Friends, Romans and Countrymen...

You know its going to be one of those nights when my man hear already begins closing speeches before we've had our last pints!

I had one of those crazy nights at Bricktop when the vibe is just so chill you can act like a complete ass and everyone else is like, "I'm all in!" This week was "dead week" for the city as all the major colleges are preparing for finals week. Everyone who takes school at least half serious was hybernating with their notes and texts cracking down for the exams this week. But last weekend was a kind of feast before the fast and everyone came out to party hard.


IT'S...

ALL...

ABOUT...

THE...

LOVE!

And striking a pose... LOL


Is there an emcee in the house? Holy shit there is! And quite a talented one at that although I won't hold him to it after sharing some of the old black gold. Oi, the stuff is so choice!



The dance floor looked like something of a block party with sporatic dancing and posing. But the music was slammin' and it more than motivated me to bring the crew out for a little shaking of the arses! As usual I got into the groove and became a shutterbug as I snapped shots in motion. Some came out well and others were just plain stupid. I mean that in a fun, random way.







Sorry dude, there is no escape from my camera's eye! LOL


Wow, looks like Cleveland found someone else who is "number 1" too. Leave it to him to let that person know right away. You can't knock the hussle, eh?

Well...

this is another fine mess you've gotten me into. Damn you black gold. Damn you straight to hell. Well, maybe not right away... yum!

SYS

Read this story and get the message!!!

This story is true and happened last week to friends of mine back in New York. It hit me rather hard despite no one being seriously injured but also struck me in a way that reminded me just how simple things we overlook everyday have the potential to become big problems. The moral of this story is rather obvious but I felt I needed to bring it to my readers attention because you just never know. This could save someone's life and the lives of their family.

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On April 18, 2006, at 12:30 am our smoke detectors went off. This happens about every other month, so it’s gotten to where we get up all annoyed not panicked. Sean woke me up and I thought it was my alarm clock and I tried to hit the off button. When we got into the hallway we smelled something weird, it didn’t smell like smoke but it wasn’t right. I checked on Liam since he was crying and Sean went to go downstairs to check the dryer that he turned on before we went to bed at 11 pm. I gave Liam his binky and went to check on Emma. When I pushed her door open, (it wasn’t latched but we keep it closed so the stupid cats don’t wake them up) I could see grayish smoke filling her room. As I entered her room I saw that her humidifier was on fire and flames were starting to come out the top. The humidifier was not on but we had it plugged in. Emma was sitting up in bed not saying anything, just looking like she was in a daze. I yelled at her about two times to get out and she still just sat there. Sean heard me yelling and came running back to her room, I picked Emma up and put her in the hall and told her to go to the living room and I will be right there, I have to get your brother. I got Liam and brought him to the living room. I grabbed the fire extinguisher from the kitchen and went back to Emma’s room but Sean already had the fire out by using Dixie cups of water. The smoke was thick in Emma’s room and it was starting to spread throughout the house so I took the kids out on the front porch.

I called my Dad and asked him to come over to check the wiring and that’s when it hit me. Emma was 6 inches from being caught on fire. Her curtains were about 3 inches from the humidifier; they could have gone on fire easily. If it weren’t for our smoke detectors she would be dead. We were lucky; the smell of the burning plastic is all we have to contend with now. After stripping our bedrooms bare and cleaning everything you can still smell it. Nothing was wrong with the wiring; it was the fault of the humidifier.

I was always one of those people who thought it couldn’t happen to me, especially since I was already in a fire when I was 3 months old, what are the chances of it happening to me again.

If you do not have smoke detectors GET THEM!

If you have smoke detectors CHECK THEM!

If you have never had fire drill with your family, have one. Even though Emma is only 4 she now understands what the smoke detector is, what to do if it goes off and where to met us in the front yard.

Please feel free to pass this on to everyone you know.


Tara Hill


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Here are some pictures of the burned unit. I know this makes little sense but when I look at this thing it looks so harmless, you know. Not like it could just go up in flames. All appliances have this danger, true, but they are manufacturing them to look more and more like toys. A toy couldn't possibly hurt you. But we all know that is untrue at times as well. In any light, this story freaked me out quite a bit and could have explained some indiscretions I took part in last week. But more on that latter as I try and sort that out.







I am so glad they are okay because not only is Sean a good friend but their children are so cute. I'll have to dig up some photos and post 'em sometime.

SYS

Tie up some loose ends, shall we?

During a busy week you tend to see many things. They collect in the mind a long with a bunch of thoughts pertaining but really don't add up to anything more than blurps. So this post I dedicate to a string of blurps I've collected.



We used to have a nice and inviting lobby at Homer's until this piece of shit was placed there. Homer's shares a common lobby space with a Big Apple Bagels shop next door. Apparently, the owner gave permission for the placement of the machine in the lobby.



But why the hell does it have to be on OUR side of the lobby. Homer's doesn't claim to be kiddie friendly (although we are friendly to everyone, well, most Homer's employees are) nor did we claim to be into coin-op machines. Just after we decided to cut some of the advertizing from the windows to add some more ambient sunlight into the store *BANG* we have the back of a machine to look at. What a fucking knob job, eh? It's not like anyone would go goo-goo-gah-gah over these plushables.



Speaking of more shit that just makes me scratch my head AND clench my colon, what is up with life-sized cardboard cut outs of celebs? Cool, let me stand next to this bitch and smile and act the fool like I'm actually chillin' out with the dumby. It just doesn't make sense to me. Even for a marketing display, I could figure out about a hundred better ideas than putting a life-sized cardboard cut out of let's say MY ASS to try and sell my shit.

This particular card board cut out was made a little bit more tolerable with some tough-n-cheek humor:



I've pretty much gotten used to having to look at this sight at least once a day when I'm at Homer's but still the thing creeps me out when I'm scanning for shoplifter punks and I get this staring back at me. If only I dug blondes and if only she didn't look so artificial! YES, I realize this is a cardboard cut out and therefore looks artificial. But if you missed my sarcasm then you may need to put down the quaaludes and pay attention because I was spreading the sarcasm like JIF.



This pretty much sums up how we feel about the mid-week hump, so I won't add anything to it.

And on a lighter note, every look at the ghost in the DJ! LOL



SYS

"This is an alarm call...

...so wake up, wake up now!!!" -Bjork.

A call indeed to all record labels and studios looking to grab that next "voice to launch a thousand ships." PLEASE, please, please do not do what has been done to greater or lesser extent to the following women:


Skye no doubt has a sultry, soulful voice reminiscent of a Badu or Blidge but often the voice is rendered soul-less. Don't get me wrong the music is still great but I would love to hear Skye unplugged.


Imogen Heap's voice is very familiar (and almost a deadpan for Dido in my humble opinion) having appearred on Frou Frou's "Let Go" on the Garden State soundtrack. Great song, great voice. It brings goose bumps to my flesh thinking of what her voice would sound like on stage with just a baby grand backing her. Whoa.


Nina Persson's voice can melt even the hardest of hearts but again I would not call it soulful. I still feel with less studio manipulation her voice would sound just as light and airy, similar to a summer breeze.


I heard this album recently for the first time and I highly recommend it. Still while the instrumentation and singing is solid, once again you can tell that the diva's voice has been overprocessed. I guess the most succinct way to describe what you hear is a voice less organic.

I'll have to think on that one! ;)

SYS