while they may be idiots, they likely have families as well ... I mean the guy responsible, his life is ruined as a result of his actions and in turn, he wrecked the lives of the victim's family ... So next time I'm faced in a situation like this, with the other driver cussing at me or giving me dirty looks on the road, I just plan to roll down my windows and blow him/her a kiss ... better off getting a laugh about it, than a criminal record ...
-Z103.5 is holding their "Summer Rush" even at Canada's Wonderland this weekend ... and HELL NO, I'm not going ... I mean, Nelly's headlining the damn thing ... although I wouldn't mind seeing Girlicious, LOL ... but there's no way I'm paying to see them ... it should tell you something about how crappy the concert is if I'd rather see the "undercard" as opposed to the main act ... hell, I'm not even a fan of the Jabbawockeez, but I'd rather see them over Nelly, everyday of the week, twice on Sunday ...
-Donald Trump sold his Palm Beach mansion for $95M, apparently he originally bought it for less than half of that ... must be nice to have $95M be just another transaction ...
now for some sports randoms,
-Gilbert Arenas made an appearance in the motherland, The Philippines, and was treated like a "king" ... Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant also recieved the same kind of treatment during their respective visits in recent years ... The Philippines has shown all of these guys love, and they've shown it right back ... They are all adopted sons, as far as I'm concerned ... I've got an idea, why not ditch the States, apply for a Philippine citizenship and suit up for the Philippine national team ... LOL, that's an open ended invitation to my fave NBA players, T-Mac, Kobe, Gil, Chauncey Billups ... back to Agent Zero, it was a good feeling to hear him show love to my home country ... basketball is by far the biggest sport in the country, probably not lately because of boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, but they love the sport down there ... speaking of PacMan, he was also there to greet Arenas ... Gil apparently will head to Las Vegas for Manny's next fight, his schedule permitting, which is slated for November 15th, it's looking like it'll be Humberto Soto, contrary to reports that Pacman was booked against Edwin Valero ... one more thing about Arenas, on the same blog, he commented on other unrelated stuff, in particular, his visit to Spain ... he said reporters over there really wanted to discuss "El Calderon" ... LOL, "El Calderon", a phrase Agent Zero coined ... I prefer mine, "Frauderon", however, Gil can have mine if he shouts me in his next blog ... Hey Gil, the name's J-Smooth ... LOL ...
-there is a trade rumor of Tracy McGrady headed to the Detroit Pistons ... I don't think this will happen, but it would be awesome to see T-Mac teamed with Chauncey and Rasheed Wallace, an instant championship contender ...
-Samuel Dalembert is gone from the Canadian National Team, for reasons we can only speculate at this point ... I'll guess that it's because he couldn't stand that moron, head coach Leo Rautins ... Leo was a scrub as a player, I can't stand him as a commentator and it's probably no different with him as a coach ... to me, he represents all of these scrub Canadian basketball fans that think they actually know something about the game ...
-The Summer Olympic Games in Beijing are just around the corner ... can't wait ...
-did anyone catch the homerun derby this past week? ... that was unbelievable, to see Josh Hamilton to be in that kind of zone, 28 homers in the first round alone ... and these weren't homers in the front row, these were 500 foot bombs ...
-sad to think this is the last year at the legendary Yankee Stadium, one of the very last of the vintage parks, along with Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago ... it'll be sad when those two go as well ...
-with the MLB allstar game in New York City this past week, there were a lot of big parties ... Alex Rodriguez hosted one at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club ... apparently A-Rod's become quite the outcast among his Yankee teammates, due to his much-publicized relationship with Madonna ... none of his teammates even showed up to his party, and funny enough, Madonna was no where to be found, I learned this watching TMZ ... I've never been a fan of A-Rod personally, he's always struck me as overly arrogant, not at LeBron James or Floyd Mayweather levels, but up arrogant nonetheless ...
elsewhere,
-I've read reports that Busta Rhymes was dropped from Aftermath, after a dispute with the "suits" at parent company Interscope ... this upsets me because Busta was set to drop his next album, apparently called "Blessed" ... with him gone from the label, who knows if it gets released ... I told Prophet this just the other day Busta Rhymes and Nasty Nas are the two best in hip hop today, period, or what's left of hip hop ... -one album that I'm real interested in hearing is The Game's "last" album, L.A.X ... I have no clue why ... I'll never be a fan of The Game, because of his past G-Unit affiliations ... but according to wikipedia, this upcoming album has an allstar roster of guest appearances, among them: Nas, Busta, Raekwon, Common, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, Raheem DeVaughn, Ne-Yo and many more ...
while on the topic of music, how about a CD/music review of my most anticipated album of the year, Nas: Untitled:
-now before this album dropped this past Tuesday, a few of the tracks had already leaked onto the internet, so I already got a taste of it beforehand ... I purchased the CD btw, my way of showing support to REAL hip hop ... based on what I heard prior, from people who burned the album, it's been described as "legendary" and "better than Illmatic" ... but I never listen to hype, I always have to hear it for myself ... the two commercial tracks of the album, "Hero" and "Make the World Go Round", I already consider two of the best hip hop songs to come out this year ... "Hero" featurning Keri Hilson, is what's been playing in my car, whenever I've gone out this week ... "Make the World Go Round" featuring The Game and Chris Brown ... again, I'm in no way a fan of Game or CB, but when you're with Nas, you gotta raise your game to the next level ... this especially showed with Game, as this is the best I've heard him, probably ever ... as for the rest of the album, I was feeling "Black President", "Sly Fox" where Nas takes aim at Rupert Murdoch and the FOX network of companies and I also liked "Fried Chicken" featuring Busta ... two reasons: 1) my two fave hip hop artists, 2) the track is a double meaning, just brilliant! ... overall I wouldn't say the album is better than Illmatic, that's pretty tough, it's unfair to this album to put those kind of expectations on it, but it is by far, hip hop album of the year ... Nas is the best, PERIOD! ...
