Looking ahead

Starved for content, I proudly present the Where's P-Mac 7 most anticipated albums of the rest of '07...maybe '08. If you don't like hip-hop, you can re-read 'The Exterminator' or you can read below and learn a thing or two. In no particular order...

1. 9th wonder - "The Dream Merchant II" Release Date: 10-9-07

Somewhere along the line I fucked up and completely missed "The Dream Merchant I," but I'm gonna use some cognitive dissonance and assume that my collection of Justus League mixtapes still makes me a loyal 9th fan. Aside from him fucking up a few tracks off Murs' "Murry's Revenge" there hasn't been a 9th Wonder beat I haven't felt.

Tracklisting:
1 Mr. Dream Merchant Intro
2 Shots f/Big Dho & Sean Price
3 Merchant Of Dreams f/The EMBASSY, Skyzoo & Torae
4 Brooklyn In My Mind f/ Mos Def, Jean Grae & Memphis Bleek
5 Sunday f/Keisha Shontelle & Chaundon
6 Baking Soda f/Big Treal
7 Reminisce (Take Time) f/Big Remo & The Great Novej of the
A.L.L.I.E.S.
8 No Time To Chill f/Little Brother
9 It Aint Over ft. Jozee Mo & Tyler Woods
10 The Last Time f/ Royce the 5'9, Naledge & Vandalyzm of the MIDWEST
WRECKIN' CREW- The D, The Chi & The Lou
11 Saved f/Saigon & Joe Scudda
12 Milky Lowa ft. Camp Lo
13 Backlash f/Sean Boog & Buckshot
14 Thank You f/ D.O.X & O-Dash
15 Let It Bang f/Ness & Skyzoo
16 What Makes A Man f/Rapper Big Pooh & Buddy Klein

2. Little Brother - "Get Back" RD: 9-25-07

Even if Little Brother didn't have on of my favorite albums of all time, even if they weren't my favorite group that you never heard of, which makes them instantly cooler, I would still respect the shit out of them for their blog alone. "The Listening" was 5 mics, "The Minstrel Show" was 4.5 mics, hopefully they can keep up the greatness with out 9th Wonder. Also the fact that the album will feature Lil Wayne is definitely the craziest thing ever.

Tracklisting from their blog:
1. (angry song with a creepy chorus)
2. (neckbreaking song with weird meter change)
3. (song that will make core fanbase gasp in disbelief)
4. Good Clothes
5. (song that features the same person who was on the first song)
6. (song to ride out to)
7. (song that your girl will love)
8. (song produced by the same person who produced the song that introduced
you to the person on songs 1 and 5)
9. (bittersweet song)
10. (tearjerking song)
11. (the last song)

3. Murs & 9th Wonder - "Sweet Lord" RD: Late '07-Early '08

"3:16 The 9th Edition" is my favorite album ever. Point blank period. "Murry's Revenge" was a solid follow-up, but it's hard to produce a classic twice. Also the fact that my first listen to "Murry's Revenge" was while I was cleaning up from some Bulgarian kid who had thrown up all over my dorm room probably didn't help the listening experience. None the less Murs is one of my favorite people of all time and I can't wait for "Sweet Lord."

No tracklisting available

4. Talib Kweli - "Eardrum" RD: 8-21-07

Kweli's "Quality" is very high up in my favorite albums of all time, plus the man is one of the best lyricist of all time. I am gonna go ahead and jinx and say the man is incapable of producing a wack album.

Tracklisting:
1. Everything Man Feat Sonia Sanchez
2. NY Weather Report
3. Hostile Gospel produced by Just Blaze
4. Say Something Feat Jean Grae produced by Will.i.am
5. Country Cousins Feat UGK produced by A Kid Called Roots
6. Holy Moly
7. Eat To Live
8. In The Mood Feat Roy Ayers produced by Kanye West
9. Soon The New Day Feat Norah Jones produced by Madlib
10. Electrify produced by Pete Rock
11. Hell
12. More Or Less Feat Dion produced by Hi-Tek
13. The Perfect Beat Feat KRS-One
14. Hot Thing produced by Will.i.am
15. Oh My Stars Feat Musiq Soulchild produced by DJ Khalil
16. Listen!!! produced by Kwamé

5. 50 Cent - "Curtis" RD: 9-11-07 (maybe)

It's 50 Cent, you really don't have a choice, you have to anticipate it.

