Merry Christmas

This is the time of year when people need to come together. I know that the world is stressful, and I know that it's hard to really believe in being cheerful and good will towards other men, but just for the next 24 hours, can we all just please remember that we're all people. I know it's ironic for me of all people to say that, given my almost stoic disposition, but at the least today, of all days let's reach out. I love the world.

Peace. Love. Happy Holidays.

Ego.

Individuality Vs. Society

We are told since we are children that as a society we are meant to work and come together to help towards one productive community to help the whole world thrive.  Though this is true, I feel that recently that there is a huge discrepancy in the people who are willing to step outside of the accepted social norms, and present themselves as an individual and maybe break themselves from these preconceived ideals.

               

       Lately I have come to notice of my peers that, none of them are really able to put forth ideas that are truly their own. There seems to be an accepted social norm that is going around in the world and with the way that my generation is looking to shape up, there may be little to nothing that will ever happen in the future to change that. My generation is coming from heavily regulated public school systems, churches that indoctrinate children from a young age, and from an age of websites like Myspace and Facebook, that all work to strip away the kind of individualism that someone should really be trying to figure out at a young age. I am not trying to put forth the idea that the government or some higher society is trying to control my generation, instead I think that it’s the neediness of my generation that is the main proponent of the lax attitude of most of the generation. When the most prominent figures in our society today are the athletes, pop stars, movie stars, and other kinds of celebrity it’s hard to remember that intellectuals are the ones who are really making the world move, and I think that it’s a shame that a majority of people are probably losing this fact.

The upcoming generation is losing that sense of individualism and personal drive, and it is apparent in the way that people are going through school and their daily lives.  There is always some sort of religious group or political faction out on campus trying to get people to join them for their cause. One day I actually went up to one of these people and asked them why it was that they were trying to recruit people for their cause. I got just what I expected in their answer, It was just them regurgitating the same campaign mottos and slogans that you can hear from the candidate themselves, it was almost as if they had joined the cause just because they wanted to join, not because they were critical of the issues that the candidate was trying to represent, but because they had been told that these are the issues that are important and this was the candidate that they had clung close to. I then continued to ask a few other people trying to spread their represented agenda to the campus, and none of them ever gave me a personal reason as to why they wanted to support their cause, all of it seemed to be something I could hear from any other Christian, Republican, Democrat, or Muslim. The sad reality is that I doubt any of them had really taken time to reflect why they’d chosen to become a part of that group but had merely just chosen to participate based on some social standardization that they come from.

It has also become apparent to me that, most of the values and moral codes that people are so quick to adhere to aren’t always what a person truly values. It is more like they just conform to the accepted social conscious that society has predetermined for us. The sad thing is that, within these moral concepts that are pushed upon us, there is a lot of hypocrisy in them. When we tell people that killing is wrong, yet glorify the notion of supporting our troops and the war, what kind of message are we really sending out to people? That it is not okay to kill the person who is personally driving you insane on your day to day basis, but as long as the person who you are willing to kill is from another country and supposedly stands against every value and personal perception you have then you can off their head without a second thought. Then there’s the personal favorite one that I have of the ideal of marriage being some kind of sacred practice that is ordained and glorified from God. When it comes to the point that the government is controlling who can get married, how they can get married, and to whom they can get married, it seems that God is nowhere to be found in the equation. Though as a group we have come to the evaluation that marriage should be something that should be held sacred and helps the community as a whole, when it’s really the exact opposite, seeing as someone who is single would have more disposable income to put into the economy, but what’s common sense to the individual when all of society knows what is best for your life.

The world at whole really needs to reevaluate what kind of an individual that most people are. I’m a huge proponent of individualism and I think the world needs more people who are willing to go outside of the norms and accepted structures, and reform the way people think about why they do choose to follow instead of leading in their own lives. I hope that sometime in my life, there will be some kind of social and political revolution that takes place, which shakes the foundation of most of our ideals, and causes the world to challenge and correct itself. Though maybe I am just a crazy person because I choose to set my moral and values away from society, but I’ve always found it weird that when it comes down to people’s conscious decisions, their personal conscious always goes with what society has set forth as the good that people should be doing. 

Cliff Lee, why would you do that?

He could have had the greatness

This man right here, could have been a Yankee. He could have worn the pride of the pinstripes, and helped to lead the Bombers to our second title in 3 years. BUT NO. He along with the Phillies, decide to bust out the biggest okie-doke in years in baseball.

P.S. This is Jimmy Rollins. 

So now the Yanks only have Greinke to look to as a pick up this off season, unless we can make a huge blockbuster trade. Which I can't see anyone being available and willing to take some of the huge contracts we have. This may be a rough upcoming season for the Yanks. I'm expecting 85-90 wins this year, rest of the off season pending. Here's looking at you Pettite. 

