I didn't know flatland BMX are still big in the Philippines, or they could be the same dudes that used to do this back in the 80's, and still looks like a bunch of 15 year olds. I was around 11 years old when BMX was big in the Philippines and it was still big before I left back in 1986. I didn't own a BMX till later, but I did own a bicycle with a side rack (my bro and my sister were the monkeys). So I wasn't the only filipino fob who was aware of it back in high school here in the states. In high school, most filipino fobs got together because they identify themselves of owning at least one or two BMX. It was a way to socialize. I wasn't as good as these guys though, they were freakin' awesome on them flatland tricks. Most of them pinoys even made crews. Sometimes these filipino BMX crews were mistakenly identified as gangs by the real street gangs and usually got bullied.
Later that BMX hobbies evolved unto import car racing. They took that same knowledge they had from tricycle and jeepney chop-shops back in the philippines, and incorporate that to modifying japanese import cars, unto an urban race cars, as well as urban drift cars. Not just filipinos but pacific islanders and south east asians in general. There used to be a lot of them around in the streets. Now most of them urban race cars are impounded by the law, because the parts added to modify them import cars were illegal. Making the urban racing lifestyles slowly dying out. It's pretty awesome though how it became hollywood 17 or 18 years later ever since the fobs were doing all these modifications. The impounded urban race cars, now became collectable items as part of an american culture of what James Dean left back in the 50's.
1992 Modified Honda Civic. Downloaded this cool image from the internet...
Wasted style of artwork is definitely out of the comic book tradition. Gerry Alanguilan, a filipino comic book illustrator and writer, also inked for comic books like the X-Man and among other comics. It's funny because I saw the dude in youtube making some Beef Kaldereta not knowing he was the same guy who I had in my website from way back, as one of my favorite Filipino Illustrator. Very crafty dude, weird, sometimes has annoying personalities in videos. He also got a website to preserved the old school filipino comic books. It's an online museum of a bunch old filipino comic book artists who also work for some of the well known american comic books. I must warn you though, this comic here is a bit violent and crazy.
X-Box console modified with Avalaunch loaded with classic games from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and X-Box. Here is a quick demo of one of my favorite soundtracks.
First of all I am not superstitious, I believe in facts and scientific reasons for most things. Do I believe in God? Sure I do. I actually grew up in a strong Catholic background and baptized as a born again Christian. I wouldn't say I am a backslider either, I just keep it real and be a human being. Hoping I am excepted the way I am created. There were points in my life questioning my faith but then later down the road, it makes a lot of sense. Not just Christian wise but what I learned from other beliefs and philosophies. Now, what in the hell is this has to do with storage? Well, a few things. Maybe more. But things are somehow working on it's own as if something is arranging things around. Some I thought it's not going the way I want it. But then, I paused about what I want and think outside of my own box, and realized it's actually better. Not just for me but everyone.
Few days back, right before I was almost done listing all my favorite patches of drum kits, vocals, modulations, drum patterns, and etc., from my Micro-X synthesizer. I planned to buy a binder and some plastic covers for the prints. Took me awhile to list the best once because there were over a thousand patches, and not only that, I listened to every each of them. I actually experiment and jam to almost every each patches, both straight from the keys and the knobs, and hooking it to my MPC midis. My feet were even sore standing in front of the keyboard from jamming. Anyway, about the plastic cover sheets, I went to Walgreens to buy some but they only had binders and not the plastic sheet covers. So I went to the storage room in the backyard and look for some. I used to collect a bunch of graphics from magazines, rip the pages off, and place them in plastic sheet covers all clipped up in binders. I used them for a reference doing graphic arts or getting ideas from. Some were old so I threw them away and use what is needed.
As I was looking through the binders, I also found this Recipe Binder which I was planning in keeping it handy. I've been obsessed writing recipes lately. It could be a survival mode thing.
And I also found this Black & Decker Booklet.
I even forgot I had this. I don't play this. But I did kept it for a reference in making characters, perhaps for the video gaming industry. I didn't really had the time to work on that portfolio then. But now I'm gonna keep this handy as well.
Old comic strips I was working on back in 1996 but never finished. I was trying to get that same essence of Frank Miller's style for his Comic or Graphic Novel "Sin City".
Here's another page. I probably wouldn't work on a Comic or Graphic Novel down the road. Maybe some illustrations using a Digital Sketch Pad, which is much cleaner for me to work on later. Right now there are way too much shit to be focused on to that.
