Golf Clubs

On the Road, All Day Every Day $0.99 No Description Available.Genre: Music Video – GospelRating: NRRelease Date: 1-OCT-2002Media Type: DVD…

Spike and Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation $2.58 SPIKE & MIKE’S SICK AND TWISTED FESTI – DVD Movie…

Nike Slingshot 4D Irons Set 4-PW+AW Steel JUNIORS NEW $249.99 Club Specifications: DEXTERITY: Right-Handed GENDER: Junior BRAND: Nike MODEL: Slingshot 4D CLUB: Iron Set, 4-PW + AW SHAFT: Steel SHAFT SPECIFICS: Nike True Temper Speed Step II Superlight FLEX: Junior GRIP: Nike LENGTH: 36.5″ 5 iron CONDITION: New CONDITION SPECIFICS: New condition 10, still in the plastic …

New Nike Slingshot Tour 6-Iron Rifle 6.5 RH $32.79 Nike Slingshot Tour 6-Iron is a right handed club. It has a Rifle 6.5 extra stiff flex steel shaft and the club is new….

Slingshot Professionals $10.94 Singer, songwriter and guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps raises the musical bar with a compelling collection of songs on his fourth full-length Rykodisc release, Slingshot Professionals. Replete with Kelly Joe’s singular guitar sound, soulful vocals and lyrics won through experience, Slingshot Professionals delivers music, at once both fresh and aged ensuring Phelps a place among our most accomplished performing songwriters.Produced by Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, John Scofield), Slingshot Professionals follows 2001′s critically acclaimed Sky Like A Broken Clock and the Beggar’s Oil EP, a companion piece released in 2002. Slingshot Professionals finds Phelps making his way in a new role, that of bandleader. For most of his career, Phelps has gone it alone on record and on tour. That changed with the recording of Sky Like A Broken Clock when he paired with bassist Larry Taylor (Tom Waits) and drummer Billy Conway (Morphine).For Slingshot Professionals, Phelps recorded with two distinct groups of musicians, one in Seattle and the other in Toronto, creating a sound that is his most fully orchestrated to date. Celebrated guitarist Bill Frisell and Keith Lowe (bassist with David Sylvian, Wayne Horvitz and Fiona Apple) joined Phelps to record Not So Far To Go and Cardboard Box of Batteries , while three members of Zubot and Dawson–Steve Dawson (slide guitars), Jesse Zubot (fiddle, mandolin), and Andrew Downing (bass) play on Slingshot’s remaining eight songs. Drummer and percussionist Scott Amendola,(known for his work with Charlie Hunter, among others) joined Phelps on all songs except one. The contributions of Chris Gestrin (organ, piano and accordion) and Petra Haden (backing vocals) were subsequently added in Vancouver, B.C. Of his work with Zubot and Dawson, Phelps laughs as he says, it sounds like a bluegrass band that went to the wrong school.

Slingshot Tour

Something I Said – Abeer Alzinaty a/k/a Sabreena da Witch, Junkyard Empire at Hip-Conference, From Vices To Verses

Something I Said – “From Vices To Verses: A New Era of Hip-Hop & Action”

Dwight Hobbes

MN Spokesman-Recorder/Twin Cities Daily Planet

Hip hop has plummeted into two insidious pitfalls since its origin as grassroots commentary. One is the endorsement of hazardous-to-mental-health money-mad thuggery and misogynist propaganda. The other is a slick, opportunistic co-opting by academics as think-tank fodder to justify their status as learned interpreters of the street.

Day two of Voices Merging’s hip hop conference “From Vices To Verses: A New Era of Hip-Hop & Action” at the University of Minnesota is a one-out-of-two-ain’t-bad success. Though devoid of knuckle-dragging toxins, it doesn’t escape inane academia.  Removing Borders, Transgressing Boundaries’ theme: how hip hop transcends generations and from nation to nation. Energetic camaraderie enlivens the chic Weismann Art Museum as student artist coalition Voices Merging tends to business – methodically, with low-key professionalism that could teach some production companies a few things. As the morning panel begins, volunteer Marta Merzi, charismatic and competent, takes a moment from multitasking to reflect on crossing perceived boundaries.

“[It's] a new perspective of hip hop, urban arts that people don’t consider,” says Merzi. “You can make it be about what you need to say. In my community, street, society, my country. This [forum] is a step on solid ground for people to understand that. I’m nowhere near Gil Scott-Heron’s generation in terms of activism. But, if we can talk about that, about how, let’s do it.”

