Musical Selections: The Beat Konducta

Checked out Madlib's Beat Konducta Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite, which is a J Dilla tribute beat tape (J. Rocc from Stones Throw is involved too). Nice cover:

Really smooth, most of the tracks are less than 2 minutes. This is really smooth, you can keep listening to this over and over again and not really get bored with it. If you are into the mellower beats on J Dilla's Donuts then you'll like this. The only negative about this is that its so short -- about 33 minutes.

I don't think this is really recent, I just listened to it for the first time, but Madlib's Raw Ground Wire Hump (Beat Konducta in India 45) is also worth checking out. Not surprisingly -- this has a real Bollywood soundtrack feel to it. The 45 has Raw Ground Wire Parts 1 to 4 on it. There was a track called Raw Ground Wire on his Beat Konducta Vol 3-4, but none of the 4 parts on the 45 sound like it. The Bollywood soundtrack thing does come through pretty clearly on a few parts of this -- the other two are more low key influences. Again this really short, about 6 or 7 minutes. But then you can get more the stuff on Beat Konducta Vol 3-4.

Il Gatto Nero

Or in English The Black Cat a cafe on college street.

The place probably has one of the best locations around. It's on the corner on the east side of a side street with some big trees providing shade over the patio on the side. You can sit near the front or on the front patio and look at the hipster girls in their American apparel outfits and the street cars roll along College street. Prefect spot for the summer.

The place building itself is really great too. It's got really high ceilings -- although the colour scheme wasn't so great. There's a banquette on the wall and the bar is also against the bar. Tables fill in the rest of the space. The place would look fabulous if a professional with some taste redid it.

The staff seems like a bit of a mix. There was a nice, polite and perky girl working the tables. But then there were some monosyllable guys who sound like they were from Brooklyn in the place as well.

The menu has a mix of salads, panini, pasta and pizza. To me the menu looks kind of similar to what you might get at most Italian spots around the city -- although a few of the salads look like they got ripped off from Terroni's menu.

I ordered a grilled chicken breast panino. I was appalled by what I was served. The menu said chicken breast and they brought me processed chicken. If I had wanted processed chicken I would've gone to the deli counter at the Dominion across the street, but I suppose some establishments need to lie to diners. The menu also said it was grilled, but I don't think these guys have a real grill -- the grill marks looked kind of fake (maybe they use a George Foreman grill). The bun was too doughy and thick -- so the balance in the sandwich is off. The "chicken" is really thin so you end up having to chew really hard because the bread is too thick and the sandwich starts to come apart after a few bites. I asked the waitress whether the sandwich came with anything. She politely replied that it came with some mixed greens. What she didn't say was that the mixed greens didn't come with any dressing, so even though it looks like a salad and it's more like something you would feed to a grazing animal.

Also I'm not sure if cleanliness is high on the priority list here, the washroom has a really strong urine smell to it.

I generally like to check a place out a few times before I deliver a review, but in this case I'm going to pass a summary judgement because if you can't do something simple liked a grilled chicken breast you can't be expected to deliver on something more complicated. It's a shame someone who could actually make food can't invade the place and take it over -- but I guess these sorts of things happen when you have a legal system that enforces property rights.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Leryn Franco

Since the Olympics are underway it seems appropriate to have an Olympian as this month's feature. Leryn Franco is a javelin thrower -- how phallic -- for Paraguay's olympic team. I would have figured that javelin throwers would have a bulky east German look to them, but apparently I was mistake. Leryn looks like she might be on the Brazilian beach volleyball team. She was a runner up in the Miss Paraguay contest a few years ago -- the winner must have been sizzling hot.

She's been trying some modeling and has her own calendar (see a couple of snaps below). The one with the white bikini is a nice one, kind of makes you picture with her skin a little wet with sweat.

The Fish Store

A little spot on college street. Almost like of like a stand, but it has some seating out front.