-now before this album dropped this past Tuesday, a few of the tracks had already leaked onto the internet, so I already got a taste of it beforehand ... I purchased the CD btw, my way of showing support to REAL hip hop ... based on what I heard prior, from people who burned the album, it's been described as "legendary" and "better than Illmatic" ... but I never listen to hype, I always have to hear it for myself ... the two commercial tracks of the album, "Hero" and "Make the World Go Round", I already consider two of the best hip hop songs to come out this year ... "Hero" featurning Keri Hilson, is what's been playing in my car, whenever I've gone out this week ... "Make the World Go Round" featuring The Game and Chris Brown ... again, I'm in no way a fan of Game or CB, but when you're with Nas, you gotta raise your game to the next level ... this especially showed with Game, as this is the best I've heard him, probably ever ... as for the rest of the album, I was feeling "Black President", "Sly Fox" where Nas takes aim at Rupert Murdoch and the FOX network of companies and I also liked "Fried Chicken" featuring Busta ... two reasons: 1) my two fave hip hop artists, 2) the track is a double meaning, just brilliant! ... overall I wouldn't say the album is better than Illmatic, that's pretty tough, it's unfair to this album to put those kind of expectations on it, but it is by far, hip hop album of the year ... Nas is the best, PERIOD! ...What's up with J-Smooth? let's recap the past week ...
last friday - Anthro came home, so I kicked it with him and Dumpling in the hometown, B-Town! ... man did Anthro tell some stories, literally had me busting a gut the entire night ... it was a year ago at this time that the legend of Anthro was born, over the past year the legend's grown into Supermanthro, and now after the stories I've heard, I'm declaring him to be Supermanthro Version NC-17 ... LOL ... elsewhere, we also checked out Carabram, an annual multicultural festival in Brampton ... stopped at the Filipino pavillion, I got us in free of charge because of my rep, also probably because I was a staple at those pavillions back in the day, being a retired performer ... it was cool to see some old faces ...
last saturday - was our annual street party, which entails a round of golf and street barbecue ... I shot a horrible round, so there's no need to get into that ... the street bbq was awesome, all the burgers, sausages, watermelon and beer I wanted ... basically it's held at the corner of the street with grills set up, people just come to eat, drink and socialize, one guy hooks up his sound system so there's music as well, the party usually lasts until nighttime ... sure I slag on my town on a regular basis, but it's cool getting the chance to know my neighbours on a more personal level, instead of the passing "hi how you doing?" thing ... the funniest moment of the bbq was seeing the little girls doing the Soulja Boy dance ... this one guy said to me, "I'm guessing this is your kind of music" ... my response "hell no!" ... then he asked what I wanted to hear, obviously I responded "Nas", but as I expected, everyone said "never heard of him", but luckily the guy with the speakers is a DJ, so he had the CD ...
after the street party is was back to B-Town ... wow, hometown on back-to-back nights ... kicked it with Prophet, who also recently returned from vacation ... we were due to hit up Sonny's, so we finally got our fix ... Interesting Convo with Prophet as always ... but perhaps the biggest thing that came out of it was that a tentative verbal agreement for a collabo track was reached ... This is huge, J-Smooth and LC doing a track together! ... negotiations are still in the works to have Prophet's labelmate Slinks make an appearance, we shall see ... It's a 50-50 effort between J-Smooth's One Truth Entertainment and LC, this is for you B-Town! ... LMFAO ...
monday - was a rematch 11 years in the making ... Chipy, who's here on vacation a couple of weeks, came to my town for a round of golf ... The last time we played, we were both in 10th or 11th grade, I can't remember which exactly ... So here's a summary ... The front 9, I was absolutely horrible, anything that could go wrong, did ... by the end of the 9th hole, I really shot myself in the foot and was down 8 strokes ... Chipy 49, J-Smooth 57 ... but then a strange thing happenned ... I changed equipment (my ball from a Titleist to a Precept) then I made a slight mechanical adjustment to my swing ... from there, my back 9 holes were nothing short of legendary ... I started out with a bogey, then three straight pars!, never been done in my career ... followed that with two disappointing bogeys, which should've been pars as well, the first, the putt lipped out, the second, the putt missed by an inch ... but that's just half of the story, the first bogey, put me ahead by one stroke ... Chipy had a MAJOR collapse in the back 9 ... Unfortunately, I double bogeyed the 16th hole, which as it turns out cost me the game ... I finished with a total score of 98, with Chipy at 96 ... I've never been that happy with a loss in my life, because of how horribly I started the game, I still managed a 98, but even better a back 9 socre of 41, that's just outstanding ... my father later told me his career best on any 9 is a 43 ... so not only do I have the confidence now that I can beat Chipy, my father, cousin and uncle, I know I'm fully capable of scoring in the 80's (I'm always aiming for the 90's) ... If I'd shot a decent 48 in the front 9, I would've finished with an 89, opportunity missed, so next time! ... to think this is my first serious year at playing golf ... J-Smooth forsees a future duel at the masters between himself and Tiger Woods ... LOL ...
tuesday - errands for my father and sis, most of the day ... one which saw me in a "metro"sexual store, man did I feel uncomfortable ... purchased Nas' album that day, but I already addressed that ... then I was at the bank, when a Filipino bank teller, invited me to come out to play some ball ... I'm always down for pick up games ... especially in my town, where basketball games and Filipinos are scarce ... it's apparently a regular/every-other-day pick up session, so I'll check it out one of these days ... it's good, that, along with golf and my workouts will keep me in good shape and conditioning ... later that night I rented a few movies, but more on those DVD/movie Reviews later ...
wednesday - is when the tragic news broke, but as I said before, I'll address another time ... deserves its own entry ...
upcoming:
today - my cousins Arizona's Finest and AVAD make their long-awaited homecoming ... however it's really under awkward circumstances with what's been goin' on with the D-Mac in recent days ... but nonetheless I can't wait to see them tomorrow ...
tomorrow - despite everything, I'll still be celebrating by birthday at one of our usual spots ... like I told everyone, this will be the first and likely only time I ever celebrate my birthday at a club/lounge, I'm getting too old for this stuff ... It'll be awesome to get most of the people I'm close to, together all on the same night ... maybe it can take my mind off things for a few hours at least
this weekend and beyond - planning to spend it with Zona and AVAD ... we'll probably just do things on the fly, but one priority is definitely watching The Dark Knight ... On Monday, I head to the Philippines for a couple of weeks to say goodbye ...
now, for the DVD/Movie Reviews I mentioned ... The whole purpose of this is to settle debates between Ebert and Roeper ... I mean, Prophet and Anthro ... Prophet loved Shooter, Anthro not so much ... Anthro raved about The Departed, Prophet thought it was garbage ... J-Smooth is here to end this, break the tie once and for all ... At Blockbuster they had a deal, 3 movies for $8.99, so I figured, now is a more perfect time than any ... The third movie I watched was one that's been out for years, but I hadn't had the opportunity to watch until now, Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman ... I'll just say, it should've remained unwatched ... I didn't enjoy it at all ... it was extremely predicatble, many parts seemed unrealistic to me, and the way the characters reacted in certain situations was way over-the-top ... my score 2/5 ... enough with that ... now on to the debate ...
