Digital Ink Los Angeles

Dude, is there a better and quicker way to Zen-master status than luxurious cardigans, white Russians, bowling, and puffing joints? Life’s so bright, The Dude has to wear shades. Let’s see what condition my condition is in.

Today’s summertime “HERO” is none other than Jeff Bridges’ “The Dude,” made famous in the Coen Brothers‘ 1998 film, The Big Lebowski. Take some edge off the summertime heat with a few of The Dude‘s mantras:

The Dude: Mind if I do a J?

The Dude: Yeah, well. The Dude abides.
The Stranger: I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope he makes the finals.

The Dude: Yeah well, I still jerk off manually.

The Big Lebowski: Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn’t that what makes a man?
The Dude: Hmmm… Sure, that and a pair of testicles.

With Iranian elections, North Korean nukes, Honduran coups, Iraqi bombings, and summertime kicking into gear, it seems like a good time for The Dude to abide and chill out. The Dude Abides.

She’s almost an alien, the way she gets attention on tabloids. Now that Transformers is everywhere, expect her face to be everywhere, as well.

The results of surveys showed that blogs receive more traffic when celebrity photos of death and nudity are featured. To consciously maintain sponsor-free status, every once in a little while, Digital Ink Los Angeles
has to succumb to these parameters, as well.

Given the recent bombardment of the King of Pop and all his irreverent fatal glory, Megan Fox will be the featured celebrity.

Though not quite nude, as was advertised, the photos accompanying this blog post should suffice in their intent. Contemplative admiration, with potential fits of disbelief. Is she really real?

Foxy. And rich. She’s the Queen of Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. That’s entertainment 2.0.

Thank you to Steve Greenberg for the image.

RIP Michael Jackson – The Child Is The Father of the Man.

I’ll be there. Beat it. Wanna dance, on the floor, in the round…? Neverland.

The dude’s got ill skills to pay the bills, and he plays ALL of his instruments in studio sessions. What? Yea, like Prince and Lenny Kravitz, Raphael Saadiq handles it all when it comes to getting the right sounds for the record.

And he definitely gets some righteous sounds. With a background in the Motown downbeats of the 50s and 60s, the Oakland-born entertainer had found his groove with the 2008 release, The Way I See It. His reputation was built on the Tony! Toni! Tone’! and Lucy Pearl records he produced, but his solo effort is tip-top, body-rock, funk-soul solid.

Check out Mr. Saadiq’s YouTube video for “100-Yard Dash”, and see if that head doesn’t start bobbing. Mmmm-mmm, Goodness.

Shepard Fairey Enters Burmese Politics

Shepard Fairey has been quite busy over the last two years — between helping get Obama elected and fighting vandalism charges in the Boston courts — but not too busy to embrace the cause of one Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the preeminent human right activists in the world today. Her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947; he was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. She has opposed the military junta quasi-government of Myanmar (Burma) since they nullified her election as the democratically chosen Prime Minister in 1989.

An Oxford-educated aristocrat, Aung San Suu Kyi helped found the National League for Democracy on September 27, 1988, and was put under house arrest on July 20, 1989. She was initially offered her freedom if she agreed to leave the country, but she refused. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for almost twenty years. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and remains a figure of social upheaval and human rights in the country of her birth.

Hats off to Shepard Fairey for his recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi’s plight, and the profound relevance of her struggle to the current events in Iran.

Way before Coachella or this weekend’s Electric Daisy Carnival, there was the infamous ’69 Newport Festival. The three-day event was held at the old Devonshire Downs municipal park and raceway, near the site of the current Cal State Northridge campus. Despite rousing performances by legends like Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, John Fogerty, Jimi Hendrix, and Grace Slick, the concert was a poorly planned disaster.

An excerpt from some reports — and preserved on bootleg copies of the concert’s sounds — has Jimi Hendrix so dismayed and angered with the lack of meaningful fan interaction and the pseudo-hippie, poseur crowd that before going into “Voodoo Child,” he shouts, “This is a black militant song and don’t you ever forget it!” That’s not too uplifting.

Historian Jim A. Beardsley writes a retrospective article in the blog LA Observed that goes into the details of the weekend’s debacle. One particular excerpt was quite entertaining and can be summed as an accurate observation of what kind of fools generally create madness and mayhem:

“Texaco service station proprietor Jack Cunningham was compelled to close his business after the restrooms had been trashed, the gas pumps had been vandalized, and some tools and a cigarette machine were stolen. His take on the scene included the following perspective: ‘I had the Hell’s Angels, Satan’s Slaves, and War Lords in here [before]… They might have looked dirty but they cleaned up after themselves and threw their trash in the receptacles. The hippies were neat, too, but it was the kids from the well-to-do families who were the ones who tore up the place, as far as I’m concerned.’ Once again, the lines between the mainstream and the counter-culture had been blurred as the chaotic nature of Newport ’69 kicked into gear.”

Forty years ago this weekend — Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll! — or something.

The 63rd meeting of college baseball teams at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium for the College World Series is indicative of the beginning of summertime.

The 2009 championship round begins today, Monday, June 22nd, and the match-up is stellar, with the LSU Tigers battling the Texas Longhorns. Both teams feature several future Major League Baseball players, and the level of skill and talent rivals many professional teams, but within an amateur realm. A player to watch would be First-Team All-American and LSU senior pitcher Louis Coleman, who is one of the best pitchers in college baseball.

The long days of summer are here, as the summer solstice has reached its apex, with sunsets happening well into the evening. Nothing like getting some friends together to enjoy some fun in the sun. A little baseball, a little BBQ, a little more baseball, a little more BBQ. Go Dodgers!