Big Willy Laughin' Straight To The Bank

Wassup, Y'all!

Man - ain't no stoppin' Will Smith at the box office. Movie viewers brushed off so-so reviews of his latest flick 'I Am Legend', ponied up $76.5 million and made Big Willy's sci-fi flick the biggest December opener...ever - taking out previous champ Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King. Yeah, the king has returned alright. Not surprisingly, I Am Legends' initial splat rating at Rottentomatoes.com has magically turned Fresh.

I'm sure somewhere in the world Big Willy is lightin' a stogie with a Benjamin and doin' like Fiddy - laughin' straight to the bank (and laughin' straight at the critics). You know you're good when folks show up at the theater to not just see the movie but to see you in the movie. That's juice, jack. Big ups, Big Willy.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Vick Snitch only gets a deuce!

Wassup, Y'all!

In hopefully my last mention of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson and Mike Vick for a while, I just had to jump in and holler about the weak a$$, two month sentence Hudson handed down to Bad Newz Kennels and dogfighting mastermind Tony Taylor. A deuce! Two measly months for the brother who 'helped develop and run the dogfighting operation and admitted killing two dogs, one by gunshot and one by electrocution'. Prosecutors were pushing for probation! The cheap seats reaction? ASPCA? Cool! Humane Society? Cool! Man, I bet at least PETA is planning a late night drive by - that crew is hard...like Green Peace...

Of course former Falcons teammate, T-Hud, also turned States Evidence on his boyz and sang like a canary. For that laudable behavior he gets a deuce while Mike Vick's 'Get Sprung' clock is at 695 days and counting. That just doesn't smell right to me, y'all. We spend all that time in school teaching kidz that you shouldn't be rewarded for bad behavior but our justice system is set up for just that. What happened to Sammy Davis, Jr. and 'Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time?'

It'll be interesting to follow T-Hud's after jail life as he avoids all those errrant bricks headin' his way when his boyz finally get out... Man, it'll be just like when Stone and Robert from Cooley High got sprung!

Big ups to Lady E for droppin' a note in the basement about this ruckus!

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Sickle Cell Cure on the Horizon?

Wassup, Y'all!

There's a pretty encouraging Washington Post article that showed up in Ol Ty's mailbox the other day. We've all heard the ruckus going on in D.C. related to embryonic stem cells (if you haven't, stand in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic for about ten minutes and wait to get hit by a brick...). Since there's been so much moralistic pressure against using embryonic stem cells despite the amazing promise stem cells hold for curing a laundry list of illnesses, scientist have been trying an end run around this by developing viable stem cells from other sources...

According to the article, a recent technique for turning mouse skin cells into stem cells has shown real promise. Though this news is big, the bigger news is that once these stem cells were reintroduced into their mice donors, each sick with sickle cell anemia, the mice were cured. Of course there's always a long path between here and there, but this has be considered welcomed news to the southside community, the community predominantly effected by this chronic and lifelong affliction.

Two snaps up to our biologically inclined homeys who decided way back in high school that biology would actually be a pretty cool profession. This is just why you little homeys need to stay in school and forget about that thug life ruckus.


Peace@Least,

Tyrone

'I Am Legend' Reviews Not Legendary

Wassup, Y'all!

Will Smith's new joint 'I Am Legend' drops today and it looks like the reviews are mixed. Y'all know Ol Ty has been holdin' out hope for a movie that could live up to its trailer havin' been a bit disappointed with American Gangster and so lookin' forward to this sci-fi thriller starring Big Willy Style. Claudia Puig, USA Today's critic seems to dig it (tho she only gave it 2.5 stars and seems to be more into Big Willy than the movie), but so far it's receiving a splat over on Rottentomatoes.com which is a fairly good barometer of a movie's flyness...

Even the positive reviews like:

"The movie year's most expensive and ambitious sci-fi spectacular, I Am Legend, is three movies in one: a futuristic effects-o-rama, a zombie thriller and a survivalist parable. Each is better than average, and the experience is fairly gripping."

seem to take a backhand slap at it. 'Fairly gripping'? What the hell is that? A thriller needs to gripping, y'all.

Everybody seems to have a problem with the second half of the movie, the poor computer graphic imagery (CGI) of the zombies that appear and the fact this the story is similar to those UK based flicks 28 Days Later (liked it) and, the more recent 28 Weeks Later (not so much).

Anyway, we'll see. I'm holdin' out 'til mid next week to catch this joint, so until then, holler back and let me know what you think.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

George Foreman: Teen Mugger

Wassup, Y'all!

Almost lost among the details in the letters sent to Judge Henry E. Hudson on behalf of Michael Vick requesting leniency (including a handwritten joint by Mike Vick himself) is the one in George Foreman's letter that pointed out how the grill pitchman was once a teenage mugger who 'covered myself with mud from a busted sewer pipe under a house so the police dogs couldn't sniff me out'. First, we all know that wasn't 'mud' he was covering himself in during that straight Shawshank moment. Second, George was trying to make the point that some people make big mistakes, yet can turn their lives around and become productive citizens...

Among those writing letters to the judge on Mike Vick's behalf were Hammerin' Hank Aaron, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Mama Vick and a few of the charities that have benefited from homeboy's generosity. Strangely missing was a letter from his knucklehead cousin Davon whose bush league shenanigans led to the discovery of the dog fighting operation. Put another way, homeboy is the tape on the doors at the Watergate Hotel. My Republican homeys should be able to feel me on that one.

