Flowers some Reflection Eternal and a Modal Soul

Today I've just found out that one of my favourite hip hop producers, Nujabes, has just passed away. This is really sad news - for me personally, he was one of the producers that provided the stepping stone into the world of alternative hip hop which I never knew existed. Without his contribution I feel I would never be where I am musically. The details of death state that he passed away in a car accident on the 26th of February, which was the same day a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit Tokyo and that a private ceremony was held for him.

My first exposure to his music was through Shinchiro Watanabe's Samurai Champloo. His music, alongside Fat Jon's, made half that animé what it was. The music got you more involved with the action, made you empathize with the characters, helped depict the almost oxymoronic world of samurais with hip hop and endearingly too. The music really drew you into the zany world that was being created by Watanabe-San. The funny thing is, I really hated the intro he made with ShingO2 at first! It grew on me and then I finally got the vibe he was giving out and from then I've not really looked back on it musically speaking. Since then I've scouted out whatever music he made and enjoyed every bit of it :). Even now, as I'm listening to Horizon, I'm entranced by the beatism and jazziness of it all. The fact he and Fat Jon practically and single handedly brought me into the world of alternative and jazzy hip hop speaks volumes about their class and genius.

The world has lost a great musician :(.

To quote my friend's blog, which aptly put it:

"Some live, some die, in the name of the samurai, some fight some bleed, sun up to sun down, the sounds of a battlecry"

RIP Seba Kun aka Nujabes.

Build An Ark

My oh my, look what we have here - a decrepit blog with about zero input for god knows how long! too long have you been neglected my voice of the voiceless :). So what's been happening in the intermittent period between the last post and now? well a shed load so let's break it down into the following:

1) I'm in Uni studying medicine

2) I've moved out of London away from home and making friends here

3) Had a few exams and a coursework!

4) Now struggling to be motivated to get my arse into gear - curse you xbox and pc!

Right, that's my list of most interesting things summarized in about four points.

Oh yeah, I'm cooking for myself - not doing too bad, been cookin veggie sausages, yummeh!

Okay, moving on from that (I've noticed I've got quite a scientific vibe going with my listing and such....the joys of scientific courseworks :P) I think I'ma talk about something that interested me more than I thought it would.

About a month ago I had this really strange craving to watch Gundam Wing. I'd been lying in bed thinking about my childhood days of watching it on Toonami and thinking "wow that's is pretty damn cool" but I felt it was a bit too complicated for my DBZ hayday :P. I think being here away from home makes you think alot about who you are and where you come from, both culturally and individually. So on that train of thought, I just remembered this show and decided to download it and watch it. I was a bit hesitant because the copy I had was in dub (eek) so essentially I already was limiting my viewing experience. Put on top a niggling feeling that Gundam stereotypically was about big machines fighting each other (DBZ robot style) and you had the set up of an epic failure. Nonetheless, there was something egging me on to watch it, so that's what I did.

You know what? I was pleasantly surprised. Whilst it was a bit melodramatic (it seemed the characters were exaggerated a fair bit for some stuff that seemed kind of absurd to do so) I liked the ideas they put across. However, these characters, for all their accentuated drama, had understandable notions (apart from wufei - i was confused by his "YOU SHOULDN'T FIGHT, SO IM GOING TO KILL YOU" style), from Treize desire to find a chivalrous battle in which humans can find that despair in what war truly means and why by fighting we can really see how harmful it is to us as a species, to Relena's idealistic (maybe far too much I have to say) notion of creating true peace by having all parties discarding their weapons. For a series that's that single handedly made Gundam famous in the USA, I was intrigued by the notion of peace throughout it. Here you have a series that's choc-a-bloc full of fighting yet there's underlying feeling that all the fights seem...pointless (not to watch, but what their aims were). Looking at it one way, you could say that the fights all highlighted the futility of war. However there's a thin line being tread here - for all the talk of peace, these gundams, which are labelled as symbols of rebellion, are trying to create peace by destroying other ships. It seems kind of contradictory, but when you bottle it down - when can you really and truly have peace without defending it? it is human nature to fight and yet it is also human nature to try and find a peace of mind - even those who are afflicted psychologically try and find resolution by doing what they feel will satisfy their mind-state. In some twisted way, satisfying yourself is one form of temporary peace but it is not the true higher level of peace that many people aspire for, because that kind of peace relies on reducing those carnal desires and finding calm contentment, which cannot be found in those disparaging ways. For me though, whilst the notion of peace was a good mention, I feel that the biggest draw is how history repeats itself in this story. Out of all the aspects covered, this is the one I feel is done the most expertly because you always feel that one dictatorship is being replaced by essentially another under a guise of peace through sheer military force being used to dominate. You see three of these throughout the 49 episode run, giving you a real sense of it.

