Here are match-ups I would like to see in the Finals this year:

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Chicago Bulls *

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Miami Heat

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Miami Heat

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Chicago Bulls *

* - Only if Derrick Rose is healthy

I’m rooting for a Thunder/Bulls Finals. I love the Lakers but you want to talk about two teams who are most deserving this year of a chance at the title? It’s OKC and Chicago.

At least one area in which the Lakers got the Heat beat. (see picture above)

I know the Lakers have a lot of things to figure out this season. They haven’t been playing at the Championship level that they should be performing at. The Heat, on the other hand, are picking up right where they left off and have only gotten better. We’ll see how the rest of the season turns out.

More proof - Lakers - Heat

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

How Do U Want It / 2Pac / All Eyez On Me [Disc 1]

2Pac - How Do You Want It

Found out earlier that I’m not working on Monday. I’m just in a great mood. This song should contribute to YOU being in a great mood. Turn it up.

elbigjim:

So today after the gym I got this craving for Amapola SOPES. If you don’t know what these are…. you are Extremely missing out! I was born and raised in South LA and when mom would take us to the SUPERIOR supermarket it always included a quick trip across the street to the AMAPOLA Market for masa because of course we were getting ready to eat PUPUSAS real soon. But before we would leave she wouldn’t hesitate to grab some quick “togo” food from the Amapola’s grill. SOPES FOR ME everytime!

again, back to today… so I just wanted to satisfy my craving by looking and reminding me of how they looked… so ofcourse I have to do a google search and BAM! first item on the search list was this lady’s TRISHA’s blogpost about her experience at AMAPOLA when she ordered some ‘SOPES’ thru a recommendation. Just want to say her post satisfied me 100% without tasting them, plus she talked about CAJETA and PUPUSAS!

SOPES SOPES SOPES SOPES! How can you not love these!

Damn, brotha. I read this whole post with a smile on my face the whole time. Amapola sopes were the best with a big ol’ Horchata. I’m pretty sure you and I fought over these at several times during our childhood…we was some chunky ass kids. I remember the cajetera there that would say that I was her “novio” and I thought I was all cool. The older I got the more embarrasing it was but I was also developing this fascination for the female anatomy so I would think to myself, “But for reals though, puedo ser su novio, señora that’s like 15 years older than me?” Oh yeah…but back to the food…the best. Thanks for the little piece of nostalgia. 

• The Walking Dead is a great show. That new season’s 1st episode was good but it’s not “My Life Is Complete” good or “OMGHFBJVEFVEVEVEJVJE” good. Calm down.
• Nothing on American Idol or X-Factor should be Idolized.
• That group LMFAO is a perfect group name because if you seriously think that music is “the shit,” then yes, the joke is on you.
• If you feel very strongly about some cause, campaigning for it via a Facebook link or video is lazy. Try harder.
• People with Disneyland obsessions past like 25 years old is just kind of weird right?
• The word “faggot” will never sound right to me. Even jokingly, you’ll come off as an idiot for saying it.
• It’s been kind of quiet over at the Tyler Perry camp, that’s a good thing cause usually we would have seen billboards for at least 6 more movies in the last 3 months. 
• Aside from the obvious, I’d like to see a study on how many car accident drivers can be scientifically proven to be morons. I see a lot of dumb drivers every morning. Driving requires mind reading these days. Fact.

The building next to us is the new HQ for Dj Skee and Skee TV. They’re having a party today to premiere the Skee Lodge and they’ve hired artist Aaron Axelrod to decorate their building for the party and for who knows how long after that. We’ve got the “pleasure” of seeing this thing unfold from the early “What the fuck are they doing?” stages to what you see here. If you’re gonna have tons of guests and a nice little party to go along with it, makes sense to pimp out the building.

When I attended the Street Art exhibit here in L.A. I saw some similar artwork and while I can’t confirm it 100%, this might be the same dude who had displays there pretty damn reminiscent of this work you see here. I thought it was cool and I still think it is. Unfortunately, while I held high regards for the artist featured in that exhibit I no longer do for this dude.

Throughout their project (which I’m not knocking off cause from this view it actually looks pretty cool) these dudes, as far having common courtesy for their neighbors have been pathetic. I understand their hustle (to paint this building rad) but they gotta understand our hustle too. With my other coworkers, the inconvenience hasn’t been much. My coworkers show up, they go upstairs and start chipping away at their desks hustling in their own way over emails and on the phone. My work consists of the same as well as deliveries and shipping stuff so I’m always on the look outside our door to make sure pallets of CDs/LPs/Shirts/Posters/etc get delivered and shipped out every day. Given the type of activity we have, right outside my door is a commercial loading yellow zone for deliveries/pickups and people who want to get away with parking there for 30 minutes.

