Monthly Archives: January 2017

Review: Enzo’s Restaurant- Warren,OH

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Enzo’s Restaurant is a FIXTURE in Warren,Oh. So as ridiculous as it may seem, I had NEVER been to Enzo’s. I was talking to my friend Jared and he told me Enzo’s was his favorite for Italian food. Then later that same night my friend Alisha, who works at Enzo’s, and we spoke about how I had NEVER been there even though I worked across the street from the place for like 10 years. Yea I know, I’m lame. So I promised her I would go there the next day.

So here we are (the next day). I pull up in the parking lot and my immediate thought is “This place is well built”. I know your thinking what does that have to do with a review? Absolutely nothing, that was just me initial thought *kanye shrug* I walk up to the entrance:

See? I told you it was “well built”. Anyways… I walk in and I’m impressed by seeing the owner (Enzo) at the podium greeting people as the host. But who knows, maybe the host was on a bathroom break. I tell him that I’m going to have a seat at the bar. That’s something I normally do, for some reason I’d rather sit at the bar and eat than sit at a table. As I head towards the bar, Alisha spots me and says “Omg, you came!”. Ummm Didn’t I SAY I was going to come. I crazy how people are so USED to people NOT keeping their word, that they’re surprised when someone DOES. But that’s a whole other topic. I sit down and order a drink from her while I go over the menu. Then I engage in a conversation with a patron at the bar about President Trump, order another drink, then converse with the same gentleman about local politics (that was a good one). These were LONG conversations and then I realized I haven’t even done what I came to do…EAT. So I order the lasagna

It’s hard to mess up lasagna, unless it’s burnt. Plus I was so engulfed in the conversation, that I didn’t focus on the food like I should have. Therefore I need to come back to make a proper assessment. I did just THAT the very next day. The owner was AGAIN at the entrance greeting patrons. So I think it’s safe to say either he’s very “hands on” and down to earth, or the host has a thimble as a bladder *kanye shrug* This time I order Alfredo w/chicken & a cheesecake:

My only minor complaint is my GLASS for my Tito’s and orange juice. Which really shouldn’t matter because the actual DRINK is most important, but I can be “difficult”, so I’m complaining anyway :/ The pasta was solid. Good sauce and the chicken was tender. But though this is an Italian restaurant the CHEESECAKE really impressed me. I can honestly say it was one of the better cheesecakes I’ve ever had. Another thing that impressed me was the LENGTH of employment for most of the staff. People are telling me they’ve been working there 5 years, 7 years, 12 years etc etc… That tells me it’s an EXCELLENT place to work and the ownership well liked.

In closing, Enzo’s Restaurant will definitely be in my regular “food rotation”, and I feel “behind the times” for JUST experiencing this gem…

More photos on my way out:

https://www.facebook.com/Enzos-Restaurant-Banquet-Center-116094655085602/
http://enzosofwarren.com/contact.html
(330) 372-3314

Trump’s Inauguration: Fancy Clown

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“Fancy Clown”-MF DOOM

So today is the big day. Right now after seeing the “cover photo”, you’re either LAUGHING or “in your feelings”. Let me start by saying I’m “conflicted” on my views of a Donald Trump inauguration & Presidency. On one hand, I WANT him to be a great President for the nation I live in. On the OTHER hand, him being a successful President may lead to his behavior being accepted as the “norm”. Which regardless of any SHORT TERM success, that sort of behavior by the leader of our nation will undoubtedly lead to LONG TERM failure. And the “behavior” I’m speaking of, is the brash disrespect to others who don’t “think” or “look” like him. In all reality, I’ve NEVER been impressed by the political behavior or ANY Presidential candidate besides Barack Obama. The “mud-slinging” approach is tired and old. I do like the fact his behavior has “toned down” in recent weeks and that he has met with some African-Americans (Jim Brown, Steve Harvey, Kanye Kardashian) to hear their concerns. And speaking of that, a lot of African-Americans are calling Steve Harvey-Jim Brown etc etc “Coons” or “Uncle Toms” for meeting with Trump. I think this kind of talk is counter productive. People are too quick to label someone a “coon” because they have a DIFFERENT opinion than you. I believe you SHOULD have dialog with people who think differently than you. I do it all the time, because a lot of times people just don’t REALIZE the way you feel. Plus Steve Harvey and Jim Brown (Kanye not so much) have done waaaaaaay more for the African-American community than I EVER have. So how could I call them “coons” or “Uncle Toms” because they did something opposite of what I might do. Now I DON’T particularly like how Steve Harvey called Donald Trump “a GREAT man” after ONE meeting with him. That’s a pretty BOLD statement after meeting someone ONCE. Especially since you DIDN’T think anything like that in the MONTHS prior. If you DID, you wouldn’t be having this meeting with him. In my book, ONE day does NOT “erase” 10 months of disrespect. Plus I find it “interesting” his choice of who he met with, a sports figure, a comedian, and a music artist. It gives the message that you feel THOSE are the opinions who African-Americans care about. Kinda like if I won the Presidency and I met with Pete Rose, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Britney Spears and felt that gave me a “proper gauge” on how White America thinks…*kanye shrug*

