ME GUSTO ESTO

Aight. So “I Like It” is an international smash, and I’m running out of languages for the song to be translated. Now mind you, the interpretor is doing it for free and has never been out of the country, BUT, since I don’t speak any of these languages, I have to roll with what my man is sayin’. Sounds good to me. LOL!!
Japanese: 私はそれを好む
Russian: я люблю оно
Italian: lo gradico

I’ll keep you all posted as we travel through Spain with an entourage of “I Like It” fans from city to city. I’m looking forward to a great time. 80 during the day, 65 at night…but i’m taking my bubble goose coat with me, not for Spain but for Buffalo. Buffalo’s weather tends to have no concept of seasons and that there are rules to this game called “nature.” Like, after March, the temperature should NOT drop below 40. Maybe she didn’t get the memo. So just in case, I’ll be ready for the “hawk” when I return to Buffalo from sunny Spain.

Thank you ALL for the support, prayers and best wishes. YEeeAAahhhh!!!
love you lex.

BILLY DREASE @ BFO

 

A “Mighty” Thank You to the good people at WBFO. We are all pleased to announce that Edreys will be the first Hip Hop performance of the ongoing LIVE at Allen Hall Music series hosted by WBFO. (I had to say that part in 3rd person..sounded more cool and official)

There will be many reminders leading up to the show, as the venue holds 180, and we aim for each seat to have a big juicy one or bone skinny bottom occupying it…only to be told during the show..”GET UP OUT OF YOUR SEATS and WAVE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIIIRRR…etc etc etc.

It’s going to be a high-energy show, entertaining, funny and historical. So be there to be a part of history as they will air it LIVE on radio, video tape (along with interview) and podcast. Oh! AND ITS FREE!!!!

Yeah, that’s what I thought. We all love the cost of $free.99

HAVE A SEAT AND PARK IT

For those of you who follow along with what I write (what up Mark??), I joked around on a previous entry about having the first iChair, an invisible stool capable of creating a levitating illusion. Well, guess what…

I’m still joking! HA! Although, this is mighty close to what I was talking about. Kanye mentioned this cat on his blog, and I was surely interested in learning more about the artist. You can look him up and see that he is definitely a talented and technical artist who respects but has also figured out a way to defy gravity.

Johan Lorbeer – German Street Performer

BUTTERNUT REDUCTION

A recipe for laughter! Thanks to my good people at Official Heat, this little animated clip has provided much needed humor throughout the week.

(Favorite part begins at 1:10 into the clip…”But I don’t see you!”)
I LOVE this joint. 

If your ears have been tuned to the radio, or the music videos on television, even a little bit, then you should have heard of T-Pain and Akon. They are both responsible for chart-topping hit records with titles such as:

“I’m Locked Up”
“I wanna (blank) You” – radio version is “I wanna Love You” – figure it out
“I’m N Luv (wit a Stripper)”  – Not a typo
“Buy you a Drank”
“Bartender”

Akon and T-Pain have multi-platinum success with albums titles like KONVICTED and RAPPA TERNT SANGA, respectively. 
WOW!! What incredible aspirations the artists of today have. Convicts; Alcoholics; Strippers….SCHWEEEET!!!

For those of you that have no idea how to interpret T-Pains album title, Rappa Ternt Sanga…I’m actually embarrassed that I understand it myself. TRANSLATION: Rapper Turned Singer.

No disrespect, as I really just wanted to share the video, but once I started to look at the titles and think about the lyrics, I couldn’t help but address it a little bit. Even with that said…when these songs come on over the loud speakers at any gathering…they DO get people up and dancing, which I guess is what its all about for most of us.

GIT CHO MUNNA (ch-ching)

 

 

RIPLEY PART II

Above: Raekwon (L), Me, Kevin…I think his name was Kevin.

Ripley Continued: (The very sweet and pleasantly small town)
I think the restaurant at which we had a bite to eat, was the only joint in town. It was like CHEERS, the show…the staff knew EVERYONES name who walked through the door. It was very dated and old school, like on some 60’s old school stuff. All the people in there were white, with white hair nearly, as if they had lived in Ripley their entire lives, worked, raised families and had eaten many, many meals at the small diner.

I felt weird when I walked in and sat down, like I walked into a time warp. I felt stares, but I’m quite comfortable in any environment regardless of ANYTHING or anyone. It definitely felt like they hadn’t seen a “brotha” in their town in a looong time, if ever. I’m not sure at all what the diversity is like in Ripley, although I’m curious to investigate.

So, this guy walks in to the diner and he orders at the counter, and then shortly after, he turns to our table and leans over the table, as I was sitting in the inside of the booth, and he says to me…”Sir….can I ask you a question?”
I’m like “awww here we go..” “Yeah, whats up?,” I reply.
He asks..”Are you a….(pause)….a sailor?”
“No, why do you ask?” I respond.
…”Because you’re wearing a Pea Coat.”…
Then he just calmly walked out the diner and down the road as I watched from the window.

Now here I am thinking its some other kind of issue as to why they were staring at me, when it was only my Pea Coat. LOL!!!

RIPLEY..BELIEVE IT OR NOT

(Above: Once again…do we look and smile ON 3? or is it 1, 2, 3, then smile? )

Sometime in March, I had the chance to do some speaking and poetic performing in the town of Ripley, NY. I was kindly invited by a friend named Celeste from the Buffalo Arts Council to be her guest along with local writer/performer, MC Vendetta. Ripley is 60 miles SW of Buffalo, so we’re talking ONLY a 45 minute drive or so. But OOOOH what a difference and hour makes.
There are only about 1700 residence in total that live in Ripley. There is ONE district school, that ALL the children attend, from Pre-K to 12. It was definitely a unique place. A guy named Mr. Shine was our host, and he does some wonderful things with the kids in Ripley, as well as a non-Profit he has in Africa. All of the students, parents and staff were GREAT to meet. They went over and beyond to make us feel at home.

