Amandoo’s Handle of Realitumtum

If you so accurately remember, I made a “how-to-win-friends-with-your-krunk-top-blog post last year on this date about how to win some krunk friends with your awesome krunked-out blog. It remains questionable as to how many friends I’ve acquired solely because of the blog, but they are friends nonetheless.

Here are some more ways to win friends with your blog:

1) Come up with a mythical creature that exists in your local area that is somewhat grounded in reality. Horsebird is mine thanks. Let people know what’s up, they might be scared or lost or alone, and knowing about this creature could help knock them out of a serious depression.
2) Never blog about the same thing thrice. Twice is fine, but if you keep harping on the same old tired subject, no one will listen! Do you think people get interested in one thing and want to know more and more about it? No! They want variety. They get bored so easily this day and age with all the overstimulation! (maybe I’m just talking about me here)
3) Talk a good game.
4) If you get bored, or your life gets boring, propel it to the other extreme- go sky diving, buy a flashy car, win the lottery, or anything to distract people from the boredom. Next thing you know, you won’t be boring, and everyone will be tripping over twigs to get closer to your scent.
5) Keep it clean. Touch upon risque subjects every now and again, but be vague, ambiguous, or equivocate a bit. But go there.
6) Have more pictures.

Well, until next year, good luck with winning friends and having a krunk-top blog! Stay tuned for more of my own personal flair for krunktipop.

Access Hip Hop
Underground hip-hop CDs, Vinyl, DVDs, Videos, Books, Apparel

This really is the best online site I’ve found to get your favorite underground hip-hop stuff from.

They have tons of rare and harder to find music, and have new re-releases all the time.

You can pre-order stuff and it will come right away- I got Busdriver’s Roadkill Overcoat before I would have had a chance to go to the store and get it.

Service- FAST SHIPPING!!! So fast. I’ve been more than pleased with their speed, and it looks like other people feel the same way after looking at their ‘customer feedback‘ section. Not to mention- their shipping is realistic and reasonable- like 2 or 3 bucks for the first cd and save on combined shipping. That’s way less than Amazon or Ebay.

Awesome- They always include free stuff if you say you want it in the ‘comments’ section when you checkout. I have gotten a few Scion sampler cds and some of the music on them was so good I looked into getting the cds. A lot of cds say they come with a free poster, sticker, or another cd, just check them out and under special offers. Today I received my MM…Food cd that came with two free MF Doom stickers and two posters! (It’s a re-release of MM…Food that includes a special DVD). That’s the best part about this company as opposed to another site that may or may not have the cd, or for less money.

They have tons of Stones Throw cds, and hundreds of other labels. Sweetness.

I ordered a few shirts from them too and they fit nicely, I think most of them are American Apparel, and it’s nice to not have to pay too much to get cool shirts.

They have other stuff on their site too, and a mailing list to receive emails. They have events, but it’s based in San Diego (across the country from me). But overall I like the site layout as well, simple, easy to find stuff you’re looking for.

So if you have any interest in good hip hop, head to the Access Hip Hop site and order stuff!

digital retouching anyone?

uh….

in other news, another reason not to vote for this guy (ah hem hypocrite)

The Quiet Man (from Philadelphia Weekly)

Madlib manages to get weirder.

by Craig D. Lindsey

(this definitely is on the Stones Throw page, but I don’t know if it will be there for forever…)

I shouldn’t have been that surprised when a Stones Throw Records exec informed me that producer/rapper/musician/postmillennial renaissance man Madlib, the label’s most prized possession, wouldn’t be doing any press interviews for his latest project Yesterdays Universe. After all, the West Coast hip-hop wizard revels in living an existence shrouded in secrecy.

The fact that he’s released music under a number of aliases, alter egos and stage names should let people know that Madlib has, to paraphrase Macy Gray, trouble with being himself. In fact, Universe is released under not his name, but the name of his jazz band Yesterdays New Quintet.

When Madlib’s in YNQ mode, he assumes the role of not one performer, but five. And they all have names too: Ahmad Miller on vibes, Monk Hughes on bass, Otis Jackson Jr. (Madlib’s real name) on drums, etc. (Not since Hunter S. Thompson wrote Fear and Loathing as the sports-writing gun nut Raoul Duke has a man put so much time and effort into creating an alternate persona for himself.)

Universe, pegged as the Quintet’s breakup album, is a more splintered affair than anything in Madlib’s past. All of his YNQ selves either front their own bands, perform in others or go at it alone. In total, 10 new groups appear on Universe. Keep in mind, they’re still all Madlib, although hip-hop producer Karriem Riggins and Azymuth drummer Mamao do help out on percussion a couple times.

As expected, Universe is a delight. Something cool and savory for these summer months. It’s fascinating to hear Madlib create a distinctive sound for each group: One group can drop jazz that’s as smooth as silk, while another can come up with insane, anarchic noise that would make the ghost of Sun-Ra beam with pride. I’d love to know what inspired Madlib to dismantle his alt-jazz outfit and invent even more faux musicians. But of course he ain’t saying a damn word.

