On realizing dreams...and the Return of Eternal Child

Ever since Bandai started out anew the Chogokin (Diecast) series, I was already praying for my favorite heroes to be revived. Die cast toys especially of the anime kind are unique to Japan and can be traced as far back as the early 70s. Chogokin which means super-alloy (what Mazinger Z was supposed to be made of) was popoularly introduced by Popy(later Bandai). In the 70s to the 80s, Japan's robot anime was on-air on almost all continents.

In the Philippines, anime was relentlessly streamed accross the airwave. To name some that i remembered; Mazinger Z, Voltes V, Daimos, Mekanda, Jeeg, UFO Grendizer (Goldrake in Europe) , Getter, Danguard Ace, Candy Candy, Heidi, Yamato , Macross,etc. Thanks to then President Marcos, it all came into a halt. That was the first time I remembered having concerned myself with politics.

Voltes V, Daimos and Mazinger Z were the three fore runners of the anime saga, at least from my perspective. Each having its own twist of drama and the most often predictable but still enjoyable fighting sequence, which I still know by heart (much like Fernando Poe Jr. getting beaten at first and rallying at the end to beat hthe bad guys) . Every kid in my block and at school would die to have a robot replica - which at that time only came in its original imported source and at an exhorbitant price. We had a schoolmate who had the Voltes V set and all the rest of us poor chaps can do was talk about how cool it is and how it can actually snap together to form a robot. It was the holy grail of toys. We pretty much managed with posters and stickers.

And now, behold, Bandai started churning out these Chogokins on the toy shelves again, re-introducing the robot heroes of our past. First came Mazinger Z GX-01- the all time favorite in Japan, then the series moved on with UFO Grendizer, Combatra V (the precursor of Voltes) , Getter Robot, and so on. I waited and prayed for Voltes V, and last year, prayers were answered as toy magazines announced the protoype GX-30. The international release date was May 22, 2006. I got it on the 20th : ).

And though it came 3 decades late for me....it still came. Dreams do come true.

On moving out to move on

What do you pack to pursue a dream, and what do you leave behind?
—Sandra Sharpe


Last week I officially started my new life living on my own. Yeah, i know it took a while but at least I finally did it. I now live at a 3rd floor flat called Leopalace21, where residents are mostly the "not permanently settled" - students, long term vacationists, long term appointments, still dont know what to do with life, etc. The setting is a single's pad, with all the convenience molded into it. It is has an above average cost for such a small 28sqm flat, but quite makes up for the furnishings like an IH stove, modular tub and bath with built in clothes dryer - yup you get to hang your clothes dry in the bathroom, video intercom- which I really dont find useful unless i'd love chatting with a visitor that way. The location is quite perfect too as it stands just right accross a chain of small-scale malls. I can actually walk my way to the electronics store and bookstore at my pleasure...and I'd be there too frequently, that the staff may soon get to greet me with my name!

This moving out thingy, although a bit late for Japanese and American standard, (I am turning 34 on Wed, arghh), can be virtually unobserved in the Philippines, as siblings often stay with their parents before marriage and sometimes even after. I would assume financial capacity playing more part in it more than culture does bacause family members can utilize finances better if they can share expenses. Of course those who can afford it would find themselves living separately from their parents. So i'd debunk that generalization that Filipinos are a very close knit family... they would, if they could get away from each other as this is how nature intends it.

I moved for a lot of different reasons, to find myself, to look back, to learn life in a different perspective. Into each life one must find himself at a crossroads, one leading to the beaten path of comfortable redundancy , the other an immeasurable distance of the unknown - i'd choose surprises all the time.

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."
-Sidney j. Harris

Music

I am Robot and Proud
The Electricity in Your house wants to Sing

A great portion of Electronic-pop playfully criss-crossing into the New Age genre, with R2D2 on the vocals, calm and loose, this group has the right recipe worth taking for a spin. I get easily dumbed with repetitive tunes from the likes of Chemical Brothers and other techno music...and think to myself "you sing that line one more time and I swear I'll >> to the next song".

I am Robot and Proud sure is a strange name for a band, and I cant help but connect my thoughts into Asimov's laws and tinker on the use of "Robot' as a proper noun. It is in the lines of Kraftwerk but not as experimental and neither as demanding as Bjork's electronic inuendos. The slight use of traditional instruments gives more variety to the tunes - which,I am glad, is not limited to the synthesizers. I almost purchased the entire album on iTunes but held back as it may be just a few minor hits and a lot of misses, but as I listened to it at work it just blended in with the whirring of a set-to-high-resolution-scanner, the erratic keyboard strokes of my officemate and that buzzing noise that gossips create a few meters away. With that kind of band name, rejoined with that blatantly playing-with-your-mind album title, what it spells is what it actually plays. Recommended tunes; Me and Heidi, The Electricity in your House wants to sing.