I'm Back!!!

Here's a couple of the older entries that I didn't get a chance to put up. I still want to know your favorites from last year so let me know what's up and I'll have a new one for you in a week or two (really, I'm working on it now).

What up folks

I know it’s been way long since my last rant but I’m back with a vengeance this time and I’ve got a lot to talk about. Before I get into the new coming heat on the sneaker front or what’s up in Comic books I’ve got to address something very serious. I usually don’t do the political thing on this blog but something happened a little over a month ago that I have to talk about. I was outraged and appalled at the murder of Troy Davis by the Georgia justice (actually injustice) system. For those of you who don’t what happened, about 20 years ago Troy Davis, a young black man, was convicted for the murder of a police officer. There was no DNA in fact all the evidence was circumstantial and there was no murder weapon. The jury as you could guess was all white and the Public Defender that represented Troy Davis was incredibly incompetent. Add all of this up and you get a quick conviction of a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why am I so sure about this? 7 of the 9 witnesses that testified that Troy did it recanted their statements. Not only that many of them said that they were coerced by the police to make those testimonies and a couple of them said that the real killer was one of the 2 people that didn’t recant. Support for Troy has come in from people as diverse as The Pope to Wu Tang Clan to Kim Kardashian as well as organizations like Amnesty International and The Innocence Project but with all the over whelming evidence that he didn’t do it Georgia killed him anyway. There are many reasons to be against the death penalty such as its racially bias or the fact that it’s doesn’t stop violent crime or that it’s cost more to put someone to death than life imprisonment but the most compelling reason is that innocent people are killed by the death penalty, plain and simple. We hear about people all the time released from prison because it was later proven that they didn’t commit the crime, how many people were put to death that were innocent. This why from now on I will end every blog I do with the letters I.A.T.D. which stands for I Am Troy Davis until America finally catches up with the rest of the civilized world and ends the death penalty. Oh yeah, big props to the Occupy Movement. I was at Occupy LA last week and I must say I think this is the civil rights movement of our generation. Definitely check them out and find out what they stand for because basically unless you’re a millionaire, they’re standing for you.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog. A lot has happened since my last blog in the comic book world. After Flashpoint DC decided to revamp their whole line, restarting all of their books at #1. This was very controversial because 4 books (Action Comics, Detective Comics, Superman, and Batman)that have been in constant publication since the early 40s (actually Action and Detective Comics started in the late 30s) and were nearing the 1000 issue mark which would be a first for a major comic book company but they are taking them back to #1. In fact Action had just released issue 900 a few months prior. Another reason why it was so controversial was because the revamp meant all of the stories you read about your favorite characters no longer exist. That was the point that kind of got under my skin. Well it all went down a month or so ago with the last issue of Flashpoint introducing the new DC Universe and continued with The New 52 which was 52 new #1 issues starring well known characters like Batman, Superman, and The Justice League as well as characters that DC acquired by purchasing other companies like Wildstorm’s Stormwatch and Milestone’s Static Shock. It seems to be working pretty well so far as #1 issues of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Justice League sold out in stores nationwide. The other thing about it was that you could also buy digital copies of all of the books online and download directly to your computer so if you didn’t get a copy of Justice League because it sold out you could still read the book on your computer. Another interesting thing about the New 52 is the fact that DC’s top-selling books Batman and Green Lantern really didn’t get revamped at all. Since those 2 characters and their surrounding comics sold the most in the past they made sure that if you read those Comics in the past that all the major events still happened. In Batman that means that Bruce did disappear and Dick was Batman for a while and Bruce’s son Damian is the 5^th and current Robin. In Green Lantern that means there is still the emotional spectrum and all of the corps connected to them and Hal Jordan was fired from being Green Lantern and Sinestro is a Green Lantern again. Over at the Marvel they just finished their X-Men Schism event that split the merry mutants into 2 camps, Cyclops crew and Wolverine’s camp. Fear Itself is about to end (actually it’s ending this week but I haven’t read it yet) but it’s been so-so so far. The main thing that had people talking over at Marvel is the new Ultimate Spider Man. After they killed off Peter Parker, a black/Latino kid is taking the mantle. People flipped when they heard of that, some of the comments were racist but most of them felt connected to Peter and couldn’t see anybody else wearing the mask.

