Some more stuff:

That Outkast Mixtape: Whatubeenwaitin4

So I listened to the rest of that mysterious mixtape and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. This isn't on the par of their previous albums, maybe, but it is definitely in their style. Solid rapping, Andre's flow is definitely on point, and it's not as "gimmicky" as they've been lately. Don't get me wrong, I love when Andre gets all off on some gospel tangent, it's produced some brilliant music, but he's a top tier rapper and really, that's what I want when I listen to hip hop. It's the same beef I have with Cee-Lo lately. Anyways, here Andre (and Cee-Lo too, actually) break rap down to the essentials: hooks, verses, samples and great, simple beats. It sounds like it's circa ATLiens and such.

What is it anyways? It's confusing. There's pages it for it on some online music retailers, but none of them really explain what it is. I've heard two theories.

1) This is a new official Outkast album/mixtape

I don't believe this one. First off, are they even working on something? Yeah, I know they say they are. And yeah, Big Boi finished his album, proving they aren't just cruising around in retirement, but for something to just pop out like this with no hype or announcement or anything? Impossible. Even ignoring that line of thought, this just doesn't seem official to me. There's not enough connection between the songs, and they seem so much like old songs that I really figure they must be. But if it's just a fan made collection of songs, why don't I recognize them?

2) That's because these are old non-Outkast songs featuring Outkast that are renamed

This is probably likely. And some of them do seem familiar, yeah, even though I don't flat out recognize any of them. Anyways it's a good collection, but it bugs me to listen to it if it has "BAD TAGS" and such.

Too lazy to actually research this very far though...

DAS RACIST NEWS

TWO NEW MUSIC VIDEOS:

WHO'S THAT BROOOOWN on ATARI-ESQUE

DANCING AROUND IN NEW YORK W/ NOSHIRTS: EK SHANEESH EDITION

they also made a playable version of that first one on their website but it's HELLA BUGGY

ALSO THEY GOT A NEW MIXTAPE COMING, IT'S GONNA BE THE FIRE.

and this song is old but i have been playing it non-stop. it's like proto-jungle fever. almost as good as jungle fever: RIIIIING TONE also has the best youtube comment arguments ever.

Hey, Get Serious About Something

OK, let's have a serious talk about anime fandom and how one presents oneself.

I went to an anime store today. I bought a bunch of One Piece graphic novels I was missing. Now I have the complete English set thus far, 1-54. They sit on a bunch of shelves in my room. It's quite impressive. Now, this obviously cost me a lot of money, probably about $600 or so (Canadian book pricing is pretty bad) - is that reasonable for a hobby or collection? I can sort of rationalize that, yeah, I read them a lot, I never get tired of flipping through One Piece on the toilet or before bed or whatever, but... if they're really just facilitating time I would maybe otherwise spend reading "new" things, it's sort of a waste of money, right?

So maybe I'm not just buying them to use them. I'll admit to this. I'll admit to keeping books I never intend to read again, buying movies and just watching a pirated copy for convenience, buying CDs that I never play... just because I like having them. It bothers me, but I get a certain satisfaction from looking at my collection of things. The drive behind collection is a very basic one that's hard to fight, and I've been a slave to it many times since I was a kid - Beanie Babies, PEZ Dispensers, sticks from vacations from various places, magazines, video games, CDs, LPs, manga, Gamecube controllers, N64s and cheap earbuds (they always break!), empty Starburst wrappers (I think I might do "art" with them down the line?), books, movies, hard drives... which is then used for all the pirated stuff I collect that I won't even try to describe.

They all have varying degrees of usefulness outside of their intrinsic identity, but that is secondary. For most of them, if their primary usage was now rendered useless, I'd still probably keep them. It does bother me that I would keep something completely useless just because it is part of a collection, but here's my rationalization:

1) Physical representation of history
I'm not an overly sentimental person, but I am interested in keeping track of my history and activities and such, and I like to reminisce. If I have a collection that spans a long period of time, it's a pretty easy way to remind myself of my past. "Oh I got that one when I was in high school" or whatever.

2) Physical representation of interests
Again, on a subject of self-analysis, I like figuring out statistics about myself, how much time I spent doing X, etc. I find simply looking at my room is a great way to get a visual indication of my interests. Shouldn't I know what my interests are anyways? Well, yes and no, but I find the prediction you make based on conclusion and what you often do are different things, since the former only accounts for your logical mind while the latter is a whole brain decision.

3) Aesthetics
A bunch of One Piece volumes in a row looks nice to me. Not because I'm a neat freak, far from it. I also think they look nice scattered around my room. I buy CDs with interesting cover art. I buy nice hardcover copies of books. Why? They look nice. I sometimes have difficulty rationalizing my opinions of what I find attractive and unattractive because they're inherently irrational and irrelevant, but I can't fight it, so why not own things that make me happy?

4) Outward appearance
Occasionally I have people in my room. Although I would like to think I'm not an attention whore or whatever, I do want people to like me and consider me with some sort of regard. I'm not about to make choices just for the benefit of other people, but I like the idea that people can look at the things I own and learn something about me. Maybe they'll have a positive opinion of me, maybe it'll be negative, the important thing is that it will be somewhat accurate. Am I more than just the sum of my interests? Sure. But I don't think the significance of having interests in common should be downplayed - it gives you things to talk about, things to do together, etc, etc. I made a few friends into bigger friends in university because of this.

So where's this "story" going?

So I was at the anime store and they had them figs I mentioned in my last post, the ones I was thinking of getting. I didn't end up getting 'em, for a few reasons:
1) They didn't look as good as I thought they were
2) Wanted to buy other things and I had limited bag space
3) Couldn't fully rationalize purchase

Now, that last one is worth getting into. Let's run through my four motivations for collection again:

1) and 2) apply pretty easily, sure. I look at them and I'm like "oh I remember buying that" and "oh yeah I like those shows".

3) applies. I'll get back to that.

4) is where things get iffy, because the social aspect depends on other people. I said earlier "I don't care if they have a positive or negative opinion, it'll at least be accurate", but would it be in a situation like this? The reception a collection can get really depends on the thing being collected. One big categorical separation is one between collecting something (i.e. a manga) and something that ties in with that series (i.e. One Piece figurines). While the former could always be seen as something bought simply for the primary usage (reading them) (even though that's sort of "outdated" in the age of piracy), the latter says undeniably that "I am a big fan of this thing, I wasn't just curious or whatever." Furthermore, while most actual media is fairly multifaceted, buying something like a figurine or a poster says fairly explicitly that "I like this particular aspect."

Or does it? I'll get into that a bit later.

Anyways, I've been a bit too general and vague here. I'm also assuming a knowledge of the content when what really matters most of the time is how it appears to someone unfamiliar with the item. That's a much more subjective argument, but sometimes it's pretty dang clear. I talked to a bunch of people on forums about the idea of buying these figs and the opinions were pretty nicely divided between "buy whatever you like" and "you should be aware that people will think you're a pedophile". OK. So what about that anyways?

And that's really a whole other thing. Why do I like K-On!! and Black Rock Shooter? Is it for the moe? The music? The fight scenes? The character designs? And if it's any combination of those things, why again? It's not sexual, I'll say that now, but there is a definite element of aesthetic appeal. I really can't fully explain it, to be honest. The bottom line is: I enjoy watching these shows, I have a lot of fun doing so even though I can't rationalize their appeal the way I can with a show like The Wire or Cowboy Bebop. I like the character designs, too, and I'm not entirely sure why. I mentioned earlier that I liked to be able to look at my interests with a sort of outsider's perspective because I can't always accurately figure out my interests or plans on a purely rational level. I guess this is really another instance of that. Similarly inexplicable, though, was my strong desire not to get them when I actually saw them, for reasons I also can't fully explain.

So what about that social aspect, though? Will I ever start hiding things away? Well, my desktop wallpaper was a slideshow of pictures of Mio from K-On!!... almost all of my friends and my immediate family have seen that, and no one's ever called me out on it or mentioned it in any capacity. Has their opinion of me changed? It's impossible to say. Do they misunderstand why I have them? It's hard to say when I can't even fully understand why I have them.

I guess the bottom line is that I straight don't give an eff what people think, STRAIGHT GANGSTER STYLE, but I will give them something to think about.

I think I can somewhat understand the appeal of moeblob shows, though, but that's another blog post. Originally it was going to be this blog post but I got sidetracked. I do have some more EXCITING BLOG TALK like:

The Top 5 Best T-Shirts I Own

So I was walking to the anime store today and a guy was walking back to what I suspect was "the stash" with what I suspect were "drugs" because he offered to "sell me drugs" in terms so clear even I could understand them. I said "oh no man I'm just waiting for this light to change" and he was like "shit man just cross the straight ain't no cars around" but I didn't. He was white trashy and tattooed up.

Anyways he didn't comment on my Talking Heads shirt, which I have been wearing all effing day and not a soul has said a thing. Argh.

I know earlier I said how I didn't want to be an attention whore but I feel I can justify wearing an interesting t-shirt through all the justification I have for the other stupid crap I have. Problem is that I don't have a lot of particularly interesting shirts right now. Most of them are monotone ones in brown and gray and such, I get them because the company makes them in "small tall" which are a small around but taller than an XL, perfect for my bizarre body frame and they're really comfy and the colours are nice.

Anyways interesting t-shirts are hella expensive and never fit right but since I've pretty much stopped growing I figure it might be worth getting some maybe. In high school I didn't really have the temptation because I so rarely saw interesting shirts then, but I met people in University with neat shirts. In fact, I have seen shirts so cool (a dinosaur with sunglasses, a picture of Dr. Dre, one where the back looks like the back of a high end stereo receiver, Mio Akiyama, etc.) that they made everything better wherever the wearer went. That's the sort of world improvement I can get behind.

So here's where I stand now: the 5 coolest shirts that I have that still fit me.

5) Blue shirt
I have one t-shirt from that company I mentioned earlier that's a cool gray-blue sort of thing that I like. Yup. Not a lot of cool shirts.

4) Bahamas fish shirt
This one my mom got me from the Bahamas. It's got a pretty similar gray-blue color, and there's a picture of a big fish with a lot of teeth on the back. On the front it says "Bahamas" or something. I like it because it comes across as really "earnest" and "real", y'know? I guess that's a sort of hipster attitude, you see hipsters going for that look and going overboard. I think vacation touristy t-shirts are a nice middle ground between things that are "cool" and things that are "ironic lame" like bowling team shirts or whatever.

3) New Zealand Kiwi shirt
I like this one for the same reasons and more. I've had a sort of crush on New Zealand ever since Flight of the Conchords, and this shirt is really "New Zealand-y" from what I got from the show. On the front there's just a small picture of the New Zealand flag. On the back there's one of those "warning _____ crossing" signs you see for deer or whatever but it's a kiwi. And then it says "Zone 5ers" for some unknown reason. Great stuff.

2) Talking Heads shirt
The one I mentioned earlier. The 77 cover. That's it. Awesome. I always loved that cover.

1) Mario riding Yoshi shirt
Can't remember where this one came from. It's Mario on Yoshi in the standard LUEshi pose. There's some Japanese text that I assume says "Super Mario Bros" since it's in the right spot for that, but that's weird already because that's usually written in English even in Japan... Maybe it's a Japanese bootleg. This is an amazing shirt, at any rate.

Honorable mention: TD Canada Trust shirt
I got this for a photoshoot for my Aunt, who works at TD. It was part of another fundraiser, etc, etc. It's a nice green color and I like the fact that it just has the big TD logo with no explanation. Loses a lot of points because it's cheaply made and uncomfortable.

Bonus: Best shirt ever - The Arnott's Gaelic Football Jersey
I got this shirt in Ireland. They have a department store called Arnott's that's pretty famous in Dublin (it was even mentioned in Ulysses!) so I went and asked for something they had with their name on it. They sponsor a football team (well not really football, the crazy rugbyesque thing called Gaelic football) and here we are. (This whole story is interesting because my last name is Arnott.)

(OK maybe it's still not interesting)

Hey speaking of which this blog has a lot of personal stuff on it, normally it doesn't?

Yeah I just figured "why not".

Because no one cares.

Oh well I doubt they care less than they did about TAS news or album reviews =s