Right Right Now Now – Beastie Boys
MCA (Beastie Boys) slaps down the political rhyme: “Trajectories from the past are taking their toll and, what we do now is future moulding – Columbine bowling, childhood stolen – we need a bit more gun controllin…” Three nerdy white guys rapping in Times Square, the so called “center of the universe.” This made my day and provided me with the inspiration I was looking for.
Why do I always provide links to video game music in my blog? Am I that much of a geek? Well, there’s the short answer (yes) and the long answer to that. You see, when you’re playing a video game like The Legend of Zelda or Age of Empires II, you’re focused on the mission or task at hand, whether it be saving the princess and slaying three-headed dragons, or launching a ground offensive against the enemy. Sometimes you just can’t consciously focus on the music. But it’s there, and your subconscious mind is totally digging it while you’re owning Agahnim with his own evil magic energy by reflecting it with your master sword.
What am I getting at? Sometimes video game music speaks straight to the heart, because of its simplicity. There’s immense profundity…in its simplicity. This particular song is called, “Smells like Crickets, Tastes Like Chicken.” Why is it called that? I have no idea! But who really cares? When I listen to this, my heart lightens as I recall the many hours I spent building my civilization (I usually played as the Japanese), raising an army, and setting out on major conquests. I don’t think words – I think feelings, and nostalgia. That’s the point, words aren’t important with this type of music. I have appropriated the music as something special connected with my past; hence it’s a part of me, and no one else will hear the same thing I do when I listen to it.
But music is not just about the past. This song not only makes me nostalgic and remember my virtual conquests on the PC, but it lights a spark, and sells a bigger inspiration. An inspiration to conquer my dreams with the same determination and courage as the brave general who conquered his enemy in an epic battle. And forever behold and absorb this beautiful process of growth and learning known as life.
It may be difficult to understand what is the connection between the songs I post in my blog entries and what I write. That is because music is special and unique to each of us. What one song reminds me of will likely be totally different than the images it evokes in your mind. This particular song and its silly little video in anime-fashion unexpectedly called forth something incredible, a whirlwind of emotion inside of me. There’s something about certain types of music that extends to a dimension that our senses alone cannot perceive, something spiritual. Something that appeals to our primal nature…almost as if we were recalling a powerful memory from a past life.
I was overcome with the sensation of wanting to fall in love. I can imagine myself being swept away by a force as strong as a hurricane, falling deep into another realm. I see the two of us, just the two of us in the whole world, sitting side by side. The mystical purple of the sunset over the warm, bubbly beach, the soft crashing of the waves on the sand a gentle melody. I look into your eyes and find there everything I’ve ever been searching for. We’ll go together, to the ends of this earth. We’ll see everything that’s made for us to see, and the magic of this moment will never fade. You are my counterpart in another world; you are the anti-matter to my matter, and together we’ll fuse explosively and do what has never been done before. You are the key to my lock, and you and I will live forever.
Arrested Development: Come Clean With You
So Arrested Development has made it to the top of my favorite TV shows list, becoming the first show to surpass South Park, ever. Mind you, it’s a pretty short list, considering how little TV I watch. In fact, it’s really only 3 items long:
1. Arrested Development
2. South Park
3. The Office
And considering that I don’t even like The Office that much, this says something about what I think of the majority of shows on TV today. My brain is like a separate nation with a very authoritarian government that issues immigration laws severely restricting the type of media that enters it. In order for a TV show or movie to be allowed entrance into my mind, it has to have a Visitor’s Visa, which can only be obtained by numerous recommendations from friends whose opinions I value. If I do let the media into my brain, and it turns out to be acceptable, that TV show or movie is granted a Permanent Resident visa. This is a highly influential status, as this means that the said medium has the potential to influence my thoughts, beliefs, and actions (and ultimately my life). So wouldn’t you also be careful about what you let into your brain?
