Welcome to the psychedelic rhapsody of my profile. Where you can join me in a game of chess and whiskey, and just waste your life away, or if that’s not your style why not a game of solitaire with macadamia nuts. Because humans could once fly, so let your dreams become your reality, and get lose of this world controlled by its tiny dots of light. And enter a world were materialistic views have no value, and teddy bears are cuddly to explosive proportions. But if that’s too much for your brain to handle, than try a mushroom and discovery the meaning of life. But hey, we all know that life is but a dream, where our comrades include the four legged and hairy variety, and your future is all that matters, provided your star is still shinning. So throw your money away on a pointless bet.

Illusions are the new reality

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Being an otaku I’m not stranger to the concept of the line between illusion and reality being smeared, but recently it feels like everywhere I go I’m entering a chapter of a book or a scene from a film. What the hell is happening, everyone seems to be losing their sense of identity and are trying to live out popular genres.
I know that not many people are going to agree with me on this but hey what else is new, I wouldn’t be an individual if everyone shared the same opinion as me now would I?

Recently I went to a university open day, I was really excited about the whole experience, being able see an environment that would hold the next few years of my life. As everyone who has read my posts knows I absolutely hated school, and still have an extreme distaste for the education system in particular. When I entered this particular university it was great it was like an environment of rebellion against society, everywhere there were posters, and stand where students were lobbying against particular political, social, and environmental issues. But gradually as I wondered around, I began to feel like I was trapped in a chapter of ‘Catcher in the Rye’. It occurred to me that these people were probably not nearly as vocal about these issues while they were school students, and once having completed their studies they would again decrease their enthusiasm, focusing more on their careers. The more I thought about it the more depressed I became about this, I was just about to enter yet another environment full of phonies.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that all who people show enthusiasm towards political, environmental, and social issues only do this when they are at university. But the majority of people do, they see university as their only chance to be heard, before that they are too young to be noticed and afterwards their career choices need more attention.
This is yet another example of societies rules running the development of the individual and making sure that they live within that well crafted socially acceptable box. I JUST CAN’T STAND IT, STEP OUTSIDE THAT FREAKING BOX AND BE HEARD NO MATTER HOW OLD YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This whole blur between reality and illusion seems to be taking even more of a hold on the anime forums lately. Every forum I enter feels like I’m watching a scene from ‘The Trainman’. Users are asking other users for advice on relationships, sharing the details of their relationships with total strangers. This totally ticks me off, not only because of the fact that as we all know I don’t believe in love and think that everyone is just wasting their time in a pathetic socially conditioned instinct to find their soul mate. But the fact that no one seems to ever think of talking the issues out with their partner. ‘Seriously where’s the fun in that, if we talk about it enough on the net maybe we’ll become famous and get a movie deal out of it too’ it feels like this is what they are thinking sometimes.

No one seems to be able to think for themselves. Ok so not that they ever were able too, the masses have always just acted according to what was socially acceptable in order ensure approval. But lately it just feels like its been taken a step further and social acceptability is now determined by a movies popularity or literatures impact on the world.

All hail Phillip Brophy, the otaku’s leader to a new even more sex craved stereotype!

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I was pretty stoked when I heard that Phillip Brophy was coming to Australia to promote his new book 100 Anime. I hadn’t heard a lot about his book but from my previous experiences of books written about anime I thought it would be great, damn was I wrong. This guy has officially set the social evolution of the otaku and anime back, to the original thought that they were just perverted sex starved geeks, I mean the violent geeks had a much better ring to it don’t you think?
But why this entire experience was so annoying for me was the way in which his speech was totally un-researched, he got dates of anime’s wrong, he got the political and social statements being made by some directors entirely wrong. I mean come on the directors themselves have stated in interviews what certain aspects of their anime’s meant. If you’re going to write a book and then talk about it in front of hardcore fans than at least get you’re info right.
The main misinterpreted point expressed was when he insisted that Japan as a whole has never lost a single aspect of its traditional culture. Damn, it was Miyazaki himself that created the character ‘No Face’ as a representation of the current Japan having lost its identity, HELLO (and he isn’t the only Japanese artist that has stated this).

