I'm playing the world's saddest song on the world's tiniest violin...

The election is growing closer by the day, and as I watch the media circus volley back and forth between candidates, one thing is clear - both sides consider Palin an idiot. Maybe the Republicans are laughing with her and the Democrats are laughing AT her, but Palin as Commander-In-Chief after McCain kicks the bucket is no laughing matter. As she travels the press junket trying her best - like Dubya - to NOT be seen as the bumblefuck bumpkin she is, correspondents are asking to please take mercy on her while simultaneously attempting to persuade us of her competence as Vice President of America.


I, for one, am offering no mercy to Bush's regime of idiocy, nor do I condone Palin to continue as one of the Republicans next in line. As an an activist, as a civilian, as a tax payer, and especially as a woman, I ask that if she accepts this nomination and waves it on behalf of the entire female gender, show your competence or step the fuck down, because skill usurps gender.

I guess I'm one cold dame, because while Palin provokes many unpleasant emotions in me, I just can't seem to summon pity, affection or remorse.

But just because I'm human, just because I can feel, just because I did say this weekend that I "almost feel sorry for her" doesn't mean, when I consider the situation rationally, that I do. Yes, as a feminist, it sucks -- hard -- to watch a woman, no matter how much I hate her politics, unable to answer questions about her running mate during a television interview. And perhaps it's because this experience pains me so much that I feel not sympathy but biting anger. At her, at John McCain, at the misogynistic political mash that has been made of what was otherwise a groundbreaking year for women in presidential politics. - Rebecca Traister

Read the rest of "The Sarah Palin Pity Party" HERE

Pass the Courvoisier

Brand Attitudes Improve When Product Is Paired With Favorable Actor - Science Daily

Love a rap artist’s music, and you may develop fond feelings for the products placed in that artist’s rap video. That is essentially the conclusion that a team of investigators came to in a research article published recently in Psychology & Marketing.

However, there are potential dangers associated with product placement in programming such as rap videos, not the least of which entails negative feelings aroused by the video being transferred to the brand.

But the question is, are these fools getting paid for the amount of free advertising they put in their raps? I don't think so...

Protect Your Daughter's Reproductive Rights...

        The Washington Post talks about what might happen if John McCain - a man who is staunchly against a woman's right to choose - gets elected to office, by comparing it to West Germany in the 1980s.  And this is not a far-fetched fantasy people, this can really happen.

In the 1980s, when abortion was severely limited in then-West Germany, border guards sometimes required German women returning from foreign trips to undergo vaginal examinations to make sure that they hadn't illegally terminated a pregnancy while they were abroad. According to news stories and other accounts, the guards would stop young women and ask them about drugs, then look for evidence of abortion, such as sanitary pads or nightgowns, in their cars, and eventually force them to undergo a medical examination -- as West German law empowered them to do.

Nina Parks has a great analyses of why McCain/Palin is a team set to criminalize and treat women as second-class citizens, and why the government has no right to exercise domain over another person's body, moral ethics, education, and reproductive decisions.

Make the right decision!

San Diego...

mmm. carne asada fries.

...here I come!



But seriously, this is why we'll be in Daygo for the weekend. Come through if you're in the area...

The carne asada fries are an added incentive!
(Disclaimer: get your own 'cuz they won't be served there. Lolita's is my personal fave.)

Sex trafficking has achieved global attention as a human rights issue. The trafficking is exploitative, involving coercion, deceit, and violence and has far-reaching effects for the individuals involved in the sex trade, their families, nations, and the global economy. In addition, the prostituting of women and children adds another dimension to the crime of sex trafficking. In the vast majority of cases, prostitution represents the ownership of women and children by pimps, brothel owners, and others for the purpose of financial gain, sexual gratification, and domination.

Many in the anti-trafficking movement argue that hip hop plays a role in perpetuating and glorifying the exploitation of women through prostitution. "Hip hop is commercially hot, culturally influential and replete with references to pimping and prostitution. Critics say this not only sends teens a pro-pimp message, it puts some girls even more at risk for becoming prostitutes" (Women's eNew, 11/9/03, accessed June 10, 2008).