Now back to Trump’s clown a$$ behavior, or better yet, the ACCEPTANCE of it. Honestly it wouldn’t even bother me as much if the “rules” didn’t change depending on who YOU support. And the fanatically support of Trump is odd to me. It’s NOT as if you didn’t already know this man 10 years ago. I could have wrote this SAME stuff about Donald Trump 10 years ago and NONE of you would even have cared. In fact ALL of you would have found the “cover photo” funny. This “switch up” in stance makes you look like you need a “hero” in life. And if I’m WRONG, please correct me cause I would like to know how do you NOW become a FANATIC of someone you’ve known for YEARS and probably made fun of YOURSELF. Now some of you are probably saying “I know people who were FANATICS of Barack Obama”. Which would be ACCURATE. But that “cover picture” is there for more than just “comic relief”. ALL Presidents are WHITE except ONE, even the “clown” is White *wink* But naturally some people who have been disenfranchised since the inception of the nation, will have an “affinity” for the Black President (kinda like how some feel about Eminem *dead crickets*). Anyways, I personally think MOST people know this, yet STILL will be EXTRA disrespectful when speaking about Barack Obama. Then “pretend” not to know why some Aferican-Americans might take offense. Don’t throw “stones” and then HIDE your hands. It DOESN’T mean you have to LIKE the man, but for the sake of UNITY you should probably be more “tactful”. Unless of course you DON’T care about unity, then by all means continue. It’s the SAME as when Hillary Clinton was running. The EXTRA disrespect was crazy to me and very divisive being that some women were PROUD to finally possibly have a female President. This nation has been very racist and sexist throughout it’s history. Don’t believe me? Well think of it like this, in the 238 years of this country’s existence there has been ONE Black President and ZERO female Presidents. That can ONLY mean 1 of 2 things. Either the country IS sexist & racist, or ONE Black man and ZERO females have EVER been qualified to be President in 238 years. Must be nice…

Personally I’ve never looked at ANY President to be my “savior”. Which is why you never see me getting in many political debates. Because quite frankly I don’t care that much. I’m going to be successful REGARDLESS who is President. And I’m not into arguing with people I KNOW over people I DON’T know. Unless it’s SPORTS of course, cause THAT’S important *wink*

If Jimi Hendrix wasn’t Black, how many Black people would actually listen to him?

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Be honest…I posed this question to one of my Black friends after they made a derogatory comment concerning the playlist in my car. I happened to be playing “Whole Lotta Love”- Led Zeppelin. Never mind the fact that the song is dope, we’re going ignore that for now. We’ll just focus on the fact that it’s Rock-n-Roll & Jimi Hendrix is most DEFINITELY Rock-n-Roll. But a lot of Black people (not all) get caught up in what they’re “supposed” to DO or LIKE. When I think about it, I guess EVERY race does this. But I’m going to focus on MINE. Led Zeppelin is a GUITAR driven rock band just like The Jimi Hendrix Experience band. They’re from the SAME era. The ONLY major difference is RACE. Good music, is good music, it’s NOT race specific. Or Genre specific for that matter. If you listen to Jimi Hendrix, but won’t listen to any other Rock-n-Roll, you are “conditioned”. And actually a lot of Black people really DO like certain songs, but won’t openly admit it because they’re worried what people will think. But again, that’s ALL races. Be who your BORN to be, not who you’re SUPPOSED to be. The EASIEST thing in life to be is UNIQUE, all you have to do is be YOURSELF. Get familiar…

Review/Rant: White House Fruit Farm-Canfield,OH

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Leaders of the New School(L.O.N.S.)- Sobb Story

