The 90’s, it’s a feeling that I’m missing.

Dig deep enough on the net and you’ll find a plethora of 90’s crap you can watch that’ll not only make you want to be a kid again but also remind you how awesome a decade it was. Now I don’t want to be one of those people writing yet another post about the 90’s and then listing shit from the 90’s, which covers basically, everything from fashion, to music, to toys to Saturday morning cartoons.

It’s been done and we don’t need another f-ing post about it. If you break it down a lot of the time people don’t remember the cartoons or particular episodes per se. Primarily because they were too young, and secondly, because there was just too much stimuli for them and by them I mean myself included and by myself I mean most Gen Y / X’s.

What was I saying…

Oh yeah, there was just too much stimuli so the details were the things that were really hard to come by so when we go back to watch an episode of Talespin, Rupert Bear or You Can’t do that on Television you end up realizing how shit the show really was. In fact what you actually remembered was just the intro song. I’m not f-ing with you, that is really all you remember. Why do you think on youtube the majority of the hits are not on the uploads of the episodes but on the intro song clips.  Anyway if you look you’ll see I’ve already succumbed to the listing of 90’s memories so lets break it off here and begin my post proper. Actually one last thing, it’s ironic how most of the cherished Saturday morning cartoons were from the late 70’s and 80’s but were re-dubbed and re-casted for an ever growing audience of 90’s kids.

Okay so…actually one last thing, I promise. The reason why a lot of these movie remakes fail is because they commit the cardinal sin of not marketing the concept with the one thing the kids remember – the intro! If the first piece of marketing for the film were a trailer, which was essentially a live action version of the intro song, I can assure you that film would find it’s original audience and then some within a matter of minutes.

All right let’s begin.

My idea of the 90’s rests upon a feeling, a feeling that came about from a decade that was doing it’s darndest to shake off the hard lines of the 80’s, whilst putting the breaks on an approaching technological age of the 00’s. It’s sort of the middle child that for most of its adolescent life was ignored by the parents and then went on to become the coolest and most successful of the three children. It had hidden qualities that only became apparent when we put is side by side the crap of both it’s younger and older sibling decades. This might have been because of the climate of the time, there was no great war or depression, sure there was the Gulf but it wasn’t of the magnitude or spenditure of Afghanistan. And the economy may have faulted but not to the heights of the fall of the 80’s. But once again I keep coming back to this feeling, people seemed happier, the horizon of peak oil, drought and over population hadn’t sunk into the public zeitgeist.

It was this decade of limbo, which to me represented freedom that could not be re emulated, a decade where the world shifted from Modernity into the Post Modern age.

Yes I stole that last line from Wikipedia but I think it sums up the 90’s pretty well.

Yet for some reason I keep chasing this feeling, I know it will never come back, I know it was lost at the stroke of midnight when we ticked over to 2000 and Brenden Fevola kicked 12 goals in his first match for Carlton at a bizarre NYE Millenium football match.  But a few years ago I found it again, it may have been only for a few hours but the feeling was there. It was at a house party, and one of the best I’ve attended in a while. Imagine well over 100 kids crammed into a tiny house, it’s backyard and it’s front street decked out in everything that abides by the party theme – the ninties. For those few hours, most of us between the ages of 24 – 26 were 10 again. It wasn’t that one person was dressed as a gameboy and another person was dressed as a policeman from police academy, of course they were but it was that those very people brought with them the spirit of the 90’s.

I think that’s what’s missing now, a spirit, a sense of fun, even the colours were more basic then, if they were bright you were in. No internet, no mobiles, no cable…well at least not in Australia for a while. The time at the shopping centre was truly spent hanging and video arcades actually had people in them. But if I had to lower this post down to the level of recalling some sort of media from the decade it would be the almost acid jazz pre garage / dance sounds of a band called Crystal Waters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQX2q6WCrbE

This song, it’s music video and it’s general air encapsulate everything that was great about the 90’s. Simply put it is the anthem. Okay maybe that’s a tad sudden and there are scores of people who would argue that Nirvana’s Smells like teen spirit is the anthem of the 90’s but really can that song almost bring back the spirit, and when I say almost I mean that any other 90’s song may be great to listen to but doesn’t have, to use a Jerry Maguire term – “The Quan”

Nirvana’s legacy was in the utter submersion in the humility of their craft, something that was lost in the 2000’s amongst a hail of talentless blingmesiters regurgitating through an a vocoder tube.

