I’m gonna miss this guy.

5:09 pm  •  29 May 2010

Raybeez. What else can I say?

Oh…

DFTS, DFTS. Don’t sell out. Keep The Faith!

7:34 pm  •  22 May 2010

I’ve spent the past month or so watching Spike Lee films, chasing girls (well, just one), and listening to A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, Motorhead, and a band I found out about called Orgone. A lot has happened that I should be talking about (or maybe I shouldn’t?), but I’ll skip it for now. I’m walking a thin line of being my normal blabber mouth self, and biting my tongue to keep my mouth shut. I’m shooting for the latter. But, have no fear, I’ve been in the mood for deconstruction lately…or at least I have while being at work, not thinking about work.

What if I broke down every single bit and piece of the records/movies/food I love and relate it all to how I live my life? That’s my idea, and I’m gonna go for it…when I damn well please. See you soon. Like, tomorrow, or even today.

3:38 am  •  20 May 2010  •  1 note

Sorry, it’s been a busy month. I’ll have some adventures of being 30 soon.

8:53 am  •  19 May 2010

One of my favorite scenes ever. Just had to share

4:35 pm  •  10 May 2010

Gonna listen to this and Hard To Earn all damn day.

1:55 pm  •  20 April 2010

Hey everyone! The thought of starting up a new blog crossed my mind several months ago, but just like everyone else in the world, I’ve been distracted by living a real life and just trying to keep my head above water. Luckily for you (and my own sanity), I’ve recently found the time to finally start this thing up. 

There’s not much of a set goal or outline for this. Pretty much just an outlet for my thoughts. I can promise you plenty of stories of odd encounters, more than enough music talk, and hopefully some insight on shit you probably didn’t know you even cared about. 

Hopefully I can keep you all entertained enough to want to come back and see what I’ve been up to.

Anyhow, thanks for checking this out. Below are two posts to get you started. The first is the origin of the name of the blog, and the second is a brief run through on how to shave properly with a straight razor. Random, I know, but it’s something you might want to learn. Have fun, and you’ll hear from me soon! - Earl Yuma.

*          *          *

‘These are the tales, the Freaky Tales’ - Too $hort

In 1987 the rapper Too $hort released the record ‘Born To Mack’. Two years later, I received a worn out cassette copy of the album from a friends older brother…here’s my story:

I was just a 9 year old latch-key kid who loved playing little league baseball, watching professional wrestling, and hanging out with my friends around the neighborhood.

During the week from 6am to 6pm, my only responsibility was to get myself to school and back, on time and safely. It wasn’t such a hard thing to do, considering that my Aunt, Uncle and cousins lived right across the street from me. But, when you’re 9 and you have an entire house to yourself for 6 hours a day, it’s easy to get caught up in trouble, or at the very least, easy to get caught up in your own mind. Luckily for me, I chose the latter, and let my imagination curve my boredom.

As soon as my parents left every morning I’d turn on the little shower radio, then the stereo in the living room, then the little tape deck boombox in my room. All stations set to 1580 AM, KDAY. I’d have the whole house blaring the same station, that way no matter what I was doing before school, I’d have an ear-full of what was playing on the radio…I guess I was kind of hooked.

If you’re around my age or older (that’s late 20’s-40’s), lived in the LA area in the late 80’s, and loved hip-hop, then you know what KDAY is. For those of you who have no idea about what I’m talking about, here’s a brief quote from the KDAY wikipedia page:

During the 1980s KDAY featured a plethora of R&B, Hip-Hop and 80s L.A. Disco/HI-NRG. KDAY also helped bring the West Coast rap scene into prominence. Its musical director, afternoon host Greg Mack, transformed N.W.A. from an unknown group to one of the most prolific musicians of the hip-hop generation. It also had earlier launched the careers of N.W.A. core members Dr. Dre and DJ Yella with their World Class Wrecking Cru, a popular mix show of the time.

Now, being a white kid from the South East burbs of Los Angeles (Bellflower, to be exact), I grew up with a pretty healthy dose of different cultures all around me. I definitely wasn’t the only white kid in school, but there definitely wasn’t only white-bred culture around to be consumed. In retrospect, it was a perfect mix of what defines Los Angeles, and helped to define who I am today. My ideals, the food I eat, music I listen to, how I listen to that music, politics, etc. are all a catalyst of where I spent the first half of my life.  And for that, I’m pretty damn glad.

Anyhow, enough about me. We’re talking Too $hort here.

The song ‘Freaky Tales’ is a 9 minute epic of a song about, well, getting freaky with the ladies. Being ‘89, with lyricists such as the entire Juice Crew, Ice Cube of NWA, KRS-ONE of BDP, Chuck D, etc. Too $hort wasn’t really anything special. His delivery is kind of bland, and his music was a little too kick back for my 9 year old ‘HARDCORE’ personal Hip Hop tastes. What I did enjoy though were his song subjects.

What does a 9 year old boy know about ‘pimpin’? Nothing really. I’m not even sure if I understand the whole thing now at 30. I just know that when you’re young and impressionable, anything about sex, money, parties, and girls is cool.

So, I get this tape from my best friend Bryan, who got it from his older brother Eric. It’s really been so damn long that I don’t remember the song order, or anything like that (maybe I should just open my itunes and check? nah.). I just know that we both loved this song so much, and it was so long, that we would just listen and rewind the tape and repeat that pretty much every afternoon til we got bored. It’s really stuck in my mind forever, just like the commercial jingle for this toy when I was 5:

So yeah, for the past 20 years or so I’ve randomly had the chorus of this song stuck in my head. Why not name my blog after it?

*         *         * 

I’m gonna end this entry with a link on how to use a straight razor. I’ve owed my straight razor for a year now, but didn’t start using it till around the holidays when my girlfriend at the time bought me the strop I now use to hone the blade. Both the razor and the strop were awesome gifts that changed my life forever. Never again will I have to shell out big bucks for blades that were made to wear out and become landfill waste. It’s cheaper, GREEN, and a whole hell of a lot more fun. If you own a mirror, and like to make challenges out of everything like I do, then I suggest you get yourself set up like I did. Check it out if you’d like:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1972-03-01/How-To-Use-A-Straight-Razor.aspx

9:21 pm  •  14 April 2010