Shooter:
-starred Mark Wahlberg ... I nearly gave up on the movie right in the beginning, because I thought how Wahlberg's character, Bob Lee Swagger, was set up was beyond predictable, but then I glanced at the DVD cover, and it's says that's what would happen right on the description ... The action scenes in the movie were awesome ... Michael Pena (Crash) was in the movie too, starring as an FBI agent ... The storyline turned out to be very good, how it dealt with corruption within the U.S. Government, something I'm sure is not far from the truth in real life ... Finally throw in a couple of hot chicks, and there you had one very good movie, yeah not just solid, but very good ... probably the best of all the "new" movies I've seen this year ... my score 4/5 ...
The Departed:
-an all-star cast, among them: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon (yes, the guy with a "Jason Bourne sense of direction"), Mark Wahlbert, Martin Sheen and Jack Nicholson ... Awesome plotline! ... DiCaprio playing an undercover cop, while his counterpart Damon, is an S.I.U. officer who secretly has ties to Nicholson's character, the leader of a Massachusetts mob ... the plot kept be engaged all throughout ... however, the last 10-15 minutes (the ending) of the film ruined it all for me, it was way over-done, over-written and what wrestling fans call over-booked ... but Martin Scorsese is a critically acclaimed film director, writer and producer, so he must know what he's doing ... but again, the last few moments of the movie killed it for me ... I'm not even sure where to score this, but I'll say somewhere between a 3.75 and 4 out of 5 ...
I guess that means Prophet slightly wins this round of movie critiques over Anthro ... hey, I was objective as possible, I had to say that just in case if either of you catch feelings from this ... LMFAO ...
-Maybe some of you are wondering, what it would take for me to classify a movie as great or outstanding ... a few things: it kept me engaged and I fully enjoyed watching it the first time; also, I could watch it over and over without being bored ... to a lesser extent: character development, plotline and how believable it is ... just to name a few I consider "great/outstanding": Love and Basketball, Remember the Titans, Coming to America, The Wood, Hitch, Gone in 60 Seconds, Field of Dreams, A Few Good Men ...
Now a small glimpse into my YouTube "favorites" list:
This is old, I don't know if any of you have seen it already, but it's funny as hell
Best freestyle I've heard on Rap City, period
Just a nasty flush from my boy T-Mac
How could any heterosexual male get tired of staring at Jessica Alba
Finally, my reading of Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life is going well, if you're a believer, this book is definitely for you, judging from what I've read so far ...
That just about wraps up this entry ... I'll try and think of fresh new ideas as I go along in Year Two ...
Peace!
~J-Smooth~
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Random Shots
-I'm not sure if it's a new fashion trend just in Toronto, Canada or everywhere ... but have any of you noticed dudes wearing these plaid-pattern shorts? ... let me just say that they look completely _______ (you can fill in the expletive, I'll stay politically correct on this one) ... my father agreed, he said that they look like underwear ... My sis responded to me, "well people have different styles from you" ... my response to that is, well she's right, I guess I just like to keep my wardrobe as "hetero" as possible ... I think I'll stick to my jean shorts, I'll even rock khakis from time to time, but you'll never ever see me rock plaid for any reason ... this new fashion trend is just as bad as women rocking those spandex pants with skirts over top ... I'm a fan of 80's music, but as far as 80's fashion goes, I say leave that sh*t in the 80's ... another problem I have with it is, that it was already fashionable in Asia (back in 2006), can you say SLOW ... My cousin's wife (who I think is a big nerd, btw) was rockin' that exact wardrobe when I saw her this weekend, she even dressed her daughter like her as well ... but as far as fashion that I'm feelin', and I have no idea why, are these t-shirts with these designs that looked like they were sketched on ... I don't know if it's just one brand or a series of them, but one of them is Affliction clothing ... Antonio Margarito rocks them, I think I've seen Shane Mosley and Kelly Pavlik sport similar type shirts ...
-Summer plans have been thrown out the window ... my trip to Phoenix has been postponed/put on the backburner, due to an illness in the family ... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't diappointed ... but family always comes first ...
-Food I've been eating lately, now I don't eat a lot of take out, but I'm really feeling Dairy Queen's chilli cheese dogs ... again I have no idea why ...
-I'm sure people can relate ... there some times when you come across old photos or old videos of yourself that you haven't seen before ... Well that happened to me a couple days ago ... I was flipping channels, and I came across the Raptors channel and they were showing an old game, "NBA's Greatest Games" ... It was a game from 2000, Toronto Raptors versus Orlando Magic, when Tracy McGrady was still on the team, I have no idea why this constitutes "greatest game", but whatever ... it was when Raptors ball was actually entertaining, plus T-Mac, so I decided to watch it ... But after a few minutes, it donned on me, I was at that game ... I was sitting in the second row, behind the basket, not courtside, but on the floor, seats which used to be exclusive to local businesses/sponsors ... The next couple of minutes were spent focused on locating myself, and sure enough, there I am sitting there, still with a full head of hair, sporting my big puffy red bubble jacket, next to my uncle ... I remember that game like it was yesterday, because that is the closest I've ever sat to the court ... It was my last year of high school, I think that was the apex of my status as a Raptor fan, I never missed a second of Raptor ball that season, literally, it hasn't been the same since ... sure, recent years that Charlie Villanueva and TJ Ford have been on the Raptors made the team watchable, but deep down it was never the same for me after T-Mac left ... Some funny moments, whenever T-Mac or Vince Carter made a nice play, a pass or drive to the basket, I would either stand or raise my arms to be sure I got on camera ... surely enough the next morning I was on the morning highlights and even made it on NBA Inside Stuff ... last word on this, I was thinking to myself while watching this old game, this is how any NBA team, let alone the Raptors, should be constructed ... maybe two or three young talents, then surround them with tough, defensive-minded (not Euro), unselfish veteran players ... They had Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, would've still had Chauncey Billups if they didn't give him away for draft picks, if I'm not mistaken, then they had vets: Charles Oakley, Antonio Davis and Doug Christie ... That team would've stomped a mudhole in the current edition of the Craptors ...
-Mark it down, July 9th, 2008 ... the day that Raptors basketball officially died ... Frauderon re-signed long-term and annointed their starting point guard, and Jermaine O'Neal, not that I have any problems with his game when he's healthy, but completely kills their salary cap situation ... Something that I'm not guaranteeing, however it is a possibility, come the end of the 2008-2009 NBA season, we could see the Indiana Pacers make the playoffs and the Craptors miss it ... that would make me the happiest basketball fan on the planet ... J-Smooth is still looking for an NBA squad to anoint his "team" ... Seattle, uhh, excuse me, Oklahoma City shocked me when they picked Russell Westbrook over Jerryd Bayless ... for an NBA squad to qualify as my team, it needs to have at least two players I like and actually follow ...
ok, lets move on to a few pop culture topics, I need some hits, LMFAO
-Soaring gas prices ... I blame the greedy CEO's of these gas companies for price gauging and I blame George Bush for the biggest fraud in World History, his invasion of Iraq ... these prices are no joke, but I did hear the funniest thing on the radio the other day ... Apparently some woman down in Texas was arrested, because she had become so desparate to pay for gasoline, she started prostituting herself for gas vouchers ... LMFAO ... Man, how could someone be that desparate? take a damn bike! ... maybe someone should stick one of those "full service" signs on her lawn ... but I guess she gets a kick out of "servicing the community" ...
-so Madonna is rumored to be with Alex Rodriguez ... man, who hasn't Madonna been with? ... Jose Canseco, Dennis Rodman, those are the only two that come to mind ... ok quick wikipedia search ... Sean Penn, Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy) and Vanilla Ice, everyone back in the day was a fan of Vanilla Ice, LOL ...
-Whatever happened to Jennifer Lopez? ... there was a time where J-Lo was literally everywhere ... clothing lines, perfumes, on every magazine cover on magazine stands, on the music charts, on the radio, on television with her music videos, on the big screen with her movies ... she seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth, last i heard, she married Marc Anthony and had a kid ... that's a lesson that should be taught to all these big-headed, egotistical celebrities, don't think you're above everything and everyone, because one day you're on top of the world, the next day everyone's moved on an forgotten all about you ... you listening Kanye West? 50 Cent? Paris Hilton? Mariah Carey? ...
finally,
July 17th marks two milestones: 1) one year on blogger, 2) what will be my next and 200th entry ... so check back then, there will be changes and I expect it to be J-Smooth's most packed (content and feature-wise) entry to date ...
One,
- J -
-Summer plans have been thrown out the window ... my trip to Phoenix has been postponed/put on the backburner, due to an illness in the family ... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't diappointed ... but family always comes first ...
-Food I've been eating lately, now I don't eat a lot of take out, but I'm really feeling Dairy Queen's chilli cheese dogs ... again I have no idea why ...
-I'm sure people can relate ... there some times when you come across old photos or old videos of yourself that you haven't seen before ... Well that happened to me a couple days ago ... I was flipping channels, and I came across the Raptors channel and they were showing an old game, "NBA's Greatest Games" ... It was a game from 2000, Toronto Raptors versus Orlando Magic, when Tracy McGrady was still on the team, I have no idea why this constitutes "greatest game", but whatever ... it was when Raptors ball was actually entertaining, plus T-Mac, so I decided to watch it ... But after a few minutes, it donned on me, I was at that game ... I was sitting in the second row, behind the basket, not courtside, but on the floor, seats which used to be exclusive to local businesses/sponsors ... The next couple of minutes were spent focused on locating myself, and sure enough, there I am sitting there, still with a full head of hair, sporting my big puffy red bubble jacket, next to my uncle ... I remember that game like it was yesterday, because that is the closest I've ever sat to the court ... It was my last year of high school, I think that was the apex of my status as a Raptor fan, I never missed a second of Raptor ball that season, literally, it hasn't been the same since ... sure, recent years that Charlie Villanueva and TJ Ford have been on the Raptors made the team watchable, but deep down it was never the same for me after T-Mac left ... Some funny moments, whenever T-Mac or Vince Carter made a nice play, a pass or drive to the basket, I would either stand or raise my arms to be sure I got on camera ... surely enough the next morning I was on the morning highlights and even made it on NBA Inside Stuff ... last word on this, I was thinking to myself while watching this old game, this is how any NBA team, let alone the Raptors, should be constructed ... maybe two or three young talents, then surround them with tough, defensive-minded (not Euro), unselfish veteran players ... They had Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, would've still had Chauncey Billups if they didn't give him away for draft picks, if I'm not mistaken, then they had vets: Charles Oakley, Antonio Davis and Doug Christie ... That team would've stomped a mudhole in the current edition of the Craptors ...
-Mark it down, July 9th, 2008 ... the day that Raptors basketball officially died ... Frauderon re-signed long-term and annointed their starting point guard, and Jermaine O'Neal, not that I have any problems with his game when he's healthy, but completely kills their salary cap situation ... Something that I'm not guaranteeing, however it is a possibility, come the end of the 2008-2009 NBA season, we could see the Indiana Pacers make the playoffs and the Craptors miss it ... that would make me the happiest basketball fan on the planet ... J-Smooth is still looking for an NBA squad to anoint his "team" ... Seattle, uhh, excuse me, Oklahoma City shocked me when they picked Russell Westbrook over Jerryd Bayless ... for an NBA squad to qualify as my team, it needs to have at least two players I like and actually follow ...
ok, lets move on to a few pop culture topics, I need some hits, LMFAO
-Soaring gas prices ... I blame the greedy CEO's of these gas companies for price gauging and I blame George Bush for the biggest fraud in World History, his invasion of Iraq ... these prices are no joke, but I did hear the funniest thing on the radio the other day ... Apparently some woman down in Texas was arrested, because she had become so desparate to pay for gasoline, she started prostituting herself for gas vouchers ... LMFAO ... Man, how could someone be that desparate? take a damn bike! ... maybe someone should stick one of those "full service" signs on her lawn ... but I guess she gets a kick out of "servicing the community" ...
-so Madonna is rumored to be with Alex Rodriguez ... man, who hasn't Madonna been with? ... Jose Canseco, Dennis Rodman, those are the only two that come to mind ... ok quick wikipedia search ... Sean Penn, Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy) and Vanilla Ice, everyone back in the day was a fan of Vanilla Ice, LOL ...
-Whatever happened to Jennifer Lopez? ... there was a time where J-Lo was literally everywhere ... clothing lines, perfumes, on every magazine cover on magazine stands, on the music charts, on the radio, on television with her music videos, on the big screen with her movies ... she seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth, last i heard, she married Marc Anthony and had a kid ... that's a lesson that should be taught to all these big-headed, egotistical celebrities, don't think you're above everything and everyone, because one day you're on top of the world, the next day everyone's moved on an forgotten all about you ... you listening Kanye West? 50 Cent? Paris Hilton? Mariah Carey? ...
finally,
July 17th marks two milestones: 1) one year on blogger, 2) what will be my next and 200th entry ... so check back then, there will be changes and I expect it to be J-Smooth's most packed (content and feature-wise) entry to date ...
One,
- J -
Monday, July 7, 2008
Even more DVD/Movie Reviews - Good Luck Chuck, Cleaner, Resurrecting The Champ
Sat down and watched a few more movies over the past few days, so here is J-Smooth's take on all three ...
