Or so goes my favorite popular cultural meta-jibe of the moment.
After all what is indie? Fuck if i know.
Yes like most labels there's a fashion, a mind set, a certain set of political belief's and of course Music and film Genre's.
Frankly i hate label's.
I for one can't ever think of one i fit into.
I like to think of myself as a tortured un-focused, un-achieving, daydreaming possible arty type person.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Film. It is the one medium that when i talk about it my whole body feel's like it's glowing with the smuggness i get from knowing i what i know and sharing it with the world. It is an overwhelming feeling of belonging, and being heard while at the same time talking about how you regularly escape reality. Nothing surpasses how Smug and happy talking about you're favourite art form can make you.
Some people do this with Music, some with Art. Some even do it with Fashion and lifestyles. But i, i'm an individual. Well in some area's anyway. After all i have yet to be allowed shop for my own clothes for parental fear of looking like a tramp, knacker, low-life, or some kind of fruit cake.
But in my love for film, which is generally universal and forgiving i can't say i'm any kind of Genre Thumping supporter.
Some people love Horror, Some Love Rom-coms, Some love crime. Some love blockbusters.
Considering the hundreds of movies i have seen, this is a small enough list.
In terms of music i'm entirely individualistic, and in some sense's indie.
Like anyone i listen to popular music. But usually miss a few hits here and there because i avoid consuming radio.
My own taste is vastly eclectic. But i've had my musical taste best described to me by an arty person as, wait for it.
"The musical Taste of a 16 year old girl."
Okay so i admit, i love pop-punk. Fall Out Boy and Paramore being the top contributors of the Genre in my collection. But i love the genre, i love the feel, and i love the melody. But i also love pop-punk bands that no-one has heard of.
Sadly my first Major music love was Mest. A punk band. Now i look back, they were kind of awful. But they have a special place in my heart.
Quirky un-signed bands and now defunct bands from all over that i have found on myspace over the years.
All absoloute random bands who make up my playlists and shuffle just as much as bigger Bands Like The Academy Is..., Cute is what we aim for, All Time Low, The All-American Rejects, Green Day and the "Indie-tacular" The Like.
I'm not sure where i was taking this post, but now i will include, Youtube clips!!!
Meta-meme's, and uber quirks and so on that i just love.
Ah the Muppets, they're just all warm and fuzzy.
Out of all the summer blockbusters and so on, this little indie film has stood out to me in recent daily film blog and trailer news. I've heard little about it because it's so small time, but something just seem's to say this is going to be quite fun and charming.
Sort of like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind (one of my top favorite movies of all time) this film blends romance with Science fiction. And i have to say the Philosophical question of a timer countdown to your true love is just brilliant. That and the Catchy twist that the protagonists Timer is blank! Also sort of reminds me of the Coloured diamonds on the hands of people in Logan's Run.
Werner Hertzog. A legend of Cinema as it is. My wonderful English teacher introduced me to his work via the means of Friday's film club. I always attended for 3 straight years with the exception of only 2 or so occasions (that and falling asleep to Citizen Kane). But 2 gem's that i remember vividly are Hertzog Film's.
FitzcarraldoWhich is where he Literally lifted a steamboat up a mountain using the local people and a shit load of rope and tree's. It's mind-blowingly impressive, and equally insane.
And this clip, where he "READ'S" Where's Wally, it's just un-fucking-believably cool!
It's total non-sense of the highest order, but at the same time it's great! Oh BTW, it isn't actually Werner Hertzog, but it's amazing none-the-less!
I really do. All smug and cosey in a bus eireann coach i looked upon the single occupant affluence mobile's with scorn!
These people shouldn't be driving! Look at yer wan, she's looking at her nails and not the road!
And that truck driver, he has ear phone's in, ever hear of a radio pal? Or Hazard perception? Gobshite.
And that one, he's readin' a newspaper, for the love of god whats so important on a page other than page 3 of the sun that it warrents a viewing on your steering wheel?
