No one ever said creativity grows on trees. At least no one’s ever told me that. I’m pretty sure I’d remember due to that being the type of saying that could lead to someone getting punched in the throat. Having established the non-existence of a creativity tree, one is left wondering where do these creative juices actually come from and can I buy them in bulk from Costco? My stash went dry, and it feels like Omar Little went all stick-up kid on my re-up. It truly is as depressing as it sounds…

I think it’s best that we move on immediately. I’d also like to suggest completely forgetting anything I’ve ever written. Don’t give me that look, this hurts me more than it hurts you. Okay, maybe completely ignore was a bit strong. I’ll also accept mostly, pretty much, or kinda. Right about now you may be thinking something along the lines of, “But, Mike, how are we supposed to forget the gift of words you’ve so graciously bestowed upon us?” The task may seem ludicrous and daunting and intimidating and a bit impossible, but all of that is just a mirage. Don’t believe me, do you? It’s alright. I get it.

Of course, I am the guy who just re-read 10,000+ words of fiction that represented the groundwork for a novel that would have probably sold at least 100 copies to people I may or may not know. I’m the one who was so disgusted by what I read that 3,000 words in I became convinced that some sort of cosmic joke was to blame for the driveling nonsense splashed across my computer screen. At the 7,000 word mark I realized that if I survived the tortuous affair I would have no trouble making it through any future waterboarding sessions. I guess I should be happy that I no longer have to be afraid of Guantanamo Bay…At approximately the 10,348th word I ran out of reasons to continue the intellectual raping of my id and ego, so I did the most logical thing I could think of: permanently deleted that bitch from existence.

It’s like it never happened, and the world may be a better place because of that. What? No, I’m not crying. No I’m not…Seriously, I just got something in my eye. Shouldn’t you be doing some forgetting of your own? Don’t worry about me, I don’t wear shoes with laces in them so there’s nothing to worry about. I’m pretty sure I won’t hate myself much more tomorrow morning than I did this morning…

Hey, how ’bout we pep this bitch the fuck up? Get our cheer on as the cool kids say. I can’t think of anything less depressing or suicide inducing than taking a look back at the year that somehow led me to where I am now. Can you? I didn’t think so. The following are just some of the things I liked, loved, or loathed about 2011. (Side-note: There is no order to what you will read below, especially one of the chronological sort. In fact, I can’t (won’t) even commit to 2011 being the sole year represented in this end-of-year list. Let’s just assume that everything below is probably likelier to have come from the past than the future, and that the present is almost certainly in no way responsible.)

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami is one of the greatest books ever written. The translation from Japanese to English is absolutely flawless according to an unnamed (and imaginary) Japanese source. I’d like to tell you that I hate to call it the perfect novel, but I don’t. It is the perfect novel for crushing the dreams and aspirations of an unpublished author with an unreasonable amount of self-confidence. Thank you Aomame, Tengo, and Fuka-Eri. You can find me in the town of cats.

Odd Future is good. Tyler Comma (aka Tyler, the Creator) is pretty good. But Earl Sweatshirt will be great. The kid’s an absolute fucking monster, and I can only hope that he returns from Samoa with a hunger to demolish all the Drakes and Dom Kennedys of the world. Hip-hop needs you Earl, therefore I need you.

Sandman Slim is my fucking hero! Richard Kadrey is a fucking legend! (Side-note: Skip to the 3:32 mark of that video to hear Kadrey answer my question. MY QUESTION!!)

Lebron James will never be as great as MJ, and that’s more disappointing than anything.

Recently I’ve been accused of being biased against female rappers and white rappers. There’s an underlying truth in there somewhere. However, Azealia Banks is fucking fire. How could I not love filthy verses delivered by a 20-year-old betty from Harlem over British house music?

How is it that Bravo consistently has the worst thing on TV at any given time? If I were in charge of things they would be brought up on charges of treason for trying to kill America through television-terrorism. Seriously, kill yourself Bravo! (Side-note: It’s on right now and the old British lady who belongs to Jiggy just said “cock sock”.)

Kanye West is the most creative person to make music during my lifetime. It was through him that I realized music truly is an art form.

