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  NJL: A Black Nerd Podcast

Goood Moorning, Vieetnaaam!: Part 1

5/21/2018

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Any place that looks like this and is called a "club" gotta have some underground fights going on
Japan does NOT play about overstaying on visas. It’s not like some countries where you can kinda, sorta go over time a few days (or a few weeks) and it’s all good in the hood. Naaah fam. If you suppose to leave Tuesday, January 8th...you better leave Tuesday, January 8th. Otherwise you might stay a few years getting to enjoy their world class prison system, if you’re not lucky enough to be politely escorted out their country, and asked to never come back again. Now I am not saying I knew the exact date my visa expired, but uuuuh..Ya boy definitely knew the date I was expecting to leave Japan, was not the day the great country of the Rising Sun wanted me to leave. It’s hella funny to think about now since I am back in these Tokyo Drift streets, but baaabeeeee when I tell you I was feeling like I was in a Mission Impossible movie for a minute trying to make moves out the country.
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God’s plan though since it allowed me to travel to Vietnam, and see what Southeast Asia has to offer. Specifically I traveled to North Vietnam and had my main hub of hedonistic holiday in Hanoi (say that 10x fast) the capitol of Vietnam.  Now for those interested in traveling to Vietnam, let a brother help you out with a few tips and tricks. First, and most important: Motorbikes rule the streets, and everyone drives like Dom from "Fast and the Furious" just called them "Family". You see that image above like the most interesting Mario Kart race is about to go down? That's Sunday easy traffic. Usually, they don't even stop fam. If it's green they go. If it's yellow they go. If it's red...they go faster, and use humans walking like obstacle cones.  This is real life Frogger and there ain't no extra lives biiih. It will take any sane person a few days to get use to it, and probably a few more days to not even blink when you cross as you yell "YOLO!"​
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I guarantee you if I sent this to Cherry right now, she'd get the woman equivalent of half chub.
Second, Vietnam is really, really inexpensive. Even compared to other Southeast Asia countries  it's hard to beat the Dong (hehehe).  As of this writing 1 USD equals to almost 23,000 VND. Meaning when I felt the urge to splurge on some Western food after missing good cheeseburgers while in Japan (sorry Japan, but when it comes to burgers ya'll lacking severely), for all you see above I spent maaaybe  $10.  This is like opulent spending of money for food in Hanoi. Compared to this local meal below:
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Call this the Hanoi Big 3
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I might have spent $2.50, and honestly...that's still low key expensive lol. I mean it's absurd. Hell, even lodging is inexpensive. Hostels charge anywhere between $2-$5 a night depending on where, and almost all still offer free breakfast, drinks, towels etc. Hotels, you might spend $10-12 a night for 4 star treatment. I wanting to sleep in a bed made for mini gorilla size men like myself, ended up renting an ENTIRE PENTHOUSE APARTMENT FOR A WEEK...$60 bucks. Balling on a budget has new meaning when you're in Vietnam.
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Seriously, these guys were cool. Always found me some how and just wanted to talk and practice their English.
Lastly, brothers and sisters of the black magic,  We are completely an unknown for most Vietnamese. You will either need to have thick skin, or walk with a sense of Black Folk ambassador diplomacy because you will be walking, talking entertainment to them. Not a day went by I wasn't asked to take pictures, practice English, hold a baby, and yes the biggest no no...to touch my hair. Correction. They didn't ask, they just did it. Unlike the Japanese who are polite with their "WTF?" moments when they see me, the Vietnamese in general do not give any fawks. They will stare, follow, point, and some even ran...but hey I am in their city, eating up all the good food, dancing with their women, breathing up all their air so who am I to judge lol? Jokes aside, most of it was just learning experiences and explaining stuff that they just don't see or interact with on the reg, and I get it, and hopefully you can to if you go since it's really a beautiful country with some good people. In fact, part 2 I'll share things to see, where to hang, and what not to do at 5am in the morning when you don't speak the lingo.

Jay

Once got lost on an island, before it became cool to do so on popular tv shows

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In the Era of Yeezus, Donald Glover is showing himself to be the Many Faced God of Black Excellence.

