The Legends League - Anything Less Would Be Everything Else

Owning a convertible is like having sex with a milf. The real beauty of it is in knowing when to keep the top on.

(In response to my freezing cold ride home with my little bro, William Nguyen.)

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Bag Raiders - “Fun Punch”

I love the mannerisms and quirky kung-fu style dramatics after each exchange. Dope track and video.

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Some of you may have heard that I’m back working at Segal Communications and have recently been introduced to a dude by the name of Derek Blais. Outside of being the most rockstar’ingest motherfucker I’ve ever met, having a consistent archive of crazy weekend/midweek random stories to tell, being always on top of his fashion game, and having a hell of a lot of talent in the interactive media design / branded content realm, he is also quite musically inclined.

This is a video he showed me 2 days ago, of him in the Dominican basically freestyling with a ukulele and singing with his sister taping the whole thing. I think one of my favorite things about this video is the fact that him and his sister get along enough to sit next to each other and do these types of things.

I love it.. fuck if I care if you don’t.

Background vocals: Dominican Crickets.

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After doing a little bit of work on the Octobers Very Own blog, I’ve found myself checking in every so often to see what my dudes Olivier (Ransom), and Drake (ATF), have been up to and are currently up on. The blog generally consists of fashion related posts, but today I came across something of a little more personal interest.

Drake has decided to do a monthly post entitled, “The Superior 12″, which will outline 12 of the most influential individuals in his life. This concept is exactly what TheLegendsLeague is about, and as many of you from the MySpace days know, what TheLegendsLeague is built on - showing love and respect to your influences and inspirations.

It’s an admirable move to make by anyone, and I was happy to see someone so consistently on his grind, taking the time to show respect due.

Keep an eye out for The Superior 12, and while you’re at it, check for the homey Drake in the new “A Milli” video…

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If you haven’t already added TheMeaningOfDope to your daily dosage of blogs and sites of interest, do it now. It’s one of the branches of TheLegendsLeague, and is very tightly run by my main dude, JC, with heaters coming from Ace Six, Kaewonder, and on the rare occasion, myself.

Here’s some crazy footage of Common Sense, aka the dude whose words raised me, on Yo! MTV Raps back in the day.

Fat shout to Dirty Waters on the footage.

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Andre 3000 is The Best Rapper Alive. Quote me. Over and over.

I just heard this verse off of my homey Bobby’s blog:

3 stacks on John Legend’s “Green Light” spits -

“So I went hard like Medusa starin’ at me,
I told her let’s go,
let’s blow this “Lame Nigga” factory.

This is what I’m tellin’ you:
To the bed I’m nailing you,
like I been in jail for two
years,
and then they let me loose.”

Are you kidding me?!

Peep it yourself…. this guy is incredible.

Hands down man.

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In support of my homey Bobby from REDEF and to return the love he’s shown both Ideall and TheLegendsLeague, I recently worked with him on a collaborative tee for this Canada Day, entitled, “The New Standard Of Canada”.

The design is limited to 100 pieces and is available by contacting Bobby at redeaf@gmail.com, or myself at thelegendsleague@gmail.com.

$40 a pop to cop.
You snooze, you lose.

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Here’s one of my current favorite tunes.

What’s In The Headlines - Don Convay.

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I went to the EPMD Rock The Bells Tour last year with 2 of my dudes from TheMeaningOfDope, only to have the show fucked up by some idiot who decided he’d throw a bottle at DJ Scratch. Erick and Parrish still got down, but only to the very few instrumentals that Toronto DJ’s, Starting From Scratch and P-Plus had on them, claiming that they ain’t never been wack and don’t rap over lyrics. I rate them for that and for how they dealt with the issue. But here’s a few other ways the shit could have been dealt with…

HERE ARE MY PICKS FOR THE “THROW YA BOTTLES UP” AWARDS..
(hit me with your picks via comments)

Fourth Place:
WALK OFF STAGE by Lil’ Wayne

Choosing to stay silent while you’re the star of the show is a pretty good way to have a bottle thrown at you. Here, it appears Londoners throw a whole fucking bottle of Javex at Weezy. He remains cool and steps off. Rather composed I might say. But London ain’t a joke. Or at least that’s what Guy Ritchie seems to tell me.

Sidebar: Big up on selling a Milli in a week.

Second Runner up:
KICK EM OUT THE SHOW by Kanye West

Considering how ferociously passionate Yeezy seems about everything, I’m surprised he didn’t lose hisself on this little prick. Ye’ takes the cool, calm and collected route by having the dimwits pointed out by fans and then escorted out while he starts to perform
“Can’t Tell Me Nothing”. I bet those little fucks were crying right through the shutter shades.

