Nerds in Luxury Gets Quarantined

The Nerds in Luxury Podcast is hunkered down.  Veronica Zee and Mister Wise are podcasting their way through the pandemic, and while Sosa, Ceedro and Montaego aren’t in the studio, they are each joining remotely to provide their insights and observations.  Let’s share a few laughs and some digital hugs. Subscribe for free on your favorite platform.  Visit NerdsInLuxury.Com for more details.

Video: “The Man of Orange” by Mister Wise

This is a PSA from Team Demo’s, Mister Wise. We make no copyright claims to any of the images in this video.

Nerds in Luxury Podcast: Episode 5

Episode 5 is now live on NerdsInLuxury.com and you can subscribe to it on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. It’s free entertainment! Have some fun with us.

We’re taking next week off for the holiday. Please recommend the podcast to your family members over your dinner of beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, rams, hogs, dogs, beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, chicken, turkey, rabbit YOU NAME IT!

The Podcast! Episode V 

 A Piss Poor Example of an Interracial Relationship, Dave Chappelle on SNL, “The African-Americans”, Starbucks: The Centre of American Politics, That Safety Pin Means Nothing

Also, Word of the Day! with Ceedro, Situations with Sosa, Moments with Montaego

The Not So Great Communicator

Donald Trump’s lack of eloquence and thin vocabulary have been well documented. His off the cuff speaking style combined with his minimal command of the English language, often create a word salad that is a nightmare for a journalist to quote; and it leaves those consuming it with the difficult task of attempting to find the ACTUAL meaning behind his utterances. In my many conversations with his supporters, I have often quoted some of the outrageous things he has said, only to receive a response of, or similar to, “well, that’s not what he meant,” or “it was a poor choice of words.” I have tried to find out exactly how these individuals discovered Trump’s “true meanings” behind his statements, but no one has revealed this magic to me, and it is clear that Trump’s inability to properly articulate his thoughts and positions has less to do with a poor choice of words and much more with just not having that many choices.

Trump seems to only have access to a handful of adjectives. He has one small pile of words for good things, and one pile for the bad. His go-to bad words are often “terrible” or “awful.” Sometimes, he keeps it REALLY simple and just uses words like, “bad” or “sad.” His good words are loaded with hyperbolic exaggeration – words such as “huge” and “amazing” are often thrown around for anything but. On Sunday, he stated that “incredible meetings” would be bringing “incredible people” to the government. It reads like it was uttered by a person still grappling with English as a second language.

The definition of incredible is: impossible or extremely difficult to believe. Is it possible that Donald Trump is in disbelief with how well his meetings went? Did he have difficulty believing that people like Mitt Romney and Rick Perry actually exist? Is there no one on Trump’s transition team who can slip him a few more positive adjectives that he could use to impart a little nuance and recognition of the seriousness of the task he is presently undertaking? Is there no one on Trump’s transition team who can whisper in Trump’s ear that the word “incredible” is less suited for describing a routine meeting and more for a one-handed catch while falling out of bounds in a football game or better yet, a firefighter racing into a burning building to save the life of an infant child?

Ronald Reagan was known as “the great communicator.” Donald Trump is a verbal weakling who is about to take a job where every single one of his poorly chosen and limited words will be parsed and interpreted by people, governments and markets all over the world. Perhaps the most important hires Donald Trump will make during this transition, will be his speech writers. They will have the monstrous task of polishing this turd every single day, all the while knowing that they could prepare the perfect script, but the ego of the performer could rip it to pieces in front of the entire world. I can foresee many scenarios where Donald Trump’s lack of eloquence will be front and center. Some are amusing. Some are embarrassing. Some are downright terrifying.

While I’m certain Trump’s meetings this past weekend were far from, “incredible,” I have no issue using that word to describe his rise to power and the level of stupidity, hubris and insecurity we saw from him in the first week of his transition. It is common for the White House to employ foreign language interpreters. Perhaps for this president, they should consider one for English.

New Single: “The Asylum” by Mister Wise

Turn off the 24 hour news networks for a few minutes and listen to “The Asylum,” by Mister Wise

Team Demo founder and super-producer/ engineer, Mister Wise returns with witty commentary on the state of journalism and mass media over a swinging jazzy groove.

