A Product of Environment

What does a group of 16 children, youths and young adults from Kenya have in common with Barack Obama? Hint: it has nothing to do with bloodline. They'll both be in Denmark over the next few days for the Copenhagen Climate Summit. While this year's conference is building a lot more steam (or I should say wind turbine generated energy) than in years past based on the presence of the President, the Wafalme kids aren't there just for diplomacy and photo ops.

They're being handed MTV's Positive Climate award for their song "Trash is Cash", written by group co-founder Lillian Tende. She'll be accepting the award on behalf of the group and says the song is written - and more broadly the group was formed - to give kids from the slum a voice. They're using that voice to great effect, landing them a podium on the world stage while discussing an important issue. I've posted the video below, definitely give it a watch and listen, and also take in the lyrics as much as you can.

But first, I also want to mention some very important news for my fellow Canucks: Al Jazeera English has finally received CRTC approval to air in Canada! In my humble opinion, they are unequivocally the best news channel in the world, renowned for their ability to coherently and objectively show stories other outlets tend to miss, while tackling hot button topics and asking tough questions along the way. Two giant ironies cloud the struggle Al Jazeera English has had with breaking into the Canadian television realm: 1) Al Jazeera English has been readily available for years to the United States, often viewed as more lobby-driven than Canada, and 2) the head of Al Jazeera English is a Canadian, former CBC television editor-in-chief Tony Burman. But all that's soon to be water under the bridge, and Al Jazeera English will arrive to grant us Canadians the fair news we deserve - and an end to channel-surfing once and for all!

Anyway, enough of that - BACK TO THE VIDEO AS PROMISED! Check this out, it's a real treat. Wafalme - Trash Is Cash.

What It's All About

Hey y'all,

I've been thinking about making my move on the blogging spot (also referred to as blogspot) for a minute now. The question that's dogged me all along has essentially been, "What's it all about?"

I'll be honest, I find many blogs look the same, feature the same links to the same video clips, celebrate the same landmarks and anniversaries by posting more of the same links to the same video clips, and you can see where this is going. Redundancy! That's what I see.

So let me first cover my ass by NOT guaranteeing a 100% safe haven from that very redundancy, because, quite frankly, a lot of that shit that gets re-posted to no end deserves to be! So if I see something dope as fuck, it won't weigh heavy on my conscience that I stole it from another source, I'll probably even cite the source.

Now that I've gotten that out the way, allow me to answer the all-important question and tell you What It's All About. This blog is about me (Alborz, Crossword, whatever you wanna call me), music, love, basketball, and my daily encounters with both common and proper nouns (in other words people, places and things).

I'm a weird dude. I've learned there's no other way to go about it but to embrace it. I'm extremely random, my mind travels, and I think I have an eclectic taste for the various flavours of life. That means this blog will be unique, original, different... in today's hip terminology, it will be fresh, and in my own terminology, it will be chillin'.

Yeah, that's right... CHILLIN'. Cause that's what I'm doing now, and that's the best mindstate to be in period. It's also most condusive to networking and making friends. So no matter where you caught this link, if you're droppin' by long enough to read a blog post or even a snippet of it, drop a comment! Let me know how you're doin', what you're dealin' with, and how life's treatin' you. You know how it goes, positive energy reciprocates positive energy. Let's dead this screwface mentality even online!

Anyway, NUFF CHATTAH! I'm gonna get some shut-eye, because I wake up at 6 in tha mornin' to go to work, you're gonna read this and feel 150% more chillin' (on average), and I'll see you again, whenever the universe happens to bring adventure my way.

PEACE

I'm Back!

Hey fam,

THIS IS A WARNING SHOT!

I WILL be blogging consistently on this - my blog - from now on!

First REAL post coming tomorrow!

PEACE