I didn’t have time to watch Black Clover today, but I have been ruminating on it, and on Satellizer, and I have come up with several threads to develop overtime, weaving with the narrative of the show.

I was listening to Garnidelia’s theme song for Freezing, and Apple Music recommended this artist’s music, which I love. Some of her songs are exactly the kind that would annoy me if they were in English, because of the tedium of the lyrics I would be expecting, but I find that listening without understanding the Japanese I can appreciate the sound of the singing, and the translations are very interesting as well. I think the subject matter is much more sophisticated than your average American radio hit, although obviously it’s still pop. This is my favorite. I find it an interesting space for entertainment, the uncertainty about intended meaning and foreign assumptions about the relationship with the audience gives me freedom from the oppressive monotony of overcoded American corpotainment – although I’m not suggesting Japanese entertainers are saints, it’s wonderful not to be able to automatically see through them.

Secondly, I’ve decided to write in detail about my injuries. For instance, my eye was put out of its socket when I was four years old, and I believe that’s one reason I love to spend time browsing in stores and libraries and wandering in museums and malls – my right eye can wander freely without the strain of coordinating with my left. From other head injuries I’ve sustained I have amnesia and difficulty coordinating between my long-term and short-term memory. Because my long-term memory is monitoring one set of perceptions about the story while my short-term memory is monitoring another, it has been uncomfortable to connect them until recently. I’m hoping to develop that ability by blogging about entertainment.

My third observation today was that it’s Shakespeare’s Birthday and one thing I really want to do is develop a way to write about the difference between genuine drama, represented by Shakespeare, and Hollywood garbage. I feel that I can do that by reflecting on the world of anime.

My fourth idea is to develop the world of Boosnobia (Boo – Snobby – ah). Boosnobia is a phrase Satellizer and Angela keep giving me. It’s a Dungeons and Dragons setting of total jerks who reflect all the things I hate about America. This will also precipitate from reflections on Anime.

The fifth idea is to articulate the Synergetic Self/Non-self axis, the blurring of personal boundaries that takes place during the watching of anime, as contrasted with writing blog posts, and consuming other types of entertainment. I’m thinking that by intentionally writing first from one side, and then another, back and forth in succession, I’ll be able to get a feel for exactly where that fault line is. I think this will have some effect on my ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality in spiritual intuitions. And probably it will also reveal some things about the conflict between long-term and short-term memory, although I’m not sure the issues are exactly the same.

The sixth idea came when I listened to “If You Leave” from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack today. I feel like I can find some way to relate all of these observations to my lost 80s. There’s some way I can steer the mood of this blog to the emotional fulfillment of some mood I wanted for my life back then. I was also listening to “Bad To The Bone”, remembering how exhilarating and perfect that song seemed back then, and I know I can use this and other songs, and possibly some AI, to find the style I want.

The seventh thing I wanted to mention is that a gaming store I’ve been visiting since I moved to Chicago seventeen years ago has suddenly closed. It just wasn’t there tonight. That’s pretty amazing. It was one of the place I started my toy collection years ago, and the first place I bought Magic the Gathering cards. I still remember talking to one of the guys who worked there about MTG novels and Star Wars figures. I used to sit on the floor and pore over their racks of 3.75″ figures. The last time I saw him he said they were starting an EDH league and I said maybe later … I still think maybe I should have joined. I miss those days, when collecting toys was new and the dreams I put on them were volatile. I shopped weekly for years, but now my collection is very static and I’m getting rid of a lot of it, piece by piece.

Writing that made me think about the dreams I attach to anime, and that goes back to the Axis. But developing all these ideas is for another night. I can barely believe I wrote this much without being self-conscious at all. I’m definitely bringing my mind into one piece with this.

And finally the eighth idea is that I can somehow develop the story of the Nuunar, my epic fantasy heptalogy, by entwining it with the story of Black Clover. I’m not sure how it can work but it’s worth a try.