Specially now, for economic advantages, my little bro (Venus) and his lady Elsie are moving back to the house. Venus has some expensive fancy looking appliances and the dude rented a storage room for them. And I know we had to get rid of few things from the house in order to make room for their things. There are few things in the backyard I can live without, like the backyard gym - for now I rather go biking around the hood and do push ups in my room. And few things I can live without in the storage like my old macintosh, now collectible item. But really I just wanted to use the old macintosh to write stories and journals with no worries of being hacked or spied on while working on them. Beside we might need some of them fancy appliances in the backyard for cutting meat or for oysters and beers. The other two roommates moved near by The Great Mall where they work.
It's not a toy, as playful like this playground here, right in front of Venus' and Elsie's apartment. I kept some of my things for later needs. Like my art supplies, specially my easel maaan. I might need that when I'm like 80 years old for painting a nude lady. Actually, you never know when you need some of the things you stored in the closets. You never know when little kids pop out of no where and you had to pass on what my little sister and bro had when they were little. It's just me, I know what it's like having less. In the other hand, since there just there, mind as well sell them or donate them to who ever needs them more than we do at the moment. I tend to like my area clean too, but then I also know about preservation.
This here is their apartment. I say they can save more staying at the house if they want to get a bigger house later. Daamn man, it's gonna be some work again trying to separate my own things from the storage. I don't have a lot. I'm just concerned where to place my own things.
All these things going on, specially since the place I applied as a mobile patrol man haven't called yet, makes me wanna cook something. Here is what I recently cooked - It's Curry Goat. Perhaps I have better chances elsewhere as a security guard aside being a mobile patrol man anyway.
The Ingredients:
*Around 8 pounds - Goat Ribs / Back Bones / Some Meat (remove the fat) *1/8 Cup - Curry Powder *2 Tsp - Ground Pepper *10 Cloves - Garlic (minced) *1 Whole - Onions (diced) *10 Thin - Carrots (chopped unto 3) *6 - Bay Leafs *1 Can - Coconut Milk *6 Glass - Water (or more, eyeball it) *5 - Ripe Tomatoes *1/8 Cup - Fish Sauce (or go for the taste) *1 Tbsp - Oil
Procedures:
Cut the meat and bones - remove the fat - use a mallet to hammer the meat cleaver to cut through bones. Minced the garlic, cubed the onions - drop that to the cooking pot with a little bit of oil. Add in the meat, a little bit of ground pepper, and bay leafs - let it fry a little, place the lid. Add in some fish sauce, and curry powder. Wait for that to cook a little bit, and then add in coconut milk and water. Make sure to add lots of water to make the meat soft - takes about an hour and a half till the meat are soft and tender - and then add in the carrots and tomatoes. When the carrots are soft - it's done.
I heard it's more Caribbean or Jamaican if it has more water, and Arabic or East Indian if it was thicker...
At the moment, I am in a hunt for a security guard job. I gotta detect, deter, observe and report. If I do get this, I will eventually keep on updating my security registration until I am fully armed. I lagged a bit since I got my security registration card due to safety reasons. Now I am fully determined.
It's a dangerous duty but I try to motivate myself by getting me a TR-808. And among other things that keeps the world go round. I may not even end up getting the TR-808, since you can pretty much sample the beats into the MPC 1000. Authenticity is always better though...
Michael Reynolds is an Architect from the 70's who evolved building from recyclable items unto a self sustainable home called Earthships. He created the alternative word Biotecture to describe: "The profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. A combination of biology and architecture." The houses he built are out of a Star Wars movie, except it's an actual breathing organic home as well as technological. It is a building that will take care of you in every way: food (year round green house), electricity, heating, water, air and sewage disposal.
It was shown earlier on the Travel Channel today. Utility bills cost only $200 a year or to none. Buying an earthship cost a lot though man, around half a million. They do have an alternative deal for $10,000 down payment. Other than the cost, there is a progress here, as far of saving the planet from global warming. Michael Reynolds has a movie out titled Garbage Warrior, he also has some books out, and has a community in New Mexico where he makes earthships and sells it. There are houses like these in Mexico too and Philippines (mud houses). Except they have no solar systems and clean recycable water system.
Tin cans, bottles, and tires were used as bricks for the earthship's foundations. If I have one, I'll probably add an animal farm too, like: goats, pigs, chickens, cows, and even lamas. The only downside of having animal farm is the bad smell. Like cow farts. And of course the medicines and food supplies for them farm animals.
Michael Jackson. The dude is a legend man. Subhuman. But he is human who's passionate of entertaining the planet. The dude is like Peter Pan. A real life Willy Wonka.
I don't really care what the tabloids says. Although it does raise some questions on how he was portrayed by the media. But in my own opinion, the dude just loves the company of kids. Too bad he was an easy target for that reason. And had to waste what he saves up defending himself in court. I'm sure he bought some useless things as well, just to show the world his doing cool. Consequently, it also added his debt.
I thought he was gonna recover afterwards and kick some ass, after all the hating and bad criticism...
Michael Jackson died this afternoon at age 50 as a result of cardiac arrest, at UCLA Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 2:26pm Pacific Time.
At the time of his death, Jackson was rehearsing hard for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13.
Psychologically speaking, and I could be wrong, but watching some of his videos from his late teens, I can understand why he made some physical transformations. The dude had been entertaining since he was like 5 years old.
Here's a Playlist of my favorite Michael Jackson moments, videos, and shows.
Now it makes me wonder about Bob Marley, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and the rest of the other musical legend, of being older than the age when they also passed. That right there is something unusually magical... Like a mystery...
In reality, most common death of celebrities are either from Illegal Drugs to Prescription Drugs, or from Automotive to Plane Crashes.
Taking a little break. Here is a screenshot from my G5. I've been sorting and organizing some cool images I downloaded from Myspace and from other Networks over the years since I joined. So many cool artist man. From graphics & illustrations, drawings & paintings, to photography, and more. Amazing what you learned by just looking at some of them images. Each categories has its own folders. The screenshot above are of the Portraits Set from the Photography Collections. All them collections are categorized from studios, tattoos, animals, pinups, ufos, space, graffitis, military weapons, and more. Each collections has its own sets but not all. I have almost everything of anything that can be photograph. Even brutality images. Arranging them reminds me of the same feelings you get when playing tetris, except you learn something as you play. More like meditation. Also reminded me that it's been awhile since I uploaded photos to my Flickr account.
Anyway, I was gonna post a playlist of some of the songs I listened to while doing this project. But Imeem takes awhile to load up and plays only 30 seconds of its music. Most of the tracks are free download MP3s from Myspace Bands from Indies and Hobbyist. Here's one that I like, from Squarepusher titled Port Rhombus. This beat here is cool. I'll try to make something similar to it later. I think it's a high bpm breaks, bell patch synth, synth pad, and sampled harp sounds...
Found this in Youtube the other day. Pretty interesting.
I know these are just simple questions with simple answers, some might even find them dumb questions. But it's one of them simple questions that has a much deeper answers. So I am gonna give it a try and answer these questions based from experiences as a Filipino. These are of my opinions and facts through quick research and living within the Filipino Community. Mind as well blog about it. I was gonna make a videoblog but I have a fat tongue and talks like a... goober.
Why Filipinos are short: Statistics says short people tend to have longer lifespan than tall people. But not all Filipinos are short. There are tall Filipinos too. Some you can't even tell they are Filipinos until you hear them speaking in Filipinos. Another explanation is that Filipinos has Aeta or Negrito DNA. These people are the first descendant of the Philippines Archipelago. They were considered as Pygmies due to a Genetic Mutation called Insular Drarfism. Filipinos today are actually taller compared to their predecessors. Wealthy Filipinos in the Philippines are also tall because they can afford vitamins to complete their nutrients in their diet. The Spaniards were also tall (spaniards who were born in the philippines) or Mestizos. Majority of these Mestizos were massacred during the Spanish American War by serving as Spanish Soldiers. The Spaniards fled back to Spain or perhaps even to Mexico after Spain sold the Philippines to the Americans for 20 million dollars. Most ethnic Mestizos that survived took the Filipino Entertainment Industries as their safe havens. Some Mestizos work their ways from the Entertainment Industry to Politics. One sample is Tito Sotto from the Eat Bulaga Show. Another is Fernando Poe Jr. Few of my favorite Fernando Poe Jr. flicks are of his series "Isang Bala Ka Lang" meaning "You Worth Only One Bullet". More like the Filipino version of Dirty Harry except Fernando Poe Jr, plays a Rebel. These two actors turned politicians are good people.
Why Filipinos are loud: I work with lots of Filipinos from the past, from different regions, and it don't matter if they were either Tagalogs, Ilocanos, or Visayans, but most of time, the loud once are the Filipinos that grew up in the Big Cities like Metro Manila. Even Jeepney Drivers, and Tricycle Drivers can be loud too. People that lives in the mountain sides are also loud. Like the Igorot Tribes. I know this is dumb but I have a distant relative from my town with a Japanese sounding last name, he even looked Japanese. Anyway I made the conclusion that his rowdy behavior could be Japanese DNA. Or maybe it's just a common personality just like any other people with high blood pressures. I also been told that Filipinos with Kinky or Curly hair are quick tempered because of common high blood pressures, which makes them loud people. That loudness personality could also trace back from the Papua New Guinean DNA. Papuans are loud in general.