Tracklisting:
1. 187
2. Come Go (Produced By Dr Dre)
3. Follow My Lead feat. Robin Thicke (Produced By Tha Bizness)
4. Movin On Up (Produced By Timbaland & Danja)
5. Peep Show feat. Eminem (Produced By Eminem)
6. Still Will Kill feat. Akon (Produced By Akon)
7. All Of Me feat. Mary J. Blige (Produced By Jake One)
8. Destiny (Produced By Ozone)
9. Fully Loaded Clip (Produced by Havoc)
10. My Gun Go Off (Produced By Goldrush)
11. She Wants It [Ayo Technology] feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
(produced by Timbaland)
12. Straight To The Bank (Produced By Ty Fyffe & Dr. Dre)
13. Amusement Park (Produced By Dangerous LLC)
14. Fire feat. Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls & Young Buck (Produced By
Dr Dre)
15. I Get Money (Produced By Apexx)
16. Officer Down feat. Kardinal Offishall (produced by Needlz)
17. Smile feat. Lloyd Banks (produced by Havoc)
18. The Mechanic feat. Tony Yayo (produced by Red Spyda)

6. Kanye West - "Graduation" RD: 9-11-07 (maybe)

The same as above except I actually want to anticipate "Graduation." That and both the singles have been hot, his mixtape was dope and Kanye is one of the coolest dudes of all time.

Tentative tracklisting:
1. Good Morning(Intro)
2. Stronger (Feat. Daft Punk)
3. Everything I Am
4. Champion
5. Drunk Hot Girls
6. Homecoming (feat. Chris Martin)
7. Good Life (feat. T-Pain)
8. Can’t Tell Me Nothing
9. Here We Go Again
10. The Glory
11.I Wonder
12. Goodbye (or possibly “Good Night”) (feat. Mos Def)

7. Lil Wayne - "The Carter III" RD: Late '07-Early '08

Some times when I am stressed the fuck out it is nice to leave Earth and visit the world of Lil Wayne...err....Weezy F. Baby...the son of Ms. Ether....Listening to Wayne spit literally numbs my brain and puts me in some subconscious happy place of transporting kis and fucking a thousand bitches and they girlfriends. While I currently have Weezy's mixtapes, which seem to drop every four hours, I am still highly anticipating "The Carter III."

No tracklisting available

The Exterminator

I covered a boxing match for the Tucson Citizen and despite fights full of professional no-names, it ended up being one of the greatest sporting events I had ever attended. Dudes scrapping trying to kill each other, Hooters girls being whistled in the sleaziest way possible, guys filling a table with empty beer bottles then creating bizarre chants, taunting an opponent as he lays lifeless on the mat, coming into the ring while R. Kelly plays in the background, entering the ring with a skull bandanna covering half your face. Yeah, I am down with all of that.

The uncut article from the Citizen is below, along with what may be my favorite quote ever (which got cut) in bold.

Spending 40 to 50 hours a week drilling holes in concrete under the Tucson sun is not part of the normal boxer’s training routine. But for local welterweight Adan Leal, it’s part of the grind.

On Friday night the termite-exterminator-by-day, boxer-by-night Leal continued his undefeated professional career, improving to 6-0 by defeating Carlos de la Cruz (10-8) in four rounds at Desert Diamond Casino.

“I give all the credit to (de la Cruz) because I gave him everything I had and he was still standing,” said Leal, who had recorded five consecutive knock-outs coming into Friday’s fight.

“I got a little disappointed because I got tired in the third round,” said Leal, who added that if it were not for a back pain which flared up in the third round he believes he would have been able to knock out de la Cruz (McAllen, Texas).

Leal’s goal is to build his stamina in the coming weeks of training. He hopes to fight in a six-round bout on Aug. 31.

Leal wakes up at 5:30 and drives from Nogales, Son., to Tucson to work as a termite exterminator for Truly Nolan. After working in the sun for hours, Leal heads to his gym at 5 p.m. to train until 7.

Leal said his back pain in the fight were unrelated to a back injury he suffered on the job a month ago.

Despite his long work weeks – which undoubtedly affect his training regime - Leal loves his job.

“There is going to be one day when I am not able to work any more because of the fights,” Leal said. “I love what I do. I love termites, I love the whole pest control industry and I love boxing.”

