Peter Luger/ DJ Premier + DJ Scratch

(this is a really long entry about today. first half of the entry is about Peter Luger steakhouse and the second half is about the DJ Premier/ DJ Scratch show.)

-> Peter Luger
So today, for the last food journey of the summer, we wanted to end it right, so we went to the original Peter Luger steakhouse in Williamsburg. For this we had the whole original food journey crew to come out- Me, Ling, Pico, Jerome, Ray and Franklin.

The Plan was to meet up at the corner of Essex and Delancey St at noon but we all ended up meeting at 12:15 and we went straight over the Williamsburg bridge and got there in less than 5 mins. Franklin’s train got stuck so he just met up with us there.

As we got in, the host brought us to a round table and we were given some bread, butter with some luger sauce. Soon after we decided to place our orders. We ordered and shared……

-two orders of the steak for 2 cooked medium
-one order of a single steak cooked medium rare
-three half pound cheese burgers.
-five strips of their signature bacon
-Bowl of sautéed onions
-French Fries ( cause there were no German potatoes)
-Creamed Spinach

-Steak
The steak was amazing. It was about an inch thick and was just so soft and flavorful. It needed no sauce , it was already perfect. I decided to just add a little salt and pepper to complement the steak.

-Burger
The burger is one of the best burgers I have ever ate. The bun of the luger burger has a thick crust and soft and airy inner. I’ve heard of a few complaints about how they don’t cook the burger the way it was ordered but mine came out perfect. I added a little salt ,pepper, sautéed onions, a little ketchup. Occasionally I dipped the burger into the luger sauce on my plate. $10 for the best burger, you cant go wrong. I will be going there more often just to grab a burger.

-Sides
The creamed spinach was ok. All six of us shared one order, where we got a big spoonful of each. Never had cream spinach before so I don’t really have anything to compare it too. The flavor was good but the consistency was very liquidy and mushy.
The fries were good to snack on with the steak and burger. It went great with the luger sauce.
Sautéed onions were great. Very soft and sweet . It was pretty much, for the lack of a better term, “melt in your mouth” It went great with everything.
The bacon was also really good but it isn’t your ordinary strip of bacon. It was a thick cut, about 4 strips of bacon stuck together. It was nicely smoked. I wish grocery stores sold bacon like this, or probably not because I can live off if it.

The tab came out to a little over $310 and with tip it was about $365. All six of us put in about $60 and we were set. With the tab we got some peter luger chocolate gold coins. In the end we were all full, happy and very satisfied.







->DJ Premier and DJ Scratch
Enrique invited me out the free session with DJ Premier and DJ Scratch at the Red Hook field. Originally it was suppose to be Premo and Pete Rock but DJ Scratch subbed in for him.
Two legendary producers on one stage, for free, you cant go wrong.

-pre-show
After Peter Luger’s, Me and Ling met up with Enrique and his brother and went with Alex, Chris, Brian and Geo to the event that started at 7. We got there at about 6:30. On the grassy field there was an “on the go” type of stage attached to a truck with two speakers on each ends and two sets of turntables in the middle. Surprisingly there were only about 50 people there at first but as the show progress, the crowed grew to a couple hundred towards the end. As soon as DJ Premier and Scratch came out I went straight to the stage. Me and Enrique easily got right front row, leaning on the stage, right in front of Premo.

-the show
Opening for the DJ battle, Niles performed his track - Phantom of the Opera. Then from 7:30- 9:00, Premo and Scratch came on. Each DJ didn’t know what the other was going to play but they just took turns and just played some classics. First some Motown hits and then some classic hip-hop.

Jeru was randomly on stage right in front of Me and Enrique taking photos with his Nikon about mid-way into the show. Enrique was like yo its Jeru, and I sarcastically said “word”. I thought he coincidentally just looked like him but it really was him.

The show was great. The vibe was just mad chill and everyone was just singing along and moving with the music.

-autographs
After the show ended, they packed up a little and premo gave out some autographs. On the way to the event I suddenly remembered that I forgot the cover of Illmatic, one of my favorite albums of all time, about half of it which was produced by Premo and “the world is yours” produced by Pete Rock.

Since I didn’t have anything to get signed, I jumped up on stage and sat down as Premier signed the back of my white tee. Enrique got his sleeve signed. Enrique’s parents picked us up and dropped me and ling of at our neighborhood.

good times..........

laters,

-J.P.

Jury Duty

Forgot about jury duty
So a few months ago i got summons for jury duty on May 7th but i wanted to postpone it cuz i still had school. i forgot about it for a while and then i thought my just duty date was may 10th so on may 9th i looked for the notice to make a call and saw that i was 2 days late already. then i looked at the notice in the back and it said

"failure to respond may result in criminal contempt of court and is punishable by fine of $1000 of imprisonment not exceeding 30 days, or both."

then i started to panic a lil cuz i didnt want to pay any fines or get locked up for my forgetfulness. i started google-ing to see the consequences because it was a saturday night and i hadda wait till the monday to call.

monday came and i made the call and they asked me to reschedule and i was relieved to find out i didnt have to face any consequences. i chose monday august 10th.

Jury Duty procedure
today i attended the Kings County jury duty located on 360 adams st. i was scheduled for 8:30 so i got there at 8:20. they scanned my bag and i went thru a metal detector. then they took my camera and gave me a recipt so i can get it back later on the day.

once i got there i sat down in an assembly hall with about 300 seats. at about 9:00 the place started to get packed. then soon after a speaker comes out and tell us were gonna watch a couple videos.

I dont know if any one else was laughing but i found the video to be funny in a retarded way. it was like PBS channel 13 typa video from the early 90 featuring Diane Sawyer. it pretty much talked about how jury duty is a democratic way of resolving problems and if you ever were to be in court, you would appreciate a good jury duty staff as well.

so i just sat down on the padded chairs in the air conditioned assembly room waiting for my name to be called. i fell asleep a few times, got up to the vending machines and got some 50 cent doritos and 50 cent cheese doodles. then i ate them one chip at a time to stay busy. then at 11:15 i hear a group of names call and my name was announced. i got up and sat in a small classroom with 20 computer chairs. soon after 2 lawyers and a judge came and introduced themselves. then the judge left and the 2 lawyers talked about their case. the case was about a car accident and to see if the person injured deserved money for his injuries or if he got the injuries prior to the accident

right after they started to interview us individually. they had to choose 8 of the 20 of us. they interviewed the first 8 and at 12:15 we were dismissed for a 10 minute break so they can choose whose qualified. at 12:25 we came back and they choose 3. then we got dismissed for lunch and we had to come back at 2. so that gave me an hour and half lunch brake.

