The Return To Finding Out Ice Cube’s Good Day

January 27th 2012 I made a post on the internet. Its popularity had a chain reaction that eventually brought it to life 7 days shy of 2 years later, and possibly the most historical thing I’ve witnessed in person. This is the follow up on pin pointing the day in Ice Cubes classic song “Today Was A Good Day”.

Thanks to the great folks at Complex Magazine you’ll be spared on reading how the original post came to be since they beautifully put it in video form, featuring myself! Enjoy:

http://t.co/SbCSoveZTo



So there it was: JANUARY 20th 1992, the date would then take a life of its own. Every interview I saw with Ice Cube shortly after from radio to ESPN2 would end with “Oh yeah, before we go… have you seen this post on the internet?”. I didn’t mean for him to be bothered by my post pin pointing a fictional day and thought to myself he probably hates my guts by the 50th time he was asked about it. I was sure if I ever got to meet him the first thing I’d do is apologize haha.

Every couple of months another news, blog or pop culture site would repost about my discovery sparking people again to talk about how to celebrate it but nothing came to be by the first January 20th after my discovery. But damn it if these next guys weren’t gonna get it celebrated by the 2nd January 20th following my post. Ladies and Gentlemen, the good day blimp project! Andy Dao, Michael Lopez, Jon Barco and Bryan Denman took the good day day to the next level. They set up a fund raiser to get $25K raised for the charity A Place Called Home based in south central on the terms that Goodyear flies a blimp on January 20th with a message in lights relaying to lyrics in “Today Was A Good Day”.

With January 20th only a handful of days away Ice Cube caught wind of their project. Got hyped. Talked about it on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Less than 24hrs later Goodyear was interested enough to jump in on it AND up the ante via Twitter:



The next morning I got an email from Goodyear Blimps PR manager with a phone number to which after calling I would be sitting there trying to comprehend that I was just invited by Goodyear to their Blimps airport base so I could see the blimp take flight over Los Angeles celebrating Ice Cubes “Good day day” with my own eyes.. it still didn’t make sense to my brain that this was a reality on the day of either.

Monday January 20th 2014, 11am. Goodyear Blimp base airport, a security guard is one by one turning cars away at the entrance gate but fortunately for me my name was on a list, I had no idea security was so tight there that you cant even enter the parking lot without an invite apparently.



I walk into their airport lobby which is easily described as a few old magazines and a jar of candy short of being a doctors office waiting room. I hung out as two by two, camera crews and other participants were showing up. I wondered if Ice Cube was really going to show up but didn’t want to get my hopes up after finding out that the night before he was performing on stage in Atlantic City, NJ… which could be done, but still understandable if he couldn’t make it after that. At 11:55am in a small crowd of no more than 30 people TOPS a Goodyear representative gets our attention with “Cube will be here shortly, we will bring him in the back and debrief him about the event and then we will get things going”. BOOM, the bomb has dropped on everyone as they all set up their news cameras and there I am looking around counting heads and thinking “theres not enough people here for me to NOT meet him”, especially with more than half of attendance being the media.



Seeing this becoming a reality got me so hyped inside that if I used all my excitement to do a backflip I would have flipped fast enough to actually travel back in time.

The Limo pulls up..



Cube hops out and says whats up to everyone before being taken in a backroom shortly. (My brain still doesn’t comprehend whats going on). After a speech about how hyped he was about the event and how happy it made him that it was able to bring good things to the kids of south central by raising awareness of A Place Called Home along with the large donation of $25,000 we were all told to head down the tarmac to the blimp.



There I am, a couple heads behind Ice Cube walking down a tarmac with the Goodyear Blimp ahead of us, all I could think was “is this real? Am I really walking in a posse following Ice muthafucking Cube to the Goodyear muthafucking Blimp on January 20th??” (brain comprehension levels still nowhere to be found).



The stage is set in front of the blimp for the official speeches from The Good Day Blimp Project, A Place Called Home and Ice Cube all detailing how amazing a little rallying on the internet could help a really really great cause, followed by donating the large check for $25K signed by Ice Cube.



Everyone now starts to head over to the blimp where 6 of the kids from A Place Called Home got to board and were going to fly over south central Los Angeles! I saw Ice not being photographed for a second and decided to introduce myself. I told him how I’m the dummy on the internet that made the original good day day post and started to jokingly apologize for how many times he was asked about it until he interrupted smiling “NOW ITS OFFICIAL! I was hoping I’d get to run into you here! The post got me hyped, I made that song over 20 years ago and to have people today still asking about it, connecting with it in their own way and keep getting hyped on that song is amazing to me.” I couldn’t believe this! I was beyond hyped to talk with Cube for few minutes and take a photo before he had to get back in the mix for the blimp launch.

Let me tell you something about Cube I saw all day. He was never hesitant to turn and talk to anyone that said “Hey Cube!”, take a photo, give a shout out on their camera, or too cool keep conversations, he was a real humble dude. Ice Cube is the real deal. He ain’t no “Hollywood” cat just trying to make an appearance, say some generic “thanks for being here” take a few press photos and bounce minutes later, nah.. Cube was straight enjoying this afternoon with everyone there, enjoying personal chats with each person while the blimp was being set up to launch and it was really cool to see someone that you look up to in person be as cool as you hoped them to be in real life.

The moment we all waited for was happening. 7 days short of being 2years after my post I found Ice Cubes Good Day here I was in a crowd of maybe 30 people in the field of the Goodyear Blimp base standing right next to Ice Cube as the blimp started to lift off. The side of the blimp lit up soon as it left the ground, scrolling in bright bold red lights across it as it took to the skies of Los Angeles “ICE CUBE SAYS TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY”…Ice Cube laughed and went to shake my hand while saying between laughs “I cant believe this is real!” and all I could say back was “Welcome to the future!”



That day was historic and will never be forgotten, so Im gonna end this with shout outs to every one that made this epic:

Shout out to Andy, Michael, Jon, Bryan and everyone else that was involved at the Good Day Blimp Project. You guys took a good idea and turned it into a great idea. What went down was legendary and you guys should be really proud.

Shout out to Goodyear, you guys get 1000’s of requests a year for things like this and cant accommodate them all, but just like Goodyear fashion which has raised MILLIONS for charities over the last 40 or so years, you guys came through and I don’t think there will be anything like this any time soon. Thanks for doing what you do! Anyone reading this looking for tires, I can honestly tell you if you buy Goodyear you can be sure your money is going to a good corporation that takes care of countless charities.

Shout out to A Place Called Home, you all have done and are still doing amazing things for the youth in south central by giving them endless programs to be involved with outside of their surroundings to help them find their passion or interest from athletic programs to art and music and all other sides of education you guys are helping a lot of kids see a wider view of the world in a place that can sometimes narrow that view. Congrats on your big day and the donation, I hope your program can grow even bigger after this in Los Angeles, what you do is greatness.

And last but not least shout out to ICE CUBE! Thanks for being THAT dude, the man who see’s the opportunity to step in and turn a fun idea to a noble movement for the better of a community. And thank you for the love it was huge honor to finally meet you!



January 20th was a good day.

-Donovan Strain

twitter: @DonovanStrain