•In a heated main event super lightweight Francisco Bojado (18-2), defeated Rogelio Castaneda Jr. (23-13-3) 1:30 into the 10th round on a TKO.

Bojado’s victory was announced to cheers - as well as boos, from fans who were still upset by his two jabs that connected as Castaneda was falling down early in the 10th.

“The ref didn’t do a very good job, he should have stepped between us,” Bojado said of his late hits.

Bojado, from Los Angeles, didn’t waste much time after he lost a point from the dispute and was quick to attack Castaneda (Sacramento, Calif.) with a flurry of left and right jabs, which ended the match.

“I knew he was still hurt so I had to just go in and finish the job,” Bojado said. “It was the last round so there was no holding back.”

•In the co-main event lightweight Jose Santa Cruz (25-2) defeated Dario Esalas (29-9) in the second round as the referee declared a TKO.

•Local middleweight Roberto Miramontes’ (0-1) professional debut could not have gone much worse, as he was knocked out 2:31 into the first round by Deferson Legrand (2-0) of Queens, N.Y. Miramontes lay unresponsive on the mat for 30 seconds before regaining consciousness. Ringside doctor Lawrence D’Antonio said he suffered a very mild concussion.

Gadgets and other ways to murk time

My friend Dustin said it the best the other day, "Seriously if I get hooked on any more blogs I won't be able to do anything." Well for those of you who do want another blog to waste your life away, there's Gizmodo.com, a blog that is updated about 250 times a day with incredibly interesting, and often worthless techno gadgets. Half the shit on the site isn't out yet and the other half I can't afford, but if you've developed an aversion to going outside, talking to people, and living life, then killing time on Gizmodo might be for you.

Here are my favorite Gizmodo posts of the past few days.

So here's where Gallagher is...Yeah this makes total sense...Japan really is awesome...The iCrane game...This would be real cool if they let you drive it intoxicated...If Where's P-Mac ever had shirts they'd all be in this kind of ink. And I'd only let cute chicks wear them.

This week's Where's P-Mac Book of the Week is Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations by former president of the Harvard Lampoon Simon Rich.

While I'm just throwing down a bunch of random shit, let me add this silly little quiz I stole from the inspiration for Wherespmac.com SLAM's Links.

UA summer blues, Steph in Italia and more...

Sorry for the lack of Where's P-Mac as of late, which can be accredited to being stuck in the summer doldrums, Daft Punk concerts and a general lack of UA hoops going on. Let's catch up on a few things though.

If I was Tim Donaghy I wouldn't bet on Marcus Williams making the Spurs opening day roster after his NBA Summer League averages of 3.6 points, 2.4 boards and one assist.

Mustafa, who signed to a summer contract with Sacramento, averaged 7.6 points, 6 assists and 2.4 turnovers per game.

Ivan Radenovic also had an underwhelming performance putting up 2.7 ppg through 3 games before the Clippers asked him to go home.

Props to former-Duck Aaron Brooks who averaged 21.4 points, 3.2 boards and 5.2 dimes.

Then again it is the Summer League where Marcus Banks can put up 42 in a game.

Also something that flew under the Tucson radar was Hassan Adams getting cut by the Nets.

Now onto more interesting things...

Starbury continues his summer media takeover, announcing he's going to Italy when his contract ends.

"I'm not just thinking of doing it, I'm going to do it," Marbury vowed yesterday. "My wife loved it there. It's like a [David] Beckham thing."

Possibly my favorite F-Minus ever.

I didn't know you could sue al-Queda.

He ain't no Bob Barker.

SLAM's Lang Whitaker dropped this gem regarding David Stern's press conference this morning

[ESPN's] Rachel Nichols asks about Stern’s emotions. Rachel Nichols is so now. I keep waiting for Nichols to ask about the Lindsay Lohan situation. She does not. Lohan is not now.

Seriously that "Now" bullshit on Sportscenter is the lamest shit of all time.

My quick wrap-up of the Tucson Summer Pro League.

Fuck Michigan.

Also if you didn't notice I re-did all the WPM labels, so now when I randomly go on 10-day hiatuses, you can fuck with the labels and relive great WPMs of the past.

Tucson's finest

Here is an article I wrote for the Tucson Citizen about Tucson high school star Terrell Stoglin. He's a point guard for Santa Rita High School and he almost led his team to a state title in his first year.

