E3 Coverage One-Stop-Shop: I Don't Know What Day It Is

Day 3. It's Day 3, I'm just joking.

...half-joking.

With the Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft and EA Conferences over and done with, what else is there to do at E3 when you're not actually there?

I assume we spend countless hours glued to our screens refreshing any kind of video services we have open waiting for a new trailer to pop up on something we were hyped up about at the beginning. Or we just lose interest.

But, there have been lots of NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS over the past few days, I think worth sharing because it marginally interests me while I wait for Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World to come out because I am way too stoked for digging my hands into those story worlds, like omg.

• Wii U will support two separate gamepads, possible 5 player games
• New Super Mario Brothers U 
• Mass Effect 3, Assassin's Creed Spin-off, Zombi U -- all on launch
• Nintendo has a lot of games

•  Beyond: Two Souls is NOT a rehashed Heavy Rain
• If you're offended by the notion that Quantic Dream makes "interactive movies" and David Cage is a "frustrated film director" then you're an idiot and have no place making opinions about anything ever. Let me elaborate.

Video gaming is an incredible medium of entertainment. Its constraints are almost non-existent, it's engagement is what radio and television have striven for for more than five decades. Its speed of development and technological direction is unpassed. There is so much potential in this medium.

And your shitty head can't wrap around the fact that gaming can be more than top-down dungeon crawlers, or achievement-based shitfests where people yell at each other through headsets and kill each other aimlessly in a military simulation. Well, you're narrow-minded. You're a goof. Quantic Dream pushes the envelope on what gaming can be, and should be. Same with Ubisoft Montreal's Watch_Dogs. The fact that they're even making a new, A-Title property out of nothing and putting their cards on the table is a testament to their ambition and loyalty to the industry. They realize something is stale. They want to give it a jump.

Trade exhibitions like this are for developers and businesses hype up consumers and introduce new things they're doing to engage their peers and colleagues in the field. Because we're shitty consumers, not to mention the most demanding, needy, ungrateful and unreasonable consumer base in any form of entertainment, the developers have listened. To the sales, mostly. And sales call for repetitions of established franchises. Your Madden 26's and Call of Extreme Duty: Modern Black Ops Warefare 7 will saturate this market until it can't even breathe out of its mouth.

I'm angry, yeah, but I'm optimistic. At least the current franchises, for the most part, have a respectable developer that we can trust with delivering new, exciting, innovative content. But if you chastise an indie developer, our a non-"mainstream" developer for innovating in their own way, for truly trying something new, then you're a terrible gamer. You don't get the video game industry.

Casual gaming has risen in the ranks to be a powerhouse for the industry. Social gaming you can't even escape whether you're in public, in private, or in outer space. And those developers are ones that understand the nature of the industry, the beast that is this thriving new technology that will drive the global market for interactive entertainment, probably entertainment as a whole.

It's not the games and the creators that need to catch up with you, it's you that needs to catch up with the developer that are winning the race. And I'll tell you, no matter how much Blops II sells, or if there's a Dead Space 5 down the road--the bigger number doesn't mean the better game. We seem to forget that often. Moving on,

• Speaking of sequels and the like...
• So far, not just today -- footage for Dead Space 3, Borderlands 2, Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Resident Evil 6, Halo 4,  Lost Planet 3, and more..
• HAWKEN.

Just gonna stop the bullet lists now, nothing else interests me. I've never been into MechWarrior, or any kind of mech-shooter game, but Gundam is an awesome series, and most of its spin-offs. Hawken's a game made from the ground-up by a handful of devs with a lot of heart and passion and a solid idea to build up from.

What more could you ask for? Glad they're finally to unleash onto the world the fruits of their labor. I hear its free-to-play too, which is too much to ask, but we're getting it. I guess they'll make ample fanboy money from that ridiculous exclusive controller you can get with it?
 

Try me.

And a kickass live-action-y trailer:

So there's that.

I'm trying my hand at responsible blogging here, so give me a break. Also, if you don't like my opinions, please share my blog with people who will. Much appreciated.

Games, everybody!

‘Lazy Writing’ is a pretty lazy complaint

I hear this term thrown around a lot, particularly in circles where audiences can easily scrutinize the workings of the writers that present them with material. It always irks me when I hear it from fans, and what some of them think constitutes written content of being ‘lazy’. My guess is that lazy writing, from a audience’s perspective, just means that they can easily determine the conventions that the writer employed and figure out the mystique, if you will, behind whatever they were writing—whether it be characterization, plot structure, backstory…the list can go on for ages.

A lot of the time these fans throw around that term to classify a certain writer as being bad, whether it be for that show, that film or that comic (screenwriters less so since they get relatively the least amount of attention). Now, my assumption is that being fans they have had a lot of material that they’ve gone through, so obviously they’d be able to pick up on the conventions common to that genre or even broader, that medium, given that they are a devoted fanbase. Now, I’m not going to particularly bash those fans in question, but I will take the side of the hypothetical ‘lazy writer’.

There’s a connotation with that term that makes it extremely loaded. Now, my bias may stem from the fact that most of those fans that complain about lazy writing are the same fans that fester and boil with rage at the slightest inconsistences that they perceive violate the sanctity of their favourite characters, or key components of their favourite fictional universe. So to address those complaints, in itself, may be not the most pressing issue, but I’ll tackle it because somewhere down the line someone is undoubtedly accuse me of committing to said ‘lazy’ writing.

Fans are fans because the consume the material, not because they partake in it. They read, watch, and participate to a capacity, yes, but they aren’t involved in the creative process for good reason. They don’t know what it entails. Especially the writing process. It’s gruelling. I’ve been lucky enough to not experience it in its full horror. I hope to though, but that’s another story.

I’m thinking on my feet here, but I’d say such accusations stem from two main categorires when someone cries wolf with this sort of thing:

Awareness of Convention & Transparency of Content

Fancy capitalized words for some pseudo-academic setting, but bare with me, I’ll try not to bullshit you to death.

The first, awareness of the convention, is essential on both creator and consumer end when it comes to creative/narrative media. What most writing professors will teach us is that we have to respect the audience. It’s a key element—you disrespect the audience, your show or film or comic will be complete shit, the audience will pick up on it and they will tear it to pieces. It happens every week, most likely.

*cough* Green Lantern *cough*

Audiences, being bombarded by the entertainment industry every second of the day, is saturated with narrative. We already find story in everything, but its constantly shoved down our throats anyways. We swallow genre like a daily diet pill—we ingest convention and our minds piece together, with enough exposure, what these genres do to present story a certain way.

We all know in crime thrillers, the authority usually captures the criminals—in capers, the masterminds outsmart the ‘Man’. Horrors: black guy dies first. Fantasies: an otherworldly/supernatural threat jeopardizes the peaceful escapism that is shoved in our faces. My understanding of genre may be rough at this point, I’m sure I’m broadening it somewhat, but you get that genre conventions compose the meat and tendon of story.

