Wu Artifcats

I've been getting into Shyheim's records lately. You can buy his 1999 release Manchild on iTunes, and the harder-to-find early albums like AKA the Rugged Child (released in 1994, when he was either 14 or 15) and The Lost Generation are findable with a little bit of Googling. He's a great lyricist and has a storytelling style that incorporates an attention to detail in a way that stands out while seeming offhanded. The production on the records is mostly excellent and you can hear his voice changing from album to album, which is kind of a cool oddity.

Anyway, while scratching around for Shyheim stuff on You Tube, I found these pre-Wu Tang videos by RZA and GZA, which some of you might know but I had never seen before.

According to this entry on Wikipedia, RZA went to jail shortly after this Prince Rakeem EP came out, which might have influenced WTC's eventual sound. Look how young and stoned he appears here:



Here's "Come Do Me," the track from GZA's pre-36 Chambers album Words from the Genius. I can't quite put my finger on what the quality and style of this song and video remind me of, besides maybe New Jack City and eighth grade. In any case, it seems like it was released just before the crest of some evolutionary wave in hip-hop:



Here's the awesome title track from Manchild that started this little digital age archaeological dig:



There's a video for the song, too, but it's censored and choppy and has a weird acoustic quality:

My Own Personal Blog

John August wrote this article, Professional Writing and the Rise of the Amateur, more than three years ago, and it is still completely pertinent to the current crop of casual writing. August articulates in excellent detail why writers--whether bloggers, letter writers or editors of major periodicals--should take care in what they write and how they write it.

He identifies the same basic thoughts that pass through my mind when I read a poorly organized rant or a piece of sloppy, half-assed expression from someone trying to market his persona as a poker player or trying to sell his coaching services or a subscription to the poker site he is affiliated with. Those thoughts are similar to how baffled (and usually irked) I am when I reach the voicemail of a friend of mine who is conducting business of some kind--any kind--and the outgoing message is something cutesy or indecipherable.

In cases where a poker blogger is criticized for something he wrote, the author's stock reply is usually something like, "Well, it's my own personal blog, I can write whatever I want in it!" Well, yes, sure, but not really.

August outlines five aspects--presentation, accuracy, consistency, accountability, and peer standards--that separate amateurs from professionals and describes why the difference between an amateur and a professional has almost nothing to do with getting paid and much more to do with the fact that a person has undertaken the task of writing to begin with.

He writes, "...in the age of Google, everything you’ve ever written, even that snarky comment you left on the message board, is linked back to you...If you feel like writing 1500 words about your cat in your blog, go for it. I’m just asking you, pleading with you, to spellcheck. Mr. Whiskers deserves it. Tuck in your virtual shirt and take even the frivolous stuff seriously."

I highly recommend this piece to any and every poker player who has a blogspot account and occasionally presses the "publish post" button and to anyone in any field who chooses to represent himself in print or online at any point in his life (so, basically, to everyone).

***

There hasn't been much else worth writing about around here. FTOPS has been underway for almost a week and despite some nearly promising results--a cash in the $1K last night, another in last week's Stud8 event, and some kind of deepish run in the Mini-FTOPS $10RB over the weekend--nothing has gelled yet. For better and worse, richer and poorer, a lot of the juiciest action takes place between now and Sunday.

Matt Woodward, EPT Final Table

Matt Woodward is among the final eight players at the EPT Grand Final, second in chips to Dag Mikkelsen, and the only American at the final table of one of the most prestigious events on the live tournament circuit. They're playing for a life-changing $3M USD (with a minimum $225K locked up) when the game resumes tomorrow in Monte Carlo.

I guess I blew it when writing the entry for the GCC by pairing it with an entry for Get Crunk himself. Or maybe doing it that way helped light the proverbial fire under Woodrow's ass (he helped me with some of the details about the GCC). Or, really, it had zero effect whatsoever, and Woodward, on the heels of a nice run at the LAPC, is "due."

Anyway, although I don't know Matt too well, my experiences with him (including a recent meal at Nobu in the Bahamas) have been positive, and he's a clear "root" from my end. Good luck, dude.

Poker Term of the Day, 5/1/09

Matt Savage.

The California State Poker Championship starts today at Commerce.