In reality, however, there are only a few commercially viable hip-hop artists that sensationalize certain behaviors and then position it as part of hip hop culture. Hip hop is a musical genre that emerged in the late 1970's from the urban African American community. For many, hip hop has become a tool to critique the oppression of the marginalized. Thus, while some see hip hop as a degrading force others refer to it as a tool for social change. Young people are using hip hop to reach and teach their communities about social justice and taking action.

The goal of the benefit concert is to raise awareness through the use of hiphop about the dangers of sex trafficking, pimping and prostitution. Organizers hope to reach out to young audiences and bring awareness of the ways in which young women and children are lured, tricked, or coerced into a life of sexual exploitation. Seven schools are establishing Purple Rose Committees this Fall. Members of GABNet Los Angeles will lead a caravan from Los Angeles to San Diego with five stops serving as "teach-ins" on the issue of trafficking.

Key Information:
Stop the Traffick Jam
Saturday, September 27, 2008; 7pm-Midnight
University of California-San Diego, Price Center East Ballroom
Admission: $10 in advance, $12 at the door
For map and directions visit: http://women.ucds.edu
To order advance tickets visit http://www.myspace.com/gabnetsandiego

Kim Osorio Interview

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to interview Kim Osorio about her recent book release, "Straight from the Source". As the first female Editor-In-Chief of the Source, she led the magazine to some of its highest-selling issues and saw firsthand the demise of its readership under the hands of its founders, Dave Mays and Benzino.



Osorio defends her right to speak out, amongst numerous attacks against her reputation and her lawsuit settlement of $7.5 million. After her book came out on September 9th, 2008, it confirmed her relationships with Nas and 50 Cent, of which she was questioned by her superiors to have an effect on her ability to function as top editor. Because of that, she took the co-founders to court on sexual harassment charges and won on retaliation and defamation.

Check out the partial interview above, and come back on Monday for the interview in its entirety with clips about the Source during its reign, details about the book, and where Osorio thinks Hip Hop Journalism is headed in the digital age. Interesting stuff!

Here's an excerpt of the book:

By the year 2000, the hip-hop industry was comparable to a male football locker room. Most of the top executives were men, the majority of hip-hop artists were male, as were almost all of the producers, video directors, engineers and DJs. That basically left video model or personal assistant as the most likely career option for a woman. But as a female, if you were successful, and rose to the top of the corporate ladder, your reputation became that much more vulnerable. If you looked halfway decent, then the misconception was that you slept your way to the top. On the contrary, if you were not easy on the eyes, then you must either have been gay or related to someone. As a woman, I knew it would be hard to beat the odds. But because I had put so much time in, I wasn’t about to let the odds come between me and what I wanted. But a woman doesn’t only have her resume to worry about, she’s also got her reputation, and when it comes to a woman’s reputation in the business of hip-hop, it’s almost customary to define her by the men she’s been linked to. Pick up any hip-hop magazine and compare the stories done on women to those done on men. I guarantee you’ll find out more about he woman’s past sex life than you will about the man’s. That code doesn’t just apply to celebrities, it’s the same behind the scenes as well. For me, it was no different. The more successful I became in the industry, the harder it became to keep people out of my personal business.

OH HELL NAW

Women + Cleaning Products = The Most Sanitary Orgy You've Ever Had

[Source]

LOL

via Bossip:

Is it possible that Kanye just finished doing 2 snaps AND a circle? Please tell us you agree with us when we say that Yeezy’s posture automatically makes him a number 1 suspect??? We know it’s just a picture, but he does it with such ease…just saying…

Oh, this shit made my Friday.

"Check out these rad tribal leggings I got...."

Cultural Appropriation: Homage or Insult?

Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes acculturation or assimilation, but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture.[1][2] It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held. Or, they may be stripped of meaning altogether.

Via Racialicious

Women in Hip Hop

Underrated & Unappreciated

Big ups to Elizabeth Aguirre for the write-up.

Exact Change Tour - My Last Show of the Year!!

Throwin' down in the Kitchen

You are what you eat, so be healthy!

If you took a look at my high school diet it consisted of such: no breakfast (I was always late!), cheetos and soda from the vending machine for lunch (it was cheap) and whatever my mom cooked for dinner, which was usually Sinigang. Fast forward to college and my diet was equally laden with processed foods and unregimented: my healthy sun-ripened tomato bagel brunch ( still late!) and iced latte negated by dinner at La Corneta Taqueria followed by late-night munchies at good ole Jack in the Box. No wonder most of the homies got the "Freshman 15" and then some.