Got back to the assembly hall at 1:15 and just chilled there cuz outside was too hot, like 95 degrees. its prolly one of the hottest days of the summer so far. so i just talked on the phone for a little, checked my emails on the public computers and then went back to the room at 1:50.

there they interview more people and before they got to me they already chose their final 8. they told us to go back to the assembly hall where i had to wait for an announcement. we were either going to be dismissed or called for another case. After 30 minutes of waiting, they annouced they will dismiss most people.

They started to announce names in alphabetical order and we had to go upfront and take our proof of appearance. everyone was so happy. it was like graduation, just hearing all the names before you, anticipating your name to be call so u can get the "diploma" lol
finally they announced my name and i was unsure if that was me cuz they said it completely wrong. i got up to make sure and read the letter and it was me. it said i dont have to serve jury duty for another 8 years!!!!!!!!!

final thoughts
i actually wouldnt have mind being picked for the case cuz it seemed interesting. in the end im glad i didnt so i could just go home and not deal with going back the next day.

overall it wasnt too bad. i got paid $40 for just sitting around, sleeping and listening to my ipod. it was just really boring. i think i could of brought a friend along to the waiting assembly hall to chill with. or i suggest sitting by the left or right wall so that you can lean on it and nap and when people want to get out of their seat you wont be interupted because your not in their way.


laters,
-J.P.

Every morning premier

Background Info
On Thursday July 16 and Monday July 20th Me, Ling, Rich, Orlando, Justine, Vargas, Pauline and Franklin (only thurs) all met up in the afternoon at Roosevelt Island to film a music video for the Sugar Ray song every morning.

At first ling wanted thursday to be rehearsal for the monday shoot but we ended up filming both days. he wanted the video to be made up of ONE 3:40 shot. That means no one could fuck up within the 3:40 of straight shooting. that would of been close to impossible.

for the final cut we decided to do mutiple shots. pretty much all of the film was done on the bleachers area of the island.

i think the video came out great. we took more time filming this than an other video so far. we also re-recorded shots dozens of times till it came out good. After hours of filming and editing the end result was a better quality video.

here's the video

Music- Every Morning By Sugar Ray
Directed by- Ling Mai and J.P. Dimalanta
Hours of editing by-Ling Mai

Behind the Scenes

• the shot starting at 1:40 thru about 2:00 took about 6 hours of editing because my shadow was interfering with the "magical" Justine appearance. Ling pretty much cut my shadow out frame by frame. he did a good job making it unnoticeable.
• When orlando pops up during lings cameo, i told orlando to spit on about the fourth brick from the left so when he pops up he is somewhat centered.
• at 2:11 when the sunglasses were floating around, ling pretty much controlled the camera while i thru the glasses up making them spin and trying to keep it in frame. then me and ling switch places to give it another few tries. after a few trials we finally got it right.
  for a few minutes we looked like dumbasses that just kept throwing sunglasses into the air. lol

Enjoy
More videos to come in the near future

laters,
-J.P.

Pizza review- Franny's and L&B Spumoni Gardens

Today after work, on the way to the train station, i walked by a news stand selling the 2009 issue of New York Magazine "eat cheap." With 2 pizza pies on the cover i had to buy it and see whats up in the pizza world.

Got on the train home and opened the magazine. Right away i noticed that DiFara's pizza was number 10 out of 20. WTF??? the moment i saw this, i automatically knew this person didn't know what they were talking about. and another thing Lucali's pizza didnt even make the list. smh.

After my sudden judgements i decided to start reading the article. I realized that it was an aritlce about Naples style pizza aka neapolitan/napoletana. DiFara's wasnt number 1 cuz its not really authentic naples style.

When i get off the train, i went straight to Alex's house to chill. As soon as i get there, everyone reads my mind and all wanted to go to DiFara's. I was down but the only problem was that it is closed monday and tuesdays now. So i suggested Franny's cuz i been wanting to go there for years but just never really went out of my way to do so. I also wanted to go because it was number 3 in the New York Magazine.

so me, chris and geo get in to alex's car and drive off to pick up enrique. after we picked him up we went straight to Franny's.

->Franny's
295 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

(not my pic, from google)

->the food
All five of us ordered and shared 3 pies.
-Tomato, buffalo mozzarella with sausage and basil.
-Tomato basil and buffalo mozzarella
-Clams, chilies and parsley


->opinions
Being all our first time there, we didnt know they sold neapolitan pizza which is about a foot in diameter. pretty much each pie was made as a personal pizza or a snack for 2 to share.

the crust was really good, a nice smokey-char taste to it. it was very thin and the crust was a little airy with a nice chew and crunch to it. the cheese and sauce was also really good but the flavors werent that explosive. There was a very slight hint of DiFara's hidden in the pizza but i dont consider it good enough to be an understudy.

overall we were all unsatisfied, just based on the fact that we were all really hungry and 3 pies equalling to about $50 didnt fill us up. another thing was that we were all expecting it to be like a mom and pop pizza joint where u could just chill and eat pizza. instead it was more of a casual, wine and pizza restaurant. The moment we walked in, we automatically didnt fit in.

Because we were still hungry, we got back into the car and drove off to spumoni's to get some more pizza. this time we know we couldnt go wrong.


->L&B Spumoni Gardens
2725 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11223-3507


->the food
I got square slice and enrique got two. for the past couple times i been there, i been putting tabaso sauce. then we all got rainbow spumoni's for dessert. its pretty much an italian ice cream with a mix of pistachio, vanilla and chocolate flavors.