Runner Up:
POWER SLAM by Akon

Uh. I still don’t know what to think of this shit here. There’s been a lot of times when I’ve done foul shit to people and then I get all frazzled after ’cause I feel like an asshole. ‘Kon or his DJ yells out, “NOW WE CAN START THE SHOW YA’LL READY?!?!”.. and then doesn’t start the show, and then he goes on to say, “Now gettin’ back to what I was sayin’… Uh, he’s okay. He’s alright”.

Kinda sounds like when you fake wrestle your homey and then he’s laid out on someones lawn, not blinking, and your homegirl’s like, “Damn Bryan! The fuck you always gotta do that shit for?!”. Doesn’t it? No?… fuck.

The Winner:
VERBAL ASS WHIP TO FACE WHIP by Josh Homme

Call me an asshole, but I love hearing motherfuckers when they’re mad. That’s when the real creativity and/or real rage comes out. And you can usually tell who’s never been in a tense scenario before by what they do and don’t say. Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age gets some shit thrown at him and returns the favor after verbally bludgeoning the turd in front of about a hundred billion people in Norway. In my opinion, he goes a bit far with the face whip, but this is a sure fire way to never have anything, (including pussy), ever thrown at you by anyone ever again.

Kudos fellas. I’m ’bout to go throw some bottles up in your honor!

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06.18.08

On the day I most greatly anticipated myself being hung over, I find myself on the streetcar coming home from work, tired and very much ready to punch something that’ll surely bleed. Along with my want to drink again comes the fear of what spiraling slide I’ll find myself lodged into next should I take on the risk of trying to become a social and socially responsible drinker. I look at what my body looks and feels like now and I’m worried about returning to a place where I was welcome, but I definitely was not comfortable living in.

The last time I was this weight I was working out 2 times a day and involving myself with enough physical activity to tire a jack rabbit. This time around all I had to do was blog everyday and take a couple of photos. So they say easy money goes fast. Well I need to listen and store some of what I’ve learned during The Beer Weight Experiment in the bank before I find my wallet on E and my self confidence close by.

I admit that when this all started I was afraid of going through the same symptoms of withdrawal that I did when I went sober in 04. Thankfully, since I wasn’t drinking nearly as often, the ripping my hair out and scratching myself to scars was replaced with being a little moody and complaining about relatively trivial things. You would think that not drinking for one month would be easy enough. It wasn’t. And now I’m learning that dreading the first time back in a bar is just as equally nerve wracking a trial to play the accused at.

THE SUPPORT

The support from many of The Legends League’s readers has been tremendous over this past month. From south africa to italy, chicago, brooklyn, toronto, the bay area, the netherlands, australia and montreal, the regular visits to the page and the frequent emails to me personally have been incredibly helpful. I am humbled by your support and amazed at the humanness of your messages. Fans blow air, but support holds you up when you need it most. My sincerest, and most heartfelt thanks to you all.

LOS

Many of you who don’t know me personally have no clue who I refer to when I speak about my homey Los (Solrac), who by his own will and on his own account, completed the BWE with me silently. This dude has been a big brother to me for 12 years now, and impressed me over and over again during our month of “SolBryity”. Without his stories of turning down random opportunities to get drunk with strangers at local bars or party with Kanye in VIPs, I don’t know how sane I wouldve been able to stay knowing I was alone in this. My hats off to that dude. And yall know I don’t ever take my hat off for shit.

PROS vs. CONS

During the BWE, I found myself waist deep in battling the pros and cons of laying off the bottle and airing out on the web. And while I was prepared to deal with struggles, I wasn’t prepared to deal with some of the struggles I faced.

On one hand, having an audience makes you far more commited to sticking with your goals. In my case I had viewers, but in another persons scenario they may have a partner or a friend who’s down to quit drinking with them. (Being aware of who you may let down is sometimes a very big blessing). On the other hand, having an audience creates a crowd that has access to all of your vulnerabilities. I was as giving and truthful with my writing as I’ve ever been during the BWE. I never spoke in tangled metaphors, and didn’t use poetic verses to convey my messages. I gave my all in writing as clearly and openly as possible, all for the sake of sharing, and in hopes that some of what I had been able to say during this month of clear-mindedness may connect to one or some of you. Evidently much of it has. Being open and honest with a trusted friend or partner is important when it comes to conquering your vices and admitting to your struggles, and I can say that if I hadn’t provided myself with an outlet for my emotions during the BWE, I would have really emotionally broken down.

When I weighed in on the first day I thought I would drop 10 lbs by the end of it. After all, I lost 40 in about a month the last time I went sober. But this go round I was already in reasonable shape. (Don’t hate. “Oval” counts as a shape, motherfucker). I had a lot of people predicting how much I would lose. People guessed more weight would come off of my neck and face than on the scale, some said I’d lose 15 lbs, while others weren’t quite sure as to why I was even doing this. While I knew I would lose some weight, I wasn’t prepared for the public spectacle I was about to make myself. It was embarassingly difficult to continue to post photos and weights, and many mornings I would wake up dreading the scale. .

