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Once in a while a fluff television show will become popular and if it resembles anything real it will also lead to a lot of misinformed people believing it to be actuality. Almost daily my friends talk about the match-ups on Spike Tv’s Deadliest Warrior, which is a hit show where three nerds gather around a room full of cool devices and argue over who would beat who. This would be fine if they didn’t go to the extents that they do to prove/disprove inaccurately who would win in a given match-up. For entertainment the show is brilliant, bringing together old nerdy arguments such as Ninja versus Pirate (this hasn’t really happened yet) or Apaches versus Gladiators. The danger in the show is the fluff antics that make the arguments seem legit. To the casual viewer, a Ninja fighting a Spartan and losing makes perfect sense since well the Spartans kicked so much ass in… [Read more]

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Now all of us old hats can argue that Hip Hop died sometime between 1995 and 1996, while you younglings will say that the music is still going strong etc. Regardless of that old argument, we fans can agree that there are a collective of videos and songs that just make you cringe whenever you hear them. Others are just plain bad and it might have caused that person to be permanently placed on your “do not listen” list due to the wackness. Anyway, being that myself and Nia are Hip Hop heads through and through, we got together and came up with a few videos that we consider to be a black mark on Hip Hop history. Please do not get upset if these turds strike up bad memories for you, we do this in good fun… enjoy: 1. J-Lo and The Lox – Jenny From The Block As a listener and fan of… [Read more]

The Ravenous Pig 1234 N. Orange Ave. (between Orlando and Denning) Winter Park, FL 32789 www.theravenouspig.com The Ravinous Pig is located a few blocks off the strip of Winter Park in the Orlando area. The place was awarded Best Restaurant Overall in Orlando Home and Leisure Magazine’s Silver Spoon Awards, however, I failed to see what the big deal was. Granted, the food was not bad, but the it was not exceptional either. And the wine list was very, how should I say…unimpressive. Don’t get me wrong, the food was edible, but if I did not subscribe to the magazine I would never have thought the place would be nominated, much less win. I ordered a salad with goat cheese, beets, pistachio’s, avocado, and an herb vinaigrette. For my entree I ordered mussels in a witte beer, fennel, and orange type juice, and it came with truffle oil fries. It says a lot that my friend enjoyed the fries… [Read more]

Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) is the very first Chinese American actress to reach international stardom. Starting off in the United States doing super stereotypical roles (good ‘ol Hollywood, gotta love it), she left for Europe to star in more diverse roles and achieved international stardom there.  One of the biggest disappointments in Anna’s career was due to MGM passing her up as an Asian lead in lieu of a white actress Luise Rainer doing it in “yellow face”. The movie in question was The Good Earth but the actress didn’t let it phase her as she spent the year in her home country learning more about her culture and people. The most popular roles that Wong had done as a silent movie queen were those of “The Dragon Lady” and “Madame Butterfly”, sadly these terms are not positive ones to associate a Chinese American beauty with, but as an actress Anna did what… [Read more]

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Although this will be a controversial entry, this will be the  first of my Gangster badasses of the month. Now while I don’t praise criminality, I do understand the need that created it and I am an attentive student of organized crime history. This month’s badass is the original Capo de tutti capi (boss of all bosses) which was a title he did not want, as well as the nickname that was bestowed upon him. The man is Salvatore Lucania, most famously know as Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Charlie Lucky is a badass for quite a few reasons, the first being that he had the balls to play Chess with the two reigning mustached Petes (Fat Joe Masseria and Don Salvatore Maranzano), and walk away holding all the chips. To understand how badass that feat was, you have to understand just how evil and cut-throat the underworld was/is. Lucky organized a den of thieves, killers and… [Read more]

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Probably the first Western, black mega-star, Josephine Baker was literally larger than life. Few if any women could move like her when it came to dancing and her perseverance trail-blazed a path that many women of color could follow in years after her death. Due to the United State being a racist environment of stagnancy for a future actress/singer, Josephine Baker fled to France in order to let her star shine. During the days of immense hardship for women like Josephine, France was a source of refuge for celebrities of color. Given the nickname of “Bronze Venus” by admirers worldwide, Josephine’s voice and dancing made her beloved to her French countrymen and eventually she revisited the United States as a star. Later on in life as an older woman, Josephine Baker was a fighter for Civil Rights, turning down the honor of leading the movement after the passing of Martin Luther King. Born Freda Josephine… [Read more]

It is one thing to show super-human aptitude for a country that loves you, but to do so for a country that deems you to be sub-human – to the point that they withhold honors earned in the line of duty is beyond belief. When you watch movies depicting D.Day (Normandy), the Allied attacks on the Nazi surge, and anything dealing with the 1940’s militarily, it is easy to forget that black people existed, let alone fought. It being very much a white man’s world during these times, blacks were kept out of books and camera view, especially when films were being made to record the military. Now think about how bad it must’ve been during World War I for African Americans who served in the Army. This sad fact led to men like Sergeant Henry Lincoln Johnson being overlooked and ignored, even when taking 21 injuries from an army of German soldiers as he… [Read more]

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If we’re going to talk badasses, I think it only appropriate to start with the man who comes to mind when I think of the congressional Medal of Honor. Audie Leon Murphy amassed a total of 33 medals in his day along with the congressional Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty”. Audie earned just about every medal there was to earn for being godly on the battlefield and then went on to star as himself in war movies before suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and clinical depression. Like many men of his time, Audie’s life was eventually taken by the one thing he couldn’t fight, a piece of crap private plane transporting him on a business trip. What makes Audie a badass? Well given the technology and advances in military weaponry you will never see a guy like this… [Read more]