Well I’m running out of ways to express this feeling that doesn’t exist anymore, if you want to watch 90’s crap type it into the internet and knock yourself out but I can assure you it will only fill the void momentarily, once that video or song is over you are back in 2010 and realizing that we have a lot of work to do to make this planet a better place. Good times exchanged for fake times, noise that resembles music without a clear sound and Saturday morning cartoons that barely have an entertaining bone in their animated bodies.

Well that’s it, I was going to announce my first comment but for some reason I have a sneaking suspicion that it could be spam.
Watch this space.

 

Why am I astral projecting?

Well last week I promised you a ten paragraph diatribe on the new Sex & the City film and what it meant for all of us. Well after the shit canning it’s received during the past week I’m afraid everything I wanted to say has already been said by every film critic wandering this earth. I guess that makes my job easier as those in the know are infinitely more eloquent than I am and have expressed their opinions in ways that are far more entertaining than I’m offering up on this page. Simply find a review, any review on the net that is, and you’ll get a basic idea of the type of backlash this film is receiving.

Having said that I’m going to get straight into the topic at hand before I start getting into the details of the crush I had on Kim Cattrall when the show started. Seriously she would have sex with anything on that show and you honestly thought you had a shot if you met her in the street. I’m sure in person she’s nothing like her screen counterpart Samantha but I was fifteen when the show premiered and at fifteen most guys can get turned on by something as asexual as a ham sandwich.

So for the last three years I’ve been experiencing an incredible sensation when I go to bed; and no it’s not my alone time or anything sexual. For the past three years on and off, a month here, a month there I’ve been experiencing one unbelievable thing – “THE VIBRATION” What it is essentially is an incredible vibrating feeling that encompasses my entire body. I actually remember the first time I felt it because it was on a night I couldn’t get to sleep. I kept flitting between the moment of being awake and the moment of falling asleep. It felt like the hallway between the two states and that hallway was vibrating. It never hurt it was just intense in it’s all encompassing nature. Sometimes a sound would accompany the sensation, something of the ilk of almost a digital noise. Matrix like if you will.

So this came and went and I thought nothing of it, I actually was aware that I was at the cusp of sleep and if you pose that question to most people your answer would never change. Who really knows the exact moment when they fall asleep? I guess technically it just happens. But what scared me was that because I was aware of the transition period now maybe I’ll never get back to sleep again. Well that never became a problem. What did become a problem was that in those early days or early years this sensation would sneak itself into my subconscious and I would have to endure the vibration, sometimes for a week at a time. It wasn’t scary like I said, but just a type of moment I had to endure before I could actually get some decent shut eye.

Well it’s been three years and over the course of that time what’s happened is that I’ve let the vibration take over somewhat. Why? Because of this awesome guy on the left. His name is Robert Monroe and he is considered one of the forefathers of OBE research. Actually I should of used that term as the title of this post because Astral Projection is apparently incorrect and actually refers to the interpretation of a body leaving and traveling along the astral plane. I have not done that yet but have come close…sort of. Anyway as the years passed and vibrations came and went I remember one thing from them more than anything, it was the pulling sensation as if I was being pulled out of my body, and up until right now I’ve been fighting it. Not for any other reason but I just want to go to sleep.

Yet as the weeks and months go by I find myself letting the vibrations linger a little longer and the other night I had my first vibration session for a while, needless to say I let the feeling go for it’s longest period ever but pulled back because I chickened out. Why did I chicken out? Maybe because I am scared, not of the sensation but what’s on the other side. I almost think of this practically in terms of sleep and adequate rest. “How can I charge my batteries for the next day if I’m spending all my nights traveling the planes of existence? I need my damn sleep!” The thing is I don’t really sleep huge amounts and I have a weird amount of energy, it’s not hyper activity just a slow burn that seems to just keep going, it does allow me to get a lot of things done. Anyway whatever, I’m talking shit again.

So back to Robert Monroe. On you tube about a year ago I find a few videos on him talking about his first OBE experiences. And surprise surprise they were like mine. Here is a link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5OgyF2dyok he starts talking about it at around the five minute mark but watch the whole thing to get a run on. Basically he tells of his vibration experiences and his urge to fight it, until one day the old dude just says F*&# it and lets it consume him. “If it’s going to kill me let it kill me.”

