Death Cab For Cutie

[from Nick's blog, Colony Collapse]



I’m finding it more and more difficult to read the news these days, especially after such a frightening day like TODAY where the very skeletal fortitude of our American economy has been shaken, not stirred, to the core. (apologies, Mr. Fleming) The future does not look bright everyone, it’s time to take off those shades. The worst part about all of these downward pointing red arrows and photos of stressed out stock brokers is that I have no idea what really is going on. I see a photo of a guy on Wall Street with the fear of god in his eyes, pulling out his hair and looking to the heavens for mercy and it occurs to me, “Hey, wait a second, I’m not freaking out like this guy. (pause) Shit! Should I be?” I mean, I’m a reasonably intelligent citizen that understands basic economics and can balance a checkbook (though, I’ll admit that sometimes it’s fun to avoid balancing my checkbook so the simplest debit purchases can feel like a private personal game show… come on, no whammies, no whammies! APPROVED! Yessss!) I’m just not capable of understanding how it came to this. How it exactly came to me watching the collapse of the American empire in real time as I hit the refresh button on my web browser. I’m numb. And I don’t know what to do. Do I make a run on the bank? Start buying gold? Hole up in my house with a shotgun and fend off the cannibal hordes? Hang out and play xBox and pretend nothing serious is really happening? How about organize some sort of protest? Shit, what would I even write on my sign? “Stop all this money stuff!” “Make that red arrow green!” or “Hell no, we’re not Joads!” I have a fierce and definite sense that doomsday is near and zero idea what exactly to do. What I really want to do to feel better is blame someone. But, is there someone to blame for all this economic madness? I feel like there must be, or should be, one single person who wrote a law or was the first to find a nifty loophole or was the first to embrace fuzzy accounting or whatever. There has to be someone we can all blame, right? Sure, fine, okay, an event of this magnitude is a result of many colossal mistakes by many people, but I like to imagine one day long ago there was one person who had a brainstorm one night and called their boss and the next day was promoted to senior vice president and now is retired, living in a mansion on some island that they own hitting the refresh button on their web browser and laughing maniacally. Is this what Doctor Claw or Cobra Commander are up to these days? It feels like their work. Seriously, I have to admit, I’m frightened on the deepest levels because I know somewhere tonight there is some new person having a new brainstorm and calling their boss and starting the whole process all over again. An old professor of mine once told me that capitalism is like a snake eating its own tail. I have to ask, how much tail is there before the snake eats its own head? Clearly, I need to find something else to do besides click through headlines and have my spirit lose as many points as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. I should turn off my computer for a bit and do what anyone of my generation should do, hide from being an adult and all the huge worries of the world and instead embrace a time of ignorance and joy: their childhood. There were all kinds of things during the 1980’s that if I were an adult at that time would have had me running around fretting about the sky falling, but I was a kid then and blissfully happy playing G.I. Joe or building Legos listening to Motley Crue on the radio. Not a care in the world. Today is a good day to find that little me again. Some days, it’s nice to not worry about the impending apocalypse or the collapse of the American empire. Some days it’s nice to open a new Soul of Chogokin GX-40 GODMARS and call upon the Six Gods to assemble and destroy the evil tyranny plaguing the world. Hell YES. Look out Wall Street, Godmars is coming and he is so mad at you. Godmars was the penultimate toy when I was a boy living in Japan and I never owned one. I remember watching Kamen Rider Super-1 on television and sitting in stunned silence at the awesome commercials advertising the Godmars robot. Sweet Jesus he was so ultimate, six robots connect to make one HUGE robot? AWESOME! (sound of head exploding) So thanks to the kind folks over at the Bandai factory, which in my mind’s eye is like some kind of Wonka-esque dreamland dedicated to reselling my childhood back to me, I am finally able to experience the unbelievable magnificence of this coveted robot. So check it out, I took photos of the first opening and transformation of my new favorite robot, GODMARS. (click on the continue reading link to see the gallery)