Why Japan, anyway?

There are so many times people ask the same question: "Why Japan? What do you see in that country?"

It's a valid and good question. Instinct, knowledge, ideas, projections of the future, all play a role, and then there's the fun factor. I could answer with references to a hybrid traditional/practically posthuman culture... Although my abilities in both are limited, I could discuss the endless nuances and beauty of the language, which not unlike my mother tongue, Urdu, has this special way of describing human feelings, experiences and has a unique flavour. I could discuss the communication style of the people, how having the subject at the end of a sentence actually makes people listen to one another... I could discuss the technological and environmental babble that we all seem to notice at first...

But those of you who've sat down with me and enjoyed any one of the animated works of Makoto Shinkai will know. Those of us who understand the meaning of that vision will get it. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same pair of eyes, some of us aren't really interested in "Anime"... As an artform, a storytelling medium, a space for social commentary and of course, just plain wacky humour, no superior visual medium exists. The reason it's not a big deal, though, is because art imitates life. Moreover, life sometimes imitates art.

Such is the case of chobi, a Vimeo user who goes by mockmoon. His visions are like a real-life motion capture of Shinkai's seemingly "None of this can possibly be real" animation. What most people don't know that quality animation is more often than not based on photoreference, and can reflect aspects of nature and reality. I invite you to observe Constant Shatter, and share how it makes you feel...


Nature Time Lapse 2 from mockmoon on Vimeo.

As more of us grow to appreciate this vision... This understanding of our position with respect to our surroundings... Perhaps then we can speak of change.

Get over it, [AK] is kinda into LIGHTS >__<

LIGHTS - February Air official music video


Ok. I´ve been holding back on this one for a while, I can´t take it anymore, so here goes. I like LIGHTS! There. That wasn´t so hard was it? Let´s just ignore that this isn´t at all age-appropriate or even appropriately masculine of me, but meh don´t really care...

Seriously though, when she played at a *cough* certain Computer Store in Montreal a few months ago, I randomly got a chance to hear her live, and I´m telling you: I have no idea how one little girl can have such boundless energy! She´s a powerhouse!

So what about her music? What makes a friggin 23 year old guy like LIGHTS? Honestly, this is all familiar territory, I grew up listening to electronica, in fact I hardly used to listen to anything else in high school. And her approach to the genre is different. After maybe ten years of wall-pounding bass and weird grammatically hilarious European vocals, here´s an Ontario girl who´s doing things her own way. Her basslines are soft and rolly, they brush your eardrums, not slam them with nuclear attacks, her lyrics make sense and are actually kiinda original! LIGHTS even has this really cute, simple voice, and her melodious, candy-flavoured musical style is as delicious as it is addictively fun to listen to. She says it herself on her website ¨When I write songs I think about how my music makes people feel, and I hope that when it goes into your ears you feel happy. Not sexy happy but apple pie happy.¨

I feel like in a time where there´s a lot of semi-depressed emo/post rock nonsense floating around on the net, here´s something fresh and fun, and yeah, I get Apple pie happy!

Enjoy : )

Mumbai there is Hope.

So. There's been some blog radio silence on my end recently. Few reasons for this, some like to play mindsweeper and use blogs rather than simply enjoy them. *Yawn* Oh well.

So we've all had our share of bombardment by now of the Mumbai terror incident. I'll sum up my reaction by quoting Fred Gallagher here: "A failure of Conscience". These types of events affect us all, indeed. But how does one cope with it?

Well, here's one for people who did feel somewhat angry about this. This goes to anyone whose families were affected by it, it's a simple message.

As a Pakistani born Canadian, this type of nonsense is obviously somewhat upsetting. Some Muslim branded puppeteers feel these scenarios are acceptable human behaviour. A shame. Their errors will lead them to demise, fate basically works that way.

Since the event, I've overheard maybe 4 separate conversations where a Mulsim dude was trying to convince people "Y'know... The world is crazy right now, we're not really like that"... No one will listen unless the puppetmasters change. (Or just go on vacation, err like forever!)

The deeper part:

- Let us share our condolences with the victims

- Let this remind us that these acts are those of Mad people. In the real sense of the term.

Example: killing yourself+team+150 hotel guests = 40 virgins someday (if that) for you.

(nice spiritual selflessness there, eh?)

- There is a different Jihad. (uh oh... noooot good....)

It's just the internal struggle of quelling the anger, deleting the frustration and accessing that urge to fight back and keeping it cool. If we don't?

- It´s actually possible to refuse evil. I know in the past I´ve discussed that there's no such thing and we should instead think in terms of harmful/harmless, but these folks are nuts and they need it written in black n white +__+

Hope for the rest of 2009? Well... Obama! Heh... Ok, let´s try another one: Gaza.

*sigh* well here´s the thing, people who love peace and justice, harmony and progress, who care for humanity and our future have really got to avoid some mental pitfalls. Here´s one example:

hipster123 says:

¨Dude, Obama already solved all our problems, or almost, so we can really go back to focusing on our Apps and myPhones. In fact, no need for serious voter turn out 4 years from now at all. Reason? Voting is for chumps and people with too much free time, speaking of which, I´m gonna go smoke a blunt followed by a crackachino.¨

That mentality really won´t get us where we want (some day) to be. Let´s not forget all those billion-dollar-budget toting uberconservatives, lobby groups, military contractors, special interest groups, intel communities and the rest of the old schoolders who are used to doing things their way. Peace is a long friggin road, yes it´s not always fun reading the news, but we need to so we can make the right voting decisions next time.

Hang in there people, and have a great spring break!

Photo credit: Higher Being

We Vote Tomorrow, Among Midterms. Yikes.

Heyyya everyone ^__^
*sigh* right, sorry! As usual, no updates for Months, hopefully not too many visits during this time...
So. We vote. Let us begin.
Here's a recent email sent to a few close relatives... I never do this... But Alas:
- we vote in a matter of hours! Yes, it's a Countdown
- The Canadian Election basically coincides with that of the UnitedStates of America
- Iraq, China, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, The UK, Germany, Canada. (0)__(O)
- Petrol. A few billion barrels of it. We know.
- a few dozen Nuclear Power Plants, running on cartel U-92 and Pu-239 and maybe a Hundred Thousand rather thirsty Warplanes: stealth, multirole fighter bombers, wtv...)
- bloody spies! Nokia Users, might want to click that last link ;)
- This is all rather significant, so let's act accordingly, yeah?
=)
Here's that email, hope it makes you laugh, think, scratch your head at the particularities of Canadian Politics, wtv, enjoy:

So with the election being ah... Today n all, there's been so much talk lately about this and that, the Conservatives and their wierdo attitudes towards... Basically everything... Figured it might do to figure out, who should be considered when choosing wisely between the other 4 interesting parties... Well, Bloc's a bit.... Shall we say separatist... Or something rather along those lines... Here's some interesting perspectives, 1-2 mins each:

Unique display of Post-LiberalConservatism at the doorsteps of a certain Ottawa Court:
http://photos.cmaq.net/v/SupremeCourtCSIS/

Well, maybe that happened under the Liberals? At what point did the situation begin to affect the Cons and Stop being caused by the Libs? We're not so sure...

One of the interesting topics that concern us recently are The Digital Millenium Copyright Act(s) and their versions and implications.
Coms are naturally importing a mildly edited version of what already exists down South... Someone's worst case scenario:
http://www.screaming-penguin.com/node/5004

Here was one rather interesting response from one camp, Bill-C61 is an interesting creature indeed... Thanks Steve H:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufV6LYXy7iI

Ok, so let's share fair... Most of us will be voting strategically, good stuff ^_^, it's sort of the point of democracy, isn't it?
Here's a fun little widget that most will find useful, works by plugging in your zipcode, it does the rest, on the right side of this page:
http://anyonebutharper.ca/vote/

For the pundit lovers among us we have May vs a (Man Named Duffy:), here's that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63e8_V8R4w&eurl=http://www.1337hax0r.com/2008/10/10/canadian-abbreviated-pundit-round-up-17/

Also noticable, all this considered, is Liz May's position on a number of unique items...
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=623

So an interesting person though she is... Neither of us will be selling her a Laptop, a trip to Paris, a Hotel room, Coissant, Knee Brace, or anything else...
Anytime in the next 4 years if you want to be pedantic about it :P

That's it for now, relax and vote like ya mean it ; )

Airspace Redux: What Is Cold War II?

Heyya World!
It's strange and volatile, this place we call Earth...

Relax, my blog hasn't become self-aware, [AK]'s being himself...

