VNV Nation's "Illusion" animation

This is a beautiful fan animation made for the song Illusion by VNV Nation. There's this thing with the face of a girl trying to imitate what she sees on a TV that goes farther away from her, and in the end its quite heartbreaking. The way I interpret it, its a metaphor to how we try to change ourselves to conform to ideals in media, and in the end we destroy ourselves to reach them.

Anyway, its a nice song too. 

Naruto & RAP: the music of Eddie Rath

My not-so-secret-identity Tumblr is filled with Naruto. It's one of the few manga series I still wait for each week, because I've been reading it for years I just want to know how it ends. I love my fellow fans. They do fanart, memes, other stuff, but the music Eddie Rath does about the characters is so cool. I don't even listen to rap much, but his rhymes fit the story so well. All his songs are available for free, too.

"Tobirama" and "Without a Soul" are the ones I like best.
"Meet the Prince of the Liquid Element."

"My bonds don't cut, they burn to ashes." --GOLD.

[song] Girl that's never been

Just my type of song. It's based on some short story on Alice in Wonderland, "Chesire" by Bill Kte'pi.

Are we figments of our gin? Are we long-lost orphaned kin?
Or the mad descendants of a writer's pen?
No one's sane behind their mask. Ask what you really want to ask."
And I close my eyes and whisper, "Can you take me back again?"
(Lyrics)

'I could be the one' by Avicii [song]

My brother showed me this music video long ago and we had a good laugh over it. Its funny but a bit explicit. I think it illustrates the theme of wanting away from everyday monotony and boredom of work, school, etc. The woman is disenchanted with how 'everyday is exactly the same' and suddenly wakes up... in some beach. The video has a nice message about life.

Lyrics:
Do you think about me when you're all alone?
The things we used to do, we used to be
I could be the one to make you feel that way
I could be the one to set you free

Do you think about me when the crowd is gone?
It used to be so easy, you and me
I could be the one to make you feel that way
I could be the one to set you free

2PAC on education

I only new Tupac Shakur (aka 2pac) as a rapper from the 90s with a bad reputation who died early, though I've never heard any of his songs. Better late, now I'm reading more on him. He's my next favorite dead celebrity after the late comedian Bill Hicks.

School is really important: Reading, writing, arithmetic. But what they tend to do is teach you reading, writing, arithmetic…then teach you reading, writing, arithmetic again. Then again, then again, just making it harder and harder just to keep you busy. And that’s where I think they messed up. There should be a class on drugs. There should be a class on sex education. No, REAL sex education class, not just pictures and illogical terms…There should be a class on scams, there should be a class on religious cults, there should be a class on police brutality, there should be a class on apartheid, there should be a class on racism in America, there should be a class on why people are hungry, but there not, their class is on…gym….Their class is like Algebra. we have yet to go a store and said, “Can I have X Y + 2 and give me my Y change back, thank you.” You know?…Like foreign languages. I think that they are important, but I don’t think it should be required. Actually, they should be teaching you English, and then teach you how to understand double talk, politician’s double talk. Not teaching you how to understand French and Spanish and GERMAN. When am I going to Germany? I can’t afford to pay my rent in America! How am I going to Germany?

—Tupac, Age 17 On the Topic of Education, 1988.

Giant Squid's 'Dead Man's Fog' [song]

This is currently my new favorite music. Their songs are about the ocean: mysterious waters, colossal unknown creatures, those kind of sensations of drowning, dread, subtle fear -- lost, dead, frozen, hopeless -- hell I sound emo but that's what this song makes me feel. Their other song I like is "Panthalassa" (the name of the world's ocean when Pangaea was still around).


Our bow cannot be seen / from where we stand on the stern /
fog has taken everything / the men’s faces show their concern /
the cold is worse than we feared / I despair this the end of my years /
the more it stings the more I try / keep waking up each time I die a little death I cry /
a thousand leagues a million miles / the secrets buried in the vault beneath the oceans wide /
this beacon’s light has burned for as long as I’ve known / though tonight the horn must bring us in /
for the tower ceases to glow dare we raise our anchor / let the tide have its way /
when waves crash on shores unseen jagged reefs calling our names

Movie: The Devil's Double (2011)

(Disclaimer: My posts on books and movies are more reactions than proper reviews.)  

The Devil's Double is loosely based on the true story of Latif Yahia, a man hired as body double of Saddam Hussein's son, Uday. Latif is a simple soldier while Uday is a spoiled party boy. That's the simplest comparison. Uday is called 'The Devil': killed his father's assistant in a party, raped minors picked off schools, gets a deadly rage when angered that there's a body count right after. Even Saddam told him, "I wish I killed you when you were born."

Latif is chosen after a war and taken to a plastic surgeon to make him look exactly as Uday. They already know each other, both had been classmates in elementary and others often comment on how similar they look. Latif resists at first but agrees after being tortured and his family threatened. Uday will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Latif is told to 'kill' himself -- his family thinks he's dead anyway -- and BE from now on Uday Saddam Hussein.

Being the son of Iraq's dictator has its perks: he gets to live in opulence, he can wear expensive wardrobe, everything for Uday is free to him. The downside is bloody. Latif will go to events as Uday, and the number of attempted killings for the prince during Latif's stint says that a body double is really needed. In contrast to Uday's careless debauchery, Latif gets in the act as the responsible son. Latif is the one who speaks to motivate the soldiers, he's skilled in combat and survived death threats, while the brat Uday will only call on his bodyguards at the first hint of danger.

