Pronounced (cal-vin-uh-lee-bru)

Do you ever find yourself driving down the street and all of a sudden a song (out of nowhere) just pops into your head? I mean it completely comes out of left field but you can sing that song like you had it implanted into your brain. That happens to me a lot and one of the groups that seem to trot around my brain is JODECI. If you were going to school in the early 90′s you know what that means (and if you went to high school with me, you can probably picture Big Ron and myself right now singing Forever My Lady in the quad). Those were the days back then. If you read this post and you say “who the heck is that, and how do I pronounce it?” you need to seriously go to Pandora and type in JODECI. They were the group that brought a lot of the thug mannerisms to R&B. Now, it’s no big deal to walk around stage singing with no shirt on with an arm full of tattoos, but back then, R&B singers were reserved. They were usually pretty boys with nice suits but JODECI changed all that.

In 1996, right around the time I graduated from high school, the group officially broke up. Jo Jo and K-Ci went off on their own and started making hit albums. DeVante and Mr. Dalvin stayed mostly behind the scenes producing and writing. I never heard too much about them two after the group split up and it’s shame because those boys had talent. They sang and played instruments showcasing talents of real musicians. Word out on the street was that the group was going to make a comeback album but show schedules to the few they had booked were canceled. Rumor also has it that drugs had a big part to do with a lot of the instability the group encountered. I can only imagine what life is like for a group who was that good, and blew up so quick. I’d love to see a reunion though, that was my group. Check out the pictures and performances below.

Good morning all. I hope you are all having a wonderful day, and if not, hopefully the news I bear will change that (that is if you’re an iPhone or smartphone user). Back in January, I wrote a post on how to Jailbreak your iPhone (click here for more information on that). Back then, it was “technically” illegal to jailbreak your iPhone although no one has ever been sued or gotten themselves into any trouble from doing it, the act alone was considered against the law.

On Monday morning, the Library of Congress made practices of jailbreaking your iPhone (and any other phones) legal. Yeah, you read that correctly, you can even read this article for more information on that. So what does this mean for everyone? This means we can enjoy pure freedom on our mobile devices. No more application or service provider limitations for that matter and I for one am pretty stoked about the decision. I know Apple must have been upset about the whole ordeal but the truth is, we should have the ability to use our devices the way we want. We pay good money for these phones, limitations and restrictions on features that we “should have anyway” just seems partial.

One other important thing that I MUST mention is that once your iPhone is jailbroken, your warranty becomes void. So just because it’s legal now, don’t walk up into the Apple store with a jailbroken iPhone trying to have them service it, cause they’ll point you to the front door. Restore it back to it’s original “non jailbroken” state, then take it to get serviced. With that said, happy jailbreaking people!

image courtesy of the iphone addict

What’s up folks. It appears we are back on the grind from another beautiful weekend. The Danny Ess Project had the privilege of playing at The Neighborhood Cup in Aliso Viejo this past Saturday (7.24.2010). Great time, awesome music, and excellent photos thanks to Brian Khang.

Click here to see more photos!

Good afternoon everyone. I decided to write a blog post a little later than usual mainly because I’ve been extremely busy all day. Back in March, I wrote a post about My First Steps regarding my experiences with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Well, unlike most hobbies I get into, I actually kept at it and was recently honored with a couple of stripes on my belt. My belt still lacks color but I think that will change after a few more months of dedicated hard work on the mat. I’ll leave you with an image of my belt (don’t laugh either) and a technique video tutorial by the one and only BJ Penn.

Hello everyone, I hope all is well on this gloomy but still beautiful Tuesday. At this point, everyone should be aware that the iPhone 4 has a bit of a boo boo with their antenna situation. This will require more than just a band-aid to fix this issue, or will it? I stumbled across the Antenn-aid website and found that they’ve made specialized vinyl stickers just for your iPhone 4. These stylish band-aid type stickers are meant to improve your signal performance.

I’m still representing the iPhone 3G and have no intentions on upgrading just yet, but for those of you who already have an iPhone 4, for $4.99 for a half dozen, I’d definitely give this a shot. Take a look at the pictures below courtesy of Antenn-aid.

Good morning all, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve blessed you with something but not to fear, I haven’t completely fell from the Earth. A few months ago, I had the privilege of working on the set of the San Diego based band “Jet West” for their music video ‘Sunday’ Directed/Edited by Breesa Herrera. I think the title says it all, weekend, fun, beaches etc. I don’t know who in their right mind would watch this video and not want to hang out with this group of people. The video has already been seen on Heavy.com, a well known video based website a well as a few others. This amazing scenery and awesome footage shouldn’t go unseen. I’m definitely glad to have been a part of this, and Breesa… if you’re reading this, you better hire me again for the next shoot!

