Too late to write… so here’s some lists

Too late to constuct complete sentences so I am compiling two lists.  The titles are self explanatory.

Im on that:

1. Vita-Coco/Power-C all day son!
2. The no red meat diet
3. Patagonia gear (getting my urban lesbo granola steez on)
4. boxing classes (watch my right hook suckas!)
5. Qt with my few peoples and my dog Nilla
6. Rittz the Rapper.  Peep his mixtape: “White Jesus”.  On heavy rotation in the Land Cruiser
7. Returning all the dumb ish I bought for halloween aka unstimulating the economy
8. Not buying sneakers (like I used too at least)
9. Cleaning up my Macbook so it’s like day 1 out of the box at the Apple store
10. Not buying a new Macbook
11. How to make it in America and Boardwalk Empire (HBO son!)
12. Fixing my own thermostat
13. four wheel drive
14. lean and mean.

FOH!!!

1. Occupy wall street movement.  I would love to join but I got to go to work and despite the Patagonia gear, I’m not much into camping.
2. LMFAO costumes for halloween.  The first 3 or 4 were cool/funny.  After that, you’re just a another dude wearing leopard jeggings.
3. LMFAO dudes on halloween asking me to play “Party Rock Anthem” at 10:15.  Dude, relax.  It’s 10:15.  We got all night.  Nice jeggings!!!
4. Losing all my crates on my Serato and trying to DJ a halloween weekend not knowing where any of my music is.
5. Upstate nightclub/bar gimmicks.  Phony contests, excessive boasting about sexy and packed crowds = everyone knows you are lying.
6. Upstate NY weather
7. Upstate residents complaining about upstate ny weather…..on facebook!
8. Halloween in general this year.  Usually I enjoy it.  Maybe I’m getting too old…haha
9. Being a meathead.  Go bang your head on a wall.

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack.

Man it’s been forever since my last post. I cannot fully say it’s because I have been that busy (even though at times I am).  So, lately I have been on some other shit and for some reason I have been obsessed with change.  No, not coinage haha.  Just doing things differently.  I woke up one day and said to myself that I am going to try different things and possibly make choices I ordinarily wouldn’t.  Well…here I am.  My hair is long as shit and not popular with the ladies (oh wells), I bought a new truck (it’s actually a 95 smh), and I started up a DJ school.  Those are the highlights but just a few of many things that are so different from say 6 months ago.  Anyways, I’m typing this laying in bed well rested after one of my infamous 12 hour dj days.  Yesterday I dj’d the sold out Mac Miller concert in Clifton Park, NY.  I can honestly say that the show was one of the busiest I have ever done. The crowd was young and consisted mostly of high school and college kids.  These kids were hype and restless.  When I say restless I really mean restless!!!  I tried my best to hold them down but after a while all they wanted was Mac.  At times breaking out in chants “We want MAC!!!”.  It wasn’t a diss to me rather a compliment to Mac Miller.  Anyways, it was interesting to observe Mac and his crew do his thing.  The kid has a buzz like no other right now.  No official album out yet and he’s already killing the game.  Man o man…the powers of the internet.  I could tell this kid (Mac) and his crew were living the dream.  20 something year old rap stars!!!  Wouldn’t that be nice.  Peeps are gonna hate though.  Some of my friends tell me how much he sucks.  Granted, all of them

are above the age of any of the Mac Miller fans at the show.  I think the kid has a decent flow.  His subject matter is a little young for me but I think his main appeal is that he seems like a kid we all know.  Hell, I knew a bunch of Mac Milllers in college!!! Anyways, just felt the urge to write something.  Sorry I have been away for so long!!!

NY sports…Big city of dreams?

So the Yankees failed to sign Cliff Lee.  The money was on the table but he chose to go to Philly instead for considerably less money.  Wait..what? You mean the Yankees didn’t get the player they wanted?  This doesn’t happen often but it may be the shape of things to come.  Maybe it means money really isn’t everything.  What were the factors?  family?  location?  best chance to win a championship? maybe it was an x factor like George Steinbrenner not being around and dealing with Cliff Lee one on one like he once did with Reggie Jackson and Gary Shefield.  One thing is for certain.  It wasn’t all about the money for Cliff Lee.  Which makes me think about the current reputation NY has as a city.  I may catch a lot of heat from lifetime new yorkers but there is a possibility NY may not be the big city of dreams it once was.  Have we lost our lustre? maybe the mystery is gone? have we over exposed ourselves in the media and pop culture that the rest of the country and the world are looking for excitement elsewhere?  It’s definitely debatable.  Just a lil while ago, I was asked to go to the Giants vs. Philly game on Sunday.  My initial answer was yes until I started looking up ticket prices.  $250 for a single ticket?!?!?!  FOH!!!.  They must be out of their cottt dayummm minds if they think I’m paying that much for one ticket.  I like football.  I don’t love it.  I’m certainly not spending close to a g to go to a Giants game.  I’m just glad my Knicks are killing the game right now.  Amare is averaging 30 plus points a game and Raymond Felton is coming into his own.  On top of all this, Melo Announces he will only accept a trade if it is to the Knicks?  Dope!!!  Maybe NY isn’t so bad after all.  Let’s go KNICKS!!!