->opinions
i always liked spumoni's pizza, especially the squares that they are known for. the regular slices are good too but theyre just average slices, nothing spectacular.

theyre squares have a very distinct taste which i like a lot. The squares have a lot of sauce on it. the sauce is a little tangy and the cheese is right between the sauce and crust. there might be long lines at times but they move very quickly. at $2.25 a slice, you cant go wrong.

the only thing that i dont like about the squares is that it doesnt taste as good if it didnt come straight out the oven.

final thoughts
I guess since i went to 2 top pizzeria's today, i might as well start my pizza journey once again. I did a pizza journey a few years ago but the moment i had DiFara's i stopped because i knew it couldnt get any better. now i will continue this journey and visit pizzerias i never been to and see what else the pizza world has to offer.

laters,
-J.P.

Running On Air

(written on 7/16)

(1987 advertisement)

just got the re-release of the first airmax in its original colorway.

i wanted to get them back in 2005 when they retroed them but i already bought 2 pairs of kicks that time- infrared air max 90's and neon air max 95's. i was 16, so the only the money i had was the money my parents gave me and i knew my parents wouldnt get me another pair after buying 2 in a month. by default i had to pass.

this time around i got them for $55 compared to the $92 retail thanks for my hook up.

here's an interview with the creator- tinker hatfield, about his inspiration behind the creation of the air max.


laters,
-J.P.

Jordan 1's and Filming

(written on 7/16)
left my house around 9 cause i found out training camp got the white and red air max 1's in.
got there and they only had a size 9.5 left.

while i was at training camp, i saw the "bulls vs celtic" jordan package there over a week before official release date for retail so i picked it up. the official release date was july 11, the day of my dads bday, so i didnt wanna pick it up then cuz i didnt want to come home with a package that wasnt for my dad.


(not my picture)


it came out to $225 but i got 2 pairs so it wasnt too bad. i think i should of waited about a month so i could of got 40% of with the help of angelica. it woulda scrapped off like $90 the retail price but w/e. im satisfied.

after i picked it up, went straight home. enrique, chris and ling came thru and we just chilled and bacon sandwiches. later on me and ling met up with karen on the boardwalk to finish up the video.

laters,
-J.P.

DiFara's $5 slices?? wtf??

(written on 7/16)
i went to the city with carmen today to pick up her new blackberry. then i get a text from adel that he's at DiFara's

i just brought him there on sunday and he's already back. he lives all the way in queens and went to brooklyn for a slice. lol what a fiend.

after i got the text i called him and he told me "i didnt know slices were $5." i got confused, i thought he payed 5 bucks and just never got his change back. i told him to read the menu and it said $5 slice. $25 for a round pie and $30 for a square pie. (used to be $4-slice, $20 pie, $25 square pie)

w/e its all good, not really but im still getting it regardless. lol

Zagat rated DiFara 27 out of 30 for food. thats the best rating for pizza tied with lucali's. anything else that is about a 27 or up Zagat rating are like steak house, sushi houses or french restaurants that are atleast $80 per person.

so for credentials like that, $25 for a pie that can feed 2-4 ppl isnt bad at all.

laters,
-J.P.

vanilla ice??

(written on 7/16)
i started working tuesdays again to make a little extra. while i was on my lunch break, vanilla ice came thru the store. mad random.

a couple hours later, some cornball ass tall skinny black kid comes in and gets mad excited when he sees the terry kennedy grey patent supra's for sale. once he picked up the shoe, i asked him if he needed a size. he bought them and it added a quick $150 towards my sales goal. on his way out, outside the store vanilla ice walks by and supra kid yells to his friend "was that vanilla ice" and then they both speed walk out the store and follow him.
smh.

laters,
-J.P.

filming and chillin and 20 bucks.

(written on 7/16)
filmed the running shirt throwing scene and laundry king scene today.

then me and ling met up with amie lun to chill and catch up.
i realized that i knew amie for like 12 years now. since the ms. parisi/ p.s. 225 days. dont really have many friends that i have known for that long. crazy.
went to homecrest threw a frizbee around, swung on the swings, walked around sheepshead, got slurpees, walked to brighton beach and just chilled.

got bit 5 times on my right leg by some random insect that was chillin in the sand.

went home and my vegas uncle was at my house about to leave to go back to vegas with my cousin.

on their way out my nanay- aunt from queens, gave me a hug and snuck 20 bucks into my hand like straight drug dealer style. hahaha she usually does this everytime she leaves my house. after she give me the money and exits my house, she tells me to be good. i guess the $20 is for reassurance.

laters,
-J.P.

work and difara

(written on 7/16)
work today.

then after work, me and adel hit up espn zone to get our weekly session of air hockey with the ling hook up. hahaha

after we hit up difara's. got there like 30 mins early but there was already like 20 ppl in front. by the time 6:30 came another 20 more ppl came. when we got in everyone placed their orders. about 5 mins later a square pie came out and it was for individual slices. since everyone ordered pies me and adel were the first to get pizza. good shit. got 2 slices for me, adel got 2 and i got one for ling.

good day over all.

laters,
-J.P.

Michael Jackson memorial at the Apollo

yesterday noon i went to harlem to stop by the Michael Jackson memorial gathering going on outside of the Apollo Theater. I had a lot of time to kill so i just chilled there for like an hour and a half cuz carmen had her check up appointment.
it was pretty fun. i got really busy and packed. hundreds of people came thru showing support. every news channel was there. the vibe of the place was dope. everyone just started chillin, singing and dancing. i decided to jump into the circle for a quick minute but then the circle got a lil bigger. i didnt want my wack ass taking up too much floor time so i danced my way to the sides as another person came in lol.


once i got there, people started preaching and etc.

every one was writing little messages so i made one myself. its a little corny but i didnt wanna just put RIP like everyone else so i thought of a lyric to put and what came to mind was a line from the chorus "you are not alone" -"though we're far apart, you're always in my heart"

white girl started dancing and got mad attention. then after a couple minute the typical "go white girl" chant started.

later on i met up with carmen and we went to check out the alife sale. shit was cheap but nothing rele interest me. saw a fitted for 10 bucks so i couldnt pass. i was gonna get the tims for like 70 bucks but i passed.

when i was coming home, i noticed the sky looked mad weird. my camera wasnt buggin out, the sky was really orange.

laters,

-J.P.

