Watching Squawk Box yesterday I saw that the new Iphone comes with a fingerprint scanner.
Huh?
People are going to give up their fingerprints, just like that?
I did a little search online to see if there was any outrage over this. It looks like there is none. In fact, it looks like people are all excited about this and how “cool” it is.
First off, nothing about a cell phone is “cool”. Second, you are a straight up idiot to give away your fingerprint information.
Senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phillip Schiller called it “an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your phone with just the touch of a finger.”
Yeah, because it is so hard to press “on” without getting your (Continue reading…)
I am out of the country for the summer, but I just got the call; The 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach was robbed. Cleaned out. Heisted.
Devastating news, as I am a member of The Gym and love that place more than anything. The stole all the equipment, photos, belts, hell, they even took the ring. It looks like the only thing left is the pull up bar and arm straps for hanging crunches. And the recently moved jump rope rack.
I can’t even imagine who would want all that stuff (except the photos) with all the blood, sweat and Dino’s dogs hair all over the place. Hell, there is some of my blood in that place. And for sure a bunch of my snot and saliva.
I am also amazed how they pulled this off. I mean hell, it is on the (Continue reading…)
Back before the Economic Crash (BEC), I was rolling down the street in Downtown San Diego going to say “what up” to one of my lawyers. He is also a good friend.
Anyways, I am rolling down the street, Custom Suited Down, smoking a grit, minding my own biz, when a cop car screeches and pulls up to the curb, hand on gun and yells, “Stop Right There!”.
I stop and think to myself, “What the hell is this about? I haven’t been on the Wessyde in 6 months.” Although it literally could be about a host of reasons.
So the cop, starts interrogating me:
“What is your name?” Michael Mason.
“Let me see your ID.” Hand it to him.
“What are you doing?” Going to see my attorney.
etc etc etc
Finally, after 15 minutes of this stuff, he says:
“Damn. I thought you were one of the Arellano Felix guys”, his voice drenched with disappointment.
Basically homeboy thought he had the collar of his career.
He finally let me go.
When I got to my attorney’s office, I relayed him the story.
My attorney friend says, “Really? Yeah, I have been meaning to tell you. Last time I was is Mexico surfing, there were tons of ‘Wanted Posters’ of this cat that looked exactly like you.”
It turns out that there was this young Arellano Felix lieutenant cat, know as “El Guapo” that was wanted by the authorities.
He was known as a reckless smuggler/killer that was dating some Miss Mexico or something.
I guess soon after, he was gunned down, and I haven’t had that “case of mistaken identity” thing happen since.
Alright. Stop what your doing, because I’m about to ruin the image and style that your used to.
It is time again for The G Manifesto “Best of 2011” Awards.
Once again, these Awards are places or things that I have been to or experienced in 2011. So don’t get itchy if your local dive bar in Denver or favorite P.F. Wang’s in Poughkeepsie didn’t make the list.
Here are the rest of the Best of 2011, G Manifesto Awards:
Best International Nightlife City: Montreal, Canada. I am in love with this city. I am not sure of too many things, but this I am sure of: I will spend at least two months this summer in Montreal. Honestly, I think I can swoop a fly girl 8 out of 10 nights I go out there. It is probably closer to 10 out of 10, but I don’t want to sound like I am bragging. I almost slit my wrists for not coming sooner.
Honorable Mentions:New York City. I had too much success there in 2011 to leave it out.
Most Overrated US Nightlife City:Los Angeles. California has become a Police State, and Wessyde nightlife has gone down the tubes with it. California nightlife needs a whole new start like a person with a severed arm needs a tourniquet and a shot of tequila.
Best US Nightlife District: Brickell, Miami. Quality of girl is off the charts.
Best US Restaurant for Fly Girls:Cipriani’s. No single restaurant in America holds as many stunners.
Best International Nightclub:Andre Carne de Res, Bogota. I don’t get impressed by nightclubs any more. Well, that’s until I stepped into Andre Carne de Res in Bogota. Place is sicker than a cancer victim.
Best High-Action City:Abidjan , Ivory Coast. It went off the rope earlier this year. I hit a decent Cocoa trade playing the political takeover as well. To be frank though, the time I spent on the horn and researching that trade, it wasn’t that great.
Best Day Game City: Miami Beach. Lincoln road. No question.
Best Beach: El Sardinero, Santander, Spain is more breathtaking than northern California’s coastline. And more striking than La Jolla, California.
Best International Restaurant:La Taberna del Gourmet, Alicante, Spain. The food is so good it made old E-tab and Cocaine buzzes hit me. Seriously, my nose got sweaty while dining here. Ate here three nights straight at one point.
Honorable Mention: Toque and Au Pied Du Cuchon, Montreal. Both these restaurants are straight crack.
