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This summer season is highlighted by the return of the Fedora. Classically entrenched in movie lore, the fedora was often symbolic of a Sinatra-Esque steez. Paul Newman & James Dean also highlight great actors to be seen in a fedora, and more recently the interest has been reinvigorated by music icon Justin Timberlake.

The photograph above is from ROOT’s recent Weekend Summer Style Collection. It is actually made from 100% paper (weird)

They also came out with the new Vintage Tribe Leather backpack, accented with an individual country’s flag. I’ve seen Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, China, Italy, France, Jamaica, and Great Britain. They also offer a plain Vintage Tribe Leather. Definitely a hot item, and the leather only gets softer and richer with time.

Clark’s Desert Boot are also in style, highlighted in Gap and Club Monaco lookbooks. This classically styled boot has been around since the 1950′s, and has kept its original two eyelet style and crepe sole. Comes in a variety of colours, almost 13 alternatives, and they range from leather to suede.

Finally, American Apparel has brought back the unisex Bow-Tie and dress shirt combo. Andre 3000 and D-Wade have probably rock it best from all the celebs I’ve seen to date.

So I’ve finally graduated school, moved home, and in process of finding a full-time job. But I have a lot of free time on my hands so I can finally blog. I thought I’d tackle a long time issue of mine: LeBron James.

The Associated Press released an article today announcing that LeBron will win his 2nd consecutive MVP as voted by a panel of Sport’s Writer’s and broadcasters across the United States and Canada.

Do I currently believe LeBron is the best player in the NBA? Hmm tough to say. I’ll have to come back to that later but as most people who know me already understand, I am a very big Kobe Bryant/Laker fan, so this may be cause to some bias in the hesitation of my answer. Los Angeles  is one of the most historic franchises, second only to the Boston Celtics (that’s debatable) and as for Kobe, I mean the guy has 4 championship’s and may be on the verge of  repeating for a 5th. He’s won a couple of scoring titles, he’s won a final’s MVP, a few NBA all-star MVP’s. I mean Kobe is an established player but is he playing as the best player in the NBA right now? I don’t think so. But does he have the ability to turn it on any given night? 100%. Do people really think that players and coaches who play against LA go into a game saying “Oh Kobe’s had some off nights, our game plan then will be to focus our defensive effort on another player”? Hell no.

To see why he’s not playing his best you really have to take into account how much basketball Kobe’s played in the last year or few years combined. He played all 82 games for the 07-08 and 08-09 campaign. In those two season’s he went all the way to the finals both times (that means at least an extra 16 games per season, not to mention the ones that went longer than a 4 game series) and came out with the championship in one of them. in between the 07-08 and 08-09 he also played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and won a Gold. Meaning he played every game up until the finals, which roughly adds up to about another 8 games.

But all this info doesn’t take away from the fact after much consideration, LeBron is currently the best player in the NBA. I mean the guy is a monster. He can play almost every position with the exception of center and has developed into a solid all around player. He slashes, he finds the open man on a double team, plays solid defense, he can post up, hit the trey, he a great trailing defender as well, blocks A LOT of shots, and as Marv Albert said, he has “no regard for human life” at the rim. I mean the guy averaged 29.7-7.3-8.6. That’s disgusting. He also has his team buying into the “LeBron James mentality”.

The LBJ mentality is probably one of two things that really bother’s me about him. The dancing? Stupid.  I mean it’s funny if you really think about it but also pretty disrespectful, especially when you’re up about 15. For a guy who walked out on shaking hands when they lost flat out to Orlando the previous year, and who understand how lame poor sportsmanship is, dancing at a losing teams expense is probably the dumbest thing you can do. If Howard would have done it last year, how do you think LBJ would’ve reacted? I’ve also noticed that whenever LBJ get’s upset about a call, the ENTIRE team starts lippin the refs. I mean the ENTIRE team.  Don’t believe me? Watch for it in the next playoff game.

The other thing that bother’s me is how great he is but people say he has a poor supporting cast, thus he is the only one to thank for their 61 win season? Say what? Mo Williams? All star last year. Shaq? All star. Antwan Jamison? All star. Leon Powe? Champion 2008. Zydrunas Ilgauskas? 2 time All star. Anthony Parker? Was a Euro League Champion multiple times and MVP (Ya Euroleague is poo, so what?). Delonte West, JJ Hickson, Daniel Gibson, the Goofy Varejao? All decent to pretty good players. If I can admit LBJ is good, you guys can admit his team isn’t shit, in fact he has a pretty solid team.

The whole issue now is can LeBron secure a championship. A lot of people are saying this is his year. BUT, LeBron and co. will have to be flat out Beast Mode to get out of the East. While they got through an easy first round, against a team that shouldn’t even been there (ahem, Raptors), they have a tough road ahead (and please don’t compare the Cav’s victories over the Bulls to the Lakers stumble with the Thunder, the Bulls are definitely NOT the Thunder). Their next opponent is the Celtics, who are finally clicking on all cylinders and the Cavs don’t really match up all THAT well against them. It’ll come down to the Pierce vs. LeBron Show. Also some key factors include Ray Allen’s ability to continue to hit the 3 in the clutch and how solid Garnett’s knee is. I’ll pick Cleveland in 6, maybe (a low percentage maybe) 7. But after a tough series  grind with the Celtics will they have it in the tank to take on the Magic who will seemingly have an easier road against the winner of the Bucks/Hawks. I think LBJ will have the juice but the rest of the cast is suspect.

So, does LeBron deserve to win the MVP? I think so. Will he win it again next year? Probably. But, will he make it out of this season as a champion? Doubtful. I’m picking the Laker’s with the repeat, but my dream would be to see it over the Cav’s in the finals. Last year LBJ disappointed me, I can only hope he comes through in clutch in the present season. Maybe I will be a witness, but until he win’s a championship my verdict on how good LeBron James is, is still out.

Some High-Res Photo’s of The Sun released by NASA

Via Lash

Thank You Western.

The 10th Anniversary Mashup with Atmos.

Atmos doing biiiiiiiiig things.

The only thing getting me through exams.

Drake – Over

Off Drizzy’s new album Thank Me Later

Snoop Dogg ft. Kid Cudi – That Tree

D O P E Track about “Trees”. Via Lash.

Weezy! – Single

Waiting for the Greatest to get out.