Elfen’s Neosoul Hip Hop EXTRA EXTRA Hip Hop artist Quelle Chris
Again the album cover caught my eye! You can also find Quelle Chris on Bandcamp.com
Every time a shooting makes the news talking heads pop up in small boxes and make loud arguments about how we shouldn’t rush to politicize what just happened. After all, the heads argue, guns don’t kill people. People kill people. But how true is that? Are the tools we use simply tools, innocuous until we give them meaning? Or are the things we surround ourselves with –– the things in our arsenal –– begging to be weaponized, for good or for evil? Guns, the new album from the critically acclaimed rapper and producer Quelle Chris, is a careful study of all these questions, an urgent record for urgent times.
“Guns is an arsenal of both sounds, styles, and subjects, Quelle says, taking a thorough look at “the words we say, what we fear, how we love, how we live, what we ingest, what we believe in, who we idolize, shit like that.” To this end, the New York by-way-of Detroit savant attacks his topics from multiple angles: there’s the jagged, minimal “Obamacare,” which plays like a confrontation, but there’s also “Wild Minks,” where Quelle and the enigmatic New Jersey rapper Mach-Hommy spin silk out of the softest textures in their parents’ record collections. In the service of examining big ideas with grave consequences, we get to hear a master technician deploying every piece of ammo he has.
In times that are often beyond parody, Quelle has never been a writer to shy away from the absurd. But Guns is dotted with references to the very real, painfully ordinary fates that might befall us –– be they getting gunned down in church on a Sunday or simply being forgotten by our friends after we’re gone. In preparation for both, Quelle lays his psyche bare. Maybe his identity is best summed up by the three-word descriptor he gives himself toward the record’s end: “handsome, black, and headstrong.”
Quelle handles the vast majority of production duties himself, with assists coming from Dane and Chris Keys. Guns covers sonic ground quickly: it opens with the skeletal creep of “Spray & Pray” and closes with “WYRM,” which is sweeping and contemplative. In between there are detours to the lush and playful (“PSA Drugfest 2003”) and to the grim and digital (“Mind Ya Bidness”). As always, Quelle delivers music that’s innovative and idiosyncratic without sacrificing the gut-punch of more commercial releases; in fact, there are moments when Guns rattles trunks like few rap LPs in recent memory.
Slated for release via Mello Music Group on March 29, Guns is Quelle’s third studio album in three years: each Quelle Chris album is distinct and fully-realized: see 2017’s Being You Is Great, I Wish I Could Be You More Often, an off-kilter probe into the ways we see ourselves, or see last year’s collaboration with Jean Grae, Everything’s Fine, which was biting satire for the dawn of a new dystopia –– and which was adored by critics, being named to ‘best album of the year’ lists by countless publications, including Pitchfork, The Wire, and Bandcamp, who dubbed it the best album of 2018.
Guns is not content to rest on those laurels. “My goal with this and all albums is to create pieces people can enjoy, start to finish, for decades to come,” Quelle notes, fully aware that in a fractured, streaming ecosystem, any shard of your identity released into the world might be the lone artifact that survives. This is a record that is constantly aware of the peril all around us, but instead of shrinking in the face of that knowledge, it reasserts its creator’s identity. Aided by excellent guest turns from the likes of Jean Grae, Denmark Vessey, Cavalier, Mach-Hommy, Bilal Salaam, and more, Quelle Chris has delivered perhaps the most pointed, most personal, and all-together perfectly crafted album of his career.
Elfen’s Neosoul Hip Hop New Music Tuesday Nappy Ninja The Tree Act
I am such a sucker for the unusual visually pleasing album artwork. I mean just look at it. The album cover made me want to press play. The concept of the album is unique in its own right.
The Tree Act is a sonic story of Nina’s navigation through the current world of corrupt marijuana laws and white collar weed , white women’s rights and black women’s work, the inner woes of a black queer body in brooklyn. It is a tribute to inner oakland , to outer spaces and to summer cyphers in chicago where this album first started.
Children at ‘Peppa Pig’ movie in tears following trailers for horror films
Children eagerly waiting to see the new film “Peppa Pig: Festival of Fun” began their theater experience in tears after trailers for horror movies featuring blood and violence were played before the screening.
Parents briefly removed their children from the screening at Empire Cinema in Ipswich, England, on Saturday after trailers for the films “Ma” and “Brightburn” were played before the children’s movie.