Obama should have saved Bin Laden for like October 2012. Double-tapping him three weeks before the election would have guaranteed a win. You already lived next door to him for months (re: at least a year), what’s another year and a half or so?

Being a Notre Dame fan is as miserable as it sounds. I’m literally convinced they are trying to break my heart. The only upside is that Michael Floyd will be a mid-first round draft pick, and the Falcons could have a chance at him.

Unemployment is a bitch. There is no sugarcoating it. I wish Grantland would hire me, it’s by far the best new website of the year.

You know the mysterious “bandwidth” that is 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and phone calls? Where exactly is all this data at? Are we completely engulfed in invisible data at all times? I think we are, and I’m pretty sure in 50 years we’ll realize that there were some unforeseen side-effects.

That’s all for now. Expect more of the same tomorrow. Or it could be completely different. Either way, come back and expect to have your mind blown. You should also be prepared for your expectations to not be met and to once again leave feeling disappointed and a little bit dead inside. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

Yeah, so today is Monday and I didn’t do an op-ed piece Friday, my bad. Look, I was tired…okay? My work schedule was all types of effed up last week, and it made things difficult for me. That doesn’t mean that today’s post is that editorial, because it’s not. What it is, are a few rambling thoughts on the two biggest events last week: the return of Reflection Eternal and the departure of Lost. In fact, we’re gonna call this segment, The GP Review, just because I can bitch!

First things first, Reflection Eternal is shitting on every hip-hop album to come out in a long time. It is seriously that good. In case you’ve been asleep for the past decade and a half, Reflection Eternal is Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek. Their first album, Train of Thought, is a classic you need to own. I’m not even going to get started on the massive amount of win that is Blackstar, which was Kweli, Mos Def & Hi-Tek, because I’m assuming you know of that glory. Anyway, their latest, Revolutions Per Minute, is absolutely crazy. The second track “City Playgrounds” has to be my favorite; Kweli’s lyricism combined with Hi-Teks beats are a gift for the ears. Basically, I’m saying get this Album of the Year nominee at all costs, you won’t regret it.

Lost is gone. It’s all over. The best show ever not called The Wire is no more. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who has yet to see it, but I thought it lived up to grand expectations. We got answers, they left some questions, and it didn’t piss me off at the end. Here’s where I share too much with you guys, a tear or two may have developed while watching it. What?! Don’t sleep, you know the bit with Charlie was nice as hell to see. The best thing of all to me had to be us seeing Rose and Bernard again. I was beginning to think the writers had forgotten about them, thankfully I was wrong. I plan on doing a more in-depth piece on Lost sometime soon and will talk more about the finale then. I still can’t believe it’s gone, but I’m glad they ended before they ruined an amazing six year journey.

Today’s lesson in hip-hop is brought to you by The Legendary Roots Crew. The “hardest working band in hip-hop” are getting set to drop How I Got Over on June 22. The first single “dear god 2.0″ has been leaked and you can listen to it below. It’s fire, don’t worry. I’m sad to say, I slept on The Roots, and Black Thought especially, for too long, dude’s definitely one of the best in the game. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

Before I get into the news, I want to make an important announcement. The GP now has an official Twitter feed @tweetthereview. Myself, Mrs. Mike and perhaps another friend of GP will review offerings from popular movies, music, games, or TV shows using only the 140 characters Twitter gives us. The way we see it, if you can’t be told whether something is worth your time in 140 keystrokes or less, you should go ahead and give up. Mrs. Mike aka Webmaster Extraordinaire Razzle Stylee should be incorporating the feed into GP very soon, but until then go ahead and follow us using the link above. You should also go ahead and tell everyone you’ve ever met to follow us, especially if they want to be some of the first fans of what will surely turn in to the most BA fucking Twitter feed of all time!!!

I’m sure you all may know this already, but I’m a pirate. I’m actually really good at being a pirate, and I have almost no morality issues with that fact. The only time I’ve felt bad about my propensity for a bit of Jack Sparrowing has been when Comcast sent me an email telling me I’ve been a naughty boy. Fuck Comcast though! I’m not going to make the same argument of “movie prices too high, cd’s too costly, games too wallet draining” or any of the other shit people talk to justify their reason for downloading “The Complete 7th Season of Little House on the Prairie.” I either pirate something because I missed an episode (The Office usually), a movie will be too difficult for me to see (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), or because I think it’s fun (pretty much everything else).

