DeLaWho? DeLaWhat? DeLaWhere?

Ryan Cormier, a Local features reporter for the News Journal, has not recieved the best reception from Clay Aiken's devoted fans after writing a negative review recently about Mr. Aiken's rainy concert at the Delaware State Fair. His article subjected him to one fo the strongest offensive displays by Aiken's Army in recent memory.

One of the e-mails had only four words: “You are an ass.”

Another was five times longer than the Clay Aiken review that the person was complaining about.

One person called me a “sexist little twit.”

Check out this series of posts on his blog which details the unpleasent reactions by the self-titled Claymates.

: I want William Hung

: Letter of the Day

: Clay Mates Strike Back

Pope-y Pope-y Pope-y can't you see
Sometimes your ideologies just hypnotize me
And I just love your Godly ways
Guess that's why they broke, and you're so paid (uh)
(chorus taken from Notorious BIG's "Hypnotize")

I am always blown away with the progressive spirit of the Roman Catholic Church. Refusing to back down, the Pope will be standing...well sitting up to feminists and their views by calling on Church leaders to attack feminist ideologies which assert that men and women are fundamentally the same.Take a gander at this headline from the Guardian Unlimited: Pope warns feminists

This next tidbit of news sends chills down my spine. I fear that we will not take serious action towards cleaning up the environment until we are affected...meanwhile, the wildlife around us is feeling the "heat" (so to say).

Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds
By Michael McCarthy Environment Editor

30 July 2004

Hundreds of thousands of Scottish seabirds have failed to breed this summer in a wildlife catastrophe which is being linked by scientists directly to global warming.

The massive unprecedented collapse of nesting attempts by several seabird species in Orkney and Shetland is likely to prove the first major impact of climate change on Britain.

In what could be a sub-plot from the recent disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, a rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.

In Orkney and Shetland, the sandeel stocks have been shrinking for several years, and this summer they have disappeared: the result for seabirds has been mass starvation. The figures for breeding failure, for Shetland in particular, almost defy belief. (read on...)

The DNC Chairman pulled a Cheney last night after Kerry's Speech...check out this article pulled from the Drudge Report

UPDATE:

MISCHER DEEPLY SORRY FOR BALLOON RAGE

The producer of the Democratic National Convention in Boston "deeply apologized" on Friday for his exasperated, profanity-laced tirade which on worldwide TV just as Kerry ended his acceptance speech.

"I feel terrible about it, and I deeply apologize to anyone I might have offended," Hollywood heavy Don Mischer tells Saturday's LOS ANGELES TIMES.

CNN said it had received permission from Mischer to air audio from the control room from time to time to provide behind-the-scenes flavor. (read on...)

The ginormous chin of Late Night talk show host Jay Leno finally has a rival...

that of Presidential Candidate John Kerry

There are a few things that I find strange/amusing about Cheney's comments directed towards Democrats. First of all, the image of Dick "Heartbeat" Cheney making a speech while being flanked by American Flags and Howitzers, as if to say, the two go hand in hand as symbols of strength...is a funny and at the same time disturbing one. Secondly, if you read between the lines of Cheney's comment "Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness." He is basically saying that while under the Bush Administration, our country was percieved to be at its weakest point, since the attack was the most deadly terrorist attacks on US soil. Isn't that a bit damning for Bush.

Cheney to Democrats: Weakness Invites Terror
Jul 27, 2:48 PM (ET)
By Adam Entous

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Reuters) - Flanked by American flags and howitzers, Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday defended the war in Iraq and a policy of preemptive attack against criticism from Democrats at their national convention.

With President Bush staying out of the political fray at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, Cheney was on the West Coast to rally fellow Republicans for the November election and counter charges by Democrats meeting in Boston.

"Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness," Cheney said at Camp Pendleton on the Southern California coast. (read on...)"

It has a little over a week since Philip Healy, a musician and teacher, caused two accidents while driving drunk(he had a BAC of .336) Northbound on Route 1 South in the early hours of July 18th. The second of the two accidents killed Cpl. Cristopher M. Shea, as well as Healy. With the death of state trooper, the deaths of Cpl. Shea and Philip Healy has been a hot discussion topic here in Delaware, especially in response to the way that the state's newspaper, The News Journal, handled this unfortunate tragedy. I was disturbed and saddened by the accident and the deaths of both people, especially that of Cpl. Shea. Recently, I learned that one of my friends was a witness to Healy's druken disregard for himself and his fellow drivers.

