Music Stuff

(I really have a bunch of stuff I want to talk and write about, but for now I'll just say:)

Randomly getting back into Cibo Matto makes me also randomly get back in Gorillaz. Then I realized: I love anything that intersects with Miho Hattori or Damon Albarn. Are these bands to which I'm destined to always come back?

Yes, I'm back in Japan. I enjoyed my time/vacation back at home more than I thought I would and almost didn't want to come back, but now I'm back and happy to be so ^o^

I've also been thinking a lot about what to do in the future of me and my education. All I can come up with is: I WANT TO DO EVERYTHING!! Well, I may have a little more direction than that, but not too much.

Also been going back and forth between how much hope there is for humanity to go in a more positive direction rather than just descend into further depravity. It always hits me pretty deeply when I hear about unimaginably horrible things happening, usually done by fellow humans, to innocent human beings. I'm talking about the murder of Annie Le. Ugh, and with all the tons of police cars I saw all over L.A., the instantly apparent and familiar U.S. culture (?) of pushing violence further and further and of doing and taking as much as you can because it's your right, contrasted with recent thoughts about the U.S. as less of a country and more of an anchorless, foundationless experiment taking us all with it as it spins through space and hell...For crying out loud, I listened to some of my own relatives talking about how the bad guy "really tears 'em up" in some new horror movie and describing with excitement all the gruesome ways he dismembers innocent people. I mean...this cannot be natural.

I don't feel completely at ease with the point of view that things are better now than they used to be, just because we've "come a long ways." But I suppose I also don't know much. Maybe it's fruitless to think about whether things are better now than they used to be, but the thought keeps coming to mind that the "culture" that we have in the U.S. is just not healthy for humans.

I also recently had the thought that the worst thing those in control can do is make us think we're at the end of history. But damn, if we're up against "people" who can do that...

For some reason I got into this odd state of mind these past couple of months that says things in terms of colonization are better than they used to be across the world just because (?). I've been coming out of that and thinking about nearly everything in terms of colonialism and neo-colonialism. The difference this time is I feel more collected, a little more positive, and like I have a better comprehension, or grip, on these ideas now. I'd like to try thinking in another paradigm, though.

To do something to help the world, do I go with what's been coming to my head most naturally thus far, or go in a newer, interesting direction? (I ask myself)

To change the topic...I love Korean Air. The last time I rode it was three (?) years ago when I was leaving to study abroad in Japan and Pomona's study abroad fund was paying the bill. Imagine my delight when I found this normally extremely expensive airline to be the 2nd cheapest for my trip back to Japan this week! I spent the 11 or so hours of the flight (before the transfer at Seoul) watching the equivalent of four movies and playing Tetris.

During the flight, I was really surprised to randomly stumble upon Dog Day Afternoon while channel surfing and so I watched that one and a half times. I really, really liked it, but the ending was probably one of the more terrible things I've seen (in cinema), not as in it was made badly but as in it ripped my heart apart and almost made me start to cry. If I had to introduce someone to the U.S. by media I would show them this movie. After that, I watched the first half (or so? i dont' know) of Wolverine (I don't even think that's its name), which was incredibly terrible. Have I ever seen a movie so saturated with awkward, super-masculine male bonding? ...hm, have I?...I don't know. Anyways, I realized soon that I could be watching sweet Korean movies that I never get a chance to watch but are in the airplane's movie libraries so I checked that out and came up with a winner. My Girlfriend's an Agent was really funny and had everything I needed at that moment to make me laugh: hilariously badly staged action sequences, East Asian-style xenophobic stereotypes, and great off-beat jokes. I'm very happy I saw that movie. After that I forced my soon-to-be-bloodshot eyes through another epic drama, I Corrupt All Cops. It's a Hong Kong film, I think, or at least it was about corruption in Hong Kong in the 1960s-70s, and by the looks of the characters, the Chinese title might be something like "Golden Empire"...? Anyways, it was pretty good, although the style seemed discontinuous at times. A little too violent for my tastes at some points, but even then it was done pretty well I think.

Man, I remember when airplanes didn't even have all that stuff. It still blows my mind.

And since when did this blog become a movie review site?

Well, anyways, I'm back in Japan and looking for what's next, I had a great time back at home visiting family and friends, and I'm seeing a lot of good happening in my life.

Oops, I wrote it all.