5/9/2018

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Listen man, I honestly can’t tell you how many times I have watched “This is America” at this point since it came out. I can tell you it has been more times than it should be reasonably healthy to do, and I don’t see a forseeable future when I won’t watch it ooooohhh...at least 5x a day. As I sit down with writing this Book of Gambino Chapter 1 I am watching it on repeat as we speak. So if ya’ll see any spelling errors blame it on my eyes trying to do two things at once. Looking like I’m related to Forest Whitaker right now fam, it’s that serious. If this video is the sunken place, just lemme go, and tell my momma I loved her cause I don’t want to get out. I’ve been glued to it from the moment the camera pans on him from the back with that fro looking Kunta Kente Black Power righteous, that grown man beard with the Marvin Gay taco meat no shirt look. Yo, and when he all of sudden starts that sway we ALLLLL know, tell me you didn’t start the roll as soon as you saw him do it. I’ll wait...EXACTLY.
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Donald bringing that  positive dad body vibes. Know your worth kings.
Then, just when you think this is about to be the summer dance anthem video of 2018, BLAM! Ya boy pulled out the piece, hit the nastiest nuevo black pose ever (shout out to Black Twitter noticing that it is in reference to Jim Crow caricatures from the “Make America Great Again”-headass days.) and proceeded to implicitly, explicitly, show us what America is and has always been. Death, destruction, and distraction. In 4 minutes and 4 seconds which you will NEED ALL OF to get your life right , “This is America” shows us not just a history of America, but the unique history of Blacks in America and how we deal , how we self sabotage at times, and how we are used in this country most of us call home. Did you peep all the dance moves being the most popular viral video dances over the last few years? Of course. Or how every time blatant violence was done (against black people I might add) with a gun, the gun was treated with reverence by a school age child (MESSAGE)who takes it away, while the dead black body wasn’t even given a second thought? Most likely. And if you think I'm reaching you clearly ain’t watching this newest season of Atlanta were Donald Glover is doing a whole class on Twin Peaks like symbolism for the black culture. I could just go on and on about the symbolism in this video and the layers that have to be peeled back to reach that delicious black magic inside.
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The sheer genius of the background action in the narrative of this video being more important than what is at the forefront makes the depth of the video so visceral. From the rioting going on, people dying all over the damn place, kids making it rain like that one time in KOD we won’t talk about right nah, a pale horse of death being followed by a police car, I mean... the juxtaposition between background and foreground is amazing. Even the fact every now and then Childish Gambino just drops the happy face and dancing and has this look of depression and sighs before getting back at it again is heavy with that symbolism sauce. Hell even the lyrics, while repetitive does not mean dumbed down. The lyrics combined with the dancing combined with the action in the background, creates a full on tapestry of coded language that needs to be seen as a whole to even decipher. This song is made with the video as a visual in mind. Gambino is all about his music having a visual feel to it, almost like theater. If you don’t believe me go look at any video of his Because of the Internet Tour, it is basically a musical, very much similar to this. Or even watch the SNL performances he did this weekend and see the same themes there as well.
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This ain’t Kanye riding on a motorcycle and posing wax models of famous people naked faux deep. This is legit double consciousness, peek behind the veil, “This is (WHITE) America” deep. This is black man get your money, because your life ain’t worth it to them deep. Black folks keep smiling,dancing, and drugging so we don’t cry from our pain deep. Don’t get to serious of our plight, or we may be running figuratively and literally for our lives deep. I wish Donald dropped this specifically to counteract the foolishness that is Kanye West, cuz lordy lordy we needed some Django after Uncle Ruckus West showed his entire ass, but even without Kanye in the picture this video is needed. I need classes on it, I need news segments breaking it down. I need think pieces and movements created with the energy that this video has black twitter feeling. I need all the dance moves choreography passed to all the HBCU step teams, and marching bands (Really the Marching 100) to perform this during homecoming so all the voices and bodies moving and singing as one wakes up the ancestral spirits in jubilation. And most importantly...I need to run it back one more time.


Jay

Jay once swam on the back of a giant sea turtle. Life kinda peeked from there.

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Adventures of a Black Nomad Interviews: Hannah pt. 2

3/9/2018

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So here's part 2 of the Hannah interview series, where we continue to discuss western culture, the privilege of traveling as an American, and the Mario like plus 1 lives advantages of being white and privileged. If you didn't catch part 1 just scroll on down to catch up before listening to this one!
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Adventures of a Black Nomad Interviews:  Hannah pt.1

2/25/2018

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 So for the next few weeks I'll be dropping 4 parts of an interview with a fellow traveler named Hannah as we discuss race, privilege, and travelling. It will be broken down into 4 parts. If you loved the discussions you heard in our anniversary episode 50 pt. 2 and Black Panther (which you can mos definitely can check out right 'chea), then hopefully you'll dig these. And if you're interested in more interviews during my travel or have topics for discussion drop us a line on our contact page!
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Fukushima, 311, and The Resilience of Hope

