This morning, while watching Dragon Ball Z for inspiration, a thought occurred to me; the majority of what I create online is based around me attempting to explain myself. Not necessarily a good or bad thing, just a thought.
Like, as I’m watching space monsters punch each other to death (Frieza vs. Piccolo) as I drink my third cup of coffee (toasted hazelnut w/unrefined coconut oil and Shamrock half&half), the thought occurs to me that I should inform my readers that there have always been plans to produce an animated version of Ceaseless Fables of Beyonding that would feature fight action sequences, like Dragon Ball Z. This is the kind of thing I’d normally share on my Patreon, but then I came up with a title that began with an “E”, so I decided to post it here instead. If you’re one of my Patrons, that makes sense.
Then I’m like, my readers here might not give a shit about the nerdy little-sister property with the pink unicorn and all, but frankly the content has been slow here for the last couple months, so I figured why not. Two things keep my creative machine ticking; money and a very specific strain of pot. If I have one and not the other, I can still keep things going without a hitch. If I have neither, the machine breaks down. Literally anyone paying attention to my work can tell when this happens.
Not to belabor the Dragon Ball references, but a recurring theme within its sagas is ascension; pushing oneself to the brink of death with the goal of achieving a higher state of oneself. I feel as though I have achieved a higher state of myself, and no, I don’t mean from pot. Well, not just from pot. Here’s what I mean.
The backbone of the entire Bands I Useta Like concept is nostalgia. It’s even written into the official seal:
More than once, in the past few months, I’ve seen comments posted expressing nostalgia for something I was a direct part of. I dangled that infinitive on purpose, folks. To make you meta-nostalgic. To provide the endorphin hit that comes from remembering things you didn’t even know you’d forgotten. School days stuff. Smart stuff, cuz you’re smart.
It is a difficult task to describe what it’s like to go from writing about nostalgia, to becoming it.
If you were born in the year that John’s Arm: Armageddon won Best Animated Feature at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, you’d be graduating high school about now. The original “John’s Arm” shorts were posted on Newgrounds over twenty years ago. Shoot, the first Bands I Useta Like strip to see mass publication was over twenty years ago. Through sheer tenacity and the indefatigable march of time, I myself have ascended to the realm of the Useta.
It’s weird, but it’s good weird. It makes me grateful that I got into Hunter S. Thompson long before it was appropriate, as a teenager. His most famous book helped me to understand the concept of gonzo, of becoming part of the events you record and report upon. In a lot of ways, gonzo paved the way for today’s live-streams and IBS (Internet blood sports, not irritable bowel syndrome in this case). Regardless of that, the best lessons one can take away from HST are how (and how not) to live your life as both a man and a creative industry.
Lesson 1: It gets easier with age, while everything else gets harder.
Plans are currently underway to release a Blu-Ray of my movie, John’s Arm: Armageddon. It will be absolutely loaded with nostalgic goodies and bonuses. There will without question be a trailer included for the sequel, John’s Arm and the Five Fingers of Fate. Mike Nelson of Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame pronounces the word “sequel” like “see quell”, which I find both irritating and endearing. I’ll see if I can get him a copy of my movie, although I can’t see him enjoying it. Kevin Murphy on the other hand; Kevin, I can see liking it. Bill Corbett, all I gotta do is take him aside and tell him I sincerely enjoyed Meet Dave, and he’ll be a shoo-in to dig my movie. I can even quote it for him. What the hey, folks can’t sit and enjoy a silly Eddie Murphy romp anymore? I mean, say what you will about Norbit, but was its first scene not legitimately gut-busting?
Did I just weaken my position by admitting I enjoyed Norbit? Probably, but it doesn’t change the fact that it came out in 2007. At the time of this writing, that’s eighteen years ago.
Twenty years ago, production started on John’s Arm: Armageddon. That same year, the last Star Wars movie I truly loved hit theaters. I had a studio in Atlanta and a beautiful girlfriend who paid the rent. I was in a band; we recorded an album there. I had a monthly cartoon gig in a local music magazine with a huge circulation, and a regular editorial job with a newspaper in another state. It’s very easy to become nostalgic for those days, as well as it is surreal.
Harvey Dent was wrong when he said “you either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”; you can live long enough to destroy the villain within yourself, and ascend to become the hero you didn’t know you could be. Villains can never truly play the long game, because they’re selfish; they act in no one’s interests but their own. A hero is only defined by their actions and personal sacrifice for the benefit of others. No one takes a self-described hero seriously, for good reason.
Still a good quote, though. And just so you don’t have to look it up, yes, The Dark Knight came out in 2008. Remember what it was like being seventeen years old? Good times. 1989, for me. That’s thirty-six years ago. That’s the price of being born lucky enough to experience the 1980’s in your teens.
Does that explain things a little better?
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