The role of the writer is to hide that obviousness behind good narrative composition—audiences will be forgiving if they’re presented with a strong enough story. But ‘lazy’ writing comes into play here, if audiences aren’t respected, to a certain extent, their suspension of disbelief will dissolve away.

All the normal conventions that you employ, without consequence, will suddenly become bare naked in the sunlight. The flaws within the script scream out of the screen, or the page. Everything’s wrong. Fans are in a ruckus. It sucks.

Which brings it to transparency of content—writing any kind of fiction is essentially one thing: telling a series of lies to expose a universal truth. Call it theme, controlling idea, moral of the story, or what have you. Characters are fake, scenarios are fake, emotions are fabricated by some people cooped up in a room with gallons of Starbucks and potato chips. And I’ll assume safely that not may fans who say ‘lazy writing’ are all to knowledgeable to that fact.

I guess when fans catch a whiff of that coffee or those potato chips behind that major plot development or this character’s death, they feel betrayed above anything else. The words ‘it’s not real’ dominate their thought process. At that point it may become an unbearable read or a laughable experience, knowing that everything you invested in the story and its characters are for naught. Transparency kills the narrative. The content stays the same, and it can be completely competent writing, but those ‘superfans’ and dedicatedly intense audiences can sever their ties with a particular story and its writer, swiftly and absolutely. It’s their superpower.

But, lazy writing implies there would be something called diligent, or hard-working writing. Like the act of writing can be a humanistic quality in itself. Lazy people can be good writers—take me for example. This very well could be a useless argument regarding the semantics of a 4chan comment that I was somewhat bothered by, however it’s still important to discuss (if that means one long blog post) this issue.

But no, there’s no such thing as hard-working writing, or lazy writing. There’s just writing. Not to mention that fiction writing is by definition an artform (don’t even deny that), the notion of ‘lazy writing’ is already subjective, there’s no right or wrong. God forbid, there’s someone out there who loves The Phantom Menace, or thinks the new Catwoman ongoing series is the best thing ever to happen to the character.

Sure, convention may be misconstrued for cliché, or rightly so accused of being formulaic and overdone, to the writer’s extent. But there is no lazy convention. Just convention. Good writing incorporates convention invisibly, cleverly, to serve the story. Bad writing misuses convention and causes all those complaints by whiny fans of lazy writing. But again, subjective. The only objective way to take this is that lazy writing may as well be somewhat-energetic-but-still-full-of-spunk writing.

Hint: that’s called a voice. Writers can have more than one. It’s kind of their thing.

Condescendence aside, I earnestly hope fans minimize their usage of ‘lazy writing’ against works of fiction they don’t like or don’t agree with. Not to say it’s not the writer’s fault that it didn’t hit with them, but for God’s sake be more specific and aware of your criticisms.

Lazy vocabulary, for example, would be legitimate—the writer should verse themselves in a dictionary more closely to express their ideas better (I am so guilty of this it’s unbelievable). Don’t put a giant clamp around the complexity that is the act of WRITING to bash a work.

But hey, when was criticism ever constructive on the Internet?

So fans, you can stay fans, but don’t talk about things you most likely have no idea about. And writers, always strive for better writing—and playing with convention, not just using it, it’s a key part of that. And bitchy-ass whining neckbeard elitists?

Yeah, go fuck yourself. Only thing ‘lazy’ is you.

SOPA Blackout Day: Don’t stop just yet!

If you have your own Tumblr, Blogspot, website or any other presence on the Internet, go to www.sopastrike.com for some instructions on how to represent the Internet community and protest against the asinine U.S pieces of legislation that are the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect-IP Act.

The fight against a corporate-controlled Internet is not over.

After today, there’s still a lot to be done, a lot of voices to reach, and a lot of action to be taken against these pieces of legislation before they’re fully KILLED. PIPA’s vote will take place on January 24th, and even if you’re not an American citizen, the internet does not have borders. Tell friends, family, American cousins, The U.S State Department, anyone who will listen.

Hollywood versus Silicon Valley – Be on the right side.

Ah, but there is no taking sides with this issue. Everyone has been exposed to online piracy and copyright infringement. Most of us have probably done it. Yes, it hurts the entertainment industry, but the the executives and lobbyists and politicians in Washington do not know the extent to which they are screwing with us—these are people of a past generation, angry at the fact that things are progressing out of their realm of understanding.

They’d rather kill technological innovation, the possibility of new start-ups, the next YouTube or Facebook, social networking, and the communication between me and you over the net, in favour of maximizing the profits that their multi-billion dollar industries make already.

In fighting against SOPA, we are PEOPLE rather than STATISTICS.

This is one fight where you can’t protest with your wallet, you must protest with your voice, because it’s what the Internet is based upon.

I like memes, you like memes, we all scream for more memes.

In the past five or so years I’ve seen Internet culture grow alongside myself and I’ve grown incredibly attached to it. It’s unique, it’s self-sufficient, and it addresses both serious issues and trivial aspects of our lives collectively, through crudely drawn faces and snapshots of silly looking people with text under them.

And yet, they’ve come to represent what it is to be on the Internet. Much of it relies on taking what’s already out there and making it our own. SOPA/PIPA would destroy that identity, and those behind it consciously seek to.

The U.S Congress will not stop, nor should you. 

Just because a bill’s been shelved, doesn’t mean its gone forever. Further proposed legislation could sneak in amendments that do the same thing, only shrouded more from the public. Supporters could come out and try to work around public opinion. The high paying lobbyists from Hollywood have money to spare—and their spending it all on trying to shut us up.

My message? Don’t.

These are powerful people thinking they can abuse their power freely without consequence. A lot of the time, they can, and they do.

Make this the one time they face those consequences.

Call your representatives. Reach out through social networking. Spread word about the damage SOPA and PIPA can do to the Internet as we know it.

Join Wikipedia, Reddit, Wordpress, Google, Cheezburger Network, Minecraft, Mark Zuckerberg, BoingBoing, Craigslist, deviantart, Techdirt, Flikr, Scribd, Yahoo, StumbleUpon and the countless others in this fight. We all need you.

It’s not over yet.

http://www.blackoutsopa.org/

www.sopastrike.com (participants)

http://americancensorship.org/

Protect your online rights and freedoms.

---The Fanboy Subconscious

Save the Internet; Watch & Listen to this Video.

Thirty minutes of your time to educate yourself about a potentially destructive piece of American legislation that will cripple and destroy everything about the Internet. This guy is a UK Law graduate. He’s smart. Listen to him.

Everyone will suffer. Corporations, Internet platforms, social networking, digital content creators, consumers, producers, regular people, you, me, your children, your ability to enjoy creativity, cultivation of ideas, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Zuckerberg, Shaun Parker, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs’ idea of technology progressing society and culture, independent artists/filmmakers/producers/musicians, YouTube videos, Facebook accounts, memes, internet entrepreneurs, free speech, access and freedom to information, and the future of the digital age and new media.

