Posted in Uncategorized on September 2, 2008 by joedobo
Wow, that was a whirlwind week of non-stop things to do, people to see, places to visit, fun, and new insights.
School started this past week. For those who are asking, “Joe, didn’t you graduate hella long ago?” the answer is, “Yes, and no.”
I have my 120 units, a passing JEPET score, my library requirement, my AAS units for my major, and could have (a while a go) sent in my graduation forms.
However, I’m 7 units away from finishing my Labor Studies Minor. And because this course is severely underfunded, under-enrolled, and taught for the most part by only one instructor, it takes forever to finish, and I basically debated if it was worth it for over 2 years.
So even though it will take me a whole year to get the 7 remaining units, I’m in it to win it and and researching possible Masters Programs as a back up. Yikes.
I’m actually doing homework right now. Reading about the evils of Free Trade propagated by the uber-rich and exploitative few. Should be an interesting class (International Labor) because we have a lot of folks from International Relations and Economics B.A. programs, thus making it a larger class and will likely have it’s share of Right Wingers.
Lots of shindigs and events this past week like Phatty’s Devil’s Pie/Libre send offs, Nate and Amanda’s birthday party Sat, Tone’s Birthday Sun, and The Hommie Olympics (which I was too lazy to go to… Damn). Lots and lots of liquor consumed, the wrong kind of D.D. on my part, and the realization that I got too much on my plate to be kicking it so damn hardcore.
So today marks the beginning of my journey towards 30 days of sobriety. So don’t be an in-abler, ya’ll. =D
“Preacher” by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion is one of my favorite comic books ever.
For the past couple of years, the guy who brought “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider” to the silver screen (two big pieces of donkey turd btw) was trying to get HBO to green light a series based on the series. He admits that he compromised a lot before with “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider” , trying to appease the studio’s who wanted franchises and McDonald’s happy meal toys, and basically putting out an inferior product. He didn’t want Preacher to suffer the same fate, which would have been terrible, so big up’s for trying. HBO would have been perfect due to the graphic and controversial nature of the source material, but apparently the new head honcho of HBO said it was too graphic and controversial. So it is now a no-go.
Was this the same dude from HBO who canceled “The Wire” and made season 5 only 10 episodes? You suck dude. BTW, still haven’t caught up on Season 5 so no spoilers man. My bro already fucked it up for me a little bit. Remember “OZ”? Holy shit, that was a good controversial and graphic content show that was smart.
Also, can you believe it has been 7 years since Aaliyah passed away?
Since I can’t seem to organize my thoughts coherently due the stupid crazy nature of the way I live my life and the amount of shit I am involved with at any given time, here’s whats running through my gray matter at the moment. Basically recapping the last 3 weeks in no particular order.
1. Ahrjay and Kristine’s Wedding 08.08.08/Colin and Emalyn’s wedding 08.09.08
Relied on Serato Scratch Live for the first time for both weddings. Tech difficulties both nights. A few weeks later figured out that one turntable tone arm is slightly filthy, cutting off the signal from the record to the computer. More on that later.
A&K’s wedding ceremony was done at the Oakland City Recorder building, really really early in the morning. For me anyways. I got there at 8:45am or so with only about 4 hours of sleep the night before. I’ll insert pictures later. There were lots of folks there that morning because of the date being, and I quote, “the luckiest day” to marry. I hope so. Afterwards, I headed to Alameda an hour early to get coffee across the street from where the celebratory brunch was going down. While waiting, chopped it up with a Vietnam War Vet outside Starbucks. He said he loved the Philippines when he was there, inbetween training with the Igorots for jungle survival training before starting his tour. I purposefully didn’t ask what he loved about it, but he told me anyways. “The people.” he said. No mention of “love you long time” tales. Thank god.
After this Liezel and Pat showed up and we headed over to the buffet joint. Although it was buffet, my lack of appetite kept me from over-indulging. Then out of nowhere Ahrjay’s mom asked me to speak on behalf of Ahrjay and Kristine’s friends. Super impromptu, but fun. Tried out some new jokes on them that I was working on in relationship to relationships/marriage. Got some Ha-Ha’s.
Later that night, the big fun began at the reception in Jack London. I forget the name of the place at the moment, but it’s right there on 2nd St. near the theaters. And of course, I brought the whole sound system out and rocked out as the MC for the evening. Holy shit, that was a lot of fun. Plus I was twisted. Lot’s of free drinks. Mike Marshall performed a 45 minute set. If you don’t know, he’s the dude who sings, “I Got 5 On It” on the Luniz’ song, “I Got 5 On It” and the “I Got 5 On It (remix)”. He was also the lead singer of the Timex Social Club. “Rumors” and “Thinkin ‘Bout Ya” anyone? Still don’t know who I’m talking about? I’ll let Mike let you know…
Mike Marshall – “Who Is He?”
