CoolislandSong

howdy folks! In case you haven't caught on by know, I'm just not as into this site as i used to be. Usually facebook, flickr, and my blog are better places to bump into me, in a manner of speaking. But couldn't really think of a better place to talk about this subject then here. And who knows, maybe someone will stumble across it in a random web search.

In a random search of my own i came across a book called "Blood Debt" by Nancy Straight. It sounds like your typical teen/young adult love action story centered around supernatural and mythological creatures. The literature, cinema, and fandom these days is overwhelmed by a few stock beings. The biggest 3 are vampires, werewolves, and angels, with demons and zombies holding similar status in a narrower range of genres. So what drew me into "Blood Debt"? Well the fact that it contained centaurs. Centaurs are among my top favorite mythological creatures. There are practically never in the main character role and when they even appear it's for brief stints or just background material. So i found i incredibly refreshing to find a book (a book with two sequels no less) that not only cast a creature that hasn't been run into the ground halfway to China but also one of my favorites. If only that's what actually went down.

Now i downloaded the kindle edition of "Blood Debt" on my computer because it cost nothing (free book, woohoo! if only some of the books in my wishlists were free downloads as well...). I started reading enthusiastically. It seemed well written. And then in chapter seven we get the bomb shell. These beings are centaurs in name only. Wait what? That's right. This is supposed to be about centaurs but it has no centaurs in it. Basically, we have a race of super powered humans who got the name because of early encounters between them and regular humans. Apparently they were so fast that the regular humans thought they had the bodies of horses. Yeah, I'm not buying it. Anyway, we basically just have humans with super strength, speed, and supernatural powers. You know, all the powers of vampires, angels, and demons!

A few reviews i have seen said they liked this change, that the conventional centaur would be kinda silly. How? I just don't understand the route the author took. A centaur is by definition half human half horse. These people don't even have any equine features what so ever, even to seem like a token attempt at a centaur. By changing them to super humans, you not only miss a huge opportunity but you meld back into the stock modern fantasies you were trying to differentiate yourself from. Firstly, the opportunity. Since this is modern fantasy, having the lower half of a horse could create some interesting scenarios. How would they navigate the tight urban and indoor spaces of modern society? Since this is a "hiding from humanity" scenario, how would you design a a house for centaur that wouldn't look too different than a normal household so as not to draw suspicion? In the story, the main character has the fact that she's a super human hidden from her by her mother. If these were to be shape shifting centaurs (why not, they already invoke magic in this story), then perhaps her mother could have used a spell to bind her daughters ability. How would a girl come to grips with the idea that her true form has four legs, hooves, and a swishy tail? I feel that having them be actual centaurs could have created fun opportunities and interesting challenges. And since "centaurs" was just a primitive explanation for the super human's speed, why did they keep calling themselves that? Why do they have herds and a more animalistic mentality of breeding and maintaining their bloodlines? This may be explained further in the book but that doesn't make it feel any less out of place. We could have something interesting with centaurs, but instead the author took the easy way out and gave us a watered down version of the creatures flooding the collective conscious already. These beings don't feel unique. They feel just like the other creatures we've seen a million times before, except without the complications of being vulnerable to sunlight or turning into a ravening monster during the full moon that can be used to create dramatic situations and limitations. I mean, Straight might as well have called them leprechauns for all the difference it makes. They aren't anything tied to traditional mythology or folklore, they are just generic super human beings. If that's all you have to offer, then why not just stick with the vampires or zombies?

I am growing very weary of the modern mythos not trying to be bold and do something different. I'm sick and tired of slightly different humanoids being passed as totally differed creatures. This is a reason i wasn't able to get into "Grim". Their fantastical creatures are just humans dressed up as animals. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw once said that fantasy means you can come with anything you can imagine. And yet all we keep getting are slightly to vaguely humanoid creatures, like elves, cat people, and just plain ugly humans. Warcraft and God of War are pretty much the only ones to break this (though with World of Warcraft's playable races, the orc and the tauren are pretty much the only ones to be more than just modified humans). But in the rest of the fantasy, we just keep getting the same old humanoid crap over and over. Where are the centaurs? The minotaurs? The satyrs? The yetis? Hell, giants are just big humans but even they would be something outside the established norm (at least they made it into Skyrim). Or create something yourself that breaks the ranks of the now stock creatures. Writers and filmmakers alike these days are showing, to me, a substantial lack of imagination. They just keep rehashing the same stuff and telling us it's new. Like the upcoming game "The Last of Us". Basically a fungal virus has ravaged mankind. There are established "purified zones" where some people live while others live in the ruins fighting for their lives against infected humans who only goal is to spread the virus. GAAAAAAHHHH! It's a fucking zombie game, only this time wearing a mushroom mask.

Or maybe we're stuck with vampires and angels and werewolves and demons and zombies because people have grown used to them and dislike anything different.  Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic, said in his "Cat in the Hat" review that the reason Dr. Seuss is popular is because he wrote what he wanted to see, not what others wanted to see. He argued that sometimes people don't know what's good for them and by just giving them what they want over and over again they'll never know what's different and in turn just ask for that same crap again! And i think that's why people think something like a centaur is silly. It's because it's different to what has been ingrained into their mind. Thus they will will always judge something as goofy or weird. Something different can be quite exciting if you do it right. For example, the director of that crappy Harry Potter wannabe "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" said that they changed the chimera from the book to the hydra for the film because the chimera was "kinda silly". You know, God of War had a chimera that was pretty close to the original Greek myth and yet it was still badass and awesome.

But in the end, what point is there in hoping for change? The wheel will just keep on turning. They'll give us the same, we'll ask for the same, rinse and repeat in a vicious, and endless cycle. But a fools hope is still a hope nonetheless. Maybe that is enough...

