From Planet WTF? It's Heat 1 - Mavericks 1, Hip Hop 2.0, and the Year In Films...so far.

           Salutations world! Another day of teaching for this guy, and since handing out exam review sheets is something that I excel at, today should be a breeze. While it's not terribly demanding, it should give me some time to formulate my thoughts and pump out another week's end blog. That's right, it's here, the weekend, just over the horizon - thank goodness it's Friday. I teach today and I serve tonight, then we're at week's end - and we're one small step closer to... school's end. Bring on the summer! I've got a real medley of sports, music and movies for the blog today. We'll look at another miraculous Mavericks comeback in game 2 of the NBA Finals. I'll post this weeks Hip Hop Top 20 countdown for your viewing/reading pleasure. We'll take a look at what's dropping this month in the hip hop world. And lastly, we'll hit the box office trail and take a look at this years movies so far, at least according to their IMDB ranks. But first things first, the BIG farewell.        

          Barring any shenanigans (very possible considering the man involved!) Shaquille "The Big Aristotle, "Shaq", "The Diesel", "Shaq Fu", "The Big Daddy", "Superman", "The Big Cactus", "The Big Shaqtus", "The Big Galactus", "Wilt Chamberneezy", "The Real Deal", "Dr. Shaq" (after earning his MBA), "The Big Shamrock", "The Big Leprechaun", "Shaqovic", and "The Big Conductor" O'Neal will be announcing his retirement today. Because of his recent underwhelming and unproductive stints in Cleveland and Boston it can be possible to downplay or underrate Shaq's rank as one of the NBA's all time greats. But let's dismiss those final two seasons from his transcript, the same way we pretend that MJ never laced 'em up for the Wizards. Do that and you're and left with the picture of a man who was a NBA giant, even amongst a world of literal giants. Shaq is a behemoth in every sense of the word, in the post MJ era of the NBA, the Deisel was the pervading personality of the league, he was larger than life both on and off the court.
        
                His legacy transcends the basketball court, he was a star off the court, a result of his forays into the entertainment world through the mediums of both music and film. Despite both his musically career and acting career being relative flops, Shaq always maintained a level of charisma that kept you tuning in to hear the big fella, year after year, soundbite after soundbite. (And... Blue Chips was dope.)  If anything, his dabbling into the entertainment world served to cloud our understanding of just how truly dominant he was as a basketball player. It's a shame if you remember Shaq as the big goofy guy who had a few misguided attempts into mainstream media. What Shaq should be best remember as, is one of the top 3 greatest centers to ever do it and one of the top 10 players to ever play the game. His name belongs in the rafters in Orlando for putting that expansion franchise on the map in the mid 90's and in the hallowed Staples Centre for the 4 championships he (re: Not Kobe) led the Lakers to. As far as dominating the spotlight, Shaq has always been a class act and brought positive attention to the game,  for that he should be commended. As far as dominating a game, there were none better. Recognize.

             I believe the saying goes something like "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So, shame on me, I'm a fool, all the above - I wallow in shame and foolishness. I watched the first 42 minutes of game 2 of the NBA Finals. I watched intently. I watched DWade and Lebron James make countless shots that resembled more of the H-O-R-S-E variety, than of the NBA finals variety. Dallas certainly outplayed the home favourites in the first half, but the duo of Lebron and Wade kept the Heat close with a shooting display that can only be described as "astoundingly rediculous". I scoffed as LBJ and the man formerly know as Flash, (how come no one calls him this anymore? Ironically enough, another moniker placed on Wade by none other than Shaq himself.) continued to knock down shots that I would have shouted out "good defense" after, if I was Mav's head coach Rick Carlisle. (Re: I'm not Rick Carlisle folks.) But as I said, despite outplaying the Heat, the Mavs found themselves tied at the half. I thought to myself the Mavs had a chance to win this one, but they've let it slip away.