Man, George was swinging for the fences with his letter. He straight admitted that he covered himself in doo-doo. That's a friend, Mike Vick.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Bernie Mac & Wayans Bros back, America!

Wassup, Y'all!

Word has filtered to The Basement that Bernie Mac and Shawn and Marlon Wayans are prepping new TV projects. America, I didn't even know Bernie Mac was off his last show. In his new joint, 'Starting Over', B-Mac will play a 'divorced, opinionated guy who not only finds himself living with his son but also working for him.' Hmmm...sounds like Must Flee TV to me, but I'll give it peep when it drops...

As for the boyz you (I) love to hate, the Baby Way crew is collaborating on a new joint called 'Life And Times of Marcus "Felony" Brown' - 'the tale of an up-and-coming hardcore rapper (Darius McCrary) who moves to LA to record his second album, trailed by his manager, body guard and hype man'. Hmmm...if you want dead on satire of the life and times of a 'hardcore' rapper then save yourself some time and check out the Thugnificent Boondocks episode (PG-13 Adult Swim material, y'all. You know the Boondocks makes prolific use of the N-word so use your discretion on if and where to view...).

That joint had ol Ty cryin', y'all. If the Baby Way crew can top that then I'll bow down to their superior comedic skillz (riiiiight)...

boondocks thugnificent



Peace@Least,

Tyrone

RIP Ike Turner

Wassup, Y'all!

Anna Mae! Ike finally gave up the ghost, homegirl. Ol Ike - immortalized on the silver screen by always smooth Laurence Fishburne in the bio-pic 'What's Love Got to Do With It' - didn't seem so likable after that portrayal, but to his credit, like OJ, Ike did dispute he was all that bad a$$. I'm still waiting for the Ikettes to weigh in on that one but I wouldn't put that 'old school pimp' behavior past him. Still he did contribute greatly to the musical world, but unlike Cher when her ex Sonny Bono died and she gave a teary eulogy at his funeral, it doesn't sound like Tina's feeling that noise...

When reached with the news, her spokeswoman Michele Schweitzer broke it down like this:

"Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today. She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made."

Daaaammmmnnnn! 35 years? That's cold, Anna Mae. I told y'all that sisters don't play! Truthfully, I'm surprised that Ike made it this long as I'm pretty sure Tina had a standing hit out on homeboy Anyway, rest in peace, Ike and don't hate on that champagne toast Tina is having at this very minute. It's not always about you, you know...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

National Racial Profiling - Peep 'Rendition'

Wassup, Y'all!

No it ain't The Perfect Holiday and Tyler Perry ain't in it (cuz y'all know you've seen everything Tyler Perry has put out and you can't wait to see Gabrielle Union in TPH). In fact, there's not a single southside face in this joint, but if you read the recent news about disappearing CIA torture footage and their use of 'waterboarding' to eliciting confessions from terrorists squirreled away in secret CIA prisons outside the country, check out the flick 'Rendition' when it hits the barbershop bootleg circuit....

This joint opened and closed at the theaters with little fanfare (you may still be able to catch it at the 'second run' theaters), but it posed the following jacked up 'What if? scenario': What if you were a law abiding, foreign born national who has lived most of your life in the United States but you suddenly get flagged as a terrorist on your way back to the States from a technical conference?

Trust me - this joint is DEEP and will have a familiar feel to it for southsiders who have experienced similar racial profiling. Remember the Chicago PD torture stories? Now picture that on a national scale with Gangster Sam swinging the phone book...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Queen Latifah: The Denial

Wassup, Y'all!

The rumor wire is white hot with new of Queen's 'coming out' party and follow up nuptials, but Queen herself ain't havin' it, y'all. According to USA Today (by way of Mario Anzuoni at Reuters), Queen was up in my neck of the woods, Chi-town, for her 'The Perfect Holiday' movie premier and 'laughed off the idea of any wedding announcement'....

She told the Chicago Sun-Times: 'Ain't gonna be no wedding'. Just like that - all grammatically incorrect and what not. She went on to dish to All Hip Hop (though I sure didn't see it...) that 'You can't believe everything you read...there will be no major announcement made'.

So I don't know what to make of MediaTakeOut.com's 'exclusive'. Either they're trying to just drive traffic to their site (which is straight tacky for 'the most visited Black website in the world'...must be Wally World) or Queen is pulling a Mike 'I didn't know that was going on' Vick or this is much ado about nothing and Queen plans to keep her lifestyle on the down low like Oprah and Gail (which is the rumor I'm throwing out there to drive traffic to my site - the most visted Black website on Ashland Avenue...)

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

Mike Vick Countdown T-699

Wassup, Y'all!



Just thought I'd throw a Mick Vick Countdown clock out there for my time obsessed basement dwellers. I've dropped one in my sidebar as well for real time updates. I know, I know - what about the dogs? You won't find a bigger dog lover than ol Ty and I'll be the first to condemn ol boy's heinous actions, but he is paying his debt to society, lost a tall stack of money and now it's all about piling on.

Keep in mind, that Mary Winkler killed her husband, got convicted of voluntary manslaughter and only served 67 days. I'll admit the circumstances are dubious and that I don't know what happened but she was convicted and only did 67 days. Note that Mike Vick's clock is at 699 days and counting...

Peace@Least,

Tyrone