Christian Anti-Gay Protest At Purchase?

I know this doesn't have to do with music, photography, fashion etc. But it does have to do with myself and my fellow classmates..

On Monday, April 27th, 2009 I got a call from my girlfriend saying that there were Anti-Gay Christians protesting on the Great Lawn. My first response was "At Purchase??" I couldn't believe what I heard. We suggested that we go out there and make-out in front of them, just to piss them off. Luckily for them she had class but I didn't. I had to go and see what was going on for myself. Mind you, Monday was the day that it was damn near 90 degrees outside, the weather was beautiful. I wasn't going to let something like this ruin my day, it just sounded so entertaining that I wanted to experience it first hand. Plus, I never witnessed anything like this, for someone to be totally against what I am.

When I walked up to the protest, I walked into lesbians cursing, cross-dressers in frantic, and straight people reciting bible verses. The time I arrived, there were only two protesting. There was a middle-aged white man and a much more middle-aged white woman. The voice of the protest was definitely the man though. The woman was so soft spoken and kept talking about the bible and what "God" said. The man however spoke as if he knew Jesus and God personally. He told everyone how God intended the world to be, what he wanted, what he wants, and how everything should be. He stated that "Everyone who is not Christian is going to hell." "Roman Catholics are not Christian, Episcopalian's aren't Christian, and you are only Christian if you are "born again." "Homosexuals can be saved and or healed because it is a disease and if you believe in the power of God, you will be." Lesbians started to quote the bible and say "God also said "Love thy neighbor!!!"



Arguements continued to go back and forth and seemed never ending. To distract people from the Anti-Gay protest, a group of students made signs that read "Down With Homework" and "Tests Suck!" They figured if they lead people toward their protest, that the Anti-Gay protesters wouldn't have anyone to preach to..Well their efforts diminished after a while. People just couldn't help but to gravitate toward the crowd and give their two cents. Personally, I feel if you give your two cents, you'll be broke. Especially knowing that you cannot change a HARDCORE Christian's mind. It's like fighting an uphill battle..I'll pass on that. I am what I am, I am who I am, I am me and that's it.


P.S - The white, middle-aged, man is an "Ex-homosexual" ahem.. and there was a student who actually goes to Purchase, (I don't know his name) but yeah he was a "Reformed Homosexual"..yeah I thought the same thing too..SMH.

"Let's Do Lunch" Podcast

Music podcast:sumlite

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-- The Management

Culture Shock

This year's Culture Shock at Purchase wasn't exactly a "culture shock" so to speak. Last year there were different genres of music selected in order to provide that cultural experience for everyone. From merengue, salsa, and reggae to alternative, punk rock, and hip hop, everyone got a chance to enjoy and appreciate the different types of bands and artists. This year it seemed like mostly rock all day with a few performances from Purchase's very own. At the end of each day (Friday and Saturday) the hip-hop act would perform.


On friday Drake performed his first solo concert, which was complete mayhem. It was advertised online, on flyers, radio, and from word of mouth. People who I haven't spoken to in months, hit me up trying to get me to sign them in. This girl on facebook even changed her network to Purchase so she can add random people and ask if they could sign her and her friends in. WTF!!! People went so hard for this concert. But it's understandable why..Drake is definitely "the young spitter that everybody in rap fear.." Coming from playing the role of Jimmy from "Degrassi" to being signed to Young Money Ent. says a lot. His rep has increased from being hailed as "Lil Wayne's protege." The performance was definitely well worth it, although he didn't do many songs from his latest mixtape "So Far Gone," I still enjoyed myself. And believe it or not he actually sounds the way he does on tape as he does in person.



Next hip-hop performance was on Saturday at 10pm "The Cool Kids." For those who don't listen to The Cool Kids, then I guess they would say "they sucked" so to speak. I mean shit, they were throwing cup-cakes up on stage. One cupcake definitely hit Mickey Rock's silk letterman jacket and stuck to it. I didn't see The Cool Kids performance because I was currently at the Ricky Blaze performance at the S.O.C.A fashion show. But during the after party in the Student Center, I saw Mikey Rocks cooling out with Kaz of R.L.E so I went up to him and we chatted for a bit, he's DEF a "Cool Kid." He wanted to go to another after party with us but his team told him he had to make moves. I thought that it was cool that he wanted to chill with us though.