You censor information, you censor people. You censor people, you censor freedom.

Fuck you, Congress. Everyone suffers. Globally. AROUND THE WORLD.

SPREAD THE WORD.

http://www.americancensorship.org has been, fittingly, taken down.

This cannot happen. If this happens, it’s another step to a world in the near future that no one wants to see. Please. Don’t let stubborn 50-year olds tell our generation what’s right and what’s wrong about an innovation that we grew up with.

Send this video out to everyone you know, tell them to watch it. Tell your American friends, tell your parents.

Tell the Internet, before its voice is gone for good.

A Case in Pride

I’ll sound like a broken record soon, but time and time again I encourage most people I see to start reading comics and graphic novels. If there’s at least a hint of interest in simply reading, as in prose fiction, the threshold of picking up a comic book, or a closed graphic narrative, is not far away.

And as the dwindling demand of mainstream comic books is seeing its decline, probably the earliest one to go in the slow, steady, inevitable decline of all print media, I’m concerned.

Losing comics is like losing an entire language—no, imagine losing television. Losing cinema. Losing plays. If that was gone from the combined cultural context of a society. The worst case scenario is, in the 5,000+ year history that sequential art has existed on Earth, that it’s going to die out because of the social contexts and mass preconceptions and the pop-culture pothole it can’t seem to get out of.

The cynic in me broods, but I have high hopes. Despite the marginal attention it gets in its actual domain—minus the adapted properties other mediums suck out of it, providing no aid in pushing a potential consumer base into the works that inspired such properties, I have hope that comics may survive—nay, thrive, if it can climb its way out of those social and cultural barriers it’s been trapped in for the last 20 or so years.

I just finished reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, a cartoonist and a comics theorist—yes, I consider it an actual term, like it deserves to be, and the things it taught me about the medium—the artform—is that there’s way more importance to what it has to offer and and what it provides to the literary world than I originally thought, and most likely more than anyone of my peers or elders think.

It’s a great textbook, a great study and a great tool. If you have any doubts picking up a comic, whether for the potential self-ridicule or judgmental peers, this book quells those anxieties. It made me feel privilege to be a fan, a participant, in the medium of graphic storytelling. It’s a special kind of medium. Like no other.

So, in wondering why there’s not more attention to it, I tried searching for any kind of academic presence towards the medium, because I know old professor-types still read comics no matter how sophisticated they want to seem. Hell, some may embrace it.

Like this guy.

Henry Jenkins – “Comics and Graphic Storytelling: A Sample Syllabus”
He teaches at the University of Southern California, and his students are lucky.

There are programs at SCAD that teach sequential art, and may art schools around the world also offer sequential art programs of study or related courses, which is awesome—no matter how small it is, the comics industry and consumer base will always look for, and find, new artists, inkers, pencillers, letterers and the like.

But teach the academic worth of comics and graphic storytelling as a literary medium, as far as I can tell, is a far-off dream. At my school at least, no such courses exist, sure they may be touched upon by professors who want to spice up their syllabi with ‘fun’ comic book topics. Most pop culture courses refer to comics of staples of Western identity, but most of the time it ends there.

Where’s the deconstruction of Alan Moore’s iconography and character symbolism in Watchmen? Art Speigelman’s mastery of storytelling craft with Maus? The superficial beauty and representation of intimacy through line, shape, and panelling in Craig Thompson’s Blankets? The history and source behind the cultural contexts that characters like Superman, Batman, or Archie provide?

Not in textbooks your school makes you buy, that’s for sure. Jenkins in his proposed syllabus provides Understanding Comics as required reading among Will Eisner’s great Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative (that inspired McCloud’s book), and a great sort of graphic novel examples: Batman: The Killing Joke, Persepolis, The Unwritten.

If these names are new to you, Google them. Now. Learn. Teach yourself. Indulge in this medium, for the sake of its preservation and cultivation. So you can read comics in a classroom, and no one is allowed to be ashamed, because there’s no reason you should be.

Maybe, put down the Hemingway and the Plath and the Dostoyevsky and pick up some Alan Moore, some Grant Morrison, some Charles Shultz.

Just pick up a damn comic, and be proud you’re reading it.

The schools might follow suit.

“Hi, I love comic books.”

My guest post on preposterousthoughts:

No, I’m not a fat-ass, the Simpsons didn’t draw me, and  my comic book shirts look fucking awesome—no three week old stains and unwashed smelliness. My voice isn’t obnoxious. I’m not an elitist.

My basement is, in fact, unfurnished, but my bedroom is a nice place to sleep.

But yeah, I enjoy comic books. I enjoy picture books for overgrown children. The almost literature. The stuff for little cousins and creepy guys in your English lecture. And I tell as many people as I possibly can, because more people need to like them.

More of you, and your friends, and your parents, and your children. You need to benefit from reading a comic book, because there’s more good in one than you can possibly know right now, and because it will help you. It will help you be a more creative person, a more imaginative mind. It will aid you in understanding your perception of the world and help you think critically and creatively about absolutely everything you experience.

You know why? Cause it’s helped me in the two and a half years since I picked up my first one, and it sure as hell can help you and everyone you know.

Look, I realize you have better things to do with your time and money. You have work, you have school, you have more productive, active hobbies. You may read books, and since comic books are not those, there’s no need.

It’s a common misconception. A majority one. A one comics can’t yet seem to break.

That’s because they rely on us—on me, the reader, to spread word. To recruit audiences. To get people interested. Because unlike books, there’s never an end to them when the author sells a bunch of them to a company, and calls it a day.

No, comics are a rare form of narrative. They’re deviations from the structure. They’re special. In a self-contained narrative, you have characters, plot and setting to create a story. It’s alone. It ends, and with it, so does everything else contained within. Comics are not self-contained. They’re self-sufficient. They evolve with each generation. And because of it, there’s people you and I both know, that have been alive far longer than we have, and will most likely continue to do so.

Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker. They don’t end with the story. They live on. That’s what they do, because they’re more than characters; they’re icons. They exist to give us examples, to provide us with something, to enrich our understanding of life and its values. They are templates.

To be important, they must represent importance.

Lets do some role-play. You’re the scrawny kid in school. You grades are pretty good for your age, a few friends, you keep a low profile because that’s how you roll. Then you find out there’s some others who don’t like something about you. Your scrawniness. Your good grades. Who you are. They beat on you, they hurt you, they make you feel less than them.

You want to get back at them, show them who’s boss, make them understand what they’re doing is wrong. You want to be powerful.

Who do you turn to, without making a scene, without risking yourself? When there’s that much fear involved, of consequences, of punishment, what’s the way out?

I hope, for that kid, it’s a comic book. The reason why someone like Spider-Man is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, comic book characters of all-time, is that he was born into a generation of nerdy, bullied, and weak kids like he was. He had the grades, he liked a girl, he was picked on. Then he got bitten by a spider, and had these amazing abilities. Abilities that real life would never allow under any circumstances, and right in front of your eyes, after each page flip, Peter Parker’s doing it all in front of you.

When you’re a kid, ‘real’ can be as fluid as your next daydream in class. That kid takes that comic book with him wherever he goes, because after each bully pushes him around, he turns to Peter Parker. ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. Those catchphrases become mantras. They live by them. It moulds them. It guides them through turmoil and helps them overcome hardships thrown at them.

When they grow up, the grow up with Peter Parker too. That’s how comic books get fans. They connect with you. You see something in those iconic characters that have survived sometimes longer than your parents. They have amazing abilities, crazy powers, but there’s one thing that they will always be:

Just like us.

They’re human. Maybe not in the literal sense, but they are like us, because they’re written by us. They’ve had lovers lost. Their parents are gone too. They’re orphans in a place they’re not used to. Problems to them are problems to us, just with supervillians thrown into the mix.

The fantastic versus the realistic. The unimaginable versus the understandable. There is no competition in comic books. They co-exist by necessity. When I read comic books, for that moment, in that panel, reading that word bubble—I’m hearing, seeing, witnessing the character come to life. My imagination connects with the page. I bring it to life myself, I fill in the blanks. I have the power to make it as real as I want it to be.

When you’re a kid, that seems like the easiest thing to do in the world. Everything else is a mountain to climb. When your head’s in that comic book, it’s a way out. It’s a resource, and a bible. You live in it, and it lives in you as long as you carry on everything your favourite characters and stories represent.

Truth, honesty, responsibility, justice, kindness, heroism, understanding, tolerance—the list goes on. Comics teach more than they tell. We want the heroes to win, that’s a universal truth of storytelling. In comic books, rarely, if ever, is that fantasy not fulfilled. For that kid, it’s a wish come true. It’s reaffirming. It’s validation.

It’s telling him, ‘If you’re a good person, and you do the right thing, and you stay true to who you are and what you stand for, you’ll always be the good guy—you’ll always be the hero.’

Basic. Simple. Direct. A comic book is all these things on page. Yes, they’re complicated, and yes there’s a lot of history and backstory and pretext, but you distill those things into what’s important: the character—what, and who, they fight for.

I’m not going to lie, it takes work. When you grow up, you lose a lot. Most of why being a kid is awesome slowly dissolves. I think one of the first to go is that enthusiastic acceptance of the incredible. Everything is exciting. You’ll accept anything as reality—is it naiveté? No, just wild abandon. Not caring for the world, because you don’t fully understand it yet. And that’s okay, you’re a kid.

When you’re older, you have to care. You have to be a realist, accept that this is the world you live in. There’s no more tea parties with stuffed animals, or car races on your bedroom ceiling. Just you and the world you live in.

Then you pick up that issue of Spider-Man, remember how much it did to save you from yourself, and others, back when you were that scrawny kid, and it all comes back. You live it all over again. Your imagination sparks, you start thinking inside the book. Things come to life. People come to life.

Just think, how could you ever drop something like that again?

You have to take yourself outside your world. Your bubble needs to be burst from the inside out. Open a comic book to a random page—I’ll bet you anything something amazing is happening. If not, within the next two or three pages. It’s not like films, where it generally has to be rooted in reality, or like books, where your imagination is exercised to the point of exhaustion. Reading comic books is a team effort. It gives you glimpses into another world, with you to decide the rest.

You provide the images motion. You give the comic book a life of its own. All it takes is for you step back from your world, and your perceptions, and your understandings as vast as they may be, and pick one up and read it. Leave ‘real’ at the door. Enter another one—it will takes you places.

There’s a commitment. Comic books make money, yes. But it’s in the most creatively satisfying way possible, for both parties. Readers, they get a perpetual storyline and an awesome protagonist (a few have run to 900 issues), and creators—writers and artists—they get to create those worlds, guide your hand while you traverse something you’ve never seen before.

To me, that’s enticing. That’s something I can commit to. It gives me inspiration that things so fantastic can engage me that closely. Evoke a plethora of emotions and thoughts with each page. I want a lot of what I can’t have. But I can take pieces of it, and use them elsewhere. Create my own stories, my own realities. Engage with my imagination and let it, instead of trying to make it, go places.

I hope you have an alternative. For me, comic books represent the ability to dream, the opportunity for escapism, and the inspiration to use my imagination as freely as I possibly can. Maybe you have other ways, and I’d love to hear them.

Just know that, that creepy guy in the English lecture, he could have been that kid who grew up without Peter Parker, or Clark Kent, or Bruce Wayne. I want you to help him. Get a comic book. Give it to him.

His mind, and his heart, and his dreams will do the rest.

Support comic books. Visit your local comic book store and ask about DC Comics’ ‘New 52’. There’s 52 new issue one comic books releasing tomorrow, featuring 52 of DC’s top characters and teams.

No history needed. Just pick one up and start reading.

If you get confused, just ask me. I know my shit.

[via my tumblr & preposterousthoughts]

On Imagination

Don’t know if many people do this, but I’m guessing there’s some of you out there.

Few hours ago, I was walking home with a buddy and we were imagining some crazy, stupid, epic shit that would be cool and awesome and probably terrifying to see in our measly ordinary existence in this reality. Fantastic, incredible, unimaginable shit—things that could and would never ever happen in our lives, or anyone’s for that matter.

It was only a short walk, and we discussed it for a brief time, and I don’t know about my friend, but all I could see in my head was all that crazy shit coming together, and me being a center of it, and it coming at me, and it being awesome.

Throwaway conversation becomes inspiration to me. “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” becomes “Why not make that?” “Why not create that world?” “Why not become that person?” “Why not believe?”

Say what you want about it, but the way I think—the way I’ve developed my imagination, I’m always more willing to see the fantastic than the ordinary. If only in my head, if only for a brief moment in time, I’d rather imagine something greater than the world itself than sit in a chair and observe reality.

Sure I’m a realist in normal situations, but shit, when I dream, I want to dream up things that I will not ever experience. In a way, I’m creating it then, it’s mine, and I can do what I want with it.

‘An idea is the most resilient parasite’ – Dom Cobb

I’m paraphrasing, but I think Cobb from Inception said something along those lines.

I know a lot of creators and storytellers and artists have that parasite in them, and the cure is the camera, the paintbrush, the typewriter, or what have you. I don’t think I’m at that stage yet, where the idea becomes unbearable to control, because, well, I invented the parasite that is this idea, it’s mine, but it also feels like its own entity. Certainly shaped from my perceptions and experiences, my resources and definitely the clusterfuck I consider my imagination, but it can grow and thrive and writhe this way through my psyche until I put it on a page.

Do I want that to happen? Eventually, yes. I want to constantly spend my time trapped in my mind’s worlds, creating and destroying, shaping and reforming everything that I have under the control of imagination—or maybe, rather, under control of whatever idea is consuming me, I hope.

