After seeing the success of my Grand Master Flash video on YouTube I figured I should start uploading a few more that I’ve done so that everyone can enjoy them. Last night I finally got around to editing, converting and uploading my video from the Polk St. Warehouse DEF TRAP Hip-Hop show that went down on January 21 of 2006. There were a lot of people there and it was a killer show. Unfortunately I was late and was only able to record the tail end of the show and the following battle. For those of you who were there, please send these out to your friends and for those of you who weren’t, if you like Hip-Hop I highly recommend checking these out. Enjoy!

PART 1

PART 2

Picture originally uploaded by hardlynotsaam

Ex-presidential candidate and senator John Kerry heads to Brazos Bookstore this Friday (June 1st, 2007) to promote his new book, This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future. Say what you will about the man but he seems like a decent human behavior…which is more than I can say about the people in our current administration!

The Health Museum (1515 Hermann Dr.) is presenting the Candy Unwrapped exhibit from May 26 – September 3. The exhibit looks at the science of sweets through biology, chemistry, physiology and psychology of our love and desire for candy.

Climb on a sugar Crystal Mountain, check out the difference between flavor and tastes, learn about the history of chocolate and all sorts of other cool stuff. This looks like a cool event for kids and older sugar junkies/dentist haters alike. Wonder if they pass out tooth brushes as you leave?

See Yourself Through Their Eyes
Originally uploaded by jeffbalke.

Houston Metblog Photographer Jeff Balke has been posting some really great stuff lately.

I’m not a huge sports fan, but you can’t deny the visual appeal and personal feel of Jeff’s recent Astros photographs.

Linda Lay, the widow of Enron Corporation’s founder Ken Lay, is asking a U.S. District judge to throw out a civil action by the government in order to prevent seizure of nearly $13 million dollars in assets. The three things prosecutors are trying to seize are (1) $2.5 million of the value of the couple’s condominium in Houston, (2) $10 million from a partnership named for both the Lays, (3) almost $23,000 in a bank account.

Although Ken Lay was convicted in May 2006 on 10 counts of fraud, conspiracy and lying to banks in two separate cases, Judge Lake dismissed the convictions after Lay’s death in July of 2006. Ken Lay left all of his assets to his wife who is now trying to protect them with the argument that the government doesn’t have any basis to seize her assets.

Houston Chronicle reporter Kristen Hays writes “The government contends Ken Lay gained $99 million from criminal activity, mostly from repaying Enron loans with company stock throughout 2001 when the company was in financial turmoil. Prosecutors say they can trace and therefore recover more than $12 million of the allegedly ill-gotten gains.” The article can be found here.

In my humble opinion, the whole family is crooked and should try to cleanse their karma by giving away the money that destroyed countless retirement and college funds.

I love cool, scratchy, vintage looking photos. If you’ve got a pocket full of quarters, a solid repertoire of bizarre facial expressions and a little whisky in you (or not) you can achieve kitschy photo nirvana by hopping into an old skool photo booth with your pals.

But where oh where are there cool photo booths in Houston? This Photobooth Web site is a great place to locate and share photo booth insider info from all over the country. Sadly, they only list ONE in Houston (at Katz’s Deli).

Help a sister out here — where do you go to ham it up in the photo booth?

Uhmm… ewwww??? Technical Knockout, Inc., a Houston-based company, sent a customer a punching bag full of used underwear and bathing suits. (See full story here)

“(There were) bras, thongs and bathing suits. We could not believe there were clothes inside instead of sand,” he said. Heckel said the smell was “bad, real bad.”

Heckel said that contacting the store where he’d bought the bag didn’t go anywhere.

“I called to ask them if they could tell me if these were clean underwear, but I don’t think that he believed me,” Heckel said. “I said ‘I’m a cop, I’m telling you that’s what’s in there!’ He stated that he had never looked in a bag so he didn’t know what was in them.”

A TKO, Inc. representative has promised to send another ‘new, non-underwear-filled bag’ immediately to the family. Hee hee.

THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY! HOW CAN ANYONE SUPPORT THIS TACTIC?!?! INSTEAD OF TRAINING OFFICERS TO BE CLICKAHOLIC COMMANDERS WE SHOULD BE SENDING THEM BACK TO POLICE ACADEMY (ONLY REQUIRED ONCE IN THEIR CAREER) TO RE-TRAIN ON HOW TO BE A REAL POLICE OFFICER!!!!! THEY’RE TURNING INTO LAME DUCKS WITH NON-LETHAL WEAPONS!!

WANT TO SEE WHAT REALLY GOES DOWN WHEN SOMEONE IS GETTING TASERED? WANT TO HEAR A COP SAY “I SWEAR I’LL BREAK YOUR FUCKING NECK IF YOU DON’T STOP”? THEN CHECK OUT THE LINK BELOW WHERE THE AMAZING PEOPLE AT CHRON.COM HAVE COMPILED SOME POLICE TASER VIDEOS. PREPARE TO BE STUNNED! OH YEAH, ALSO NOTICE THE REDNECKISH HOOTING & HOLLERING DURING THE “TRAINING” VIDEO.

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/taservids/

HEY SUPPORTERS OF THIS TECHNOLOGY: TIME TO SPEAK UP AND PROVE TO US THAT THIS IS A LEGITIMATE POLICE TACTIC.

COPS & BUSES GETTING NABBED ON RED-LIGHT VIOLATIONS! CLASSIC!
PLEASE NOTE THAT OVER 34,000 OF THESE CITATIONS HAVE BEEN ISSUED! WTF!?!?!?! WE GOTTA STOP THIS MADNESS!!!!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY

In case you aren’t up on the story, last Saturday afternoon, May 12th, Houston Police Officer K.R. Barnes responded to a robbery call at a southwest Houston apartment complex. Two women said they had been robbed at gunpoint by a man half an hour earlier. In a moment of bad luck Alex Macario Rivera happens to ride by on a bike while the officer is interviewing the women, one of which promptly identifies him. So, Officer Barnes chases the guy down and somehow ends up in front of the guy. Rivera rounds a corner and runs past Officer Barnes, who then draws his weapon and fires two shots, with one bullet striking Rivera’s back. Surveillance video captured the end of this whole ordeal.

Officer Barnes says the guy had a gun drawn, and in some earlier reports, that he pointed his gun at the officer. They did, in fact, find a .38 cal next to Rivera’s pocket, though the video doesnt show whether he actually had it in his hand or not. Turns out that Alex Macario Rivera is a documented Crips gang member.

This event has been painted all kinds of ways in the past week: “The officer shot the guy in the back, he’s wrong!” and “The guy was bad, he deserved it!” being two of the loudest sentiments.

Unless you happen to be a Crip member yourself, I think we can all agree that guys like that probably aren’t the kind you want running around on the street. However, Officer Barnes wasn’t privy to that information when he shot. And remember, he did shoot the Rivera in the back, not exactly a threatening position. Then again, police officers are supposed to make those kind of split second decisions; decisions that decide whether or not someone lives or dies.

Did the officer do the right thing? Did he react too quickly? Would this have been a nice time to use his taser, as opposed to using it on kids or child-holding parents? What do you think?