Try to Imagine…

I am white. My wife is black. I have black in-laws, black nephews, black nieces and black cousins. I quietly fear for them every day. I’ve seen FIRST HAND how drastically different an encounter with police can be when I am in the company of black people, versus by myself or with other white people. I’ve been pulled out of a car with my black friends and asked if I was there, “against my will.” I’ve had officers look me in the face and say, “so you think you’re black huh?” As a teenager, I was pulled over while with my black friends and photographed and strip searched next to our car because they said we “looked like gang members.” I’ve had an officer go through my bag, find my lyric book and then demand that I rap for him – “you’re a rapper so rap for me!” I’ve felt the fear, anger and humiliation. For all I know, me being white and being present in those situations may have been the only reason things didn’t turn out much worse for my companions.

Later in life, I moved to a jurisdiction with a well-respected, well-funded, well-trained and professional police department; and for the most part, my encounters with those officers have been very positive (although they did have my studio under surveillance for quite some time until one day they entered my premises without a warrant and discovered it was operated by a white guy with a business license and a firm understanding of the law. No problems since.)

I say all of that to say this…

If you are white, try to imagine being rightfully told all your life by the people you love, that the people supposedly there to protect you, could very well be a threat to you. Imagine hearing the stories of police brutality from friends, family, parents and grandparents. Imagine being told that it doesn’t matter if you did anything wrong. Imagine being expected, without training or experience in such matters, to behave and manage an encounter BETTER than those confronting you who have been trained to do so. Imagine “the talk” – not the one you got about the birds and bees, but the one about what you should do when you run into a prejudiced hothead wearing a badge and gun with an axe to grind. Try to imagine this in your culture. Try to imagine seeing the police as an occupying force in your community as opposed to “heroes” and “first responders.” This is the reality in places all across the United States.

I am a rational, reasonable man with an above average IQ. When I try to imagine getting THAT phone call from one of my family members… When I try to imagine the total grief and unabashed anger I would have towards the police officers who decided it was better to shoot and kill my loved one rather than respect his or her life and liberty as they do their own, I literally shudder. It would take every fiber within my rational mind to restrain myself from picking up my pistol and heading out to find the sons of bitches who murdered my family member. I’m not sure I would be capable of restraining myself.

So as we all watch the footage of yet another unarmed father, gunned down for apparently no other reason than looking “scary,” resist the urge to defend the police from your place of privilege. Resist the urge to tell us that “all lives matter” in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Just shut the fuck up, close your eyes, and try to imagine. Try to imagine you got that phone call. Try to imagine you just watched someone you love get shot to death on Facebook. Try to imagine the people who did it are now being paid to sit at home for a while. Then try to imagine countless people who know NOTHING of the experiences I outlined above, playing Monday morning quarterback with the murder of your family member. Still want to weigh in? I hope not. #blacklivesmatter

Please Support and Share the Mister Wise “I Can’t Figure You Out” Video

My music video for “I Can’t Figure You Out,” from my EP, “The Way of the Doh Doh,” has been spreading  around the web.  Despite a minor hiccup last week when one of our promoters apparently used a bot to add views (prompting YouTube to pull the link,) promotion and support for the video have continued to be awesome!  It has now been exactly one month since the debut of the video and I need an additional push from my supporters, fans and friends more than ever. Here is a simple thing you can do to help.

Below is a list of public web sites where the video has been featured. There have been quite a few private networks as well, but we can let them talk amongst themselves 🙂  Please show support for these sites that have supported me by visiting the respective video pages.  Visit as many as you can (it won’t take long.) Once you are there, give the video a view but more importantly, use the “share” links on each page to share/ like the video on your Twitter, Facebook, Email and other social media sites you frequent.  This publicizes my video, but also the web sites who have supported it.  You probably won’t be able to leave any comments or ratings on the video without joining the sites themselves (which you are welcome to do if you are so inclined,) but we would certainly be grateful for comments and “likes” on the video’s YouTube Page, which pretty much anyone can do.  Thank you in advance, and remember, the EP is available for download on iTunes, Amazon and dozens of other sites where quality funky music can be purchased and/or streamed.

