The folks over at Hush Money & Co. are bringing you this special summer weekly, starting June 6th. But, before that happens, right now there’s a special bon voyage tribute to the Umoja Quintet‘s beloved drummer, Ivan Cotton. Come out right now to Downtown LA for this special event! Ends at 10pm.

Welcome to the House Of Blues, where everything rock, hiphop, and everything in between is celebrated here. I know I’m late in posting about this event, but I was here to cover the gig for WIB and get the details. I’m not usually the type to wait until the party happens, but in the event of this special engagement, I was forcing myself to see who was going to perform on this particular night in question. Yes, I had a good time, but I have to admit, I had a much more fun time last year since it was crazy!

For my take on what went down (including the specs I’ve taken), head on over to Word Is Bond and read my recap.

Yes, after so many talks with a few folks, I’ve finally decided to add something extra to the blog! For some strange reason, at this point, I’m still trying to figure out how to add a ‘like’ profile on the front page, but that will be fixed soon.  So, yes… go ahead and ‘like’ it! 

Soulfully Poetic: facebook | twitter 

Tonight, Inka One, Ben Diggin, & DJ Analong is bringing you another episode of BOOMBOX. You will be seeing the return of DJ Babu & House Shoes, with your guest host, Bishop Lamont! There’s always a discount deal to get in, so be sure to get on it while you’re at it!

Spotted over at my friend Michelle’s page, I’ve seen this flyer with some horns on it. Then when I started reading the details, I just realized that I’m getting schooled in the history of the development of Little Tokyo, and what changes it went through in the 40s during World War 2 . Anyhow, this project started off as a fundraiser that ended up meeting their goal ($$), which in turn is putting together this event (which includes a play, an exhibit, and a musical which stars Miguel Atwood-Ferguson)!

HISTORY: This exhibit takes a dive into the relationship between the Japanese & African Americans during World War 2, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States then issued the Executive Order 9066 (the removal & incarceration of Japanese Americans all across the West Coast). Once that went down, LA Mayor Fletcher Brown wanted the Japanese Americans removed completely from the Southland, resulting in evictions wherever they stayed. All the locations where there was a high influx of Japanese Americans became ghost towns, and one place (in particular, Little Tokyo) became a huge migration place for African Americans (those from the Deep South), seeking employment. The reason they chose Little Tokyo? It’s simple. During these times, places like Watts, Compton (especially the Willowbrook area).. were all occupied by white people, and since racism was still alive & well.. there were strict rules that barred ‘color people’ from living in certain ‘specific’ areas.

To read more about it, and how it became a place named Bronzeville, continue reading here. Thank you, Michelle!

Ahhhh shit! My favorite party crew is returning with their first episode this sunday in Little Tokyo for Cinco De Mayo. Plus, it’s the homie Cee Brown‘s birthday, and my favorite mixtape DJ since the 80s is taking Senor Fish by storm! It’s going to be epic! FREE.99 all night! Starts at 8pm!

Last week, Adobe has released a trial version of the newest effort in editing photography in creative ways, Lightroom 5 (beta). A couple of days ago I’ve been browsing online for some pointers to touch up some of my pictures, and that’s when I discovered that Lightroom is coming out with their fifth edition, especially with new ways to tweak your pictures!

If you’re a fanatic of Lightroom (just like I am), then this is definitely the program you must try out! This new version has quite a few tools to use, such as the Advanced Healing Brush, which helps you remove spots and unwanted stuff in your pictures. In the previous versions of LR, you were only able to remove them via circular areas; this edition changed all that, since there are stuff in the picture that comes in various irregular shapes by using it as a brush! Hmm.. what else did they add?