Good Luck Chuck:
I'll admit off the top that one of the main reasons why I watched it was for Jessica Alba ... my sis also told me that it was funny ... I'm always in the mood for a good laugh, so I figured, why not give it a chance ... basically the premise of the movie is a guy that has supposedly been cursed by a girl years ago, after a game of spin-the-bottle ... his curse was that any woman who sleeps with him, will eventually go on to meet the man of her dreams/love of her life afterwards ... thus, this makes the main character, Charlie, a chick magnet, with women using him for sex ... I think you all can speculate where this leads ... In this movie, all morals basically go out the window ... one segment can simply be described as a tutorial for every known sexual position, LOL ... As for the rest of the storyline, Charlie ends up meeting Jessica Alba's character Cam, who he falls in love with at first sight ... A couple of her character traits: she is extremely clumsy and is resistant of the idea of being in a relationship ... thus, we come to my first beef with the film, and that is there was no character development at all with Cam ... it is not explained at all why she is the way she is or why she isn't in a relationship ... I guess the writers/producers figured, "hey it's Jessica Alba, why the hell would the male audience give a f*ck about character development" ... How to best describe the movie, it's a romantic comedy along the same lines as Along Came Polly, with the same sick sense of humor as American Pie ... As far as my experience watching it, I was entertained through much of it, there were some scenes that had me laughing for a good couple minutes ... as for the movie as a whole, it's one of those that critics would absolutely tear to shreds, so if you're of that mindset I don't think this movie is for you ... my score, 3/5, that's kind of inflated for two factors (1. Jessica Alba, 2. the hilarious moments in the film) ...
Cleaner:
Another movie that I chose to watch, because it starred one of my fave female celebrities ... Eva Mendes ... but when I was watching the movie, I was so engaged with the story, that I almost forgot she was even in the film ... The storyline revolves around Samuel L. Jackson's character, a former/retired police officer, who now works as a bio/chemical cleaner, meaning he cleans up crime scenes ... In the movie, he is called to do a job at an upscale residence ... at the time it seemed to be an ordinary run-of-the-mill crime scene ... but unbeknownst to him, he cleaned up a crime scene that had yet to be inspected by the police, and that someone had forged a crime scene/police document ... Samuel L. Jackson's character, Tom, attempts to turn a blind eye to the whole thing, even hiding his evidence (photos, paperwork) from the authorities ... however, when the male home-owner is reported as missing, Tom is confronted by the man's spouse (Eva Mendes) and the police, who all have their own suspicions of Tom ... The story explores a world of crooked police officers and one of the subplots is Tom being haunted by the memories of his murdered wife ... Like I mentioned before, the storyline of the movie kept me engaged throughout ... The one problem that I had with the movie was that it's "missing pieces" weren't explained/revealed as the storyline was unfolding in real time ... the loose ends were explained in one of the closing montages of the movie, flashback-style ... It wasn't the greatest film I've ever seen, and isn't something that I'd watch over-and-over, but overall it was solid ... my score, 3.25/5 ...
Resurrecting The Champ:
Another movie starring Samuel L. Jackson ... the main character, Erik, (portrayed by Josh Hartnett) is a struggling boxing beat writer, looking for his big break in the journalism industry ... He encounters and befriends a homeless, former boxing great, Bob Satterfield (Jackson), and this sparks Erik's creative juices for a "whatever happened to"-type story with he titles "Resurrecting the Champ" based on Satterfield ... The story is basically about Erik's life struggles with: his career, his estranged wife, his young son, and living in the shadow of his famous dead father ... I guess it is somewhat of an inspirational movie, on what really defines "success" in life ... in what seems to be a recurring theme in my movie watching of late, the film wasn't my favourite thing in the world, but again it was solid ... The character development of Erik was good and overall I remained engaged with the storyline ... Lastly, when I first decided to watch the movie, I thought it would be a boxing film ... but as it turned out that boxing was merely a subplot ... the best boxing movie in my opinion is Cinderella Man starring Russell Crowe (although most boxing enthusiasts would probably say Rocky) ... as far as "boxing" movies go, Resurrecting The Champ somewhat falls short, but storyline-wise it was still a very good movie ... score, 3.25/5 ...
One,
- J -
Good Luck Chuck:
I'll admit off the top that one of the main reasons why I watched it was for Jessica Alba ... my sis also told me that it was funny ... I'm always in the mood for a good laugh, so I figured, why not give it a chance ... basically the premise of the movie is a guy that has supposedly been cursed by a girl years ago, after a game of spin-the-bottle ... his curse was that any woman who sleeps with him, will eventually go on to meet the man of her dreams/love of her life afterwards ... thus, this makes the main character, Charlie, a chick magnet, with women using him for sex ... I think you all can speculate where this leads ... In this movie, all morals basically go out the window ... one segment can simply be described as a tutorial for every known sexual position, LOL ... As for the rest of the storyline, Charlie ends up meeting Jessica Alba's character Cam, who he falls in love with at first sight ... A couple of her character traits: she is extremely clumsy and is resistant of the idea of being in a relationship ... thus, we come to my first beef with the film, and that is there was no character development at all with Cam ... it is not explained at all why she is the way she is or why she isn't in a relationship ... I guess the writers/producers figured, "hey it's Jessica Alba, why the hell would the male audience give a f*ck about character development" ... How to best describe the movie, it's a romantic comedy along the same lines as Along Came Polly, with the same sick sense of humor as American Pie ... As far as my experience watching it, I was entertained through much of it, there were some scenes that had me laughing for a good couple minutes ... as for the movie as a whole, it's one of those that critics would absolutely tear to shreds, so if you're of that mindset I don't think this movie is for you ... my score, 3/5, that's kind of inflated for two factors (1. Jessica Alba, 2. the hilarious moments in the film) ...
Cleaner:
Another movie that I chose to watch, because it starred one of my fave female celebrities ... Eva Mendes ... but when I was watching the movie, I was so engaged with the story, that I almost forgot she was even in the film ... The storyline revolves around Samuel L. Jackson's character, a former/retired police officer, who now works as a bio/chemical cleaner, meaning he cleans up crime scenes ... In the movie, he is called to do a job at an upscale residence ... at the time it seemed to be an ordinary run-of-the-mill crime scene ... but unbeknownst to him, he cleaned up a crime scene that had yet to be inspected by the police, and that someone had forged a crime scene/police document ... Samuel L. Jackson's character, Tom, attempts to turn a blind eye to the whole thing, even hiding his evidence (photos, paperwork) from the authorities ... however, when the male home-owner is reported as missing, Tom is confronted by the man's spouse (Eva Mendes) and the police, who all have their own suspicions of Tom ... The story explores a world of crooked police officers and one of the subplots is Tom being haunted by the memories of his murdered wife ... Like I mentioned before, the storyline of the movie kept me engaged throughout ... The one problem that I had with the movie was that it's "missing pieces" weren't explained/revealed as the storyline was unfolding in real time ... the loose ends were explained in one of the closing montages of the movie, flashback-style ... It wasn't the greatest film I've ever seen, and isn't something that I'd watch over-and-over, but overall it was solid ... my score, 3.25/5 ...
