The Homebase!

X-Men: The Last Stand Overview- Includes Spoilers for entire film: X-Men the Last Stand looks to be the final chapter in the X-Men trilogy. Mutants have become semi-mainstream, at least in the United States—Hank McCoy— a former X-Man code-named Beast—is Secretary for Mutant Affairs, and apparently the shape-shifting villainess Mystique has just been captured—or so it seems. Jimmy, aka ‘Leech’, is a mutant whose very presence cancels out the powers of nearby mutants, through pheromones. He has been somehow captured, his mutant-power harnessed and synthesized into a chemical ‘cure’ for mutants in society. The spearhead of this is business mogul Warren Worthington Jr., whose son, Warren III, has bird-like wings that allow him to fly. A press conference is announced regarding the cure, bringing both alarm and relief to the mutant community. McCoy is apprised of the developments of Worthington Industries, and is sent by the President to investigate. In the meanwhile, the X-Men’s arch-...

Mission: Unlikely? Ah. Looking at Tom Cruise's MI3- it’s a good-looking film, with lots of action and gadgets. I think the plot is mishandled, however. Keri Russell has a bit part as a protégé of Ethan Hunt, who ends up captured on her first field mission. Hunt and crew go to rescue her, but she ends up dying from a micro-bomb implanted up her nose. Hunt’s fiancee knows nothing about his life as a spy. Unfortunately, when the team ends up capturing arms dealer Davian, he ends up finding out information on Hunt. As it turns out, there’s a mole in the IMF organization. Evidence discovered by Keri points to boss Laurence Fishburne. Fiancee June is kidnapped by Davian’s followers, and Davian himself is freed in a daring highway escape. Ethan’s framed as the rogue agent, and breaks out of the IMF headquarters to go find the ‘rabbit’s foot’ and rescue June. His teammates are with him. They help Ethan break into the facility that has the Rabbit’s Foot, but Ethan ends up being captured. He...

Jazzy Jeff: Where Ya At? DJ Jazzy Jeff is supposed to come out with a new studio album this year. According to the administrator of a Jazzy Jeff/Fresh Prince fan website, I may be ‘surprised’ when the album comes out this year. I was inquiring about Jazzy Jeff and KRS-One, and the fact that they’ve seemingly never collaborated over the years. Both artists spent several years on Jive Records, with not even a remix surfacing in public. I’d like to see them do an entire album together. "The Magnificent" is a tight album.. I'll have to check out the other records he's done for indie label BBE/Rapster.

X-MEN THE LAST STAND- I’m really looking forward to X-Men: The Last Stand, which comes out on May 26. Hopefully, it will open that Wednesday the 24th, so it will have an even bigger Memorial Day opening than it normally would. The basic plot is this: A ‘cure’ for the mutant condition has apparently been developed by a pharmaceutical company. The Angel’s father, Warren Worthington Sr., is a top executive there. He is spearheading the cure research to eventually take his son’s wings away. Meanwhile, there are psychic rumblings from Alkali Lake, where Jean Grey apparently died while saving the team at the end of X-Men II. It turns out, Jean has been resurrected—as (Dark) Phoenix. Magneto is appraised of the ‘solution’, and mounts what he feels is retaliation for a war being declared on mutants. From what I see, there will be conflict between Iceman and Pyro. Multiple Man will join the Brotherhood, also Callisto will have a role. Juggernaut is on Magneto’s team as well. The X-Men squad hav...

Doin’ the Ipod Shuffle I got an Ipod Shuffle for a Christmas present last year, but I never bothered to activate it until now. This is pretty neat. About the size of a pack of chewing gum, it’s one of the smaller Ipods, so it doesn’t hold as many songs as the standard-sized ones. Still, better not to look a gift horse in the mouth—or a gift Ipod in the headphones port or whatever applies here. So far, what I’ve got uploaded: Lowdown- Ground Zero. Great, funky indie hip-hop from my peeps C-Doc and Tirade. www.impossebulls.com Booker T & the MG’s- Stax Profiles . Beyond their standards, a set of sides personally chosen by Elvis Costello. Four Brothers soundtrack- 1970’s Motown tunes selected for the John Singleton action film.

More stupidity in the Shadow of Motown: As many people know by now, rapper Proof, of D-12, was shot and killed at Club Triple-C on Detroit’s Northeast side. It happened Tuesday, April 11, 2006, around 4:00 a.m. Club Triple-C was an unsanctioned ‘after-hours’ nightclub- you know, the type where you have to have the ‘password’ to get through, plenty of baller/hustler types and there’s little professional security and little or no police presence—at least, no on-duty police presence. During the past couple of years, some other local rappers have been killed: Wipeout, and Blade-Icewood (of the Chedda Boyz). As recently as a few months ago, Obie Trice got tagged in the head during a highway shooting (!); there’s still a bullet lodged in his skull. At the moment, details are still sketchy as to exactly what happened that led to the shooting—early on, police were reporting that another man was killed along with proof—however, the hospital where the 2nd victim is at reports that he is in criti...