goodbye michael jackson

i havent updated in so long due to laziness but i had to take time out and write a brief entry on the loss of a legend.

his death was so random. i was watching transformers and then angelica got a text from jesse saying "michael jackson is dead" i got so bummed out, my left eye unconsciously watered a little.

i wanted to tell the whole movie theater but the movie was really loud and it was coming to an end so i didnt wanna interupt it. then when the credits started to come and people started to walk out, i yelled it out "Michael Jackson just died!!" like an 1800's news square announcer. everyone else was shocked and a few people questioned me.

i remembered reading an aritcle on AOL news a few months ago about his bad health and how it was killing him but i didnt think he would actually be gone so soon and sudden. in an interview done by martin bashir on abc a couple years ago, "michael said he was going to live forever." as crazy of a statement that is, it seemed very believable.

i grew up a big fan of michael. ever since i was young, i would sing his songs, dance, jump on my tip toes and throw my hat across the room.

song of the day
michael jackson performing man in the mirror live during the grammys. i still get goosebumps watching this clip. you can feel the passion and energy from his voice and performance.




rest in peace michael. your unique presence, music and talent will be missed.
-J.P.

APC jeans first wash

so it has been about a year since i got my APC jeans. I didnt really start wearing them until the beginning of the school year in september. overall i prolly been wearing these for about a total of 8 months straight, (excluding prolly 20 days when i wore other pants/ shorts)

even though i bought a few pairs of jeans and have more at home, i couldnt stop wearing these. after a few weeks of wearing them, they broke in and became really comfortable. if you seen me within the past 8 months, most likely i was wearing these. i was going to go for a year without washing these but i think 8 months was long enough.

I didnt wash them for 8 months not because im disgusting, unsantitary or lazy, i did it because the more i wear them, the better the fades will be, especially in parts where there is more stress. if i were to wash them very often, the indigo would just fade evenly, making the jeans lighter and the fades less visible which defeats the purpose of purchasing raw denim.

originally they looked like this- really dark and just plain raw denim.
(pic not taken by me, from apc website)


i dont have any pre-wash pics.
this is how they look after i washed them.
Front

zoomed

Back

zoomed

overall im happy with the results. i just dont like all the small little holes developing. i gotta go to a tailor to get those fixed before they get worse.

Prolly gonna get another pair of raw denim once it gets cold again.

laters,
-J.P.

feeling shitty from shitting

About 2 in the morning today i hung up with carmen on the phone cuz i hadda take a shit. right after i finished i went to sleep and woke up in like an hour to go at it again. then till 6:00, i would wake up like every 45 mins to take more shits. all i kept shitting was some liquid lookin like dark foggy apple juice. then at 6 i woke up, showered and shitted like 5 more times before i hadda leave to work.

i didnt wanna leave my house cuz i didnt wanna end up having the urge to shit on the way to work on the train. while waiting for the train i typed a text message to my manager.

"Hey josh, i'm on the Q train right now. I've had crazy diarrhea constantly since 2 AM. Hopefully i dont need to get off the train. -J.P."

so i made it to work on time. by the time i got to work i felt so dehydrated and tried from my abnormal sleeping. i drank gatorade and a little water and took immodium, then my diarrhea went away shortly. through out the day i still felt slow and shitty. I felt exhaused and wobbled a few times cuz it felt like the the floor moved. lunch time i couldnt even eat. physically i was hungry but mentally i wasnt. It took me about 40 minutes to finish my apple.

then after work i wanted to go to the POH game day but had no energy to, so i just went straight home.

i wanted to do something today cuz it was such a nice day but i had no energy to do anything but sit. i decided to go to chris' house and play some street fighter for a little and bounced.

right now im at home, still feeling dizzy, exhaused and dehydrated. i also developed a stuffy nose and breathing doesnt feel involutary.

i am going to watch game 5 of the cavs vs magics game and lay down.

laters,
-J.P.

Welcome back Conan O'brien

2nd to last taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Finally Conan O'Brien is back on the late night scene. Its been over 3 months since his last episode of Late Night on February 20th. I was very lucky to win a raffle to be able to watch the second to the last taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It would of been great if it was the last episode but just getting the opportuinity to watch the show live, i couldnt ask for more. I went with carmen and it was great, the only downfall was that i was still a little sick so i wasnt very lively. if i was, i prolly would of fought for one of the pieces of the set that conan axed off and gave to the audience. The "look a like conan" got a piece of the coffee table and the guy infront got a piece too. I was seen on the last few seconds of the show on T.V. I had my bright red polo hoody on with a navy yankee hat.



now the countdown is on


I cant wait till monday. Tonight, on the last episode of Late Night with Jay Leno, Conan is going to be a guest. even though i wasnt a big Jay Leno fan, i still liked it. he did a great job with the show for the past 17 years. Even though Jay is leaving he will come back to NBC in the fall at 10 pm, before Conan like how it used to be.

this is one of the video he posted on the new http://www.thetonightshowwithconanobrien.com/ site. behind the scenes of his preparation for the new show.



video of the day
this is one of the best skits he has ever done on late night. Conan goes to long island where a few people still play original baseball like it was played in 1864 lol.
cant add the video so heres the link. watch it!!!!!

http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1126523055

be sure to watch the first show on monday at 11:35 PM on NBC.

laters,
-J.P.

Crazy fire in Brighton/ Spelling Bee Finals

i am going to be writting about 6 entries about the past couple days. i been busy with school, work and relaxing that i havent had time to document my life hahaha.

So today Carmen came through, surprised me and chilled for a little before she went to work.

Street Fighter at Chris'
Then at around 2 i went to chris' house to chill for a little. i played a little street fighter III 3rd Strike on PS2 cause his xbox's disc tray is jammed for some reason. then we i decided to youtube to find a solution. all we had to do was some lil paper clip poking and it good as new. then we played street fighter IV and me and chris had some crazy battles. then i went on xbox live and was "schoolin some niggas"

Bidding for airmax's
then around 4 oclock i went to lings house to bid on a pair of Clerks Airmax 90's i been wanting for a few years now. i really like them but i wasnt really fiendin for them so w/e. they were at $36 at the last 5 minutes. then i bidded $40, got out bidded right away, and kept bidding more by like $10 but i still kept being out bidded. then i decided to just keep bidding just so the guy i was competing with will have to pay more than he had to. hahaha.I bidded 100, he does 102, I did 108, he did 110, then I did 113 and he he won it for 115. If I wasn’t for me he prolly only had to pay like 70 bucks but boosted the price up hahaha. w/e, its his money. Hahaha.