And than he further insisted on the statement by clumping all anime as a whole. He stated that there are absolutely no differences between (just an example of two) hentei, and Studio Ghibli films except for their content being aimed at different audiences, they both contain the same philosophical and social statements. Ok so they may make similar social statements at certain times but generally that isn’t the case all time. But wait it gets worse this same guy who is saying that we need to look past the pornography to get to the social statement was also saying that its impossible for society as a whole to get past this. HELLO, CONTRADICTION OF THE CENTURY! And the example he used for this was that big-breasted female reporters are not allowed to be filmed on TV because they are provoking sexuality rather than conveying the serious news at hand. I mean what News Programs does this guy watch? The news programs I watch don’t give a damn what their reporters look like. But what really made his argument against societies over sexed imaginations fall apart was the fact that he must have said ‘tits’ at least ten times in two minutes and each time he said this he would have a slight chuckle to himself, NOW THAT IS PATHETIC!
But back to the point of saying that anime is just anime, there are no boundaries created. Ok again please listen to the directors interviews before you make a statement as false as that. There are many directors these days that have stated that due to the mass turn out of anime resulting from its popularity anime series are deteriorating in way of art. Anime is becoming more about profit than actually creating a piece of art that is conveying messages about our negatively changing world.
There are countless statements about the social childishness of the Japanese society due to the mass production of anime and manga.

Stupidity is contagious, with death being the only cure.

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Stupidity is contagious, with death being the only cure.
The other day I was watching a documentary on Animal Planet and they were talking about Chimpanzee societies and whether they really existed. There were all these recognised scientists talking about the porosity of the behaviourist’s suggestions, and that really ticked me off. But what really made me angry to begin was the fact that all these behaviourists were claiming that they only just discovered this within the last five years. I was sitting there thinking oh my god, Ryuji was right humanity does really have a subconscious desire to become extinct. Ok I should probably explain the whole scene, which is kinda complicated but hey who cares I’m pretty sure no one ever reads my posts anyway.

Lets start with why I was so damn angry to begin with. Humans have always believed themselves to be the highest intelligent life form on this plant for three reasons:
1 They can talk
2 They have culture
3 They are capable of thought recognition (I’m not real sure on the correct wording for this one)
They are all pretty simple matters, but due to stupidly of the intellects that have the money to write thesis, with the help of the media we have been fooled into believing everything we are told. The third one isn’t that big a deal as far as I’m concerned so I probably wont go into any depths of it.

So starting with the obvious we can speak, due to anatomical features that only the human species has evolved with. Now according to this show that was made in 2002 a behavoural scientists discovered that her Chimpanzee’s were also capable of speech just through different vocalisation methods. And she was able to tell what type of food the chimps were being given by their vocalisations. And from that point she was able to research that matter further in her controlled environment. Thus proving that not only did Chimps share 98 % of our DNA but they could also communicate through vocalisation. WOW THAT’S AMAZING. That would be what most people would say, but it’s like HELLO, are you some kind of moron or something. Primates have been communicating through vocalisations since before we even new they existed, naturalists have discussed that for years but because they were not observed in controlled environments and not always by trained professionals their discoveries were not taken seriously. That really tick’s me off.
Next matter culture and society, it was believed that because we use tools, that vary in purpose we subsequently have a society made up of various cultures, again making us the more intelligent ruler of this planet. But than LOW AND BEHOLD a scientist discovered that chimps use tools in their hunting efforts, WOW that must have been such a find. Well maybe if it hadn’t already been discovered and discarded. Again we are looking at the deadly sin of pride, no scientist ever wants to believe that some one without the same training as them has made a great find that every scientist dreams of making. Jane Goodall discovered that the Chimps at Gombe used various tools; rocks to crack nuts, grass to fish for termites and balls of leaves to absorb and drink water. But due the fact that she was untrained her findings were not recognised. But than when other scientists discovered the exact same thing and that there was variation between troops therefore bringing into question the existence of culture it was considered a great scientific discovery and closed the gap between humans and primates even further.
You would think that as our society apparently advances that we would learn from our lessons, at first no one believed Goodalls finding but now it’s considered the law for Chimp culture thus leading to the ignorance of any new findings of chimp behaviour. This being evident through the way the chimps especially of Gombe display violence to the level of sadism, while chimps that have had absolutely no contact with humans are suggested not to display this. But again due to pride this discovery has been discarded with scientist trying to rationalise this behaviour rather than investigate it.