Why Filipinos are quiet: It's normal for anyone to be shy. Most Asians are shy in general. Could also be their long lost descendants from Quanzhou of Fujian Province in China. I believe the province they were from were peaceful people, quiet, maybe loud in Chinese New Years. Plus in the Philippines, most people who lives in low land provinces didn't have to be loud, people come and go, so it's also genetic that they are simply quiet. Not that it's not normal to be quiet, some people are just not loud. Another reason, is when people in the low land provinces gets loud, they are usually made fun of or ridiculed as uncivilized Mountain People. It's a Spanish influence to make fun of Mountain Tribesman as Salvajes' (savages). Others say some Filipinos are quiet because of political oppressions for many many years from the Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, and then later the corrupt side of The Philippines Government after the first and then the second Indipendence. There were lots of domestic killings ever since from conflicts through Martial Laws, Regional Territory, Religious Diplomacy, Anti-Government Agendas, Clans vs Clans. Until there's nothing more to say and better off to just be quiet and let the guns do all the talking.
Why Filipinos are not Vegetarians: What? Filipinos loves vegetables. And because Filipinos can eat both Vegetarian and Meat. Filipino Americans and Immigrants survived the Great Depression from eating mustard seeds, taros, sweet potato leaves, okras, sometimes stuff Americans would not even considered eatable like pig feet, pig tails, pig ears, fish heads, and fish tails. Plus Filipinos can Adobo mostly anything, all you need is soy-sauce, garlic, onions, pepper, and vinegar to season what ever you wanna Adobo like pork, chicken, beef, fish, shrimps, clams, crabs, squids, octopus, tofu, bamboo shoots, the list goes on and rather not write what the rest are. The most popular vegetarian dish with meat or without is Pinakbet from the Ilocos. Sinigang is also a favorite vegetable soup but with meat. Some Filipinos back in the day (not too sure about today) in the Philippines were actually embarrassed of eating all vegetarian diets, and considered as a sign of poverty by Spanish influence. Most Spaniards favor adding pork to their recipes.
Why are there so many Filipino DJs: Filipinos were social groups since they settled in the Islands, always into music and dancing. Back in the day, like In 1930's The Lost Generation and The Greatest Generation were into Big Band Music. Maybe the first South East Asians to have Vinyl Record Players in their homes. And then for The Baby Boomers back in the 60's and 70's were Filipinos who embraced Western Pop Culture, and they DJ for Barrio Fiestas, Cha-Cha Contests, and Disco Clubs. Karaoke is also big, anything American and Latin Tangos. Some of these Baby Boomers also made Bands doing Cover Rock Music and had gigs in Japan. As well as collectors of Vinyl Records and Eight Tracks. Then came The Generation X as well as the birth of The Hip-Hop Culture. It was the Break-Dancing that caught the Filipino Youth's attention first, and then the music. The parents already had the turntables, and vinyl collections a basic starting points for them kids becoming DJs. Filipino parents that were nurses or wealthy enough spoiled their kids in any way they can just so their kids can socialized with American Kids. As long as they promised to get good grades and become doctors, lawyers, or nurses, they can be DJs. Turned out these kids didn't just become DJs but evolved unto cultural pioneers. Don't get me wrong now, if I have kids of my own I definitely want them to become doctors, lawyers, or nurses too. But open minded enough to let them choose a passion of their own. Like in the Arts and Music. There are lots of talented Filipinos but they had to be either masters of socializing or has good professions to back up their dreams. In some ways, skills are made rather than being born to it. Musical Savants usually comes 1 out of 1000 or less. Or more. Philippines isn't a big country. But if you go to the Philippines most of them knows more American Pop Music from the 70's and 80's than some Americans. They could sing all these music like taking a Tabo Shower in that one Filipino Show called Wooowee, my folks watches Wowowee religiously. They even went to their shows.
Why Filipinos are organized: True, maybe because of hundreds of years of oppressions and disciplines by Catholic Ideologies. Perhaps it has to do with creativity. Even in a messy unorganized places like in the poor communities, the Filipinos living there has organize ways of thinking. Survival purposes. They know what are worth organizing and not really worth organizing. Sadly some don't really care or lost all their hopes and turned unto something else. The main motive is to get out of the country and make money outside the Philippines. You can tell by the way Filipinos write on a piece of paper. The way they write are clean and organized - when they take notes. Education for a success are worth organizing than organizing the bad environment they lived on. But when these same people succeed and earned enough or have made it, they evolved by organizing their environment, and proud to socialize to other Filipinos and shows off their homes. A sense of pride and self respect.
