"It's been a long time, I shouldnt have left you without a dope beat to step to" 

Sorry its been a while kids....i have been uber busy and the blogging fell by the wayside...
Hopefully i am back for good now and can keep the masses happy...we will see...

i dont really have anything to write about so we will start out with a song of the day...
it comes from the group Rootbeer and is called "Pink Limousine"

Let me know what you think!

i want to start off by saying handi was amazing last night!  im pretty sure dan and joyce and rob and holly all loved it so we have some new indian eaters!  very exciting!    
okay okay not really...he is played by dev patel who is from Harrow, north-west London...which has a pretty high Indian population, something like 22%...here he is:he is also a black belt in taekwondo and finished third in the 2004 world championships...not bad...

the main female character ,Latika, was played by Freida Pinto, who is from Mumbai...

I thought they worked well together and i think they are dating now...good work dev!

if you have seen the movie let me know what you think...and if not you should go see it right now and let me know what you think!

in honor of india and slumdog millionaire day, our song today comes from a.r. rahman.  i was lucky enough to find a good copy of the slumdog ending on youtube with the crazy dance routine...very fun.                   

in honor of william shakespeare's birth and deathday...we are going to play a song that has to do with him somehow....can anybody see the connection?  it will be easier for some than others....let me know what you think...                    

today kids we are talking about india...honestly i knew very little about anything india until fairly recently...i remember seeing the indian engineering students at clemson and seeing them playing cricket behind the baseball stadium....beyond that i didnt know much at all except the obvious...


I also like Saag Paneer...all i can say is that it tastes better than it looks...
i usually dont like spinachy type stuff but this is unbelievable...
and no meal can be complete without some naan...which is just bread, but you can get all kinds of toppings/stuffings....this is garlic naan, which i love!
these are just a few things i like but there is so much more out there...Anybody want to share some of their favorites?

this is getting long so we will continue tomorrow with something else i love about india...slumdog millionaire...

Today we have K'naan, who i really like...he does hip hop in a way i would like to see mainstream hip hop go although i know that is impossible...people love pop music like what lil wayne and his sort do way too much...to me, its a crazy world where people will say lil wayne or t.i. or any of current "best rappers alive" are better than actual artists like mos def, common, talib kweli,etc, etc, etc...but i guess thats just person preference....i just like some substance in what i listen too...

anyways, thats my rant for the day....enjoy K'naan in I Come Prepared with Damian Marley...its not his best but its a good intro, for his best check his more raw earlier album the dusty footed philosopher....He's a somali who moved to nyc and then canada...check out his other stuff if you like it...

Today is the first installment of something i am very excited about...it is my song of the day! I am going to do my best to post a song with video most everyday. These will be songs i like and people will probably hate some of them but its my blog so deal with it...also, i will take requests and maybe have guest song of the day posts...

It was hard to pick the first song since i liek so many but at the end of the day it wasnt that hard...it had to come from one of my favorite bands and it had to include an amazing beard, a singing stand up bass player, some craziness, and a concert lyric change....and with those parameters there was only one choice....

the avett brothers- left on laura, left of lisa



let me know what you guys think!

hello all hope you had a wonderful weekend!  our was great but of course much too short...

and as attractive as that man is in his MacLaren tartan kilt, i dont think its really for our son...
while nice and orange its really not my style, so no my son is not named after it, but i can understand the confusion...
I mean how many kids have a sweet stroller with their name all over it? we are going to be in trouble if child #2 comes along....we will have to name he/she Bugaboo or Graco or something...

So while so so close, Maclaren isnt named for the stroller company....

Lets go to who he is really named after...
notice the khaki dress sock, very classy Claren...
This is the same summer Johnny Bighead came from, i dont think a ton of people know or remember that...we can talk about that story if you guys want...

Lucy and I really wanted to honor claren and rance (they had the same name Clarence and each took a part) with our sons name but we had a really hard time thinking of soemthing. We didnt want to name him claren or rance but wanted to use the name somehow...maybe a middle name or something...but then we found it... We were in NYC for christmas and were in fao schwartz checking out strollers and we saw a display for Maclaren strollers...and it clicked....this would let Maclaren have his own identity and honor them at the same time...this was a good solution for us...it is a little unusual and sounds a little funny with our last name but it really works for us...

we loved claren because he was so beautifully human...he had tons of struggles and faults...if anyone tells you he was perfect please laugh at them...that is what made him great...he wasnt good at sports but tried hard, he wasnt the smartest kid in the class but he got through it...his compassion was great and had a love for people...even when we were painting stupid trees in ecuador he didnt complain all that much...see photo from ecuador below:



we had our difference sometimes and would get in little squabbles sometimes but it was in a brother kind of way and for the time i had with him i am grateful...and through all of the tragedy so many good things happened...they are too numerous to count but one of the biggest for me was getting to experience noah (his younger brother) and grow closer to him. I was able to experience something with noah this weekend that was on the last things i was able to do with Claren....nothing huge but fun for me all the same....see photos...
Prom Photos...it can be awkward for the old people to come take photos but i am glad they let us in for a second so we could take part...

Hello kids, today we are going to talk about my friend joe...joe is a rapper...joe is white...
then it gets even worse when you hear about a white rapper...immediatley you think of this: and it gets worse, he is a white rapper that is a christian...and it turns into this...

But joe is much different…he is hard to define and doesn’t fall into any stereotype.  I think this is a major part of his appeal and why people are drawn to him…it makes you want to figure him out and see why he is the way he is…and I think at the end of the day he is just into a lot of stuff…he has a lot of interests and isn’t afraid to explore them…

But enough about all that, lets get to the good stuff!

Joe goes by the name sintax.the.terrific…if you want to know what it means ask him yourself…im sure he would gladly tell you all about it…he does have a day job and do we have any guesses as to what that is?

That’s right he is a lawyer…at first you may be like, “what?  He is a lawyer/rapper?”  But if you think about it for a second it makes sense…both use words to spin their stories, so really, why not a lawyer?

He is part of a crew called Deepspace5 which was signed on Gotee but now they are doing their own thing…they are sort of a big deal…Check out their video for “Talk Music.”

                       

For me, these guys could be big but have taken a more grassroots approach and use this as their creative outlet as well as their ministry…All the guys in Deepspace can kill it so check them all out. Click Here for their MySpace with music.

Now let's compare a few lawyer/rapper photos of him and then listen to some of his music…

Here he is in his lawyer gear with his wife…

                         
This is his video for "Moonlighting."  Its a pretty cool video that shows off a little of personal life...very nice.

The Peg Leg...The peg leg is a staple of all awesome pirates...there is nothing like the gait of a one legged pirate chasing you, im sure they are great for sailing the open sea, so much for sea legs!

Next,

The Eye Patch...another staple of a good pirate...this is huge on a number of levels...not only is it terrifying to look at, the empty eye socket it is a convenient place to store that emergency gas money...think one eyed willie in the goonies...

The last is...



Hook hand...this would have easily made the list if it was a bit more practical...it does make a handy hands free weapon but is not good for steering ships,drinking grog, and picking up your pirate booty so you upward mobility in the pirate world is not good.

The pirate above is clearly a wanna-be, notice that is not a real hook hand, you can clearly see his real hand holding it so i am not impressed...he is probably the worst pirate ever and some captains little brother so everyone just plays along and lets him be...

Contrary to popular belief the pirate in the news recently in Somalia didnt look like regular pirate such as...

I mean really, if you are going to be a pirate at least do it right as Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom have so appropriately done it above...
while he does have more impressive weaponry than a sword or hook his attire needs an update, at least he could have put on some pants for the big adventure...and what pirate hides his identity? you have to take all the glory for your dashing escapades!

These pirates do have a pretty sweet home base...its seems like this is a big game of tag and base is somalia...they act as if they will be home free if they can only reach the coast...for those of us who dont know where somalia is chck the map below...
Although similar to the beloved bonnie blue, the color is all off and by default not as cool...

So all of you pirates, aspiring pirates, and wanna-be pirates i leave you with this...

so as all of you faithful readers know the family went to clemson on saturday and soaked in all the orange goodness...im going to give a pretty quick report because i want to go to bed soon...

We got the little man all decked out in his finest clemson gear and headed on down to clemson. the trip down was pretty uneventful but we got there a little later than we hoped so we decided to head to the surplus sale before the letterman's brunch...when we got there people were lined up and ready to get to all the ponchos, jock straps, and sports bras....pretty much like this:

once we fought through the crowd we realized all those people were fighting for spots at about 10 tables of merchandise...but once we got to a table we figured out why....it was actually good stuff...lucy got some stuff from the track team, running shorts and shirts and stuff and she found me some dri-fit shirts and such....also she found some pretty amazing soccer jerseys for the future of the little man...more on that later...

we also went to littlejohn to see lucy's hall of flame plaque...there is a little alcove that has all the hall of fame stuff, very cool


See the little boy hiding his eyes? already getting embarrassed to be out with his mommy and daddy...

cant you see the resemblance? Are lucy's eyes really that crooked? i think not...

we then went to the letterman brunch with shrimp and grits and all kind of goodies. It was held up in the tiger's den boxes, def. somewhere i have never been....

Then on to the game...
it turned out to be pretty boring considering its just a scrimmage...we stayed for about a quarter and then starting heading back to the homestead...


The little boy also got his first picture with the tiger cub, i dont think he was super into it...what do you think?

It was a great day in clemson, pretty low key and it was fun to be back...

And for the little man, we think he should play soccer for clemson, more specifically a keeper...the US is know for its keeper more than anything and its a cool position, think iker casillas...

And here is a picture of Maclaren for the road....not bad for 9 weeks old!!!