Every now and then I like to do some Photoshop Work. Mostly just website banners and forum tags and signatures.

The Final Punchline,

It's an interesting Essay I wrote.  Especially if you're into comic books primarily Batman.

The comic book media has inspired some of the greatest relationships that have persisted through literary culture since the medium has been in circulation. The historical characters and struggles present in the medium of comic books and graphic novels have created universes filled with intertwining stories, characters, and story lines that would put the works of even Shakespeare to shame. Though all these narratives each stand on their own merit and worth, the most interesting and dynamic one would be between Batman and Joker.

Batman and Joker have a very long running give and take relationship. It's been portrayed in comic books, movies, video games, and about every other media form you can think of. It's the classic tale of Batman, the caped crusading hero, against Joker, the homicidal clown lunatic, who is out to destroy Gotham with only The Dark Knight standing in his way.

This has always been the dynamic between the Gotham elite in the meta-criminal world of Gotham, but when we take a look at it from a new standpoint, a question arises. Is the Joker really trying to destroy Batman, or is the Joker just simply trying to give batman a means to an end? One that only the Joker, with his hyper-sanity, can push Batman into. By posing this question we can no longer take the Joker as an intrinsic villain, but instead on the same coin of Batman as simply trying to eliminate all the hindrances that Batman contains that stop him from eliminating all crime in Gotham. In this examination I will explore the Joker's past, his present, and his actions he is taking against Batman. I will take these actions and prove that these actions have been tailored to Joker's needs of Batman becoming truly what the Joker needs him to be able to kill crime, in the literal sense, and Joker's true motives behind this.

First, we must look at Joker's past before he evolved into the Dark Knight's greatest adversary. The Joker's back story has been reiterated multiple times through different comic book runs, so for argument's sake we will go with the most common and multiply canonized back story, from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. The Joker's history is that he was a man, married to his wife Jeannie, who was working as a chemical engineer in Gotham. He quits this job to become a comedian, and begins to fail miserably. In an attempt to support his wife and future child, he agrees to help 2 thugs rob a chemical engineering plant, using the alias Red Hood. Right before the robbery however, he learns that his pregnant wife has died in a household accident. Hearing this news, he wants to back out of the deal, but the two gangsters strong arm him into going with the plan. Shortly after the heist begins, the security catches on and the two thugs are killed in a shoot out, and he runs away. While escaping he is confronted by Batman, in a act of panic and fear, he jumps off the balcony railing and lands in a pit of acid underneath. When he arises from the vat, he now has the hyper-sanity and joker features he has become famous for.

From this history we can see that originally the Joker is a man who is broken and battered, albeit by some of his own choices, but he's trying to support a family. If we juxtapose this with the Bruce Wayne genesis into Batman story, they are completely dialectical. Where as Bruce Wayne in one night loses the established family that he has grown to love and later is engulfed into a life of opulence and chooses to become involved with the criminal world, Joker on the other hand loses the future family that he could have had, and is coerced into the criminal world afterwords due to a future of poverty he wished to avoid for his family. Theses losses of family have fueled both of these men, and will continue to fuel their motives as the story continues, with their choice of alliances they choose. Batman hoping to give someone the childhood that he so feels robbed of adopts Robin into his life. Joker having gone insane because of his love, takes in Harley Quinn a psychiatrist who loves him as a constant reminder of a possible sane love he could have had. As we can see the genesis of Batman and the Joker have strayed down different paths, despite both being born out of tragedy, and both attempting to cope with it.

Next, we need to explore the motive that Joker would have to want to push Batman over the edge. Joker sees the city of Gotham as nothing more than a playground for him. He's a man who's lost everything and no longer has  any kind of regular social bonds to this world. The Joker has submitted himself to the idea of chaos, and wishes to impose this upon the city. Any idea of structure is directly opposed to The Joker's dogma. Which would bring out the question of why would the Joker be satisfied with just merely there being a constant back and forth between him and Batman? As Joker said it best in "The Clown at Midnight", the Joker states to Batman, "You can't kill me without becoming like me. I can't kill you without losing the only human being who can keep up with me. Isn't it ironic?!" The Joker says later, "I could never kill you. Where would the act be without my straight man?", at a first glance this statement is the epitome of the back and forth between the two, but take a look closer. The Joker says, "I could never kill you", looking at this statement in context you realize that before that Joker brings up the situation of them killing each other, but in this leaves out the idea of The Batman killing him exclusively. This means that Joker, has the idea in his mind of Batman being able to kill him, and most preferably that he does. This is even show in The Dark Knight Returns, when The Joker breaks his own neck just so he can frame Batman. The Joker wants to turn Batman into the same situation that he is in so that the caped crusader no longer feels some kind of self-righteous indignation towards human life in a similar way that he doesn't. The Joker wants Batman to take his place, to lift that burden of Chaos away from him.