Resurrecting The Champ:
Another movie starring Samuel L. Jackson ... the main character, Erik, (portrayed by Josh Hartnett) is a struggling boxing beat writer, looking for his big break in the journalism industry ... He encounters and befriends a homeless, former boxing great, Bob Satterfield (Jackson), and this sparks Erik's creative juices for a "whatever happened to"-type story with he titles "Resurrecting the Champ" based on Satterfield ... The story is basically about Erik's life struggles with: his career, his estranged wife, his young son, and living in the shadow of his famous dead father ... I guess it is somewhat of an inspirational movie, on what really defines "success" in life ... in what seems to be a recurring theme in my movie watching of late, the film wasn't my favourite thing in the world, but again it was solid ... The character development of Erik was good and overall I remained engaged with the storyline ... Lastly, when I first decided to watch the movie, I thought it would be a boxing film ... but as it turned out that boxing was merely a subplot ... the best boxing movie in my opinion is Cinderella Man starring Russell Crowe (although most boxing enthusiasts would probably say Rocky) ... as far as "boxing" movies go, Resurrecting The Champ somewhat falls short, but storyline-wise it was still a very good movie ... score, 3.25/5 ...
One,
- J -
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Danforth Redemption
Earlier this week I decided to just go all over Toronto, to shop, more like window shop ... I had nothing in particular that I wanted to buy, I just wanted to get out of the house ... Also, there were days over this past year, when I was in my daily routine, just doing things that I HAD to do, on those days I would sometimes think and observe other people, questioning "where are they headed?", "I wonder if where they're headed is more interesting than where I'm headed?" ... I guess the underlying purpose behind that day this past week was to come and go as I pleased, my destination not pre-determined or dictated by routine ... So I drove over to Yorkdale Mall's and purchased my Day Pass for the TTC and went on my way ...
My first stop was Museum station, I decided to check out Bloor Street, better known as Yorkville ... The one store in particular that I decided to go to was The Nike Store ... now I'm not a Nike guy by any means, but I thought I'd take the chance that maybe they'd be carrying Manny Pacquiao's shirt ... Surely enough, they didn't ... ahhhh de ja vu, I'm pretty sure I've done this already this year ...
Next stop, Osgoode station, in order to get to Queen Street, it has quite a few stores along the strip, so I checked it out ... First store, Lids, I'm always willing to add a new cap to my collection, but unfortunately I wasn't really feeling any of the new designs, kind of loud if you ask me ... While I was on the strip I walked by Korean BBQ, which reminds me, a shout to my boys: Octal, Anthro and Prophet, I think we're due for another KBBQ night ... the next store on Queen Street I stopped by was The Adidas Originals Store, now Adidas is my brand ... but boy did that turn out to be a disappointment, that's because I had a couple things in mind that I was looking for ... unfortunately no Muhammad Ali gear or no Filipino gear ... Last year they sold limited Philippines track jackets and T-Shirts, this year, nope ... moving on, I ran into one of my old friends from my old work ... it was good to see a familiar face, but it also felt good knowing that I had moved on ... that place was the epitome of "daily routine", sometimes going through the days mindless ... ahhh whatever, back to my day of spontaneity ... on my way back to the TTC station, I passed by the Much Music building, and one of their VJ's was doing an on-the-street video spot, her name is Sara ... now I've met her before, but she obviously wouldn't remember me ... Lookswise, people in Toronto seem to prefer the other female VJ, Leah Miller, but she's not my type at all ... Sara on the otherhand, would look 10x better if she wasn't rocking her afro hairstyle, but even still, she looks 100x better than Leah ...
Next stop, Queen Street station, yes I was just on Queen Street, but the station is further east ... Now I was in the Eaton Centre ... everyone in there seemed to be on their lunch break or something ... the first store I stopped in was Foot Locker, I was actually trying to find Chris Paul's new sneaker ... I couldn't find it off first glance, so I asked one of the sales associates ... UNBELIEVABLE, he said "who's Chris Paul?" ... f*ckin' puckhead, he works in a sports store and doesn't know Chris Paul ... further evidence of why "Toronto" people are not qualified to discuss/analyze basketball ... after browzing through a few more stores, I headed outside of the mall to walk along Yonge Street ...
The new Dundas Square that the city has constructed is in my opinion a cheap immitation, bootleg attempt at replicating New York City's Times Square ... but on the Northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas, what do I see? ... a new Adidas Performance Store ... I definitely had to check this out ... I went over to the shoe section first, looking for any of the signature shoes of the Adidas "brotherhood", unfortunately they only carried Garnett and Duncan ... What the f*ck kind of Adidas store is this? ... no Tracy McGrady, no Gilbert Arenas, no Dwight Howard, no Chauncey Billups ... then I looked around, no basketball gear at all, it was all soccer garbage ... That really irritated me so I left the store ... just goes to show, it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that counts ... LMFAO ... I walked along Yonge Street for a bit, then the memory of Brass Rail, last summer's highlight, entered my mind, I can't believe it's been a year already ...
Finally, my last stop, Chester station which gave me access to Danforth Avenue ... several weeks ago, I was there for a field study ... the great thing about that street was the scent, (ie. my previous entry "Sniff of the Danforth") ... for those of you that remember, I wasn't able to sit down and eat because of time contraints ... this day was my chance at redemption ... I had no idea which restaurant I was going to eat at, so I just decided to walk along the strip and just decide on the fly ... I decided on this Greek restaurant, The Greek Grill, because the scent of their Grill hit my olfactory senses first ... just call me Tucan Sam, "just follow your nose", LOL ... a hot Greek girl was working up front and escorted me to my table ... going over the menu, I settled on a roasted half-chicken dinner ... now, a half-chicken, I didn't think it would be that big, because from what I've seen from other "franchise" restaurant chains, they tend to stiff you on the portions ... not this place ... when they say a half chicken, they really mean a half chicken ... I was only able to finish half of it ... the huge salad and garlic bread portions prior to the main course probably had something to do with that ... the rice and potato servings were huge too ... All I have to say was that was the best meal of Greek food I've had in my life ... I know I was denied several weeks back, but this day was well worth the wait ... I definitely plan on going back there, to check out the other restaurants ...
I made my way back to Yorkdale, and with the exception of lunch, I hadn't purchased a thing ... however, before I left Yorkdale for home, I did end up buying stuff at the Chapters/Indigo bookstore ... one thing, obviously, was the latest issue of The Ring Magazine, the Antonio Margarito cover, previewing his upcoming bout with Miguel Cotto, July 26th, I can't wait ... the other thing was that book I was talking about a few weeks back, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren ... now the book was written to be read over a 40 day period, so those of you waiting on my book review that I promised, will have to wait at least another 37 days ...