                The Heat clamped down defensively to begin the second half, began to execute in a more traditional fashion, scoring in transition off of forced turnovers. The Heat seemed to have survived the first half and now were going for blood in the second half; an approach we have seen them take throughout the Bulls series, and something we also saw in Game 1. Except something went wrong this time around. Way wrong. All the way around. With nearly 6 minutes remaining Dwayne Wade hit a 3 from the corner and it looked as if the game, and for all intensive purposes, possibly the series, was over. The Heat must have mailed it in, so did I. I shouldn't have. After all, it was less than two weeks ago that the Mavs fell behind the Thunder by 15 on the road in the closing minutes of game 4, only to storm back in the final minutes, force overtime, and eventually win the game. But that was the young Thunder, they lacked the veteran leadership necessary to hold off the savvy Mavs I told myself. I remarked that they had been struggling to find offence the whole second half and that the tight half court defence of the Heat made the 15 point lead, impregnable - positively insurmountable- yes, I remarked all of these things in a soliloquy. Stru and I looked at each, and mutually pronounced the game 'over'. We began our end of day preparations. I brushed my teeth, I prepared my iTunes playlist for a soft soothing sleep. I put my phone on vibrate, fluffed my pillow, flicked the lights off and slipped into bed. I didn't give Dirk and his merry men the respect they deserved - for the second time in under a fortnight.

           "Bzzzzz, Bzzzz, Bzzzzzz", I hear my phone buzzing, a msg from RT, probably some hyperbole, a Robism telling me that "...the iRock is packed with beautiful desperate women.". (Keep in mind, I'm near the lucid dreaming stage at this point.) Nope. It's a short msg, all it says, "Goooo Dirk". I'm thinking, "I like desperat....wha....is Rob really cheering Dirk on as he heads for the Miami airport down 0-2? Not likely. I flip my laptop open to ESPN.com, Mavs have inexplicably pulled within 6. I flip to an online stream of the game just in time to see the Mavs force a turnover and score on the other end to tie the game up. Timeout Miami. At this point, I'm flicking light switches "Code Red! High Alert! Stru the Mavs are back in it! Get up!" We watched the finish, watched Dirk effortlessly hit the go ahead 3, only to see the Mavs give one up on the other end because of a defensive brainfart. Then there we were with no shot clock left, just a Dallas possession with a chance to win the game or we're heading to overtime. As I had expected some time earlier, there would be no overtime on this night - I just had the wrong team winning it in regulation. Dirk put Bosh in a blender and scored and easy running lay up for 2 off the class. DWade's final prayer would not be answered. Dallas wins. Hard for me to say what happened, I didn't see it. I figure the Heat thought what I did, that they had already won. They took a few bad shots that lead to easy baskets for the Mavs, the Mavs scored a few quick ones and their confidence grew - as did the size of the basket. With a renewed momentum the Mavs got their playoff mojo back and the rest is history. So it is with great shame that I pronounce myself, last night's fool. A fool who went to bed with a smile on his face.

Here's a look at the June release list for what's dropping this month in the hip hop world and how that has me feeling:

June 7th
Big K.R.I.T. - R4: The Prequel - Loving KRIT so I'll probably check out what sounds like his latest mixtape.
Ja Rule - Pain Is Love 2 - Stay gone Ja, stay gone.

June 14th
Bad Meets Evil (Eminem & Royce 5'9") - Hell: The Sequel - Anything Em's on is worth checking out, sadly, sometimes that's enough these days. Hope this is dope and that slaughterhouse has renewed Em's career.

June 21st
Pitbull - Planet Pit - This is for club rap enthusiasts. That's not me. Pass.
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter IV - I'll check it out at some point but doesn't feel anything near my anticipation for his third 'Carter' instalment.
Lil Wayne & Birdman - Like Father, Like Son - Not sure what the thinking is with this release date? Not the Wayne album I'll be looking to hear this week. Over-saturation?

June 28th
Beyonce - 4 - Do any girls read this? If so, that's for you. If not, fellas, there will be booty shaking videos if nothing else.
Big Sean - Finally Famous - Finally getting this album out, really hope this date holds up, looking forward to it.

Here's the latest top 20 list, not a whole lot new caught my attention this week, cept J. Cole has been putting out some hot tracks later and the word is that buzz is building for him to drop his first single of what will be his first major label album. I hope these rumours turn out better than the Detox rumours, cause that album is never coming out. Anyway, have at er.