Expanding on that idea is the hold that Joker and Batman hold over the DC universe. Batman and the Joker both stand in a meta-realm above those sides whom they would most naturally represent. Batman stands as the benevolent benefactor to the Justice league, and as shown through out the DC run, has the power and capabilities to deal with any of the other Heroes if they were ever to turn rogue. This automatically puts Batman as being above the rest of the league, even the invincible Superman. Now take a look at The Joker, a man who has been burdened with this blood lust and chaotic demeanor, a visage so intimidating that other villains don't even wish to deal with him in fear of his actions. This is evidenced in the "Villains United" and the "Infinite Crisis"  arcs, where the Joker wasn't allowed in the organizations. Joker stands in a league of his own when it comes to the evil archetype in DC. When these two powers collide in Gotham, Joker now sees the perfect opportunity for him.  Knowing that Batman has all this power, Joker sees in him the possibility of what he ultimately wants, and that is for there to be a power above all in the universe. Taken from Joker's perspective, this Batman clearly has gathered all this power and control for some reason. If Joker were to be able to instill in Batman the kind of chaos he's been imbued with combined with Batman's resources and power, Batman would be unstoppable. The perfect agent for Joker's deadly ideals for the world.

Joker however knows that because Batman has all this control, that he needs Batman to be pushed so deep into this feeling of control that he snaps him over the edge, and brings him into his world. Joker attempts to do this by trying to destroy Batman's world around him. First  Joker tries to take it to a much larger scale, first trying to destroy the city of Gotham. He realizes that this is not the best way to do so, as inevitability the city will come to Batman to save the day, giving him that satisfaction of control that he wants. So Joker decides to go deeper into his life, by attacking Gordon and his family. However because of Gordon's strong belief in Batman's way of crime fighting, despite the Joker doing extreme permanent damage to Barbara Gordon, this doesn't break the Dark Knight's moral compass. So Joker takes it to the ultimate step, by killing Dick Grayson, aka Robin. Joker almost thinks he has him this time, but in the end even this can't push Batman over the edge. Joker now knows that he must dig even deeper, as he searches for Batman's true identity, with the intent to test Batman even further until he reaches the breaking point.
Joker sees in Batman, something he can no longer have in life, he sees structure. The Joker wants nothing more to destroy the ideal of Batman, he wants to break the unbreakable, to push him over the edge. He wants Batman to be stronger, he wants Batman to take control of the chaos that he wants. If The Joker were to take control of the possibilities that only Batman had available to him, to be able to make Batman break this moral code and kill those who stand opposed to him, it would be The Joker's final victory as an agent of Chaos. The Joker sees in Batman the means to an ultimate end for himself. Batman has the capabilities, the power, and the prestige to completely take over, but hold himself back. Most importantly Batman has something Joker can never have, the ability to do all this and slip back into the regular world, to not be hated and despised.

As long as there is an unbroken Batman, there will be the Joker, the man who tries to push him to his greatest pinnacle, to stand atop both good and evil, and evil death itself. To unleash an unrestrained Batman upon the world, that is the Joker's final punchline.

Jay Electronica

Jay Electronica has recently signed to the Roc Nation. I'm really hyped over this. Great music should start to come out very soon from this. Expecting amazing things, and that first studio album should be hard.


For a glimpse at the upcoming greatness, check out this track.

Jay Electronica - The Announcement

Starting back up.

So It's been ages since I've used this site, I know I'm terrible at commiting to habits, it's something I have to work on eventually. I digress, however I am now back on this thing and it's time for a new CD to plug.

Normalcy - Charles Hamilton

I've been feeling Charles Hamilton for a while now. His other mixtape, Sonic the Hamilton was good, but I feel that Normalcy is a much better and polished production. 20Hamil10 is my favorite song  off of it and Charles really shows his lyrical range through out the whole album. As an amazing bonus Last.fm even has it available for free donwload. Check it out if you have the time.

Charles Hamilton - Normalcy / download

My Favorite Tracks

1)20Hamil10
2) New Music from Charles Hamilton
3) Air Agains
4) See & Say
5) WorkinInTheLab

Nas and Damian Marley

Got to buy this CD. This might be the best album this year, so I suggest buying it. It's Nas and Damian Marley, who wouldn't like them together?

Jay Electronica

There's a lot of talk about how bad southern rappers are lately. Well, Jay Electronica is bar none probably the best mixtape artist out there right now. I hope he keeps putting out new albums and mixtapes. First concert he has near here, I'm definitely going.

If you want to give a listen to him you can download the mixtape from this link:

What The F*CK is a Jay Electronica