Overall, it was great going around Toronto, without a care, not because I had to, but because I chose to ... it was also cool walking by familiar places, because of some memories that it brought up ... but the day's highlight was definitely having lunch on Danforth Avenue ... The Danforth Redemption ...
One,
- J -
My first stop was Museum station, I decided to check out Bloor Street, better known as Yorkville ... The one store in particular that I decided to go to was The Nike Store ... now I'm not a Nike guy by any means, but I thought I'd take the chance that maybe they'd be carrying Manny Pacquiao's shirt ... Surely enough, they didn't ... ahhhh de ja vu, I'm pretty sure I've done this already this year ...
Next stop, Osgoode station, in order to get to Queen Street, it has quite a few stores along the strip, so I checked it out ... First store, Lids, I'm always willing to add a new cap to my collection, but unfortunately I wasn't really feeling any of the new designs, kind of loud if you ask me ... While I was on the strip I walked by Korean BBQ, which reminds me, a shout to my boys: Octal, Anthro and Prophet, I think we're due for another KBBQ night ... the next store on Queen Street I stopped by was The Adidas Originals Store, now Adidas is my brand ... but boy did that turn out to be a disappointment, that's because I had a couple things in mind that I was looking for ... unfortunately no Muhammad Ali gear or no Filipino gear ... Last year they sold limited Philippines track jackets and T-Shirts, this year, nope ... moving on, I ran into one of my old friends from my old work ... it was good to see a familiar face, but it also felt good knowing that I had moved on ... that place was the epitome of "daily routine", sometimes going through the days mindless ... ahhh whatever, back to my day of spontaneity ... on my way back to the TTC station, I passed by the Much Music building, and one of their VJ's was doing an on-the-street video spot, her name is Sara ... now I've met her before, but she obviously wouldn't remember me ... Lookswise, people in Toronto seem to prefer the other female VJ, Leah Miller, but she's not my type at all ... Sara on the otherhand, would look 10x better if she wasn't rocking her afro hairstyle, but even still, she looks 100x better than Leah ...
Next stop, Queen Street station, yes I was just on Queen Street, but the station is further east ... Now I was in the Eaton Centre ... everyone in there seemed to be on their lunch break or something ... the first store I stopped in was Foot Locker, I was actually trying to find Chris Paul's new sneaker ... I couldn't find it off first glance, so I asked one of the sales associates ... UNBELIEVABLE, he said "who's Chris Paul?" ... f*ckin' puckhead, he works in a sports store and doesn't know Chris Paul ... further evidence of why "Toronto" people are not qualified to discuss/analyze basketball ... after browzing through a few more stores, I headed outside of the mall to walk along Yonge Street ...
The new Dundas Square that the city has constructed is in my opinion a cheap immitation, bootleg attempt at replicating New York City's Times Square ... but on the Northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas, what do I see? ... a new Adidas Performance Store ... I definitely had to check this out ... I went over to the shoe section first, looking for any of the signature shoes of the Adidas "brotherhood", unfortunately they only carried Garnett and Duncan ... What the f*ck kind of Adidas store is this? ... no Tracy McGrady, no Gilbert Arenas, no Dwight Howard, no Chauncey Billups ... then I looked around, no basketball gear at all, it was all soccer garbage ... That really irritated me so I left the store ... just goes to show, it's not what's on the outside, but what's on the inside that counts ... LMFAO ... I walked along Yonge Street for a bit, then the memory of Brass Rail, last summer's highlight, entered my mind, I can't believe it's been a year already ...
Finally, my last stop, Chester station which gave me access to Danforth Avenue ... several weeks ago, I was there for a field study ... the great thing about that street was the scent, (ie. my previous entry "Sniff of the Danforth") ... for those of you that remember, I wasn't able to sit down and eat because of time contraints ... this day was my chance at redemption ... I had no idea which restaurant I was going to eat at, so I just decided to walk along the strip and just decide on the fly ... I decided on this Greek restaurant, The Greek Grill, because the scent of their Grill hit my olfactory senses first ... just call me Tucan Sam, "just follow your nose", LOL ... a hot Greek girl was working up front and escorted me to my table ... going over the menu, I settled on a roasted half-chicken dinner ... now, a half-chicken, I didn't think it would be that big, because from what I've seen from other "franchise" restaurant chains, they tend to stiff you on the portions ... not this place ... when they say a half chicken, they really mean a half chicken ... I was only able to finish half of it ... the huge salad and garlic bread portions prior to the main course probably had something to do with that ... the rice and potato servings were huge too ... All I have to say was that was the best meal of Greek food I've had in my life ... I know I was denied several weeks back, but this day was well worth the wait ... I definitely plan on going back there, to check out the other restaurants ...
I made my way back to Yorkdale, and with the exception of lunch, I hadn't purchased a thing ... however, before I left Yorkdale for home, I did end up buying stuff at the Chapters/Indigo bookstore ... one thing, obviously, was the latest issue of The Ring Magazine, the Antonio Margarito cover, previewing his upcoming bout with Miguel Cotto, July 26th, I can't wait ... the other thing was that book I was talking about a few weeks back, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren ... now the book was written to be read over a 40 day period, so those of you waiting on my book review that I promised, will have to wait at least another 37 days ...
Overall, it was great going around Toronto, without a care, not because I had to, but because I chose to ... it was also cool walking by familiar places, because of some memories that it brought up ... but the day's highlight was definitely having lunch on Danforth Avenue ... The Danforth Redemption ...
One,
- J -
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Double Feature - DVD/Movie Reviews - I Am Legend, 10000 BC
I finally found myself some time to sit down and watch some movies ... these two are the first "new" movies that I've seen in (oh gosh, how long has it been?) maybe since the beginning of this year ... I can honestly say that, although I had a couple of minor beefs with each film, I was pretty pleased after watching them ... so here is J-Smooth's take on both movies ...