With that said, Arrested Development has definitely impacted how I view society and my perceived place in society. Of course I love the comedy, the ridicule, and the satire. But what also inspires me is the genuine message or driving force behind each of the characters. Michael is portrayed as someone successful and hard working who is spending every ounce of his effort to keep his family together – but he is also shown to be light-hearted and fun-loving, as well as an imperfect human being and protagonist who is on his own learning adventure in life. The others, including Tobias and Gob, are all looking for something or striving for what they believe is their purpose, although their flawed logic, immaturity, and frivolity cause more than a few misadventures and keep them from their goals. But everyone seems to be having fun more often than not, whether or not it is fun at the expense of others.
It has truly made me reflect on how life is never fully satisfying, and the need to put aside our continuous wanting and desiring and accept life’s imperfections, and just share some laughs and silly moments with the people who matter. It has helped to dispel the dark childhood image I’ve had of success as a solitary and merciless pursuit, where the object is to surpass everyone else with a vengeance and never look back. Now I realize, more than ever, that success is only worthwhile if I can share it with the people I care about, and let those people be the inspiration for my success.
I recall once telling my friends Rendell and Phi that if I were in another time and place far away in the past, and I had the opportunity, I would live in a small town and become the flute-boy, the pied piper, and happily spend the rest of my days in this way. I would be seen and heard by the locals as they pass by me on the way to the village market square. I would play in the same spot everyday, surrounded by a group of eager animals and children (foxes, dogs, cats, frogs, birds, rabbits, maybe even an occasional bear) who would sit entranced and wide-eyed as they listened to my narration of a heart-rending or uplifting story in the form of a beautiful, passionate melody.
This is a fantasy that sits deep within my soul, that practically brings tears to my eyes as I relate it to you. I believe the image of a young boy in a green hat sitting on a tree stump in the middle of a forest, playing to the animals of the wild comes from my days of playing The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past when I was little. Who would think that an image from a video game would come to bear such symbolic signifance in my life? For nowadays, as I find myself rushing to and fro, hardly stopping to think where I am or what I’m doing, caught up in the pressures of the real world, the pitfalls and mazes within society, as well as the confusion and complications of my relationships with others – it’s incredibly reassuring to look within myself and see the young pied piper there. He truly knows what he is and what he’s doing, and he enjoys every moment of it. His music is his message, the ultimate expression of his soul. It’s nice to stop for a moment and remember what makes me special and gives me a unique identity in this world. A feeling, if nothing else.
Memories are formed in a very peculiar way. I’ve noticed that memories with a strong emotional core can be most easily and thoroughly recalled, thus causing the same emotions from a past time to flood through the mind and body, providing a temporary rush. No surprise there. But I’ve also realized that the cues that act as pointers to these memories are most often 1) a particular scent, aroma, or odor that serves to remind one of a powerful memory, or 2) music, something one may have listened to or associated with that time period in his/her life to which the memory is bound.
This particular song and its video, besides being a music video I enjoy watching, reminds me of a distinct time period in my life, specifically the first half of the year 2007 – without doubt, one of most memorable, exciting, and enjoyable times in my life. Therefore, what this song most clearly evokes in me is nostalgia. The details particular to my case are not important. But it seems that through the power of music, I find myself transported into the past, and I find that the person I was back then in the spring of 2007 (and I have transformed several times since then) is still alive within me, influencing my thoughts and actions today, probably even guiding me toward my destiny to a certain extent.
I’m aware that this is not a happy song; rather, it’s a song that conveys cynicism and alienation. However, this is exactly what binds my memory of listening to this song with that particular time period – Thom Yorke’s words symbolized my feelings of scorn towards
certain aspects of society during that time. Therefore, I’ve found that even through channels of unwholesome or angry emotions, music can transport me back to happy memories of the past, and that same feeling of warmth and sweetness can return for a moment. In conclusion to this unfocused account of what goes on in my brain, I can only say that I’m baffled by the divine workings of music, and even more so by the question of who (or what) I am.
