Do Better Thursday: Week In Review – 12.17.09 to 12.23.09

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

I hope you all find this blog in great spirits with warm delight!

And to those who aren’t in the most festive of moods… fear not!

This post just may be the cure-all for your woes…

Doing It Right…

• Some monkeys got revenge on their trainer in China last week through the usage of Taekwondo. During a demonstration outside of a shopping district the monkeys caught their master slipping and decided it was the perfect time to attack. The stunned crowd observed flawless execution of the martial art. It was stated that the trainer attempted to defend himself with a staff only to be confronted by “Donatello the Monkey” wielding one his damn self! The only bad part about this story is that there isn’t any video evidence. Oh well! We can imagine especially with the help of this pic!

• Yale grants admission to the Crouch quadruplets!!! This is the first time the school has ever given admission to quadruplets. I’d imagine there aren’t too many schools that have done the same. The larger story is the fact that nothing has been made of their racial make-up. And if I may say so, it’s pretty evident by looking at their beautiful locks that one or both of their parents are Black. However, only that they roomed in one belly for 9 months and happen to all be bright has been mentioned. What was that line again… “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” I know 2009 has had it’s number of sad events, let’s not forget some of the dreams turned reality.

• Jay Electronica drops Exhibit C… Honestly, there isn’t much more I’m going to say on this topic. I avoided his work, mainly because I’m leery of artists who have a ton of hype but no studio album to speak of. (ahem, Papoose… Saigon… Drake…) However, last week, Jay Elec and brother Just Blaze single-handedly altered my iPod listening from Donny, Marvin, Isaac, Caston & Majors, Jackson 5, Rick James and Foreign Exchange to Donny, Jay Elec, Marvin, Jay Elec, Isaac, Jay Elec, Caston & Majors, Jay Elec, Jackson 5, Jay Elec, Rick James, Jay Elec, and Foreign Exchange then Jay Elec. As you can see it’s had some effect on me. (Btw, I recently tweeted about the elimination of either “affect” of “effect”, tweet back if you feel me… or even if you don’t…) How can I explain what I felt as the beat dropped and the lyrics flowed… It’s the passion of The Game when he first dropped, the delivery of Nas, depth of Mos & Talib, mic signature of Black Thought, production quality of Jay from a cat who was raised in the same jurisdiction of Wayne. Bottomline, it’s Hip Hop. I guess I had alot more to say about it than I thought. Well here you go…. a link to download off iTunes… a much needed click, so more of this will come out. Enjoy.

• The Most Valuable Puppets are back and in the holiday spirit featuring Lupe Fiasco as Blitzen & KRS-One as Santa. Honestly, this time I don’t have much to say… just that… if you’re going to commercialize hip hop, this is how you do it respectfully.

Overall, I’m gonna have to go with Lupe on the bars… Although, Santa had a very dope verse… LeBron stole the show with the hook “dunking on that reindeer, dunking on that reindeer.”

• Alyssa Milano takes on Snooki of “The Jersey Shore” and the Jersey stereotype that is quite evident on the show. I just wish someone with similar or greater fame would say something against BET and the like. Unfortunately, it seems we embrace the stereotypes as opposed to seeing them for what they are and speaking out against them.

http://player.ordienetworks.com/flash/fodplayer.swf

• The Do Better Movement would like to propose to Congress that Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas” be acknowledged as the United States of America’s Holiday Anthem. It should be stated that this is completely independent of Obama’s presidency, for it is long overdue. However, much like the striking of the popular culture hot-iron that was Stevie Wonder in 1980 with the push for MLK Day… we must strike now again for Donny’s rendition!!! It’s waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than all the tired holiday mess we deal with yearly, from “It’s A Wonderful Life” to “A Christmas Story” to “Silent Night” (except for The Tempations version, that’s solid) and even those grainy ass Charlie Brown cartoons on ABC. It’s time to Do Better and Stand For Change!

• THE DO BETTER MOVEMENTS MAKE IT TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP in fantasy football. This is completely a self-indulgent post but after last year as the “Uptown GetItCrackins” and going 2-11 it had to be shared. This year, I switched up team name to “The Do Better Movements” and that is exactly what we did. After creeping into the playoffs with an average, but MUCH improved, 7-6 record the Movements knocked off the number 1 seed to reach the finals this weekend!!! Below is the recap of the victory, I would display the post-game-trash-talk-monologue email but I want to keep the peace in the league.

 Doing It WRONG!

• DC cop pulls out gun on snowball fight. By now it’s made national news so this won’t be too in-depth. Bottomline, some folks got together via Twitter and linked up to have a massive snowball fight around 14th & U St in Northwest DC. Everything was peace until a participant tossed a snowball at a truck driving pass… just so happened that an off-duty cop was the driver. Upset because someone dared to throw water in the state of a solid at his vehicle he decided to get out and confront the evil-doer. Word? You’re that sensitive over your truck that you feel pulling out a gun is a just & sound reaction? C’mon son, getthefuckouttaherewiththatjohnwayneshit!

• Crazy fool throws snowball at DC Cops face while his gun is out!!! There’s two sides to every story… and there’s certainly another one to this story. It’s quite understandable to be appalled at the cop for drawing his weapon at a crowd of snowballers, but to take to the level of slinging a snowball at his face is lunacy. If EVER I’m around a person with a gun… I haul ass. It could be my momma with a gun… I’m hauling ass. The last thing I’m thinking is “I wonder if I can hit him in the face.” What the hell do you think a man who draws out a gun because you hit his car will do when you hit him in the face??? Fortunately, for these fools the cop didn’t pop a cap in their ass. Which may have been Do Better Approved if he had indeed shot them in the ass versus something fatal. Watch the video… 

• Trainer trains tame monkeys Taekwondo and gets taught a lesson. (See above) Come on chief… you know you can’t trust no monkey especially ones trained in the art of ass kicking. Attacking at the first hint of you slipping is what. they. do. You’ve been warned.

•  It’s official the Boys Choir of Harlem is no more. I didn’t want to place this in the “Doing It Wrong!” category after decades of the institution doing it right, even despite it’s recent issues. However, the fact we’ve allowed a prominent entity of Black identity fall is us “doing it wrong.” And for that we’ve got to Do Better.

thank you for doing better,

– dre’ of onustees.com