All three of us, Celeste, Vendetta and myself, each shared our poetry with a crowd of maybe 35+ people (parents/kids). It was a very positive experience and we made a good connection with the children especially, for those of them that were into writing and performing. I love helping the youth, no matter where they are. The moment that you notice that you have touched the heart of at least one of them, makes any efforts worth while.

PT II to Ripley coming!!

KEEP FEEDIN’ YOU AND FEEDIN’ YOU AND…

(Above: Delicious home made oatmeal. I haven’t learned how to make fruit yet)

You see I had to do my little MTV “blur” thingy on the syrup. No FREE product placements..$$ Ch-Ching!!

BREAKFAST! Definitely my favorite meal of all. I love good food as much as I love good music. I guess I just love good stuff, period. I love good people too. Good places to shop, good movies and good restaurants. But the one thing I don’t think so good, is when I see this on the menu of diners/restaurants: (Breakfast served until 11am). OUCH!!

I need to be able to eat breakfast at ALL times of the day. What’s wrong with these places? It’s easier to whip up a short stack faster than it is to thaw, season and grill some meat…AINT IT?? (pardon the incorrect grammar..but ain’t it better than cursing)

Where are all the people that LOVE breakfast? The ones who can eat pancakes at 1 am in the morning just because they have the taste for some good ol’ eggs, milk, batter, cinnamon and vanilla.

Cheers to all the good people who love a good breakfast…

Oh one last thing…When I was in Atlanta for Trev and Maisha’s wedding some years ago, his brother Tommy and I went to the Waffle House. I’m crazy excited about having some good old southern styled breakfast, and I ask the young lady for a “TALL stack of pancakes”…she replies..”Dis is the Waffle House!…” So I’m like, OK…can I have a SHORT stack of pancakes then?
She says…”I SAID this is the WAFFLE HOUSE.”
Me and my “HUNGRY” Northern-self, firmly replies… “OK! What KIND of pancakes do you have then??”

She says slowly (southern accent included)…”THIS….IS…the ….WAFFLE….house!”…..
Humbly I say….”hmm..ok…sorry. what kind of WAFFLES do you have then”…..LOL
darn yankee

BUTTON IT UP

Buttons are always in style. I personally love buttons, but as to exactly why…I’m not quite sure. But if I had to give my FINAL answer as if money depended on it, I would have to say I like the sound that they make when you tap on them or wiggle them…that little rattle, jigglin’ sound. And for obvious reasons many people like buttons for what they say or convey through image and word.

The I LIKE IT buttons and the DOPE 45 drawing buttons will be available soon, and you TOO can cover your book bag, or carry straps with cool looking and cool “jiggly” sounding buttons all made personally by Edreys and Big Lex!!
Peace

Ya jigglin baby!!
BTW: These will be the big fat, hard to miss, hard to lose 2″ circle buttons.
Props to Trev for stylizing the “Rassler” button.

AUTHENTIC MEXICAN

While in San Fran, I noticed something that made me chuckle. If there was a mexican restaurant with a mexican name, you’d better believe that the employees were of that decent. While here in Buffalo, ummmm….that MAY not be the case a majority of the time.
We actually just ate at a place in downtown Buffalo, where the cuisine was Mexican, but the people behind the counter didn’t look like they spoke one-lick of a foreign language.

(picture of the toilet at EL BALAZO)

I posted already about how good the burrito was that I ate in SF, but I didn’t talk about how UN-mexican the restaurants in Buffalo are. BUT, if you close your eyes while you eat your burrito, and throw a hot-air fan behind your neck, you might be able to imagine you were south of the border or out west..getting the real deal…but good look trying to find someone with that sweet accent.

YO MOMA!

(Above: This picture is of a huge painting right in the entrance, main foyer of SF MOMA)

I mentioned that I would post some pics from my San Fran trip and now I’m finally getting around to it. Let me set this up first by informing you that I used to work as the Asst. for Community Programs at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and as I told my associates upon my departure, I will also share with you that it was certainly “THE Coolest” place to work. My department in particular was very fun, the Education Department, where I was the only male among 8 woman. But I tell ya, I couldn’t have been in a better position. Mariann, Carrie, Nancy (Nooncie), Jannie, Jen, Kelly, Kathy and Espy. They all have a really special place in my heart.

Ok, forget the mushy stuff. All that to say, I clearly know the rules of galleries, and exhibition policies, like no cameras in certain shows, no flash, no this, not that..no pen, please use pencil..etc.
So I was in all kinds of violations at San Fran MOMA. (Museum of Modern Art). One other thing you about the professional fine art world, there are MAD acronyms…for EVERYTHING.

(Above: One of the pics I tried sneaking)

Anyways, the SF MOMA is huge. I think its like 3 floors, massive gallery space with diff shows just on one floor. So this one really cool exhibit had some dope sculptures and interactive displays in which there were no pics allowed..so above and below, are 2 pics of which i quickly, like waist-high, snapped a pic by holding the camera in my bag. I felt so bad, but i had my “dumb” line ready if I got caught…”Oh..I didn’t see the sign that I couldn’t take any pictures.” The pics are horrible, but the memory for me is hilarious as I felt like some espionage agent or something…breathing hard, sweating, and frantic tryin to get a picture..and to little success, but its the memory that counts.