And this nordie fecker, a full length truck and gobbuldie gooke license plates and he's on the phone! The phone for fuck sake! That's Two penalty points right there for liftin' a mobile while driving! Don't bother hovering it beside your ear, your still using it!
Bravo misses, you have two kids in he car. Good for you, would you mind keepin' a safe distance then and letting the pricks in 4x4 couches merge?
Oh and this idiot, breaking every ten seconds. Hasn't he heard how each break light is acts as a wave that spreads back for miles in traffic. Feckin' idiot....
So yeah, i opened with a profound statement of my own. Let's see what i ment there, cause feck it if i know. That will be in my first ramble. Then i will review star trek, muse about an odd day today, and talk society and social stuff possibly split in two, then stuff from my label's i think.
Optimism vs pessimism, or current pessimism future optimism? A political and science fiction rant.
Yeah, even with the risk that i may be awful at spelling that is an argument i seem to always ring out in my head. I basically think as an inherent ideology in my head that the present is shite, the past was far from perfect and the future could be great if we just did the right things. I not quiet so firmly believe that bad things are necessary for good things to happen. History is written by the victor's even if they were justified or wrong in the actions that brought that victory. Look at it this way. From the point of view i am trying to explain completely awful things like the holocaust are actually "good" for history because it teaches us never to do such a thing again. We learn from our past. The underlying current of Democracy is that it may not be the best form of government but it's better than everything else.
With Democracy,and in its current form with capitalism tagged on for the ride, choice's for society are decided upon by open discussion and 3 structures. The government, the courts and the legislature etc. The courts work off the law's, the courts change the laws via precedent, and the government governs and proposes laws as necessary. The laws in theory are reflective of the public’s opinion and choice and define their society and wishes. If history was "democratic" half the time we would have NEVER gone to war. Man's inhumanity to man is possibly our greatest talent. Of all social constructs, of all out achievement our greatest accomplishments and subsequent lesson's all come directly from beating the snot out of the other cave men for the most trivial of things from food, sovereignty or shameless hussies (yes you Helen of Troy!). Eh in short hand, if voters really had a choice of how history played out we would never has progressed as far or learnt from our innumerable mistakes. Yes its hypocritical but the basic idea behind my view point is that we need bad people and bad things to happen frequently in order for all the good in history to take place. Good doesn't triumph over evil but instead succeeds thanks to its very existence.
To look at this from a sci-fi point of view, star trek is a great example. That wonderful franchise is optimism to the extreme. Its a communist paradise where resource's and self-actualism are in abundance. Its a great place. They're self righteous, self-deprecating about their past and basically selfish. Starfleet is a homo-sapiens only clubhouse, imagine swashbuckling philanthropists with phasers and shiny easily torn uniforms. Basically despite its great idea's and wonderful optimism The Federation is dark te fuck. DS9 expressed this best. Despite being the "least" trek show in the franchise it "got" it spot on. Beneath the shine of the peaceful federation there is necessary evil, there is a history of genocide, bad time's and generally abhorrent things. Star Trek's history differs from ours from the 90's onward. The Eugenic war's under Kahn Noonien Sing devastated 1/3rd of the world. Then in the 2020's economic woe meant poverty was fenced off in some American cities, Gabriel Bell changed that in the "Bell" riots. Such a good act was undone not to long after with WW3. 156 million or so were wiped out in nuclear holocaust. In the ashes’ Zephram Cochrane an alcoholic genius built the Phoenix to travel faster than the speed of light and allow himself to retire in paradise. His action attracted aliens and well the rest is fictional history. In that troubled time however the radiation poisoned are slaughtered and United Earth didn't have a good time either. Enterprise, that weak underused and disaster of a spin off tried to cover this but we missed out and we don't know it all. But basically Trek is far from perfect. And under it all a secret secret police Section 31 carries out assassinations, plagues, genocide and acts of terrorism all in the so called name of protecting Paradise's interests, without paradise knowing about it.
To me this makes perfect sense. What would you do to keep such a perfect society? Would you let it fall apart or would you let even a few misguided people undermine your very principles with bad actions in order to protect you without your knowledge or recognition. Sure these people should be brought to justice, but truthfully what they do is for the greater good. "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the one", a so called Vulcan proverb. This was best covered in the DS9 episode "Inter arma enim silent leges" (loosely translated in the episode as "in times of war the law fall's silent")which justified assassinating anti-federation politician in order to get a more moderate supporter into power. In possibly the best star trek episode DS9's "in the pale moonlight", a loose reference possibly to "have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight" from Tim Burton's Batman, Again a Romulan is duped into believing that once the federation is annihilated by the Dominion Romulus will be their next target. This is in fact a fake-out made by Sisko and Garak as a means to get the Romulan's to help in the war before it's too late. The Romulan Senator twigs this but is assassinated on his way home. The forged recording despite its forgery will now be believed by the Romulans because the senator was killed for it, supposedly by the enemy. The end's justify the means. Billion's of lives’ are saved by doing something utterly evil for the greater good.
I would love to incorporate this idea into my own writing as well. In my bigger sci-fi idea that's mainly a tv series idea, this would be the main premise of the show. The ship is an adhoc attempt to show confidence in a fledgling intergalactic UN, that old chestnut. Confidence in the union is less than low. The local region of space devastated by war and economic woe etc. Humans and others are far from United or willing to work together. Regardless the government put together an inter-species program to have ships roaming around their space keeping the peace and handle crises as neccissary. The crew believe in their mission while the public don't. A camera crew documents their actions and support slowly grows as the ship and its fleet slowly create the stepping stones for what they believe in. Their past is pretty chequered and they do some bad things along the way but it's all for a good cause. Like the "Operative" in Serenity (the Firefly movie), an assassin killing for a future he doesn't belong in.
Star Trek: The Future Begin's;
Okay so i already nerded out in the last rant. I am sorry for that, couldn't be helped. But basically it is an amazing entertaining movie. You do not have to be a trekie to like it. It's a little fast passed and it doesn't let up. Some of the plot points are a bit "convenient" but otherwise it's entertaining fun. I just feel it's a pitty it was so short. The Baddie is also a bit underused, he's a bit of a MacGuffin in that he's not that menacing, he's just a plot point. He's out for revenge but he's pretty merciful at the same time. An amazing movie, and a great new hope for star trek as an ailing franchise. It is in the right hands and I AM ANXIOUSLY AWAITING THE SEQUEL!!!!!!!!!!
Oh today, what is today, a good day:
No i won't give you more trek, well just a little. I don't fully support the Klingon adage of "today is a good day to die" but it is a good phrase. Today despite minimal work towards study has been a good day so far. I got much needed sleep. Got into town around lunch time. Arrived in rain then walked with sunglasses on as the sun popped in and out. Noticed an amazing arty door in an alleyway that was an entrance to Grafton Street's Bewley's that i had never seen before. I then had a rather good time having a walk and talk lunch with Hope. I had no aim or goal for the lunch and i didn't actually have lunch but we walked and talked anyway. I took her up to the Garden of remembrance just for a patch of green and ye know, culture and all that jazz. In all the wonder of beaming sunshine, spotted rain clouds and wet gutters Hope managed to strike up a chat with the Groundskeeper sweeping the Swan fountain.
The fountain with those children from myth violently transmorphing into swan's was full of soil, sand, silt and spare change. It smelt strongly of salt and the mulch of mud. The worker was at first reluctant to talk to her but somehow she struck a chord with him and they started talking local politics and the recession. After reading in vein the irish poem i could barely pronounce or understand without the English translation,( a result of an uninterested waste of a very good pointlessly expensive education, squandered on my indifferent youth). I then joined the moaning that is most recession and irish politics’ talk. I interjected a few points but it was mainly their conversation. I instead picked up the smell of the pond, the sunlight popping in and out of the clouds right above the Irish tricolour dancing violently in the brisk, sharp and unrelenting wind. Hope moved on to the injustice of 7,000 home's foreclosed in her florida home county, the same county as NASA and many MNC's, all that money and the marshland was still fucked over. Ireland fairing no better of course. Us both pretty much middle class people, she linked to a diplomat, me more to a former rich middle class family slowly loosing fortune thanks to my sister and my private education and missing out on inheritance. Here we were in a public space discussing the 2nd international debate, the state of things other than weather. To a salt of the earth Groundskeeper, wellington deep in soil and change in a war memorial fountain. I was more aghast at the image than actually able to join in in the conversation.
I then in jest tried to return to Campus via the middle median of O'Connell street, explaining the foley of the 4 lamppost’s at the north end, the insane and out of place tacky "Christ in a box" that was put back just for the Taxi drivers, and generally the plight of what was the north west end of this "THE REAL MAIN STREET IN DUBLIN". I have an affinity for that area. Despite being a massive southsider and basically a spiritual resident of Ranelagh i long to see that end of O'Connell street reflect it's local's and an actual functional purpose. I'd love it to be a Chinatown or something, another temple bar but run by the local immigrants and the Moore street market sellars. A cultural hot pot of real inner city Dublin. Instead it's a wasted space, desolate, patchy and forgotten. All well for me to say, I’m in a port-a-cabin in Trinity as boombing bass prepares for the "biggest" private party in europe. I also live in a bungalow in the styxx that is County Louth. I'm no more a southsider than i am now a constant commuter. 2 hours or more everyday devoted to using our inadequate Victorian train service. As i stated to Hope, emphasising my lack of knowledge about the Celtic football team i couldn't be a less patriotic person. I know sweat f'a about any of the Fenian or republican thoughts and couldn't care less. I'm posh, middle class, lazy, hypocritically socialist and a nurse. My blood isn't green like some people. I'm fully aware that my blond hair means i'm Norman in origin and not irish. I take this to mean i'm more of a european than any kind of nationalist. And i'm fine with that.
As we walked back Hope dashed ahead at every junction catching each amber light. Her wavy blond hair battered and beaten into a straw like appearance by her gym utilisation before our meeting and the extremes of the almost gale like winds. A brief meeting with Boop in front square amongst the beer concession stands being built and a stage being errected. I parted ways with hope and entered the Laser huts, for study and this blog.
Thus was my day.
Examblor is approaching!!!!!!
Yeah must get to work soon. Last lecture yesterday. 2 weeks to exams. The sun is shining. People will soon be partying and the Gimby is closed for the rest of summer. No newspapers or banter to distract me. Less of the face's i've grown to know about campus. Now it's all work ahead. I have to get to 3rd year. I have to get through to 4th year. I have to try and get work as a qualified nurse here, doubtful. I have to work at the vain of my education in order to pursue my dreams. Somewhere in all that i have to also keep writing to practice, to develop and to hopefully one day get something published or developed into any medium.
Yeah i think i am blogging a lot more frequently than truly necessary, no seriously, i have far less diary stuff to say. With only 1 day of social stuff with barely anything happening and the major even to politically sensitive to mention or theorise on i'm left with relatively sweet f' A.
But i somehow do have a few things to say, surprisingly....
This is quiet possibly the coolest astrological image i have seen in a long time. Forget the Eagle nebula or that one near orion's belt, this baby is b-e-a-utiful! It's pulsar B1509 spinning rapidly and creating a field of debris that appears to be a hand reaching out towards a nebula that is around 150 light-years across. Now if it was the hand of a supreme being it is rather impressive. Of course it's just an amazing optical illusion noticed by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory but still amazing!
In other god related musings. I am after all agnostic. I don't really like religions, i prefer to believe the empirical evidence and hypothesis of science over some stories and alagorys. But there is an inherent thing that humans can't know everything. We seem to explain this by creating an idea of a higher power or force that is the cause of existence or a possible source of predetermined nature or a added push for the improbabilities that surround us. Like our planet being the right distance from our sun to form life, and for symbiosis, oxygen breathing, mass extinctions, natural selection, co-operation, competitiveness and a few world wide events like ice age's to get to the point where we exist. The Jedi's say it's just the force and we all have natural morale's and evil's within us, Jewdeo-Christians and Muslims think it's all to do with a god or Jehovah or Allah, and some think it's poly-deities or Buddha. I on the other hand don't have a name for it. Choose not to worship or acknowledge it to any set text and feel i can get through life without needing any guiding hand or any such worships. Like some Christian's saying that "god" love's everyone and has a plan for everyone. If it has a plan for me in this insignificant moderate zone in a minor galaxy in the moderate area of the universe's infinity then good for them, i don't mind. I prefer to think if i was in more control of my life that i would be it's deciding factor not to have to bend over to predetermination. Am i really predetermined to be my own worst enemy or can i do something about it? This is all just about god, spirituality and all that jazz is more complex and has to do with psychology and physiology and less to do with theology, or at least in my head.