I can probably afford to pay for about anything I rip, but it’s unnecessary. I mean, all I have to do is visit The Bay or The Green Monster if I want something I don’t have. Sure, it may be “wrong”, but so is driving 40 in a 35. Anyway, it looks like them devils in Hollywood have briefly won another battle against Jack Sparrow superheroes, The Pirate Bay. I’m not even gonna lie, the dudes behind TPB are like my fucking heroes. Hollywood has been trying to shut them down for years, and it never works. I read an article awhile back saying the founders of the site like live in a Thailand jungle or some shit!!

I don’t think it matters that The Bay has temporarily shut down due to Hollywood using an injunction to threaten their service provider. The guys behind the torrent site to rule all torrent sites have fought “the system” many times before, and they’re still standing. I’ll have more news on this as the case goes on, but I’d expect they’ll have their backups running again soon.

In the meantime, today’s lesson in hip-hop comes to you courtesy of the one and only Mos Def. Dante spits hot fire about the oil catastrophe in the Gulf at a benefit concert in New Orleans. The Mighty Mos is so fucking ill, and anytime he drops something new it’s definitely worth listening to. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

Right about now you may be asking yourself, “Did Mike just invoke the spirit of Montell Jordan?” Fuck yes I did!! I may be a day late with this, but it’s official now; Geeky Popular is back with a great vengeance and furious anger. Okay, maybe not so much on the whole anger thing, but whatever.

Now, what the hell was with that lengthy absence? Basically, it all comes down to me being lame…and busy. I was also not too keen on the direction I was taking with GP. For some reason I got it in my head that I needed to focus and write in a specific way about specific topics. I guess maybe I figured people wouldn’t read a blog that talked about ALL the shit that I’m into. The problem was, when I prescribed ADD medicine to GP, it wasn’t fun anymore. The site turned into a kid that used to be all kinds of fun to watch because you never knew what sort of trouble he was going to get into, only now he just stood there in the corner being lame as shit. In other words, I didn’t like the direction so I chose to ignore the problem the way I ignore gingers.

You may be wondering if I have an answer for the problem? Let me answer your question with a question of my own: do the writers from Lost have any idea what the hell is going on in that show? The answer to both questions is an emphatic, and hopeful, yes. I’m going back to my roots y’all, and this shit’s about to get real!

Geeky Popular is still going to be a blog that is mainly about gadgets and other tech news. However, it’s going to be more than that. I love pop culture the way Tom Cruise loves Xenu, so believe that it’s going to be prevalent around here. That means movies, books, music (mainly hip-hop because it’s the only music that matters), celebrities (mainly the ones I hate because they’re the only ones worth talking about), and pretty much all the other things that go through my head.

What does this mean to you as a reader and me as a writer? Ahh, now that’s the meat and potatoes of it all, innit? What it means for me is that Geeky Popular is going to be exactly what I want it to be. It means that I’m not going to restrain myself, because I don’t have to. That freedom will hopefully prove vital in my quest to become a BadAss and prolific writer. As a reader, it’s pretty simple, you’re going to get to read the best writing I’m capable of. It means you’re going to be able to watch me grow. And, hopefully, it means you’re going to enjoy watching the process of me.

I wanted to write up the latest version of the ever-changing GP manifesto yesterday, and get back to regular posting today; we obviously know how that went. That means that tomorrow I’ll start back with the regular posts on news and other shit. But, I wouldn’t leave you completely empty handed, would I? Of course I wouldn’t.

I’m gonna leave you with one of the most BA videos of all time, This Is How We Do It. I also want to put you all on to one of the sickest mixtapes I’ve heard in a minute. STS aka Sugar Tongue Slim is a fucking ridiculous MC out of Atlanta. His newest mixtape, Demand More 2, is a classic that you need to rock. The fifth track on the tape, I Am The “A”, will no doubt be a summer anthem. I’m just sayin’, don’t sleep on this mixtape, it’s stupid good! You’ll find the link for the download below, and new jack swing goodness right below that. Enjoy, and stay thirsty my friends.

Download STS – Demand More 2 (mixtape) via 2dopeboyz.