Now that all those major points has been discussed who is Ryuji? Well he is just a fictional character within the novel Spiral (the popular sequel to the Japanese novel Ring) ok, I know you should never mix fact with fiction when you’re trying to make a valid argument, BUT COME ON MAN, BREAK FREE. We all live according to what we are told, which brings me back to the point that Ryuji made, Humans have a subconscious desire to become extinct, although my reasoning is very different to that discussed in Spiral. Throughout this piece I have suggested that pride was humanities downfall or scientists more specifically. What if it isn’t pride but stupidity? Stupidity could very well be the most contagious and life threatening disorder known to mankind. Why, you might ask? Because it’s a known fact that we don’t use our entire brain, but is it that we don’t have the ability or we are just too lazy to do so? We constantly believe what we are told we rarely ever question the facts, and those that do are only questioning within the restraints or are considered crazy until eventually they are proved or disproved, therefore leading to the development of a new barrier (as in the chimp violence case). Therefore by never questioning what we are told we have been slowly delivering humanity to oblivion, because we are to stupid to recognise our mistakes and take a chance. We are like a bird in a glass house with a single open window we panic and keep hitting invisible walls, because we are told so by societies conditioning. But if we break free of the stupidity that is our glass walls and find that open window, we can really experience life.
Ok it may sound a little incoherent, but there is evidence to support what I’m saying, the whole ozone layer argument is a great example no one believed that it was possible to damage it until it was too late.
But the real source of our stupidly comes from societies conditioning of children in schools, from my experiences anyway. I first went to a catholic school where the study of biotechnology was pretty much limited to the basic, so in spite of that I emersed myself in the study of biotechnology and as result lifted my grades tremendously because my work was so original, compared to everyone else’s, but by the time I was 18 and my HSC approached I had began to experience what I like to call conditioned stupidly. Because at my last school there were only 6 students in my Biology class we were allowed to choose our final topic to study, I had almost managed to persuade my entire class to choose Biotechnology when a few decided that they didn’t want to because of the ethics of the subject although I was disappointed, I was really angry when they started using outdated arguments that they had heard on the news. They had no idea on what the real ethics of the subject were because they had only listened to the small shreds of information that were being presented by the media. It only got worse when we had to study biotechnology in Agriculture, what we were being taught was totally outdated rubbish. If the people writing the curriculum had sat down and actually read the fact rather than the accepting the common belief that was so damn outdated it wasn’t funny I think I would have died of shock. Therefore this is where I believe the whole idea of stupidly leading to humanities extinction really becomes clear. Children are educated according to common beliefs and than they grow up to become what is thought of as intellectuals, when really they are stupid to the point of ignorance, only using half their brain and slowly leading humanity to its demise.

Catcher in the Rye a minor classic ‘like fun it is’!

