I’m moving!

The new blog: http://thehalftimesteez.blogspot.com/

Let’s go!

Basically, this post is about the top 5 most searched stuff in my blog. I don’t do this, but I think it’s time to give the people what they want — for whatever reason it may be

Ms. Thea Africa aka the most searched-for girl in my blog. I know hot-blooded collegeball fanboys have been drooling over the pretty Lady Blazer. I know, I was mesmerized myself seeing her for the first time. The second time I saw her, I took this pic (right above). Since she’s everyone’s favorite volleybelle/muse, Imma post this pic for the second time. Happy?

Smart Gilas aka “Team MVP”. The most hyped national team in centuries takes over the second spot in this list. I’m sure people are fiending for some SG news for varied reasons: either to support the squad or hate on ‘em completely. While it hasn’t been a beauty, unlike what certain officials say on paper, the guys are worth cheering for. They got heart, as well as a ticket to the FIBA Asia Championships. All they need now is a good import (See Diamon Simpson).

Young Dirk “Uberboy” Nowitzki. A few months back, I posted a video of a teenage, soon-to-be MVP Dirk Nowitzki playing hoops with his HS mates in native Germany.  I wasn’t expecting a big following from visitors, but it has been constantly viewed on a daily basis (thanks, German/Mavs fans!). As an MFFL myself, I’m wishing The Uberman all the best in the coming NBA season.

BJ “Cauliflower Ears” Penn. I haven’t been watching MMA for a minute, but I know for a fact that Penn lost stunningly to Frankie Edgar. As a fan of BJ, it sucked. But that’s MMA: it doesn’t matter if you’re a decorated champ, you’re gonna get beat at one point (hear that, Anderson Silva?). Anyways, all for the best for what’s coming for BJ. A rematch with Edgar would be nice, though.

“Pretty Boy” Mark Barroca. Last, but not the least, is the very handsome Smart Gilas guard. This former FEU Tamaraw has been on the deep end of the Gilas bench as of late (blame Lassiter and Lutz). Clearly, he hasn’t had a decent break since his ordeal with the Tams last year. Hopefully, he’ll come back stronger in the coming tournaments and eventually make an impact  in the pros, which of course, leads to more chicks. Chris Tiu has nothing on his teammate!

Photo via inboundpass

After their first eight assignments, the College of Saint Benilde Blazers pretty much look like what they were last season with a 2-6 mark. It hasn’t been pretty, but there were good signs that CSB can take into the next phase.

The Good

Carlo Lastimosa. NCAA’s leading scorer and arguably the most exciting guard in the league. After so many years of digging deep for talent, CSB finally landed an ace, one who can light up the scoring for the usually offense-deficient Blazers. Uncle Jolas must be proud.

Recruits from winning HS programs. Aside from Lastimosa, CSB struck gold acquiring kids from championship-caliber programs like Luis Sinco (Ateneo), Ralph Nayve & Al Amin (San Beda), Anton Sevilla (DLSZ) and JR Ongteco (Letran). This only means that the coaching staff can count on these guys to rub off a winning attitude to a team that has yet to add up to their first and only title in 2000.

Sophomore step-up. Second-year guards Mark de Guzman and Jan Tan has been steady on most occasions for CSB. MDG is the “energy guy”, excellent in terms of hustle and, of course, the nakaw plays. Tan, on the other hand, is a big man with range. What he lacks in terms of rebounding and size (more on that later), he makes it up through his silky jumpshots.

Why the 2-6 record??

The Blazers looked good in their two victories: their opening win against Arellano U and yesterday’s beating of Perpetual Help. In those two games, Lastimosa — with help from de Guzman, Tan and Tim McCoy — outplayed their opponents from start to finish.

In between these two victories, however, holes were exposed:

Turnovers. Against teams such as JRU, Letran and San Beda, the Blazers flaked in the face of tough defensive pressure. Usually resulting to 8-second violations and easy fastbreak points for the opposing squad, CSB was not able to keep up.

The Letran game was the most heartbreaking of all three, as it was a very winnable contest, what with Knight Kevin Alas out with an injury. Instead, kuya Junjun Alas came through and torched the Blazers.

Speaking of keeping up… in exciting contests against JRU, Mapua and the defending champs San Sebastian, the Blazers faced slow starts that saw them fall behind early, and in the process, had to play catch-up the rest of the way.

At the end of each of these games, the Blazers rallied but fell short. They lost to JRU by 9, to SSC-R by 1 *WOAH* and then to the Cardinals by 2 in OT. Ouch.

Rebounds. CSB is the worst rebounding team in the league. Even bigman-deficient Perpetual beat them in that category. It’s a shame, but it was evident from game one that the Blazers’ bigs are more comfortable hoisting up J’s rather than doing the yeoman’s work inside.

Them “veterans”. Seriously lacking are the veteran leadership that’s supposedly provided by captain Robbie Manalac and MC Abolucion. Manalac had his moments, but he has been largely inconsistent and looked lethargic on the defensive end. While Abolucion has contributed some timely scoring these past few games, his propensity to turn the ball over (via his And 1-like dribbling) has become a setback.

I hate to call out both guys. Knowing them personally, these guys are great people overall. However, I can’t help but point all these out as they are expected to be of great help for this young Benilde squad. Fortunately, there’s still time for them to do this.

What’s looking up?

If there’s anything worth taking through the Blazers’ foray into the second round, it’s their heart. No one thought that this squad would be able to push top-4 teams like JRU and Mapua to the scariest limit. No one thought that Lastimosa and co. rallied and almost defeated San Sebastian. Heck, even the terms “rally” and “CSB Blazers” ain’t never been associated up until this year.