Although it was a lot to deal with, I knew that if I stuck by my commitment there would be definite, almost inactive change. The hardest part of sledding down a hill is climbing the slope at the start. Knowing this, I tried my best to stay away from my routine activities. I stopped going to the Beaconsfield randomly for dinner, or for a pint after work. I hung out at the back of the stage at Shuffle rather than roaming the crowd, and I stayed in on Fridays to catch up on work or play a video game or two. Socially, this became pretty boring, but after the first week or two I noticed I was far more productive, my energy levels were higher, I got more sleep, and I was saving a hell of a lot of money. All of this while, yes, losing weight effortlessly. The decline in social activity really meant nothing. So I missed a few parties that I’d been to 20 times before. So I didn’t hang out at the listening party. I can listen to a CD without a party, that’s for sure. And who really cares about turning down an offer for a drink every now and then? I started to remember that the friends that I had weren’t drinking buddies, they were buddies I have that I go for drinks with. Everyone else, is just around for company. (I learned this once before when I stopped smoking weed). Consider that. If you were to quit smoking, would the dude you share a morning smoke with in your office even come by to say hi anymore? Yeah, think about it.

UPS and DOWNS

The low points during the BWE were mostly related to stress management. I found that when I got stressed out by bad business associate moves or financial issues and bills, I immediately wanted a drink. I had to rethink this response. A plant that hasn’t grown needs water and sunlight, not its branches pulled. I had been too used to dealing with my problems in the wrong manner and it was very, very difficult to go through regular, human stresses and not respond like an alcoholic.

The high points were almost all related to Los. He messaged me one night telling me that a random girl on the streetcar had asked him to go for drinks at her friends bar with some of their friends, on some, “Shiiit, we can do this every weekend” type shit. He declined for the sake of staying away from the bottle. Another afternoon I went to go check him at work and he told me he had passes for the Kanye “Glow in the Dark” show and some V.I.P. thing with at Circa, here in Toronto. He sold his ticket for $20, saying, “Hey, its the price of a haircut”. His commitment was again, a huge help and source of hilarity when I needed it most.

The most obvious upside of this whole experiment was my physical change. So here come the results.

THE HARD RESULTS

My starting weight was: 170.6 lbs. While this is not odd for my height and frame, I was not in the shape that I wanted to be in.

My mental goal was: 165 lbs. This is my ideal “fighting weight” in my opinion. I felt that if I could drop to this weight, I could rebuild myself back up through exercise.

The most noticable physical change was: definitely in my face, my skin and in my stomach. My clothes fit me a lot better and I feel more comfortable with my overall appearance. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was getting until I started losing size around my belly.

The greatest difference in pounds was: 9.3 lbs in 1 week. I weighed myself one evening and the scale hit 176. A week later I weighed in at 166.7. I know that your body weight fluctuates throughout the day, but seeing it with my own eyes was pretty amazing.

My final weight was: 166.2 lbs. Although I missed my target weight, losing poundage in dead beer weight makes a big difference. A pound of fat takes up more mass than a pound of muscle, so the numbers are quite deceiving, but the physical changes are evident. If I had to put myself through this all again, I definitely would, and I actually would highly recommend it. As consumers I think we become numbed to our spending habits. We are used to exchanging tender for goods. But as consumers of substances we tend to forget that what we are providing our bodies with is essentially a poison. The addiction to these poisons is very soothing and difficult to escape, but our bodies deteriorate inside out from the consumption of them. And we cannot see the effects so we ignore the facts. The Beer Weight Experiment allowed me to see what my addiction to consumption was not only doing to my wallet, but also what the reverse effects were doing to my body. Considering the results, I can say that in a month I was able to shed 4.4 lbs of presumed “Beer Weight”. What would the results have been if I was more prone to drinking liquor? What would my overall health be like if I just decided to quit drinking altogether?

What I got out of the BWE was more than just the confidence in my own will to not drink. I gained a sense of self that allowed me to reflect on many of my life experiences that otherwise were drowned through the bottom of a bottle or mazed within metaphors in poems. I have learned more closely the power of the support of peers, and also how alive many of us still are. Through eliminating one of my biggest vices I was given the opportunity to realize the greatest road block and deterrent to success we all have - the faith in ourselves to succeed at what we are otherwise expected to not even attempt.

Thank you for your support ya’LL. We’ll see what comes next…

The Beer Weight Experiment:
Final Weight: 166.2 lbs.
Emotionally: Exhausted.
Appearance: As good as it’s been all month.
Level Of Temptation To Cheat: 0 out of 10. From here on out, it’s not “cheating”.
Cheat Beers: 0

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