Out of my Mind!

Maybe I'll Be Back in 5 Minutes

Things have taken a mystifying and out of the ordinary turn for me, lately. So, I'm going to be taking a little time away from here, I think. For a few minutes, hours, days whatever. Well, at the very least. Who knows, though? Could change my so-called mind in any of a dozen ways in an instant.

Life is a really strange place, no matter where you live it: in the "real" world or in a virtual one. And even more so when you live your life in your head, for the most part. My life goes on in my mind and, often, this "real" world of blood and sweat and universal laws seems to be only a place to survive, not a place to live. That's upside down and backwards, really, but that's the way my head works.

So, I'm going to go sit in my mental penthouse for a while and try to sort out the junk. Just think of me in my scruffy blue jeans, eating chicken sandwiches and making piles of what to keep and what to throw away. I'll come downstairs, occasionally, to pick up the mail, pay the bills and maybe answer the phone too, so, if you want to talk to me, drop me e-mail. I'm going to go, for now but I will be back! Be seeing you.

Taking a Break!

With Friends for Company!

Sometimes I just get asinine for no apparent reason I can pin down. Usually alternative rock or spellbinding electron trance,and at times, the company of old friends in a good mood... whatever it is, it's helluva fun but these days all too very rare.

Too often creatives like me live in tiny utopian boxes, and we all get so used to staring at the shiny walls of our own inventions and self-imposed confines of our offices that we completely forget that this isn't the real big picture. Though we won’t readily admit, we all pull down and bury ourselves in hard monotonous 9 to 9 work – copywriting, designing, wireframing, strategizing, brainstorming, all the catchy keywords that you associate with a creative hotshop.

So when we take that break, I jump up! Hey, it's kind of cool out here with the mad folks - a temporary relief from all the bad vibes of a bad day. Not as a steady diet, maybe, but for an evening of fun, it's... well, good fun. Get me lit enough, add a few friends, the right music and I'll stand on the bar deck and sing Def Leppard or dance insane steps at the disco floor. Heck, I don't even have to be drunk on alcohol to do it. Drunk on gaiety will do.

So this weekend while discussing the recession and laughing my head off with an old ‘transnational’ pal over dinner in the city’s current hottest pub, I noticed that the single geek at the bar table next over was trying hard not to stare at us. Poor fella: crouching over his laptop, fiddling his cellphone and visibly bothered that the pretty girls at the adjacent lounge were all laughing and talking about politics, sex, music, art and beer while he sat glum faced in solitary isolation. Obviously, the poor guy needed a break, a few more beers himself and definitely, someone for company!Pity him!

P.S: By the way, since this time, my friend mentioned here has vanished without a trace. If anyone knows what has became of Sid Thomas from Sydney, I’d really appreciate knowing.

Advice Unwanted

How Strangers Can Ruin Your Day!

Who are these people? I'm working my butt off on some project and some stranger comes along and watches me, then tells me all about exactly how I'm doing it wrong (or at least not the most competent way), how I ought to do it, what I ought to be using and how much I've already screwed the project up by doing things incorrectly so far. Where do these idiots come from and why do they think I give a damn? What makes them believe I give them and their unwanted opinions any kind of credence at all?

And yet, I will stand there hypnotized, nodding astutely and saying "that's what I thought". Vomit. What am I thinking? What I want to do is smack them upside the head WWE style and say "Shut up! If you're so damned experienced and skilled, you do it, 'cause I've got stuff I'd much rather do." Certainly, I have other things I'd rather complete than listen to them spew out... like whatever blasted project I'm knee-deep in when they inexorably come trodding in!

Now, I don't mind my friend coming along and making "misery loves company" jokes as I labour along, since I've seen him head-down over some wretched project many a time. He's earned the right to razz me a bit and I've razzed right back a time or two. That's fine. But these... people… just arrogant prickly rats?

My teacher at School used to lecture me about "the right tool for the job" when I was a kid. Most of the time, the right tool for my job has been a word processor or a pen and a notebook. What do I know about tools? Well, I do know which end to hold onto and that the tool should be doing the work, not me. So, I plod along when scraping paint and sanding wood and things of that nature, letting the tools do the work and listening to other bitch about how slow I am.

And, of course, the free-advice folks seem to be most attracted to the slow-moving workers, as if doing your work at a firm and agreeable pace means that you're in over your head and that you need their unwelcoming and supposedly unbiased help without delay.

Actually, I don't. I prefer to make my own mistakes and learn from them, not make someone else's mistakes and then be annoyed. Bugger off you irritating chatterers. If I screw up, you can laugh all you like, but please don't say "I told you so," because I'd prefer it if you didn't tell me in the first place. Want to help me out? Keep your mouth shut. simple!