Overall though, whilst the story had some intriguing ideas, I think the tedious melodrama cuts it down a bit and so you're left with a story that has lots you can extrapolate out from its core, but the surrounding enclosure is full of poor execution.

I'd give it a 6.5/10.

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

Right about now I think I am quite disillusioned with myself. In a time where I'm about to leave things just seem so out of place....it's hard to describe it. At home, there are all these plans to renovate the house, with my friends they're all starting to go their own paths as I am going on my own. With that the tangled trees in between our paths just start to get more tangled and greater in number. Deep down I think inside I'm doing this to myself because I am moving away and starting off somewhere else; I'm getting all disillusioned with everything because I'm the wheel in the cog that's getting removed and my place no longer fits properly like it did. For someone who has never really done much for himself (Admittedly and ashamedly out of procrastination and other excuses) it's a big shock to the system. I'm hyping the situation probably and it won't be so bad, but going it alone is such a big change that I can't help worry about these things. See, i'm quite the "stressed eric" and worry and fret and think about things moreso than needed :P. Anyhoo, apologies for this rather depressing post :P.

Water Got No Enemy

Out of all the songs I've been listening to recently, this one has to be the one song that's resonated the most. Maybe that's because of the..er..."time" associated with it, which in hindsight probably does have a big role to play, but to be honest every time I do listen to it I just feel im drifting away slowly into the sunset - like the credits of a massive film called "Life - the end of an era" is rolling and this song is just accompanying those credits with pictures of events in my life. There's something so resolute and positive in this song that it feels like it's high note for the ending. When I think about it though, I reckon it's mostly to do with the ending of an era of me and TK and our free jams - we ended it on a good note and my nostalgic senses have gone into overdrive as a result. That's why I think I keep hearing this song with ending credits - the actors all playing their parts in this film and moving onto their new projects, making different films and getting into new roles, ones you'd never think to see them in.

As well as being positive, it makes me sad at the same time, as nostalgic trips tend to do - in the same way you feel sad if a really good film comes to an end, you also relish the good ending that comes along with it. Still, maybe there's always time for a sequel eh?

Deep Fried Frenz

Hi kids! Today we're going to make eggrolls from banana skins. Right, what you do is open up a banana, take the skin and dash it on someone's forehead. The natural oils in a person's skin just exfoliates the skin and gives it a natural and nutritious combination of vitamin c and antioxidants - so get the most oiliest and greasiest person you know, throw that skin and make sure you feel that resinous texture in your hand. The oil allows you to get that really high cholesterol flavour but in a much more healthier way. I think it's just absolutely divine.

Now once you have that done, what you need to do is get the banana and chop it up into small pieces and take the peel; this part is VITAL so take heed with what im about to write next. The peel will be used to make the egg whites. That's right, the egg whites. So what you do is, take the peel, throw it in a blender with milk, paint stripper and dulux paint at exactly 20 ml, 1 litre and 10 litres. Blend for 20 minutes until you get this really rich, gelatinous and gorgeous feel to it. Take this amazing mixture into a baking tray and place the banana sking in a circle in the middle of the mixture.

