ALPHABET Drawers

via LikeCool

A sick chest brought to you by Kent and London. The possibilities with this are endless. You can categorize your possessions by letter, from A-Z, by brand, by color; pretty much anything you want. It's creative, and the even though the solid oak wood design is simplistic, wood is always sophisticated and clean.

.

Jay-Z - "Death of Autotune (D.O.A.)"

via Google

Jay-Z - "Death of Autotune (D.O.A.)"

• Download Here

This is the first single off Jay-Z's upcoming album, The Blueprint 3, slated for release on September 11, 2009. As its title indicates, this track is a response to Auto-Tune (an audio processor which uses a "phase vocodor" to adjust/correct someone's vocal pitch) and it's overuse in the rap game. I'm down with the beat, produced by famed music producer No I.D (Kanye West's mentor), and as per usual, Jay comes hard. Enjoy.

Recipe of the Week

Mexican Ceviche

Ceviche, a staple of Latina American cuisine, is an appetizer consisting of raw fish marinated and "cooked" in citrus (generally lime) juice. Ceviche is believed to have originated in Peru with the Incan civilization. It subsequently spread to the surrounding countries in the region, each of which developed their own unique variation.

When I first tried ceviche I was curious about how the citrus juiced "cooked" the fish. Technically, "cooking" requires heat, so ceviche isn’t actually cooked; at the same time, it's not exactly raw. Both heat and citric acid are agents of a chemical process called denaturation. According to chow.com, as denaturation occurs "the heat or citric acid changes the proteins in the fish, unraveling the molecules and altering their chemical and physical properties." Therefore, as the fish used to make ceviche is marinated in the citrus juice, the denaturation process turns its flesh firm and opaque, giving it the appearance of being cooked.

An important thing to keep in mind is that "cooking" food in citric acid does not kill bacteria the way that heat does. So when you make ceviche for your family and friends, remember to always use fresh fish.

Ceviche is pretty much an amazing dish. It's a great appetizer, especially for the summer months when the weather starts to heat up because it is chilled. It has great flavors, is simple to make and is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Furthermore, if you make a bowl of ceviche, your guests will be very impressed by your culinary skills, so be prepared to receive compliments (never a bad thing).
____________________________________________________________
Recipe Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of shrimp
• ½ pound of white fish – sea bass fillet for example (dice into ½ inch cube)
• 3 large limes
• 1 small lemon
• 1 medium diced fresh tomato
• ½ small white onion, finely chopped
• ½ small green sweet pepper, chopped in cubes
• ½ jalapeño pepper, chopped in cubes
• ½ bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• corn [tortilla] chips or tostadas
  
• avocado cut in slices (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl, gently mix the shrimp and fish with the lime juice and lemon juice and put it in the fridge for 1 hour or until shrimp and fish are opaque (this step cooks the shrimp and fish).

In another bowl mix the tomato, onion, sweet pepper, jalapeño, cilantro, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Mix all ingredients; cover the bowl and chill ceviche in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Serve the ceviche on top of chips or tostadas - flat, toasted/fried Mexican tortillas.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of cevicherecipe.org

Pixar Short Film - "Lifted"

"Lifted" is the 13th of the 18 short animated films released by Pixar. Since A Bug's Life, the 2nd film collaboration between Disney and Pixar, Pixar has included a short film at the beginning of each feature film (4 were released exclusively on DVD). This particular short was created in 2006 and appeared at the beginning of the theatrical release of Ratatouille. In true Pixar fashion, it's incredibly funny and clever, and was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film at the 2006 Academy Awards.

[Pixar always comes with something super creative and visually stunning!! Enjoy!!]

President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court

“The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

President Obama announcing Federal Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) Judge
Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court (photo courtesy of NY Times).

On Tuesday, President Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination for the Supreme Court. Justice Sotomayor is a federal judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York and will replace Justice David Souter, who had served on the high court for 19 years. If confirmed, she will be the third woman justice and the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican immigrants and raised in a South-Bronx housing project. She was raised primarily by her mother (who was in attendance) after her father, Juan Sotomayor, died when she was 9 years old. In an emotional address yesterday, Sotomayor shared her life story, saying her "heart was bursting with gratitude" for her mother's hard work, sacrifice and unrelenting emphasis on education.

After earning an academic scholarship, Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and earned her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. In 1991 she was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush (as part of a compromise with New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan). President Bill Clinton nominated her to the Federal Court of Appeals in 1997.

Sonia's nomination is so significant precisely because of the life experience and perspective she, once confirmed, will bring to the Supreme Court; an institution traditionally dominated by older, white men. Her biography truly embodies the American Dream and unlike many of the justices - past and current - she has a true understanding of the hardships the average American experiences on a daily basis. In addition to her considerable intellectual abilities, her Puerto Rican heritage - which she proudly embraces - is a welcome and necessary addition of diversity which reflects the "browning", global society we live in. She will enrich the Supreme Court by bringing a perspective and insight the Court has never had within its ranks.

