I went to the Common show Monday at the House of Blues. Of the 3 or 4 times I've seen him, it wasn't his strongest effort, but still very good.
Some highlights:
-Before he did the Corners, he mentioned some famous corners of LA like La Cienega. The stomping ground of LA hip-hoppers like Bob Koch.
-Gary Shandling was next to me in line to get in. Interesting fan base. It was weird, it was a Monday, but by far the most crowded I have ever seen HOB. Prince was there.
-No Kanye, but there was MC Lyte song....only a slight let down. Jay-Dee (Not Jermaine Dupri) came out and did a verse from #12 from on Like Water For Chocolate. I had never seen him before but he is 5'4 14 yr old boy...look exactly like Bethuel in 8th grade.
-Did standard Common type things like Pharcyde's Passin Me By and I used to love her over T.R.O.Y.
-After he did The Light he went off stage acting like it was over, while the crowd yelled for like 4 minutes. It was completely black and two figures walk back on stage (u thought it was Common and theDJ)...it was Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. Chappelle said some chappelle things, and then said Common is about to do my favorite two songs, he rolled out and did the Food and 6th Sense, while they sat on a couch he had on stage.
The craziest thing about all of this is that Common has the #1 album in America. How is this possible??? For how great he is, the guy has been flying under the radar for over 10 years. You want to feel happy for the guy that he is finally having success, but takes a way a little of the luster of being a fan of when the masses don't know about it. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if my mom buys the album. Whether right or wrong, its human nature to be a bit more passionate about the artist when you are in a minority of people that knows a great secret. Now, when I was at the concert, this girl we were with said pre-show, "im so excited for Common, I love them so much." Um, ok. Either way, the new album is a classic and takes you back 10 years when hip-hop was incredible and you could put in Nas "Illmatic" or Common's "Resurrection" and listen to the whole thing without skipping at all.
-BC lives in San Diego and is going to the show later in the week, the best he is getting is Natrone Means and Gary Templeton during the encore.
-Check this out: http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=9673
Passes to the man...this is what would happen if one of us became a Sports Center host.
-Entourage is back on and much better than last season. Gaysion Lloyd was my favorite Jeremy Piven line in a tremendous night of work for him last Sunday. Most improable scene last night was Jaime Pressly having an indie project that anyone discussed without laughing.
-I don't get this whole Danica Patrick phenomenon, she is driving a car...actually I get it now.
-I made eye contact with Hee-Seop Choi at the Dodger game last week and he threw a ball towards me, unfortunately it ended up 10 ft to the right in my friend Ryan's hands. Bad luck for me, not a good omen for the Dodger defense. Still, 6 home runs in one weekend for a guy who made contact 6 times all last season is a miracle.
-So, the Lakers have the 10th pick in a draft without any true franchise players but a ton of depth. Ideally, I would try to trade up for Deron Williams, a winning basketball player that really has no comparison currently in the league. You can cross trading up for Andrew Bogut off your list, because he already said he hates Kobe. When a college player is talking shit about him, it really shows you how far he has fallen. Guys I would pick if they stay at #10: Ike Diogu (dominated the Pac-10 for 3 straight years), Sean May (so he is a little fat, he'll be a great bench player) or Channing Frye (7ft and can hit a 15fter). Also, apparently Nate Robinson and Salim Stoudamire are slipping to the mid 2nd round????? Chucky Atkins starts in the NBA!!! What are these teams thinking. Get on the Clipper bandwagon while you still can. They have 3 guys over 6'10 that are as good as Chris Mihm to go along with Maggette, Brand and hopefully Simmons. Shaun Livingston is the next superstar in LA.
-The Oakland A's are reportedly shopping Eric Chavez....I know he isn't playing as well this season and makes 10 million a year but he has a slick glove and Depodesta picked him over one of the top 5 players in baseball (Tejeda) so he clearly likes him. I would do Antonio Perez and Edwin Jackson in a heartbeat or whatever other prospects they may want...to bad our owner is broke. Anyone else that can save our season? Barry Zito? Steve Garvey?
-When is the sequel to Moneyball coming out. Moneyball 2: This doesn't really work unless you have Hudson, Mulder and Zito.
-Depodesta offered Beltre to the Padres before last season for Sean Burroughs and a minor league arm...yikes. JD Drew is starting to hit a little bit, but he approaches the game like Brett Butler, not Mike Piazza.
On the flip side, Jose Lima hasn't retired 2 batters in a row all season, Mota lost the closers job in Florida and Adrian Beltre has 37 k's and only 8bbs this year.
BC:
-Women's Softball has to be the worst sport of all time.
-That ending to the Common show is pretty incredible. I am going tomorrow night in San Diego. I'm not anticipating the same celebrity fan base. At the end of the show, I'm hoping Tony Gwynn comes on stage and says that his favorite song is "love train" by the Spinners. Best we could possibly hope for in San Diego. Have you seen Gwynn recently? He does the padres games a couple of times a week--pushing 4 bills. Can't even use the phrase "let himself go". I've let myself go. He's started eating people.
-My new favorite commercial is the Xmsr commercial for MLB. The one with
war "why cant we be friends" in the background. The guy at the airport cracks me up so much. First, he is wearing an angels carpet. Second, he is wearing a Styrofoam Angels finger. Have
you ever seen anyone at the airport wearing either of those things? If
I did I don't know what I 'd do. Then, he looks over at Cal Ripken and gives him the dirtiest, meanest mug of all time. Like the kind of look Chucky Atkins must give Kobe
whenever Kobe turns his back. Can you imagine looking at Cal Ripken
like that? Then Cal shows him the xmsr and the guy backs down. That
scene is too much for me.
-The NBA finals is a joke, nothing more to say...plus no one cares.
