Random As Rhyme

It’s Friday! No matter how bad your week might as went at least you are not this guy.

I don’t want to imagine how much falling on a rack of wine bottles would hurt.

I like art and I like Transformers, the internet is a wealth of great Transformers artwork and I felt I should compile a list of some of my favorites.

10. Original Optimus Prime Box Art

If I didn’t include the original box art image of Optimus Prime I would have had to turn in my membership card to Transformers anonymous. This shot is a classic, even though it doesn’t really bare a strong resemblence to the cartoon Prime we all grew up loving.

9. Marvel shotgunned prime

I actually drew a version of this Prime for an art project in junior high school,  the completed art and the comic have long since vanished but my love for it has not.

Am I the only one who finds the tag line a bit strange?
“Not your fathers Autobot”.
How many Transformers fans have kids who are old enough to understand whats going on when this comic came out (1993)?

8. Optimus Christ

This motivational poster is just a screen grab from an episode but the first time I saw it I immediately printed if off and stuck it to my cubicle wall since I thought it was so awesome, surprisingly no one has once said anything negative about it.

7. Optimus Prime BMX Number Plate

This is rad, my worlds have officially collided. This  bmx number plate with Optimus on it can be purchased here.

6. Optimus Rhyme

This one is one of the most obvious play on words for Optimus Prime spun into an a really creative piece of artwork. There is an acute attention to detail at work here. Check the play and pause buttons on the hands and the four finger rings. This exceptional piece was done by reyyyyy on deviant art.

5. 80s in the palm of his hand

I Can’t remember where I picked this one up but I have had it on my computer for years. Love the use of He-man, Lion-o, and Snake-Eyes.

4. Optimus and Snake-Eyes

Another cross contaminated piece of art. Snake-Eyes and Optimus could really mess some cobra/decepticon forces up. This one is done by jpart on deviant art.

3. DW Poster Prime

I am a big fan of DW’s treatment of all of the Transformers comics. The detail on this picture is great and it looks like Prime is about to kick ass and take names. My girlfriend actually started a painting of this image, but never finished. Anyone who is up to the task of doing a painted version of this for me, feel free.

2. Deep Prime

This piece of prime deep in concentration is done by a Myton Abellera he has a bunch of other cool artwork here including a picture of Megatron and Batman that’s extremely well done.

BONUS: Optimus By EpsenG

Another deviant, EpsenG, did this piece which he described as follows “Wanted to make a pic of the great leader in the style of the old 80s Transformers paintings.”

1. Obama Prime

This Obama parody done by Tim Doyle was the inspiration for this list. The original Obama change poster is going to go down in history as an iconic piece of artwork, and this parody is extremely well done. It was sold in limited amounts over on Nakatomi. Until I get my hands on one of the prints I have a black and white version of this up in my cubicle as well.

Hope you enjoyed the list, even those of you who are not big Transformers fans, and remember to support your local artist they are probably starving.

Rocketeer – Toys R Evil

Raptor Jesus – Fashinably Geek

Sat nav disaster: Driver charged with careless driving as BMW gets stuck on cliff edge

Megan Fox and Her Autobots Tatt On The Cover Of Empire Mag – Bam Kapow

Chimp on a segway

11 Things the car thieves didn’t take
11 things the car thieves took

I’ve decided (well with some gentle nudging of others), that in addition to regular feature blogs (Wordless Wednesdays, Things I always Wanted, and Selfless BMX) I am also going to split up certain, longer, topics into parts and tie them all together via related links at the bottom. That way I don’t end up with 2000+ word blogs and I keep you coming back for more like a good drug dealer. So without further adieu here is my first post about blogs worth a look.

The internet is a great way to kill effectively use up time. I keep a pretty good virtual Rolodex of blogs for when I have some spare time to effectively use. I have decided to bust these out into category’s and post my top 3 of each. This time around the category’s are: human stupidity,Nerd, and Music

Human stupidity blogs

Thisiswhyyourefat.com
I have a really unhealthy obsession with this blog almost as unhealthy as the food featured on it. Some of the recipes and pictures on this site are things that I would not mind trying a piece of, while others… well just check it out for yourself. Just maybe before lunch, as if you are going to be sick it’s better to do so on an empty stomach rather than a full one.

Failblog
This blog is amazing, it’s frequently updated with the most ridiculous feats of stupidity every found and collected on the internet. My only gripe is that although all the posts are really funny sometimes you have absolutely no idea what is being said or you wish you had a little bit more information about the video so you have an idea of what happened after.

Engrish Funny
Engrish is poor translations of the English language done by those who don’t fluently speak it. You see it a lot on dollar store merchandise and so forth. Some people also speak it but it’s not really as funny when spoken. This blog is a catalog of the best of written Engrish around the world.

Nerd Blogs

Bamkapow!
I found Bamkapow via digg at work one day and have been hooked ever since. It’s classified as a superhero blog, and the writing and commentary is great, however I feel what really  sets this blog apart  are the themed galleries like this Megan Fox gallery one for example.