On hand are moderator John Thabiti Willis, post-doctorate fellow, University of Virginia; Naomi Wood, University of Minnesota; Tou Saiko Lee, hip hop group PosNoSys; and Abeer Alzinaty, hip hop artist and activist. Alzinaty salvages what otherwise is an hour and 45 minutes of cerebral pap by Wood and formulaic, outmoded grandstanding by Lee. Willis is there as patronizing cheerleader.

Authentic hip hop at once crosses generations and nations in the artistry and activism of 26-year-old Palestinian Abeer Alzinaty, aka Sabreena da Witch. Alzinaty, born in Lyd, Palestine/Israel, 20 minutes from Tel Aviv, 40 minutes from Jerusalem, grew up a spirited, opinionated Palestinian female living inside Israel and became politically active in Israeli and Palestinian territories following the second Intifada of 2000.

She was present for the emergence of hip hop in Palestine. Alzinaty’s also in Slingshot Hip Hop, New York director-producer Jackie Reem Salloum’s internationally lauded, groundbreaking documentary of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel as they discover hip hop as a means to prevail against divisions imposed by occupation and poverty.

“Hip hop in Palestine started in my home town,” she recalls. “My cousins and friends were doing it in their bedrooms.” She joined them rather than sacrifice safety to suicidal street defiance of authority. “I was afraid of getting arrested. And of getting shot.”

Artistic expression being the better part of valor, “I started writing political and social lyrics resisting occupation,” Alzinaty continues. Daring as it was for Palestinian males to openly defy convention, Abeer Alzinaty was up against zero tolerance. “One day before [a] tour, my parents get a phone call from my father’s side [of the family]. They said, ‘If she goes on-stage, we shoot her.’ That day, my parents decided I’m never gonna do hip hop.”

Alzinaty decided differently. She skipped the tour, but determinedly pursued an outspoken career. “Eight years later, I’m here. I released an album (A Woman Under the Influence) all by myself. I learned real hip hop comes from the depths of your belly. As long as there are honor killings…a struggle, occupation, injustice, there are gonna be rude women like me.”

The firebrand rapper-vocalist is as passionate about the integrity of the genre as she was about her innate right to be an artist. “I fell in love with Tupac – until I saw how he behaved around women. I loved everything he said against the police and nothing he said about women. I love [hip hop] culture so much – and I hate it. How could you fight for freedom and try to subjugate me [as a female], own me? A body, my mind, my emotions.”

She decries material exploitation by rappers. “I know Palestinian artists who started singing against capitalism. Today they make commercials for phone companies. I talk about women who are killed. I want to bring them back. I want to bring back Native Americans, who were erased, who are dead because we’re here. These are not comfortable conversations.”

Neither were the words of pioneers The Last Poets who shook up sensibilities everywhere for Black and White alike. They made, however, an indelible mark on American culture. Abeer Alzinaty follows suit, a voice for personal, social and political change.

At Coffman Memorial Union, an afternoon workshop previews avant-garde jazz/hip hop band Junkyard Empire’s documentary Rock El Imperio. Last August, they toured Cuba and returned with a film about the experience as self-described “socio-political progressive” artists.

Band members Chris Cox, Brihanu and Bryan Berry clue workshop attendees in on how hip hop is disseminated in Cuba, where artists are subsidized by the government and censorship is altogether different. For instance, U.S. vigilante boycotts cost The Dixie Chicks airplay and sales after Natalie Maine exercised her right to denounce George Bush. In Cuba, authorities refuse to let sexism and messages of material obsession on the radio.

That policy would bankrupt U.S. labels and put superstars out of work. Overnight.

Rapper-lyricist Brihanu reflects on what he calls the commodification of American hip hop: “It’s a tool of a capitalist economy. Dehumanizing people, turning them into objects. Including hip hop culture. You take a person’s artistic expression and we see it as, ‘How much can you sell?’”

“The Heart of the Beat: Poetry of Rap” follows, moderated by author Alexs Pate with panelists Leola Johnson of Macalester College and Big Zach and Alicia Steele of the hip hop group Kanser. The program description: “This multimedia panel explores the view that rap is not just the emergent African American literary form of the postmodern ages, but is responsible for scores of young people improbably embracing all the traditional and nontraditional poetic conventions of the English language (through a mix of cultural osmosis, miming and instincts).”

As such why-is-there-air verbiage indicates, it’s a roundtable of pretentious tedium. Big Zach tells the audience that after reading the description, he said to himself, “I don’t know what it means.” Case closed.

