East Village to Brooklyn

Last week it was widely reported that various intelligence seems to suggest North Korea may test a long-range missile some time soon, possibly on the Fourth of July, with Hawaii as the intended target. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been pretty vague about the intelligence, as according to the WSJ he has admitted that “the U.S. had ‘seen some signs’ that North Korea was preparing to launch a long-range missile. But he cautioned, that ‘at this point, its not clear what they’re going to do.'” Despite this uncertainty and the skepticism voiced by many analysts’ that North Korea would even be able to send a missile on the 4500 mile journey from Pyongyang to Hawaii, steps are being taken to prepare for any possible attack, such as “positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean,” affectionately(?)/commonly known as the “golf ball,” and deploying antimissile interceptors to the area.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I think I might be concerned about this if I lived in Hawaii. Contrary to this gut-reaction, however, today both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal posted articles online with interviews of local residents that leave an impression of a general indifference towards the potential threat. The sentiment is nicely summed up in a quote from a Mr. Gerald Aikau in the Times piece: “What are you going to do? … You are going to go sometime, whether it’s on a wave, or a missile, or your buddy knocking you down and you hit your head.”

Well Mr. Aikau, I don’t know that I would share in your non-chalance. Aren’t missiles kind of a big deal? I can sort of understand since, hey you’re the in the middle of the ocean and there isn’t exactly a highway to the mainland, but still.

One thing we can be sure about is that Kanye West still thinks of HIMSELF as a big deal, and today marked the online premiere of a new video from Virgina Beach hip hop duo Clipse for “Kinda Like a Big Deal” that features a pretty killer verse from Kanyeezy. Clipse, the brothers Malice and Pusha T, although relatively well known in the industry for past efforts, are looking to finally break through to the mainstream with this one from their third LP Till the Casket Drops, scheduled (for now) to be released sometime this September.

Clipse ft. Kanye West – Kinda Like a Big Deal:

-Drew