Madlib probably believes the less time he spends discussing his methods, the more time he has to work on music, which from what I’ve been told, could program a radio station for several months.

Yes, Timbaland may get all the press for being an in-demand producer, working with everybody from Justin Timberlake to Björk, but Madlib is also a producer whose cup runneth over. His enigmatic, workaholic reputation even prompted one Pitchfork writer to write, “My theory about Madlib is that he is actually a bubble-man of sorts, rolling around all day in a human-sized, music studio version of a hamster ball.”

From what I’ve gathered, he’s just a quiet, reserved dude. Those who’ve come into contact with him have been shocked to find he’s not the beat-digging man of mystery legend has made him out to be. “Everyone I talk to pretty much says the same thing about how down-to-earth he is and how he doesn’t have that star attitude,” Stones Throw head Peanut Butter Wolf says on the DVD side of the recently released Time Out Presents the Other Side of Los Angeles, a CD/DVD combo assembled by Madlib and Wolf.

Madlib seems to be content just letting his music speak for him—and there seems to be plenty of material out there that’s more than ready to do all the talking.

—————————————————-

I wish I had gone and seen the Chrome Children show. I cry over not. I will see Madlib one day in concert. Until then I will dedicate my life to him.

an excerpt from the Dhammapada on Choices:

“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.”

To me, pure seems a little undefined, but I get the gist of it. I need to work on cultivating this pure mind. Happiness flutters about me in my life, but rarely long enough to be like my ever-present shadow.

I certainly do agree with these wise words, though, and often forget that it is in fact my choice to think the best of a situation, and to always choose the glass is half full position. I think everyone forgets this from time to time, some less, some more often than others.

Keep this in mind, Amandoo.

anyone who has not seen this must die:

i’ve got a cavity for some indecicey iv ity….mmm.

let’s talk about 2008 presidential election candidates’ positions on things:

check it here.

talkin about some things…yeah. i can’t even comment about some things.

i had a weird dream last night that ron paul was coming to my town on a bus. everyone was really excited. and then we started getting sprayed by this mysterious gas that was killing some people, putting some people to sleep, and very harming is was for the others.

there was a lot going on in the dream, including some interesting social commentaries, and i won an $800 hip-hop award, so on and so forth. dreams are a weird place. but they just might be saying some things. right?

i have a lot of dreams now that i’m done with that school thing. furthermore? i got an okay grade on both courses!!!

i am in love with several u.g. hip-hoppers and i think that they will inspire me til no end. but the end will actually be when i make lots of my own musique. i know those lil kids learned some french. but one of them said that ‘freestyling’ was their favorite type of music. i knew that second that i should have started freestyling in french even, but i did not. i refrained and kept teaching my lesson.

but in the future i think i will go for it. i definitely want to incorporate more music in teaching, more rap, more french rap, more of my rap, etceterahzzz more!

we need lots of help people. there were good and bad things in my dream. the knowledge that is spreading on the internet tubes and the world subconshoes-nestle. that’s what i’m talkin bout.

i went on a nice p-pack walk in willy nilly philly today. it was bridges, rivers, and trees of fun.

i can’t believe i finished that thing. woot! i dropped out last year and barely thought i’d make it this year. turns out- i can teach! it is the toughest thing ever, and we’ll see about the spring when i have to do it all the time every day, but i can! it is good!

other stuff. mostly happiness about being done. so happy.

there are eight trillion and some ‘chump?’ change, to be exact. will-be, would-be, we-be teachers in my program can all say the craziest things- dollars to donuts, tease it out, trump myself, what a little peanut he/she is! and even crazier things….but you gotta dope it out for yourself. that means ‘figure it out’ if you don’t know. school’s almost out for me for summer though- only two more days!!! truncated last day!!!!! (i still need mad work on my teacher-isms)

anyway, as i was saying about those peculiar things in life, that weird fascination problem people have where they look at things they shouldn’t, they make fun of things and then watch, read, buy them, so on and so forth—-mine is this——why oh why do i read so many comments on things. i guess it’s a combo of wanting to see what real humans are saying, with making fun of the dumb people, and marveling at the different sides of the intelligent debate.

long story short- recently in Joann Fabrics in Indiana (yeah people read it yourself if you want!) a woman suddenly came down with diarrhea and they refused to let her use the b-room because of a new rule or law against it. it was a sad, embarrassing, funny story, but i went on for too long wasting time reading the comments until i found this one:

“all that fabric to wipe with…I’d consider it second only to heaven
damn woman…just find a nice private corner and give it hell”

it was funny to me. really funny. maybe it’s all that lack of sleep that’s making it hard for me to coherent things.

that reminds me of a funny story that i’m probably not allowed to tell for legal reasons. so just ask in person. well. not like i’ve been seen in person for a while.

triumph!

if you want to stereotypically talk about European countries, i’d agree with this shirt.

if you want to talk about the long and short of it-

yeah.

boy oh boy, isn’t it amazing how time flies when you’re growing up!