You order inside, so its either take out or sit on the patio to eat in the summer. The patio is nice, its got some umbrellas over the tables and there's a bit of a counter facing the street with stools. So you can sit in the shade. They bring you the food. The servers/staff are friendly and polite.

The menu is pretty simple. You order some sort of grilled fish, which you can get as a sandwich, burrito or a salad. You can pick from, among others, catfish, grouper, salmon, black cod. They also have some soups -- a clam chowder and a butternut squash.

I tried the clam chowder, its fine. It's not the best thing to order in the summer because its kind of rich. It's a better pick in the winter or when its colder. Also its a lot richer than the fish, so its kind of awkward to have it before the fish.

They also make a lemonade that I like quite a bit -- it comes with half a lemon in it.

I've had the fish sandwiches; I'm not into burritos. They come on a bun that is really light. It kind of reminds me of a croissant, but's it even lighter. So basically it just wraps the fish, so its not like you have all this doughy bread to chew through. Nice way to package grilled fish. The fish comes with some sort of lettuce and tomato as well. These are nice light sandwiches and they're prefect for the summer, filling but not too heavy. They run a daily special, which is like $5.99. It's usually the lower priced fish on the menu (e.g., the grouper, catfish) that are used in the special. You can go for the more pricey fish as well like the halibut, wild salmon or black cod, which will run you like $9 or $10 for a sandwich. Still pretty decent return for the price. The rest of the menu is in the $7 to $8 range. The soups are $4.

Overall, this place is alright. It's not going to be overwhelming in terms of what they provide, but they have a simple menu and they do it well. I feel so much more civilized after having lunch here and walking past the people having lunch at the hot dog cart.

Rating: 1 Bunny

Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool

Splotlight on Gear

How do you keep track of what's happening in the fast paced world of "gear"? There are all these different collaborations and release dates are all over the place. I guess a Google search would work, but you'd have to do one every day or so. Or you could take the easy way and check out Selectism.com. They do all the work for you and they update it every day.

Check it out if you don't believe me.

Musical Selections

Mixtapes are where it's at if your into hip-hop or you could even say music more generally. There's something about being able to use a sample that would otherwise not be able to be cleared or jacking someone's else beat and using it in a totally different way that can take something familiar to a totally new level. There's quite a few good ones at there right now.

Although its been out for a while, and got quite a bit of attention this spring, Wale's Seinfeld themed mixtape "Mixtape About Nothing" is a really good one. I don't know much about Wale, but his mixtape is one of the best this year. it was mixed by Nick Catch Dubs -- who did Saul Williams stellar "Real Niggery" mixtape a few years ago.

KiD CuDi's mixtape "Emile and Plain Pat Present a KiD Named CuDi" might be the best non-cocaine dealing themed mixtape out in the last few years. Plain Pat mixed Kanye mixtape from last summer and he put together another scorcher this year. The beat selection is really good and the KiD delivers some fine verses.

Looking for some mellow music to chill to do on a hot summer day/evening? Diplo and Santogold's Top Ranking will fit the bill. There's a few hard driving tracks on this one, but most of it is pretty mellow. There's quite a bit of reggae, probably about one third of the total tracks on it (this has got about 35 tracks on it).


While most big label hip hop underwhelms -- although the mixtapes are a different story -- indie/underground hip hop continues to thrive. Stone's Throw steps the pace with two releases this summer. The first solid entry is the Dilla Ghost Doom "Sniperlite". So this is a couple of J Dilla beats from donuts with verses from Ghostface Killah and MF Doom. This is short, one from Ghost, one from Doom, and the 3rd track splices the two together.

On the longer side, is MF Doom & Madlib's (i.e., Madvillain) "Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix". Apparently, this was Madlib's personal remix -- which he just decided to release this summer. Although its a remix, it has the feel of a totally different album because none of the track names are the same. Also the beats are so different it gives it a whole totally different feel to the original. This is highly recommended.