We wrapped up things, and I broke my equipment down. As we were loading it up, three dudes from another club nearby walked by and one dude fucking just had to shoulder check someone from our party. We came really close to some bullshit happening, but luckily cooler heads prevailed. I remember drunkenly asking one of the Richmond dudes, “Yo, we’ll get our dude if you get yours.” Got home at 3:30am still drunk and not looking forward to the 8:00am wake up the next day for C&E’s wedding the next day.
C&E’s wedding was at the Brazilian Room at Tilden Park. Totally awesome wedding. For real. And I was hung-the-fuck-over MC-ing that joint.
Note that the reception for A&K’s wedding vs. C&E’s were two totally different animals. A&K’s was definitely more laid back. Meaning, nobody was really tripping if I dropped a few F-Bombs. Which I did. C&E’s however, I had to have the job interview persona in full effect. A few mamossas, and I was ok. But I totally screwed up one thing in particular, but it was hilarious.
Now, to preface, Emalyn handed me the most in-depth schedule on Thursday. Everything broken down in Microsoft Excel glory, down to the minute. Nothing left unexplained.
Colin’s uncle, Peter, was supposed to bless the food before the food was eaten.
Colin’s Uncle Peter’s name was on the gloriously in-depth Microsoft Excel spreadsheet schedule. Right where it says, “Colin’s Uncle Peter blesses food”.
Colin’s Uncle Peter walked up to me before he was to bless the food to introduce himself. He said, “Hi, I’m Colin’s Uncle Peter. I’m supposed to bless the food.”
I said, “Yes, it’s right here on the gloriously in-depth Microsoft Excel spreadsheet schedule I got from Emalyn. How are you doing, Peter? I’m Josef.”
As he walked away, I repeated his name a few times, since it was almost time for him to bless the food. “Peter. Peter. Peter…. Got it.”
When it came time for Colin’s Uncle Peter to bless the food, I announced, “Hey, everyone. Colin’s Uncle Roy is going to bless the food right now. Give it up for Colin’s Uncle Roy!”
Colin’s Uncle Peter – “Uh, it’s Peter.”
D’oh!
The rest of the reception went off great, except for the part where we went over the dance portion by like 15 minutes I guess, and the Brazilian Room lady tried to regulate on me.
Anyways. Both weddings made me real thankful that my close friends trusted me with handling some responsibilities on, “the most important day of their lives.” Not being sarcastic, but since A&K already got a bun in the oven, and Em and Colin seem to have that twinkle in they eyes, stork day is gonna soon take precedent. Something I totally want to post is the “Where Amazing Happens” vid that Mateo did for E&C. Holy shit, that was awesome.
So, with the reception over, I had a few hours before having to be at Azul in SF. So I went to my nephew’s bday party in San Leandro. Why is it when you want to rest thats when your niece’s and nephew’s want all your attention? I had to go into the jump castle and throw them all in the air down the slide. My nephew Victor James is older, but weighs nothing compared to his younger sister, Marley.
Totally forgot that I needed to bring a mic for the performances at Azul (C&E’s after party). Ran back home, then got super lost in SF for 25 minutes. Got there just in time to set up before the bridal party got there. Great performances and fun times spinning with Phatty.
Had to regulate on the guest’s a little bit for being disrespectful. Hope that wasn’t too out of pocket.
Pistahan 2008 – 08.10.08
So my friend Greg called me about 2 weeks prior asking me to take his spot doing a stand-up set for Pistahan. I told him yes. Then immediately realized why he probably didn’t want to do it.
-Family event
-During the day
-Outdoors
-Nobody drinking
Now I didn’t want to do it either. Especially knowing I’d be tired as shit after the two weddings. But I was too chicken shit to just say I didn’t want to do it.
I was told I should be there by 1pm on Sunday and that I had to have some release forms turned in by Wednesday. I didn’t turn those in and didn’t have time to work on my set, let alone try to practice it PG-13 due to prep for the weddings.
So I arrived to Pistahan at 3:30pm without the forms, hoping to god my timeslot passed already. No. I was right on time to go up.
Holy shit. That sucked.
Obviously I didn’t rock it. Some laughs, with an all family friendly set mind you. But a lot of stuff fell flat.
I mentioned, “Ok, that didn’t work.” and some lady in front was like, “Yeah, it didn’t.”
I wanted to say, “Yeah, your mom told me that last night, but I don’t listen to hookers. Especially when my c*** is in their mouth.” But, I was trying to keep it family. friendly. So after another pretty flat joke, I debated for a second to do “Ghetto-ass Trung Chan” but just said “Fuck it.” and walked off stage.
