Movie Snacks

Day 4 Monday 1/11/10

After engaging in the oaksterdam activies and that long bike ride across the Golden Gate, we decided to keep it light. We hit up Bay Street, to watch the movie Daybreakers. The million dollar question for the night was, what is your favorite movie snack? Here is the list of my top 10 in no particular order;

1. Chocolate covered raisins
2. milk duds
3. twizzlers
4. skittles
5. nachos
6. pretzels
7. sweet tarts
8. peanut M&Ms
9. starbust
10.reese's pieces

Ruff Riders

Day 3 Sunday 1/10/10

So one of the things to do on my list was to ride a bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. So we hit up Blazing Saddles (http://blazingsaddles.com), located at Pier 41 in Fisherman's Wharf. We rented some mountain bikes and preceded to bike the 8 miles ride. The along the bike route you can see, Fort Mason with its vistas of Alcatraz, Fort Point to check out the surfers, and then you reach the 1.7 mile ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. The end of the bridge takes you into Vist Point then you will ride into Sausalito aka the sauce. To get to Sausalito we took a hill so steep that riding down it will make you feel free as a bird. As nice as that sounds after a long bike ride, there is always a catch, whenever there is a nice down hill on a bike path, most likely there is a nasty up hill. Sure enough we hit it and at that point three of us walked our bikes up. We got into Sausalito and got something to eat. The town was filled with shops, restaurants, and art galleries. I wanted to take the bike ride back but unfortunately it was too dark, so took the fairy back. If you arrive after 5:30 PM the fairy drops you off at Pier 39 where you have to bike a few more miles to Hyde St to return the bikes. I highly recommend doing this if your ever in SF.

The Wharf

 Day 2 Saturday 1/09/10

My first stop in San Fran was Fisherman’s Wharf located near the San Francisco bay. It kind of reminds me south street seaport in New York City. It’s a long strip with plenty of shops, restaurants and attractions. There is Alcatraz, bay cruises, or the seal lions at pier 39. And just like in NYC there are street acts everywhere, from break dancers to cartoon artists, and even a guy who hides behind a bush and tries to scar people. There is even a bum who is keeping it real by holding a sign that reads need $ 4 weed. We went to the Fisherman’s Grotto first. We ordered some clam chowder served in a bread bowl, fried shrimp, and calamari. The food was excellent so we decided to walk it off and head towards the Boudin Bakery. They take sourdough bread and bake them into all types of different shapes. After the bakery we tried to catch the seals at pier 39, but it was too dark to see them.

The Town aka the Savage aka Oakland

Day 1 Friday 1/08/10

Got to the EWR at 5:00AM. The line was long but was moving, when someone directed me to the self-check out. I got my boarding pass and proceeded to security. After the recent attempted airplane bombing, security is now tight. We already had to remove belts, shoes, laptops, but now they request you to remove sweatshirts and hoodies. Before you know it the airports are going to look like Frank Lucas’s apartment in American Gangster. It’s now 5:39 AM and I’m starving, so I got a bagel then boarded the plane. When I got on the plane I was surprised it was not that full and for a minute thought I was about to get a whole row to myself. Turns out I was wrong, but did have one empty seat next to me. I Arrived in SFO at 10:00 AM and waited for my ride from the airport to Oakland. Oakland is home of the Warriors, Raiders, and Athletics. It’s also known for the hyphy movement, Oaksterdamn, Oaksterdamn University, and the Paramount Theatre. To get there we had to take the Bay Bridge, which crosses over the Bay Channel, towards downtown Oakland. I stayed with some friends, Romeo, Tsuki, and Erica on telegraph “do the math” ave. The apartment is attached to a nail salon, and it's located right next to mortuary. The city has Newark, New Jersey type feel, with less urban decay. It was still early and after a long flight I was hungry. We hit up this Japanese restaurant called Samurai Sushi Boat. They told me that there is a wide selection of sushi and the food is delivered about every two days, so it tastes fresh. They also have a nice sushi bar that is surrounded by a mini motto that has floating sushi boats. Everything looked good on the menu but I went with miso soup and the raider roll. The roll consists of tobik, unagi, avocado, and crab. When the soup came we didn’t get spoons right away. My friend Romeo started drinking from his bowl, but Tsuki, wasn’t. I was a little bit confused. I thought that maybe they served soup without spoons, but Romeo answered that for me after Tsuki started looking for her spoon. He logically and metaphorical said, did samurais use spoons? I couldn't argue with that, so I drank the soup right out the bowl and housed the raider roll like a samurai who just killed a dozen ninjas. What a way to start my trip, good company, good food, and good conversation.

Hello World

After years of being a DJ, countless motivational talks, and endless ball busting, I finally have the testicular fortitude to get my blog on. There are so many things that I could talk about, but first thing is first… allow me to reintroduce myself… the name is Mark Anthony Laqui aka DJ Lingo of the iRT crew. I’ve been in the DJ game since 1996 (first single I bought on vinyl, Jay-Z’s Dead Presidents). I grew up in T-neck, NJ, which is known for its diversity, and I’ve always loved good music; I was that dude who had the radio in school or in town blasting the new tunes. It wasn’t until I saw the movie Juice, that I decided that I wanted to be a DJ. So I saved up what I could, went down to Your Beat (a former record store in Englewood, NJ), and copped some wax. I went through endless DJ names like SNAFU or DJ Mark, but felt like nothing stuck. So one day at Manhattan College, my homey Jake, was like your name should be DJ Lingo because of the way you talk. He said I had a unique way of talking and had my own slang. I started working with other DJs around the neighborhood and linked up with DJ OnPoynt to form P-Noise (get it Pinoys), Vinyl Method (DJs Reason & JonyFraze) , DJ Kurt Kryptoknight, DJ Cuekut & DJ Swerve. Later I linked up with DJ Rik Guyver (Rik Cordero) at Manhattan College where we all decided to join forces and created iRT (interboro Rhythmik Turntablists) So here we all are doing our thing years later. It’s time to embark on an historic journey starting right now....