Donnie Darko 2001 (+ Directors Cut)

Richard Kelly’s Inventive Exercise in Surreal Teen Angst

I just finished reading Richard Kelly’s “The Donnie Darko Book”, a fascinating addition to the inventive 2001 time travel cult hit - Donnie Darko. The magnetism of Donnie Darko which originally saw a very limited theatrical release but a subsequent fantastic run on DVD and Cable, lies not really in its focal stars – Jake Glyllenhaal, real life sister Maggie Glyllenhaal or Jena Malone (who plays Rocket in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch) nor in its hypnotic subtle special effects, serviceably effectual as they may be. Although, we have to admit Patrick Swayze's turn as a slimy motivational speaker is wickedly genius, easily his best performance since Point Break, the Kathryn Bigelow directed Keanu Reeves smash hit)

No, Donnie Darko simply works because it's completely original even with its sci-fi undertones. Its portrayal of late-1980s suburban American disquiet and crippling teenage perplexity is so authentic that a talking six-foot tall metal-faced rabbit named Frank is rendered only slightly less than completely plausible.

Donnie Darko succeeds because of first-time writer/director Richard Kelly’s (who went to make the equally surreal Southland Tales) complex script, which - at once candidly determined, mournfully delicate and strikingly intelligent - is also wise enough to make Donnie's parents caring and insightful, knowing that need not preclude the troubled kid from hating them. It works because Jake Gyllenhaal (in one of his best performance since October Sky and Bubble Boy) brings a restrained, tormented charm to the primary character of Donnie. And not to mention and this is the aspect that will haunt you afterwards - the stellar music of Michael Andrews and the befitting 80’s new wave soundtrack including "Mad World", the haunting No.1 Gary Jules piano-driven cover hit of the Tears for Fears single.

By portraying so honestly the time in which it’s set, Donnie Darko captures a dreamlike world of feeling and detail that transcends time, which is what the movie is all about in the first place. Or is it?

Present below are Video links to the original version and the extended Director's Cut which was released in 2004.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Links :

Donnie Darko (2001) Original Version : VeeHD or StageVu

Donnie Darko (2004) Directors Cut : VeeHD or StageVu

Gary Jules : Mad World (Tears For Fears Cover) : Youtube Video

An Apocalyptic Wedding Invite

Thanks to Ellen Forney for the inspiration, designed this wedding card for a friend of mine. What better way to celebrate our mutual love for Zombies and Graphic Novels!!

10 Great (and Bad) School Songs

10 School Inspired Songs from the Websnacker Archives

In a move obviously perpetrated by ignorant politicians, obsessive academics and greedy education companies, kids these days are having a really short vacation and are going back to school much, much earlier. In fact most of them are back at School already.

Whatever happened to free time for children, of not having to go back to brainwash camp and why did needlessly anxious parents and other such minions of school evil allow these sinister changes? It's not like this extra time in the school trenches is making the kids any smarter, so why not let the little brats have some more summer vacation?

Anyway, instead of harping on the nation wide super sale of Apple iPhone4 or Justin Beiber T-shirts (De rigueur for the fashion forward trend-following teen-sheep), lets dust off the old tape recorder and review some of the world's great and not so great songs (read bad songs) about school (from my archives) to the test. Don't worry if your favorite school-themed song isn't on here, it probably sucks anyway. Why? Because I'm the teacher now and I said so.

1. Beach Boys: Be True to Your School

Uggh. No disrespect to Brian Wilson and his Manson-friendly brothers, because they definitely churned out some important and lovely psychedelic harmonic pop, but this glee-club disaster of a song sucks. The devotion to your alma-mater lyrics sound like something the super dad on "7th Heaven" would write, and the "Rah, Rah, Rah, Sis-Boom-Bah" background vocals are about as square as music can get without somehow involving both Kenny G. and a church youth group. Youtube

2. Chuck Berry: School Days

An exemplar specimen, not just of the school songs genre, but of Rock n' Roll in its entirety. This song, with its wonderful guitar work echoing Berry's witty lyrics, paints a truly amazing, portrait of teenage life during the dawn of Rock n' Roll. A true joy, we only wish all of our current staple of songs on air were as clever, catchy and poignant as this 1957 classic. Youtube

3. Dead Prez: They Schools

Wow. Hip hop Duo M-1 and Stic man really break it down on this one, spewing not only fury and rage but also some serious knowledge and insight into just how screwed up America's school systems are, especially for Afro Americans. The only thing keeping this track from being a straight up winner is the somewhat weak R&B style hook which manages to detract from the overall power and impact of the verses. Youtube

