*Always Stay Inspired

School is a funny thing. You might hate it and revolt at the thought of it your first three years, and the fourth year you'll find yourself wishing it would never end!!! Although I probably won't be taking my 5th year in UCSC, no matter where I go, i'm going to always love this place... and spoil the hell out of the 1st years! haha i guess it's a tradition to do that.

I finally have a new j-o-b! Office max has been coo as hell, everyone is pretty dope and down to earth; it's only a part time paycheck and otherwise it's pretty chill + laid back in that joint!

also... I MADE POET'S CORNER!!!!! P.C. is the engine if you will of the UCSC Rainbow Theatre, probably thee most diverse student-organized theatre group on campus! last year's crew was dope and Mattie G. was in it, an' the year before the Human Genome a.k.a. Gabriel was in it too! guess i had to rep for Progeny in that beezie!!

i've been reading blogs and posting in other forums, particularly

www.verbalacupuncture.net +
blarneystablet.blogspot.com ,

both blogs are dope and worth peeping; one is related to current events, stories, ideas and jokes, the latter strictly on poetry, art and lyrics.

i love the new Kanye. but i'm been loving my other music more, too. things are changing. and i can't WAIT for my two new hats that i bought, they are the BIZNESS.

you should visit the Capitol Garage in Sac if you're ever in those parts, i went during a Neighborhood Watch show and it was that sh$t.

gotta go study. i love my mom and dad. and my sisters. and you!

"lost in a maze, i can't find my back/
but i'm trippin' i love how u do me like that"

Face 2 Face With Your Adversity..

Long time, no personal blogging; I guess it must be because I've let a lot of things consume me deep inside, I've felt a little sad, angry, lost, but mostly just confused and behind on things, although I've been keeping up with school, I guess money has been my main problem; it's been difficult finding a job, paying off my credit cards by selling my shoes away, and I know it's bad to be a little materialistic sometimes, but yeah, I know that this is just another low point that will pass over me, and the term 'starving college student' has never hit closer to home!

enough vent-whining, it's best to keep things on a positive incline!

damn, youtube has changed from the way it was a year ago! though there's dozens of videos i could post about that I'm feelin rite now, i'll just post two cool ones that I love.

first off, you've probably seen this one but I haven't since I wasn't much of a t.v. viewer in the past months; this is a favorite of mine.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star (3rd Version)


she's super fly! and THIS version of 'Sweet Escape' has come to my liking!

Josh Verdes Trio (Josh, Jana + Jordan Verdes) - 'Sweet Escape Acoustic'


I really need a guitar, Justin Rimando, you need to fix Ligaya's guitar string that you broke off!

okay, enough of that. time to inspire myself!

'good love + protection/

make me your selection'

Shine Your Light For The World 2 See.

The Deadly Twins - 'Runaway' - Something New soundtrack

*it took me ALL SPRING BREAK TO TRACK THIS SONG DOWN. it NEVER felt SO GOOD finding a song you couldn't find on a soundtrack listing, online okayplayer forum...anywhere!

I feel good about this upcoming quarter of class... spring quarter is always good to me =)

'..well people believe this saying is true/
whatever will be will forever do..'

The Present Is A Gift (+ I Just Want 2 Be.)

Lo Key Quintet - 'Brazil' (instrumental) - LKQ Summer Selections.

*Something i produced with DJ Flow over last summer, may it bring relaxtion to a stressful climate.

I grinded on a piece that I was about to do with Joshua Cruz for S.Y.C. (Show Your Color), unfortunately both of us were too late for the event; he was going to rock Common's 'Be' and I was going to spit this:

';Be Free.'

I wanna be free like my ancestors that passed away/
Free from closed doors, fear, oppression + hate/
Through actions we speak out/ hope for those that breathe doubt/
Through trials and tribulations, be light when it's bleak out/
But we tend to freak out, no, we forget to speak out/
We feed doubt when we should feed our needs/
Spend cash on alcohol, tobacco, ecstacy + weed/
All this freeloading overloading, that we forgot to feed the seed/
Things are so crazy/skies are getting so hazy/
My mom was 30 yesterday, now she's an old lady/
She's got lots to give/she kept me positive/
On top of it, despite my weak will she kept me from the opposite/
I've got to give-it up to her exactly/
She was the glue to bond the unity of my family/
Can't forget my father/sometimes he wouldn't bother/
To help me out/misunderstandings meant me getting slaughtered/
But still he fathered me/showed me how to be free/
Told me education equals freedom, through this university/
Those are my parents/i'm ever proud never embaressed/
They gave me freedom so that I wouldn't be so careless/
My goal is to free others so they can see their wrongs/
And right every one of them, and to pass this freedom on/
We have to know life backwards before we go forward to see/
Life isn't meant behind bars, it was meant to be free.