Movies and random reunion
After we went to the city to meet with Jason chung and his movie manager friend so we can see the new terminator movie for free. while waiting we saw ron and carla across the street at the other movie theater in times sq online to see the early showing of "UP."
about 30+ mins later, his friend never showed and we left. we went to training camp cuz jason wanted to see the nubuck jordan 12's in person. while i was at training camp one of the workers looked familiar. it was a skinny bald black kid. It was an old friend i havent seen or talked to in about 8 years. I looked at him and i was like "dont i know you?", "did we go to school together?" and he was confused and didnt know. then i was like "whats your name?" he said eric and the moment he said that i remembered summer camp and i said "we went to summer camp together, remember camp get-chi gummi hurray(a little old chant we said with the counselors)" then it slightly refreshed his memory. I stayed for a few more minutes for some small talk and left.
then went to chinatown with jason and ling and got bubble tea and a viet sandwich.

Crazy fire on brighton 6th street
then we went home. from my train station i saw this house on fire. its was a like 4 houses from lings house. it was the craziest shit i ever seen. my camera ran out of battery but ling was able to snap a few pics.

The crazy thing was this morning i heard the fire alarm from the neighbors and the first thing i thought of if my house was on fire was to rip the wires off my computer and take it with me, take a few of my favorite sneakers, my nas autographed vinyl, some other stuff i can grab and my parents wedding album and other old photo albums i can get.
mad weird. i feel like that vision in my head was some unconscious foreshadowing or w/e. lol

video of the day
right now im watching the 2009 spelling bee finals on channel 7 and also watching the cavs vs magics game on the TNT website.
whenever i think of spelling bees i think of this clip from a few years back. this is one of my most favorite videos......hhahaha classic.

this guy passed out. his computer brain went malfunction and crashed. hahaha. then he gets up outta no where and spells the word. wtf?!?!?!!??!

laters,
-J.P.

6:00 pm breakfast at DiFara's

(written on may 28th)

so today i woke up at 2 ish and then went to chris' house and watched youtube videos and the euro championship manchester vs barcelona.

then i met up with carmen so i can get DiFara's pizza for breakfast. we were rushing to meet at ave J to get to difaras before they close for their break time at 4:30. i got on the train at 4:15 and got to the train station at 4:25, ran down the stairs to the pizzaria and they were closed. they closed at like 4:10 ish i heard. then carmen came about 2 minutes later and saw me bummed out.

then to kill time cuz they reopen at 6, we took the bus to flatbush to get some white castle cuz i was starving. i got 2 jalopeno cheese burgers and 1 of the new pulled pork castles. the jalopeno castles were great as usual but the pork castle's sauce was too concentrated and overall wack.

then we check out the somewhat new target they built there and just killed some time. then we went to riteaid. then it was like 6:00 and we got on the bus. got there about 7 mins late and there was a line of like 20 ppl, when i saw the line i got bummed out cuz i wanted to get there early before the line. i was about to just go home and come back tomorrow. then they opened the doors shortly and everyone got in. once i got in, i was square slices behind the counter and nobody was ordering it. most of the ppl on the line were first timers so they just wanted to get a slice but they dont know the squares is where its at. i got 2 squares, one for me and one to take home to give to chris. carmen paid for both, thanks babe.

i ate it and it was probably one of his best square pizzas he made. it was perfectly cooked. slightly burnt for a little char taste, golden brown crust that has been sizzled in olive oil and my slice had a tomato chunk that hasnt been crushed yet for the sauce and it was just perfect and ripe. amazing.

song of the day
this is Tom Green freestyling with Xzibit on his show. hahaha he's nasty.



laters,
-J.P.

Stat project/ Karaoke/ Hooters and Basketball

(written on may 28th)

stat project

today i finished my Stat project and handed it in. it was the last thing i had to do for the spring 09 semester. i guess now its officially summer vacation.

The project was very informative and..... i dont want to say fun but i guess it was a good educational experience. I had to analyze data and interpret charts and graphs. im really proud of how i did the project because i rarely do projects in a good pace, i usually rush it and stress the shit outta myself. this one i did an outline a day before, wrote out the part and did a lot of slicing and dicing and mixing and etc and finally i had the final product.

left my house around 3:30. on my way out i saw a package on my doorstep. it was the surprise that carmen ordered to my house. it was a new nas x stussy. even though i have one already she bought me another one after she found out i was bummed out cuz my mom washed it and the design faded like crazy. thanks babe.

then i met up with chris cuz he also had to go to the city to get his xbox fixed. on my way to hunter, i got off 34th street to go to staples to buy "sliding bar report covers" its pretty much those clear covers with the hard spine for papers and projects. i got it so my project and stick out and it shows i put a little extra effort than other ppl. hahhahah

Pre-karaoke - McDonalds

handed in my project and then we were still waiting for ray and a few other ppl so we can go karaoke. in the mean time we went to the 1st ave mcdonalds and got like 10 big macs cuz we had buy one get one free coupons.

we had more for the burger tower but after 2 more big macs and a quarter pounder it started to fall.

finally we walked back to hunter to meet with ray and the rest of the crew. i called carmen to see how she was doin with her friends and she was already drunk. he had her drunk bleh bleh bleh not making sense voice. lol

Karaoke
we finally went to karaoke around 7:30 at some korean joint at 48th st and 2nd ave ish. we had a 2 hour session there and i set it off with my warm up song- Just Once by James Ingram.

we just chilled and had fun. i also sang a filipino song, nandito ako by lea salonga. it was tough cuz i cant really read tagalog, i just know how to speak it. it was interesting and fun though.