Aivy ran into the same problem with her set, (being hobbled by the event, not the heckler) but she dropped hella cuss words. That shit was funny.
Never again.
The lesson(s) of course is never think you know your shit enough to not practice, say what you don’t want to do, and when you fall off the horse, get back up.
Herb Diggs killed it though. Can’t go wrong with some songs, asking the crowd to sing-a-long.
Door knocking sucks. I’ve called in two days in a row, and if I do go back, I have 3 days to raise my average or they fire me anyways. Might as well go in for the next three and do piss poor so I can at least get a 3 day paycheck before bouncing.
T&M have finally touched back down in the Bay from an extended stay out in Las Vegas. Super stressed on they part due to… well, they whole situation. Not gonna speak too much on it, but for damn sure it makes me want to be a little more thankful of my own situation and work a little bit harder.
Got some new job opportunities I need to jump on since the Art Director Position at the ‘Stiff is taking forever and a day to hear back from. Speaking of the ‘Stiff…
Go to this show. I wrote one of the plays in it called, “Choices”. Playwright debut without Rufio.
8/8/08 and 8/9/09 man, two days of holy-moley matrimony hommie. Colin/Em y Ahrjay/Kristine are doing the damn thizzle cause they love each izzle.
On top of that babies on top of babies on top of babies just being born/conceived left and right everywhere I look in my different social circles. A preemptive “happy mothers/fathers day!” to all the new parents. May you all find yourselves saying/doing what your parents said/did to you and come to the painful realization that you are exactly like your mom/dad! Congrats Alexis, Ivan, Matt, Paz, and Aivy (ooo, and Ahrjay/Kristine and Sheryl P. That’s right. Ya’ll on blast). Horny bastards.
All this talk of weddings and kids makes me want to forget to pay my bills or something to prove my irresponsibility in the hopes that both those things are still a few years off. This the type of shit to make you feel older and whatever.
Speaking of which… found my first gray hair.
Stress? Just getting old?
Soon I’ll be telling the young whippersnappers to turn their dangflabbing music down and going to bed at 7pm. Thirty makes the new twenty it does not. =P
Cause I saw “The Dark Knight” once again. I really only went for the first 20 minutes again, but of course enjoyed the hospital scene, car chase, interrogation scene, hell pretty much all the scenes with Mr. Ledger.
Saw some different previews this time around too. Some new Disney movie with a dog (forget the name right now…) and a teaser for Terminator 4.
I still want to see “Wall-E” though. JJV said it was super awesome and with a recommendation like that, how can I not?
So this summer to make some ends(money) and contribute something towards manifesting a victory for the first (progressive) person of color American President, I am working (for chump change) for the Democratic National Committee. I report to work at the butt-crack of 2pm in the afternoon in Berkeley and after training, find myself somewhere in bay (although some of my co-workers have gone as far as Danville/Davis/Sacramento), knocking on people’s doors asking for money so across the country we can continue to knock on doors and ask for money, and do other stuff apparently (which I haven’t done yet. If I were to describe this the way I just did at the door and someone found out, I’d probably be fired, but it’s late, and I have to do the shtick again for another 4 days in a row. I’m conserving my energy.
Door canvassing, talking ’bout politics with strangers, you meet some interesting ass people. People who say some off the wall shit. Some of what they say is funny and educated. Some of it funny and disturbingly ignorant. Most of the time, I hear something that falls into the category of the latter.
The shit that scares me the most is the Jesus freaks or Jehova’s witnesses. They will tell you shit like, “We don’t participate in politics. Do you think the people on the Titanic when it hit that iceberg, went back to their rooms and started straightening up and making their beds?” That is their analogy for doing political work in this country I guess. For people of religious “faith”, these folks sure are morbid about the future.
I wanted to say something back to the effect of, “Nah, bitch. They probably wanted to get in one of the fucking life-boats that were in short ass supply.” My inner monologue was kinda pissy because they give us a weekly quota of money we need to raise, and conversations like this plus large amounts of apathetic folks, Republicans, and people going through fucking economic hardship take its toll on one’s mental homeostasis. All the White kids do way better than the folks of color btw, as far as raising money goes. Another “Pisses me off” factor.
I don’t have it as bad. The younger black males at my work definitely have it rougher. People at the door are less trusting of them. To make matters worse, most of us don’t have DNC shirts or identification.
Lots of people mad over Hilary not getting the nomination and stated they won’t vote for Barack. WTF. That boggles the mind. The latest Jesus freak today swore up and down Obama was the anti-Christ. Swear to god. She thought that him getting the Presidency was the sign of the end of times. “He’s a terrorist. I don’t trust him because of his preacher. I think he’s a Muslim.”