My favorite scene was Latif looking at the mirror after being tortured, hating his face and fate, punching the mirror and slamming a door on the way out... spoofing Uday's tantrums. Of course, Latif tries his best to act like Uday. He hates Uday, but knows he can't do anything about it, or he'd be dead. One can only endure seeing too much uncontrolled insanity.

Latif, Uday, and the mirror

The viewer will hate Uday and root for Latif. After all the brutality, the last scene when Latif finally gets his revenge is satisfying.

Dominic Cooper portrays both, and I laud him for his acting of such opposing characters. I first doubted if it was the same person. The actor says that he's been a bit schizophrenic during the shoot. The movie is a portrait of Uday Hussein's cruelty and its consequences, and how a simple guy stops him even it seemed impossible.

 - - - - -
This song from the soundtrack was played during a party scene, I thought it was an Iraqi "Right Round" but found out its the original song where Flo Rida got his catchy chorus. "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive, it makes me feel dizzy listening:

"To all the prom queen bitches thinking they still rule, now I'm the one that's cool"

I'm no geek, and I don't like some things associated with the term, but this video is fun. I can relate to "Your black-rimmed glasses are prescription free, where as me I literally can't see my hand in front of my face." Anyway, I'm back to glasses again since I kept re-infecting myself with sore-eye germs from contacts.

How's summer?

Summer is the semester I like best. Its a sem on fast-forward and there's something rush-inducing in “Two weeks left!” even if my three 2-hour classes are from 7AM to 1PM. I like the stress. Subjects I'm taking are:

Pol Sci 6: My introduction in class went like: “Good morning, classmates! My name is _____ and I'm taking up Library and Information Science, 3rd year. I'm a former Political Science student from another university and failed my major subjects. I expect that I'm going appreciate it in a different way than I did before.” The teacher is amused.

I sort of forgot everything from 1½ sem as a Pol Sci major. We're using the same Philippine Constitution textbook and I see all my forgotten notes on its pages. In 2009, I wrote this on its title page:

“Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people. –Oscar Wilde”

Speech 1: The teacher has a soothing DJ voice, I don't mind listening to her for 2 hours daily.

Ed Comp 1: Basic computer applications. I didn't know there's an option in Microsoft Word that automatically generates a Table of Contents, and lots of useful shortcuts we didn't know exist.

- - -

Here's a song I like with the word 'summer' on it (Boys of Summer):

Another song.

Some say that Albarn's vocals on Gorillaz is flat, but I like his lazy, sleepy voice (especially on one song where he's asking, "Are we the last living souls?"). Anyway, this is my favorite song of theirs, most of it spoken word by De La Soul. Happy 22nd birthday to my brother.

Another eerie opening song

This is the opening song for a TV series written by Stephen King, Kingdom Hospital, though it wasn't as successful as his bestsellers. As one commenter said about this vid, "This is possibly the best thing about Kingdom Hospital. Its atmospheric, slightly scary, and gives you a good impression of a very dull show."

"Meeting again..."

This is an AMV for an anime I haven't watched but planning to. I like how the clips and subtitles make up a coherent and funny storyline (its a pairing two guys anyway) which is supposed to be set after the anime. If not for that... worth watching for the good song in it, "What's this life for" by Creed.

Radio Silence (on music)

My brother is a pop music geek. He's in an online forum on pop, where they discuss and analyze songs, hit charts, albums, and such. If not for him, I wouldn't know about the latest K-pop groups, UK acts, and music videos. I don't keep up with music much, and there's no genre I prefer. When I like a song, I'd look for the artist and download whole albums I could listen to for a long time.

I've been listening to Gorillaz, The Birthday Massacre, A Perfect Circle, and Sugababes for years. I like lyrics more than sound. A band I like lately is She Wants Revenge, and these are their kind of lines that made me like their songs:
I know we all have regrets, but that's the price of one more lesson learned ("I don't wanna fall in love")
Her words were in italics as it would fall from her lips ("Sister")
We got nowhere to go we got nothing to prove, instead of dancing alone I should be dancing with you ("Out of control")

Maybe I'm musically illiterate. I don't play any instrument and I never understood music concepts like time signatures, beats, or notes, as taught in MAPEH from elementary. Math, I comprehended more.
- - -
My friends back in high school used to list songs we like and pay an internet cafe to burn a CD for us. We didn't know enough about computers or downloading then to do it ourselves. I now feel that internet cafe was scamming us, as it costs 50 pesos. Now I could do that for less than 10 with a cheap blank CD.

My friends' older sisters got mix CDs from guys courting them, complete with custom printed covers and lyric sheets, love letters through songs and music.

Before music could be downloaded via clicks, I made mix tapes with a blank casette tape. In a tape with music on it already, there are two tiny plastic squares at the bottom that prevents it from being recorded on. Snip them off with a screwdriver, and now you can.

For the songs, it has to be chosen to a theme. I had to let that song play from a CD, tape, or wait for it to play on FM radio, then record. Trying to catch the song by the last way needs patience. I had to always tune to another station, only to feel regret when that song was ending, then to hear that it already started on the previous station and its too late. I had to rewind and wait again, and make sure I don't record over a song already on tape. It takes at least a week to complete one.

It wasn't to be given to anybody. I had to draw my own covers in crayon and write the list of songs on Side A and B, as printers and Photoshop were unheard of then. I made my own titles to the tape.

I can't recall any of those songs I recorded  from Grade 2 to 5, but I guess they were pop, rock, and OPM songs of that time. The tapes were all flooded away along with other things last 2008. Those songs seemed different and more felt when I first listened to a whole tape without pressing any button (stop|pause|rewind|forward|backward|record).

I miss that, but I prefer the easier way now.

Silence is golden

My theme song for silence.