I Am Legend:
The thing about Will Smith movies is that he has his hits and his misses (and of those, complete stinkers) ... let's run down his filmography real quick ... hits - Independence Day, Hitch; misses - Men In Black (1 and 2), Wild Wild West; his other movies, like Bad Boys, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, they were alright, but they are "tweeners", neither hits nor misses ... I think that I've said before that I go into watching movies with no expectations, in order to not be disappointed ... Now the concept itself, a human-engineered virus annihilating the human race, is not beyond the realm of possibility, I mean, look at what the SARS outbreak did alone ... In the movie, it was kind of cool to see New York City reduced to a desert ... I have to give Will Smith credit on his acting, I mean, for much of the movie he was alone, talking with either his dog Sam, himself, or mannequins ... This was one of those movies that makes you ask yourself, "what would I do, if I was in his position?" ... I know if it was me, I probably would've died from absolute fear ... I mean with infected animals and degenerated/cannibalized human beings running around, I probably wouldn't last a week ... What I liked about the movie is that the portrayal of Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, isn't over the top ... He doesn't react to his situation in a way that is unrealistic ... It's apparent that being alone has taken it's mental and psychological toll on Neville, something that is very believable, again a credit to Will Smith's acting ... One thing that I would've liked to have explained in the movie is why they weren't able to quarantine the virus to begin with ... I guess the writers and producers deemed it unnecessary, ahh well ... I'm not going to spoil this movie for anyone that hasn't seen it, but as far as the ending goes, I'll just say that it made me say, "he could've done that instead" ... Overall, I enjoyed the movie, it wasn't far and away "a really great movie", like some of my friends have made it out to be, but it was solid ... I'll score it a 3.25/5 ...
10, 000 B.C.:
Now this movie, I've wanted to see since I first saw the trailers ... Now, the Jurassic Park movie series has told the story of the dinosaurs, but I don't think the story of pre-historic life (ie. wooly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, terror birds) has been portrayed on the big screen yet ... Ice Age doesn't count, that was a children's cartoon ... but if people think that this movie is merely about human interaction with those pre-historic animals, it's far from it ... I don't know whether that will deter some of you from actually watching the film ... anyhow, the film is about a pre-historic tribe of people, one in particular D'Leh, that is determined to rescue their loved ones (one of them being D'Leh's love Evolet) and fellow tribe members who were captured by another tribe, believed to be "gods"/"demons" of some sort ... D'Leh's journey (along with a few faithful companions) takes him great distances where they encounter other tribes, a saber-toothed tiger and terror birds ... I've been reading the critics' reviews on this film, and majority have responded with a resounding negative ... but, for those that know me, I'm not one to be easily persuaded by the opinions of others ... I will say this, the movie didn't bore me for one second ... for me it had the same feel of the classic movie, Planet of the Apes, the original 1968 version, not the watered-down 2001 remake ... I will go on further to say that I was 100x more entertained watching 10,000 B.C. than watching any of the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies, all of which I completely hated ... The only negative thing that I'll say about the movie, is that it was realistic up till the climactic scene, but I completely understand why it was done that way, it was in order to tie the story together ... But, nonetheless, I was kept entertained, and that's all that really matters to me when I watch a movie ... The LOTR and HP movies may have bigger fan bases, have cult-like followings and grossed millions or billions, but they all put me to sleep ... My scoring of 10,000 B.C., 3/5 ...
two solid movies and time well spent ... the next movie that I'd like to see, and I plan to go to the theatre next time, is The Dark Knight, sequel to Batman Begins ... I enjoyed Batman Begins, it gave a more realistic spin to the Batman mythos ... the film comes out July 16th, and my siblings Zona and AVAD come home to Toronto that time ... hey Zona, maybe we can hit up a theatre while you guys are here and check out the movie ...
One,
- J -
I Am Legend:
The thing about Will Smith movies is that he has his hits and his misses (and of those, complete stinkers) ... let's run down his filmography real quick ... hits - Independence Day, Hitch; misses - Men In Black (1 and 2), Wild Wild West; his other movies, like Bad Boys, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, they were alright, but they are "tweeners", neither hits nor misses ... I think that I've said before that I go into watching movies with no expectations, in order to not be disappointed ... Now the concept itself, a human-engineered virus annihilating the human race, is not beyond the realm of possibility, I mean, look at what the SARS outbreak did alone ... In the movie, it was kind of cool to see New York City reduced to a desert ... I have to give Will Smith credit on his acting, I mean, for much of the movie he was alone, talking with either his dog Sam, himself, or mannequins ... This was one of those movies that makes you ask yourself, "what would I do, if I was in his position?" ... I know if it was me, I probably would've died from absolute fear ... I mean with infected animals and degenerated/cannibalized human beings running around, I probably wouldn't last a week ... What I liked about the movie is that the portrayal of Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, isn't over the top ... He doesn't react to his situation in a way that is unrealistic ... It's apparent that being alone has taken it's mental and psychological toll on Neville, something that is very believable, again a credit to Will Smith's acting ... One thing that I would've liked to have explained in the movie is why they weren't able to quarantine the virus to begin with ... I guess the writers and producers deemed it unnecessary, ahh well ... I'm not going to spoil this movie for anyone that hasn't seen it, but as far as the ending goes, I'll just say that it made me say, "he could've done that instead" ... Overall, I enjoyed the movie, it wasn't far and away "a really great movie", like some of my friends have made it out to be, but it was solid ... I'll score it a 3.25/5 ...
10, 000 B.C.:
Now this movie, I've wanted to see since I first saw the trailers ... Now, the Jurassic Park movie series has told the story of the dinosaurs, but I don't think the story of pre-historic life (ie. wooly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, terror birds) has been portrayed on the big screen yet ... Ice Age doesn't count, that was a children's cartoon ... but if people think that this movie is merely about human interaction with those pre-historic animals, it's far from it ... I don't know whether that will deter some of you from actually watching the film ... anyhow, the film is about a pre-historic tribe of people, one in particular D'Leh, that is determined to rescue their loved ones (one of them being D'Leh's love Evolet) and fellow tribe members who were captured by another tribe, believed to be "gods"/"demons" of some sort ... D'Leh's journey (along with a few faithful companions) takes him great distances where they encounter other tribes, a saber-toothed tiger and terror birds ... I've been reading the critics' reviews on this film, and majority have responded with a resounding negative ... but, for those that know me, I'm not one to be easily persuaded by the opinions of others ... I will say this, the movie didn't bore me for one second ... for me it had the same feel of the classic movie, Planet of the Apes, the original 1968 version, not the watered-down 2001 remake ... I will go on further to say that I was 100x more entertained watching 10,000 B.C. than watching any of the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter movies, all of which I completely hated ... The only negative thing that I'll say about the movie, is that it was realistic up till the climactic scene, but I completely understand why it was done that way, it was in order to tie the story together ... But, nonetheless, I was kept entertained, and that's all that really matters to me when I watch a movie ... The LOTR and HP movies may have bigger fan bases, have cult-like followings and grossed millions or billions, but they all put me to sleep ... My scoring of 10,000 B.C., 3/5 ...
two solid movies and time well spent ... the next movie that I'd like to see, and I plan to go to the theatre next time, is The Dark Knight, sequel to Batman Begins ... I enjoyed Batman Begins, it gave a more realistic spin to the Batman mythos ... the film comes out July 16th, and my siblings Zona and AVAD come home to Toronto that time ... hey Zona, maybe we can hit up a theatre while you guys are here and check out the movie ...
One,
- J -
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