Pen Man

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a long long time…

All of these were drawn by hand with a blue ball point pen. Incredible.

Done by Juan Francisco Casas. Via BBC.

Retweets

So I posted earlier about Diddy’s Twitter and how kind of ridiculous it is. I just checked out The Hundreds blog and was pleasantly surprised that both Bobby Hundreds and Yasi had blogged about their love-hate relationship with the social networking phenomenon. They both have far more experience with Twitter than I, are almost semi-celebrities themselves and are far better writers than I, so I feel that their debasements are worthy of posting here to foreshadow my disillusionment.

Bobby

Yasi

Eat Cake

PS. Yasi is basically a camera-shy friend of the Hundreds owner that runs her own female streetwear line and generally is just a hilariously sarcastic Wilde-phile that doles out barbed “advice” to the unfortunate probable hipsters that think that she is at all qualified to solve their problems.

It’s a pretty awesome little corner of the Web.

Kanye’s Caps vs Diddy’s Twitter

I recently joined Twitter and it’s blessed me with more inane web entertainment than I could have asked for. The fun comes in listening to the wistful wanderings of the celebrity mind. In your defense:

“Grimes: who cares what people have to say when they shouldnt be saying anything”.

My response: Why not?

And millions of others share the same attitude.

This isn’t meant to be an essay on the social dynamics of the Twitterverse. I want to bring about a discussion of something I didn’t know existed until @Owordson became a reality. That would be Diddy’s command of rhetoric, grandiose and hyperbole that you would be hard-pressed to find in any other 140 character blurbs in history. Diddy’s ability to (self) promote isn’t earth-shattering but in it’s relentless digital form it draws up memories of yet another hip hop superego that should have his internet connection monitored. One, Mr. Kanye West.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading either’s electronic “eloquence”. I’ll present you a few examples and ask you to vote which is your favorite:

Exhibit A: Kanye’s Caps Lock

Bonus: His infamous, original yet too long to screen cap Bonnaroo rant.

Exhibit B: Twiddy (these are all taken from within the last 36 hours)

If that’s not enough, go check them out but VOTE!!!!

Cake

@Owordson

Death of Autotune

Jay-Z done changed the game last night in one fell swoop.

Funerals Suck

My grandfather passed away this past weekend. He had been sick for a while now and had been in and out of nursing homes before he was transferred to St. Michael’s Hospital in Newark a week or so before he passed early on Saturday morning.

The worst part is that I didn’t know too much about him, by the time I was old enough to remember my interactions with him he was already quiet, with a distinct weariness in his movements. As he got older and weaker, I learned more and more about how hard he had worked in multiple part time jobs and as a member of the Newark Board of Education to support his family, but I was only 11 or so and didn’t know what hard work, support or family really meant. I now know how important his virtues have been in laying the foundation for the core values that have been passed down to me.

By the time I started to understand, his speech had been severely altered and it was hard for me to imagine him as a strong, young, vital man. Though as I write this, memories of days and nights I spent with him and my grandmother in their East Orange home (now owned by his son and my uncle and where the repass was held) coming  wafting through my thoughts and there is a distinct feeling of respect for his word. A lot of me begrudingly listening when he told me to go to sleep or come in for dinner. I can’t ever remember being mad or spiteful at him though and I think it was because I unconsciously knew his instruction was in my best interests.

Regardless, I will miss him and his presence and he will always be loved.

Ulysses Simpson Graves, Jr.

October 27 1923 – May 30, 2009