Indeed, unlike previous minority justices such as Clarence Thomas and Benjamin Cardozo (who, despite his Cuban and Israeli heritage, is not considered Hispanic), Judge Sotomayor has repeatedly emphasized the important role her ethnicity and gender play in informing her legal perspective. In a 2002 lecture she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life" (NY Times.com).

Interestingly however, despite her rhetoric, Judge Sotomayor has not ruled on any truly hot button issues in her career and she has been described as a political centrist. According to New York Times legal analyst Adam Litpak:

"Judge Sotomayor has issued no major decisions concerning abortion, the death penalty, gay rights or national security. In cases involving criminal defendants, employment discrimination and free speech, her rulings are more liberal than not.

But they reveal no larger vision, seldom appeal to history and studiously avoid quotable language. Judge Sotomayor’s decisions are, instead, almost always technical, incremental and exhaustive, considering all of the relevant precedents and supporting even completely uncontroversial propositions with elaborate footnotes."

I believe she will display reliably liberal tendences as a Supreme Court justice. In fact, the question of what degree she will allow her personal opinions to shape her legal decisions is at the heart of Republican concern and will be the main point of any potential challenge to her nomination.

Conservative Republican groups have already condemned the President's selection. The Judicial Confirmation Network, a right-wing activist group, sent out an email which labelled Sotomayor an "activist judge of the first order"; a sentiment echoed by ultra-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh who added his personal desire to see Sotomayor fail in her career on the Supreme Court.

Yet despite the predictable outcry from conservative pundits and interest groups, the Republican Party is in a real bind with this choice (how brilliant of a political strategist is President Obama??), for two reasons. First, the Democrats, possessing 59 seats in the Senate, pretty much have the 60 votes required for breaking a filibuster on lockdown. Thus, as Senate Republicans have indicated, barring some unforseen revelation, they stand little chance of opposing her nomination. Secondly, they do not want to risk the political injury by being perceived as standing against the first Latina justice; a potential risk that is greatly magnified given Republicans' current lack of popularity in the Hispanic community.

Many Republicans, sensing the precarious position they are in, expressed cautious, measured reactions to Sotomayor's nomination. Michael Steele, Republican National Committee chairman embodied this hesitance when asked to comment on Barack's choice: "Republicans will reserve judgment on Sonia Sotomayor until there has been a thorough and thoughtful examination of her legal views.”

[I for one am very excited about the continued advancement of the Barack Era. Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination - and inevitable confirmation - signaled a great moment for this administration and for the country. I am anxious to see her impact on the Supreme Court and to see how she uses her new position to answer the important legal questions of the future.]

.

Drake - "Congratulations"

photo courtesy of Google

Drake - "Congratulations"

I recently discovered this joint by Drake Drizzy Rogers aka "The Future of Hip Hop" (a nickname I gave him, because he is). This cut - entitled "Congratulations" - is a bonus track on Drake's recently released mixtape, So Far Gone, and features a sample from Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (off their 2009 release by the same name).

This song is straight nuts! It features crazy wordplay from Drizzy whose swagger is on somewhere between 5 and 10 trillion right now, and it combines the prodigious creative talents of Drake and Coldplay; pretty much a recipe for success as far as I'm concerned.

[The take away from this is that Drake + Coldplay = $. Enjoy]

Nike - "MVPuppets" ad campaign

Below are "Unstoppable" and "Mrs. Lewis" - part 3 and 4, respectively - of Nike's "MVPuppets" ad campaign. Again, gotta applaud Nike for a creative, funny and smart series of advertisements featuring Kobe Bryant and LeBron James rendered in puppet form. Just as a little background in case you haven't seen parts 1 and 2, each ad features KB and LJ exchanging boasts and trash talking each other about who is the better player.

As I am writing this post I discovered that the voices for LeBron and Kobe are non other than comedians Kenan Thompson (formerly on Nickelodeon and now SNL) and the legendyary David Allen Grier (from In Living Color), respectively. I thought they sounded familiar! Even though the voices don't sound anything like LeBron or Kobe, I think they're good choices. Enjoy.

• "Unstoppable": LeBron watches a personal highlight video only to discover an unwelcome surprise from Kobe waiting for him.
  

• "Mrs. Lewis": Kobe and LeBron square off in an epic puppet basketball game to prove who is best. It's hilarious. I love all the jawing that is going on between them. It reminds me of playing against (and schooling) my little brother in the backyard as a youngster.
  

.

Jazz Standard of the Week

Miles Davis - "Someday My Prince Will Come"

Miles Davis performing live at Birdland, New York (1958)
Photo taken by Dennis Stock

Miles Davis - "Someday My Prince Will Come"

This is one of my favorite jazz standards of all time; Miles Davis playing the lovely ballad "Someday My Prince Will Come" - originally from Disney's Snow White but adapted to his Love Songs Vol. 1 album. Love Songs Vol. 1 also features the standards "My Funny Valentine", "Stella By Starlight" and "I Fall In Love Too Easily". It's one of Miles' best collections and should be copped immediately.