I'm not much of a believer in Taro Readings and Crystal Balls, but I do somewhat believe that there are authentic readers of the stars, that can foretold the future. One good example is the famous Notradamus. Astronomers had been reading the stars for thousands of years man. Ever since the stars and the moon were the only source of lights at nights before men discovered fire. So there's gotta be some guidance from the stars that had been evolved till today after thousands of years.
One time, around 7 years ago, I was walking to an asian plaza's parking lot going to an asian super market. An indian dude approached me and says "You my friend are in a terrible situation about a girl..." And I said "Wtf... How so?" And he says "You love this girl but you know she's not the right one." And then he goes on to say "I can read it all over you." I was actually more pissed than surprised how he knew that. Plus I ain't that much of a good looking guy and then to say something like that didn't really help my day.
And then the dude came closer and showed me some magic. I forgot what it was. There were three questions that he guessed right, I just forgot the other two. But I think it had to do with colors I was thinkin' that day, and the type of flowers I was also thinking at that moment. There was this magic guess that stood out from the rest of his guesses that I remember to this day, is when he asked "Think of an animal, somewhere in the jungle..." And I said, "A frog!" He was about to hand me a piece of paper where he recently wrote something on it but didn't, and then he goes on again and asked "No no in a jungle somewhere. A beast like animal... quickly quickly." So I said a "A tiger?" And then he gave me the crumpled piece of paper and told me to open it, so I did and sure enough, the paper says "Tiger." It was a little funny because these type of guesses are mostly common. Actually, I did think of a tiger but I had to play smart with his guesses.
He had a book with him. He opened it, and had a picture of Krishna as a divider for his book. I think it was a Hindu Bible. He had a small chart or something in the book. He asked the date of my birth, and so I did. Made some quick calculations and says that there's something about a girl in the future. A perfect match. But there's gonna be communication problems (also very common to a lot of dudes searching for relations - but it was interesting enough). He said "I can help you fix this by giving you these little amulets." The dude showed me few tiny crystals and stones. He says he had to do fasting and some prayers first. But in order to help me out, is to give him some money I can afford to give. Right when he mentioned money, I thought the dude was a scam. He could tell I was skeptical. So he said "Why would I be a scam if a doctor gets payed for being a doctor, why can't I also get payed." It's true, but to me a doctor is a profession. Crystal Balls are in a magic category, and magic is a part of illusions, and illusions is a part of trickery. So trickery is a scam. That's why I didn't have to pay the dude. The only things I gave that day was bottles of water because it was hella hot that day.
Speaking of star readings, The Three Kings that found where Baby Jesus was by looking at them stars, were actually Astrologist sent by King Herod to find the new born king. Others says it was a fire in the sky that lead them, meaning possibly a UFO. But knowing that The Three Kings were also called The Three Wisemen and Magi, was enough clue for me to know that they were looking at the stars. Not one star, but the stars. Magi also means Magic or Magicians. Just to correct my criticism what magic means.
I was searching for some Hindu Psychics in Youtube and found this video. A Hindu Pyschic named O-Star-O from The Letterman Show. Circa 1986. I then google searched Hindu Psychics and learned that it's something that anyone can master. It's not one of them typical gift that certain people are born with. I could be wrong though, but so far I think It's more like a profession. And it's called Nakshatra.
Here are the basics of Hinduism. I found this from Himalaya Academy. Now, I am a Christian. Not a perfect one, but I gathered enough evidence and reasons why I sticked to my belief. I am also opened to learn other Religions and Philosophies.
Hinduism determine the thoughts and attitudes about life, which in turn direct actions. By actions, creates destiny. Beliefs about sacred matters--God, soul and cosmos--are essential to one's approach to life. Hindus believe many diverse things, but there are a few bedrock concepts on which most Hindus concur. The following nine beliefs, though not exhaustive, offer a simple summary of Hindu spirituality.
Hinduism, the world is oldest religion, has no beginning--it precedes recorded history. It has no human founder. It is a mystical religion, leading the devotee to personally experience the Truth within, finally reaching the pinnacle of consciousness where man and God are one. Hinduism has four main denominations: Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism.
One: Hindus believe in a one, all-pervasive Supreme Being who is both immanent and transcendent, both Creator and Unmanifest Reality.
Two: Hindus believe in the divinity of the four Vedas, the world's most ancient scripture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. These primordial hymns are God's word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.
Three: Hindus believe that the universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution.
Four: Hindus believe in karma, the law of cause and effect by which each individual creates his own destiny by his thoughts, words and deeds.
Five: Hindus believe that the soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved, and moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth, is attained. Not a single soul will be deprived of this destiny.
Six: Hindus believe that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and that temple worship, rituals, sacraments and personal devotionals create a communion with these devas and Gods.
Seven: Hindus believe that an enlightened master, or satguru, is essential to know the Transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, pilgrimage, self-inquiry, meditation and surrender in God.
Eight: Hindus believe that all life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore practice ahimsa, noninjury, in thought, word and deed.
Nine: Hindus believe that no religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others, but that all genuine paths are facets of God's Light, deserving tolerance and understanding.
Lately I've been listing all them cool patches from my MicroX. So I don't have to browse to every one of them patches and see what matches to a certain melody. I do recognized all the cool ones but it's better to list them up. That way, I could just jump to it, and pick what I really want to use, and have more flexibility to make a track. Specially using the sounds to the MPC 1000.
I also took this idea from this dude from Hawaii, this dude also has MicroX and uses the MPC 1000 as one of his main sequencer. I was gonna post his Youtube Video to this blog but the dude gets on my nerves, he makes cool beats though. Specially making Riddim. I myself likes Reggae Beats, and usually mess around with Reggae Loops from free royalty CDs and then making it unto DUB style sounds using Kaoss and Logic Pro's Delays and Reverbs. I never really got around with the real instruments part. But I'm gonna try and experiment onto this later by using my MicroX. I really like the sound of DUB style music man, and I think it can also blend to other type of style. Despise the marijuana cultural influences.
I recently updated my Profile in Myspace, added this fun looking graphics. The photo is from Alum Rock Park. I haven't gone there for a while but I will later. The park is just 10 minutes drive away. The hills around my area are pretty near by.
There's this news lately of a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in North Korea. I also think it wasn't from a natural cause, but in fact another possible Nuclear War Head Test. Or they probably got hit by someone. Something more advance. Possibly some aliens...
So I am gonna shut up for a little bit and get this list and other stuff done...
The first time I heard of Samoans was back in the Philippines, when I was around 7 years old. A relative had this postcard and he says the people in it were Samoans. When I was in the States, the first time I've seen about Samoans were on TV in the WWF. A notorious wrestlers called The Wild Samoans: Afa & Sika. The Wild Samoans didn't even have to say a word, they just growl and Captain Lou Albano would speak for them, and then The Wild Samoans would finished off by wildly eating a raw lobster. It was pretty crazy. Later in my life I've met few Samoans but most of them are really soft spoken people. If you haven't seen The Wrestler yet, make sure to check it (r-rated). I think it's a really cool film, the script, acting, and even the soundtrack was cool. Afa one of The Wild Samoan trained Mickey Rourke for the film.
After learning that Samoans and other Pacific Islanders share the same Cultural Ladder as Filipinos, I wonder how they got so huge. Majority of Eastern Pacific Islanders are big in stature than the typical Southeast Asian. I always thought, it could be from their diet of hunting down The Giant Moas. But Giant Moas are only in one area, which is in New Zealand. The Giant Moas were hunted down for food until they were all extinct. But that wasn't the reason why they got so big because the Maoris were already big folks when they arrived in New Zealand.
On mother's day, my family and I went to this Buffet Restaurant which serves Asian Cuisines. As well as Shell Fish and Sushi. When we were there, the restaurant were also packed with Tongans. There were also Indo-Fijians. At first my Family and I thought they were Samoans. Big folks. It sucks though because the restaurant didn't have any dividers. I am used of eating alone. Everythin' was in the open and we didn't know a single one of them. It was sunday so I figured the Tongans must be from a Mormon Church. Perfect day to celebrate mother's day. Tongans are of Fijian people (melanesians) mixed with the Samoans (polynesians). But they do have their own Islands just bellow Samoa, and just across side of Fiji. The youth consider themselves the Vikings of the South Pacific.
About the restaurant, the restaurant is literarily called Crazy Buffet, there are a lot of Asian Buffet around Silicon Valley with funny names, there's another one called Yummy Buffet, next thing you know another one is called Eat Food Buffet or Very Fishy Food Buffet. These owners must be laughing on their way to the bank for having them catchy names. Good food though. Maybe even better than some Authentic Restaurants.