After dinner, Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture, speaks in the Weismann. It’s an hour of Kitwana giving an overview of how hip hop qualifies as a movement, dropping names and periodically checking how long he has left to speak.

Things are capped off with a 9 pm to 2 am hip hop blowout at The Cabooze, an uneven concert capably MC’d by DJ Mixwell and Steele. PosNoSys is led by Lee, who picks up where left off in the morning, faking the funk. His band is pretty good, though, especially vocalist Oskar Ly.

The duo Ill Chemistry is serviceable with ace word-slinging diva Desdamona carrying Carnage, who relies on hackneyed histrionics and bombast. Tru Ruts’ showcase features powerhouse poetry by Shà Cage and e.g. bailey. And pathetic perpetrator Guante.

Sabreena da Witch works it, exotic, engaging, compelling. Maria Isa, self-impressed, strident and way over the top, belies her heavy rep, coming off, in fact, pedestrian. Toki Wright coasts on the crowd’s energy, but eventually kicks it into gear for a creditable set. Dead Prez milk their entrance, making the audience wait. And wait. Then hit the stage, turning the air a foul-mouthed blue and peppering that infamous epithet.

The place is packed, mostly with enlightened young men and women from the conference.

Who absolutely love it.

Go figure.

About the Author

Coming: “Angels Don’t Really Fly” EP by Dwight Hobbes & The All-Star Hired Guns featuring Alicia Wiley. The crew: Me, Alicia Wiley, Stanley Kipper, Chico Perez, Jeff “Boday” Christensen, Aaron “Orange A.C.” Cosgrove and Yohannes Tona. Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. Fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Circle, to Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary columns Hobbes In The House and Something I Said. He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder comments on domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Twin Cities Daily Planet articles archived at www.tcdailyplanet.net/dwighthobbes

Golf Pros or Low Handicappers HELP!!!?

I’ve been wondering about switching to a heavier iron, as i’ve been told that with my body size, I should consider upgrading. To give you a point of reference, I’m 6’2″, 240 lbs. Drives are consistently 300+ yards, and I hit my PW 150 yards, 9-Iron 160 yards, etc etc. 9 Handicap. Current irons are the Cleveland TA5 Gunmetals. Bought them about 4 years ago, and liked them because they were light, which at the time was appealing. I’ve recently played a couple rounds with a partner’s new Nike Slingshot Tour irons, which are much heavier, are forged, and have no offset. I’ve hit them very well. Is it most likely the case that I should think about a heavier iron? I’ve been hearing that it’s easier to keep the club on plane with a heavier iron, and is a good idea for bigger golfers. Is this true? If so, what irons other than the Nike’s, that are relatively heavy, would you recommend? Thanks for all your input!!

Been playing for many years (like 20 plus), and find your question pretty difficult to answer. Yours is a quite low handicap already and I think you pretty much should know what you want. Oddly, though, that most golfers tend to be advised to use heavy set first then switch to lighter set. Lighter set is easier to manipulate the ball or shots shaping.
I just bought a Mizuno MP 67 myself, and I have True Temper shaft on them. True temper shafts make the iron weight more and it’s very much depending on the flex of the clubs. Usually, in the standard iron set, they make the club heavier for stiffer shafts. Like if you get S300 true temper, the swing weight is usually D2-3. Mizuno and many other brand do also make custom ordered iron set. The trick is if you make you shaft longer, the swing weight will be more heavier than the shorter shaft, and with your height you can afford to add an inch or one and half inches more to each shaft.
I have also Mizuno MP 29 (limited edition set: i.e. they don’t make them anymore) but I had them custom-made for me and it’s one and half inches longer in every club. I have true temper with sensicore s300 on them. This make the swing weight go up to D2 for the whole set. But, this is one difficult set to use (it’s Tiger’s set when he was amateur and I think he won his first master with them.
The thing is I think you should visit the pro shop and try hitting some balls. Have them measure your club head speed and determine what’s best for you. I think for a 9 handicap, you can go for a forged blade iron set. Mizuno is one of the best forging house in the world. You may also like Titleist Mussle Back, like 695 MB, or Nike Blad, or MP 67 (it’s absolutely beautiful).
Again, visit a pro-shop and test your swing and have they recommend you your spec, as well as have your set customer-made is absolutely worth it. You’ll be surprise that it’s not as expensive as you think. Good luck.

Devil’s Slingshot Tour Budapest vol. 8.