You would never guess that my sisters and I were raised by my hippie parents to be vegetarians and were deprived of soda and chips in the house for the majority of my childhood. Back then, when all my friends had Lucky Charms and Pops on top of the fridge, all I had was Total, Cornflakes, and if we were lucky, Basic 4. Snacks were unsalted raw almonds from the Farmer's Market and my mother cooked all the Filipino classics for dinner most nights: adobo, calderreta, torta, crispy fried tilapia with soy sauce and tomatoes, and pinakbet (bitter melon with squash and okra). It was almost cool when other kids' parents let them have Popeyes and Pizza Hut three times a week, and here I was, this backwards immigrant daughter almost ashamed to eat my mom's savory cooking that she still managed to execute perfectly after a long day at work.

I remember as a child, looking into my pantry and being utterly disdained at the lack of cartoon characters and acid-bright colors. "Wheat germ? Iwww! Germs!" I shouted to my father, the guy who still makes ice cream "sandwiches" with a scoop of ice cream between a folded piece of wheat bread. And while my mom jazzed up the traditional recipes with Vege-meat and Tofu, I yearned for more "American" meals like chicken fingers and french fries.



Now that America is the fattest country in the world, I've grown proud of the choices my parents made on behalf of their children, and have benefitted in health and habit. What's alarming is that now, these same choices that my parents made twenty years ago, are costing my own family a pretty penny. After researching organic food, and new recipes to cook, I learned that eating better actually costs us more, and having less money meant we only have access to the worst of the worst fast food joint value meals.

Since the recession began, I've seen more drive thrus than farmers markets and more processed foods than organic, which confirms my belief that this capitalistic system is not only not working, but costing us more $$ for things that should be our human right - local, fresh produce free of pesticides, and a way of life that is healthy and affordable.

With the little one eating solid foods now, I'm thinking back to my ramen-eating college days and seing how the creation of processed foods not only robs our body of nutrients, but robs my skillset of whipping up things that my mother could do with her eyes closed - a dinner of not only cultural satisfaction but nutritional as well.

As long as we're on the topic, do you have any recipes you'd like to share that are quick, easy, and relatively low-cost? Please enlighten us.

Mama over at MISS Crew has mouthwatering and easy ones recipes for you to try at home and even if they're not the most slimming - they bring you closer to your food and the ingredients (and love) it takes to make them.

Here's my personal fave...


My latest creation, (excuse the grainy mobile pic) was this:

Southern Fried Catfish with sliced yams and black bean salad

So even if you eat fast food and processed foods 7o% of the time, go 'head and experiment with the remaining 30% and pass the good eatin' to the next generation.

whatup

whatup

Weekend Recap

The Trust Your Struggle collective landed at Imix Bookstore in Eagle Rock on the 13th...

DJ Haylow and DJ Shred One

BAYlien reunion: Marisol, me, and Ange

My lil' guy was on his best behavior that night...

Then we hit up 2nd Street Jazz Club to see the homie Illmind and DJ Rhettmatic

Here's Bam with Treklife and M-Phazes

Sunday afternoon we hit up KB's favorite spot, Pan Pacific Park


Mexican corn: 2 @ $1.50. Sno Cone: $2.00. Purple cotton candy: $1.50.
Spongebob beach ball: $ 3.00
Look of joy on Kahlil's face? Priceless.

Lost in Translation

Two years after I finished wrapping the "I'm From Rolling Stone" show and I'm still doing interviews abroad - this time for Brazilian media publication, O Globo. They recently started airing episodes I'm sure most of the American public still has yet to see (thanks for the shitty promo, MTV!), but I'm humbled and happy that the rest of the world can meet me and be entertained by the farce that is reality television.


Naturally, when I received the clip I thought, "Awesome! Now off to find someone who speaks Portuguese...", but luckily, Yahoo has this thing called Babel Fish that'll translate entire web pages for you. Check out the translations:

To serve as apprentice, everybody knows, is to pass perrengue. But the micos constants, the fight fratricidal with the colleagues for the vacant and the esporros of the head can well be amused.

But wait, it gets better:

In the Real, the edition of reality shows makes you to become aggressive manipulator and. It is clearly that it had fight, but also had camaraderie, people if it helped sufficiently. This did not earn in such a way has detached, but I understand that it thus needs to be to arrest the hearing - looks for to clarify Krishtine de Leon, 23 years, one of the participants that, as the others, passed for an election process punk, with two a thousand candidates.

Anyway, from what I could piece together, it was a good interview since I trust foreign media more than American media. Obrigado!

Happily Ever After...

It's about time the story is retold.

Thanks for post MISS CREW!

...exact change...is out NOW!

My Last Show of the Year

So it begins y'all...the beginning of the album-writing process. Before the mixtape dropped this past February, I vowed no more shows until the mixtape was finished, and I am doing the same right now. Why? Because it takes sooo much energy to create something completely original and although I love doing shows in the Bay and LA, I want to make sure I have something for you to go home with and listen to on your own

My last show of the year in the Bay is at the Exact Change Tour, so make sure you buy the presale tickets! The homies EMASSIN, POWER STRUGGLE, DO D.A.T., ISE LYFE, and of course BAMBU will be there, so come early and make sure you check out the lone sista souljah on the bill!


Get your pre-sale HERE

Hope to see you there... <3

Ms. Krish aka EyeASage

Blender's Privileged Generalization

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dead rapper Tupac “2Pac” Shakur, the hip-hop icon who sold more records after he was murdered than during his brief career, is the most overrated person in music, according to music magazine Blender.

Shakur tops a tongue-in-cheek list that also includes “places, trends and other junk in rock,” Blender said in its upcoming October issue, due on newsstands next week.

Other overrated finalists included the Grammys at No. 7, encores at No. 12, Pink Floyd at No. 14 and “the music you loved as a teenager” at No. 23.

I've gotten into many heated discussions about Tupac vs Biggie as Best Rapper of All Time, and as I've grown older, I've learned to see my own biases: my West Coast upbringing and my puerile vow to marry him in heaven.

But to call Tupac "The Most Overrated Artist Ever"? This angers me. I can see why Biggie-lovers gravitate towards Big's more intricate wordplay and more playfully-adept persona because - technically - he is one of the most skilled rappers of all time. But what people don't understand about Tupac through superficial critique is that he can speak the language of the streets, something I fully do not expect the post-grad armchair critics of Blender to grasp.

Sure, its easy to criticize a dead man for what he cannot control, namely the hype and decisions made on behalf of his estate to release his unpublished works. I'm sure that if I ever died, my crappy half-finished writings would surface in some way to exploit what was left of my talent. But to judge me on work that I never gave permission to release? Now that is some half-assed shit.


What was amazing about Tupac was that in the shape-shifting, manipulative world of industry, he remained true to himself, and true to his art. Although it was for these reasons he probably succumbed to early death, unless you identify with his struggle, you can never understand the true impact of his words.

In my youth, I never respected any authority, teacher, parent, or otherwise. But I memorized his songs, and he bridged the gap between ghetto child and budding revolutionary. Because of his history, because of multi-faceted, chaotic and often vulnerable exterior, his short lifetime was an evolution in itself- one that many young thugs in the hood might never make in their short lifetimes. It was his potential to become even better and more influential, that was robbed from the people, and from the culture of Hip Hop itself.


So if you look at Tupac's music, strictly through technical skill, art, and the works he released in his short 25 years, there are many hasty generalizations to make, depending on whether you listened to his music for recreation or for survival.

But to, yet again, exploit the controversy and sincerity of the most intriguing and influential people of our time just to sell mags is a goddamn shame. When are we going to say stop taking privileged opinion as our own?

What kind of society are we living in?

via Jezebel:

A reader sent us a link to something called Abortiontracker.com, a site that claims to have compiled "a comprehensive list of every woman who has had an abortion procedure performed in the United States and Canada, dating back to 1940." To get access to this alleged database, you need to pay $799 for a seven day pass to the site or up to $16,999 for unlimited access to "full names, complete addresses, unlimited contact information, false names used during operation procedures, reasons listed for abortions, known STDs at (and since) time of abortion, [and the] name of person believed to be the father."

Abortion Tracker claims that it gets all this information from disgruntled workers at abortion clinics "who have since found the Lord, or whom always had the Lord, but only decided to deliver 'borrowed' records to us after the fact." The website is registered to Moniker Privacy Services which masks the identity of the true website owners. We gave NARAL a ring, and they'd never heard of these yahoos. We're calling bullshit on this one. The entire thing sounds like a sick get-rich-quick hoax. HOWEVER! One word of (probably paranoid) caution: while I don't believe for a hot minute that these jerks have access to any medical records, I would advise people who go to the website not to enter anyone's name into the search engine. The only way I can imagine these people get any names of abortion-havers is through the information viewers enter in unwittingly.

Another reason this society needs a people's revolution, for our daughters, our granddaughters, and their right to choose.

WTF

Where do I even begin?!

Read about this douchebag HERE

Pseudo-Empowerment

This time, it's former Real World-er Jamie Chung - a native San Franciscan, I might add - who is premiering in a ABC Family mini-series about a sword-wielding Japanese girl who finds out the truth about her past. Here's where the dilemma lies:

via Dodai from Jezebel:

When I first saw an ad for ABC Family's new show Samurai Girl, I'll admit my interest was piqued: An Asian-American woman starring in a prime time show? And she's not Lucy Liu? Progress! But Samurai Girl may ultimately disappoint. I haven't seen the show, but in the commercial, lead character Heaven, 19, says to some white guy, "I need you to train me." Yuck.

Since this fake girl power show was written by a fake Asian, who cares if the actress is Korean and not Japanese, right? It's totally not relevant that Japan occupied Korea and oppressed its people and forced girls and women into sexual slavery. Bygones!

First off, congrats to Jamie for freaking her 15 minutes of passive roommate status and gratuitous booty-short shots, but it sucks that yet again, a white guy is the key to learning her "Ancient" roots. If I were her, I'd want a re-write!

"When I say jump, you don't say anything" says white guy.

Fuck off!

Amy Goodman of NPR's "Democracy Now" arrested at RNC

From the kasama, Faith Santilla:

Hi Everyone, I know there are always online petitions to sign, but I really felt compelled to forward this one to all of you. Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!" has been a reliable and invaluable source of information for me for years, and the recent mistreatment, brutality and arrests inflicted against Amy and her producers at the RNC leaves me incensed. Aside from providing alternative AND objective, professional journalism, she has also kept her ear to the ground as exemplefied by her feature of the Gabnet 3 last year. I don't know Amy Goodman or her producers personally. I just know that her journalism has enriched my life, as I'm sure she has enriched many of your lives. Even if you haven't listened to Amy's show, please sign this petition as an act of solidarity with those journalists who dare speak against the status quo. Their voices are so often taken for granted. Let them not be silenced! Thanks for reading this, Faith

Please support our Constitutional Rights of Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Press by signing the petition.

You can view this petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/1563346

Making a Mockery of Poverty

NEW DELHI — An old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib (retail price, about $100).

Vogue India's choice of mixing high-fashion with "models" of extremely low economic status has gotten much criticism - and rightly so. Here is the link to the NY Times story and a couple of choice quotes.

The editorial spread was “not just tacky but downright distasteful” said Kanika Gahlaut, a columnist for the daily newspaper Mail Today that is based here, who denounced it as an “example of vulgarity.”

There’s nothing “fun or funny” about putting a poor person in a mud hut in clothing designed by Alexander McQueen, she said in a telephone interview. “There are farmer suicides here, for God’s sake” she said, referring to thousands of Indian farmers who have killed themselves in the last decade because of debt.

Check out what this ignoramus from Vogue India had to say:

Vogue India editor Priya Tanna’s message to critics of the August shoot: “Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” she said, and the shoot was saying that “fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful,” she said.

“You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously,” Ms. Tanna said. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world,” she said.

Nearly half of India’s population — about 456 million people — live on less than $1.25 a day, according to World Bank figures released last week.

Not taking a close enough look at the “real people” is drawing criticism for Vogue, too. “The magazine does not even bother to identify the subjects” of the photos, said Ms. Gahlaut, the columnist. Instead, Vogue names the brands of the accessories in the captions, and says they are worn by a lady or a man.