Beautiful. This is of course Iron at the foot of a glacier. This iron got there because a super colony of pre-historic bacterium that don't require oxygen survived the mass extinction of those similar to them and became trapped under the ice of the southern continent of Antarctica. This untouched world is surviving despite what we do on the rest of the planet.
This wonderful and unique(from out point of view) planet is full of wonders and things that inspire awe and impress us on a constant basis. I won't go into the science of things but this planet is a massive collection of coincidence and Luck. It also has natural cycles beyond Human control. We are after a victim of our own efficiency as a species. We're not really meant to be 6 billion+ strong. We're not meant to live sedentary life styles and consume the planet's resource's en mass. But we do, and we have to live with that. I may be a hypocritical socialist and a fan of science but i am not a big fan of Green thinking. Yes we shouldn't be burning fossil fuels, but it's unrealistic to expect us to change quickly or do the right things when we could. For one the dominant nature of Capitalism on this planet will restrict it from ever happening at any fast rate until those in power can make money from it or Green types do their own thing and compete with them on a similar level and make thier own business level.
For instance nuclear power is NOT a bad thing. We're increasing our knowledge of it constantly. Eventually other types of Fission and hopefully cheap types of fusion will become available. There is little to fear from this vital energy source. Solar power and Wave are also where it's at but we're a bit slow on the uptake.
Climate change may or may not be perciptated by our actions, we can't prove it but it's happening. It's NOT global warming. It's a mass change that we can't fully explain. Things aren't going to be the same, we're either going to get a bit hotter or we're to slowly or quickly get closer to another ice age. Desertification is also a massive factor heavily ignored due to the more obvious and monochrome loss of the icecaps. The Sahara is getting bigger all the time. It's growing both south and north. Southern Spain is starting to dry up. And the heat of the desert for at least 2 summers in a row has caused a weather front that has kept Europe warm and wet and flooded the British isles. That's more than industrial factors or ice cap's melting, thats also a fracking huge body of sand that covers a large portion of a continent. The gulf stream also flowed further south than normal the past two years, or at least the first year. The worlds climate is topsey turvey, storms are getting stronger and predictability is getting harder. The climate is changing. Either a natural reaction or one perpetuated by us. We will never know fully in the foreseeable future but we can do some things to change it. It could or could not be to late, but thing's are f'd up and we are not helping anything by continuing to rape the planet for our greedy needs.
All well and good saying this but i would not give up my computer and so on. I would just prefare we fueled our existence in a more sustainable way so that we don't loose all are great mod cons and consumerist wonders. Is that so much to ask?
G20 death, Columbine and the media and csi effect's on justice:
I mentioned it before and it seem's this story is far from simple. It turns out the man in question had a lot more contact with the police than originally thought. He ran into them a few time's. Apparently trapped inside the police cordon and getting in the way of a police van and being accosted and warned a few time's. His cause of death has also been changed to an abdominal Haemorrhage. It was originally a heart attack. The coroner saw liver damage, heart damage and an abdo bleed. He thought it was a heart attack. But this second one says the bleed was more substantial and apparently the cause of his death. It make's me think was this second test influenced by the media's coverage? Knowledge that he was assaulted, knowledge he was an alcoholic? Or is it more accurate now that more things are known about his life and what happened to him? Originally it was believed stress of several encounters influenced his underlying problems and he had a heart attack. But now it's believed underlying conditions such as alcohol damage, lifestyle and being assaulted led to a purfuse abdominal bleed that caused his death. The origin of the bleed and other factor's require further test's but letting the media world know this will obviously destroy any chance of a far and unbiased opinion in prosecuting the officers involved and their sentencing by a jury of their peers. The CSI and media effect on this case are going to destroy it. The Investigator's tried to gag the Guardian in the first place so they could get the whole picture of what happened. Now that the media circus continues more and more is being discovered and ruining what should be a Police investigation not a media investigation. Although i am happy that brutality and so on are being covered i am also aware that this kind of coverage is RUINING the case.
