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Old school joint from Nubian Crackers

how to maximize your youtube experience

Youtube is great for finding amazing videos of crazy shit like this

But there is much more to youtube. Here are some of the best ways to maximize your youtube experience, and it starts with using the "My Channel" page.

tip 1)
Tired of seeing other people's videos of crazy people doing even crazier things...like this?


Make your own! It's easy...if you live in New York City like I do. All that's required is some luck, timing, and a touch of discretion. Friend of the blog Joey Boots decided to do exactly that, minus the discretion. He walks around NYC all day filming crazy people with his Flip Video recorder. This is a compilation of some of his videos. The "Michael Jackson Impersonator" video that he shot went viral
and landed him on hundreds of websites...and gave his own website a few hundred thousand views.



I decided to try it out as well. I soon learned that if you ride the subway long enough, you will have many opportunities to capture some of the more insane elements of the human condition. Here are a
 few examples of videos I shot myself:




Once you have uploaded the videos (which you can do with your phone, btw), they are on your channel for everybody to see. You can now embed the videos on your friends facebook pages, email the link to friends, and create a catalog of anything you find interesting.

Eventually, you can move onto projects more challenging then filming crackheads in the subway. A guy I know was part of a youtube spoof of "There Will Be Blood." Their video got almost 750,000 views.



tip 2)
youtube is extremely entertaining. We all know this. But it can be educational as well. Subscribing to other channels offers a wide array of things, whether it be political/historical, music related, or news related. Two of my favorite channels that I subscribe to are:

Antihostile, who posts many famous Malcolm X speeches and James Baldwin interviews.
Anthony Arnove, who, along with  historian Howard Zinn, wrote "The People's History of the United States."

Additionally, there are hundreds of channels whose sole purpose is to catalog and find amazing music within a specific genre. If you like funk, I cannot recommend a better channel than 805cowboy13's, who has hundreds of old, rare funk tracks.

If you like a certain record label and their artists, subscribe to their youtube channel. Whenever i go to my youtube home-screen, I am always  updated with videos of new songs...or new albums about to be released, like this


I'm a huge hip hop fan, yet I had no idea that Pete Rock was teaming up with "Smif n Wesson" to make an album. Thanks to my handy subscription to their record label, DuckDown Records, I found out before all my friends did...which is extremely important for me.

tip 3)
Use your inbox! This is where other people can interact with you. Other youtube users can share videos with you. If you like what that user is about, much like facebook, you can become his "friend" and get updates as to his or her recent activity.

Furthermore, there are times where you need to interact with others. For instance, I wanted to know the name of a song featured in the Pete Rock video posted above. I commented on the video, "hey, does anyone know the name of the second Pete Rock song?" Two days later, I checked my inbox on a whim and got my answer. Somebody commented, "@mothernaturesson89 Pete Rock & CL Smooth - Straighten It Out." I am forever greatful.

If you want to reply to someone's comments, you can post @their account name, and they will see the reply in their inbox.


I hope I offered some useful tips. If you have any interesting videos you've uploaded, hit me up at @mothernaturesson89 on youtube. Or, check out my channel.

7 Worst tattoos of all time

People have been getting tattoos for a very long time. The earliest tattoo in recorded history belongs to "Otzi the Iceman," whose 5,000 year old body was found preserved in a glacier between Austria and Italy. They even make an appearance in the bible--leviticus (19:28) reads, "ye shall not make any cuttings on your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you."

In modern times, tattoos were typically relegated to sailors, soldiers, and members of the circus. However, in the past 50 years, tattoos have become more widespread and much more socially acceptable. Unfortunately, as more people get tattoos, the number of idiotic, ridiculously awful tattoos rises accordingly.

In 1936, Life Magazine reported that 6% of Americans had at least one tattoo. In 2006, according to the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, that figure rose to 24%. In 2007, The Pew Research Center found that 36% of Americans aged 18-25 had at least one tattoo. Now, I know there are dumb asses of all ages across this great country of ours. But 1 in 3 college age kids, a demographic widely known for its impulsive and sometimes moronic behavior, is inked up? No wonder we have tattoos like these (and no wonder that 17% of people who have a tattoo consider getting it removed):

• 1)     College; the precious 4 years when young people all over the world get the chance to grow and discover who they truly are. This freshman "discovered" the fact that he's a fucking douche bag

• 2) Really? Let me get this straight. You decided to get not just a Patrick Swayze tattoo, which would be pretty strange to begin with, but a tattoo of Patrick Swayze as a centaur? 

• 3) Congratulations, you just got your fucking eyeball tattooed. You know what they say: beauty is in the eye on the beholder...

• 4) You know these stay on your body forever, right? Seriously, tell me how you're going to explain to your grandchildren that you got Justin Beiber's visage tattooed on your thigh? (note, you can barely make out the leg hair on the left thigh, which would indicate that the recipient of this ingenious tattoo is a dude)

•  5) You must be on fucking crack to think this is even a remotely good idea.

•  6) Ahh yes, the famous Gucci Mane incident. In addition to being a terrible rapper, he's also a  mental defective who got an ice cream cone tattooed on his face. Now, in his defense, one of his catchphrases is "so icy, boy." But, to get a metaphorical representation of said catchphrase tattooed on your face is absolutely, unequivocally one of the stupidest fucking things I've ever seen in my entire life. No wonder he can't spell "Man" correctly. 

• 7)  I'm unsurprised that America ranks 17th overall in education. I'm also unsurprised that Americans have begun to get high off bath salts, ensuingly lapsing into dangerous psychotic episodes. We are a great nation. I firmly believe that. Yet, it deeply pains me to see that the freedom so many have sacrificed their lives for has been squandered on this: some guy getting a collage simultaneously commemorating his daughter, America, and Star Wars, tattooed on his dumb, chunky back.

Counterpoint:

However, I have great hope for this nation because of tattoos like these

I really, really, hope this is ironic. Either way, it's fucking amazing

'nuff said.

Once again, 'nuff said. Don't try to read into it. Just accept it.

Dick Cheney as Satan? fuck yes

 This takes the cake. The fact that there's some sardonic genius lurking around out there who came up with this leaves me awestruck. Would I want to have this on my body? Not really. But I definitely like it.

subway dancing: masked man, young bill gates lookalike, and his portly friends getting it in

I saw the Spike Lee movie "Malcolm X" last nite. Thought i would post this video. A video that was linked to it was a lengthy speech by the "Honorable" elijah Muhammad. it was posted by 7thjewelproductions, which is apparently an NOI internet mouthpiece. very sad to see that people are still subscribing to this sophism.

the nation of islam is as truly islamic as the mormons are christian (or as the christians are jewish, for that matter.) organized religion can be a powerful tool for good, yet in my opinion they are entirely divisive and cloud people from a purer understanding of themselves and their fellow human beings. that being said, it is important to differentiate spirituality from religion. an individual's relationship with their higher power, in whatever iteration that may be, is spirituality. accepting and believing what someone else's beliefs are is religion. and that, in my opinion, is bumbaclot.

Religious fundamentalism scares the shit outta me

In the words of Drake's song Bitch is Crazy, "I respect a woman, but this bitch is crazy..."