The Mask

I just love this song. here's the lyrics:

[CHORUS] 
Have you ever worn the mask one-two one-two, 
M to the A to the S to the K 
Put the mask upon the face just to make the next day, 
Feds be hawkin me 
Jokers be stalking me, 
I walk the streets and camouflage my identity, 
My posse in the Brooklyn wear the mask. 
My crew in the Jersey wear the mask. 
Stick up kids doing boogie woogie wear the mask. 
Yeah everybody wear da mask but how long will it last. 

[CLEF] 
I used to work at Burger King. A king taking orders. 
Punching my clock. Now I'm wanted by the manager. 
Soupin me up sayin "Your a nice worker," 
"How would you like a quarter raise, move up the register" 
"Large in charge, but cha gotta be my spy, 
Come back and tell me who's baggin my fries, 
Getting high on company time." 
Hell no sirree, wrong M.C. 
Why should I be a spy, when you spying me, 
And you see whatcha thought ya saw but never seen. 
Ya missed ya last move, Checkmate! Crown me King, 
Hold my 22 pistol whipped him in his face. 
Hired now I'm fired, sold bud now I'm wired, 
Eyes pitch red but da beat bop my head 
Hit the streets for relief, I bumped into the Feds, 
I got kidnapped they took me to D.C., 
Have me working underground building missiles for World War III. 

[CHORUS] 
M to the A to the S to the K, 
Put the mask up on the face just to make the next day. 
Brothers be gaming, Ladies be claiming. 
I walk the streets and camouflage my identity. 
My posse Uptown wear the mask. 
My crew in the Queens wear the mask. 
Stick up kids with the Tommy Hil wear the mask. 
Yeah everbody wear the mask but how long will it last. 

[LAURYN] 

I thought he was the wonder, and I was stunned by his lips, 
Taking sips sipping Amaretto sour with a twist, 
Shook my hips to the bass line, this joker grabbed my waistline, 
Putting pressure on my spine trying to get L-Boog to wind, 
I backed up off him then caught him with five finger to his face, 
I had to put him in his place, 
This kids invading my space, 
But then I recognized the smile, but I couldn't place the style, 
So many fronts in his mouth, I thought he was the Golden Child, 
Then it hit me that's Tariq from off the street around Grams. 
I haven't seeen him since fifteen, when he got booked for doing scams. 
I tried to walk away but he wouldn't let me leave, 
He ran up quick behind me asking, "Yo what happened to my nigga 
Steve?" 
Steve was like this kid I went with back in Grammar School. 
I chuckled knucklehead I seen him yesterday he's cool, 
He's busted, "so who you checking for now?" 
Probably some intellectual. 
I kept the conversation straight and he kept trying to make it sexual. 
Then his old lady tried to play me waved her hands up in my face, 
Yo I told her check your man cause Bitch you acting out of place. 

[CHORUS] 
M to the A to the S to the K, 
Put the mask up on the face just to make the next day. 
Brothers be frontin, Then they be runnin, 
I walk the streets and camouflage my identity. 
My posse in the Bronx wear the mask
My crew on the hour wear the mask.
Stick up kids rollin' in the Omni wear the mask
Yeah everbody wear the mask but how long will it last. 

[PRAZ] 
3 A.M. in the morning on the Boulevard, 
I'm still at large engaged with my entourage, 
Me and Godfather and a 67 Dodge. 
I stepped out the note to post up my guard 
Searching for my car that was stolen from Scotland Yard. 
My first instinct was to check the chop shop garage. 
As I rung the bell someone tapped me on my back, 
I turned around to look it was a rookie in a mask. 
He said, "I got a itchin' on my trigger, 
Don't move nigga I'm taking you for murder." 
See cops got two faces like two laces on my Reeboks. 
My knees knock as I step back for a claear shot, 
Well did you shoot him? Naw kid I didn't have the balls, 
That's when I realized I'm pumpin'too much Biggie Smalls. 

