Urban Decay | August 30th, 2010

I used to be hell into Ghost in the Shell, which is an old-ish Japanese cyberpunk anime set in the future. I recently came across this amv on youtube:

….and I totally want to watch the movie again. Is it not the most awesomest video ever? Even after this long, I don’t think I’ve come across an anime as good as GitS. I haven’t even seen much of the tv series but I think I’ll start watching all that now since I’ve kinda stopped watching True Blood and Dexter!

Some of the imagery in GitS actually really reminds me of the walled city in Hong Kong, which is something I find incredibly fascinating. When I see photos and videos of the place, it’s like watching something out of a post apocalyptic sci fi movie, and it’s kinda amazing how recent the place was before it was torn down. I’m sure if it were still there today, it would be incredibly scary to go in:

When we were forced to play Second Life for uni, I think the only thing I was interested in doing in the game was visiting the walled city this guy had created. I went in, and it was cool, but simulating something as amazing as that just isn’t possible. The feel of the place is really intriguing though, and I really wish it were still here today as like a preserved historical monument or something so you could walk around in it and take a look at how they got lighting and the rooftop gardens and stuff like that. It’s so dystopian like and CREEPY inside i think that’s what’s so fascinating about it.

I was also looking at macabre japanese kids art earlier, and as much as I hate stupid/morbid takes on kids fairytales and such, I thought these were pretty cool.

I just really love stuff like THIS- urban decay and grungey imagery especially.

Jakki posted @ 4:46 pm

Another weird dream | August 29th, 2010

Before I forget- my weird dream from last night.

I don’t know if you’d classify it as a lucid dream, but it was another one of those where I could hear things going on outside my room, and I could taste the dryness in my mouth while I was dreaming.

Anyway.

What happened was, I woke up in the morning, and immediately curled up in a ball and nodded off again. At the time I woke up, my mouth was really dry and scratchy like I needed a glass of water or something but I couldn’t be bothered getting out of bed. This must’ve transferred to the dream, because I was suddenly in a giant shopping mall with my friend Pam, who I haven’t seen for AGES, and her friend who I don’t know the name of.

We are wandering around in the shops, and for some they’re all gated up-like yellow and green garage doors over all the entrances except a huge woolworths which had no one in it. It was eeriely creepy and for some reason I keep having these creepy dreams. Anyway, I ask out loud ‘why is innaloo so dead now?’ because I somehow knew we were walking around in the innaloo shops. And Pam replies: ‘i don’t know, I think it’s because they closed all the entrances except for over there’ and points to a MASSIVE entrance where white light is shining and groceries are stacked on shelves miles high, and it just looks amazingly consumertastic, only there’s no one in there but a few cashiers looking bored. We walk past the shop and past a few food court type shops who have no customers. It’s all very dank and there’s dodgy fluorescent lighting everywhere, and I’m thinking ‘GOD I’M THIRSTY’.

So we walk outside, and by now WHILE I’m dreaming I’m thinking to myself, ‘god my throat is REALLY dry. I need a drink but I can’t be bothered getting out of bed. Can I just dream some more?’ And this part was weird. Because in the dream we are walking on a gravel road to the street; kind of like in a backalley; but as soon as I think I want to continue the dream, Pam exclaims something along the lines of ‘omg let’s try this new drink place! It’s korean and has bubble tea’ and walks backwards down the street and kind of ‘into’ the  brick wall perpendicular to us, which magically now has a bamboo reed partition. I follow and so does her friend, and we find ourselves a glass door, leading into a rather swanky bar/drinks place like utopia, except it’s all made of dark wood like mahogany or something. Like, EVERYTHING. Chairs, seats, tables, benchtops.

We order our drinks but the line is massive. It’s obviously very popular. As we’re waiting we wander out the other door on the other side into the sun, and find ourselves in a grassy field. It’s kind of like a camp like area- maybe like the housing style in Lost where the Others lived, because there are various buildings dotted around everywhere. We walk through the field, and we seem to interrupt 3 teams of men in red yellow and blue colours. You know those people who pretend they’re in a fake english army and pretend to fight each other? Like in the war with Napoleon Bonaparte or something? It was like that. These men were pretending to fight each other in their different teams, and they had fake old style shotguns. They angrily ask us to move out of the way and we quickly get off the field, and we bump into a bunch of other people, who look like they’re from the hippie era.

I’m next to a blonde girl with a daisy chain in her hair and a white dress on, and she’s very ethereal like. She’s really cheerful and we start talking. We’re gravitating towards a big building now near the fake armies fighting, and she’s telling me about the war. I feel like I’ve been transported to another time, in the olden days if you will, and then we reach some stairs to go into the building. There’s only 3, and a ledge to cross but she suddenly says she’s pregnant and needs help. So I help her up and hold open the door for her.

Inside the building is a huge disco. Like the one I had at my year 8 camp. It’s very dark and dank and musty and gross, and all of a sudden the girl who looked like an angel is now belly dancing in a white indian sari type thing. I’m like ‘wtf?’. Pam and her friend have disappeared and my mouth is still really dry so I look for the drinks table. At this point I decide I can’t stand having a dry mouth for any longer, and wake up and get a drink of water!

Yeah. A really weird dream. It actually felt like it went on for AGES because so much happened but when I woke up and looked at the clock, I’d only slept for another hour. Which was..weird because it felt like I’d slept for years. Needless to say, my throat’s still sore and dry and it’ll take me days to recover from this dream!

Jakki posted @ 2:45 am

Random things | August 26th, 2010

Things that have been interested/inspired me lately:

• Clouds
• Dead trees
• Sunsets
• Underwater photos
• Half constructed houses and backalleys
• The creativity crisis
• Infinite darkness
• Infinite desert
• Infinite sky
• Toilet Paper Rolls
• Lightbulbs
• Intricate Wood Sculptures
• Industrial Spaces
• Oceans of sky
• Vines
• Cranes
• Reeds
• Egyptian woman with a skull headmask
• Windows made of branches
• Spinnerettes
• Post apocalyptic train stations
• Pirahnas
• Liquid Pencils
• Ash globes
• Snowglobes
• Powdered wine
• Tangerines
• Astronauts
• Skeleton Keys
• Hot air balloons
• Val Kilmer
• Y the Last Man
• Castles
• Voyeurism
• Ferris Wheels
• Birds on wire
• Treehouses
• 90 degree cliffaces
• Honeycomb mazes
• Ladders
• Flower Petals
• Concrete gardens

Yeah.

I’m off to work now to see more beauty in greasy chips and cheapskate customers

Toodles.

Jakki posted @ 2:18 pm