Hmm-- there was some hip-hop panel at Stanford University, and things got out of hand with two of the panelists- KRS-One and west coast hip-hop journalist Adisa Banjoko.. If memory serves, their initial 'conflict' involved Banjoko openly questioning KRS' "I Am Hip-Hop" philosophy-- I think that things could have been handled better here, but I'm down with the 'Teacha' regardless.. f*** whoever crosses him.. http://media.odeo.com/4/6/0/KRSarguing.mp3 AUDIO: KRS-One Threatening Adisa Banjoko at Stanford University

Hypestyles' Top 25 Hip-Hop LPs (circa 1980 – 1995) In a recent Rolling Stone article, there was a feature with Chris Rock’s Top 25 hip-hop/rap albums of all time. For whatever reason, it inspired me to come up with my own. I usually try to avoid ‘Top (fill in the blank)’ lists. For one thing, I’m usually at a lack for words to defend my choices other than to say "I just dig it". I’m not the best debater, and when it comes to my own personal tastes, I have little interest in trying to be. As the saying goes, I may not know art, but I know what I like. I’ve tried to select LPs where I’ve tended to listen to them all the way through, or at least 90%. I’ve also tried to keep things to one LP per artist, wherever possible, though a few double-entries may have slipped through. I’ve also put a specific time frame on the entries. Hip-hop’s ‘golden age’ varies from person to person. For my purposes, I’d place it from roughly ’84 to ’94, as my own tastes in hip-hop were pretty muc...

Rise of the Dirty South & are Hip-Hop 'Girl Groups' a Thing of the Past? Watching this year’s Vibe Awards, I was reminded of something- I really don’t relate very well to the current generation of rappers and R&B singers. Most of the rappers in attendance- Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Young Jeezy, Lil’ Wayne, etc., were from the south. After years of neglect, southern hip-hop can claim dominance over both coasts. It’s great that hip-hop’s regional diversity hasn’t stalled. Still, I can’t front, I really don’t buy much southern rap at all. As much as I love the now old-school Geto Boys, they’re almost the only southern rap act I’ve really latched on to over the years. Fellow southern rap pioneers 2 Live Crew had any number of street hits, but I never bought a record from them—but I do have a copy of Luke’s Uncle Luke CD that I literally found discarded on the streets. Out of all of Outkast’s LPs I only have Speakerboxx/Love Below. If Goodie Mob has a best-of set, I might cop t...

At Least it Didn't Happen during the Playoffs: WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes just came out as a lesbian. Whoops , so much for dynamiting the stereotype about female athletes. Her achievements speak for themselves. Several gold medals, WNBA team championships and individual awards. She's a great athlete, and God bless.. Hmm... I wonder will there be any backlash.. especially from the 'hood... Black communities have yet to publicly embrace any openly gay public figures (okay, E. Lynn Harris sells a lot of books, but it ain't the same thing as your kid's sports hero stepping up to a podium and saying she likes girls). Obviously, up until now I'm sure she's done her share of charity appearances and participates in community service and any number of photo-ops. I wonder will the brakes be put on those endeavors. I notice she's got an ex-husband and child.. There's all this lingering hand-wringing over 'down-low' men.. and now....?!??!? ``Do I thi...

WHITE SOX AT THE VERGE OF HISTORY-- egads... this is too surreal.. The white Sox are actually in the World Series.. and they're leading! It is not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary story.. as a former citizen of Northwest Indiana, the Sox and Cubs were the teams to root for-- partly because Indiana has no Major League baseball teams.. maybe a farm team or two.. Game 3 was FOURTEEN INNINGS, lasting over 5 hours... exhausting to watch, let alone play.. If the Sox win game 4 in Houston, it won't be the same as if they won in Comiskey-- er, US Cellular Field (how in the hell did that deal take place, anyway?).. All the same, i'll take a sweep regardless....So far, no crazily stupid stunts have happened, unlike Game 6 in the '03 playoffs when the overzealous Cubs fan tried to grab the foul ball and... well, sports heads know the rest.. Ozzie Guillen deserves major props as the manager, he should get manager of the Year.. Jermaine Dye should have his gear boost in sales ...

Supporting Military Families by Christopher 'HypeStyle' Currie U.S. Military units have been spread across the globe in support of the War on Terror (whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or other countries) as well as many personnel engaged away from home in homeland security initiatives. Americans are looking for methods in which they can help out a military family while Mom or Dad is away. In particular, the families of reservists, who tend not to live near or on a military base, would be in need of assistance because they may not have the immediate support network that usually exists between families that are on military bases. Here are some things to consider if you decide to help a military family- Be proactive with offers to help: Call the family and say that you’d like to bring a dish for dinner, and suggest a date. Offer to take the children for an outing. Assisting in the care and well-being of children is usually a major help: If you have children, offer to ‘swap’ kids one af...