[CHORUS] 
M to the A to the S to the K, 
Put the mask up on the face just to make the next day. 
Brothers be beafin, Cops be theivin
Brothers be sceamin', And should be teamin'
Jokers be smokin it, And stay broke in it,
B*tches be teasin, Get money sleazin',
N*gga's be creapin', Baby mothers be weapin',
I walk the streets and camouflage my identity. 
My posse in the Haiti wear the mask,
My crew in Jamaica wear the mask 
Stick up kids bumpin Fu-Gee-La wear the mask 
Yeah everbody wear the mask but how long will it 

Guardian Angel

So like im on a wireless keyboard - its revelationssssssssssssssssssssssss!

You know, Juno Reactor is pretty good! after hearing the xavier edit for texholnyse i can't watch that anime without watching the intro song - the whole industrial feel of the anime is all pinpointed by that song - the whole intro feels like it was made for that song. The anime is class - I love the artwork and animation where there's this whole gritty feel to it and there isn't much dialogue in it but you just feel like there's this sense of depression seeping out of the buildings that have been drawn - a sense of oppression and caste divides. I've only seen a few episodes but I do like it - I really want to sink my teeth into it but it's a little hard to follow without much dialogue :P. 

so er yeah wow i saw a pussycat dancing in the twilight looking for answers to a healthy alternative to chicken and chips.

This week has been a real nostalgia trip - a good one at. On tuesday i met up with CZ after around a year and man it felt good in a a platonic way. All those awkward moments and feelings seem to dissipate when we just got down to sitting down and catching up. When I went I thought to myself "maybe these feelings are going to bubble up to the surface - maybe all those memories are going to come back" but once we there they didn't =). However halifax made mention of it and they started coming back so im trying to figure out a way to (as the physicists say) "earth the current". Gotsta see when ze time comes and we be hustlin and hustlinnnnnz

safe i dunno what else to write coz im bare hypers and on a roll on my halo of desireeeeeee but i think i might see cloud 9 on a 6 that looks like a 5.

Park Bench People

There are those times when you just feel like you need to sit on a park bench and think things through - somewhere neutral without anything to immediately affect anything you want to do. Right now is one of those moments - you see right now i feel like that about alot of things. Talking to my bro was kind of enlightening about how i should really start to think about the future more seriously - how do i want my kids to turn out? what i value most is a set of moral principles and a self-confidence that won't hinder them like it's hindered me. Where do i want to be after 5 years? in all honesty - working and starting to actually have a career in focus and the wheel works actually moving. 

Another thing that i'm thinking of is something that's just been bugging me recently...right now i don't feel like talking the same way anymore....in a weird way though it's made me see things that i didn't put much effort into before - weird eh? i hope it fixes and i hope to do something about it. 

On a more lighter note I had the best jam i've ever had with anyone - me and shuaib and then me and adz with the changing members playing drums and me on the guitar. I actually got so into it i was getting into a trance feel - everything felt like it was connecting. I even got to the stage where i felt like i was in the woods and just feeling like i was at peace - the closest sensation to the feeling was like the salvia trip only not so forceful - it felt like a pure natural high. I need to do that again because man those types of feelings are the ones you want to hold onto....it's weird after not playing guitar for a while i went and had an amazing jam - almost as if i'd be penting up alot of stuff in order to get what i wanted out across finally. Hell i was so tranced out i didn't even realise adz sister walk in! and neither did adz - we got so into it....im glad we finally had a moment like that you know. sometimes we find it hard to talk to each other - one or the other will keep it kosher but this felt like a moment where we dropped all the boundaries and just talked like we hadn't talked in a long time. I even felt lighter talking to adz afterwards and the same goes for shuaib....im glad we all jammed together it was a nice feeling =).

Peace =)

Weather The Storm

So I recently downloaded FL studio 8 and have been playing with it ALOT. It's so much fun to make random beats with it mixing in all these random instruments. I can tell if you know how to use it properly you can do some serious musical scents with it :P. So far I've managed to do about a 2-3 second clip but I don't know how to add onto that, but I'm thinking of just getting a tutorial or guide in order to learn it - I'm feeling making some beats and adding on some guitar on top perhaps - i also really want to learn how to do those grand piano sounds I saw on youtube - they look proper hardcore - especially with the sweeping bit - it sounds like a real piano and not synthesised! But I definitely need to learn my music theory now because I don't understand what chord means what or how to move chords an octave higher or lower (im guessing you move a chord 8 notes up if you're using the piano as a base instrument but that's only a guess).