As some of you may remember I recently made a “request” on Facebook as to where I could get WARM donuts, since my favorite place for WARM donuts, The Fractured Prune, had left the area. I received numerous recommendations, but the one that kept “reoccurring” was White House Fruit Farm in Canfield,OH. I had previously heard good things about the place so I figured today was as good a day as any to try it out and give a review. Remember that word “warm”…

Before I begin, let me give you a little “history” of my experience with Canfield. Though I’m sure many people LOVE Canfield,OH it’s not exactly my favorite place. Reason being, it’s the place that houses one of the “frightening” experiences of my life…THE CANFIELD FAIR. Now I’m sure you’re thinking “Dude, it’s a FAIR. How could that possible be frightening?”. Well let me explain…Me and my dude Steve decide to go to the fair. See I had never been to the Canfield Fair before, so in my mind I felt it was probably like twice as big as the Italian Festival is downtown Warren,Oh. Warren is a small city and so is Canfield, so my common sense said the size of the fair would be similar or at best TWICE the size. I couldn’t have been further from the TRUTH, the Canfield FAIR was MASSIVE. Of course you’re STILL thinking “Ok, so what’s the frightening part?”. Let me tell you, I’d NEVER been around that many White people in my life! There was waves and waves of White people as far as the eye could see. It took me off guard. I started having unsubstantiated thoughts like “What if the White people REVOLT? There would be nothing I could do.” My mind was RACING! I thought to myself that this must be what having a panic attack is like. After 15 minutes, I looked at Steve and said “We gotta go”. I guess all in all I just wasn’t “mentally prepared” for that level of WHITENESS *kanye shrug* I’m sure rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd playing on stage with a HUGE Confederate Flag in the backdrop didn’t help matters either. I told this story to someone before and they said I was RACIST. I told them I want them to go to the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn on Labor Day, where there’s like a million people and “White faces” are a rarity. And when they stepped out of there “comfort zone” where they are a MINORITY in a LARGE crowd, then come talk to me. Needless to say they NEVER ended up going, nor did they have the desire to. So as you see, though I’m sure many people LOVE Canfield, there’s little reason for ME to ever go there. Except if I’m going over the house of Meg…Ummm never mind, that’s none of you business. Just know that I don’t have a reason to go to Canfield and my child support payments are all caught up… *dead crickets*

Ok, I got sidetracked. So my friend and I head up to White House Fruit Farm. While driving up they say “You do realize their donuts AREN’T warm right?”. I express to them how I SPECIFICALLY asked for places with WARM donuts and that SEVERAL people suggested White House, so they were mistaken. Their reply: Whatever… On the way there all you see is farms and Trump/Pence signs. What’s the signs for? He WON, it’s OVER. Anyways, we arrive and walk in. I see various fruits and vegetables, but I’m looking for the DONUTS! I spot the area of the donuts and a worker. The convo proceeds as follows: {ME}- Do you sell WARM donuts? {THEM}- Yea, if you get here FIRST thing is the morning.{MY FRIEND}- Told you! {ME}-*immediately irritated* Ok, well let me get 3 blueberry donuts and 3 cream cheese donu… {THEM}-*cutting me off* With or without nuts? {ME}- Well being that there’s NONE in there WITHOUT nuts, let’s just assume WITH nuts. Unless you’re going to go make some without nuts. But if you did that they would be WARM, kinda like what I’m looking for. Imagine that… *sigh* {MY FRIEND}- Stop doing that. smh
Those who know me WELL know when I get irritated I’m an a$$hole, and regardless WHAT you say, I’m going to have a smarta$$ remark. Fortunately I “checked” myself and got my attitude under control, cause the worker really did NOTHING wrong. I ate one of each donut,

but to be perfectly honest with you, I can’t even give you an opinion. My mouth was all ready for WARM donuts that anything ELSE was going to be a disappointment. So a review would be doing White House Farms a disservice. For the life of me I DON’T understand why people suggested White House for WARM donuts. Maybe they have a relative that works there, or their comprehension was “off” that day, who knows. It WON’T make me stop asking for suggestions to places, but let’s try to stick to the “theme” people.

