I felt like posting a rare live concert clip with one of my favorite tunes from The Clash, “The Guns of Brixton”. Whether or not you’re a Clash fan, I also recommend that you watch the new Joe Strummer documentary, The Future is Unwritten, as it is a must see for true music lovers. I found it to be inspirational and I think his relates closely to any musician that enjoys unique world music influences, and not the repetitious pop music phenomenons. An interesting fact I learned from the documentary was that Paul Simonon, the original bass player for the Clash (shown singing in this video), originally had no clue how to play any musical instruments at all. When he joined (in 1976), they mentioned that Joe Strummer took it upon himself to teach Paul how to play. Not a bad choice for his first experiment with musical instruments , especially since The Clash turned out to be one of the most influential bands of our time.
I also recently came upon the news that Paul Simonon recently teamed up with Damon Albarn from the band Blur/Gorillaz, and Tony Allan from Fela Kuti & the Afrika 70, to record the LP entitled “The Good, The Bad, & The Queen“. The first time I listened to the record, I was not really moved either way, but it grew on me and I actually listen to it a lot these days.
Here is a quick and useful list of Japanese words for beginners. I started learning the Japanese language and writing systems just over 4 years ago and am still learning. I’ve always been intrigued by the mysterious samurai, shogun, and ninja history, as well as with the language, art, culture, and technology spawned from this Island. If you have any words that you would like me to translate, send them over and I will be glad to help.
I feel like being different again. If you look at the top of this page, you should see the egoassassin logo I whipped up for this page in a few minutes (not great, but not too shabby).
Just send me a line and I will customize something for you like a banner or animated gif. If you are interested in having your name or logo translated into Japanese (Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji), Chinese (Kanji), or even Spanish characters, I can do that for you as well. Send me an email and I will make you something, no joke, I am that odd.
This is what happens when you are supposed to be working on building a site, but would rather find something ridiculous to laugh at for a few moments. I really dig the film 300, but I especially like this rendition below with the coin phrase “THIS IS CAKE TOWN”.
Vanity is defined at Wikipedia.com as: “The excessive belief in one’s own abilities or attractiveness to others“. We usually think that this negative quality would only apply to super models or shallow minds, but unfortunately this description often summarizes many of the people that we meet every day.
The world around us constantly conditions our minds to worry about what other people think of us. As a result, we often change the way we look, act, and even view ourselves, which causes us to eventually agree with opinions and philosophies we do not necessarily agree with. I have personally struggled with this self conscious sickness for all of my life, but can only blame one person for buying into this lie, and that would be ME. I do give some credit to the infamous think tank known as “society”, but peer pressure is no excuse for accepting falsehoods.
I’m feeling well today, but I am really sick of this nonsense! Why do we care so much about what people perceive as our style, fashion, and appearance? Why do we spend so much of our time obtaining clothing and possessions that are ultimately meaningless? It racks my brain as to why we spend so much of our lives obsessing over minute details, and so little of our lives finding real meaning in our actions. We spend our paychecks to buy things we don’t really need, and for what? We need the bigger house, the bigger car, the bigger wardrobe, but why? To impress other people that we barely know? Who are we trying to impress and why? When you take away all of the toys, money, and fashion, you will find that each of us is the same. A simple human being in need of help who cannot truly do anything on their own. We get some notoriety, money, and kudos, then we think that we are infallible and extra-ordinary people, but we are not. We’re starting to look and sound more like a bunch of robots that portray the stereotype of what others think we should act like.
I say stop the madness. Be happy with who you are and not what other people want you to be. Besides, I know I’m not even close to being perfect, so what?
I’ve officially found my favorite video of the year (so far). Have you seen this “worst Spider-man ever” video? Somewhere in South America this dude is dressed up as Spider-man for a kids birthday party and everything is going just great until he exceeds his acrobatic skill level with some circus style wall climbing. Pay close attention to his bootleg, leotard outfit and the real smooth comeback he makes from the fall as he tries to pretend he doesn’t have a concussion from hitting his head. This is flat out hilarious, but I should not make fun of the guy as I doubt I’d be able to pull of even one of these stunts.
Bob Marley (Jamaica) My all-time favorite. If you do not know anything outside of the compilation entitled Legend, you need to go looking for it.
Movies:
No Country For Old Men (Action/Thriller/Drama) – Love this film, regardless of the artsy ending. I think it is a good thing to have unique aspects of film and not do the same thing that is expected of a blockbuster movie every time. This was a surprisingly good film that reminded me of a mix between groundbreaking modern films like Pulp Fiction and the old school independent westerns that I used to watch in film class.
Memento (Action/Drama)- An oldie but a goodie. If you have not seen this film, go rent it. There are a lot of films out there like this one, but if you want something new, original, and literally backwards, definitely check out this film.
Kung Fu Hustle (Action/Comedy) – It took a few times, but this movie grew on me and is one of my favorite new-school kung-fu movies. This is a film that stars and is directed by the famous Chinese actor/director/comedian, Stephen Chow, who also did such films as “Shaolin Soccer”. You will dig this film as it combines a lot of cool action sequences, ridiculous scenarios, and cartoon style images. If I am every down or simply bored, I bust out this DVD.
City Of GodCidade de Deus (Action/drama – Brazil) -This is a film about a group of friends growing up in an ultra-violent neighborhood in Rio De Jineiro, Brazil, and catalogs the difficult life that is lead simply surviving street life while staying alive and moving in and out of local gangs. If you can handle subtitles and graphic violence, you definitely should watch this film at least once. It’s full of great storyline, character driven plots, and has no shortage action. This is one of my all-time favorite international films by far.
Posted by egoassassin 
Posted by egoassassin 
Posted by egoassassin 
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