Pink

Have you ever really liked a song or an artist and then looked up the lyrics to one of their songs and been suprised at their content? Take this song for example; In The Flesh:

So ya thought ya might like to go to the show.
To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow.
I got me some bad news for you, Sunshine.
Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel,
And he sent us along as a surrugate band.
We're gonna find out where you fans really stand.
Are there any queers in the theatre tonight?
Get 'em up against the wall. -- 'Gainst the wall!
And that one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me.
Get him up against the wall. -- 'Gainst the wall!
And that one looks Jewish, and that one's a coon.
Who let all this riffraff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint, and another with spots!
If I had my way I'd have all of ya shot.


Well I actually like Pink Floyd very much, and to tell the truth it doesn't really bother me to like a song that has strong racist undertones, because my liking the song has nothing to do with lyrics (and I have found a suitable excuse to justify my liking it) : For context's sake, THE WALL is a story about "Pink", and in a series of songs sung from his own point of view, he imagines himself in a hallucination to be a facist dictator, and orders his fans to go into neighboring villages to slaughter "indesirables".  This series includes songs like In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting for the Worms, Stop. The album producer alledgedly hired real skinheads for the shooting, which apparently nearly got out of hand.

...

Google and wikipedia have become my lifelines to knowledge. I've been exposed to more random and not so random information in this past month than in all of last year! (though that might be due to me travelling around the world on a tall ship...) And to be honest, when it's about such small things its not important that they be ultra true and accurate.

I found a good website for explosives, but you have to pay to access all of the e-books they have. So that's that.

My Camera Is Bigger Than Yours

This picture comes from thursday. That night I headed out to the other side of the Yukon river to take pictures - I was inspired by an explanation by Charles about meshing twin photographs with different exposures... And have been trying to get to the site since that class a week and a half ago. Finally, I dragged myself out there on thursday, clear skies and all - and it was so cold, I set up the thing, aimed the camera and decided to take a low exposure one first, snapped the shot - and nothing happened. So I packed up and spent a half hour trying to get the attention of the ferry with whistling and Flashlight S.O.S. codes. I had to wait till a car came, in the end. But to be honest, I didn't care at that point. Frozen stiff, I dragged my way back to SOVA and thawed out before heading on home

I'd also like to say that I've made my very first hamburger and fries from scratch today, it was fun and delicious... Lettuce, Tomato, partially fried onions and partially fried mushrooms (they were slimy since they're a week old, I'll make stir fry tomorrow) and orange pepper. And pan fried potato cubes. I shoulda put salt in there for next time. And I'd like to secure some of that orange spicyness they use at the downtown... Maybe Rosie knows about it.

Here's to the two most superflous posts ever!

Cheese

Do you see this? The plastic container in the middle? It's *a fuckload* of feta. And I still have it!!! 10$! 10$ for half a kilo of feta and I still haven't used it since that first day! What the hell do I do with it now!?

Dust

I stumbled across this very interesting essay; it touches on the portrayal of women in graphic novels and more specifically, on the western prejudice, stereotypes and lack of understanding of Muslim culture through a Marvel X-Men character called "Dust".

http://brokenmystic.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/female-muslim-and-mutant-a-critique-of-muslim-women-in-comic-books-–-part-1-of-2/

To Mr. Inoue Takehiko

Dear Mr Inoue

I'm hoping that you can read english. This is a letter of thanks. I discovered you as a manga artist because of the title "Vagabond" which sounded interesting. Plus it was about a person I've heard about, so it piqued my interest. I admire your ability to exploit themes in your stories, because they are themes that everyone can relate to and yet everyone pulls their own meanings from them. I won't talk about those meanings, because you know them all better than I do. However, I will say one thing; I have a handicapped twin brother, and one of the things I've pulled from REAL is a deeper understanding of what my brother might feel like. But that's not what I'm thankful for, of course.

You see, I like stories, and I like drawing. I'm average at drawing and not very good at writing stories. It's easier to make a drawing than write a story, I suppose. Not too long ago, I liked reading shonen manga, and then I read Ichigo 100%. The ending piqued my interest for stories that make the reader think about his or her own life or appreciate a different take on life, like yours. I decided that those were the kind of stories I wanted to pass on, be it through manga or something else. I'm in art school, right now, in the far north of canada, and a chapter I read at 2am reminded me of my dream. So thank you, for making comics that are meaningful. And for reminding me. You don't have to answer. This page won't show up if you type in japanese. But maybe, for some reason, you'll come across this post and smile in the corner of your mouth. Perhaps your goal was to draw stories that make people think about themselves, too. I'd like to think that.

Gab

The Amputee's Dilemma and the Disabled' Resolve

Following is an exerpt from REAL, by the genius Inoue Takehiko;


I've always got these thoughts racing through my head... "Why did this happen" "Did I do something wrong""How could I have avoided this?""What could have happened to keep them from cutting off my legs?""Was it the doctor's fault?" "The doctor who said it was overwork!" "Couldn't I have prevented it?" Was it fate? If it was all preordained, then the time I spent in my life... All the feeling I poured into running... Was it meaningless?
Aren't you afraid, Yamaguchi-kun? You know you're going to die in a few years... How can you be so strong and brave?

... Have you ever been on a roller-coaster? You're only riding it for a few minutes, right? If you spent the entire ride thinking "only a few minutes" "only so many seconds left until this ride is over..." then what was the point of riding it in the first place?
Nobody knows why we're alive. We don't have the time to bother.
www.onemanga.com/real/22/16

The other cool part of this volume of the manga is chapter 24. Kogawa meets a tatoo artist/wheekchair basketball player with the same rotation plasty surgery as he does, and that man lets him see the path to self acceptance, which is a huge milestone for a person who became disabled. I realize that I play the father's part in my story... But for Kogawa, there is the final step, the most beautiful moment in a while, and it comes on these two pages:
http://www.onemanga.com/Real/24/28/
http://www.onemanga.com/Real/24/29/

... I think I understand my brother a bit more now... but his problem was from before he remembers... he's never walked normally, so he has no memories to miss, nothing to compare to. If it was preordained that he would be handicapped to his feet and hand, then I can only be thankful that he grew up as the handicap developped. That way, I think, is less painful for him who can't use a wheelchair properly, or not as well, since he only has one good hand.

But that too might be foolishness on my part. Perhaps, if he had wanted it badly enough, he would have been able to learn. It's his fault he didn't I know, but I can't help but wonder about my own role in all of this. In retrospect, none of us ever had much faith in him, did we?

...

I always thought the disabled didn't fight. It was convenient for me to think that.
http://www.onemanga.com/Real/38/10/

Social Experiment

Earlier this year I made an interesting discovery: You're walking down an empty street, and since it's Dawson, you walk in the street. That's irrelevant, but its the setting. Anyway, the idea is that if someone, or in my case, a couple, walk along the street in the opposite direction, you might be tempted to look away as they pass by. As I told myself this, we walked closer and I promised myself that I would not look away. But for some reason, our brains do not allow us to look straight ahead unless we are purposefully ignoring the others around me.
Back to the social experiment. I'm walking down the street, promising myself that I won't pretend to occupy myself with some uninteresting object as I pass the unknown couple. Just before we pass each other, both the man and the woman look to my left, pretending to have noticed something interesting on the far side of the road. Despite myself, I glance to the right.

I leave it up to you to assess the significance of this behavior.