On the night of July 17th, my best friend Billy T and I saw Kanye West put on an amazing show at the Kahunaville in Wilmington. Billy lives and works down at the beach with his grandparents during the summer. Since he had to be back in the morning to go work, he had the tough decision of spending the night at his parent's house and waking up early to drive to work or driving back down to his grandparent's house near Rehobeth. He decided to drive back down to the Beach. Around 2 am, as he was driving down Route 1 South around Milford he noticed two sets of headlights coming towards him. At first he thought that both cars were on Route 1 North, however, as the cars came closer, he noticed that one set of headlights was approaching him on the Route 1 South side. Luckily, he was close enough to make a quick exit onto an off ramp. He didnt think anything of the situation, thinking that the two cars were racing, because the two cars on opposite sides were traveling at similar speeds. So, he gathered himself and drove back to his grandparents...only to later learn that he narrowly missed a viscious collision. When he told me his story, I was shocked and thankful that he was able to dodge the speeding bullet. I am still trying to grasp how close a call Billy had....

Today, while stocking shelves with cookies and crackers in a local grocery store, I saw my 8th grade social studies teacher, Mr. Cheeseman. Mr. Cheeseman was one of my favorite teachers during my "lower"-education (as opposed to higher education AKA College) career. To completely understand his brilliance, you have to witness his classroom located in AI DuPont Middle School. As you enter his historical shrine, there is nary an area of light-brown wall to be seen, because covering his walls are the covers of every TIME magazine ever published. Old political ads and posters, flags, pictures, etc. hung down over student's desks. Civil War muskets, relics, bullets, and clothing is placed strategically around the room along with busts, old political mugs and other interesting and attention grabbing relics. I think the idea was that, if they arent paying attention to him, at least they would learning something....it worked. Mr. Cheeseman's room was a vault of learning...he was an engaging teacher who lead us in 2 week long debates- including one that took place before the Civil War. Each student was assigned to play a congress person for the 2-plus week debate. In playing the senator, the student had to answer not as they would answer but as the senator would answer. Thankfully, I was able to play a very liberal senator from Iowa. It was a great learning tool. Mr. Cheeseman also took our class down to Williamsburg, VA to experience history outside of a textbook. He also organized a trip for the 8th graders to go to Italy. We stayed in Venice, Rome, and Florence while touring the Italian countryside. It was an amazing trip. All that being said...as he wandered around the grocery store, I looked up and thought about saying hello...but second guessing myself because I was afraid he wouldnt remember me (I was a lot shorter than 6'2'' during 8th grade...and a tad bit chubbier). Now, as I type, I wish I would have greeted one of my favorite teachers with a friendly hello and thank-you for his passion for teaching.

While I do find certain politically outspoken celebs intriguing, such as Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon (the stars of one of my favorite movies of all-time, Bull Durham), I think that it has now turned into a hollywood circus of types. In a place where keeping your name in the news is good for your career, it seems as though many hollywooders have done so by bashing Bush. I could see this anti-Bush bandwagon ,that is now boarding in LA-LAland, to be a potentially dangerous event for the Kerry campaign. Let's Hope Not.

Celebrities declare own war -- on Bush

By William Keck
USA TODAY

In what's shaping up as one of the nastiest presidential races in decades, Bush-bashing is turning into an en vogue celebrity sport.

But unsolicited anti-Bush rhetoric, which appears to be spinning out of control, is alienating both Republicans and Democrats.

Recent examples:

* At a John Kerry fundraiser July 8, Whoopi Goldberg delivered several crude puns on Bush's name. Complaints led to Goldberg's firing as a Slim-Fast spokeswoman and admonishments from both parties.

* At a concert July 14, rocker Ozzy Osbourne sang War Pigs while projecting an image of Bush with Adolf Hitler. After complaints, it was dropped from shows.

* Hip-hop artist Jadakiss' hit Why blames Bush for 9/11. He sings: ''Why did Bush knock down the towers?'' Some radio stations have edited out the line.(read on...)