Now on to the kicks. Things are going to start getting interesting soon starting with the Nike Zoom Rookie (glow in the dark version). This shoe is another hybrid of the shoes Penny Hardaway wore during his illustrious basketball career particularly the Air Penny 1 and Foamposite. These should be coming out around the time you read this. There are several colorways coming out but I think the Black/White glow in the dark is by far the illest. Of course Black Friday is coming up and Nike definitely wants to get some of your money so they are releasing the GR version of the Entourage Dunk as well as the Black/Cement Air Jordan 3 and as usual Nike is keeping the pre-Christmas camp out tradition alive with the Concord Air Jordan 11. What do you guys think about the Doernbacher Jordan 4s? I have to admit that they kind of look like some really bad fakes. I know cats camped out for them but I couldn’t do it, sorry. Now what would have been cool is if they would have released the Sole Collector Penny Hardaway joints to more places than just Las Vegas and if you know anything about the release of the Air Yeezy 2s please let a brother know (particularly if you could hook me up with a pair). Late news is that the Entourage may actually not come out for some reason. I’ll keep you posted on if and when they are coming out. Also be on the lookout for the black Air Jordan 3 Flips.

Anyway I’m and I promise a lot more blogs in the near future, no more 5 month spells without some comments so anyway have fun and before I jet I’ve got to say Rest In Power to Smoking Joe Fraizer and The Overweight Lover Heavy D.

I.A.T.D.

What Up Folks.

You guys thought I was bullshitting when I said these blogs would be coming more frequently. I know you guys just got finished reading my last post but I got a new one for you now. First of all you must forgive me because the last post was kind of old by the time it was put up. It was actually written a few months ago but due to circumstances beyond my control it didn’t reach the blog until last week. Anyway let’s get into it. As you know I’m a proud supporter of The Occupy Movement. I feel this movement is the Civic Rights movement of our time, standing up for working people against the greed and cowardice of the super rich (the 1%) and the politicians that are indebted to them. In recent weeks police forces from across the country have been trying to break Occupy camps as the LAPD did with Occupy LA. This strikes me as interesting when you think about The Tea Party having rallies where they were openly carrying assault rifles like AK47s and AR15s as well as having various racist, xenophobic, and homophobic signs and rants but when people decide to peacefully protest against the injustices that they see (with no hate to anyone) they are treated with riot police and pepper spray and Billy clubs. Even though Occupy is no longer on the lawn of City Hall they have been making their presence known by recently occupying foreclosed houses and damn near shutting down all of the ports on the west coast. Doing this to bring attention to the people responsible for the financial meltdown and the fact that they were bailed out with no accountability for their actions. Is it me or is the Republican presidential race seems more and more like a joke. Not that I would any Republican but the insanity of Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Statorum coupled with the hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney is making this race look like a Harold & Kumar movie without the benefit of the weed. The only one that seems like he’s semi-sensible is Jon Huntsman and as a Mormon and someone who believes in global warming, he has as much chance of getting elected as Herman Cain (another hypocrite). OK enough of the politics, the NBA is back, which is a good thing, football is only on Sundays (with one game on Mondays and maybe Thursdays) and baseball is over. That being said it’s been a fucked up week for Laker fans (like myself) but pretty damn good for The Clippers. Lakers trade 6^th Man of the Year Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown for basically nothing (all we got was some future draft picks and a trade exemption) well the lowly Clippers ended up getting Chris Paul (whom we were trying to get) and Chauncey Billups to add to the Blake show. On top of that Kobe is getting divorced after 10 years and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get Dwight Howard this season. I speak for all Lakers fans (and most fans of the NBA) when I say David Stern can kiss my ass. He’s probably the worst NBA commissioner ever, the George W. Bush of the NBA.

As far as the kicks are concerned there are a few bangers coming out right about now. The Last Shot Jordan 14s and LeBron 9 Chinas have already dropped and you might be in line waiting for the shoe store to open as you read this. Hopefully this will be up before December 23^rd when the highly anticipated Air Jordan 11 Concords drop but if you have some extra money that day you also got the Christmas editions of the LeBron 9, Kobe 6, and Durant 3 which all three players will be rocking on the floor for NBA’s opening night on Christmas. There are some things coming out in the new year like the low cut Jordan 11s in red as well as the military blue Jordan 4 and the Raptor Jordan 7. Oh yeah, they finally gave us a release date for the Air Yeezy 2. It looks like it’s going to March the 23^rd which is right next to my birthday so for all of you thinking about getting me a present, the Air Yeezy in a 13 would be perfect. As for music I’m been kind of stuck on Immortal Technique’s The Martyr and Lupe Fiasco’s Friend of the People both are really sick and what’s really cool is that they are both totally free. Just go to their facebook pages and follow the download links. It’s the end of the year so I what to know what you think was album and sneaker of the year. I’ll give you my choices as well as the rest of the RIF crews’ picks next blog but send your picks to my e-mail which jonwallace1@sbcglobal.net and I’ll have your top 10 for 2011 in the next blog too. Anyway I have to finish my Christmas shopping so I’m out. Happy Holidays you guys.

I.A.T.D.