'..i'm not impressed/more or else/
by them girls in the t.v. and magazines/
'cuz honestly, i believe, that/
your beauty is way more than skin deep..'

Your Love Is Timeless.

Righteous Movement - 'Natural' - While You Wait...

*I saw + met the Righteous Movement crew at a downtown Davis bar/coffee shop, some fresh folks with fly music. opening for KRS-One next weekend, pretty dope!

Something random: A question I answered for Kimp's research paper on Cyphers:

8) Pretend you are a cypher session propagandist, what
would you tell people to get them to participate in a
cypher? Why should people who do not participate in
cyphers contribute to the art?

Cyphering is fun. Cyphering is a lyrical workout from the emcee frame of reference, and it will open you to a new world of improvisation, wordplay, ferocity, jokes, and most importantly, inspiration. Not everyone can make a rhyme up, so if you know how to do it, then join the cypher because it's a gift, and once you're able to freestyle effortlessly, who knows? One day you may end up freestyling next to Kanye West and impress him so much with your flyness that he'll sign you to his G.O.O.D. (Getting Out Our Dreams) music label! Or maybe you're writing a song one day and you get songwriter's block and you elect to freestyle your way, and come up with a song so catchy that you have Youtubes and MySpaces going nuts all over the internet! If you're absolutely whack at freestyling, or have never attempted it, don't be discouraged because the art is a result of happy accidentals, of trial-and-error not without it's share of successes: Once you know where your error lies in rhyming and succeed in correcting it out, it's all a matter of doing it often and making it your own. Participation in cyphers requires the audience's communal involvement to make it work and flow, and makes everyone more lively and feeling good, which is the whole point of hip hop in general!: To make you feel good, with positive messages and non-stop creative flow.

this poem is timeless... still my favorite.


'..so it's only logical/
that we do what's natural..'

Something Keeps Bringing Me Back.

Nicolay ft Kay + Sy Smith - 'My Story' - Here


What surprised me was when I took THIS photograph:
'Footprints..(Leading 2 a New Path)'


My man Vincent wrote a rap to it! We photograph-battle rap each other on our Flickrs! Here's Vince's Flickr.

And here's what he wrote!:

"footprints on concrete sitting in sun, evaporation takes over, one blink and they're gone

follow the steps of the ones that inspire you, ones you admire, fiery passion to pursue the things that you do

don't let discourage prevail, damage your heart that is frail, continue your life and don't stray from the educational trail

with a fork in the road, wondering to stay or to go, wishing you can click your red heels and in a flash you are home

the long road will be slow but all worth in the end, just remember the people that love you: family, friends.

You've got the spirits above, pure as the white on a dove, if someone says "Who Cares?" don't even consider a shrug

Those who question your thoughts, are the ones who are fraud, just always know they can't last even one round with God

only He knows you best, the rest, only a test, just do what you do, only your style is fresh

impress everyone in a glance, from here, to New York and France, enclose all in a trance, induce monumental mind blocks and cramps
"

Inspiration found in the most unexpected of places.

'..make your heart be the bling
you wear around your chest..'

Get Your Facts Right.

i'm going to campus/
no you can't have this/
immaculate way of attackin it, i'm more global than an atlas/
so international and inner-national, you can't match this/
i strike chords so fierce they light bright like some matches/
i'm oh so in the know that i've got my facts, kid/
stop kiddin yourself with fiction, all you are is factless/
when the fact-is, you're whack if you decide 2 act big/
think twice before you get spiked by these progeny rap kids//
O.C. - 'The Chosen One Instrumental'


on my way to campus before an extended study session.. psyching myself up!

'throw caution to the wind,
take my hand, + just give in..'

(A Brighter Day) Came My Way.

Xariusound came over this morning and we conversed about Rainforest. I was engrossed in how he connected the rainforest with people connecting to music under the umbrella of Rainforest, to 'build tents' and 'watch how their redwoods grow' in a few years in this forest, which makes perfect sense to me; I especially loved how he put the way rainforests irrigate water in connection with their idiom: The roots of a rainforest network so far away from just convention of its radius that around 50 miles away, roots can reach out to water penetrating the soil and nurturing the trees all the way back. 'Rainforest' is meant to mean 'Reign For Us', but I'd like it even more for it to mean 'Rain For Us' so that they bring the storm that everyone's been waiting for. haha i love it! 'and I champion them and hope they make a difference in our social media-driven world today!

i'm certain that i'm not leaving the campus until about 12:00am tonight,
and i do believe it's going to rain indefinitely. this song puts that picture in my head, of walking by city lights, on and on, watching rain drift down as i make my way to where i want to be, in shelter.

Brea - 'So Long to Streetlights' - The Immense Design of Things


'you ain't gonna make it unless
you give a little sacrifice
sometimes b4 u smile u got 2 cry
u need a heart that's filled with music
if you use it, u can fly
if u want 2 be high..'