Put this into the oven at gasmark 4 and leave for half an hour until a crispy and crunchy contortion comes out of the oven and there we have our egg roll.

Best served with a bowl of feta cheese and whisky.

Enjoy this sumptious morsel as it's the perfect summer and date food!

14 Years: Nostalgia

This is the first time I've written a poem in about 3-4 years and it has to be listened to the Fat Jon track , 14 Years, for the whole bang. Peace!

The quaint sound of a broken record permeates the room,

Its chicago jazz dancing across like a debutante searching for a groom.

The reverberations puncuate my ear, searching

for a cerebral bank of memories

The trigger sets off a forest of sepia toned feeling,

With falling autumn leaves hung in suspense in the eternity of mind.

I walk through my mind's eye and touch the blue and white ceiling

of clouds; my hand caressing their warm innocence inside.

I dive into the rush of calm nostalgia,

Swimming in a rouge ocean of tender

Romantism. I stop and float into the cerulean depths of meloncholy

Drifting to the bottom, looking for the tranquility,

With an anchor weighting for the moment.

A dark bed bursts, body flung up and a whisk of wind!

The scent of the gale generously gliding over

Pulling -- into a kaleidoscope of sound

With the echo coating the apoethetic snow-capped mountains, green vistas and golden deserts.

The cosmic rhythm guides me freely, Inviting me, before the eyes open

And the broken record has started again.

Omni

It's a song by Five Deez, a hip hop group from cincinatti with Fat Jon as the producer (you can hear his sound all over this album). Their actual name stands for the fifth dimension, which according to them is the "dimension where you experience music". Kinda cool eh? Some of their lyrics are pretty deep and interesting when you engage with it, especially one that goes "And times change, like the falling autumn leaves, personalities are cemented in this present state, most people become content, no thoughts of more buildin' off now". You know what? lemme just post that shizzle up:

(When in the world are you going to settle down

and start doing something with yourself?)



[Hook 2X]

I know what you wanna know
(An intellectual, fate offers no hint)

I see what you wanna see

(I think I might like to see you)



[Verse 1]

Now you know the way I wanna be

You see the direction, create the cross sections

Movin' me to places to soak up the lessons

Dried my tears years ago with no question

But you seem better from the back

More space to function with

Motion's not restricted to what I give it

Completely fill your area like liquid

No untouched surface greater than what's less

Than is expected of all men

Projected a few before you elected a few

(Who knew?) I would be the one you had to have

Full body massage with the words of my choice

Sound healin' is produced with the science of man

You should keep your eye on it if you rely on it

Chase whatever makes you wanna change vapor

Understanding consequences

What exactly is this? Who exactly are you?

Are you me enough to know what I know when

You seein' us

I watch it all begin to spin over and over again

But it's never the same I feel

And when I finish the sentence what really remains?

Now I'm boardin' the plane to go exist on another



[Hook 2X]



[Verse 2]

(Close) I haven't been this way with most

Learned aggression, hate, and love too

A lotta what I think is based off my perception

As I travel, it makes sense, movin' me mo'

And times change

Like the fallin' autumn leaves, personalities are cemented

In this present state, most people become content

No thoughts of more, only buildin' off the now but

Then never changes, at least we never see it

We want what will be to be beautiful and just to happen

(But it doesn't work that way)

(It all stays the same at the end of the evenin')

You lay and contemplate sunrise and sundown

Who made the best decisions?

Was it you, somebody you know, or a stranger?

And if anything, what did you learn?

Are you equipped to just weep? (No shame)

Because you know what life is

A collection of seconds that we watch go by

And some times for not and at sometimes for

But all times livin' with a question on ya mind

Pain and freedom, fear and independence

Chances, mind games, war, and only breathin'

Unknown to known facts, insecurities

Confidence, sadness, faith, and what you know now



[Hook 2x]