4. MC5: High School

Those were the days when Wayne Kramer and his boys seemed to be coasting on proto-punk "Kick Out the Jams" White Panther reputation and hence, this lackluster celebration of youth gone wild. Certainly not their best work. There's potential here, but these guys need to buckle down and apply themselves if they really want to spark a revolution. Youtube

5. Nirvana: School

Sure it's not quite as catchy or dazzling as “Smells like Teen Spirit”, but this is good solid genre work. Cobain's pained wail and the repeated refrains of "No Recess" and "You're in High School Again" skillfully, if simply, articulate the utter torturous anguish that, for most of us, was (or is) High School. Youtube

6. Replacements: Fuck School

Very early Replacements at their shoddy, patchy, punk/drunk rock best. Its 90 secs of pure midwestern youth insurgence and it earns a considerable credibility bonus by virtue of the fact that bass-player Tommy Stinson was all of just 15 years old at the time and probably had to skip his 10th grade Social Studies to make the recording session. Youtube

7. Van Halen: Hot For Teacher

This song rocks. An under rated Van Halen gem. A perfect riff and some great rocket-ship soloing from Eddie combined with David Lee Roth's perfectly lascivious hard rock vocals form a classic tune. It's too bad David Lee Roth called it quits afterwards only to be replaced by what many fans call an insipid and second-rate imitator in Sammy Hagar (which I completely disagree though). Youtube

8. Pixies: Weird at My School

This Doolittle era rarity is an attention-grabbing Country and Western flavored tune about a kid that lives at his Catholic school and wants to have sex with the nuns. Not bad at all but from alternative chart regulars like the Pixies, we would expect a little better. Youtube

9. Ramones: Rock n' Roll High School

A lot more fun in theory than practice, this is probably one of the Ramones' lamer songs. It's just a little too '50s kitsch for tastes. Still it is the Ramones, a perpetual Teacher's favorite, so it squeezes in just above the mark of mediocrity. Youtube

10. Sam Cooke: Wonderful World

On first listen, this song sounds almost as square as, if a lot more expressive as, "Be True To Your School," but a deeper listen reveals it’s many saving graces. Cooke's voice is so smooth it's spiritual, his lyrics are self-deprecatingly endearing, and most importantly… he's trying to get laid. You can't fault a guy for that. Sam may not claim to be an A Student, but he was one of the pioneers of Soul music and with this majestic performance he earns top marks. As a side note, at the height of his popularity, Cooke was shot dead when was 33 years old under rather mysterious circumstances. Bet they don't teach that at school. Youtube

Notable Mentions (with Youtube Links)

Alice Cooper - “School's Out”

Boomtown Rats - “I Don't Like Mondays"

Bryan Adams - “Summer of 69”

Crash test Dummies – “Mmm Mmm Mmm"

Jackson 5 - “ABC”

Pet Shop Boys - “It's a Sin"

Pink Floyd - “Another Brick in the Wall”

Billy Idol – Cyberpunk (1993)

Remembering the Original Cyberpunk

3 times Grammy nominated William Michael Albert Broad, better known as Billy Idol was the original MTV pioneer and quintessential punk rocker who mined platinum for years with numerous hit albums including the hugely popular Rebel Yell (1983) (featuring the international hit “Eyes Without a Face”) which catapulted him to superstar status, 1986’s Whiplash Smile and 1990’s Charmed Life. Although immensely popular and successful, his latter music sounded increasingly outmoded, relying far too often on his typical scorn and the Billy Idol trademark howl than on any new musical direction.

Then the accomplished punk rebel discovered the futuristic worlds of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, one of the greatest Science fiction writers of our times who helped define the cyber world genre. Gibson’s vision of an ultramodern future where information is the most valuable commodity and where console cowboys physically jack into their computers to cruise through cyberspace captured Idol’s imagination. He bought a computer, learned how to use it DIY and starting hanging out in cyberspace.

Soon, Idol made what, in many minds was the predictable evolution from a regular punk to a cyber punk, with his 1998’s experimental concept album aptly called 'Cyberpunk', an electronic tour de force of intense techno beats and cyber-lyrics that has one foot in Rock and the other in the brave new cyberdelic world of the early 90s.

Inspired by his trek into the computerized world of electrons, cybertrons and fiber optic cables along with his overzealous fascination with sci-fi culture, Cyberpunk touched upon many of diverse themes the cyber subculture of those early days of the Internet (usenet) embraced.