All black kicks, air zoom generation and storm shadow.

So yea in case you haven’t noticed, I got a thing for those all black kicks.  Something so dope about having a fly pair of kicks in all black.  A few weeks back I copped the 24/7′s and the other day I couldn’t pass on the all new all black Lebron 8′s.  Thats a lot of dough dropped on kicks that no one ever really notices…smh.  It’s all good cause I do this for me dummy!!!

You know things are out of control when you look underneath your bed and you have a deadstock pair of lebrons (air zoom generation) underneath your bed.  These are the first Lebron sneakers meaning this pair is at leat 7 years old…smh.  Dusty as hell but definitely worth something to the right person.  These coincidentally match Miami’s current uniforms.  Hmm…coincidence?…Any lebron fans left out there?…lol.

Growing up I played with many different toys but G.I. Joes were my action heroes of choice.  I spotted the re-release of some classic figurines.  Here is my favorite from back in the day…. Storm Shadow.  Arguably the illest and most popular G.I. Joe villain ever!!!.

Cold World, “haters”, and point guards.

Damn it’s cold here in the northeast.  Every year we all wonder why we put ourselves through this.  Oh well, I guess until I move somewhere else…it’s going to be winter hats, gloves, and gore-tex all over again.  One of these days, I swear I’m moving somewhere warmer.  Until then, it’s the grind and hustle.  Warmer climates are in my future though…for real.

On a completely different note, I’ve been doing a little reflection lately about this whole “hater” phenomenon that has occurred in the last 3-4 years.  If you’re not familiar with it, it goes a little something like this.  If someone else dislikes, disapproves, is envious or jealous of your situation or agenda then they are labeled as “haters”.  Now there always will be people that dislike what you do or say.  And since the beginning of time, there have been and always will be envious people.  However, nowadays young bucks throw this word around way too loosely/frequently.  Young people are walking around acting completely disrespectful and being totally ignorant.  If anyone disapproves …they are “haters”.  Sorry kids, if you are acting like a douche and someone calls you out on it, they are not hating.  They are just calling it as they see it.   If someone doesn’t like your car, your new song, the way you smell, your clothes or even the way you carry yourself….take note of it.  They may not necessarily be “hating”.  Many people out there want to see you do well and succeed.  I truly believe that.  There are less people out there that want to see you fail personally and/or professionally. Ask yourself if this persons claims have any validity before you label them as a “hater”.  In some instances, you should thank that person.  Thank them for being honest.  Thank them for having the balls and courage to tell you the truth to your face.  Personally, I dislike the term.  It sounds immature.  I truly believe at this point in time if things continue they way they have been that the “hater” movement will be the ultimate demise of our youth.  Put that warm empty bottle of champagne in the garbage.  Stop fronting on the costume jewelry son.  This 106 and park champagne lifestyle is not real.  Stop acting like a douche.  Next.

Only way to roll in the Northeast.

Enough of the rant…haha.  I must say that I have been enjoying the NBA a lot more than I have in previous years.  There seems to be a point guard renaissance going on right now with the abundance of exciting super talented pg’s.  I’m not mad at that.  The guards are the players that make this game exciting.  Surprisingly enough, my knicks have won the last 6 games.  Amare is beasting averaging almost 35 a game and showcasing his newfound leadership skills.  Raymond Felton is most definitely holding his own.  New York Basketball is back.  Let’s go KNICKS baby!!!

Wu-Tang December 27th

So today I got word that I’m djing the Wu-Tang show December 27th at Northern Lights.  I haven’t dj’d a live show in a long time so I’m definitely excited for this show especially since it’s Wu!!!  I can’t believe it’s been (1993) almost 18 years since the Wu’s debut album.  Now that is impressive.  To all the Wu-Tang naysayers out there I dare you to explore the idea of any current relevant hip hop performer that could still pull off live sold out shows 17-18 years after their debut album?  It’s hard to deny the success of the Wu.  See yall on the 27th!!!

