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asapmarky:

Jason Paige — Viridian City

14 years ago the Pokemon franchise landed on the shores of America and my life was irreversibly changed. I don’t know if it was for the better. I was about 10—the age you’re allowed to become a Pokemon trainer.

This was the first CD I ever bought with my own money.

• Yes, I fucking listened to the PokeRAP in my sleep so I could sub-consciously learn all the words via hypnopaedia and impress the kids at school.
• Yes, I fucking used the missingno cheat to get unlimited rare candies and gold nuggets, and you’re a goddamn liar if you knew about it and said you didn’t do it.
• Yes, this album sucks balls, but it’s flippin’ sweet.
• No, you can’t get Mew under the truck.

Listening to this album in my boxers as a 23-year-old man—on the cusp of 24—I can’t but help but ask myself. What the fuck are you doing with your life?  And obviously with this on, I had to answer that in relation to the Pokemon universe.

I mean, are we not all training to be stronger and faster? Until you have the power of a master?

Are we not all working toward our own Viridian City? A stepping off point, from where we continue onto greatness. This song makes me feel like I can do anything (except breathe in space, that’s just retarded.)

Haven’t we all been driven from birth to succeed, and to succeed: exceeding all others? Even the Elite—not just four of them, but all of them. In a way, shake up the status quo. Quite iconoclastic.

But that’s not all there is to it, you’ve got to work together, as a team. With your friends and people you’ve defeated (i.e. Misty, Brock, etc.) and also your Pokemon, who you beat within an inch of their life and then tame. Similar to the way Gilgamesh civilizes the feral Enkidu during a bout, and afterwards the two become practically blood brothers and stay by each other’s side with most unwavering of loyalty (Pikachu and Ash[Red]). Or in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, when the antagonist Caliban is doused and forced into an uneasy role of servitude to the main character, Prospero. (Ash and Charizard.)

Even in the Pokemon universe there is never a Manichean sense of a battle between good and evil, even with Team Rocket in the picture. There are many shades of grey. It’s only Trainer versus Trainer, Pokemon versus Pokemon. Everyone is just trying to better themselves and raise their station in life. And allegiances are constantly shifting, as when Team Rocket and the gang join forces to battle a greater evil. Even Mewtwo, the arch-nemesis of the first film had a change of heart at the end. Like Lucifer in Paradise Lost he waged a war against all creation, but unlike God’s most favored angel he relented. He was moved by the tears that all the Pokemon cried for the death of Ash—I’ll stop myself now before I draw comparisons of Ash and Jesus and peg him as a Christlike figure, such as how he his father was an unknown faceless figure throughout the series, how a child astounded even supposed “Masters” and “Leaders” in their own “Temples” (i.e. Gyms) Luke 2:39-52

There’s good in every character, and no Pokemon or human is totally evil even if they do things that would seem to testify against their inherent goodness. Except maybe Giovanni, de facto leader of Team Rocket and the head of the Viridian City Gym. But like all great characters, I’m sure he has some great traumatic wound that caused him to be that way. And when you think about it, isn’t Team Rocket’s credo kind of idealistic and admirable (“To unite all peoples within our nation”) Sounds pretty goddamn democratic to me. Though I have to admit, it could easily turn to vehement nationalism and jingoistic tendencies if taken to the extreme.

It’s these kind of moral imperatives—and I’m sure Kant would agree with me if he watched the show—that pepper the franchise. That make it more than just using Bidoof  as an HM mule, or borrowing your friends Gameboy so you can evolve your Machoke to Machamp. It’s a way to instill a sense of morality, of industry, of self-improvement. Maybe I’m just trying to justify all the time spent writing this and trying to beat the games and catch all the Pokemon and watching more seasons than was probably socially acceptable at the time. But social conventions be damned, at least that’s what I probably thought then.

These are the kind of ideas existential crises that stick to you as a child and affect you as young adults transitioning into burgeoning adulthood also, no doubt. I mean, I can’t be the only one…right?

(Source: markdelabeast)

front row dead center. i dressed like a fruit and i think i was attention-whoring mayer hawthorne last night. he didn’t look me in the eyes during the entire show, even with my excessive arm-flailing, pop-locking, and lil b basedgod cooking. he threw a guitar pic at the girl to the left of me. i was running on four measly hours of sleep and a four loko which i shotgunned before the show. i also went to the restroom before the show and bumped into mayer on his phone. i didn’t want to shake his hand because i thought he might be grossed out considering i was just in the restroom. i just whispered loudly to him with right hand cupped to the side of my mouth: “sup mayer” and chuckled like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdghRwWfaOQ&feature=related  . overall i’m grateful. mayer and his band were on point and killed it. the show will premiere on PBS in a month. oh yeah i’m the dude under his arm. i think the white stuff between my pants and my checkered red and blue shirt is my underwear.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

asapmarky:

Ra Ra Riot — Too Dramatic (Anamanaguchi Remix)

danke schoen mein aibo asapmarky.

(Source: markdelabeast)

(Source: pixarmovies)