Genetically Co-evolved: The Elephant & The Ghetto Blaster

[pic via Brock Davis]

Progressive Rock.

King Crimson, Rush, Genesis.

These are the bands with pictures over the definition of “Pretense“, one of the worst offenses of Douchebags everywhere. I mean, I can take some proggy songs, some of the time, but when some frat boy plunks $5 into the jukebox, I pray that we aren’t in store for 80 minutes of rock opera crooning and over the top drum solos.

Prog Rock is one thing, but I am not ashamed to admit: Pink Floyd… is a great band. Ever since I was first enthralled by “Time”, and the rest of Dark Side of the Moon (the pinnacle of stoner rock)1, The Wall (We Don’t Need No Education), both super selling mega classic rock blockbusters. [[1]]Anyone remember chillin’ out after the party, sleepin’ in the back of the truck, buzzed and cold, but happy to be among friends, underneath the starry, starry night?[[1]] Although DSotM will always be my first and favorite, my really close second is not “The Wall”, but “Animals”.

Pink Floyd’s tribute to George Orwell’s story, “Animal Farm”, this album has a short, but sweet tracklist:

1. Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 1 (1:25)
2. Dogs (17:08)
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones) (11:28)
4. Sheep (10:20)
5. Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 2 (1:25)

Songs there are few, but each of the 4 animals get over 10 minutes of haunting singing and guitar solos. Sung from the perspective of the animals, songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour imbue each animal with a negative trait. Waters—the mastermind behind the spiral of despair that is The Wall—wrote all of the songs except one.

My favorite member of Pink Floyd2, David Gilmour—the acoustic genius behind Dark Side I might add—is the writer and guitar player on one of my favorite songs of all time, “Dogs”.

Who was born in a house full of pain.
Who was trained not to spit in the fan.
Who was told what to do by the man.
Who was broken by trained personnel.

Who was fitted with collar and chain.
Who was given a seat in the stand.
Who was breaking away from the pack.
Who was only a stranger at home.

Who was ground down in the end.
Who was found dead on the phone.
Who was dragged down by the stone.

Fairey did a nice job on the new cover

Fact being that I still can’t give a solid answer on the difference between Communism & Socialism (can you?) though, admittedly a lot of the meaning behind Orwell’s story went straight over my 10 25 year old brain. If anything though, it planted the seed of my extreme distaste for greed, materialism and politricks.

While Animal Farm’s message resonated with my young soul, 1984 also hit me hard like a ton of bricks. Unlike the communist oriented Farm, ‘84 was a story whose message was directed toward the lovely type of capitalistic western empire that I call home3, AND was named after the year of my birth. But nonetheless, Animal Farm wins out. I’m not stupid enough to miss the reason why though: Instead of oppressive Big Brothers and boring Ministries, you have Talking Animals™. Anthropomorphism wins again (See above elephant).

I reread it every other year or so, and like any good book, I always find new meanings & messages every time. Squealer is my most despised character though. True to his name, this greedy pig had a mastery of the enemy’s cruelest, yet most least recognizable tactic of oppression, one that is in both 1984 and Animal Farm: the corruption and controlling of the very language we speak, think and and record history with. Squealer’s sly manipulation of the clueless sheep and the hardworking and loyal—but dimwitted—Boxer, the powerhouse of Animal Farm, has gotta be some of the worst examples of the perversion of power. Yuk. I’m glad I’m no pig.

But what about you? Are you a dog, pig or sheep?

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1. Although I gotta admit, you get your band for your buck with the 10 min+ songs. ↑

2. Barring Syd Barrett, band headmaster during Pink’s early, psychadelic days ↑

3.  Industrial England, Corporatist America whatever. Semantics. ↑

It may be a fake, but it's a cute fake.

I have good friends, scattered across the globe: throughout Cali’s big cities, in New York, Texas, Japan, Philippines and beyond. Though I wish I could see them more often (and even though I’m really bad at keeping contact with them), when we do finally get a chance to catch up with each other, we always pick right up from where we left off. I’m not one who throws around the term “friend” loosely though. I’m definitely no socialite who hangs out in places where everybody knows my name. “Quality, not quantity” is best when it comes to friendships, as my mother always told me.

Darkel – Be My Friend

The chorus on this song gets stuck in my head every once in a while; Today is one of those days. Unlike what usually happens with solo projects, Darkel—one half of the synthpop French Duo, Air—has created a sound that is pretty much identical with the style that he creates with his peer. Be My Friend could very well be put on an Air album and no one would be the wiser. And that’s not a bad thing.

Thanks ya’ll.

I thought his palms were sweaty…

In addition to the DOOM, I’ve also been stuck listening on some Um Jammer Lammy tunes. The spiritual sequel to the  Parappa the Rapper1, the game that single-handedly created the “Music Game” genre, Um Jammy replaces the rapping pooch with a rockin lamb. While it doesn’t quite capture the same charm as Parappa—guitar licks aren’t as cute as funny rhymes2—the tunes are still catchy as hell. Literally.

Um Jammer Lammy OST – Taste of Teriyaki (Parappa Version)

In one level, Lammy DIES, then goes to hell3. Here, she meets a lusty lounge singer who’s “talking bout a lotta fire / talkin’ bout no gettin tired” tempts Lammy by crooning that she “can think of something for me and you to do”.

Dope rhymes don't pay the bills.

Remember, this is a sequel to the game where the cutesy catch phrase was “I gotta believe!”. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: Japanese folk are crazy. Hell, remember Chop Chop Master Onion? One of the dopest characters ever made? Well, he lost his dojo and is a street bum, telling Lammy that “nobody ever talks to me no more”. That’s fuckin’ sad. Why would they do this to one of my childhood heroes?

But that’s not to say that the game is all PG-13; in other levels you help put out a fire and even babysit some babbling babies. And the game’s final song is an uplifting anthem telling ya to never give up, never cut corners and always do your best. Aww…

So if you haven’t already, take a listen to the songs, and enjoy the campy craziness that is Um Jammer Lammy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get these songs outta my head, and the casino outta my hair.

PS: NEVER USE JOE CHIN’S CHAINS FOR THEM NO!

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1. Parappa the Rapper 2 was eventually made , but I haven’t played it or heard the songs. I hate being a cheapass/late adopter of game systems sometimes. ↑

2. Actually, if you perform well as Lammy, you can unlock the second part of the game where you play as Parappa who raps to remixed versions of the same songs Lammy played guitar on. ↑

3. Of course this was censored out in the US version. ↑

I never really got into the whole steampunk thing either. Too oldschool for me; There are some geeky paths that even I do not tread.

But this webcomic by Jess Fink might change that. Set in the Victorian era, Chester 5000 XYV is “a tale of erotic, robotic romance” about a woman, her husband, and the robot he built to keep her company. I highly recommend it, even if you’re not into “H” stuff (H is Japanese for NSFW so clicky clicky behind closed doors please).

Chester is a quick read, largely due to the fact that the only words to be found are sound effects. The story is told through squiggly lines, sweatdrops and some of the most emotive faces and gestures I’ve ever seen in a comic. Though the Woman-on-Robot (on Woman) steaminess often takes the spotlight, it’s the underlying love story that kept me from closing the window in a guilty rush.

Fink publishes the comic every Tuesday & Thursday, on a pretty consistent basis. Take a few minutes, check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments!

PS: Just because I’m not surrounded by us, doesn’t mean that I don’t see we everywhere I look.

