I grew up reading lots of British literature. Some of my all time favorite authors for books aimed at children and young teenagers include Enid Blyton, Frank Richards (i.e Charles Hamilton) and C.S. Lewis. I also read a lot of the British comics like Beano, Dandy, Topper, Cor!!, Whoopie etc.

When you read all sort of British literature, one thing you do get to realize really quick is the British do love their tea, or more precisely, their high tea. British literature has always had lots of references to the high tea tradition, going into details describing all the various treats and goodies being eaten by the characters of the book or comic. But growing up in Kenya, though we do drink a lot of tea and we do have the tea and 'biscuits' tradition, we don't really have a proper high tea tradition. This is something that I had always wanted to try out.

Yet, it just so happens that for those of you who live in the Seattle or the Pacific Northwest to be precise, the place to be if you want to try high tea is right across the northern border, the city of Victoria BC Canada.

There are at least three options that the locals will point you to if you ask. These are;

• The Fairmont Empress Hotel: Simply known as the Empress Hotel, this is the most famous place in the Northwest for high tea. The tradition here goes back just about 100 years. Here is the wording directly from their website, "During the summer months, The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, British Columbia, serves Afternoon Tea to more guests than most hotels in London, England. More than 800 people per day come to enjoy a tradition that has been part of the hotel since she first opened her doors in 1909". I opted not to go there at this time because their prices are really high at about $50 per person and we had heard of another place that was much more reasonable yet highly recommended.
• Murchies Tea & Coffee: This is the other place that we considered having high tea. The main reason we decided against it was because we had been there earlier in the day for coffee and my wife tried out a number of their treats which she really enjoyed. They do have an awesome collection of teas and even though I wasn't as impressed with their lattes, I have no doubt that their tea offerings would certainly be much better.
• White Heather Tea Room: This is the place that came highly recommended by the owner of the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed. Of course before we went there we had to do a quick google search to check out what blogs like Wasabe Girl and others were saying about the place. Check out my posting here on the White Heather Tea Room for more about our first real Victoria(n) afternoon high tea experience

These three are by no means the only places in Victoria BC to enjoy Afternoon High Tea. From what I understand there are tons of places. One other place that I thought looked really great was The Buchart Gardens Afternoon tea in The Dining Room restaurant. By the way, The Dining Room restaurant also does a great lunch picnic out on the beautifully manicured lawn complete with the wicker picnic baskets and blankets. My wife was not with me at that time otherwise I would have certainly ordered for us a picnic basket.

If you happened to be in Victoria BC, do take some time to try out what I think is certainly a great British tradition, the Afternoon High Tea.

C. Hamilton got a chance to chop it up with Ed Lover of Power105. They speak on a couple of things and at the end Charles laces us with a dope freestyle.

Parts 2 & 3 after the jump...

More after the jump.

Hima + Kool A.D. = Das Racist

I believe their self-selected genre placement on MySpace best describes their unique sound: "Dutch pop/Jam Band/Healing & EasyListening". Please do yourselves a favor: hit up their MySpace page and jam out to "We Made It Demo" over and over and over again. It only gets better with time. Given all the bullshit that circulates (and gets record deals), Das Racist should mosdefinitely be on America's radar and that means you! Don't sleep on these dudes. In other related news, Hima (vis-a-vis his blog) introduced me to Harlem lyricist Charles Hamilton (who, by the way, spits exactly like Hima). Aside from Hamilton's off-putting Sonic the Hedgehog fetish and strange attachment to the color pink, he's pretty damn ill. Who knew I had a soft spot for lazy flows and unapologetic arrogance? Anyway, dude has a real clever track called "Windows Media Player" in which he manages to advertise both his blog and myspace. Lucky for me Buggin' Out has a built-in theme song, holler. Check him out:

See what I mean about his unconventional steez? I know some of y'all might ride this dude off as corny and I can respect that but this might help sway the skeptics:

He can even hold his own among Kanye and The Game: 

Turns out The Game is a mic hog...not surprising. If only we were poppin' bottles in our impromptu ciphers (although it all seems a bit awkward/contrived). Well lovers + friends, I'm about to call it a night. Thanks for reading, keep on keeping on...

Charles Hamilton - "Windows Media Player"

Ok, I know it looks like I'm on some hipster trip, but they're bringing their A game with  both their lyrics and swagger.  It's like a breath of fresh air, and you can say the same about "Windows Media Player" by Charles Hamilton.  Hamilton samples the click of a mouse and the sound of Windows in a rap song.  Man, what other rapper has the nerve, let alone the ingenuity to sample such?  What other rapper can cleverly promote themselves without doing a shout out every 5 seconds?  But then again he's not an ordinary rapper.  He's a pianist and a composer.  Don't believe me.  Check out his MySpace and Blog. [2DB]

I hate Windows Media Player (it's just a really uncooperative program to me) but I gotta give Charles Hamilton credit for this one. No matter how you look at it, the sh*t's real clever. I wonder what old Billi is gonna think.

Props to 2dopeboys for the link.

Charles Hamilton - "Windows Media Player"

- Farragut Foster

I'm feeling this.

Listen/Download "Windows Media Player"

From NahRight

After this, I don't think you'll have any problems finding a site with Hamilton info. Very creative track.

Charles Hamilton - Windows Media Player

A new Charles Hamilton mixtape joint which according to the MP3 that I got is off of The Lavalamp Zone. Hamilton goes in over some windows sounds cleverly put together to make a beat.

Windows Media Player - Charles Hamilton

This follows the post below perfectly. I said I love smart Hip Hop, well download this joint and have a listen...

Charles Hamilton - "Windows Media Player"

Just so, so dope! Charles Hamilton has been doing his thing for a minute now and I really feel he's gonna be one of the key MC's we'll all be watching in the future. I'm watching him now, can't imagine what he's got planned for the future!

Peace, Love & Charles Hamilton

Speeakz

Charles Hamilton is starting to catch my attention, so here he is on the Daily Fix. I finally got around to listenting to his mixtape "Outside Looking" and its solid. You can get it from from his website iamnotcharleshamilton

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