Michigan Senate Seat Up for Grabs in 2006 http://www.freep.com/news/politics/butler24e_20050924.htm One of Michigan's two senators (both Dems), Debbie Stabenow, is up for re-election in '06.. the two primary GOP contenders include two pastors, one white, one black.. one's from Grand Rapids, michigan, the other from detroit.. Keith Butler, along with Andrew Merritt of Straight Gate, Wayne T. Jackson of Great Faith Ministries, Glenn Plummer of Ambassadors for Christ Church & CTN TV ministries and Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church have been among G.W. Bush's strongest local supporters (both vocally and $$$ ) since Bush became the GOP frontrunner for prez in '99.. I've been to Butler's main church (he has like, 7 total) a couple times.. mostly to humor female friends (and no, I didn't get any).. huge place, seats 20,000 easily, but I guess typical for such mega-ministries.. almost like going to a basketball game.. guy has a curiously southern accent for...

class continues, in Africana Studies: History of Work & African Americans.. Had a big debate in this class, concerning Madame CJ Walker & her cosmetics/beauty empire, and what it means/meant for black communities who participated in working for her and/or using her products. What did this mean, in comparison to American/White beauty standards? Did her entrepreneurship exacerbate self-image problems for African-Americans, or did it help to enhance self-image? Consider also the well-documented philanthropy of Ms. Walker.. Does that mitigate the 'issue', for those who think she represented a reinforcement of European-derived standards? Or does that even matter at all? In class, things really got out of hand, as the discussion wavered from discussing the time frame of Mme. Walker, to discussing today's society, which is of course, still deeply affected by European derived standards of beauty, law & morality. The discussion went further to discuss rap music, and...

school daze, '05 style-- back to school at WSU this semester; taking a course in African-American History 1865 - Present: "The History of African-Americans & Work": more or less looking at the history of African-Americans within various industries that have come up since the end of the Civil War. Right now I'm reading On Her Own Ground , a biography of Madam C.J. Walker by her granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles. A very good read so far. Looks as if the course is going to be reading-intensive, we'll be reading about a book every other week. Naturally; as if I didn't have enough things siphoning my money as it is. But, I guess that's just par for the course for your higher education: But-- $128 for 6 books? Egads! All the hustler-types out there need to leave the weed, crack, meth and heroin alone and start selling college textbooks! Stores are making a killing, and it's all legal , and the bad thing is, if the books you use are "unique" t...

Return of the Legends Part II--- September 3, 2005 Hey, I told you this was a two-night show, right? If you missed part 1, it's right below this blog- go ahead, read that one first, I'll wait here 'til you get back: hmm-hmm-hmm... (taps toes).. Back already? Cool beans. So here we go: Earlier that afternoon, I headed downtown to the annual International jazz festival- big chunks of downtown streets were blocked off, and several stages were set up between Compuware headquarters and Hart Plaza on the riverfront. Street vendors were set up along the lower Woodward strip (T-shirts, purses, jewelry, oils/incense, African art, etc.) and you had to buy tickets to get food from all the various food outlets selling stuff. Mingling around the festivities, unfortunately I missed the Ford Field Football Classic that’s been happening this past couple of years, finally bringing some HBCU football—and their bands—to Detroit. Close to show time, I finally made my way down to Chene Park. I...

Return of the legends, part 1: Friday, September 2, 2005: Well, alrighty then.. At last, the concert is here. As I was representing Northwest Indiana for the vast majority of my youth, I never really got the chance to see any hip-hop glitterati during the so-named Golden Age heyday of the Reagan/Bush pt. 1 era of performers (see the archives- http://hypestyleshomebase.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_hypestyleshomebase_archive.html ). So when these 'Return of the Legends' showcases started up last year, I was definitely down. Last year, the two-night lineup included Slick Rick, SugarHill Gang & Melle Mel, Special Ed, Nice & Smooth, & more. This time, there were over 10,000 people packed in at Chene Park, just east of downtown Detroit, situated on the Detroit riverfront. Boat owners set anchor near the outdoor amphitheater and got to see the show for free. The first act started promptly at 8:10 p.m., as MC Serch served as the host, introducing all the artists, and providing ...

Make Politicians Pay Attention: a sample letter that i've been emailing to various elected officials, those near me as well as national-- every little bit helps. a lot of these folks are running for re-election circa '06, so keep that in mind: To whom it may concern: I would like the federal (regional, local) relief efforts to be steppedup to help New Orleans and the other areas affected by the disaster: Some suggestions- For transportation-- appeal to corporations-- get bus companies like greyhound, trailways, etc., to donate buses for evacuations. similar things can be done: charter moving groups like U-Haul, etc. at the various temporary shelter sites, donated food can come from restaurants and food distribution services. All these companies can get tax credit for their donated resources. The Army, Navy, and Marines should be brought in tohelp get people out. Military helicopters can be usedto lift people in groups, and Navy and Coast Guard ships can be used to transpo...