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Catcher in the Rye a minor classic ‘like fun it is’!
I really use to hate any type of fiction, when I was at school and I especially hated the class novels so much. For English my first year of high school I refused to read the book and believed that I could bluff my way through the end of year exams, but my results proved me wrong. So after that my teachers would force me and everyone else who hated the chosen novels to read the books by dedicating class reading time, were by each student had to read part of the book, as well as lunchtime detentions for not reading at night. I swear the whole experience felt like that scene from Clock Work Orange were the guys eyes are forced open while he has to endure the footage showing in front of him. The whole experience made me even more determined not to read fiction.
But when I went to my last school I was allowed to choose my own pieces to study, and what was best was the fact that it could be any medium, its amazing how well I learnt to argue that anime was a legitimate source for English. So anyway the sour taste I had developed began to mellow as I got more involved with anime and I started reading books that anime’s referenced. Hence I found my absolute favourite author to ever exist J.D. Salinger.
It’s so damn hard to find his works that I’ve had to order them in and I was totally and utterly stoked when I got Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction the other day after waiting months to get it, but my world was totally crushed when someone just mentioned to me that it was a sequel to Franny and Zooey, which is the only damn book I don’t have and to make matters worse I have no money left until at least next month, damn it.
But talk about rubbing salt into the wound I just heard that Catcher in the Rye is considered as being only a minor classic novel. HOW CAN THAT BE? That book is totally my favourite book in the world I’ve read it several times, and I love it more each time. The book is such a refreshingly cynically original piece. Sure its about a teenagers struggle with his self but its not angst riddled. The guy may hate just about everything in the world but he still loves his family, and it’s the way he looks at everything so negatively, but still has this indescribable desire to respect that emphasises the innocence of his journey. Ok so he gets a prostitute but he can’t even look at her as he finds her so depressing because of her dress and her attitude. He looks at her in a way a father with a daughter would look at her, finding her supposedly hard attitude childishly cute, and seeing her not as an object but as a person who really wants attention. And he really lives his life for the love of his family, he wants absolute freedom and attempts to seek it out in the coward’s way but (The Laughing Man logo tribute) he can’t leave behind his family, because it is his family that keeps him grounded, or stops him from disappearing. But what I really find the most refreshing about this characters is the way he is able to freely express the facts of life we all hate but don’t really have the guts to admit, he really is an image of the average decent person. He wants to fight the world but he isn’t naïve enough to really believe he can do it he admits that he is yellow. It really bugs me when people have this truly naive belief that they can save the world. It’s ok for a child to have the super hero dreams but after a certain age I think it’s just really pathetic, it sounds harsh but it’s just really hard to explain what I mean.
But the point I’m really making here is that to call Salinger a minor classic is just outrageous, his works are pure cynical genius as far as I’m concerned.

Does old music really exist?

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Does old music really exist?
I’m the type of person who doesn’t really listen to a set genre of music, I like some heavy metal, some techno, some different types of rock, very occasional pop and hip-hop and I can’t get enough Yoko Kanno. But in the end when I grow tired of my varied selection of CD’s I always find myself pulling out one of my parents records and listening to Cat Stevens, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin. You’re probably siting there thinking damn my parents use to listen to them, HOW OLD ARE YOU?
I guess these are commonly referred to as old singers, but where I came from these old musicians are still as popular as they were when records were sold everywhere, and not considered collectors items or material for a good rap piece.

When I was in High School in my home town Cat Stevens was the favourite singer of most students in my year, just about everyone new all the words to at least two songs. Everyday in English the guys would insist on entering the room singing ‘Buffalo Soldier’ by Bob Marey (he was considered the second greatest singer in our year). And our year’s theme song was the ‘Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers every major event that our year celebrated ended with the entire year screaming the words to the Gambler at the top of their lungs. It was pretty funny.
But what made it really funny was because these same people were so modern and superficial in every way possible but they never actually considered time when it came to a good song.
The ironic thing here though is that my second High School was minute compared to my first yet they were far more cultured than the other, but when it came to music expiration dates existed expect under special circumstances. They loved the Eagles but had no idea who Bob Marley was.

The whole cultural differences between my two schools was made even more obvious when I was in my home town, I was ones complaining because the Dalai Lama had come to Australia but the tickets had sold out to see him, my friend replied with ‘What’s so great about some dancing Lama?’ it would have been funny but that was who they really thought he was. Now that is how superficial they really were. But at my next school most students had at least heard of him and some had read his books or read some books on Buddhism.

Back to the subject of music not really having time on it, I noticed that many movies and series seem to use this so-called ‘old music’. My favourite being the Disney film ‘Chicken Little’, with songs from the Bee Gees and Aretha Franklin throughout the movie. And that ‘I will Survive’ is used so often that it could never be considered old.
So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that with all the pop idol trash flooding the airways these days we all need some relief with some good lyrics. And at the moment the best way to achieve this relief is to listen to a good record, therefore leading to the assumption that if a song is good enough it can never be considered as old.