White House Fruit Farms will be revisted soon for a PROPER review. To be continued…

Jay Dee aka Dilla 1974-2006

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Fever (Q-tip Produced By J-Dilla)
One Way Ticket “to the blue” (Barry Blue)

When people talk about the greatest hiphop producers ever, sometimes Jay Dee aka Dilla gets overlooked by the “mainstream”. My man Quincey used to say “You like that dude cause he sounds like you”. Which was largely true. His production style was VERY similar to mine. So I always had a “bias” towards him because in my own selfish way. Now those who know me WELL, know my FAVORITE producer is actually Q-tip. So to have my FAVORITE producer and SECOND favorite producer together was bliss to me.

Now through the years there have been MANY songs that I loved, but FEW that have given me “goose bumps” when I first heard them. Fever- Q-tip produced by Dilla is one of those. The moment the kick drum dropped the hairs stood up on my forearms. This song is rare, but can be “found” if you look hard enough. As far as hiphop production, the track is close to PERFECT to me and embodies what hiphop is all about with it’s intergration of this RARE Barry Blue song. And when I say rare, I mean you can look as HARD as you want and probably won’t find it. So needless to say, I’ll be taking it down within 24 hours *kanye shrug*
Enjoy…

Recipe: Knowrisk Muffin eggs

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6 eggs
Salt & pepper
1 muffin pan
Diced onions
Diced mushrooms
Diced green peppers
Almond Milk
Olive oil
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin pan with olive oil. Dice onions, mushrooms, and green peppers and place in a bowl. Crack open egg into the greased muffin pan. Take fork and stab the yolk to break it up (optional). Add onion, mushroom, green pepper mixture. Add a dash of salt & pepper. Lastly add a splash of almond milk. Repeat these steps for how ever many eggs you intend to make. Bake in oven for 15-20 min or until eggs are solid. Pop them out, and you have perfect muffin eggs! You can also include CHEESE for added protein. Quick, neat, and clean. Enjoy

Happy to be Nappy

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Soundtrack to this post. Black Sheep- Black with N.V.(No Vision)

Recently the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was LEGAL to not hire (discriminate) because of deadlocks. The argument basically was that deadlocks were not “exclusive” to one race and therefore couldn’t be viewed as discriminatory if not hired because of so. And I guess “technically” this is true, but technically a man can wear a skirt to an interview claiming that skirts aren’t “exclusive” to women. That it’s UNIVERSAL clothing. Well now a days it IS,

but that’s besides the point…Anyways, this “law” is really just another way to racially discriminate against someone who might look different than YOUR “norm”. In fact, one of the reasons I actually grew locs was because I decided I was NEVER going to compromise my “Blackness” because it made someone else uncomfortable. I NEVER made them compromise who THEY are, so I demand that SAME respect.

Now though this “law” has newly been made LEGAL, it’s been going on for quite some time. I remember in the late 90’s I was an assistant manager at a company. They were closing down where I worked and we all received a severance pay. During the final phases, my regional manager out of Philly informed me that the company wanted to extend to me a corporate position. With this position I’d have to move to Troy, MI (no problem). Would be traveling the country 3-4 days out of the week setting up and closing different locations (no problem). I’d have to wear a suit (finally I get to look fresh!). My starting salary was $40,000 (Awesome! Great money for 20-something year old in the 90’s). Oh 1 more thing… I’d have to cut my hair *dead crickets* Now this whole “cut my hair” thing was not “officially” said to me. They basically told my regional manager to let me know, “off the record”, that if I didn’t cut my hair they wouldn’t extend the offer. But if I DID, the job was mine. I know you’re thinking “So did you cut you hair?!”. Well I recently took 3 inches off my hair and it’s STILL down to my waist. So basically… HELL NO! Like I said earlier, I made a conscious decision a long time ago to NEVER compromise my “Blackness” for someone else’s comfort level. Now if it was $60,000 I might have did a lil snip snip *kanye shrug*
This was my hair length at the time:

This is my hair length currently:

I’ve always been “happy to be nappy” and NEVER had a cultural inferiority complex. If a “job” feels they don’t want me as part of their organization because of THEIR “cultural defeciencies”, that’s their loss. This law is nothing “new”. It’s ALWAYS been “enforced”. But regardless I’m going to continue to create my OWN lane, MAKE my own “privilege”, and FORCE America to either accept me or get left behind. Subtle racism and lack of diversity is NOT going to stop this “train”, no matter how “bumpy” the ride may get. No matter what race you are, stand tall or don’t stand at all, and MAKE all take notice. You’re amazing! Get familiar…