• Radial Filter – which is now one of my favorites (thanks to Matt)!  It’s a tool that creates a vignette effect on a certain spot of the picture chosen by you. If you don’t know what a vignette effect is, picture a fisheye lens with the black edges in the picture fades from black to clear (towards the specific illuminated point) in the picture. You can watch here for the example on how it works. What Matt did was change the location of the focal points, and created presets for you to download! Thanks, sir! 
• Upright – This is definitely for EVERY single photographer who can’t keep their camera steady in their hand and take a picture straight. Or, when you try to upload a photo via photoshop or on any photo-editing program and it comes out all crooked ‘n stuff, making you have to adjust it correctly, which is a total pain. This tool gives you four easy methods to straighten tilted images with a single click of a button. It also checks out the image and detects the jacked-up vertical & horizontal lines, and straighten the shot where the horizon is hidden. Check out the video.
• Improved Photo Book Creation – In Lightroom 4 (which I’m currently using), the Book module was introduced. You were able to create a look book for any client, friends or whatever; you can also put it in PDF form for online viewing. Now, you can tweak it up by adding page numbers, captions (for photos and/or pages), customize page layouts, and more! Check out the video by Laura Shoe for the details.

There are plenty more updates that are featured in the upcoming Lightroom 5, which will be out in June. But since Adobe is so nice to their fans, they’ve given us an opportunity to download the FREE trial version of the program and play with it. According to Adobe, this is an UNFINISHED version of the actual program, so this beta version is released for the purpose of getting feedback on it. What’s dope is that you can download it, and if you already have any of the previous versions, the beta version won’t interfere with the one you have… so don’t worry about upgrading because it won’t happen.

For more details, click here. To download the LR5 Beta, click here. Mind you, this version is FREE until June 30th.

Now here’s a contest that every photographer should participate in, especially if you’re into sports photography! Unfortunately I just stumbled upon this yesterday, so you only have four days to make this happen! The good thing? You can submit up to at least 50 shots for ten categories, so that’s five shots for each category! The categories are as follows (click the orange links for visual examples):

Categories:

• Close Up: Images that show extreme detail of one or more aspects of an athletic feat: a tight shot of the action, the equipment, the body, the face, etc.
• Energy: Images that demonstrate the force that powers an action and show the energy, speed and strength required for an athlete to perform.
• Experimental: Images that have been enhanced digitally or in the darkroom through alterations made in the production or digital editing process.
• Illumination: Images that illuminate your artistic skill, your personal best, your unique style; this is an open category so anything goes – give us your best shot!
• Lifestyle: Images that visually capture the creativity of the lifestyle, music and culture that surrounds action and freesports, or represents what happens before, between, and after the action.
• New Creativity: Images that reveal a unique angle, a visual idea, a different format, light and flash effects… something never seen before! It’s the purely creative image without digital alterations.
• Playground: Images that showcase the landscapes, locations, platforms, and environments in which athletes play.
• Sequence: Images that tell the whole story in a single frame and capture the progression of an action at every stage.
• Spirit: Images that portray the spirit or personality that athletic performances produce, as well as the pain, emotion and struggles that go along with trying to achieve one’s goals, whether due to injury, failure or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Wings: Images that capture the point in a performance in which the athlete jumps, catches air, free falls, soars.

Now, what you have to do is this:

1)    register here 
2)    click the activation link sent to you via email (check your spam folder if it doesn’t arrive)
3)    Login here and upload your awesome images

For more details, go to their website.

I’m not sure if I’ve posted about this before, but if so.. then oh well; here’s another repeat. There’s a camera swap meet that happens once a month on Sundays in Pasadena, Buena Park, & in West Covina. If you want to trade, buy, or sell your lens, you can definitely do that there!

The schedule for these shows are from 10am-3pm. Go here for more details on upcoming events!

According to Steven, Large Professor and Cormega are collaborating on the album called Mega Philosophy, and so far they’ve released M.A.R.S. (which features Action Bronson, Roc Marciano, & Saigon). We (or should I say, I…) am not sure about what the details on this album are, but hopefully they’ll get into that tonight in Pasadena. Opening acts features my homies ZOOLAY and LA’s finest talented producer Dibia$e, among others. Unfortunately this IS an all ages event (meaning 18+), but then again, this is hiphop. Come out and support!