Well guess what, it didn’t do shit. It came like usual, did it’s thing and left within about five minutes. So as time progresses he would feel this sensation whilst lying down and dosing off, he would let it happen, let it pass then get on with the rest of his day. But one time in 1958 something incredible happened. Well I’m not going to spoil it or even insult your intelligence but I’m sure my readership of one person is smart enough to figure it out.

Right now I’m at the point of holding back the pull, it’s urging me upward, outward and forward but the fact still remains I have no idea what to expect, it’s the unknown and the human condition has always been taught to be afraid of that; unfortunately. What is interesting though is when Robert did experience his first OBE he was thinking of something quite pleasant at the time and I think that is a key. You have to be in a state that is conducive to getting you to the next; it has to be a hurdle free oscillation between the two. Personally I know it’s just a matter of time before I let go but I do think this is one of the few things that us as a race need to explore because it just seems so damn obvious it’s an extension of our evolution. If we are spiritual beings having a human experience then of course our spiritual self is going to want to wander at some time or another.

Now let’s delve a little deeper, not too much or we’ll be here for ages and I’ve got a book on Vince Lombardi I want to finish reading, plus Footy Classified is on right now and I want to at least catch a little of it. So here we are vibrations and all and immediately one must think, where does it come from? Well a lot of the theories point to the pineal gland. An endocrine gland that produces serotonin, which surprise surprise modulates wake/sleep patterns. So after all of this it turns out it’s just my pineal gland is on the fritz! Of course why didn’t I think of that earlier? Although if you do your research you’ll see that the gland is held in great reverence by many cultures and even by scholars who see it as the seat of the soul. Maybe that’s why it’s the only thing in the brain that’s not doubled. Maybe because it receives everything we ingest and then processes it and spits it out. Maybe that’s the reason why it’s given the Captain Kirk style commander chair in our brain. Personally I think it has a lot to do with everything and our lack of exploration of the said gland is to our own detriment.

So that may be the origin of the vibration but who’s to say these are not just lucid dreams. Well I can say for sure because about a month ago I had an experience that proves to me this is real and that it’s a stage in our spiritual development that could teach us so much. Actually I had two experiences, one was super beneficial, the other weird. I’ll start with the weird. Like I said about a month ago I went to bed and did my thing that is sleep. What was bizarre was that I didn’t have my vibration but experienced something that you may call the result of it.

I had an OBE, literally one night I found myself floating above my body yet something was a little off. It was like I hadn’t fully awoken myself to the possibility and my body mind or spirit was only giving me a taste. I was floating but my head was still attached. Not like the picture at the top that depicts a massively boobed woman who seems to have a bedroom in the middle of a Boris Vallejo painting but instead the diagram on the left. It was like my spiritual self was doing a hand stand over my physical self still lying in the bed. Although I wasn’t using my hands I was just floating, to quote spook from Top Cat “Hey look TC, huh no hands.” I love that cartoon.

The second time something of an alternate strata occurred it actually served a purpose. A while back I received an email from the assistant of a massive Hollywood producer. Long story short they had received my query letter in the mail, watched my teaser online and requested my script to read. Now when I say massive I mean huge like big A list stuff. And me being desperate after all this time trying to get this bastard of a project off the ground almost then and there send the script sight unseen. Yet the wording of the email stopped me almost immediately, it didn’t sit right and it made me feel something inside. I don’t get gut feelings often but when I do and ignore them, I regret it. They are always right! So this time I decide to listen and that night I decide to sleep. What happened next was a dream that went no longer than a few minutes from 10: 45 – 10 : 47. I mean people were still downstairs watching TV so it wasn’t anything epic. What I dreamt though was an incredibly clear image of this female assistant and her boss reading my scrip together and taking stealing bits and pieces from it. Almost like it was a mail order catalogue.

I woke up almost instantly and knew the best thing to do was to never contact her again. No matter how desperate I get, and how long it takes I’m not going to contact her because I believe in this sign so adamantly.

So that’s it I guess, my teeth are killing me because my wisdoms are coming through, lucky I’ve only got my bottom ones. Yet the question that is always asked when I tell people this and yes I do get a lot of pointing and laughing but I’m used to it. The question is, is it a lucid dream or are you really, and I mean really experiencing the precursor signs to your standard OBE?

So if you know please comment. If you’ve had the same or are experiencing the same, again please comment. Would be great to get some writings on the board. And better yet if you’ve actually visited or know someone who’s visited the Monroe institute please write in.