MNR: The Lady Or The Tiger?

MNR: The Lady Or The Tiger?

It really warmed my heart to see Coach Fizdale and my third cousin Marc Gasol make amends after a lengthy and surprising discord. The two were player and coach for the Memphis Grizzlies for a bit over a year before their beef and a couple other factors led to Fiz’s dismissal. Coach and player fallout is hardly anything new. But this case was especially surprising due to the widespread respect both garner. Fiz is the quintessential player’s coach, with legends like D. Wade still singing his praise even years after their work relationships concluded. Marc Gasol is a perennial all-star caliber player and one of toughest MF in the A. His respect extends to infinity. The beef itself didn’t particularly intrigue me: beef is beef. Beef between two 70+ year-old ladies in the Kosher meat section of ShopRite is just as valid as two known killers who hate one another locking eyes in proximity. What intrigued me was the perceived lack of any type timetable for future glasnost (peace). Until last night, it seemed like this beef may have lasted far beyond their playing and coaching days. And that saddened me because I always feel that two stand-up and rational men can have a sit-down and hash out any problem through communication. At times my theory is ripped to shreds, but for the most part I’m unwavering in my sentiment. Big ups to Fiz for extending the olive branch via a call to Gasol over this past summer. That progress led to a full embrace last night. And a Knicks dub. Thank you Lord.

Twitter Gawdz

On 7.4.10, @IAMDJGREEN forced Twitter upon me. I was only a year or so into FB (I’m completely disassociated from FB; something hard to do) when I was introduced to the birdie (true Twitter Gawdz know). I was years late to FB. When FB dropped I was selling drugs full time and had absolutely no interest in joining whatever they were calling social media. I was raised by the old school so I abide by the old rules. I stayed out that camera’s eye strategically. But after my highly respected trap ceased operation (1400 Jesup Ave Apt 2C; ask about the big man), I sought to reconnect with many severed ties. Not severed because of love lost but severed because of lost contact. I’m a college graduate. I graduated with honors. I wasn’t proud to be in those BXNY and Eastside Harlem streets grinding for mine. I wasn’t ashamed either. I was doing what I felt I had to. But when your friends and contemporaries are running companies, affixing Dr. to their names, and living life to its fullest, your pitiful drug dealing being just doesn’t add up. I’m speaking personally all you trappers. Please don’t shoot me. It’s Jon Blaze! I can get jiggy with it! Anyway, after reconnecting with errbody on FB, it became type dry. Nigga, I don’t wanna read a damn two page article on my FB TL about what you had for lunch in your job-site’s sorry ass cafeteria (Big ups to Mt. Sinai Hospital’s caf; I miss you so). Wrap that shit up, B. You can tell us about that wraggily ass Chicken Caesar Salad you overpaid for in err umm...140 characters or less. Good looks cuzzo. In retrospect, I’m surprised that nigga hasn’t sent me an invoice in the past eight years, ole stingy ass (Love you nigga). But Aaron Warren did put me on to the greatest form of social media ever created. The Twitter (from henceforth “the” precedes Twitter) has stood the test of over a decade’s time, beginning in March ‘06. It allows the user to make short blogs within the confine of 140 characters. That character limit has since doubled to 280 characters, but the limit was and simultaneously wasn’t the underlying genius of the Twitter. It was because, unlike the aforementioned FB post nausea, the 140 character limit made accurately and concisely carving your thoughts mandatory. But it also wasn’t the underlying genius because like FB, the Twitter allows for other forms of media to be played via tweets. You can tweet your FB post, Snap, IG, whatever with ease. But the overkill comes with the Twitter’s beloved reference for good ole Amendment I. The Twitter don’t give a flying UFO fuck about your content, so long as it doesn’t include child pornography or extreme bigotry. But porn, filmed homicide/execution, porn, other things, porn and porn are quite welcome. And, just like the deceased phenomena Vine (shouts to Jabbar Hakeem Drakeford the Don, my nucca) the cap on time/length of the tweet made creativity ever the more pertinent. You don’t have the luxury of typing a research paper post like FB. You had to get that shit done within the 140/280...and do it mega, super retardo. The creativity we see e’y day is unparalleled. And the porn is usually a welcomed view. Mostly a welcomed view. Just watch your volume and that nosy MF peeking over your shoulder. And your phone’s reflection in the NJ Transit bus window. Throw in the GIF’s and the possibilities are endless. And as my ultimate pitch, the true beauty of being on the Twitter comes when you have about 1K followers and/or follow damn near e’ybody in your hood. When both pop, your TL is more informative than any other social media because it comes in true real time and because when you follow the whole hood you get all the hood goings on in MEGA real time. And unlike FB or IG, your timeline on the Twitter isn’t based on algorithms. For you technologically challenged MF, that basically means that your TL is your true TL and not a reflection of the followers/friends you most interact with. Algorithms had me thinking I only followed about 10 people on IG, straight jacket. I was deeeeeeeep into my IG TL one day and had only seen the same folk IG posts. I knew something was up. But not on the Twitter. You get it how you live. The lack of algorithms also makes promo on the Twitter so much more efficient. Your business promo tweet is guaranteed to end up on every last one of your followers’ TL. Did I mention how much easier it is for a tweet to reach a famous person than a FB or IG post? And how much more likely they are to actually reply? And there’s this thing called the retweet...

I’m damn near 70K in on the Twitter. I don’t tweet like I used to, but I still love it the same. It’s my one stop shop for news (hood, local, national, global, sports, entertainment), conversation, a good laugh, and general fuckery. It’s also where I’ve gone to let my pain out without banging my head against some wall. Twitter is thee shit. It’s my time y’all. #BFT143#

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