Hey folks.

Been a very  long time since you saw me around these parts. that's mainly because i've been bussy with other stuff on the internet, travel, school, and fighting the noonday demon. I'll try to be a little more active, but don't get your hopes up. These days i really don't have much worthy of an art site, especially nothing that can compete with what you find on the home page. But since few people seem to show even a passing interest in my stuff, i haven't really had a good incentive to stay active.

Well i hope the rest of you have been doing ok. thanks for stopping by!

I had found this list a while back, but found it to be a wee bit inaccurate. So i fixed it:


Conservatives fear that the government has too much control over corporations. Liberals fear that corporations have too much control over our government.

Liberals believe it benefits all of us to help the weakest and the poorest among us. Conservatives believe it benefits all of us to help the wealthiest and most powerful among us.

Conservatives believe large corporations will always do what is best for the American people if the government stays out of the way. Liberals believe large corporations would disembowel you and sell your organs to the highest bidder if the government didn't stop them.

Liberals believe everyone is entitled to health care regardless of their ability to pay. Conservatives believe everyone is entitled to jack squat if they can't pay for health care.

Liberals believe too much of our money goes to crooked corporate executives who take government subsidies and pay themselves $80 million salaries. Conservatives believe too much of our money goes to teachers who make $30,000 a year.

Liberals believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of patriotism. Conservatives believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of communism.

Liberals believe that we need to set high standards for clean air and drinking water. Conservatives believe that standards for clean air and water are burdensome over-regulation.

Liberals believe the President and Congress need to work together to create jobs during a weak economy. Conservatives believe that Congress should do nothing to create jobs and then blame the President.

Liberals believe that corporate polluters should be made to pay for the cleanup of their pollution. Conservatives believe that making corporations clean up their pollution is burdensome over-regulation.

Liberals believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making people healthy. Conservatives believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making a healthy profit.

Liberals believe Congress should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Conservatives believe corporations are the people.

Liberals believe that corporations have too much influence over Congress due to their lobbyists and huge campaign contributions. Conservatives believe the middle class has too much influence over Congress due to their voting and paying taxes.

Liberals believe we need to protect victims of corporate negligence by allowing Americans to file lawsuits against corporations. Conservatives believe we need to protect large corporations from lawsuits by Americans who've been victimized by them.

Liberals believe that the rich should be taxed more than the poor and middle class. Conservatives believe that the rich should be allowed to keep all their wealth, except for the millions in campaign contributions they give to politicians.

Liberals believe that too much money in politics produces corruption and destroys the American way of life. Conservatives believe that money and corruption in politics are the American way of life.


Much better, no? While Republican is certainly apt, Democrat is not as they are mostly center. Some of them are even a bit to the right. Well it doesn't matter since they have no spine; They try and play nice with the people who are working to destroy them and the country instead of standing for what little they believe in. So "Liberals vs. Conservatives" feels like the better classifications.

This last semester was more than a little rough. My DA account went neglected. Now that finals are over with I will try to be more active.  I got some pictures to upload. Also, i got a couple new videos up:

Curator's Cabinet at the LA Museum: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc-0YS…


Curator's Cabinet at the LA Museum: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqy8c…

till next time!

Over a week ago I lost the one most precious to me. It has been very difficult to bear. We were together for almost two years but our relationship gave out. My girlfriend, who I truly thought was the one, broke up with me.

It was last Thursday. I had just gotten home from a long day at school when she insisted on calling me. So she called and a couple minutes in dropped the bomb. My stomach sank. I was barely able to speak as she told me that my depression had become too much to handle. She said she still wanted to be friends, that she would still visit in the summer. But none of it was getting through at that time. Everything was becoming a blur. After the most painful conversation I can remember having I spent the next hour in the shower as a gibbering mess. Soon I came to repeat something over and over like a mantra. I spoke it so much I had become a little light headed and short of breath. What was my mantra? Rend the flesh, scar the spirit. Suddenly it was the only thing making sense. So I took it to heart:



Not trying to make excuses, but this is nothing compared to what was initially going through my mind (ranging from branding my hand with red hot rebar to jumping off Pismo Pier). She had made me promise not to hurt myself. But I was having none of that. I was so angry at myself, so angry that i lost the one who actually wanted a future with me. I remember being in this fevered state, berating and tongue lashing myself as I slowly drew the knife across again and again. I thought I didn’t have the stomach for this sort of thing. That is how distraught I was.

The next few days… I was so cold inside. That sinking feeling hadn’t left. I almost didn’t go to school. My appetite plummeted and my acid reflux flared up. But I soldiered on. She texted me twice to talk to her. On Wednesday, six days after the break up, I thought I was strong enough to talk to her. I was wrong.

I was still fairly speechless. I sat there as she told me even more of why she split. And it made me even angrier with myself, that I had put her through all that. It seems I was truly her albatross. So I had a bit of a relapse:



She says she still wants to be a part of my life. But my feeble mind can’t wrap itself around the concept of being friends with the person who tore your heart out. I remember how when we were just friends, she liked me because we were both the loners. She was always the odd man out at school like I had been. And yet here is a guy who talks to her almost every day. But that may have changed when she went to college. She was suddenly in the midst of people like her, people who would be her friends. It probably wasn’t her intention, but I wonder if deep down she realized she didn’t need me anymore.

Never again. Never again will I get in close with a woman. Most of them have given me nothing but scorn. And the one who found me… the one who actually show more interest than just being a friend… left me in pieces. Even her stubborn will could not handle this mental illness which plagues me so. If she couldn’t handle, then what makes me think there is anyone else who can? She was one in a trillion. There will never be another like her. The one woman whom I could trust, confide everything in, who gave a damn… dumped me. There will never be another. I guess I am doomed to be alone for the rest of my days.