Our Rodney King

(Editor's Note: This post is from the Delino archives and has recently been re-approved for posting.)

The blogosphere was hit hard this week when one of our own was attacked by the New Haven police. New Haven's High Street was transformed into South Central circa 1991 as the Actual God took an undeserved trip downtown following an altercation with an angry cop outside the Oxford Apartments. Actual God, who lives at the Oxford (something the YDN article neglects to mention), was on his own steps, enlightening the crowds with his mere presence, when Officer Mark Francia saw fit to disturb the peace. Officer Francia has experience arresting innocent college kids for no reason, so I guess ultimately we should not be entirely shocked by his behavior. Nevertheless, his actions were outrageous and should not be tolerated.

Furthermore, I think that there is a subtext to this incident that has not been mentioned. I think that Francia knew about the Actual God's blog and was thus firing the first shot in the impending war between the bloggers and the New Haven police. Be wary Kingspawn, watch your back Nostradamus, and comment very carefully Anonymous Flamer. The coppers are looking for any excuse to bring you down.

Meanwhile, here at Delino, we will back our blogging brethren 100% and do our best to prevent a major blogging riot from breaking out in the coming weeks.

Diesel DJ

While shopping at Diesel near Union Square last weekend (it wasn't for me), I noticed that the hip-hop music being played in the store was emanating from a portly African-American DJ. My curiosity was piqued, and I began to ponder how DJs transitioned from one song to another relatively seamlessly. So I watched the DJ as he played an R. Kelly song off a record, and then prepared to transition to a Jay-Z record.
Over the course of five minutes, he turned various knobs- each time I expected him to change songs and he didn't. And he adjusted several level controls- again, I thought he'd switch at that point, and yet he didn't. He was waiting for the perfect moment to transition songs so that the bass lines and beats would line up flawlessly and no one would notice the switch. After all that preparation, finally, here was the transition he made. Suffice it to say, I'm throwing out the turntables Rich bought me for Hanukkah- DJing is dead to me.

Max and the Wiz

To take refuge from a rainy Friday last week, the Delino family huddled next to the radio in our living room with some hot cocoa and marshmallows. Rich wanted to listen to the Yale-Cornell Cross Country meet, but we convinced him that we should instead listen to some commentary about the great issues of the day. And so we turned our dial to 1340 WYBC AM, and found Max and the Wiz (Fridays, 5 PM).

Max and the Wiz began with an slick anchor voice intoning, "Max and the Wiz- the show where we give you OUR take on today's hottest issues." But almost immediately, this suave disembodied voice was replaced by two lisping dorks, Max, and of course the Wiz. Check out one of their Crossfire-style exchanges--

Max: Ssso, what'sss newsss today. Let'sss sssee. Oh, a new law on the booksss requiresss PORN actorsss to regissster to make sssure they aren't children. The Wiz, your take on thisss isssue?

The Wiz: Huh. Umm. (5 second pause) Yeah, I guesss. Well. It'sss a ssslippery ssslope, ssso you have to, uh, be careful.

Max: Yeah. Uhh. (5 second pause) That'sss a good analysssisss. Although I think... (5 second pause) Never mind. Umm, yeah. Moving on....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look out Hannity and Colmes!!!!

"The Dominican Republic??"

Interested in working on development in

The Dominican Republic??


I saw this flyer today, but at first I couldn't see the text at the top.

"Fucking A man, right on, what is the deal there anyway"

Shaggy Sneak Preview

The bad boys of blogging were at it again tonight, this time on the set of reggae phenomenon Shaggy's new music video. As you can see from this picture, despite the fact that everyone was there just for him, he had a bevy of ebony bombshells surrounding him, and all he had to do was lip-synch to a song for 30 seconds and move around in a cool looking way, Shaggy felt VERY put-upon.


He pouted a lot and whined in his Jamaican accent to Production Assistants. Not only was Shaggy not into his own video, he was not into his own music. But he managed to hide it during takes, as you can see from this bootleg video Rich took. And now, without further ado, Rich and I present to you a preview of the new Shaggy video...

If you can't spot the secret agent, you are the secret agent

Plot Outline: James Bond must thwart a dangerous Russian spy from winning a No-Limit Texas Holdem game of Poker worth millions.

Dan and Rich pose as Paparazzi

After he noticed that there was going to be a movie premiere down the block, Dan immediately forgot his tendency to insult and belittle famous people and told me to get on the scene...and to bring my camera. The premiere in question was for the movie Shopgirl. After about 15 minutes of small-time celebrities, non-celebrities, and fashion designers (Zac Posen) showing up, this man arrived.


They called him Radio, and he appeared to know everyone on the scene, despite the fact that he looked like a homeless man (to his credit, he later shook hands with both Regis Philbin and Steve Martin). Finally, two of the stars, Jason Schwartzman and Claire Danes arrived at the premiere. They posed for this picture for me.

Regis Philbin arrived at approximately the same time, as you can see in this video. Steve Martin was next, and Dan yelled out, "I loved you as Navin Johnson!"

Next thing we knew the media whirlwind was over for us. I was able to capture one more video of Martin and Danes chatting with the press, but alas, our time with the stars was too short. Luckily they are filming a scene for The Devil Wears Prada across the street from our apartment, so maybe Dan can keep getting his celebrity fix there.

Yes, the boys are going to Vegas

For Alex's upcoming 21st birthday, the bloggers are taking a vacation. Alex has insisted that we see this show (notice the Nudity Factor) and this show (notice the age restrictions)...and that he gets a turn in the Dunk Tank (look at the bottom of the page).

Napoleon Dynamite

What is this movie? Dan and I just saw it and are still unsure of what to think. Except we do know one thing...we did not like it. There was no plot, the movie tried to be random for the sake of being random and still managed to be predictable in many parts. I think I probably would have liked it more if it had actually been funny. The jokes were extremely trite when they were evident at all. One of the few scenes I did enjoy was the milk tasting competition. And Pedro was an ok character.

This is a well-written review of the movie. Even Roger Ebert didn't like it...and he likes everything these days.

Full House Fakes Me Out Again

So I'm watching Full House at 5:30 in the morning, as I am wont to do. Danny has finally hit the big time as a sportscaster, going on his first national broadcast. But right before he leaves for the arena, DJ and Stephanie present him with gifts! First, he opens DJ's gift. Oh, great, a nice tie! Danny says he'll wear it tonight on the broadcast. Now, Stephanie's gift. It's.. some.. hideous, tye-dye, disk-like object. Danny doesn't know what to say and stands there looking it at it for a moment. Luckily DJ pipes up: "Hey Dad, what a nice tie tack!"

OK, so here we have a perfect sitcom predicament, right? There is no way Danny can wear this thing on national TV. It looks completely ridiculous. But does he really want to hurt his 7-year old daughter's feelings?

But then he just wears the fucking thing on the air and the plot goes in a completely different direction. No conflict there at all. Full House fakes me out again.

P.S. This is DJ's (well done, Rich) brother-in-law: