The late Mac Dre (RIP) recorded a few episodes of Treal TV before he was shot to death in 2004. The show is surprisingly well shot and edited, not to mention treal entertaining. Join your host, Thizelle Washington, for daredevil stunts, brawls, show footage and so much more. Yadadamean?

Drinking seems to be an integral part of the college experience. From NYU over to UCSD, down to A & M, all the way up to U of M and everywhere in between, these kids like booze. But leisurely sipping is rarely enough to quench the thirst of most scholars. An entire culture of games, apparatuses and even folklore surrounds the age old tradition of getting plastered on campus. Students do keg stands, compete in case races and boat races, challenge each other to tippy cup, flippy cup, king’s cup, Beirut and beer pong and use beer bongs. Much like binge drinking’s less belligerent brother – pot smoking – college students become Nobel Prize worthy inventors when it comes to dreaming up ways of getting mind-altering substances into their bodies. One of the more ambitious products we’ve stumbled across is the Shotgun Party beer opener, simply titled the Shotgun.
    For those of you who are unfamiliar with the practice of shotgunning a can of beer, let us explain. The art was born out of the question, “How can I get the beer inside of this can into my stomach in the shortest amount of time?” The first step, while holding the can on its side, is to puncture a hole in the lower portion of the can. While the hole is often made using keys, the Shotgun opener facilitates the process by resting on the bottom lip of the can and quickly making  a hole that has no sharp edges. The shotgunner then says some form of cheer, puts their lips to the hole and opens the can the old fashioned way, at the top. Science says that air must fill space in the can the liquid was once occupying. So by opening the top and drinking from the  bottom, one can chug as fast as gravity will allow.
    One intern took a trip to Notre Dame recently (they drink a little over there) in search of a few brew enthusiasts to try the Shotgun out. After a long night of partying, it looked as though the gadget wasn’t going to get tested. That is, until the faint jingle of keys was heard. “Wait!” the intern pleaded. “Try this.” The Shotgun was a success. For all of the avid drinkers who have a need for speed, pick up a few Shotgun openers at  www.shotgunparty.com.

Glowlab filled us in on the Conflux festival, something worth dropping in on. Conflux describes itself as, "the annual NYC festival for contemporary
psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban
adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city
life into practice on the streets." It runs from Thursday, September 14th to Sunday the 17th and plays out mostly in BK. Learn more about this metropalooza at www.confluxfestival.org

We spent a few days with Mr. Barnstormer himself, David "Skwerm" Ellis. He’s been prepping his truck for the 2006 Art Parade. The event starts this Saturday at 4 P.M. and begins on Houston. It will move
South on West Bway and end on Grand. If the rest of the floats are anything like Skwerm’s truck, we wouldn’t recommend missing this.

May we recommend Sonatine? This minimalist Japanese gangster flick was shot back in ‘93. You’ll recognize the movie’s writer/ director/ leading actor Takeshi Kitano as Kenny Blankenship of Spike TV’s "Most Extreme Elemination Challenge" (MXC). The film portrays a group of Yakuza that take to the beach for a much needed vacation when things get a little too serious on the streets. Pack your sandals and a gun, this one gets hot.

Some dusty dusty footage of two prominent Wu Tang Clansmen rocking a talent show. Watch the language.

Some comforting words for those who are compelled to tell.

A warning for those with an itch to snitch.

The History of Labor
Day, as told on www.dol.gov

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it
Means

"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other
holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime
president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a
more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over
man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one
nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no
sect, race, or nation."

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of
the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of
American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions
workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance,
there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary
of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American
Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from
rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone
unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter
McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention
that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International
Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while
serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is
that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a
committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday,
September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the
Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday
just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the
holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar
organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a
"workingmen’s holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor
organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers
of the country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to
Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances
passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state
legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature,
but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During
the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New
York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end
of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By
1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June
28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of
each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day
should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street
parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade
and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the
recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the
pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women
were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic
significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American
Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was
adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects
of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a
change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass
displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more
a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading
union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials
are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest
standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has
brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and
political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute
on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and
leadership — the American worker.