I was on YouTube and I managed to find KQ on youtube - the actual dude! so i commented on one of his vids and he replied back - i feel honoured! I love that guy's stuff, especially his remixes - they always have this weird spacey vibe to them and he does it all on FL! His side projects are slick as well, but really really trippy and cerebral - you can't listen to it expecting a beat, it's just mood music that has this really effect on your mind to just zone out completely. I think his stuff and Fat Jon's serve as sort of inspirations to really get into the whole FL studio flex and start learning it big style for some proper beat tings - you GETS ME!???????

oh big up my mandem Halifax - bare safe tings.

These last few days have been interesting - I went from being so content on sunday (so much so i'd not felt like that in god knows how long) to being pissed off in the same night, sigh it happens. Sometimes I think god is trying to show me something when it comes to these things but I need some time to sit and think about what. It seems to coincedental to be just random.

Anyhoo

I cannot think of anything else to write that will fill the space up for this blog so im just writing whatever I can think of that will make sense.

OOOOO i forgot to mention - Skins is an awesome series - the first 2 series are amazing - the actors are brilliant and it really highlights what teenagers are going through - isolation, love, having fun, finding yourself - although it's a big exaggerated of course and there's alot of sex but it's definitely worth watching. The directing is actually astounding - like there's this one scene where this girl drops the milk carton she's holding and you see it spilling down the stairs and she's trying to call someone but they won't respond because they're crying - just gives you that idea of that proverb about crying over spilt milk but it was done so well.

A Few Memories

Normally whenever i write a blog entry i have a song title that fits the mood or theme of what i'm writing. In this instance i've decided to just choose the song title that's been on my playlist recently - a song from the 2nd RahXephon OST. This song caught me off surprise because normally animé songs aren't actually that trippy and the reverbed out acoustic guitar compliments the pianos quite gracefully. It actually does give you the feeling that you're going deeper and deeper into a few memories of the past - the gentle piano sound giving delicate touch into memories whilst the guitar giving that touching sense of nostaligia. It's a good track in all honesty but memories is oddly and ironically enough something i've not been thinking too much about. Actually the biggest thing that's been preying upon me is idleness. The more this year passes by, the more i think about the disgust of idleness. Im starting to really see how much of a lazy guy i am! it's kind of scary in that i know what i have to do and start to feel it but don't have the will to actually do it. But I think T-mans right - you think too much when you're idle and I think im thinking too much not just about why i don't have the motivation but also about things in general. What I need is 2 things: first is a job, and second is a routine (which the job will provide, but for other more health related aspects - such as jogging and etc). 

One thing that has been keeping me away from pure bumness is trying to hook the old xbox to this pc. I took it from my bro and basically spent a long time trying to set up a network where the internet could still work yet i could connect my xbox to the pc and transfer files. I have to admit, Vista is a completely crap OS for doing this stuff in since I had trouble looking for ways to making a wired LAN connection. inevitably though I had to use a FTP program to create a session for the xbox but before that had to set up an IP for the xbox that was different to the PC so that they didn't clash (the pc has a dynamic IP and i didn't know how to set a static IP for the xbox so that they didn't clash and disconnect from the internet). However, somehow i managed it so i've got some animés off the pc and onto the xbox for some rather peaceful viewing =D. One thing I noticed though was how the quality of RMVBs improve when you use a CRT tv screen in comparison to the LCD pc screen i was using. Like when i was watching RahXephon on the pc i could see the rather pixelated form that RMVBs usually have, but on the tv screen it was alot less noticeable for one and the colours were actually much better. In fact although there was a difference compared to AVIs, it didn't grant the size difference between the two file formats. All in all though, i've got some animé series to watch + some films.

