Confederacy of a Dunce - 27 pence in the neighborhood

Monday, September 26, 2005

« Sights of east London | Main | There goes the neighborhood »

The Dunce household has been taken rather off guard by recent sightings of a real live World Famous Celebrity in our neighborhood. According to the rumor mill, Famous Rap Superstar 50 Cent has been filming a new video just a mile or so away on north London's rapidly-gentrifying Green Lanes. But not just Green Lanes, as it turns out, but just a few minutes' walk from our house, at our local, in fact. One of the guys in charge has a blog on which he reported the news (taking a break from renovating another pub; hope that's going well):

"Apparently someone called "50 cent" was recording a video promo outside the hairdressers next door to the Oakdale tonight. There were lots of lighting people, cameramen, people with fluffy microphones on sticks, and hangers-on....

Not really what you expect in a quiet back street in north London on a Wednesday night... as far as I can tell, the main part of the shoot took place earlier on in the warehouses up the street, which are occupied by a video production company. They are responsible for the largest ever tab at the pub: about £300 on their manager's credit card, about 4' long when printed as a till receipt."

No mention of what they drank, but 50 Cent's lyrics give a good idea of his preferences which are not exactly the typical Oakdale order:

"You mix a lil' Cris with a little Dom Perignon.
And a lil' Hennessy, you know we 'finna carry on."

On one hand I'm quite excited about having celebrities in the neighborhood, but on the other hand Mr. Cent has himself quite a reputation. But I'm not sure his reputation suits the area, which seems like a rather odd place to be shooting a video. The hairdressers' shop is not especially notable; it looks neither gritty nor hip (at least to my eye which admittedly is not well-tuned for either), and I wouldn't have it in my video, that's for sure. The pub, well, I certainly enjoy stopping by for a pint or two (and perhaps a hand of Koi-koi [no I am not affiliated with the yakuza]). Some of his other lyrics (warning: plenty of questionable comment if you are sensitive to that) don't offer any real insight (and I didn't see any new bullet holes in the Oakdale), so it remains a mystery. Unfortunately this means that I'll have to start watching 50 Cent's videos in order to spot nearby landmarks. If I manage to find it, I'm afraid I will be unable to stop myself from re-enacting scenes from the video.

By the way, readers who are curious about the term "finna" (quoted above from 50 Cent's song "Disco Inferno") will be pleased to know that the Language Log contains a brief discussion of this term and its use (here): a contraction of "fixing to" akin to "gonna" for "going to".

music

Monday, September 26, 2005 2:39:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Tracked by:
"A very empty Local" (Confederacy of a Dunce) [Trackback]

Monday, September 26, 2005 9:20:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Did any Dunces actually SEE said monetary unit, or were there just rumors that he was out and about? Is he finished with his sojourn there, or could there be the opportunity for dunces to see him later??? I am just so excited about your near-celebrity-sighting!

(Not to brag too much, but *I* was the celebrity sighted today at the fabric store when the manager recognized *ME* from a TV spot last weekend at my place of employment. She was very excited and told me that she told her husband "I know that lady! She shops in my store!" He apparently was about as unimpressed as the UK crowd over the monetary unit recently sighted.)

The Sister

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 9:41:03 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Maybe there was some cognac'n'blunts-induced confusion with Oakland?

Sarmoung | sarmoungAT NOSPAMlivejournal dot com

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 2:24:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Sarmoung: no way, 50 Cent is east coast all the way.

The Dunce