Got those tickets too.  W/S/G stands for with special guest.  Yea boi!!!  Hit me up on facebook or email me at djplayground@gmail.com if yall need some tickets.

Random.

So obviously…… facebook sucks (Antoine Dodson voice).  Not so much because the site is not user friendly or anything like that.  More so because of the fact that I have a thousand plus friends who I barely know at all…smh.  My own fault I know.  I use Facebook as a promotional tool so I always accept friend requests (99% of my friends requested me for the record…haha).  My favorite thing to do on FB as of late is hiding posts by annoying people.  It really helps clean up your news feed.  I just got tired of reading about emotional roller coaster relationships, people preaching, angry ass status updates, and no offense but I could care less that you are painting the new apartment or that you are eating with your “baby”.  Anyways, enough about FB.  I been busy as f*ck djing lately and been getting my grind on like crazy.  I’ve been djing 4-5 nights a week for the last 5 years and I don’t think I’m gonna stop anytime soon.  Unfortunately, this kind of lifestyle can wear somebody out.  I’ve seen a lot of Dj’s come and go.  Not me.  So, lately I have been making more of a conscious effort to live healthier.  That means hitting the gym hard (I been cutting weight and still weighed in at 200 lbs last week…look out!), eating healthy home cooked meals and making sure I get enough sleep every night.  I’m not playing around anymore son!  On a completely different note, I was watching my Knicks last Thursday play the weak ass Clippers and I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the play of Blake Griffin!!!  Dude was impressive and had two dunks that by this point now are Youtube platinum.  Oh well, he plays for the Clippers…haha.  Plus the Knicks won any damn way!!!

won any d

Seen these kicks on Nicekicks.com the other day.  Burn Rubber x New Balance 580br.  The sneaker game has changed a whole lot since its peak 3 years ago.  Nowadays, I don’t buy kicks like I used to.  But these are straight flames.  Clean and classic.  High quality suede and the gumsole bottoms to really set it off.  Bonkers!!!  Got to give to to Burn Rubber (Detroit) for this clean ass design.  I’m gonna have to cop these.  

Alright alright.  Enough with this Young Money business.  If you are over the age of 23, you should be ashamed of yourself if you like this group of artists.  Hip hop has become a victim of it’s own success and hates itself when it looks into the mirror to see what it has become.  Corny.  Hip hop used to be rebel ass gangsta shit.  Shit you would have to hide from your parents.  Shit that was controversial and made people nervous.  Shit that would be banned from schools, Mtv or simply just banned from the country PERIOD!!!.  Shout out to the 2 live crew!!!  People, leave this commercial ass pop music to the kids.  It’s not Young Money.  It’s Young, Dumb and Ignorant.  I will admit I do spin Young Money tracks from time to time if it’s what the night calls for or if it’s what the people want.  But then again, I spin everything!!! However, if your one of the many fans of Young Money and wear fake jewlery and sunglasses in the club while holding a warm ass empty bottle of champagne and think you are “going in”…go kill yourself!!!

Fall is definitely in the building…

Fall is my favorite season by far.  The crisp cool air makes for the best sleeping conditions and gives me an excuse to floss some of my 354,848 coats and jackets I have for no apparent reason.  Somehow I can only manage to rotate like 5 of them though…smh.  After a weekend of djing, I hit up Zumiez to peep the homie Paul Rodriguez aka P-Rod.  For those of you not in the know, P-Rod is a pro skater/hip hop junkie and is currently running shit right now in the skate world.  I stopped by, slid him a beat cd and went on with my business.  I don’t really enjoy large crowds, besides I’m a grown man surrounded by tons of teenagers aka Let me get the F@#k outta here fast!!!…lol.  It was pure insanity.  Hundreds of overly excited pimple faced kids lined up for pics and autographs.  To give you an idea of the magnitude of  this mans presence I would say he is the equivalent to what Kobe or Lebron is to the NBA.  Get em P-Rod!!!  Skaters definitely getting that $$$$$ these days!!!  I ain’t mad at them.

P-ROD

Part of the line.

Numbers follow me everywhere.  Here’s a pic of my $6.66 receipt.  NBD.