The most recent series I have seen - after a long animé hiatus - was RahXephon. Man, at first I wasn't that impressed, it was quite slow after the first episode until around episode 10. The first episode had alot going on so you were immediately sucked into this struggle between the two races. After that it was like every episode had a Dolem that had to be fought and so felt rather repititive. However, once episode 10 rolled in the whole structure of each episode seem to change and you got to see the build up of certain relationships (i have to say the love triangles and god knows what other shapes you could use to describe the relationships was next and was decently handled). Then the more artistic side of the story started to pop out. I think one of the highlights was the romance. Normally im not a fan of romance, but i think in this series it was so well handled i was surprised. The shots used to describe it and the facial animations really painted this slow but steadily increasing intense relationship between two of the main protagonists. The actual story though was kind of interesting although one watch through isn't enough to actually give you the whole story and i was still confused about certain aspects until i went online and actually saw the timeline written out for it. once i read that it made a whole lot more sense and made me appreciate it more. If i was going to give it a verdict, it'd have to be:

4/5 - it loses a point for the rather boring first few episodes.

Definitely watch it if you don't mind a bit of a headscrew that doesn't try and be too pretentious about it (although i hate using that word) and good romance.

Peace!

New Sentimentality

I finally managed to pick up two things that I had purchased more than a year ago: Kokoro and Seven Samurai. Maybe this month im feeling the need to actually pick these things up, especially since I left them a long time out of sheer laziness. It's kind of funny how I picked up both of these things almost recently. I remember finishing The Alchemist and thinking I really needed a book that was more contemporary and even post modern in some of it's outlook - Murakami got me on that whole wavelength with Kafka. The surrealism in that book is perhaps it's biggest
 draw - you just get sucked into this world of bizarre occurances and essentially complexities of the human soul: trying to survive but trying to understand and comprehend complex feelings and difficult situations. Murakami isn't overly optimistic yet neither is he overly pessimestic; he just sits in the middle :P.

Kokoro is an interesting read though because you can see a number of things. The first is its impact on Murakami's own writing - Soseki's writing shares themes such as the nature of friendships and relationships as does Murakami but I think Kokoro isn't so gritty about it. That's not a bad thing at all, on the contrary you get both sides of the friendship told. You have the student who remains nameless throughout explaining why he's so intrigued by Sensei (the other main character) and how different he is to what he's been raised up with. Sensei on the other hand plays a very introverted character who retains a sense of mystery about his past and his views on love and life and as a result has fascinated the student. It doesn't read like a "classic" novel; it feels so contemporary that when I imagine the events I see them in present day rather than turn of the 20th century which is roughly when Kokoro was written. 

Secondly, what kind of ideas does the book try and address? like i mentioned the nature of friendship and the perceptions of participants in those friendships. The student is really interested to learn from Sensei and feels that he won't be disappointed by who Sensei really is and as a result wants to find out the truth, whereas Sensei on the otherhand has trouble trusting many people after a fateful event in his life which caused a gradual change in his personality and his outlook on life to become more cynical. He is an isolated man because of lack of trust and the student looks to seek out the answers. Their friendship seems fragile but grows as the novel progresses but you always get the sense that while the two begin establishing a connection, there is a wall between the two which Sensei erects until the climax, fundamentally depicting the isolation we feel in everyday life to other people and how we seek to find a connection that is sustainable and deep enough to mean something to our core. It's rather ironic that Sensei finally let's his wall down completely but finds his own demise in it. The person the student finds the most inspirational is Sensei - who is a character that doesn't hold a "rank" in society, but has his own ideals of life and of love which makes the student more and more intrigued with him and I think that Soseki's portrayal is really a modern outlook on how are parents may assume we should see things in one way because they want it for our benefit but in reality we don't accept it because they do not offer anything that really addresses the heart or "Kokoro" as the book's title is labelled.

Soseki also tries to look at the gap between two generations and how what we want maybe different to what our elders want or think of what we've achieved. It's kind of interesting because the student has a balance of filialness yet disagrees with his parents even though he may not openly admit it out of respect. But it really highlighted how different times have changed during the last century and how that has affected generation gaps that have usually kept rather similar ideologies. 

Soseki also looks at women's place in society and how although at the time they may have "certain roles" he tries to explain that we should look beyond that. I think if we translated that into a more modern context it could be tolerance of not just women but of race too so it's interesting to see a classical novelist trying to look at an idea such as this.

All in all though, it's really worth reading and I was surprised at it. I remember trying to read it a year ago and thinking "what the?!" because I was so used to a fantasy like novel, but if you are open about novel form than it's worth picking up definitely.

