Comparison: ESPN vs. NFL

ESPN says Stephen A. Smith will not appear for a week on their TV show "First Take" or his radio show because of comments he made that implied some women provoke domestic violence. The comments were in the wake of the NFL suspending Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for two games for beating up his fiancee (now his wife).

So...knock out your woman and drag her unconscious body out of a hotel elevator? Miss two games.
Talk about it in a stupid manner? Miss ten "games."

I'm so glad the NFL and Roger Goodell have educated us on the correct levels of punishment for dastardly acts.





(These two clips should actually be connected into one, as they were part of the same scene. This won't be a problem in a few months.)

Flattered Or Frightened?

I received this response to my profile on a personals site (not OKStupid for a change)...as for the question in the title above, I am surely more the latter.

Hello hun i must admit you really look good sexy and charming and you caught my attention (smiles).My name is ----- am from Pennsylvania - Philadelphia - South am a construction engineer and am presently working on a construction project here in Michigan,but would be done and back home Philly real soon.Baby am 33 single and been gay all my life lol.Hun am tired of being single i need a sweet real man in my life who i would make happy and in return also make me happy,satisfying both our sexual needs and we can have so much fun together.Baby am not looking for gifts or money i have all that already all i want is true love care affection and intimacy,baby will you be that man to make me happy and i be yours too.
I love to chat but because i do get busy mosetimes i only do it on yahoo chat so here is my messanger id baby
(-------------@yahoo.com),whats your yahoo chat id?baby lets get to chat soonest ok,also here is my phone number you can text me (---) ------- ,i can only text at the construction site phone calls not allowed.So baby whats your number so i can text you as well.Hun i hope to read from you back soonest till then kiss kiss stay sweet.-----.
(---) -------
Yahoo chat id....(-----------@yahoo.com)

More Mural Arts, Plus A Question

I am a big fan of the Mural Arts Program, as you can see if you search through this blog for my prior photos and albums from various murals. I have a few miscellaneous mural pics from 2012. I uploaded them to an album on Flickr which you can see here. But I have a question about two of the photos...





These are from a mural on the wall outside the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute. I am wondering if this mural is a Mural Arts Program work. I don't remember from my visit (it was back in 2012) and I can't find anything about it online. If you have any info about this, please let me know.

UPDATE: Got a tweet from the Mural Arts Program -- it is one of their works, and it was painted by Cesar Viveros Herrera.

My Not-So-Current Jams

I haven't bought many new albums lately. (Aside: is there a better word than "album" to use, seeing as how I'm pretty much all digital, unless there's an exceptional sale?) But I had an iTunes gift card so I've been using it to pick up some old songs...but first, some that aren't so new. (Links are to YouTube so you can listen along with me.)

Are You What You Want To Be? - Foster The People
Coming of Age - Foster The People
Best Friend - Foster The People: these three are from their new album...there's that word again...which, while I like, is much more weighted down in spirit than their previous release. Also, my mp3s of the album may or may not have been...created in an interesting fashion. I'll say no more.
La La La - Naughty Boy feat. Sam Smith: I listened to Sam's debut album online. Liked it, didn't love it. I prefer this and the song "Latch" which he did with Disclosure (on an album that I need to acquire, if anyone wants to help me out via PayPal.)
Meteorite - Mariah Carey: this needs to be released in an extended mix...not really remixed, just a longer version.
Sing - Ed Sheeran: I heard this was produced by Pharrell and I was like "Whaaat?" But it works.
I Need a Dollar - Aloe Blacc: story of my life right now...and this was out before his current run of success, including his appearance at the Philly 4th of July Jam on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

As for the older tracks...

Slow Down - Loose Ends: a follow-up to their classic "Hangin' on a String (Contemplating)."
He's a Saint, He's a Sinner (Extended Version) - Miquel Brown: from the woman who brought us "So Many Men, So Little Time" -- actually, this is from the same album, which I actually did purchase. Classic early-1980s hi-NRG club music. Gay, gay, gay. Video is not of the extended version, by the way.
Living For the City - Stevie Wonder: not the truncated radio version but the full-length version, which I'd never heard before.
Come Into My Life (Radio Mix) - Joyce Sims
Lifetime Love (Hard Club) - Joyce Sims: She pretty much had three or four songs that had some level of success. I now own the three that I know.
Dance With You - Carrie Lucas: Disco!!! From 1979!!! I was 17!!!
Questionnaire (Full Vocal Mix) - Chaz Jankel: this takes me back to before I moved into my own place for the first time. When we first got HBO -- long before they began their run of amazing TV series -- they used to play music videos between movies, and this was one of them.
Say I'm Your Number One - Princess: I forgot about this until I watched a YouTube video from British TV about the Stock-Aitken-Waterman production team. This was one of their hits. I was surprised because it's rather different from this.
Don’t Disturb This Groove - The System: I feel like I should have something more to say about this, but I don't. It's just a song I liked back in the day.

Quick Review: 22 Jump Street

I know, I know, I saw this two weeks ago. I'm still trying to get back into the habit of posting. Anyway, "21 Jump Street" was one of my favorites of 2012. Seeing that Channing Tatum had a knack for comedy and that he and Jonah Hill really meshed as undercover cops masquerading as high school students to stop a drug ring was exciting. Unfortunately, I wasn't as enthralled with the inevitable sequel, the cutely-named 22 Jump Street (an explanation is in the movie). This was mostly because of the constant references -- to the actors, to the first movie, to the quality (and expense) of sequels in general -- in lieu of a more interesting plot. This is a very meta movie. Still, some bits worked and Tatum and Hill still go well together. Hopefully when the inevitable "23 Jump Street" is greenlit, they'll put a little more effort into a credible storyline. My grade: C-plus.

Why I Love Scumbag Warren Sapp

I saw a headline last night on Yahoo's home page about former NFL and "Dancing with the Stars" star Warren Sapp, who left no tip on a $70 bill at a sports bar. He claimed he got terrible service and the waitress called him and his friend "boys." She says that she gave him fine service and she only used "boys" in the context of asking what they wanted to drink ("Hey, boys, what can I get you?"). As I dislike Warren Sapp, who's had a string of on- and off-field incidents showing him to be a jackass, I have little doubt that her side of the story is more accurate.

I posted the story's link to my Twitter with a comment: "Once a scumbag, always a scumbag."

An hour and a half later I went back to Twitter and saw that I had a bunch of new followers. The count went from 480 to just over 500. My post was getting retweeted and favorited a lot. I even had comments from strangers (taking both sides) and entire discussions on Sapp and on tipping in general. With my Twitter handle included in the posts, I can follow these discussions without even participating because of the Notifications function. Some of the discussions are actually intelligent, while others have been, sadly, racist.

Meanwhile, one moron seems to think I wrote the Yahoo article:

As of right now, 17 hours later, that post was retweeted 151 times (not including those who do it manually) and favorited 324 times. Other posts in the resulting discussions have been favorited as well, so I keep getting those notifications.

And strangest of all, the new followers have continued to add up. I am now up to 683 followers. This freaked me out so much last night that I changed my Twitter password, fearing I might have been hacked. Nothing suspicious has happened, though, like sending tweets or DMs without my knowledge, so I think all is well in that regard.

I have no idea if these people (at least the non-spambots) are actually interested in me, or if they'll hang around for a while. But if they do, that's fine with me. Hopefully they'll check out the blog as well.

Thanks, Warren Sapp!