What didn't make the article and is by far the best thing about the 15-year-old Stoglin is that his favorite basketball player is Celtics guard/half-way crook Sebastian Telfair. Anybody who puts Bassy as their favorite player is legit in my book.

Santa Rita High School point guard Terrell Stoglin wasn't born when the University of Arizona basketball team recruited Sunnyside's Deron Johnson in 1989.

Since Johnson, UA has built its program with no local scholarship talent.

Stoglin, a 15-year-old sophomore, has caught the attention of several big-name schools - Arizona included - and he could become the first Tucson recruit in nearly 20 years to verbally commit to the Wildcats.

"Not just in my program, but in any program, I can't remember seeing somebody going into 10th grade with his level of ability," Santa Rita coach Jim Ferguson said.

Stoglin, a Tucson Citizen All-Star, averaged 15.4 points and 5.5 assists per game his freshman season while his team made it to the 2007 Class 4A Division II state title game, losing 61-56 to Scottsdale's Notre Dame Prep. read on...

One and done, children's books and more

Let's get to a few quality items:

First props to Brandon Jennings' mom for keeping it real in Philly:

However, Jennings' stay in college could be short. He and his family do not hide his desire to enter the NBA draft in 2009.
"If the success is there [after one season at Arizona], why wait?" said Alice Knox, Jennings' mother. "That's his goal. It's his dream."

The above was taken from this article. By the way, the man desperately needs a cool nickname and I'm not about to settle for B.J. Though if there is a still a Zona Zoo in '09, I expect many lame "I ♥ BJ " signs.

Also SLAM gives Brandon some praise here. SLAM rated him as the best in the RBK Camp.

1. Brandon Jennings, 6-2 point guard, Oak Hill (VA), 2008: When Jennings chooses to be, the Arizona commit has been simply spectacular, looking like a video game with his rainbow treys, ridiculous dimes and yo-yo handle. As the photo shows, he can also get freaky around the rim. Most impressive to me, however, has been
his competitiveness, commitment to defense and unselfishness, all with a big target on him.

A Stephon Marbury children's book on practice and valuable life lessons. Thank you God.

If you're wondering what type of cohesive thoughts the man can put together and teach the youth this video should have all the answers.

Bear Down Quote of the Day:
“I bring everything…a little personality, a little leadership, a little shooting, a little defense. I’m a buffet of goodness.” Channing Frye on what he's bringing to P-Town (link).

Blender+IPhone=This

J.J. Abrams is like a heroine dealer who then introduces everybody to crack.

No Screw. No lean. No fun.

I don't even know what to make of this. This happened on Sunday, but I held off on writing anything until today because it took that long to sink in. Nic Wise, the man who never saw a three he didn't like, the man who coach Olson accused of being afraid to go inside the perimeter, the man who once went 8-8 in an exhibition game and never came close to that in a real game, the man who became ineligible after failing to turn in a class project, is pretty lame in real life.

Nic's quotes were all underwhelming, which is OK, not everyone can drop gems into a recorder. But the following is completely unacceptable for a WPM Moment of the Game star:

1. Does not have a favorite D.J. Screw Tape

2. He claims to have never abused prescription cough syrup.

What the fuck is that?

Somewhere Screw is rolling over in his purple casket.

Nic how the hell you rep Kingwood/Houston and not have a favorite Screw tape nor a great story you and your boys sitting sideways?

Granted, for what ever reason Nic may have assumed the good H-town questions were on record, despite the fact that the notebook and recorder were tucked away. But still...who doesn't love talking about Screw and Purp.

This is like finding out Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy all don't exist on the same day.

Here is the little article I wrote on Nic and Jerryd Bayless playing together in the backcourt next year.

The best thing about the story was that when I asked Jordan Hill what was the name of the surgery he had on his wrist he replied, "I don't even know, it's a big word, I don't know."

Also Jordan Hill walked into the gym wearing a black brace on his wrist then took it off later to shake hands, apparently Hill was just using it to avoid the shaking hands with people he didn't like.

Here another bullshit article I wrote on c0-founder of the Tucson Summer Pro League Kelvin Eafon.

I never mentioned it, but big props to ol' Ivan and Mustafa for not getting drafted.

On a positive basketball note, Tajuan Porter is doing his thing in the U19 World Championships. No, I don't know why he's not on the U.S. Olympic team either.

Also the new Oregon Arena looks dope as fuck.