Lyrically presenting a revolutionary world controlled by corporate overlords and populated by cybernetic cowboys, ardent religious fanatics and a zombie working class held in virtual slavery, Cyberpunk worked well as one of the first musical interpretations of cyberpunk culture and idealism, acting as a bookend and a shining example to new artists exploring unchartered musical frontiers. In fact, Cyberpunk was the first album by a mainstream artist to feature an email id !!!, a special edition multimedia floppy disk (as CR-ROMS were expensive then), a supplementary Shock to the System VHS cassette or actively embrace the Internet in its development and promotion.

While many fans and critics disagreed, the new-fangled change suited him well, breathing new life to his style (Billy Idol was James Cameron's first choice for the T2 Cyborg in Terminator 2) and a raw electronic energy to his music. And although a critical and commercial failure some calling it 'one of the worst albums of all time'; musically at least, Cyberpunk offered some of the best that Idol had produced since the days of "White Wedding" or "Dancing With Myself," recapturing the original strength, appetite and ferocity that originally fired Idol into stardom and led to his previous successes.

Lyrically entrancing and tunefully diverse with a strong electronic flavor, “Cyberpunk” is rhythmic, provocative and often times disturbingly dissonant, much like the discordant society being described, the world that we have now become.

I have not added the entire album of 20 tracks here but only the notable hits and some of my personal favorites including "Shock to the System", "Heroin", "Adam in Chains", "Power Junkie", "Love Labours On" and "Mother Dawn", a fast paced duet with Durga McBroom (of Blue Pearl)

12 tracks in playlist, average track length: 5:11

Playlist length: 1 hour 2 minutes 12 seconds

1. Billy Idol - Wasteland (No Religion 11) (3:54)

2. Billy Idol - Shock To The System (3:37)

3. Billy Idol - Tomorrow People (5:05)

4. Billy Idol - Adam In Chains (6:20)

5. Billy Idol - Neuromancer (4:36)

6. Billy Idol - Power Junkie (4:46)

7. Billy Idol - Love Labours On (3:53)

8. Billy Idol - Heroin (Velvet Underground Cover) (6:56)

9. Billy Idol - Shangrila (7:24)

10. Billy Idol - Concrete Kingdom (4:51)

11. Billy Idol - Venus (5:47)

12. Billy Idol - Mother Dawn (featuring Durga McBroom) (5:03)

Free Mp3s - 95.61 MB Single Zipped Folder - Megaupload Download link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE BILLY IDOL, PLEASE BUY ORIGINAL BILLY IDOL MUSIC.

You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s of Billy Idol at his official site, his myspace page and also at other sites like emusic, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer.

The Bell Jar - Victoria Lucas (Sylvia Plath)

An Intimate Peep into a Deeply Troubled but Intelligent Mind

The Bell Jar, popular American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel which she wrote under the pen name “Victoria Lucas” is an astonishingly dramatic account of her life through the mendacity of the fashion industry, the hollowness of living in a little insipid town, the bewilderment and paranoia of a young girl attempting suicide and finally a perennial struggle to fight her depression and reform her madness. Plath decided that her "warped view of the world around... seems the one right way of looking at things."

Surprisingly, Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) had the fortunate ability to do almost anything she wanted with her life. She achieved excellence in her schoolwork, earned many awards and numerous scholarships for her writing and was publishing poems at the young age of just eight.

During her sophomore year at Smith College, Plath won a short story contest for Mademoiselle Magazine. And in August of 1951, she spent a month in New York guest editing the famous magazine. There she was enveloped in a fashionably ideal lifestyle and was consumed with the fashion industry and its trendy folks. Upon return to a small lifeless suburb of Boston, she became more and more withdrawn and her views became more and more warped. Even though she got married to fellow poet Ted Hughes, her personal life continued to disintegrate and Plath began to become trapped, in what many say was her own personal bell jar.

Maybe, Plath just didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She saw her life as a tree full of ripe fruit, each fruit representing an intense and rewarding future. In her own words, she saw herself "sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs to choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." This dismay and consternation eventually caused her complete descent into insanity, a few suicide attempts, shock therapy and even stays at mental hospitals. When this reached a peak, Plath committed suicide which her friend and critic Al Alvarez claimed was an unanswered cry for help.

A sad feeling thats evident in her novel. Plath writes in almost child-like language, with colorful imagery and deeply thought-provoking symbolism. The Bell Jar is vivid poetry more than prose - from the colors in her neighbor’s hand-woven rug that are trampled to gray by her husband and children to the spiteful fury of bedridden hospital patients whose flower arrangements Plath combines to fit her own tastes, it’s an intimate peep into a deeply troubled but intelligent mind. Midway through, Plath's childish, obsessed thoughts, strange words and bizarre actions are easily understood and the disturbed mind of one of "society’s outcasts" becomes all too familiar...perhaps, one realizes why psychologists did coin the word “ Sylvia Plath” effect.

