David Ortez

I have been following Rapid Ric aka The Mixtape Mechanic ever since I arrived in Austin for college over 7 years ago. Seem like ages ago but I was introduced to The Fistful of Dollars Mixtape by my roommate and the rest is history.

A lot has happened in the mean time, from serving as Houston rapper Chamillionaire’s personal international disc jokey (DJ) to filming his first video (Pullin’ Up) … Rapid Ric has been on his grind. He moved to Houston as he became more intertwined with our local music scene.

Rapid Ric released his new album, Whut it Dew, this week for free. This should not be confused with his original Whut It Dew Mixtape that was released in 2004 and features a prominent image of Chamillionaire on the cover.

I was told about Flock by friend about a month ago but I did not bite. I am not sure why I did not want to give this new web browser the time of day but for some reason today that changed.

I headed over to the Flock website and downloaded the free web browser which is powered by the Mozilla Firefox browser. How much different could it be you may ask?

A Ton! This web browser claims to be the "Social Web Browser" and that is no lie. It integrates flawlessly to all major Social networks. I was able to connect and set up shop in 20 minutes. Now I have an instant hookup to my Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail accounts.

What do you get when you have an immensely popular President and a hunger for a nostalgic game from your youth? Super Obama World!

Nintendo fans but in particular Super Nintendo fans will be delighted to find a mashup of Super Mario World with one about Obama. Play as the charismatic and hope driven Barack Obama as you collect as many campaign contributions a.k.a. coins as you dodge shady lobbyist, pigs with lipstick and pitbulls. If you are lucky you will even see a guest appearance by the self proclaimed hockey mom herself trying to run you over in her snow machine.

The H-Town All-Stars who consist of Bun B, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Cory Mo and Trae have released a complimentary song that whole heartily endorses Barack Obama and urges the listener to vote for change on November 4th.

The song is well produced and intersperses spoken clips from presidential candidate Barack Obama between each lyricist verse. This is a rallying call for those undecided voters that need that extra push or incentive to vote … and vote for the right man for the job.

Bun B claims, “We don’t need a sequel of 4 more years … we need real ideas about the future, not war mongers.” He adds, “Republicans, you had your chance but you blew it. It’s time to turn Texas blue.” Bun B is critical of the Bush Administration and John McCain and details the policies which they have failed to address these past 8 years.

I love to take photographs and at times I fancy myself as a Photoshop wizard …a guru like no other. But, editing and perfecting a fun photo takes time in Photoshop so I love it when a website automates the process.

Enter PhotoFunia … the coolest, fun-nest photo related website since … well there is nothing like it. As you can see from the above image that I took with a sexy Nikon D90,that is not the original image.

The website requires no intelligence other than your common web sense in order to upload any photo (ideally a headshot) to take advantage of any of the 60+ templates. The hardest part is selecting the photo … you do not even need to know how to open Photoshop.

I like anticipating what the future of gaming will be and its impact on social interactions. I was interested in the approach that World Golf Tour took to establish a fascinating game with a unique business model.

I saw Bill Maher’s “Religulous” at the River Oaks Theatre earlier this week and I loved it. I must note though that I am an avid fan of Bill Maher and enjoy his sense of humor, so my opinions may be bias to some extent.

Nonetheless, I highly recommend you watch the film instead of some of the crap that Hollywood likes to produce for the masses.

Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority by Bob Moser is an articulate, well-documented and concise book detailing the strategy that Democrats need to implement in the South if they wish to succeed. The book could not have been written at a more perfect time as Barack Obama heads into the General Election against the Republican candidate John McCain.

“Slacker Uprising” is not your normal Michael Moore movie. There is no agenda or underlying plot that is driving the documentary forward. That probably explains why the film is being distributed for free via online. I ended up downloading it via iTunes.

This was the first major feature-length film to debut as free download on the Internet legally. “Slacker Uprising” is being downloaded at three times the rate of the average Hollywood movie on iTunes. It is popular but is it worth it?

I enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11 and recommended it to as many friends as possible. “Slacker Uprising” in my opinion is like a spin-off that follow Moore around the country in battleground states during the 2004 election.

SPLIT: A Divided America is a documentary film that entertains and attempts to make sense of contemporary American politics and the partisan atmosphere that seems to dominate the environment.

In 78 minutes you travel across the United States from the West coast to the East as American civilians and political junkies speculate and offer their analyzaions of our current political climate.