Distant Relatives preview

NAS & DAMIAN "JR GONG" MARLEY DISTANT RELATIVES preview from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

I have a feeling that this will be one of the best colabo albums since Black Star.

Flickr

See more on my flickr photostream. Comments and critisizm accepted.

Photoshop

Look what I learned how to do haha. Mike showed me the basics of photoshop.

The Naked Truth

THE NAKED TRUTH from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Street art/graffiti taken to the next level. dope.

My Weekend

My cousin graduated last week so she decided to throw a lil family function at a hotel hall place. It was at Cupertino Inn in Sunnyvale. Hella food. She had a few friends come over. They were lightweight baddd. After that we went to my cousin's uncle's Grand Hotel in San Jose. That hotel was koo as shit. Swimmin pool, jacuzzi, HBO, and free breakfast. After that we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The weather was perfect. The water was cold though. There was hella cuties left and right.









On the way to Cupertino, we saw this car got fucked up. Blew up and shit. Good thing no one was hurt.

Congrats '09

I went to 3 graduations so far. Im hoping that's the last of them because it is sort of a drag to go to. I'm always down to support family though. Harrold, Bryan, Bradley, and my bro Mike graduated this year. Brings back memories from last year when I was waiting in line to walk across the stage. Hopefully in 3 to 4 years I can graduate from Sac State or where ever I end up.

Summer outing

It is definately known that summer is here. No school, no stress. The weather is a little on the hot side but its perfect. Yesterday was my first real summer outing. Lennard, Harrold, and I decided to go out to the Sacramento River for a little fishing and relaxing. Personally, I don't really like fishing too much but it seemed like a perfect day to go do that and it was. Overall, it was a mad chill ass day. We caught a couple wimpy ass fish but it was koo. Our second attempt at a bonfire was pretty decent too haha. I also got to use my nikon which is always a good thing.

Dow Jones starring Common!

"Dow Jones" starring Common from Common

I don't really understand why common did this but it's pretty funny to see common kickin' ass. Dow Jones FTW!

wilted day off

Every now and again I will post a photo or two that I've taken. I have the day off today. No school. No work. Still woke up early for some reason but since then I've been bored out of my mind. Here is a photo of a wilting flower in my backyard. This photo is particularly appealing to me because of its unique color. I also used my bower lens for a little wide angle effect.

The Wolf and the Pig

Kendoza referred me to the link. It's simply amazing how theres an endless amount of creativity out there. This makes me want to make a stop motion film this summer. Throw me ideas. If you wanna be a part of it, cool, because I'm gonna need all the help I can get.

Twitter

I dont really post as much as i did before i got a twitter. sooo follow me at djbravoo.

Newest from Mos Def

Mos Def - "Casa Bey" - The Ecstatic - 6.9.09

The Ecstatic out in stores June 9th. Can't wait for this to drop.

Sheldon Arts ALIVE

Today was chill. Took a day off from college to go back to my high school to DJ for Arts Alive. It's an event they hold every year to show the school what their ap art students have been workin' on. There's some serious talent in these students. As for me, my homie and I was just chillin', mixin' up some hip hop shit: De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, to Run DMC. Don't really get to do that much besides Second Saturday, which is this weekend btw. I'm not sure if I'm DJin again this saturday but I'm always down to go tho. What sucks about today is that I'm blogging instead of finishing this writing assignment due in a couple hours. Plus I have class from 9-5 tomorrow. fml

Week's Update

I haven't posted for a whole weeek only because I don't really like updating everyone without a few photos or something. Haven't really had the chance to use my nikon very much but I still had a chill ass week. School and work during the week. I was planning on goin' to see the xmen movie but I passed and decided to chill at the house with Harrold, Mike, and a bowl of Pho. Saturday was the highlight of my week forsure. Even though the Bulls lost a disappointing game 7, Manny Pacquiao made up for that knockin' out Hatton for the 3rd time in the second round. Hella exciting fight but I wish it lasted longer. 50 bucks for a fight that you can watch on youtube in its entirety, probably 10 minutes after the real fight. I watched the fight at my homie Kendoza's house with a bunch of friends and a huge bottle Smirnoff. Wii is 10x better faded. I bet I can only land the ski jump when I'm sober though. After all that, we randomly went to wingstop for some late night wings. Wingstop needs to live up to their signs. We were clearly there at least 3 minutes before midnight haha. They didn't let us order so we posted in front for a few. We ended up goin' to In n' Out for the second time that day. Everyone got home safe, and now its Sunday. I slept in. Didn't even think about goin' to church today. Woke up around 2 today and went to Arden Mall with Harrold and Mike. I saw Meilani there. I didn't know she worked at Up Against the Wall. Had a quick chat and I was outta there. After, we went to Illusions cause Mike wanted some new gauges. Since Ken lost the ones he was supposed to let me borrow, I went and got some 12s to start with. Considering the fact that I only got my ears peirced a few weeks ago, that shit hurt goin' my ear. FCK. right now I don't even really notice. No blood so I'm good haha. Oh, and I went to BestBuy too. I bought a UV filter for my Nikon. Buttery. Well from then until now I was workin' on this bullshit essay for Art7 and some calc hw. My paper was about how I think the ancient Egyptians constructed the Pyramids of Giza. Again, bullshit. That pretty much sums up my week. Could have been wayyy better if it wasn't fckin raining the whole time.