Save For a Rainy Day...

Rain, Rain, you've come to stay/
you've made my day so wet and grey/
I want to play out by the bay/
But I should reconsider and study anyway/
And it's okay i'm curtain/bestow your invisible curtains/
from my shell i'm fine as hell but my guts are what's hurtin/
And i'm sure I could complain/but what i want is change/
Nothing different nor to distant in my words, nothin' strange/
like the fruit project, i've got shooting stars in my pocket/
for you to wish upon when hope has gone like you lost it/

'Save For a Rainy Day..'


'That HipHop Thing' vol. remix
Friday @ Oakes OLC/Havajava Cafe
it's been a while.

i think that next quarter i should be taking
-econometrics113
-cost accounting110
-the beatles music80V (haha hella love them!)

note to self:
-drop off some resume tomorrow
-enrollment tomorrow @1pm
-go 2 all MSI's for math22
-math22 MT#2, Friday @ 1230pm (4x6 notes allowed)
-MultiCulturalConference, 3/3/07
-selling auctions ends sunday

i feel like this entry is beginning to end up like one of those long 'boredom' surveys that you fill out when you're bored! studying instead i shall.

'if there's lessons
then i'm knowin to put my pride 2 the side;
if there's a story
then i'm telling, take my life in stride'

Say 'That's Love'.

I'm SICK AND TIRED of seeing kids throw their families away. LOVE YOUR FAMILY because when everything else is gone, they're ALL you'll have left. Please.

Ali Shaheed Muhammad - "Family" - Ali Shaheed and Stereotypes



'why are you still upset when you could just,
let it go..'

This 1's For You.

Jay Dee - 'This One's For You' - Thank You Dilla, Act Too


Yesterday, I decided to apply at some stores I haven't been to in a while and got a good word in! That made my day infinitely brighter despite the light showers.

I decided to write a poem when I was rudely awakened by the wind. Instead of throwing a "hissy" fit (lol who made up that silly word!), i decided to channel that creative energy and share with you my tribute to Linka's element from Captain Planet!

"Worldwide Win(d)ner"

'i'm not
going where the wind blows..

i'm

floating where the wind rarely resides,
the wind prefers to prance among autumn leaves and oak trees
but i'm keeping my hat on and staying warm inside

i think the wind
likes to sin.

it likes to play tricks on me,
haunting me with eerie sounds that astound my anxiety and
blasting apartment walls with pseudo ghost-calls of related -type trickery,
the wind,
in confliction with a vulnerable notebook of my calculus-3 lectures and
post-its and bouts with my umbrella where shouts of
frustration can usually be heard,
the wind,
wins.

but wind, why do you persist to be a friend?

wind,
you push the sails despite frail attempts of the deep blue sea's waters to
plunge and drown me into non-human friendly territory far below,
you restore my cool head and prevent me from
passing out, dead on a charring summertime afternoon with
a voluptuously steady breeze that doesn't send chills to my knees but,
sets my entire skeleton at ease.
wind,
you're my kin, chillin like when i've departed from
a long, steamy day at work and
my only perk was to march out the office doors to
finally agree in accord with something that makes sense
but may not make a dime let alone a few cents.

wind,

you make life beautiful.

would van Gogh still have his legacy
if his starry night lacked stars shimmering bright by gusts of air rolling the clouds, your prime specialty?
would sky diving be the same
or would it possibly feel lame,
just free fall sans adrenaline, without streams of atmosphere
passing through my entire soul while i see birds not in the sky,
but far below, drained of any desire of flight and
the random delight of 'going wherever the wind takes me'
how else would my girl shine divine
without you projecting the
timelessly captured and endlessly raptured image of
a beautiful model with air flowing through her hair that
cosmopolitan, Vidal Sasoon and a limitless number of beauty campaigns of falsified beauty that, in its most natural state, with you, is its most breathtaking?
how would i find significance in the intimate,
would cinema scenes of long gazes in windy climates still retain that sacred, private moment?

wind, you're the best,
not just
some 'slow hot wind' as Sergio Mendes puts it,
but more like a swift, cool zephyr that i would never think about replacing.
wind,
in a time where many things get thrown out the window,
i'd have to say you're in.'


Alfred,
listenin to loops
on the Loop


"..if you believe there's some1 who walks thru life w/ u,
you'll never be alone.."

(She) Give(s) Me Good Vibes...

Lately, my dreams have been super vivid! Last night I dreamt that me, my father and younger sister all had super powers, like in Heroes! It picked up where we were rushing out of my dad's secret laboratory and turning on the floor security sensors... and then I suddenly morph into a Polar Bear! I'm finding myself just chillin out (sorry) with some other bears, and were trying to do something, perhaps it was to foil the evil plans of this flying, little kid that i felt was the 'Cylar' of this whole dream.

And then, after i briefly wake up and realize it's Saturday (i love waking up and realizing i have more time to sleep!), I find myself in this movie theatre/auditorium, watching a mediocre movie that has a terrible ending, it just ends and a very static "the end" fades into the screen in a sea of black. So as i get up, i realize i had watched this movie with Alex!! and a whole deja vu effect takes place when i saw 'The Island' with her but i don't let it take over and we start to walk out this auditorium.

Anyways, Alex took off her shoes before we started watching the movie so i go back with her to our seats because she forgot them, and then we finally start talking, catching up, the whole 9. As we're walking out, i find out, WTH! I'm in Fairfield High School!!! So apparently the producers of my Dream thought it was fitting that FHS gets its deserved movie theatre franchise in the front of my school, thereby losing all credibility it has of an educational institution. Anyways, what's funny is that as we're walking out, i see lots of students, mainly Sophmores, Juniors and Seniors rehearsing for their Homecoming Skits! and why in the world do i see Kenneth Parker, who's my year in college, doing the Harlem Shake and prepping for the skit too! LOL!

So as we're walking off campus, we talk about our class schedule, and although I believe Alex is still in High School, in my Dream she's already in college, going to Sac State (I know she's going to a way better school than that but it was a Dream!), and i was an astute Aggie (haha I don't know what i'd be like going to UCDavis) and we were making plans for me to catch her in class to meet one of her professors that she was telling me about that was hella down and good. And I felt really happy again.

We drove separately, so as I was about to say goodnight, she leaned in for a hug, maybe it was a kiss.

And then i woke up.

I'm glad that i took that chance with her, in the past.. something as little as that dream that made me feel so good for just one moment is irreplacable, no matter how sad or depressing i feel sometimes.

i guess this song sums up that fleeting moment.
Kyla - 'Cupid' - Beautiful Days

*but you won't know unless you give it a try"..thanks for giving me a try!

what's on my agenda for tonight? perhaps... THIS!



we'll see....

momma, where would i be?
without you, always coming through..

"I've Been Holding In//Not Holding On..."

sometimes when you're no longer w/ some1 and you bump into them... there's
'Nothing Left To Say' - Late Night Alumni Empty Streets

*listen w/ some Behringer, Pioneer or what have you stereo headphones..
*i listened to this at about 7:00pm upon a crystal clear Santa Cruz evening with stars gushing and flickring everywhere! captivating.
*i love the Late Night Alumni, i/m me for their album!

yesterday was valentine's day... i spent it delivering some valentine's cards before the night's end, including one card to a 'special someone' as the Hallmark subject categorized it as.. haha!

anyway, one thing i loved about living in Japan were the music videos and commercials. And although Santa Cruz has hit somewhat of a dry spell, there's no doubt the rain shall invite itself upon us 1nce again, a mode of depressive weariness resetting in + unspoken pleas to be free from cloudy days.

but it's never a good idea to keep things in like that.

i love music videos in the rain or in airports... this MV just so happens to have both! haha.

K. featuring Verbal + DJ Taku - 'After The Silence'

-(if you don't know japanese, you probably won't understand 95% of this song, but it doesn't matter, you may like the music and beat, Taku of M-Flo has never disappointed me!)
-(trivia: what Micheal Jackson song is sampled in the chorus? answer in the next blog!)

w.s.m.w.t.t.t.!. (wearily slugging my way to the top!)


'i stayed up all night
so i could get this thing right.'

happy 1st post.

hey, i had to escape from www.xanga.com/streetsoul_lounge, it was getting too depressing for me to keep up with that universe. start fresh and stay fresh. freshness to go around!

justin resuello made me fall in love with lomographs and i've become a flickrwhore and an imeem one as well!

a few of my favorite, guilty pleasure as of late: checking out a girl's...RAINBOOTS (you dirty minded sonofa!), stuff with plaid (although houndstooth joints have become the craze! don't be late!), photography like it's a plague if i don't snap another photo... studying so diligently my mom gets worried!, this girl in my Calculus3 sections that i can't get enough of (!), and not expecting anything anyone for valentine's day... damn man, my calculus professor broke down how crucial it was to study this weekend!:

"okay you guys... i know it's raining so hard outside that you'll all be depressed and worrying 'when will this depressing rain go away?', or 'will i be somebody's valentine??', and this that and the third... so i know that all of you will have nothing better to do, except to study your calculus!"

other guilty pleasures: nice pants, selling my shoes away, the music center at past midnight, candid metro bus snapshots, and some girl at my school, initials d.a.

anyways, i hate talking too much about myself. well i like watching good videos now and then, and i know, MAJOR LATE PASS, but i can't deny something fresh when i haven't seen it before. loving this video definitely.



and another one.
-c.a.r.l.o.