“Brightburn,” a superhero horror film featuring Elizabeth Banks, shows a child wearing a mask and seemingly killing a bloodied woman at the end. The trailer shows flashes of hanging bodies. The trailer for “Ma,” starring Octavia Spencer, is filled with sexual violence, blood, bodies and includes a scene of a teen being hit by a truck.
Charlie Jones, a BBC journalist, said she took her daughter to the film screening and attempted to cover her eyes when the scary trailers were played.
“Normally I would expect her [my daughter] to be singing and dancing when watching something like [Peppa Pig] but she was just really subdued,” Jones said. “I tried to cover her eyes during the trailers and told her they were silly films for mommies and daddies, but there were lots of kids crying and she was very confused and started crying too.”
Jones said she went “mad” at the manager after the incident.
“It was meant to be a special day for Annie. I don’t think he understands the impact of it,” she added. “Annie is very imaginative and scared of monsters and things like that at the moment.”
“You go to the movies and you expect it to be a safe family day out, you don’t expect her to be exposed to anything which could do harm,” Jones said.
An Empire Cinemas spokeswoman apologized for “any distress” caused by the incident.
“As soon as the staff on site were made aware of the situation, the program was stopped and trailers were taken off-screen immediately. We do sincerely apologize for this and for any distress caused and will be reviewing our internal procedures to ascertain how this came to be,” the spokeswoman said in a statement to the BBC.
FL man found a body at his childhood home’s backyard during renovations. It was his mom
When Aaron Fraser began excavating behind his childhood home in Jacksonville, Florida, as part of a renovation in 2014, he made a gruesome discovery: human remains.
They were the skull and bones of his mother, Bonnie Haim, who had gone missing in January 1993 and whose body had not been found.
Prosecutors say that discovery led officials to arrest her then-husband, Michael Haim, and charge him with second-degree murder.
“The truth was always out there, buried in their backyard,” Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi said in opening statements in the murder trial on Tuesday.
Michael and Bonnie Haim had been having marital problems, and he has long been a prime suspect in the case, his defense attorney Janis Warren said in her opening remarks.
But he has maintained his innocence since her disappearance. In an interview with CNN affiliate WJXT shortly after Bonnie Haim disappeared in 1993, Michael Haim said she left their home on the night of January 6 after a relationship issue.
“Basically she just wasn’t happy and she wanted to leave, and I couldn’t stop her from leaving,” he told WJXT.
Warren said prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“We agree she’s dead. We agree that’s her body in the backyard. But they have to prove to you that he did it,” she said. “When you listen to the evidence, ladies and gentlemen, and when you’re finished, you’re gonna see the lack of evidence in this case far outweighs any evidence they brought you.”
The childhood memories of Fraser, who was 3 when his mother disappeared, are expected to be a major part of the case against Michael Haim, CNN affiliate WJXT reported.
After his mother disappeared, he told a child welfare worker at the time, “Daddy hurt Mommy,” WJXT reported.
“Aaron also stated that ‘Daddy shot Mommy’ and ‘My daddy could not wake her up,’” a 2015 arrest affidavit said, according to WJXT.
Opening statements in the trial
Bonnie Haim’s remains were found under a shower pallet in the home’s backyard, Mizrahi said. A .22-caliber shell was also found near the body, he said, and Michael Haim owned a .22-caliber rifle.
Although a medical examiner could not affirmatively determine how she was killed, Mizrahi argued that Michael Haim shot her and then buried her there in 1993.
“The defendant’s actions before the killing and after the killing demonstrate his depraved indifference to Bonnie Haim’s life,” he said.
Investigators had searched the property several times in the years after her disappearance, but did not find her remains until Fraser’s discovery two decades later.
“That was the piece of the puzzle that we really felt we were missing,” Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Director Mike Bruno told WJXT in 2015. “There are so many unsolved or cold cases that are in this same situation of we just need that one clue, that one tip, that one piece. Here, we were able to get it, and to start that piece of closure.”
Warren, Haim’s attorney, said on Tuesday that prosecutors would not be able to prove that he killed her and placed her body there on the night she disappeared.
“The only thing that’s important is: Can they prove he killed her? And can they prove he put the body in the yard? There’s no evidence of either one of those,” she added.
Woman screamed ‘You broke my heart’ while shooting pastor and his wife
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — “You broke my heart.” Those are the final words police say Latoshia Daniels told Pastor Brodes Perry before shooting him several times, according to WREG.
According to police, officers were called to the Meridian Place Apartments in Collierville on Thursday after receiving calls from residents stating they had heard multiple gunshots and screams.
When they arrived they found Brodes Perry, executive pastor at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, and his wife suffering from gunshot wounds.
Authorities said the shooter, Latoshia Daniels, was still armed and refused to put down the gun.
Perry’s wife told police Daniels showed up at her home unexpectedly the night of the shooting. Having known her from her time living in Little Rock, she agreed to let her inside the home.
She was escorting Daniels back out when the suspect pulled a handgun and started shooting, screaming “You broke my heart” at the husband, according to a court affidavit.
A police report says his wife knelt by him and Daniels told her to get out of the way, then shot her in the left shoulder.
Perry’s wife told police she didn’t know of any affair taking place between the two but Daniels actions made that seem to be a possibility.
Both victims were taken to the Regional Medical Center where Brodes Perry later died.
While at the hospital, police said Daniels also attacked an officer. Police said the officer was trying to take her into custody and that’s when she jerked away and shoved him before taking off running. Officers said they had to force her to the ground before they could get her handcuffed.
Daniels was charged with first degree murder, attempt first degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.
She is being held without bond.
Toddler Repeatedly Enters Wrong Password, Locks Father’s iPad for 48 Years
Let’s just call this reason No. 580 not to leave your kids alone with technology: They might lock you out of it.
That’s what happened over the weekend to Evan Osnos, a staff writer at The New Yorker and a fellow at the Brookings Institution.
He put out a tweet — or a cry for help — letting the world know of the little situation his toddler put him in.
“Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it’s our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas?” Osnos tweeted. A photo of the iPad’s screen noted the device was disabled. It also had this mind-blowing message: “Try again in 25,536,442 minutes.”
That’s more than 48 years, for those of you who don’t want to do the math. So Osnos’ iPad will be available to him again sometime in 2067. Great, he’ll have something to keep him occupied in the retirement home.
The iPad lockout is a security feature of Apple devices that kicks in whenever someone repeatedly types the wrong password. The more times an incorrect password is entered, the longer the lock-out time grows.
Thankfully Osnos’ Twitter followers gave all kinds of help in the comments, because there’s nothing but good things in the comments, right?
People offered hundreds of suggestions. Some were practical: “Just connect it to the computer you originally synced it to iTunes on, let it sync and it’ll be fine.”
Others were nonsensical: “Put it in a bag of rice.”
One commenter had a novel idea: “Time travel seems to be your best bet.”
Yeah, probably.
Another person suggested Osnos should “reboot” the 3-year-old, but that seems a tad bit unnecessary.
Ready for a restore
Several others said no worries — just wait out the 48 years. Because you know folks on social media are known for their patience.
So what does Apple suggest? Apple says you would need to perform a restore to use the device again (but you would lose the data on the device if you’ve never backed it up).
Osnos told the New York Daily News on Monday he was still locked out of the device.
“It’s down a few hundred minutes from yesterday, but it looks like we’ve still got 25 million minutes to go,” he told the newspaper. “The consensus seems to be that we’re using an old operating system that won’t let us restart fresh from iTunes.”
CNN reached out to Osnos for comment and is waiting to hear back.
Later on Monday Osnos tweeted that he’d managed to get the iPad into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode and is in the process of restoring the tablet.
“Thanks to those who shared advice!” he said.
Assuming Osnos gets back into the iPad, maybe he should just give his kid the password.
Oregon Man Gets Jail for Sexually Assaulting Small Dog Who Was Euthanized Due to ‘Extensive’ Injuries
A judge sentenced an Oregon man to 60 days in jail for sexually assaulting a small dog whose injuries were so severe that she had to be euthanized, prosecutors announced Monday.
In sentencing 52-year-old Fidel Lopez, Judge Angel Lopez told the defendant he would have imposed a tougher penalty if the law allowed it.
“If it could have been more, I would have gladly given you more,” the judge said in court, according to a news release from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. The sentence — 60 days in jail and 36 months of probation — was the maximum possible.
Fidel Lopez pleaded guilty to a count each of aggravated animal abuse in the first degree and sexually assaulting an animal.
In entering the plea, Lopez “admitted that he unlawfully and intentionally tortured ‘Estrella,’ a Lhasa Apso mix, and that for the purpose of arousing his sexual desires, he sexually assaulted Estrella,” the release stated.
Lopez was arrested on Feb. 13 following an investigation that began late last year when the dog’s owner took her to an animal hospital amid concerns the pup had been sexually abused, according to officials.
Veterinarians determined Estrella had been sexually assaulted. The dog had to be euthanized because of “extensive internal injuries,” prosecutors said.
Forensic evidence confirmed Lopez abused the canine, the release stated.
According to an affidavit obtained by the Oregonian, Lopez became frustrated after his fiancee — Estrella’s owner — didn’t come home or answer her phone, and he had sex with the dog.
When the woman returned, the dog was crying and hiding under a couch, the newspaper reported. She requested a rape kit because Lopez had expressed a prior interest in bestiality, according to the Oregonian.
As part of the sentence, Lopez will not be allowed to have a dog for 15 years, the DA’s office said.
He also cannot contact Estrella’s owner without permission from the probation department, and he must undergo treatment for people who abuse animals, among other penalties.
“This case was prosecuted to the fullest extent possible under Oregon law,” Deputy DA Nicole
Jergovic said in the release. “The torture and abuse that Estrella suffered is unimaginable. Under Oregon’s current sentencing guidelines, Fidel Lopez is receiving the maximum sentence based on the amount of time he has already served in custody and his lack of criminal history.”
Man Charged in Killing of His Son’s Mother During Custody Exchange Outside Hawthorne Police Station
A man accused of fatally shooting the mother of his 1-year-old son outside a Hawthorne police station has been charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Jacob Ryan Munn, 30, also faces a count of possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The charges include special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and that the defendant used a shotgun in the homicide
The fatal shooting took place around 6 p.m. Sunday in front of the police station, located at 12501 Hawthorne Boulevard, according to the Hawthorne Police Department.
Munn had left the 17-month-old boy in the station for his ex-girlfriend, 28-year-old Brenda Renteria, to pick up, prosecutors said.
Renteria was shot in front of the station as she approached the door, according to authorities. The victim was with her mother at the time.
After the shooting, the suspect got into his car and drove away from the scene, Lt. Jim Royer said. He was apprehended about three hours later.
The child was not hurt, police said. He was taken into protective custody.
Munn faces the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison if convicted as charged, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
A decision has not yet been made whether to seek capital punishment.
Munn’s arraignment was continued until April 24. He is being held without bail, prosecutors said.
Waffle House good Samaritan shot to death paying for meals, handing out $20 bills
Article via ABCNews
Craig Brewer was killed at a restaurant in Florida after a dispute escalated.
A good Samaritan was fatally shot over the weekend while handing out $20 bills and paying for meals at a Florida restaurant, according to police.
Police arrested Ezekiel Hicks, 25, on murder charges early Sunday in the death of 41-year-old Craig Brewer, who was shot and killed at a Waffle House, in Gainesville, Florida, just a few miles west of the University of Florida.
Officials with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office said the restaurant’s surveillance camera captured an altercation between the two on video. Witnesses said the victim was arguing with a female acquaintance of the suspect, who was reportedly upset because Brewer’s generosity didn’t include her.
Hicks intervened and got into a physical altercation with the victim, police said. At one point, Hicks left the Waffle House and retrieved a 9mm Glock pistol, which was later recovered at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office.
The altercation “lasted only a few seconds” and ended with Hicks firing multiple shots towards the victim’s head, killing him on the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
Lt. Brett Rhodenizer, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said officers received a call about the restaurant reaching its maximum capacity and were en route when the shooting occurred.
“They feel like they were so close and just far enough away to where they couldn’t change the outcome,” Rhodenizer told ABC News on Monday. “This incident went from a verbal altercation to a homicide in minutes, if not seconds.”
“The speed at which it happened and how quickly it went so bad — for both the victim and the suspect — is really kind of the thing that resonates the most with a lot of the folks that have been a part of the investigation,” he added.
Hicks was arrested in the parking lot, where he admitted to shooting Brewer, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators are now looking to see if the victim may have had a prior issue with the suspect or his acquaintance that led to the argument.
“The why of this case will persists for days and weeks as we conduct follow-up interviews, but the how is incredibly straightforward,” Rhodenizer said. “Out of all the investigations that I’ve seen, very seldom do you have an incident from start to finish on video that ends in a murder.