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My Weekend

My weekend started off on Thursday with a dopppeee ass concert at Sac State featuring Random Abiladeze, Prozac, Live Manikins, Exile, DJ Day, and Hip Hop's very own Living Legends. I went with my homies Ken and Herb. Living Legends didn't come out til like 10 (concert started at 7:30), but the openers did their thing. I got a free Live Manikins album when they were throwin' em out. (grouch was off to the left.)
This week was full of birthdays. Harrold's on Monday 4/20, Jeff's on Wednesday 4/22, and Darren's on Thursday 4/23. For Jeff's and Darren's birthday we all went to the new sushi spot called Sushi Hook off Howe. Pretty small spot so we had our people situated out in the patio deck or whatev. Good thing they had heat lamps cause it was fckin' cold out. Shout out to Will for makin' Darren that timeless shirt featuring Darren's hilarious 1st grade photo. Food was good, the cakes was better.


After that, we ended up postin' in front of the Hook for days until someone decided on what to do next. We ended up goin to the Structure. Top floor of parking structure 3 at Sac State. Yeah, I know. Ended up being a good decision cause we had a lot of fun just chillin'. Longboards, scary videos, and Light writing photos. I got home and my cousin is still their cause his significant other left him there to go to the CenterCourt dance club in Natomas. Homegirl calls him shit faced drunk and now I have to go pick her up cause she can't drive. It was 2am. All good though cause it kept her from fckin up. Good deed for me I guess.


Saturday. Harold's house for a family function. It's been a while since we've done this. Hella chill. Hoopin all day, bomb ass food, Street Fighter, and Family. No alcohol needed.


Sunday was dope too cause my little brother Mike and a couple of his art classmates entered in a Scion Art Show Competition. At Scion's car show today, him and his 2 partners painted their canvas onto a Scion Xb. Scion's car club was there too showing all their hot cars. Mike got robbed for first place getting second but its all good cuz his team won $600.






Oh, and the Bulls come up with a win over the Celtics today. Overall, my weekend was great. Hope more like this one comes up in the near future.

J$P J DIlla LP

Even though Jay Dee isn't around anymore (RIP) his music is still freshhh. On this new album dropping June 2nd from Nature Sounds, the legendary Pete Rock mixes 25 unreleased beats done by Dilla. Theres a lot of instrumentals but there will be artists featured like Black Thought and Blu. Check out more info on the project plus a preview with the song "Reality Check" featuring Black Thought and also an interview of Ma Dukes at Okayplayer.

Bower Fisheye Review

What I have is the Bower Deluxe HD super 0.42x wide-angle lens with macro attachment for my Nikon D40 which has a 52mm lens thread. It comes with the wide-angle adapter, and a nice macro attachment. It also comes with a front and back lens cover, all inside a nice pleather pouch for safe keeping. It's very easy to use. Pretty much plug and play. It comes with a 52mm thread adapter so that the lens will screw onto the end of my kit lens. You can also get a 58mm thread adapter for the canon. They also make them for pretty much any camcorder for those super legit fisheye skate vids. At about 33mm you get a really nice wide angle. Almost a 180 degree view. At 18mm you get a dope fisheye effect as you can see in the picture above. It allows me to autofocus very easily and the resolution is sharp in the center but towards the outsides, you get a little blur and distortion. There's also quite a bit of light reflection in some of the photos but nothing that will ruin shots. Besides these minor flaws its great for those people who arent looking to buy the 10.2mm nikkor wide angle lens for $800+. This only cost me about $37 and there is a bunch of legit sellers on ebay. If you want to experiment with a fisheye lens, this is the way to go.

Newest Pickup

Yo I just got my bower .42x super wide angle fisheye conversion lens for my nikon today. I left my engineering lab at csus early just to go home to these. Shit's legit. I will post a review in a few days because I really didn't get a chance to really shoot a lot of photos with it today. I did get to test it out at Monterey Trails Poly Club Open Mic tonight. Heres just a couple flicks.

New Clothing Boutique in Sac

One of Downtown Sac's newest clothing boutiques to open up. Lucky Lefty's opened up black friday of last year. I don't know why it took me so long to find out about them. I found out because their shop was featured on SoleCollector Magazine. They carry brands like APC, Arkitip, DQM, Hellz Bellz, In4mation, King Stampede and other dope stuff. I will definately check this place out in the near future.

RocktheBells '09 Lineup

Pretty self explanatory. What better way to announce the lineup than a little freestyle.

