Oakland News: Mayor's Race - Sue Piper's Confusing Email On Jean Quan

Last week this blogger expressed displeasure with the appearance of Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan's very good newsletter, because it's confusing to know if Quan's in her duties as councilmember or if she's in her mode of running for Mayor of Oakland.

 Now, Sue Piper, who represents Jean in campaign activities, responded for Quan via email. Unfortunately, the response was more confusing than expected. She wrote:

The weekly newsletter is a private enterprise funded by jean quan and not funded by the city.

Sue piper

Here's the problem.

As Oakland Councilmember, Jean Quan's paid by Oakland taxpayers. That means the tax dollars go to the production of the newsletter, which means the city is involved in the newsletter.

It just doesn't look good.

It's not that Jean's being sinister, just frankly a little careless. In a hotly contested Oakland Mayor's Race, taking on practices like this one just doesn't send the best message. Moreover, Sue really should have thought through that email before sending it. Very surprised she did that, but she did.

Courtney Cox Split From David Arquette, For Now

Courtney Cox Split From David Arquette: credit TMZ.com for the sad news that Cougar Town and Scream star Courtney Cox separated from the man she met on the set of Scream, David Arquette.

But folks, it's just a separation, not a divorce. They've been together for 11 years. Apparently, this separation has been in the works for months and only now is the press learning about it.

But while some pubs have escalated this news into a divorce, it's not that, which explains why Cox is still wearing her wedding ring.

But, hey, David Arquette's not wearing his ring. What's up with that? TMZ has a photo of David without the ring on. That's awful.

Well, the couple has one daughter that, hopefully, is not seeing any difference in her home life. Separations and divorces are hard on little kids. They don't get why Mom and Dad aren't together and will take sides.

This blogger knows from experience.

Meanwile, Courtney Cox split From David Arquette, but let's hope they get back together. Maybe they need to just spice up their sex life.

Minka Kelly Picts: NOT The Sexiest Woman Alive, It's Kim Kardashian

Minka Kelly 

Sorry, but Minka Kelly picts reveal the Friday Night Lights star and girlfriend of NY Yankees star Derek Jeter (and linked with John Mayer) is not the sexiest woman alive. Whoever paid Esquire Magazine to come up with that got their money's worth.

But the truth is Minka Kelly, while looking nice, doesn't have the curves and legs of Kim Kardashian. Given the way she fills out a Herve Leger mini dress, Kim Kardashian's the sexiest woman alive.

After all, Kim Kardashian's on the cover of W Magazine, naked. Let's see Minka pull that off!

Minka Kelly?  How About Hatchet II's Danielle Harris?

All of this back and forth is nothing but good for Minka Kelly. Frankly, this blogger's not much of a consumer of Friday Night Lights, even though it's a good show, so Minka's not in my headlights. But she's a steady player on a good show and dating Jeter and John Mayer can't help but increase her celebrity "Q" rating.

But "the sexiest woman alive." No. That's going too far over the top. Way too far.  If someone's going to put Minka out there, how about Kim and also Hatchet II Star Danielle Harris, who should be one of FHM Magazine's Top 100 Sexiest Women.  Not seen her.  Check out this video from Comic Con 2010:



Rather that one woman, it's better to have a large list. In this day and age of the Internet and mobile, it's too easy to come up with a better choice for the title. Nothing against Minka, but Kim and Danielle are up there too.

Kim Kardashian W Magazine: Paris Hilton Set Tone For Kim

Minka Kelly is not the sexiest woman alive. It's Kim.

Kim Kardashian, fresh off her New York City bar fight, is now called The Queen Of Reality TV, poses for W Magazine naked for the cover of the W Mag November issue.

The promo points out that Kardashian can't sing or act or dance, but that she's a celebrity in the art of being herself. What W should have added was that Kardashian can get attention, and that's where her celebrity comes in. Moreover, it's television aided.

Kim Kardashian W Magazine buzz is the result of a trend that was really started by Paris Hilton. Paris created the way to get noticed. So much so that this blogger listed the formula at the Sports Business Simulations website of the company that's the other part of this life.

Paris Hilton Set The Tone For Kim K

Here's the formula:

1. Get invited to a lot of parties
2. Make sure your photo is taken all the time
3. Meet celebrities but no autographs
4. Have a business card
5. Collect business cards
6. Make sure you're on all of the social networks
7. Take pictures and video of people
8. Gossip
9.  Have a website
10. Have a blog and use it
11. Do something scandalous
12. Make a sex tape
13. Set up a company
14. Make a reality TV show on YouTube

In some way Paris Hilton has done all of that, and before Kim K.  It's just that Kim's much better at using Twitter than Paris Hilton is.  Kim's got over 5 million followers now.  And also, like Paris, Kim's hot.  The only way you know that you can do this and be good at it is if other people tell you you're hot.

Period.

RIP Roger Clayton of Uncle Jamms Army: LA Loses a Hip Hop Pioneer

RIP Roger Clayton

Just got word this morning that yesterday one of the key architects and pillars for West Coast Hip Hop passed away.. We’re talking about Roger Claytonaka Mr Prinze of the pioneering legendary crew Uncle Jamms Army. This is the 4th pioneering figure the West Coast has lost in the past few years. It was just last week folks buried Danny ‘Fut’ James who ran the influential Impact Record pool dating back to 1982.