Hip Hop Top 20 - Week 06. 03. 2011

20. 20. Killin' Em - Busta Rhymes ft. LL Cool J

n/a 19.  J. Cole - How High - It's J Cole's game right now. ***Top Debut***

12. 18. All Of The Lights - Kanye West
14. 17. Show Goes On - Lupe Fiasco
17. 16. That's Life 2 - Killer Mike
10.15. On My Level - Wiz Khalifa Ft. Too Short
16. 14. Make Some Noise - Beastie Boys
18. 13. Dreams Money Can Buy - Drake
07. 12. Red Nation - The Game Ft. Lil Wayne - Watch Jon Connor Do Work on This Beat! Killer.

13. 11. M I Crooked Letter - Rossini Ft. Big K.R.I.T.
11. 10. Disgusting - J. Cole
15. 09. Return of Simba - J. Cole   ***Top Gainer***
05. 08. Capcom - Kid Cudi
09. 07. Wake Up - Wiz Khalifa
03. 06. Dreamin' - Big K.R.I.T
08. 05. Fast Lane - Eminem and Royce 5'9"
06. 04. Eraser - Kid Cudi
04. 03. Roll Up - Wiz Khalifa
01. 02. All Black Everything - Lupe Fiasco
02. 01. American Rapstar - Big K.R.I.T - I've already posted this song so I'll give you another from heater from the same R4 album. Here;s Country Shit remixed with Bun B and Ludacris.

It's been awhile since I touched on anything film related so we'll play a little catch up on the what 2011 has held thus far. Below I've compiled a list of the vast majority of feature films that have received a relative amount of mainstream attention. I've used IMDB because I've found it to be pretty reliable source for films, it's top 250 are all legit and the sheer voting numbers(sample size) lend credibility to the figures, so I'll post those too. It's been a relatively 'ho hum' year to this point. Critically speaking there are only a few complete flops to speak of - Arthur, Priest, Battle Los Angeles. In fact, nearly all of the films to this point lie in  the 'safe to rent' range between 6.5 and 8, with most sitting in the 7.0 to 7.7 range. For instance, right now The Hangover II is sitting at just 7.0, but that's good enough for me, I'll check it out. An a couple of the low scores are brainless comedies that you'd be a fool to expect something momentous - Hall Pass, Your Highness. Good grief, the top score is an animated film about a ninja'ing panda; so no, you're not getting anything life changing, but at least it's been entertaining. That's the way I've felt ab, out many of these movies that I've seen - Cedar Rapids, Hanna, Lincoln Lawyer, Thor, and Unknown - nothing that we'll draw mention in Oscar season but passable stuff. Anyway I'll shut up, here's this years moving rankings to date in alphabetical order.

IMDB Rankings:
The Adjustment Bureau .................................... 7.1 (18, 715)
Battle: Los Angeles ........................................... 6.0 (36, 996)
Cedar Rapids ................................................... 6.9 (2, 632)
Fast Five........................................................... 7.7 (33 982)
The Green Hornet ............................................ 6.2 (35, 050)
Hall Pass .......................................................... 6.0 (9, 230)
Hanna............................................................... 7.5 (9, 195)
Hesher ............................................................. 7.4 (840)
The Hangover II ............................................... 7.0 (19, 052)
Just Go With It......,........................................... 6.3 (17, 883)
Kung Fu Panda: 2.............................................. 8.0 (5, 500)
Limitless............................................................. 7.3 (29, 205)
Lincoln Lawyer ................................................. 7.4 (10, 227)
The Mechanic ................................................... 6.5 (22, 763)
Paul .................................................................. 7.4 (14, 261)
Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides ........7.0 (33, 049)
Priest................................................................. 5.6 (5,116) (Why I included this, I'll never know)
Rango ............................................................... 7.7 (18, 632)
Rio ................................................................... 7.2 (15, 113)
Scream 4 .......................................................... 7.1 (19,790)
Source Code..................................................... 7.7 (24, 373)
Sucker Punch ................................................... 6.5 (30, 806)
Thor ................................................................. 7.5 (47, 575)
Unknown........................................................... 7.1 (20, 153)
Your Highness .................................................... 6.1 (5.992)

An lastly the latest trailer for end of summer blockbuster Rise Of the Planet of the Apes - This film looks like it's gonna be something special, what do you think? We'll check out some more trailers next week, this will have to do for now.

P.