Noticing how they like shell fish, also brought back some memories of The Wild Samoans. Which gave me enough clue to know how they got so huge. These people lives in small islands. Which gave them lots of advantages over the large ocean that surrounds their homelands. Like one big table filled with lobsters and other types of fish. I like them too and I think they are tasty, but I can't eat shell food like: Lobsters, Crabs, and Shrimps. Not even Squid or Octopus. If I do, my skin starts to itch, my throat starts to itch, and then my lungs gets tighter. I can though eat regular fish. Oysters are okay. Just not that day, I had enough Tilapia and Tuna at home, and wanted to try other food than fIsh.
Common Polynesian Diets and Fishing Tool: Lobsters, Taros, and a Fishing Hook an evidence of hunting big fish.
Typical Wooden Clubs for Paddling, Hunting, Playing, and Fighting: You gotta knocked a huge fish somehow. And knocked territorial rivalries at the sea. To me the Wooden Club also gave birth to Cricket and then to Baseball. Boomerang is also a cool hunting tool and weapon from the Aboriginal People of Australia. Philippines has the Yo-Yo. But I ain't sure how Yo-Yo works as a Hunting Tool.
The Moai Statues of Rapa Nui: Just a sample of carving canoes evolved unto ritualistic carving of logs and stones as an artifacts. I mean if you live in an Island, there's gotta be lots of time to kill. Plenty of time waiting for the GODs in which they were from. Plenty of time for art. Plus art also keeps the mind occupied and strong.
Here is a sample of a Maori Tiki Jade. A Moko Facial Tattoo is also a form of carving but with ink. A Fish Hook Pendant made of Bone.
The images bellow illustrates the Austronesian People of Oceania:
MALAYAN Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Borneo, Taiwan, and etc. These groups migrated from Taiwan to Southeast Asia. Also known as the East Indies. The Westerners that discovered East Indies of Malay were Spanish, French, Dutch, and Americans. The Malaysians kept the name as their official country name. Malayans are the forefathers of the Austronesian Language and Culture.
MELANESIAN Solomon, Papua New Guinea, Australia (aboriginal), Timor (alfredo reinado), Fiji, and etc. The black people of Oceania. The Westerners that discovered the Melanesians were Portuguese, Dutch and British Missionaries. To me MICRONESIA is also part of the MELANESIAN, basically just smaller islands just above the MELANESIAN islands. It's cool how some people of the Solomon and Australia have natural blond hair. I think it has to do with the sun and the ocean. There are people in the Philippines who also has blond hair, mostly young kids that lives on the oceans.
POLYNESIAN Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand (maori), Hawaii, Tahiti, and etc. Polynesians has Portuguese and British blood lines, as well as American. They are more known as the standard Pacific Islanders. Since the rise of Colonialism, places like Guam (micronesia) and Hawaii, or even Tahiti has mixed blood with people from the Orient. Like Japan, Korea, and China. Specially Ilocanos of the Philippines. And made a unique language of it's own called Pidgin Language. Like a boomerang that flew from the east to west. Or something like that.
A well known Polynesian Actor other than Dwayne Johnson (the rock), is Cliff Curtis. Who appeared as supporting actor in Once Were Warriors, and an extra in some award winning film The Piano. Me and my Bro sometimes laugh about it because the dude can play any type of roles. He plays characters as an Arab and even a Cholo Mexican from the movie Training Day. And I don't think a lot of people seems to notice that. The dude came up though man.
I could be wrong though, but according to my research, Filipinos is a new nationality. Christianity is the official faith. Every Nations has a beginning. The first known Filipinos were Spaniards that was born in the Philippines. Eventually, most of these Filipinos blend in with the indigenous. Some Indigenous still practice Shamanism and into Mother Nature. Before the Spaniards, were the Malay People (austronesians) and then the Arabs, Indians, Japanese, Chinese (mostly merchants). Before that were the Aetas, the very first settlers of the islands, believed to be from Madagascar. An island just below Africa.
Aight, I just finished a track, just needed a little mastering and then I'll post it here. I sampled a little bit of Asha Puthli. I had to do this Blog about Polynesian Culture or else it will keep on knocking the sides of my head to come out.
Les Filles De Paris. I have no idea what that means but I do know that it's French. It's a song by Paul Anka. My folks has Paul Anka in the list when singing karaoke, actually I think most middle-age Filipinos do. The dude is Middle Eastern and I always thought he was an Italian American. Like one of them drunk guys with Sinatra or Elvis like outfit singin' in Vegas and all. Anyway, I got this Record awhile back, maybe around 6 years ago. It was a present I believe but I forgot whose it was for, or perhaps it's the other way around and someone made a joke and gave me this as a present.