2/3/2018

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​So at the beginning of the month I had the opportunity to travel to the Fukushima area in Japan to see some of the work and changes being done after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. For those who don't know much about it, or since it has been almost a decade already (Lord it is almost a decade already...I'm gettin old lol) March 11th 2011 is when a huge magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan causing a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 
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​Without going too much into the history of the disaster it called for an evacuation of over 30 km immediately, and other surrounding areas as the radiation and such in the air spread. Fun actually-horrible-and-low-key-evil fact, some parts of the area were told to evacuate within 3 days. Other parts...weren't told until a month later so just think what the families in those areas were ingesting or subjected to without knowing. Or even worse the effects it may have for generations to come from this, that could have been possibly averted. Also interesting to find out is that if the wind that day and the next or so was a south wind instead of west (or is it east...Japan directions confuse me lol), majority of the Tokyo area would have been directly effected, and that is a scary thought to have. Even though it's 7 years later, only now are you really seeing life come back to the area with just a few years ago lots of small towns or cities that were evacuated completely still empty being effectively ghost towns.
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​So how do you know when civilization comes back after years of abandonment and fear of radiation poisoning? Convenience stores an community centers. Seriously I spent a solid day in the area and the newest things that I saw with the most people even around were either 711s that were just built, and the community centers near or close to these 711s lol. Which makes sense if you really think about it since what's more common, safe, and everything is almost back to normal for people traveling through than convenience stores?
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​Yet for the people who live in the Fukushima Prefecture, whose livelihoods were heavily effected, families separated, and basically the Japanese people who lived in the disaster area and now have turned into refugees in their own country, it's not as back as normal as they would like. However, the hope of one day a new normal coming from this horror is apparent from those still in the area working to find a silver lining from all of this. One of the most awesome things to hear and see is that when a lot of the farmers, especially the cattle farmers, realized all this land they had was going to be useless in terms of how they used it previously, they decided to try something new with solar power energy. Which is genius and speaks on the people of Fukushima's resilience and hope. Right now the batteries can't hold enough of a reserve to be used as generators for the area, but they do use the energy produced and tie it to the electric company being able to have every huge panel setup work to give energy for up to 15 homes. Their hope is in 10 years at least not only will they be able to go back to farming their land but to continue the process of being more renewable energy and see how the old and new can turn into something really remarkable for the people of Fukushima.


Jay

A Black hipster, trying to live a life of duality. Maybe he's working in a community working on social justice issues..or maybe he's laying on a beach somewhere doing slightly inappropriate things. You never really know.

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Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

1/4/2018

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​So I'v been hanging out in Japan for a few months now, and while it's been a blast, spending this New Year's here was easily a top 5 memory of life. Like, never mind visiting Japan has been my number 1 bucket list since I was a lil jit wondering how I could find some ooze to turn my self into a Ninja Turtle (As a kid Mikey was my favorite, but the woke black man in me now understands Raph's anger in having to live in a sewer so he don't scare the white people just from being alive.) Bringing in a New Year while checking off a life time wish (seriously just all down here wish wise for me now folks), it just doesn't get much better. So being, the amicable vagabond I am I wanted to share some of the things I saw and did to ya'll
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​So Kyoto was mainly where I spent most my nights, and for hella good reason. Kyoto has a history of being the big capital before Tokyo and has kept the history of that look alive through a lot of its areas. Whole neighborhoods are still the same buildings, or close to for hundreds to even thousands of years ago. So when you walk down these streets and see bamboo wood buildings, kimonos, and even geishas (that's a whole notha story fam lol) it really feel like you in Ancient Japan with Samurai's and Shoguns right around the corner.
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​Osaka on the other hand, feels like fun laid back city. A lot of Japanese folks will tell you there's a big difference between Western Japan and Eastern Japan (they actually for awhile back in the day had beef like Pac and Biggie were involved) and they ain't lyin. Compared to Tokyo, even Kyoto Osaka folks seem to be having a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and maybe not all the way there and in a good way lol. Fun fact a favorite dish in Japan is Okonomiyaki and Osaka is the birthplace, so if you get a chance try some out. Ooshii desu biiiihhh.
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​Japan while having lots of shrines, temples, and some castles, considers only 3 castles actually major. One is in Tokyo where the Imperial family lives, another is in Nagasaki, and there's one in Osaka. What's dope about this castle is since no one is currently using it, you can check out not only the surrounding areas but inside as well. 
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​So Kinkakuji or the Golden Pavillion is in Kyoto, and is exactly what the name says. It's an all gold Zen Buddhist temple,  sitting off a gorgeous pond with Bonsai like trees surrounding it. Even the inside is all gold. Needless to say the clout of the general who lived here was astronomical.
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​So one of the most famous locations in Japan,  is the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine. It's world wide known for the fact it has over 10,00 orange gates that you can walk through to reach the summit of the shrine at the top of Mt. Inari. Lemme tell you know..If you in Japan go do this. It takes some time to get to the top so be prepared for the hike since it can get pretty steep, and it's mostly thousand of year old one slip you can die stairs.  But it's worth it. Unless you die...in which case what do I know.
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​Now I know what you're thinking.
 "All this awesome history and knowledge you droppin on us Jay, and you gonna end on a damn bottle of liquor?"  YA DAMN RIGHT I AM. I ain't neva eva eva tasted sake this good. I didn't know sake could TASTE this good. It had flavors and aromas that made me finally understand why sake is well rice WINE. This bih chilled gonna have you ready to hop the next flight to Tokyo. Plus, just so ya'll don't think I'm a straight heathen, this is actually the sake the Prime Minister of Japan gave to President Obama when he first visited Japan as his belief as the best tasting sake experience to have. So get ya drunk and negro bougie on and find you a bottle or 2 lol


Jay

A Black hipster, trying to live a life of duality. Maybe he's working in a community working on social justice issues..or maybe he's laying on a beach somewhere doing slightly inappropriate things. You never really know.

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