Hip-Hop Dichotomy

Today at lunch I attended

The Hip-Hop Dichotomy:
Social Chaos or Freedom of Speech
A Forum to Debate the Legal & Social Implications of Hip-Hop

It was pretty interesting. At one point they talked about fraternity parties with hip-hop themes. People would dress up in throw back jerseys, gold chains and teeth, and in extreme cases, color their faces. The debate was actually about responsibility and education. This point stayed mainly around how a majority of these students only have people in hip-hop videos and on MTV as representatives of African-Americans.

I would like to ask a basic question. Should African-Americans be offended? I think face paint is a little far, but some of these parties occur on MLK and are supposedly in honor of what they understand is the black culture.

Of course its all about presentation. Should Hawaiians be offended by luau parties? Should I be offended as a Texan when people throw western parties and dress up like cowboys? Should I be offended if white people threw an Asian themed party?

What kind of party would offend you? I’m not easily offended. A bunch of white people wearing

would not really offend me. If the party was to honor what they believed was Asian culture, who am I to be offended. I am Asian and I don’t do a lot of stereotypical Asian things, much like all blacks don’t own any bling.

I am no way condoning all hip-hop parties, but there is a difference between mocking and enjoying. Many people enjoy the vision presented in hip-hop music, proven by the fact they are on television. If a party is thrown, respectfully with no ill intent, then I see nothing wrong with it.

Rockets

The season appears to be over.  Yao is out for the season.

Maybe next year…

By the look of things, we’ll miss the playoffs if things fall apart.   I guess the only good thing that could come from this is a great lottery pick.  I just hope we didn’t trade that away?

cycling

You’d think after going to cycling class every week, I’d get better at it and less tired.  Although I no longer feel like passing out like I felt on the first day of class, it would appear, once a week is not enough.  We didn’t go last week which may be the cause, but I felt pretty worn out today. The other explanation is that the intensity is self controlled.  So in theory I could be just challenging myself harder now then when I started, but we all know I’m too lazy for that.  At least I’m getting a good sweat.

Rockets

Bye bye Bonzi.  I enjoyed your fun attitude and ability to rebound.  I will not miss your lack of defense and inability to hit 3s.  Mike James…you sucked.

Hello Bobby Jackson, I wish you were 5 years younger.  I hope you can shoot and make big shots.  At least you know the offense already.

Dear Mr. Green, you will likely sit on the bench where Kirk Snyder sat.  At least you have mad hops.  Hopefully you will get some game and be a part of the future with Brooks and Landry.

camera

I’ve seem to have misplaced my small Canon point and shoot camera.  Anybody seen it around?

contrary to popular belief, i do watch and enjoy tv

I criticize TV shows a lot. My two major gripes are that the characters are annoying (Alias, Burn Notice) or that it imitates real life too much to be entertaining.

From my Facebook profile, here are the tv shows I watch and enjoy.

Favorite TV Shows:
Animated: Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, South Park, Samurai Champloo

Lost, Heroes, Entourage, Scrubs,
Hustle(BBC), IT Crowd(BBC), Psych

For starters, I enjoy watching Comedy over Drama. I love to laugh. So almost by default, a lot of cartoons appear. Psych, IT Crowd, Scrubs, and to the most part Entourage are about the comedy aspects.

Lost and Heroes are my fantasy world shows. I enjoy these shows because while they take place in the real world, they have no limit on what can happen. Unlike 24 which is set in the real world with real world limitations, Heroes and Lost have supernatural influences.

I have lined up in queue: Pushing Daisies and Big Bang Theory

I also started watching Stargate SG-1. While I don’t recommend it to anyone, I like watching MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) and the creativity involved in imagining what other worlds would be like. I didn’t think I was a big Sci-Fi person, but I think I was just not a big Star Trek person. I think I’ll queue up Firefly, because I’ve heard good things about that show. I’m a little iffy on Battlestar Galactica, but that’s way in the future.

Of course, by default, I’ll watch NBA basketball over most of these shows. I’m also affected by what mood I’m in. Sometimes I prefer a show that doesn’t depend on the series. I can watch an episode of Psych without having watched the previous episode. You can’t really pick up any episode of Heroes and know what is going on.

PatSun does a good job of suggesting TV shows, while CK and I will probably never enjoy the same show. I rarely watch reality shows, though I do catch a few episodes of Amazing Race because they travel to neat places. I use to watch the travel channel a lot, but not so much recently.

That was a long winded way of saying, I do watch and enjoy television.

weekend

The weekend wrap up.  Friday was easy, I had my 9am class moved to the Thursday before, so Friday was just a single class.  My roommates and I hit some golf balls at the driving range before getting some NikoNikos.  Saturday was a nice late wakeup day.  We grabbed some Le Peep before whooping up on some people Duffy found to play flag football with us.  I’m hoping that Saturday was enough to get my legs back into shape for running on grass.  That night was chill.  I watched half of the Rockets game at home and the end at Andrew’s with Drew and Duff.  Sunday was the normal routine except not that many people showed up for bball.  Only Ken and Duffy were there.  Luckily a bunch of random people showed up to play including 4 people we know from UT.  Then it was Super Bowl time, and the Giants came through.  Pressure on the QB always slows down a good offense, and amazing catches keep the drive alive.  It was a good active weekend like I enjoy.