"Geek to the Beat" - Zion I

Zion I "Geek To The Beat" from Okayplayer on Vimeo.
New music vid for Zion I's Geek to the Beat off his newest album "The Takeover". This song is different from his past songs but this new style fits him well. I'm diggin' his shit.

Kanye x SouthPark

Yo i feel bad for Kanye for this one, but I hate to say, this shit is funny as fck. Kanye even responds to this episode on his blog. Click here to go ahead and read that.

P.O.S. - Optimist

I don't know if you guys already heard of this artist but it was my first time listening to him and let me tell you. He's got flow for days. His name is P.O.S. representing the Rhymesayers. I will update when I find out what it stands for lol but first off check out his video for Optimist which is on his latest album entitled "Never Better". It was released February 9th of this year but I haven't heard him 'til I saw this video which is very creative btw. Big ups

Art Battle Final '09

I never heard of this type of event before where two artist battle doin' live art side by side. Both REEPS and HICKS were dope but I agree with the judges.

My Nikon D40

Calvine and Kingsbridge.

Warriors ftw

The game was pretty boring for the first 3 quarters because the Kings were down the whole game. Warriors was smashin'. The game got more intense when Kings got within 4 points behind in the final minute. Garcia fcked up though. Warriors ftw.

Flick of the Day

Didn't really go anywhere today so I shot some flowers in my garden. Click on the picture for a better view.

Anticipation is Killin' Me

Ordered on Friday, and fck its only Monday. I can't wait 'til I get my hand on my first DSLR. Finally I can actually take my own photographs for this blog.

Finally a Trailer

Super excited for this movie to drop. I can't say much at this point but to the looks of the trailer, the movie looks real legit and exciting. Can't wait.

The Black Dante

I've been waiting for a new Mos Def album for the longest time and finally it's near. Mos Def's new album entitled "The Ecstatic" is said to release June 9th but I never trust release dates, so I'm just going to say it's coming this spring '09. It's been a while since I heard a new Mos Def song so this is going to be dope forsure.

Buggin' Out '09

As all you guys know, Buggin' Out was originally by Tribe but in J.Period's newest mixtape featuring Q-Tip's greatest hits, Consequence and Kid Cudi set it off doin' the '09 remix in tribute to Q-Tip and the whole Tribe crew. The vid was short and simple, but idk about the eye thing but oh well. If you havent heard the album yet, it's dope. Download if from one of my previous posts way back. Check my archive ==>

88-Keys Stay Up Video

Kanye in 40 years. HILARIOUS video. It's a simple, cheap ass video as you can tell but this definately shows a way different side to Kanye other than the modern day Emo Heartbreak Kanye. That pretty much sums this video up. enjoy.

Big Daddy Kane Tribute Documentary

Big Daddy Kane yo. Is there anything else i should say? One of Hip Hop's iconic inovators. A legend. The story behind everything from his first mic to his fly haircut. The documentary isnt a full length movie though. It's actually a 17 min short film produced by the scion car company.

This is just the short little teaser/trailer. To watch the full version click here.

TheHundreds SF Aniversary

The Hundreds on post street, SF is celebrating their 1 year aniversary and for that event they will release a tee and a new era featuring the adam bomb. I for one think that the new fitted is dope. Simple colorway feat the infamous adam.

Kanye X American Idol

So American Idol was on today and it was weird because i usually never watch it but as I was eating the food I cooked for my dinner, American Idol was on. Didn't bother touchin' the remote but as I was eating, Ryan Seacrest goes up next, here to perform the number 1 hit heartless, off his platinum selling album 808s and heartbreaks, Kanye West. I was like wtf, Kanye on American Idol? So yeah, Kanye on American Idol, a show about the best unknown singers, where Kanye can't really sing at all without his autotune. This performance wasn't too exciting for me. Maybe because I've seen Kanye perform this song millions of times but he usually makes it worth watching every single time, but not this time. Not hating on Kanye though. Big ups to Kanye.

Akai MPC 1000

I've been wanting to get a MPC 1000 for the longest time. Still debating on if i should save up to get one or sell one of my turntables to get it. That way it wont be as expensive and i would still have my technics 1200s and my Vestax mixer to record samples and such. Hmmmmm...... early bday/christmas present anyone?

Fresh Macbooks

Apple recently updated their line of laptops including the macbook and macbook pro. The update isn't too significant but it improves the basic rundown of the features. The newly refreshed mackbook and macbook pro have the new intel processors, a larger hard disk, more main memory, and even more graphics memory. I've been lookin' to get a new laptop and one of these looks like my main choices.

Sobeautiful

Musiq's third single "Sobeautiful" music video. Besides the 3 and a half minute extended intro, i'm feelin' the concept. I think that this song was the definitely top 2 on his most recent album "On My Radio" and probably one of my favorites from any of his albums.

Reebok Clean Mesh Pack

Haven't seen too many dope reebok releases in a long while until I came across these. I'm really feelin' the mesh and the gum soles which really compliments the vibrant unique colorways. I'm especially diggin' the green and purple sneaks. Won't be too long before you catch me in a pair of these.