“It was literally in the single digits worth of minutes from the time we received the initial call from the Waffle House, saying, ‘Hey, there’s too many people here, we’d like a hand clearing the restaurant,’ to deputies are on the scene, told about a shooting, and we have a suspect in custody and a firearm recovered.”
Hicks was being held without bail on charges of premeditated murder in the first degree and carrying an unlicensed firearm. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
Doctor dragged off United Airlines flight after watching viral video of himself: ‘I just cried’
Article via YahooNews
Doctor dragged off United Airlines flight after watching viral video of himself: ‘I just cried’ originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The Kentucky doctor seen in a viral video being forcibly removed off an United Airlines flight has spoken publicly for the first time since the 2017 incident, telling ABC News that while the ordeal caused distress for him and his family, he doesn’t regret standing his ground because it caused the airline to take a closer look at its policies.
Video Of A Passenger dragged off overbooked United flight goes viral!
On April 9, 2017, David Dao was traveling from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, on United Airlines Flight 3411 and already was in his seat with his seat belt fastened when an airline employee informed him that he would need to deplane because the flight was overbooked, he told ABC News.
Fellow passengers took cellphone videos of a bloodied Dao being dragged off the plane.
Even months after the incident, Dao found the video hard to watch.
“I just cried,” he said.
Dao said he stood his ground and refused to get off the plane because he felt he was being discriminated against and was trying to get back to Kentucky to oversee the opening of a clinic he founded for U.S. veterans. He and his wife started the clinic as a way to thank American servicemen and women, because he was plucked out of ocean waters by the U.S. Navy as he fled communism in his home country of Vietnam about 44 years ago, he said.
He said while in his seat, belt still fastened, he was on the phone with a friend, asking for advice on whether he should get up, when the next thing he knew, he was being pulled from his seat. He doesn’t remember anything after he bumped his head on the low ceiling.
“After that, to be honest, I don’t know what happened,” he said, adding that he heard a “big noise” and later woke up in the hospital with a trauma team surrounding him.
The first few months were “horrible,” he said. He suffered a concussion, lacerations to his mouth and nose, and several of his teeth were knocked out, he said. He was put on suicide watch by hospital staff and later spent months learning to walk again, he said.
Dao relied on his faith during his recovery, he said, adding that he made a promise to God that if he got better, he would devote his time to charity work. Since then, he has helped residents in Texas displaced by Hurricane Harvey and traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia to help install solar power in villages with no electricity, he said. Even in the Far East, people knew his story, he said.
One elderly man approached him and asked, “You the one on airplane?” Dao said.
“That touched me,” the doctor said, holding back tears.
Dao still struggles with issues sleeping and with his concentration and balance, he said. While he’d run more than 20 marathons before the incident, now he can only do about 3 miles — with at least one of them by walking, he added.
While United’s initial statement labeled Dao as “belligerent,” the airline later apologized, vowing to conduct a “thorough review” of the “truly horrific event.”
Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, said he felt “shame” when he saw the video.
“This will never happen again,” Munoz told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an interview three days after the incident. “We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off … to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger. We can’t do that.”
When asked whether United should have done anything differently, Dao said the airline employees could have explained their reasoning for booting him from the flight “nicely” and “reasonably.”
“That makes a difference,” he said.
Still, the retired doctor said his ordeal actually was “positive” because the airline was willing to take a hard look at its policies and change them.
“Everything happens with a reason,” he said.
Weeks after the incident, the airline offered Dao a settlement that his attorney at the time, Thomas A. Demetrio, described as “amicable,” which Dao accepted. The settlement included a provision that the amount offered remain confidential.
Dao said he decided to speak publicly for the first time to thank his supporters all over the world.
United Airlines issued a statement to ABC News, saying the changes they’ve implemented since the incident “better serve out customers and further empower our employees.”
“Flight 3411 was a defining moment for United Airlines and it is our responsibility to make sure we as a company and all of our 90,000 employees continue to learn from that experience. The changes we have implemented since that incident better serve our customers and further empower our employees,” according to the statement from United Airlines. “This year, we are focused more than ever on our commitment to our customers, looking at every aspect of our business to ensure that we keep their best interests at the center of everything that we do. As our CEO Oscar Munoz has said, we at United never want anyone in the United family to forget the experience of Flight 3411. It makes us a better airline, a more caring company and a stronger team.”