I played it again, and I notice that this album has a lot of tracks in it that are really worth sampling. It's an Essential Collection and it comes with 2 vinyl records. So I put it on for a little test yesterday, took one little sample and then chopped it up in my MPC, I'm still new to this MPC sequencing so it's a little off beat, more of a rough-draft. But I'm gonna try and push this a little forward, like maybe record more acoustic instruments using my R-09 field recorder or a microphone, and then load that up to my MPC. For sure Vinyls is a must or CDs for samplings. It's unlimited on what you can sample really, but sound quality is also an important key element of making tracks. Unfortunately, my MPC is a bit limited, for theres not enough memory to my 32MB Flash Card. I need at least 1GB to load up more samples, and space for some saved up sequences and programs. The Hard Drive needs an upgrade as well.
This is my first video choppin' up a record sample. Again, this is just a rough-draft and I am still going to change the beats and lay some other samples to it. And then do all the arrangements and finalization in Logic later. So don't throw any stones yet if you're already an expert. I disabled the star ratings for this video just incase.
I've thought about this before. And once and awhile I do it on my turntable but without the mixer as a fader. I've also played around to our family stereo record player (technics brand from the 80's) back when I wasn't doin' music. I do have a turntable but you can't really scratch on a ttUSB. My turntable is designed for getting less popping sounds when recording old vinyl records, and into cleaner MP3 datas. It's always cool to sample them scratch sounds on to your tracks though. It all depends on what kind of track your doing too, you just can't add scratching to every track you have. I was gonna get me either a QFO or Controller One both made by Vestax. And since it's only for scratching purposes, all I need really is one Turntable built for scratching (possibly a used one) and a Mixer (also a used one).
This here is DJ Qbert jamming on his own designed QFO, it has it's own built in Fader, and other features. Cool instrument. Built for scratching.
This here is Ruckazoid jamming on his own designed Controller One. Ruckazoid emerged from San Jose. What's cool about Controller One is that it has this built in synth like buttons. It ain't really a complete set like QFO for you still gotta get a Mixer for this. Maaan at first by watching this video, I thought you can sync Controler One to a synthesizer. But it was just the record that he was jamming with that sounded like it was sync to a synthesizer, which is a techno/electro record music. His basically juggling just like chopping a sample in an MPC. But it ain't that easy to do, for that takes some skills and years of practice. All depends on the individual on how soon they can master the art of turntablism.
I would probably find bargains for something like these here:
I made few changes to my STATIX VADERS character/logo/etc. Here are the previous logos.
Here are the new ones. I know, it does look a bit childish and actually that is part of my point. Sometimes childhood things can bring you back certain awareness and help you pull away from fire when it gets a little too close.
I just added this cool widget on my side bar. It's a music playlist and it streamlines my own tracks. Thanks to this one musician who posted this widget to promote her tracks as a bulletin. I was gonna place all 11 of my completed tracks in there. But I took out another two of my finished tracks. Which makes that only 9 tracks completed. So now, I am going to make 3 more to make that to 12 tracks. I'll place all 12 tracks in that same widget when it's completed. Keep changing my mind but I just wanna put up a cool album. Not that I am hoping to sell out or anythin' but just to make something out of this hobby. Although it would be so damn cool if it would. Other than that, I was also messing around on this character. Something for my musical slogan. I do have my own photographs with some 8 bit fonts as slogans but thats about it. I also like using real photos of UFOs and then just adding 8 bit fonts to it. Do I believe in the UFO? Well, I'll blog about that later on.
Space Invaders Characters just looks so damn cool to me man. Since it wouldn't be original if I copy the exact image, mind as well make a replica version. The STATIX version.
I got the idea from my Korg Kaoss or KP3. I change the character to a more friendlier lookin' dude. Now it's a replica of both KP3 and Space Invaders unto one. I just have to even out the gray linings a little bit and this would also work for a CD cover. And a shirt design, mouse pad, mug, etc. Kinda simple but I like it that way.
I'm blogging pretty much about everything. Even to the most silliest things. So please "do not" take some of my opinions, journals, reports, and researches too seriously or act unto something destructive due to what you gathered from Wasabi Sandwich. I'm just a blogger and I do not intend for anyone to follow what I blog about. Unless for positive purposes - like maybe buying my music later. Consider my warning as a disclaimer.