Look, I can’t draw, but I’m planning on learning, I can’t dance too well, I don’t do a lot of sports, not a scholar or a savant, I don’t have a +1 in Charisma or Strength, and I probably can’t do a lot of things my friends can.

For me, it’s always been, “What do I have?” –mind you, I don’t mean “What do I have that others don’t”, because that’s restrictive and overly self-deprecating. Just, without any ceiling to reach, any basis for comparison, what are my assets?

I’m fairly good with words, I know people who have a better grasp of it, but I can write a decent paragraph on lots of topics. I have pretty eccentric, sometimes broad, tastes in music and movies, and TV. Gaming’s a big thing, and I’m pretty good at it. I know a lot of esoteric information about mainly comics, but also some other topics.

I’m a nice guy too—let’s check that off for those wondering.

Above all though, because recently I think I’ve chosen this one as the big winner, just because it’s probably the main thing I have going for me—I imagine things greater than myself, this world, and the people in it. By no means is this a set-in-stone trait. And by no means, am I done learning more about this asset, let alone done developing it, even eventually training it if I have enough willpower, frankly.

I like to think I’m a bit more imaginative than my peers. I see solace and interest in things that most other people wouldn’t be the most keen to discuss. I like thinking about things that will never happen, simply because it provides a chance that it will happen for me—in my head, yeah, but really what’s the damn difference?

The whole fiction vs. reality debate and all that, I don’t want to get into. Who would pick reality, really? Everyone has the story they want to be a part of, be they the writer or the protagonist. Every boy wants that girl. Every unhappy wife wants that harlequin novel affair to happen.

Every person wants to escape.

There’s just some that can’t, because they have a 10-foot tall wall made of believability and comprehension blocking their way out from that rut of being stuck with this reality.

A lot of people can jump over it too, break it down, stomp on the rubble, with a pen, pencil, brush, keystroke, mouse click—whatever, they’re all tools. Just takes one fantastic idea, one fantasy, specific as a space cowboy rescuing alien refugees, or as vague as just getting up and leaving, is all it takes for someone to accept that dreaming big and taking what you know and turning it into something no-one ever will know is okay for a while.

After all, it’s all in your head, until you want to make it more.

And I’ve wanted to make it more for some time. Ever since I’ve witnessed others who do it daily, for a living, and love it. Ideas turned into fruition, into worlds—not yet real, but not totally intangible anymore. A great in-between—perhaps the closest form the idea will get to an individual’s reality. I’m thinking comic books right now, but it can be novels, films, television--hell, even music if you value hearing as much as sight, but it’s all the same, again.

I dream big; vivid and vast, because it’s the best thing I can do right now. I don’t like reality. I’m sorry. It’s just not working with me. Hell, I know I’m stuck with it, and I got a lot of helpers I’m thankful for to make the ride enjoyable, but after what I’ve seen and what I’ve dreamt, I'll take any chance I get to hop on board any other reality out there.

That’s why I read what I read—probably most others who do it do it for that reason too. Escapism is the drug that keeps imagination alive. That one core desire that we’ve developed for ourselves, and not enough people I think embrace the power of imagination to self-sustain that feeling of escapism, if only for until the movie ends or the last page is written or read.

In my mind, with that one parasitic idea (I hope), my imagination creates the drug. And I control my imagination. But wait, that’s an oxymoron. You should never, ever try to control your imagination, in fear of what you might find, or whether it hinders your grasp on every day life, it doesn’t matter. Just do it because you can, and because it will inevitably take you places.

I’m not talking about imagining God’s telling you to slaughter a bunch of kids to bring them to Heaven, those people are flawed from before this whole ‘imagination is a drug’ thing.

I’m talking about me, and hopefully someone like me. Maybe you. I hope, you.

Hell, it’s brought me places. You can’t really tell right now, because I’m in the same physical place as I was since I was born; normality reigns, reality binds.

Places don’t have to be physical though. I’ve imagined a couple worlds, a few dozen or so people I’d really like to meet if I could, and a few world-changing/cosmic events to spice things up. So yeah, I’ve gone places, and back. And gone to them again.

So do I prefer those realities over this one? Sure. As much as acting on that preference is an impossibility, nothing else is. I have real people, real places in housed in my mind. Real to me, is real enough, okay?

I don’t care if I sound bat-shit crazy, this is what I want to do for a long time. I want to make worlds and hopefully, painstakingly, make them as real to everyone else as they are real to me.

That’s the burden of imagination. That’s the cure to the parasite that is that one, award-winning, life-changing idea. That’s my biggest dream.

Three minutes of walking down my street, thinking about how a discoloured lamppost could actually be housing an light-based energy alien lifeform scouting from inside the shell of the casing, which is actually a camouflaged outpost to send information to its homeworld.

And look where it’s brought me.

Don’t just think about life, imagine it. It’ll do you some good.

[I really am grateful for you, dear Blog Reader, if you got through all of that. I thank you for your dedication for this blog, I know I’m light on the GIFs and reblogging. Kudos]

Internet already hates this video.

‘My Christ wears a cape.’

captainfuck [on Tumblr]:

Superman is easily the most misunderstood fictional figure in modern popular culture.

Any issues people tend to have with him are a result of lazy writers, not any failings of the central myth behind him. His lack of appeal speaks more to the persistent cynicism of our society than anything else. Why else do people have  such a hard time rooting for a man with the power of a God who seeks only to do good? Same reason you don’t trust that really nice guy who’s helping you with your groceries. Your first instinct is “he’s a rapist.”

That’s the appeal of Batman. Batman doesn’t fucking trust anyone. You wouldn’t either if you saw your parents get capped at age 8. People can relate to that. Bruce was normal, then the world showed him it’s true colors, and he never looked away again.

Clark is essentially Jesus, but far less preachy. People can’t relate to that shit. Superman is like Jack from LOST. Most people cannot relate to a gifted, well to do Anglo alpha male struggling with his place in the world. Bruce is the emo kid acting out his revenge fantasies on drug dealers and motherfuckers dressed up likes clowns. Clark is the jock valedictorian who felt bad that his best friends didn’t get accepted to the schools he did.

I think at this point I should get across that I am a Batman stan for life. Period. I’ve been Team Rich Nigga Vigilantism since birth.

Just, as I get older, I wish for the moral fibre and the dedication to be more like Superman.

People point to his absurd power levels & shit but be honest: if YOU could fly and punch the moon, how many kittens in trees would you save? Bruce is incapable of seeing the good in humans, and understandably so. Clark is incapable of not at least trying to. That’s admirable. Bruce is equally restrained. I mean, he’ll beat the shit out of a crackhead with a car engine if the mood strikes, but he can’t cross a line. Can you imagine having the wealth and means to just fucking murder serial rapists and get away with it, and have the strength not to?

I don’t like regular people, mostly. I grew up with titans and misunderstood freaks who held themselves to a higher standard. 95% of the people I’ve met in life have at one point or another fucked up my perception of humanity. Shit, myself included.