We lost Michael Mixxing Moore and Skeeter Rabbit within a month of each other 2 years ago. We also lost Mixmaster Spade. Here in the Bay we just lost Mr Fantastic aka Melvin to a heart attack. It’s a shame that these important figures were never honored before their passing outside of LA.

Losing Clayton is major. It like losing one of NY’s main architects for this culture. It would be like NY losing Afrika Bambaataa.. Not only did Clayton and Uncle Jamms Army bring a unique West Coast sound and style to the game, because they were also party promoters who did those legendary dances at the LA Sports Arena, they were also responsible for turning LA folks onto the emerging rap from NY..They used to also bring out acts like Run DMC, Kurtis Blow and LL Cool J to name a few..

One of the things I think has never truly been appreciated and acknowledged about West Coast Hip Hop was the Mobile DJ Culture that was its cornerstone.. Many like to think that folks out here picked up the game from New York. Such is not the case. Cats were hustling and doing jams with massive sound systems all throughout the 70s.  From LA to the Bay it was not usual to see DJ crews with comic book cartoon like names. In the case of Uncle Jamms Army they were inspired by Parliament andGeorge Clinton.

Their roots were funk music and the crew included legendary folks like Bobcat, Egyptian Lover, DJ Pooh. Battle Cat, Joe Coooly, Chris the Glove, Alonzo Williams and the groups only female member Silky D. Before Uncle Jamms Army there was an earlier crew formed in 1978 called Unique Dreams Entertainmentwhich included Clayton and childhood friend Gid Martin.

These cats early one were known for rocking 4 turntables at a time and mixing records flawlessly while executing what eventually became known as LA’s fast scratch. Uncle Jamms army proceeded the Beat Junkies, KDAY Mixmasters and other better known West Coast DJ Crews.. These were the architects.

As Clayton’s partner Egyptian Lover once explained to me, they had been listening toPrince, Kraftwerk and Parliament and that’s what got them off and running.. Later on they came upon what was cracking in New York and naturally incorporated it and upheld it..The fact that Uncle Jamms Army was able to pull off these massive parties from all over a gang infested city and keep the peace needs to be celebrated the same way we look at the early Kool Herc and Bambaataa parties as being able to do the same thing..

The fact that Clayton and Fut died within a month of each other should not be lost of folks.. Fut with his record pool was main reason folks in LA introduced to music from all over.. Fut was the supplier, Clayton was the presenter.They will be missed..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kLY747G1pQ




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y3rUl7KAjc

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Why We Should All Reconsider Celebrating Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus the Killer

Tomorrow many folks throughout this country will take the day off to pay tribute to a man who set the stage for genocide and the slave trade here in the United States. Yes we’re talking about the man they call Christopher Columbus who is still being taught to us in schools as the guy who ‘discovered’ America. Folks need to seriously reconsider.

It’s interesting to note that while many far right tea Party types are hard at work rewriting text books and removing from its curriculum discussion about slavery and iconic figures like Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and United Farm Worker leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, they are hell-bent on keeping the myth of Columbus going. There’s no mention of any of heinous crimes or the fact that he was an inept explorer who got lost and wound up on this country he supposedly discovered..

The only thing worse then perpetuating the benign myth of Columbus is not talking about how our founding fathers were slave owners.. Thomas Jefferson’s mistress Sally Hemmings was a slave. When the Declaration of Independence was signed with the edicts ‘All men are Created Equal’ those who were enslaved were seen as 3/5th human. Yes we must reconsider Columbus Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il5hwpdJMcg

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Heidi Klum, Khloe Kardashian, Kate Rice, Focus Of The Gossip Queens Racism

Heidi Klum, Khloe Kardashian, Kate Rice, are all in relationships with black men: Seal, Lamar Odom, and Allan Rice and now Jamie Foxx for Kate Rice. OK. Fine. But not so fine with The Gossip Queens.

What's the The Gossip Queens?

It's a new show by Comedian and now Producer, Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios company. Touted as the "gay" version of The View, it has a set of pretty hot women including Loni Love, Bernadette Pauley, and Michelle Collins. Then Alec Mapa apparently fills the gay male slot. Another words, no straight black guys on the show produced by a straight black guy.

This blogger found the show as it's on KNTV TV Channel 11 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since the last program watched was Football Night In America, the 49ers vs Eagles game, that channel was on when the TV set was activated.

Loni Love 

Blasting Black / White Relationships

What this blogger saw was Heidi Klum, Khloe Kardashian, and Kate Rice being made fun of because their men were NBA players or in Heidi's case, Seal. And all of this with eight minutes of the show. The one host, Loni Love was doing all the blasting, so much so she sounded more like The Angry Black Chic than a gossip commenter.

Loni Love said that if Seal and Heidi Klum could be married then anything was possible, leading one to wonder, what does she mean? She never completed her idea, but really Love didn't need to. We got it.

Then she went to remark how Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom were not really in love. And that was when it was obvious that Love herself is single - no wedding ring.

Then, came Kate Rice.  The former wife of Allan Rice is reportedly dating Jamie Foxx.  Love commented that she looks like a little girl, and then, no surprise here, observed that a photo of Kate and Allen looked like a "mini Khloe and Lamar."

Ok.  We get it girl.  You're a little salty about the whole interracial dating thing.  But you've got a great, pretty face and are talented; drop a few pounds and it will all come together for you.  

But don't hate on Heidi Klum, Khloe Kardashian, and Kate Rice because they've got what you want. You sound racist. Cheer them on!

Oh, and have Byron bring this single, straight black guy on the show to balance things out.