Days of Our Lives XL-erated!!!!

Days of Our Lives XL-erated!!! from Romen Rok on Vimeo.

For Bo and Hope!

Van Jones is the f**kin MAN!

My homeboy Ricky Rap-Star flew in from Atlanta over this past week to take part in a convention in Boston called GreenBuild. He was there on business on behalf of the Atlanta library system who are planning to build a new green library. When he came back to RI for the weekend he put me onto Greenbuild's website on which he introduced me to Van Jones. This dude Van is a great public speaker. He hits all topics with precision on what it means to be "green" and how to bring it to your own backyard. He's funny, smart and worth the listening time. He inspired me to think about how to handcraft package my new cd with post consumer materials that I can find from somebody's unnecessary waste. Make sure to give fam a listen to. The lecture he did this past week can be found here.  

On the recommendation of my boy Cas-Uno I picked up a book called "Things Fall Apart" by African author Chinua Achebe. It tells the story of a prominent African tribesman who falls into a string of curses and is exiled from his tribe for 7 years. On return to his tribe, most everything has changed for the worse. Even in the face of superior adversity his tribal principles remain intact and unmoved. This short book is a great read. In-fact, it was the inspiration for the title of The Roots album  in 1999. Support your local library and go pick a copy up son!

Ren and Stimpy XL-erated!!!!

Romen Rok XL-erated from oliver scampoli on Vimeo.

SpongeBob Squarepants XL-erated!!

Romen on the MPC 2000(X)tra (L)arge part 2

So, last night I rented a movie called Castle In The Sky from the library. Do not sleep on the library for dvds. They have practically the whole Criterion Collection there (Pvd). Anyway this is an animated film from master Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli , who is my favorite feature film animator since I was a kid. This film tells the story of two kids searching for a castle in the sky called Laputa, which was the original name of the film when it was released in 1986 in Japan. I remember when my brother went to see it in the theatre back then, and I was pissed I didnt get to go. As always Miyazaki uses a child as the main character in the story to portray innocence and love, fighting against a world of corruption and greed. Miyazaki's obsession with flight and fantasy are represesnted here in Laputa to it's fullest extent. I think everyone should should check this flick, young bucks to old stiffs. You won't be disapointeed in any thing Miyazaki makes especially my favorite jont, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Yes We Did!

For the past 3 days I've been sick at home with the flu and I been doing nothin but sleep and read. During this time I got to  finish reading  a great book called Native Son written by Richard Wright in 1940. The book tells the brutal realities of racism and social injustice in the south side of Chicago in the 1930's, through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, a young black man  trying to find his way in a white world but gets caught in a downward spiral of murder violence and rape.  It is a must read. Soulja Boy should be the first to read it after making his comment last weeek about slave masters saying, "Shout out to the slave-masters! Without them we'd still be in Africa. We wouldn't be here to get this ice and tattoos!!"

It's a sad world B.