This Is An Awareness Test

A-MAZING!

The Kontra Zine

The Kontra Zine is an idea that I’ve been messing around with since around mid of 2007. It started out to be a webzine for local art, music, film and the like. In fact, I have developed some idea for certain sections of the zine and have lined up some possible features and topics that the zine could take on, however due to manpower constraints as well as limitations on my experience in creating a magazine, even though quite simply it’s just an online magazine in a blog format. I’ve kept postponing the whole idea, for the fear that I wouldn’t have enough ideas to keep the webzine afloat consistently.

And now, I’ve decided to take another shot at it, in a printed format. This allows me to control the timeline for the releases of material better, that even if I can only churn out 1 issue per year, it wouldn’t feel like such a waste. It’s a personal preference and probably because it’s tangible, it can be the same issue but it can be passed around and would have different effects, hopefully profound, for each and every reader. Nothing is set in stone for now, but I will try to work this thing out. Definitely, this will not be your ordinary magazine or digest. We will be very focused on the content of the features and really get behind the ideals of the topics that we will be featuring. It will be very tough, and I don’t know shit about editing or magazines, but it should be quite fun.

“‘Cause we like to shake things up!”

Doodling

For as long as I can remember, as long as I have a pen or pencil on my hand and a piece of paper in front of me, I will definitely doodle. Whether this act is just a necessary impulse, or just a habit that I’ve grown into, it just happens. Anybody who has been my seatmate or has seen my notebooks and books throughout my schooling life from early elementary to college can attest that no page is safe from my doodling, sometimes it just takes up one small corner and other times it takes up whole spaces. I think it’s a sort of a release for me, a way to channel my focus into something else. I’ve always had a difficult time focusing on a certain task for long periods of time, I need something to distract and shift my attention to, I guess you could say I get bored easily.

I still doodle to this day, like I said earlier, a pen and a piece of paper, that’s all I need. I would say it’s something that became part of my life and it lead me to a path in my life which led me to where I am now. Let me further elaborate, during my early years of doodling, a lot of what I drew was influenced by comics which I read growing up. I read mostly Marvel and DC superhero stuff with some occassional manga like Dragon Ball. Of course back then I thought that I had enough talent to maybe pursue a career in drawing comics, that was before I realized that perhaps it wasn’t the best way to make a living. Money isn’t everything but growing up in a capitalist society and a family that put emphasis on business and making money, it’s not so easy to put passion over money. It’s a struggle that I have with myself until this very day, but more on this in the future.

From this dream of becoming a comicbook artist grew my love for the arts, particularly in the early years, graphic design. Now, this was something I thought I could really sink my teeth into, but at the time, I was past the midway into finishing my degree in Business Administration, and I just couldn’t push through with a resolve to shift courses and finally pursue something that I felt passionate about. I still tried to learn about it and with the help of the internet, I self-studied and actually was able to become decent with Photoshop, but the basics of art wasn’t there and it just fell apart from there.

If there was anything good that came out of learning more about design, I was exposed to a big variety of arts and it’s various mediums, and it’s something that I follow to this very day, in particular graffiti as well as pop art derived from different sources like album covers, magazine covers, promotional materials and the like.

And now I am back to where it began, I’m doing what I do best, doodling. Funny how things have come to a full circle or rectangle, whatever. I don’t regret much that I wasn’t able to pursue a career as a penciller or a graphic artists. Trying them out as possible careers, opened my mind up to so much more things and ideas, and basically a lot of who I am now and what I know myself to be now. It is the path that took me to where I am, perhaps if I took a different road earlier, I would still end up here, the most important thing is that this is who Jason is.

And with this parting, I share something I read in the Philosophy Zine which inspired this whole post. From a verse written by Naoyuki Inoue:

“The path you have taken has led you to where you are now. Who you are now creates the path from here on.“

Maybe It’s My Fault - Jordan Brand Commercial

Inspirational! Great stuff from the guys at Wieden+Kennedy.

Musica Oh Musica

A great song for the upcoming rainy season,

Eight Legs with These Grey Days

And the track where I ripped my blog title from,

The Rakes with The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect

Enjoy!

Banksy Strikes Again!

I’ve been enamored with Banksy’s work ever since I had chanced upon his book, “Wall And Piece”, at Kinokuniya in Singapore. Usually the themes for his pieces have connotations geared towards modern society.

Here’s his latest work on a Post Office building -

Read the rest of the article here.

I’m kinda excited to see some of his actual work in an upcoming exhibition in Hong Kong. The show will be together with some other artists like Keith Haring and Damien Hirst. Should be quite a show, I will try to take pictures if I am able to.

Here is the flyer for the Banksy show, courtesy of Freshness mag -

BBC: A Year In Tibet Special

I came across this today, such a great documentary. It really shows the life of Tibetians and the struggles that they face on a daily basis. I think it’s the most indepth documentary I’ve seen about Tibet and its culture.

I couldn’t find the proper imbedding codes, so here are the links to the videos. They are around 59 minutes long for each part, so have patience while loading them.

Part 1 : http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3725573386055408291

Part 2: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-4651674230515514021

Preview

Here are snaps of some trial illustrations that I did.

Sketching on paper is the easy part, doing the finish on Illustrator is harder.

I need to learn how to use Illustrator.

Death Of A President

Today I saw George W. Bush die.

Death Of A President is a fictional political documentary regarding the assassination of current US President George W. Bush.

I have never been a fan of violence, and I am definitely not a fan of the wars that the US has engaged in various Middle Eastern countries. In my opinion, killing is never a solution, if anything, it only aggravates the whole situation. No matter what actions a person has done, he is still a human being, with a life, a family and nobody has the right to take that way.

While the title clearly suggests that this film is about the passing of a President. This film is much more deeper than that it depicts the effects of such an assassination and how people would react to the situation. I thought that it shows the viewer how that hate, racism and inequality is still predominant in present society albeit in different forms. People can talk about equality for all they want but stereotypes still exist no matter where you are and racism is present in our daily life. And many times, I too, have been guilty of this.

In my opinion, a lot of times religion is to blame. How is it that the same thing that unites us, is the very same thing that divides us? How can they say that only Muslim extremists are to be blamed? Or other religions for that fact? I am not familiar with the teachings of other religions but I am quite sure that there is nothing in the Bible that suggests we kill those who oppress our fellow man. Irregardless of religion, I do think the basic ideals behind the teachings is that we must do right by others.

While quotes and religious text are highly susceptible to gross misinterpretation, I would like to share some quotes I read that I find interesting and relevant to modern society:

“America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you’ve lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn’t belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don’t care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.” - Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machine

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” - 1 John 4:1

“Do not accept anything that you have no knowledge of. Surely the hearing, the sight and the mind you are responsible for.” - The Holy Qur’an, 17:36

At The Drive-In

Okay, it’s time for a recall. I’ve struggling with this for a bit, but I gotta give it up for At The Drive-In and put them into the top 5 artist list. I just wanted my top 5 to be more balanced, but the past 2 years, I’ve listened to At The Drive-In the most.

Okay, okay, I know I was probably 3 years late in discovering ATDI and only after they have disbanded, but seriously, their last two albums, In Casino Out and Relationship Of Command is tremendously NEXT LEVEL. I would highly recommended people who likes postpunk to give them a listen. From ATDI, The Mars Volta and Sparta were born, so in a sense, the ATDI is combination of both, with more youthful exhuberance.

Recommended songs? Each and every track.

*Thanks to Google again for the pic.