Since I wasn't at The Cool Kids concert, I got some footage of the Ricky Blaze performance. I'm not going to lie, I should've went to see The Cool Kids. A lot of people left the fashion show to go see The Cool Kids because the fashion started late and the concert was at 10pm. If the fashion show started on time, then people would've been able to see both Ricky Blaze and The Cool Kids. Ricky Blaze got paid $3,000 to do 3 songs and I only knew 1 of them. Nonetheless, I still got some footage and photos with him. I won't put footage of the performance because the acoustics suck. I will put a photo up though just to show how short he really is..smh.

Forever In A Day26

Diddy's "Making the Band" history hasn't been very creditable. His platinum selling female group 'Danity Kane' has also suffered from the Making the Band curse and has disbanded. No one thought it would ever happen because they had exceeded their first album. Shortly after Danity Kane's first album, Diddy began to form an all male group. The process of Danity Kane's sophmore album and the formation of Diddy's third band, was aired on MTV as Making the Band 3. The male group consisted of five members-Willie Taylor, Robert Curry, Brian Andrews, Michael McCluney, and Qwanell "Que" Mosley.

Since Danity Kane disbanded, Making the Band 4 has aired on MTV, showing the process of Day26 creating their sophmore album. Those who have watched, know what I'm talking about when I say "Que" has been wilin. This season's MTB4 has really gotten up close and personal with the guys. Although not everything is recorded, you really begin to see the band members for who they really are. Personally all of Que's outburts, portrayed a negative perspective on the band. Que's behavior was an example of someone letting the money get to their head. I haven't seen such dramatic, egotistical, childish behavior in a new celebrity before. I mean like, just a couple of months ago you were trying to make it like everyone else. People just take shit for granted sometimes and don't realize that as soon as you made that band, your ass could be disbanded...remember you were apart of Diddy's making the band, there's a huge possibility that your career could end just like the last.

Everyone thought that after Que's antics that Diddy would kick him out the group. Well obviously he didn't because Que is on their sophmore album "Forever In A Day" which dropped today, April 14th, 2009. Their debut single "Imma Put It On Her" feat. Yung Joc and Diddy was released about two weeks ago. I'm in the process of reviewing the album now because I just bought off iTunes..so far, so good. I do realize that Que is on a lot more songs than he was on the last album. Diddy said so himself, Que made the band by the skin of his teeth and he mostly made it because he could dance. I will admit though, he doesn't sound too bad, especially being the weakest vocally. Kudos Que. Que also had a lot more say so on this album and you can definitely tell. The rest of the guys believed in making another R&B album because they are indeed an R&B group but Que believed in doing what the mainstream does in order to change the sound and sell records. He wanted to move from R&B to Pop, which is too much of a big transition especially for your sophmore album. But on certain tracks like "Shawty Wats Up" feat. T-Pain, you can here the boys using the Auto-Tune with T-Pain on the vocoder. We'll see how the record sales look during this week. But I won't front on it, go out and buy it, download it, whatever. The album features T-Pain, P.Diddy, Yung Joc, Lloyd, Lil Wayne, and Jermaine Dupri.

Dead and Gone..

By now, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard about T.I's arrest on federal gun charges back in October, 2007. T.I aka T.I.P's real name is Clifford Joseph Harris. When he was arrested, he was in the parking lot of the rehearsal B.E.T awards. He had been arrested after his bodyguard/informant delivered three machine guns and two silencers, according to a Justice Department statement.

Officials say that T.I provided his bodyguard with 12g's to buy the weapons, which he isn't allowed to hold down because he is a convicted felon. Documents said that he was convicted on felony drug charges back in '98 and he has stated himself that he has been arrested 32 times since the age of 15. Come on now, with that type of history you already know you're not supposed to even have a .45 in your possession.

T.I was nominated for nine awards, including album of the year and lyricist of the year. He was also scheduled to perform with Common, Nelly, and Kanye West. The show went on without the "King of the South." His car and College Park home were searched following his arrest.

Authorities ended up finding three more firearms in the car which he drove to go pick up the machine guns and silencers, including one loaded gun tucked between the driver's seat and the center console. At home, authorities found six other guns--five loaded, in his bedroom closet.

It really hit him hard when T.I's bodyguard was arrested while purchasing the machine guns and silencers from an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent. The bodyguard agreed to cooperate with the ATF! [snitches get stitches!]The guns were not registered on the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by law. The bodyguard -- who has worked for T.I since July, told authorities he had bought about nine guns for him in the past..smh he's wilin.