The same happened for Columbine. I read this in a good piece about it in the Guardian's G2. The media believed all the missinformation. It was blown into believable porportions instead of anything resembling the hidden truth. The two killers hated their world and were a known threat. The sherrif department had failed to investigate them properly despite warning signs. So they believed and purpetuated each rumor and let the media make it's own story beyond that of the media. BS about the trenchcoat mafia and hatred of goths. These guy's were disturbed but they had friends. They wanted to kill the entire school, they had bombs and automatic weapons. They intended to be renowned for the chaos they caused and for destroying their whole worlds. Instead they were deamonised and believed to be something their weren't. The Virginia tech killer actually claimed they were Martyrs. The media and poor handling by law enforcement created a monster the boy's hadn't intended. They wanted to kill 2000 students and then go down shooting as they took out emergency service's and the cops. Instead they killed 13 people. 11 in the libary 2 in the car park. It was not the prolonged hell of the media's story but 48 minute's of failure and mayhem that the cops made worse threw inaction and slow response. The 13th person died because the swat didn't get to them in time. Failure after failure.
It seem's all of the biggest stories are originally something different to what we are told or believe. And what emerge's may also be very wrong. Both Columbine and the G20 death are being ruined by police ineptitude and media witch hunts. Neither works in tandem and the public are fed confusing and verdict changing information long before justice can ever be decided fairly and equally.
INQ 1.5 suggestions:
I love my mobile phone, i think it's great but sometimes it can get on my nerve's it has a few flaws that could be changed. One great thing i have discovered it's potential as a media player. Micro sd card's are getting bigger and bigger which means my phone can be used as an ipod of sorts. Unfortunately the media player is fucking awful! It's interface is weak and it doesn't power save, you have to go back to the "home" yourself to get the screen to shut off, poor planing.
Other sugestions:
-The switcher wheel to be controlled by an actual wheel and not a button. -The media player to be improved with a shuffle for all MUSIC -To come with game's as standard -to have a keypad that is more ergonomic. It's to thin for my hand and my bizzare thumb shape. -an intermediate predictive text that finish's words you type manually based on recording your patterns of typing and commonly used phrase's. My old phone did this! -Making the usb port hatch less of a nuisance when attaching charger, usb cable or hands free headset. -A light and/or flash for the camera, maybe even higher pixels to? -better editing control of order sequence's on the switcher.
What was the point of that?
Music and Photo organising:
Possibly the only well organise thing's in my room are my music and photo folder's on my computer. My photo's are very well organised i have to say. All by categories and so on. Even a large folder with sub folders for "social" photo's of which i put the most pride in. My music is oranised-ish as well. All albums, real and pirated all in my music folder. Some of the older pirated mp3's are all in a shared folder than sometimes is harder to find but most of those are organised by artist even if all random b-sides and cover's or from artist's whose albums are impossible to find pirated or who don't even have albums. I like that i have at least what i use the most so well organised. Oh same goes for my desktop(on my computer), all game shortcuts organised by game genre. That's also good....
I could rant on more, hell i have plenty of rant's in me. The Pirate bay came to mind. That incident from yesterday that could be upsetting to Society Politic's could also be important. But i don't want to fuel any conspiracies or any hatred. I think that one is best left a mystery as any animosity surrounding the blind election's is best left alone.
Video of the blog: BO Burnham, a rather hilarious artist that VerryBerry introduced me to a good while ago. Also a minor connection to the whole Tom Leher thing. But anyway he's great give him a viewing:
