goat yell like a man (i like)

for everyone that needs a little laughter sometimes. please enjoy this video (preferably repeatedly):

flashin'

thanks to youtube and a few friends on facebook, a phenomenon called flash mobs has recently come to my attention. as far as i can tell it's a large group of strangers that descend on some public location and do a choreographed group dance or performance. i love it, i've added to the list of goals for my life to participate (or help organize) at least one of these pranks before i die, but preferably within the next year. here's an example so you can see the amazing-ness for yourself:

ante up

okay. two in one day may seem like a lot, but we can't control inspiration. i suppose it's just coincidence that a good friend just sent me the link to another amazing video of a slightly different persuasion than our favorite UK boy band. i also realize that i may be really late on seeing these clips that everybody has laughed at for years, but it's new to me and i am not ashamed. perhaps some of you will also appreciate sesame street's bert and ernie singing "ante up! get that fool! ante up! kidnap that fool! get em! hit em! get em! hit em!" perhaps not. but here it is either way:

i couldn't help it

aw yeah, check it, check it out, second verse girl!

so a friend of mine introduced me to this diamond of a song that i had never heard before, and i must admit has consistently been able to change my mood and get me laughing. it's by this UK boy band from the 90's called 5ive, who had one hit here in the US (at least as far as my recollection goes) called "when the lights go out". this other song, i feel is infinitely better, for too many reasons to explain. let's content ourselves with saying that everything about it raises many questions worth (or not) pondering at least momentarily.

we'll use the first line as an example: "do you wanna get freakay, when the five of us make one?"

what does that mean? i don't have an answer for that, if anybody else does i'd love to hear your thoughts. don't limit yourself to the lyrics either, the images themselves also provide plenty of absurd moments to enjoy. nuff said. check it:

westside trippin'

i've been out for a minute, it gets hard to keep up when you're on the road for weeks on end. i'll try and be back for now. i'm still in between times, preparing to move out west for grad school. speaking of the west, i just got back from a couple weeks in california, serving, teaching, mobbing hard with good people (more on that later).

i spent a couple days in LA at the end of the trip with my brother. We had the good fortune of a rare Minnie mouse sighting on the street. It must have been about 100 degrees outside when we spotted Minnie mouse packing up her car across the way. We even witnessed the tearful reaction of a toddler after watching Minnie get into her car and take her head off. Poor kid....

God said...

have you ever seen those billboards on the highway, the ones that are all black with white type, and say something like "i am the way, the truth, and the light. - God"? it's pretty common to see signs that say "Jesus saves" in people's front yards where i stay. there's also this one intersection with a long, low to the ground sign that has two arrows on it, one pointing up, the other pointing down. the message reads "turn to Jesus before it's too late" (check the pic).

it doesn't really bother me to see these signs all over the place, but i'm really curious about how other people feel. what do you think when you see these signs on the highway, or in your neighborhood? how different is this to when people put signs in their yard broadcasting who they plan to vote for in an upcoming election? or hanging a flag in front of your house? is it any different from wearing a shirt with a picture of somebody's face, like che guevara for instance? how important are these statements we make about ourselves and our beliefs based on signs we put around our house, stickers on our cars, clothes, or even tattoos and piercings? do these things really reflect something about who we are inside, or should they be regarded as simply superficial things meant to be fashion? personally, i tend to try and stay aware of what my outer trappings might suggest about who i am. what y'all think?

road trippin'

sorry for being away for so long. the last few weeks have been pretty busy, and recently returned from a week long road trip all up and down the east coast. you may have noticed the amazing photo that accompanies this post. at a rest stop somewhere in Pennsylvania we discovered this claw game called "Bling King".

This may seem unremarkable at first, but upon further inspection there were some interesting things to note about this special claw game. The majority of the prizes were amazingly cheap-looking pieces of shiny plastic jewelry. Thrown in the mix sort of randomly was also an assortment of different sea shells, and some polished rocks.

the crowning glory (excuse my sarcasm) of this realest truest hoodest claw game, is the picture at the top of the white guy in the suit, surrounding by these two black-face women fawning over him. i'm not even sure what to say about it really. i'm not the only one who finds that absurd right?

how does that happen? you know, who came up with idea for this claw game, pitched it, and had somebody with money to make it happen say "yeah, make a 'ghetto' claw game and put a picture of a white dude pimpin' a couple black chicks at in between the name Bling King. that'll be perfect." there's race and gender issues at least involved in that process somewhere. i would love to hear what your thoughts are on the matter. holler at me.