I am a relative newbie to the iWorld of iPods (recieved one for my birthday in June), and I have enjoyed every feature that the ingenious piece of machinery provides. But with the annual upgrade of the Apple's iPod (the upgraded model includes-doubled battery life, decreased size, decreased price, and increased amazingness), I now understand that the only downside to owning an iPod is when a new and improved model comes out.

We obviously don't learn from the past and apply those lessons to the present and the future. This is evident in the fact that Bush issued this press release today:

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 21, 2004

July 21, 2004
Presidential Determination
No. 2004-40

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT: Eligibility of Iraq to Receive Defense Articles

and Services Under the Foreign Assistance Act of

1961, as Amended, and the Arms Export Control Act,

as Amended

Pursuant to the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 503(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, and section 3(a)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended, I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and services to Iraq will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.

You are authorized and directed to report this finding to the Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register.

GEORGE W. BUSH

courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov via Drudge Report

DiFonzo's, a bakery in Little Italy off of Union St., has closed indefinetly. Unlike, the bar beneath D. Gilbert's apartment complex, the bakery was always hopping. Just a 10 minute walk from my house, DiFonzo's has always been the source of deliciously addictive oven-baked rolls. There is nothing quite like a bag of two dozen rolls resting in your arms, warming up your hands and your tastebuds. The aroma of a DiFonzo's roll can be detected from three floors away and bring the family swarming downstairs before they all are devoured. One of my favorite memories of DiFonzo's is the way that the windows of the front room of the bakery would steam up in the middle of the winter because of the heat from huge ovens. DiFonzo's has closed once before in 1987, and hopefully it will reopen after Mr. DiFonzo recovers from his torn rotator cuff. If not, I might wander the face of the earth searching for something to replace my appetite for their bread.

I have not posted at all over the past five or so days because I have been listening in amazement to the new Roots album, "The Tipping Point" which came out this past Tuesday. A lot of hip-hop heads say that
hip-hop is in a bad state because of the explosion of the art form into pop/mainstream culture. While much of the pop rap that is released is admittedly shallow and repetitive, you cannot say that hip-hop is struggling when you have artists such as The Roots, Talib Kweli, Common, Kanye West, Little Brother, The Beastie Boys, and many others releasing innovative, creative, and ingenious albums. Earlier this year Kanye West's "The College Dropout" snuck up on me because I was expecting amazing production and so-so lyrical content. However, I expected brilliance from the Roots....and they delivered by surpassing my sky high expectations. The album is just raw...the beats, the rhymes, and the life (paraphasing Tribe Called Quest) all of it come together to produce an energizing and mind blowing album. Black Thought comes with lines like:

• Touching on the state of the rap game...."Black Thought he rock
  it sharp so the speakers will bleed/I run a triathlon you wouldn't see
  the fatigue/I'm a star am maybe y'all should cop something to read/Or
  trade some of ya'll equipment for something you need/Cause it's a lot
  of bullshit flooding the scene/Where everybody's a star and hot shit is
  few and far between/You lose a grip on what garbage mean/Shorties wanna
  be themselves I know it's hard to be/Don't wanna do the Ruben Studdard
  and come off less threatening/Keeping it real will kill you if you end
  up letting it"


• On the state of the world..."Yeah it would be cool it could be
  too/Stop running round in circles off of what we fuel/Living a lie
  eventually believing it's true/A lot of people here for us one could be
  you/It's outrageous and they just ain't nothing/But save us an ocean of
  brown fists in various flavors/A flavor for a favor man, this is the
  majors/Tell me what you would do with no phones or pagers/No Kinko's no
  Fed Ex and no ATM's/What you gone do when the police state begin/Well
  it already began but I guess it depends on what's really going on
  what's happening/Huh/ Military target practicing/They finna write
  another Patriot Act again/The days is short the night is long/The fight
  goes on."


• State of Black Culture..."And some might say that it's a waste of
  time/Cause ain't no amount of dancing finna break the bondage/We go to
  war and transcend space and time/When every record ain't a record just
  to shake behinds....Believe it's on as long as we can still speak
  freely/Pages of my life make it hard to read me."


