The Largest Minority

June 24th, 2009 by eejipshuness

The soulful Bill Withers was born in the unfortunately named city of Slab Fork, West Virginia in 1938. He is the youngest of 6 children, his father died when he was only 13, and he served in the US Navy for almost a decade before starting a career in music. He was almost immediately successful in the music industry, earning his first Grammy within 2 years of his demo audit with Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. Booker T. Jones (also of Sussex Records) produced his first album, which featured the chart-topping hit, “Aint No Sunshine”.

“Aint No Sunshine” alone has been covered by over 100 established artists, including Al Green, BB King, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, The Police, The Temptations, and, you guessed it, Akon. “Use Me” has also been covered by some popular people like D’Angelo and Isaac Hayes, but I mostly picked it because it’s pretty awesome (especially on headphones) and Chico Brenes skated to it. (That’s how my boyfriend found it for me.)

Some other popular songs by Mr. Soul — I mean Withers — are “Lovely Day”, “Lean on Me”, “Just the Two of Us”, and “Grandma’s Hands” (which was sampled in the legendary old school hit “No Diggity” by Blackstreet).

In conclusion, Bill Withers is the shit.

May 16th, 2009 by Manila Ryce

I too had been deliberately ignoring this made up controversy but The Daily Show did such a good piece on it I thought I’d finally post something. I support marriage equality, but hearing a model who’s being judged on the appearance of her plastic body admit that she doesn’t think the same way I do doesn’t get me angry. Actually, it’s pretty reassuring when someone like that disagrees with you. What does get me angry is the fact that anyone would make her relevant in the first place. The very concept of such a contest angers me, as do self-described liberals who legitimize that contest by allowing it to have any power over them. Why not ask Flavor Flav his opinion on budget cuts and then feign outrage over his answers too?

Perhaps Democratic bloggers are creating enemies because they don’t think they have any real battles left now that they’re in the majority, but transforming this bimbo from a passing thought in the mind of a sweaty teenage boy into a Focus on the Family spokesperson is counterproductive. This girl was not an advocate. She had no power until large segments of the Left and gay community gave it to her. Additionally, if you’re for freedom of speech then you’re for it specifically for statements you find repulsive. Not only have these idiots given her more airtime for her views on this topic, but the rabid way they’ve done it makes the rest of us who actually do care about equality look like petty fascists. Way to go.

April 19th, 2009 by eejipshuness

I’ll be posting music I dig from time to time since Mr. Ryce held a gun to my ovaries. Maybe I’ll do something CRAZY once in a while and post an interesting article… or two.

Enjoy :)

Did you know…
The famous duo Hall & Oates first met in an elevator while escaping gang-related gunfire at a 1967-style battle of the bands function in Philadelphia’s Adelphi Ballroom. They didn’t actually become musical partners in crime until two years later. Their music has been an inspiration to countless noteworthy artists, such as De La Soul, John Mayer, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Not to mention Michael Jackson, who once begged the pardon of Daryl Hall for using the “groove” of I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) in his 1983 chart-topper Billy Jean.

December 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

I’m not much of a sports fan, but I do enjoy the one-on-one nature of a good fight. Oscar’s always been a bit of a chump, so it was nice to see Manny humble him with a dominant performance in every round. Still, you couldn’t help but feel sorry for a guy who is probably forced to end his career on such a humiliating note.

Oh, and if you’re Mexican and received a gloating text message from a Filipino friend last night I’d like to apologize for all of us. At the exact moment De La Hoya gave up, everyone in the place I was watching the fight at immediately pulled out their phone and started texting. I’m sure the same happened in every Filipino household in America. Sorry, it’s a reflex.

July 4th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

In the state of Nevada, we needed 5,746 signatures to get Nader on the ballot for the general election. We got over 12,000 just in case. Many are bound to be bogus, and the Democrats will no doubt challenge us since Nevada is a “battleground state”. Still, it feels good to be done right at the deadline with our personal goal of 12,000 signatures met.

On the final day of petitioning to get Nader on the ballot in Nevada, I was actually booted from the Sahara West Library for informing a self-described Democrat that she subscribed to fascism.

Before the Nader/Gonzalez campaign came to Nevada, only Obama and McCain were allowed on the ballot in the general election. You can’t even write-in a candidate, so any voter who didn’t want to choose either one of the two corporate candidates was essentially denied their right to vote. I explained this to some lady exiting the library and she simply said it was fine with her if independents were disenfranchised. All that mattered was that we get a Democrat in the White House, democracy be damned.