T.I made a plea deal to do 1,000hrs of community service and pay a $100,000 fine. Under the plea deal, he will be subjected to an audit of his finances, drug counseling, DNA testing and random searches of his property, and he will not be able to own firearms. He will also be under home confinement under the same pre-trial conditions, which included a curfew, permission-only travel with a court-appointed supervisor, and complete another 500hrs of community service, he would only be sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

Some of his services were televised on MTV with a show called "T.I's Road to Redemption." Over the last 7 weeks it aired 7 different shows of troubled youths that T.I had helped. He did everything from taking them to jail, to taking them to the funeral home, to taking them on a shopping spree. He also made any of their dreams come true. If they wanted to be an actor, photographer, boxer, or rapper, he made that possible for them to do.

According to court reports, T.I. has completed 1,030 hours of community service, not including his MTV show. He's also completed 305 days of his required one-year home confinement. His plea sentence is notable, according to legal experts because of the length of time. If T.I were to be sentence just for a year, he would be required to complete the entire sentence. Now the fact that he has been sentenced to a year and 1 day allows him to be released earlier for good behavior, if he doesn't fuck up. [smart right?]

Basically T.I went off the wall after seeing his best friend, Philant Johnson get murdered. I'm guessing it was the aftermath of it all and how it all went down. Johnson was killed in the cross-fire of a drive-by of suspects unknown. So after that T.I decided to be more than prepared and that combined with emotional distress can result in "O.D-ing" so to speak. Do I think he O.D'd by having illegal possession of all those firearms, and types of firearms? Yes I do. I've also had my best friend pass away, he was street racing and got into a car accident. But that never made me want to stop driving, or not want to buy the make of the car he was driving. But I do understand where he is coming from. I honestly think after he serves his sentence, he will be bigger success than ever before. He's going to write an entire album while he's in prison and everyone will be awaiting his return. It's like T.I's ressurection. I honestly can't wait, best believe I'll be blogging about him in a year...and a day.

The Wait Is Over!

I'm not talking about the wait for something mediocre, like an album or mixtape...No. I'm talking about the wait for the promo video for this BLOG! This due date has been pushed back for weeks now. I wondered how I was going to promote a blog about music entertainment and news..So I thought, and thought, and thought some more. Then I thought again and it hit me.."How are clubs, parties, entertainment groups, and musicians marketed?"--hmm through clubs, parties, entertainment groups, and musicians! So I didn't know how to make a small banner from scratch but I did the best I could. From a far it doesn't look too shabby. [[Pats self on the back]]. So I got a Nikon D60, started taking some pics, people began to ask if I was a photography major, I told them "No." They asked "Why do you have that camera?" I told them to "hold this and smile." From there I set many Lunch Dates. (That's what I call potential followers)..clever right? Anyway, although the mission was a long thought process, I enjoyed it.

The party that I took majority of the pics at was at "Swimsuits and Jungle Juice" thrown by R.eal L.ife E.ntourage Ent. I had balls bringing that d60 in there..it was a hot box, I could barely move. I felt like paparazzi who would do anything for a good pic, too bad I don't have to do much to get one. I did suprise myself, those pics came out better than I thought they would. You can see for yourself, the video is posted below.

You can look out for more pics and slideshows from SkyLine Photography(new blog coming soon) of future parties here at Purchase. R.L.E will be hosting more parties to come! Look out for "One Night Stand" on Saturday, April 4th @ 10pm AV1-1.

What's Really Good?

I felt like I haven't posted in ages. Its been about 2 weeks. I'm really get addicted to this..so much so I'm writing a blog on a LX ha.

In regards to my last post, the performance with Von Sway and KO-Lition on 106&Park last Wednesday was a huge success. They ended up winning the Wildin' Out Wednesday contest. I'd like to think I had a little something to do with that.

Anyway I figured I'd talk a little about my spring break, some of the music research I've done, talk about some underground clothing that I fuck with and that you should get up on..

This spring break '09 was mad JERK! For those of you who may not know what that means, it means it was
WACK! I mean don't get me wrong, I got to chill out and spend time with the people I love. My pops got all chef boyardee on me and made dinner for my girl and I..it was lovely. But other than that, I didn't go anywhere. Since high school, each spring break I was making moves from Cali, Mexico, New Orleans, etc. I don't know, I just wasn't used to it. The furthest place I went was Long Island...smh.

