Do the Playlist Shuffle – Day One – 3rd Bass – Pop Goes The Weasel

I would like to take the coming week to showcase the random stuff that can be found on my ipod playlist. Growing up as a little punk kid I have zero street cred, but I picked up knowledge of random rap music due to my brother’s love of rap. While my brother was blaster ghetto rap I was doing the running man to this track. Enjoy!

1987 – Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

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Castlevania was never one of my favorite game series growing up. (I owned a copy of the first game, but I traded it for a copy of Pac-man on NES. ) I always find myself drawn more to role-playing games or traditional platformers. However, out of the Castlevania games released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, this was my favorite. I know it is a very divisive title in the series, but my enjoyment of it deals more with my world at the time than the actual gameplay. I would spend way too long chasing after the townspeople and pretend to hit them with my whip while listening to 80s hair metal. Do yourself a favor and throw on some 80s tunes, order a Pizza Hut Bigfoot pizza, and whip some townsfolk…whip them good. “What a terrible night to have a curse!”

 

Plus, it was the first Angry Video Game Nerd video.

 

Childhood Dreams and the Modern World

It was always weird to me as a child whenever my classmates would discuss their future careers. There was always the obligatory discussions about being a doctor, lawyer, or police officer; however, I could never relate to these normal professions as my dreams were a little more off the beaten path. My dream job was to be the host of a television show.

I grew up in the 1980’s during the waning days of children’s television hosts. During my youth, I was raised on a steady diet of Mr. Wizard, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and to a lesser extent Peppermint Place. It was not that these shows were groundbreaking or particularly mind-blowing, but it looked like a lot of fun. Why waste time being a doctor when I could use my skills to teach children about the wonders of reading. (I was a weird kid.) Roaming around my hometown checking out various historical sites, teaching kids about cultures, and other stuff always seemed like great fun.

Unfortunately, there were many things standing in my way both internally and externally. The idea of television hosts was being phased out as more and more networks turned to cheap syndicated cartoons and in some cases, even these cartoons were being overlooked for more teenage fare (Saved by the Bell being one example).

My generation was raised on cynicism and the questioning of authority, so even these teen shows would face ridicule instead of praise. Many people of my generation would grow up in a world where the ideals we were taught in our youth only applied to those of a certain group. Due to that many of us found ourselves in the punk or grunge music scenes with other disillusioned youths. Our newly opened eyes viewed these old shows as talking-down to the audience or as propaganda of previous generations to create a generation of mind-controlled masses. The idea of a children’s host would only work in such an environment if it was played for laughs and as satire.

However, the most important factor was my own insecurities. As a child, I had a huge inferiority complex. I would have my mind set on this career path, but then my depression and insecurities would pop in and be like “nobody wants to see your ugly mug. Just be content being a poor, unimportant schmuck.” I took part in various school plays–not by choice–but I was never able to shake the dread of failure. One play saw me reciting a long speech about baseball–a subject I know nothing about–and the whole time I was terrified of flubbing my lines.

Now that I am older and wiser and with the availability of sites like Youtube I believe the time is right to rise above the factors that prevented me from reaching for my dreams. I have a couple of ideas floating around my head that I hope to implement one of these days. I believe my anthropological training and cultural upbringing would bring a unique voice and a positive change to the world…

via Daily Prompt: Recite

Time and Trends

‘Time is on my side”…depending on what culture one comes from. Time is generally viewed as a linear construct in Western cultures. Time is in short supply, so one must constantly work towards utilizing every available minute. This is a rough example as there are as many differences within Western belief of time as there are cultures. But the bottom line is, time must be properly utilized or the minute is lost forever.

However, there are many cultures that take a different view.. Eastern philosophies–for example Buddhism–view time as circular. Everything follows an infinite loop, and no amount of rushing will end the loop or make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Certain events have either happened before or something similar occurred.

This can create issues when businesses attempt to increase globalization and do not take into account the cultural beliefs of a given society. This is one of the reasons why anthropology is so important to the world. Not only in a business sense, but in an ever increasing world of globalization it can help reduce conflicts caused by the clashing of cultures.

The idea that history repeats itself can be seen as an endorsement of cyclical time to a certain degree. In the world of popular culture, certain trends can be counted on to always occur. For example, nostalgia for one’s youth or for the culture of a previous generation seems to happen in 20-year increments. For example, in the 1970’s there was an emphasis on the culture of the 1950’s as seen in the sitcom Happy Days. The 1990’s gave us That 70s Show. Currently, we are seeing a resurgence of culture from the 80s and 90s with remakes and reimaginings of television shows and movies from the 80s, and the continued popularity of music acts from those decades.

However, one can also make the argument that the popularity of these nostalgic acts can be viewed as an endorsement of linear time. As some people grow older they view the halcyon days of their youth as days that are forever lost. Time marches on, and they attempt to grasp at anything to reconnect them to that earlier time…or at least that is my experience.

via Daily Prompt: Carousel

Symphony of Destruction

I have never been a huge metal fan unless we count hair metal bands; however, my brother introduced me to this song when it first came out in 1992. I understand the message of the song–it is blatantly obvious–but the first thing I think of when the first note hits is rocking out with my brother. He was never successful in turning me into a metalhead–I am a punk/emo boy at heart–but I appreciate the song. So this post goes out to my brother. I miss you, dude.

 

 

via Daily Prompt: Symphony

Space Phantom Still Sucks

Breaking News! The Space Phantom from Marvel Comics is a terrible villain. Back in the 1960’s there was plethora of terrible characters created for Marvel Comics. This is not to say that the writers were creatively bankrupt, but there had not been a villain that really connected as a master of devastation other than Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four comics.

During this time random characters would appear for an issue and be quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, the Space Phantom was not one of these characters. His legacy of suck would frequently pop up in random comics over the decades…ugly costume and all.

 

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He looks like he could be knocked over by a small breeze. 

He first appeared in Avengers #2 in November of 1963, and he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Proving once again that they can’t all be winners. He was initially portrayed as an alien sent to test the people of Earth in preparation for an invasion by his race. However, he would later be revealed as an inhabitant of Limbo. In fact, anyone that became lost in the dimension for an extended period of time ran the risk of becoming a Space Phantom…a fate worse than death unless you like purple jumpsuits.

Space Phantoms have the ability to shape-shift into other beings and sometimes are depicted as being able to become other objects as well…and yet, they still choose to look like a cracked out version of Ed Grimley.

 

R.I.P. Chester Bennington

It is with a heavy heart that I sit before my computer posting about a death for the second time this month. Today it was announced that Chester Bennington from Linkin Park was found dead from an apparent suicide.

I remember seeing Linkin Park perform at the Summer Sanitarium tour in 2003 in Dallas, Texas. The band might not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but they put on one of the best performances of the night.

 

If you or somewhere you know is suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts, please seek help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.