Thinking that perhaps she misunderstood, I explained again that by signing my petition she was not endorsing Ralph Nader, but simply allowing him to be on the ballot so that people would have the right to vote for him if they chose to do so. Whether or not she agreed with their choice was irrelevant. She still refused to sign, insisting that choice for all Americans should be limited to just the two candidates she found acceptable. I told her that that was not democracy, but fascism. She shrugged her shoulders and we both walked away, disgusted with each other.

Not too long after the interaction, a security guard and library manager exercised a bit of fascism of their own. Apparently, the manager had received a call from the woman who was offended that I had called her a fascist. I gave the manager a brief civics lesson, recapped our conversation, and explained that my tone was calm and matter-of-factual with the woman, but she still insisted that I had to leave for “harassing” guests. I was surprised that a library manager would try to pull this shit on public property, but I eventually did leave since we were on a deadline and needed to spend time gathering signatures rather than challenging the library’s decision.

So after banging my head against a wall for several minutes, I walked a couple miles to a less-shaded grocery store parking lot to fill my quota for the day and work on my skin cancer. Both came along fairly well.

I’m sharing this story because most people don’t realize the obstacles that small campaigns face at every turn. Petitioners are told to “fuck off” and “go to hell” by complete strangers all day. Add 115 degree heat and the divisive name of “Ralph Nader” to the equation and you’ve got one grueling job that only someone with a tremendous amount of passion and dedication could do every single day. My utmost respect goes out to everyone who’s decided to stay through the entire roadtrip, but a special bit of recognition is needed for my small family of Vegas petitioners (Team Tanq) and the thankless work we did to get Ralph on the ballot in Nevada. We conquered that fucking state.

June 23rd, 2008 by Sam

From the Associated Press:

A publicist for George Carlin says the legendary comedian has died of heart failure at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif.

Jeff Abraham says Carlin went into St. John’s Health Center on Sunday afternoon, complaining of chest pain. Carlin died at 5:55 p.m. PDT. He was 71.

Although Carlin’s prime may have slightly preceded my generation, I would be remiss to not mention the profound influence watching his old HBO specials had on the development of my own personal political consciousness. Carlin’s scathing critiques of American foreign policy, capitalist “freedom,” and religious dogma provided a hilarious and often profound respite from mainstream political dialogue before I discovered alternative media and other radical forums for interpreting and discussing our modern world.

Witness Carlin in a guest spot on Bill Maher’s Real Time perfectly dissecting what “choice” means in a capitalist democracy. (see video below the fold)

(Image courtesy of georgecarlin.com)

Read the rest of this entry »

May 27th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

What? You mean flashing your cooter on the big screen isn’t a prerequisite to joining MENSA? Sadly, no. In this clip Stone decides that the perfect time to condemn the Chinese people (not the Chinese government mind you) is right after a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake has left more than 67,000 people dead and 20,000 still missing.

Hey China, don’t get angry with Sharon Stone. Get angry with yourselves for the Karma Quake you’ve created. Imagine some pompous, self-righteous actor proclaiming in a matter-of-fact manner that 9/11 was karma for the US-backed occupation of Palestine. Good, now imagine that the death toll of 9/11 was more than 22 times what it actually was and you’ll have a fairly good reference point for your outrage.

It’s also worth noting that suffering is a basic tenant of Buddhism, and despite being “good friends” with the Dalai Lama, Stone is completely ignorant of the fact that karma is an intention in the mind that results in personal happiness or unhappiness, not some divine intervention which determines your future according to the actions in your past. Stone’s concept of why natural disasters happen parallels Pat Robertson’s. Perhaps she can also condemn the people of Burma for their cyclone the way Pat did after Katrina hit.

Stone’s misunderstanding of karma is quite convenient as it implies that people dying in distant corners of the world are just getting what they deserve, while the rich and famous are fully justified in their decadence because of their moral superiority.

And by the way Sharon, the earthquake most affected Sichuan province, which has a large Tibetan population.

May 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

If you don’t know who either one of these magnificently talented people are then it’s safe to say that your lameness is incurable and you should probably go drown yourself in a shallow pool before you infect the rest of us.