Hooters and Game 4 of eastern conference

so after karaoke we went to hooters, me and pico walk/ jogged it to 56st ST and 7th ave while everyone else got a ride from renee or too the train.

once we were there me, ling, franklin and pico ordered 40 thousand mile island wings and 10 honey thai wings. i think i ate about 15 wings in total and some fries.

while eating we were watching the cavs vs magic game 4. it was a crazy game, it got into over time and then in the end cavs lost by 2 pts. lebron was pretty much doing all the work while everyone was just there to be picks for lebron.

song of the day

todays song of the day is the same as today warm up song- just once by james ingram

laters,

-J.P.

Primeburger (food journey week 29)

we have been slacking on our food journeys lately due to test, projects and the POH show prep and etc.
we finally had a little time this week to hit a spot.

-> location
didnt know where to go this week. want to go to Difara's but we hadda stay within the vicinity cuz ray hadda be back at hunter. we decided to go to Primeburger cuz it was on the me and ray's burger list and we wanted to see what it was about.
Primeburger is on 51st street between 5th ave and Madison.
along with me, ling, franklin and ray, this weeks special guest was ralph who is a single guy once again. He just got out of doin some time but now he's free!!!! hahahaha

->food
all of us got burgers. i got a bacon burger with cheddar cheese.


->opinion
it was a good burger but not great. if there was more beef it would of been a lot better. the place was very old fashioned place. my favorite burger is still from J.G. Melon.


right now im at my house chillin wit chris watchin youtube videos and Carlito's Way.
towards the end of the movie, there was a 2 minute continuous shot with great camera work.
i remember a little over 10 years ago, i watching this movie at home, my mom made me close my eyes for the scene where al pacino was chillin at the strip club. hahahaha

randomness of the day

• BDAY SHOUT OUT TO JOANNA and BDAY SHOUT OUT TO JEROME the tennis chocolatier!!!
• my mom's mother day plant that i got her looked like it was dying already and it hasnt even been a week. so i deciced to be J.P. the botanist and revive it. first i watered it, then splashed water all over it simulating rain lol and put it outside where it belongs for sunlight. after about 3 hours of being outside, it looks "alive" again. BALLIN!!!!!!!!!!
• doing all that made me think im nice at planting and that i have a "green thumb" now i want to plant tomatoes, basil, cilantro, chili peppers and other crops.
• big toe on right foot is a little swollen. i think its cuz the nail got pushed into the side skin of the toe while running or jumping. also for a couple of days now, the tip of the same toe feels slightly numb. if i doesnt go away after finals, im def goin to doctors.
• on the way home i went to Palace Fried Chicken aka PFC to get a wing to get my chicken fix. i gave 80 cents and bounced. opened the paper bag and saw 2 chicken wings. either i got hooked up or they were together and he didnt notice.
• congrats to dunhill on his first big mac ever in his whole life.
  

song of the day
all this mafioso, carlito's way watchin got me in a jay-z reasonable doubt mood. throwback, 96 jay-z feat mary j. blige- cant knock the hustle.

laters,
-J.P.

schedule making stress, final tests.....bubble butts and food trucks

so today i had to register for Fall 2009 classes. I only have a few requirement left for my "general requirements" but i can fulfill all of them cuz a lot of classes are already taken or have pre-reqs that i dont have.

im also not sure if i should take Anatomy and Physiology 2 in the summer or fall.

Pros of taking in summer.
->Get it over with
->focus strictly on A & P 2
Cons of taking in summer.
->cost about $800 for 1 class in the summer. gauddaaymnnn!!!!

Pros of taking in fall
->instead of paying for summer and fall classes, just gonna take it along with other classes and pay full time student price.
->free time over the summer
Cons of taking in fall
->gonna be taking it with writing intensive classes.
->hopefully there would be open seats.

i might stick with fall cuz i dont know what other classes to take to fill up my schedule.

as of now, i am scheduled for Urban Life, World of Music and Intro to Archaeology.
world of music covers up my PD/A requirements and its also a pre-req into a lot of music classes like History of Jazz which covers PD/B and 3A requirements.
urban life and archaeology finish up my writing intensive requirements. growing up i have been a big fan of Indiana Jones so that is what inspired me to take archaeology.

other than schedule planning, finals is coming up. bleh.


randomness of the day

• while getting the mail outside, i saw a mexican lady with a shopping cart selling food. she had a few customers buying this pancake looking thing with sour cream, refried beans, cheese and hot sauce. I got the beef. i think she told me it was call gordita. i bet its usually cheaper but since i dont got the mexican hookup i hadda pay more $3.00. if it was crunchier and the beef was juicier then i would get it more often but for $3.00 i was satisfied.
• leaving hunter to go to the F train, i saw some chick in runners and tights and the whole marathon style. It seems like thats the "cool look" for mid 25+ white women.
  anyways so this chick prolly had the nicest ass i have seen, in person. it wasnt disgustingly huge. it had a good fat-muscle ratio.
• And then in the station while waiting for the train, she starts bending over, lundging, stretching and w/e on some jean claude van damme typa shit. mad wierd hahahaha. In the end, her nice ass was there for a purpose......to make up for her busted face.
  she looked like 20% Jessica Biel + 30% Cher + 50% 2007 Michael Jackson.
• I dont wanna seem like your average ignorant/ perverted male but i was just very astonished. just like if someone randomly started levitating, or if a bald eagle was flying around, or if a solar eclipse was to occur..........people would just observe and be amazed on such a rare siting. thats exactly what i did!!!!!
• maybe when that lady was stretching, she forgot to be aware of peepers. like the one below. hahahaha.
  
  

song of the day
i listened to this song a lotta times today.
throwback mos def.

laters,
-J.P.

UFC fighter talkin shit to me and random stories.

