Christ Entering Bruxelles

One of my all time favorite paintings is Christ Entering Brussels in 1889 by James Ensor. An image which for me captures the continuing importance of religion in the chaos of modern life.

http://silverandexact.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/the-entry-of%C2%A0christ%C2%A0into-brussels-in-1889-james-ensor-1888/

I think Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress" or at least the beat is a perfect compliment to the visual.

Some background on James Ensor
http://www.worldprintmakers.com/masters/ensor/ensor.htm

Jimi Hendrix: The Blues on the banks of the Nile

Sitting on my couch in Dokki, Cairo with my feet up,  listening to Jimi Hendrix's Blues album at the momment. I bought this album as a kid, I'm pretty sure this was the first CD I ever owned. I'm sipping some Date Milk which has to be the ancient ancestor to Mexican Horchata and plotting the rest of my day. 

Prague

I have been living on the top floor of 100+ year old apartment building a bloc or two from the Moldau River in Prague, a bright morning with a cup of chai and the Wall Street Journal is divine pleasure...the Wall Street Journal is increasingly my American newspaper of choice. Mainly because unlike the New York Times it doens't feel the need to photograph every Libyan rebel who wears Ray-Bands. Best thing I read was this article on chocolate: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250693887454856.html

Female MCs

Back when I was in Cali, I remember I was in the car with this girl who was then the reigning ASUCI President. Anyway we were going to get Japanese food around 11 o clock and this is whats amazing about California is you can find amazing food at 11 pm at night. It was kind of like a going away dinner.

Anyway after we left I'm driving her back and some Nicki Minaj cut came on and I tunned it up. I was surprised she wasn't feeling it. I countered that its tough being a female MC.

Certainly it's gotten easier over time and some of my favorite female MC's are those London girls like M.I.A and Estelle.

I mean and it really, the shelf life of a female MC is so much shorter than a male MC. Plus, there has to be a certain look. Let's be real if there was ever a female MC that was huge like say Big Pun there is no way she'd make in the industry I don't care how amazing her voice, flow, lyrics and beats were.

Dalai Lama Quote

Once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once it becomes active, then your attitude towards others changes automatically.

- Dalai Lama


So at least I got that going for me

Pure Lust: FujiFilm FinePix X100

A retro camera like this would be awesome and this one has a view finder unlike the EP-2 by Olympus.

http://finepix.com/x100/en/top.html

Kanye West Love's Prague

When I first landed in Prague the first thing I had to do that very day was walk across the Charles Bridge listening to Kanye West's Diamonds are Forever (after Smetna's Moldau ofcourse). Kanye West filmed the video for Diamonds are Forever here in Prague and apparently he is at it again.

http://blogs.praguepost.com/blog/2010/09/18/kanye-west/