As you may or may not know, I'm going to be an A&R, I think I was seriously born for this shit ..but yeah I tend to do a lot of new artist research and I'm constantly on the grind for new music and new sounds. Lately, everyone has been riding the Drake wave..yeah you know, Jimmy from Degrassi who was boo'd up with the white girl. I first heard Drake about 2yrs ago when he was on "Replacement Girl" with Trey Songz. The only reason I heard that song was because I was going through a break up with one of my ex's, my friend put me on and it explained exactly how I felt. By the 3 time I listened to it, I knew Drake's part by heart. (I was going hard). But what got me into him was, his sound. From the way he sounded I couldn't even picture how he looked. It didn't sound completely white or completely black. So you know I had to google image that ass. When I saw him, I was shocked, I was like "That's him?" wowww. Now look at him..making hits! he doesn't make shoot em up, bang, bang music..which is cool, because if he did it wouldn't fit his image. I think people would be like "Dude sit down, you were on Degrassi!" I've been listening to some of his mixtapes and the new album "So Far Gone" and what I do is make 3 lists: Tough
Grow on me
Wack.
So far he has a lot of tracks in Tough, 2 in Grow on me, and none in wack..good job Jimmy!

Next on the agenda..

Underground clothing brands! I know this is a music entertainment blog but what's music entertainment without a little fashion news? Well anyway, I got into underground clothing brands in like junior year of hs. This is when I'd like to believe they were just getting recognized..(I like to think I'm always 1 of the firsts to find out about shit lol). Since then I've been rockin with Stussy, Hellz Bellz, The Hundreds, 10 deep, Crooks and Castles..just to list a couple of my favs. Right now I'm currently wearing TLS which stands for Triple L Society. Not many people know about this brand because it's literally getting its feet off the ground. The kid who started it is only 20 years old! If you want to find out more about TLS go to: www.triplelsociety.com. iight, I'm out.

K.O-Lition (De-Lo)

From Flatbush, Brooklyn hails duo group, K.O.-Lition. Named for being verbal Knock Out artists, hoping to shake things up and put New York back on the map. K.O.-Lition hopes to bring hip-hop back to the days where shit wasn't about portraying an image that you're not. They want to bring back the fun, partying, and even some food for thought. With management team T.Re & KMP management, productions from BroAndSis ENT., lead producers C. Roc and Khaliq, K.O. Lition‟s distinct sound is assured to provide the ingredients needed in Hip Hop/Rap today!

Purchase's own, Delorean Briggs, aka De-Lo, aka Hi-Profile Kid makes up half of the K.O-Lition duo. The group consists of him and his brother Karl Briggs aka K.Briggs. De-Lo's first battle was in junior high school against another student. "We would jack our favorite MCs and battle with their rhymes and the kid didn't know how to deliver so he always lost." "From then I realized that I had the gift of delivery.” By the time De-Lo entered high school, he slowly made his transition from Delorean Briggs to Hi-Profile Kid. De-Lo has many influences to credit his ability, Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest, Jay-Z, Black Thought, Biggie, Tupac, Maroon Five, Missy Elliot, Kanye West, Common, and Outkast, to name a few. He has a passion for the art that he loves and looks forward to being a trailblazer in the next era of rap. In the future we should expect K.O-Lition to bring back the love of lyricism, party anthems, and just good music-making.

K.O-Lition does a lot of their performances with singer Von Sway, who also hails from Brookyln, NY. Von Sway is swiftly moving on the come up. K.O-Lition gets most of their exposure from performing with Von Sway, which is just fine in my book because they sound great together. To bring 2 different groups together and being able to perform as if they were one is actually hard to do. Many people believe that Von Sway & K.O-Lition are just one group, I know I did. Von Sway is involved with the same team that K.O-Lition is (BroAndSis Ent.) so it's no wonder why they perform like they are all brothers.

Well next Wednesday you will get a chance to see Von Sway and K.O-Lition perform on B.E.T's 106&Park for Wildin' Out Wednesday! Everyone has seen the segment of the show where they have 3 performers on the show and the viewers get a chance to vote for who they believe performed the best. At the end of the show, they tally up the votes and who ever wins gets an opportunity of a life time. It can stem from more exposure, a deal, etc.

If you want to listen to Von Sway and K.O-Lition here are some myspace links:
K.O-Lition
Von Sway

IMPEACHED!?!: Levin or Leavin'

This year's Major Events Coordinator for the PSGA has been Arts Management major, Jeff Levin. I first met Jeff during Intro to Arts Management class, when he was a freshman. When I heard word of him running for MEC, I was shocked because to find out he was running as a Freshman, I didn't know if he would get the votes.