The second round is the perfect way for CSB to channel their inner “Mr. Clutch” and actually win ballgames. They should put into mind that the old days of back-to-back 20-point losses are over. Now that they’ve experienced coming up short in contests, it’s now time for them to actually get over the hump.

In short, the next round is definitely looking up for Benilde. With some hole-reparation, as well as some good ‘ole muni-muni, I’m sure CSB still has that upset-mindedness in them.

They’re awesome, as in awesomely hilarious!

Last weekend was the perfect time to hit up the Makati “hidden” gem. It’s Manila Design Week, and it kicked off with the Wall Lords Graffiti Design Competition.

Lots of people came to show love… about 2,000+… despite the heavy Saturday night downpour.

The first order of business, however, was Outerspace. Some of the works of my schoolmates were put up in the gallery so I had to check it out.

Had to, before we leave…

We hit up Vinyl on Vinyl afterwards.

Interesting feature inside the shop: old Vinyl records stacked inside old arcade tables.

What’s more interesting is that they have Memphis Bleek‘s “My Mind Right” on Vinyl. Funk Flex would be proud for sure. Certified Tunnel Banger!

Pilipinas Street Plan

Works by renowned artist (and the week’s Guest of Honor) Tara McPherson. She would visit the shop later that night. I wasn’t there to catch her, however.

Hit up Black Book. I want me some Vael footwear.

On to some graf, shall we?

Awesome portrait of an awesome duo.

This won first place. Congrats PSP!

This placed third. But this was my favorite.

Actually, everyone loved it.

Wingman! We’ve been hearing a lot about this place so here’s where we sat down to get some grub. Here’s Picco taking charge of our order.

There’s a monkey on my shirt!

It’s all about the wings, of course. We ordered “hot”, just because we needed to get home in one piece. We’ll get to the more hotter levels later on.

Fish & Chips. We loved it. But we need more fish. A little bitin, but it was really good.

See? 5 minutes, and it’s Finito Henson.

Headed back outside after dinner. Mike Swift and some other rap cats were in the middle of a full-on jam session.

We checked out a few more stores (Hysteric Wacko was a favorite of mine), then headed home. Would have loved to stay on for the night, but it has been a long day for us, so we opted to bounce.

Would love to come back to check out the other stores . Definitely hitting up B-Side as well.

The video, for me, has to be one of the greatest “take-me-to-my-childhood” visuals ever.

www.maniladesignweek.com

Anyways, just to musically (and visually) accompany my earlier post, here are some of them bangers:

Life and Times of S. Carter was my very first rap/Jay-Z CD. “Do it Again” actually made me listen to Jay and ultimately cop the disc. (BTW: this vid was actually shot at THE Tunnel).

Meanwhile, No Way Out was my very first rap album. Got it on cassette tape. I think I still have it here somewhere.

It’s Murdaaaaa…

On with the classics…

There’s definitely more of these. Maybe I’ll post some more later on.

AND the great-upcoming-stuff are:

Machete. B-movie ambassador Danny Trejo‘s first starrer. Robert Rodriguez is at the helm, with a supporting cast of Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba and the ever immortal Steven Segal (yes, this guy). Not to mention the lethal mouthful of blood, guts and tittays!

NBA 2K11. Can’t say nothing about “OMG! PLAYABLE MICHAEL JORDAN!!”

Street Fighter vs Tekken. First gameplay vid was released at Comic-Con 2010. Two of the best fighting games ever, coming together. Makes perfect sense.

The Green Hornet. I never imagined Seth Rogen and Jay Chou playing the legendary sidekicks TGH and Kato (respectively). Trailer looked great, though. Will watch this for I was a fan of the TV series way back.

Oh, and I am also happy that I am able to run again. Although my legs did hurt for about 2 days after my initial try.

Hopefully I’d be able to join events by next month. For now, I’d like to take my time and, bit-by-bit, get back into the lifestyle that helped me a lot in terms of health, as well as in different all aspects of my life so far.

Basketball, you’re next!

Came across Complex Magazine’s feature on the 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers, as narrated by DJ extraordinaire Cipha Sounds. It was an awesome experience, going through all 75 of these Tunnel hits.

I know for a fact that Complex, just like any other mag out, are a little bit hit-and-miss with their features, but this one’s on point. Awesome. Gave me goosebumps. I may be far from a Brooklynite, let alone an old skool hip-hop head, but I gotta tell ya: I grew up with some of these joints.

At first I was just listening to Puffy’s No Way Out album. I had to have it just cause “I’ll be Missing You” was No. 1. But it went beyond that. It got me listening to Biggie, Busta, LOX… it was my intro to rap.

It made me listen to hip-hop radio (the only local rap radio at the time was Power 108). Made me cop bootleg CD’s and back issues of The Source & XXL, which in turn made me spend my allowance on Sean John and Fubu joints (heads should remember Boboli at Glorietta 2).

And then, the Tunnel Bangers.  Never knew it was called that. Heck, I never even knew the Tunnel itself. But looking at those 70-deep list, and I found some joints that I grew up listening to.

Of course, I know all the Bad Boy/Biggie stuff, even Ja Rule‘s “Holla Holla”. Memphis Bleek‘s “My Mind Right” was the joint, as I was riding Jay-Z‘s whole Roc-a-Fella thing in 1999.

Later on, as I was maturing enough to dig on much older, more obscure tracks, I came across some gems from Mobb Deep, N.O.R.E, as well as other cats on the list. I could go on and on.

Come to think of it, I never thought I’d be able to appreciate these bangers given my age (I was 14-15), location (Manila, people here think that rap is for peasants) and access to proper rap tracks (no radio, no video, no internet. Just bootlegs and pirate stations).

But I am blessed to know, at a young age, my kind of music. And while I now have a vast knowledge and taste in different genres, I always come back to these joints from time to time. Thank God there’s the internet and the iPod.

Click here for the 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers