Politics in 2019

"If Trump turns progressives into intolerant agents of incivility, then we have lost our souls."

That line got me thinking a lot about politics in America circa 2019. The op-ed was written by a NYTimes columnist and can be viewed here.

There is definitely a giant gaping divide between the Democrats these days. Of course I identify as a Democrat and in the past [and now] I've supported socialist policies [and still do], things like social security [it should be increased every so years imo], abortion rights for women, same-sex rights for LGBTQ community, anti-war stance, anti-trade war, anti-tariff, cheaper college, cheaper housing, and better opportunities for poor/working class communities. But I am most definitely not a flaming liberal or progressive. 

Progressives of my father's era [he came to America from China during the Eisenhower administration] are more old school progressives. Fairly accepting and respectful of other people who don't happen to agree with them. The NYTimes op-ed that inspired me to write this blog mentions that the old school progressives follow Voltaire's quote for the most part.

Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” 

However, the millennial progressives of today are different. For young progressives, the priority is to stand up against racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, and bigotry. It can be a real in-your-face-affair but they get their point across. The main conflict here is how to live life with liberal values in an illiberal age. 

It is almost impossible to balance because it requires intellectual humility. Something most people lack severely. Especially with the liberals and conservatives that I run into daily at work and online. One of the problems is that liberals are quick to embrace anyone that doesn't look like them but only if they think like them too. We progressives should have the intellectual curiosity to read, review, and better understand conservative policy and values. Do you, as a progressive and/or democrat really understand how Trump won the 2016 election? Do you understand real conservatives? Real Republicans?  Do you read conservative news outlets to better understand their views? 

The bottom line is that we have to stop the hate. Sometimes conservatives are right on certain issues [secure borders, defense budget] and sometimes Democrats are more right on certain issues [all the things I mentioned above]. As I come to understand conservative ideology through alternate news outlets I can understand why some people voted Trump in 2016 and will vote for him again in 2020. The turning point for me when I realized, "I disagree with these conservatives but I don't have to dislike or hate them." And I realized that when I saw how there were 20 Democrats running for President I got super excited. Anyone of them could realistically demolish Trump in 2020 easily. But I also listen to them talk about their alternative paths to fix/change what Trump has done and it's very half-assed. They say all the right things to the right people but realistically they've run out of steam. Their ideas just don't have that much meat or potatoes to it. Progressives say college should be free for everyone. With what money? They want to fix immigration and get kids out of cages. How are they going to do that? Are they going to hire more staff to work at these facilities? Create more facilities? They don't have it figured out. They want to be more anti-war and save money on the defense budget. But how are we going to tackle the ongoing threat of nation-wide terrorism and nuclearization if we spend less on our military budget? I don't want hippies running the government. 

If you can't understand the opposing party then you have no business trying to belittle your political enemy because you don't know what you're talking about. On the other side, nobody should feel they have to defend themselves to the death just because they disagree with somebody politically. 

At the end of the day, we are all Americans. The extremists aren't the only problem. It's also the collective hivemind itself, picking off anyone that doesn't fit into their mold. The only way we're going to make it through this era alive [politically] is if we realize that winning debates won't bring Americans together. Stop the hate. Understand your enemies. You might realize that you have a lot more in common than you think. The American dream is at stake right now.  And it's not just Republicans that are holding it ransom. I'm looking at you too, Democrats.

Love and peace! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjFIR5AZL8

Coders

Coders, The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World

Coders is the latest book I read. Its about computer programmers. What it takes to be a programmer, what programmers actually do, which could be blue-collar work, hackers, etc. The book takes a much darker tone at the ending chapters about the rise of AI in modern society. 

Coders is written by Clive Thompson, a longtime contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a monthly columnist for Wired. A tech writer. 

The book starts out with a chapter titled The Software Update That Changed Reality. This, of course, is Facebook. Clive goes on to talk about how the Like button feature came to be. Its interesting but the Like feature itself is kind of a dumb feature. Then there are The Four Waves of Coders which basically tells the history of coders starting from the female lead 1960s to the rise of the nerdy male dominated field programmer in the 1980s, to today, where the field is being filled with just slightly more women and minorities. 

Myspace is mentioned as an important happening in the early 2000s but isn't given nearly enough attention. Likewise, gaming is only mentioned in the Neopets context until the very end of the book. Not saying much about gaming makes this book a little lacking, because for the most part gaming has become the most popular entertainment system in the world, surpassing movies even in revenue and sales. That makes it worthy of a entire chapter in this book.

There's a great chapter called 10x, Rock Stars, and the Myth of Meritocracy which basically states that there's a myth of the rock star programmer, who by himself, is better than 10 or 20 coders. Surprising some of the best programs and software have been written by only a one or two person team. This rock star myth can be true but Thompson goes to lengths to state that this "better than thou" attitude 'great programmers' are hard to deal with, and besides, most companies need a team of programmers to do their work. Sometimes its difficult to get these rock stars to work well with the less sophisticated co-worker.

The last couple of chapters gets more philosophical. The Rise of AI, Scale, Trolls, and Big Tech. These are the more dystopian aspects of the book. How Facebook got used by Russian bots to swing American perceptions during the 2016 election, possibly swaying favor to Trump. How Twitter is used by white nationalists to spread hate. Machine learning algorithms have taken a big role in modern society but there are inherent biases in therein. When Google tried to create a face recognition software it scanned a picture of a black person and labeled it as 'gorilla', which is, of course, laughable because you realize how incredibly machines and people are but its also horribly racist. There are some leaders in tech who think if the real world is racist then shouldn't these things reflect that? Of course, this brings a lot of ethics into the equation. Which is the reason why we need more women and minorities in tech. The general consensus is that having white programmer dudes create everything we use is a bad idea because they've made mistakes like not thinking of the rise of hate on their platforms, like how Twitter ended up being used by white nationalists and such. Programmers tend to be pretty mixed with their political beliefs. Some are libertarian but for the most part, accept the democratic policy. There aren't many conservative programmers. A lot of them think government should get out of the way but still apply social policies. They see through their work that a person shouldn't be shunned because of their race, gender, sexuality, rather by the strength of their code. This is a good thing. 

The book ends with Blue-collar Coding. At the very end, he mentions how the creators of the videogame Minecraft wanted to create a game that was fun. But kids were doing more interesting things with Minecraft than what the creators expected. Kids were learning how to build all kinds of grand buildings and displays using the game's lego block-style engine. At the end of the day the coders of the future might not all come from 4-year college institutions, but rather milennials/middle age folks looking to change their careers, young gamer nerds that want to code their own games, and people who do it a lot in their spare time for fun. In some ways, the programmer of the past resembles that of the programmer today because in both contexts the programmer's credentials don't matter, only great coding skills. It's one of the only jobs where you can find an employee with a college degree working with another employee who has no degree. Of course, if a programmer was trying to get a job at Google that college degree wouldn't hurt. 

No doubt this is a pretty boring nonfiction book not nearly as exciting as my science fiction novels I go through. However, this book got me more interested in programming, learning some programming languages, maybe trying to create my own games and apps, or find a job where I can tinker around writing code in whatever context. There's a future in programming and I'm in front of the computer a lot anyways so I might as well look into it. I also find it fun and exciting. Another book that is similar to this one is Steven Levy's Hackers, a very good book about the early computer revolution going back to the 1950s and into the 1980's Apple II computer and it even has extensive chapters on videogames like the first MMO [massively multiplayer online game], Richard Garriott's Ultima Online. That book was very engaging and exciting whereas this one was more informational. Now I have a very good idea of what it takes to be a programmer: good knowledge and experience of the languages and error messages, logical thinking skills, patience, ability to deal with frustration, and the ability to find and fix bugs, an act known as debugging. 

This is a new book from 2019 May. Definitely worth the read if you're into tech and interested in programming.

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

It's been a while since I wrote something like this. Psychology, self-help, vlog-style, that kind of thing. Spring is here in 2019, life is moving by fast. In California, there's only really spring and summer. The weather doesn't change much except in summer when it gets super hot. This makes for a continuous summer year round. This is why people like living here. However, it makes time move by uber fast. The last six years were a blur. So it goes.  

I've been focusing on playing a lot of guitar, shedding [jazz musician slang for improving my chops], working, and playing with my friend Jason, an excellent alto saxophonist. I've also been reading a lot of books. And by a lot, I mean a lot. Sometimes I can finish a book in two or three days if I marathon the book. Other times I take it slow. I've even been working out too, trying to shed some pounds. Somebody could come along and say, "Why are you wasting time reading books and playing music? If you go to college you could end up making more money in the future." 

That's always fair. The one thing that they don't realize is that everything you do could and will help you at some point. You just don't know when or how. This is why you have to believe. Believe in your own willpower, karma, God, yourself, whatever. When you stop believing in yourself you start to underestimate yourself. All those books and music have helped me to develop an interior life away from my family, friends, and work associates. I have my own world to seek refuge in. Video games do this as well but not nearly as well because video games are tainted by online experiences with people who may and will abuse the multiplayer experience [if said game is multiplayer]. 

Where does that leave me? Well, there are good days and there are bad days. Hopefully, there are more good days than bad days. I think every millennial is in crisis in a way right now, rich or not. The problem is that wages are stagnant, rent is increasing, and companies just don't need as many people as before. People just aren't needed as much these days. More and more things are becoming automated. It's cheaper for companies to have a small workforce with a high turnover. 

I've been in the retail trade for ten years now. I started working at Sentry's food store in Wisconsin back when I was eighteen and I've been working ever since in mostly grocery stores. There's not much of a future in the grocery business but it's still the best job I've ever had and I'm still making enough to get by most of the time. Where do I go from here?

For millennials in general I think there's a much bigger issue than my own personal one. The legislative and executive branches of government are at war with each other. There's no leadership, on either side. Nancy Pelosi and Biden represent the old school Democrat but the fresh younger Democrats say its time for a change that doesn't include them. The Republicans are complete idiots, perhaps even evil. They'll say anything as long as they stay in power. There's no winning really. And will there ever be? Starless and Bible Black, as that King Crimson record was called.

Not only that but a lot of millennials don't even seem to care. They prefer to drift off into a life of entertainment and leisure. Can you blame them? Their entire world is crashing and burning around them, and all they care to talk about is End Game and Game of Thrones. It's no wonder America is in decline. No future indeed as Johnny Rotten sang in the Sex Pistols. 

I could go back to college, rack up 40k of debt and get a better job and career in 4 years. But will that really make me happy? I'd rather keep playing the guitar, reading books, running, and see where life takes me. It's risky not going to college but I'm not really the college type. I'm a hipster jazz and rock guitarist. Guitar players don't need to go to college. Just ask Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix. 

Spring can really hang you up the most. It's such a beautiful seasonal change. But when things aren't going that great, and don't appear to be improving anytime soon, things get pretty bleak. Like a black metal record. Except I actually enjoy that. Times like these call for fortitude. You gotta believe in whatever it is that you believe in and push through, into the beyond, rather than into the void. Don't underestimate yourself. Everything you do has an aftereffect, aftershocks of karma, zen, and transcendence. 

I was feeling kind of blue before I wrote this but then I realized that writing really helps me to overcome my negative thoughts and emotions. This is why I'm such an active writer, writing nonstop for seven years now. I've been working on a memoir about my life which is currently 75 pages long. I look forward to continuing to work on it and finishing it sometime in the immediate future. If you think you had a bad day, a bad year, a bad decade, don't worry, you're not alone. We're all in this together, in this one universe. 

[title inspired by saxophonist Melissa Aldana https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsD0H9MCQ1U]

Us

Us is a 2019 science fiction horror film produced and directed by comedian, actor, and writer Jordan Peele. The movie starts with a chilling introduction where we see a young black girl at a pier out with her parents. Her parents don't like each other much, the father is drinking too much, and the mother is telling him no more beer. At some point the girl wanders off on her own, getting lost in a hall of mirrors, some sort of 'ride' at the pier. She was lost for fifteen minutes before her parents found her. When they were reunited, the girl was mute.

The next part of the film starts with a well-to-do black family on vacation at a vacation home. The same girl who got lost at the pier is now an adult, with two children. A boy who is slightly awkward, and a well-adjusted girl. Her husband is a jokey fatherly type with glasses. Things take a turn for the worst when a family wearing red jumpsuits appear on their lawn. They don't say anything. The father goes out to scare them off with a baseball bat but it doesn't work. It turns out that the family is actually them-doppelgangers. This is where the horror element comes from. 

It turned out that the family on the lawn were actually doppelgangers, an apparition or double of a living person. This is where the science fiction element comes in. Later in the film, after some exposition, we find out that there are doppelgangers of Americans living underground, the disenfranchised, the dispossessed. Meanwhile, the privileged, well-to-do people that have it easy in life are living above ground, getting their vitamin D from sunlight and livin' easy.

Not only that but the film makes a reference to the 1980's Reagan era with this event that actually happened, called Hands Across America. These doppelgangers have come up from underground to exact revenge across their doubles, holding hands across vast areas of land in America, after killing people. Does that make sense?  Does it have to?

We see underground that the doppelgangers live with these white rabbits in the corridors. That was an interesting visual. The idea that there are underground places across America reminded me of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, where slaves find their way to freedom using these underground passages. The movie is somewhat similar and referential a lot of other horror movies, such as A Nightmare on Elmstreet, The Shining [b/c of the white family's twins], and even has some similar aspects to Get Out, Peele's first film.

The movie is filled with too many references, metaphors, and so much symbolism that its all to much to write about here. The main takeaway I got from Us is the idea of the have nots coming to take their revenge on the bourgeois. This goes back to Marx and Hegel's philosophy about the rise of the proletariat, meanwhile, the bourgeois does everything in their power to keep the working class in the gutter. This is what the Communist Manifesto is all about. It's a very overt philosophical overtone. 

Many writers online have been speculating about what this film means. I'm not sure that it particularly means anything, other than that it is a damn good black horror movie. It's great to look at visually too. The fact that the main actors are black people is a plus [and a negative, see below] because its 'the first black horror movie', other than Get Out,  however, that movie works better than Us in the sense that Get Out is simpler in form and not overstocked with 'too much syndrome'. In short, it's less messy, thus works better as a movie that can be enjoyed as well as reviewed. 

I didn't come to the conclusion that Us was too cluttered until I read reviews. After viewing the movie with my friend, we got sidetracked by the clutter: symbolism, metaphors, references, and subtext. But now that I've seen what good movie reviewers think I've come to realize that the movie was still great, although probably not as great as I first thought. This isn't going to be Jordan Peele's best film but it will definitely be one of his most referenced and most talked about, probably for years to come. 

Lastly, I want to mention another thing that is personal to me regarding the movie. I don't think Jordan Peele did black people a favor making a movie like this. Yes, its a black horror movie but in a metaphorical way, I think it works as entertainment for white people to enjoy watching black people get scared, complete with vaudeville big eyes, tears falling down their faces and animalistic noises instead of speech from the doppelgangers. I don't think this is a movie my mother would like or any older, serious, black person. In short, its a young black persons thing, if they're into it at all. Older black folk would scoff at the way black people are portrayed in this movie. This is a personal criticism yet I think it is crucial to the film as a whole culturally. Of course, you could speculate until you turn black and blue and say, "Yeah, Peele is trying to say something important regarding class and race in America." And I would respond with, "Yes, we understand that. But at what cost?"

Despite that I still enjoyed the movie. You can see the ending coming a mile away yet it is still satisfying. Jordan Peele is a young film director and he was trying to do too much, not unlike a great author's sophomore slump. Yet somehow the movie still works, although probably not as effectively as Peele intended. Still, this was probably the best movie I've seen in 2019. You should definitely see this movie.

Spring 2019 Goals

Hello ladies and gents. Here I'd like to go on a short motivational speel about goals. Personal mostly but this can apply to anyone relatively speaking. Spring 2019 is here. Life is moving by quickly. Have you been working on all your New Years resolutions? Are you getting everything you want to be done? 

First, my biggest New Years Resolution [only one really] was to work out more. In the beginning of the year I was working out super hard. In fact, during the first week I ran 2 miles everyday for five days. That was way too extreme. Hurt my legs. But I felt great in my mind. I had a strong mental mindset about the whole thing. Then, the California winter was super harsh, so I didn't run because of the rain and cold. Now, spring is here so I have no excuse. I'm not going to go hardcore. In fact, I'll probably run one day, then rest the next. End up running 3 days, resting for 4 days. My weight is still the same, which is not good, as I'm above 200 pounds. I have a lot more work to do. 

Second, I need to learn how to eat less. Contrary to what Americans believe, it isn't the fact that I don't exercise much that I'm overweight. Its the fact that every day I'm eating too much, overfeeding my body, too many calories. If I can learn to eat less [and drink less soda, drink more water], I can lose weight the natural way, by just allowing the weight to fly off, by letting my body be hungry more. This is more difficult than working out for me because my friends all love to eat out all the time and they sure as hell don't eat healthily. In fact, they're all getting overweight too. I was doing this for a while and I managed to lose twenty pounds. Unfortunately, I went back to bad eating habits and gained the weight back. This is the most difficult task for me. My number one goal.

Third, finish my novella and show it around to some publishers. I've been working on a novella [long short story] and my goal once I've finished it is to show it around to some publishers and try to get it published. If I can't get it published its no big deal. In fact, I think just learning how to write better in the process is worth it just by itself. My goal is 100 pages. I currently have 28 pages. So I've got a lot more writing and editing to do before I even really discuss it with anyone.

Fourth, release an album for sale on Bandcamp. I've been working with an alto saxophonist named Jason Thomas. He says he can get us free studio time. Our end goal is to record at the studio and release the best tracks as an album on Bandcamp, a music website people use to sell their tunes. I also want to perform live with him more whether it just be open mics or real gigs. Hopefully real gigs. I also want to find a bass player so we can have a legit jazz trio. The guitar, alto saxophone duo is cool but we really need that bass for the low end, as well as having the complete complementary instrumentation. 

Fifth, read more books. Reading is my spirit animal at this point. Most of all my blog posts are about novels. I love reading with a  passion. Maybe even as much as music. Or more? Not sure. I want to finish reading The Illiad, read the Aeneid,  the Odysee, finish the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, more Hemingway novels, more philosophy, in particular, finish reading Heidegger's Time and Being. Hopefully, I get to all those. Its a lot but I've got the discipline and reading habit to actually do it. I'm a reading machine.

Sixth, think about finding another job if my family doesn't end up moving. The family plan is to move to Chicago but I'm not sure when if ever that is going to happen. I love California and I'd love to stay here but its too expensive to live here on my own. If we end up staying in California say, another year, then my plan will be to find another job. Retail can only take you so far in life. They're not giving me that many hours anymore. Sometimes its good to know when to pull the plug. 

Life is full of distractions. In a way its good that my friends are busy working most of the time. I've found that seeing my friends only once or twice a week is a lot better for our friendship. Time makes the heart fonder, as they say. Not only that, but I enjoy more free time by myself, where I'm able to work on all my goals. A lot of my friends have moved away and others have drifted apart. Sometimes you have to realize that some people will only be in your life for a short while. Such is life. In the meantime, I'm going to keep pushing myself, and fight the good fight, so to speak. 

Captain Marvel [film]

Captain Marvel is the latest Marvel superhero flick [2019] about the character Carol Danvers, from the comics. Produced by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion Pictures, it is the 21st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet also contributing to the screenplay. Brie Larson stars as Danvers, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. Set in 1995, the story follows Danvers as she becomes Captain Marvel after Earth is caught in the center of a galactic conflict between two alien worlds." [wiki] 

Captain Marvel has some feminist overtones. But for who and why? I would say Captain Marvel is a female superhero movie for young adult males. Its a movie for fanboys that want to see a girl kick ass. Be a badass. Or something like that. Brie Larson smashes her way through every obstacle in the movie, just like any other male superhero would. No thinking involved. No surprise there.

What makes a female superhero different from a male superhero? Of course, I would have to say feelings, emotions, empathy. This movie has just a little bit of that. I really enjoyed the scenes where Brie Larson wasn't smashing her way through everything, where she could just be herself, a young woman dealing with complicated issues. The most emotional moment of the film for me was when Captain Marvel's best friend, a young female black pilot, and mother, tries to remind her of who she was, before she became a Kree, before Captain Marvel, to remember her past life. That scene was so real, visceral, it felt like something real, not a superhero movie. I actually smiled during that scene because it felt so real. That was some good acting. 

The young Samuel L. Jackson with the CGI young face was pretty cool. He gives the film a 90s Pulp Fiction vibe, minus the afro. The introduction of the Skrulls to the Marvel universe was interesting, as well as the Kree. The Flerkin cat sometimes acted out by a CGI cat was a real treat. Brie Larson does a fine job of being the latest and greatest Marvel superhero. But my 'bro' friends didn't quite agree.

We spent quite some time arguing about the film at lunch. They seemed to think the film had some overt feminist sjw [social justice warrior] vibes and that was a bad thing to them. I agreed but said that was a good thing. Let's put it this way, in today's day and age you can't have a female superhero that isn't a social justice warrior. You're never going to see a female superhero who is alt-right, extreme or anything of that nature. We're still in the middle of the Me Too Movement, where women are making headway in terms of status. The original feminists are much different from the feminists of today. Mostly in the fact that today's feminists will never get everything that they want. However, when it comes to Captain Marvel, Brie Larson does certainly bring a feminist charm. She's an attractive blonde [although she has a flat ass, as my friends complained], and she's used her platform as an actress to speak out against the lack of diversity amongst film reviewers. She even said of one of her films, "if you're a forty-year-old white dude, this movie wasn't made for you." That is such an explicit statement and I commend her for using her power to say whatever the fuck she wants. Most women don't do that because they're not allowed too, because some old white man is in charge of them or their work. What my friends fail to realize is that feminism is here to stay. It's alive and well. Thriving in fact. Brie Larson makes Captain Marvel a powerful female protagonist. I think what Brie Larson represents [sjw's, feminism, more female superhero movie directors, more female superheroes] is more important than her actual acting job done here as Captain Marvel. The RottenTomatoes fiasco was a big part of it. People won't forget about her or this movie. I think it will help her career. She'll find more appealing, better-acting roles, and be respected for it in the long run.

Larson's personality as Captain Marvel isn't captivating but it's still something. Her incredible power isn't some rare occurrence. She isn't a young Rei from The Force Awakens, who suddenly has more power than a Sith Lord out of nowhere. Rather, Captain Marvel is powerful because she got her powers from the Tesseract, an object linked to the Infinity Stones, making her one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel universe. When we see Brie Larson beating the crap out of an army of Skrulls, with dead weight chains over her arms, we realize that she's a complete badass. That's what the fans what, a woman who's a badass. Of course, being a woman who's badass gets old, just as it gets old when guys do it. When you pour the beer in the cup and let the foam dissolve, so to speak, you realize that this movie is just another beat-em-up Marvel superhero flick, devoid of anything meaningful or memorable. At the end of the day, it's just another goofy Marvel movie with trained actors running around in funny outfits. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it. At least it was better than The Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was totally forgettable. 

Check out my other Marvel movie reviews below. I've seen so many of these superhero flicks. Luckily I saw all these movies free because I have a friend who works at AMC Theatres as a team member. 
 
Antman and the Wasp https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/07/antman-and-wasp.html
Avengers Age of Ultron https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2015/05/avengers-age-of-ultron-thoughts.html
Avengers Infinity War https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/05/avengers-infinity-war.html
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/05/guardians-of-galaxy-2.html
Spiderman Into the Spiderverse https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/spiderman-into-spiderverse.html
Deadpool 2 https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/06/dead-pool-2.html
Thor Ragnorak https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2017/12/thor-ragnarok.html
Doctor Strange https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2016/11/time-will-tell-how-much-i-love-you.html
Deadpool I https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=deadpool
Venom https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/10/venom.html 

Alita Battle Angel

Alita Battle Angel is the latest anime inspired flick to hit the big screen. Its an adaptation of the 1990s manga Gunnm, also known as Battle Angel Alita. Directed by Robert Rodriquez, written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau. As you can see this is a multi-million dollar movie with James Cameron [of Avatar fame] involved. 

Alita Battle Angel reminds you of a lot of things. Avatar because Alita is acted out using a sensor capture suit, with big wide-eyed anime eyes, complete with a cyborg body, which is totally Ghost in the Shell. The actual city that the movie takes place in, Iron City is complete with neon signs, multilingual people, and different races. Very reminiscent of Blade Runner. Those are great things to be reminded of. 

Alita is found in the scrapyard by a paternal scientist named Ido, who gives her a cybernetic body that he was planning on using for his daughter [not weird at all!]. Alita is mostly cyborg but she has a human brain intact, giving her emotions. Hence, she's a lot like a teenage girl at first and gets a teenage boyfriend, who turns out to be a bad guy. Turns out this guy is apart of a youth gang that hijacks cyborgs and steals their parts, while they're still alive. Then his gang sells the parts to Vector [a guy who gets his fashion sense from the Matrix], in what they believe is the only chance to get to the utopian city Zolumn in the sky above Iron City. Sound convoluted yet? It is.

However, it is not the razor-blade addled cyborg fights or the intense violence of Motorball [basically death race, a futuristic sport where you throw a ball and try to kill your opponents, while racing on motorized roller blades]. Nor is it the fact that Alita learns that she was an ancient weapon used some 300 years ago in some battle, possibly fighting to destroy Zolumn [again convoluted]. 

The thing that makes this movie good, maybe even memorable for a few months [for me at least] is the sheer emotional appeal of this cyborg girl. Some people would find the emotional scenes in this movie to be corny. I did not. I was moved when Alita was trying to justify herself to her boyfriend, only for him to respond, "You're the most human person I've ever met." Their love was real in that scene. That shows that even a cyborg girl is capable of loving, and of being loved back. Very powerful indeed. 

Another characteristic moment was when she was talking to the boyfriend about going to Zolumn. She says, "I'll do anything to get you to Zolumn. I'll give you my heart. It's so powerful it can power the city for a whole year!" Then the boyfriend responds, saying "I can't do that to you. You can't just give people things. You can't be so naive." And the reality is that Alita is quite naive, she's basically like a teenage girl. 

The climax of the movie is when the love interest dies, killed by an unknown villain in Zolumn, [who like a characteristic anime character wears some cyberpunk googles that look really cool]. At some point Alita finds her 300 year old Erhm bodysuit and she discovers that she's a Battle Angel, an ancient weapon, which is the reason why she was able to beat the crap out of Hunter Warriors, cyborgs who do the policing in Iron City. The new suit has bigger breasts and a small waist. There's something of a feminist affect in Alita Battle Angel but for whom, and why? I can't really say. Some scenes have feminist overtones. Like when Alita beats up everyone in the Hunter Warrior bar and when her boyfriend says not to challenge them she says, "I'm gonna need you to step back." As if men should sometimes take a step back from women, that kind of thing. But the fact that her body suit is sexy and sleek, with the 'ideal' feminine traits, I think that is something purely for the male fanboy audience. Of which I am apart of [lol]. The one thing that I liked regarding Alita's physical appearance was her big anime eyes that never seemed to close, and that seemed to change during emotional scenes. I think they did a great job with those eyes. You can see Alita's soul through her eyes. However, I can also see the eyes in a negative sexual sense. Someone might say she looks like a sex doll. Or something.

Alita becomes a Hunter Warrior and a pro Motorball player in her attempt to get to Zolumn, to discover more about the world, and herself, I presume. The movie ends much better than it starts, on a cliffhanger. Rodriquez and Cameron believed that the world would catch Alita fever. While I don't see that being the case [most of my friends haven't seen it], I do think they had something here with this movie. It may not even be as good as Ghost in the Shell [it lacks the maturity that Ghost in the Shell had] but I think that the little bit of pathos utilized here was good enough for me. However, I'm a fanboy that has watched years and years of anime, so I'm a bit biased. 

I'll definitely watch the anime version sometime soon. 

Be Tough-Minded In 2019

This is a continuation of my previous post (view here), it was about staying motivated in 2019. Here I'd like to continue that discourse, shifting the motivational stuff to how being more tough-minded helps you achieve your goals. Being tough-minded is difficult and most people aren't naturally this way. However, its a useful skill in the long run that will help you throughout your life.

1) You have to manage your emotions. This goes without saying to most people, especially old people who are much more experienced and evolved, they are true masters of mastering their emotions. When things don't go your way you shouldn't throw a tantrum. Realize that although life is difficult, sometimes you have to suffer a little bit before you can get to the good stuff. When I see co-workers and customers yelling at each other at my work I often think about how these people will never be able to do or accomplish complex things, only just because they can't control their emotions (the price said this and its not ringing up right! fix it while I scream!), and they don't have the patience. Its a shame.

2) Be self-confident. Goes without saying but again, super difficult. Most people aren't born naturally confident. Its a learned skill, especially for me. Even though I'm probably smarter than most of all the people that come to my work (including adults), I'm usually quiet and reserved, to the point that some people even say I need more confidence. Go figure. 

3) Choose who you associate with wisely. I've actually come to the sudden realization that although I love hanging out with my friends, I hang out with them too much. The solution was to spend more time by myself reading, writing, and playing guitar. Absence makes the heart fonder. Also, make sure to avoid sketchy people. Some people aren't worth the time or the effort, especially if they bring you down. 

4) Face your fears and take action. Sometimes you gotta man up and take action. Not feeling work? Ask for some time off. Need to lose weight? Work out more. Want a girl friend? Start asking out girls. Sometimes we think we have all these problems and we dwell over them, but forget about how easy the solutions are. Nike, Just Do It.  

5) Say no when you have to. Tired of your boss calling you in early everyday? Learn to say no. Learn to establish the narrative on your own terms. Tired of helping your co-workers do their own job? Say no to them too. Saying no helps because it shows people that you're not a pushover and shouldn't be approached with unreasonable demands. 

6) Be self-disciplined. You have to work hard to accomplish things. I read a lot of books and blog about them. This alone takes a lot of discipline. Most millennials don 't care much for novels but I'm trying to be a different breed. To be a great guitar player I have to keep practicing, even though I'm currently not playing with any band I still keep up my chops, learn new songs, and am always searching for band members. 

7) Be independent and don't compare yourself to others. You came into this world alone, and you will leave this world alone. That's a bit morbid but in a way its true. You have to learn how to be alone in order to be successful in social situations. In addition, don't compare yourself to others. Just because my friend Jon from high school is a much more successful musician doesn't mean that I should get depressed and dopey. No, instead I'm going to keep working on my chops and keep trying to form a band, and take it as far as it will go. 

Lastly, I'll end with a little story from the other night. I was texting my friend, a not-so-very-good drummer (who can't keep a beat), telling him that I've been getting tired of retail work and that I plan on taking more days off, even if it means I'll lose a little money. He said, "You should do it. You only get to live once and then you die." 

Keep that in mind. Don't let your dreams be memes.

2019 Motivation

Its two weeks into 2019 and like me, you've probably come to the sudden realization that life is tough, and that if you want to keep your new years resolution, and do more, and be better, and accomplish more in life its going to be a mother fucker. Life isn't easy, in fact its hard, and more often than not it sucks. "Life's a bitch and then you die," said the Chairman. This is my riff on Chairman Mao's "life is struggle and contradiction" quote, something my dad told me a few years ago.

I've been having these mini awakenings since 2019 started. 

I have to work out to lose weight. Daily.

I have to stop hanging out with my friends so often. Absence makes the heart fonder.

I have to spend more time by myself, and away from work to smell the roses. Money isn't everything. Money can't buy you love.

I have to work on music more, record more, learn how to use Ableton software to make better drum tracks for my music, and finish learning Sequenza by Berio for classical guitar.

I need to write more and become a better writer. Which I've been working on a lot!

I should learn a new skill, like how I've been doing programming tutorials, just to see if I even like it at first.  

I need to quit and lose any bad habits I have currently.

These are all very difficult things to do. In fact, just for me to realize that if I wanted to achieve my goals, that I had to do all these things, it was pretty damn difficult to accept. There is a cost to everything. Time is an important factor. Energy. Emotion. Drive. Etc. 

So the next time you think about taking time off and away from your 2019 goals remember that life's a bitch and then you die. You might as well make life your bitch and then die on your own terms. 

Go for it. 

January Update--2019

January is here and the new year is already stale. The government is shut down, and 800,000 people are about to miss their first check. If the shutdown goes on past Saturday, it will the longest government shutdown ever. That aside, I've been staying busy. 

I started working out more, mostly cardio. Starting 3-4 times a week, but eventually pushing it to everyday, a mile a day. 

I got a Nintendo Switch, so I'll probably try to get back to going to Smash tournaments, just for fun. 

I've been writing up a storm. I wrote my second short story called  der Weltraumkriegder, a science fiction military story (here). And I'm still reading a lot of science fiction, philosophy (Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations), classics (Iliad), and modern day journalism (miscellaneous).

I'm also learning html, css, and javascript, mostly for fun but also to edit the blog and make it pop, and eventually learn a programming language like Visual Basic. I want to see if I like programming before I try to think I could be a full fledged game designer or something outlandish like that. 

Also still working on music, a lot of jazz and improvisation. But I've also been working on Sequenza for guitar by Lusciano Berio since October. I'm starting to finally get the hang of the piece, but it will still be a while before I could perform it anywhere. 

Life is good! 

China Mountain Zhang

China Mountain Zhang is the debut science fiction novel by Maureen McHugh. The novel was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and Nebula Award for Best Novel and won a Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. 

The book features several stories from a small group of characters, some ABC (American Born Chinese) and others Americans. The story focuses on the story of a gay Chinese and Puerto Rican man named Rafael Zhang in his non-Chinese context, and when with Chinese people he goes by "Zhongshan, which is written with the characters with primary meanings "center" and "mountain"; the Mandarin name for China also begins with the character meaning "center" or "middle". Thus, "China Mountain" is an alternate reading of his Chinese given name. (Zhongshan is also one of the given names used by Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen.)" (wiki)  

The story is about how Zhang and how these other characters he meets along his path live in a near distant future, where socialism has completely replaced capitalism, in the Cleansing Winds Campaign, going from arrogant outsiders to finding their place in society. A maturation, a coming of age for all involved.


Zhang is almost thirty and he's just got a two year degree as a construction tech in New York. His Chinese boss wants him to marry his daughter, and he would support him so he could go to school in China and get a good job. In this future, China has the best jobs and the richest people. Zhang meets the Foreman's daughter, only to find out that she's very ugly and needs surgery on her face, some kind of bone problem. 

Zhang goes out with the Foreman's daughter but he doesn't get romantically involved, after all he's gay. Shenanigans ensue with the daughter, the Foreman thinks he's been sleeping with her at his place, after she was missing for days after an argument with her parents. 

Some time passes. Zhang decides he's going to study systems engineering in China so he can get a good job and go somewhere in life. He ends up doing a work program in the polar region, where he almost loses his mind among scientists there to study marine biology. The trade off is that if he works there for a couple years, the government will send him to China where he can get a systems engineer degree, and from there either stay in China and work at a big company, or go back to New York, where he could live with friends and family around. 

On another side story we have a sport called kite racing, where humans have been enhanced and ride these body kites, in races. The racers are legends and the spectators watch them race through the skies on a live video feed, which they can 'jack' into. 

This sub-story involves a kite racing woman who is sort of involved with another racer, who's older brother was a racing legend, who died recently. Although most of this section is sort of filler, and ultimately non sequential to Zhang's main plot, there is an amazing description of the kite racing that had me sitting at the edge of my seat. The way the fliers runs through the air with their bodies, with the impending doom of possible death is quite exhilarating. This was the action section. 

On a third side story we have the Foreman's daughter. She just got face surgery and now she's very pretty. She still works at the same company job, and one night a handsome guy talks to her at some bar. He eventually calls her at work and asks her out. He proceeds to take her to the bar, to a party, then swimming. Then he asks her to his place, at first she wants to go home but the guy makes a stink about how much he spent on her and that all he wants is for her to have a cup of coffee. In the end the Foreman's daughter ends up getting raped. This part of the novel was dark, but it could happen to any woman. She ends up not telling anybody about it, and that's that. She never sees the guy again. It puts a very realistic spin on rape, because it sounds like such a real and believable story. Scary.

At the end of the novel we find Zhang has his degree from studying in China, and is teaching systems engineering at a city college in Brooklyn. However, in China Zhang had a boyfriend named Haitao (being gay can get you killed in this future), who ends up killing himself after a late night party goes awry. Another thing to note is that while studying in China, Zhang tutors a student who's living on Mars, and Alexi, the student, challenges Zhang to think about systems in a completely different way, increasing his skills for his work.

Zhang goes to China to check on a possible job but in the end he gets down on China, even though at the beginning of the novel its his dream to be a big shot in China, making the big bucks. In the end he realized that he liked teaching in New York, that he liked being around all his friends and neighbors, and that he's going to stay put. 

Zhang meets the Foreman's daughter at the end of the novel and they have an awkward interaction. When the Foreman's daughter is about to drive off on the train, Zhang says in her ear that it wasn't her, implying that he didn't want to have sex with her because she was ugly, rather that its because he's gay. We don't get to see a reaction from the Foreman's daughter, as the train door closes and rushes away. 

The novel is quite damn good, very good for a debut novel. The writing brings to mind Samuel Delaney, who can write science fiction but is very literary about it. Also, although this novel is considered science fiction, it doesn't use any typical science fiction tropes, nor does any of the characters impact the world around them in a profound way. In a sense, this is a near distant future about people being people. What makes the book so great is that its all very ordinary, the world and the characters. It also must be noted that McHugh wrote this after living in China for a while, and the novels makes use of tons of Chinese words and culture. Some of the cultural stuff I recognized from things my step-father has told me about China.

This was a great Christmas gift from my dad. The book came out in 1992 and it holds up well to this day. Not all first novels are as good as this one for a writer. Good read even if you aren't into science fiction. First book of the new year already finished. Woo! 

New Year's Motivational Speel

Life has been pretty grand. Christmas is over and 2019 is two days away. Its that time of year for that classic social media status: New Year, New Me. Yeah, yeah, we get it, you're gonna push yourself hard, work out, and get everything you ever wanted done, or at least try your best. Its good to be motivated, but its also good to be practical about things. Time is the killing blow for most people. If you don't have enough time you won't get things done. 

I've been trying to stay motivated with my usual activities; reading, writing, and playing guitar. In fact if I had a New Year's resolution its this: to play more guitar, learn more songs, and record more on my own as well as with friends. I also plan on learning more about computers in my free time. I don't think I'll become a computer programmer (even being a bad one is hard), but I'd like to learn as much as I can about programming just for my own personal knowledge and such. I've just finished this 500 page computer book on how hardware and software work, and before that I read Hackers by Steven Levy, and that's kind of what caught my interest. Also, about a year and a half ago I signed up for Codeacademy, a free online programming tutorial app. I think I'll actually give that a second go this year. Its complex stuff but its also interesting enough to look into. 

I also want to work more on recording, my own recordings in particular. Add more music on my YouTube page. Reading is a must as well. And I want to write more short stories and start an actual novel, a short one, maybe like 150 pages, something like that. I have some ideas for it already, it would be a near distant future sci-fi story about everyday type of people and workers, more literary than spaceships and laser guns. Maybe more like speculative fiction than true science fiction.

However, its hard to stay motivated. Sometimes after an eight hour retail shift I don't feel like playing guitar, I just want to listen to music or play games. The reality is that if I don't practice guitar at night after work I probably wouldn't have played guitar at all that day. I've realized that in order to get the results I want in life I have to push myself, I have to be disciplined because nobody will be disciplined for me. My music mentor, Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer, lives in Chicago so when he says to learn Sequenza by Berio, I have to have the motivation on my own to actually work on it, otherwise I'll never learn it. Likewise, if I don't learn how to record better songs, and actually do it, I'll never have new songs to post on my YouTube channel. 

Its not going to be easy and I suspect some nights I won't play guitar, write, study, or read. But I won't let that stop me from achieving my goals. 2018 was a good year for me but in 2019 I want to get more done. Read more novels, write more short stories, begin a novel, record more music, play and record more guitar, and of course have fun with my friends and family. 

Keep working hard at the things that matter to you and you'll really get what you want out of life, that's what I've learned. 

Life is good!