Superman never let me down. Never cut a corner. He never fucked somebody over out of selfishness. He stood on a line and wouldn’t be moved. Half of the historical figures who’s regurgitated mantras and quotes we parrot and strain to adhere to were fuck ups just like us. I’m pretty sure Gandhi told a white lie or two in life to get some head. Superman? Not so much.

As a kid, I thought Superman was lame. I’ve read the end fight scene from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS thousands of times. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve respected him more.

Idk. Some people really fucking like Jesus. I wasn’t raised with the bible. I was raised with The Justice League. My Christ wears a cape. I think belittling the myth of Superman down to being a boring do-gooder is reductive and insulting.
I’m just saying…how many kids right are going to grow up idolizing nihilistic, selfish, jaded cocksuckers with broken belief systems? If I have a kid, I don’t want him to grow up to be like me. That’s a low ceiling to build over a child. Why can’t he reach for the skies?

Doing the right thing is fucking HARD. Clark Kent is an awkward, workaholic nerd who keeps people at a distance so he doesn’t endanger them. Here’s a dude who could basically turn 22 and walk into the white house and incinerate the President, and run the free world. He could build iron fortified fuck palaces with his bare hands and stock them to the brim with color coordinated cooze puppets in every city. Instead, he works at a fucking newspaper. He’s in love with a bitch who only likes him when he wears a cape. Everyone dogs him. His boss is a dick. His parents are the only two people in the world who seem to understand him at all. He doesn’t take days off. He gets up every day and sacrifices anything he could be doing for himself to save lives. And better the world around him. I don’t understand how no one can relate to that? You’ve never done something because you know it’s right, even if it doesn’t benefit you? I’m not saying, you know, defeat Darkseid on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Shit, you never helped an ungrateful friend move? How many parents leave their kids in front of an Xbox and let Master Chief raise their young? Shit, pop in some Superman cartoons.

I’ve always considered myself a man in search of a cave to plot revenge in, but I’m trying Ringo. I’m trying REAL HARD to be more Super.

He was raised by two decent, hard working, loving humans. He saw in them that EVERY human, regardless of circumstance, had that capacity. Bruce knew from a young age the very worst humanity had to offer. Clark knew the opposite. I’m cynical as fuck! When I meet new people who seem genuinely nice, it takes WEEKS for me to stop secretly assuming they’re pedophiles!

I don’t fucking trust ANY of you people! I WISH I’d studied to be a ninja to facekick shady fucking people. But, God, how I wish I could be a kid again. Children have that quality Superman has. It’s not naiveté. They just still believe in magic.

Obviously, Superman can afford to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. If he ends up being wrong, you know, he can atomize hem w/ a look. I think the beauty of the character is that, if our sun didn’t turn him into a God, and he was raised just the same, he’d be no different. He’d just be a shy nerd who gives people the benefit of the doubt, and probably get mugged a lot.

People. you don’t have to be able to fly to be Superman. Take a week trying not to be a dick. You’re halfway there. Just fucking SMILE at people in the streets. ASPIRE, dammit.

Remember that poster for Donner’s SUPERMAN? “YOU WILL BELIEVE A MAN CAN FLY!” When’s the last time you believed in anything aspirational?

I think I’m pretty much done. Been in a bad mood for three weeks and I read SUPERGODS and decided Kal-El was going to be my new religion.

Still BATMAN 4 LYF, but I think we could all stand to see a little more Superman when we face the mirror in the morning.

You caught me in a rare, uplifting mood. Tomorrow it’s back to big asses, hipster music and bad mouthing stupid people.

[thanks, deebeemonster]

Great rant. And a good incentive to pick up at least Action Comics #1 this September.

NEVER CHANGE, Americans.

We are despicable creatures sometimes.

BUT I THOUGHT GREEN LANTERN WAS BLACK?!??!!

HURRDURR I’m not watching, GREEN LANTERN IS RACIST.


GET THE FUCK OUT.

I’m well aware of what this post means.

I apologize in advance.

tl;dr? Fuck you, read it anyways.

I don’t really pay attention to haters. Haters on what? Just haters in general. The flamers, the trolls, the people who respond with bad grammar and one-sided arguments, the shit-disturbers, the idealists, the nihilists, and the simple-minded folk who reject an opinion that doesn’t correspond with theirs, and make it intensely noticeable on the internet.

Usually, fuck ‘em all. Usually, I don’t give a shit what haters say, because I’m better than them. Usually, they are just obnoxious asshats that are little more than a speck of forgotten dirt in an entire city that tramples on them and their self-righteous, derogatory, and loathing hatred for happiness.

Usually, I ignore it.

But, fuck you people who don’t like new Green Lantern Wondercon footage.

Yeah, fuck you. Not because you don’t like it—I’m fine with that, you don’t have to like a trailer because your entitled to your opinion. No, fuck you, because I’ve been slowly discovering what goes on behind the making of visual media in terms of the effort, manpower, and efficiency that’s needed to create anything resembling a product worthy for green-lighting.

To the ‘CGI isn’t developed enough’ bandwagonners, what the FUCK do you know about creating CGI? What are you basing your value judgement of Green Lantern’s preliminary footage that’s not even completed yet on? It looks like a video game? Well, no shit you dolt, of course it does, it’s fucking computer-generated imagery.

Why don’t they cast real aliens, from real planets? Yeah, they should stop cutting corners by designing completely new characters from scratch. This CGI is too CGI-y, it’s not real enough.

Yeah, well what the fuck is real about an intergalactic space police force with thousands of unique alien species as members? There’s nothing fucking real about comic books and superheroes. There’s nothing real about the adventures they go on or the villains they fight or the crises they have to avert. Comic books are not about what’s real.

If you were even interested in this film at all—if you did more than just hear that this was a movie about a superhero, that Green Lantern is not just the black guy from the cartoon, that there’s anything more to it then ‘big name actor to make it mainstream while cashing in on the fanboys’; you would know comic books is exactly about the opposite of real.

And guess what, the same goes for the movie. How do you make something that’s the farthest from real, into a reality? You grind for months in post-production, go through dozens of phases of planning and production, meetings on how to successfully adapt this character from the comics and keep its design style, or what changes should be made to that character to improve it. You do what you do, as a CGI artist, as someone who knows what they’re doing, to make the movie some money, and on the side, get some satisfaction that the fans will love what you’ve done, because you love what you’re doing.

That’s the essence of creating art—creating movies, comic books, games, any other type of visual media—you try to create a reality for the audience that immerses them, gets them into it, makes them feel like they’re the part of the world that you’ve made, the world that was started from scratch from a template, a sketch, an idea, and make it come to fruition. That’s what visual storytelling is.