Yeah buddy, you read that title right. AT&T is going anti unlimited wireless data plans. I just read a truly disturbing article from Matt Buchanan that put a damper on my day. Just when I get comfortable with tethering capabilities I find out we’re now going to be charged for data overages. Seriously? So now that we’re phasing out of the “oh i can’t talk because I don’t have any minutes” days, we run into the same thing with data. “Oh i can’t check my email because i’m low on data”. Now there is going to be a “Data Plus” option that will allow you to pay $15 for 200MB of data, and if you run out, you can pay another $15 for 200MB (see where this is going?). You can get a “Data Pro” plan for $25 that gives you 2GB of data. Wanna know what makes things better (for AT&T)? If you use the 2GB for tethering, then you have to pay an additional $20. That’s just miserable, not only do we have to deal with dropped calls every two seconds, but now we’re being limited on data.

On a good note, people who currently have unlimited plans, and lock themselves in after June 7th will continue to have their unlimited plans. People who are considering singing up, you need to sign up before the June 7th or that’s the end of that. What’s next AT&T? Are you going to publicly announce to all the children there is no such thing as Santa Clause??

I’m sure there are people out there who would die for AT&T and are probably muttering “If you don’t like AT&T why don’t you just leave?” and my answer to that is “shut up, I’m venting!”

More of Matt’s article can be read by clicking here.

The image is below is just describing how I feel right now. Who knows, I’ll probably feel better in the morning… *inserting my mean face*

What’s up my good people. Back in February, I interviewed the clothing label Dime a Dozen (click here for the interview). As promised, they launched their first official line of shirts just in time for the summer. I had the privilege of shooting some gear for their launch party. If you’d like to see more, check out their website http://www.DimeaDozenClothing.com.

What’s up everyone. We’re getting close to the end of a beautiful week and I’m looking forward to this three day weekend we have coming up. So I added a new category, yep, “Politics”. No, I’m not really into politics a whole lot. I know a few things here and there, but it’s a rabbit hole of information. You learn one thing, that leads you to the next, and to the next, and so on and so on. It’s like learning music all over again. HOWEVER, I did run across an article about President Obama being heckled in regards to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” topic on Yahoo News. I was impressed by his quick reaction. People can say what they want, but our President is a cool dude.

What’s up my good people, I hope today is treating you well. With my beautiful wife out of town for wedding “stuff” I had to fend for myself last night for dinner. After work, my original plan was to go home, walk my pup, then go over to a sushi joint down the street. However, after a little consideration, I decided to man up and make the sushi myself. I don’t know if anyone has ever checked my references in the field of culinary arts, but Christina will tell you the only thing I’m good for is breakfast (I can throw together some pancakes, bacon, eggs, and sausage like you wouldn’t believe). It was a bit of a learning curve, but for my first time, it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have to throw away anything (which says a lot because I lost a lot of good pancakes in the process of perfecting my flip).

I went over to Mitsuwa out here in Costa Mesa, it’s a fine Japanese market with lots and lots of goodies. My shopping list consisted of:

• Mussels
• Sushi rice
• Salmon
• Eel
• Seaweed
• Sushi vinegar
• Wasabi
• Fake crab
• Avacado
• Roasted sesame seeds
• Soy sauce

I started off with my appetizers, a yummy batch of Mussels. I put a little bit of butter, salt, pepper, and I let those things sit on 375º for about 20 minutes. Ahh, amazing… just like in the restaurant. I microwaved my rice twice (about 5 minutes each time), and let it sit for a while to cool. I put my eel in the oven at 350º for about 20 minutes and then started putting it all together. Crab, eel, salmon and avocado. I don’t know what you call that kind of roll but it was pretty good. Came out kind of fat and the presentation wasn’t too nice on the eyes, but for my first time, I think it tasted wonderful. I set out to make sushi, and that’s exactly what I did =)

What did I learn?

• Less is is more
  Putting too much in your roll will call for a fat roll which is very hard to A. Roll, and B. eat. Had I used half as much crab and salmon, it would have been a better/cleaner eating experience
• Let the rice finish cooking before starting ANYTHING else
  Nothing like having all your food ready, but waiting on the rice to cool. I ended up with steamy soft seaweed =(
• Use a big bowl/container to cool your rice
  My rice could have cooled a lot faster had I moved it from the old container, and put it in something larger. Leaving it in the same container it was cooked in took forever to cool.
• Pre cut all of your pieces before hand
  Seems like a no brainer right? I packed on all my rice, and then decided it was time to cut up the salmon, eel, and crab. Had those pieces been ready, things would have went a lot smoother.
• Find a remedy for keeping sticky rice off your fingers
  I still haven’t quite figured this one out yet. That was probably the most difficult thing to manage. It was hard to spread the rice over the seaweed because it kept sticking to my fingers. Can someone say annoying??

With all that said, I’ll leave you with some pictures.

photos by jamescalvin