Me vs. UFC fighter
at work, we have to follow the "non negotiable sales standards" which pretty much means start a conversation with a customer with a non business openers like "what up, where ya from?" or "oh thats a dope fitted, whered u get it at?" and etc, to "bro" it down with them. then you transition and then start sellin shit.
so i saw some random ass brolic bald white guy, in a dickies one piece janitor typa shit uniform with a scar on his right cheek. i was gonna comment on it but i didnt wanna end up being showed how he got it. so i just talked to him as he started touching the skateboards

J.P.-"what up, where you from?"
UFC fighter- (then he looked at me like on some murderer status and said with his deep hoarse voice)"RRRuuhhh-sai!!!"
J.P.- "oh cool, how long you in New York for?"
UFC fighter-"if you watch UFC you would know who i am?"
J.P.- oh my bad i dont really watch TV.
UFC fighter- yea i can tell by the store that you work in. (walks away)
J.P.- NIGGA!!! WTF YOU TRYING TO SAY??? KEEP WALKIN BEFORE I POP YO OTHER CHEEK!

thats exactly how the convo went minus the last thing i said lol. i was thinking of saying that but i still wanted my sense of sight and smell.
so yea Mr. Big guy acting all tough for no reason. i should got back and like "nigga, if you watch UPN 9 news at 10 o'clock about 3 years ago, you'll know who i am?!?!?!?!
hahaha cuz i got interviewed for a couple seconds at some graffiti event.

Customer and Pacquiao
so one of my customers had a team pacquiao shirt on today and i asked him where he got it, and he was like from manny. i was like wtf and he explained how he saw im at some lounge, restaurant or w/e and he asked if he could chill and pacquiao was mad cool and was like yea. so paquiao paid for all the food and in the end of the day, when they were saying laters, pacquiao tossed him the shirt.

Defcase and Pacquiao
so my cousin melvin, aka defcase went to the weigh-in for the Pacquiao vs. Hatton fight. then the actually fight the next day, and then the mass at some rented out place and the priest came to bless him and all 6 of his championship belts.
mad lucky, its cuz he was cool with his body guard or something and also cuz he designed the shirts they wore for the weigh-in.
At the mass he brought a set of boxing gloves to get signed and his friends brought like 3 sets to sell. they were just $20 modell boxing gloves and random ppl came up to them offering like $60 for just 1 glove.
in the end my cousin got each glove signed by Pacquiao with one of them signed by some other guy and his trainer fred roach.

cousins VIP pass and him and his friends autographed gloves.

surprise pick up carmen after work= failure lol.
so after work, i chilled with a couple coworkers and played pool. then i realized this it was almost 7 o'clock and carmen gets out at 8 o'clock, so i decided to stick around to suprise her outside her job to pick her up so we can go home togehter.. First i went to Beard Papa's to get her a couple cream puffs before my surprise. so i got to her job really early like 7:20 ish so i decided to walk around and come back in a little. got back to the outside of her job around 7:45 and chilled there. at 7:55 she texted me saying "im freeeeee" so i decided to shut off my phone before she calls so i can surprise her. around 8:10 i replied to her text saying "im at home watching tv and napping." to throw her off. then she replied a second later saying shes at 34th on the way home. i was like wtf!!!! it was like 8:20 and im still outside and she been left. FUCK!!!!.

then i got in contact with her when she got service crossing the bridge. then she went back to manhattan and i went downtown and we met halfway and still went home together.

THIS JUST IN!!!!!!!!!!!!
while going to youtube to get the "song of the day" i came across this documentary that i been wanting to see for a while "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme"
the whole 1 hour 11 minute video is on youtube!!!!! ahhhhh
my old teacher from a summer program is on it in the video!!!! His name is Abiodun Oyewole, part of the Last Poets and was part of the black panthers.
cant put up the video but here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eVzEtFgOsc

song of the day
so to go along with all the random stories of the day. i got this random music video of one of my favorite radiohead songs-idioteque. this isnt the final official video but this was their promo blinking bear version. mad random/ randomly funny but in the end still a dope song.


laters,
-J.P.

Free KFC = RIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY'S NEWS with J.P.!!!!!!!!!

as you know Oprah Winfrey is known for being a giver. So to give to her whole country, she hooked up with KFC to give out free printable coupons for 2 piece grilled chicken meal with 2 sides and a biscuit.

when you click the print coupon button your printer starts printing out..........

with this great deed, oprah wanted to relieve the nation's stress over money and all its other issues.
instead it created riots in many KFCs.

A lot of places started running out of chicken and denying the coupons. many people thought they can just go during their lunch break and enjoy a free meal but there were lines of about 100 people at the times sq KFC all for free food. Everyone was crowding and complaining.
Then people started protesting by doing sit-ins until they get their food. A few fights broke out and this just pissed people off even more.

people shouldnt even get mad over it. its FREE!!!!!!!! the only thing it cost was 1 sheet of xerox paper and a few drops of ink. lol.
fuckin fat ass americans......... smh

oprahs good deed also caused PETA to be unhappy with her decission.

PETA -"KFC is the world's largest killer of chickens... nearly 800 million chickens are killed every year in the cruellest ways imaginable."

so to all the haters hating on oprah's efforts. smh.

also, to all the people getting mad at KFC...... relax!!! chickens can only lay on average about 5 eggs per week. Not all those eggs become KFC grilled chicken, some have to become omelets and quiches and others have to actually be born and have their own families.

so dont hate, congratulate. she was just lookin out for you.

song of the day
when i was thinking of a song relating to chicken i thought of Ludacris' album Chicken and Beer. and when i think of that album, the first song that come to my mind is splash waterfalls. so here's your song of the day.


laters,
-J.P.


BONUS
dunhill just commented showing me this youtube video of popeye's running out of chicken due to the $4.99 special for 8 pieces. very interesting and funny.


lady yelling back at the drive thru machine saying

"peoples have kid that they trying to feed for the special, and you mean to tell me that we cant feed our kids!!!! because ya didnt order enough chicken?????"

hahahahah now her kids have to starve because popeye's ran out of chicken.

cmon miss black lady, dont you know that old saying.....

"when popeyes is outta chicken,
stop yo' bitchin,
cuz u got aunt jemima
in yo' kitchen"

dont you know that on the back of an aunt jemima flour package there are directions on how to make fried chicken.

cmon even i knew that. lol

16 hours of sleep!!!!!!!!!

for the past few days i havent really slept that much.

• thrusday/ friday
  studied. then went to sleep at 2:30 AM ish and woke up at 5 AM to study more for cranial nerve quiz. (aced that shit)
  = total sleep 2.5 hours
  
• friday/ saturday
  got home from the NaS concert at Hunter about 2 ish. went to sleep at 3 am and woke up at 6 am for work.
  = total sleep about 3 hours.
  