And if you fucking haters don’t appreciate it enough, not because you like hating, not because your opinion is invalid, but because you don’t even know the fucking tenth of what goes into creating CGI, then it’s your loss. You won’t be able to enjoy even the upcoming hype its going to get because you refuse to believe in something other than a delusional standard you set for yourself that prevents you from properly enjoying something for what its worth.

What did you want? Black Swan in space?

Did you think Tron 2, 2012, Battle:LA, District 9, and others were successes because of their incredible writing or direction (some of them are, actually); no, it’s because they’re carried by the ability of their digital artists to recreate worlds that immerse their audience. That’s the job of a digital artist. That’s what they fucking do.

That’s what sells. The marketing of the fabricated world being reality. That’s why you’ll probably watch it anyways, and then post online, much like in the style of this blog, of why it didn’t live up to your ‘expectations’ because you expected exactly what you wanted to expect beforehand.

You’ve critiqued the film before you’ve seen it.

Oh wait, you’re already doing that.

Not to mention the care in faithfulness they’ve maintained to the original comic book mythos; Parallax, Sinestro, Krona, Rot Lop Fan, friggin’ Apros, for Christ’s sake, who looks exactly like he does in the comics—if any of those don’t ring a bell, you don’t have the FUCKING RIGHT to criticize it before it’s even been finished production.

And the CGI isn’t ‘developed enough’ because it hasn’t completed development of the CGI, you fucktard. They learned from the teaser, not to release any more marketing footage because they want to continue working on the CGI—you know what that means? More people working more hours to please you, you ungrateful cretin.

Maybe that’s why you’re wondering where the marketing for it is, apart from the recent WonderCon footage release and their panels at other conventions. Why there’s no online or televised marketing. Because they want to make it as good as possible. But guess what, there’s always the haters.

Be it the uptight, relentless hard-core fanboys, the anti-CGI guys, or the film elitists who shouldn’t even have a say in the genre of ‘superhero action’, all of you are going to have your panties in a knot over this one.

Because you guys are haters, and you fucking suck ass.

If you want to drain your own happiness like a Black Lantern drains emotions, be my guest. But don’t express it to me. Don’t even express it publicly. Seal your unjustified hate in a plastic room so you can freely be a tard in private. I don’t want to witness that indecency. I don’t want to witness your disrespect for motion picture professionals.

Cause if you had any idea how much effort goes into creating something like this, of this epic scale, you wouldn’t be a hater. You’d be appreciating every single fucking frame of that new trailer. Every composited scale on an alien body. Every artificial set extension. Every trace of rotoscoping . Every goddamn digital lighting effect, prosthesis application, environment texture, sound design, motion capture sequence, and everything else that goes into simply making the world look, sound, and feel real enough for you.

Don’t tell me the CGI sucks. That it’s a CGI shit-fest. That it’s underdeveloped.

Cause you know what, hater?

You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.

Oh yeah, and Ryan Reynolds is a decent actor, get over being bitter that he plays a typecast cheeky/suave 20-something, you jealous turd.

Yeah, I’m mad. Deal with it.

Green Lantern is the shit. In Brightest Day, motherfuckers.

The Best Time To Blog Is When You Have Something Else To Do

I have a writing assignment to do about making a story outline based on an idea formed from a Grimm Brothers fairy tale. I took the first one I read and made up some arbitrary morality tale about an ex-military drug dealer in an attempt to flash in a neon sign that I’m trying to be deep and controversial with morally questionable acts.

I’m over the page limit, losing track of my plot progression, and losing faith in my characters. The characters are forced, the action’s predictable, and the message is heavy-handed.

Considering I might want to take the writing courses offered in my program in my upper years—and thank God I even have that option for my program; this might be what I have to expect from now on.

The one assignment basically this whole month I’ve been wanting to do has been buried by the other weekly quizzes or assignments that I could care less about, but should care more about because my professors and peers keep telling me its essential to know based on the fact that my program’s curriculum is so specific and centralized that there’s not much I can afford to miss to prepare me for next year.

Rather than continue writing this assignment, I’ve come here to complain. Because I’m good at that, and I need to feel like I’m good at something right now.

No, my program isn’t as intellectually stimulating as some others. No, my university as prestigious as yours, and frankly I don’t know if I can represent the ideal of ‘immediate employment’ that my program emphasizes for its undergrads to potential applicants.

But hell, it’s fun, you know? I get to press buttons, frame shots, be creative, make ideas, and work with my hands more than my head.

But right now, fuck it. Fuck it all.

‘Chummy’

English majors, the nerve of them.

Net Neutrality vs. The Biggest Douche In History

(aka. America)

A few days ago, the FCC released that they were going to allow corporate sponsorship online. What that basically means, is that if you use more, buy more, play more, or anything more, you pay more. Not you or me directly, maybe, but the content providers and distributors—YouTube, Google, Yahoo—and that’s not even going into the smaller digital content websites who rely on having efficient access to their content in order for them to profit from it.

This means that Internet Service Providers now have the power to limit, censor or block any content that they feel isn’t what they want being sent down their lines, so they can allocate their bandwidth allowances the highest payers, so they (the content guys) can get their shit sent faster down the line to the front end; the consumer.

Huffington Post—I know, it’s not the best source, but I’m gonna go ahead and jump on this bandwagon, if only for the moment—stated the three reasons why this is pretty much bullshit, and you can get the link right here to read more up on it, cause my voice is reason is probably not the best to follow, but don’t let that stop you from hearing me out.

Huff Post is really adamant about the ‘we demand free, equal internet you capitalist bastards’ and I’m not really opposed to that kind of mindset. To me, breaking it down into its bare bones reveals one thing—the big guys are taking advantage of the little guys, and leaving them in the dust. Where have we seen that before?

Oh yeah. All the fucking time.

But it’s different here, at least I think so. I’m not Internet economics expert, or a guru on Net Neutrality, hell the term is confusing as it is, but I know for a fact that the Internet is one big fucking thing, and the adverse effects of this move, while not apparent now, will be apparent later.

Very, very apparent.

My guess is a lot of lag, a lot of unavailable websites, and hell, we’ll probably end up paying even more for a set amount of bandwidth space we’re allowed to have per month. These are just wild guesses, but I use the Internet a lot, so I’m gonna assume these are realistic scenarios, and ones that will piss me off.

Net Neutrality, as I understand it (not very well), is the concept of data that is sent through the net—text, video, image, anything—should be charged, like a tollbooth, the same rate. The whole debate is a debate on discrimination of data, in that those content providers and distributors that are the main creators and handlers of that data are now going to have big giant painful things stuck up them by the carriers, who handle how that data gets to you and I.

Let this help your simple mind grasp the concept of ‘Net Neutrality.’

At first, when we get the ‘message’ it really appears that we shouldn’t care, but the carriers like a cab service they’re at the control room, sending out cabs. Some of those cabs are shitty fucking '86 Daewoos, and other ones, that the carrier can afford getting to you because someone else is paying them a shitton, is a Bugatti Veyron and arrives in style.

Fuck that, give everybody an Accord to get them. Shit.