Best Trade: The Silver trade. I rode the silver miners up and sold out earlier in the year. And unbelieveably sold out of my paper silver near the top. Super lucky. Now I buy physical on the dips.
Best US Restaurant: Joe’s Stone Crab. Miami Beach’s answer to former G Manifesto “Best of” winner, Galitories. Illmatic. I even got a table on the last day of Stone Crab season with two fly Latinas.
Best International Hotel: Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastián, Spain.
Best US Hotel: The Plaza Hotel, NYC.
Worst US Hotel: Shore Club, Miami Beach. Place has slipped. The service is a joke compared to Las Vegas. Place kind of made me edgy. And that is not easy to do.
Quote of The Year:“It’s so crazy. I am in America. The country that I represent, the Red, White and Blue. I make money in America. I feed the American citizens, I feed the people that are less fortunate in America. Even when I make it rain, I am still throwing money to Americans!.”By Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the post Victor Ortiz Fight presser.
That quote would have been hilarious alone as a joke. But the fact that Floyd was dead serious when he said it not only makes it the “quote of the year” it makes it the funniest thing said all year as well.
Best Movie:The Business. Finally a real International Playboy in a movie. Of course, it wasn’t a Hollywood movie, but that is to be expected.
Best Actress: Don’t know. Probably some P0rn girl.
Best Hip-Hop Album: Oneirology by CunninLynguists
Best Hip-Hop Track: Pusha T- Don’t Fuck With Me (Drake Diss) Someone had to destroy Drake. And who better to do it than Pusha T?
“Rappers on their sophomores, actin’ like they boss lords Fame such a funny thing for sure
When n*ggas start believing all them encores I’m just the one to send you off, bonjour“
Best Break out Hip-Hop Artist: Action Bronson. Bringing back those hard New York Street bangers for your ear drums.
Best Soul Track and Album: Raphael Saadiq, Stone Rollin
G’s of The Year: Miguel Cotto and Nicolas Berggruen. Cotto is an obvious choice. If you are not familiar with Berggruen, you should be. This guy is the ultimate International Playboy/ Perpetual Traveler. Peep the Data Sheet on the cat:
Long before dabbling with blank-check companies, Berggruen had already made enough money to buy all of the trappings of the ultrarich: a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, a mansion on a private island near Miami, the Gulfstream IV and artworks by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. Berggruen says that living amid all of that luxury turned into a burden and didn’t make him happy.
Buffett Pledge
“I understand the human instinct to want to create a nest and possess things, to show them off,” he says. “But for me personally, it became less and less interesting.”
So in 2000, Berggruen sold his houses, put his art collection in storage and gave away or sold most of his possessions, including his car. He says his decision to live a rootless existence wasn’t a means of dodging taxes; he says he pays them in the U.S.
The investor, who signed a pledge promoted by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to donate at least half of their wealth, says he’ll give away all of it eventually. “Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away,” he says.
He has never married and says he is not interested in having children. Berggruen has been photographed at charity and fashion events arm in arm with a series of actresses and models, including Gabriella Wright, a British actress.
It looks like his Wessyde Base of Operations is The Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. A place I am not all that unfamiliar with for knocking back some early night cocktails.
He still should bust a pocket square, but no one did it bigger and better than Berggruen and Cotto in 2011.
Already making heavy, and I mean heavy moves in 2012. Should be an even better year.
I have never made it down as far as Marbella, but it is on my short list (although I don’t think it will happen this year).
Here is a good video, worth watching on Marbella, Spain. The jury is still out on this Piers Morgan guy, but still, a good video.
Peep it:
It goes without saying that when I hit up Marbella, Spain, I am going to do it on a way more smooth tip than shown in this video.
But that is neither here nor there.
Here is a little Data Sheet on La Costa del Crime a while back:
This is Puerto Banus, a luxury suburb of Marbella in southern Spain and truly a millionaire’s paradise.
But who are these people and where does their wealth come from?
The majority are legitimate businessmen, but Britain currently has a list of 230 known criminals sheltering in Spain and many of them are believed to live in and around Puerto Banus.
The Costa del Sol has seen an upsurge in violent crime in recent years with British, Irish and Russian gangs vying with local Spanish criminals for command of the lucrative drugs trade.
Morocco is only 40 miles away across the southern horizon.
The profit margins for smuggling Moroccan cannabis and Colombian cocaine are too tempting for many ex-pats, even when threatened with imprisonment or death.
A Briton was arrested in April this year in nearby Fuengirola after a consignment of cannabis and cocaine was discovered.
And drug dealer Scott Bradfield, from London, was murdered in October 2001.
His limbs were found in a suitcase on wasteland near Torremolinos in December and his head and torso were discovered in another case nearby.