Video Links:

• Thisis50.Com
• VladTv.com
• DCMumboSauce.com
• The Industry Cosign
• Promo Palace
• Frequency.Com
• Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes
• Core DJ Radio
• Ground Up Radio
• Coda Grooves Ent
• The Real Tech Nine
• Nerve DJs
• Underground Music Awards
• MBL Entertainment
• Hot Spotz International
• I Luv Music
• United Music Union
• Team Bigga Rankin
• PaperChaser.com
• The Hustlafide Corner
• World Wrap Federation
• JenSocial.com
• Musician’s Home
• 718 Unlimited
• Desert Storm Radio
• New Muzik Today
• Hip Hop News 24-7
• Media Factory
• Hip Hop Inc
• Duskspot
• DJ Smoke Mixtapes
• Podomatic
• Raps and Hustles

I’m sure I’m missing a few so if you have posted my video on your site and you don’t see it on the list, shoot me a message and I will add you.  As for the rest of you, click click click.  Many thanks!!

Thoughts on the Government Shut Down

First and foremost… This is NOT one of those cases where we should be assigning blame to both parties equally.  The issue of the Affordable Care Act was settled four years ago when it was thoroughly debated and passed into law.  The president who supported it, was then convincingly re-elected.  No where in the Constitution does it say it is prudent for one party to shut down the government and use it as bargaining chip to repeal a law they don’t like.  If you don’t like a law, you repeal it through legislation…. Oh that’s right, you can’t because you don’t have adequate support to do so.  Funny how that works! The President SHOULD NOT negotiate with the Republican Party on this!  Doing so would validate this reckless and irresponsible tactic as legitimate.  The United States does not negotiate with terrorists, nor should it do so with people willing to risk our country’s well-being and good standing with our neighbors because they don’t like health care. Those who place political affiliation over country, are not patriots.

The Republican Party is fond of drawing analogies between the budget and economy of the United States and household finance.  These analogies do not follow because the American family does not collect taxes or print its own money.  The analogy is a red herring that ignores the realities of macro-economics and geo-politics.  However, just for fun, let’s use the GOP’s favorite comparison to demonstrate how asinine their entire shutdown tactic is.

Let’s say that we are a fine upstanding family in the community.  We are trusted by our neighbors and are seen as the perfect modern household.  Our credit rating is over 800.  Banks and lenders will give us whatever we need because we always pay them back.  In fact, they are willing to lend us money at such low-interest rates they are practically paying us to take it.  All because we are the safest bet in the neighborhood.  Sure we have plenty of debt, but we use it as leverage for growth and have an abundance of assets.

But then, times get a little tougher.  The twins are going off to college at the same time and Becky needs braces.  The mother has a splendid idea!  Let’s have a family discussion to determine how we handle the finances!  But instead of keeping it private, let’s open up the doors and windows and let all of the neighbors watch!  We will invite our creditors, the mortgage lenders, everyone!  Then we will openly discuss which bills we will pay on time and which ones we will stiff.  We will openly admit that we don’t have Becky’s allowance at the moment and in mid discussion, Dad will get drunk and give one of the boys a black eye, Mom will pull out a bag of cocaine and snort it in front of everyone, and Uncle Jerry will fondle Becky on the couch.

This is what we are doing as a country right now.  We are broadcasting to the world that we are a mess and should not be trusted.

As if the Republican Party’s hypocrisy knew any bounds, they overwhelmingly passed a bill in the House a few days ago that would guarantee all furloughed Federal employees receive the back pay from the time they were out of work during the shut down (once the government has re-opened.)  Pretty nice of them huh?  Until you consider that this is the party obsessed with the size of government and what they see as reckless spending, yet they are willing to shut down the government, send thousands of workers home and then STILL pay them what they would have been paid had the government been open and they had been working.  The party of “fiscal responsibility,” is willing to pay thousands of people to sit at home and get NO PRODUCTIVITY in return for the money, just so they can have a temper tantrum.  What a crock of shit! Let them stew in it.

Pre-Order “The Way of the Doh Doh” EP by Mister Wise

My new single, “I Can’t Figure You Out,” is now making its way through promotional circulation, but you can get it now by pre-ordering the EP from our label store page.  Just put down the $4 for the EP, and you can immediately download, “I Can’t Figure You Out.” Then, when “The Way of the Doh Doh” EP drops on September 17th, you will receive an e-mail to download the full project.  Many thanks and enjoy!

Preview the New Single from Mister Wise – “I Can’t Figure You Out”