Here’s to the power that permeates the matter of this universe, infinite and indomitable. Here’s to the force that can move mountains, conquer the skies, and control the direction of the winds. It is a power “greater than all of our fears and superstitions combined,” in the words of Napoleon Hill. When I hear the music that is the product of this power, when I see the people who have against all odds triumphed and harnessed the intangible forces of the ether, I smile, and in that moment, I am unafraid. I am unafraid of the tallest heights and the steepest trails. My soul is a vessel, and I do not fear the darkest, deepest waters I must traverse. I am unmoved by the snapping jaws and the sharp teeth that others may call “dangerous.” I shall follow the light in my heart ’till the end, and give no thought to the limitations existing in the mind of the common man.
I’ve learned from past experiences that happiness really is around the corner. That’s because happy times are the product of chemical rushes and neurotransmitter level patterns in our brain, and these patterns result from the perception of specific conditions surrounding us that are hard-coded into our minds to make us happy. Sometimes being in one place, with one or more persons, during one time in your life can result in joy and ecstasy, while a different situation and setting can leave serious negative and even traumatic imprints on your mind. But the really funny thing is that the intensity of the emotions we felt during a particular time become most clear and apparent once our circumstances have changed, as they always do.
And so this is life: continually entering new periods associated with new places, things, people – and most importantly, new memories coupled with strong emotional cores that will go on to either bring us sadness, happiness, or nostalgia in the future. It’s both a beautiful and horrifying thing that the world, to each of us, is our own mind’s creation. But as there is no possibility of reviving or chasing down and replicating a former state of emotion, I conclude that we ought to pay attention to the budding emotional “trap” that is likely forming in each of our lives right now, the trap that may consume us in the future. If it’s a pit of desolation, then take heart and have no doubt that happiness is waiting to arise and stage its grand comeback. And if it’s happiness, then squeeze every drop out of it and savor every moment of it, because it’s sure to change shape again very soon.
A good friend of mine had a t-shirt that read, “Music is a force of nature.” I think about this beautiful metaphor every time I listen to an uplifting song, a passionate melody, or an emotional piece of music. If I was ever a pure rationalist, my life and views have been drastically altered by the power of music. To create music, to share and inspire with it – such is a gift of humankind whose full and mysterious nature penetrates beyond the physical world into the realm of the spiritual.
Seriously. To think that a song sung from one’s soul and heart could come to epitomize another’s message or purpose in life. But I hear it in Bob Marley’s voice – life is worth much more than gold. And one of my deepest desires in life is to be surrounded by those who recognize this, and who are not afraid to part with the purely rational, mechanical, robotic, sensible half of the world every now and then and dance around a bonfire and sing their hearts out in tribute to the vast, the unknown, the holiness of the Infinite. In this sense, music has been empowering for me, even a defining force in my life. Because to listen to such a song, and feel in my gut, “this song is about me, my place in the world, and my role in humanity” really is an experience not to be taken lightly. If you stick to your rationalist notions and find this silly, we will always be strangers at heart. But understand this, and you will not find understanding me much harder.
To think that jamming was a thing of the past!
Mario 64: Shifting Sand Land/Lethal Lava Land Theme
If I could be Mario for just one hour, I would delve into the treacherous depths of Shifting Sand Land, from Super Mario 64. For those delicious scorching yellow pools of quicksand, the marvelous golden pyramid of untold evils whose insides are rich with the stench of death and animated violence, and those frightful thwomp-like blocks which bear eternal expressions of anguish and madness as they strive to squash you to a pulp – they all have been permanently etched in my subconscious storage of happy, fantastic imaginary lands. If I could only go there, for real this time, just once! I’d spread my arms and precess like a graceful spinning top as I lightly glide across the burning blue sky. I’d feel the comforting hot blasts of rich golden sand upon my face as I come face to face with the turbulent whirlwhinds of the desert. And as long as my whole body has not been seized and swallowed by the quicksand, I would continue to enjoy my escape from reality into a magical world that has perhaps been more significant to me since my childhood than any real place in the real world.