The Beatles – P.S. I Love You
Daft Punk – Digital Love
Michael Jackson – Ben

But what’s really of interest— to the artist in me at least—the geek in me is afk, shitting himself over the wonderful possibilities as well as the horrible implications for internet monopoly—is Scott McCloud’s beautiful & super informative comicbook describing what Chrome is & how it functions. McCloud captures the images of various coders and designers, and use them to explain Chrome’s features to users and dispense tech-talk to the developers. And man… If you’ve read McCloud’s other books, you know that McCloud has a wonderful grasp on the medium of comics, and can explain just about anything through a few, lines & a word bubble.

The part below perfectly illustrated what I perceive to be one of the most frequented and most frustrating part of a browser: the URL bar.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA indeed!

In the new version of firefox, the “awesome bar” tries to give suggestions when you type into the box. But a lot of the times, these results just end up cluttering the short box and makes things even more difficult. In fact, while creating this post, I typed “hagure” into the URL bar and instead of taking me to hagure-metaru.net, I got a link for http://hagure-metaru.net/wordpress/wp-admin/press-this.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblogoscoped.com%2Fgoogle-chrome%2F&t=Google%20on%20Google%20Chrome%20-%20comic%20book&s=&v=2

That is not helpful at all. I look at the first part of the URL, then my eyes glaze over at the trailing gobbledygook, and I feel like the programmer in the last panel. Here’s hopin’ Google comes through.

*sigh*

Here’s to the Google Monopoly… a reluctant cheer. May you guard my (and the rest of the world’s) data/life with wisdom, courage and justice.

"I would blow $1,000 on a status symbol from Apple, but I wouldn't buy that application for it."

I couldn’t have put it any better.

[via:The Onion]

I feel calmer now.

The house meeting with Sally just ended. To my friends, and the people who care about me: It went well. An eviction notice was handed down.

the pillows – I Think I Can

[youtube width="425" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScWZs8sKCfA[/youtube]

Its a great two part song. Inspirational anthem in the beginning, and emotional ballad at the end give it a great one-two punch of anime-inspired j-rock by the pillows. If you want your heart strings tugged at like Weezer’s “My Name is Jonas
” then hit up some FLCL and listen for the tunes from a rock band that has found a place in many anime-lover’s hearts, alongside Yoko Kanno, Tsuneo Imahori and The Seatbelts.

Who knows why the J-genres: J-pop, J-rock & J-indies are so endearing and approachable. “I Think I Can” is not the only anime tune that appeals to me so . It kinda reminds me of Joe Hisaishi’s themes for the Studio Ghibuli films, such as Mononoke Hime (Main Theme), Laputa (空から降ってきた少女 [The Girl Who Fell from the Sky] ),.
Listening to the Totoro theme – 風の通り道 ) [Kaze no tourimichi], I am still brought to tears by its beauty.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtQM3H59TgI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f288vB6ACd4[/youtube]
Its no coincidence that this song is about the wind, whose fleeting nature is perhaps the epitome of the Japanese concept of あわれ (a-wa-re). The song is also connected with memories of my Aunt passing away as a child, and is a sad, yet inspiring and hopeful reminder of nature’s—and life’s—transience.

PS: I don’t plan on starving, or burning in hell

Yeah I tried Mental Case out and um… low blow but I think you’d have to be a “Mental Case” to seriously consider it for a storage medium. Despite what the newest Mac GTD wunderkind might say, its a little too clumsy for my tastes. It sure looks real pretty, but the entry interface is a little clunky for a simple flashcard setup. While the screen capture function is a nice touch, using it instead of copy/paste loses out on the semantic value of plain text. Sure its good for remembering a few facts or random people names, but I don’t think that the software is flexible enough for a student to use in place of flashcard memorization.

Some people in the comments suggested Studycard Studio and Mindburn. I’m skeptical, but I might give them a chance some day. Right now, I’m trying to avoid tinkering with too much mac software, and focus more on PSAI: Photoshop and (Adobe) Illustrator.

But just look at the chesire grin on the #990000 suitcase. As José would say: “It’s kind ovva kooky, kind ovva creepy!”.

Seems like a cool way to digital scrapbook!