This year Halloween fell on a weekend…

So yea, this year the most infamous holiday of the year fell on a Sunday (Geto Boys if you’re not familiar).  For some people that meant playing dress up for 4 whole damn days…smh.  I don’t even know how any of you did it.  Having just got back from China and being all jet lagged out, I wasn’t really feeling festive this year which is very uncharacteristic of me.  So Friday I was dressed normal but on Saturday I got murderous and put together a last minute Jason x Casey Jones costume!!!  I had a blast wearing it.  Something so sinister about that damn hockey mask.  The only downfall is wearing that mask djing.  I had trouble seeing and my hearing was inpaired by my Howard Stern-esque wig (The ironic thing about the wig was that the package said “Dj wig” on it.  Let it be known people that Howard Stern is not and never will be a DJ!!!  A great VJ is what he was/is).  Btw, I’m blaming any pimple I get on my face in the next few weeks on that costume…lol.

Often imitated, never duplicated.  This is not me.  Haha.  Last night, one of my friends dressed up as me for Halloween…smh.  This is my homie Bresee.  I must say the only similarity is that we are both asian…haha.  He and I both had a good chuckle when we saw each other.  When I walked in I noticed he was standing behind the turntables with the headphones on while my homie Dj K-oz was djin.  Talk about staying in character!!!…haha.

 

Around the world and back in 10 days…

So it’s 8:39 in the am and i’m jet lagging like crazy.  Why not post?  10 action packed days and nights, 2 long ass flights (13-14 hrs), countless taxi’s, numerous subway rides, a mag lev train, a $100 nyc taxi ride, and an amtrak and I’m finally home.  Besides the jet lag, I’m not doing so poorly.  Damn, Its feels good to be home though!!!.  This is my second trip to China however, if there is one thing I learned on this trip in the past week or so it’s that I’m more American than I thought.  Damn, I love my personal space, freedom of speech, readily accessible hot coffee on virtually every corner, ESPN and last but not least… the visual of a nice healthy amercian girl…haha.  It was great to spend time with my family and especially my nephews.  This was the most time I have ever spent with them by far and I really enjoyed my time with them.  China is a crazy place.  So much culture…so much history.  Things are so different over there.  It took a while for me to get accustomed to certain things but having traveled a bit (not as much as some peeps…word to my homie True!) I adapted pretty quickly.  I was very dissappointed in my ability to speak Chinese though.  I somehow over estimated my ability to speak and understand the langauge…smh.  I’m thinking about getting some rosetta stone and stepping my game up!!!  Anyway, on a another note…small compact digital cameras are done.  If you own stock in one of these companies…sell it.  If you own a digital camera….sell that too.  Below are all pics I took with my Droid X.  Although they are not gonna appear in National Geographic mag anytime soon, it sure beats packing a digital camera.  Enjoy!!!

Cell phone charging station.  Good idea right?  This was in the train station in Hangzhou.

Asian Honda Odyssey.  Odysseys were dope.  Unfortunately, here’s the only pic I took of one.  This one is a lil old and dirty but I swear these things were kinda dope.  I was jocking a new white one on the highway thinking what it would like storm trooped out on some 22′s…haha.

Sorry friends…No G6.  This is a Boeing 777.  Smh at the HSBC sponsored jetway/aerobridge.  Not feeling banks/bankers lately.

Here’s my flight path from my seat in the plane.  Damn that was a long flight!!!

A lil qoute from the book i’m was reading on the flight there.  Word to Robert Greene.  This quote can be applied to some of my dj friends.  If a friend tells you your mix sucks…thank them!!!

Toyota Crown aka Lexus LS 400.  The whole time I was in China, I was playing the “name that car” game.  haha.  Everything there is rebadged with new tail lights, headlights, new names etc.  Sometimes it was obvious, other times I was totally thrown off.  

Honda Spirion Type S aka Acura TSX.  

Toyota Prado.  I think this is a Lexus GX 470.  Not sure though.

VW taxi’s galore.  VW got in the game early over here and are demolishing the taxi game.  They call them Santana’s over there…Aye!!! (#dipset)

Dope ass handrail in my aunts Shanghai penthouse.  No joke, I slept in the walk in closet.  Surprisingly comfortable.

View from the balcony.

I though this was neat.  This was in a restaurant in Hangzhou.  Dope restaurant.  This device had 3 buttons.  Bill, call and cancel.  So simple yet extremely effective.  One touch of either the bill or call button and someone showed up in seconds.  Amazing!!!

Chinese Coke can.  Coke is no joke.  When it comes to doing business, the Coca-Cola company is not playing around.  To think this company was a small start up company marketing cola with cocaine in it to aid headaches/toothaches is crazy!!!

That is all for now.  Maybe later I’ll post pics of buildings and more touristy stuff but who the hell wants to see that?…lol.

PS- Did some recon in some clubs.  Spoke with some people.  FACT: Next time I’m in Shanghai…Im djin