New New Wave

The interwebz have changed our world as everyone knows at this point. Within it's labyrinthine depths, the internet has spawned a new digital universe that is parallel to (and entwined with) the physical one we inhabit. Entire cultures and subcultures have sprung up in this homegrown alien landscape. Their raw energies have breached our own culture and changed the face of entertainment, politics, socialization, and... grammar. I grit my teeth here with such intensity that Jared Leto can hear it from across the room.

Everyone knows about the powerhouses. Google. Youtube. Facebook. These are the phenomena with mass equivalent to an PHP moon. Even in the real world we can feel her server side processes dynamically altering the HTML tides of our lives. My, that was an unwieldy analogy.

Something that fascinates me is a single facet of the youtube effect. Namely what I see as the unintentional creation of a new new wave. A (very) brief history: in the late 1950's through the 1960's a maverick group of french filmmakers and critics formed theories and films that flew in the face of convention. These iconoclastic auteurs questioned everything that had come before essentially tore down the ruling class of the filmmaking world.

Today we can watch dark jedi Tom Cruise killing Oprah.



The old gods of cinema are no longer sacred thanks to a new generation that has grown up with cameras in their phones and wifi connections. We have a veritable army of kids with film studios in their laptops. They are untrained, uneducated masses with power, and they play without restraint in a chaotic digital landscape.

15 years ago King Leonidas would have inspired awe and fear in the populous. Today he break dances in a bear suit and guns down Chunk with a tommy gun. Or is that Captain Picard? Then again, everyone seems to want a piece of Chunk, even Jack Bauer.

Youtube new wave. Where you can watch Korben Dallas fight Neo. Neo fight Robocop. Robocop fight The Terminator. You can watch Simon Pegg gun down Charlize Theron (and just about everyone else), or, if you're among our female viewership, you can watch the touching story. of two star-crossed lovers. Didn't notice those homoerotic undertones the first time you watched Back To The Future, did you?

Hitler raves about his stolen car. Obama gangster raps (badly), and badgers dance to techno raves of "don't taze me bro" and Christian Bale cursing out his DP. Both of those albums would come with the parental warning sticker for sure.

Sure, it's mindless entertainment. Internet memes that will be remembered only by the truly hardcore geeks. To me though, it has the spirit of irreverence that I find when watching À Bout De Souffle. These people are taking the movie icons of a generation and turning them into unwitting puppets. The parts of a film that used to make you hold your breath without realizing it are reduced to 2 minutes worth of comedy on your lunch break.

It's part of something much larger for sure. This is a transition to the future, but I love what it is right now. Youtube new wave.

Rock the dragon

With the new dragon ball movie in only a month, I felt it was time to retread some of those nostalgic memories. I jumped on the interwebs and and was watching old fansubbed copies of DBZ movie 7 (super android #13) in no time.

I'm not sure when it was I fell in love again, but my best guess in somewhere around when that wave crashes over superimposed kanji in the opening credits.

I don't want to complain about my childhood. It was better than some people's. It was more screwed up than some people's. I consider myself fortunate at any rate. One irrefutable fact, however, is that I was media deprived to an extreme. I never owned a tape or CD to my recollection. We never had cable, and what static infused signals my sisters and I managed to snare with our crude tin foil traps were measured out to us in meager rations. There were one or two movies we'd received as christmas presents over the years. I think I visited a theater 3 times between age 1 and 16.

Thanks to my friend Dennis, Dragon Ball Z was a ray that pierced the thick veil of media blackout. I first heard him talking about it at a school meeting in the auditorium. He spoke of strange and mysterious things. Goku's base power outnumbered the entire Ginyu force's by 14,000. Still this was nothing to Frieza who numbered 1,000,000 is his fourth form. Dennis talked about kamehamehas that could destroy planets, and Goku sacrificing his life energy to make a wish with the all powerful Shenron to save the universe. And what the crap was a "super saying" anyway?




Those spiky haired bastards fascinated me.

In short order order I was sitting on his bed surrounded by video game consoles and watching Vegeta shatter an androids protective lenses through the sheer power of his aura. I was hooked. We'd eagerly await new bootleg episodes to arrive stateside, and snap them up. Of course we grew out of it eventually, but DBZ became my childhood nostalgia in the process. Some people reminisce about Saturday morning cartoons. I look back fondly on future Super Saiyajin Trunks killing Cyborg Frieza.

This was all incredibly cheesy, but it possessed some kind of magic. The world of DBZ is a world of high adventure. Dinosaurs roam the wilderness and there are evil beings of godlike power to be battled at every turn.

Apparently this magic still exists. As I mentioned above, I was back in love from moment one of my return. I found myself lurking the forums once more in search of validity to the Dragon Ball AF series. I formulated theories in my mind over what happened when Goku transformed into a super saiyajin in the middle of forming a genkidama while fighting Dr. Gero's android. Obsession with base power was back. When Vegeta allows Babidi to take over his mind and create Maijin Vegeta, is the resulting power level greater than Goku's? What about when he goes super saiyjin 3?

Ever notice these posts aren't really about anything? I was speaking of the movie.

The trailer looks like it was cut by an eleven year old. The clips I've seen actually feature some cool fight sequences however. Still, I've no doubt this movie will suck. Bulma doesn't even have blue hair! As they do concerning most matters, my thoughts on this closely align with Hitler's. Of course, Dragon Ball and Hitler have never gotten along.

Do yourself a favor and skip next month's offering. Pick up some DVDs of the original series and kick back. You won't be disappointed.