A Letter to Myself

Writing Your Own Diary

One of the greatest things I've done for myself in the past few months was to start keeping my very own private journal, because for the first time since I was a child I'm writing something strictly for me, and I'm doing it because I want to do it and not because someone asked me to do it. I started a fresh MSWORD file on New Year's Day simply titled ‘New.doc’ and a running count on it shows I've put an impressive 352000 words in 130 Days. Such log keeping would tell you that it ain't worth reading; to anyone but myself that's undoubtedly true. But to me, it's been time and effort well-spent.

Therefore, I feel it is indeed worthwhile to do something that you've always wanted to do for the sheer hell of it, strictly for your own kicks, knowing no one but yourself will ever see it. Only you know what such a something should be; only you will ever see the end product, but there's something to be said for getting at least a taste of the fun of writing back on one's palate.

A close pal of mine tells me one of the little subliminal motivational techniques at her marketing firm is a bespoke nameplate for everyone's cubicle with some crappy quote or other about the benefits of competition. She has taped over her quote and replaced it with one from Lao Tzu, the mystical Chinese philosopher: "The sage dreams of great things, and in seeking nothing, accomplishes them." And she is leading her area in sales made; I've joked they may bring her back to teach a revolutionary Taoist approach to sales! Maybe this is a time to focus more on the dreaming and less on the actual accomplishing. And I hope I do keep writing!

The Thin Red Line (1998)

An Outstanding War Movie Like No Other

Terrence Malick's 20-year break from filmmaking was vindicated by the adaptation of the James Jones novel in 1998’s Academy nominated war film - The Thin Red Line. Featuring a gifted assembly of fine fresh faces (then) and a handful of starring cameos, this critically acclaimed, cinematic version of the Guadalcanal invasion during World War II embodies the belief of remarkable human experience, among a vacillating military cadre. Malick's painstaking production allows Jones' complex vision of concurrent personal sagas to come to life while a brutal war rages somewhere in the gorgeous Pacific background.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead) A fight of morals emerges between cynic-in-training, Sgt. Welch (Sean Penn), and the routinely AWOL Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), which draws a thin red line of wartime accountability down the middle of Charlie Company. Private Witt and Captain ‘Bugger’ Staros (Elias Koteas) imagine a world of order and alternatives that do not exist in battle. However, commanding officers, Lt. Col. Gordon Tall (Nick Nolte), Sgt. Keck (Woody Harrelson) and Sgt. Welch have adopted a different code for survival on the pacific island. Tall is able to quantify the loss of life as it relates to the value of his mission, while Staros refuses to condemn his men to a bleak fate. A past between Welch and Witt is hinted at, but never fully revealed, while Chaplin's character must fight his own insecurities after receiving a ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife.

The personal joys and sorrows of each character are defined as a set of independent variables associated only by their shared time and place. Early casualties in Keck and others diminish an eager gung-ho attitude that Tall had hoped to cultivate in his troops. Staros is, eventually, relieved of duty by Tall, yet recommended for numerous decorations. Malick paints a picture of understanding that filters down past the surface of war and soaks to the root of what drives man to conflict. An abstruse finale suggests a personal victory for Private Witt, whose death at the hands of a Japanese platoon appears to gesture their proximity to his own company. As fresh American troops replace the survivors of the initial offense, Watt's actions equate to the valor he could never achieve through desertion.

Stunning action photography captures the grim consequences of warfare up close, while fiery explosions barely three feet from the camera fling hapless victims into full-screen airborne contortions. However, the superbly executed war scenes are used sparingly, complimenting the spotlight Malick has placed on the larger thematic goal. Characters are filmed in close up or framed to ensure visual attention during the limited number of dialogue sequences, a style that (combined with the award winning background score by Hans Zimmer & John Powell) beautifully emphasizes the utter loneliness of their existence.

Malick also incorporates an undercurrent of natural imagery to contrast the presence of these military ‘outsiders’. Snakes strike at soldiers as they plod across the battlefield, native islanders continue to sing and a newly hatched bird struggles to take its first steps, only to be welcomed by the crackle of gunfire on the adjacent hillside. Unlike other war movies, Malick employs a surplus of emphatic allegories to focus on the futility of war, and he succeeds. A great film.

Watch out for John Cusack, Nick Stahl, Jared Leto, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, Ben Chaplin, John Travolta and many others in this star studded ensemble and check out the earlier 1964 version as well.

DVDRIP Single File - Free Streaming/Download link - Stagevu or VEEHD link.