It’s taken about some 2+ weeks for this mural to be completed by which time those dudes (having been outside all the time) should have noticed our daily ins and outs right in front of our building so while a lot of people (including myself) would ignore a yellow zone for a small amount of time, the idea that they don’t think that zone is useful to us is bullshit. This artist and his crew would park there for hours and hours if not for the majority of the most busiest part of the day. Even after them seeing us (me) hauling stock in and out of our building to the Chevron station next door cause that’s where our delivery dudes would have to park they still didn’t move their vans/trucks/asses. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t really confront them about it because I’m not a confrontational dude and I rather just give them the “Are you kidding me?” look. That obviously didn’t work cause nothing changed. Even when my boss had to ask them to move their stuff out the way of our driveway so he can bail, they half-assed it and I had to go help move their shit cause they were taking their sweet time. Now, I don’t know this artist personally but I smell a fuckin jerk if you ask me.

Yesterday was the first time I asked them to move anything as I heard our UPS truck pull up and since I’m expecting a lot of stuff these days I normally open the door before he gets a chance to knock on it. Aaron (the artist) and some dude with buckets were leaving their van which was parked in our yellow zone and I asked if they were going to leave their van there all day there cause we have deliveries in and out all day and I even pointed to our UPS guy who was right behind their van with half the truck’s ass in the middle of the street because he didn’t fit. They simply replied “We’re just painting the building.” I thought in my head “yeah, I’ve noticed. For almost 2 weeks, asshole.” But being the cool guy I said “Yeah, but we got deliveries all day. Can you guys park it somewhere else?” They both reminded me that they’re just painting which is true but just like they have work to do, I do to and their ethic or way of doing their work is inconveniencing me. And let’s face it buddy, I’ve been here for 6+ years and he’s only been there 2 some weeks, have a little courtesy or respect for your neighbors as you’ve noticed in this picture we even granted them permission to hang a “tagger” on our side of the building. The moment you are clearly inconveniencing us and you act like WE are inconveniencing YOU, you become a dick. Fact.

This kind of comes off as when you find out your favorite musician is an asshole in real life. No matter how hard you try and you love a person’s music or a band’s music, once you know they are kind of a jerk, you can’t help but have that take a toll on how you perceive them from then on. Same thing with this dude. Cool art. Much respect but then you’re a jerk? You ain’t as rad as you think you are, buddy. I thought I was kind of being an ass thinking all this and I said “Well let me look the dude up and maybe he’s really nice and legit” so I came across this video. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed.

Now I should mention that the owner of the building or whoever is running DJ Skee TV here at DJ Skee Headquarters has been cool and has come looking for our bosses to introduce themselves and even extend an invite to all of us here to the party tonight. That is totally cool and super nice of them. My issue is with the hired artist not with the people who hustle day in and day out next door. The people next door have been cool aside from the random visitor who parks in this yellow zone.

This building has a phrase tagged on it that reads “Greatness doesn’t ask permission.” I guess with greatness comes being a dick as well. Great piece though. I always appreciate a little color added to the city of Los Angeles.

Some dude in Long Beach was reppin’ hard this afternoon.

They say, “Never forget where you come from.” But at the same time, don’t wear dumbass shirts. No thanks, Walgreens.

Psycho Realm - “Enemy of the State”

We dominate but feel the pain from bullets my carnales take 
Out of state soldiers join us to form a conglomerate 
It’s out of hate oppressed revolt from feeling that they gotta take 
All the weight so we go to war to find another way 
Intercept opposite forces entering our sick vicinity 
It’s killing me how wars that make no sense last an infinity 
It’s silly shit how a city gets mentally unfit 
But really it gets worse when buildings set the scene for murders script 
I know you heard of this crisis and what the price is 
High stress amplifies the need for all your vices 
But steer clear cause we’re here in fear they’re 
Taking over everything and so we fight the war years 
Fierce weapons speak for each side through open forum skies 
Some die when bullets pierce the skin exploding inside 
We provide a dream for our team look past the war scene 
Dethrone the king gain control reign supreme 
Aim high for your street regime 
Look for unseen enemies hiding in the smoke screen 

Lissette and I’s arsenal of books this evening. We love the downtown library.

Jimi Hendrix mural on the corner of Denker and 48th Street in South Central Los Angeles.

“Hey, Alex. What are you doing today? I was thinking maybe we coul…”

“HELL NO! I already got plans.”

Tonight.

Frida Kahlo and George Carlin.

Icons of their own respective fields.

Lissette and I attended the sold out Fleet Foxes show the other day at the Hollywood Palladium. It was an awesome show. The setlist was great. I had never seen them before or can say that I’m a huge fan but due to my co-worker’s hookup there, we got in for free. Grown Ocean has definitely grown on me and was one of my favorites live along with this long extended version of ‘White Winter Hymnal.’ Too bad my lady didn’t get to hear ‘Meadowlarks’ which was what she was pulling for. We still had a great time. It reminded me of the intensity of a My Morning Jacket show if it was just more mellow and more acoustic jams.

“Next Year”