Seven Samurai was awesome as well. At first watching it I was kind of like "meh" but the second half really picked things up. It's an interesting look on caste differences between farmers and samurai and how people were "born" into these families. Kikichikoyo was my favourite character by far - his brazen and rough nature was funny but he had a real history as to why he was like that, why he tried to become a samurai and his understanding of the situation better than any of the other samurai because he was a farmer. He makes this really passionate plea about how farmers are miserly and lie but do so because of samurai. It really hit home the sense of oppression that caste systems had and still have on people. One thing Kurosawa is really into is the idea of cycles. Throughout the film he has these shots of the watermill just spinning but it depicts this idea of calmness initially, but you see some of the darker aspects of the idea of cycles. Especially when they farmers are defending the village from bandits and Kikichikoyo grabs this child that is crying with that watermill behind just carrying on spinning whilst the accompanying house is burning down and he is screaming out and crying about how the child was him when he was younger - It contrasted the earlier scene that had the peaceful spin of the watermill by a mile. The ending was really class though: that final shot really highlighted the futility of war; how nothing had changed for the samurais looking to seek a way out of their role and how different the farmers were to the samurais.

A very good film, but you need patience to watch it: clocks in at 207 minutes spread over 2 discs.

On that note, here's that closing scene shot. Peace out!

(Note: this is not the full pic - here's a link to the full thing: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/drunkenmaster42/SevenSamurai6.jpg)

What Could Be

So im reading Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" every night for the past 2 weeks now. At around 2am i'll lumber myself up the stairs, into that bed and turn on the reading lamp on the window sill. The yellowy glow across the room and the bookcase is pretty soothing and sets the mood for quiet and peaceful reading. So I began reading and was surprised - it's not really a tale set to woo you with its descriptive depth with plenty of adjectives describing everything in the environment, instead its more a book that tries to do that for the human soul: the descriptiveness comes from talking about the internal struggle of fulfilling dreams and our journeys through life that may or may not let us fulfil those dreams.

One of things about the book I don't really connect with is the whole idea of "follow your heart and you will get the answers". No doubt that's true to some extent, but I think it kind of forgets everyone else in the world and their actions which may have some effect on you. However, Coelho tries to answer that with the use of "The Desert". I think the desert while is supposed to show the power of nature, its there to show the reality of the world - People are fighting in a war and being naive enough to just follow your heart will get you killed. It's the balance of understanding people and your own heart. I think the book really describes the dichotomy between the heart and minds of people and what makes us so different to other species on this planet. Our rationality dictates we can only proceed in certain ways whereas our heart wants and desires that which may seem improbable or impossible to achieve. You know, I kinda like that idea that it explores, because we as humans try hard to seperate the two and try to find ourselves more rational answers to our lives and then explode out with our hearts without really merging the two too much. I guess that's what passion and professional behaviour is; its interesting nonetheless. 

One of the ideas that i really like is the concept of following the "omens". I believe in the world there are signs that if we look at can lead or direct us. It's all based on perception and some individuals may say that one interpreted thing may be absurd but for some it could be a sign to move in a certain way or do a certain thing. Afterall "everything happens for a reason" and i believe those signs really explain the reason behind why certain things work they do, why lives are lived in certain ways because of certain events. To the more rational part of the human that seems implausible because its not a tangible thing, but sometimes we have to trust that which is beyond our senses.

Anyways, from being rather sceptical about the book, im starting to love it now and see why its very popular. I don't believe following your heart will necessarily show your destiny but i think it'll move you and challenge you in ways you wouldn't think were possible of yourself and i think that alone is worth the trip. The book is really a tale of finding your own personal destiny and finding what is worth it for yourself. In some ways its what Aristotle said about "the golden mean" and having an ultimate purpose in life. I think people's aspirations change throughout their lives, but i think alot of the time thats because they never take the chances that maybe available to them and begin to really doubt they can really achieve their end goals. I do highlight "maybe" because sometimes we don't get those chances. To find ourselves though, that involves taking part in the world and not musing constantly - you need to put practice to the theory before you can drive :P.

If anything, i definitely recommend the book; a bit hard to adjust to if you enjoy more complexy in the writing style and slightly idealistic but enjoyable and engaging nonetheless. Its really like a theological interpretation of Aristotle's Golden Mean to be simple but with more of a religious element to it.

Good book read it :).