It's been a while since I've said anything about Lil Wayne, but with MTV naming him the "hottest MC in the game," I think we're due for an obligatory, "Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper alive post."

He's really heating up now. Check out all the leaked Carter III tracks if you haven't yet. (For those who don't know, his most recent album leaked to the net, so instead of pushing up the release date, he decided to just give them all away for free, and they are great.) Also, check out the Best Rapper Alive Vol. III mixtape. As one dude on the MTV roundtable discussion said, every time you listen to new Weezy, you keep expecting it to be bad or underwhelming, but he always ups the bar; always ups the ante. It never gets worse or old or stale. It's phenomenal.

And not to reveal my hand too early, but I've got three Lil Wayne albums on my year-end top ten list, and I know it's not too long of a shot to make this claim now: but Pitchfork will select Da Drought 3 as best rap album of the year--definitely. Don't forget, though, it's a claim I've been making since March. If that album doesn't top their list, I'll give ten bucks to the first person who tells me I was wrong.

brett at 11:03 AM on July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

I saw a wonderful little anime movie about dreams this weekend at the Ross, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to step outside of their mind for a few hours.

Though Paprika did fall into a lot of the misogynistic pitfalls that have characterized and plagued Japanese animation for decades, it was a lot of fun; one of those, "It's a dream, no, it's reality! No, it's really just a dream!" type of movies. The director just keeps pulling tricks on the audience, until there's no choice but to just accept that, well, the world is a dream. I guess that's the conclusion. Anyway, check it out.

brett at 11:37 AM on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night Megan and I had one of our most triumphant culinary successes at a joint birthday party for her, Ryan and Eric, hosted at Ryan's parents' home on 17th and Van Dorn Street. Melissa and Karl gave us use of their kitchen, and plenty of beer, while we provided the food for a group of about eight.

We cooked our pseudo-Caesar salad, along with a new Thai dish that we had only whipped up a few times before. I was a bit nervous about how our "Brooklyn Pad Thai" would go over, but it turned out that everyone loved it, with Ryan's grandfather even coming back for thirds. All cleared their respective plates, and although Megan and I made a double recipe, there were barely any leftovers to take home at the end of the night.

The recipe included a lot of questionable foods for non-vegans: tofu fried in peanut oil, rice noodles, bean sprouts, lemongrass, and some other Thai ingredients that were certainly foreign and (I thought) unpalatable to Midwesterners. I was nervous. I didn't realize we were cooking for so many, and the fact that they were all middle-aged adults increased my anxiety: people in my extended family would never touch this kind of food, and the thought of cooking something like this and serving it to my grandparents would terrify me. I was surprised, however, when everyone ate all of the food and complimented us profusely on our cooking. Ryan's parents actually seemed to be, as Megan said, "in a trance" as they sat and watched us use their kitchen.

All in all, a fun time, with plenty of wine and beer as well.

brett at 08:51 AM on July 23, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Saturday I decided to take a major bike ride out to Roca, Nebraska, using the Jamaica North Trail. I rode the trail last week with Megan, though we didn't go so far as Roca. This week I was eager to do a bit of exploring on my own in the hot, humid weather.

All in all it was a fantastic ride, though the trail does become a bit spooky after you pass Saltillo Rd. There's really no one out there, save for a few hardcore bikers and some strange, downtrodden looking miscreant type people just meandering along at their own pace. It's very bizarre to be out on a crushed-limestone bike trail in the dead heat of noon, then see a fully clothed pair of men walk by slowly--literally miles from any city. I like to invent stories about what they are doing. Usually I imagine that they are traveling by boxcar.

brett at 08:45 AM on July 23, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

All of the pruning going on in my apartment has left me with more than a few choice jade cuttings, so this weekend I spent quite a bit of time propagating them.

Propagation is such a simple and rewarding process, but it also happens to be incredibly time consuming. Mixing soil is dirty and tedious, and rooting hormone happens to be highly toxic. Not to mention that I simply don't have anywhere to keep plants anymore! Regardless, I managed to get more than a dozen jade clippings down into (some kind of) dirt. I experimented with two types of rooting hormones, and three different soil mixtures (an all perlite mix, an all vermiculite setup, and a layered perlite/cacti mix blend). Soon we shall see which combination works best, and soon I will have a ton of new jade plants to give away.

brett at 08:21 AM on July 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (10)

Music to live by. Also, good for a laugh. I always love stumbling across gems like this on YouTube.

And I might mention, this contains some explicit language (and by some I mean every other word). Enjoy

brett at 11:20 AM on July 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Spencer finally managed to get a copy of Microcosmos, a movie by the same people who did Winged Migration, only it paints a picture of the world from a bug's eye view, rather than a bird's eye view. I dropped in at Spindle last night and watched it with a few people.

Some of the video in this film is absolutely unbelievable. Even 5 minutes of it lends a whole new understanding to the viewer, who comes away feeling that the world of insects, arachnids and plants is one both incredibly like our own, and yet unfathomably different. It's an amazing sensation, and weird that super-enhanced images of bugs are more likely to bring tears to our eyes than prompt cries of "disgusting!"

brett at 08:46 AM on July 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It took more than a little bit of sweat, but the jade has been repotted and is now ensconced in its new home, which happens to be a beautiful black and white glazed pot. Also, take a look at the nice decorative stone atop the dirt.

There are, of course, more pictures on Flickr. I'll post another update on Mr. Jade when I get to pruning him back (which will hopefully lead to some beautiful flowers around Christmas time!)

brett at 08:06 PM on July 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

My amazingly huge jade plant has been having some trouble lately: crinkly leaves that have been yellowing and dropping off. It has gone on for about a month now, and I've decided that my approaches to solving the problem initially (providing more water and a better position for sunlight) weren't drastic enough. So I decided to re-pot the plant, remove all the dirt from the rootball, and insert it into a new soil mixture.

The problem was that the jade had been potted in a commercial soil mix that included peat moss--something that becomes hydrophobic if it dries too long. So basically, my jade has been stuck in a perpetual drought since I've purchased it (as after the first drying session, the peat moss never rehydrated, despite repeated watering). So though I've been watering, the jade hasn't been drinking, and has been dropping it's leaves in an attempt to survive.

The fix, of course, is completely new soil. Thanks for a few friends (Walker, Eric & Megan), and the help of the hose from Ali Baba's Gyros, we were able to cut the pot off and wash the root ball off, thus removing the peat. And let me mention that this thing is heavy, dragging it up and down two flights of stairs was not fun at all.

Hopefully we will repot this giant tonight, as it is currently lounging (pot-less and dirt-less) in my bedroom. A few more photos of the repotting can be found on Flickr.

brett at 10:22 AM on July 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're back from Okoboji. My Aunt Carol and Uncle Bill were kind enough to let us use one of their cabins in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and we enjoyed every sun-drenched minute of it. Definitely one of the better vacations I've ever taken.

We spent quite a bit of time paddle boating, drinking, jet skiing, hanging out on docks, swimming, reading, grilling, laying around in hammocks, shopping and sleeping in--but mostly we spent our time relaxing. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. Ryan, Megan and I were the only travelers, though Sam did come up for one day of fun at the "Great Lakes of Iowa."

brett at 09:05 AM on July 09, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)