The Blog

…listening to this fake clip of Beyonce singing live on the Today show. It’s clearly altered with an auto-tune program. It’s from Howard Stern’s Sirius satellite show.

CAUTION: do not eat, drink or stand up/near any sharp objects when you listen to this clip.

I need your help. At the beginning of a couple of his podcasts, FlowInk.com’s Big La will play this funny skit before getting into the music. I can’t figure out where this skit comes from. Is it from a movie? A TV show? A radio show? I don’t know, but I laugh hysterically every time I hear it.

Listen to it below. If you know where it comes from, leave it in a comment.

It’s always nice getting together with long-time friends. This year marked the 5th anniversary of the San Francisco State University gospel choir, a group that most of us (pictured below) have seen and helped grow from its infancy to a force to be reckoned within the campus music department. Also posted below, a recording from our reunion performance last Friday night. We sound just alright on the recording. But amateur live recordings are usually like that. In other words, its much better in person. We “killt” it!

From left to right: Shay Torres, Nicole Reinosa, Ain Campbell, Jeremy Gibson, Me, Leslie White (choir director), Natoya Willock, Derrick Sanchez, Dominique Molina, & Melanie Turner.

Not pictured above: Jonathan Smoothers (trying to get the camera working), JaRonn Thompson & Megan Newton-Gill.

Shout out to Mike Blakenship, musical director, for arranging the medley from songs we’ve sung over the last five years.

It was 90 degrees in San Francisco today. At the beach: 85 degrees with a slight breeze.

Couldn’t resist. It was a no-brainer.

My sister Kim introduced me to Brenda’s French Soul Food in the City. I love the crawfish beignets, the gumbo and their po’boy sandwiches. Perfect place for brunch. Go early or on a week day. This place gets crowded, and quick. The dining room is about as big as a master bedroom in a medium sized home. (Not kidding.)

The crawfish beignets are stuffed with crawfish meat, cheese, onions and other spices. Deep-fried and then sprinkled with a salty cayenne pepper spice concoction.

Here I’m downing a shrimp po’boy with fries.

*Today I started my “pork, beef and/or chicken only once a week” routine. (So, that means I still eat seafood.) I’m trying to intake fewer calories, though I didn’t do so good in that department today. What am I doing? Trying to become a little leaner, gain a bit more definition.

Best. karaoke. EVER.

Bacon. Hashbrowns. Eggs. English muffins. Coffee. $7.

Enough said.

Eddie’s Cafe on Divisadero and Fulton in SF.

Saw rapper Korrupt eating at the counter when I was there last week. Weird.

I spent last weekend at my parents home in Tracy, Calif. I got to check up on my dog. He was doing surprisingly well. He had more energy than normal. I walked him. I let him out in the front yard while my parents ran a garage sale. It felt good to see him in relatively good spirits.

I’m still going to miss him when I move away.

(Photo and food presentation by ALM)

I’m a little embarrassed to say I ripped this recipe from the Tyler Florence’s Ultimate TV series. But I’m unashamed to say how good it is…

His recipe calls for baking the chicken before glazing it with the chile-lime butter sauce. Instead, I deep fry the chicken pieces in hot veggie oil. I also zest about 1 tablespoon of lime zest into the sauce mixture. (The smell is heavenly.)

Here’s the recipe: Crisp Chicken Wings with Chili-Lime Butter

Sides: I did sweet potato and yukon gold potato fries. Julienne the potatoes and fry them in hot oil (separate from the oil the chicken is cooked in). Then quickly blanch asparagus in shallow water. Plate and drizzle stems with olive or white truffle oil.

Got any other good wings recipes? Leave them in the comments section. I’d love to try them out.

Everything is cool if you say, “no homo,” right?

I think the creators of the following video (probably without knowing it) have presented a prime jump-off point for a discussion on black homophobia and ways it affects male-male relationships, male-female relationships, black male masculinity and identity.

Obviously, the clip is meant to be funny. And it is! LOL

Watch the video and then post your thoughts in the comments section.

(WARNING: Contains adult language, which means its NSFW, “not safe for work”)