• some quick one-liners...




• "I got the soul of a young Sam Cook/When I spit I make you wanna make a new dance up"


• "And I'm calm, calculated, and perfectly aligned/The way I'm operating, what is it?/Surgery in rhyme."


• "I play em out like a game of Monopoly/Let it speed around the board like a astro/And send to jail for tryna pass go"

I could go on and maybe I will....but now is not the time. The next installment of my makeshift review will touch on the music behind Black Thought. Meanwhile checkout these reviews of the album:

• Rolling Stone
  (I don't completely agree)...PS. Rolling Stone is the same brilliant
  magazine that gave Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below a 3 of 5 star
  review....seems as though many critics and millions people disagree.
  
  


• Response to Rolling Stone


• TTP Reviewed on NPR


• RapReviews.com

other hip-hop news: Rapper Jadakiss Blames Bush for Sept. 11

I have not been a BIG fan of the way the Bush Administration run the country for the past four years, however, one of the president's greatest achievements has been the series of teeball games that he has organized to be played on the White House Lawn. Today, from 4-5pm on the White House Lawn, a one-inning Challenger Division Tee-Ball Game is going to be played involving a team from Middletown, DE.

GAME GLANCE
What: MOT Little League vs. Lancaster County (Pa.) Little League in a one-inning Challenger Division Tee Ball game

Where: South Lawn of the White House

When: Today, 4-5 p.m.

courtesy of News Journal

They play for the love of the game
A chance to be like other kids results in trip to White House

By DOUG LESMERISES
Staff reporter
07/11/2004

MIDDLETOWN -- Alyssa Elswick is 7 years old, weighs 40 pounds, and under her catcher's equipment appears to be little more than a blond ponytail and a smile. And, of course, she is with Thomas.

When Alyssa started playing Tee Ball, her 12-year-old brother, Thomas, was not sure whether he wanted to be part of the Challenger Division. The division of Little League gives children with physical and mental challenges a chance to put on a uniform and take the field. Alyssa, who had the equivalent of a stroke as an infant, has cerebral palsy.

Now Thomas is Alyssa's buddy, her on-field helper. When she bats, Thomas hugs his little sister from behind and helps her swing. After coaches help her strap shin guards over her leg braces and slip into a chest protector, Alyssa squats on Thomas' knee behind home plate.

Today, Thomas and Alyssa will play Tee Ball together on the South Lawn of the White House. Two years ago, the Challenger Division didn't even exist in the Middletown-Odessa-Townsend Little League. Having just completed its second season, the league is sending one of its Challenger teams - the Phillies - to play before President Bush as part of a White House Little League program. (read on)

I just pre-ordered the new Roots CD titled The Tipping Point, which will be in stores on July 13th. I am looking forward to hear what these modern day musical wizards have in store for the heads on this album. The Roots rank high on my "faves" list when it comes to music and they are consistently pushing the envelope and bringing it with that Illadelph funk. Supposedly The Roots' MC, Black Thought a.k.a. The Natural, is going to be pushed into the spotlight on the Tipping Point, so that he will recieve his much deserved props. It has been said that when you ask some of the more mainstream rapper,s such as Jay-Z (who included the following two artists in one of his rhymes on the Black Album), who their favorite rapper is right now...they say Talib Kweli or Common. But, when you ask Talib Kweli or Common who the best rapper is...they say Black Thought. Should be an instant classic.

I have also made a few music acquisitions recently, including Slum Village "Detroit Deli", Beastie Boys "To the 5 Boroughs", Blackalicious "Blazing Arrow", Mos Def "Black on Both Sides" (a late and delayed addition to my collection of music...there is a pretty funny story about the purchase of this album and my riveting conversation with the "resident expert" at the record store), and Big L "Lifestylez ov Da Poor & Dangerous". Hopefully I will review a few. By the way, next Saturday, Kanye is coming to Wilmington....oh yeah, snap into a SLim Jim

A couple of months ago I posted a link to my artist page on Soundclick.com where I had posted a beat that I made using a demo version of Fruity Loops. One of the features of Soundclick.com is the ability for members to contact the artist. I never thought that I would be contacted. However, I have recieved the following three emails in the past few weeks. I need some advice: Are these just people trying to rip me off or Are they semi-genuine?

(1)

I noticed that you are an aspiring songwriter/beatmaker. My name is M.
Ebert and I am the founder of Kid Antrim Music, a forum geared towards the
discovery and recognition of emerging and developing songwriting talent. We
are currently welcoming submissions from solo acts or bands of any age
group or music genre that would be interested in appearing on one of our
2004 Compilation CDs, which will be distributed to various record labels
and radio stations nationwide.
If any of your songs are invited to appear, each CD would contain your
contact information for listeners interested in getting more info on your
music. To submit a song from your Soundclick.com website, please email us
(KidAntrimMusic@aol.com) and specify the website where your music can be
downloaded and your song title(s). Upon submission, we also ask that you
provide us with your postal mailing address so that we may properly contact
you in the coming months with additional information and feedback regarding
your material.
This is a great chance to share your music with other songwriters and
various factions of the music industry. For more info, visit
www.kidantrimmusic.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon, and hope
you can help us spread the word about this venture.

M. Ebert - Founder of Kid Antrim Music

Kid Antrim Music
P.O. Box 1570
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779
www.kidantrimmusic.com

(2)

Hey Special Ed.

Love your sets. Any chance of getting you to spin in Broward? Euphoria
Project is a group that throws house parties and also promotes events at
clubs. They are ultra casual folks that bring together many good people in
the underground music scene. I'm not personally involved with EP, but maybe
you would both benefit some by hooking up.

Keep up the good work on Breaksfm.

Jerry.

(3)

how much to lease/use your beats?

I have been tinkering here and there with my blog's template: 1) moving the Blue Hen Logo to the sidebar and then back to the top of the page. 2) New and deeper blue and 3) Adding webfeeds from New York Times...tipoff courtesy of Dave Gilbert, whose blog has looking rather nice recently. However, I am not content with the current state of the blog template. I have tried to adopt one of the new templates offered by Blogger, but I have found customizing these templates (especially when dealing with new colors) to be very tiedious and difficult....and the results have been disappointing and unattractive. If anyone has any tips with customizing those new templates...drop a comment.

Just when I thought that these two fellow bloggers had fallen off of the face of the earth...they have both come back with the power of the post. I thought that the Verger and Poluiedes were long gone and may have migrated north to their summer blogs, but with a recent flurry of posts they have broken their silence. Like Ma$e, I must Welcome You Back. Side Note: Maybe Dave's prolonged absence may be related to the picture in his profile. Looks like the back of a Police issue Cruiser...I like it.


Side Note: I intended to publish this post on 7/8/04, however, I [Saved as Draft] instead of [Publish Post]...doh

Courtesy of the New York Times
ARVAYHEER, Mongolia — André Tolmé sized up the day's golfing terrain — thousands of yards of treeless steppe rolling toward a distant horizon. Without a golfer to be seen for 100 miles around, he loosened up at his own pace, taking practice swings with a 3-iron.

Then, with a powerful clockwise whirl and a satisfying swak! he sent the little white ball soaring far into the clear blue Mongolian sky.

"I feel good about that shot," Mr. Tolmé said, intently tracking the ball until it disappeared from view. "You could just hit the ball forever here."

In a sense, he is. This summer, Mr. Tolmé, a civil engineer from New Hampshire, is golfing across Mongolia. Treating this enormous Central Asian nation as his private course, he has divided Mongolia into 18 holes. The total fairway distance is 2,322,000 yards. Par is 11,880 strokes.

"You hit the ball," he said, explaining his technique in a land without fences, a nation that is twice the size of Texas. "Then you go and find it. Then you hit it again. And again. And again."

Moving across the rolling steppe, he is walking a route favored almost a millennium ago by Genghis Khan. The fairway may be something less than manicured, but to the north are Siberian forests and to the south is the Gobi Desert, one of the world's largest sand traps.

With his caddy, Khatanbaatar, carrying water, food and a tent in a Russian jeep customized with an upholstery of hand-woven rugs, Mr. Tolmé teed off May 28 and calculates he will finish his game in the trading center of Dund-Us, which is also known as Khovd, sometime around the end of July. (read on)