Last year, in the month of April, a unique experiment in offline blogging was conducted in Montreal. I typed up a blog, edited it, added a few images, and printed it out. After re-reading it though, it was obvious, the piece was quite sensitive. An rather unpleasant experience was being described, one I had at my former university. One which exacerbated growing concerns at the time... The subject matter is basically the military industrial complex and the human role in modern warfare. It's heavy, hopefully far reaching, and yes, this is one a human condition piece. The courage to share this updated, online version with the world at large! Enjoy reading:

Airspace Redux

Battlestar Season 4: Premiere Thoughts

Starbuck is... Alive??!

Too bad she's a frackin' toaster...

Well, the Battlestar Gallactica cast are back for one last season =) I've never mentioned BSG in my blog... Not sure why, it's a really fun modern sci-fi show and well written to boot. For those of you who've never seen it, it might interest you, because unlike genre-typical shows like Star Trek Voyager, BSG doesn't have that really optimistic, glossy clean feel to it. Oh no. It's actually really dark and gritty and does a nice job exploring the ugly side of post-apocalyptic humanity. Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've noticed a lot more films and movies with these type of themes in recent years. I guess it figures, people already speak of cold war 2...

But alas, let's recall my post on 90's animation and how occasional escape into fiction is crucial in dark times, and let's get back to the BSG season opener:

First things first: Totally stunning space battle. I loved the picturesque nebula setting... I'm telling you, all I need is a few more light-years of Air Miles and I'm there!
Secondly: Is it just me, or has Starbuck gone more apeshit than usual? Also, how is that possible?!

And now on to the nice dialog bits that made me want to blog about this to begin with...

The scene with the 2 Adamas talking in the briefing room was key... It was a small scene, but I feel that what Lee says is actually quite profound. He says something to the effect of "Even if my brother was a Cylon, if he had never been a human being, would that change the way we feel about him? Would that really change who he is?" This is interesting because it's sort of posthumanism, in a sense. Lee in fact has quite a humanist attitude towards self-aware "machines".
This is an interesting paradox, one that, who knows, people living in the real world may face within the next century. Many of the current problems and barriers faced in the field of robotics are in fact not technical, but legal. Figuring out where the human input ends, and where the machine's autonomous functioning begins is highly problematic, and a source of potential liability for technology manufacturers. It's one of the main reasons why we don't already see production cars that drive themselves, who is to blame for the accident? The software company, the driver (who isn't really driving in this context) or the car manufacturer?
Similarly, in a world where robots are used in warfare, who is to blame for the war crimes? The machine that made the decision to fire, or the human being that made the decision to build the machine? Can we blame a creation of humanity for being as violent as humanity itself? Where does this sense of moral high ground come from?
It's funny, I was just having a similar conversation with my cousin, who was surprised to learn that there are over 600 drone aircraft currently deployed in Iraq. I wonder, if to Iraqis a robot war is indeed science fiction :S...
Anyway back to BSG, another great scene was Baltar's "spiritual feedback". This is interesting, because for most spiritual people, prayer is sort of a one-way thing. A form of meditation, a means of achieving solace and inner peace. But here's a guy who by nature is a skeptic, and in a desperate moment makes a seemingly genuine plea to spare a child's life, offering his own in exchange. And oddly enough, he finds himself almost getting it. He nearly gets killed, the child lives.
This ties in with the paradox of Cylon monotheistic spirituality. In itself, it seems like an absurd concept. How can a software driven machine be programmed to worship? How can this make sense? Well, the human brain is not unlike a computer, and the language(s) we learn that form our thoughts are quite analogous to programming languages that form code and complex subroutines.
I recently read a book about the nature of thought. It which explores the differences between traditional Western thought and Eastern thought, concepts which the author describes, respectively as rock logic and water logic. They can be summed up as "I am right (and therefore by consequence) you are wrong" vs. "There is some right and wrong to both of our positions". The author, who is a doctor and has a good understanding of neuroscience, points out that our thinking is in a very real sense limited by things like our vocabulary, and more importantly the many limitations of the language we speak.
What I'm really trying to explore here, is that we are sometimes unaware of just what extent of our own humanity is basicallty programmed. We make moral choices, memorize taks, prayers, obsess over the righteousness of our chosen system of belief, even go to war over them. A book I'm currently reading explores the impact on the Crusades on today's world. We see the effects of causality and these almost machine-like obsessive tendencies. I discussed similar ideas in my post entitled "Trying Times? Self Control."

Or maybe what's really amazing is that such discourse was inspired by a science fiction story! See, this is why I really enjoy sci-fi in the style of Battlestar Gallactica, it's sort of darkly honest, and at a stretch gives a unique lens through which to observe events in the real world.

Well, looks like it's gonna shape up to be a fun season then ^__^