Politically, this is not right wing, but it’s not left wing either, I mean, government control and all, but it’s the wrong type—this isn’t social aid funding or welfare development, this is corporate sector involvement, not to limit big business getting in the way, but freeing it up so they can fuck with our lives.

So, anybody fancy a cup of tea?

All in all, I blame Obama.

No, I’m joking, but it is kind of his fault. The dude hasn’t really done much except be black and talk about shit that he’s gonna do.

And then not do it.

Fuck you, man.

It’s his Christmas present to the digital world, and it’s a day late. Typical.

Nah, he’s a cool guy, but still, I have to put my hands up in the air sometimes, and say:

Like seriously man, the Internet’s gonna die.

It’s gonna die, man!

I don’t want it to die. =(

[via 4chan’s /v/ board originally, but the thread’s gone now, losers.]

Let me tell you why you’re an idiot.

You feel like your doing something important? Like you’re fighting for a cause? Do you think that donning a black mask and carrying a 2x4 will make your voice be heard any louder?

Then you’re an idiot.

This year’s G20 summit in Toronto wasn’t something I was paying too much attention to, since it really didn’t effect me, and Toronto was going to be crowded, and I didn’t want to be trapped in thousands of protestors trying to get somewhere.

And then I hear about vandalism, violence, and property damage erupting in the downtown core. Places where I’ve walked down, like Yonge Street, where shoppers go to enjoy themselves and I can find pretty much anything to walk into and browse. Now it’s locked down with police brigades in riot gear and pseudo-wannabe anarchists trying to stick it the ‘man’ by breaking shit.

Tell me why you’re not an idiot if you do that.

Seriously, what the fuck are you fighting for? Most of you are early adults, either in college/university or just out of it. Does all the budget talk effect you? Are you part of a labour union? Has one of these G20 countries changed the way you live your life?

You live in Canada, you fucking dolt. Why don’t you uphold its image?

Or are you too obsessed with the opportunity to be like Che Guevara and lead a ‘revolution’ against 20 of the biggest, most industrialized and advanced nations in the world? You screaming ‘We want change!’ is like a distant call to their ears.

They have better things to worry about than you.

So the next time you try to violently represent your ‘cause’, think again. There is no other way you will be heard, and breaking windows of shops that I want to visit next weekend doesn’t help anybody in any way whatsoever.

What worries me is exactly the fact that most of you black bloc protesters are young adults. To me, this is a cry for attention, not a cry for change. A feeble, pathetic attempt to bring something new to the table. What you want is to feel important, because you’re drawn into this idea that fighting anything resembling authority and normalcy is something you don’t want.

Don’t even get me started on the concept of ‘anarchy’.

You’re a thug. That’s all you are. You’re bringing something Torontonians and all of Canada has always avoided, always tries to prevent, and never experienced: widespread, mass violence. Why? It’s so counter-intuitive. Not only are you misrepresenting the people, but I can’t push the point enough that you’re not changing anything.

You want to fight for less security spending, yet you’re breaking windows.

Smarten up. We’re Canadian. We’re respected.

We’re fucking better than this shit.

This music is bad and you should feel bad.

Your music sucks. No, seriously. It really does. The music you choose to listen to doesn’t reflect an intellectual thought process. Your choice in music proves to me that you have no grasp of musical appreciation and that your tastes are that of a deaf caveman. In fact, you have no right to listen to music at all. You’re not allowed to listen to music, now that I’ve heard your horrid likings. You are what makes the music industry keep producing this shit. You are why we can’t have nice things.

Suddenly, a giant pelican with a wingspan greater than Jesus’ crucified arms swoops down and picks me up, flies me to Mt. Kilimanjaro, which subsequently triggers and volcanic eruption. This divine pelican drops me into the white-hot lava below, leaving me and burn and boil in agony, to be forgotten forever. The pelican flourishingly flies upwards into the blue sky, flaps its majestic wings, and triumphantly cries:

“You fucking elitist douchebag.”

I’m sick and tired of hearing all this bullshit about how obscure bands are greater than so-and-so pop divas and mainstream music will never been respectable and blah blah blah. Taste is not a objective thing. There is no right and wrong.

Art is not an objective thing either. In art, there are no correct or incorrect answers. You can’t say that this kind of music is wrong. You violate the very laws (which I believe the only one is ‘Be creative’) of creative expression.

Yes, I have been to 4chan, specifically /mu/, the music board. Yes, I have seen their memes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective and Radiohead hivemindedness. Yes, some of them are trolls. And yes, I know for a fact that they are elitists.

But still, a majority of /mu/tants are devoted fans of the teachings of the board. They follow its advice as if a guiding deity is showing them the light at the end of the tunnel. That light is not the outside though. You won’t find the answers to musical knowledge. That tunnel has a big, giant sign, hidden in the dark, saying ‘You tool.’ If you sacrifice that certain Kings of Leon song that is stuck in your head and try to supplement it with endless unknown prog-rock or post-hardcore, you are subjecting yourself to the very reason why this thinking exists.

Yes, Lady Gaga is a good artist. Yes, Lil’ Wayne knows how to sell albums. And yes, no matter how much you, I or everyone else hates it, BrokeNCYDE will make more money than most acoustic singer-songwriters. You know why?

Because people have some tastes that are different from others. Maybe it is shitty taste. Maybe BrokeNCYDE really deserves to go die in a hole. But fans will listen to them because taste cannot be stricken down as incorrect. You can’t fail a person’s musical preferences. If you try, nothing will come out of it. Trust me, I’ve tried.

You’ll have to sit back and let it steam for a while. Hopefully, like most musical movements, they go away. Maybe screamo-rap and jerking and all those other hated trends in music will fall off the pedestal of popularity and something greater will arise.

Don’t just go and say, “Mmhm, you like this music? Here’s a match. Burn yourself.” Chances are, you might find some similar music that you actually like. Say I find someone’s music playlist with 200GB of space. Say they have only 200 songs on there. But each song, even though there aren’t that many, has music that ranges from classical to rap to pop and jazz. I’ll prefer that person over any playlists that consists of absolutely no bands I have ever heard of. That doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy those bands, it just means that this person is consciously trying to separate themselves from the mainstream because they can’t get over the fact that sometimes music leaves us with things we may not enjoy. It’s high time this stopped.

Hypocrisy is how the internet runs today. You might find someone who says Lady Gaga is a transsexual whore, yet secretly he/she sings Poker Face in the shower. More often than not, people will get scared that they find out some music grows on them, or just starts off as catchy to their ears.

Don’t panic. Breathe a little. Rethink your options. If this music is good, and its not particularly a musical trend I like, what do I do?

The elitists will tell you, “Either never, ever go near this kind of music again, kill yourself so you never expose yourself to it, or download everything from this list of bands because I tell you to and because my musical tastes are right.”

And I’ll tell you the only thing I should be allowed to tell you.

If you like it, listen to it.