Topless Robot
Despite it’s seemingly unsafe for work name, topless is actually very safe for work and really interesting if you are into “Nerd-news, humor, and Self Loathing”. Bam and Topless kind of overlap often in terms of content, but, where Bam has Galleries, Topless has amazing lists. The one about the 10 worst Transformers Rip offs is one of my favorites.

i09
i09 is my first entry from the gawker media network, but expect to seem them pop up in every post in this series. Gawker does a great job of keeping their blogs interesting to read even though others (see above) have access to  the same content.

Music

Nah Right
Nah Right is a hip hop news blog. Since I sit behind a glowing box writing xhtml/css drowning out my office psace depression with headphones I go through new music at an alarming rate. Lucky for me Nah Right pumps out links to new tracks faster than I can listen.

The Digital Undaground
The Digital Undaground is another hip hop blog but they don’t post as much news as they do new albums and songs. Whenever a new album comes out online I check here first. But a word of caution I got a virus from one of the links, so watch out and if you are at work make sure you have admin rights and know how to get rid of viruses.

Bossip
This blog is really just a gossip blog, however it seems to mainly focus on gossip from the music industry so I am going to put it here under music. Admitting I read about celeb gossip from time to time is pretty emasculating but I would rather read bossip then that other blog by that fat ugly dude.

Be sure to check back soon for blogs I check out in the following categories; design, automotive, bmx,gadgets, videogames, and sports.

This post is part of a series, be sure to check out part 2

I am a fan of all hip hop in general, but I am a big fan of some of the older stuff: Jurassic 5, Original BEP, Leaders of the New School, Big Dady Kane, A Tribe called Quest and so forth.

I am also a big fan of mixes, I love listening to music that just flows together and keeps the vibe going the whole way through.

So when Kendall put me on (he’s been puttin me on good music for some time now) I had to pause and take some time to take this one in.

The track list is way solid for this cd (although a lot of interludes):

1. J.Period f. Prince Paul, Questlove & Randy Watson– Rhythm (Scratch Intro)
2. Cannonball Adderly / Excursions Intro
3. J.Period f. De La Soul – Excursions (Tribute Remix)
4. Aquarius Interlude #1: Welcome
5. Q-Tip f. Busta Rhymes – Getting Up (DJ Scratch Remix) (The Renaissance)
6. Behind the Scenes: Ghetto Origins [Produced by J.Period]
7. What the Fuss f. Stevie Wonder (Shook Remix)
8. Queens Represent (Interlude)
9. Mobb Deep f. Nas & Q-Tip – Give Up the Goods (J.Period Remix) [Produced by Q-Tip]
10. Apache – Gangsta Bitch [Produced by Q-Tip]
11. ATCQ – If the Papes Come (Intro)
12. ATCQ – Check the Rhime
13. Behind the Scenes: Don’t Walk Away (Interlude)
14. ATCQ –Award Tour
15. Behind the Scenes: Award Tour (Interlude)
16. Hot Butter (Interlude)
17. J.Period f. Dres – Jazz Pt. 2 (Tribute Remix)
18. Behind the Scenes: We Got the Jazz (Interlude)
19. J.Period f. Blu– Jazz (Tribute Remix)
20. Skypager: Bob Power & Big Daddy Kane (Interlude)
21. Q-Tip f. Jay Dilla – Let’s Ride
22. Behind the Scenes: Bob Power You There? (Interlude)
23. Q-Tip – Vivrant Thing (Remix)
24. Q-Tip – Move (The Renaissance)
25. Q-Tip – Breathe & Stop (J.Period Remix)
26. Respect to Phife Dawg (Interlude)
27. J.Period f. Consequence & Kid Cudi – Buggin Out (Tribute Remix)
28. ATCQ Consists Of…
29. Behind the Scenes: The Native Tongues (Interlude)
30. De La Soul f. Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip, Monie Love & Queen Latifah – Buddy (Remix)
31. Respect to Ali Shaheed Muhammed (Interlude)
32. Q-Tip f. Busta Rhymes – N.T.
33. A Message From Talib Kweli
34. J.Period f. Questlove, Talib Kweli & Randy Watson – Youthful (Tribute Remix)
35. Q-Tip f. Amanda Diva – ManWomanBoogie (The Renaissance)
36. Chris Rock: Men vs. Women (Interlude)
37. De La Soul f. Q-Tip – Saturdays
38. De La Soul f. Q-Tip & Phife – Saturdays (Remix)
39. Q-Tip – She Likes to Move (J.Period Remix)
40. Dee-Lite f. Q-Tip – Groove Is in the Heart
41. Beastie Boys f. Q-Tip – Get it Together
42. Behind the Scenes: What Is Kapelka? (Interlude)
43. J.Period f. Skillz, Questlove & Randy Watson – What? (Tribute Remix)
44. Behind the Scenes: Busta Rhymes / Scenario (Interlude)
45. Busta Rhymes – Scenario (Unreleased Demo Tape)
46. Behind the Scenes: Hood R.I.P. (Interlude)
47. Hood – Scenario (Remix)
48. Aquarius Outtro
49. Behind the Scenes (Bonus): Reinvention (Kamaal the Abstract – A Million Times)

And the vibe all the way through is dope, its great for the office and the car and anyone listening will be able to appreciate the grove. I highly recommend it, and it’s legitimately free.