Well he ended up getting the position obviously, but whether he did a good job or is doing a good job is the reason I'm writing this blog now. Two weeks ago on Monday the PSGA Senate called an emergency meeting to discuss the Article of Impeachment brought against Levin. Levin, as the MEC has the task of planning both Fall Fest and Culture Shock. I remember walking past the the PSGA office on that Monday and I remember it being packed but I didn't know what for. If I would've known it was for the discussion of Jeff Levin's impeachment, I would've been there as well.

After 2hrs of proceedings, there were 2 charges for impeachment against him: lack of knowledge of the PSGA Constitution and failure to adequately describe activities to the PSGA when requested. Al Rossin, a Senator from The New, initially filed for 6 total impeachment charges on February 18th. Rossin stated "Mr. Levin has demonstrated no clear understanding of his duties and powers of MEC, the PSGA Constitution, Finance Bylaws, and job duties i.e holding meetings and submitting minutes. Also on February 4th, the Senate asked LEvin to disclose the names of the performers he had booked for Culture Shock, Levin promised to do so by the next Senate meeting on February 11th. On the 11th, Levin was absent from the meeting and did not submit an Executive Report to the Chair of the Senate in a timely matter. A motion was also passed at that Senate meeting that required Levin to e-mail the campus community with Culture Shock line-up by Friday the 13th @ 5:00pm, an action he referred to as "ridiculous." At the meeting PSGA Senators and Purchase students were allowed to defend the accuser, pose questions to all parties, and address issues on the matter.

Personally, it is no suprise to me that Levin is up for impeachmentment. Last semester, I decided that interning for Culture Shock would be a great opportunity for an on-campus internship. I contacted the Dean of Arts, Jon Esser and he thought it was an excellent idea. I knew the person to get in contact with was Jeff Levin. He would be the supervisor I was working under and all 3 of us were to meet to figure out how the internship would be ran. I contacted Levin through e-mail several times, as well as multiple facebook msgs. He only responded by e-mail once, stating "How great of an idea" it was. I already knew that, I don't need you to tell me again, I need you to tell me where do we go from here?

Another colleague of mine, who you can find @ www.thekazspot.blogspot.com also said "Yo that dude doesn't respond to txt msgs either!" This colleague of mine was one of Levin's contacts for the booking of Culture Shock, he interns at the Source Magazine and already has a lot of contacts, so why wouldn't you take this type of opportunity by the horns!? If I was Levin and I was experiencing some of the problems that he claims he was, I would not keep the Senate in the dark about it. Regardless of what may be going on, you must always keep your company in the light instead of not saying anything...it just isn't acceptable in business. Come on Levin get on your job!---stick to Framework Records.

Barack 'Chimp' Obama

This passed Wednesday (February 18th, 2009, the New York Post issued a drawing from cartoonist Sean Delonas. In it, there were 2 police officers holding guns looking over a dead and bleeding chimpanzee...the same chimpanzee "Travis" that attacked a woman in Stamford, Connecticut. The comic read "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." An email to Delonas and a call to the New York Post went unreturned.


Some believe that the cartoon suggests that the stimulus bill was so bad, monkeys may as well have written it. The Post's Editor-in-Chief insists his cartoonist was simply mocking the authors of the fiscal stimulus Bill as no better than a team of trained monkeys. Others believe that it is referencing the President as a rapid chimpanzee and the fact that it is shot and dead, refers to his assasination..


Hmm, now I don't know what you guys are thinking but no matter how you look at it, it's still racists nonetheless. There's just no getting around it. When Al Sharpton is involved and you have the public picketing your paper, you know you fucked up. The public is in such uproar Sean Delonas better make sure he doesn't end up like our furry friend Travis.


I remember voting for Obama here at Purchase during voting week. I felt like i was apart of something special; history in the making. Obviously, that special feeling wasn't shared by everyone. It's sad to say but there was even a big racist issue here at Purchase a few years back..(sorry no sugar-coating for incoming students). I mean lets be honest, as liberal as this school is there is definitely still some prejudice and racist issues the go on. I wonder if prejudice will ever subside, doubt it though.

I feel really upset for what was published this passed Wednesday, I mean I believe for what the President stands for, he's a total 360 from Bush, and on top of that it has said that he has "Swagger"..what chimp do you know is as cool?