To point out the stupidity in this person’s statement would be like shooting fish in a barrel. No. It’s like looking at fish in a barrel. No. That’s still not easy enough. It’s like being somewhere in the vicinity of a barrel (I wish I came up with that joke, but I didn’t. Not trying to be Carlos Mencia).
And of course, I’m on the clock, so I can’t say what I want to say at the time I want to say it. But you know what I’m thinking, right?
On another note, I get seriously pissed that being Muslim equates being a terrorist to a lot of people I’m talking to. Holy fucking shit people can be fucking stupid.
And dirty. Now, before I go off on this next section, please understand that I think every race has the capacity to be some filthy ass people. By filthy, I mean like straight nasty smelling-embodiment of pestilence-one of the four horsemen of Apocalypse-rots fresh fruit when they touch it at Whole Foods types. In all honesty, some of these cats are my co-workers. How can you share a room with someone who leaves used condoms on top of empty beer cans right next to your bed? Nice guys by all account. But thats just filthy.
I haven’t posted because I’ve been trying to figure out how to navigate this damn place (livejournal is way easier). But anyways…
Like most of you all, I went and saw “The Dark Knight” this weekend and helped it become the top grossing movie weekend ever at $155.3 MILLION dollars, beating out last year’s piece of donkey crap, “Spider-man 3″.
Stunning visuals of course. All the bat-toys. Nice character interaction. And they played to Batman’s strength: His villains.
“Batman Begins” was awesome not just because it rebooted what had become a dead franchise after Joel Shmuck-mucker did to it, but that it kept the story grounded in realism as much as possible. The result was a great origin presented on the big screen which paved the way for the next installment. But truth to tell, Batman as a character is kind of boring after awhile.
Enter Joker and Two-Face.
If you were like me and paid to see, “I Am Legend” at IMAX on opening week, then you also probably didn’t pay to see “I Am Legend”, but the 7 minute clown gang bank robbery scene they previewed, and how the world was going to be re-introduced to The Joker. How can you top an intro like that? I’ll say this, just pass if Heath Ledger’s Joker ever wants to show you a magic trick. After watching Heath’s performance, I walked out the theater both inspired and morose. It is such a damn shame. You will definitely want to see it again, because he is that damn good, and really embodies the scariest aspects of who the Joker is.
My friend/fellow comedian/actor/comic geek, (I’ll call him “assclown” so as not to reveal his identity), said some shit in poor taste that made my dead baby jokes seem like… not… dead baby jokes..
“I’m just anxious to see where Heath Ledger goes from here.” – “Assclown
Alright, it was kinda funny. Kinda. But not really. (I’m going to hell…)
I think the person with the biggest challenge was Aaron Eckhart, in the sense that even before Heath Ledger’s passing, he was competing with the Joker for on screen attention. But the writers/directors I think made a good choice in having this movie be his origin story, whereas the Joker just… was. Then again, the movie was also two and a half hours long, so the characters all got their due. Nobody’s talents went unused, thats for sure.
A few things bothered me of course. Christian Bale’s “bat-growl” for instance. Hated it in the first movie, hated it again the second time around. It’s hard to take the dramatic scenes seriously when he’s talking like that.
It reminded me of the Katt Williams joke about DMX really talking like he raps in public.
Anyways, about to watch it again on Tuesday (K)night.
If you were thinking of renting/buying “Batman: Gotham Knight”, I’d say just watch it on youtube or something because although it looks nice, the stories are real, “meh.” I Think that “The Animatrix” did a way better job of having the short stories tying back into the larger narrative.
I still haven’t seen “The Incredible Hulk” yet, but I’m still excited that they are having the franchises tie together for an Avengers movie.
Btw. Have you seen this yet?
And the original G.I. Joe comic writer, Larry Hama is script supervising on the “G.I. Joe” live-action movie due out soon. Our boy Colin is playing Cobra Commander (inside joke). Hopefully it will not suck ass. Marlon Wayans as Ripcord though?
Posted in Uncategorized on February 7, 2008 by joedobo
Yo, waddup fam? Since putting off being a grown up ain’t so sexy, childish things have been slowly put away, cats are heading to sleep like they got a job to do in the morning, and keeping in touch with friends and fam becomes increasingly more difficult. Hence, on-line blogging. An easy way to keep up with the lives of your folks who you don’t see as much as you used to.
I’ve been apart of the livejournal thing for a minute, but seeing as how folks I know are up on the wordpress instead, figured I’d double up to keep in good company.
Gotta admit, I like the layouts folks got over here waaay more, but still figuring it out. My page will probably remain un-pimped like my myspace joint.
On a culinary note: Used my sister-in-law’s chili to make a chili-cheese omelet for dinner w/ bacon and an orange (sorta, it has that huge nipple on the top, forgot what those are called). It was what you can’t say on an airplane. Supposedly.