Also worth a peep are the history of hip hop mixes from the rub. 97 is like a fine wine aged to perfection.

Toast to that good music.

Stole this from maxbimmer.com because it is excellent. The idea is people do these drawings in paint based on a template and we laugh. It’s Friday and we could all use a cheap laugh.

Cheap laugh Fridays?

It’s Friday The 13, Valentines Day and Family Day (if you are in Ontario) all this weekend. So have a good one.

I have been out of town and spent today catching back up on other things so here is a quick one today.
Take a look at the photo below.

I like this because their is so much going on other than just one poor guy getting his jaw (probably) broken by a baseball bat.

It’s kind of amusing that the girl in the foreground and the guy getting hit are the only ones who didn’t see it coming.

I wonder what the girl found so captivating? Maybe she is watching it all on the jumbotron or someone on the other side of the diamond is getting hit with the ball who knows.

Also the dude in the very background looks like he knew this was all going to happen.  Look at the smirk on his face!

So good.

What do you see?

As I look back into my past I am starting to realize that I was a pretty envious kid, I might have even had green skin, because this is another thing that one of my friends had that I wanted.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog even half the time that I big Transformers fan. Most of my wants were firmly planted on the Autobot side though. Not really so much because they were the good guys but more so because they were cars, and I like cars quite a bit.

However a few Decepticons stuck out as being pretty bad ass. Soundwave was one, but Trypticon was most def another.

Trypticon was the Decepticons answer to an equally awesome (and want worthy toy) sentient city Metroplex.

I never had the privilege of seeing a Metroplex toy in person, so I convinced myself that they didn’t actually exist, however my older friend Chris had Trypticon (cant imagine how much that must have cost his parents) and it was pretty gosh darn amazing. It was basically a giant Grimlock, and as we know .

Trypticon took Grimlock’s badassarey and multiplied it by however much bigger he was. Two major things stuck out (other than having rockets where his tongue should be) the first being was that Tryp transformed from giant awesome T Rex into a giant awesome city play set.

Only a handful of Transformers shared this ability, but Trypticon was not content with having one awesome ability, oh no he was ready to shove his size 100000 foot of awesome up your ass and break it off by being able to walk.

He was actually the ONLY Transformer I ever saw as a kid that could walk as illustrated below:

A walking Trypticon was clumsy and loud, and looked really funny if he fell over but was defiantly an awe inspiring site to behold.

Oddly enough I seem to remember this as being the only Transformer Chris had, as he was a big Lego guy. This meant in my mind he didn’t deserve it and I plotted to remove it from his grasps.

However he was at least 3 years older than me so I never dared put my plots into action lest he send me down a flight of steps head first.

Too bad they probably fetch a large number on ebay as otherwise I would have one today. But I reserve my big ticket Transformer purchases to Autobots pretty exclusively.

The video below proves that Trypticon was also the mightiest of all walking Transformers, and that the guy below has lots of disposable income and is kind of my hero.

I want one.

My friend Chijioke (brought the most hits via google to my blog in December) who I wrote about before is officially on Volume/Demolition through Ten Pack distribution so props to him. He shreds.

Now If I can only get him to sign my frame (it’s one of his old ones).

This week I thought I would write about something I always wanted that my best friend growing up had. These situations where always pretty tough to deal with, I mean on the one hand you loved your best friend.

He was the one who convinced you throwing tennis balls at your neighbors IROC-Z to set off the alarm was a good idea, then ran and hid while you got in trouble.

He was also the one who said your endo sucked so you went faster and went over the bars and knocked out half your tooth.

He was the one who helped you throw snowballs at local neighbor hood girls ruining their self esteem forever.

Ya Andrew was awesome.

However when it came to this one thing, he had it I didn’t, I secretly hated him for it.

What was it?

Behold!

Voltron!

At the time, I don’t think I actually watched the original Voltron on tv, or knew much about it. [Note: The person talking in the intro is Optimus Prime or Peter Cullen]

Actually this might have been a hand me down from his older brother. Regardless, it was an awesome toy.

Apart it was 5 lions like below

But together it was the fantastic robot you see above, so really it was six toys in one.

It’s combined physical size of it meant that in our action figure wars waged in VHS tape built battle fields, my Ninja Turtles where easily slain, and even my beloved (and later stolen) Power Master Optimus Prime was no match for the might of Voltron.

So he pretty much always won I might have even created a no Voltron rule at some point just to save face.

While I pretty much needed Voltron in my army, I don’t actually recall asking my parents to buy me one,or trying to buy one myself. For some reason I had it in my head that Andrew would grow bored of it one day and give it to me for being a loyal friend, and then glory would be mine.

Obviously that never actually happened, and sounds idiotic today, but I was young and dumb, as opposed to being old and dumb now.

One day I will probably purhcase a Voltron figure off ebay and and it to my collection of 80s toys that is currently made up of mostly Transformers, but until then. It’s something I have always wanted.