• saturday/ sunday
  worked till 4 PM. then POH show.
  after party drinking at Space. got home a lil before 3, showered etc. then looked up manny pacquiao's victory on youtube and went to sleep at 4 AM and woke up at 7 am.
  = total sleep about 3 hours.

so in 3 days i got a total of about 8.5 hours of sleep. not healthy.
isnt that the recommended amount of sleep for 1 day? lol

sunday/ monday(today)
yesterday during work, after my 3 days of my lack of sleep, i felt like i was going to pass out a few times.
then at 4:30 Carmen picked me up from work. got a quick bite and went straight home. got knocked out on the train. then i was finally home at about 6.
then got ricky hatton'd on my bed at about 8 pm and woke up today at 12pm
=total sleep more than 16 hours.

it felt really good. i had a lot of sleep to catch up with. i feel replenished.

then today, i had dinner with my parents at home for the first time in a long time because im usually out, ate dinner already or get home from school at about 9:30.

song of the day
randomly started rapping this song while cooking up breakfast. lol
maybe while cooking, lyrics that have fire in it unconsciously came to my head and made me randomly spit out the lyrics, while bobbing my head and cooking. idn....lol

updates on NaS concert and POH show laters,
-J.P.

NAS AT HUNTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mad hype!!!!! the concert is in a couple hours.

im at stat class checkin out youtube and came across a clip of a concert Nas did in 2003.
Nas was performing Made You Look and told the dj to stop. then Jadakiss came out and then Ludacris came out after jada's verse and they performed the remix.



hopefully it happens again today but i highly doubt it cuz its 10 bucks and hunter college lol.

It was crazy when Jay-z came out while Nas was performing last summer at Rock the Bells.
i got so hype, me, enrique and his brother started buggin out and jumping on the seats about to break them.

hahaha good times...........

laters,
-J.P.

WU-TANG!!!!!!! Tell a friend, its that symbol again.

i hadda take a break from studying when i heard some good news.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 is finally comin out!!!!!

i been hearing about this album for over 2 years already but its actually gonna happen.

here's the new single off the album

Raekwon, Ghost and meth- New Wu

"Tell a friend
its that symbol again
that W
comin thru
bust a shot on your block, gimme a SUUEEEE."

crazy flowing, chill head bop beat and still gooned out.

this got me hype for blackout pt 2 and liquid swords pt 2.

WU-TANG FOREVER!!!!!!

song of the day
since im wu-tang mode right now and i been doing this NaS theme for this week. ill put up the ghost, rae and nas collabo track off only built 4 cuban linx.

since theres no official musice video heres a homemade video by a fan.

Fun fact of the day
Nas' verse on the track above "verbal intercourse" was orginally released in his demo tape a made a couple years before illmatic and about 4 years before "verbal intercourse". the original track was called Déjà Vu.


gotta go study for anatomy lab quiz tomorrow on cranial nerves, parts of the brain and vocab.
here's a mnemonic devies to help me rememeber the cranial nerves in order.
Old Opie Operates Tractors To Agitate Fields. Virtuously Good Vegetables Are Harvested.

Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulocochlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory nerve, Hypoglossal.

mad fun. lol

laters,
-J.P.

Obsessed (the movie) (some spoilers)

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUTS!!!!!!
happy bday to my niggas Ling and Franklin.

So Carmen and I went to the movies to see Obsessed and she paid for me :) Obsessed is that new movie with that white chick from Hero's (not hayden panettiere) and Beyonce.
We snuck in a chipotle chicken burrito, extra sour cream, chips and bottle of coke. HOLLA!

synopsis
The movie is about some psycho white bitch who was all over a black guy who was Beyonce's man. I knew I was gonna get a good laugh out of it no matter how serious it was. Beyonce played a stay at home mom, while her husband had a psycho obsessive co-worker on his ass. Beyonce bounced on her man, got back with him after she understood that she was dealing with some psycho bitch, and then she pulled a Shanaynay on her white ass.

opinion
The movie was actually not as bad as i thought it would be. This was definitly better than all the past few movies ive seen- Street Fighter, Adventureland, DragonBall (from dad's bootleg dvd stash).

audience participation
What made the movie 10x better was that the audience was like 90%black. I love black people, they know how to have fun, let loose and just bug the fuck out.

so some black lady got so into it when beyonce found out her child was missing. it was like she caught the holy ghost at church or something. She started throwing her hands in the air, jumping out her seat and yelling.....

"OHHHH MAHH GAUDDDD!!!!! I DONT BAH LEAVE THIS!!!"

not only that but she said it for about a minute striaght!!! hahahahahaha
then...when beyonce was fuckin up the white chick from Hero's she started yelling and chanting.

"GRAB HUH BAH THE NECK AND FUCK HUH UP!!!!! FUCK HUH UP!!!!!"

then the whole audience started buggin out and screaming while the lady chanted.
The whole audience was laughing with this lady but then she started getting a little annoying so they started yelling "shutup!"
In the end of the movie, the lady apologiesed to the whole audience yelling "sorry audience, i just get so crazy!" hahaha

after the movie we bumped into Anthony(koston) and Julz. we found out we were watching the same movie. all of us agreed that the lady was the highlight of the night.

randomness of the day

• Freakishly and coincedently, while watching Obsessed i get a text message from some chick who was one of my customers. At first i thought she was a secret shopper cuz she had a clipboard so i decided to approach her and be a good salesman. after getting to know her, i found out the clipboard was for a survey and so i just filled it out for an act of kindness. Then the next day i get a text message. replied twice and then ignored her.
• Then about a month later in like february, she text me "hey there"........i ignored her.
• a week later she text me saying "good morning!"......ignored her once again
• then about 2 months later, (today) she text me while watching Obsessed saying "hey whats goin on?"
• she prolly thought "wanting to get to know her" salesman technique was flirting. SMH lol silly.
• im not an asshole though, i do like talking to my customers, it keeps my job interesting and getting to know people but also at the sametime im trying to get them to become comfortable with me so i can help them buy stuff.

song of the day
i been hype to see nas for the past week so here's another nas masterpiece.
dope song, co-written and produced by eminem.
crazy flow, lyrics and beat by the 2 masters themselves.

laters,
-J.P.